Ultraseven

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Ultra Stats
 

Height: Micro-40 meters
Weight: 35,000 tons
Flight Speed: mach 7
Running Speed: 700 kph
Home Planet: The Land of Light, Nebula M78
Human Forms: Dan Moroboshi; Masaki Kazamori (1990s)
Transformation Item: Ultra Eye
Team: The original URUTORA KEIBITAI (The Ultra Garrison), part of TDF (Terrestrial Defense Forces) -- Captain Kiriyama, Dan Moroboshi, Amagi, Furuhashi, Soga, Anne Yuri; the 1994 Ultra Garrison -- Captain Furuhashi; Tohgoh, Lisa, Kaji; and the 1998-1999 Ultra Garrison -- Commander Shigeru Furuhashi, Captain Sanshiroh Shiragane, Masaki Kazamori, Takuma Mizuno, Satomi Hayakawa, Rumi Honjoh, Keisuke Shima
Air Dates: October 1, 1967-September 8, 1968
Episodes: 49 (Note: "Phantom" episode 12 is banned in Japan)

NOTE: 1990s episodes (2 TV specials in 1994, 3 videos in 1998, 6 videos in 1999, and 5 videos in 2002)

Weapons

1. Emerium Ray: concentrated stream of energy fired from the beam lamp on his forehead.
2. Eye Slugger: the innovative removable fin on his head, which turns into a energy boomerang he can control with his telekinesis. In short, his Eye Slugger slices and dices.
3. Wide Shot: His most powerful weapon, emitted by crossing arms in an L-shape.
4. Knuckle Beam (also known as Bolt Beam): fired from his knuckles... used against the Guts-seijins.
5. Capsule Monsters: A cache of monsters he hides in a small compartment, which Dan uses when he is unable to transform. The five are Windam, Mikuras, Agira, and two others never used.
6. Also throws knife-like beam cutters at Godora-seijin, and fire blasts of energy from the palm of his hand at the Guts spaceship. He also had a string-like energy beam, with which he played tug-of-war with Fake Ultraseven.
7.  In episode 12, he fires a spiral attack beam from his arm that erases a UFO's barrier.
8.  He had a cache of capsulated monsters in his pocket (think along the lines of Pokémon)
 

Commentary

From a very different line of Ultraman, Seven was darker, redder, and more serious and intriguing than the original. There were genuine issues of morality, and Seven had to deal with the stuggles and consequences of mistakes, broken promises, and adherence to duty, while he battled a constant stream of aliens and their monsters.

Although the special effects were primitive by today's standards, 'Ultraseven' gets credit for having a lot of creatively designed monsters and aliens:

(a) Naas was a flying snake that curled up into a space ship.
(b) Chiburu-seijin was a bulbous egg-shaped dude with three tentacles.
(c) Petello was a sputtering thing that looks like what is left behind in a toilet.
(d) Iron Rocks was a shipwreck gone bad.
(e) Crazygon was a walking car-demolition machine gone berserk

Some hallmark monsters of the series include King Joe (Pedan-seijin robot that is stronger than Seven, but miraculously can be destroyed by the Garrison), Guts-seijin (cute parakeet monsters with very low-pitched voices), Eleking, Pitt-seijin, and KYOHRYUH SENSHA (Dinosaur-Tank, which was, well, a tank-riding dinosaur) .

Seven was also perhaps the only Ultraman to never, ever receive help from one of his brothers during his original series, even though he was beat up pretty bad (including getting crucified, having his arm run over by Dinosaur-Tank, being stomped by Crazygon, and being smacked upside the head by Bandon).

Dan Moroboshi is his human form. Unlike the original Ultraman, Seven doesn't merge with a dead human so that he can stay on Earth. He merely borrows the appearance of an admirable human he had encountered in the past, Jiroh Satsuma. This occurence is revealed in episode 17, when Dan finds out that Satsuma had been trapped in a mine that was caused by the mysterious underground city of Yuhtom. Dan has a flashback to when he saw Satsuma rock-climbing behind a partner... when they had trouble with their equipment, Satsuma whipped out a knife and cut the tether between them to save his partner, if not himself. Seven just happened to be poking around on the mountain at the same time, saw what was happening, and rescued the falling Satsuma.

Anne was the love interest for Dan. Even though their relationship is never officialized, it is one you could really care about. Dan loses his Ultra Eye on several occasions, usually to aliens disguised as pretty women. Ultraseven is always a sucker for a pretty gal.

