Ultraman Episode #31: Who Has Arrived?

[heroforhirerob]

[Xenorama]

[Jinzo Ningen]

This is my favorite episode!!! It's a very nice re-working of / tribute to the John W. Campbell short story "Who Goes There?" (which was turned into The Thing and is also, coincidentally, the way I've usually seen this episode's title translated). It follows the basic idea that Campbell proposed while incorporating some of the changes that were made to adapt that story for the 1951 film: having the invader be a plant-based animal rather than a shape-absorbing/shifting one.

The plant people were operating their secret base somewhere deep in the Amazon, according to the Dr. Goto backstory. That's an awfully big place that's practically inaccessible, even with today's hightech machines and so forth. Not unbelievable that an invasion force could hide in the deep jungle. Now the plant people obviously didn't have a solid grasp of mankind, perhaps tied to the fact they were hiding out in the jungle without much contact, and apparently only having Goto as their liason with mankind. That was one of their downfalls which allowed them to be defeated. Their exact plans were never fully explained, so it may have been a mistake on Goto's part or the other aliens to push the invasion as a direct conflict rather than subtle assimilation.

As far as trying to contain Goto... Captain Mura stated that this guy was to have VIP treatment, which I interpreted as being the same as diplomatic immunity, which is why he got away with so much at the beginning. By the time the truth was known about him he had already dissappeared and by his next appearance he was on the attack. As the leader of the plant people here on Earth, it made sense that only Goto/Keronia (who may or may not have been some sort of alien/human hybrid) would have certain abilities, such as the power to supersize himself. (Of course, the giant-size thing was pretty much just to fight Ultraman otherwise it'd be a pretty lame battle, with Ultraman simply squashing him, ala Inframan vs. the spider guy. LOL)

I found the whole idea of them turning us into food far, far creepier and scarier than simply killing us all. The notes Ito reads about absorbing everyone on Earth within eight years scared the poop out of me as a kid, and nicely paralleled the assimilation timetable scene from the 1981 remake of The Thing. The most disturbing thing were those... whatever the hell they were things that were in the bottom of Goto's suitcase that were slimy/greasy and pulsing. Man, that was disgusting and really gave me the willies as a little boy! LOL And what was with that injection he gave himself!? Yuck! Man, this Goto guy was weird, creepy and disturbing!!! LOL

The episode wrap-up was pretty cool, and I also liked the speech the professor gave at the very end about man being so full of himself and becoming lazy thanks to science doing most of our work for us, and how we often dismiss the natural world around us... and adding that it if we continue to remain ignorant that it could happen again! The eerie music in this scene really helped to sell the creepiness of the events.

I will agree that Ultraman defeated the invasion fleet too easily, but on the other hand it was cool to see his powers kicking the crap out of the bad guys. And let's be honest... this episode features the all-time coolest transformation into Ultraman, IMHO. When he explodes up out of that warehouse and gestures at Keronia with the "bring it on!" pose... well... I did, do, and always will think he just looked so absolutely badass! His finishing move was really cool here, too; there was no doubt that this badguy was completely and totally dead! It was neat to see his normal Specium Beam rendered worthless, and his reaction and him being put on the defensive for a bit longer was a nice change of pace. I did wonder why he couldn't destroy Keronia with the Specium Beam he was able to kill Omilogonda, another plant-type monster, way back in episode 5. But this is Ultraman afterall, so you have to be willing to suspend some disbelief.

[heroforhirerob]

[sentaison]

[Jinzo Ningen]

[heroforhirerob]

[Dagarah72]

My absolute favorite episode and my favorite kaiju from the first series! I LOVE Keronia! I watch this episode several times a year. "You poor doomed humans.... you're world is coming to an end!"


Ricky

[Timz]

I was looking forward to the invasion, and I would like to see the return of Keronia people in a future Ultraman movie or episode. I like Keronia very much as a monster alien. I thought the battle with Ultraman was pretty good. I especially liked how Hayata transformed into Ultraman underneath a building overhang and Ultraman erupted out of the building and took a battle stance. I love that moment so much, just as much as I love it when Hayata transformed to take on the Imitation Ultraman in "Brother from Another".

There were some small gaps story wise with the humanz before Keronia really started causing trouble at Science Patrol headquarters, but the ending battle made up for everything else that had a short coming.

[MekaGojira3k]

[August]

[MekaGojira3k]