FLIP
An alien with illusionary powers and a haunting laugh, Flip is yet another alien who causes trouble for the people of Japan and Gen. With his abilities once again getting the best of our hero, Dan trains Gen to fight blind so that he won’t be fooled by the alien’s illusions.
I like Flip quite a bit honestly, and his gimmick feels very appropriate for the martial arts training focused portion of Leo. I’m also really fond of the design by Osawa, who gave the alien features such as the unique, double-eared head and overlapping diamond shapes on his body to make the creature feel strong. I’m also a big fan of the cobblestone pattern he has on his arms and legs, as well as his trunk.
Curiously enough, unlike many aliens seen in Leo, Flip’s human-sized form isn’t too different from his giant one, and was designed by Osawa after the giant incarnation. I guess he just liked the giant Flip so much, he wanted the smaller Flip to look similar.
Flip’s illusion based powers and his reuse of the fungus people’s laughter from Matango make the character feel like a sort of a Baltan copy. This would be picked up on with Ultra Monster Encyclopedia, which states that Flip is perhaps a distant relative of our favorite space ninja.
ATLER
An alien race that has laid waste to numerous planets in the cosmos, an Atler arrives on Earth, intent on destroying the world.
Disguising herself as a ghostly woman, Atler soon goes about killing her victims in a unique way: You see, the Atler aliens have a special power that allows them to transform their victims’ bodies into wax and she leaves behind quite a few macabre wax dolls in her wake before Leo puts a stop to her.
Atler is by far one of my all time favorite aliens from this show, and it’s due to just how creepy she is as a character. The idea of an alien who transforms their victims into wax sculptures feels like something out of a nightmare, and while we’ve had some creepy monsters so far in this show, I feel like Atler takes the cake as the spookiest. The scene where Dan relates to Gen the story of how several TDF members came across an Atler and were all killed by the alien, as well as how the Atler’s home world is known as the planet of death just oozes pure dread. The way Dan talks about these aliens and how he’s seen what happens to the planets they land on really gives off the sense that he had encountered their handiwork during his cartography days, and Dan telling Gen that he has no chance against this foe just adds to the episode’s building dread.
Atler is another Osawa creation, and she doesn’t look too bad in all honesty. It’s not quite on the level of some of the aliens we’ve seen so far in the show, but the turtle-like body helps belie a really sinister foe, and I suppose an alien such as this wouldn’t have to look traditionally scary if they existed in the real world, right?
WOLF
A blood-sucking werewolf from beyond the stars, the aptly named Wolf arrives on Earth and uses the body of a young girl as his vessel when he’s not running around drinking blood.
I’m a really big horror movie fan if you can’t tell, and I’ve always loved werewolf characters such as the Wolf Man, but Wolf here? This ain’t it. An Ultra battling a werewolf is a cool idea, but the suit here is way too cheap unfortunately, with the black tights on the costume just making the creature seem too hard to accept within the show’s reality. In addition, the cheap looking monster suit, along with the fact that the werewolf hides inside the body of a girl, with the episode’s title being The Werewolf’s Bride, gives the episode a certain scuzziness that makes me feel a bit uneasy, and this is coming from someone who absolutely loves trashy 70’s horror movies.
The giant form looks a bit better, although now it looks more akin to a giant, fanged rabbit than a werewolf unfortunately.
As an interesting aside, this particular episode with Wolf would be the first ever Ultra episode to dip into single digits for the ratings. This low ratings would eventually result in a few retools and gimmicky episode ideas that we’ll see further down the line.
BATTON
A species of vampire bat that goes world from world to feast on the blood of the inhabitants, MAC is able to intercept the swarm and wipe them out before they can make a meal of humanity.
However, one of the bats was able to escape destruction, and takes on the form of a young woman. After being taken in by Gen’s friend Momoko, she comes out at night to drink the blood of humans.
Batton is a pretty standard vampire, and sort of feels redundant when coming right after Wolf from the previous episode, but it feels much more thought out in terms of what it wants to do. In addition, while still looking a bit ridiculous, Batton’s giant form at least looks a bit more fitting for a giant, bloodsucking monster than Wolf’s did.
BOZE
An alien who traveled to Earth 100 years ago to study the planet for a possible invasion, Boze interrupts the vacation of Gen and his friends when they visit Hokkaido for a vacation, unaware that they’ll be crossing paths with the fishman.
Boze here is alright. He’s not the best looking fish monster we’ve seen so far in the franchise, but he’s an ok one, and there’s quite a bit to like about him such as the whip he has for his right arm and his cool, icy blue skin color. The name itself should sound familiar to anyone who knows their yokai well, as it is derived from the Umibozu, a water-based monster from Japanese folklore that would blacken the sky when they emerged from the water.
One notable thing about Boze is his death, where he becomes skeletonized right after he dies! Creepy!
BOCK AND DOGYU
A friendly alien who is friends with Ultraseven, Bock flees to Earth from his home in Ursa Minor after the space monster, Dogyu, kills his mother. Disguising himself as a young boy, he reunites with Dan, happy to see at least one other friendly face.
