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 28: "Human Specimens 5 & 6"

1. "Featuring Three-Faced Phantom Dada"
2. Cap and Ide are riding a bus route that has suffered an unusual number of accidents recently. There is a woman on the bus who might as well be wearing a sign that says, "Hello, I'm Suspect!". The driver is startled and the bus goes over a cliff. Cap and Suspect Woman are thrown from the bus and somehow survive intact. Cap goes down tocheckthings out, but he finds the bus empty. A cop appears and tells Cap that it's been an hour since the crash and everyone was OK except Ide, who broke his leg. So the site was presumably crawling with rescue people and none of them noticed Cap and Suspect Woman up the cliff?  Ide never asked where Cap was?
3. When Cap goes back up the cliff, he spots Suspect Woman leaving. He calls HQ, but slides down the cliff in mid-call. As Suspect Woman reaches the road, she inadvertently causes a rockslide that endangers Cap.
4. Back at HQ, Hayata takes charge. He tells Arashi and Fuji to check out the crash site, and then meet up with Ide. Cap makes it back to the road, but his communicator isn't working.
5. A man shows up at the same hospital as IDe. He works at the mountaintop Cosmic Ray Research Center, which is furhter up the road.  He tells Ide and some cops that the Center has been invded by an alien absurdist intellectual movement called Dada. Then the man vanishes, teleported back to the Center by the Dada. They have four miniaturized human subjects, and need two more. It almost feels like they're fulfilling an order.
6. Outside, Suspect Woman approaches the Center. Dada possesses the guy they captwured. Possessed Guey confrots Suspect Woman, who is Technical Officer Akikawa from the Central Space Atomic Research Center and who's wondering where last week's report is. Possessed Guy thins that she would make a good specimen. Akikawa finds a message saying, "SOS DADA".
7. Cap arrives just in time and clocks Possessed Guy and then shoots him with his raygun. Cap and Akikawa are cornered by a Dada, who disappears because hiis micronizer is broken and he has to order another one. Cap and Akikawa go to the Power Room, where Cap shuts off the power. He then calls HQ for back-up.
8. Hayata transforms into Ultraman (inside the building, I note) Dada turns the power back on and seals the Center. It then grows to giant size and battles Ultraman. Ultraman seems to have been watching some pro wrestling.  He zaps it with the Spacium Beam and rescues Cap and Akikawa. 
9. Dada shrinks Ultraman to human size, but Ultraman just returns himself to giant size, so that was anticlimactic. He kills the Dada with his Spacium Beam. The rest of the SSSP arrive, and we end with everyone having a good laugh as Ide hurts himself trying to walk on his broken leg.

Overall: This was an OK episode. I wasn't overwhelmed by the design of the Dada. I think they were a little too fake looking. This was another one that was later re-done for Ultraman Powered. I note that so far, at least, there's been no notice taken of the disappearance of Hoshino, not even a "Gee, I hope that Hoshino is doing well in that Maximum Security miliitary school in northern Hokkaido that we got him committed - I mean, admitted - to."

[Jeff of Earth-J]

This is the very first episode of Ultraman I ever watched. I remember specifically because it creeped me out a little, moreso than any other episode would. Consequently, Dada is one of my two favorite aliens of the original series, along with Baltan (and if that vendor had had a Dada figure at last summer's "Kaiju Fest" I would have bought one). Funny, but I never realized that there were three different Dada on Earth until I rewatched it when it was released on DVD in the early 2Ks. Or were there? The sub-title refers to him as a "Three-Faced Phantom," yet the one scientist whose form he assumes clearly says there are three of them. The three of them ("Freckles," "Moustache" and "Whitey") "tag-team" with each other in and out of the action. Why/how do they do that? For that matter, if it's one alien with three faces, how/why does he change? It's never explained, just left to the individual viewer's imagination, yet that very mystery just adds to the "creepiness" factor... that, and the sound he makes, the way he teleports and changes size, the unique theme music accompanying this alien, etc. 

Now it is my turn to diverge into other shows, other first episodes (from my perspective) I have seen), that this episode reminds me off. The first episode of Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot I ever saw, right around the same time I saw this one (which I think of as "Dada SOS", BTW) was the one with the vampires. As with "Human Specimens 5 & 6", it really creeped me out, more than any other episode of that series would. I didn't necessarily believe in vampires at the time, but I didn't not believe in them, either. 

The first episode of Star Trek I ever saw was "The Tholian Web." My brother liked that show, and he was watching it. (I didn't have any say at that time over what was on TV; I just watched whatever everyone else was watching.) I don't think I really understood it. Captain Kirk reminded me of a ghost. I didn't necessarily believe in ghosts at the time, but I didn't not believe in them, either. And, again, it creeped me out more than any other episode of Star Trek ever would. When it was over, my brother asked me what I thought of it. I don't remember what I said, but I dod remember he said something to the effect of, "I've got a show for you to watch until you're ready for Star Trek." and then he introduced me to Lost in Space. 

...an alien absurdist intellectual movement called Dada.

Ha! That's pretty funny.

Hayata transforms into Ultraman (inside the building, I note)

I'm telling ya, he must go intangible during transformation... except when he doesn't.