Though it is now often said to be the best of the many Ultra series, it wasn't considered as such by fans during its original run. When he is compared to the original 'Ultraman,' the Japanese equivalent of the Nielsen ratings dropped from 30% to 20%. Given the costs of production, Tsuburaya Productions decided that Seven would be the last.

Because they thought that Seven was to be the end of the Ultra series, Tsuburaya Productions pulled out all the stops and put all of their heart and soul into the two-part series finale. Dan and Anne practiced their dramatic farewell scene many times, and Anne wears this long wig so that her hair would dance with a gust of wind the moment Dan reveals his true identity to her.

After the series wrapped, Tsuburaya Productions went on to produce other non-Ultra shows, like 'Mighty Jack' and 'KAIKI DAISAKUSEN'. During this two-year moratorium, Seven did another tour of duty on 'Ultra Fight' which ultimately revived the franchise and made possible 'The Return of Ultraman.'

Seven remains one of the most popular Ultramen. He shows up in every series in one form or another, through 'Ultraman 80.' Dan Moroboshi is called back to duty as the captain of MAC in 'Ultraman Leo', an honor that is not on the resume of any other human form of an Ultraman (actor Moritsugu Kohji also plays the captain of MYDO on the second 'Ultraman Zearth' movie).

And of course, Seven is so popular that he gets his own 1990s version of TV specials and direct-to-video episodes. Targeted at adult aficionados who grew up watching the original series, they are full of homage shots, continuities, and popular old nemeses (including Pitt-seijin, Guts-seijin, Metron-seijin, King Joe, and Nonmalt). Furuhashi becomes Captain of the Ultra Garrison and eventually becomes a TDF Commander, and a lot of the same mechas are used (including the Ultra Hawks). The Garrison car (the Pointer), however, is newly updated. Even the opening theme music remains the same (more or less), though the silhouettes used in the opening animation have been updated. The Garrison members are fresh new faces, two of which are female (and they kick much ass). Dan is a fresh old face, and he sports longer hair and considerably wider pants. The younger and leaner Masaki Kazamori eventually replaces Dan as the human form of Ultraseven.

The saga continues even more in 2002. An air of mystery permeates this new series. Kazamori leaves the Ultra Garrison to walk the Earth with something secret in his heart, and meets a girl who can revive a wilted flower. The Garrison is joined by a new member named Yuki, which brings them up to three women (which is quite a lot, for the Ultra Garrison). The Ultra Garrison investigate some shiny gold particles that appear and disappear, and determine that they are not of this Earth. Mizuno and Rumi go to retrieve some control system, but only a fake is left. Just then, those pesky aliens start invading again... we can expect to see the likes of Godora-seijin II, Pegassa-seijin II, and NeoBandon (which has the DNA of the original). Finally, the order of the episodes is mixed up, and the first one is called "episode 4." Each episode will be 45 minutes, and will include 15-minute specials. (Source(s) for 2002 video series information: [TPFC, vol. 67, 2002], p. 22; [UCS, vol. 100, 2002], p. 41).


Trivia


Two theme songs were created for 'Ultraseven.' Two hundred children were asked to pick the better of the two. The one we know and love is the one that made the cut.

In Showa 40 (I believe that's 1965), Yuriko Hishimi, the actress who played Anne in Ultraseven, won 2nd place in the Miss Tokyo contest.

According to Seven's Superior, Ultraseven's real name is "KOHTEN KANSOKU-IN 340-GOH," The rough translation is "Stationary Post Observer #340."

Dan Moroboshi has an alien anatomy... in the last episode, he won't let Anne x-ray his injured body, fearing that his alien origin would be discovered.

In the second American translation, for TNT, scenes of graphic violence were are often cut. Monsters often do not blow up into smithereens, and the Eye Slugger is commonly edited out, since rolling heads, chopped limbs, and spurting body fluids is not standard children's fare in the U.S. A notable exception is Episode 12, where Spell-seijin is sliced in half. Sometimes, the action would be over after a monster falls on the ground. Humor is added to the dubbings to make for a much lighter tone. The funniest thing, though, is when Dan transforms with his "Task Mask" (Ultra Eye), he says, "MM HMMM!!" In the Japanese original, he either says nothing, or says "DUA!" which doesn't make much more sense, come to think of it.

Kohji Moritsugu, the actor who played Dan Moroboshi, also supplied the voice of Ultraseven in the original series (this is in contrast to Susumu Kurobe... Hayata... who did not supply the voice of Ultraman). The reasoning behind this is that Dan is not a borrowed human host like Hayata was... Dan IS Seven, so they should have the same voice.

