1972's Ultraman Ace is a series that is simply full of surprises. Of all of the Ultra series I've covered, Ace is perhaps the one with the most divergences from what came before. The series introduced a lot of then new concepts that are common place today. But while Ace starts off unique for the Ultra series by taking the franchise into uncharted territory, where it heads is ultimately all familiar.
Fittingly, the most immediate of these changes are the protagonists
and Ace's hosts. That's right, plural, Ace has two, one a man and the
other a woman.
Seiji Hokuto & Yuko Minami.
Potrayed by: Keiji Takamine & Mitsuko Hoshi.
Like many ultra hosts, both lost their lives when trying to protect others. Hokuto, a baker, lost his in a self-sacrifice in an attempt to save Minami, a nurse helping evacuate an orphanage during a monster attack. Each was given a ring that when both shined would allow the two to merge and become Ultraman Ace and this has some interesting divergences from previous hosts.
Forming Ace requires both to not only be close, but both
must desire to transform. There are occasions in which one may be
traumatized, shocked, or injured and unwilling or unable to.
Additionally,
unlike other Ultra hosts, certain injuries and effects incurred as Ace do transfer to
one or both of the hosts. Certain abilities of Ace can seriously fatigue
one half but not the other. All these unique qualities set Ace apart
from any of the prior Ultras and even much later ones as no other Ultra
series has ever had simultaneous hosts.
Although there are some shake ups and more to come, there is still the familiar formula of having the protagonist(s) be part of a defense force. After being saved by Ace, the two would join up with TAC (Terrible-monster Attacking Crew) Compared to Return of Ultraman, the crew dynamic is far better. Again, like with prior entries, I don't have a whole lot to say about the individual members, so I won't delve too deep.
Although I will give special mention to Captain Ryu (TetsurÅ Sagawa), who embodies some of the best qualities one would want in Captain. He's fully capable of dishing out the dirt and being firm, but he's not a stick in the mud and regularly cuts it up with the crew by being one of the most cheerful leaders yet. You get the feeling he wants to believe in some of the more outlandish claims made by his team, despite keeping a reasonable amount of skepticism given his job.
But most importantly is that neither he nor any of the crew comes off as unreasonable jerks to Hokuto or Minami. While the two are noobies and prone to mistakes, the disbelief or chastising from the rest of the team and Captain Ryu are often more mild compared to those from MAT. The harsher and most severe of these are also more understandable as Hokuto or Minami will be at fault instead of the situation being blown out of proportion. Episodes featuring these more turgid conflicts are also spread out as opposed to being a nearly weekly occurrence. It simply improves upon the team formula RoU built and is far less irritating for it.
Unfortunately, fascinating and progressive as the two protagonists are and the various other improvements made, it was an idea a bit too forward-thinking. It's clear the writers often struggled by having two protagonists form up. While there is a good bit of tension whenever the two are separated (invoking a dilemma not too different from the Beta Capsule or Ultra Eye being stolen) this often results in the other half not having much to do until they find a way to meet up and the answer to "how will they get out of this one?" usually isn't all that engaging. Hell, on a couple of occasions the difference in location is flat out ignored.
Sadly, Minami is the one who gets the short end of the stick. Even worse is that this never improves and in fact, it gets worse. By the late teens, she's barely featured at all, with only an episode or two featuring her more than Hokuto. Compounding this is hearsay that the culture at the time found a man and woman combining into one as being weird. This is sadly where some of Ace's issues come into play. Midway through the season, Minami is written off the show leaving her ring to Hokuto and leaving us with just another regular Ultra host when you get right down to it.
It's not entirely clear why Minami was written off the show, it certainly wasn't for ratings. There's a lot of rumors circling the cause, but honestly I feel it was just that the writers couldn't handle two protagonists.
On the plus side(?) they did plan for this because the episodes immediately following Minami's departure they introduce the Umezu Family, consisting of a young boy named Dan and his older sister Kayoko aka Madame not appearing on this blog.
Dan in particular is this special kid who can see the "Star of Ultra", a light in the sky visible to only the most selfless and determined of souls. He has a good chemistry with Hokuto and the introductory episode for him and his sister has a fairly in-depth backstory...but there's also not really a lot to talk about with the two. Just to give you an idea of how underwhelming their addition is, the informational guide with the Bluray doesn't have an entry for either character. This is despite both being in about half of the episodes and Dan even being considered the honorary 6th Ultra brother for his unique ability.
Despite this, Dan isn't a bad addition. I appreciate the character to some extent because he is a good kid with some legit flaws. Sometimes he's shown to be greedy or selfish, normal kid things. But he always corrects these mistakes and tries to be upstanding. Yet it's also never more than that. If you've seen a kid in toku series that pals around with the main hero, you've seen Dan and there isn't much more to it, which is a shame given that both Ace and Dan are both little brother characters, but more on that later.
As Ultraman Ace decided to take on many tropes of other hero shows this included more prominent villains. Unlike prior Ultraman entries which often had individual aliens and monsters unconnected to each other, Ultraman Ace has overarching villains in the form of the Yapool, alternate dimensional beings that periodically send out genetically enhanced monsters more resilient to TAC's weapons.
The included episode guide mentions how Kamen Rider began airing a year prior alongside Return of Ultraman, initiating the first real competition and TsuPro needing to adapt. I'm inclined to agree that this was TsuPro attempting to compete by having their own Shocker. While plenty of aspects are by no means unique to Rider and are instead generic elements of the hero genre, it's hard to deny the correlation and timing being a reaction to Kamen Rider specifically. In fact, it's downright blatant at times.
Other ways Ace embraces tropes include Ace talking and even having internal monologues or shouting attacks. Both are far more common today, but to see it in an era where most of the sounds coming from an Ultra were grunts and unintelligible shouts, well, it's surreal. Although this does become downplayed midway through the run.