...we end with everyone having a good laugh as Ide hurts himself trying to walk on his broken leg.

"It's funny when friends get hurt!" - Michael Kelso

This was an OK episode. I wasn't overwhelmed by the design of the Dada. I think they were a little too fake looking. 

"OK"? "Fake looking"? They were creepy. (Tracy agrees.)

 ...there's been no notice taken of the disappearance of Hoshino

He was sent to a farm up north where he can chase rabbits in the field all day, but no one from the SSSP is allowed to visit him.

[The Baron]

Episode 29: “Challenge to the Underground”

1. “Featuring the Golden Monster Golden”
2. The gold has suddenly disappeared from Japan’s largest gold deposit mountain. Then, a monster (Goldon) appears. It moves around underground, making it hard to track. However, Ide has invented a subterranean vehicle that he calls the Vellucidar (sic). What a coincidence!
3. Cap decides to go with Ide with the Vellucidar, while sending Hayata, Fuji and Arashi to help with rescue efforts. (It does seem that Fuji isn’t being left behind to “man the phones” as much.)
4. The Army battles Goldon, to no effect. The SSSP attacks, causing the creature to burrow underground.
5. Cap and Ide land to speak with a miner, who reports that a friend of his is trapped underground. Cap decides to take the Vellucidar underground in hopes of driving the monster to the surface, where the others can attack it.
6. Cap and Ide find the miner’s friend, but he refuses their aid. Cap forces him into the Vellucidar. The miner claims that Goldon ate all the gold in the mountain. When Goldon approaches, they follow it. It turns on them. They attack it. It swats the Vellucidar and then goes aboveground.  The rest of the SSSP attack it from the air.
7. The SSSP run out of rockets. Hayata theorizes that as a subterranean creature, it should be sensitive to light, so they should land and have Arashi use a Corona Bullet, blinding it and leaving it vulnerable to a follow-up attack. They land, but a tremor caused by Goldon causes Fuji to fall down a slope. Hayata races to help her, leaving Arashi with the weapons. Arashi hits Goldon with the Corona Bullet and a ray gun chaser, and it falls over dead.
8. Hayata reports to Cap that Fuji is hurt. Cap reports that the Vellucidar is damaged. Ide gets it moving, but it is out of control. Hayata orders Arashi to take Fuji to the hospital. Ide gets the Vellucidar moving in reverse, but it collides with a second Goldon and is trapped, not to mention running out of oxygen. Cap fires their last torpedo, startling Goldon #2 into surfacing. Hayata transforms into Ultraman and battles Goldon #2, before blasting it with his Spacium Beam. He then burrows underground, retrieving the Vellucidar and returning it to the surface, even as their oxygen runs out. He leaves even as Arashi returns. We are told that 150 tons of pure gold were extracted from Goldon’s body and that the SSSP donated it to a fund to re-build the town that Goldon destroyed. (So, it was their call to decide what to do with all that gold?)

Overall: I thought this was a good episode, I enjoyed it a lot. Some good suspenseful moments with Cap and Ide trapped underground. Interesting that the SSSP was able to take out Goldon #1 without Ultraman’s help. Ultraman’s battle with Goldon #2 was fun, too, what with them taking turns trying to strangle one another.  

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Ide has invented a subterranean vehicle that he calls the Vellucidar (sic).

In my subtitled version, it is translated Pelucidar, but the dubbed version is "underground tank" (or simply "tank"). [My guidebook calls it "Vellucidar" too.] I have noted with the "dubs and subs" that, not only does the dubbed version "dial back" the rhetoric, but it also "dumbs it down." For example, "VTOL" routinely becomes "aircraft", and in one previous episode, "napalm" became "fire bomb". In this episode alone...

• "Pelucidar" becomes "tank"
• "VTOL" becomes "aircraft"
• "14 karat" becomes "pure gold"
• "Corona bullet" becomes "ray gun"
• "Cooling system" becomes "air conditioning"

(It does seem that Fuji isn’t being left behind to “man the phones” as much.)

No, but on a personal (and perhaps sexist) note, Hiroko Sakurai has let her hair grow out considerably from her Ultra Q days.

[SPOILER] It will get longer still.

Cap forces him into the Vellucidar.

When he sent Hayata after him, Hayata response was subtitled "Damnit" *but dubbed "I'll get him"). I wasn't listening to the Japanese version, but he probably said "shimata."

...but it collides with a second Goldon

The mate of the first, I imagine.

We are told that 150 tons of pure gold were extracted from Goldon’s body

I shudder to think what effect a dump of that magnitude had on the World Market.

Overall: I thought the underground scenes were tense, but Goldon's design was uninspired.

[Commander Benson]

Episode 28: "Human Specimens 5 & 6"

While not in my trio of top episodes, this one is one of my favourites.  I enjoyed the threat of the Dada.  As I mentioned a while back, I always preferred the express villains with intellect who confronted Ultraman, rather than the usual rampaging monsters.  Unlike you, Baron, I rather liked the design---the zebra-striping and the helmet.  The Dada was humanoid too, which is probably why Ultraman spent more time than usual manhandling him.  And, as Jeff said, there was something creepy about him.

