From Beyond Television: Ultraman Episode #1

 

Episode 1: ULTRA OPERATION #1 (URUTORA SAKUSEN DAI ICHIGO) ***

"There is only one way I can repay you for the terrible thing I've done to you. I will shall give you my life. You and I will become one, and we will fight as one for the peace of the Earth for all time. You will remain in your present form as Hayata. But now, take this Beta Capsule. Whenever you are in trouble, use the Beta Capsule, and you, Hayata, will become Ultraman!"

While patrolling the skies on the night shift, Shin Hayata reports back to home base he has seen a U.F.O. An enormous red orb is chasing a blue orb across the night sky. As fate would have it, Hayata's ship accidentally collides with the red object just as the blue U.F.O. descends into a nearby lake. Hayata is saved by the strange alien inhabiting the red glowing vessel. From the Nebula M-78, the benevolent being explains it was pursuing the monstrous pilot of the blue ship, Bemlar, after it escaped being escorted to the Space Graveyard. Merging with Hayata and giving him the Beta Capsule, the Scientific Investigation Agency (SIA) member secretly becomes Ultraman whenever monsters or aliens threaten the Earth.

From a billion miles away, from a distant planet land, the premiere of ULTRAMAN was a milestone in Japanese science fiction, and American pop culture in general. Every week on television, you could see a silver and red suited superhero battling it out with an array of aliens and monsters on the small screen at home. Beginning with that famous multi-colored ice cream swirl title card -- leading into the catchy Ultraman theme song, the attention span of monster kids across the nation were focused squarely on the tube for 30 minutes. 

Preceded by the giant superhero-less ULTRA Q, this second ULTRA show became a massive success as big as its title M-78 savior. Its popularity spread across Japan onto American shores within a few months of his Nippon debut, where it remained in steady rotation into the 1980s.

With over two dozen Ultra shows having landed since, ULTRAMAN's debut program seems almost non-descript these days; aside from setting the vast mythology into motion. Virtually every staple of the long-running series was born here -- a science/paranormal/monster investigative team, futuristic mecha, the hero's secret identity, a device used to transform into the title spaceman, and the all important color timer that signifies when Ultraman's solar energy is nearly depleted by the Earth's atmosphere. Some of these have been amended for subsequent series's, or eliminated altogether.

Every Ultra show had a colorful organization armed with assorted futuristic machinery (save for the recent ULTRAMAN GINGA). The arsenal of the SIA (Scientific Investigation Agency) in classic ULTRAMAN laid the template for all those that followed with its varied mecha and weaponry. The Jet VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) is probably the most popular ship on the classic show, and its numerous modifications in other ULTRA programs. The one seen here appears to be the same model featured in GORATH (1962), but with slight alterations. The bigger Sub VTOL (see above insert) is the ship Hayata is piloting prior to his near-death experience with the M-78 spaceman. Later shows would introduce vehicles and aircraft of varying creativity; not to mention vivid imaginations.

Compared with some of the later Ultramen, Bin Furuya is wiry and frail. As the series progressed, his suit would be stuffed to give the character more musculature. For later examples, Koji Uenishi (U-7) and Tatsumi Nikamoto (U-Leo) had natural muscular builds that added to the whole comic book style superhero persona. Ultraman's bulbous helmet looked kind of awkward in its clay design. As the series continued, the helmet would become much smoother, and more metallic in its construct. For the time, nothing quite like Furuya's interpretation of a giant hero of humanity had been seen before. This is the original Ultraman, after all. Without it, many kids childhoods would have been a lot less fun.

Bemlar, a tall, scaly, tree trunk-shaped alien beast with Tyrannosaur arms was the monster that launched an entire industry of television kaiju monstrosities. Bemlar isn't all that intimidating, though. His floppy arms are virtually useless, but he has a beam attack that looks like Godzilla's radioactive flame; and even has the same sound effect. Future monsters and alien would become some of the most famous of Japan's kaiju canon.

Since this series got noticed outside of Japan, dubbing it into English meant changes were to be made; this mostly amounted to alterations in character names and their relation with other characters. Captain Muramatsu became Captain Mura; Ide, the SIA inventor, and occasionally annoying comic relief, became Ito; the little boy Hoshino Isamu, who wants to become an SIA member, is renamed Hoshino Fuji in the American version, and depicted as Akiko Fuji's younger brother. Also for the US dubbed release, the SIA (Scientific Investigation Agency) became The Science Patrol.

One of the memorable aspects of ULTRAMAN that has stayed with this reviewer all these years is the catchy musical score by Kunio Miyauchi; particularly the theme for the SIA. Akira Ifukube is the Japanese Ennio Morricone (or as others state, the John Williams of Japan), and Miyauchi's pseudo-militaristic marches conjure the tonalities of Ifukube's memorable cues. 

For a television series, the special effects of ULTRAMAN were fairly ambitious. They look primitive today, but subsequent shows pack a lot of creativity in the SPX department. The first few Ultra series were very experimental in their approach to the material, and none of that would have been possible without Eiji Tsuburaya's big imagination and big dreams of having greater control over his ideas in this format. For a first episode, 'Ultra Operation #1' is standard fare, but a fine start for what would become an iconic part of not only tokusatsu history, but an American pop culture phenomenon.

