"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode two 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 second episode was 33.4% 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 with more trivial tidbits every other episode. 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!

 Main Cast: Though this has 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. We didn't meet everyone in the first two episodes so some editing and adding will be done as we go along, the top three are by far the main characters. There will be many monsters in this series, at least 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? 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....

Goro and Goro

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 at guns and how that came to be is a mystery.

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.... Didn't see him in the first two episodes but is supposed to be a key character in the series.

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. 

 There aren't many but a few videos of this show on YT, mostly short scenes. Here's one that features the creature Lagon who doesn't appear for many more episodes but what's notable about this monster is that he also appeared in an "Ultraman" episode and was much larger. Embedding wasn't allowed so here's the link to it which is three minutes long: Lagon creature video

 These kinds of shows are so enjoyable and wish there were more in this vein... are there and I've somehow missed them? There are a few special TV movies a year with 4-5 mini horror and mystery stories, have viewed so many of those. But have there been many others like those specials or this show where every week there's a new stories, characters and perhaps monsters? Well, there's a project for me then which is to find any more shows such as this one and bet there have been but the problem could be they're either so rare or have never been subbed. Let's get to this 25 minute episode, the first show had two prehistoric monsters and if it wasn't for modern mankind they would not have been resurrected. No monsters in this show but instead there was monkey who grew to the size of Godzilla(!), though peaceful near the end this monkey almost destroyed a city!

 We will hear the names of large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka but for the most part many of the names are fictional ones. As the railway conductress says in the top screenshot they are on the Awashima Kaijo Railway, there is an island in Japan with that name but don't think the action took place there.... however am not 100% certain on that but it doesn't matter all that much. This railway tour was popular as it went into a forest where there was the noted Wild Monkey Research Institute. You can see one monkey in the second screenshot and history says these monkeys somehow emigrated from Mt. Amagi in Shizuoka prefecture which is a real place. This was another enjoyable tour for the passengers until you see what came upon this cable car in screenshots three, four and five.... a monkey close to the size of Godzilla! The conductress Yoko stayed calm, she notified the engineer who reversed the car's direction and no passengers were injured. But of course all were frightened to the Nth degree and this massive monkey followed the cable car to its depot, how could something that large not be seen until now????

 The massive monkey hadn't been seen because his growth had just taken place, how that happened will be explained shortly. In the two screenshots above the bottom one the man's name is Ono, along with his partner Matsuzaki they run the Wild Monkey Research Institute. The pair just returned to their labs which is near the Awashima Bay, they had been gone for two weeks. There's a young caretaker named Goro who took care of the place while the pair were gone but was acting mighty odd when Ono and Matsuzaki returned, what was up with him? That we will soon find out and it appeared their lab at the institute had been ransacked, many things were overturned plus as Ono says above the bottle with 300 Aoba walnuts is empty! That is not a real type of walnut but in this show Matsuzaki said eating those walnuts would affect an animal's thyroid glands but was unsure what the outcome would be. We viewers could see what would happen if a monkey ate so many of those walnuts as that's the above semi-monster, so far the scientists haven't heard about this massive monkey.

 Don't think they're 'Heroes' but the main three characters in this show are Jun and Ippei who work for Hoshikawa Airlines, Jun is a pilot while Ippei is his assistant. The third person is in the top screenshot, her name is Yuriko who is a young reporter for Mainichi Shimbun. She's currently on a holiday visiting Elyan Island, that didn't seem important at the time but as Yuriko says right above perhaps this island is key to this mystery of the massive monkey. Being on vacation meant Yuriko couldn't make it to Awashima quickly so her editor Seki in the third screenshot took her place. He may not often have a lot of screen time but Seki did in this show and in a way did turn out to be the hero. Jun and Ippei are close to Seki so flew him via helicopter quickly to Awashima, so far we don't know where the main characters are based at and perhaps it doesn't matter but don't think it's a major city. Meanwhile this huge monkey was prowling the island and did seem like a peaceful creature who was looking for something but couldn't find it. In a humorous scene a milk delivery truck ran into the monkey, of course the driver panicked and fled the scene, he's in the third to last screenshot. What was humorous was that the monkey picked up the bottles of milk and began to drink them, not easy to do when you're ten times the size of a human!

 At this point is when many of the questions surrounding the monkey began to get answered. After the milk driver fled arriving on the scene was the Wild Monkey Research Institute caretaker Goro and guess what.... he's the person the monkey had been searching for! Goro is this young man's name and named this huge monkey Goro also, to make it easy to follow will use red font for the Goro monkey. Goro the caretaker was such a monkey fanatic as the scientist Ono says above, wonder if Goro named this monkey to his Junior?! So the two Wild Monkey Research Institute scientists have deduced Goro grew so large because of eating 300 Aoba walnuts and that growth took place in only the two weeks they were away. Though so massive Goro does seem to be very peaceful, even when he held his 'father' Goro in his huge hands the monkey didn't crush him. Finally arriving on the scene at Awashima was Yuriko, as she says above there was a monkey the size of Goro on Elyan Island too. There the natives worshipped this massive monkey as if it were a God as it saved the lives of so many natives from landslides, weather, etc. plus made their lives so much easier, could Goro and this other massive monkey be somehow related? Was thinking to myself Yes for they're the only two monkeys to have grown to such a size from eating Aoba walnuts.

 These recaps are so much easier to write up than ones for movies and bet so much easier to read too! So while that milk satisfied Goro for a while a monkey that size needs much more than that to survive on so it began to raid the local farms and eating their crops! Goro was never harmful to anyone but seeing their crops gone infuriated the farmers who asked the island police to arrest Goro the human for it was him feeding the monkey the Aoba walnuts which caused this. The police did comply and that act of arresting Goro the human sent the massive Goro into a rage, it didn't help that almost all of the crops had now been eaten. To save the day was the Mainichi Shimbun editor Seki who is in three screenshots above. The tale his young reporter Yuriko told about the other massive monkey on Elyan Island really moved Seki and he had a plan to make everyone happy. Seki arranged for Goro the human to be released to him and just in time for the monkey Goro was finally becoming a bit destructive and destroyed two buildings though no one was hurt. 

 A large vat of milk was sent to Seki who handed it over to Goro to give to his 'son'!!!! When the monkey Goro saw his master had returned safe and sound he immediately calmed down, he took that large jug of milk and gulped it right down. In a shock Goro soon slithered to the ground, was he dead because of poison in the milk? No, Seki had arranged it that the milk would also have a high dose of sleeping pills and Goro would be sleeping like a baby for a few hours! In the meantime Seki had also arranged for a boat to take Goro from Awashima to Elyan Island where he could join up with the massive monkey living there and the episode ended on that note, Goro the human also went with his 'son'. That was a happy finale but don't think most will be that way, the first show wasn't. So these endings are supposed to leave us thinking about what we just viewed though personally am not going to go overboard with these 'special meanings, messages or questions' and just enjoy what I just viewed which was once again a winning show. Did bring up in the first recap very often older Japanese movies had a theme of what happens when mankind messes with Mother Nature, such as in this show when the regular sized monkey grew to be fifty feet because of walnuts a human fed him. Thanks for reading this and though only two recaps am already going to recommend this drama, will be back in a few days with the next pair of recaps.