Ultraman Dyna: The Return Of Hanejiro is the 2001 Direct to Video Spin-Off of Ultraman Dyna, serving as a Interquel to the series.
Set somewhere during the final arc of the series, Super GUTS managed to track down the bumbling Alien Mijir trio, which twice attempted to conquer Earth, but are now fugitives on the run. However, the arrest is interrupted by the attack of a kaiju, Arwon, and a mysterious woman which seems to be connected with said kaiju. And true to the title, Hanejiro, the friendly, benevolent alien critter from the series made yet another comeback, but ends up in possession of the Mijirs instead of its friends at Super GUTS. Carrying an ominous message, Super GUTS discovers the true villains behind the kaiju invasion and with Hanejiro's help, attempts to stop it.
Relevant tropes to characters in the special are on the series' main characters pages as usual.
Ultraman Dyna: The Return Of Hanejiro provides the following tropes.
- Aliens Among Us: After their initial invasion attempts are thwarted, the Mijirs are reduced to taking refuge among human society while assuming their human disguises.
- Between My Legs: A shot like this is framed in the scene when the Mijirs are arrested by the Super GUTS team, specifically when the fleeing trio bumps into Captain Hibiki.
- Canon Foreigner: The titular character of Tsuburaya’s ‘’Kaiju Booska’’ made an appearance as a restaurant janitor. Audiences are quick to assume that’s just an employee in a mascot costume, but considering how Booska appears in costume 24/7 seems to indicate that is the real deal. Kamosuke from the reboot of the same show appears as well.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The fight between Casa Madara and Shin Asuka. Shin ends up being flung aside like a ragdoll until he decides to just shoot Casa Madara in her arm, leading to a Robotic Reveal.
- When Ultraman Dyna attempts to fight One-Z, the powerful cyborg kaiju is able to shrug off ALL of Dyna's attacks, and No-Sell Dyna's Solgent Ray using its Attack Reflector. Dyna gets encased in One-Z's fossilizing powers in no time.
- Flipped around in the rematch. Casa Madara is destroyed when pudgy Garaon sabotages One-Z from within, and now One-Z is being controlled by the bumbling Mijir Aliens. But in this state the cyborg can barely put up a decent fight before Dyna shoves it into a black hole.
- Eat Me: A variation. One-Z's only weak spot is a small (10cm) hole in its forehead leading to its control panel, which can be sabotaged internally by anything small enough to enter. Naturally, this is where the keychain-sized pudgy Garaon comes in.
- Enemy Mine: The Mijir aliens and Super GUTS are working together to face the greater threat that is One-Z.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: The Alien Mijirs went from being Super GUTS fugitives for their initial attempt to invade planet earth, to allies in overthrowing One-Z, back to enemies when they took over control of One-Z.
- Henshin Hero
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Hanejiro, not only is he dedicated to delivering a warning to the human race of the impending invasion, but also assists in the efforts to revive Ultraman Dyna by delivering the mini-Garaon into One-Z's interior.
- Improvised Lockpick: Hanejiro escapes the cage it’s kept in using a piece of wire it randomly found in it.
- Kaiju
- The Man Behind the Man: The Dehadoh Aliens are the true mastermind behind the kaiju attacks. However, them being The Ghost, their identities are never revealed onscreen.
- Not Me This Time: When the Mijir aliens’ presence are known shortly after Arwon’s first attack, Super GUTS is quick to assume they are behind the monster’s attack and issued an arrest order for the aliens. They deny any involvement about the invasion, and it turns out they’re right.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The reasoning behind the Alien Mijir trio for helping Super GUTS revive Ultraman Dyna.
- Pillar of Light: The standard transportation method used by Casa Madara and Arwon to teleport into and away from whatever fight they’ve gotten into.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The titular Hanejiro, as per always.
- My Little Panzer: The Alien Mijir’s latest, secret weapon turns out to be a duplicate of their robot monster, Garaon… shrunk to keychain-size. It turns out to be not as useless as it seems, as it proves to be essential to sabotage One-Z in the finale to revive Ultraman Dyna.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Alien Mijir trio are treated as a joke throughout the entire film, until the very end when they realize by sabotaging One-Z from within, they are able to relinquish control of the monster to themselves … subverted that they really suck at controlling One-Z anyway, and end up losing the nigh-invincible robot a few moments later.
- Shout-Out: Casa Madara’s fight with Shin Asuka is a homage to The Matrix, which comes out the previous year. From Trinity’s scorpion kick to Neo’s aerial repeated kicks, not to mention her favour of wearing sunglasses at all times.
- Sneeze Cut: Nearly happen to the Alien Mijirs, until an Anti-Sneeze Finger gets into the way.
- Time Stands Still: Casa Madara can freeze the time around her, although it only affects humans and not Ultraman hosts like Shin Asuka.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The film ends with the Mijir aliens being chased away off-screen by Super GUTS.
