It is time for The Ultraman Episode 40: The Boy From the Green Planet!
The episode opens with two defense force craft pilots on patrol. Suddenly, a strange ship and a giant orange egg-like thing appear and buzz them. They report it and the Science Defense Squad scrambles to intercept. The UFOs land and a small boy gets out of the small, yellow spaceship and goes over to the other to talk to it. The egg turns out to be a giant orange monster named Orolan (who looks like Opt from Ep. 12) and the boy commands it to destroy the city.
What a dick move.
The SDS attacks but the fight isn’t going well. Hikari’s Badei is grabbed and thrown down so he turns into Ultraman to combat the giant foe. That goes as well as expected until Marume, whose ship was also knocked out of the sky, finds the boy and pulls a gun on him. The boy runs and skins his knee before he and the monster both flee into the sky. Ultraman follows the monster only to see it get tractor beamed into a giant ship. The Ultria and Mutsumi, who is the only one who didn’t get shot down, follow the boy’s ship.
Due to the injury of the skinned knee, the boy is forced to land and Mutsumi lands to capture him. The boy gets out of the craft and pulls a gun on her but misses. However, he causes an avalanche that Mutsumi has to save him from, taking refuge in the spaceship. She binds his wound and learns his name is Federico and that he is only trying to destroy the Earth because Roigar (Heller’s number one) told him that Earth was going to destroy his home planet. Mutsumi tells him that isn’t the case and treats his wound with medicine the others bring when the Ultria lands. Federico says he will take Orolan and leave the Earth alone. Since Orolan won’t listen to anyone but him, there’s no way for Heller to use the monster as a weapon without cooperation.
Or so he thinks.
When Federico gets back to the Heller army ship, he tells Roigar he is going to take Orolan and leave. Roigar shows him some changes they’ve made to the orange beast, making it more ferocious. Federico tells Orolan to break free but the creature won’t listen and another ship takes it away to attack Earth. The boy runs and Roigar orders his men to kill him. One of them shoots Federico in the shoulder but he manages to take off in his ship, killing the soldiers following him as he heads to Earth. Meanwhile, Orolan has begun his rampage and the SDS heads out to fight it, thinking Federico has betrayed them.
Will the boy be able to stop his friend? Will Ultraman have to save the day? Why the hell can’t Ultria just blast the crap out of Orolan? Unfortunately, we only get the answer to two of those questions. I understand that they can’t have Ultria as a win button all the time but it has already shown it can one-shot a monster. What good is a battleship if it can’t battle?
So-so episode. I’m not a fan of kid-centric stories and this one just starts off swinging by having him destroy a city and the team basically forgiving him for it despite the fact the boy was responsible for the deaths of at least two people but probably more since whole buildings were ruined. I get that he was duped into doing it but Federico doesn’t show much remorse for that and is kind of a dick to boot. It does help show the reach of Heller and that he doesn’t even need to show up to be a threat. However that is also a problem since it means that somehow the people of U40 didn’t notice this empire just popping up? I guess that’s why their planet got taken!
The monster design borrows a lot from Opt, as said before, right down to the going from a benign creature to something ferocious. But it makes sense as the playmate of a kid and something that is basically silly putty turned into a dinosaur. Nothing groundbreaking but it’s also not a horrible one, either.
Best part of the episode? Captain Gondo just standing around HQ in his jacket and sunglasses. If you’re gonna be the boss, you might as well look like one.
That’s all for this installment. See you next time for the next installment, Ultra Fans!