Unfortunately, Dogyu has come in pursuit of Bock, and upon taking human form himself, he tries to get the poor kid killed by killing off the livestock of a nearby village, attempting to goad them into hunting Bock down.
Thanks to Dan and Gen, Dogyu’s plan fails, but the space monster soon transforms into his true form, and gives Leo quite a bit of trouble when he blinds the Ultra. However, Bock is able to even the odds and use the strange, black orchids he creates when his tears hit the ground to poke Dogyu’s eyes out, giving Leo the edge he needs to end the murderous space monster’s life.
Dogyu and Bock are both odd, but they’re the kind of unique characters 70’s Ultra tends to sometimes throw out occasionally, and we don’t tend to get guys like this anymore, so as weird as they are, I can appreciate them. I really like the character of Bock, and it’s good to finally see a friendly alien in Leo. His friendship with Seven is really nice, and makes me feel like Seven ran into Bock during his days as a cartographer. The name Bock itself is a reference to the korobockle, a kind of dwarf from Ainu legend. Interestingly, it’s stated Bock’s human form is just a disguise, but whatever he truly looks like, we never see it.
Dogyu himself isn’t too bad of a foe, albeit he looks quite ridiculous, but that sort of fits the fairytale atmosphere this story has. He’s another Osawa monster, born from the idea of combining bear and cow features into one monster. His human form in the episode was played by actor Hitoshi Omae, who appeared in many films and TV shows spanning multiple different genres, but tokusatsu fans might recognize him from shows and films such as Latitude Zero, Mirrorman, Kikaider, Army of Apes to name a few.
NIKE AND NORTHSATAN
An alien who hails from the planet Alpha, her race sends a representative of their species every four years to Earth, in order to wish goodwill upon the Earthlings.
However, a devilish alien known as Northsatan plans on killing the friendly alien and ambushes her on a cruise ship, only to have his plans foiled by MAC agent and skiing enthusiast Kitayama. Northsatan soon grows giant and pursues her, destroying her ship to ensure that she cannot escape. Thankfully, having been trained with a special dodging technique inspired by Kitayama’s skiing by Dan, Leo is able to defeat Northsatan and take her back to space.
Another pair of characters that feel unique to 70’s Ultra, these two feel a tad redundant coming after the Bock and Dogyu story, but they’re different enough to feel alright.
For some reason, Northsatan has always stuck out to me as a character. I guess it’s just the fact that his design is pretty solid compared to a few of the characters we’ve seen previously, and the needles he fires out of his mouth are a really cool weapon. Northsatan was designed by Kengo Kime, while Yukimitsu Sugano tackled the smaller form, taking inspiration from gas masks to create a memorable smaller form that I wish the giant form took a bit more influence from.
Nike was played by Yasuko Agawa, a jazz singer and actress that tokusatsu fans may recognize from various 70’s era tokusatsu like Terror of Mechagodzilla, Zone Fighter, 10-4-10-10, Sinking of Japan, Evil of Dracula and the infamous Prophecies of Nostradamus.
Northsatan would also be the last episode of the show’s “training arc”. Due to the floundering ratings, the producers would attempt a wide variety of stunts to try and recapture viewers.
GALLON AND LITER
A pair of brother monsters, Gallon (the one with the horn) attacks Japan, and when it seems like Leo can handle this guy, his sibling, Liter arrives, leaving Leo at the mercy of the two kaiju.
But, help arrives when Astra, Leo’s brother whom was believed to have perished during L77’s destruction, shows up even the odds. With the two monsters dead, Astra leaves just as quickly as he arrived.
Gallon and Liter mainly exist for one purpose: The introduction of Astra. One of the ideas to help liven the show up was to introduce a secondary Ultra to the program, being the only other L77 survivor. It’s an idea that is great in concept, but the execution itself falls a bit flat since Astra comes and goes when the show needs him to.
As for the kaiju, I think they’re ok. They’re mainly just here to introduce Astra, so there isn’t too much to say about them, but I think that’s ok. Sometimes you just need a couple of goons to knock some skulls, and these two fit the bill. The Gallon suit was refurbished from Antales’s and it honestly looks better in this form than it did as the former. They’re simple guys, but that is why they’re fun.
And yes, their names do come from the units of measurements. Why that is, I don’t know.
CORO AND RENBOLAR
A mischievous alien, Coro falls to Earth after falling off of his flying space bed. The alien is found by Tooru and his friends, and after being fed a lot of donuts by the kids, the alien decides to show off for them.
Summoning his pet monster Renboler to Earth, Coro has the creature preform for the kids, but once the alien’s tail gets pulled out, Coro loses control of the monster.
Coro is another character that would feel more at home in something like Ultraman Taro. The idea of a child-like alien who fell to Earth because he was jumping on his bed fits the more fairytale style Taro has over Leo personally. I do have some fondness for Coro, as he’s just such an odd character. Dude hangs out on a flying bed, loves donuts, has a detachable tail that controls a kaiju, and despite his youthful looks, has 43 kids, 64 grandkids and 14 great-grandchildren. He’s super odd, but the kind of character the 70’s shows specialized in.