Perhaps as an extension of broadening the scope, the Yapool make use of some human individuals as antagonists, be it disturbed and willing or manipulated. There are also several civilian deaths caused by monsters.
However, you may have noticed I've spent more time on various changes from a structural standpoint than on the villains' personalities, and that's because they're only in about half of the show and sadly under developed.
The opening episodes with them are perhaps the best because of the mystery surrounding them. They have dimension shattering technology and can essentially put a monster wherever they want. They're a threat unlike anything seen before. This is a major source of confusion for TAC until they realize what they're up against. But even afterwards, the Yapool are still kept hidden to such a degree that it's hard to get a beat on them at all, and it starts to go astray in the middle.
All the footage of them is distorted with only a lone voice speaking. Kudos where it's due, the (uncredited) VA for the Yapool does a great job taunting Ace and giving grandiose boasts. It's a very creepy delivery, creating this malicious mystique that captivates the audience.
But like everything else it's a bit too mysterious. Compared to other Ultra villains like Baltan, Dada, Metron, or Guts, they all had clear simple goals and were tangible threats you could put a face to. The Yapool is quite a bit harder to appreciate because of that. It's ironic because if the intent was to make a faction like Shocker, it doesn't really mesh. Shocker had Generals like Ambassador Hell who acted as direct threats on a more intimate level, their monsters were intelligent and would talk giving some personality. It was only the Great Leader who was kept a mysterious voice, and because of the former two, he could be given the privilege of being a shadowy puppeteer. Ace really needed more liaisons of the Yapool to help build up that threat.
Part of the reason why past Ultra antagonists Like Zetton or Guts worked is because they were simple and only around for a couple of episodes. But when you introduce a mysterious threat that will be around for consecutive episodes, you have to build that up into something, even if it's relatively as basic as a General sending out a MOW. Ace does initially have villains filling this role but it's very haphazard and only a handful of episodes have them before dropping the concept all together. Even then, there's never a clear hierarchy established with the Yapool. There's only ever x creature in charge of x kaiju in x episode where both are defeated as opposed to a true commander. It feels like they wanted to embrace the wider superhero tropes except for when it came to the villains, who are largely too impersonal despite some solid voice work and presentation early on. After a certain point the best villains within Ace are often the beings that are one-off threats like you'd expect in an Ultra series, overshadowing some of the Yapool's early hits.
This is somewhat understandable. The team at TsuPro had nearly seven years of experience doing one or two-part episodes of alien threats, but pretty much zero when it came to an overarching antagonist. But this regression into a comfort zone is something that would, I feel, cost the series down the road.
But one of the area's Ace succeeds in spades is the prominence of the other Ultras. Ace will occasionally be overwhelmed or in trouble and send an emergency signal through space, which one of the many other Ultras will pick up on and come to the rescue. This seems frequent at first, but it's quickly made sparse and is spread out across the series. I ultimately believe this was a smart move as you wouldn't want Ace overshadowed by his predecessors, and the show does a good job at avoiding that. There isn't a lot of interaction between the Ultras, but what is there is poignant and a bit heartfelt. You get the impression that the Ultras are passing the torch of protecting Earth to Ace and hope that one day their little brother won't need help.
However, past Ultras are not the only ones.
In addition to all these cameos, Ace has many callbacks to previous entries. Be it returning monsters or occasionally referencing story material from across past series. For example; episode 7 features a rouge planetary object hurtling towards earth and TAC discusses using an interstellar missile. This is a (rather dark) reference to the Super Weapon R1 in Ultraseven's 26th episode.
Ace truly embraces the legacy of the Ultra franchise and is the first to this degree. RoU of course paid respects to '66 and Seven while establishing a continuity between the three. But whereas RoU dipped it's toes, Ace takes a headfirst dive and in many ways help set a standard for what a lot of the modern shows do today.
All that being said, there is an elephant in the room. For as much stuff Ace adds to the franchise and many first as there are, the show has two massive shake-ups around the halfway mark which I feel are detrimental to the overall show. The first is Minami's aforementioned departure which happens in ep 28, but a prior and arguably even larger one is the Yapool being defeated in episode 23. This is a 52 episode series. You can probably see where the trouble starts.
Because Minami and the Yapool were the two biggest sources of intrigue, the show suffers for not only failing to realize them to their full potential, but also having to figure out where to go once they decided to write them off. However, it's not a case of struggling in the traditional sense. In fact, they hit the ground running almost seamlessly from what Ace was originally doing to being a more traditional Ultraman. Again, they had two new characters ready as supporting cast so this was thought out.
The real issue is that Ace doesn't do anything as unique or drastic once that switch occurs. This is exacerbated by Ace not being nearly as daring with its stories after the first 15 or so. Make no mistake, the show is very bold for where it starts, and throughout the series there are episodes that examine the purpose of an Ultra and their relationship with humanity. The series has some fascinatingly dark and scary tales alongside many that capture that childlike wonder and hope. But after the midway point there's a shift that mostly only focuses on the latter. They're simply less challenging than prior entries. Ace doesn't tackle heavy subject matters like the prior shows did with Race or Genocide and there's not really any sort of standout episode for me within that same type of wheelhouse. The majority of the moral teachings, which mostly happen in the second half, are more down to earth subjects along the lines of don't be a bully and/or jerk to others, be a good person and example for the future, it's okay if you piss the bed etc. Which I believe is good and certainly great for the target audience. It fits perfectly with Ace's theme of being the little brother that's growing up and taking care of Earth, and I love that idealism. You can be like Dan and be an honorary Ultraman, you can be the Ace of Tomorrow.
But it's also very limited in scope.
So much of the initial draw was put into having two protagonists and a faction of villains that once those have dissipated, Ace doesn't have much else that we haven't seen elsewhere and done better.
