Ultraman: Secret of the Miroganda

[Andrew]

A man-eating plant monster menaces the Science Patrol.

Click here to go to the Review

[Xenorama]

i saw three episodes of Ultraman growing up (see what that did!) and this was one of them.  it was after my grandfather's funeral, during the loud Irish wake they were then having.

anyway, it was quite memorable.  it's a cool and unusual monster, that's for sure.

David

[daveblackeye15]

It was a cool monster but I recall the action wasn't that great. Though it's been almost a year since I saw this.

[George]

One thing we must realize is,that when exploring heavily radioactive islands,there's always the dangers of bringing something awful back to civilization.

An expedition to Oedoes Island leads a photographer and scientists to a waterhole and beautiful flower,just as she's taking pictures,she's caught by a man eating plant.

One of the scientists shoots the thing.They take part of back home to study.

One scientist has a growth formula to help with word food sortage,unfortunately the plant is exposed to it,and now can walk around.

Remembering all the scientists and that female reporter,it seeks now to kill them,and slowly begins doing so.

The Science Patrol is called in,and knowing the women is the only one left on the death list,protect her.

This leads to a fight between Arishi and the plant,the rest of the patrol arrives and they shoot the plant with there ray guns,the plant falls into the water,and---.

Thinking it's over,the patrol heads home,after getting there,the Ghidrah phone rings,and they are told the plants been sighted in the city.

Wasting no time they rush to the sight,and what a sight!,a huge 100ft tall killer plant!.It begins to smash buildings,Arishi uses his big ray gun,but this time not much effect,it shoots out a mist that stuns him,while the other lead him away,Hayata uses the beta capsule and once again turns into Ultraman.

The two have a tussle and the plant covers Ultraman,then starts to walk away,just then Ultraman rises up and the just face eachother down.

Between them is a clocktower,as it sounds midnight,the plant smash the clocktown to pieces,then Ultraman fires his m-ray,and wow!,talk about lighting up the night!.

After it's burned,it turns into an ash pile and blows in the wind.

The trouble with half hour monster shows is,you wait to see Ultraman fight the monsters,they take so long with everything else it leaves little time for a really good fight,I guess that's why Ultraman can only be on earth for few minutes before losing his strength,although I read somewhere these Ultraman versions where made for American TV,in Japan,if it took 45mins for Ultraman to defeat his foe,then the show lasted longer than 30mins,if it had to.

Oh the constraints of time here!.

[Xenorama]

well, that's not true about any of these Ultraman episodes, they are the exact same length in both languages.  i've never heard of any Japanese tv show that went over it's allotted amount of time.

David

[George]

Humm David,--perhaps you're right,I forgot the Japanese made 39 Honeymooner,or I mean Ultraman episodes for American consumption,still the fact remains the same,and I don't imagine the Japanese were to found of those 39 episodes.

They took so much time with the other stuff,there wasn't really much time left for a good monster fight,I'm sure other episodes we never seen may of lasted longer or went two parts,like Gahorrah.

Monsters are suppose to be hard to kill,so condensing the show into 30mins doesn't leave much leeway for a good fight,perhaps the best worst example was S.O.S. Oil Disaster,in which Ultraman easily kills the monsters and spends the next few minutes playing fireman.