Ultra Seven
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Ultra Seven (ウルトラセブン Urutora Sebun?) is a fictional superhero featured in a tokusatsu TV show of the same name.
He first appeared in Ultra Seven (the third Ultra Series and the second to feature an Ultra Being), the famous tokusatsu SF TV series that aired on Japanese TV in 1967. Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, this follow up to Ultraman went on to become one of Japan's greatest fantasy TV series, even surpassing Ultraman itself in most fans view. Ultraseven is considered by some to be Japan's answer to Star Trek: The Original Series, and the best Ultra Series of all time. Such is his popularity that Ultraseven (or simply 'Seven') has appeared or at least made cameos in nearly every Ultra Series following his own and has had far more exposure than even the original Ultraman (though the original Ultraman is without a doubt the face of the Ultras).
Ultraseven is sometimes incorrectly called "Ultraman Seven" by many sources outside Japan.
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[edit] The 1967 TV Series
Ultraseven, produced by Tsuburaya Productions, aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System from October 1, 1967 to September 8, 1968, with a total of 49 episodes (however, Tsuburaya officially excludes the banned Episode 12 from the list, thereby giving the series a count of 48 episodes; see below).
[edit] The plot
At a time when Earth is about to be threatened by sinister aliens and monsters, Agent 340 from Nebula M-78 (the same planet Ultraman came from), who was originally sent to make a map of the Milky Way, decides to stay on Earth, and seeks to protect it. Disguised as a mysterious human named Dan Moroboshi, he is invited by the Terrestrial Defense Force to join its elite branch, the Ultra Garrison, as its sixth member to combat the threats from space. Little do the other 5 members of the Garrison know that whenever the situation becomes hopeless, Dan secretly puts on the Ultra Eye glasses, and becomes his true form of Agent 340, christened by the Garrison as its honorary 7th member, Ultraseven!
[edit] Characters — The Ultra Garrison (ウルトラ警備隊)
Six elite members of the Terrestrial Defense Force (TDF), chosen to fight evil aliens and monsters using high-tech vehicles and weaponry.
- Commander Kaoru Kiriyama (Age 38) Captain of the Ultra Garrison. A no-nonsense but kind leader. From Tokyo.
- Played by Shoji Nakayama
- Shigeru Furuhashi (Age 29) Rotund, strong, trigger-happy member of the Garrison. From Hokkaido. Many years later, Furuhashi would find himself a high-ranking TDF commander and one of Ultra Seven's few allies.
- Played by Sandaiyu Dokumamushi
- Anne Yuri (Age 20) Token female member of the Garrison, and also the youngest. Is the team's communications operator and nurse, but is still effective in action. Has feelings for fellow member Dan Moroboshi. Also from Tokyo.
- Played by Yuriko Hishimi
- Soga (Age 25) The Garrison's expert marksman. Easy-going, but fierce in battle. Is friends with Dan Moroboshi. From Southern Kyushu.
- Played by Shinsuke Achiha
- Amagi (Age 24) The Garrison's twitchy stragegist. From Nagoya.
- Played by Bin Furuya
- Dan Moroboshi/Ultraseven (Agent 340) (Age 24) The title character, a soldier from the Land of Light in the Nebula M-78 (the same planet Ultraman came from). Originally sent to make a map of the Milky Way, he visits a planet that captivates him, our very own Earth, and on his first visit, saves the life of a young mountain climber named Jiro Satsuma, who nearly fell to his death to save a fellow climber from sharing his fate. Instead of combining with him, like Ultraman did to Science Patrol member Hayata, 340 makes himself into an exact likeness of the unconscious Jiro (with more casual civvies), but renames himself "Dan Moroboshi" to avoid confusion. A mysterious but friendly and helpful young man, Dan joins the Ultra Garrison as its sixth member, but unbeknownst to them (and anyone else for that matter), he saves the day from alien invasions in his true guise as Agent 340, christened by the Garrison as its "honorary 7th member," "Ultraseven"!
- Played by Koji Moritsugu; Ultraseven is played by Koji Uenishi
[edit] Powers
Unlike most other Ultramen, Ultra Seven does not demonstrate any of the time constraints that plague most of the other heroes of the Ultra Series. On occasion however, the green Beam Lamp on his forehead would begin blinking in a similar fashion to the Color Timer that the other Ultras had.
However, this tended to occur when Seven was in mortal danger, suggesting it warned him how badly weakened he was rather than how much time he had left to fight. This is similar to some of the more recent Ultras, whose timers acted as an indicator of battle damage rather than time limit.
- Eye Slugger: The crest on Seven's head can be detached and used as a throwing weapon. This is Seven's most well-known weapon, and possibly the most famous of all Ultra attacks. (It has been incorrectly referred to as an "Ice Lugger" by various sources). This name was coined during the early pre-production on the series, which was going to be called "Ultra Eye" (Urutora Ai), hence "Eye Slugger." When the title of the series was changed to "Ultra Seven," the name of the weapon remained "Eye Slugger" -- according to official Tsuburaya Productions production notes, published in Kodansha Official File Magazine Ultraman Vol. 4 & 5: "Ultra Seven" (2005).
- Emerium Beam: Various concentrations of energy rays could be fired from the Beam Lamp on Ultra Seven's forehead. While not his most powerful attack, it is one of his trademark moves. He would either fire it standing, his left hand drawn to his chest while his right arm was outstretched, or more commonly from a kneeling position, two fingers from both hands nearly touching the gem.