This results in quite the double edge sword. The first part is incredibly captivating and wonderfully fresh. The Yapool is a fun mysterious threat, there are some fun tidbits with Ace interacting with the other Ultras, it's surprisingly scary yet hopeful. But as the show goes on, many of these qualities begin to dwindle. The villains become less engaging and you realize that Minami is being ignored more and more, to the point of basically being a walking henshin device. Frankly, the show isn't doing much with its two most interesting components and it feels like a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Should they try to improve upon these still beguiling ideas or simply cut their losses?
Reading about the production side, Ace was originally supposed to be this amalgamation of the strength of men and the love of a woman- which is certainly a dated idea by today's standards, but it is something that fits into the idea of unification within the Ultra series in a new and even progressive way for the time. But the show never truly explores those ideas. Ultraman Ace feels like a series that wanted to go in a new direction with familiar concepts, but on one hand it was so forward-thinking that no one was ready for it, and on the other, a more traditional reoccurring antagonist was something many of the writers struggled with as much as having two leads. Perhaps biting off more than they could chew and realizing that even if the ratings were gangbusters- and by all accounts they were, keeping up that particular level of quality and developing it into something might not have been feasible for the staff.
But the 70s brought a massive boom in Anime and Manga, and by extension toy sells for properties related to them. Merchandise suddenly became not only a secondary factor for monetary gain, but an essential and highly viable one for better or worse. Fast, simple, and flashy could possibly net more money than a well written episode about prejudices that would fly over the audience asking for toys.
Knowing some of the behind-the-scenes details makes me sympathize with their dilemma. It's clear just from the show the writers were having trouble with two protagonists, and if the writers couldn't change it or figure out what to do, then it's hard to fault them on that. Stripping the series down and focusing mainly on Hokuto and even being looser with monsters does have its advantages. As I said, they had years of doing one protagonist and one-off monsters. It's a formula they've perfected even if the stories centered around them can be hit or miss. Plus it was more marketable to kids which was financially sensible. This was the right call to make, hard as it may be to accept that.
But as a piece of media and the advantage of hindsight, I can't help but be a little disappointed by the changes. While the first half does have its bumps, there's a spark of intrigue showing so much potential for something great and different for the franchise. I think I could deal with one or the other being a lost cause, but it's the one-two hit of both major additions being swept away that hurts. It's a shame the Yapool's demise came so close to Minami leaving because I think the sensible thing to do would be to drop one and work on the other. They could have focused primarily on Hokuto and Minami instead, shifting to the two working together to defeat a myriad of threats without the need of developing the Yapool into a sizeable enemy.
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| Some early episodes even entertain this concept. |
The inverse is also true. With Minami gone, they could've had a Yapool or an agent of Yapool become a reoccurring role. There's even a perfect setup for that in episode 24. At the very least, the writers not having to write for as many major factions would've offered more time for engaging story material between the cast one way or the other, all while still maintaining at least one of the most differential facets. But, of course, that's not the direction they wanted to take and it would cut into Dan's time who functions as an audience self insert and also allowed for more involved plots with other child characters.
Now, I don't want to give the impression that the second half of Ace is no good. Ace remains a well made series despite my criticisms and there's some really good stuff in that second half. But I'd be lying if I didn't say a lot of my enthusiasm dwindled during this time and that I believe the second half to be far less engaging because of those changes.
After watching a few episodes of the second half of the show, I feel most will have a pretty good indication of what to expect with one or two pleasant surprises, it's a very by the numbers experience. But otherwise, Ace is a series that is just short of being truly excellent in the first half, followed by being painfully average in the second half. It's not as good as it could've been, but it's also not as bad.
Ultimately, however one feels about the changes, Ace was such a ratings smash that Taro was green lit and put into
production before Ace had even finished filming. Which was, again, a
first for the franchise.
Visuals/SFX
Unsurprisingly I have massive praise for the special effects. Even after four Ultra series plus all their various other heroes like Mirror Man, the team at Tsuburaya were still improving. Buildings somehow look even more detailed, wide shots show off the immense scope, and vehicles are the most fluid they've ever been.
I mean goddamn.
This also goes for more traditional set design. One of the earlier episodes has a great scene showing the Yapool dimension and the creation of a kaiju with a bunch of stereotypical science equipment ranging from electric tubes, bubbles and a wonderfully unnecessary amount of fog. The quality and presentation of this sequence easily blows away any other toku series from the same era.
The kaiju are also still really good, with four really iconic designs in Verokron, Ace-Killer, Hipporit, and my personal favorite, Vakishim.
I do however feel that even the major additions (with the exception of Killer and Vakishim) are a bit weaker than some of the past kaiju. At the same time it was bound to happen. Even nowadays you might expect only one really good new design out of a series, and that's perfectly acceptable. The fact that Ace was still churning out four good designs is impressive. The suit material is also a lot better overall than in RoU, there's nothing too jank looking like Zetton II was.
I do wish Ace's intro didn't feature the silhouette of several notable Kaiju ranging from Red King, Balton, Gamora, Pigmon, even Bemstar and Twin Tail, none of which appear. Instead the returning legacy kaiju are Muruchi, Alien Metron and Woo. Which hey I like Metron, and while Muruchi is just a reuse they do have a good design.
On a related note, this is the last appearance of Woo. Yeah, in the Ultra series' 55 year span, Woo has only ever appeared in '66 series and Ace.
Now, outside of the monsters and set design, Ace takes the opportunity to experiment a bit for both good and ill.
One of the notable developments is a surprising amount of devotion towards extreme close ups and fish-eye lenses. It's not the first time for the franchise, Seven made uses of such visuals, as did RoU, but it's used in more episodes here than any other thus far.
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| I feel like Zoffy's trying to sell me Sega products. |
But it can also be disorienting to the point of obscuring the scenery or even ruining the illusion of Ace's height, due to the close proximity and the angles sometimes not being kept low. It sometimes feels more like watching an early Kamen Rider fight, or one of the episodes of Ultra Seven where he's regular sized. Thankfully this isn't super frequent, but it does stick out for the wrong reasons.
