EJ
Welcome back to the Watch Club, folks! It’s been a while; did you miss us? I’m EJ Couloucoundis, editor-in-chief of Ultraman Connection.
SL
And I’m Sarah Last, staff writer and content creator for Ultraman Connection! I’ll say, I’ve missed doing these pieces, and missed being able to return to Ultraseven each week. It’s been so much fun to watch and discuss some of the most influential pieces of work within the franchise!
This week… is not necessarily as groundbreakingly memorable as some other episodes we’ve covered such as “The Targeted Town”, or “Super Weapon R-1”, but it’s still a fantastic piece of science fiction in its own right. If anything, it reminds me a lot of another personal favorite, “The Man From V3”, but with a bit of a twist this time. Ah, but I suppose we’ll get to that soon enough.
EJ
It also has, by a big margin, one of the strangest designs of any character in Ultraseven. I say that with all the love in the world. With that in mind, let’s get started on “Glory for Whom?”
SL
We start out with something we haven’t seen too often in this series — the Ultra Guard hard at work training! In preparation for a big drill with the rest of the TDF’s forces, Arashi and Amagi take to the shooting range. Only they’re quickly interrupted by a new guy out of nowhere!
Now, I’ve been to shooting ranges before and I’m definitely sure you’re not supposed to just walk up on people like that when they’ve got a loaded shotgun in hand. But what Aoki lacks in awareness of gun safety rules, he makes up for in raw talent, beating even Arashi’s score shooting clay pigeons!
EJ
This sort of character Aoki is, the cocky hotshot, is not too uncommon in stories like this. And yet, there’s something truly audacious about how he just shows up, yanks a gun out of Furuhashi’s hand, and shoots not only a clay pigeon but a real crow right out of the sky. C’mon guys, that’s animal cruelty!
SL
This is why I was reminded a lot of episode 12, “The Man From V3”. The titular “man” in that story, Kurata, also came across as a cocky hotshot who put utmost faith in his own skills. Even when it seemed inadvisably risky for him to take those chances, he dared to do some pretty incredible things.
EJ
The difference between then and now is that Kurata was well-established, and an old friend of the captain. Aoki is a new guy. There’s talent, certainly, but when you think about the time that this was made, the late 60s, imagine some hotshot just rushing into the boss’s office and acting like he’s in charge, and imagine how much of a bother he comes across as.
SL
The funniest thing is that his bosses seem to be completely fine with him acting like this! When he shows up in the Ultra Guard’s control center later on, Amagi and Arashi are dumbfounded that he’s being considered for a position on the team, but Staff Director Manabe treats him with a sort of joking “Well, boys will be boys!” acceptance of his blatantly competitive aggressiveness. His number one goal is not just to get a position as a member of the legendary Ultra Guard though, but for everyone to recognize him as the best of the team.
Lucky for him (and unlucky for everyone else), he soon gets a chance to show off his stuff when the team is called to respond to a UFO sighting. Only the “UFO” in question is another training drill, a jet piloted by the actual legend — Dan Moroboshi. Dan gives him a run for his money, but while he and the Captain see this as just another way to build teamwork and camaraderie with a new recruit, Aoki clearly sees Dan as a threat.
EJ
I mean, can you blame him? Dan easily outskilled him — for someone like Aoki, you get the feeling that he’s never had to actually compete with anyone before. And Dan didn’t just compete, he won. Hopefully, Aoki isn’t serious when he says that he could have “opened up two spots on the Ultra Guard” when responding to the Captain’s claim that he could have killed them.
SL
And Manabe and Kiriyama just laugh it off!
I am genuinely baffled at how easily they take his literally cut-throat competitive declarations here. Maybe they think he’ll outgrow them or grow to warm up to the rest of the team if he’s working with them more closely? Dan clearly understands that the kid has a lot to learn, and offers to accompany him as they continue to make preparations for the next day’s mock-battle drill.
It really emphasizes the fact that — more than serving as a protector — Dan views Aoki sort of the same way he does humanity as a whole. Sure, we’ve got our flaws and vices, but he sees something of greatness in us, and wants to help guide Aoki to live up to that potential too.
EJ
I do think Dan sees a need to be a bit more “hands-on” with Aoki, though. Even if it seems like the thing Aoki wants his “hands on” is Dan’s throat. The moment Dan gets out of the Pointer after they detect something moving under the ground, Aoki steals the dang car, armed with no plan save to find the mysterious threat and somehow… I don’t know, get the credit for taking it out?
SL
He certainly gets credit for wildly shooting at an unconfirmed threat using the Ultra Guard’s powerful ordinance! But with the threat still, well, unconfirmed and seemingly no further harm done, everyone decides to go ahead with the plans for tomorrow’s big event. After all, the captain concludes, if something does go wrong, they’ll already be out in full force on the dunes to respond to it!
I’m… not quite sure if that’s brilliant strategic planning, or just tempting fate.
