Return of Ultraman

[lhb412]

The 1971 revival that established a shared continuity in the Ultra franchise and kicked off the second "Monster Boom" is finally, finally officially available in North America.

I mean, I've already watched 5 Ultra Blu-ray sets from Mill Creek, but with this release the massive development this truly is hits a bit harder. I wondered if we were ever going to see this series, and as a kaiju fan it felt like such an important one for the history of the genre.

One episode in, and a) it's a smorgasbord of kaiju and tokusatsu effects, b) I love that they finally wring out some confusion and weirdness from the Ultra merging with a human that they never touched on in the original series, and c) Shin Kishida in a supporting role!

[lhb412]

How tall is the actor who plays Go? He towers over everybody! I'm on the episode with Twintail and the fact that he's so big that clothes shopping is hard for him is an actual plot point.

Love how he has a life outside of the defense team. And we get lots of squabbling and tension inside the team, too. That's a real change from the first two Ultra shows. Also like how Go is much more of a relatable average guy. Hayata was the perfect soldier and Dan was a hypercompetant alien passing for human, but Go is just a normal guy and we're constantly being reminded that, even though his heart is in the right place, the extraordinary things he can do are pretty much confined to abilities Ultraman has given to him. He can be reluctant and otherwise flawed. It's very obvious that this was a huge influence on later protagonists.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Looking at his face, I was immediately wondering if he isn't half Japanese and half... some other ethnicity. His nose is what gives him away but yes, he is also quite tall.

Loving the show so far. Another surprise, is that MAT's captain was also the mentor for Sky Rider & Super-1!!! Didn't know that he was in an Ultra series, too! Verrry cool! Monster & hero costumes still shoddier than I'd expect - and this early in, to boot. Can only imagine how beat up Jack will look by series' end.

[kiryugoji04]

Jiro Dan's father is, according to Japanese Wikipedia, "British American." So I'm not sure if that implies some weird dual citizenship or something but I'm assuming that means he was some flavor of white.

Anyway, I'm six episodes in and this show is got damgd incredible. It's way too early to call but I feel like it could easily be my favorite Ultra series at this rate.

[Dr Kain]

Jiro is Philipino. Honestly though, his hair keeps me wanting to see him pull out a cattle gun. I guess his love for "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" slapping makes up for that though. He should have been named either Bright Noa or Wong.

I'm 20 episodes into Return so far and nothing has truly grasped me the same way Man and Seven did. It's as formulaic as Man was, doesn't have anywhere near the variety and cinematography of Seven, and the characters have yet to truly grasp me. I also don't get why they are called the Monster Attack Team when they were clearly inept at handing monsters right from the getgo of episode 1. The way the show is written it sounds like they have been established for quite a while, yet, they all act like novices. The fact that some random civilian had to do their job for them right away tells you something. It doesn't help that so far Kishida is the only one who has had any sort of character development given his dad is a top commander and partially responsible for the poison gas monster.

Oh, and the Kaiju designs have left a lot to be desired. Aside from Gudon, Twintail, and the skeleton dinosaur thing, none of the monsters have been all that memorable. Well, I guess Bemstar is memorable because I saw him in other Ultra shows first.

[lhb412]

[kiryugoji04]

[lhb412]

Direct references to Toho's stable of Kaiju! The next episode preview that mentions how proud the special-effects staff is of their work in the next episode!

This series is awesome!

[lhb412]

Jiro Dan (Hideki Go himself) passed away from lung cancer, the first of the lead Ultra actors to leave us. You know, despite Hayata and Dan being iconic I think Dan's Go is the most influential human host. His normal, flawed human being with relationships outside of being a defense team member who most acclimate to the situation and rise to the occasion has been the template most series have riffed on.

There's been an outpouring of appreciations and I've loved seeing all the ad campaigns from his time as a model!

[Benjamin Haines]

He was 74, still too young. Cancer is the worst.

It's only been three years since I first watched Return of Ultraman but Jiro Dan's performance as Go is absolutely one of the main reasons why that series works so brilliantly, and his guest roles in Ace, Taro and Leo were always memorable. I haven't yet made my way up to any of the 21st-century reunion films in which he appeared but now those are going to be bittersweet to watch.

