ULTRAMAN CONNECTION WATCH CLUB: ULTRASEVEN EP 5

ULTRAMAN CONNECTION WATCH CLUB: ULTRASEVEN EP 5

EJ

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

SL

And once again, I’m Sarah Last, staff writer and content creator for Ultraman Connection!

EJ

Hey Sarah, have you ever watched The Manchurian Candidate?

SL

The 2004 political thriller film? Can’t say that I have!

EJ

Ahaha, that’s actually a remake of a much older film, one made in 1962. It starred Frank Sinatra! And that’s important, because that means that the creators of Ultraseven could have watched it before making Ultraseven episode 5, “Vanished Time.”

SL

Now I’m imagining Frank Sinatra in an Ultraman show. Can you imagine a timeline where that happened? I suppose I’m getting off track here, let’s get back to talking about the episode this week!

Even if I haven’t seen The Manchurian Candidate, it’s one of those movies that has filtered its way into the public consciousness. A plot to insert a brainwashed sleeper agent into a sensitive political position, where the main characters can’t trust other people around them, let alone trust themselves! That sort of intrigue already is right at home in Ultraseven’s wheelhouse, but of course there’s the added twist of an alien invasion thrown on top of things this time. 

I’m pretty sure the original film didn’t have aliens, right?

EJ

No, no aliens. I think… Anyway, yes, “Vanished Time!” 

The show starts with our future “Manchurian Candidate” himself, Dr. Yushima, flying from the Terrestrial Defense Base in Antarctica. 

SL

Some things from this show have aged remarkably well, like the monster suit designs, or the heavy themes about social and political realities. But you know what always takes me out of shows made around this time in the 1960s? Everyone smoking on airplanes.

EJ

Nonsense, smoking on airplanes is a time-honored tradition! 

Air quality aside, Yushima is coming to the Ultra Guard base to install his revolutionary “Yushima Diodes” that will revolutionize the range of their long-range radar. Such a thing would make it borderline impossible for any alien threats to sneak in and cause trouble… which, of course, the aliens have a problem with. 

And so, mid-flight— mid-PUFF, even— time suddenly stops in the plane, which hangs in the air mysteriously…

SL

I love this opening to the episode. The audience, let alone the characters themselves, has no clue what just happened. There’s been no evil proclamation of an intention to invade the Earth, or to destroy the Ultra Guard, or any hint as to why time stopped. All we know is that something weird has happened, and that’s usually not a good sign when we’re talking about events in Ultraseven

On another note, I want to point out that this opening sequence, where the airplane touches down and Dr. Yushima is welcomed to the base, really goes the extra mile by using miniature shots to establish these scenes. The episode could have just cut to Yushima walking onto the base, but instead we get shots of the jetliner landing on the runway and cruising to a halt, and then the Ultra Guard with Dr. Yushima riding an underground tram from the airport. Little touches like that help to make the Ultra Guard and the larger TDF organization feel like it exists in a real space, it has a specific visible footprint on the world within the show. 

EJ

Once more, this is Eiji Tsuburaya’s bread and butter. The part that still gets me going is the landing of the plane itself, with the smoke coming off the wheel as it skids on the ground and bounces, the parachute flaring out as it starts to decelerate down the runway… so cool. 

When Yushima gets there, Furuhashi is assigned as his bodyguard. We haven’t talked about Furuhashi a whole lot since our watch club started, but in my mind, he’s practically the deuteragonist with how often he’s directly related to alien shenanigans. It certainly feels like when the Ultra Guard encounter a strange situation, he’s the member doing it alongside Dan.

SL 

I really enjoy how the Ultra Guard members each have a side to their personality that comes through in the way they bounce off Dan during different episodes, across different missions where they find themselves working together. Furuhashi and Soga in particular are the best at the shooty-shooty-punch-punch missions and show off a lot of that steadfast courage and skill alongside Dan in episodes like these. 

This episode is different however, because Furuhashi isn’t fighting against aliens directly and is pretty nervous about serving as a bodyguard for Dr. Yushima! You can tell that he takes his job seriously and wants to present the best possible example of the Ultra Guard’s renown with this mission. 