EJ
In a lot of ways, this episode is deeply frustrating, because Aoki is honestly one of the most ill-mannered and outright malicious humans we’ve met in the series to date, and that’s magnified simply by how permissive the entirety of the rest of the cast is being with him. He’s genuinely an awful person, and his desire for “glory,” as the episode title indicates, is so mad that he’s willing to essentially sabotage the Magmariser by placing a transmitter on it that may alert whatever the ship we’ve seen a few times slinking through the dunes.
Geez, this guy is the worst.
SL
His plan comes to fruition, although probably not in the way he intended, when all the crewmates manning the giant drill tank are attacked, and the Magmariser itself is stolen!
It really hammers in how bad things are gonna get when the Magmariser itself — which has played such a crucial role in several episodes for the Ultra Guard — comes under the control of some nefarious unseen force. As for the pilots, well, the Ultra Guard finds them the next day… turned to stone. Even worse, they find the missing Magmariser when it attacks the rest of the Ultra Guard and TDF forces who are in the middle of their mock battle!
At first they think it’s just part of the training exercise, but then realize that the tanks are using live ammunition against them! It’s really alarming and tragic to watch this scene and realize that TDF soldiers are actually dying in this fight without even knowing what hit them.
And once again, we need to remind you that this is entirely Aoki’s fault.
EJ
I would go so far as to call Aoki Ultraseven’s first human villain at this point. I really thought that he was going to turn out to be an alien disguised as a new UG candidate, but no, he’s just a jerk.
SL Still, no one else in the Ultra Guard knows about his treachery, so when he proposes to face the onslaught of tanks alone, everyone still finds faith in his talents and agrees to let him go. Even Dan, who got clocked out cold by Aoki the day before, wants to go with him and help in whatever way he can.
And for a second, it almost seems like Aoki’s attack will work.
EJ
For exactly one second. And even in that moment, rather than fixing the problem he created, all he cares about is showing up Dan. UGH.
Luckily, he immediately gets shot up by the Magmariser like he deserves.
I promise Sarah, I’m usually much more sympathetic towards characters.
SL
No, no, I’m completely with you on this. It’s pathetic how desperately he wants the respect and admiration of the team without sacrificing anything as a member of that team. It’s a mind-set so fundamentally opposed to everything Ultraman represents, that it’s sadly no surprise to see him undone by that fatal pride here.
Dan manages to get into Magmariser though, and finds the culprits behind this attack — when they abruptly jump him from behind!
Okay, we’ve seen a lot of weird alien designs in this show so far, but the Platic certainly are in the running for the weirdest of the bunch. Are those supposed to be frills all over its body?
EJ
He is called Platic — maybe they’re plastic bags! It’s not the weirdest he’s going to look anyway.
Dan becomes Seven and the two fight — honestly, with Seven beating the tar out of the Platic — before the alien uses its petrification power on the giant, freezing him. It looks bad, and even the Ultra Guard is getting nervous as they watch. Until, like… 30 seconds later, when he just unfreezes. I guess the power doesn’t work as long on people as big as Seven.
SL
Too bad for the Platic, because now that Seven’s back in fighting shape he wastes no time in putting the absolute smack-down on the alien. I’m not exaggerating, this fight is so brutal that we don’t even see most of it! All the audience gets to witness is Seven pile-driving this guy over a mountain then just walloping him until it fades to black.
When the scene returns, both Seven and the Platic alien seem completely exhausted, but Seven is the clear victor, leaving behind only his opponent’s skeleton in the dust. I can only interpret this utter brutality as Seven working off his anger over the whole situation, and focusing it on the poor fool who tried to invade the Earth on the worst day possible.
EJ
I am inclined to agree. With the Platic reduced to bleached — er, bronzed — bones on the desert sand, Dan finds Aoki, and learns that the guy had known about this alien for a while, and had been hiding its existence to try and further gain more glory, and when I tell you I let out a cheer when Dan smacked this jerk in the head for his nonsense- ahem.
It’s not QUITE over yet, as the skeleton of the Platic rises up behind Aoki and Dan, Aoki shooting it to death with the last of his strength. I guess that’s supposed to make up for all his nonsense, but… no, you got like 30 people killed, man! And now you’re dead, too.
SL
The phrase “jump scare” is used pejoratively a lot, but man I literally jumped out of my chair and yelped when that skeleton popped up. Straight out of Harryhausen’s nightmares, that was.
And yes, this episode ends on a very somber note. Aoki finally realizes the weight of his pride and all the death and destruction he’s caused by it, but too late to actually make any of it right. The title of the episode “Glory for Whom?” can’t help but pass through your mind as you watch the camera slowly pan out from his dead body, lying still on the sands, as Dan and the others give a final salute.
I think they’re paying respects to the man he could’ve been, the man he ought to have been, if only he didn’t put his own selfish pride above everything else. It hits hard because I think we all know someone like Aoki, or maybe even have the same temptation ourselves for glory-seeking. This ending is both a sad reminder of the consequences of that pursuit, but also a reminder that, in the end, Aoki was just as human as the rest of us.
EJ
Next week on Watch Club, we’ll take a truly fantastic voyage into a positively ENORMOUS little adventure when we check out Ultraseven episode 30, “The Flower Where the Devil Dwells!” See you then!