Finally last but not least is perhaps that most advanced and intruiging of all the effects, which is the Yapool shattering dimentions quite litterally by breaking open a section in the sky. This is seldome used and I can only imagine it must've been quite costly for the time. But it makes quite the visual impact and is absolutely one of the most iconic bits from Ace.
Sub quality
So I don't really have too much to get into here. As far as I could tell Ace is perhaps the most consistent and high quality when it comes to the subtitles. I didn't notice any misspellings or weird font changes. Hell, the translations are miles better than the goofy ones used for years on wikis, such as ep. 36 A Terrible-Monster Registering 10,000 Phons, which fansites for the longest time mistranslated as Phones.
In all the episodes I only found two very minor but still notable quirks to talk about.
The first one is a bit in Episode 14 when all the prior Ultras are being listed by name, but Ultraman Jack is referred to as, well, Ultraman Jack despite that not actually being accurate to the dialog spoken.
The actual line is "Urutoraman Nisei" Which is just Ultraman two. Ultraman Jack didn't get his proper name until 1984 in "Ultraman Zoffy: Ultra Warriors vs. the Giant Monster Army" a full 12 years after this episode. Until then, he was always simply referred to as Ultraman 2 or sometimes New Ultraman. This isn't a complaint, but I felt it was worth pointing out for curiosity sake. It's one of those things that probably would have been far more confusing if it had been literal. So being more localization and less translation is the better choice here, even if hearing one thing and reading another is fairly obvious in this case.
In contrast to the above, the chant "namu amida butsu" is used a couple of times but is left completely untranslated. This is possibly due to the nature of it, but I do think it's odd. It's a Buddhist chant along the lines of "I entrust myself to the Buddha." Or if you wanted to be a bit more colloquial "Buddha, save/help me." Which probably would have an acceptable translation given the context it's used within the show, but I digress.
But there's not a lot to say here. Millcreek went from the first two series really needing a second pass, Seven and Return having a few typos. But Ace seems to have been handled very well on QC.
Episode suggestions.
D:Eizo Yamagiwa W:Shigemitsu Taguchi
So I mentioned that Ultraman Ace can be very dark compared to previous entries, particularly for the first 7 or so episodes. When I say that, I don't just mean in typical Showa era fashion where you could get away with showing people die on screen or violent monster deaths, sometime it's really dark story elements both on and off scree. Episode 3 is perhaps the darkest of both.
This story features a Yapool kaiju impersonating a child, Shiro, who is used in a ploy to get the TAC members away to a remote village to investigate a downed plane, thus leaving their base undefended so it can attack. In between there's some drama with Minami and the rest of the TAC crew over how she's running operations and some questionable monster sightings near the village, all of which are of course the actions of the Yapool to drive a wedge.
Where the episode starts to get really dark is when Shiro's grandparents are killed by the imposter Shiro and their house set on fire simply to provide further distraction.
By the end of the episode it's revealed the real Shiro, along with his parents, actually died in a mysterious accident weeks earlier.
It is so bizarrely cruel. And it's hardly the only time Ace pulls something like this. Although it is a standout in possibly being the single most sadistic episode. But beyond the sheer shock and horror, this episode also does a fantastic job of stringing the viewer along and placating the mystery of what is happening. Even after one has figured out many of the details of the monster's actions it still remains entertaining in seeing TAC solve the mystery. Not only that, it's one of the episodes featuring a Yapool creation that actively torments and connives instead of just being a giant monster that destroys buildings, there's a rhyme and reason to the actions taken. The scene where the TAC crew investigates the house fire is not only a moment showing the lengths the Yapool will go to, but it's also used as an opportunity to draw the team away from their aircraft which is subsequently destroyed by the Kaiju, thus stranding a majority of the team miles away from base. That's the sort of planning I appreciate in an antagonist, a cruel sensibility.
Additionally, this episode features some absolutely fantastic set design and practical effects with one of the absolute best monster designs.
D:Tadashi Mafune W:Shozo Uehara
This is once again another episode with a surprisingly scary bend to it, particularly the opening which features a couple of people being swallowed up by a literal and temporal sink whole. The ground opens up and an individual is sucked in, but there's no evidence and nothing else is touched by the event. Some of the effects are certainly hokey, it does that 70s toku thing of taking a vinyl figure and using that as a stand-in for a character. Even in context of the time, that particular effect was never a good idea. Everything else about the episode's effects is top notch, though. Likewise the events themselves are scary enough as is. The second disappearance in particular occurs within a theme park on a teacup ride as a single woman disappears on the ride, but all the other passengers are left alone, only the victim's purse is left behind. This scene is very effective because of the subtle nature of the aftermath, the park goers staring in confusion at the lone purse, with the soft singing of a children's rhyme in the background.
Once TAC arrives on the scene not much changes. No strange residue, no physical evidence of any kind for the cause. The thought that this could be a matter of hysteria is thrown around, but more incidents happen, all women with type O blood. Yet, once again, there's nothing to be found at the scene. Hokuto reckons it must be the Yapool given the nature of the attacks and they're a threat TAC understands the least about. But this leads to an interesting roadblock where politics are in play. Captain Ryu informs the team that they simply can't investigate because there's no evidence this falls into their jurisdiction. All that's really occurred is the disappearances, so for the time being the missing persons are under the police's investigation.
This doesn't last long, for on the following day Minami is nearly taken herself but is saved by Hokuto, the two witnessing a large ant creature. Not long afterwards, a subway train ends up derailing into the kaiju's tunnels in one of the most impressive set pieces of the entire show.
Truly the visual highlight of the episode.
With any doubt cast aside, TAC heads out to confront the creature, one team drilling into the ground, the other remaining upon the surface. Unfortunately, the drill gets stuck in a cave-in, but Minami, who was part of the underground team, manages to escape to the surface and meet back up with Hokuto. While the two are able to unite, this leads to a major dilemma. The two don't know if Ace can fight underground, and beyond that, Minami is their best shot at locating the creature via bait. But that's risky and she's traumatized by her prior engagement with the beast. But this plot point doesn't really last long and Minami overcomes her fear rather quickly for the sake of time.
