Characters / Ultra Q Dark Fantasy

Humans

Goichi Sakamoto

Played by: Yoshihiko Akamada

A journalist for Global Magazine. Goichi is notorious amongst his coworkers as an eccentric, but also greatly appreciated for his tenacity, ingenuity, and passion that has helped Global become so successful. He leads the investigations into the unknown that occur every episode.

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• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's the best journalist in the entire company and almost singlehandedly made Global Magazine a success, but spends most of his time slacking off, entertaining his coworkers, and annoying his boss.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Hamburgers.

Ryo Kusunoki

Played by: Kumiko Endo

A freelance photographer who usually works alongside Goichi in his hunt for whatever truths may be out there. Though she seems to find Goichi tiresome at times, Ryo respects the man and his work well enough to remain alongside him no matter what frightful phenomenon they encounter.

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Professor Kakunoshin Watarai

Played by: Masao Kusakari

A quirky inventor and professor of science and engineering at Teito University who had previously worked in Britain. Professor Watarai was formerly Goichi's teacher and often helps him and Ryo in facing the Monster of the Week, thanks to his vast knowledge in virtually everything.

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's prone to eccentricity, but his brilliance as a professor can't be understated.
• The Professor: Following in the footsteps of Ichinotani.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Has a fondness for English tea and biscuits.

Monsters, Aliens, and Weirdness

Gara Q

First Appearance: Dancing Garagon

A line of intelligent toy robots that has taken Japan by storm, thanks to their adorable singing and dancing capabilities. But when the monster Garagon appears on Earth, suspicion grows over their connection to the invading robot. Later on, Ryo's Gara Q is reactivated by Professor Watarai but used by the Cicada Woman for her plan to get revenge on the humans for thwarting her people's scheme.

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• Applied Phlebotinum: Professor Watarai speculates they form Garagon's brain, but split into thousands of pieces to make it impossible to disable the robot. However, it turns out he had it inverted.
• Cool Toy: An enormous craze in Japan thanks to its adorable appearance and antics.
• Cute Machines: They're essentially chibi versions of Garagon that sing and dance in an adorable voice.
• Cuteness Proximity: For everyone except Goichi and Professor Watarai (who weren't even aware of their popularity); Ryo's heart instantly melted the moment she saw one wave at her.
• Expy: They are to Garagon what Pigmon is to Garamon.
• Hive Mind: They all operate under a single mind — the Garagon.
• Pokémon Speak: They mainly just say "Gara Q!", though occasionally they say something else.
• Token Good Teammate: Ryo's Gara Q, especially in "Gara Q's Revenge", where it actually helps the humans kill the Cicada Woman and destroy Garagon.

Garagon

First Appearance: Dancing Garagon

A monster that crashes on Earth in a meteor at the height of the Gara Q craze and is closely connected to the Garamon that appeared 38 years ago. The monster later returns to destroy Professor Watarai, Ryo, and Goichi when its alien creator, the Cicada Woman, for revenge.

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• Applied Phlebotinum: Garagon is actually a giant brain for the Gara Q. When all the toys are gathered together, they gain a malevolent sentience under the command of Garagon.
• Continuity Nod: Professor Watarai explains that Garagon is essentially an "evolved" version of Garamon — a bigger, better, and stronger Garamon.
• EMP: Produces this from its body in the form of an aurora that causes computers to stop working. It's actually how Garagon controls the Gara Q.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The second Garagon is destroyed when Ryo's Gara Q manages to reflect the giant's forehead bolt back at it.
• Humongous Mecha: Even more humongous than Garamon; the creature towers over some of modern Tokyo's skyscrapers.
• Shock and Awe: Van shoot bolts of red lightning from its forehead.

Alien Giraff

First Appearance: Graffiti

A race of bizarre aliens who graffiti a strange symbol all over the neighborhood of an ordinary lady named Kayoko. And when Kayoko catches them in the act, they begin to target her home with the symbol!

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• Crop Circles: Goichi hears a story of one in the shape of the aliens' mysterious graffiti symbol, suggesting the aliens do this as well.
• Generic Graffiti: Everyone but Kayoko assumes the aliens' work to be this. In reality, it's what they use to mark targets they plan to abduct.

Yamazaki

First Appearance: Who Are You?

An ordinary man who lives out his life as usual. One day, he runs into a childhood friend named Yoichiro...who had died in an accident when they were children. And as he delves into what's going on, he learns his reality is not what it seems.