EJ

Furuhashi is Sandayu Dokumamushi’s second major role in the Ultra Series. He was formerly Daisuke Arashi in the original Ultraman, and Furuhashi was a big divergence from that role. While Arashi was the reliable big brother figure in the SSSP, Furuhashi is… Well, he’s also very competent in Ultraseven, but he has a habit of being a bit of a goofball, sometimes. Especially when he’s maybe trying a bit too hard? He’s a bit “overtuned” in his work this episode, pulling out his gun when he hears a magazine drop from a sleeping Yushima’s lap.

SL

I feel bad for him almost, he’s trying really hard to not mess this up, and anticipates some sort of attack to destroy Dr. Yushima’s work… but no one expected the famed “Brain of the Earth” scientist to be the threat himself! After the Alien Vira “wake” up their agent and send him to destroy the diodes and sabotage the TDF’s radar, Furuhashi clearly takes the terrible turn of events personally and tries to take responsibility for this devastating worst-case-scenario. 

But the Vira also warned their agent that Dan Moroboshi was another alien, and to be wary of him. So, in this scene, the brainwashed Dr. Yushima also takes the opportunity to cast suspicion on him, and hints that he might be the mysterious saboteur instead!

It’s a very devious play, and for the first time in this series, Dan’s weird behavior and inexplicable disappearances are now under suspicion. The audience is left wondering how he can possibly defend himself from this — admittedly, somewhat truthful — accusation, while also trying to expose the Vira’s deadly schemes!

EJ

And with the radar totally down, the Ultra Guard must patrol even more, using their important jets for scout duties— while an ACTUAL fleet of ships approaches, unseen…

I love the Vira ships. They remind me of molecular bonds, connected by single points all over into strange shapes. We only occasionally see alien ships in Ultraman shows in general, and Ultraseven has some of the coolest and most diverse ships in the entire series.

SL

Even the Vira themselves have a unique design. They look more like horseshoe crabs (or Xenomorph facehuggers, perhaps…) than any other sort of living creature, but clearly are highly intelligent and dangerous, even with their wiggly little legs and big eyes. Everything about them feels appropriately, well, alien. It’s also an interesting contrast to Dan himself — who also is taking a human form to pass unnoticed within the Ultra Guard — but who is far more interested in learning about humanity and experiencing the world alongside them, rather than taking advantage of their weakness to destroy them!

EJ

And honestly, the Vira seem a bit better at fitting in, though maybe that’s because they took the identity of an established person. When Dan catches Yushima preparing to sabotage the Ultra Hawks, the primary line of defense for the Earth, he attacks the professor, letting the Vira agent finally paint him as the spy. He is jailed, just as the Vira invasion begins in earnest. 

Alone in a cell with no other options, Dan transforms into Seven and breaks out, finding Yushima as he’s misaligning the launch catapult for the Ultra Hawks. Disabling him with a beam, Seven fixes the sabotage and flies out alongside the jets, engaging the Vira ships and easily destroying them. You can really see why the Vira felt they needed to take out the Ultra Guard ahead of time here; they have no chance in a straight fight.

SL

I love that shot of Seven just effortlessly ripping the bars of his cell apart before running off to stop Dr. Yushima. 

Also, I forgot just how often we get to see Seven running around doing things at “normal” human size. It’s something that doesn’t happen a lot in many other Ultra series, and it still strikes me as strange — and a bit humorous — to see him interacting with other human characters at their same height in episodes like this, and the previous one.

EJ

After the fleet is mostly decimated, the main Vira emerges while the Ultra Hawks chase down the last few stragglers. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting the Vira puppet to be this… big. Obviously, there’s elements of perspective and effects to keep in mind, but the Vira is as tall as Seven. Imagine a shrimp the size of a man; that’s horrifying. Thankfully, Seven cuts it down to size pretty easily, as expected.

SL

You say “horrifying”, but I laughed out loud watching Seven get clocked in the face with a big shrimp tail in this fight. What’s really horrifying is watching the dismembered pieces of the Vira set on fire after the alien ships are shot down and crash into its corpse

Anyways, after Dr. Yushima is revived, I think everyone’s learned their lesson from this episode —

EJ

Oh? What lesson is that?

SL

If violence doesn’t solve your problems, then clearly you need to use more of it. Remember that kids!

EJ

Uh… Sure, Sarah. That’s… a great idea. Anyway, come back next week for one of my favorite episodes of Ultraseven, as Episode 6 takes us into… the Dark Zone.