Tag: Ultraman

Ultraman Ep. 13: Oil S.O.S.

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Hajime Tsuburaya. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Oct. 9, 1966.

Mitsuhiro Ide, the Science Patrol’s resident inventor, was intended as Ultraman’s comic character. Maybe in the beginning of the program’s development, the creators saw Ide as purely a comedy foil to add wacky zip to a monster show. However, something changed early on. My suspicion is that actor Masanari Nihei was responsible for Ide evolving into more than just comic relief. Ide never lost his humor, but he emerged as the show’s most complex character. 

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Ultraman Ep. 12: Cry of the Mummy

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Hajime Tsuburaya. Written by Keisuke Fujikawa. Airdate Oct. 2, 1966.

Another winner of an episode, the third in a row. We have a new story archetype to explore: the archeological adventure. The mummy of the title isn’t a traditional Egyptian mummy, although it has tomb wrappings, but a mysterious, possibly supernatural creature from prehistoric Japan. As a nice surprise, the Mummy Man doesn’t end up enlarging into the episode’s giant monster. No, there’s a much more impressive kaiju waiting in the wings to fill that role.

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Ultraman Ep. 11: The Rascal From Outer Space

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tatsuo Miyata. Airdate Sep. 25, 1966.

The first time I watched Ultraman all the way through, “The Rascal From Outer Space” rewired my brain. The episode was so bonkers, so bizarre, so absurdly comic, I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Since I hadn’t seen any other Ultra shows — they were unavailable in North America at the time — I didn’t know this comic nuttiness was a series tradition. I hadn’t yet watched Ultra Q episodes like “Grow Up! Little Turtle” and “Kanegon’s Cocoon,” nor was I aware of the lunatic world of Ultraman Taro. Still, I was certain I was discovering a key part of the franchise, something essential about it, with “The Rascal From Outer Space.”

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Ultraman Ep. 10: The Mysterious Dinosaur Base

~ Ryan Harvey
Godzilla vs. Ultraman in The Mysterious Dinosaur Base

Directed by Kazuho Mitsuta. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Sep. 18, 1966.

Ultraman vs. Godzilla! That’s it, that’s the review. Or as much a review as most people will need. 

Technically, Ultraman’s kaiju foe isn’t Godzilla. It’s a new monster named Jirahs (sometimes spelled Jirass). But … come on, it’s just a Toho Godzilla costume with a smattering of green paint and a neck frill. The frill eventually gets ripped off, making it even clearer you’re watching Ultraman vs. Godzilla. Using the Godzilla costume was a cost-saving maneuver, but nobody is going to complain about watching these titans of tokusatsu cross IP boundaries for a deathmatch.

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Ultraman Ep. 8: The Monster Anarchy Zone

~ Ryan Harvey
Red King from Ultraman episode The Monster Anarchy Zone

Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Shozo Uehara. Airdate Sep. 4, 1966.

In the previous episode, the Science Patrol flew off for a fantasy adventure in the Middle East. This week, they’re taking the Jet VTOL to a volcanic jungle island stacked with monsters. It’s classic Lost World and Skull Island stuff, and I’m surprised Eiji Tsuburaya didn’t find a way to cram in a giant gorilla among all the other kaiju. The King Kong influence is all over this half-hour.

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Ultraman Ep. 7: The Blue Stone of Baradhi

~ Ryan Harvey

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.

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Ultraman Ep. 6: The Coast Guard Command

~ Ryan Harvey

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 join the SSSP one day. 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 who comes up onto the wharf to throw everything into chaos. A monster who loves chocolate.

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Ultraman Ep. 5: The Secret of the Miroganda

~ Ryan Harvey

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. 

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Ultraman Ep. 3: Science Patrol, Move Out

~ Ryan Harvey

Directed by Toshihiro Iijima. Written by Masahiro Yamada. Airdate July 31, 1966.

We now enter one of the less interesting stretches of Ultraman, an early slowdown that’s likely due to the rush to finish episodes and the stinginess of TBS and their sponsor partner when it came to budgets. I didn’t notice this quality lapse when I first watched the series; I was having too much fun with the basic monster formula. It wasn’t until the show started to really blast off that I looked back and thought, “Yeah, they had a bumpy patch after takeoff.” 

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