Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Keisuke Fujikawa. Airdate April 28, 1968.
In another departure from the science-fiction themes of Ultraseven, “Glory for Whom?” is a character drama centered on its guest star. TDF member Aoki is one of the most unusual characters to drop in for a single episode.
What’s unique about Aoki is that he’s startlingly normal. He isn’t an alien in disguise, or allied to or controlled by aliens, or a robot. His conflict is a straightforward human one: he’s a glory-hound who wants to show his superiority over his teammates, particularly Dan. His competitiveness gets him, the Ultra Guard, and the entire TDF into major trouble when the next extraterrestrial scheme strikes.
The TDF is in the middle of preparations for a field exercise where the Magma Riser will remotely control several tanks. Staff Officer Manabe introduces Aoki (played by future Kamen Rider V3 star Takehisa Yamaguchi) to the Ultra Guard after the hot-headed young man shows off his sharpshooting skills to Amagi and Furuhashi. Manabe hopes Aoki will join the UG, and he instructs the members to oversee his training.
Aoki quickly shows that he has no interest in teamwork. He only wants to cover himself with whatever glory is lying around or that he can manufacture. During an exercise with TDF jets, he risks blowing up Dan and Captain Kiriyama just to show off his skills. Kiriyama is oddly tolerant of this daredevil activity and Aoki’s blatant arrogance. (Aoki icily says that if he’d shot down Dan and Kiriyama’s plane, that would mean opening up two more slots in UG’s roster.) Dan is less happy about Aoki, and Aoki decides it’s his goal to best Dan in whatever way he can.
Manabe cheerfully calls Aoki “overenthusiastic,” but it’s clear to Dan and the audience what kind of person the new recruit really is. Aoki isn’t just a show-off with rotten team skills. He actively and knowingly risks others’ lives for his own glorification — and yes, people will end up dead because of him.
Looking to grab personal glory and defeat Dan, Aoki chooses not to report in full when he observes a mysterious vehicle maneuvering just under the surface of the area where the training exercise will soon occur. When the invaders of the week, Alien Platic, seize control of the Magma Riser and the tanks, turning the training exercise into deadly combat, the blame for the TDF casualties falls squarely on Aoki’s selfishness.
Although Aoki is a great, challenging character, the episode makes several missteps presenting him. We never see the fatal consequences of his actions onscreen, only a secondhand report: Anne mentions several casualties when the training exercise turns into an all-out attack from the alien-controlled tanks. This weakens the gravity of Aoki’s lust for glory as well as Dan’s rage against him during an otherwise fantastic finale. The episode skims over Aoki’s initial decision not to report on the underground alien vehicle. It’s possible to miss this moment, so viewers may not fully understand Dan’s later accusations against Aoki. There’s a scene where Aoki plants a transmitter inside the Magma Riser that seems like setup for a key moment in the climax, but it never comes back.
Alien Platic is one of the least memorable seijin in Ultraseven. Nothing about it is intimidating: it looks like it’s made of loofahs. This was the final alien design Tohl Narita did for Ultraseven before leaving Tsuburaya Productions, and it’s not among his most stellar achievements. Narita was so irritated at the time that maybe he didn’t give Alien Platic his full effort. Writer Fujikawa is the one who came up with the idea for a “plastic” alien (which is where their name comes from), and it doesn’t work. Alien Platic should’ve remained offscreen, manipulating the Magma Riser and sending the ground assault against the Ultra Guard.
The Seven vs. giant Alien Platic fight contains creative staging elements, like an injured Seven and Platic crawling toward each other across a dirt field, and there’s a fun surprise with Alien Platic right at the end. However, the episode could’ve skipped the giant monster entirely and instead pitted Seven against the vehicles under Platic’s command.
The best visual effects are in the training scene where Aoki pulls dangerous maneuvers in a jet to show off his skills. Interestingly, these jets aren’t the futuristic Ultra Hawks but more conventional military fighter planes; this adds an edge of realism to the action. The later scenes with the Magma Riser leading a charge of remote-controlled tanks are also thrilling, showing how well Tsuburaya Pro could create vehicle battle action when there’s no giant monster sight.
Despite some of the episode’s faults, it remains a strong character piece. Aoki is a daring character type for the show: an unusual antagonist who tests the Ultra Guard as a unit without needing to involve aliens in his backstory. Best of all, “Glory for Whom?” lets Aoki’s actions play out to fatal conclusions that avoid the cheerier resolution of a more child-friendly show. For that alone, it’s a worthwhile installment in the chronicles of Ultraseven.
Rating: Good
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