Blue Night's Memory is the twenty-ninth episode of Ultraman Tiga.
Plot[]
Shinjoh has changed since his accident during a test flight, becoming strangely obsessed with the popular pop star Maya Cruz.
Cast[]
- Daigo Madoka : Hiroshi Nagano (V6)
- Rena Yanase : Takami Yoshimoto
- Megumi Iruma : Mio Takaki
- Seiichi Munakata : Akitoshi Otaki
- Masami Horii : Yukio Masuda
- Tetsuo Shinjoh : Shigeki Kagemaru
- Jun Yazumi : Yoichi Furuya
- Mayumi Shinjoh : Kei Ishibashi
Guest Actors[]
- Maya Cruz : Noriko Tanaka
- Manager : Shingo Tajima
- Manager's Subordinate : Shojiro Hatano
- Camper : Shu Takami
- Maya Cruz (Girlhood) : Chihina Oda
Voice Actors[]
Suit Actors[]
- Ultraman Tiga (Multi Type): Shunsuke Gondo
- Alien Natarn : Toshio Miyake
Appearances[]
Ultras[]
Kaiju[]
Home Media[]
- Ultraman Tiga Volume 8 features episodes 29-32.
Trivia[]
- The draft title for this episode was "The Distant Memory of the Night ," which was later changed to the current title.[1]
- In fact, this episode is a fan work written by Keiichi Hasegawa during his early years while working as a set decorator on a television drama series. During his free time, he reimagined the story of Ultraseven in his own style. One common element is the name Maya, which was inspired by Alien Magellan Maya, a character from Ultraseven episode 37, "The Stolen Ultra Eye."
- According to Hasegawa, the original title was "The Distant Memory of the Night," and the content was almost identical to what aired. The main difference was that Shinjoh was originally intended to be the character who transforms, and Maya Cruz was envisioned as his sister.
- Hasegawa compared Maya Cruz to the figure of Princess Kaguya. He imagined that if Maya were to return to the sky, she would transform into Kaguya-hime. What would happen if she ultimately returned there? With this in mind, Hasegawa sought to create a story filled with loneliness, one that could be seen as a "Kaguya-hime who stayed on Earth." In the final scene, as a singer, Maya sings: "I want to return someday, to my distant homeland, back to that far-off night, to the star-filled sky."
- The insert songs in this episode are performed by Hitomi Sudo, a singer from Tsuburaya Productions' artist division. Among them, "Blue Night's Memory" is an adaptation of the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum from 1967, and the opening performance song is a cover of The Ronettes' 1963 song "Be My Baby."
- The production of this episode was extremely tight on time. Although Noriko Tanaka, who played Maya, had singing abilities, the song needed to be recorded before the casting was completed. As a result, the song was ultimately sung by Sudo.
- Regarding the selection of these two songs, Harada explained that Maya's song, "Blue Night's Memory," is a Japanese adaptation of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" titled Aoi Kage . In fact, this song had originally been considered for the 1988 film Kono no Tokimeki wo, in which Haraguchi was involved. "Be My Baby" was also one of the candidate songs at that time. Harada was very fond of these two songs, and when he had the opportunity to create his own work, he decided to use them.[2]
- The music hall where Maya performs in this episode was filmed at a jazz venue called "KENTOS" located in Roppongi. This venue was a place Masaki Harada became acquainted with while serving as the assistant director for the youth film Heartbeat directed by Seiji Izumi.
- In the draft script, Shinjoh appears at the concert venue dressed as a clown. The clown, who distributes balloons among the audience, communicates with Maya telepathically.[2]
- In a segment of this episode, the scene where Maya, standing by the window and facing the starry sky, gradually merges her face with Shinjoh's was a storyboard request from Harada to Kenji Hashizume. The decision to suddenly combine their faces using the indoor lighting as a cue was made by the production team during this phase.
- The draft also included a scene where Mayumi talks to Runa about her lost lover, Takuma, saying, "When Takuma passed away, I completely understood that my brother has always been protecting me." This scene was later deleted due to the length of the episode.
- According to Keiichi Hasegawa, the script for this episode was completed earlier, during the production of episode 22, "A Fog's Coming." However, in this episode, Ultraman Tiga appears less frequently, and Hasegawa initially felt that it might not be suitable for filming. Nevertheless, Masaki Harada expressed interest in the script and was willing to take on the project, ultimately completing it.[3]
- Hasegawa also added that this episode was originally planned as a one-hour story, but it was later shortened to 30 minutes.
- According to Shinichi Ooka, many scenes in this episode involved time-consuming elements, so after many discussions with Harada, they ultimately decided to depict Ultraman Tiga’s battles in the shortest possible time. As a result, the originally planned scenes were completed in just one day. However, the time pressure was considerable, which made the filming process quite challenging.
- Based on Masaki Harada's 2000 Interview:[2]
- At the time, his involvement in Ultraman Tiga was experimental, with the plan to only film one episode. With this in mind, he approached the project with the attitude of "Since this is just a one-off, let's create something I enjoy."
- Additionally, due to the resource-intensive special effects in Ultraman Tiga, the production team requested that Harada select a script with fewer special effects scenes. Harada specifically calculated that Tiga's screen time, from his appearance to his departure, was only 50 seconds, and the special effects portion was completed in a single day. Harada felt that this was somewhat regrettable, so he decided to shoot an additional scene involving a car falling to enhance the visual effects.
References[]