Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Masahiro Yamada. Airdate Oct. 22, 1967.
For the second episode in a row, Dan loses the Ultra Eye he needs to transform into Ultraseven. To lose one Ultra Eye may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness. And it’s going to happen a few more times.
Continue reading “Ultraseven Ep. 4: Max, Respond!”
Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Samaji Nonagase. Airdate August 28, 1966.
We pop out of the slump of middling episodes with a mini-epic that sends the Science Patrol to a lost city in the Middle East and expands upon the mythos of the Ultras. The mixture of 1930s pulp adventure and giant monster movie makes for a stand-out half hour. I also just enjoy it when an Ultra show sends its defense team outside of Japan to soak up some different backdrops.
Continue reading “Ultraman Ep. 7: The Blue Stone of Baradhi”
Directed by Toshihiro Iijima. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Toshihiro Iijima. Airdate Feb. 13, 1966.
Mount Fuji has not erupted in over 250 years … and that can only mean another major eruption is imminent. But since this is the world of Ultra Q, we won’t witness any normal eruption. Instead, we’re going to see a monster formed from a conglomeration of igneous rocks battle a “Japanese Tarzan.” Why do anything normal when you can make good TV instead?
Continue reading “Ultra Q Ep. 7: S.O.S. Mount Fuji”
Directed by Noriaki Yuasa. Written by Niisan Takahashi.
Now for another movie break, this time for a “classic” of Japanese kaiju cinema. It’s a short hop from Ultra Q’s “Grow Up! Little Turtle,” a tale about a boy and his affection for a giant turtle who takes him to see a princess underwater, to Gamera the Giant Monster, a tale about a boy and his affection for a giant turtle who is causing mass destruction and death.
Continue reading “Toku Theater: Gamera the Giant Monster (1965)”
Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Oct. 15, 1967.
This was the first Ultraseven episode produced, and it’s fascinating to see how much the crew already had a feel for the show’s possibilities and what made it different from Ultraman. It’s a better start than the first two episodes aired: “The Invisible Challenger” put the pieces in place, “The Green Terror” emphasized the serious mood, but “Secret of the Lake” demonstrates what Ultraseven can do when it swings into action with full confidence in its premise.
Continue reading “Ultraseven Ep. 3: Secret of the Lake”
Directed by Harunosuke Nakagawa. Written by Masahiro Yamada. Airdate Feb. 6, 1966.
The Ultra series frequently mines fairy tales for story material. Eiji Tsuburaya loved the idea of entertaining children, so it makes sense that his work would go in this direction.
Continue reading “Ultra Q Ep. 6: Grow Up! Little Turtle”
Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Masahiro Yamada. Airdate August 21, 1966.
The first episode to focus on young Hoshino, the boy who wants to one day join the Science Special Search Party. Hoshino and his friends Chiro and Nobuku get swept up in a Hardy Boys-style story investigating smugglers along the wharf. Notorious smuggler “Diamond-Kick” (great name) has hidden his newest diamond shipment among bags of cacao beans, and the young detectives end up kidnapped when they start poking around the warehouses. It sounds like the kind of adventure tale a child might come up with. A child might also add a giant monster that comes up onto the wharf to throw everything into chaos. A monster who loves chocolate.
Continue reading “Ultraman Ep. 6: The Coast Guard Command”
Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Oct. 8, 1967.
Eiji Tsuburaya must have had a dictum about his shows: within the first batch of episodes, there must be a plant monster. Ultra Q has the giant flower Juran, Ultraman has a green lettuce sack called Greenmons, and now Ultraseven’s second episode brings us Alien Waiell, a walking stack of spiky mixed greens. It doesn’t look great, but it’s better than Greenmons. I’ll say it again: I don’t have much interest in vegetation monsters.
Continue reading “Ultraseven Ep. 2: The Green Terror”
Directed by Toshihiro Iijima. Written by Keisuke Fujikawa. Airdate August 14, 1966.
Rewatching “The Secret of the Miroganda” made me acutely aware of the budget fight Tsuburaya Productions was locked into during the early production of Ultraman. TBS may have given an enthusiastic greenlight to the show, but they were hesitant about the hefty price tag per episode, which was often more than double the cost of an episode of Ultra Q. The network forced the creative team at Tsuburaya Pro to cut costs at every opportunity. The situation improved once episodes started to air and the show became a popular sensation, but the early sacrifices the creative team had to make often poke through. “Miroganda,” only the second episode shot, has some of the most obvious.
Continue reading “Ultraman Ep. 5: The Secret of the Miroganda”
Directed by Val Guest. Written by Nigel Neale. Starring Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker.
I’m inaugurating an occasional feature of reviews of monster movies outside the world of Japanese tokusatsu. Monsters are glorious, they live in cinemas all over the world, and I’ll take any excuse to talk about them. And my love for Hammer Films is as strong as my love for tokusatsu. In a different mood, I might have created a whole blog just about Hammer movies.
Continue reading “Monster Theater: The Abominable Snowman (1957)”
The Ultra Project 