Blog Jul 24, 2023

Ultraman Connection Watch Club: Ultraseven Episode 28 “The Earthling All Alone”

Hello folks, and welcome back to Watch Club! I’m EJ Couloucoundis, editor-in-chief of Ultraman Connection.

And I’m Sarah Last, staff writer and content creator for Ultraman Connection! Readers, you’re going to hear me saying this a lot during this stretch, but I have been looking forward to this episode for our Watch Club! Last week was packed full of bombastic thrills and explosions, but in comparison, this week’s episode is a lot more reserved and somber. If there’s one thing Ultraseven excels at achieving, as we’ve seen, it’s covering this huge range of emotions and perspectives on humanity. What’s in store for us this time, EJ?

Have you ever felt lonely out there, readers? Like you’re all alone?

Worse yet, have you ever felt like you’re not alone?

Let’s talk about those feelings with today’s episode “The Earthling All Alone.” Fittingly named.

Also fittingly, the episode starts with a woman walking alone through the silent, almost seemingly-deserted campus of Kyonan University. When she enters into an office though, she finds it’s not deserted after all, and catches a glimpse of a strange alien before she runs away!

But is it an alien, or an ordinary-looking professor, who also appears from behind the desk right after she flees the room?

Okay, that was an easy question. He’s definitely an alien, but what he’s doing at the university, or how our main characters will encounter him, leads into what I consider to be the most interesting parts of this week’s story.

From a moody opening, we transition into one of the funniest and most adorable interactions between the Ultra Guard ever, talking about Soga’s new fiance Saeko. Soga and Anne are positively buzzing as they chat happily about the new accomplishments of Saeko’s university, which has helped launch a new satellite, much to Furuhashi’s bemused confusion.

It’s so much fun seeing everyone joking around in this episode. The relationships and connections which involve all of the Ultra Guard feel so real and authentically warm. I love that it emphasizes the fact that the Ultra Guard aren’t just the premiere team for the defense of the Earth, but they also represent the best of humanity in general within those relationships, not just with their advanced technology and weapons.

Unfortunately, not everyone on Earth is so lucky to share such warm connections, as we’ll see here in a minute. Being a human being is hard sometimes.

As Soga comes to visit Saeko, she immediately tells him of her suspicious and the alien shadow she saw the night before. The Ultra Guard had already suspected Niwa of being an alien, but her testimony confirms it.

This is far from the first episode of Ultraseven where the Ultra Guard has dealt with an alien disguising themselves as a human on Earth. Most of the time, however, the challenge comes from identifying and cornering the extraterrestrial imposter in the first place! Thanks to Saeko, the UG not only knows that Professor Niwa is a fake identity, they also figure out pretty quickly that he’s also not even from this planet!

In addition, Saeko expresses her worries about the professor’s assistant Ichinomiya. An old friend of Saeko’s, she fears that he may be in danger, and not know that the professor is an alien in disguise.

Unfortunately for her, not only does Ichinomiya know, he’s actively keeping the professor’s secret. Ichinomiya had been dealing with feelings of inadequacy and the sad reality of not being accepted, he denies the professor is an invader, but instead believes him to be a friendly alien, who helped him. Before Ichinomiya can say anything else — or do anything else — he spots Soga coming in the Pointer and runs off.

Similarly, by this point in the show there’s been many individual humans who have been duped by alien infiltrators, or exploited for their plans. The fact that Ichinomiya knows and is willingly working with the so-called “Professor Niwa” is a pretty huge twist. Another interesting twist is the bitter anger he turns on her, when confronted. He seems almost… disappointed in their suspicion, and takes it personally. It really forces the audience to step back for a second and think… what if he’s right? What if Niwa actually is completely innocent?

Well, this being Ultraseven, you should know by now. Things can — and will — always get worse.

When Soga, now knowing everything, confronts Niwa, it doesn’t go well — Niwa shrugs off a shot from him and offers similar force back to the guardsman, knocking him out. Knowing his cover is blown, Niwa takes Soga to the satellite he’s stealing. Worse yet, the alien — an Alien Prote, to be exact — has stolen his memories with his technology to learn the plans of the TDF.

