Review: Ultraman Episode 26 - The Monster Highness Part 1

 

Ultraman Episode #26

The Monster Highness (Part 1)

Original Air Date: January 8th, 1967

Directed by: Hajime Tsuburaya

Screenplay by: Tetsuo Kinjo and Bunzo Wakatsuki

Review by: Toku Tom Fool

This episode has a way cooler title elsewhere on the Internet than it does on Tubi and Shout Factory. They translated this episode title as "The Monster Highness" while I've seen it elsewhere called "The Prince of the Monsters" which is a way cooler title. Plus, it reminds me of "The King of the Monsters" Godzilla. Anyways, this episode begins with kids making fun of a boy that believes in monsters. Newsflash, monsters appear in Japan every week! They're real! These kids are stupid. It reminds me of Power Rangers Ninja Storm when Dustin is excited about Power Rangers being real. Of course they're real! They've saved the planet countless times! Some people just don't believe facts and it's a problem in the world. 

After spending way too much time with this kid, we finally get to a SSSP member in Arashi. Arashi and a team of scientists are in the South Pacific looking the monster Gomora which is the same monster the kid is excited about seeing. They set out to look for Gomora but first run into a plant monster. Arashi busts out his flamethrower to take out this monster. I missed seeing Arashi gleefully burn stuff. Gomora actually shows up a little bit after this and of course Arashi wants to shoot it too because it's what he does. This is the best Arashi episode in awhile. 

The head scientist wants to take Gomora back to Japan because he's not very smart. I guess there's an International Expo and he wants to take Gomora there. It all sounds like a dumb idea to me. Captain Muramatsu has to come up with a way to get Gomora to Japan. They use some tranquilizer guns made from America that's supposed to last six hours. I like that they little rockets say "USA" on them because that's what America would do. Muramatsu and Arashi put Gomora to sleep and they use the Jet VTOLs to carry Gomora in a giant net to Japan. Oh, the kid is happy that Gomora is real.

Well, America made a crappy weapon because Gomora was only out for five hours instead of six. They have to drop him up in the mountains where a couple of kids from earlier in the episode are hanging around trying to see Gomora. You can tell I don't care about the children plot. Gomora is unstoppable all of a sudden. No guns or anything is working on him. That American tranquilizer gun worked at putting it to sleep but no other guns seem to be working. Hayata has to remove those kids from the area but it doesn't work too well because the monster heads straight into Osaka and starts to terrorize the city. 

 

The boy is named Osamu. I had been leaving that out because I don't care about his plot. He calls for Ultraman and Ultraman appears. Ultraman and Gomora start fighting and Ultraman gets an early advantage but Gomora proves to be a good competitor and takes it to Ultraman. For some reason, Ultraman doesn't use any of his special moves and Gomora keeps kicking his butt. Gomora whips his tail around like the Dragonzord multiple times and smacks Ultraman in the face. This causes Ultraman to lose his Beta Capsule which is picked up by Osamu. Ultraman's powers begin to fade during the battle for the first time in about fifteen episodes. Gomora just leaves for some reason after having Ultraman beat. Ultraman finally goes for his Spacium Beam but Gomora hides underground to avoid the blast. Ultraman flies away and Osamu waves the Beta Capsule in the air to end the episode. 

I got what I wanted with Ultraman losing at the end of Part 1. That's about all I liked from the episode outside of Arashi shooting things. I don't care about the Osamu plot. I've never been a fan of these shows sidelining the main characters for some children we don't care about. The only way this would work is if Osamu becomes an important character which I doubt happens. There's barely an Ide, Fuji, or even Hayata in this episode and the lack of Ide really hurts this episode in my eyes. I'm pretty sure they could have made this a one part episode. We didn't need two parts but I'm guessing they had a good idea of Ultraman losing but then they had to add some filler to make it two parts. I didn't like this episode but hopefully part two will conclude the story well and it will raise the profile of this episode.

We'll find out if Ultraman avenges his loss next time in episode 27 of Ultraman which is the hopefully thrilling conclusion of "The Monster Highness" two parter. Follow me on Twitter @TokuTomFoolery where I will be live tweeting the episodes.