YMMV / Return of Ultraman

• Awesome Music
  • Wandabada wandabada.... That's just the last part of the tune (M.A.T. Theme). Part I sounds suspenseful, Part II is slow, like a James Bond leitmotif by John Barry, Part III sounds like a Western tune by Ennio Morricone (no wailing vocal, though!), then on to the (much faster) Wandaba part.
  • Episode 34 has this gem.
  • "The Ultraman who Rises at Twilight", an instrumental version of which was the Theme Music Power-Up.
  • The awesome, but ultimately unused opening theme, "Fight, Ultraman!".
• Complete Monster: Alien Nackle ("Assassin Alien") is a sadistic and brutal alien invader. Learning of Jack's human host, Nackle would gleefully have his best friend Ken Sakata run down by a car while Aki, his sister and Goh's girlfriend, is Forced to Watch. Aki herself is then murdered by being dragged behind the same car, all in an attempt to emotionally break Goh. Releasing his monster Black King, Nackle would have the monster restrain Jack while the alien spends several minutes brutally beating the hero unconscious, before parading his battered body around Japan, then back to his home planet to be executed. Nackle then has MAT brainwashed and forced to capture one another, before trying to have them execute Goh when he escapes back to Earth. When finally mortally wounded, Nackle dies laughing in Jack's face that his final weapon will take all of Japan with him. Despite his defeat, his near victory would loom over Earth for the rest of the series by inspiring many other aliens to try their hand.
• Designated Villain: The series is somewhat infamous for having a bunch of monsters basically doing nothing out in the middle of nowhere far from humans but MAT deciding they need to die anyway.
  • Gorbagos was doing basically nothing in a valley minding its own business but MAT decides to go kill it.
  • Ghostron similarly was just minding its own business it's only became a threat because MAT accidentally put a timed bomb into it tail.
  • Zagoras just wanted to go home, his method for leaving Earth was to transform a bit of land where humans were living into a meteorite but Jack could have easily just given him a lift.
  • When MAT finds Kupukupu their instinct is to immediately blow it up because it's from space. It comes back as a giant monster but it's understandable why it's pissed.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Oka. See below.
  • Among the monsters, we have Gudon, Twin Tail, Bemstar, Alien Nackle, and Black King. To a lesser extent, Muruchi, as his episode is considered one of the all-time best of the Ultra Series.
• Fair for Its Day: Even though the show kept her in the background, M.A.T. Team Member Oka was one of the toughest teammates in any Ultra show of the era. How tough? She singlehandedly fought off her Brainwashed and Crazy male counterparts not once but twice in the same episode.
• Growing the Beard: While the show started off pretty good it had poor ratings early on in its life. Some found its attempts at drama to be boring to kids, the early monster having uninspired designs, and the show’s effects lacking. The production took these criticisms to heart by ramping up the spectacle like with the Seagorath two-parter with its amazing weather effects. The episode "Ultraseven Arrives!" with its introduction of the classic monster, Bemstar and the Ultra Bracelet is when the show completely won over its audiences.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Not funny but upbeat to begin with, the Theme Music Power-Up's name becomes sad in retrospect considering Ultraman Jack's defeat (and near death) at the hands of Black King and Alien Knackle happened at twilight.
  • Bemstar swallowing a space station wasn't scary enough back then, until it was retread with Silver Bloome 3 years later, who did the same to the show's entire attack team as a Darker and Edgier entry for the Ultra Series.
    • Here's some Fridge Horror. Whoever decided to stand up the main MAC base in a space station (as opposed to establishing a detachment or small outpost there) DID know that at least one space station had been destroyed by aliens for each of the previous three teams (MAT, TAC, and ZAT). MAT lost two: one to Bemstar, and another to the Nackle aliens. TPC (the higher-ups for these teams) knew the danger inherent in space stations as military bases and yet did nothing to protect their soldiers or come up with alternative plans (i.e subterranean bases like the Ultra Garrison had back in the day). Dan Moroboshi certainly knew the risks; he must have witnessed or have heard first-hand accounts of these alien attacks.
  • Bullied child Rokusuke picked up a MAT gun and joined MAT in shooting Zagoras. If only he hadn't brandished it in front of his teacher and classmates, like some school shooters...
  • Aki almost died in a shopping center collapse in Episode 5. Cue Episode 40 of Ultraman Leo.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Episode 23 features Vacuumon, an infinitely large cloud monster that eats planets. This sounds kinda familiar.
• Iron Woobie: Hideki Goh loses two of his closest friends, suffers a Curb-Stomp Battle and nearly gets executed on the same day (Christmas no less!).
• Memetic Mutation: See the Franchise page.
• Memetic Psychopath: Zoffy gained this status among Chinese-speaking circles after a mistranslated line in the Chinese subtitles had Alien Bat claim that the plan to destroy the Ultra Brothers was devised by Zoffy^note He was meant to say that he planned to eliminate the Ultra Brothers starting with Zoffy. Combined with the misprint from Ultraman that Zoffy was the alien controlling Zetton, this has led the fanbase to joke that Zoffy was secretly Evil All Along and invoking The Scottish Trope by giving him the Fan Nickname of "that lord" (那位大人).
• Narm:
  • The monster Detton's roar isn't exactly intimidating as it sounds like loud snoring.
  • Zetton's revival in the finale is supposed to be an Oh, Crap! and an utterly horrifying moment but the Zetton suits is noticeably worse than his first appearance with its floppy horns and fat appearance making it look like a bunny rabbit. It's made worse when official sources claim this version is supposedly stronger than the original, but his goofy design and poor showing in combat indicate the opposite.
