YMMV / Ultraseven

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The Pegassa aliens' lack of response in episode 6 "Dark Zone." Did they not respond to the Ultra Garrison because they couldn't hear the message from Dan? Or they think so low of the humans, that they didn't take Dan's warnings seriously?
  • Was the Pedan pretending to be Dorothy Anderson telling the truth about the Pedans only invading because they mistook a human research rocket as an act of war? Or was it a big lie to earn sympathy from Dan, thus letting him and the Ultra Garrison's guard down. It's also worth noting that the Pedan's were always interested in invading Earth. So if the research rocket story was true, did they use it as an excuse to finally invade or did they think humans were giving the first strike?
  • Beta capsule reviews puts forth the idea that the aliens Bados may be lying about some of their achievements and how mighty they are, especially since despite how powerful they claim they are they seem to have trouble getting through a human force field, get easily cleaned out by the Space Garrison and their leader's less than impressive fight with Ultraseven. It makes sense when you consider they're trying to scare the scientist into giving them the plans so it would make sense for them to overhyped themselves. Considering how decades later ever since Ultraman Geed, subsequent appearances from Bado aliens are as small-time mooks and punks, that sounds logical.
  • How strong, exactly, is Pandon? While the monster was able to pummel Seven to the ground and Reconstructed Pandon can catch the Eye Slugger with its bare hands, Seven was in critical condition at the time and could barely stand up and fight. It's possible that, were the Ghos aliens to have invaded when Seven was still healthy enough to fight, Pandon would have been easily dispatched.
• Angst? What Angst?: The beginning of Episode 49. At the end of Episode 48, it looked like Dan was dying. Turns out, he was sedated and resting.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Alien Cool, the Starter Villain, get his brains sliced off by Ultraseven without putting a fight.
  • Android Zero gets shot in the forehead by the Emerium Ray merely seconds after Dan transformed into Ultraseven. Her boss, Alien Chibull, barely fared any better, getting defeated with similar ease.
  • Alien Quraso burned to a crisp after unintentionally (?) setting one of the Ultra Hawk 1 vessels (Beta?) on fire causing it to crash. Dan barely got out before the crash. Their hand-to-hand fight itself barely lasted a couple of seconds.
• Awesome Ego: Captain Kurata, who seemed to have plenty of guts (no pun intended) to back it up.
• Awesome Music:
  • ULTRA SEVEN, the AWESOME insert theme used in some cases...
  • "Fight! Ultra Seven", also known as "Ultraseven arrives" used as Theme Music Power-Up
  • Part II of "The World's Greatest Invasion" features this classical number during both Dan's farewell to Anne and Seven's rematch with Reconstructed Pandon.
  • "Hand of the Invading Demon" sets the proper mood to introduce the Ultra Garrison in the opening episode.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Ultraseven's appearance in the first episode is not mentioned by any of the Ultra Garrison but they are already calling him Ultraseven by the second episode despite never discussing the giant alien hero.
  • Ultraseven transforming without the need of his Ultra eyes, Ultraseven turning tiny and being shot out of Furahashi's gun to kill Crazygon, Seven vs Windam, this series has more than a few.
• Complete Monster: Robot Chief ("Fourth Planet Android"), from "Nightmare on Planet 4", is the sociopathic, racist, robotic leader of the fourth planet. Long ago he was once part of the robots who were made to do the work on the planet, but when they noticed the inhabitants became lazy, he and the other robots took over the planet and enslaved them, treating them like an object to be disposed of. This happened so much that they needed to get people from another planet as slaves. Choosing Earth, Robot Chief uses remote control to hijack the spacecraft of Dan and Soga and bring them to his world. As he talks to Dan and Soga, he brutally beats his human secretary for making his coffee wrong. As he gives a tour, he shows the filming of the gangster movie where they use real ammunition against the human crew, killing them to make a scene in a movie, and brutally executing those who oppose him. When Dan and Soga escape, Robot Chief takes the assistant and another man who helped them escape to prepare them to be executed and readies his invasion force to attack Earth to collect more slaves.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Captain Kurata, complete with an awesome theme song for him and Kiriyama.
