Ultraman (Back to the Beginning)

[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!

[The Baron]

Episode 09: "Lightning Operation"

1. "Festuring Uranium Monster Gavora"  According to the Ultra Wiki, the monster in this episode was originally going to Pagos, the ujranium-eating monster from Ultra Q, but the toy company Marusan wanted more new monsters to fill out its monster toy line, so Gavora (a.k.a. Gabora) was created and given similar dietary proclivities to Pagos.  The fact that the cops and the SSSP recognized Gabora and knew that it liked uranium coud be leftover bits from when Pagos ws going to feature in the episode. I do think that at some point in the production at least,  Ultraman was meant to take place in the same continuity as Ultra Q.
2. The SSSP is monitoring a typhoon in the Izu Peninsula. The Highland Boy Scout Camp Area is severely damaged in the storm.
3. Ide teases Arashi by punning on the fact that "arashi" means "storm" in Japanese. It's funny, because I've always thought of hotheaded, impulsive Arashi as the team's "Johnny Storm".
4. Hoshino shows up with meteorological information.
5. After the storm, the campers are working on rebuilding the camp. Their food supplies were destroyed, so two scouts go to fetch more food.
6. Recovery efforts in a nearby town are slowed by mysterious subterranean "shaking". Gabora appears and the SSSP are called in and they just take Hoshino along with them? WTF?
7. The SSSP arrives at the town, where the mayor harangues them and the army about their plans to stop Gabora. Our heroes go out to confront Gabora. (And they bring Hoshino along with them when they fight the gisnt rdioactive monster? Does Hoshino not have parents?)
8. The army shoots fire at Gabora, causing it to change direction - right towards the boy scout camp! D'Oh! Hayata suggests dangling some uranium from a helicopter to lure it away into the mountains. Meanwhile, one of the two scouts slid doewnn an embankment and hit himself.
9. Hayata takes off, only to discover thst Hoshino and Fuji hsve stowed aboard. OK, Hoshino's a not overbright kid wth no impulse control, but Fuji should know better. Gsbora does follow the chopper, but we see that the two scouts are in the area where Hayata intended to drop the uranium. Hayata lands, and Fuji and Hoshino get out to go warn the two scouts to hide. Hayata tries to relese the uranium, but the release fails. Gabora swats the chopper and it crashes. Hayata somehow survives this, but once again, drops the Beta Capsule and has to race to pick it up and transform.
10. Ultraman battles Gabora and eventually beats it. Ultraman flies away and Hayata returns, acting hurt. The SSSP  bring food and water to the scout camp.

Overall: Another  OK episode. The only bad bits for me are the presence of Hoshino and his bad influence on Fuji.

[Commander Benson]

Episode 09: "Lightning Operation"

The fact that the cops and the Science Patrol recognised Gavora by name and knew his diet of uranium gave me pause, too.  Did the S.P. have a catalogue of monsters, indexed by name and their traits?  But your conclusion, from the info you provided, makes perfect sense, Baron.  Ultra Q and Ultraman exist in the same contonuity.

 

The Highland Boy Scout Camp Area is severely damaged in the storm.

Something I never noticed until my binge-watching of the show:  the writers are awfully fond of putting children in the episodes, as potential victims and as plot catalysts.  As soon as those two scouts bicycled off for supplies, you knew they were going to run into trouble.

 

Hayata takes off, only to discover thst Hoshino and Fuji hsve stowed aboard. OK, Hoshino's a not overbright kid wth no impulse control, but Fuji should know better.

Agreed.  I've always been fond of Fuji, especially when she's competent out in the field.  But it was a real clam when the tarp was lifted, and I saw her in the helo, grinning like a precocious little girl at her "mischief".  How much more logical and plausible it would've been, once the plan to lure Gavora with a cannister of uranium was devised, for Fuji to have stepped forward and said, "Captain, request permission to go along with Hayata."  That way, if she'd been in the second seat next to Hayata when Hoshino revealed himself as a stowaway, Fuji would've been free to push the little snotnose out of the helo.

 

Hayata somehow survives this, but once again, drops the Beta Capsule . . . 

As I said before, Hayata really needs to invest a couple of yen for a strap holder to keep the beta capsule firm inside his jacket.

 

. . . Hayata returns, acting hurt. The SSSP  bring food and water to the scout camp.

For once, Hayata had a decent cover for not being present while Ultraman was fighting the monster.  By pretending to painfully crawl out of the helicopter wreckage, he avoided the usual "Hayata, where have you been?" comments from the other Science Patrollers.

