Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate July 21, 1968.
Dan and Anne are enjoying a trip to the beach, their romance nudging forward. Across the waves, they can see Seahorse Ocean Base, which is conducting research to create seafloor farms and cities. A young boy approaches Anne and warns her that the Ultra Guard must stop this interference with the ocean floor, or “something bad will happen.” He dashes off before Anne can find out who he is. Immediately afterward, Seahorse Base explodes and sinks, taking with it Mansanari Nihei’s brief cameo role as a technician.
Blowing up a base or ship — that’s conventional opening business for an Ultraseven episode. Once again, the Ultra Guard will have to defeat an aggressive alien threat against Earth.
What follows, however, is one of the most unconventional episodes not only of Ultraseven, but of the entire Ultra Series. “Ambassador of the Nonmalt” flips the script on the standard “alien invaders” storyline. For the first time in Ultraseven, the Ultra Guard isn’t facing an extraterrestrial menace. The danger comes from a terrestrial civilization: a race of underwater dwellers who claim to be the original inhabitants of Earth. In the eyes of these beings, the Ultra Guard and Terran Defense Force aren’t defenders; they’re attackers, invaders, a potentially genocidal threat.
Anne and Dan investigate the appearance of the mysterious boy, who calls the Ultra Guard to tell them that “The seafloor belongs to the Nonmalt. If humans invade the seafloor, Nonmalt is resolved to fight.” Furuhashi and Soga dismiss this as a child’s prank. Dan, however, recognizes Nonmalt as the name his civilization in Nebula M78 uses for “Earthlings.” Could there be a Nonmalt who isn’t human?
The Ultra Guard engages in battle with the Nonmalt, the undersea beings who continue their attacks and control a vanished British nuclear-powered submarine. Dan and Anne track down the strange boy, Shinichi (Katsunori Machida), who angrily declares that the Nonmalt were driven beneath the sea by humans and have a right to defend themselves from encroachment on the seafloor. Dan and Anne come to believe him: Is the Ultra Guard on the wrong side of this conflict?
Spoiler warning from here on, as the ending of the episode is essential for discussing it.
Ultimately, there is no compromise, no reaching an understanding with the Nonmalt. The Ultra Guard fends off their assaults and destroys their undersea city with a torpedo barrage, possibly wiping out the entire race.
Blowing up alien foes is standard procedure in an Ultraseven episode, and it’s usually meant to be a victory. Here, it’s presented as a tragedy, made even darker because the Ultra Guard (except for Dan and Anne) are oblivious to what they’ve done. They celebrate their destruction of another “alien” race — a race that may be the true indigenous people of the planet.
Writer Tetsuo Kinjo made a gutsy move with his script: he put the heroes in the position of villains. Kinjo tackled the subject of outsiders previously (notably in “Phantom of the Snow Mountains” and “Terror on Route 87,” which also has an enigmatic child messenger later revealed to be dead), but here he makes an entire civilization the outsiders, turning the show’s heroes into annihilationist bullies.
Kinjo’s script doesn’t soften the message: “Humans think they are Earthlings now, but they are actually invaders,” Shinichi shouts at Anne and Dan. When the Ultra Guard destroys the Nonmalt city, Captain Kiriyama shouts, “We are victorious! The seafloor, too, belongs to we humans.” It’s impossible not to hear the history of theft and genocide against indigenous people in these words. They taste especially bitter coming from Kiriyama, usually the wisest figure of the Ultra Guard.
The device that makes the episode work is Shinichi, the enigmatic boy on the beach. He’s not only the “Ambassador” of the Nonmalt — he’s their stand-in. The actual Nonmalt appear only briefly and never speak. Since we hear and see them through Shinichi, the Nonmalt take on the feeling of humans rather than aliens. This also creates a distance that makes it easier for the Ultra Guard to simply wipe out the Nonmalt as faceless monsters. Shinichi, as the representation of the Nonmalt, shows the dehumanization of native peoples while simultaneously humanizing them for viewers.
The final masterstroke that elevates this bold, confrontational story to all-timer status is the revelation in the coda that Shinichi died two years earlier. He was a boy who loved the sea — and his soul returned to speak for the people of the sea. It’s a perfect Twilight Zone twist that deepens the story while leaving an aching mystery at the fade-out: a sorrowful ending to a bitter, angry tale.
The episode’s kaiju, Guyros, is a well-crafted distraction. The story isn’t about Guyros, but the monster serves an important purpose. It misleads the UG into initially thinking that it is the Nonmalt, a problem they can dispense with in a single strike. Standard Ultra Guard work. When the actual Nonmalt begin their attack, the UG is already primed to feel dismissive of them. Guyros also gives Seven a foe to fight during the conclusion. Seven can’t participate in the Ultra Guard’s eventual extermination of the Nonmalt because Dan’s hands must be clean when the episode is over. So Seven beats up this black starfish–octopus combo instead.
Yuriko Hishimi shines as Anne. It’s the best episode for the character, as she serves as the human heart of a story where humans are the villains. Although Dan accompanies her as they try to discover who the Nonmalt are and Shinichi’s connection to them, Anne is the one who takes the lead and interacts most prominently with Shinichi. She’s frequently shot in close-ups to highlight her gentleness, concern, and finally her sadness at the dark conclusion.
Along with what is arguably the best script from Tetsuo Kinjo, this is also the finest episode for Kazuho Mitsuta, one of the great Ultra Series directors. Mitsuta and Kinjo were a superb team who crafted some of the strongest episodes of Ultraman and Ultraseven. “Ambassador of the Nonmalt” stands as their greatest Ultra achievement.
Rating: Classic
Previous: Challenge From Underwater
Next: Nightmare of Planet No. 4
The Ultra Project 