Review: Ultraman Episode 4 - Five Seconds Before Explosion

 

Ultraman Episode #4

Five Seconds Before Explosion

Original Air Date: August 7th, 1966

Directed by: Samaji Nonagase

Screenplay by: Ryu Minamikawa

Review by: Toku Tom Fool

Episode 4 of Ultraman starts with the news that six atom bombs were being sent to Jupiter to help develop it. I'm not quite sure how that works. Were they trying to terraform Jupiter? I don't think an atom bomb would do that. The whole plan seemed destined to fail and it did before the atom bombs even got to Jupiter. The missile carrying the bombs malfunctions and the six bombs fall back to Earth. One of them detonated in the water while four of the other five were recovered before catastrophe struck. 

The SSSP are doing their best to locate the final bomb except for some reason Fuji is sent on vacation. There is a nuke on the loose and we are giving people vacations? Fuji seems excited for her vacation though since she hasn't taken one since she started working at the SSSP. Hoshino is going with her though so I don't know how much of a vacation it really is when you have to take a kid with you. I still have no idea why that kid hangs around the SSSP. Is he a genius or something? He hasn't shown any brain power. I read that he's Fuji's brother in the English dub which would make some sense but that is not present at all in the Japanese version. 

We are introduced to the monster of the week which turns out to be a Creature of the Black Lagoon inspired monster. It wrecks some sort of naval ship which somehow leaves a survivor. The survivor tells his story to the SSSP which reveals that the last atom bomb is hanging on the creature. The SSSP explains that this creature is called a Ragon. Ragons are human like creatures that live underwater but this one got mutated into a giant due to the atomic blast. I was curious as to why they had so much information on Ragons like how they like music and it turns out they had appeared in an Ultra Q episode. I'm regretting not watching all of Ultra Q first. 

Fuji and Hoshino are still on vacation. I can never decide if I want to call the characters by their first or last names. The show seems to prefer the last names while they are working but occasionally uses their first names. I'm just going to stick with the last names for now. Anyways, their vacation goes south quickly because they get stuck watching a little girl. To make matters worse, the Ragon shows up and starts destroying their hotel. 

Not much is happening with the other characters. Captain Muramatsu is making Ide do all of Fuji's jobs like getting him coffee. Ide isn't very good at making coffee so it's a slightly funny scene. 

Arashi is sent to try and get the bomb from the Ragon and to try and get him away from Fuji and Hoshino. He has his usual luck as his plane blows up, but he survives because he parachutes out of it. I should point out that his parachute model is not one of the best models they use on the show. It didn't even look like a person. 

Hayata finally decides to do something in the episode. He's hilariously the least interesting character on the show even though he turns into Ultraman. Hoshino is in danger from the monster so Hayata decides it's finally time to transform. The show does give us an excuse for why he doesn't always transform right away. It's more of a last resort because Ultraman's power drains the longer he fights on Earth. He has no choice here so we get our big Ultraman vs. Ragon fight. 

Ultraman gets a little taste of his own medicine as the Ragon jumps on his back. Ragon then puts Ultraman in a sleeper hold before he fights his way out. Ultraman gets some Ric Flair chops in before it becomes a beam battle. Ragon fires a beam from his mouth that would make Godzilla proud and Ultraman counters with his hand laser. Ultraman wins and the Ragon falls to his death off a cliff. They actually threw what looked like the Ragon suit into the ocean which was pretty sweet. 

There's still an atom bomb that Ultraman has to deal with or the Kanto region of Japan will be obliterated. This is where the title of the episode starts to make sense. Ultraman has no choice but to do the ending of The Dark Knight Rises and fly the bomb away. Ultraman takes the bomb into space and the bomb explodes. Hoshino, Fuji, and Arashi fear Ultraman to be dead, but we see Hayata in a cafe at the end of the episode giving a nod to his butler, Alfred, so we know he's fine. Okay, that's not what happened. Hayata shows up to SSSP members and tells them that Ultraman is invincible so there is no need to worry. End of episode.

Overall, it was a decent episode but the worst of the four I have watched so far. I'm hoping Hayata gets more to do in the future besides turning into Ultraman. I know from Super Sentai and Power Rangers experience that juggling six characters is never easy. Someone is always going to get shafted in an episode. The Ultraman fight represented the episode well as it was a bit mediocre. The fight wasn't as big of a deal compared to getting rid of the bomb which that part was executed quite well. I also really enjoyed some of the rear screen projections used in this episode. The Ragon hand breaking through the hotel window trying to grab them was a good scene. The story was the part lacking in this episode but it still made for good television. 

I'll be back to cover episode 5 of Ultraman next time. It's called, "Secret of the Miloganda." I have no idea what to expect from that title. Is Miloganda the monster? A secret race of people? We'll answer those questions on the next episode of Ultraman.

The Toku Tom Fool is on Twitter @TokuTomFoolery and I live tweet the episodes before writing my reviews.