MONSTERS: Bemlar
WEAPONS: Sub VTOL, S-16 Submarine, Jet VTOL, Super Gun

To be continued in Episode 2: BLAST THE INVADERS!!!

Monster Island Musings: Author David E. Goldweber

GO GO GODZILLA

By David E. Goldweber

It's been said that young boys can be divided into two types: LEGO Boys and Dinosaur Boys. I was a dinosaur Boy. When Dinosaur Boys are a little daydreamy, they might also be Dragon Boys. I was also a Dragon Boy. Put dinosaur and dragon together, and what do you get? Godzilla? Yes, eventually. But first I got Ghidorah. 

Like a lot of boys growing up near New York City in the 1970s, I regularly watched kaiju films on channel 9 or channel 11. They played on weekend afternoons and sometimes on weekdays, after school. These films were broadcast repeatedly for years.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was able to view almost every classic Toho and Daiei kaiju, not to mention oddball independent kaiju films like Gappa or The X from Outer Space. I watched them in their dubbed American versions, sure, but it's wonderful to think how all these things were available free, in these pre-cable TV days, for the kids who loved them.

My earliest kaiju memory is watching the conclusion of Gappa, at the oil fields. It was a weekday evening before dinner. My memory is black and white, which means this must have been 1974 or 1975 before we got our first color set. It's a fun memory. But then comes a whole series of memories of Ghidorah.

I knew King Ghidorah first from "Monster Zero" (Invasion of Astro-Monster), and I probably don't need to bother explaining his appeal: his immense size, his triple dragon heads, his bizarre forked tail, his pterosaur wings, and of course his lightining bolt attacks.

I liked Godzilla, but with Ghidorah it was basically love at first sight. I got a small Ghidorah figurine and a snap-together Aurora model of Ghidorah. The model was the best since the heads and tails could turn, and even the jaws moved up and down.

I played with that model for years, and when I grew too old to play with it, I kept it on my bookshelf with my books. I think I kept it until I went to college and my parents reclaimed my room. But I also kept the model's box to store my baseball cards -- and I still have that box -- and it still contains my baseball cards -- 35 years later.

So while I liked all the famous kaiju, except maybe Mothra who doesn't do much for kids, I heavily favored Ghidorah for years, until I was about 10 in 1978 and 79. Then, something happened that finally tipped the scales toward Godzilla.

I mentioned above that I grew up in New York City. What I didn't mention is that I grew up on Long Island. As with New Jerseyans, Long Islanders grow up with a bit of an inferiority complex since we're always in the shadow of Manhattan. So when something or someone from Long Island makes it big, we really notice.

We knew which singers and bands were from Long Island, like Billy Joel and Pat Benatar. And one more: BOC, the Blue Oyster Cult. The songs meant something extra to Long Islanders. BOC's biggest hit -- "Don't Fear the Reaper" (cowbell and all) -- was actually already behind it. But now in 1978, another song started creeping into popularity. The song was "Godzilla".

I remember my friends Mike and Ben discussing the song one day after school. "You gotta hear it!" they told me. Ben imitated the main gruff guitar riff, and Mike sang "go go Godzilla!"

Finally I heard the song at someone's house. "With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound, he pulls the spitting high-tension wires down..."

It was great! "Helpless people on subway trains, scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them...."

The steady, marching beat. "He picks up a bus and he throws it back down, as he waded through the buildings toward the center of town..."

The funny yet tough-sounding lyrics. "Oh no -- they say he's got to go -- go go Godzilla!" 

The sound effects, including those weird Japanese radio warning and crazy echoes. "Oh no -- there goes Tokyo -- go go Godzilla!"

I told my younger brother about the song and hummed the main riff about 10 times. I borrowed my buddy's album and taped the song. Later I got the album myself. 

Most importantly, I started to realize how amazing the REAL Godzilla was. How had I not realized this before?

Sure, Ghidorah was great, but look at Godzilla -- just LOOK at him. He's tough, like Ghidorah, but somehow he looks handsome too. Ghidorah has lightning bolts, but Godzilla's atomic heat breath is just as powerful, and more like a dragon fire. Ghidorah has two tails, but Godzilla's single tail could smash down a building by itself. Ghidorah is golden, but Godzilla is dark and brooding. Ghidorah can fly, but, well, uh, Godzilla can sort of fly... at least according to Godzilla vs. Hedorah (which I knew as "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster" back in the 70s).

Yes, the truth was now clear, and there was no turning back. I even got a Godzilla model kit -- and even better than my Ghidorah kit because the Godzilla head, claws, and fins glowed in the dark! (This is the famous Aurora kit originally from the 60s. I know it looks silly today, but I swear it looked great back in 1979). I probably played the song while I built the model.

And so it remains today, decades later. I still like Ghidorah. But GO GO GODZILLA!

...

David Elroy Goldweber is the author of CLAWS & SAUCERS: SCIENCE FICTION, HORROR AND FANTASY FILM 1902-1982.

To view and read content at the Claws & Saucers site, click HERE. To purchase the book, click HERE.