Ultra Q

Jeff of Earth-J January 4, 2026 at 6:54pm

CALAMITY THRICE: "Yuma has been experiencing some mysterious strain on his body recently. Right then, another galactic beast appears. It seems to know Arc's powers well, and chases after Yuma. With nowhere to escape, what will be Yuma's decision? And what is the true form of the ominous light in Yuma's chest?"

Kaiju: Trigelas, the Galactic Beast

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Ultraman Arc's real name is Rution. As the epsiode begins, another Ultra, Biorno, takes temporary posession of and speaks through YouPi. He has a message for Rution which he relays through Yuma. Their people have found a way to reverse the damange to their sun, Sonia. But Ze Su has sent Trigelas through the Onyx (wormhole) to prevent Biorno from summoning Rution. For some as-yet-unrevealed reason, a light begins to glow from within Yuma's chest. after Arc's battle with Trigelas, a huge gaping crater is left where the center of the city used to be.

Jeff of Earth-J > Jeff of Earth-J January 6, 2026 at 7:06am

NOTE: I may be a bit slow on the uptake, but it occurs to me that "Trigelas" is "Digelas" with three horns. That also explains the title.

Jeff of Earth-J January 6, 2026 at 7:17am

THE DESCENDING DREAM: "Ultraman Arc vanished within the massive explosion after a fierce battle with Trigelos. But when Yuma wakes up in darkness, Arc appears and reveals a shocking new truth to Yuma. The days at SKIP, kaiju battles, and meeting Arc... can it be that the past 16 years have been nothing but a dream?"

Kaiju: Guilebako, the Dream Beast
Alien:Ze Su, Dark Space Lord; Sweed

Yuma "awakens" in some sort of dark reality. Arc appears and explains to him that Yuma is really still seven years old, buried in rubble, and that everythning that has happened to him over the course of the past "16 years", including Arc himself, has been an illusion created in his mind by his own imagination. But now his patrnets have been rescued and Yuma is in the verge of being rescued himself, so it is time to return to reality. Talk about an EYKIW! It's a lie, of course. "Arc" is really Sweed, who has taken Arc's form within Yuma's mind in order to get him to give up.

When that trick doesn't work, Yuma does wake up. Ultraman Biorno again takes over the form of YouPi to communicate with Yuma, and he explains that the light shining from within Yuma's chest is coming from the Onyx gate, which still exists. Then Guilebako appears the the two Ultramen begin to fight it. Suddenly, an energy sphere engulfs them all and freezes them all. From outside the sphere, Sweed says, "Sweet Dreams!"

One episode left!

Jeff of Earth-J January 7, 2026 at 6:37am

TIME TO RUN, YUMA!: "The countdown to come to a decision is approaching. Is parting ways with Arc the price for living in the world he had dreamed of? But what you really need if the courage to build your own future, the power of imagination! What is to come in Ultraman Arc and Yuma's final battle? "

Yuma awakens in a bedroom in his parents house. He is his 23 year old self, yet his parents are still alive. This is all a dream, of course, from whihc Yuma eventually frees himself. After Arc defeats Guilebako, Sweed transforms herself into the "Dark Galactic Warrior". After defeating her, Yuma decides he must leave SKIP for some reason I did not catch. Maybe the movie will clear it up.

Jeff of Earth-J January 10, 2026 at 9:23pm

ULTRAMAN ARC: THE MOVIE - THE CLASH OF LIGHT AND EVIL:

Arc and Yuma left Earth at the end of the regular series to save Rution's planet, but this movie takes place before that, specifically between episodes "The Dream bird" and "The Man in the White Mask." On his way to work one morning, Yuma encounters a well-dressed old man in distress. He takes him into the SKIP offices and the man asks for a glass of water, which Yuma gives him. Then he asks for a shoulder rub. Then he asks for a cup of hot tea. Yuma pushes back and it soon becomes clear that the man is not exactly what he seems to be. He introduces himself as Sascal from the planet Diggle. His people can travel in time and across dimensions, and he has come to test Yuma. He tells Yuma that he has three possible futures. The rest of the team arrives to work but Sascal has disappeared.

Test #1 - The Dog-wolf Kaiju and the Boy - A man named Mukawa enters SKIP HQ seeking an consultation. When he was a boy he was lost in the mountains for three days. He was befriended by Doglf, the Dog-wolf Kaiju which he names Mugon. Mugon takes care of the boy until help arrives, and Mukawa has sneaked back to visit Mugon for years. But now Mugon is sick and Mukawa is seeking help. The SKIP team are duty bound to report the kaiju to the GDF, especially since cattle have been reported mutilated in the area, but fearing the GDF will hurt Mugon, Mukawa and he leaves. The team follows him back to the mountain, where two Shugongs attack. Yuma sees Mugon protect Mukawa and transforms into Arc. Working together, the two of them defeat the kaiju, then Mugon collapses. Mukawa is there to comfort him as he dies. It is later revealed that Mugon dies of old age and had been protecting the area from kaiju all these years.