  • Eleking among kaiju, according to an informal survey from Tsuburaya Productions. Second place: Windam. Alien Metron has also become immensely popular.
  • Even though it has never returned in a live-action show, Dinosaur Tank is beloved by the fanbase for, well, being a dinosaur attached to a tank.
  • Dorothy Anderson for her one-time appearance as the first non-Japanese TDF agent.
• Even Better Sequel: As good and as popular as its predecessor is, this show may even be much more popular, even compared to later shows.
• Fair for Its Day: Anne went out in the field, flew the Ultra Hawk 3 (and one time, Ultra Hawk 1) by herself, and shot aliens often, more often than Fuji used to in her own show.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: It's Ultraseven, NOT Ultramanseven.
• Fridge Horror:
  • The Earth is not in such a good shape after Seven leaves for M-78.
  • A bad case of Whatever Happened to the Mouse? and Paranoia Fuel: Aien Pegassa, who was going to blow up the Earth to avenge his people, vanished after a short firefight, never to be seen again. Hopefully he turned good (maybe Pega from Ultraman Geed is his offspring). If not, he could be plotting and scheming out there...
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Robot Commander's plan to repopulate the Fourth Planet with Earthlings to sustain the machines is similar to what the machines did to humans in The Animatrix.
  • The Banned Episodes, as well as the off-screen disasters (i.e. plane crash) caused by unsuspecting smokers in Episode 8.
  • Episode 10 has the Alien Chibull planning to hypnotize children into his army while supplying them with harmless toys that turn into lethal weapons once the mind control took effect. 16 years later in Denkō Chōjin Gridman (a Tokusatsu series also under Tsuburaya), the idea of normal toys becoming dangerous weapons being exhibited at least on two episodes, courtesy of the show's Monster of the week who has the ability to hack and turn electronics to suit their needs.
  • "The Great Ape of Terror" features a human/ape hybrid who's super strong and aggressive, stronger than even Dan. That can be uncomfortable to watch after several incidents of chimps and some monkeys becoming super aggressive and mauling people, including gruesome face injuries.
  • In "Fly to the Mountain of Evil", Dan was temporarily trapped in Alien Wild's camera, after which the UG presumed him dead. Hot-Blooded Soga, who was Dan's closest ally other than Anne^note Yuriko Hishimi missed this episode as well as "The Man from V3", didn't take it well. His Screams Like a Little Girl crying (complete with a mournful martial dirge playing) looks worse in retrospect after actor Shinsuke Achiha's suicide over his work prospects and health.
  • A verse in the opening theme lyrics encourages Seven to "defeat the fire-breathing giant monster". The only foe in the series that fits this description is Pandon, who battled Seven while the latter was dying; the lyrics thus become a plea for Seven to not die against the monster.
  • Dan's look in "The World's Greatest Invasion" due to his weak condition was possibly worse in Ultraman Leo when he used psichokinesis to help Leo fight monsters and aliens. Both times, he was over-exerting himself to fight, so to speak, with no regard for his life or safety.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Alien Guts was the most dangerous foe in this show; in another show, GUTS is the Kaiju fighting force.
  • Alien Wyann liked turning people into plants.
  • Despite Akio Jissoji's misgivings about the scene between Alien Metron and Dan in "The Targeted Town", he shot an even more outrageous scene for Kaito and the original Alien Metron when he directed the Sequel Episode for Ultraman Max.
  • On a meta-level, guess who reused the "Capsule Monsters" as a Working Title 24 years later?
  • Say, isn't the Badass in a Nice Suit human form of Alien Icarus reminiscent of Jugglus Juggler?
  • Android Zero-One was a villainous gynoid in this show; over 50 years later, Kamen Rider Zero-One would also feature androids and gynoids in heroic and villainous roles.
  • The fact that King Joe is a Combining Mecha made out of spaceships that's capable of seperating in the middle of battle in order to dodge attacks becomes hilarious in the face of Getter Robo, due to the eponymous mecha essentially taking the exact same concept that King Joe has but with three spaceships instead of four and even using the same tactic of seperating and recombining to dodge attacks that King Joe does.
