HOTW- Ultra Seven

From Wiki- In the not-too-distant future, Earth finds itself constantly under attack from extraterrestrial threats. To combat them, the Terrestrial Defense Force establishes the Ultra Garrison, a team of six elite members who utilize high-tech vehicles and weaponry. Joining their fight is the mysterious Dan Moroboshi who is secretly an alien from the Land of Light in Nebula M-78 and transforms into his true alien form, Ultraseven, in times of crisis.  Ultraseven (ウルトラセブン, Urutora Sebun) is a Japanese tokusatsu science fiction television series created by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the third installment in the Ultra Series and was produced by Tsuburaya Productions. The series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System from October 1, 1967 to September 8, 1968. Me again:

More Ultra Seven

I'm really enjoying this show.

Ultra Seven vs a Face Hugger

 Tell me that alien doesn't look like one of the "facehuggers" from the Alien franchise of movies.  This is from the fifth episode of Ultra Seven called "The Lost Hours" (or "The Stolen Hours") and it was the first episode of this excellent show I ever saw.  I got it on a VHS tape that had a variety of several other Ultra shows on it.  It wasn't subbed and it's not one of the more exciting episodes that way, but seeing it with subs is pretty cool.  I thought even in 1989 that the Villa aliens looked like the early stage Alien creatures, but trying to get the tape cued up to the right spot could be a pain back then.

Ultra Seven #2 The Green Terror

Just started watching this show again, since I haven't ever seen it subtitled.  This second episode is well named, dealing with an invasion from space by plant-like aliens.  I saw it under the dubbed version called "Shrubs from Space" and I don't actually remember that much about it.

Ultra Seven Then & Now

here's a fun little compilation of Ultra Seven from the 60s to the more recent Ultraman Mebius. it shows his transformations and various powers- neat to see how the effects have changed throughout the years, and yet they use the same basic ideas. and sound effects, those make it hold together very well.

Ultra Seven on DVD

this was a bit of unexpected news- an R1 set of the second (or third, I suppose, depending on how you count them) Ultra series.  here, I'll rephrase that: the second series to feature an Ultra from M78.  there, it's more factual now.  I know in a year I'll wonder why I even bothered.

anyway, this is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Ultra series.  it's really good.  it appears there will be no English dub on this set and for a change, that doesn't bother me at all.

Ultra Seven Theme song

one of the cool things about Ultra Seven is that half of the songs contain a bunch of English words. heck, one of them is completely in English! makes it a lot easier to sing along with, I'll tell you what. pretty sure they were hoping for another US release, and it's too bad United Artists didn't pick this one up. this is just a couple exciting fight clips set to the theme song.

Ultraseven vs. Alien Metron

this is the final battle from episode 8 of Ultra Seven. it looks amazing, and in recent years a series or two has paid homage to it in a similarly shot manner. sometimes it's a bit much, but mostly it works well. there are a lot of great shots and effects on display here, but the style really is the what you want to watch here. good thing it helps the story instead of making you forget what's going on.