The Dada was also formidable in its ability to teleport.  This gave both Captain Mura and Ultraman a hard time.  Nothing was said about it in the English-dubbed version, but I suspect the implication was that teleporting was something that the Dada could not do in quick repetition; otherwise, he would've used it against Mura and Ultraman more readily.

I got a kick out of the quick sequence (lasts only about thirty seconds) in which Ultraman is reduced to human size.  I wish more had been made of that.  I can imagine Captain Mura's reaction at coming face to face with Ultraman.

Speaking of Mura, this episode was a showcase for him.  The rest of the Science Patrol get little screen time.  Mura conducted himself quite well against the Dada.  (Although he should've known, when the Dada was backing him and Akikawa toward the roof's edge, that the girl would lose her footing, and that she would grab him and take him over the side with her.)

 

[Commander Benson]

Episode 29: “Challenge to the Underground”

My favourite scenes in this episode were the ones with Captain Mura and Ito trapped underground in their vehicle.  Aye, I know, the trope of people trapped in a mine has been an old reliable of every show that ran more than two seasons, from Bonanza to MacGyver.  But there's a reason for that:  because it works.  We see the personalities of Mura and Ito rubbed raw.  Ito comes near to panic, while Mura only gets tougher.  And here we see Mura again express the pride he has in the Science Patrol and what he expects of its members.  It's a notable part of his characterisation.

 

[The Baron]

Episode 30: “Phantom of the Snow Mountains”

1. “Featuring Legend Monster Woo”
2. A man named Machimura is found collapsed in the snow at a ski resort on Mount Iida. He says that while he was hunting, he saw a “Snow Woman”. He fired some shots into the air to frighten her, and she summoned Woo, an Abominable Snow Muppet. The SSSP are contacted and Hayata, Arashi and Ide are sent to investigate.
3. Some boys harass the girl tht the hunter saw. They accuse her of being a yuki-onna, a mythical female spirit who freezes men who get lost in the mountains and then displays them in her home.
4. The SSSP boys land. A resort official tells them that Mount Iida stays snowy year-round. The girl is listening to all this. The guys go skiing. Hayata hurts his leg when it’s caught in a hole in the snow. They spot the girl fleeing, but Ide catches and tackles her. She accuses them of being there to kill Woo, then throws snow in Ide’s face and flees. The official tells them that the Snow Girl is a girl whose parents died and who is rejected by the locals.
5. While Hayata is having his leg bandaged, Ide reveals that he lost his mother at a young age, and so he sympathizes with Snow Girl.
6. Woo appears at the ski resort. Snow Girl pleads with Arashi and Ide not to shoot it, and with Woo not to attack the humans. The hunter arrives and shoots at it. (What he thinks his hunting rifle is going to do to that thing, I do not know.) Woo withdraws.
7. A man is found frozen in the snow. The locals blame Snow Girl. They surround her and she flees.
8. Arashi and Ide search for Woo by air. Ide thinks that Woo is the spirit of Snow Girl’s mother.
9. Snow Girl summons Woo. Arashi fires on it. The SSSP plane is brought down. Hayata transforms into Ultraman. Ultraman battles Woo until Snow Girl calls out to it, after which it vanishes. We see Snow Girl lying in the snow, with a rabbit alongside her.
10. Hayata goes to Arashi and Ide. Snow Girl is said to have returned to the mountain. Ide speculates that she never actually existed. They all fly home. (All this is going to make an interesting report.)

Overall: An interesting episode that leaves one with questions regarding the nature of what actually happened. No sign of Cap or Fuji this episode. I guess they had the week off.

Woo

[Jeff of Earth-J]

“Featuring Legend Monster Woo”... an Abominable Snow Muppet.

Woo reminds Tracy of Rankin & Bass's "Bumble."

(Our dermatologist's name is Woo.)

They accuse her of being a yuki-onna...

Umibōzu is also mentioned in my translation.

The official tells them that the Snow Girl is a girl whose parents died and who is rejected by the locals.

The sub-titled version says 15 years ago, dubbed 17. When it's mentioned a second time, the subtitles say 17, too.

 We see Snow Girl lying in the snow, with a rabbit alongside her.

The rabbit was seen with Snow Girl in her first scene as well. When I was a kid, I thought the rabbit and Woo were one and the same. That is still my interpretation.

An interesting episode that leaves one with questions regarding the nature of what actually happened.

I maintain that Woo is a shape-changing spirit-animal.

[The Baron]

I maintain that Woo is a shape-changing spirit-animal

Sounds plausible.

[Commander Benson]

Episode 30: “Phantom of the Snow Mountains”

Again, a nice deviation from the usual formula.  The snows made it distinctive.  I go along with Jeff's idea that the rabbit is Woo when the Snow Girl is not being threatened.  But, then, with these kind of plots, almost any interpretation can be valid.

 

"So, Pierre, you and your team are going up on Mount Iida to capture who?"

"Woo."

"Woo who?"

"Oui, we are excited, too."

"Why?"

"Woo!"

"Woo?"

"Oui."