Category: Ultraseven

Ultraseven Ep. 16: The Eye That Shines in the Darkness

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Keisuke Fujikawa. Airdate Jan. 21, 1968.

  • An alien race mistakenly interprets an exploratory probe from Earth as a hostile attack and plans to launch a counterstrike.
  • A lost space vessel returns to Earth with a mysterious surprise aboard. 

We’ve seen these story concepts in the Ultra shows before — several times — but “The Eye That Shines in the Darkness” not only uses both, it adds something new to the mix. Not new for the broader franchise, but for Ultraseven specifically: a child character as the lead. 

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Ultraseven Ep. 14 & 15: The Ultra Guard Goes West

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Jan. 7 & 14, 1968.

When I looked at “Space Prisoner 303,” I speculated that it was the point where younger viewers started to lose interest in Ultraseven during its initial run. It seems there’s truth to this, as that episode had a 30% drop in viewership. It’s not a good episode, so the decline makes some sense; but the next episode, “The Marked Town,” had the same audience attrition, and that’s one of the greatest episodes in the history of the franchise! Still, it was different and strange, and kids probably weren’t getting the fun they anticipated after watching Ultraman’s weekly monster smackdowns.

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Ultraseven Ep. 13: The Man Who Came From V3

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Shinichi Ichikawa. Airdate Dec. 24, 1967.

“The Man Who Came From V3” feels like Tsuburaya Productions attempting an even split between a character-driven drama about Cap. Kiriyama facing an ethical dilemma and a huge science-fiction blow-out that crams in the maximum amount of dueling ships and giant monster action that a half-hour of TV can hold. But somewhere in the process of writing and shooting the episode, the character half gave up and let the VFX half spin donuts all over everything.

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Ultraseven Ep. 12: From Another Planet With Love

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Akio Jissoji. Written by Mamoru Sasaki. Airdate Dec. 17, 1967.

This is the famous withdrawn Ultraseven episode. You won’t find it on any of the video releases, nor will you see it on the airwaves. It’s sometimes called the “banned” or “censored” episode, but that implies an external agency has kept it from being seen. Tsuburaya Productions itself removed the episode from public availability in the 1970s, and it seems unlikely the situation will change in the near future.

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Ultraseven Ep. 11: Fly to Devil Mountain

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Dec. 10, 1967.

Captain Kiriyama sends the Ultra Guard to investigate a series of unexplained deaths, mostly of young vacationers, around Mount Iwami. While Dan and Soga are scouting the area, the alien raygun used on the victims zaps Dan, apparently killing him. We know Dan isn’t really dead — he’s the lead of the show, after all — but this opening immediately moves the episode into new territory. The series protagonist is out of the action, and the Ultra Guard has to figure out what happened without him until the finale, when we know that Dan turns into Ultraseven and squares off against the alien menace.

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Ultraseven Ep. 9: Operation Android Zero

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Shozo Uehara. Airdate Nov. 36, 1967.

A small-scale episode, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting. The devious alien of the week may not have a plan that will conquer the world — although he believes it will — but it’s a vile plan with disturbing relevance to the current day. All the action remains at human size with no giant monsters and no super-sized Ultraseven, but it’s superbly staged, paced, and shot. At times, it feels like a live-action version of a Batman: The Animated Series episode where Batman has to take down a villain who builds children’s toys that are actually lethal devices. 

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Ultraseven Ep. 8: The Marked Town

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Akio Jissoji. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Nov. 19, 1967.

After seven episodes of sporadic success sifting through the basics, Ultraseven at last comes together in one of the most memorable and imitated half hours in all of tokusatsu. There are episodes ahead I like more, but “The Marked Town” is a landmark and arguably the show’s essential episode. A simple case of “If you see only one Ultraseven episode, make it this one.”

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Ultraseven Ep. 7: Space Prisoner 303

~ Ryan Harvey
Alien Quraso about to kill a gas station attendant in Ultraseven episode "Space Prisoner 303.)

Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Nov. 12, 1967.

Another hostile alien has come to Earth. Not to conquer, just to kill. An alien murderer from an otherwise peaceful race has escaped from a prison on its homeworld. Now it’s landed on Earth to guzzle gasoline, strangle a few innocent people, and find another escape route before it’s caught.

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Ultraseven Ep. 6: Dark Zone

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Bunzo Wakatsuki. Airdate Nov. 5, 1967.

For the first time, and certainly not the last, an episode of Ultraseven scrutinizes the ethics of the operations of the Terran Defense Force and the Ultra Guard. The featured alien race, Alien Pegassa, doesn’t want to conquer Earth. They only want survival, but that may require taking drastic steps against Earth. Earth faces a similar choice with Pegassa, creating an unwinnable situation for both sides that has echoes of the Cold War without making explicit reference to it. Neither the Earthings nor Alien Pegassa ultimately show their best sides in this showdown.

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