R.I.P. Jiro Dan

[Kailem]

So I recently started watching this as maybe my last of the Showa era Ultra shows. I'm about halfway through the second disc and I've really been liking it so far!

It's funny how, right from the get-go, it just kinda *feels* 70's compared to the previous two series. From the out of focus disco ball-style background in the intro (complete with James Bond meets Charlie's Angels silhouettes) to the slightly darker visuals (like, literally slightly darker, not tonally) reminds me a lot of the same period of Godzilla movies, where you could just kinda tell the times had changed. It's definitely a "Return of Ultraman" in just about every way though, with the format returning to much more of the kind of thing we got in the OG show compared to Ultraseven. Guaranteed monsters in every episode, way less aliens, slightly "simpler" stories etc. I love the fact that almost every episode so far has had "monster" in the title, and that the little "featuring such and such monster" preview text at the end of the intros are back too!

But then they've also added some new elements that make it feel different from the shows that came before too. As has already been mentioned here, Go is much more of an everyman character thrown into the world of MAT than someone who was already a monster-fighter beforehand. Heck, he practically seems forced into it by everyone else in those first episodes! And having a lot of the focus be on his life outside of MAT and the people he knows there is a good way of not completely abandoning that aspect of the show past the first couple of episodes, since it'd be easy to just have him turn into "another leading man member of the monster fighting team" given that he's out flying jets and shooting monsters pretty much as soon as he joins. So that's an interesting new twist that helps him stand apart from Hayata and Dan.

I'm also surprised that they got rid of any "transformation device" in this one, and instead just kinda have Ultraman appear when he decides the situation is dire enough to warrant it. I'll admit that was a little disappointing at first since I've come to enjoy seeing what weird new items each show is going to introduce for that purpose, but to be honest, with shows like Ultraseven especially where Dan was *literally* just Seven in human form, it often doesn't make a lot of sense that they'd need some sort of external device to change.

There have also been more two-parters really early on than I was expecting. In Ultraseven I only really remember there being a few over the entire run of the show, but I've already watched two and judging by the titles of the episodes I'm about to watch on the second disc I'm about to head into two more! I'm also kinda loving the "next time" previews at the end of each episode too, especially this last one that had the narrator breaking the fourth wall and saying how the SFX team has put a lot into this tsunami sequence that's going to be featured! Always a good way to keep the interest high while bingeing shows like this.

Also just a random thought I had while watching it, but Twintail seems very similar design-wise to the first monster that Ultraman fights in Towards the Future (after Gudis). I wonder if that was a roundabout "sort of" nod to him, or if it was just a coincidence? Either way Twintail's definitely been one of the standout monsters of the show for me so far.

Oh and a random Godzilla, Rodan and Ghidorah mention in one episode too! Clearly this confirms Ultraman and Godzilla are part of the same universe! Though I *am* hyped that apparently this is the show that merges the previous Ultra shows into one continuity, and even has appearances of previous characters! So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing those guys pop up in whichever episodes they first appear.

But yeah, for now Return of Ultraman is another great kick of classic Tsuburaya monster goodness, and I'm really enjoying it!

[lhb412]

I guess the enormous success of Kamen Rider 1's Typhoon belt as a piece of merchandise (airing at the same time as Return of Ultraman!) Is what really established the transformation item as a core part of these shows and their respective merchandising lines... but still, the rest of the Showa Ultras have pretty slight items, like rings, and not every Toei hero had one through the '70s/'80s.

[Kailem]

Yeah I guess I'm also coming at this with the knowledge that those transformation devices would go on to be a recurring thing throughout Ultraman in general over the decades that followed, whereas here it's still the early days here. But even so, it does seem odd that they'd get rid of it, given that it was introduced originally for some added drama.

Speaking of things that definitely *are* in this show though are Go's hands! Guy's been on a slapping spree recently, first smacking a kid in front of his grandad, then slapping Aki right in front of his seemingly-approving brother! I know he's supposed to be an "everyman"-type character, but not every man goes around letting the pimp hands fly every time he gets a bit angry! Those moments really felt out of place with how he's been portrayed up until now.

