Review: Ultraman Episode 21 - Breach The Wall Of Smoke

 

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 finding out information on the mission, they're flying the plane, and they're immediately knocked out by poison smoke. Why am I not surprised. 

The four men fly into the action. They're smart enough to put on their oxygen masks. They get out of the plane to search for Fuji and Hoshino which means they have to climb Mt. Omu. There's smoke everywhere and they find the culprit. The group shoots at the monster and of course Arashi gets off the first shot. It has no effect so they run back to the Jet VTOL. Meanwhile, the monster has found where Fuji and Hoshino's plane was sitting. Hoshino has awaken and calls Captain Muramatsu. Muramatsu tells Hoshino what to do to get the plane out of the way and Hoshino is able to save Fuji and himself just in the nick of time as the monster shoots a beam at them. 

Back at HQ, the SSSP are discussing what to do. Normally, I would complain that Hayata should be going into Ultraman mode but Muramatsu is making him stay at HQ so they can wait for the Defense Force to do something. I've learned from this series that the Defense Force is useless. Ide is working in the lab to make a new weapon to defeat the monster. Hoshino gives Ide an idea about the monster's weakness by shooting it in the back. I do enjoy Ide looking like a scientist. He can do anything. 

The Defense Force is attacking the monster and just seem to be annoying the poor guy. I'd hate to see their military budget with all the tanks that get blown up every other episode. This monster is destroying so many buildings. It's a good couple minutes we see this thing just tearing apart places. Hayata appears in the Jet VTOL to attack the monster and we already know we can kiss that Jet VTOL goodbye. The Jet VTOL gets blown up in the air and Hayata somehow survives again. He must have ejected right before it exploded. Arashi and Muramatsu are on the ground watching and they rightly assume that Hayata is dead. 

 

Ultraman appears and immediately kicks this monster in the face. I like to think that Hayata was really angry that he got another plane blown up. Ide and Hoshino drive up to where to Arashi and Muramatsu have been watching the fight. Ide has finished his Mad Bazooka! He's so proud of his new weapon. I could also see the excited look in Arashi's eye that he gets to help shoot this thing. Ultraman continues to fight Kemular. The monster is named Kemular all of a sudden by the SSSP. I can't remember if they gave that name out earlier but I didn't notice it until near the end. The team yells at Ultraman to get Kemular in the right position so they can fire the Mad Bazooka at it. Ultraman holds Kemular up in the right spot and Ide and Arashi fire the Mad Bazooka at Kemular. The shot hits and Kemular crawls back into where it came from and explodes. 

Muramatsu, Arashi, Ide, and Hoshino go to visit Fuji in the hospital. Muramatsu tells them not to mention Hayata being dead. They open the door to Fuji's room and Hayata is already there. They're more excited to see Hayata than Fuji which she rightfully points out. They then shower her with all the presents and flowers they brought which I'm sure she will enjoy going off a previous episode. Hoshino mentions how nobody pays attention to women and children to Fuji. She pushes his head and everyone laughs like it's the end of a sitcom episode. 

We're on a run of mediocre episodes. This episode has a lot of filler scenes that don't really seem to matter. None of our team even appears until around the five minute mark of the episode. I was hoping Fuji and Hoshino would get more of a spotlight when they went off on their own but they end up looking like fools. I thought this episode did a big disservice to the Fuji character and made her look useless out in the field. Hoshino got to save her at least so he got something. Ide had a good episode since he invented the Mad Bazooka once again showing off his invention skills. I still think Muramatsu is not that good at his job by allowing the Defense Force to try and fight Kemular but I still like him. The Ultraman fight was a decent one but besides the opening kick nothing really exciting happens. I actually enjoy that the SSSP blew up the monster instead. All in all, it was a forgettable episode. 

"Overthrow the Surface" is the title to episode 22 of Ultraman. I have no guesses at what will happen with that title. I'm hoping we break the streak of mediocre episodes. Follow me on the Twitter @TokuTomFoolery where I'll be live tweeting episode 22 of Ultraman and all other episodes of Ultraman.