Today’s episode of The Ultraman is Episode 21: This is the Planet Where Ultraman Was Born – Part 3.
When we last left our heroes, the Badel had attack with their giant Death Star and the people of U40 were getting ready for war. The Ultras are on their ships and transform and the battle is engaged! Ultramen use their powers to blast ships but cobalt bombs are thrown by the enemy to the planet’s surface, destroying the pristine environment and turning it into a burning wasteland.
Things don’t seem to be going well for the Ultras, especially when Bagon, a creature from the deepest part of space shows up under control of the Badel thanks to the Ultramind that they stole. Seeing the planet needs him, Hikari volunteers to help in a space ship and blast some fools. The president doesn’t want to risk him and without Joneus, Hikari is only a human. Fortunately, Amia decides to help him and they sneak off to her personal space ship and proceed to take off and do some damage to the enemy fleet.
Their fight doesn’t last long when the enemy ships gang up and chase them down, splitting the tiny ship in two. Since the ship sort of works like a cloud car from Empire Strikes Back, Hikari and Amia are in separate cockpits and can still fly around. Unfortunately, Amia crashes and is captured by the sinister Badel. Oh no!
Hikari wants to go save her but is stopped by a little voice in his head. Is it an angel? No, it’s Ultraman Joneus, who says he’s feeling a hell of a lot better and ready to tango with the enemy. Going back to U40, Hikari heads to where Joneus was recovering from his injuries and they join again once more. Using Ultrachange, Hikari becomes Joneus and now the fight is really on since this Ultraman can grow to giant size and really do some damage.
The first order of business is saving Amia, who turns out to be Joneus’ sister. That’s gotta be all kind of weird considering she was hungry-jacking Hikari something fierce. Joneus has little problem punching his way into the mecha-planet and rescuing her. As they reunite, the Ultramind rises up, ejected by the Badel in a “if we can’t have it, nobody can” maneuver. The other Ultras chase after it while Joneus heads down to the planet to fight Bagon.
Bagon is quite a horror and unlike any monster we’ve seen so far. He kind of looks like the demogorgon from Stranger Things mixed with Enzyme from The Guyver. His eye is on a stalk underneath his chin. He’s also super strong and has flame breath. It’s a tough battle and Joneus might not survive this fight either, but the other Ultras seal the Ultramind in a laser barrier, preventing the Badel from using its power and thus taking Bagon down a few notches. With the playing field leveled, Joneus makes short work of the monster and the Badel are chased off, their attack foiled.
Sealing the Ultramind also makes the creatures on Earth weaker so the Science Defense Squad can finish them off without the help of Ultraman. Now all that is left is to get Hikari home so he can rejoin his friends. Unfortunately for him, he does so at the expense of his memories of U40, for no earthling is allowed to know that much about it. He does get to remember Amia, which is nice, and their frolicking in the forest. Can’t imagine Joneus is happy about that last part though.
A solid conclusion to the three-part episode. It’s a lot of wall to wall action and I forgot how well some of the early space anime’s were animated. The ship battles here look good and are hard hitting. The designs are snazzy too.They might not make a lot of sense tactically, but they look good. The whole fight reminded me of some of the space battles in the Lensman series of books, though that might just be in my head and my personal repeated attempts to link the two.
I’ve got it on the brain!
The connection between Amia and Hikari was a little forced. Being friendly I could understand, but she cries over him leaving like they were lovers and not just throw together for the past day or so. I also didn’t like how so many of the ultras looked alike, but I can’t blame them as they had to animate so many and to make them all different would be a pain.
All in all a great it was a great story arc. On to the next one!
See you next time for the next installment, Ultra Fans!
