Back on the Ultraman watching train, this time with Episode 27: The Island of Monsters.
The episode opens with us visiting planet U40, also known as the home planet of Ultraman. Looks like there is another evil planet headed their way as those things are an epidemic in that part of space, so the Ultras head out at the behest of their king to destroy it. The Ultra Warriors chase it away and fire at it but it disappears. They theorize it may have teleported and headed towards Earth, because of course it did, so they send word to Ultraman Joneus (Ultra Joe here) to let him know.
On Earth, everyone sees the message but only Hikari, who runs out to change into Ultraman, knows what it means–that an evil planet Baradon is headed their way. The Science Defense Squad detects a meteorite in the atmosphere about to crash but it ends up hitting the water and creating a tidal wave that we never see. They scramble to intercept in the Super Maddock and find an island floating where the meteorite should be. Is it what they are looking for? You bet.
Inside Baradon the inhabitants, which kind of look like Saibamen or the toilet Ghoulie are planning their conquest of Earth. To do so, they release the monsters they have been holding from the reaches of space and let them loose onto…the top of the island. There, the monsters do what monsters do and proceed to kick the crap out of each other in a giant monster brawl.
This was not a good plan.
The SDS sees this and the course that the island is taking and realize they must stop it before it gets to Tokyo Bay. They fire at the top but there is no way to damage it that way. Hikari says to dive underneath to fire at it but Tobe refuses, so Hikair and Marume head out in a ship to help destroy it from the surface. They are immediately downed around the same time that the aliens decided that the monsters are being annoying and release their last monster–RED KING!
Hikari and Marume and trapped on the island and running from the giant monster who spends his time chasing them and destroying any of the other monsters that get in his way because he is so baller. Will Hikari be able to turn into Ultraman in time to defeat both the monster and the alien meteorite/planet/ship? You’ll have to watch and find out.
For an episode with such a promising title, it was a bit of a disappointment. We’re recycling the “evil planet attacking” from about ten episodes ago already and the monsters even kind of look the same though these at least speak a language we can translate. The team seems sort of aimless and repeat themselves a lot. I don’t know if that is just bad writing or the lack of a captain affecting them or both. It does pick up when the monsters appear, though. It’s fun seeing some familiar faces among them like Arstron and Ghostron from Return of Ultraman and Banila and Aboras from the OG Ultraman. And of course, you have the beast known as Red King, who is one of the iconic kaiju designs in the series. Here he stronger than anything and also gets a beam to boot! As if he wasn’t dangerous enough! That leads to an unintentionally funny moment where Tobe is warning defense jets to stay away from his beam and they fly right into it.
Ultraman shows up late to the game but ends up kicking a lot of ass along the way, including performing one of the most brutal finishers the show has done. Ultra Joe doesn’t mess around, I reckon.
So despite the slow start, the episode ended up being pretty fun. Any ep that has a monster mash in it is going to be ok in my book and this one is no exception.
Until next time, Ultra Fans!