  • In spite of his name being Ultraseven, his son's name is Ultraman Zero.
• Macekre: TNT's editing of the Cinar dub.
• Memetic Mutation: See the Franchise page.
• Moe: Anne, when she's not being Badass.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Once the Pedans decided to go back on their promise not to attack Earth and continue their invasion, there was no turning back. Even Dan considered this action as such.
  • The Godolans crossed theirs when they took the crew of the Max for a "space walk".
  • The Guts aliens reached the point of no return when they killed Windam.
  • The Ghos aliens reached theirs when they destroyed all those cities.
• Narm:
  • An awkward moment from the first Seven vs. King Joe fight where for over 30 straight seconds King Joe is on Seven's chest and Seven keeps struggling to get the robot to stop grabbing his head. It goes on far too long with no cut-aways and was likely meant to be showing how unstoppable King Joe is. It's been getting a little more traction in recent years.
  • Don't look too closely, but Gandar is reminiscent of Gary B. Snail on a bad day.
  • In the Cinar dub, Alien Bado becomes Wayne, Lord of the Universe! He'll turn Earth into Wayne's World!
  • From said dub, the Buffins from Abbadon (actually, Alien Guts)
  • From Episode 46, the alien device used to extract Seven's secrets from Dan's brain is called...The Talk Machine!
  • From later in the same episode, the tug-of-war between Seven and his robot knockoff.
  • Near the end of the penultimate episode Dan angrily throws down the Ultra Eye when he is reminded that he might die if he transforms. Pandon has already surrounded several of his friends with fire but then decides to crush them with a boulder. Torn between his life or his friends Dan decides to risk the ultimate sacrifice. Except instead of stooping down and picking up the Ultra Eye he spreads his arms and face plants onto the eye. Standing up then transforms.
  • Furuhashi calling out Dan in "Challenge from Underwater".
• Narm Charm:
  • Seven vs Windam is a really silly fight, but the idea of pitting Seven against his own capsule monsters is still a fun matchup, and provides much-needed Mood Whiplash whilst Furuhashi's on a collision course with a passenger jet.
  • Alien Bado's design walks a fine line between ridiculous and creepy, fitting a Small Name, Big Ego alien conqueror like him. It's also very satisfying to see Seven pummel him to the ground with comical ease after all his grand posturing as a self-proclaimed Space Emperor.
  • On one hand, Dinosaur Tank is a very silly monster concept and feels out of place in this series' more serious storytelling. On the other hand, the sheer awesomeness of a dinosaur attached to a tank is undeniable.
  • While Dan's transformation in the penultimate episode is odd-looking, what with him spreading his arms and face-planting onto the Ultra Eye, it fits the show's recurring motif of using a Crucified Hero Shot to represent Dan as a Messianic Archetype and perfectly symbolises his determination to lay down his life to protect Earth.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Seven's Capsule Monsters (monsters in miniature containers that can be summoned at will) predated Pokeballs by thirty years. Also see Hilarious in Hindsight above.
  • An enemy named Alien Borg (an actual Cyborg) predated Star Trek: The Next Generation by twenty years.
  • "The Dead Invaders" were corpses revived by aliens, like zombies, months before Night of the Living Dead (1968) and years before the Invaders did the same with (sometimes) dead humans in Mirrorman.
• One-Scene Wonder: Seven's boss in the Grand Finale, Dorothy Andersen in "The Ultra Garrison Goes West Part II", Aoki in "Glory for whom?", and Captain Kurata in three episodes, including the Grand Finale.
• Paranoia Fuel: A truck driven by aliens constantly chased the poor old man whom nobody believed in "Searching for Tomorrow". Luckily, Dan and Kiriyama listened...
  • From Episode 8 "The Targeted Town": Smoking doesn't seem glamorous at all, especially after aliens tampered with a particular batch in Japan. People would go postal as a result of the tainted cigarettes, assault others, pass out, and finally forget they ever did any harm. Imagine if aliens could tamper with, say, water...
