okeanakid

After the success of "Ultra Q" and "Ultraman", Eiji Tsuburaya gave us the crowning achievement of the franchise "Ultraseven".

Synopsis: a young cartographer from The Land Of Light in Nebula M78 comes across our home planet earth while making a map of our solar system. After witnessing the heroic sacrifice of Jiro Satsuma, he becomes enraptured with humanity and decides to live amongst them. Learning that Earth has become a popular target for colonization amongst aliens, he joins the Ultra Guard, in order to protect the people of the Earth as Ultraseven.

"Ultraseven" is an absolute masterpiece. It's not some cliche, Henshin-Hero series, where the uninteresting heroes transform into hyper-powered ninjas to fight anthropomorphic makeup supplies or baseballs while the villains sit on their thrones and cackle maniacally. It's a surprisingly deep, character-driven, sci-fi thriller about human ethics and relations.

The Ultra Guard are the most believable science patrol of the franchise, with great technology, resources, and character development, especially Captain Kiriyama, Soga, Furuashi, Amagi and Anne Yuri (wait, those are the only ones who get any focus at all). Dan starts out as unfamiliar with Earthly ways, but soon forms a bond with the Ultra Guard that brings them closer together than he ever thought possible, even forming an implied romantic bond with Anne. The special effects are absolutely remarkable for 1967. And it has the best episodes the franchise has to offer, from action-packed thrillers like "MS MAX Respond", "The Ultra Guard Goes West", and "The 700 Kilometer Run" to paranoid nightmares like "Space Prisoner 303", "Escape Dimension X", "Project Blue" and "The Invading Dead" to Emotionally moving adventures like "Fly to Devil Mountain", "The Human Farm", "Showdown At 140 Degrees Below Zero", "Glory For Whom", "The Stolen Ultra Eye", "The Courageous Battle", and "The Showdown on Dan VS Seven" to deeply lyrical, thought provoking stories like "The Marked Town", Android Operation Zero", "Super Weapon R-1", "Messenger of the Nonmalt" and "Nightmare On Planet Four". Not to mention it's excellent musical score by Toru Fuyuki.

And it all adds up to a wonderful finale which pits god against the devil in the ultimate fight for supremacy.

No other Tokusatsu series has ever reached the standards that Ultraseven set (though "Return Of Ultraman", "Mirrorman", and "Ultraman Leo", the latter of which has Dan as a major character, make wonderful companion pieces i must admit) in terms of quality. It's also the most unique series among the Ultraman franchise (yes, even when compared to "Ultra Q") in that, rather than magical fantasy, it's eerie sci-fi, rather than energetic and optimistic, it's paranoia-filled(laden?) and gritty, a handful of fights scenes are human sized as opposed to the usual, giant sized, Seven doesn't have a color timer(unless you count his beam lamp as one) as he was trained as a cartographer rather than a warrior, his finisher is a blade on his helmet rather than a beam, and there are more alien invasion stories than any other entry in the franchise.

The creative monster and alien designs by Tohl Narita and Noriyoshi Ikeya are some of the best the series has ever conceived in it's history(and that's saying a lot)!

I have absolutely nothing but praise for "Ultraseven", and i would highly recommend it to everyone! The show doesn't have end credits (rather, the credits are shown during the opening) so the episodes make the most of their Twenty-Five minute runtime, which may be hard to get used to for newcomers to the franchise or the original series, but I was never bothered by that little faction.

No matter how many Tokusatsu series i see, or how many are made, "Ultraseven" will always be the best Ultraman show(at least of the Showa era) and Tokusatsu series in general, and i will never not love it.

(I'm sorry if i went into purple prose in some places).

10/10.