Sascal reappears and asks Yuma what he has learned from the experience. Then time resets itself to when the team arrived that morning.

Test #2 - Eerie! The Interstellar Plant Incident - A woman named Taniguchi from the Disaster Prevention & Safety office arrives carrying an odd-looking plant. shu recognizes it as a member of the alien species Gartura, which has the ability to posess other beings, then reproduce to eventually take over an entire planet. they seal the office, but It posesses one of them (Rin), which they determine by drinking coffee (because Gartura have a violent reaction to caffine). Rin transforms into a half-human/half-plant hybrid. As soon as they defeat it, Sascal reappears, then time rests itself again.

Test #3 - Showdown! Arc vs. Guil Arc - A package arrives for Shu. It is supposedly from a former colleague who died during an encounter with an alien from the planet Repo. Inside the box is a truly hideous idol. Suddenly, Galactic Beast Zerogelos attacks the Future Science Research Center, but it is actually being controlled by Alien Repo, the Evil Phantom. It was Repo who sculted the idol (which he named "guilty") and sent it to Shu. The idol acts as a transformation device, turning Shu into a Guil Arc, a black Ultraman. A robed figure arrives to help and advise Yuma. Arc fights Guil Arc, eventually shedding a CGI tear which restores Shu to his right mind. Then the two of them defeat Zerogelos, which had been controlled by Alien Repo all along. then Alien Repo transforms into Repodios, the Evil Kaiju.

After they defeat Repodios, Shu loses all memory of the transformation. Sascal reappears and approaches the cloaked figure. "Are you going to leave without saying a word?" he asks. "Aren't you going to tell them who you really are?" the cloaked figure removes his hood and says, 'No, it would only confuse Yuma to know he was assisted by the future version of himself." Then he realizes that Pascal never did reveal whether or not he passed the final test, and Pascal tells him that he did. then they both disappear into a time warp. the end credits recap the series' epsiode one by one in order.

I am now caught up to the present, having watched 60 years of Ultraman over the course of the last 13 years. I know I've missed a few, such as the Australian Ultraman Great - Toward the Future and an animated series, but I intend to sweep back through them to pick up any I may have missed for whatever reason. I took some breaks, but I do like binging long-running series with lots of episodes I can really sink my teeth into, such as...

American - Dark Shadows
British - Doctor Who
Australian - Prisoner: Cell Block H
Japanese - Ultraman

I wonder what I'll move on to next?

The Baron > Jeff of Earth-J January 10, 2026 at 10:51pm

an encounter with an alien from the planet Repo

Was that when they fought the Repo Men?

I wonder what I'll move on to next?

Well, there's goddamned near as many Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series, you know...

Ultraman Great is on Youtube here.
Jeff of Earth-J > The Baron January 11, 2026 at 6:39am

Ultraman Great is on Youtube here.

I did not know that. Thanks!

The Baron January 13, 2026 at 3:48pm

Ultraman: The Adventure Begins (a.k.a Ultraman USA) Reactions (SPOILERS)

