Blog Dec 30, 2022

ULTRAMAN CONNECTION WATCH CLUB: ULTRASEVEN EP 2

Hey folks, welcome back to Ultraman Connection’s Watch Club! I’m EJ Couloucoundis, Editor-in-Chief of UltramanConnection.com.

And once again, I’m Sarah Last, staff writer, Decker recapper, and Ultra fan along for the ride this week!

Sarah, tell me. Were you ever in the habit of picking up cool rocks you find on the side of the road or the like?

As a matter of fact, I was so enamored by shiny, cool-looking rocks that certain relatives of mine still send me samples as presents whenever I come and visit. I’m the one excitedly pointing out the strata of rock layers along the side of the highway on road trips, which admittedly is a bad habit to have when you’re the one driving…

Good to know, good to know… Second question: Have you ever been replaced and trapped within an alien boulder while your doppelganger spreads a horrible zombie plague? Just checking.

Uh… I can’t say that I have, no.

Oh, good. I was worried for a minute. You see, this week we watched Ultraseven episode 2, “The Green Terror,” and it got me a bit paranoid.

Now, to be fair, if I actually was replaced by an alien doppelganger, would I have answered that question differently?

…I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that for my own mental health. Anyway, for some reason I’ve always had a very strong recollection of this episode, and the Tilsonite 808 meteorites that enabled it. It’s really scary in a horror movie sense, which is a bit abnormal for Ultraseven.

We start with the unsettling imagery of what is in theory a meteorite falling from the sky, but it’s clearly something more. It glows an eerie, unnatural green, and its descent is slow, almost targeted…

The sort of shuddering stop that it comes to, right in front of the mansion where this week’s plot picks up from, certainly hints at a sort of chilling mystery that defines this episode. That’s heightened by an equally mysterious package being left with no note or address immediately afterwards.

Things get back into warmer, more familiar territory after that opening scene though. The Ultra Guard greets the return of another member, Ishiguro, who has just spent six months in space. It’s nice to see the sort of camaraderie that the team shares with their coworkers, but I seem to remember another time in the original Ultraman series where a previously unknown member of the defense team shows up out of nowhere just when other weird things start occurring as well.

I’m sure I’m just being paranoid though, right?

You must be. After all, Ishiguro’s been in space for half a year, and there’s nothing dangerous out in space. I’ll tell you though, nobody is happier to see the returning astronaut than his lovely young wife, who’s been waiting for him this whole time.

Unfortunately, Ishiguro seems to have become a little distant while he was out in space. And when Dan drops him off at his house, he gets a look at that meteorite, and even his Ultra eyes (pardon the pun) can’t penetrate the material. That’s probably not good.

It’s a very “Superman”-esque scene, with Dan trying to keep his secret identity under wraps while also investigating this mystery. I really enjoy that dynamic throughout Ultraseven, and it’s an angle that is markedly different from its predecessor. Even though Hayata had the power of Ultraman, he still was very much a human and there wasn’t much conflict between that role and his position on the defense team. But in this series, there’s a lot of times where Dan must be careful about not giving too much away, even though he has a different perspective on the causes or likely patterns of weird events that tip him off to an alien invasion.

Like for example, in this episode, he’s confused at the fact that the police don’t immediately find the meteorite suspicious, apart from the fact that it’s a meteorite. It takes Dan a moment to remember that humans don’t have X-ray vision to analyze its metal composition with a single glance like he can!

It’s one of the best parts about Dan in general. He’s endlessly compassionate, intelligent, brave, and smart- but he really is kind of rubbish at seeming like a normal guy. Thankfully, he’s just so cool that nobody seems to mind.

Anyway, once home, Ishiguro locks himself up in his office. He’s “busy,” after all, and only opens the door when his wife brings him a package that was delivered the day before; a package that he opens once she’s left to reveal another meteorite. And once he has that… his metamorphosis begins.

I personally think the Alien Waiell transformation effect is one of the coolest effects in Ultraseven. It’s fast for this sort of effect, using a zoom effect on Ishiguro’s hand to transition into the green, leafy fingers of his true alien nature, before fading into green—and then showing the writhing, vinelike body of the Waiell slithering outside in search of prey.

It leaves just enough to the imagination, and I’m sure most people watching this episode even now will imagine something appropriately terrifying. It’s such a simple effect, but it works so well!

Similarly, in subsequent attacks, all you see are slithering green vines attacking people -- which I’m sure mostly consist of a hand-puppet grabbing around the actor’s neck. But for a moment -- long enough for the show -- you’re transported into a world where alien attacks like this can come from outer space at any time.

As an aside, has there ever been a businessman stumbling home drunk at night who has ever made it back safely? It seems like in every series during the Showa era, they’re the favorite victims of these alien attacks!

