Return of Ultraman
Return of Ultraman was a 1971 tokusatsu series produced by Tsuburaya Productions, part of the Ultra Series.
After 3 years without an Ultra warrior to defend Earth, the Monster Attack Team is commissioned to battle various giant creatures, and has achieved limited success, but with an ever growing array of opponents, the human race is getting overwhelmed in a new "Second Age of Monsters".
Suddenly, an Ultra warrior appears that looks similar to the original Ultraman, which leads people to believe that the original has returned to help Earth. In reality, this Ultra warrior's containment suit has some subtle differences, and is a whole new Ultra, whose name is Jack, which is unbeknownst to everyone. The Japanese public and M.A.T. simply call him "Ultraman" or "New Man".
Jack battles one of the creatures rampaging and during his battle, race car driver Goh Hideki heroically rescues some innocents from the destruction, but is killed doing so. After Jack defeats the monster, Jack feels remorse about Goh's death and merges with him, leading to a recovery and a subconscious command to join M.A.T. in order to help out the brave humans who came to aid him during his first fight on Earth.
With a new purpose in his life, Goh balances his life in three ways—to be a heroic member of M.A.T., a race car driver who loves his girlfriend very much, and a human guide for Jack to ease his mission on Earth against the hordes of evil monsters and alien invaders.
Tropes used in Return of Ultraman include:
- Action Girl: Oka
- Author Existence Failure: This show was being concieved by Eiji Tsuburaya on his deathbed, and his son brought the idea to fruition.
- Arch Nemesis: Zetton from the original series returns to fight Jack after being revived by Bat. However, Jack manages to defeat Zetton and Bat in the end.
- Big Bad: Many aliens throughout the series, although the ones that come to mind are Knuckle (episodes 37 and 38) and Bat (last episode)
- Big Badass Bird of Prey: Tenochtitlus in Episodes 16 & 17, as well as gas-guzzling Bemstar in Ep. 18.
- Blessed with Suck: Hideki Go's personal life is more affected by being an Ultra than most human hosts.
- Butt Monkey: Poor Jack. Throughout the franchise he's been subject to several abuses...
- A second monster sneaking up on him during a fight (a few times)
- Fighting to exhaustion (as in, color timer going out)
- Gorings
- Bites
- Crucifixion (the first time happened after transforming and using up his powers twice in twenty-four hours, a big no-no for the original)
- Decapitation
- Freezing solid (led to decap)
- Having his Ultra Bracelet go out of control and attack him
- Covered in tar and paralyzed in Ace.
- Being deflated from having his Color Timer removed in Taro.
- Getting whooped and gagged in Leo.
- Calling Your Attacks: An early franchise example in Episode 51.
- Continuity Reboot: Sort of a complicated example of this. Ultra Seven is still debated among fans to be in its own separate continuity, however this series creates a new timeline that establishes Ultraseven took place in 1967 instead of 1999 like it was originally stated. It was originally supposed to be the original returned to Earth.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Jack in episode 23 as he destroys the planet eating cloud Vacuumon by going inside of him and using the Ultra Bracelet to chop him up (causing him to explode of course).
- Deus Ex Machina: The Ultra Bracelet was this in Episode 40, after Jack lost to Snowgon. Ultra Seven was this in Episode 18, when he delivered it.
- Evil Twin: The plot of episode 49 with the Mystellar brothers.
- Eye Lights Out: The hero had this happen to him a few times.
- Fantastic Racism: Said about Ultraman Jack in Ep. 37:
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Not quite human, not quite alien... A freak! |
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- Heroic BSOD: Goh had such a moment in Ep. 37.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Kurata was manning the MAT space station when Bemstar showed up...
- Look out, Captain Muramatsu! Seagoras and his friend are wreaking havoc near the coastline...
- Konno couldn't serve Goh a cup of coffee after Bemstar attacked that oil refinery...
- Eiichi Kikuchi was Jack's suit actor for some episodes. Look for him in the last episode as a signal man, warning MAT about Zetton.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Episode 33 featuring benevolent alien call Meits, who came to Earth for observation. He took care of an orphan boy, who often got bullied by villagers. When the boy was accused of being an alien, he showed up to protect him and got beaten to death. You can't blame Goh for just standing there and watch as the alien Muruchi, previously trapped in a pocket dimension of Meits's psychic, caused havoc on the town.
- Ice Queen: Snowgon
- Idiot Ball: Why, oh why, no matter how dire the situation, did you fly into the sun, Ultraman? Who do you think you are, Ultra Seven? Go back to Earth, indeed!
