Sunday, October 29, 2006

Men In Rubber Suits

So my childhood was not just filled with odd Japanese cartoons. It also included some rather bizarre and silly live action imports from the island country as well.

I give you Ultraman...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the special effects were on par with the old Godzilla films. Some poor shlep in a rubber costume sweating his poor behind off. The actor was probably thinking that he wasted all those years at Juilliard only to be prancing around in a silly silver and red costume in the middle of micro-sized models of tanks, cars, and cities. But to a little kid around 6-years-old, the effects looked awesome!

So a little background on rubber-boy here, he originates from Nebula M78, where ever the Hell that is. As Ultraman was taking a monster back to the Monster Graveyard, he collided with a space ship being piloted by Hiyata of the Science Patrol. The crash should have killed Hiyata, but Ultraman fused his life force with Hiyata. From that day forward, Hiyata would be able to become Ultraman with the use of the Beta Capsule...which looked like a fancy flashlight.

Now this stuff was Ultra-cool to a little boy who dreamed of space travel and heroic deeds beyond the stars. I saw nothing strange that the Science Patrol who were Earth's protectors from the invasion of giant monsters drove around in a Chevrolet Corvair. Now there's kick-ass, 1963 high-tech transportation!

All I could imagine was flying about the cosmos driving away all the baddies raining down from the heavens above. Who were the villians? As you can see from the following image, they were just about as believable as Ultraman himself.

Yet another poor soul toiling his way in a rubber costume under hot camera lights. I look at the images and wonder if there was any ventilation at all in these costumes? How many actors gave their lives for this Emmy-caliber drama?

And for all the high cheese content in all these sci-fi adventures, I loved them. Once again why little kids are not allowed to vote. Apparently I was not alone in my love for Ultraman. Here is a list of sequels to the original Ultraman and the years they debuted:
  • Ultra Seven (1967)
  • Return of Ultraman (1971)
  • Ultraman Ace (1972)
  • Ultraman Taro (1973)
  • Ultraman Leo (1974)
  • Ultraman 80 (1980)
  • Ultraman Tiga (1996)
And on and on it went, right up to Ultraman Max in 2005 and Ultraman Mebius in 2006. Geez...who is watching all these episodes?!!! 40 years this franchise has been on the air and it is still going strong. Forget the X-Files, Law and Order, CSI...Japan has spoken and they want guys running around in rubber suits!

posted by LoneCactus @ 6:48 AM Comments: 0