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• All Just a Dream: Turns out Yamazaki really isn't a brain in a jar...
  • Or Was It a Dream?: At least until he spots the woman who read and played music to his brain and sees the sky cracking open like glass.
• Brain in a Jar: Yamazaki actually died when he was just a child. His brain was then kept alive in a lab for decades.
• Dead All Along: He's actually been dead for twenty-five years. His friends and wife are actually the scientists who monitor his brain's status.
• Schrödinger's Butterfly: Ultimately, Yamazaki is left wondering whether he is a man who dreamt he was just a brain or a brain who keeps dreaming he is still alive. It doesn't help that reality changes slightly with every day he wakes up.

Puzzle Woman

First Appearance: The Puzzle Woman

Played by: Yuka Miura

A phantom that started haunting a young man named Mochizuki when he begins to receive anonymous letters in the mail that contain pieces of a jigsaw puzzle of a woman. However, the same puzzle was found at the suicide sites of three other men...

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• The Faceless: Her face is never revealed.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Her hauntings terrified the men who were working on her puzzle to the point of driving three of them to suicide. But when Mochizuki starts to go mad from the hauntings, she apologizes to him.
• Ghostly Goals: She wanted to get one of the four men (Mochizuki, a teacher, a doctor, and a cab driver) who treated her with kindness to complete her puzzle so they could join her in the afterlife so she would never be lonely again.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: She's the ghost of a beautiful but sickly young lady who had no friends or family and loved playing with puzzles. Now, she exists inside one of her favorites, and as the puzzle is put together more of her body starts to manifest, beginning as just a foot.

The Slave of Heironymous

First Appearance: The Slave of Heironymous

A mysterious user who has been posting around the Internet a strange phrase: "As the program commences, newscaster Manami Kuwahara will be erased." The event occurs, and there are two suspects — Manami's husband Yoneda (who owns a strange machine able to erase other beings) and a man named Oota (who claims to be serving someone).

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• And I Must Scream: Those erased by the Slave of Heironymous are cast into a dark dimension where they float around screaming in pain for eternity.
• Meaningful Name: After Thomas Galen Hieronymous, an American engineer known for his pseudoscientific work on eloptic energy. He's mentioned by Professor Watarai as having created the machine Yoneda uses to erase others from existence.
• Unperson: Victims of the Slave of Heironymous are not only physically erased from existence, but all images of them vanish as well.
• The Unreveal: The Slave of Hieronymous' identity is never revealed. Yoneda and Oota are both also erased from existence by the Slave of Hieronymous.

Paradise Beings

Rat Catchers

First Appearance: Bound for Paradise

Mysterious people encountered by Goichi in a refuge camp beneath Tokyo when he investigates the disappearance of an overworked office worker named Tatsumi, whose last diary entry was: "Bound for Paradise". There are two different Paradise Beings — the Deliverer who gives supplies to the camp and the Rat Catchers who bring them to Paradise and eliminate intruders.

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• Ambiguously Evil: As a whole.
  • The Deliverer helped Goichi escape when the Rat Catchers came after him, but she otherwise leaves hints for him to never return or else. And the Rat Catchers showed no qualms about attacking camp refugees waiting to go to Paradise as they try to capture Goichi.
  • Additionally, the true identity of Paradise is never revealed as the refuge camp is destroyed and all its denizens are killed by the Rat Catchers, while Tatsumi mentions that those who are brought to Paradise never return. It's implied something far more nefarious may have been going on.
• Ambiguously Human: The Rat Catchers. Their bodies are fully covered by their white hazmat suits and gas masks, and while they do speak Japanese, they show no other evidence suggesting a human underneath the suits.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Goichi recognizes the Deliverer as an incidental office lady he noticed being shouted at by her boss when he was visiting Tatsumi's old workplace to ask around.
• He Knows Too Much: They and the people waiting at the refuge camp (including Tatsumi) give this warning to Goichi.

Kiara

First Appearance: Kiara

Played by: Arisa Nakamura

A girl befriended by a part-time jazz musician named Sakaguchi. She encourages him to give up his office job and pursue his musical dreams, but when an LP record by jazz legend Buster Karkland is stolen and security cameras show Kiara being followed by ghosts, the mystery of her identity deepens.

