Review: Ultraman Episode 9 - Lightning Operation

 

Ultraman Episode #9

Lightning Operation

Original Air Date: September 11th, 1966

Directed by Samaji Nonagase

Screenplay by: Masahiro Yamada

Review by: Toku Tom Fool

Tsunami! That's how the episode starts. I was thinking that maybe the episode would revolve around this the whole episode but I was wrong. Nope, the episode is more about the aftermath of the tsunami. We're introduced to a boy scout group and the tsunami wrecked their food supply so they send two boys to go find more food. 


The picture of Arashi sleeping there is how I feel about the boy scout subplot of the episode. There's more tsunami aftermath that we follow. While workers clean up a town affected by the storm, a monster, Gavora, shows up and starts attacking the Uranium mines. For some reason, the people know to call the monster Gavora (I've also seen it written as Gabora). They call the SSSP to deal with the Gavora threat. 

We get another one of my favorite moments of this show when the SSSP change from the blue blazers into their creamsicle outfits. Hoshino is back in this episode. I honestly forgot all about his character after the last two episodes didn't feature him. I can't say I missed him and this episode not being as good as the last two episodes didn't help his cause. 

Science Patrol and the local authorities devise a way to get Gavora away from the Uranium in the town. One of their tricks was to use these tanks that had flamethrowers. There's some pretty cool shows of the tanks burning the monster. I know it's a monster suit and some model tanks but it still looks pretty sweet. 


The fire attack works but it makes the monster go towards that boy scout camp from earlier. The SSSP have to come up with a new plan. Hayata decides to get in a helicopter and drag a canister of Uranium to draw the monster away from the youth camp. Fuji and Hoshino are also in the helicopter because they hid themselves onboard. Hayata's plan worked out pretty well at first because the monster does follow the helicopter. Those two darn kids from earlier ruin the plan because they are in the path of Gavora. Hayata has to land the helicopter to let Fuji and Hoshino out to get the two boys. They actually use a real helicopter in some of these shots with what looks like the actual actors. I was shocked by that. Maybe the pilot was a stunt pilot but it actually looked like the Hoshino actor in the helicopter. 

Hayata flies back up in the helicopter. He decides to drop the Uranium to Gavora but he can't get the Uranium to drop. Gavora then knocks the helicopter out of the sky and it explodes as it impacts the ground. Somehow Hayata survives this. The helicopter is in flames but Hayata must have jumped out before it landed. No idea how he didn't get any injuries from the fall. He really must have some of that Ultraman power in him. Oh, I was right about him not having the sling from the last episode on his arm, but it's hard to say how much time has passed between episodes. Not to mention episodes get aired out of production order. 

Hayata transforms into Ultraman and now we get our fight. Gavora must have been an awkward monster suit to fight with because you could see a string pulling the suit up at times. It did lead to hilarious fight moments like Ultraman riding Gavora around like it's a bull. Ultraman does hit a Daniel LaRusso style crane kick on Gavora which was great. Ultraman starts ripping off parts of Gavora's head and then he just kind of throws Gavora on the ground killing it. It's definitely not one of the better fights on the show. 

The characters like me can't believe Hayata survived that helicopter crash but it's all good because they gave food to the boys youth camp. Even the two boys have to question Hayata's helicopter survival. Hayata tells them how tough he is though and they seem to accept that reasoning. 

This episode was on the mediocre side if you ask me. The story wasn't that interesting, the monster wasn't that interesting, and even the fight at the end wasn't that interesting. There were too many scenes with the boys youth camp that I didn't even talk about earlier in the review. I would have liked to have spent more time with the SSSP as I did enjoy the scenes they had but I wanted more. Muramatsu and Ide really lacked on good moments in this one. Arashi has good scene where he wants to fly the helicopter instead of Hayata so that was something for him. I also enjoy the characters making fun of Arashi's shooting abilities and Hayata is getting more time recently which I'm enjoying. 

That's all for episode 9. I'll be back with my review of episode 10 of Ultraman titled "The Mysterious Dinosaur Base" and that's an awesome episode title. There better be a really dope looking dinosaur for Ultraman to fight in the next episode. Follow me on Twitter @TokuTomFoolery to find out as I will be live tweeting the episode.

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