Hanuman vs. 7 Ultraman (released as The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army in Japan) is Tsuburaya Productions' first collaboration with the Thai studio Chaiyo and a curious, if very embarrassing piece of Ultra Series history that debuted in 1974 (but was not released in Japan until 1979 as The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army). This film, plus a handful of other films produced as collaborations between Tsuburaya Productions and Chaiyo are nowadays best known as little more than the prelude to a protracted legal case that began when Chaiyo's figurehead Sompote "Sands" Saengduenchai would try to obtain the franchise through forged legal means, with the case only finally being ended in Tsuburaya Production's favour when the case was brought to the USA on April 18, 2018, thanks to the efforts of the Ninth Circuit District Court.
The plot concerns the sun becoming unusually close to the orbit of the Earth, causing massive heatwaves and drought. In Thailand, Dr. Wisut, a rocket scientist and his crew are devising a way to produce artificial rain through specially equipped rockets. Meanwhile, the children of the country pray for rain near a ruined temple, where three thieves plan attempt to steal the head of a holy statue.
A boy named Koh notices and gives chase, before the robbers violently murder him with three bullets at point blank range to the head. Koh is dead, or so it seems. In the Land of Light, the Ultra Brothers and Mother of Ultra take notice of the injustice and merge the boy with the Hindu deity Hanuman. Hanuman is sent to earth to take revenge on the robbers and correct the sun's distance to the earth.
Although this calamity has been averted, Dr. Wisut successfully launches the first rocket, though a second must be launched in order to complete the operation. It is launched with Wisut's insistence, but reaches a critical level before it can reach the proper altitude, causing a massive catastrophic chain reaction that brings about an earthquake. This in turn releases from the ground five evil monsters; Gomora, Tyrant, Astromons, Dorobon, and Dustpan, who lay waste to the rocket base and battle the air force, which is unsurprisingly vanquished. Hanuman arrives on the scene to fight them and fares pretty well until the monsters gang up on him and Gomora traps him within an energy ball.
It seems Hanuman is defeated, until Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, and Ultraman Taro are sent as reinforcements and free him. The tides turn again, monster after monster defeated by them. Gomora almost gains the upper hand again, but his powers are destroyed by the Ultra Brothers combined energy rays. Hanuman and the Ultras have good fun beating Gomora into the ground in a rather sadistic fashion, until Hanuman finally slices him in half with an energy cutter. With their job on earth done, Hanuman and the Ultra Brothers say farewell and part ways.
The film launched a short series wherein Hanuman would team up with other Henshin Hero brands, including Kamen Rider (Five Riders vs. King Dark) and Super Sentai.
Tropes used:
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese 6 Ultra Brothers cut has Bokura no Urutoraman
, a sharp contrast to the borderline traditional Thai theme song for 7 Ultraman. - Asshole Victim: The three temple robbers suffer brutal deaths at the hands of Hanuman, but since Hanuman was born from a revived Koh after they shot him, the robbers' deaths come off as rather karmic.
- Canon Immigrant: Dustpan is the only monster that appears to not be from the Ultra Series, having originally appeared in another Tsuburaya Productions series, Mirrorman.
- Creator Cameo: Sompote Sands himself appears as a photographer at the rocket base.
- The Face of the Sun: The God of the Sun
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Koh's death and the robbers getting crushed like ketchup packets. The Japanese version and the Thai recut removes the last robber's death.
- Don't forget the monsters. Gomora gets sliced in half, Astromons and Dustpan have their heads and arms cut off, and Dorobon gets his skin ripped off of his body.
- Gratuitous English: Used by Ultraman when thanking Hanuman, alongside Thai and his "native" tongue of Japanese.
- Man Hug: Hanuman to all the Ultramen in the end.
- Mythology Gag: At one point Hanuman enters the shot by flying towards the camera fist-first in a series of staggered zooms, exactly the way the original Ultraman does when summoned.
- Never Trust a Title: Despite what the title claims, at no point does Hanuman fights any of the Ultramen; they're allies through and through.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Gomora. In the original Ultraman, he was just a simple, but formidable dinosaur with no special abilities, but here, he's capable of breathing fire, shooting energy rays from its crests, trapping his opponents in energy balls, flight, and warping reality to cause major cataclysms, such as typhoons and volcanic eruptions, and confuse Ultraman and Hanuman.
- Non-Indicative Title: Despite what the title states, at no point did Hanuman fight any of the Ultras. The Japanese title is by far the better of the two, yet just so happens to omit Hanuman instead!
- Unless one counts the Mother of Ultra, there are really only six Ultramen who team up with Hanuman. The Japanese release averts both of these instances by changing the title to The Six Ultra Brothers Vs The Monster Army.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Sipuak and Sisuliya, who work at the rocket base, are constantly seen goofing off.
- Science Is Bad: Bizarrely for an entry of the Ultra Series, a sci-fi franchise normally known for advocating responsible science development, this film has this as a central theme. Dr. Wisut is criticised for putting his faith in science and technology over religion and ends up releasing the five kaiju when his attempt to launch artificial rain fails horribly, while the characters who put their faith in religion are the ones who fix most of the problems.
- Sociopathic Hero: Hanuman is a bit of a sadist. He toys with the temple robbers before brutally murdering them and what he and the Ultra Brothers do to Gomora can't really be considered heroic at all, seeing as how they all gang up on him and push him around like a gang of schoolyard bullies before killing him.
- Villain Decay: Most of the monsters, due to being downgraded into mooks for Hanuman to tear apart, but the most glaring is probably Tyrant - the monster who defeated five Ultramen without breaking a sweat - getting killed by a random explosion, without Hanuman or the Ultras doing anything.
