EJ
Hello, and welcome back to the Watch Club! I’m EJ Couloucoundis, editor-in-chief of UltramanConnection.
SL
And I’m Sarah Last, content creator for Ultraman Connection! Boy, EJ, it’s sure been a scorching summer over here already, we need to do something to cool off! Luckily, the next couple episodes have a rather… refreshing theme in common to beat the heat. I’ve been looking forward to them!
EJ
Fun fact, Sarah: I’m actually visiting my folks today, while we write this up! Isn’t that a fun coinki-dink? I sometimes feel just like Furuhashi myself, and on an episode like this? Literally me.
SL
Furuhashi is one of my favorite members of the Ultra Guard, so a focus episode for his character is sure to be a lot of fun, especially with the comedic way this week’s story opens up. The narrator introduces us to the “North” that the episode title refers to -- the cold, wintry backdrop of Hokkaido in northern Japan. Furuhashi is on leave from the team to visit his mother, who is sick.
…Or so he thinks! When he arrives home, he finds out from his sister, Mana, that the whole thing is a ruse to try and convince him to leave the Ultra Guard, and take over running the family farm!
I have brothers myself, and I love the back-and-forth teasing between the two of them here, they feel like an actual brother and sister in this scene. And I can also tell you that my older brother absolutely would’ve left me in the snow to walk back home by myself too, the same that Furuhashi does.
Joking aside, even though Furuhashi is comedically irritated that he’s been tricked, he also admits he’s been having second thoughts about the Ultra Guard, and his place on the team. Considering the ordeals they’ve been through to this point, I don’t blame the guy.
EJ
Furuhashi is one of the backbone elements of the Ultra Guard, but he seems to be the one who, relatively often, ends up with grunt and bodyguard work. It’s kind of surprising that he wasn’t unsatisfied before this. Amagi and Soga get to go and pursue the aliens. Dan is the big hero. Anne is beloved by everybody. What’s there for Furuhashi?
SL
Er, retirement benefits?
EJ
I mean, if we take the specials from the 90s into account, he does end up captain… Is it spoilers if it’s an AU?
SL
I suppose not, but that’s crazy to think about. Captain Furuhashi? Dang, he really made a name for himself.
You can see him regain some of that spark, a drive to prove himself in the next scene in this episode as well. There’s been a mysterious accident, a collision between a TDF fighter jet and a passenger plane, and Captain Kiriyama orders him to investigate the matter. Furuhashi seems eager to jump back into his work… only to be interrupted again with news of his mother! Rather than feigning illness, she’s traveled to the TDF base herself to talk him out of the Ultra Guard once again.
The rest of the team teases him about it, and they all join up to volunteer for the investigation in his stead. Furuhashi insists though, and flies out alone regardless. Seems like he’s more eager for an excuse to avoid talking things out with his overbearing mom, than he is about the investigation itself.
Side note, can I just point out how funny these scenes are? There’s so many little moments, like Dan being excited about beating his team members to answer the phone when it rings, and the banter between all of them in the control room, which cements this team as a group of friends, more than just a collection of professional soldiers.
EJ
The dynamic actually reminds me a lot of the three main characters of Ultra Q. Bunch of deeply talented, slightly quirky folks who are just REALLY good at finding and dealing with alien and Kaiju nonsense. I always assumed that the reason they were rushing to the phone was to see who’s the most popular.
SL
Yeah, none of the teasing in this episode feels mean-spirited or rude, just a bunch of friends goofing around.
The next couple parts are pretty funny too, because Dan and Anne are tasked with keeping Furuhashi’s mom entertained when she arrives. However, things aren’t so light-hearted over in the control room; Furuhashi’s ordinary investigation has quickly turned into a crisis.
EJ
There’s problems up in the frozen north, and Furuhashi’s Ultra Hawk will no longer respond. A malevolent aurora, spewed forth by a lighthouse, has him in its grip. It threatens to force a catastrophic collision between the Ultra Hawk and a similarly-commandeered passenger plane!
SL
Things have gone wrong, but nobody’s panicking yet. With the controls on both aircraft locked on a collision course, Kiriyama quickly comes up with a plan. The Ultra Hawk has a self-destruct mechanism, so all Furuhashi has to do is set a delay on the self-destruct timer, then eject safely out of the Hawk!