Another thing that surprised me in a recent episode was the appearance of Ultraseven! Not because I didn't know about it beforehand (and even if I didn't know he was going to show up in this series, the episode is literally called "Here Comes Ultraseven"), but because of how incredibly brief it was for having the entire episode named after his appearance! I've got to admit it was a bit disappointing to see him only show up for what was essentially a glorified cameo, so hopefully his future appearances have a little bit more substance to them.

But hey, I guess he felt that Ultraman Jack hadn't been dismembering as many monsters as he would have liked, so now he has the Ultra Bracelet to turn him into a proper monster decapitator like Seven!

I've also noticed that Ultraman, and I guess MAT in general, kinda get smacked around a lot more than their equivalents seemed to in previous shows (not by Go, though ). I'm not even halfway through the show yet but already there have been multiple monsters immune to the Spacium Beam, and it's starting to feel like MAT gets threatened with closure or some random members of the public are saying they suck almost every other episode! That's not a criticism or anything, just something I noticed when compared to the previous shows.

And now that they've finally introduced space and space monsters (Beakon was the latest one, and that was a pretty cool, odd monster), I'd imagine it's only a matter of time before the aliens show up again, so that'll be fun to see how MAT and Go interact with them too.

Definitely still really enjoying it so far!

[lhb412]

I feel like Jack has a different finish to his costume or something? He seems to get dirty in a way the Ultraman and Ultraseven suits didn't? Or maybe Jack's just constantly eating dirt in the fights and this is the result?

[Benjamin Haines]

I like how Go is able to transform into Ultraman at will instead of using a device. I usually find it pretty uncompelling when the drama in these shows hinges on the lead hero being separated from his device to prevent him from transforming, so I like how this series stands out by having no transformation device. It was cool when Go quickly acted like he could solve any problem by transforming and that prompted Ultraman not to allow it. Go must continuously do his best if he wants Ultraman to have his back and I think that makes him even more interesting as a lead hero.

Episode 34 was written by Shinichiro Kobayashi, the same guy who later wrote the initial story treatment for Godzilla vs. Biollante, and it shows!

You might want to start avoiding the next-episode previews. They do get pretty spoilery with what they reveal.

[lhb412]

Episode 34 also uses a popular contemporary pop song (by rock band P.Y.G.) and I like how that kind of contemporary reference populates the '70s Ultraman shows in a way the '60s ones don't. Those operate in this vaguely futuristic nowhere time, which is the default for Ultra even today, while the '70s entries are set somewhere a lot more like '70s Japan.

[Kailem]

Wow, you weren't kidding about ep 34 being similar to Biollante! It almost felt like a "first draft" of it, but not in a bad way. Indeed the episode definitely had a very cinematic feel to it, what with Go's personal connection to the main bad guy and the pop song playing over that one sequence at the end. It's easy to see why Shinichiro Kobayashi decided to rework some of these ideas into an actual movie later on.

I know I should probably stop watching the previews of the next episodes when they come on, but I just can't help it. Even with the stuff they give away I like that they're part of the experience ("Let's all watch next week!"). Though even with the stuff they gave away recently in the "Ultraman Dies at Sunset/When the Star of Ultra Shines" two-parter, those episodes still shocked me more than I think any Ultraman episodes have to date. Without the ability to post stuff in spoiler tags anymore I don't even want to post about it in detail just on the off-chance that someone might ever read this who hasn't seen the show and might want to. But if you've already seen it then you no doubt know what I'm referring to. That was crazy! I know I'm beginning to approach the end of the show now, but I'm really interested to see what they do with these next episodes, because Ultraman Dies at Sunset really was a game-changer.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Yeah, the next-episode previews are always fun and I do like seeing them whenever I rewatch any of these shows. I've been watching a lot of different tokusatsu series in their entirety since late 2019 and I decided early on to avoid any next-episode previews because I find seeing any given episode's camera setups and key shots for the first time while watching the episode to be the freshest viewing experience. All of these shows tend to revel in classic sci-fi and drama tropes so the actual plot turns tend to be pretty familiar and/or predictable, and there are so many episode titles that give away would-be surprises anyway, so I like to at least watch any given episode for the first time without having seen any footage from it beforehand if I can help it. I'm glad that the next-episode previews didn't dampen your shock at that brutal two-parter.