- However one could argue that Jack was simply trying to absorb more energy from the sun since that is how Ultras stay alive.
- Fine, except Seven (who, by the way, is the only Ultra I know of who successfully did just that—Episode 25 of Ultraseven--) doesn't even have to share a human body with anybody else; Dan IS Seven in human form, and even he had to deal with extreme cold, a missing Ultra Eye, and energy spent just transforming and flying off. Plus, Jack couldn't even let himself be visible until he "possessed" Goh (check out Episode 1), and you have a severely weakened Jack in a polluted Earth with an enemy that wore him out desperately trying to do something a peer of his with no such problems barely managed to do, and you have a recipe for disaster.
- It should be noted that Ultra Seven can last longer in Earth's atmosphere than virtually other Ultras in the franchise save for Gaia and Nexus, so naturally it would make sense for him to store more energy in his body. Ultras have required to possess humans to stay on Earth safely, Jack really isn't that different. Not to mention Jack is the only Ultra in the franchise to actually survive being torn to shreds (while being frozen no less).
- Fine, except Seven (who, by the way, is the only Ultra I know of who successfully did just that—Episode 25 of Ultraseven--) doesn't even have to share a human body with anybody else; Dan IS Seven in human form, and even he had to deal with extreme cold, a missing Ultra Eye, and energy spent just transforming and flying off. Plus, Jack couldn't even let himself be visible until he "possessed" Goh (check out Episode 1), and you have a severely weakened Jack in a polluted Earth with an enemy that wore him out desperately trying to do something a peer of his with no such problems barely managed to do, and you have a recipe for disaster.
- However one could argue that Jack was simply trying to absorb more energy from the sun since that is how Ultras stay alive.
- Idiot Hero: Goh was this in Episode 2, acting like he was all that, long before he had control over his transformations. His pride got him fired.
- See Idiot Ball above.
- In-Joke: Kingsaurus III from episode 4 is referred to as "The Third" as he is the third "king" monster of the franchise (after Red King from the original series and Eleking from Seven). Very few fans are aware of this though.
- Detton from episode 3 is also referred to as the brother of Telesdon from the original series considering the same suit is used with a different head.
- Kansas City Shuffle: The Big Bad's plan in Ep. 37 from Goh's point of view, until his BSOD.
- Ms. Fanservice: Aki Sakata. And briefly, Yuriko Oka.
- Not Himself: In Episode 48, an alien spread some kind of spore that had all of MAT in a daze, not caring about anything or having the energy to do anything. Even the MAT theme was playing slow and Jack was lethargic, too!
- Put on a Bus: A Father to His Men Captain Katou in Episode 22. Captain Hibiki, his replacement, was more strict and stern.
- Recycled Soundtrack: There's a few themes from Ultra Seven used throughout.
- Red Shirt:
- The crew of the MAT Space station in Episode 18.
- Goh was this to his teammates in the last episode, but Jiro and Rumiko got to say goodbye to him afterwards.
- Retronym: The protagonist was originally meant to be the original Ultraman. When it was retconned that he was a different Ultrabeing, he was referred by a series of nicknames such as the "New Ultraman" or "Ultraman II" before the name Ultraman Jack was officially decided years after the fact.
- SacrificialLions : Aki and Ken Sakata. Ken Sakata's actor, Shin Kishida later appeared in Faiyaman and narrated Ultraman Ace, both shows from Tsuburaya.
- Sinister Geometry: Priz-Ma in episode 35 complete with drug inducing powers.
- Swiss Army Weapon / Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Ultra Bracelet.
- The Jimmy Hart Version: The opening theme is essentially Koichi Sugiyama's(yes, that Koichi Sugiyama) version of the original Ultraman theme song.
- Transformation Sequence: Somehow Ultraman Jack started it from within, until Goh learned to do it spontaneously.
- Transformation Trinket: None, Jack is the only Ultra with a human host in the entire franchise that had no transformation item.
- Vampire: The alien monster Draculas in episode 36, it possesses the corpse of a woman (dubbed "Vampire Woman") and Jack even kills him by impaling him in the heart with a lance from the Ultra Bracelet.
- Wham! Episode: 1 (Goh's life has a new meaning), 2 (Goh gets a swell head and gets fired from MAT), 18 (Ultraman Jack has a new weapon, and the show goes into a Sci-Fi direction), 37 (Tearjerker)