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 25th episode was 31.5% 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. 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.
**** This is a new feature that was added for the eleventh episode and will update it every other recap. This mini section will have the monsters/creatures that we have seen to date and you can see more of them as a bit further down are the links to all of the episodes. Did have just two screenshots of the monsters but now that I'm caught up with them will have four of them for the remaining shows. The first four screenshots below were from the 23rd episode, no creature from outer space but an Octopus called Sudar which grew to the size of a giant! It was both a God and Enemy of the small Compass Island in the South Seas, after those are four from episode 24. This time the creature began off as an innocent looking statue but grew into this massive snail like looking monster which could shoot laser beams from its tentacles!
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 in it's same time slot 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....
The Devil Child
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. In episode fourteen did learn Hoshikawa Airlines was along the Tama River, that's 15 or so miles west of Tokyo.
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!
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.
There aren't many but a few videos of this show on YT, mostly short scenes. Did add in a new video two posts ago though it sadly doesn't show any scenes as ones I did find in that vein you couldn't embed. But the below video is still worth playing as it's the opening theme music for each episode which I thought was very good and it does have a creepy vibe....
A few times have talked about how the episodes weren't aired in the order they were filmed and it was easy to tell by the length of Yuriko's hair. If it was short it was an episode filmed early, her longer hair meant it had been filmed towards the end of the filming schedule. Not that it's important but the first show filmed was aired as the fourth episode, the first episode aired was the twelfth filmed! The last show to be filmed was episode sixteen, the final show was episode 28 and that was the fourth show filmed! Bet it sounds confusing but always like to add some trivial facts in, this 25th episode was the third show filmed and makes you wonder why was there such a long wait until it or some other shows aired?
Ichinotani had good reason to be worried for while Lily appeared to be such a happy young girl there was trouble brewing, she and her father Akanuma had no clue what was about to happen. When Lily entered that large box Akanuma seemed to hypnotize his daughter and that's what worried Ichinotani, it's not wise to do that often to a person and especially not one so young. However Lily was hypnotized at least twice a day, always at night for it's the only way she can fall asleep. Above Ichinotani was explaining some of his wisdom to Jun who is also an expert at science, what Ichinotai felt they witnessed at the magic show was Lily being frozen, not her body but mind due to the hypnotizing. Luckily the science talk didn't go much further as I nor most viewers would understand what the professor was talking about but there will be more about that condition just below and at the end of the show. In the last two screenshots above Akanuma was putting his daughter Lily to sleep, not positive what happened to her mother but Lily is under the impression she's off in some mountains but think she's dead. When Lily falls asleep Akanuma also uses a music box to go along with his hypnotism, Lily falls asleep quite easily and during this latest 'spell' we found out what is causing these mysterious vehicle accidents at night that have resulted in at least three deaths. While Lily was fast asleep coming out of her body was what you see in the bottom screenshot above, the ghost of Lily(!) which could walk through walls and such but also had the ability to pick certain things up.
Now the quartet of Jun, Ippei, Yuriko and Ichinotani have a theory that after Lily is hypnotized at night her Soul leaves and has been the cause of these late night accidents. That Soul has also been taking those oddball objects and for now why those items remained a puzzle. Jun and his mates went to another Great Eastern Magic Troupe show to observe Lily and Akanuma once again however halfway through the performance Lily seemed to pass out and the show ended early. Backstage Jun told her father Akamuma of professor Ichinotani's findings and how Lily passing out may have been due to being hypnotized too often. Until now Jun, Ippei and Yuriko hadn't realized that she was also put to sleep every night by hypnotism and all observed her father doing that act, the trio was now 100% certain it was Lily's 'Soul' causing these vehicle accidents. When that ghost figure would appear on a deserted road of course the driver would panic and crash, after is when the ghost Lily would rummage through the car looking for certain items. In the bottom screenshot above Akanuma was showing the group that music box that Lily listens to when she gets hypnotized. It didn't appear to be anything special, Akanuma said it was from a deceased Chinese sword artist named Chin and in the box was also a Jade necklace, hope I didn't fall asleep for ten seconds and miss something!!!!
By telepathy the ghost had Lily wander to a desolate location but one where there were train tracks and you knew what would be coming soon. The professor Ichinotani had invented a a device called an Ultra Short Wave Diathermy which could track the energy from ghosts or lost souls, Jun and Ippei used that to locate the the Devil Lily. As you can see above the pair were walking hand in hand down the tracks, naturally the oncoming train would pass right through the ghost but not the human Lily! Of course with Jun nearby her being killed would never happen and with only about five seconds to spare Jun hurled himself at Lily and the pair rolled off the tracks to safety as the train whizzed by. That action also caused the demise of this ghost/soul/Devil Lily as Jun and Ippei witnessed it returning to Lily's body but that happens every day when Lily wakes up. But now it's known that hypnotism was causing this ultra weird phenomenon and Lily's father Akanuma will never use that again to put her to sleep nor ever again in one of their magic performances. So there was a happy ending to this story which didn't have much action but was very interesting and all of the stories to now have been different. Have viewed the next episode which is the following post and that too was very different than most of the previous stories.
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