Sensing that the UG is on the way, Niwa draws Ichinomiya to him so they can escape, and admits, horribly, that everything Saeko warned about him is true — the electron transmission device that Ichinomiya built with Niwa’s help is part of the greater invasion plan of the Protes! Heartbroken, Ichinomiya attacks Niwa, drawing bemusement from the alien — how can a man who claimed to hate Earth and its people now defend them?

I really appreciate the fact that this episode takes place a little more than halfway through the show. Ultraseven covers a huge range of tones, themes and cinematic styles in its run, but there are a few consistent patterns which audiences have certainly picked up by now. The consistent paranoia regarding threats from outer space is an expected mindset for humanity at this point, and Ichinomiya’s cynicism regarding it is sadly a sympathetic position, after seeing the horrific outcome of that paranoia. Episodes like The Targeted Town and Super Weapon R-1 present the very obvious and horrifying outcomes which occur when that paranoia runs rampant.

For a moment, at least for me personally, I really wanted to believe Ichinomiya. I wanted this to have a happy ending. So seeing his good faith betrayed so heartlessly by the Alien Prote really hit me hard. In a way, it also makes his desperate attempt to stop them here even more meaningful

Ichinomiya tries to fight, but Niwa transforms into his true Prote form…

When Dan busts in shortly after, the Prote is the only one there, and it tries to kill the UG officer — thankfully, Dan isn’t just a normal human. He transforms into Ultraseven — something the Prote clearly didn’t know from Soga’s memories. The alien jumps out the window, panicking.

This is one of those episodes where you almost forget the show is called Ultraseven because the plot and guest characters do such a great job of supporting the episode on their own. It almost feels more like a lost Ultra Q episode to me in many ways.

This fight between Seven and the Prote is super creepy and fun, with the Prote abusing illusions to make it feel like Seven is battling a whole team of aliens, making it far more difficult than his usual battles.

Meanwhile, the Prote ship Niwa contacted has arrived, latching onto the satellite and taking it away — with Soga on it! The Ultra Guard quickly pursues it to retrieve him.

Things take a warped turn towards the end of the battle as Niwa rises out of a puddle of red slime that I hope isn’t blood.

I think it’s the most blood they can get away with and still claim this as a family show! Gushing yellow liquid coming out of a dismembered kaiju suit — A-okay! Seeing an actual actor bleeding out is a different matter, but I think it’s clear that Niwa at least got severely injured in that fight.

He’s happy to let Ultraseven keep battling his giant illusionary form while he escapes through his electron transporter device. Unfortunately for him, Ichinomiya is not dead, and much to Niwa’s horror, he jumps onto the alien as the transport starts. The device can only transport one person at a time, not two — and with Ichinomiya’s sacrifice, both he and the invader are disintegrated.

It’s a tragic end to this episode. Ichinomiya wanted to use his technology to help the Earth, even if he fell into a trap of jealousy and bitterness when it seemed like the scientific establishment didn’t recognize his contributions. In the end, I suppose he helped the Earth in an even more significant way by stopping the Prote’s invasion here.

With the “Prote” he was fighting gone, Seven teleports up to space to catch the fleeing spaceship, and in an almost funny moment, he doesn’t just destroy the ship or anything. He just, kinda… snags the satellite back and runs off. The ship of course pursues him, but that only leaves it open for the Ultra Guard to destroy it.

The story ends with Dan and Soga reflecting on the events of the past day, from the roof of the university. Soga is saddened that Ichinomiya’s genius has been lost forever after he sacrificed himself to destroy the technology he helped to invent. But Dan points out that they don’t know for certain if he’s dead! He could have simply been teleported somewhere else in space, and be wandering alone through the cosmos, unable to return to Earth…

…Okay, but that’s worse, Dan. You see how that’s worse, don’t you?

There’s one small stinger at the end of the episode, as Saeko walks through the same hallway and hears a sound from Niwa’s old office. She decides not to check it out this time, and for once it’s fine — it was just the wind!

This is a great episode, one that explores a rare dynamic in humanity’s relationship with aliens. There’s a ton of great effects work too! A strong recommend from us.

I really don’t understand why this one isn’t talked about much when discussing Ultraseven, I think it’s a critical counterpoint to a lot of the most famous episodes in the show’s run.

Next week, we take a look at an utterly petrifying episode, when we watch Ultraseven Episode 29, “Glory for Whom?” See you then!