Urutora Q

With the sobering intro/outro narration of The Twilight Zone, the normal-day-turned-Lovecraftian-horror of The X-Files, and a practical effects team that dared greatly and generally succeeded, this ought to be better known.

The monster-of-the-week format and 30-minute episodes don't give much time for character development, of course. The likeable cast include a hard-charging lady reporter, a wise old scientist with government connections, and a pair of pilots-for-hire who transport them to the scene of the trouble and provide the muscle as needed.

The real stars, of course, are the monsters--a giant slug that shoots rays from its eyestalks, a creepy tentacled balloon monster that fills the skies over Tokyo, a prehistoric beast that is reawakened when a tunneling project disturbs its eggs (yes that was a Kolchak plot too!). They give you the monsters in all their rubbery glory, better in my opinion than Doctor Who or The Outer Limits. Only wish there were more episodes, but it must have been really expensive.

Strange things are happening in and around Japan that heroic pilot Jun Manjome (Kenji Sahara), sidekick Ippei Togawa (Yasuhiko Saijo), cute news-photographer Yuriko Edogawa (Hiroko Sakurai), and clever scientist Dr. Ichinotani (Ureo Egawa) are frequently called on to investigate. The 28-episode series was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, the company founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects pioneer who created the original 'Godzilla' for Toho Studios as well as many of the iconic daikaiju that followed in the King of the Monsters' footsteps (as well as numerous smaller monsters, aliens, spacecraft, miniature cities (standing and flattened) etc.). Similar to the popular American anthology series 'The Twilight Zone' (1959), each episode opens with an ominous prologue and closes with a wrap-up epilogue (usually cautionary) delivered by a voiceover (there is no host). Ultra Q is also similar to the contemporaneous American program 'The Outer Limits' (1963), in that both shows were pushed to include a 'monster' in every episode (in the Japanese show, this was primarily to appeal to youngsters who were captivated by the current child-friendly crop of 'Godzilla' and 'Gamera' films). Episodes varied from reasonably 'adult' science fiction (such as 'Balloonga', ep. 11) to juvenile fantasy ('A Boy and His Turtle', ep. 6) with the occasional 'horror story' (e.g. 'Baron Spider' ep.9) thrown in. The kaiju episodes are similar to the light-weight late Showa-era Godzilla films, and as Tsuburaya was well connected with Toho Studios, some of the similarities were due to him borrowing props and monster suit-mation costumes (often modified by adding new heads, extra frills, horns, tusks, etc). I just finished the series in order on TUBI, and having watched with the aid of not particularly sophisticated English subtitles, I can't really comment on the acting but it appears to be on par with the that of human characters in kaiju movies from the same era (although Hiroko Sakurai's projection of 'grief' or 'fear' was a bit risible at times). All in all, a fun throwback for people (like me) who are fans of all things daikaiju and tokusatsu but probably best known as the precursor to the incredibly popular and long-lived 'Ultraman' franchise.

In 1964 newly formed Tsuburaya Production was looking to make Japan's first sci-fi TV series. The series that was tentatively named "WOO" was canceled, but Tsuburaya Production already spent considerable cash to purchase the optical printer needed for the special effects. So Tokyo Broadcasting Station paid for the optical printer, and advanced the money needed to film the new series called UNBALANCE. Initially the program was modeled after the "Twilight Zone", and "Outer Limits" that was popular in the US, but due to the producer's desire to target specific audience, the program was changed to feature much of kaijyu style monsters in the episodes. The series name was also changed (again) to "Ultra Q".

The story features pilot Jun Manjyome (Kenji Sahara), assistant pilot Ippei Togawa (Yasuhiko Saijyo), and a news reporter Yuriko Edogawa (Hiroko Sakurai), with other supporting cast. The story featured ancient kaijyu coming to life, invasion from outer space, invasion from the future, mutated monster, a boy that turned into a monster, a boy that befriends a giant turtle, battle with giant octopus etc. and was a veritable smorgasbord of kaijyu related topics. The TV series that had unknown potential frequently rated over 30%, and became a huge success. This lead to the follow on program the Ultraman - of which variation still continues to this day.

Total of 28 episodes were aired, and all the episodes were filmed in black and white, but recently, a colorized version has been released.

Looking back at this series now, the rough edges are evident at various places, but it filled the need of young viewers to see exciting new monster every week. Quality of the stories varied, but they were all very experimental, and difficult to rate either by their effort or by their quality. By today's standard, they were all of low budget nature, but at the time, this was one of the most expensive TV series to be produced.

All of this makes this series difficult to rate. Depending on who sees it, it might be taken as a low budget crap, or highly experimental masterpiece. My opinion varies between the episodes. Focus of the stories varied from episode to episode. Some were bona fide sci-fi, others were like fantasy, and the series lacked focus compared to the Twilight Zone that had intrigue at the center of each episode.

Copy of this series is rare outside of Japan, but if you can find them, it's a worthy relic to be seen from the '60s Japan.

Watch Ultra Q. For the entertainment value. For the gorgeous sixties aesthetic. For the fun. For the monsters. For the historic value. Just watch it.

It's not much like the rest of the ultraman series. More like an action oriented x files for kids.

Watch the sequels ultra q: dark fantasy and neo ultra q for more ultraman free trippy glory.

Its a great, entertaining, but sometimes kind of deep 60s twilight zone type sci fi show, recommend to anyone who likes old sci fi, japanese sci fi, or kaiju