Terror on Route 87

this is one of my least favorite episode of Ultraman.  not because it's boring and dull, but because of the story.  strange lights appear at a park in Japan, and of course, the Science Patrol is immediately sent to investigate.

this is a real park which has been featured in other Japanese genre shows.  I'm guessing the episode was written for the park.  here we see the statue of the highland dragon, Hydra.

it was designed by a boy named Akira.  unfortunately (and not surprisingly) when the team goes to meet the youngster, he was killed by a hit and run accident six months before the lights began appearing.  the truck driver had not been found.

you'd think Hayata would know that an archaeopterix was the size of a sparrow, not 50 meters tall.  maybe in the Ultra Universe they were bigger.

Hydra comes to life and goes on a destructive spree, destroying cars and trucks and probably killing plenty of the innocent drivers.  this is where I have the problem with the story.  great shot of the monster flying over a real area though.

Ultraman gets beaten up pretty well in this battle.  he eventually is about to use his Spacium Beam, but then we all see this image.

yep, Akira has accomplished his goal, the driver has been arrested and so the monster disappears.  wait, what about all the other deaths and destruction?  don't those matter?  there's my problem.  perhaps I should have seen this as a kid.

it flows well enough and is shot very well.  there's a story arc in Space Giants that is very similar, but has a bit of different twist to it.  one of these days I'll have to watch that series again.