Ultraman '66

[Kailem]

I searched back several pages to see if there was an existing thread I could bump to talk about the OG Ultraman, but it looks like the closest thing to that is all the various individual threads discussing each episode. So rather than bump two dozen or so of those, I figured I'd just make a new one.

After finishing off the Mill Creek Ultra Q Blu-rays I dived into their Ultraman '66 set, which is my first viewing of anything Ultraman outside of Towards the Future. I'm about halfway through the third disc now, so coming up on around the halfway mark of the series overall, and so far I've really been enjoying it too! Whereas Ultra Q felt like mini Toho movies, this by comparison definitely feels like it's more of its own thing, and no doubt lays the groundwork for everything Ultraman would go on to become over the next several decades.

It's certainly a much "brighter" show than Ultra Q, not just because it's in colour but also just the overall tone and feel. Ultra Q was a lot creepier and had a slightly more moody atmosphere, whereas this feels a lot more upbeat and "family friendly"; apart from the occasional monster violence, which I'll get to later. If Ultra Q felt like "The Twilight Zone with giant monsters" then Ultraman feels more like "Thunderbirds with giant monsters" instead. It definitely feels less like something akin to a Toho product and more like Tsuburaya really coming into its own as a production house with its own style.

And speaking of, I love how the opening of each episode gives you a little tease as to what the monsters that are going to be featured are all about. Even for someone like me who's watching it for the first time and only knows of the bigger Ultraman kaiju like Baltan and Red King, just seeing an episode start with something like "Fourth-dimensional monster Bulton" is a really cool tease to make you wonder just what it is you're about to see.

And of course another somewhat large difference from Ultra Q is the fact that EVERY episode features a giant monster (or at least every episode so far)! Certainly *most* of them did with Ultra Q, but the fact that you're guaranteed to get giant monster action every single time here is also really cool. Just like Ultra Q though, it's still funny (in a good way) to see and hear some re-used sound effects or suits. The SSSP's phone being Ghidorah's roar really took me aback in the opening episode, and I never really just how much use they managed to get out of the Baragon suit in all these shows! Is this the reason it was in such disrepair by the time Destroy All Monsters was made that they largely had to replace him with Gorosaurus?

It's also been fun to see the various returning elements from Ultra Q, like Yuri's actress showing back up as Fuji, and the episodes initially opening with the "Ultra Q" title before switching to Ultraman. Oh, and I never realised that Jim Ballard's Sci-Fi Japan TV intro theme used the opening from the original Ultraman until now! It definitely took quite a few episodes before I was able to hear it as just "Ultraman" and not SFJTV!

I did find it a little odd that it doesn't seem to be a direct continuation from Ultra Q though, since in the episode Five Seconds Before the Explosion you have a giant mutated Ragon appear and everyone talks about him like they all know what it is, with all the same lore from the Ultra Q episode. But then later on we get things like Garamon showing up as the human-sized "Pigmon" and nobody makes any mention of how he looks suspiciously similar to the monsters that attacked Tokyo that one time.

As for the show itself, I'm finding it to be a lot of fun! It's fast-paced and easy to watch multiple episodes in a row without getting tired. Sometimes I have to stop myself from binging it even more because I don't want to just rush it for the sake and rushing it, but it's always a good sign when I've watched three episodes in a row and think "I could stand to watch one more."

And some of the monsters have been great! Finally I get the deal with Baltan now! His first episode, Shoot the Invader was really fun (except for Ide's immense overacting; I get it's a show that was aimed at youngsters, but still). The effects for his "decoys" were actually really well done, and giving him a laugh was a stroke of genius. And I really liked Antlar too, that was a great monster, and its episode The Blue Stone of Baradhi was a rare example of a non-Japanese setting for some giant monster action. It was a cool change watching some Middle Eastern city architecture get demolished for a change, as well as an example of them clearly wanting to expand the scope of the show, much like Ultra Q did early on with its Peguila ep.