• Narm Charm:
  • The English dub of the first four episodes is either this or utterly unlistenable.
  • Zetton's deteriorated appearance may be shoddy-looking, but it evokes a sense of Came Back Wrong as if Alien Bat was controlling a zombified Zetton, an effect emphasised by the low-pitched groans it makes instead of the usual Pokémon Speak. On the other end of the spectrum, a number of fans like his appearance here for being Ugly Cute.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • It’s hard to overstate how much this series not only changed the Toku genre but Japanese fiction in general. With its blending of sci-fi/fantasy elements and more down to earth drama and its attempt to reflect the real world. The main character, Hideki Goh himself was quite influential with this Hot-Blooded, Everyman personality inspiring many other Japanese heroes. A Westerner watching this show almost 50 years later would probably see it as a regular tokusatsu show.
  • Aki and Ken's death in the Nackle two-parter was seen as extremely shocking back then, that a superhero tokusatsu show would actually kill off significant characters including the love interest in a genre that usually stayed hard in the status quo. but now this happens so often to the point of being criticized as a way to get cheap drama.
  • Ultraman Jack defeating Zetton in the final episode may not seem like a huge deal to modern audiences and millennial fans of the series, considering multiple Ultras post-2000 such as Powered, Max, Mebius, Zero, Orb and several others have defeated Zettons in their respective shows. But remember during the episode's airing, Zetton is a monster reputed to be "undefeatable" for five years, until Ultraman Jack's victory restores faith in the Ultra-heroes.
• Retroactive Recognition: Voice example: Narrator Akira Nagoya is best known as Captain Asahina from Ultraman Taro. In fact, he narrated the last few episodes of that show when regular narrator Tetsuro Sagawa had to record narration for the early episodes of Ultraman Leo, which was running behind schedule. Sagawa returned just in time to narrate the last episode.
  • A more typical example with Shin Kishida aka Toho's Dracula.
  • Jun Negami was a prolific movie actor when he was cast as Captain Hibiki.
• Seasonal Rot: Many fans feel that the series should have ended with the Alien Nackle/Black King two-parter (considered to be among the best episodes of the Ultra Series), as the remaining episodes had lackluster writing and special effects, as well as excessive alien invader storylines.
• Signature Scene: Ultraman Jack vs Bemstar, one of the most iconic battles in the entire show to the point where Bemstar becomes a Breakout Character.
• Special Effects Failure: Usually averted, but there are a few glaring moments.
  • The breathing-holes meant for suit actors of various kaiju can be seen in several costumes, usually in the throat area (where the actor's face and nose would be located), especially on monsters like Kodaigon, Red Killer and Mognezun.
  • When Ultraman Jack lifts Black King into the air, wires can be seen attached to the suit.
  • The iconic scene where Jack performs an "Ultra Hurricane!" and flings Zetton II accidentally gives away the fact that it's filmed inside a studio, where Zetton's shadow gets reflected on the background wall◊.
• Spiritual Predecessor: The episode "The Life That Can't Be Forgiven" is this to Godzilla vs. Biollante, with both stories featuring a planimal kaiju created by science gone wrong, themes of science going too far, and even a battle at Lake Ashi. It certainly helps both works were originally written by the same person, Shinichiro Kobayashi.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The opening theme is essentially Koichi Sugiyama's (yes, that Koichi Sugiyama) version of the original Ultraman theme song.
• Ugly Cute: There are some monsters in the series whose designs have endeared fans so much that it crosses this territory.
  • Bemstar is the most famous contender. Its round pudgy design makes it look like a giant baby chick, not to mention it has one of the cutest roars in the entire ultra series. This makes it easier to forget that its first scene is devouring a space station full of people, killing the MAT captain's friend, widowing his wife and also giving Ultraman Jack one of the hardest fights he ever have.
  • Zetton II also falls under this. While the original Zetton was cool, sleek and eerie-looking with its sharp angles and polished appearance, Zetton II looks rather shoddy due to the suit being lower in quality. However, its chubbier appearance and floppy horns like bunny ears lend it some kind of cuteness.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The main problem with the Terochilus two-parter. The plot involves Goh trying to clear the name of a character named Saburo Matsumoto, who was thought to be responsible for killing a bunch of people on a yacht. The problem is while the real culprit was the monster Terochilus, Saburo was planning on blowing up the yacht anyway because his childhood friend decided to marry someone else besides him and still shows joy when he thinks his ex is dead. The only reason he didn't blow the yacht up was because Terochilus did it first. He comes across more as an Asshole Victim than anything else
• Values Resonance: The episode "Poison Gas Monster Appears!" involves a monster named Mogunezun consuming copious amounts of mustard gas canisters that were dumped illegally by the Imperial Japan military. Kishida, who takes great pride in his family discovers that his father was involved in the experimentation of the mustard gas which shakes him to his very core and eventually becomes obsessed with making up for his family's past by taking out the monster. Considering Japan still has trouble acknowledging the sins there country did in World War II the episode still quite relevant.
• The Woobie: Jiro Sakata. Poor kid...
• WTH, Costuming Department?: One of the biggest criticisms of the series is some of the monster and alien designs not being as great compared to past series. There's are certainly some major winners like Bemstar, Twin Tail, Gudon, Black King and more but also a lot of forgettable or just goofy designs. this is especially true for the final part of the series, where some of the design border on Narm like Alien Varduck, Alien Grotes◊, Alien Messie◊ and Alien Bat.◊ Alien Bat is supposed to be the super-serious final boss of the series by the way, and most would agree that the redesign given to him in Ultraman Saga was very welcomed.

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