This was made by Hanna-Barbera in association with Tsuburaya Productions. The animation is good, but not great, about at the level of a reasonably well-made Saturday morning cartoon of the era. It feels like a pilot for a series that never got made, which apparently it was.
Our protagonists are the members of the Flying Angels aerial acrobatic team: Captain Chuck Gavin, the Leader; Lieutenant Beth O'Brien, the Woman; and Lieutenant Scott Masterson, the Other Guy. They don't get a lot of character development. scott comes across as a sort of watered-down Johnny Storm.
We begin with objects from Nebula M78 crash landing in Louisiana, California, Utah and New Mexico. Nebula M78 is a place that we've seen before in the Ultra mythos.
Our heroes are performing when they encounter a mysterious object which causes their planes to crash. They all survive unhurt. They are placed on leave by their CO pending an investigation. They go their separate ways, but are reunited when they are summoned to a golf course in Georgia. They are greeted by an old guy called Walter Freeman, who takes them to a secret underground base. He tells them that they are now sharing their bodies with beoigns from the planet Altara, and must fight monsters that came to Earth, which, admittedly, is a lot for them to take in.
They fly to Ultra Force field HQ (not sure why they didn't go there first) which is located in Mount Rushmore, entering through Lincoln's mouth! (It strikes me that a national monument, which is closely observed by numerous people on a daily basis, is such a great place for a secret HQ.Also, the faces on the mountain look slightly off.) They are met by three unfunny comedy robots that our heroes re-name "Samson", "UIlysses" and "Andy" Oh, well, at least they do their jobs reasonably well. In Louisiana, two cartoon Cajuns discover a tentacle plant monster. The troubalert sounds at HQ, and our heroes are sent out. This time, when they leave, the whole top f the mountain slides open like a drawer!
Tentacle-Planto attacks New Orleans. Our heroes attack it in planes, but the critter regenerates after esch attack. A biomechanoid monster hatches in San Francisco, and Scott is sent off to fight it. When he gets to Frisco, he is shot down and transforms into Ultraman. Meanwhile, Tentaclo-Planto tries to eat Beth's plne, and she transfomrs into Ultrawoman. Beth and Chuck figure out that salt water will harm Tentclo-Planto. They toss it into the ocean and they Beth zaps it and it dies. Why Chuck doesn't transform too to help her, I don't know. You seem to have to be huurt badly in order to trigger the transformation.
Scott defeats Biomechanoido with a little help from the robot trio. After he returns to human form, Scott is quizzed by Doctor Susan Rand of the Foundation for Extraterrestrial Research (FER), who is obviously his potential love interest. She's mad at Scott (and Ultra Force in general) for killing nthe monsters that were attacking the cities. (Not sure what else she thought they should have done.) Later she goeson the news saying that she thinks the Ultra Force should be hunted down.
A monster that looks sort of like Peter Potamus if he were a dinosaur awakens at a ski resort in Utah. It is clumsy but not hostile. Scott has sought out Susan and tries to reason with her. They overcome their initial hostility, and when she gets paged to FER DHQ, he goes along with her. When news of Potamusaurus' awakening arrives, Susan makes Scott promise to try to communicate with it before fighting it..
In Utah, a national guard colonel has his men fire on Potamusaurus while Susan tries to stop them. The Ultra Force arrives, and Scott is shot down, triggering his transformation to Ultraman. The colonel has his men fire on the Ultra Force as they save Potamusaurus. Everyone thinks they're dead, but instead, they launch Potamusaurus into a space on a journey to a new home with no hostile life forms.
Meanwhile, Susan's colleague Doctor Watkins (who I nthink is being set up for an antagonistic role) finds out about the New Mexico meteor, and he and Susan gomnthere and fetch it back to FER HQ in New York City, where it hatches into a sort of cutesy kangaroo/reptile thing. Susan tries to communkcate with it, but it grows into a big demonic looking thing, escapes and attack New York City. Susan tries to stop it using a plot device, but it doesn't work. (That'll teach her to try to communicate with things!) The Ultras arrive in their planes and strafe the monster. They crash and transform into their Ultra forms. Scott gets Susan to safety and she figures out his secret ID. I guess that in this case, love is not blind, but instead has x-ray vision.
It goes bad for our heroes (as it always does in these stories), but the military distracts the monster while our heroes recharge. With help from Susan, they battle the monster and toss it into the Sun. Back at HQ, Walter makes a desperate attempt at going to series by informing our heroes tht there msy be other monsters arriving on Earth.
We end with Scogtt smooching Susan.

Overall: An interesting look at an 80's kids' cartoon series that in another world might have been out there alongside GI Joe or He-Man. In the end, I can see why it didn't go to sereis, the charcters aren't quite engaging enough. I'm glad that I got a chance to see it, though.

Jeff of Earth-J > The Baron January 13, 2026 at 4:47pm
Ultraman USA (1987) wasn't yet available when I was working my way through 1980s Ultra-series. I hadn't realized it was animated. If I had, I probably would have skipped over it until I finished all the live action series (which I have now done), as I did The Ultraman (1979), a Japanese animated series (which is also now available on DVD). When I got wind you were going to be watching this show, I got one, too. But I thought Ultraman: The Adventure Begins and Ultraman USA were two different things...? So far we have watched only The Adventure Begins, what you described above, but there are separate listings on the menu for Ultraman USA (English and Japanese versions). I pretty much agree with everything you said, with these additional thoughts I jotted down...
- There are no "transformation devices" in this version
- Tracy found Beth to be "embarrassing"
- The robot Andy = Bernadette Rostenkowski
- I kept wishing Scott was voiced by Peter Fernandez
- Those Cajun accents were terrible
- The "cutesy kangaroo/reptile thing" reminded me of a Gremlin
- Noteable background elements: the World Trade Center and a bank of phone booths
- This cartoon reminded me very much of watching the Planet of the Apes cartoon; it sort of was but it wasn't, y'know?
As usual, Tracy summed it up in a few words: "I'm glad this isn't a series we have to watch."
The Baron > Jeff of Earth-J January 13, 2026 at 4:54pm

i haven't watched through Ultraman USA yet - it's in Japanese, but doesn't seem to have subtitles - but what I have seen doesn't seem to have any major differences.

Forum 2.0

Ultra Q

Replies