And damn, Red King! What a meanie! He literally ripped the arm off of a monster as his introduction! I'd always heard about how Eiji Tsuburaya never wanted to show blood or gore in his Godzilla battles because he knew they would be watched by children, so I have to admit that scene really surprised me. Same with how Ultraman is often totally cool with just ripping bits off of various monsters. It seems very counter to what I'd heard about Eiji's philosophy when it came to monster violence.

But yes, so far I'm really enjoying it! Though I've still yet to figure out what Hoshino actually does around there and how he has access to the SSSP HQ. Just gotta roll with it, I guess!

[Benjamin Haines]

The continuity between Ultra Q and Ultraman (and later Showa-Era shows) is similar to the continuity between the Godzilla movies and Toho's other fantasy films of that time. If they wanted to bring back a monster from a previous work then they would just bring it back, even if that meant size discrepancies or other contradictions of that monster's previous appearance. If there was a plot point from a previous work that could serve the current story then they would reference it but they had no problem recasting the same actors as different characters from one work to the next.

Yeah, after the Baragon suit had been reused so much, the Destroy All Monsters effects staff built a new Baragon head for the suit but they still opted to use the newer and less-worn Gorosaurus for the Paris scene. The strangest thing about that scene is how Gorosaurus still ends up emitting Baragon's roar in just that one scene. I know their roars are the same sound effects but it really sounds like the traditional Varan/Baragon/many-Ultra-kaiju version of that roar in the Paris scene and not the slightly higher-pitched Gorosaurus variant with the brief snarl at the beginning.

It is bewildering how the violence in Ultraman and subsequent shows gets so much more graphic than what Tsuburaya would depict in cinema. I don't get it either but it is glorious.

[Kailem]

I can see that about the continuity. After all, it's not like they ever explained how Rodan came back after the 1956 film!

And yeah I've always wondered if it was a last-minute decision to switch Baragon for Gorosaurus in that scene, and whoever was doing the sound effect just never got the memo. It was clear that it was *meant* to be Baragon, so one way or another the roar must have been a by product of that.

It was just funny going straight from Ultra Q to Ultraman and especially in early Ultraman episodes being like "wait, and THAT monster is a re-used Baragon suit as well?!" I knew to expect some monsters to repurpose his suit, I just never expected so many!

I also just watched My Home is Earth last night, and damn, now I know why I remember seeing people talking about that episode specifically before! That was really top-notch stuff. Jamila was a great, tragic monster, and damn did Ide's final line hit hard (especially paired with that last shot). I never expected to literally get teary-eyed at an episode of Ultraman, but I certainly did. Easily one of the best episodes so far, if not the best. I'd say I'd like to see Jamila appear again because he's such a cool design, but it'd kinda undermine the ending of the episode if he did.

Also randomly I was just watching videos of the Ultraman "kaiju sakaba" in Japan earlier in the day as well, and after a few minutes I was like ".....wait a minute....Jamila! That's the monster whose mouth you have to stick your hand in before you can enter the kaiju sakaba!" So that was a fun little coincidence.

[Kailem]

Well, I've officially watched the original Ultraman; and it was really good!

I really liked how pretty much all the major Ultraman villains that I was generally of beforehand all showed up at various points, as opposed to potentially not having been created until later series. Once again it really showed how Tsuburaya just hit the ground running with this show in terms of having all the elements in place right from the beginning that made it such a hit. It was a great introduction to monsters like Mefilas, Zetton, Zarab, Red King etc., and I was finally able to see why so many of them went on to become fan favourites (and it's definitely given me some extra background on some of the ones I know are in Shin Ultraman, so that'll be cool to see them updated in that whenever I'm able to see it too).

Also, Gomora did nothing wrong! The SSSP did him dirty.

