Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Hiroyasu Yamaura and Samaji Nonagase. Story by Shoji Otomo. Airdate May 15, 1966.
Yuriko is on assignment again, investigating an undersea volcanic explosion near the island of Iwame. She tells her boss Seki that she thinks this is a “mediocre” story, which seems ridiculous until you realize the giant monster and alien weirdness Yuri-chan has been dealing with for the past few months. Undersea volcano? Meh.
Jun and Ippei helicopter Yuriko to Iwame-jima to look into the volcanic activity and meet with Professor Ishii (Jiro Iskizaki), a scientist who believes that tectonic movement may soon submerge the Japanese archipelago. Ishii predicts Iwame-jima is on the verge of sinking, but the locals don’t believe him and would rather he stop being such a killjoy.
This sounds like the lead-in to a story about the giant monster responsible for the quakes. It’s not. Where it’s actually going is Eiji Tsubarya’s homage to The Creature From the Black Lagoon. One of the local fishermen finds an egg-like object in the water — and the owner, a member of an amphibious reptilian race that Prof. Ishii theorizes was dominant on the planet 200 million years ago, comes ashore to terrorize the populace in search of the egg.
The core of “The Primordial Amphibian Ragon” is an ol’ fashioned monster-on-loose tale, pulled straight from the playbook of B-science-fiction films. These parts of the episode work as horror. The titular Ragon is another delightful Tsuburaya Pro creation that takes the basic look of the Gill Man from The Creature From the Black Lagoon but adds that special Tsuburaya touch of the otherworldly. Some of the daytime shots of Ragon wandering around look a bit awkward because the large head doesn’t quite work with the rest of the body. But the nighttime attack on the village is one of the eeriest scenes in Ultra Q. We even get the classic B-movie figure of the wandering village drunk during these scenes.
Ragon’s fin-covered body, long claws, giant mouth, and especially those freaky glowing eyes are all top-notch for a horror story. Inside the costume is Bin Furuya, who would soon suit up to play Ultraman. It’s easy to understand why Furuya got such a top flight gig on the next show considering his performance here. He gives Ragon immense personality and eventually recognizable humanity, such as the way he reacts to hearing music and how he performs the touching final encounter with Prof. Ishii’s daughter, Yumiko (Megumi Tama).
What does Ragon and its quest for its egg have to do with the looming volcanic threat to Iwame-jima? Nothing, basically, which is where an otherwise fun horror episode wanders off the trail. The closing narration seems to indicate that the purpose of the episode was to warn that Japan may one day face the fate of water submergence, but sorry, I was paying too much attention to the rampaging fish monster.
It’s a strange narrative split, and this again makes me wonder about script development background. Was Shoji Otomo’s original story all about Ragon, and the rewrites from Hiroyasu Yamaura and director Nonagase added in the volcano? Or was it the other way around? Or something else entirely? I’ve come across this bifurcated narrative in several Ultra shows, and it sometimes works. It doesn’t here, but at least Ragon is great.
The fear of the Japanese islands sinking was bouncing around in pop culture during the 1960s and ‘70s, so it’s not a surprise to see it crop up here. The biggest Japanese science-fiction hit of the 1970s was Submersion of Japan, a 1973 epic disaster film based on a popular novel from the same year, Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu. Earthquakes are a huge part of life in Japan and they affect politics (just look at the tragedy of “3/11,” a main inspiration for Shin Godzilla), so perhaps there’s a cultural resonance in this episode that doesn’t strike me as much. On the other hand, I have lived most of my life in Southern California, so I’ve got some experience with earthquake culture…
Ragon made an unusual return in Ultraman in “Five Seconds Before the Explosion.” Even though Ultraman was originally meant to be a standalone show from Ultra Q, the characters in Ultraman immediately recognize Ragon’s species and recall its history. They even know to attempt to lure it using music, which Jun uses successfully here. This is the only overt link between the two shows before the series started getting retconned into a single timeline.
Jun and Yuriko try to ditch Ippei again, but Ippei gets to have the big hero moment at the end. Good for you, Ippei-kun! I’m still wondering if Jun’s is trying to pull this trick because he’s hoping the “sorta-kinda-but-not-really” romance with Yuriko will finally kick in. Spoilers, Jun-san: it won’t.
Rating: Average
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