The rest of the episode can easily be easily summed up with the plan working and both Minami and Hokuto battling the beast as Ace, as well as a Yapool controlling the ant monster. There are some notable details within these moments, however. The most intriguing to me is that it's one of the episodes that features quite a bit of Ace talking and by extension an antagonist talking. There's a back and forth between the two unlike anything the Ultra series has done up to this point. It almost feels like a completely different series and I don't mean that as an insult, it's just very different and something I feel should have occurred more often. Ace also gets caught in a trap which, again, feels a bit like something from another show. Zoffy arrives to help and even sticks around for the final battle, making for a two on two fight.
I have to say this is probably the closest Ace gets to have a nearly perfect formula. Not a perfect episode, although it is very good. But you've got a great mystery with the Yapool, you've got world building with minor but intriguing elements regarding the intricacies of TAC. Hokuto and Minami have to plan and work together, there's a personal struggle for Minami, a solid confrontation with a villain. Really if I lobbied anything against the episode it's that it is trying to do too many things. Cut one or two parts out and you'd probably have three really great ideas as opposed to five okay ones smooshed together. But there's stuff in here that should have been in more episodes and certainly ideas to explore further. It is almost everything I wanted in Ace and the episode absolutely had me hooked.
D:Eizo Yamagiwa W: Shigemitsu Taguchi
I kinda don't even want to talk about this episode because it's more enjoyable going in blind, but you probably have a good idea what goes down given the title.
A monster begins attacking the city but all of TAC's weapons are ineffective. Who should arrive but Hediki Go with a weapon capable of driving away the rampaging beast. Although injured in the process, he saves not only Hokuto, but also two familiar civilians; Jiro and Rumiko. This leads to the TAC team being impressed with Go's invention, dubbed the Ultra Shot, but there's also some questions. For one, TAC has records of all the past defense forces and MAT's personnel records officially declared Go as KIA battling Zetton II. Of course, Jiro and Rumiko know the truth, but obviously can't get into the details beyond confirming he was in fact alive. Go himself claims he returned after hearing of the new threats arriving. In private he explains to Jiro that he's on a mission and it must be kept under wraps.
As Go is treated for his injuries, a debate rages between the members of TAC on if they should recruit him. Some members are impressed with his new invention, but others, Hokuto among them, are frustrated that he interfered with their operations. Capt. Ryu, ever the wise leader, gives credence to the fact Go and his know how would be beneficial to the team. However, he has reservations about where Go has been all this time and he did technically go AWOL from MAT. Suffice to say a background check will need to be in order.
In the mean time, Hokuto and Minami escort Jiro and Rumiko to visit Go, where things take a turn for the weird. Go doesn't seem to recognize the food brought for him, nor does he properly use chopsticks, instead stabbing the food using his left hand, despite being right handed.
It's at this point you've probably figured out that yes, this isn't Hideki Go but an Alien whose plans have now went south. The rest of the episode plays out how you'd expect. The kaiju from earlier returns, the alien takes Jiro hostage, Jiro break free, Alien gets turned into swiss cheese, Ace fights the kaiju in a fun matador fight. That last part might be unexpected.
But I really want to focus on the brilliance of doing an alien disguise plot in this manner. Part of what works so well about the oddities with Hediki, or rather Alien Antira, is that even with the dark clothing and the bits that are off about his personality, until the hospital scene you could almost believe that maybe it was him and that maybe he was on a mission and the point was to test Ace. I think it's very clever to establish that past Ultras are appearing regularly and then to get a past actor reprising their role as an Ultra host only to make them a disguised villain.
Now one might wonder why Ace wouldn't know Hediki since, ya know, Jack is his brother. But keep in mind this is still early on and there isn't much consistency with how everything works. The only instance of an Ultra actually communicating with their host was still the original series and that was technically before Ultraman merged with Hayata. So there wouldn't really be a reason for Hokuto or Minami to know.
Ep. 13 Death Penalty! 5 Ultra Brothers & Ep. 14 5 Stars Scattered in the Galaxy.
D:Yasuo Yoshino W:Shigemitsu Taguchi(13) & Shinichi Ichikawa(14)
Chances are you are familiar with these, or rather the famous scene of the Ultra's being crucified. But I'm willing to bet either episode isn't nearly as well known, and that's a slight shame because it's a wonderfully interesting pair. Ostensibly the other Ultras are called to a rogue planet in the Anti-Universe, Golgoda (A reference to Golgotha, the hill Christ was crucified upon). The four Ultras assume Ace called them there, Ace in turn believing he was called by them.
Meanwhile, Japan is attacked by the monster Baraba, sent by the Yapool and protected by a radioactive storm. Just as the Ultras realize the trap they've fallen into, the five slowly begin freezing.
What this episode does really well is scenes of Ace interacting with the other Ultras, which we've never gotten until this point. As the earth is being attacked, Ultraman tells Ace to abandon them and protect earth, however, Ace lacks the energy to do so. Despite how risky it is, Ultraman and the others are willing to share their energy with Ace. It's better that one of them make it out than all die, and if one is going to leave, it's going to be Ace. You really get a sense of how Ace is a junior to the others and how much they wish for him to do well. It's one of the great standout moments of the show and something I don't think any other series was or could do at the time.
Despite his own protests, Ace leaves for Earth, but in doing so the others are weakened further and captured by the Yapool and crucified, this being used as leverage against Ace during his battle on earth, ending it prematurely.
