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 seventeenth episode was 31.7% 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. Will have two screenshots of the creature though not every show had one but the first episode had two. There's four screenshots below, the first pair are from the twelfth show. That had one of the better creatures to date which was called Larugeus and was presumed to be extinct. But was reawakened by humans and that bird's wing span was 43 meters! The other creature was named Garamon, it was controlled by a meteor called Garadama. The meteor had come from outer space and though the goofy monster was bested at the end of the thirteenth show it made a return in episode sixteen but even then it was never fully defeated.
After this post will just be having two creatures as I caught up with them fairly quickly. My top creature to date is the one in the first two screenshots who was named Pegulia. It was first in the sixth show and then made a return for episode fourteen, this was another monster thought to have been extinct. Pegulia was from the Antarctic and for his second appearance had made it all the way to Tokyo where it appeared he would destroy the city by freezing it!!!! The creature in the bottom two screenshots wasn't a true monster and was from episode fifteen. Kanegon was the name of this creature who was actually a twelve year old boy named Kaneo who had fallen into a large cocoon and this was the most bizarre episode to date. KANE in Japanese means money so that's where the name of the little boy and 'creature' came from.
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 1/8(0.125) Project
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. Added this video in for the eleventh show but it's a clip from episode fourteen which ended up being one of the best episodes. Any kind of video is hard to find so kept it here so you can see what the show is like to an extent and do highly recommend this drama, especially the Black and White version. Have had this up for a bit so for the nineteenth show will try to find a new one.... was successful!
Obviously you already know what this episode will be about, bet there are many sci-fi films in this vein but have never seen any so need to do some searching. Right above are two screenshots from the show, in the bottom you can see how small Yuriko had become and she was in almost every scene which to me was a plus! The man above had been telling her that there was a new project which will shrink a person to 1/8th of their current size. That unnamed man did say that Japan was becoming too crowded and with humans being smaller there would be enough room for everyone! That topic could refer to so many countries these days but doubt if shrinking humans would ever be an option or even possible and let's finally get to the action.
Yuriko never filled out an application but somehow got trapped in a horde of other prospective residents and before she knew what was happening the above was taking place. Yuriko was her normal size sitting in a chair though she was unconscious/sleeping, viewing her were those three scientists above. They turned on many gadgets and before long this process of shrinking a human began on Yuriko who within a minute was 1/8th her size! But she didn't know that as Yuriko had been unconscious and when she arose it seemed that trio of people visiting her above were no different. They weren't different from Yuriko as all four were just 1/8th their height and as the Mayor told Yuriko above she'll be living in the District S13 for the rest of her life! This seemingly happened within minutes though think it was days and this scene took place in a small nook where Yuriko and the other three were being observed by Giants though of course they were normal humans! I'll keep using Yuriko but the woman in the middle above was the head of the Welfare Office and told Yuriko all residents don't have names but numbers. Yuruko's will be P103924 so it appears over a hundred thousand humans have been shrunk. But only people can be transformed to 1/8th their size for as you can see below Yuriko's camera was it's normal size, it's been so interesting up until now but here's when the action begins to really pick up.
Yuriko pleaded for Tanaka to help her escape so he tied her box to a rope and lowered her out his window though not to safety as the box ended up in a small river. Yuriko had no clue what was going on as this traveling box had no windows, she was eventually saved by a pair of Nuns. Who seemed to know about The 1/8 Project as Yuriko's small size didn't frighten them and the Nuns brought her to Hoshikawa Airfield which was the home of Yuriko's best friends Jun and Ippei. This is when we learned that Yuriko had disappeared seven days ago, her friends had no clue on what had happened with Yuriko but were presuming she was dead! Because of her condition Yuriko didn't want to reveal herself quite yet and was actually scared for her life when she heard Jun and Ippei talking about her so remained hidden until the men left. There were two coolish special effects scenes after that which are right above, one is when Yuriko tried making a telephone call! Back then phones used a rotary dial so that was humorous watching her trying to dial as the phone was so much larger. That call didn't pan out as Yuriko had called her newspaper editor Seki who hung up on the prank caller(Yuriko). The other neat bit was of Yuriko writing Sayonara to Jun and Ippei on a piece of paper as the pencil was almost twice her size!
We're down to the final five minutes as the endings to episodes seem to pop up quickly or perhaps it's how I write these recaps up(?). After writing that farewell note Yuriko had tied some balloons to that mini box which couldn't have been easy to do and floated off to the new city of District S13 as Yuriko had resigned herself to the fact this is where she'll be spending the rest of her life! However not giving up on Yuriko were her two best friends Jun and Ippei even though they had presumed she was dead. However the pair never gave up on her and did some investigating, they found out that Yuriko had gotten mixed up in The 1/8 Project and was at this new city. So as you can see above Yuriko's saviors visited the place looking for her and they weren't welcome as the residents moved there for they wanted no part of regular sized humans! The parts showing Jun and Ippei searching for Yuriko were quite interesting as they had to climb over buildings and roads, it really reminded me of Godzilla movies. Yuriko was finally found by her friends and Jun told her Let's go home but how Yuriko wondered as she was so small and told Jun to leave her but would he have?
For Jun never had the chance to grab or talk some sense into Yuriko who fled her miniature apartment and headed for the subway, the tiny city had it all! At the station was a horde of people and Yuriko was soon trampled upon which was also how the episode opened up. At this moment waking up in a hospital bed was Yuriko and did give that spoiler in the beginning about how this was all a dream. Waiting for Yuriko to finally arise was Jun and Ippei who told Yuriko she had been unconscious since that morning after being trampled upon by a huge group of passengers at the subway station and had fallen down the stairs. Yuriko waking up ended the episode though the narrator left us with one final thought which is the first screenshot below. Plus what Yuriko discovered for herself was also very important as even at a smaller size a human would have the same problems one does being regular sized, there are a few other scenarios that I pondered and will leave you readers with the same option. All in all this was one terrific episode and once again I probably didn't do it justice, if there's any chance that you could ever grab this series I highly recommend it. Will slightly admit that after watching so many older dramas and films don't know if I can ever go back to viewing current ones.
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