Captain Ultra (TV series)
Captain Ultra (キャプテンウルトラ, Kyaputen Urutora) is the titular intergalactic superhero of a pulp-style tokusatsu science fiction space adventure television series titled Space Tokusatsu Series: Captain Ultra (宇宙特撮シリーズ キャプテンウルトラ, Uchū Tokusatsu Shirīzu: Kyaputen Urutora). Produced by Toei Company Ltd., the series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) from April 16 to September 24, 1967, with a total of 24 episodes.
| Captain Ultra | |
|---|---|
| Space Tokusatsu Series: Captain Ultra | |
| Genre | Tokusatsu |
| Written by | Susumu Takaku |
| Directed by | Hajime Sato |
| Starring | Hirohisa Nakata Nenji Kobayashi Jiro Sagawa Yuki Jono Ichiro Izawa |
| Narrated by | Hideo Murota (eps 1-2) Takeshi Kuwabara (eps 3-12) Iemasa Kayumi (eps 14-24) |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Original language | Japanese |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Production companies | Toei Company, TBS |
| Release | |
| Original network | Tokyo Broadcasting System Television |
| Original release | April 16 – September 24, 1967 |
This series is based very loosely on Captain Future, the pulp science fiction saga created by the influential Edmond Hamilton. This was not the only time his work was adapted in Japan: Captain Future was officially adapted into an anime series by Toei Doga in 1978, and that same year, Tsuburaya Productions adapted his Starwolf novels into a tokusatsu sci-fi action series of the same title.
Originally, this series was aired by Tokyo Broadcasting System right after the end of the original Ultraman show to serve as a filler series while Tsuburaya Productions geared up for the production of Ultra Seven. So only 24 episodes of Captain Ultra were ordered by the network. So, the week following the conclusion of Captain Ultra, Ultra Seven premiered on TBS. Still, while short-lived, the series has been released in Japan on all of the major home video formats since the 1980s: VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD. In 2005, a tankōbon volume of the original serialized manga illustrated by Shunji Obata in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1967 was published by Manga Shop.[1]
Captain Ultra is among the more memorable tokusatsu series from the 1960s, and was one of the three cornerstones of Toei's programs of 1967, including Akakage and Giant Robo (better known in the US as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot). Some Japanese fans also compare the looks of Captain Ultra to that of Captain Scarlet, the title hero of Sylvia and Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (which had been shown in Japan around the same time and was very popular).
The series was aired in the Takeda Hour block (sponsored by the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company).
Characters
- Captain Ultra (Hirohisa Nakata) - The hero.
- Huck (Jiro Sagawa) - Captain Ultra's robot companion.
- Joe (Nenji Kobayashi) - Captain Ultra's alien friend from Planet Kikero.
- Akane (Yuki Jono) - Captain Ultra's beautiful space cadet. Has assorted secret agent gadgets.
- Kenji (Shigeru Yasunaka) - Captain Ultra's eager young boy space cadet.
- Professor Munamoto (Ichiro Izawa) - The scientific expert for the heroes.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (Japanese: バンデル星人襲来す) | Hajime Sato | Susumu Takaku | April 16, 1967 |
| 2 | (Japanese: 宇宙ステーション危機一発) | Hajime Sato | Norio Osada | April 23, 1967 |
| 3 | (Japanese: 磁石怪獣ガルバンあらわる) | Akira Kashima | Susumu Takaku | April 30, 1967 |
| 4 | (Japanese: 原始怪獣ブルコングあらわる) | Akira Kashima | Norio Osada | May 7, 1967 |
| 5 | (Japanese: バンデル巨人あらわる!!) | Koichi Takemoto | Susumu Takaku | May 14, 1967 |
| 6 | (Japanese: 怪兵器ゲバードあらわる) | Minoru Yamada | Arashi Ishizu Minoru Yamada | May 21, 1967 |
| 7 | (Japanese: 原始怪獣ブルコングの逆襲) | Minoru Yamada | Norio Osada | May 28, 1967 |
| 8 | (Japanese: 二大怪獣 火星都市にあらわる) | Akira Kashima | Susumu Takaku | June 4, 1967 |
| 9 | (Japanese: 怪生物バンデルエッグあらわる) | Akira Kashima | Yoshitake Suzuki Tsunehisa Ito | June 11, 1967 |
| 10 | (Japanese: スパイロケット ワルダーあらわる!!) | Koichi Takemoto | Masaki Tsuji | June 18, 1967 |
| 11 | (Japanese: 四次元衛星ノズラーあらわる) | Katsuhiko Taguchi | Norio Osada | June 25, 1967 |
| 12 | (Japanese: バンデル星人を撃滅せよ) | Koichi Takemoto | Susumu Takaku | July 2, 1967 |
| 13 | (Japanese: まぼろし怪獣ゴースラーあらわる!!) | Hajime Sato | Koichiro Otsu | July 9, 1967 |
| 14 | (Japanese: 金属人間メタリノームあらわる!!) | Hajime Sato | Yoshi Kai | July 16, 1967 |
| 15 | (Japanese: コメット怪獣ジャイアンあらわる) | Koichi Takemoto | Norio Osada Ikuro Yamazaki | July 23, 1967 |
| 16 | (Japanese: 雷雨怪獣アメゴンあらわる!!) | Katsuhiko Taguchi | Susumu Takaku | July 30, 1967 |
| 17 | (Japanese: 合成怪獣バクトンあらわる!!) | Katsuhiko Taguchi | Toru Iguchi Ikuro Yamazaki | August 6, 1967 |
| 18 | (Japanese: ゆうれい怪獣キュドラあらわる) | Yoshiharu Tomita | Norio Osada | August 13, 1967 |
| 19 | (Japanese: 神話怪獣ウルゴンあらわる!!) | Yoshiharu Tomita | Takeo Kaneko | August 20, 1967 |
| 20 | (Japanese: スペクトル怪獣シャモラーあらわる!!) | Katsuhiko Taguchi | Susumu Takaku | August 27, 1967 |
| 21 | (Japanese: 電波怪物ラジゴン星人あらわる!!) | Katsuhiko Taguchi | Toru Iguchi | September 3, 1967 |
| 22 | (Japanese: 怪獣軍団あらわる!!) | Minoru Yamada | Susumu Takaku | September 10, 1967 |
| 23 | (Japanese: くたばれ怪獣軍団!!) | Minoru Yamada | Susumu Takaku | September 17, 1967 |
| 24 | (Japanese: 行け！キャプテン 宇宙をこえて) | Hajime Sato | Yoshi Kai | September 24, 1967 |
References
- "キャプテンウルトラ" (in Japanese). Manga Shop. Retrieved March 14, 2019.