Ultra Q

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I was a big fan of Ultraman when I was a kid. In the early ‘90s I discovered there was a new “Ultraman” show, but unfortunately I was more interested in acquiring episodes of the old show on VHS than I was episodes of the new one. Somewhat later I discovered that there have been many, many “Ultraman” series over the years, rivaling Doctor Who in its longevity. A brief search of the internet yields the following results (but I’ve probably missed a few).

Ultra Q  
Ultraman 1966-67
UltraSeven 1967-68 
Return of…(Jack) 1971-72 
Ultraman Ace 1972-73 
Ultraman Taro 1973-74 
Ultraman Leo 1974-75 
Ultraman 80 1980-81 
Ultraman USA (The Adventure Begins) 1987
Ultraman Great (Towards the Future) 1990-91 
Ultraman Powered (The Ultimate Hero) 1993 
Ultraman Hero 1995
Ultraman Zearth (parody) 1996-97 
Ultraman Tiga 1996-97 
Ultraman Dyna 1997-98 
Ultraman Gaia 1998-99 
Ultraman Nice 1999-00
Ultraman Neos 2000-2001
Ultraman Cosmos 2001-02 
Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy 2004 
Ultraman: Next 2004 - p.82
Ultraman Nexus 2004-05 - p.82
Ultraman Max 2005-06 - p.86
Ultraman Mebius 2006-07 - p.91
Ultraman UltraSeven X 2007 - p.99
UltraGalaxy: Mega Monster Battle 2007-2009 - p.100
Ultraman Retsuden 2011-13
Neo Ultra Q 2013
Ultraman Ginga 2013 
Ultraman Ginga S 2014 
Ultraman X 2015-16 
Ultraman Orb 2016 
Ultraman Geed 2017 
Ultraman R/B 2018
Ultraman Taiga 2019
Ultraman Z 2020
Ultraman Trigger 2021
Ultraman Decker 2022
Ultraman Blazar 2023
Ultraman Arc 2024
Ultraman Omega 2025
Ultraman Theo 2026

We’ve been discussing other tokusatsu series in this forum lately, and because those series were produced later than Ultraman, I expected them to be technically better, but I ended up being somewhat disappointed in Super Robot Red Baron and Iron King. I enjoyed them, but I didn’t like them as much as I hoped to. Now I’ve started watching Ultraseven, and it’s everything I hoped it would be.

As the liner noteson the DVD set point out, “the difference in the overall quality in production between Ultraman and Ultraseven was marked, and made the show memorable 45 years later. According to Wikipedia, “Such is his popularity that Ultra Seven (or simply 'Seven') has appeared or at least made cameos in nearly every Ultra Series following his own and has had far more exposure than even the original Ultraman (though the original Ultraman is without a doubt the face of the Ultras).”

My wife and I disagree about the relative merits of Ultraseven in comparison to SRRB/IK. I would like to start the discussion with a look at the opening title sequence and music, then open the floor for rebutal.

The title sequence of Ultraman, as you will recall, looks as if it had been spelled out in a can of paint, slowly stirred, then run backwards. Ultraseven looks more like it had been spelled out in brightly colored confetti, placed atop one of those old electric football games, shaken apart, then run backwards. Whereas the soundtrack of Ultraman is jazzy, that of Ultraseven shows more of a classical influence.

Here is the English translation of the lyrics…

Seven… Seven… Seven… Seven…

Seven! Seven! Seven!
Seven! Seven! Seven!

A distant star was once his home
Ultra Seven! Fighter Seven!
Ultra Seven! Seven! Seven!

Onward to the edge of the galaxy
Use your Ultra-Eye and… STRIKE!
Seven! Seven! Seven!
Seven! Seven! Seven!

Dan Moroboshi is his borrowed name
Ultra Seven! Hero Seven!
Ultra Seven! Seven! Seven!

Defeat the great fire-breathing monster
Use yout Ultra-Beam and STRIKE!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

(This reminds me of the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts, where four towns were flooded when it was made.)

Swamp Thing #38-39, by Alan Moore, is set in an underwater vampire town (flooded in #3). It's one of the best vampire stories in comics, a straight up horror story in the same vein as Salem's Lot. See "Swamp Thing" discussion for more details.