14 continues the story while also introducing two additional threats. One in the form of a Yapool robot called Ace Killer, who is infused with the power of Ultraman, Zoffy, Seven, and Ultraman Jack. The other is TAC Commanding Officer Takakura issuing an order from HQ to blow up Golgoda, regardless of what happens to the Ultras- thus continuing the long tradition of the Ultra series having short sighted military leaders issuing blatantly stupid orders. Unsurprisingly, this leads to a lot of conflict from Hokuto, who rightfully points out that Earth has been saved repeatedly by the Ultras and dooming them does nothing but take out a strong opposing force to the Yapool. But orders are orders and perhaps as a form of punishment for his insubordination, Hokuto is chosen to deliver the payload.
Shockingly, Hokuto doesn't plan to to sabotage the operation, things go pear shaped on their own when the missile refuses to launch. Orders from HQ are to perform a suicide run, but Capt. Ryu isn't having any of it, saying HQ's plan is a failure and the lives of his crew are more important. He even goes as far as knocking the hell out of Takakura.
However the next part does leave a bit to be desired. As the others head out to fight the sudden reappearance of monster from the last episode, Minami contacts Hokuto via video communication and their rings begin the shine, and apparently just being close to an image of the ring is good enough to form Ace, as Minami is teleported to the space craft. This is what I mean by the writers struggling and being short sighted with how to make this dynamic work. Regardless, Ace blows up the space ship and heads towards Golgoda to save the four brothers and fight Ace Killer...which is incredibly lackluster. Compared to some of the other fights in Ace which can last quite a while, this one is barely a minute of Ace struggling before he's given a new power from the four Ultras (Space Q) and is able to destroy Ace Killer in one attack. On the other hand, when Ace returns to earth he has to contend with the still rampaging Baraba, the fight is far more enjoyable. It's just a shame that there was a lot of build up around Ace Killer and the captured Ultras only to be resolved so quickly. Also the Radiation storm from last episode isn't present for some reason.
These episodes are really good and build tension wonderfully, but it also begins to unravel near the end feeling a tad rushed. But some minor issues aside, there's no denying these two as among some of the best of Ace's offerings with iconic and even infamous screenshots.
Unfortunately I cannot say the same about episode, 23.
W: Tadashi Mafune D: Tadashi Mafune
This is a weird episode and I'm doing something different here by talking about an episode because of its importance and because it left me flabbergasted, but I do not recommend it on quality. I went back and forth on if I wanted to cover this episode because I felt it was too ranty and anger filled, which is not what this section is about at all. But I did write a lot about why I dislike this episode, there isn't anywhere else this would go, and you can skip it if need be. So either continue on or ctrl-f to ep. 26 to hear more praise.
Hokuto is on patrol and witnesses an old man singing and dancing along a beach, with many children joining in ritualistic fashion. The group suddenly disappears from view and Hokuto checks out the scene, only for it to start snowing as he's assaulted by the old man, now more monstrous and spewing fire. During the tussle, Hokuto falls off a cliff and is badly injured, but despite his injuries (including burn marks) for some reason the rest of the team doesn't believe any of this. And this is where the episode gets wild, because Hokuto is almost insane in the levels of how hard he is trying to get the rest of the crew to believe him.
There's uncomfortable close ups, awkward pauses, long tracking shots. It's really doing all it can to make Hokuto borderline manic.... and part of what holds episode 23 back is it going hard to a fault, as it doesn't quite gel with the prior episodes for what it's doing. Having the crew doubt Hokuto's wild tales is something that's happened in previous episodes and it's usually done fine. A healthy amount of skepticism along side precautions just in case. Here, they're rock solid on saying that Hokuto's tale doesn't sound scientific at all. He wasn't that far from base, it's the middle of summer, the the area he was in shouldn't have had a beach. That's a good start to the mystery. But the lengths of which they go is simply absurd in a series that regularly uses the phrase "There's even mysteries to science".
Even Captain Ryu, the man who most often is on the side of caution- and even does so here by sending the crew out to the location- reveals in private he doesn't believe Hokuto. That's an interesting idea, that the Capt. in past episodes might not have actually believed the reports from various crew members, but put on a facade and still took action. That has potential for something interesting.
However, two weeks prior, Capt. Ryu had the Maiden of the Virgo constellation offer to be his maid. Not to mention the fact the main villains are INTERDENOMINATIONAL BEINGS. So still citing the absurdity of the story because of warped location, especially when said story is from the guy to once claimed to see a cruise ship in the air, and was right, maybe comes off as just making the the entire crew seem bag of hammers dumb. It's a shame, too. Keiji Takamine is giving it his all as Hokuto. He's wonderful, but the script just isn't working with him.
But that's not even the weirdest bit of this episode, because for as much focus is put on creating friction between Hokuto and the crew, it fizzles out fast. Kids all over the world begin disappearing and that's pretty much the end of it, proving Hokuto's story. From there on it's the TAC team trying to figure out what's happening to all the kids.
These are legitimately fantastic moments which is why it's so frustrating there's so many other issues, and the next one is what does it.
TAC has a device that can potentially send someone into the Yapool dimension and finally put a stop to them. The problem is that it could kill the subject. Regardless, Hokuto is up to the challenge. Which it's quite the hurdle because there isn't really a plan here. At all. They send Hokuto, but what was the intent there? Send one lone man with a pistol to fight all the Yapool? Possibly their Kaiju? What if they open up a rift and toss Hokuto out?
On that note, Hokuto is almost thrown into limbo by the Yapool destabilizing the signal, but Zoffy shows up out of nowhere with Minami, who I guess he just plucked from TAC without anyone noticing. Also I guess Ultraman Zoffy can travel to different dimensions and bring people...meaning the Yapool could have been stopped much earlier.
Oh, and the Yapool are just one being.
A terrible and flatly shot fight scene ensues that looks like it was filmed through a Kalidascope, making it really harsh on the eyes. The Yapool is destroyed, children rain down to Earth slowly and it seems the major enemy for 23 episodes is defeated in a pathetic display.
Good lord, where the fuck do I start?
