Ultraseven Ep. 42: Ambassador of the Nonmalt

May 6, 2026May 27, 2026 ~ Ryan Harvey

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.

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Ultraseven Ep. 34: The Vanishing City

February 11, 2026May 27, 2026 ~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Hajime Tsuburaya. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate May 26, 1968.

Several Ultraseven episodes have a tricky time balancing the mysterious science-fiction stories of its original premise with the spectacle of kaiju fights and space duels that viewers expect from something titled “Ultra.” Some episodes split the difference and go for mood in the first half, big action in the second. “The Vanishing City” executes one of the better mergers of Ultra Q eerie SF mystery and Ultraman supersized action. The tone of weirdness is consistent, even when the climax is Seven pursuing a roly-poly hedgehog monster through the labyrinthine streets of an empty city stolen by aliens who need real estate.

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Ultraman Ep. 39: Farewell, Ultraman

January 28, 2026January 31, 2026 ~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Hajime Tsuburaya. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate April 9, 1967.

Ultra Q didn’t have a conclusion and wasn’t built to have one. Ultraman, however, was designed from the start to reach a finale. It’s since become a tradition for Ultra shows to have a big close-out episode that ends the saga of the current Ultra warrior’s sojourn on Earth. “Farewell, Ultraman” is not the greatest of these finales, but the creative team gets plenty right with an epic story that gives Ultraman and the Science Special Search Party fitting conclusions. The episode also introduces one of the most spectacular continuing adversaries of the franchise, Space Dinosaur Zetton, which in no way resembles a dinosaur.

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Ultraman Ep. 37: A Little Hero

January 7, 2026January 17, 2026 ~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate March 26, 1967.

Friendly monster Pigmon debuted in “The Monster Anarchy Zone,” Ultraman’s first classic episode. The kids who watched the show loved the little creature. It was natural for Pigmon to return, even though the monster died sacrificing itself in its first appearance. With the series’ best writing-directing team at the helm — Tetsuo Kinjo and Kazuho Mitsuta — Pigmon’s return engagement is one of the most emotionally charged episodes. It also sets up the show’s upcoming conclusion, which raises heavy questions about the whole premise of Ultraman.

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Ultraman Ep. 33: The Forbidden Words

November 12, 2025November 22, 2025 ~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Tesuo Kinjo. Airdate Feb. 26, 1967.

Meet the third of the great trio of Ultraman alien villains: Alien Mefilas. Not as famous as Alien Baltan. Not as tricky as Alien Zarab. But he’s the top of the heap: a baddie who’s the Ultra Universe’s hybrid of Mister Mxyzptlk and Galactus. He’s here to play word games, tempt humans with power, and crush the spirit of an entire planet — and brute force may not be enough to stop him.

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Ultraman Ep. 30: Phantom of the Snow Mountains

September 20, 2025May 6, 2026 ~ 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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Ultraman Ep. 29: Challenge to the Underground

September 10, 2025November 30, 2025 ~ 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

September 6, 2025May 27, 2026 ~ 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. 26 & 27: The Monster Highness

August 20, 2025March 9, 2026 ~ 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-parter¹ 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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Ultra Q Ep. 27: The Disappearance of Flight 206

July 9, 2025July 23, 2025 ~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Koji Kajita. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Hiroyasu Yamaura. Airdate July 3, 1966.

Jun and Ippei are returning from pilot training in Hong Kong aboard the maiden flight of a supersonic jet. The last time Ultra Q took a ride on the inaugural run of a super-speed vehicle, it was in “The Underground Super Express Goes West.” It was not a smooth trip. This second trip on emerging high-speed technology also goes wrong fast. Flight 206 gets dragged into a mysterious whirlpool in the sky and vanishes, leaving poor Yuriko and Professor Ichinotani at the airport baffled by yet another uncanny occurrence in the Unbalanced Zone.

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