Talk about Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress.
The Ultra Series have their share of overkills executed on various kaiju and aliens, and while most of them goes the way of explosions via energy beams, more often than not (especially from the earlier shows before censorship starts cracking down onscreen violence) the monsters would find themselves in at least a couple of pieces.
Showa Era
- The original Ultraman have Red King II suffering both this and Off with His Head! at the same time; besides removing the monster's head (in order to remove the hydrogen bombs and have them detonate a safe distance from earth) Ultraman also cuts it's body crosswise, using twin Ultra Slicers. And much later on, the second Alien Baltan catches another Ultra Slicer in the face, this time halving him lengthwise.
- Ultraseven have the titular Ultra repeatedly doing this with his Eye Slugger, effortlessly halving numerous monsters:
- The second episode alone have Alien Wyann defeated by an Eye Slugger that goes from groin to forehead. As he falls apart, Ultraseven blows up both of Wyann's halves.
- Variant for two different aliens, Kuru and Bira, two Starfish Aliens which are by no means humanoid. Ultraseven managed to slice their heads apart, and since their heads are large enough to take up nearly most of their body Ultraseven's effectively cutting them into halves.
- Alien Spell and Tepeto both gets halved from head to crotch as well, the former having it happening underwater - at which point two half-Tepetos comes floating out of the water's surface.
- Return of Ultraman have Ultraman Jack battling Alien Grotes and slicing it vertically in two via the Ultra Bracelet. There's also Red Killer from a later episode who gets Hoist by His Own Petard the moment Jack managed to grab both of Red Killer's weaponised boomerangs and turns it against him, causing Red Killer's head to fall off - then the body splits vertically for good measure.
- Ultraman Ace, befitting a character with the Fan Nickname of "The Guillotine Prince":
- Alien Metron Jr. gets a Vertical Guillotine that halves him, at which point the audience finds out Metronians bleeds confetti.
- Sabotendar, a giant cactus monster who can curl itself into a ball to execute a Rolling Attack, have his ball form quartered by the "X" Guillotine, and spills ordinary, non-monstrous cactus seeds throughout the city, to the delight of the children.
- The Kappa monster, King Kappa and the Yeti-like kaiju Fubigilara also gets cut lengthwise.
- As does Bad Balloon, a monster who feeds on the souls of children - Ultraman Ace was about to unleash his iconic Metallium Ray on it, only to realize there are souls of numerous children still trapped inside Bad Balloon's stomach, and blowing Bad Balloon apart will destroy them as well. Ultraman Ace got around the issue by launching a horizontal guilltine that removes Bad Balloon's cranium, followed by a vertical one which neatly cuts Bad Balloon into two allowing the children's souls to escape.
- While the titular Ultra of the following series, Ultraman Taro lacks the cutting-based attacks of his predecessors, he still managed to pull this off when fighting Gorgosaurus, a monster capable of teleporting itself - by turning the Taro Bracelet into a missile and blowing Gorgosaurus mid-teleportation. Cue the monster's lower body falling to the ground without an upper.
- Ultraman Leo have a ruthless alien swordsman, Tsuruk, who delights in intimidating Gen Ohtori - Leo's human form - by hunting down Gen's friends and cutting them into half by the waist. In front of the two children, Tooru and Kaoru Umeda. Yikes.
- For the monsters, Ultraman Leo's battle against Kanedoras ends with Leo's Ultra-chop - coating his hands with an energy aura - slicing Kanedoras vertically with his bare hands.
- The☆Ultraman have Ultraman Joneus fighting another Red King, and proving his strength by throwing Red King into the air and releasing the Boomerang Guillotine. Cue two halves of Red King falling.
- Ultraman 80 brought back the Baltanians in live-action form for the first time in nearly a decade (discounting the anime incarnation from The☆Ultraman), and as a neat Call-Back, Ultraman 80 managed to slice one of the Baltanian invaders into two halves vertically after remembering the same trick used by the first Ultraman (inter-cut with Stock Footage from the 1966 show).
Heisei Era
- After a long hiatus, the series finally brought back kaiju bisections (first time in 26 years!) in Ultraman Mebius, a show returning to the Showa continuity from the old days and released in the series' 40th Anniversary.
- Ultraman Mebius vs. the first Kelbeam, ending with Kelbeam being sliced into two diagonally, a first in the series.
- There's also the episode that introduced Zamusha, an all-powerful samurai-like alien swordsman who displays his skill by slicing one of his challengers (an Alien Magma) vertically in two. Said slash also cuts the comet they were duelling on into halves.
- The fast-moving Arigera (pictured above), crossing over with Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress, when it gets Ultraman Mebius' Mebium blade into the face before floating away in two pieces. Who then explodes, just because.
- Alien Serpent from one episode later gets sliced into sizeable chunks by the Mebium Blade with the torso remaining, though non-graphically.
- As does the Solitura, a giant tree whose base holds it's imprisoned victims, while it's upper is it's life source. Cue Mebius slicing Solitura into two horizontally and blowing up the upper via Mebium Shoot.
