Tag: Showa

Ultraman Ep. 31: Who Goes There?

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Yuzo Higuchi. Written by Taro Kaido. Airdate Feb. 12, 1967.

Ultraman’s fighting style evolved over the show’s run. Starting with a close-contact, grounded style, Ultraman became more agile and flexible as Bin Furuya, the actor inside the suit, got more accustomed to the costume. The fight choreography changed to match. Furuya picked “Who Goes There?” as a peak of this fighting evolution. He’s right: the battle between Ultraman and the giant Vampire Plant Keronia is among the most athletic and dynamic in the show. Furuya as Ultraman executes impressive full-body flips and flying double-leg kicks that must have required intense training and practice. Furuya was right to feel proud — all of it looks fantastic. 

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Ultraseven Ep. 27: Operation Cyborg

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Keisuke Fujikawa. Airdate April 7, 1968.

While doing this website, I’ve discovered that writing about the best Ultra episodes is more difficult than writing about good or mediocre episodes. With a classic episode, there’s more to consider and explore and numerous ways to approach the writing. Discovering the ideal way to concisely discuss a complex, multilayered episode in an entertaining and clear way can be rough. It’s rewarding to get to that final version, but it takes serious effort. 

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Toku Theater: Gamera vs. Jiger (1970)

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Noriaki Yuasa. Written by Niisan Takahashi.

The progression of the classic Gamera series doesn’t follow conventional movie franchise logic. This logic says that once a series completes the transformation into children’s entertainment, it will enter a period of steady decline — if it hasn’t already. Although Gamera vs. Guiron was psychedelic fun with little in the way of story to interfere with kids’ enjoyment, it should have signaled an irreversible trend toward lower budgets and sillier, simpler plots.

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Ultraman Ep. 30: Phantom of the Snow Mountains

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Yuzo Higuchi. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Feb. 5, 1967.

Tetsuo Kinjo contributed numerous excellent scripts to the first three Ultra shows. “Garmon Strikes Back,” “The Blue Stone of Baradhi,” and “The Ultra Guard Goes West” are some of his best straightforward action episodes. But Kinjo is best known for stories drawn from his childhood experience seeing the Japanese Empire’s oppression of the native Okinawans. In these scripts, Kinjo explored outsiders facing prejudice, sprinkling in elements of tragedy and the supernatural. “Phantom of the Snow Mountains” isn’t Kinjo’s finest script (I’d argue that’s Ultraseven’s “Ambassador of the Nonmalt”), but it may be his most representative: a sad, fable-like tale of a shunned girl and her connection to a possibly supernatural snowbeast. 

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Ultraseven Ep. 26: Super Weapon R1

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Bunzo Wakatsuki. Airdate March 31, 1968.

The Cold War and fears of nuclear war lurk behind much of tokusatsu, especially in the Showa era. The movie that ignited the tokusatsu genre, Godzilla, is the quintessential cinematic nuclear metaphor, and Japan is the nation most acutely aware of the horrors of nuclear weapons as “deterrents.” The specter of the Cold War haunts many of Ultraseven’s tales of alien invaders. In “Super Weapon R1,” the subtext of the madness of the arms race becomes the text, the explicitly stated theme. This could’ve turned out heavy-handed. Here, it all works, resulting in one of the great and enduring Ultra episodes.

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Ultraman Ep. 29: Challenge to the Underground

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Ryu Minamikawa. Airdate Jan. 29, 1967.

After a string of great episodes, Ultraman was due for something on the routine side. When Goldon, a gold-consuming monster, bursts from the side of Mt. Otayama only seconds into the episode, it signals that “Challenge to the Underground” is going to be fairly standard monster-centric material. Which it is, but the average Ultraman episode is still a decent time.

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Ultraseven Ep. 25: Showdown at 140 Degrees Below Zero

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate March 24, 1968.

An intense cold snap and snow storm descend on the HQ of the Terran Defense Force. Temperatures plunge below –100°F and keep dropping. Ultra Guard member Soga isn’t concerned at first, talking dismissively as he pours a cup of coffee: “A cold wave zone 114 degrees below zero is nothing to get nervous about. The atomic reactor in the power house 18 floors under is burning red. Praise human technology.” 

The moment Soga says this, viewers know everything is about to go wrong in the worst way. The episode does not disappoint. 

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Ultraman Ep. 28: Human Specimens 5 & 6

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Masahiro Yamada. Airdate Jan. 22, 1967.

Samaji Nonagase was one of the more prolific early Ultra directors. While he doesn’t receive as much attention as fan-favorite directors Akio Jissoji and Kazuho Mitsuta, he helmed several classic episodes: “Kanegon’s Cocoon” (Ultra Q), “The Monster Anarchy Zone” (Ultraman), and “The Secret of the Lake” (Ultraseven). He also wrote scripts under the pen name Ryu Minamikawa. He was fascinated by Alfred Hitchcock and liked to add gradually building tension to some of his episodes, such as the home-invasion story of “Project Blue.” “Human Specimen 5 & 6” is Nonagase’s best exploration of the suspense-centered story, and it helped to establish the future tone of Ultraseven and its parade of weird, crafty alien invaders.

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Ultraseven Ep. 24: Return to the North!

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Shinichi Ichikawa. Airdate March 17, 1968.

It’s rare to have an Ultraseven episode focused on a drama about an individual Ultra Guard member. There are occasional shows that let a particular character take the spotlight, such as “Search for Tomorrow,” which put Captain Kiriyama in conflict with his own team. But “Return to the North!” goes further: it examines the personal life of a member outside of the Ultra Guard. Surprisingly, the UG member picked for the starring role is Shigeru Furuhashi, the team’s “shoot first” action guy. 

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Ultraman Ep. 26 & 27: The Monster Highness

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Hajime Tsuburaya. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Bunzo Wakatsuki. Airdate Jan. 8 & 15, 1967.

The unofficial promise Ultraman makes to viewers is that it will deliver the thrills of giant monster movies in a TV-sized package. No episodes achieve this better than the first two-parter* in Ultra Series history. “The Monster Highness” is a VFX extravaganza that introduces the most famous kaiju in the franchise and smashes the thrill button as hard as it can with kinetic fights, heavy military action, and mass-scale urban destruction. Children all over Japan were on edge after the cliffhanger of Part 1 where Ultraman suffered a true defeat, ensuring that Part 2 would become one of the most viewed episodes of any Ultra show. 

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