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• Ambiguously Evil: She may have appeared to help Sakaguchi pursue his dreams of becoming a Jazz star, but there are hints that she may not really be benevolent. She's followed by five ghastly specters that attack people when she wills it and her manipulations of Sakaguchi ends with him dead when she leads him away; not to mention Karkland is shown to have gone insane after meeting her (and one of her ghost servants looks suspiciously like him).
• Our Angels Are Different: Her true identity is an angel who helps Jazz musicians reach their potential. She had previously appeared to Buster Karkland and now appears to Sakaguchi to help him get his career off the ground.
• Winged Humanoid: Unlike most angels, she possesses fairy-like wings instead.

Alien Unitoroda

First Appearance: Unitoroda's Repayment

Voiced by: Yasuhiro Takato

An alien befriended by a factory worker named Tokusuke. While Unitoroda means no harm to anyone, he does know how to solve the problem about the mysterious plague of mold/rust-like substance appearing around Tokusuke's workplace.

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• Aliens Among Us: With his spaceship destroyed by being used to blow up Sabikong, Unitoroda lives on Earth for the rest of his days among the humans he befriended.
• Amusing Alien: At times.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He plans to use his rebuilt spaceship to do one in order to destroy Sabikong. He survives instead.
• Innocent Aliens: Unitoroda came to Earth to fight of the Sabikong menace, and when he is brought in to be cared for the Tokusuke and his family, his gratefulness cannot be understated (and that is taken up a notch by Tokusuke and his factory workers fixing up his spaceship!).
• Meaningful Name: His name is a combination of the Japanese words for "tuna" and "sea urchin", which also happen to be his favorite types of sushi.
• Playing with Fire: He can fire a heat beam from his hand that he uses to kill off the Sabikong substance.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sushi. Helps that he regenerates from injuries near-instantly just by eating sushi.

Sabikong

First Appearance: Unitoroda's Repayment

A giant monster formed from a mysterious alien substance that is neither quite mold nor quite rust but has been plaguing the factories of Tokyo lately. It had previously been plaguing Unitoroda's homeworld, but with its arrival on Earth, the alien follows to deal with the monster.

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• Achilles' Heel: Extreme heat destroys the rust/mold stuff Sabikong is composed of.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Sabi" means "rust" in Japanese.
• Breath Weapon: Able to spit small red laser bolts from its mouth.
• Eat Me: Unitoroda defeats Sabikong by flying his spaceship into the kaiju and then blowing it up.

Alien Cosmonet Yamada

First Appearance: Temptation at 2 AM

Played by: Yamaguchi Edo

An extraterrestrial late-night shopping channel salesman who markets a strange health drink that makes its users younger, which is purchased by a coworker of Goichi named Hiroko Oshima.

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• Fountain of Youth: He sells a product that reduces one's age. A single bottle turns Hiroko from a bitter 30-something year old to a sprightly young lady in her early 20s. He also sells an antidote for those who down too many bottles.
• Honest John's Dealership: He's basically an extraterrestrial version of your classic fast-talking TV salesman, and although his products actually work, his customers usually wind up demanding the antidote. And it turns out he isn't the only one of his kind stationed above Earth...
• Human Aliens: Really the only indications he's an alien is that he does his work on a space station for a TV channel called Cosmo Shopping and refers to his human customers as Earthlings.

Farewell Flame

First Appearance: Ceremonial Bonfire

Played by: Makoto Kamijo

A mythical man who ensures those at the end of their lives die peacefully and are able to travel into the afterlife. Lately, he has been sighted at the deathbeds of the terminally ill in hospitals, and his appearance coincides with Ryo meeting Hitaki, a vagabond young man with no memory of his childhood.

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• Dark Is Not Evil: Ryo is at first horrified that his duty is to basically kill people, but Farewell Flame treats it as odd jobs and eventually proves to her that he ultimately brings happiness to everyone.
• Psychopomp: He's an ordinary human gifted with supernatural powers in order to help the dying transition to the "the Mother Land" (an individual's happiest memories). However, this gift comes at the cost of his childhood memories.
• Touch of Death: Is able to perform this to help the dying pass away peacefully.

Three-Eyed Totem Pole

First Appearance: The Eyes of the Totem

A tiny wish-granting totem pole purchased by a schoolgirl named Mai Tachibana. At the same time, Professor Watarai's friend has been found mysteriously dead and has sent him an email: "Please dispose of the Three-Eyed Totem".

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• Jackass Genie: It grants wishes alright, but it will take away something you deeply cherish in exchange for each wish granted. The bigger the wish, the more precious the loss.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The totem pole was created to imprison a demon that feeds on desire. Its twisted wishing-granting power comes from the trapped fiend.
• Shout-Out: Inspired by The Monkey's Paw. Mai's last two wishes are almost the exact same as those made in the story as well.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The final wish takes away the wisher's soul to be devoured by the demon inside totem. The totem then vanishes and reappears elsewhere to await the next victim.