There are a lot of interesting ideas and scenes within this episode. It's very esoteric and atmospheric at times. But while I do admire what qualities are there, it's in service of nothing.
It has all the hallmarks of a major episode. Good cinematography, high drama, the implication that stakes are higher than before. But also all the mark of a bad one. Loose connectivity, tension that is contrived and cut short, the cast acting out of character even if the acting itself is good, and somehow flat cinematography alongside the impressive.
The connectivity from one scene to the next is a fucking mess. It's like the idea was to do really cool shots and character moments without much thought as to how one leads into the next, they just occur. You may have noticed the writer and director are the same person, Tadashi Mafune. This was Mafune's first writing job. Let that sink in.
Now I don't want to be too harsh on Mafune. Writing's hard and it sometimes sucks. I can't get shit out on time. But I do want to know how the hell this happened. Someone at TsuPro let a man with no prior writing credits just decide major story elements and kill off what was being presented as the main villain of the show. How in the fuck does that happen? That's insane to let someone so inexperienced have that much control.
I honestly think the idea was that the Yapool just wasn't working so instead of trying to correct it, they just decided to sweep it under the rug and hand it off to anyone. Now that's pure speculation but that's what it feels like. But regardless of that, there are much better ways to write off a villain.
This has good ideas but is an absolute mess. I actually had to take a break from watching the show because this was just so goddamn baffling. Thankfully, not long after we get a much needed pallet cleanser.
D:Masanori Kakei W: Shigemitsu Taguchi.
A new threat is introduced in the form of Alien Hipporit. This new foe unleashes a wave of destruction upon the populous, demanding that Ace be handed over upon his return, less the carnage be 10 fold. Worst of all is TAC's weapons had no effect on the creature. Not in the traditional sense, but that they simply pass through the space being like a ghost. Both Hokuto and Minami believe this could be a result of a holograph of some sort, with the true being in another location. After a run in with a wrecked driver who claims to have hit an alien, this theory seems to have some weight, and skin recovered from the car is extra terrestrial in nature.
Unfortunately, the accident was fatal to the driver, who passes not long after relaying what happened, but not before also asking Hokuto to deliver his son's Birthday gift: an Ultraman Ace figure.
The meeting does not go well. The boy, who already lost a mother the year prior, is distraught over his father's death and blames Ace for not defeating the Alien. The fall out results in a subplot of Hokuto doubting the need for Ace. TAC receiving multiple calls requesting that TAC capture and turn Ace over do nothing to help Hokuto's troubles, but a rousing speech from Captain Ryu helps Hokuto out of his slump.
When Hipporit does return, Hokuto and Minami are able to form Ace, but instead of attacking the creature they fly off to a remote area where, sure enough, the real alien Hipporit is casting a hologram. A fight breaks out, but despite the seeming cowardice of the antagonist, they are no light weight and easily best Ace, who is captured within a trap set by the conniving scoundrel. Ace begins turning into a jade like statue, but is able to send a distress signal before solidifying. The four Ultra Brothers arrive, but even with their greater numbers, the lone Hipporit is able to trap and best all of them in a matter of minutes, seemingly defeating the greatest defense Earth had.
Episode 14 picks right up from the previous episode, TAC in complete disbelief at all 5 Ultras having been defeated. A good chuck of the episode is TAC dealing with the fallout and a civilian population that seems to have given up all hope, actively imploring TAC to give up their fight against the alien being due to all the destruction. But Capt. Ryu is unwilling to allow earth to kneel without a fight and so TAC begin putting plans into motion against all odds. While TAC engauges and distracts the now known illusion, Captain Ryu takes it upon himself to deploy TAC's latest weapon against the true Hipporit. Unfortunately it's not enough to destroy the invader and things quicky go from bad to worse when the rest of TAC arrives to help their Capt best they can, but are inevitably shot down.
As all seems lost, a new traveler from the stars arrives, Father of Ultra. The giant easily takes on Alien Hipporit, effortlessly dishing out powerful blows. But the being of light is soon at a disadvantage, his long journey severly weakening him and allowing Hipporit to gain the upper hand.
Father briefly considers his options before quickly ripping out his own color timer and transfering his last bit of life to reviving Ace, who then proceeds to assault and finish off the powerful monster.
These two episodes are a great demonstration of what I mean when the writers do so much better with one off monsters, because this is as classic of an Ultraman plot as you can get. It sorta reminds me of the Alien Guts episodes from Seven. It's nowhere near as good as those, but the stakes are so high that with a couple of changes this could've worked as a good finale. From the fight with Father of Ultra to the amazingly explosive end of Ace's battle, it is one of the greatest fight sequence of the entire show. The sound design is fantastic as well, I highly recommend a good set headset to truly appreciate the kaiju shattering kaboom.
This two parter is also incredibly important because above all else it shows that Ace could still be a good and even great show without the Yapool.
Ep. 28 Goodbye Yuko, Sister of the Moon.
D: Eizo Yamagiwa W:Toshiro Ishido.
So once more this is another episode I'm largely putting here for importance sake. Don't worry, though, this isn't a situation like 23. Although the story is...iffy, to say the least and very simple. The core facet is that Yuko Minami is actually an alien from the moon, which once accommodated a great civilization that was destroyed by the Kaiju Lunaticks. The monster consumed all the molten magma, leaving the moon little more than a husk. Fearing the same would happen on earth, Minami traveled to the blue planet waiting for the inevitable arrival of the beast. A vast majority of the episode is dedicated to TAC tracking the monster and Ace battling it. There's very little breathing room but it works without ever feeling cramped.
After the fight however is quite a bit of padding. There is one final scene between Hokuto and Minami which is very sweet. She explains that now with her mission is complete she plans to return to her people, leaving her ring to Hokuto. But after that it's 9 minutes of mostly esoteric footage of Minami running in a field with a white flowing gown, until she finally sets off for the moon.
