TGIF! It’s time for The Ultraman Episode 12: The Sad Roar Goes On and On, which is how my family describes my existence. A storm is raging at sea as an oil tanker makes its way to port. They’re in no danger, according to the captain, as the ship was build to withstand things like nature. However, it isn’t meant to withstand a collision with another ship, which is what happens when the two detect each other at the last minute and evade in the same direction, resulting in a massive explosion. As the pieces of the wreckage float down through the water, they wake something up!
Back at the Science Defense Squad HQ, the team is having lunch and talking to Pig, who says he can converse with animals and proves it by making cat and lion noises. Hikari says that could be useful if he can understand monsters and talk them out of attacking. Gee, I wonder what is going to be a plot point? Their fun is interrupted when the captain summons them to investigate the disappearance of the two tankers because no wreckage has been found.
Soaring over the ocean in their jets, the team sees no wreckage and oddly enough, no oil either, which you would think there would be a lot of considering two tankers collided. The Super Maddock goes underwater and does find pieces of the ship and it appears that something with claws has sliced them up and they wonder what it could be. Marume sees when a shadow underneath another tanker is revealed to be a monster that starts slurping up the oil. It appears to have three heads, two of which have nasty horns and fangs and another, smoother and gentler one. It disappears but Pig notices that the heads seem to be arguing.
The team sets up base by the docks, expecting the monster to attack again. They’re quite right! Soon, the monster appears in Tokyo Bay and starts rampaging and eating, as one does. We get a better look at it now, where it appears to be three monsters stuffed into one shell like the world’s freakiest hermit crab. When it eats its fill, it promptly falls asleep. Bold move, monster. The SDS wonders what they should do with it. They could attack it but there could be a more peaceful solution. Tobe suggests carrying into space saying he can lift it. I’m assuming with the Maddock because no way he’s secretly Superman. He has Pig calculate the weight and size to see if they can move it and leans against the friendly looking head.
Surprise, it wakes up! It doesn’t attack but starts making sounds like it is talking. Pig realizes it is trying to communicate and converses with it. He learns that creature is named San and its brothers are named Jin and Cho. Together they are Oputo. They used to be smaller and carefree until people started polluting. Then Jin and Cho mutated into monstrous versions of themselves and are angry that there is no more food, which is why they feed on anything in sight. San gets fed by Jin and also feeds on their love and thankfully they don’t go into detail on that last part. He says he will try to convince his brothers to go back to the sea and to not attack. Pig relays this to the captain who agrees to wait and see.
Come morning, the monsters wake up and San does his thing. However, the brothers don’t want to go back to the sea and yeet San from the shell and head towards the city center to do some real damage. The team jumps into action to fight off the brothers while San recovers from being tossed out of his home and goes after his brothers to try and stop them. Can they do it? Will San be let back into the shell? Is Ultraman going to appear to save the day? You can bet your ass on the last part, at least.
This was a pretty action packed episode. It starts off with an explosion and jumps right into monster attacks and doesn’t stop. Sure it has the anti-pollution message but it doesn’t really hit you over the head with it, at least not as much as something like a Captain Planet or even Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster. The creatures mutated pretty quickly but hey, they were angry and hungry and you know you aren’t yourself when you’re hungry.
The design of Oputo was pretty interesting, same with the individual creatures. It’s fun that they were the usual mollusk that you would find in such a thing or a crab. Instead they look like three salamanders shoved into a conch. I know that doesn’t sound fantastic but when you see it in action it works pretty well.
Anyway, don’t pollute and stay tuned for the next exciting episode of ULTRAMAN!
