Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Does anyone know what made Tsubuyara (sp?) go with the "monster of the week" format for Ultraman? I'm assuming that these days it's for tradition (and because the audience expects new,cool monsters each time),but why did they originally decide on that format? Was it just because they were following precident set by Ultra Q? I ask because a show where Ultraman fights a stable of,say,six recurring kaiju sounds way more feasible. I know a lot of the ultra kaiju costumes are less detailed than the Toho kaiju,but still it must have taken a ton of time and money to keep coming up with new ones. Remember,even if some of them seem cheesy to us now,at the time there weren't really any weekly shows doing anything better than that level FX-wise. Not to mention a fair amount of the kaiju were really inspired,and still have fans today. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Space Giants (Magma Taishi) used a monster or two every four weeks. Ultraman had a much higher budget (and was the bigger success) and could make a monster suit or two or even three a week. of course, they did use the same suits over, or revamp them again.

i think they chose the monster a week in part because of Ultra Q, it was also exciting to see a different critter every week.

August and John will have more detailed answers.

David

OK, I have a question. I have a DVD titled "Ultimate Battles of Ultraman" which is supposed to contain all the fights from all the episodes. Well, during the credits they show the silhouette of that (sorry I don't know his name) monster whose head resembles a giant mushroom with snail like eyes and a really big toothy mouth, and I think he's a bipedal monster of some sort, too. Anyway, I think the kaiju's a really cool looking one but a fight between him and Ultraman appears nowhere on the disc. Was one of the fights apparently accidentally overlooked when the collection was compiled, was the monster actually form Ultra Q or some other series and they simply just used his silhouette for the Ultraman credits or what? :dunno:

This monster appears in Ultraman Zearth 2(1997) but I cannot remember his name. A similar(but not the same) monster appeared in the first episode of Ultra Q.

that's Kanegon, the money eating monster.

David

David is correctamundo. Kanegon (Kane=money = gon from Dragon) was a creature who originally appeared in the whimiscal segment of ULTRA Q, entitled "Kanegon's Coccoon" (Kanegon-no Mayu). This was Episode 15. An especially greedy boy named Kaneo, trades for a funny coccoon which sounds like it contains coins. Obessed with money and incredibly stingy, overnight Kaneo's coccoon swells to fill the boy's room. The next morning, Kaneo rejoices at the wealth that must be contained inside, but instead is sucked into the coccoon and transforms into Kanegon -- a creature that must ingest money or die. I would go on, but I don't want to spoil it anymore than that.

In the original ULTRAMAN series, they showed many of the past Ultra Monsters in the opening credits as stylized silhouettes. Kanegon did not appear in ULTRAMAN. The Kanegon that appeared in the movie ULTRAMAN ZEARTH 2 was a robot version of Kanegon. The money-muching monster has also appeared in several other series and specials.