"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode six of 28 recap

 

 Air Dates: January 2nd until July 3rd, 1966 though episode #28 didn't air until December 14th

Sundays at 7:00 pm on TBS, 28 total episodes that were 25+ minutes in length. Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, directed by his oldest son Hajime.

Subs by Tgwoe, screenshot dimensions 1436 x 1076(4:3). This classic series also has a color version but I prefer older shows/films in Black and White as that seems to give off a more creepy vibe which the subber also thought.

Ratings: **** Didn't find the ratings until the ninth episode but did update the first eight shows. This series had such high ratings but back in 1966 there were only a few regular stations and no cable. This drama ran opposite another sci-fi show called "W3" which was very popular and before this series began had an average rating of 23%. However "Ultra Q" was much more popular and the other show slipped below 10%!!!! The average rating  for these 28 episodes was 32.4%, the rating for this sixth episode was 31.2% and will update this section for each show. 

 In the middle are the main three characters, who they are will be revealed below. The man on the left end is Eiji Tsuburaya and he is the #1 special effects man/director of all time in Japan. He did all of the special effects for the classic TOHO films such as creating the costumes, sets, etc. and of course most reading this have seen the "Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan" and other movies. This TV series was the first of it's kind in Japan and Tsuburaya had created this series where he didn't want the focus to be on monsters but the story which was the format for the old American series "Outer Limits". But TOHO wanted his unique monsters and there will be a different one in each show, will update this top section now and again with more trivial tidbits.

 Below are the two monsters for episode one, on the top is Gomes(s) who does look similar to Godzilla, Tsuburaya had access to all of his old costumes so would often mix them up such as the head from a 1965 film, the body from a 1961 movie and so on. Litolaria is the name of the second monster though no destructive one as it saved the day and destroyed Gomes! Of course there's been many other monsters since then but will leave this pair up for a while. Not every episode will have an original monster as in the second show it was just a very massive monkey and think on occasion the 'enemy' will be aliens from space.

**** Have thought of a new feature and will replace this one soon. Think I may wait until the ninth episode and then start listing all of the monsters that have appeared in an episode. Will have a screenshot or two plus a mini bio of the creature. Think that would turn out well but the problem could be would that section become too large?

 Main Cast: Though it appears this had nothing to do with the "Ultraman" franchise in a way it does as this series is considered to be it's forerunner. The first "Ultraman" series began a little bit after this show ended and there's not enough time to talk about that show and it's movies which I do recommend. Hiroko Sakurai who plays the reporter Yuriko in this show is quite known for her "Ultraman" work as she was in the first series plus a few more after that along with being in many of the movies. Will do some editing and adding as we go along though not as much as other dramas, the top three are by far the main characters. There will be many monsters in this series, perhaps one per episode! Won't give any details about them at the top but will talk about them during the recap.

**** Not sure how to explain this and perhaps it doesn't need it. But when the show opens a narrator tells us what we are about to watch will be something extraordinary, is what we view real or just a part of our imagination? A screenshot of that is above and that's how the American series "Outer Limits" also opened and at the end the viewers were asked to think again with about what we viewed, to date this show hasn't done that. Every episode has it's own title, this episode's is....

Grow Up! Little Turtle....

Kenji Sahara as Jun Manjome.... Don't think any actor was in more of the classic TOHO monster films than Sahara was between 1954 to 1975 and also in four "Ultraman" series! Jun is a pilot for Hoshikawa Airlines, he can fly both planes and copters. Though a pilot Jun does dream of becoming a best selling sci-fi writer, he's also adept with guns and how that came to be is a mystery. Plus Jun is a master with cars and could have been a racer, one last thing is that Jun loves science which is how he and his mates are friends with Professor Ichinotani.

Yasuhiko Saijou as Ippei Togawa.... Jun's assistant at Hoshikawa Airlines but Ippei doesn't have any licenses yet but is close to getting one for flying helicopters. Bit of a goofball but seems to be much more intelligent than others think, Jun must see that too as he does trust Ippei fully.

Hiroko Sakurai as Yuriko Edogawa.... On the left below, will have a different pic in the future. 21 year old reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun(daily news) paper. Yuriko is the youngest at the newspaper but her editor Seki believes fully in her and sends Yuriko out on the harder stories such as the mysterious and unexplainable....