Alien Utsugi

First Appearance: The Dream Stone

An alien who moves into the small town of Tsukizuki after a strange meteorite lands on Earth. He begins to gather the town's adults for strange gatherings around the meteorite to hold some sort of ritual that would make their collective dream come true.

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• Jackass Genie: His meteorite perverts wishes as his way of punishing the selfishness of the wishers. The adults of Tsukizuki all wished to become children again — he makes them mindless zombie-like children.
• Human Aliens: He seems to be such, with only his tongues giving away his true identity. However, his upon death, a tentacled creature can be seen trying to escape his mouth, suggesting this was just a disguise.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Has several lengthy tentacle-like tongues. They're actually the tentacles of the real Alien Utsugi that lives inside his body.
• Solid Gold Poop: His tongues allow him to vomit out a small green stone that puts one to sleep when consumed. He uses this to ensure the children of Tsukizuki don't see the adults-turned-children frolicking at night.
• Soul Jar: He dies when his meteorite is destroyed, suggesting this to be the case.

Varno

First Appearance: Invader from the Shadows

The guardian of the mythical Mirror of Darkness, a crystal that produces and sends out amoral duplicates to kill and replace people. But when one reflection named Anoru begins living with Goichi and develops feelings for him, Varno steps out from the mirror world to eliminate her.

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• Evil Twin: Varno creates these using the Mirror of Darkness. However, they're less evil more unable to tell apart right from wrong, so Goichi was able to teach one about compassion and give her an understanding of morality.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He and the Mirror of Darkness are destroyed offscreen by Anoru, one of their very own creations.
• Mirror Monster: Exists in the mirror realm and controls a giant reflective crystal that replaces people with mirrored versions of themselves.
• Vader Breath: Makes these as he steps forward from the Mirror of Darkness in search of Anoru and Goichi. His armour and sword add to the effect.

Lilly

First Appearance: Lily and Lili

Played by: Natsumi Yamada

An updated version of Ultra Q's iconic Creepy Child, this Lilly is a little girl whose late father used her as the subject of an experiment to separate the body from the soul with a sensory deprivation tank to achieve enlightenment, creating an evil phantom twin of the girl.

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For the original Lilly, see the Ultra Q character page

• Astral Projection: Like the original, Lilly has this power. A phantom duplicate of her manifests whenever she goes to sleep, causing her to enter into a trance.
• Creepy Child: Her evil twin starts of as merely mischievous and a bit of a kleptomaniac, but like in the original Ultra Q story, she's leading her good twin to be hit by a train in the end.
• Evil Twin: It's the result of Lilly's abusive father using her to perfect the separation of body and mind with sensory deprivation tanks. He had tried it on himself earlier and it ended with him being led off a rooftop to his death.
• Meaningful Name: In this series, Lilly's name is explained as being that named after John C. Lilly, the inventor of the isolation tank which her father obsessed over and tried to perfect in his own twisted way.

Shining Ship

First Appearance: The Shining Ship

A model boat that will supposedly allow one to change their life choices if sailed out to the ocean. It was given as a present by a strange old man to a young unnamed biker and an unemployed fellow named Okada, both of whom sought to make a fresh new start after a recent downturn in their lives.

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Cicada Woman

First Appearance: Gara Q's Revenge

Voiced by: Akiko Nakagawa

An agent of the alien race that had sent out Garagon to attack Earth. She was sent out to carry out the revenge plan, which she did by framing Professor Watarai for various crimes, taking control of Ryo's Gara Q, and sending out a new Garagon to destroy the humans.

While the original Cicada Human in Ultra Q was male, from this appearance onward, all subsequent Cicada People have been female until Ultraman Taiga.

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See Ultra Q

• Avenging the Villain: Her duty was to carry out her people's revenge after the destruction of the first Garagon.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Appears throughout most of the episode as a new tenant in Ryo's apartment complex.
• Forced Sleep: Shoots a beam from her hand that does this to Professor Watarai when she sneaks into his house to take control of Ryo's Gara Q. Watarai's still feeling its effects even after being woken up by government agents.
• Gender Flip: The original Cicada Person was a Cicada Man.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: She gets killed by a bolt from Garagon when Ryo's gara Q turns against her.
• Made of Iron: She got hit on the back of her head with an iron pipe twice by Goichi with no effect!
• Transformation Horror: Her introductory sequence. Imagine seeing a cicada nymph shedding its skin, but instead of an adult cicada, a naked slime-covered woman to step out instead and stabs you with her proboscis...