Renbolar, his kaiju, ain’t too bad. The design by Kengo Kime honestly would probably fit in Taro more like his owner, but the idea of a big-rainbow eating space monster is a really funky idea and really feels like a small child came up with it (this is a compliment btw). I also really like the fight between him and Leo, which is styled like a boxing match!
GAMELOT
Originally a world of beauty, the planet Sarlin’s robots went rogue and quickly conquered the planet with ease, reducing it to a wasteland. Sent by the machine overlords of the world to track down their creator, Professor Dodole and his granddaughter Carolyn, Gamelot finds the two alien refugees on Earth, prompting Leo to step in.
Gamelot may not as be as nice looking as the most famous robot King Joe, but I think he’s a solid mechanical brute. This is where the low budget of Leo really starts to help, since he looks like an old, weathered piece of industrial equipment, making him seem even more intimidating, and I feel like I could get Tetanus from this dude. The short, squat body also is reminiscent of Boss Borot and the various Mechanical Beasts from Mazinger Z, and I can totally imagine this guy being a MOTW in that classic anime.
In addition, while this episode’s story isn’t as thought-provoking as Nightmare of the 4th Planet, the idea of a planet overtaken by their own machines is a classic set-up, and in some ways, I can sort of buy this story being a loose sequel of sorts, with perhaps the machines of Planet 4 eventually sending out giant robots to attack other worlds.
Prof. Dodole should be recognizable to anyone who knows their Showa era tokusatsu: Hideyo Amamoto, most famous for playing classic Kamen Rider villain Dr. Shinigami. This isn’t Amamoto’s first time with the franchise, as he had previously appeared in the final episode of Ultra Q, as well as episode 23 of The Return of Ultraman. This is his first time playing an alien on the program though, and unlike his most famous role, Dodole is a very sympathetic character.
We don’t see what the true forms of the Sarin aliens are, but the smaller forms of Northsatan, Kettle and Vibe are used here to represent them in a well-done flashback sequence that makes great usage of silhouettes.
We also get one good robot in the form of Carolyn, who reveals herself to be mechanical at the end when she launches herself at Gamelot in order give Leo an opening for an attack. It’s a somewhat predictable twist, but it’s one that’s used for a good reason and adds a fittingly tragic ending to the story.
SATAN BEETLE AND CLEAN
After humanity tests the experimental CS137 superweapon near their home planet, the Clean aliens send their monster Satan Beetle to Earth for retaliation.
During all this, a member of the Clean species appears in the mind of a boy who hates the pollution Earth suffers from and who’s own pet beetle had died. The alien convinces the young boy that Satan Beetle is the reincarnation of his former pet, and the kid soon gets in the way of MAC’s attempts to stop the monster.
The episode hits the same sort of beats as a lot of classic Ultraseven episodes like Super Weapon R-1, and Westward Ultra Garrison, featuring an alien race whom is prompted to invasion due to mankind’s own destructive tendencies. Personally, I can feel for the Clean and why they’d be mad at us, especially since this tends to be a repeating problem with humanity in the Showa era. That being said, perhaps they could’ve attempted contact, but then we’d have no episode.
Satan Beetle is probably one of the best Osawa monsters for the show. He’s not too fancy, but it’s hard to mess up a beetle kaiju, and Satan Beetle is a really nice beetle kaiju. I really like his grey color scheme which matches the gloomy and drab atmosphere of the show and helps his red eyes really stand out.
Clean isn’t too complex of an alien, but I think actor Toru Hanabusa does a good job with the character, as the scenes where he communicates to the boy in his dreams make Clean come off as incredibly impish with a hint of malevolence.
While Satan Beetle never made it past his debut episode, he would be a staple of Bandai’s Ultra Monster Series line of vinyl monster dolls thanks to his popularity with children.
PRESSURE
An alien wizard, Pressure’s powerful abilities cause all sorts of havoc on Earth, including shrinking Leo. Leo, despite his best efforts, can’t battle Pressure at the size he’s at and is easily outmatched. However, the legendary Ultraman King arrives, and restores Leo to his natural size and gives Leo the Ultra Cape, a powerful weapon capable of shapeshifting into numerous forms such as an umbrella. With this new weapon at his disposal, Leo is able to stop the warlock’s reign of terror.
Pressure’s among my favorites from Leo just due to how bizarre he is in terms of appearance and abilities. He’s one of those kaiju that manages to be both ridiculous and terrifying. Osawa did another great job here and Pressure has a lot of interesting features here like the Noh mask based face, the ribbed body that goes from skin to fabric, almost as if his cloak has melded completely to become part of his corpse-like body!
The story itself was based on the classic Japanese fairy-tale Issun-Boshi, which was the story of an inch-high warrior and the episode’s scene of Leo growing back to his normal size with King’s hammer is taken directly from the fairytale itself. This episode marked the beginning of the Japan Masterpiece Folklore series of the show that featured episodes based on Japanese folklore in an attempt to help boost ratings.
Easter's Kaiju Kompendium 