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 26th episode was 30.8% 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....
Blazing Glory
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.... Will try to find a different one for the final two episodes but as mentioned it's not easy finding them for such an old series.
Once again there was no Monster though if you look above you may wonder how can that be for the creature was in this show, you'll see what I'm talking about in the recap. And there's only two more shows to go after this one and will miss this as it was one unique drama but least there's such a huge backlog of things I need to start whittling down. Know most viewers prefer posts for gravure models and Idols but dramas and movies was the main reason for starting this blog so am glad that I have been able to revert back to doing posts for those kinds of things. Plus viewers seem to be enjoying these reviews and recaps somewhat as they get so many more views than they did years ago.
That's a fight I would have liked to have seen plus so wouldn't have all of Dynamite Joe's fans and he had many of them but his previous bout could prove to be his final one. Unknown to all except for his manager Okui the way Joe predicted his fights was by talking to that above lizard like creature, later on learned it's called a Alligatortois. But did a search and that's not a real reptile but in shows such as this one you do need new creatures. There is a bit of a description above on what an Alligatortois is, the reptile comes from the ocean and also learned later on that's where Joe found it. An Alligatortois is an odd creature as when in cool water it's that small size, perhaps five inches but when it's out of the water and in fresh air it could grow to be five feet! Dynamite Joe kept his pet which he named Peter in a small aquarium of water so he can carry the reptile around, presume the Alligatortois name came because it slightly resembled an alligator. Since Joe got this pet he hasn't lost a match and while Peter cannot speak Joe says he senses what the Alligatortois is thinking as far as predicting what round he would win his match in. But as mentioned there may be no more bouts for as you can see above the big news in the boxing world was that Dynamite Joe had disappeared just one week before his championship fight. No one had a clue on where Joe had gone to and that included his manager but see that clown above and right below?
In that fourth screenshot above you can see how large the Alligatortois can get, though no longer boxing Joe still has kept the reptile as his pet. The promoter of Joe's show Oyama had been alone in his dressing room and took the Alligatortois out of it's small aquarium, to his amazement the creature went from being five inches in length to five feet! Plus the reptile was agile, it escaped from Oyama and when Joe returned after his show he was frantic with worry about what happened to his pet Peter. Seeing the Alligatortois grow to be so large had given Oyama some ideas such as giving the reptile it's own show! But the problems would be too many to count for the promoter plus the Alligatortois had slithered away and though large Oyama nor anyone could find it. Jun did learn of Oyama's plan and advised the man strongly to just find it and give it back to Joe. Who was confronted twice by Jun and finally admitted he was the ex-boxer Dynamite Joe and had no plans on returning to the ring. His pet Peter had been correctly predicting the round when Joe would KO his opponent, he had been 100% correct up until now. But for Joe's match against the champion Campo the Alligatortois predicted Joe would lose the fight and how could he give the sportswriters that kind of prediction? Joe couldn't so had fled from Tokyo until he could sort things out but seemed to resign himself to the fact his boxing days were over. Though Joe has had his pet Peter for a while he never knew what kind of reptile it was, above you can see Yuriko telling him it was called a Alligatortois which as mentioned is fictional.
The Alligatortois had been missing for a while, since the promoter Oyama let it out of its aquarium. But as you can see above Joe had found his pet Peter that night and being out of water for such a long time meant the creature hadn't grown to five feet in length but about fifty! And soon it was even larger for a fire had begun near the resort's beach where this scene took place, the fire was of Peter's doing but the reptile wasn't violent. Peter had grown so large it had such a difficult time maneuvering it's body and had knocked over a huge gas tank, soon after a fire started with the Alligatortois caught in its middle. Because of the fire Peter grew to be about 200 feet in length and there was no way for Joe to save his beloved pet, with Jun holding him back the pair watched the Alligatortois die and in a way that may have been the best for the reptile. So it was kind of a sad ending as Peter wasn't a violent monster but who knows what may have happened if it fell into the wrong hands? The Alligatortois dying is what ended the episode and guess Dynamite Joe remained retired from boxing so it was a sad ending for him also. Just two more episodes to go and to date all 26 shows have been winners though of course some stories have been much better than others, will have the final pair of recaps in 3-4 days.
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