Years ago, a local New York channel showed episodes of this science fiction super hero vs. monster series made in Japan, leaving my brother and I riveted (and temporarily out of trouble) for weeks. But all of a sudden, it was lifted from the T.V. schedule, and efforts to find it again were in vain. For decades, it was a distant memory embedded in the back of my memory, only resurfacing when I would happen to catch a "Godzilla" movie or one of the many science fiction monster movies made around the same time as this T.V. series. That is, until now. Researching 1950's and 60's science fiction and horror movies, I discovered it was available, fortunately both subtitled and dubbed, and immediately purchased it with great joy. What I found is perhaps not the childhood thrill of my memory but a long-lost cult T.V. series that has many admirers, but in retrospect with today's computer generated effect, looks rather cheap and is often silly, but certainly no better or worse than any of the movies I've come across in my research.
Watching this brought memories of how my brother and I reacted to this at the time. We had simple names for each of the creatures, describing how they looked to us with names like "the lettuce monster" and "the lobster monster". Certainly, one monster did look like a giant head of lettuce, complete with legs, while another did indeed look like a giant Maine lobster. Other creatures were based on various forms of lizards or monsters audiences had already seen on screen, and in a few, there were giant insects as well. Ultraman is a Japanese Batman/Superman hero, turned into this super creature thanks to a falling object from outer-space. With the help of the chained crystal around his neck, this Japanese hero could turn from mild-mannered scientist to superhero just by the press of a button, even able to rip off the scaly mane around a monster's neck, leaving bloody open flesh visible to the audience to squirm about.
Each of the episodes is pretty much set up the same way. Rumors of tremors or other potential natural disasters lead to the discovery of some other worldly creature. The same local children are usually spotted near the sight where the monster turns up, although the audience doesn't get a glimpse of the creature until almost halfway through the episode. Ultraman appears, a battle ensues (often comic looking), and guess who comes out the winner. In one episode, the battle made it appear that Ultraman and the monster were dancing together. This makes it difficult to watch more than one or two episodes in a row, but lazy viewers might find it more interesting to simply fast-forward to the way the monster is discovered, the first full view it has, and finally, the battle between creature and hero, combo outer-space visitor and mild-mannered human. Either way, it's a lot of fun even if it does seem like every time these producers filmed an episode, the Japanese rubber plant's stock would jump up 20 percent.
Watching this brought memories of how my brother and I reacted to this at the time. We had simple names for each of the creatures, describing how they looked to us with names like "the lettuce monster" and "the lobster monster". Certainly, one monster did look like a giant head of lettuce, complete with legs, while another did indeed look like a giant Maine lobster. Other creatures were based on various forms of lizards or monsters audiences had already seen on screen, and in a few, there were giant insects as well. Ultraman is a Japanese Batman/Superman hero, turned into this super creature thanks to a falling object from outer-space. With the help of the chained crystal around his neck, this Japanese hero could turn from mild-mannered scientist to superhero just by the press of a button, even able to rip off the scaly mane around a monster's neck, leaving bloody open flesh visible to the audience to squirm about.
Each of the episodes is pretty much set up the same way. Rumors of tremors or other potential natural disasters lead to the discovery of some other worldly creature. The same local children are usually spotted near the sight where the monster turns up, although the audience doesn't get a glimpse of the creature until almost halfway through the episode. Ultraman appears, a battle ensues (often comic looking), and guess who comes out the winner. In one episode, the battle made it appear that Ultraman and the monster were dancing together. This makes it difficult to watch more than one or two episodes in a row, but lazy viewers might find it more interesting to simply fast-forward to the way the monster is discovered, the first full view it has, and finally, the battle between creature and hero, combo outer-space visitor and mild-mannered human. Either way, it's a lot of fun even if it does seem like every time these producers filmed an episode, the Japanese rubber plant's stock would jump up 20 percent.