Return of Ultraman and the three following shows do indeed have a distinctly '70s feel to them, just like the five Godzilla movies from those years. The same economic headwinds that affected Godzilla's production values also become apparent in subsequent Ultraman shows but they never lose their entertainment value or their relative ambition. Even the troubled Ultraman Leo is a cut above a lot of other '70s toku shows like Zone Fighter or Mirrorman or Iron King.

[Kailem]

I totally get wanting to go in to each episode as fresh as possible. One of the main reasons I opted to continue with the Showa Ultraman shows after finishing Ultraseven rather than jumping forward to Ultraman Nexus (which I've had for weeks now) is because I've always loved the Showa aesthetic and just wanted more of that, because even the parts without the monsters are still fun to watch. So wanting to save as much of that as possible (especially the big money shots) until the episodes themselves makes sense.

I'm on the final disc now and I'm kinda only just getting to grips with the fact that yeah, they really did do *that* a few episodes ago. Crazy. I'd also been wondering about MAT's underwater base again recently, since I realised that we haven't had any references to it since almost the beginning of the series, nor had we seen it in ages, so I thought maybe they'd realised it wasn't quite as easy to keep showing as they'd initially hoped and just kinda decided to phase out the "underwater" part. But then just now in The Demon God Howls at the Moon there was the first reference in I can't even remember how long to the base being underwater! I guess they figured it's still easy enough to say that rather than show it!

Also something I meant to mention at the time, but is there any behind-the-scenes reasoning for the Captain being replaced midway through the show? At first I thought that was just going to be a temporary thing to, but likewise it looks as though it's going to be permanent (and even if it's not, it's certainly been for a very long time!).

Given that I'm so close to the end now though I'm seriously considering picking up Ultraman Ace after this and just continuing on this Showa Ultraman binge. I'm guessing by the sound of it then that it might not be as good as the shows that came before, but that it's still fun?

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Well, you know that the original Ultraman defined the core elements of the franchise, and then UltraSeven and Return of Ultraman are what I'd call top-tier renditions of that core premise. Under Eiji Tsuburaya's watch, Ultra Q, Ultraman and UltraSeven all had a distinctly cinematic feel to them. Return of Ultraman maintained that cinematic approach but it was also where Tsuburaya Productions really struck the formula for Ultraman as an ongoing television series that renews itself continuously year after year. UltraSeven began airing six months after Ultraman concluded, and then Return started airing two and a half years after Seven ended. Return, Ace, Taro and Leo kept new Ultraman episodes debuting on Japanese TV week after week for four entire years, from April 1971 through March 1975.

Ultraman Ace isn't a bad show at all. It's a less cinematic series than what came before but It's still a great show, one of the best tokusatsu shows of the 1970s. It introduces a lot of new concepts to the franchise: a man and a woman together serving as Ace's human hosts; a group of alternate-dimension invaders called the Yapool as the show's central villains; Ace being the youngest of the five Ultra Brothers, an integral element of the series from the very first episode; and an array of bizarre and downright kooky monsters with biological characteristics that defy comprehension, called choju (super beasts) in Japanese rather than kaiju (strange beasts), and called Terrible-Monsters in English.

Ultraman Taro is a great show too. While Return and Ace lean more toward sci-fi horror stories, as was also the norm with Kamen Rider and most other toku shows of that era, Taro takes more of a fantasy fairy tale approach. It's like a live-action cartoon in a lot of ways and it's a weird show, very weird, even for Ultraman. It's certainly the most kid-friendly of the classic Ultra shows, and that coupled with its lower production values seems to make it one of the more scorned or dismissed entries among adult fans, but I think it's hard to deny the amount of imagination and heart on display throughout this series.

Ultraman Leo is a big mixed bag but it's still a lot of fun, definitely worth watching. The 1973 oil crisis and the ensuing economic hardship in Japan took their toll on this show from development to the very end. That made for an Ultraman series which essentially reinvented itself every 13 episodes or so as it struggled to find its creative footing. The quality of many of the monster and alien suits sinks to a new low, and the episode plots tend to be more cliched and less creative than ever, but it is a fun and very zany show and it's still legitimately more ambitious than many other '70s toku shows.