And then they discover that the eject lever is also jammed.
And Kiriyama realizes that he has just ordered Furuhashi to his death.
Okay, now everyone is panicking.
EJ
There’s such a heartbreaking moment when Furuhashi gives up trying to force the eject for a bit, and says just one word — “Mom.” Sandayu Dokumamushi puts so much into a single line that he reminds me of his dramatic chops despite being a generally comedic actor. He’s really excellent in this episode.
SL
This is one of my personal favorite episodes in the whole series, and his performance is a huge reason for that. The comedy bits at the beginning get the audience warmed up to the characters and their personalities, and then seeing such good cheer flash-frozen and shattered into tiny fragments with this series of disastrous breakdowns hits harder because of it.
They all have no choice other than to sacrifice the Hawk -- and Furuhashi’s life -- in order to save the 300 lives on the passenger jet. Captain Kiriyama even solemnly states that as the rule which defines the Ultra Guard’s mission, to protect the lives of Earth at any cost. But he does recognize the dear cost that is about to be paid, so he calls for Furuhashi’s mom to come to the control room, and have one final conversation with her son.
I don’t think anyone on the team tells her specifically what has happened, but I always had the sense that she knows something has gone fatally wrong.
EJ
Mother’s intuition. There’s a subtle desperation in her voice, as well as an utterly heartbreaking resignation in Furuhashi’s, as he tries to placate her. There’s an eerie sense of “deathbed confession” to the conversation that gives me chills every time I hear it. Just this sense of heartbreak behind every laugh that both of them deliver. Some of the best performance work in the entire series.
SL
They’re both still joking, but the tone is obviously different from the beginning of the episode. The laughter is forced, and the lighting on Furuhashi, alone in the cockpit, with only his mom’s voice to comfort him in his last moments, is stark and cold.
It’s all heart-wrenching to watch, but never fear, not all hope is lost! Captain Kiriyama had already sent out Dan to assist when they first realized something was going wrong. Luckily, when he arrived at the lighthouse, Dan’s superhuman senses picked up on the jamming signal from the lighthouse and he made an emergency landing before things could get worse.
In fact, things immediately start looking up, because Dan also pulls out a familiar-looking Ultra Capsule to bring back everyone’s favorite funky metal chicken!
Man, how long has it been since we’ve seen any of the Capsule Monsters, let alone Windom?
EJ
Too long. And Windom, despite doing his best, doesn’t exactly have a strong showing, as one light show from that alien-controlled lighthouse brainwashes the poor capsule monster, turning him against Dan and forcing him to transform into Ultraseven, to, uh… smack the sense back into the poor fella. Which he does!
And then the lighthouse fires a beam again that immediately knocks him out. D’oh!
SL
Don’t forget, Furuhashi still only has five minutes before his self-destruct timer goes off! Seven himself doesn’t seem to forget that point, since he immediately springs into action after Windom faceplants into the ice. The aliens who commandeered the lighthouse, “Cannan” also recognize their time is up, and try to escape by launching the lighthouse like a rocket.
How does that work out for them?
EJ
Not well, Sarah! Never turn your back to Ultraseven! One beam and that lighthouse rocket is utterly annihilated, and Furuhashi and the passenger plane have regained control. Furuhashi immediately cancels the self-destruct at the 2-second mark and flies out of the way in a near-miss, and the day is saved.
Which also actually gives me a horrifying realization. The plane passed Furuhashi before the countdown. It wasn’t going to work. Aaaaaaah.
SL
I… I had never noticed that before. You’re right, that IS horrifying.
Good thing it didn’t actually happen and everyone gets a happy ending instead! The passengers on the jet are safe, and Furuhashi finally arrives back at the base. But he finds that his mother has already returned home, and Captain Kiriyama orders him right back out on another mission. It seems like a cold way to end the episode, but after taking a few laps around his home country -- on Captain’s orders! -- he realizes that his mom finally recognizes and respects his decision to fight as a member of the Ultra Guard.
EJ
Next week, we stay cool — dangerously so — as we take a look at Ultraseven Episode 24, “Showdown at 140 Degrees Below Zero!” See you then!