Speaking of, I liked how some of the later episodes actually had various SSSP members having their own mini version of "wait, are we the bad guys?" I'm sure a big part of why the vast majority of the monsters were killed at the end of the episodes was simply to do with the realities of producing a TV show rather than individual movies, but I was still like "yeah guys, you kind of are! Not all of these monsters deserve to be vapourised or thrown into space!"

It was cool seeing Red King show up again too, and be just as much of a jerk as he was the first time. I was wondering if this meant he might eventually show up at some point again, and then *that* happened! Likewise with Pigmon. I still think I prefer him as Garamon from Ultra Q though, but it was cool seeing Pigmon in a "cute and heroic" role again.

Hoshino was also very conspicuous in his absence from the later part of the series. I didn't want to look anything up while I was watching it since I didn't want to accidentally have anything spoiled, but I kinda figured something must have happened in real life that caused him to not show up in any more episodes after a certain point. Honestly as much as it sucks that the actor broke his leg in a skiing accident, it's a lot better than what I was wondering might have happened. But it did also show how unnecessary his character was to the overall proceedings.

I liked how they eventually expanded the scope of the show into space as well, since that only added to the fun. It was cool that so much of the penultimate episode, "Spaceship Rescue Command", took place on an alien planet. Again, much like Ultra Q before it, the scale of this show was impressive, and it made for some really cool visuals. And the last episode was suitably epic-feeling in scope, with a big alien invasion. I liked how even the SSSP said "don't fire on the saucers since we don't yet know why they're here", but the professor was immediately like "they're here to invade, we gotta blast 'em!"

And the return of another Ultra Q alien monster as well! It was also kind of an "oh damn!!" moment when, after so many episodes with the Spacium Beam being the finishing move on countless monsters, it had no effect on Zetton. It was just a good finale overall. I was wondering if anyone else would discover Hayata's connection to Ultraman at any point in the show, especially how how many times they had Ide wondering if they were the same person in earlier episodes, but obviously they just decided to drop it.

So yeah, I'm very glad I finally decided to check out this classic piece of tokusatsu history! I'm most likely going to order Ultraman Nexus next, more to finally watch Ultraman: The Next than the show itself since that was something I'd been meaning to import for years but just never got round to it. But I might eventually swing back round to more of the classic Showa stuff eventually too.

Then again it might be a good idea to end it after that and not fall any deeper into the Ultraman rabbit hole, if only for the sake of my wallet!

[lhb412]

I first watched Ultraman '66 about 20 years ago on bootleg tapes. Loved it, but also felt kinda sad because I knew there was this huge franchise that came after that I'd never get to see (unless I wanted to spend over a thousand on tapes that, according to the bootlegger's catalog, weren't even fansubbed). Now that I've been able to see the majority of the franchise; shows from every decade, new shows simulcast on YouTube, even seeing a new Japanese Ultraman reboot film in theaters (!) it's fun to look back and see how my thoughts about the first series have changed now that I have this much wider base of Ultra-knowledge...

... and the thing that stands out for me is just how singular this first series still feels! Sure, every series that comes after it draws inspiration from it, but Ultraman '66 has that '50s-'60s era futurism, that upbeat jazz score, and a feeling of experimentation and playfulness. Basically the entire crew came back for the harder, eerier Ultraseven and the vibe is 100% different! It feels like Ultraman embodies that era of the genre and 6 months later that door has already closed and Ultraseven is anticipating the '70s.

There's just so much to love in this series, from the iconic monsters to the wonderful team dynamic of the SSSP. The variety and increasing ambition of the series keeps it consistently interesting while so many tokusatsu series fall into ruts. Narita's designs. Writer Kinjo's interesting concepts and situations. Jissoji's bold and experimental directing... it says something that Shin Ultraman, 55 years later, is practically an homage to those three specific creators. It shows just how distinct what they did was.