  • If the narrator is to be believed, aliens could be anywhere...
  • Where did Alien Pegassa go????
  • Alien Chibull's plan was to hypnotize children, turning them into Child Soldiers. Notice how easy it was for aliens to target children to use them against grown-ups.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Hiroshi Minami (Kurata), who went on to play Captain Amada in Mighty Jack.
  • Android Zero-One was played by Yukiko Kobayashi, who also played Kyoko Manabe in Destroy All Monsters.
• Signature Scene: Ultraseven is often remembered for his battle against Eleking in a lake, his sunset duel with Alien Metron and the giant smackdown in Kobe's harbour with King Joe.
• Squick: The Robot Commissioner's chewing sound in "Nightmare on Planet 4" as stated on Most Annoying Sound.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Impostor!Dan from "Come In Max" could have been a saboteur, a mole, or even storm the UG base. Instead, he quickly blows his cover and tries to kidnap Anne before Seven smacked him in the forehead with his Eye Slugger, forcing him to flee.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Is nobody going to comment on how Alien Burako looks like a sentient lump of poop with arms and legs?
  • Petero would be the same way, with its lumpy, blobby appearance suggesting elephant dung. Not helped by the fact it's got some breast-like appendages with circles in their middle, able to spray water.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: In the episode "Super Weapon R-1", it's meant to send a Humans Are the Real Monsters message for the Ultra Garrison making a weapon that can destroy planets. However, it's very hard to blame them up to this point and after when 95% of the aliens introduced in the show have always attempted to destroy or invade the Earth.
  • Earthlings in "Dark Zone" did the right thing and averted disaster for themselves at the expense of the Pegassa aliens. They had no other choice.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Like Dan, we are suppose to feel terrible for the Pegassa aliens when the Ultra Garrison destroyed the Pegassa's space station city to prevent it from crashing into Earth. The problem is that the Pegassa came across as ignorant jerks who not only viewed humans as less intelligent lifeforms, but were perfectly willing to destroy Earth themselves without hesitation to do the same. It's even worse when it's implied that they refused to negotiate with the humans for a 3rd option.
  • Whatever they were, the Nonmalts shouldn't have attacked humans.
• Values Dissonance: “The Targeted Town” notably doesn’t portray any drawbacks to smoking other than aliens tampering with them to induce hysteria. There’s even a vending machine for people to get a pack at a train station.
• Vindicated by History: At the time, Ultraseven was considered a Contested Sequel to Ultraman due to its focus on the science-fiction elements rather than monster-stomping superhero action. It also didn't help around this time the Kaiju boom was dissipating with people becoming less interested in the genre. However the show gain traction with reruns that played with Return of Ultraman, and now Ultraseven is considered one of the all time classics, and is as iconic as the original series itself.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Seven's transformation, several kaiju costumes (like Alien Guts and Eleking) and miniature scenery could have easily gone toe-to-toe with many of the feature-film releases at the time.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: This was a very mature, serious, and violent show, especially for the time.
• The Woobie:
  • Dorothy Anderson
  • Mitsuko Ishiguro and her housekeeper Shizu-San from "The Green Terror"
  • Isamu from "The Brave One"
  • Grace Miyabe from "Project Blue"
  • Sanae (played by Hiroko Sakurai) from "From Another Planet with Love"
  • Amagi has signs of this throughout, like in "The 700 Kilometer Run" and "The World's Greatest Invasion" Part II.
  • Soga in "Fly to the Mountain of Evil"
  • Dan is an Iron Woobie here and in "Ultraman Leo" (in Leo, he's also a Jerkass Woobie)
  • Alien Maya is a Jerkass Woobie
  • Little Hiroshi in "The Eye that Shines in the Darkness"
  • Kaori from "The Devil that dwells in a Flower"
  • Anne a few times, like in "Seven Assassination Plan" and "The World's Greatest Invasion" (her concern for Dan when everything else is going south, especially in the latter)

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