TALKBACK: Ultraman (1966) epsiodes!

[Dr Kain]

My favorites between both Eiji shows are Mefilas, Dada, Bado, King Joe, Metron, Zetton, Antlar, Dinosaur Tank, Geryon, and Iron Rocks.

[lhb412]

[lhb412]

Huh, just watched the Dada episode, now watching the Goldon episode and it seems to me that the makers of the show decided that Hayata didn't really have a 'thing' in the way the other characters do aside from being Ultraman's secret identity so they've decided he's the second in command.

Both episodes show him essentially leading the Science Patrol when the captain is unavailable.

[H-Man]

Dinosaur Tank is the best Ultra kaiju.

[Zack Metoyer]

Woo's episode was an interesting one. It started off by portraying Hayata as uncharacteristically human -- he seems to sprain his ankle after falling into the Snow Girl's trap.

But the end has me wondering: did he let the Snow Girl die on purpose because he knew that Woo would vanish? His cheerful lie to the SSSP regarding her fate makes me think that Hayata is more alien than human after all.

[lhb412]

^ I don't know what's going on with the Woo episode. It makes me wonder if there was some last minute change in production that rendered the story somewhat incoherent. And Ide mentions his mother passed away when he was a kid and that one guy dies by accidentally falling into that hole those kids dug... it's got all this weird, heavy stuff in it and I'm not sure it really comes together.

Speaking of terrifying: the implications of the final episode that Ultraman has essentially been piloting Hayata's body this whole time is absolutely terrifying. I'm real glad they decided to brush that one under the rug in the various continuations!

I've only got one disc left of both Ultra Q and Ultraman and I'm already sad they are almost over! (I only have to wait 'till Xmas to get the following three sets) I totally dig the series and the presentation of the sets. Despite the occasional subtitle misspellings in Ultraman I'm very pleased with the translations overall. They seem very specific and accurate, often including Japanese honorifics and whatnot. The only problem is, and I think this is slightly more of an issue then the rare misspelling, is that they're sometimes overly literal in the way really accurate translations sometimes are. Saying Ultraman will "lack the strength to stand" is maybe more literally correct, but "Ultraman will never rise again" from the original American dub gets across the meaning better.

[Jinzo Ningen]

[H-Man]

[lhb412]

If only Jissoji was responsible for blocking in every episode and we could have got constant whimsical compositions of the Science Patrol lined up or grouped together in weird, visually interesting ways like in the Skydon episode.

[kiryugoji04]

Jissoji is seriously one of the best voices in the entire genre and he is criminally underappreciated stateside. I feel like in general Western fans don't pay terribly close attention to the individual directors of the various Ultraman episodes, opting instead to view the series only in totality, which does a disservice to people as wildly creative as Jissoji.

[lhb412]

I never noticed how much more demonstrative they made Hayata in the last dozen episodes. He could be a passive presence in early ones, now he's giving orders, slaps Ide when he has a freakout, and wrestles a bit with his human + alien nature a bit.

I'm sad I'm done with the series! Can't wait to get Ultraseven for Christmas!

[Rody]

[lhb412]

[Rody]

^That would explain things. I'll have to see about researching who was in charge of which episodes, so I can get a better idea of individual styles and themes in the series from the different creators.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Jissoji made some truly great episodes, such a shame most were wonky comedy. But then again, that makes me wonder... did he get assigned to those comedy-flavored episodes or did he look at the various scripts sitting in a pile and choose those specifically because they appealed to them, (or perhaps he didn't take the subject matter seriously)... or did he re-tool 'straight' episodes and turn them into comedies on his own???

[Rody]

I have to wonder: does the monster Gango just LOOK like he's wearing slippers because of sloppy design, or is he genuinely wearing slippers?
Honestly I want it to be the latter; the image of a magic monster donning human lounge wear is hilarious to me. You know what? I want Gango to return in a modern Ultraman episode: some comical story about a dude who finds the magic rock and ends up with a monster roommate, and they're totally chill together, but everyone else in the hotel is unnerved/freaking out because THERE'S A MONSTER LIVING IN THE HOTEL. The defense team comes in to investigate, and they find Gango... Swimming in the pool, having coffee in the morning, watching football in his bathrobe... Someone make this happen!


I also had a moment of unexpected delight during "Brother From Another Planet", when I suddenly recognized an Ultra Q music cue being used. I understand that "reference" now!

[tbeasley]

Yeah this should definitely go in the Ultraman/Japanese heroes sub-forum.

Took me a while to finish this due to various things. I last saw the show 10 years ago and while I remembered some episodes vividly (especially the Jissoji ones) I completely forgot about others so I was essentially watching the show for the first time again. The first batch of episodes are definitely a bit formulaic, setting the stage for more creative and inventive stories to come, and while I don't think I enjoyed it as much as Ultra Q, I certainly had fun with it.

