ULTRASEVEN (1967-1968): THE TALKBACK

[lhb412]

One of the things that kinda flummoxed me when I first saw Ultraseven 10+ years ago was going from the extended monster wrestling matches of Ultraman to the briefer bouts of Ultraseven. I realize now that they're indicative of the more mature aesthetic they were going for: in a Japanese panese samurai film for adults the fights are often silent moments of tension and anticipation before the fighters make their moves, clang, one person falls and one walks away. Ultraseven fights tend more toward that, and he even has a blade!

[Kailem]

Oh yeah, I freaking love the Eye Slugger! One of the great things about Ultraman and Ultraseven is just seeing all these crazy random powers they utilise in their fights and action scenes, and though the Spacium Beam is obviously a classic, I'm finding the Eye Slugger to be just as much fun whenever it comes into play.

Plus there was a period of a few episodes there where it was useless against the monsters he was going up against, and then once he got back to some that it *was* effective on he was back to slicing them up all over the place!

And yeah it's definitely one of the things that's different about Ultraseven compared to Ultraman that there aren't as many extended monster fights on average. In Ultraman you're basically *guaranteed* a monster fight every episode, which was one of the cool things about it. The opening title cards were a great little primer for the monster(s) you were going to see in each episode. They didn't reveal much, but they did enough to get you thinking "oooh, I wonder what *that* could be?!" But Ultraseven in comparison often doesn't have *any* giant monsters in an episode; and sometimes Seven doesn't even change size!

It did take me a bit by surprise in the first couple of episodes just how quickly Seven dealt with the threats compared to Ultraman, but I still think it really works, especially with the set-up for this show being more about invading aliens than the "giant monsters *and* aliens" that Ultraman has. It allows for more conflict with human-sized characters even if they don't ultimately end up growing huge and fighting, but you still get the fun of seeing these cool Tsuburaya creatures in each ep. Plus as you say, this show skews a bit more adult, so they probably figured they didn't always need to have those giant monster fights as often as they did in Ultraman.

On a "where I'm currently at" note, I just recently watched "The 700 Kilometer Run!", aka, "the episode with the dino-tank", and that thing was just as gloriously random in-context as it was just seeing random clips and stuff over the years beforehand! Still, Dan taking out the motorbike "human bomb" had to be the most hilarious part of the entire show so far. He might have just been a regular guy, Dan!!

This show is so much fun!

[Kailem]

I finally finished watching Ultraseven a couple of nights ago, and overall my opinion really never changed throughout; this is a great show!

I found it interesting how they basically introduced Seven's version of the Colour Timer about halfway through in "Showdown at 140 Degrees Below Zero", presumably to re-introduce a that feeling of drama if a fight went on for too long, though it never really came into play too much regardless. Likewise I also kinda figured that in that one episode where they introduced the big "space net" around the earth that was meant to stop alien invasions - and was apparently so good at it that aliens literally kidnapped its creator to try and learn its secrets - that they'd basically go a few episodes without having any "direct from space" alien invasions before just getting back to acting like that didn't exist again.

The two-part finale did a great job of raising the stakes appropriately for the last story of the series. I was actually a bit surprised they ended up having the aliens destroy as many cities as they did, but as soon as they showed some of them in model form I knew what was coming!

I also liked that the Ultra Guard finally found out Dan was Seven, especially given that never happened with Ultraman (and even Hayata lost his memory of those events). It was a pretty brief moment, but still cool to see nonetheless. Part of me wonders if that's just going to be the standard with all future Ultra shows or whether they mix it up at any point and actually have some of the supporting cast find out the main character's secret Ultra identity halfway through, and the different situations that could lead to. I mean, with how many shows there are it *must* have happened at some point right?

So yeah, these classic Showa Ultra shows are three for three so far! Now on to Return of Ultraman! I didn't think I'd still be going this deep down the Ultraman rabbit hole when I first started, but these shows are so good they really are just leaving me wanting more; and since the Ultraseven recommendation was right on the money, I'd be a fool not to check out Return of Ultraman as well!