- Wide Shot: Ultra Seven's most powerful attack. By gathering energy in the armour plates on his shoulders and chest, Seven could unleash a powerful stream of energy by crossing his arms in an L-shape (his left arm upright, his right arm bent). He could further increase the potency of the beam, but this special attack drains his own energy.
- Capsule monsters: When unable to fight (usually because his Ultra Eye has been stolen), Dan will often produce a small capsule that releases a giant-sized monster to fight in his place. Although he is shown to have four or five capsules, only three capsule monsters are shown in the series, Windam, Micras, and Agira.
[edit] Differences with the original Ultraman
Ultraseven was not only visually different from the first Ultraman (being mostly red with a removable crest/weapon and more 'boxy'-looking eyes), but often faced numerous moral and ethical dilemmas. On one occasion, he was forced to break a promise Dan had made to a young boy who was undergoing an operation in order to protect the hospital from a monster. On another occasion, he was forced to battle the sole survivor of a small planet that was destroyed by a careless weapons test, making him wonder if he was fighting for a worthy cause. On yet another occasion, as Dan, he desperately tried to contact the inhabitants of a spacefaring city before it was destroyed by the Ultra Garrison, to keep it from crashing into Earth.
Still later, Ultraseven battled a sea monster guarding an underwater city that allegedly contained the original inhabitants of Earth, who were driven undersea by the ancestors of humanity. While he was able to defeat the creature, he hesitated to intervene with an attack by the Ultra Garrison, uncertain of whether or not the city's people had a legitimate greviance. This moment of indecision resulted in the utter destruction of the undersea city and all its inhabitants at the hands of humans.
Many years later, this failure to prevent the extinction of a pacifist people would come back to haunt Ultraseven, resulting in his imprisonment as a war criminal. The charge: genocide. While he would later escape and had sympathy from his fellows among the Ultras (notably his close comrades Ultraman, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Taro and Zoffy), he quickly found he could expect no help as in the eyes of virtually all space-faring civilisations, he was a murderer and protector of a cruel, war-like species.
[edit] Ultra Fight
Following the end of Ultraseven's run on television, a series of mock battles were made using the costumes from the first Ultraman and Ultraseven series. There was virtually no plot to these battles, they simply involved Ultraseven fighting (or more often than not, being beaten by) various monsters including ones he did not face in his series, such as Baltan.
Among notable episodes include one where Ultraseven rips the wings off a monster and beats it to death with them. Another has Ultraseven blundering about a hilltop and accidentally causing a rockslide that awakens a slumbering Eleking who (predictably) is less than pleased to have rocks tumbling onto him. What follows is an amusing one-sided battle where Eleking takes his anger out on Seven while the hero, completely accepting that it was his own carelessness that caused the mess, tries desperately to apologize.
While far from epic, the Ultra Fight series rekindled interest in the Ultras, enough that shortly after, the Ultraman who Returned was aired. This would begin a series of sequels that carries on to this day.
[edit] From Another Planet with Love: The banned episode 12
This episode portrayed an alien race, the Spehl Aliens, who had their world destroyed by nuclear tests and as a result their own race poisoned by radiation. To survive they invade Earth in search for fresh human blood to restore their own bodies. A special interest group of survivors from the World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki protested claiming that this episode portrayed nuclear bomb victims in a negative light. As a result this episode has been banned in Japan but was shown as in the Brazilian Portuguese dubbed version as in the Hawaiian English dubbed version in 1975, and was also featured in Turner's English version (featured on TNT) under the title "Crystallized Corpuscles" [1]. The episode was also shown in the Spanish dubbed version in Latin America countries.
[edit] Trivia
- In an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast where Joel Hodgson was the guest, Space Ghost played scenes from Ultra Seven and tried to get Joel to help him "MST" them.
- The stunt actor who used the Ultra Seven costume in the 1967 TV series was Koji Uenishi, who also used, some years later, the costume of another TV Japanese superhero: Spectreman. Although Koji Uenishi played Ultra Seven, Ultraseven's voice was dubbed by Koji Moritsugu, the actor who played Dan Moroboshi, Ultra Seven's alter ego.
- The Ultra Seven 1967 TV series was also very popular in Brazil. The Brazilian Portuguese dubbed version was shown in Brazilian TV channels during the 1970's and early 1980's. Curiously, among Brazilian audiences Ultraseven was much more popular than the original Ultraman.
- In Brazil, the character of Ultra Seven/Dan Moroboshi was dubbed by the voice of actor Afonso Celso Vasconcelos, the same who dubbed the voices of detective lieutenant Columbo (played by Peter Falk in the Columbo TV series) and the superhero Black Vulcan in the animated TV series Superfriends.
| Showa era series: | Ultraman • Seven • Return of/Jack • Ace • Taro • Leo • 80 |
|---|---|
| Heisei era series: | Tiga • Dyna • Gaia • Cosmos • Nexus • Max • Mebius |
| Ultra Q: | Ultra Q • Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy |
| Specials: | The Ultraman/Jonias (anime) • Ultraman Neos (Direct-to-DVD) |
| Movies: | Zearth • ULTRAMAN |
| Co-productions: | The Adventure Begins  • Towards the Future  • Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider (with Toei) • The Ultimate Hero |
| Related: | Redman • Bio Planet WoO |