- The Imperisers, Humongous Mecha monsters which are practically The Juggernaut, with Ultraman Taro returning to give Ultraman Mebius some much-needed assistance by using the Storium Dynamite to explode one of them from above the waist entirely. But despite being reduced to a pair of legs carrying a bit of it's waist, the Imperiser somehow managed to regenerate itself.
- Grozam, one of the Four Heavenly Kings opposing Ultraman Mebius and the episode's guest Ultra, Ultraseven, gets cut diagonally into two by Ultraseven's Eye Slugger. It doesn't last long.
- And for the spinoff, Ultraman Mebius Gaiden, bringing Mebius back with the allegedly dead Zamsher, who made his entrance by slicing another Imperiser attacking Mebius into two from the waist, enough to finish it off.
- Ultraman Zero Gaiden: Killer the Beatstar has a depowered Ultraman Zero fighting a King Joe, and despite his lack of energy, Zero still managed to win by using his twin sluggers as daggers and cutting the King Joe into half by the waist.
New Genration Heroes
- Ultraman Victory, The Lancer to Ultraman Ginga have done this a few times. In the show itself, he cuts an Imperiser, a returning enemy from Ultraman Mebius (who suffered from Villain Decay as a generic Mecha-Mook instead of an unstoppable Mechanical Monster) into three pieces with the Shepherdon Sabre, via a V-Shaped slash. And in Ultra Fight Victory (A Day in the Limelight for Ultraman Victory) he finished off the show's main antagonist, Juda, by halving Juda horizontally with his powerful new weapon, the Knight Timbre.
- Ultraman Ginga S The Movie: Showdown! The 10 Ultra Warriors! brings back all the previous Ultramen, one of them being Ultraman Max who fights an Eteldummy of Alien Sran from his own series, and cutting Sran from head to foot with the Galaxy Sword.
- In the miniseries Ultra Fight Orb Orb attempts to pull this off on Reibatos with the Orb Trinity Halo, successfully slicing Reibatos vertically in two, only to realize in shock that Reibatos' Healing Factor simply rejoins him back.
- Ultraman Orb The Movie: Lend Me the Power of Bonds! has Ultraman Orb finishing off the major villains, Alien Gapiya and his kaiju minion Deavorick, halving both of them vertically, with his Trinitium Giga Slash since they're standing in a straight line.
- Ultraman Geed The Movie: Connect The Wishes!, having Gilvalis the Giant Artificial Brain and his Galactron army as the villains, allows more than one of them to be sliced into halves, mostly done by Jugglus Juggler, Ultraman Orb's Trinity Form, and Ultraman Zero via Twin Sluggers. And Gilvalis' core is defeated by Ultraman Geed slicing it into half with his new weapon, the Giga-Finalizer.
- Ultraman Rosso and Ultraman Blu from Ultraman R/B brought back a returning monster, Neronga, and making it their first onscreen kill scored with the Ruebe Kourin Shot, a gigantic Deadly Disc not unlike the Trinitium Giga Slash. Being an Invisible monster, Neronga was hit in the middle of trying to flee with its invisibility, leading to an impressive shot where its upper body flickers with invisibility for a few seconds while the lower remains unchanged, and then it falls over.
- Ultraman Taiga sees another Alien Gapiya related to the one from Ultraman Orb The Movie: Lend Me the Power of Bonds! (specifically the former's brother) who gets to fight Ultraman Taiga and his allies, Ultraman Titas and Ultraman Fuma. Said alien would go on to receive Ultraman Fuma's light shuriken that halves him vertically, just like his brother.
- Later in the series have Ultraman Taiga fighting a returning monster, Gymaira, and unlocking his Photon-Earth form for the first time, which makes Ultraman Taiga powerful enough to fire an Aurum Strium that cleaves Gymaira vertically in two.
- Ultraman Taiga also fights Zetton, another recurring monster in the franchise, but this time with his Tri-Strium form, complete with his powerful Taiga Tri-Blade which results in Zetton being split into half (notably the first Zetton in the franchise to suffer this fate).
- Ultraman Z:
- Ultraman Z vs. Bullton, the monster who, like in its debut series, is formed from two combined meteorite fragments. Ultraman Z managed to slice this Bullton into two halves, both halves of which then revert into the original fragments.
- A later episode brings back the titular hero of Ultraman Ace, as well as the monster Barabas from Ace's debut show who's giving Ultraman Z a hard time. Cue Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Z unleashing their Combination Attack, the "Space Z" - which bisects Barabas vertically not unlike several other monsters from Ace's debut series.
- Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga have Ultraman Trigger wielding the Zeperion Sword and Glitter Eternity, both of them blade-based weapons, allowing him to slice and dice - and notably bisecting two different monsters, Gargorgon and Deavorick, both of them returning from previous shows, into halves.
- Ultraman Blazar bisects Gebalga vertically with the Tilsonite Sword.
Other
- Shin Ultraman has Ultraman bisect Zarab vertically with his Ultra Slash.