[Benjamin Haines]

Prior to watching the original Ultraman series in 2020, my only other exposure to the character had been Nexus and The Next back when they were still recent. Fast-forward three years, now that I've seen nearly all of the 20th-century Ultraman content and then some, the original series sticks out as still being a lot more cinematic in its ambition and presentation than most of what came later. It really is more like Ultra Q in the way it pulls out all the stops for every episode as though each one is a mini-movie unto itself. UltraSeven is like that too. Return of Ultraman kept that going in its approach, as it has a lot of stories and effects sequences that are on par with Toho's film output of the '60s, but that show also became the template for Ultraman as an ongoing TV series that renews itself year after year. As much as I like the rest of the Showa-era shows and the late-'90s trio of Tiga, Dyna & Gaia, they definitely all have the look and feel of contemporary television shows. The original Ultraman series stands out with its dynamic shot compositions, its wide variety of locations and its parade of iconic monsters and aliens.

Kailem, you can't go wrong with Nexus and The Next! At some point you've got to check out UltraSeven and then Return of Ultraman. This rabbit hole does indeed go deep, and I could recommend almost any of these shows for all sorts of reasons, but those two are top-tier. Ultra Q, Ultraman and UltraSeven together are like the three-part crescendo of Eiji Tsuburaya's career, bringing all of the wonder and imagination of his films to television in a way that had never been done before. With Ultraman having established the basic concepts of the franchise, UltraSeven takes those concepts and makes them part of an even broader sci-fi premise, and then Return of Ultraman goes back to the core concepts of Ultraman and builds on them in a much different and more down-to-Earth way. Seven and Return are just awesome shows all-around.

[Kailem]

I'm sooo going to end up going deeper down the Ultraman rabbit hole than I was anticipating. But given how good the original show was, and Ultra Q before it, and just how much I enjoyed watching them both overall, it's hard to turn down recommendations for UltraSeven and Return of Ultraman if they're also on a similar sort of level.

I think I'll still probably jump ahead to Nexus next though (and The Next ) just to mix things up a bit, now that I've had some time to let the original show settle. But I'm certainly more inclined to go back and check out more of those Showa shows now though than I was thinking I would initially.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Nexus is awesome! It's a totally standalone series so it's a great first choice for a 21st-century Ultraman show. The Next opened in theaters on the same weekend that episode 12 of Nexus aired, if you want to watch them in the same order that Japanese audiences first saw them, but it works just as well if you want to watch the movie first.

Unfortunately, Mill Creek's Ultraman Nexus DVD set doesn't include the 45-minute director's cut of episode 29 (Calling) nor the 45-minute episode EX (Lost Memories), both of which debuted in Japan as DVD exclusives instead of on television. Fortunately, they are easy to find online. Episode EX takes place between episodes 31 and 32.

[Kailem]

Yeah I remember seeing that when I was looking up some info on Nexus. Any reason why those episodes aren't included? Is it just a case of Tsuburaya wanting to keep them a Japan-exclusive or something?

[lhb412]

^ Apparently they just weren't part of the massive licensing package that Mill Creek initially acquired. Sorta puts those along with those various documentaries and extras included on Japanese home video releases that also weren't included in the package.

Speaking of which, with the recent Deep Discount sale I've filled out my collection of Mill Creek Ultraman releases. I hope they announce a new deal with Tsuburaya soon (Ultraman Day is July 10). Mill Creek certainly remains interested, since they're essentially filling the gap with compilations: first the new set of all Red King episodes, an upcoming set of Baltan episodes, and even a leaked 'Ultraseven 55th Anniversary' thing, which'll apparently have the original series bundled with various other Ultraseven appearances in episodes and movies.

[Kailem]

Hmm, maybe I should hold off on ordering Ultraseven until then, if there's a chance they might announce something even more substantial than the current release.

That sucks about those extra episodes not falling under the licencing deal, but I guess Mill Creek's main focus is purely on the episodes themselves with the booklets being the only real features included. Would be nice to get a look at some original Japanese documentaries and behind-the-scenes stuff, but that's still rare even on Godzilla releases, so I guess I'm not surprised it seems even rarer here.