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Ultraman Leo is the 7th entry in the Ultra Series, airing from 1974 to 1975. It had a much darker theme than the preceding Ultraman Taro, in order to bring back the older fans who had disliked the previous series' childish nature. Unfortunately, this move lost many of the younger fans, leading to the lowest ratings the franchise had yet seen. Tatsumi Nikamoto was the in-suit actor of Ultraman Leo.
Overview
Ultraman Leo comes from the planet L77 of the Leo constellation , and takes the human form of Gen Ohtori. Ultraseven appears to fight a new foe, Alien Magma and his two "pets", the Gillas Brothers. Ultimately, Ultraseven is greatly overpowered and his leg is graphically broken by Black Gillas. Ultraman Leo drives off the foes, but Ultraseven is confined to his human form because of his injuries and due to the Ultraseyen being damaged when he attempted to transform. Dan Moroboshi then maintains his role as Captain of MAC (Monster Attack Crew). Gen is a gymnastics teacher on the side and joins MAC to defend the Earth. Gen and Dan regularly train together, allowing Ultraman Leo to learn many moves in human form.
Plot
Warning: contains major spoilers.
Alien Magma attacks and destroys L77, and Ultraman Leo flees to earth and is trained by Dan Moroboshi. The two face many threats, and eventually the Magma alien is killed by Leo. From then on, as a MAC member, Gen investigates many alien threats and trains children.
Sadly, an even greater evil has its eyes set on earth: Black Star. Black Directive arrives on the planet, summoning his first saucer beast, Silver Bloome. Taking the MAC station by surprise, every character besides Gen, Dan and Tooru is killed. Dan vanishes in the collapsing station.
Gen and Tooru are alone, but are taken in by the Miyama family. Supported by the three women, they continue to battle the threats of the Saucer Race, summoned by Black Directive from Black Star. Eventually only Alien Bunyo and Black End are the only remaining saucers.
Bunyo traps Gen, freezes him, and dismembers him. Tooru and Ayumi find his body and bury it, and Bunyo begins to rampage. Ultraman King, however, resurrects Leo. Bunyo's head is knocked off and he melts.
For some time there is peace, but Black End arrives. Gen is visited by Seven in a dream, and is told he must tell the humans of his identity. He beats Leo down, while Black Directive holds Tooru hostage. Seeing this, Ayumi organises the children Gen taught and leads them in an assault on Black Directive. She bights his hand, and Tooru throws his crystal ball to Leo. Leo destroys Black End as Black Directive melts.
Black Star flies to earth to destroy it, but before the planets can collide Leo charges up an ultra shooting beam and destroys the planet, saving earth. He then bids farewell to the Miyamas and Toory, and goes off to explore the earth.
End.
MAC (Monster Attacking Crew) members
The Monster Attacking Crew (MAC) is one of the most radically different Ultra support teams. As mentioned above, the captain is Dan Moroboshi, who is Ultraseven deprived of his ability to transform. MAC also has a flowing membership. Members get killed off and replaced with frightening rapidity. There were bases in orbit above North and South America, Africa, Northern Europe, and Japan. This is in addition to numerous land-based bases as well.
- Captain Dan Moroboshi (the commander and leader, Ultra Seven)
- Gen Ohtori (Ultraman Leo)
- Ichiro Aoshima
- Akio Kuroda
- Kiyohiko Akaishi
- Junko Shirakawa
- Haruko Momoi
Ultras
Introduced
- Ultraman Leo is the titular Ultraman, coming from the domed L77 in pursuit of Alien Magma
- Ultraman King was introduced in the episode Japan Masterpiece Folklore Series - Ultraman King vs the Magician, stepping in to save Leo from Pressure in episode 26.
- Astra, Leo's brother, appeared to help Leo defeat Garon and Littre in episode 22. He appeared many times after that.
Others
- Ultraseven appeared in the first episode, and was defeated and rendered unable to transform. Throughout the series, until episode forty, he appears as Dan Moroboshi and assists and "trains" Gen.
- Ultraman
- Zoffy
- Ultraman Jack
- Ultraman Ace
- Mother of Ultra appeared briefly towards the end of episode 39.
- Father of Ultra appeared briefly towards the end of episode 39.
Production and series notes
- Ultraman Leo series was noted as the last of the golden age of the Ultra Series. During the 'Oil Shock' which hit world economy in the 1970s, the production of monster-based series became less popular, in addition to more animated series being produced.
- Ultraman Leo got off on a bad start. The previous series, (Ultraman Taro), was extended from 49 to 53 episodes because pre-production of Ultraman Leo was running behind schedule.
- The series was written for more of an adult audience than Ultraman Taro, because Tsuburaya was losing positive ratings from adults due to the child oriented nature of Ultraman Taro.
- The MAC song sings about the MAC Mole and the MAC Shark, but these machines were never used in battle on the series. However the MAC Shark makes an appearance in the opening credits after episode 28.
- Ultraman Leo 1st theme was chosen as Fight Ultraman Leo wasn't ready at the time
- The first singer of Tatakae! Ultraman Leo was actually Masato Shimon as a note to Yuki Hide on how to sing it
Cast
- Ultraman Leo/Gen Otori : Ryu Manatsu
- Dan Moroboshi : Kohji Moritsugu
- Astra : Jun Maruyama
- Ultraman King : Motomu Kiyokawa & Hiroshi Masuoka
- Takeshi Nomura : Yukio Ito
- Black Directive : Takeshi Ōbayashi
- Akio Kuroda : So Kuroda
- Ichiro Aoshima : Yuichi Yanagisawa
- Kiyohiko Akaishi : Kenji Oshima
- Junko Shirakawa : Mieko Mita
- Atsushi Hirayama : Nobuo Hirasawa
- Daisuke Sato : Shigeo Tedzuka
- Haruko Momoi : Kyoko Aradama
- Haruko Matsuki : Tomoko Ai
- Seiji Omura : Yu Fujiki
- Ippei Kajita : Takashi Asakura
- Jun Shirado : Masaharu Matsuzaka
- Momoko Yamaguchi :Kaori Okano
- Kaoru Umeda : Yoshiko Tominaga
- Tooru Umeda : Tsunehiro Arai
- Sakiko Miyama : Masumi Harukawa
- Ayumi Miyama
- Narrator : Tetsuro Sagawa
Suit Actors
- Ultraman Leo : Tatsumi Nikamoto & Kazunori Kawaguchi
- Astra : Mamoru Kusumi
- Ultraman King : Toshiya Oaku
Theme songs
- Ultraman Leo
- Lyrics: Yu Aku
- Composition & Arrangement: Makoto Kawaguchi
- Artist(s): Ryu Manatsu, Lake Boys and Girls Choir (Tokyo records )
- Fight! Ultraman Leo
- Lyrics: Yu Aku
- Composition & Arrangement: Kawaguchi Makoto
- Artist(s): Yuki Hide (credited as Hideyuki), Lake Boys and Girls Choir (Tokyo records)
US Television Premiere
- Honolulu, Hawaii-based on-air broadcaster of Japanese programming, KIKU-TV, the home of the tokusatsu or Kikaida craze of the 1970s, began airing all 51 episodes of the series on Friday, January 3, 2014 at 6:30 PM (Hawaiian Standard Time) in Japanese with English Subtitles.[1] In 1975, an English-dubbed version of Ultra Seven was broadcast on Honolulu's NBC affiliate KHON-TV.
- The series is also now available for streaming on Crunchyroll
DVD Release
Complete DVD Set
2006 release
2011 release
TBA
References
Template:Shows and Films