Toku TomFoolery

  Ultraman Episode #21 Breach The Wall of Smoke Original Air Date: December 4th, 1966 Directed by: Yuzo Higuchi Screenplay by: Taro Kaido Review by: Toku Tom Fool Episode 21 starts with a boy finding a bunch of dead birds. I like the scene where the boy shows some adults the dead birds and one of them assumes he killed all of them. We then see a group of women having a picnic on the same mountain the birds were found and it's ruined by smoke and a monster. The SSSP is contacted to look into this case and none of the guys are interested. Fuji volunteers to look into the smoke disturbances so we get the reverse of a normal episode where usually all the men go and Fuji is left behind, but this time Fuji goes by herself while the men stay in HQ.  Fuji is flying the Jet VTOL when Hoshino pops up in the plane with her. She agrees that he can join her in the mission since he's already there. I'm excited. We get an episode with Fuji and Hoshino doing work on their own. They're...

  Ultraman Episode #20 Terror on Route 87 Original Air Date: November 27th, 1966 Directed by: Yuzo Higuchi Screenplay by: Tetsuo Kinjo  Review by: Toku Tom Fool Our episode begins at night with an officer being afraid of a statue and then he's afraid of a green light on a mountain. I hope he's just the local zoo officer and not a real police officer. SSSP gets the call to check Mt. Omuro Park to get to the bottom of this. They leave at night but arrive the next morning. Maybe they got the call early in the morning when it was still dark. This leads to a favorite shot of my when Muramatsu, Hayata, and Arashi are riding these swings up to the mountain.  Back at HQ, Fuji is visited by a boy. She assumes he is a friend of Hoshino which he denies. He warns her of a monster named the Highland Dragon Hydra that is going to run wild on Mt. Omuro Park. The boy leaves and then Ide walks into the room. Ide says he didn't see any boy. He calls security and they say they have not let ...

  Ultraman Episode #19 Demons Rise Again Directed by: Samaji Nonagase Screenplay by: Masahiro Yamada and Ryu Minamikawa Review by Toku Tom Fool This episode begins with Ivan Ooze unearthing his Ectomorphicons. Okay, that's not what's happening but it's a similar setup. A construction site unearths some kind of capsule and of course our SSSP members are there to give their thoughts. They also have  a Dr. Fukuyama with them and he's an expert on anthropology.  Fukuyama claims this is a time capsule from 300,005,000 years ago which is an oddly specific number. I wasn't sure it was being translated right but that use that number a few more times in the episode. The time capsule is broken and missing a part but it does include a smaller capsule with blue liquid inside as well as a metal plate. Ide and Fuji discuss what could have happened to the broken part of the time capsule and we learn pretty quickly as another smaller capsule is unearthed by an excavator. This one i...

  Ultraman Episode #18 Brother From Another Planet  Original Air Date: November 13th, 1966 Directed by:  Samaji Nonagase  Screenplay by: Ryu Minamikawa and Tetsuo Kinjo Review by: Toku Tom Fool Episode 18 begins like it's John Carpenter's The Fog . The fine citizens of Tokyo are being attacked by a deadly fog and the SSSP needs to be called into action. The entire team is all dressed in uniform which includes Hoshino. Muramatsu wants to send Arashi and Ide to patrol the city while Hayata patrols the skies. He originally lets Hoshino go with Hayata but changes his mind when he realizes the radiation danger the fog presents. Hoshino gets to stay with Fuji at HQ. Professor Morita also shows up at HQ to talk about the fog and how he feels that it could be alien in nature. Arashi and Ide head into the city where they are covered in fog. Luckily, their helmets shield them from the effects of the radiation as the captain explained earlier. I love the atmosphere in this epi...

  RIP Masanari Nihei    Last night I found out that Masanari Nihei had passed away. Nihei was best known for playing Mitsuhiro Ide on Ultraman . I've only seen the first 17 episodes of Ultraman so far but Ide is by far my favorite character and I doubt that will change. His comedy work on the show is unmatched. I call him a master of making silly faces. It didn't matter if he was playing scared or having a good time. He could make a funny face. Two episodes of Ultraman standout to me from what I have seen so far that showoff how good Nihei was at playing Ide. I really like episode 2 where he's pretty much playing a cowardly goof the whole episode. He's making all sorts of scared faces when the Baltan attacks. Episode 13 is another good one when Ide feels he has failed the SSSP by accidentally causing the destruction of an oil refinery by a monster. The world lost a good one in Masanari Nihei. Rest in peace.  -Toku Tom Fool

Ultraman Episode #17 Passport to Infinity Original Air Date: November 11th, 1966 Directed by: Toshihiro Iijima Screenplay by: Keisuke Fujikawa Our episode begins with a Mr. Yesterdy (it sounds like Yesterday but I'm just going with the Tubi subtitles here) studying a blue meteorite he found on a recent expedition. All seems normal until it opens up and makes him disappear. His secretary comes in and notices he has vanished so that's when the SSSP is called into action. Ide and Arashi are sent to meet with the secretary. We learn her name is Yoko Fuji and she's not related to our Akiko Fuji. Ide seems to be excited to get to know her but it ultimately gets nowhere because Arashi screws up his chances by wanting to keep to business. The ground begins to shake and Mr. Yesterdy appears outside and he says Mr. Fukui is in danger. The blue meteorite also returned with Mr. Yesterdy but it flies away. Arashi goes to meet Mr. Fukui who has a red meteorite that he found on the exped...

  Ultraman Episode #16 Science Patrol in Space Original Air Date: October 30th, 1966 Directed by: Toshihiro Iijima  Screenplay by: Kitao Senzoku Review by Toku Tom Fool Set controls to outer space now. Flying higher than ever before. Space Patrol in Space! Like Power Rangers in Space being a return to form for Power Rangers after Power Rangers Turbo , this was a return to form for Ultraman after a couple stinker episodes. I joked in my last review that maybe they would follow up on the Mars subplot from episode 2 which they did not but they did follow up on the Baltans from episode 2 which pleased me. The stakes actually felt pretty real in this episode because of it being a sequel episode.  The story begins with Professor Mori of the Space Exploration Research Center boarding the rocket Otori to make the first expedition to planet Venus. The SSSP is there to make sure nothing goes wrong. They have Hayata flying a plane up there hoping he doesn't crash another one. The p...