here he comes from the sky

it's taken far too long to decide on my 100th post.  but at last, here it is, in all it's epic glory!

I saw a total of three episodes of Ultraman as a kid.  #5, "the Secret of Miroganda", #38 "The Spaceship Rescue Command" and #35 "The Monster Graveyard".  it's this episode I'll be discussing now.

there is a place somewhere in space where Ultraman deposits the various monsters he has defeated in the past.  well, the ones that don't get blown up or dismembered.  these are the more, er, innocent monsters, as the episode explains, that were not actually trying to take over the Earth or kill people on purpose.  or perhaps just whatever suits the makes still had intact.  I had never seen so many different monsters, even if they were just floating in space.  of course, one of the creatures I saw was the giant robot thing that Arashi and Ito didn't recognize.  when I finally saw the episode again many years later, there was no giant robot in the Monster Graveyard at all.  funny how memory is.

our heroes, having dispatched many of the monsters with Ultraman's help are now remorseful that so many living creatures had to be destroyed.  they decide to hold a memorial service for the beasts.  this means lots of flashbacks to even MORE monsters I had never seen.

yes, I was in giant monster heaven, despite the somberness of the episode.

elsewhere, some scientists launch a rocket.  naturally it runs right into one of the creatures in the Graveyard, and crashes back to Earth with it.  this is the monster Seaboz (シーボーズ) that Arashi and Ito (and I) didn't recognize.  it's STILL alive, but wants to go back to peacefulness of space, and it cries nearly the whole episode.  the Science Patrol tries many ways of getting it back space, including tying it to a rocket, none of which work.

there is no real fight in this episode, it's done by a series of still photos, which is pretty cool.  this episode is directed by the late Akio Jissoji, who did many of the really outre episodes in this series.   it's one of the standouts.

out of all the Ultra monsters that have returned in various sequels, Seaboz has not been one of them.  I like him, and have one of Bandai toys.  I wish I had been able to see more Ultraman episodes, but it never aired in the 70s in Colorado.  I saw these in WV, on the greatest channel ever, WDCA Channel 20.  my cousins all knew the show well, and would get into arguments on how to do the "Spacium Beam" pose.


you know, I would have seen Ultraman a fourth time, in Kansas, but as we all gathered around the tv, the first episode of Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot aired.  which was cool, too.