Ureo Egawa as Professor Ichinotani.... We finally met this older professor in the third episode. Know very little to date about him such as how did Jun and his mates come to be friends with this man who is ultra intelligent. Though him and the next character Seki are important to the drama each will only be in about half the episodes.

Yoshifumi Tajima as Seki.... Yuriko's editor at Mainichi Shimbun(daily news), older man who acts tough though is a softie and often gives Yuriko the stranger/mysterious cases. Not a huge role but an important one and in the second episode Seki was the Hero!

 There will be many guest characters in this series but may not include any of their names unless that part goes for two episodes or it's someone very famous. 

Previous recaps: There is no ongoing storyline but all of the shows have been entertaining so here are the links to all of the recaps done.

Episode one: Gomes .... Episode two: Goro and Goro .... Episode three: A Gift From Space

Episode four: Massive Flower

 There aren't many but a few videos of this show are on YT, mostly short scenes. Here's one that's about ninety seconds that features a half minute promo clip, the music is quite cool and so isn't the extremely odd creature!

 

 

 

 Made a comment about a possible change to the very mini 'Monster Section' above and would love to start hearing a few comments about this or any other drama/movie. Have been a bit surprised at these recaps for the show as they have been drawing a good amount of views. Some Japanese dramas do draw a solid amount of views and many more than five years ago though the posts for Korean series are much more popular. Haven't recapped a Korean show in three months but may soon for when I finish this series was thinking of starting on "Solomon's Perjury" which looks so interesting, will just wait and see how I feel about things once this drama is completed.

 This was a confusing show yet another fine episode but will confess I enjoyed the first five more, to me the best show to date has been fifth episode. In this show we only saw the main three characters for about a minute and they had no impact on what took place. This episode was kind of a Spoof, no monsters but as you can see above there was a huge turtle which grew to 99 cm or 3.25 feet/39.8 inches. But if you look at it above doesn't the turtle look longer than 3.25 feet, maybe that was the length when it's head and tail were in the shell. There were some silly moments and unlike the other shows there was no Lesson to be learned such as what happens when you mess around with Mother Nature. There may have been a slight theme which is what could happen if you lie or make up stories too often, you can decide on that and let's get to the action. Don't know where this episode was set but it didn't matter as the outcome would have ben the same whether it was set in Okinawa or Hokkaido.

 In just about every scene in this show was the boy you see often above and will throughout the recap. His age wasn't mentioned but I was figuring about twelve and his name was Taro Urashima, the show opened with him and his classmates in math class, the sixth grade? Oizumi was the very bland teacher and you will see him often, instead of paying attention to the lesson Taro was playing with and feeding his Turtle in class. Taro never did name it but it's currently a little over 12 cm in length. Taro told his mates when the turtle grows to 99 cm it'll be bringing Taro to the mythical Dragon Palace. More on that near the end and was it a real place or just a dream? Oizumi has had it with warning Taro about bringing the pet turtle to class, the teacher took the pet away and for another punishment told Taro to stand on the school's roof! Which Taro did and what soon happened was such a frantic succession of unbelievable events! While standing quietly on the roof down below of all things a bank robbery was taking place across the street from the school, Taro witnessed a shootout between the two robbers and the police!!!! Somehow the pair of criminals were able to elude the police and slipped into the school unnoticed or at least for now.

 Taro's detention on the roof came to it's end, he dashed down to the teacher's office to see Oizumi and get his turtle back. Which Taro did but of course told Oizumi all about the bank robbery and the teacher rolled his eyes at the story! Seems Taro often lied and created stories, not just at school but at home as his parents later said. So Oizumi didn't believe the story of any bank robbery but will end up eating his words. Taro left his teacher and guess who he met in a secluded section of the school? The two bank robbers in hiding and for some reason the turtle latched on to the leg of one of them! Taro was in a panic and and tried to grab it back but now that the coast was clear the robbers dashed from the school and were able to jump onto a truck and and it appeared they would get away scot free! But there was no way Taro was gong to let them leave with his turtle and do wish he had named it, Taro was also able to jump onto the truck which whisked the trio away. At the time that incident had been unknown to anyone at school soon the teachers discovered it was true what Taro had said about witnessing a bank robbery. This scene was the only time we saw the three major characters of Jun, Ippei and Yuriko. They're in the bottom screenshot above and the first one below. For some reason they were called in to help with the investigation and don't know why as they left just as quickly as they had arrived!!!!