This episode is very entertaining for it's fights but is a mess storywise. Retroactively making Minami an alien is very shoehorned and convoluted. It raises some questions about why she was working as a nurse to begin with and didn't immediately join TAC upon arriving on earth if her mission was to make sure Lunaticks was destroyed. I'm not entirely sure why she was written off the show in this manner...Well, I can probably guess it was because they needed an entertaining episode and it's been 28 weeks since the origin, so screw it, write whatever because most kids probably won't notice continuity. That said, I still don't think it had to be in this manner. One could have very easily maintained more or less the same outcome with a few changes. Cut out all the moon stuff with Minami and make the battle in the earth take a drastic toll on her. She's too weak to be Ace or even a part of TAC and would need special care to recuperate. One of the other Ultra's arrives and takes her off to M78 where she can receive the care needed, but it also makes it so she can still comeback for guest appearances.
Also, just as a bit of an odd side note, the opening theme for the show never changes to reflect Minami's departure. So even in the final episode of the series the lyrics "Henshin, Hokuto and Minami" are still present. Just something I thought I'd point out.
Ep. 38 Resurrection! Father of Ultra.
D:Eizo Yamagiwa. W:Toshiro Ishido.
I dunno what it is, but Christmas themed episodes of Tokusatsu tend to be really good and this is no exception.
Hokuto and Kayoko visit an orphanage while bringing gifts for all the children. But things take a turn in the evening when a kaiju appears and blinds Yukari, Kayoko's friend and head of the orphanage. Stranger still is the sudden appearance of a Santa bearing gifts, just as the Kaiju that attacked Yukari, Snowgiran, arrives in the city and begins blinding more.
And this is where things get wild. The snow blinding kaiju is evidently controlled by a feverous nationalistic spirit who is enraged by Japanese celebrating foreign culture.
That is just great.
Hokuto leaves and engages the creature but is defeated, allowing the kaiju to head towards the orphanage. TAC arrives to evacuate the children and Yukari, but as Snowgiran creeps closer, Santa leaves to confront he monster himself, growing to a massive size. However, he doesn't fight the creature, he instead calls out to Ace to stand and fight. Although Father of Ultra does briefly blast the raging spirit.
My favorite thing about this entire sequence is that both Dan and Capt. Ryu briefly catch a glimpse of Santa revealing himself to be Father of Ultra, and everyone around them is like "No, that's Santa. Father of Ultra died." That is legitimately funny, intentional or not. I really love that everyone is accepting of it being the real Santa but not the Ultra that died. There's nothing even illogical about it given the world setting, and it captures that perfect balance of silly wonder without coming off as contrived or insulting. It's just fun and that's what a Christmas episode should be.
Once the battle is over there's still the issue of all those blinded by the monster. Santa decides to give a gift to TAC. Flying up the chimney and standing upon the roof, Father of Christmas summons a sleigh, and who should be riding other than Minami. Minami shines a beam of light across the city, healing the damage done by the monster.
Santa casts off his red cloak revealing his true self as he takes the reins of the sleigh and flies off.
Final thoughts.
Ace is a series I've had a difficult time coming to a definite satisfying conclusion upon. Not necessarily on if it was good or bad, but in what ways it succeeds and doesn't. What I was really hoping for was a series that at the very least did something different from its predecessors and I got that and then some. Ace introduced a lot of firsts for the franchise with varying degrees of success. The caveat to being the first is that those areas are less refined than they could have been. But even with those pitfalls the series remains enjoyable, and it must be respected just how much latter series owe to Ace's willingness to embrace broader elements such as reoccurring villains, even if Ace does fumble on them.
Now compared to it's predecessor, Return of Ultraman, I found Ace to be far less infuriating (23 not withstanding). While RoU has individual episodes I believe to be far better than Ace's best, I found Ace to to be more consistent in quality even in regards to the midway shake up.
That being said, Ace's second half is still much weaker than the first barring a few stand outs. In the end, Ultraman Ace doesn't push the boundaries as far as it could, but it does explore unfamiliar territory for at least a bit, and is a perfectly serviceable- if in the end- safe series.
My personal suggestion would be to watch select episodes after episode 28 for a better viewing experience, as there's very little of interest in my eyes after Minami leaves.
I suppose if I should give the clearest feelings upon Ace it would be how I didn't include the final episode within the episode suggestions, even though that's something I almost always do, This may actually be the only time a finale hasn't made it. The reason is because the final episode doesn't feel like one. Aside from Ace's departure, the drama of that episode could have come from any other point in the series. It's a fine episode with a nice lesson about not bullying others and its heart absolutely in the right place, encouraging the viewer to be better while at the same time also having a Yapool utiliting that against Hokuto. I admire that, it's a core aspect of why I love superheroes and the twist that the villains using the inherient goodness against the hero is interesting. But it's not finale material and falls short of what it could have been, and perhaps that more than anything perfectly sums up Ultraman Ace.
But, despite my feelings towards that finale as a whole, Ace's words are fit for a finale and so I will leave this review off with those words.
I'd like to thank Triblast of UltrablogDX whose wordpress was and is a great resource on Ultra series production information. Check out their site and maybe toss a few bucks at their kofi.
And if you like what I do and can spare it, consider visiting my own kofi page.
https://ko-fi.com/kamen_writer
Now, for the next review I'm going to be doing something other than a big series. While I have Taro and Leo sitting on my shelf, I don't want to delve into that right yet. Partly because I don't know how I'll feel about Taro and I don't want to be indifferent or ranty given my half praise of Ace, especially when I have a pretty good indication of how I'll feel about Leo. Secondly, I'm just sorta burned out on Showa Ultra reviews. I don't mean typing them per-say, but watching a 52 episode run, especially of an older series, is exhausting and it's easy to get sick of it, which isn't fair to the show. I do plan on returning to and reviewing Ultra, just not now.
Next time I'll be looking at something a lot easier and simple to review, a one and done deal.
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