Komachi (K-7181)

First Appearance: Komachi

Played by: Nao Nagasawa

A beautiful and seemingly perfect young woman (albeit with a clumsy grasp on Japanese) encountered by a humble real estate agent named Wakabayashi, who is instantly smitten with her. However, Wakabayashi is warned by the owner of the noodle shop Komachi works at: "Don't feel inclined [to marry her]. She is no ordinary girl."

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• The Ace: She helps others at any opportunity even when busying herself, knows how to fix nearly anything, aces all challenges, is super fast and strong, etc. The only thing she isn't perfect at is speaking Japanese.
• Meaningful Name: Her name means "town beauty".
• Robotic Reveal: Gets hit by a car, revealing her to be actually an android constructed by a company called ULUZ. This doesn't deter Wakabayashi from marrying her anyways once she's rebuilt.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: She has trouble understanding Wakabayashi's love for her, getting confused by him kissing her and wondering what marriage is.

Kagome Kagome

First Appearance: The Front of the Behind

A website that, according to legend, would bring a mysterious death to anyone who accessed it. As unexplained deaths linked to Kagome Kagome increase, sightings of a golden-haired boy and a woman named Shiori appear. Additionally, the site's name is that of a children's song.

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The Girl in the Camera

First Appearance: Love Through a Lens

Played by: Rumi Hiiragi

An unnamed girl from World War II Japan who keeps appearing in the lens of a specific camera once used by the grandfather of a friend of Ryo named Chuu. Chuu finds he can talk to the girl, and learns two things: the girl mistakes Chuu for his grandfather, and that she and his grandfather were originally going to marry each other.

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Advanced Human Genome

First Appearance: The Quiet End

A malevolent artificial lifeform created by Yumiko Yamase, a researcher at Makotohone Pharmaceutical College, to unlock the mysteries of the human genome and help the pharmaceutical industry develop new medicines.

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Hecate

First Appearance: The Night Fog, This Evening...

The Greek goddess herself, now living in Japan in disguise as the master of a desolate mansion that Ryo is staying at. She and her alien servants plot to destroy humankind, and only Ryo is able to stop them!

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Kanegoneh

First Appearance: Kanegoneh's Shining Road

A female version of Ultra Q's famous money-eating monster. Kanegoneh was once a kind but materialistic girl named Hanae, but was transformed by the spell of magic vase that produces endless money. Not wanting to have to eat money or die, she is told that "if you meet the person who you truly love, you'll turn back into a human".

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For tropes that also apply to the original Kanegon, see the Ultra Q character sheet.

• Gender Flip: The original Kanegon was formerly a boy.

365 Degree World

First Appearance: Alice in the 365 Degree World

A world described by a student of Professor Watarai named Yoshiyasu as a place that allows one to experience and immerse themselves in quantum mechanics in ways scientific lectures cannot. His classmate Sora was skeptical of this until Yoshiyasu brought her into the strange, strange realm to see for herself.

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The Doll

First Appearance: Hitogata

Voiced by: Chisako Hara

An exquisitely made life-sized female doll discovered by a nihilistic philosopher named Kadono in the case of the deceased professor Magara. He takes it in while investigating Magara's death, and soon finds the doll is talking to him in his mind and that he has fallen in love with it.

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• Creepy Doll: And how!

The Dark Ruins

First Appearance: Darkness

A set of ruins that were once the studio of an artist until he and everyone he was close with were murdered as a result of a complex love triangle. The ruins were investigated by a television crew, but they find that the longer they stay in the place, they grow more distrustful of each other and strange phenomenon grows more frequent.

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Rekyum-Man

First Appearance: The Door to Nothingness

An alien who is taking advantage of the newly constructed Tokyo Tower II to transmit a radio wave that drains children and adults alike of their imaginations as part of his nefarious invasion scheme. However, only a lone cartoonist named Sasayama is unaffected by the invader's power. Rekyum-Man also makes cameos in other Ultra Series from time to time as well.

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• Dream Stealer: He steals the dreams and imaginations of humans using a special radio wave, fueling his own power and rendering humans joyless and emotionless.
• Expy: Of Kemur-Man from the original Ultra Q.