Jeff knows all of Ultra continuity inside and out, so he'll know.

No explanation was ever given for the resemblance of Garamon and Pigmon. This is the only episode in which the creature appears as a giant. As to whether Ultra Q and Ultraman take place in the same universe, they can if you want them to. (I prefer to believe that they do.) The series Neo Ultra Q (2003) is a direct sequel to Ultra Q and definitely takes place in the same universe. If you ever come to visit us again we'll watch a few episodes. Pigmon is Tracy's favorite kaiju, if you didn't know.

 

[The Baron]

Episode 14: "Tokyo Ice Age"

1. At Haneda Airport, a plane crashes in an odd way, and the airport is suddenly frozen over.
2. Yuriko is doing a story about tourists visiting Tokyo, when she meets a kid whose father has gone missing.
3. Ippei and Jun discuss the dangers of Antarctic ice melting. (See, this wasn't some sh*t that was invented last year.) They find a drunk guy passed out in their plane.
4. The editor gives Yuriko crap about wasting time on the kid's story and tells her to go cover the story of the airport freezing.
5. Yuriko joins Jun and Ippei at the airport. Jun thinks that the cold might be the result of Peguila migrating from the South Pole to the North.
6. The editor calls Yuriko to tell her that there was a reactor explosion in the Antarctic and that that is somehow the cause of the unexpected cold, and that she should go follow up on the kid's story again.
7. Peguila appears in Tokyo and attacks the city. The government won't use Pegimi-H (which worked against Peguila the last time), I guess because the Japanese version of the FDA hasn't spproved it yet. There's some at a lab in the Japan Alps, so the editor decides that Jun should fly up there and get some.
8. The drunk wakes up. We see that he has a gun and some jewels. It develops that he is a jewel thief and a former Zero pilot.
9. The air force attacks Peguila to no effect. The car that Yuriko, the editor, the kid and some other guy were in is trapped under ice and debris. The kid is able to squeeze out of the car, but he falls into a crevasse.
10. The drunk wants to steal Jun's plane, but just then, the kid arrives and gives the story about fetching the Pegimi-H. As we all saw coming, the kid turns out to be the drunk's son. The drunk decides that he's the only one who can fly to get the Pegimi-H. He obtains the stuff, but is warned that it is laced with explosives.  The drunk kamikazes the plane right into Peguila's face, presumably destroying it, unless it turns up in another episode.
11. We end with the kid taking a cheerful leave of his new friends as he boards the train home. He becomes more somber as he eyes the box containiing his father's remains on the seat next to him, perhaps pondering what is very likely an extremely uncertain future for him. Does the kid have a mother? You'd think that the first thing that Yuriko would have done when she met him would be to try to contact the kid's Mom.

Overall: Another prettty good episode, with what I believe is our first returning critter.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Good summary, but I don't really have anything to add.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh, one thing... I noticed that one line of dialogue wasn't translated. When they are trapped in the car, Yuriko says something, to which the other guy responds, "That isn't very funny." Granted, it probably wasn't very funny, but now it's got me wondering what it was.

[The Baron]

Well spotted. I didn't pick up on that.

[The Baron]

Episode 15: "Kanegon's Cocoon"

1. A sort of "kids' market" is disrupted by a greedy little kid named Kaneo (kane is Japanese for  "money") who's a bit of a bully. They are all cleared out by a guy wiith a weird mustache and a bulldozer.
2. At home, Kaneo is scolded by his parents, who say that he'll turn into the monster Kanegon if he keeps on picking up other people's money. His parents are portrayed as ineffectual, comedic figures.
3. A cocoon that Kaneo picked up at the "market" has grown to human size. He is pulled into it, then some surreal stuff happens, and in the morning, he has turned into Kanegon.
4. He leaves the house and everyone  laughs at him. His friends feed him money, which he now needs to eat to survive. Bulldozer Man comes back and scatters them all.
5. His friends consullt an old witch, to get her to pray for him. She is just as nutty as all get out.  She says that Kaneo will be cured when a bearded man is turned upside down.
6. Kaneo's friends discuss various ways to commercially exploit Kaneo to get money to feed him.Kaneo wanders off and steals some money from a bank.
7. A crowd chases Kaneo and his friends.  They end up back at the waste ground where their "market" was. Bulldozer Man shows up, but this time, the kids decide that they're sick of his crap, and turn on him. Shenanigans occur, and Bulldozer Man is turned upside down.  Apparently, he qualifies as a "bearded" man, even though he doesn't have a beard, because Kaneo blasts off into the air, and when he parachutes to Earth, he is human again.
8. Kaneo races home, onlly to find that his parents have turned into Kanegons and are giggling like lunatics.

