Review: Ultraman Episode 18 - Brother From Another Planet

 

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 episode. It really does feel like an old horror movie. Ide spots a hooded figure and turns the figure around and it's revealed as an alien. I'll admit. They got a jump scare out of me. Ide and Arashi grab the hooded alien but it disappears like Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. They then see it climbing up a wall and of course Arashi is going to shoot at it because it's what he does. 

The duo communicates back to SSSP HQ. They mention the alien they encountered and Arashi tells them he shot at it which Muramatsu hilariously asks why he shot at it. Muramatsu should know Arashi better than that. The alien then hijacks their communications to talk to the team back at HQ. The alien explains he is a Zarab from the 8th galactic system. Zarab apparently means brother in their language. That could have been a lie to gain their trust. Hoshino assumes the Zarab probably caused the fog but the Zarab says he wouldn't do that to his brothers. The Zarab is a lying piece of crap as we find out throughout the episode. The evil laugh should also probably give it away. 

Hayata is flying around and spots the Saturn exploration rocket which should be somewhere out in space right now but instead it is high above Tokyo. All of a sudden, the Zarab walks right into SSSP HQ. They rightfully accuse him of disrupting the Saturn rocket but he deflects the blame and asks how he can gain their trust. Muramatsu stupidly asks the Zarab to remove the fog and then the Zarab will gain his trust. The Zarab agrees to do this because of course he can since he caused the fog but our team doesn't know that.

The Zarab easily clears out the fog and the SSSP decides to give him a room to stay in overnight. Ide shows the alien his room but then the Zarab takes control of Ide's mind. This alien is a real jerk to do that to my guy Ide. The next day the SSSP sans Arashi talks about the alien to the Defense Force. Arashi is back at HQ when the Zareb disguised as Fuji knocks him out with a cup of coffee. This is why I drink tea. The alien is using Ide to spy on the Defense Force meeting which Hayata notices because Ide's communicator antenna is up. Hayata removes it and questions Ide on why he has been acting weird. The SSSP has his brain checked out and find out his readings are all wrong and that he needs a good electric shock.

Some time later, the Space Center arrives wanting to take custody of the Zarab. Muramatsu says their communicator isn't good enough for that but that darn alien comes in and has created his own portable translator so that everyone can understand him. After the Zarab leaves with the Space Center people, Hayata asks Muramatsu if he can investigate the Saturn rocket. Hayata takes his Jet VTOL up to the Saturn rocket and he discovers the crew is under mind control by the Zarab. Hayata tries to fly back down to HQ but the Zarab appears in the cockpit beside him! That got another jump scare out of me. Good suspense in that scene where I think Hayata is going to get caught and just when I think he's safe he gets caught. 

The Zarab tells Hayata that he knows only the SSSP and Ultraman can stop him and he knows that Hayata is Ultraman! That part was a real 'holy crap' moment for me. The Zarab then takes Hayata hostage so he can't transform into Ultraman. He then uses this opportunity to become a fake Ultraman and he starts destroying buildings to turn people against Ultraman. The Defense Force meets with the alien again and he's trying to turn the Defense Force against the SSSP saying they wouldn't attack Ultraman. This proves to be wrong because Muramatsu claims he will fight anything that threatens the people. 

Hayata is all tied up by the Zarab. The Zarab wants to know where Hayata is hiding his Beta Capsule which transforms him into Ultraman but he doesn't have it. The Zarab leaves to be evil Ultraman some more when Hoshino sneaks into the building and finds Hayata. It turns out Hayata left the Beta Capsule at HQ but it's okay because Hoshino brought it with him. I guess he knew that thing was important. Hoshino tries to untie Hayata but he can't until he cries on the restraints. Crying worked for Andros in Power Rangers In Space so I'm fine with it here. 

Evil Ultraman is out wrecking buildings while Hayata and Hoshino are talking. Hayata sends Hoshino away because he doesn't want to worry about him. Maybe sending him out through the window with rope wasn't the best idea. Evil Ultraman grabs the poor boy as soon as he gets out the window. Hayata transforms into Ultraman and now we have a battle of Ultramen. Poor Hoshino is still dangling from a rope while these two Ultramen are fighting over him. The boy should have some serious whiplash or brain damage once Ultraman finally frees him. 

The battle of the Ultramen is not as exciting as I wanted it to be. It's a lot of struggle fighting so it looks like they are either dancing or hugging most of the time. Ultraman blasts the doppelganger into a building which turns him back into the Zarab. This officially clears Ultraman's name now that people can see he wasn't evil. They cut back to Arashi during this scene and he is armed and ready to shoot which got a chuckle from me. The Zarab tries some mind move on Ultraman but Ultraman counters with some chops and hammer punches that would make Captain Kirk from Star Trek proud. The two then fly into the air where they hug and dance fight some more before Ultraman drives him to the ground. Ultraman then gives him two chops and blows up the alien with his Spacium Beam. The team celebrates. End of episode.

I loved this episode. It's very atmospheric at times and builds some good suspense. The villain is probably the best villain the show has had up to this point. I really enjoyed his design and I also really liked the evil Ultraman design with the evil eyes. I hope we see more of the Zarabs in the future. Maybe a Baltan and Zarab teamup against Ultraman. Hayata had another good episode. Maybe his best episode as well since he was more of a centerpiece with the villain knowing he was Ultraman. I was hoping Hoshino would find out Hayata was Ultraman when he was tied up and that he would have to cover for him from now on but it didn't happen. The rest of the cast performed their roles well. I still question some of Muramatsu's decisions as captain yet I still enjoy his character. Overall, this was probably my favorite episode of Ultraman that I have watched to this point. 

The last three episodes have been pretty good so I'm hoping we can keep up that momentum with episode 19. Episode 19 is titled "Demons Rise Again" and I'm hoping you can't go wrong with that title. There better be a cool looking demon monster. Demons could also be a figure of speech and maybe a character is having personal demons. It could even be both! Come join me on Twitter @TokuTomFoolery to find out! See you there!