Don’t overindulge when you grow up, kids.

This scene, with the first victim, is what got me really unsettled when I watched it the first time. Not only is he killed by the Waiell, but his body then changes, into the horrifying Human Organism X, a contagious monster that spreads the same condition to any victims! In Ultraman shows, we often see the plans of aliens achieve some sinister casualties, but this was the first time I really felt like a plot like this could actually overwhelm the Earth if nothing was done. It really hits a lot of those good zombie movie beats, a whole 11 years before Romero’s Dawn of the Dead!

Thankfully, the Ultra Guard is on the case, but they don’t have much in the way of leads; after all, what reason do they have to suspect their friend Ishiguro? He just came back from space!

Yes, one of the greatest strengths of the older seasons of Ultraman is that they take a B-movie horror plot that otherwise would have been a 90-minute movie, strip all the filler out, and just deliver the thrills and chills and cool special effects! That’s definitely on display in episodes like this one.

Following up from this quick-paced impact of attacks from crawling green vines, the Ultra Guard investigate the meteorite further, but seemingly reach a dead end with their investigation. There seems to be no explainable connection between the two…. Until they receive a call from Ishiguro’s housekeeper!

As another funny note, I love how Dan answers the phone then immediately takes off without telling anyone what the call was about! Anne goes running after him, thankfully, before things can get even weirder.

Like you said, he doesn’t get what being a person is sometimes! Why would he spend the time talking to other people when he could go solve the problem himself?

Meanwhile, all this time, the fake Ishiguro’s illusion has been starting to crumble, his wife and maid catching glimpses of the Waiell in windows. The fatal cracks show up, literally, when Dan and the Ultra Guard, in separate places, start to break into the Tilsonite 808 meteorites, with Dan discovering a transmitter unit, and the Ultra Guard discovering Ishiguro himself, stuck inside the bigger meteorite!

But where is the fake Ishiguro, you ask? Why, he’s on a train ride out with his wife… oh no. As soon as the meteorites are destroyed, the Waiell’s disguise begins to break down, in front of Ishiguro’s wife and a whole trainful of people! Thankfully, the passengers manage to run off, but now the Waiell is desperate, and desperate means dangerous.

Do we even learn what the Waiell’s plan is in all this? It seems like they wanted to keep a low profile and continue posing as the astronaut, Ishiguro, presumably to infiltrate the Ultra Guard for something even more nefarious than just attacking random drunk businessmen at night.

Luckily, Dan is on the scene when the alien’s cover is blown and jumps straight into action.

Oh, hey I just noticed that the Waiell suit has mirror pieces fitted into its surface! It really does a good job of making it seem even more mind-bending and bizarre with weird, eldritch angles. Not that there’s much time to admire it, since Ultraseven dispatches the monster so quickly in this fight!

That’s actually a relatively common element of Ultraseven episodes, I’ve noticed. The original Ultraman had a 3-minute time limit, but Ultraseven is sometimes done in less time than that! A lot of the foes that show up in the show are more than enough for a human, but an Ultra wipes them out with ease. The poor(?) Waiell figures that out in his last moments when Seven bisects him, a brutal end for the deceiver.

After that, though, Seven blows up the halves, illustrating another element that separates Seven from the original Ultraman; Seven is thorough. Nine times out of ten, if you’re brought him out, you’re dead. This isn’t to say that Dan isn’t perfectly capable of compassion, but it more goes to show the role of Seven in the series, as the one who ends the fight by force if Dan and the Ultra Guard can’t do it with diplomacy.

That’s a good point, Dan was trying to solve things within the defense team for most of the show, the same as the Waiell alien was trying to undermine the same defense team by assuming the identity of one of its members. It wasn’t until humanity’s foes showed their full playing hand that Dan does the same, and then transforms to fight it head on.

After that rough fight, we get a wonderful happy ending, with the real Ishiguro reuniting with his wife, and though she’s initially not sure if he’s not the monster she ran from, love prevails, and the two get to ride off together! I love, love, and considering denouements are relatively uncommon in the Classic era of Ultraman, it’s nice to see one in this, especially since half of the episode was about this relationship.

Even then, the episode doesn’t let us off so easily. “The incident has ended… but that doesn’t mean that the invasion has ended.” as the ever-present narrator reminds us. Even though Dan and his friends with the Ultra Guard have foiled this plot, this is only episode #2! There will be plenty more of chilling terrors and threats against the Earth with the coming episodes, which I’m sure we’ll be covering in future pieces here on Ultraman Connection.

We sure will. Next week on Watch Club, we’ll be covering the introduction of one of the most famous monsters in the entire Ultraman Series, with Episode 3, “The Secret of the Lake”. See you then!