Directed by Koji Kajita. Written by Kyoko Kitazawa. Story by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate May 29, 1966.
As we enter the last quarter mile of Ultra Q‘s run, we stumble across one of the first produced episodes. “Metamorphosis” was only the second episode shot, following “Mammoth Flower.” Even though it features a giant monster, a sure-thing for ratings, TBS decided to wait this late into the show’s run to put it on the air.
The reason for this delay is likely because the monster of the episode isn’t a traditional suitmation creature, but a giant human played by an actor wearing moderate makeup. I can understand younger viewers finding this a less-engaging type of kaiju: ten-year-olds yelling at the screen, “That’s not a monster, that’s just some guy!” But TBS should’ve aired this one earlier, before Ultra Q established its bizarre groove, because “Metamorphosis” is fairly standard monster-fare imitating several 1950s Hollywood flicks like The Amazing Colossal Man. It’s a familiar song: a scientist gets mutated into a mindless giant, and his fiancée wants to find and rescue him before the military kills him. You can write all the notes yourself beforehand and get most of them right, especially the ending.
The scientist is Koji (Kozo Nomura), an entomologist who went specimen collecting in the Tateshina Highlands with his fiancée, Ayako (Machiko Naka). An encounter with the pollen of the large Morpho butterflies, formerly only known in the Amazon, seemed to transform Koji into a brutish giant. This is all told as a flashback, and it’s the standout section of the episode. The large Morpho butterflies are genuinely creepy, and the first time that Ayako sees the giant form of Koji through the trees is a spectacular visual done with compositing that sells Koji’s size and loss of humanity.
It isn’t until hikers discover large footprints in the mountains and the press starts to investigate a possible “yeti” that Ayako opens up to her friend Yuriko about what happened to her fiancé. The trio plus Professor Ichinotani head to the mountains with Ayako to see if they can find Koji and restore his humanity before the military takes the extreme solution.
What’s most interesting about this otherwise by-the-book episode is its human monster and the visual effects that create it. Using an actor rather than a performer disguised under a full-body suit for a giant monster is risky, since it can make the clash in scale appear more obvious and the models look more artificial. “The ⅛ Project” did this effectively to enhance the artificiality. “Metamorphosis” is aiming for realism, and it mostly dodges the problems inherent with a humanoid giant by keeping Koji within a naturalistic setting of trees and merging him into live-action footage through optical printing. The episode contains some of the show’s most impressive matte shots. Koji’s rampage through a small village has Tsuburaya Pro pulling out all its best tricks.
For viewers watching Ultra Q in broadcast order, it’s easy to peg “Metamorphosis” as an episode shot early in production. The narrator has a longer opening, and in the closing he tries to hook viewers to tune in next week. We spend more time with the trio of leads to establish their relationships and jobs. This is probably the most we see of Yuriko in the offices of the Daily News, where she has to fight with her boss, Seki, to let her go on assignments. Yuriko brings up Jun’s ambitions to be a science-fiction author, which was probably meant to feature more prominently throughout the show as a part of his character; it would help motivate him and allow him to be a source of exposition along with Professor Ichinotani. This dropped out of the later episodes — as did Professor Ichiotani. Perhaps the creative team decided they didn’t need dedicated exposition devices. I don’t mind the loss of Professor Ichinotani, who tended too much toward the generic “wise old scientist” who always has the science solution to the problem of the week. But I wish Jun as a science-fiction writer had remained, since he doesn’t have much else to define him.
Seen in the larger context of what Ultra Q would become, this episode probably should’ve been about the giant butterflies. However, Mothra had already definitively claimed the “giant colorful winged insect” slot.
Rating: Average
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