My main thought always is I wish I had grown up watching these alongside Godzilla and others, they're all beginning to go hand in hand for me. Seeing the cross-pollination of ideas between them has been very interesting.

[lhb412]

[XvGojira]

[O.Supreme]

Well there was Utlraman Towards the Future, which aired in some markets in 1991, but you'd really have to be in the know to catch it. In some areas (like San Francisco), it had a good time slot on Sunday mornings (9 or 10 am IIRC), whereas many markets gave it the death sentence of 6am. I had to set my VCR, and I missed an episode! My local affiliate didn't even rerun the series, whereas the Bay Area kept it in syndication for almost two years! (Thanks to a relative I picked up that missing episode)

Additionally growing up with the original Ultraman (especially having many of the same voice actors as the Godzilla Films thanks to Titan/Titra), made them seem both very similar, and just as impressive. As I've stated before, it was in 1982 that a revelation was opened to me that there was more than one Ultraman! I went to a local sci-fi show (which was partially organized by August Ragone I found out years later), they were airing several Japanese movies, TV shows, and anime. We walked in on Episode 3 of Ultraman 80, and I had no idea what it was, but it was Awesome! Then my parents purchased a cardboard book for me (probably $5 at the time, now would cost about $20) which had stories from Return of Ultraman. I didn't know quite what it was at the time other than it was Ultraman, with Monsters I had never seen before, so I knew something more existed.

Coincidentally, the magazine Markalite #2 (published in 1991), gave a breakdown of pretty much every Ultraman series that existed up to that point, and of all of them I knew that Return was one I'd be most interested in. I've had bootleg VHS of some episodes, and the Malay DVD set that came out a couple of years ago. But just this week, I feel like a 38 year journey is now complete, now that I finally have a good quality Return Of Ultraman BRD set to enjoy, and it only gets better from here on out.

[Jinzo Ningen]

[Benjamin Haines]

I've watched the first two episodes of Ultraman on Mill Creek's BRD release, Ultra Operation No. 1 and Shoot the Invader. Unlike Ultra Q, which I had never seen before, I actually did get used copies of BCI's Ultraman DVD sets back in the Fall of 2010. I watched the first two episodes back then and I didn't like them very much, so I just never got around to watching the show any further. Watching these same first two episodes again now, nearly ten years later, I see a lot more to appreciate in them. The story of the first episode is really terrific, from how it introduces everyone to the way it blends sci-fi mystery and monster action. I do still find a lot of the attempted humor with Ide in the second episode to be more grating than funny. Bemular and Baltan are very cool monsters.

I do kind of wish that I could have gotten into Ultraman at the same time as I first got into Godzilla but I probably wouldn't have appreciated it any more at age 9 than I did when I tried watching the show in college. I think when we're younger and we're discovering what the world has to offer, it's easier to get hung up on differences than it is to appreciate similarities. I remember when I was browsing the video rental store shelves for Godzilla movies, I sometimes opted to check out other giant monster films like Gorgo, Rodan, King Kong and Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. I also distinctly remember seeing Paramount's VHS of War of the Gargantuas and not even touching it because I wasn't intrigued by the hairy hominid creatures on the cover. I noticed how the cover art looked a lot like the art on several Godzilla tapes and Rodan too but that didn't even register in my kid brain as a sign that this might be another kaiju movie from the same studio and it could be right up my alley. The monsters on the cover just looked like big, hairy people to me and I wasn't interested. I think it was probably for the best that I waited until I was 30 to finally check out Ultra Q and that I'm just now starting to rewatch Ultraman at 31. I may not have any nostalgic memories of watching them as a kid but they mean a lot more to me now as a newly-revealed window into a key era in this genre's history. They're fascinating to watch.

[Rody]

I had some difficulty getting into Ultraman as a teen, but I probably would have eaten up the Ultra franchise as kid, had I been able to access it then. I was hungry for just about anything giant monster-related, from Godzilla to Gamera to Reptillicus, Gorgo and Harryhausen (curiously, I never got into Power Rangers, though). Looking back, a lot of what I was most familiar with was very "classic" in era, too, so Ultra Q or Ultraman 1966 probably would have been a perfect fit.

I've finally started disc 4, and was greeted with a Jissoji one-two punch of the Underground people and Jamila(Jamilar?). After Jissoji's prior comical episodes, these two almost come as a shock with how completely serious they are. Between the suspense, drama, and cinematography (I really dug all those silhouette shots in the Jamila ep), I dare say these two are a high point in the show. The following two episodes with Gubila and the comet almost felt like a let-down from how standard they felt in contrast.