 That above screenshot was kind of coolish, what was taking place will be explained n the next paragraph. So the school, Taro's parents and the three main characters are all searching now for Taro though we never saw any of them after that scene until the end. But we did see plenty of Taro with the two bank robbers, the vehicle they had jumped into was a beer delivery truck. All Taro wanted was his pet turtle back but as one robber says above the turtle clung on to him and wouldn't let go! One of the robbers had a high quality machine gun and where would he get that? Somehow Taro was able to pick it up and began to fire at the beer bottles, a noise like that is hard to keep a secret. So of course the police head the gunfire and the truck had stopped outside an amusement park, soon the police were chasing Taro and the robbers around it. To me it looked like a scene from some sort of Keystone Kops movie! Though the inept cops were just a few feet behind them the pair of bank robbers were once again to elude capture and ended up in an abandoned building. There was one person who had kept on their tail who was of course Taro and he won't leave these criminals alone until he gets his turtle back!

 That turtle had clung on to one of these robbers for seemingly hours but guess it's mouth became a bit too tired and finally let go. And right around them is when it went from a bit of inaneness(a word?) to becoming full blown! Soon this turtle which in the beginning of the show was 12.3 cm began to sprout and Taro thought it was because of the chlorella food he had been feeding it to make it strong! This growth was unstoppable, within minutes the turtle was over 50 cm and showing so signs of slowing down. That creeped out the pair of robbers to no end, they didn't care if they were arrested as they dashed to the nearest police station! When they returned with a group of officers Taro was nowhere to be found along with his turtle, how could he have disappeared in a blink of an eye? What had taken place was the turtle had grown to 99 cm(over three feet) and had developed some special powers. Such as being able to become invisible and walk through walls, Taro tried to follow his pet but of course he couldn't go through the wall or any other objects. However Taro could go through objects when he sat on the turtle's shell and you can see that in the second to last screenshot above. The turtle can also now fly which is also above, now that the turtle has reached 99 cm Taro told it to head to the Dragon Palace and guess that's where the pair ended up, hard to say what was real and what wasn't for the next few minutes.

 Not really sure what to think of the last 5+ minutes which are the above screenshots and the first three below. Was this some sort of dream that Taro was having or could it have possibly been real, not sure what to think and won't as maybe we viewers weren't supposed to. So as you can see above Taro arrived at this mythical Dragon Palace place which was shrouded in clouds and there was a five(?) year old girl there named Otohime. She just kept going back and forth on a swing and gave Taro vague answers to all of his questions. Otohime too had some odd powers such as she was able to create an ice cream out of thin air plus summoned some sort of flying dragon which is above but it disappeared after a few seconds. Taro wasn't in this 'dream place' for too long, before he left Otohime handed him a box which is in the middle screenshot above. But as you can see Otohime wasn't holding a box but perhaps she was as it was invisible and wouldn't take form until being on Earth(?), the oddities to this mini scene were endless. Before we knew it Taro was back n the real world and by now less than two minutes remained in this episode.

 Taro had appeared in his teacher Oizumi's office, also there were his parents and the police, Taro swore never to lie ever again. However when he began to tell his story of flying with his turtle to the mythical Dragon Palace all rolled their eyes and said 'didn't you say no more lying?. All left the room and that's when Taro realized he still had the box Otohime had given him which he had never opened. For some reason just prior to checking out the box Taro uttered Grandpa, then he opened the box and instantly became a man in his seventies!!!! He did go back to being a  twelve year old boy though we didn't see how that happened, there's just twenty seconds to go in the show. The setting was Oizumi's math class and no student was paying attention. We saw Taro at his desk and for once didn't have his pet turtle. However every other student in the class had their own turtle(!) and were playing with them, that's how this episode ended. Those screenshots are below and in all honesty I was totally lost on what this ending meant, was it some sort of message and if it was I have no clue what it was. Oh well, another decent show but much prefer the more serious stories with monsters and intensity but guess now and again a drama like this needs some lightheartedness.