Have you ever noticed that all of the voices on 'Ultraseven' look dubbed? And I'm not talking about the TNT English-dubbed version... I'm talking about the Japanese original. That's because it IS dubbed. According to GPS, "the process was commonly employed in Asia... The process merit was it's low cost and time efficient. The film crew doesn't have to spend time to set up sound recording gear on the set, and they doesn't have to do a full retake when the director happened to sneeze during a take."

"TDF" is sometimes written 'PDF'... so far I've only seen "PDF" on a few belt buckles (various eps) and a life raft (ep 3)."

Alas, Shohji Nakayama (Captain Kiriyama) passed away of pneumonia at the age of 70 on December 1, 1998.
 

Cameos
 

Episode 12: Hiroko Sakurai, the actress who played Akiko Fuji in 'Ultraman' as a guest role (this episode was banned in Japan for reasons other than the reappearance of Fuji).

Episode 42: Masanari Nihei (Ide/Ito in 'Ultraman') has a brief stint as a submarine crewmember in the first minute of the episode, according to Ramie Tateishi.

Episode 47: Shohji Kobayashi (Captain Muramatsu in 'Ultraman') plays a drunken man who returns home late at night to discover that his wife, child, and neigbors do not recognize him, because they've been replaced during the night by the Hook-seijin.

Episode 48-9: Seven's Superior is rarely acknowledged in the Ultraman "canon," but he exists nevertheless. He tells Ultraseven that it's time to return to Nebula M78, or risk death on Earth from the damage to his battle-worn body. This, of course, just before the full-scale invasion by the Goth-seijins.
Crossovers
Ultra Fight:
Most of the 195 episodes

Ultraman Jack:
Episode 18: Delivers the Ultra Bracelet to Jack so that he can defeat Bemustar.
Episode 38: Appears with Ultraman to save Jack from execution by the Knuckle-seijin. Brief appearance by Dan Moroboshi in Ultra Garrison uniform.

Ultraman Ace:
Episode 1: Appears with Zoffy, Ultraman, Jack, and Ace to merge the latter with Hokuto and Minami.
Episodes 13-4: Crucified with Zoffy, Ultraman, and Jack, on the planet Golgota, by Ace Killer.
Episode 26-7: Trapped with his four brothers by Hippolito-seijin and turned into a bronze statue.
Episode 31: Versus Bakutari
Episode 31: Versus Firemonse and Fire-seijin
Episode 44: Replenishes Ace's power after he loses it to OniDevil.

Ultraman Taroh:
Episode 1: Appears with the Five Ultra Brothers to assist the Ultra Mother in giving birth to Ultraman #6.
Episode 5: Escorts King Tortoise and Mini Tortoise to M78. Episode 25: Along with the other Ultra Brothers, merges with Taroh so that, with their combined purity of soul, he can plunge into the flames of the Ultra Tower for one minute to acquire the Ultra Bell. They all carry the Ultra Bell back to Earth, and Taroh rings it, so that it dissipates the dark cloud of Mururoa that has enveloped the Earth.
Episode 33-4: Appears with the Six Ultra Brothers against Temperor-seijin. Moroboshi Dan also appears with his fellow human forms.
Episode 40: The Ultra brothers get beat up by Tyrant, a vengeful monster created by parts of many past monsters.

Ultraman Leo:
Series: Dan Moroboshi is the leader of MAC, and serves as Gen's mentor.
Epsode 1: Seven's leg is broken by Red Gillas, Black Gillas, and Magma-seijin. The Ultra Eye is damaged and Dan can no longer transform into Seven.
Episode 29: Anne Yuri and Dan meet again... she tells him she's been raising the alien child, Uri, who has become the monster Uringa. Episode 34: Dan receives ball monster Sevengar from Hideki Goh. Briefly appears as Seven with Jack and Leo in a vision by monster Ashuran. Gives his melted Ultra Eye to Goh to have it repaired.

Ultraman Monster Big Decisive Battle
New group shot footage.

Ultraman 80:
Episode 44: Well, okay, it's not really Seven... it's Delusion Ultraseven, a doll that becomes a monster when infused with a young boy's anger. The upshot of this is that you get to see Seven duke it out with 80.

Ultraman Zoffy
Recycled footage. See more detail.

Ultraman Story
Recycled footage, plus new footage against Grand King. See more detail.

Ultraman Zearth:
In the second movie, Kohji Moritsugu (Dan Moroboshi) has a cameo as the captain of MYDO. He even says "NATSUKASHIH!" when he sees a capsule monster (that's something Japanese people say when reminded of the old days).