Overall: This is another kids' fable, like the one with the turtle a few episodes back, The Trio don't appear at all, and were probably glad to have the week off. It seems that this was written in response to the money worship that was prevalent in Japan at the time. It's amusing enough as a sort of low-level morality tale, although imagine if everyone who worshipped money turned into a Kanegon...

[Jeff of Earth-J]

It's easy to dismiss (or ignore) as a "one-off" because, as you pointed out, the Trio aren't even in it. I think of this one more of a weird Japanese fable/morality tale than an in-continuity episode, but I like that Ultra Q has the flexibilty to tell such tales once in a while.

The "bearded man's" partner was played by the same guy who would go on to play Ito, the comic relief inventor on the original Ultraman.

[The Baron]

I didn'i pick up on that, either.

[The Baron]

Episode 16: "Garamon Strikes Back"

1. A weird guy cracks a safe and steals the Garamon "brain" from a couple of episodes back.
2. Yuriko calls Jun at around 4:00 a.m. to tell him about the theft. Ippei is right there. Hang on, does Ippei live with Jun?
3. Weird Guy stops a truck and bums a ride. Hang on, if he's an advanced space alien, why does he have to bum a ride? Is it a low-budget invasion?
4. The Trio go to a lab and consult with a scientist named Hanazawa, who is played by Akihiko Hirata, who played Doctor Serizawa in Godzilla (1954). He says that nothing much is going on at the moment.
5. Yuriko suggests that it's another attack by Garamon. Ippei scoffs at her, which means that she's right.
6. Weird Guy activates the brain, and Hanazawa picks up the signals. Objects are detected approaching Earth from space. Hang on, Hanazawa tells the Trio that they'll land at 8:48 a.m., and the radio says 11:48 a.m., and Japan only has one time zone.
7. Some kids stop the truck, trying to get the driver to give them a lift, but Weird Guy pressures them not to. One kid manages to sneak into the back of the truck, where he starts fiddling with the brain. Meanwhile, Hanazawa and the Trio try to track the brain by helicopter.
8. Two meteors land in Tokyo, and Garamon hstch out.
9. The truck driver stops at a rest area, and hears about the Garamon. Weird Guy steals the truck, but fortunately, the Trio  and Hanazawa are right there, and the truck driver and the kid tell them about Weird Guy. They guess that Weird Guy has the brain. The Trio, Hanazawa, and the truck driver borrow a car from an extraordinarily trusting soul and set off in pursuit.
10. Weird Guye runs a roadblock and the cops join the pursuit. The cops shoots out one of the truck's tires, and Weird Guy off on foot.
11. Meanwhile, the two Garamon attack Tokyo.
12. Weird Guy uses a plot device to turn the cops' guns against them and shoots them. Jun and Ippei try to catch him.
13. Back in Tokyo, one of the Garamon hits himself in the face with Tokyo Tower. I think that if you left these things alone, there's a greater than zero chance that they'd end up accidentally destroying themselves.
14. Ippei manages to disarm Weird Guy, who chases him. The truck driver picks up one of the cops' guns and shoots Weird Guy. That's what he gets for stealing his truck! Yuriko and Hanazawa wrap the brain in a space blanket that they brought. The two Garamon drool and deactivate.
15. Weird Guy is revealed to be an alien. A UFO comes up out of a nearby lake, and Weird Guy waves to them.  The UFO incinerates him because he was a screw-up and nobody liked him. Then they take off. Hanazawa figures that they'll be back. On Planet M78, Mother of Ultra has seen all this and thinks, "Maybe I should send someone out to help these Earth monkeys, in case they get invaded by someone who actually knows whqt they're doing. I'll have to see who's available next."

Overall: Another pretty good episode. Ibteresting to see another monster return so soon.