I did get a kick out of the tag, when one of the rescued Boy Scouts remarks about Hayata surviving the helo crash:  "Any ordinary man would've been in trouble."  And Hayata replies (in the English-dubbed version), "Oh?  Who says I'm ordinary?" and then does an Ultraman-like flex.  This reminded me of the coy remarks that George Reeves' Clark Kent would make to a suspicious Lois Lane at the end of an Adventures of Superman episode.

 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

According to the Ultra Wiki...

Interesting.

Ide teases Arashi by punning on the fact that "arashi" means "storm" in Japanese.

In the English dub, Hoshino says, "You don't have to be so anxious," to which Arashi replies, "Who says I'm angry?"

Hayata takes off, only to discover that Hoshino and Fuji have stowed aboard.

What are they, Spritle and Chim-Chim?

Fuji and Hoshino get out to go warn the two scouts to hide.

...from the possible release of radioactivity. (Good luck with that.)

Hayata... once again drops the Beta Capsule

He should wear it on a rope around his neck.

Ultraman battles Gabora and eventually beats it.

I don't mind when Ultraman outright kills the monsters, but I don't like it when he maims them. He's got a cruel streak in him I sometimes find unsettling.

 

[The Baron]

Episode 10: "The Mysterious Dinosaur Base"

1. "Featuring Ruffed Dinosaur Base"
2. A cartoon mad scientist (Professor Nakamura) feeds his monster called Jirahs that lives in Lake Kitayama. According to Nakamura, Jirahs' "leftovers"  are responsible  for the sudden increase in fish in the lake.
3. The SSSP is informed of the sudden fish increase in the lake. Hayata, Ide and Arashi go to the lake. The drop Arashi into the lake in a submarine. Like Gamera, the sub can shoot fire (in this case from its exhaust) underwater. Arashi uses sonar and an underwater camera, but Jirahs hides from him.Cap decides that there's nothing to see there and tells the three men to take some leve up by the lake. (I imagine Fuji back at HQ, thinking, "well, damn."
4. Meanwhile, a reporter and photographer in a "monster car" (Really, what the Hell was that all about?) drive to see Professor Nakamura to get his thoughts about  the Loch Ness Monster. He shows them badly-drawn pictures of dinosaurs and opines that Nessie is a diplodocus. They then ask him about a Professot Nikaido who disappesred on an expediiton to Loch Ness fifteen years before.
5. Ide and the lady journalist (Kubo) have gone to see the lake at night. They see Nakamura feeding Jirahs. Ide wants to call it in, but Kubo persuades him that they should follow Nakamura instead. Ide does think to leve an SSSP sticker on a tree to mark where they went. They follow a tunnel that leads to Nakamura's lab, where the Professor captures them, and smashes Ide's radio. He then summons Jirahs, who is Godzilla with a neck frill.
6. Cap and Fuji heqd two the face, Hayata and Arashi  serch for Ide and Kubo and Ide attempts to repair his radio.
7. Two guys "fish" with poison, which angers Jirahs. Nakamura rushes to the lake, where the SSSP are shooting at Jirahs. Nakamura pulls off one of those Patented Super Realistic Masks Which Turn To Cheap Rubber When They're Removed and reveals that he is Nikaido. I'm not sure what this revelation adds to te story. You could have left it out without detracting anything from the narrative. He encourages Jirahs to rampage, and Jirahs steps on him.
8. Ide fixes his radio and tells the others that he and Kubo .are trapped in Nakamura's lab. Arashi peppers Jirahs with the Spider-Shot whille while Cap, Hayata and the male journalist race to free Ide and Kubo. Hayata hangs back and transforms into Ultraman. There's an "energy coil" effect around Hayata when he tramsforms that  I don't believe we've seen before.
9. Ultrman confronts Jirahs and the two compare their methods of destroying rocks. This fight is weird, with Ultraman twuntong and moclingnhis opponent.  Ultraman rips Jirahs' neck frill off (!) and then uses it like a toreador's red cape. (According to the Ultra Wiki, Tsuburaya approved this scene only with great reluctance. Apparently, he was working on a Toho film at the time and wasn't able to give this episode the attention he would've liked.)
10. I note that the Color-Timer didn't make any sound when it started blinking.
11. Ultraman strikes Jirahs and it  bleeds at the mouth and drops ded. Tender music plays and Ultraman drapes the neck frill over the creature's corpse. the others remark what a weirdo Nakamura was. The dying scientist (How the Hell is he still alive?) cries out to his dying pet.

Overall: This was an OK episode, if a bit weird. There was no Hoshino, and Ide was reasonably well-behaved. Oddly, it was Ultraman who  seemed a bit out of character in this one. Trivia Note: they were originally going to cast the same actor who had played Professor Ichinotani (a.ka. "Professor Mustache") in Ultra Q as Professor Nakamura, but they decided against it for fear that it would confuse viewers of the previous program.