[Kailem]

Sounds like at the very least I'm going to have to check out Ace next then, since I'm still not quite ready for this Showa train to end.

One thing that has now come to an end though is my viewing of Return of Ultraman, as much as I slowed down on this last disc to try and prolong that for long as possible. That was a really good finale, though it did feel a bit rushed at the start. Like it maybe should have been a two-parter but they didn't want to go that route for some reason (which is strange given that it felt like Return had more two-parters overall than any of the Ultra shows up 'till now). And having Ishiro Honda back in the director's chair again definitely gave it a cinematic look that was a cut above most of the usual eps.

Overall I really enjoyed this show. I didn't think the monsters were quite as memorable as the previous shows, especially the OG where it felt like I was recognising practically every other monster just from having seen pics of them online over the years. But there were still some cool ones like Twin Tail and Black King. And after watching Ultraseven I wasn't sure how I was going to take to a new protagonist, but Go definitely earned his place next to Dan and Hayata real quick (occasional pimp hand not withstanding ). It's hard for me to imagine anyone coming along who could top these three as *the* most classic of all Ultraman hosts.

Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention at the time, but I was reminded of while watching one of the last episodes, was how brutal some of the imagery in this show could get, especially for one that was aimed more at a younger audience than Ultraseven. The ending of In Between Devil and Angel, Fill This Blow With Anger and of course, Ultraman Dies at Sunset all made me go "DAMN!!" with how violent they were in parts. This might have been a show aimed at children, but they sure didn't pull their punches in some of these eps.

But yes, this was another great show that I'm glad I've now been able to watch. I'll get to Nexus eventually, it's just been taking a while.

[lhb412]

The monsters in Return aren't as stylistically daring (generally) as the best monsters and aliens from Ultraman and Ultraseven, and even Ultra Q. They're more traditional Toho-style kaiju, but (especially in the first half of the series) they're so especially well-built and realized I love them on that level. They look movie quality, you know?

As I've said before, I find the last leg of Return of Ultraman lesser than what came before, but they really have a last minute save with that excellent finale. It's interesting that Honda does some surreal stuff here when we don't see that much in his Toho career, but we do see touches of it when he returns for Terror of Mechagodzilla!

As for Ultraman Ace: it's a split personality show. It does absolutely insane, creative things but then (chasing ratings) it pulls back from that cool stuff. It's back and forth. It's half coolest thing you've ever seen and half just okay.

[Benjamin Haines]

Japan just seems to have always had different standards for what sorts of dark or violent imagery are expected from kid shows. I just watched the fifth episode of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger (1995-1996) and there's a scene in which a little boy steals a policeman's revolver, sticks the barrel of the gun into his own mouth, then chews a bite out of the gun and eats it!

Return of Ultraman did shake things up for its final 13 episodes with that change in the supporting cast but I think some of the show's most memorable episodes are from that final stretch. The Monster That Stands On Mt. Fuji, The Demon God Howls at the Moon, To the Starry Sky With Love, The Marked Woman, MAT is the Name of Space Warriors, and of course the finale are all awesome. This whole series is just so packed with great episodes that it's kind of hard to pick out the highlights.

[lhb412]

^ Oh, I think there's some strong episodes in that back end, but I feel like they're just not up to the consistent highs of earlier in the series. The deaths of the Sakata siblings is certainly a part of it. Most of the MAT members aren't especially fully realized characters. Go, the Captain(s), and the three Sakatas are developed to the extent the Science Patrol or Ultra Guard were. Going from five focus characters to three throws the cheacter dynamics underpinning the series off its axis. Maybe if they had it happen exactly halfway through they could've spent more time developing the other MAT members and Go's experience as, essentially, adoptive parent and found another satisfying dynamic to underline the series, but as it is I don't feel they do the work to get there.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Yeah, I can see that. I do like how the final stretch includes some episodes that focus more on other MAT members, like Kishida in To the Starry Sky With Love, and Ueno in Invitation From Hell. Go barely appears in The Marked Woman!

Ace and Taro also have some of their strangest and most out-there episodes toward the end of their runs. That seems to be a staple of the early Ultra shows.