Kaito meets a writer and a mysterious woman. But what is a dream, and what is reality?
Plot
A writer falls asleep while working, and writes in his sleep, while at Base Titan, Kaito is sleeping. The Ultra host notices a mysterious room with the writer sleeping in it. Picking up a signal on the monster scanner, he goes to investigate.
Coming to the source, he sees a woman working in clay, building monsters. Then the writer wakes up, he had apparently been dreaming himself as Kaito. He has been having such dreams for days, always with the same woman appearing.
He is the writer for Ultraman Max, but the executives cannot see any characteristic liveliness in the Kaito of his dreams. When he gets back to work, he begins dreaming again. In his dreams, Kaito as himself approaches the woman. He tells her a monster was detected there. She tells him the monster is inside her head.
She then asks him to help her design the monster. An almighty monster, a powerful god to end the story, a Deus Ex Machina. She wants to destroy that world. They imagine a formless monster, which feeds on dreams, growing larger to destroy the world. Madeus takes form.
The writer meets the mysterious woman in "real life," and she tells him of the poem Dream of a Butterfly. Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly, but was the butterfly him, or was he the butterfly? When the writer dreams, he sees the Monster Maker again, bringing Madeus to life. She tells him that in a dream he will become a monster and destroy the real world. He wakes up, only to find he is Kaito in the series Ultraman Max.
Kaito tells Mizuki that he had a strange dream: that he was a television show writer. She compares it to Dream of a Butterfly, Mizuki transforms into the Kaiju Creator, and Kaito wakes up in the room of the screenwriter. He runs out, and into the base. The DASH members are all still as statues, and Elly becomes the woman, She tells him the world is dreamed up by a screenwriter. The screenwriter wakes up with a start. He washes his face, but sees Kaito's in the mirror.
The Screenwriter, as Kaito, sees the woman, who tells him that Kaito and Screenwriter are interchangable in dreams: the philosopher and the butterfly. Madeus arrives. Kaito awakes as a screenwriter, and reads the script for the fictional television series, Ultraman Max. Madeus is written as the destroyer of the world. DASH is defeated as the monster flies around like a butterfly.
Kaito tells the writer by changing the script to transform and fight. He then edits the episode as Max battles, unable to defeat the monster. Madeus easily beats up the Ultra, even firing his own Maxium Cannon back at him. It opens up and swallows Max. Kaito edits the script so that Max is able to blow up the monster from the inside.
Upon awakening, the writer submits the script, which is accepted. He falls asleep, and the monster appears in real life. He is wakened quickly, but upon his awakening, the mysterious kaiju creator walks into the room.....
Ultraman Max TV COMPLETE DVD-BOX features all episodes.
Trivia
"According to an interview published in the September 2005 issue of Figure King, Akio Jissoji described this episode as 'a story about a scriptwriter who isn't good at writing tokusatsu."[1]
The title and storyline are widely believed to be inspired by the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi's fable The Butterfly Dream, in which a man dreams he is a butterfly and, upon waking, wonders: "Did I dream I was a butterfly, or did the butterfly dream it was me?"[2]
In 2021, screenwriter Yuji Kobayashi revealed that his original concept had the protagonist travel back in time to the Tsuburaya Productions set during the filming of Ultraman. However, Jissoji rejected the idea. [3]
Kobayashi then proposed an alternative: a homage to "The Nightly Saucers," tentatively titled "The Nightly Monster" (夜毎の怪獣, よごとのかいじゅう, Yogoto no Kaijū), where monsters would emerge from within a dream world. At that point, Jissoji suggested using Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream as the theme, an idea that ultimately shaped the episode.[3]
This episode blends metafiction with a multiverse-style narrative. Unlike other installments, it takes place in a universe where Ultraman Max exists as a fictional television show. At the same time, characters from the fictional world cross into and influence the real world, blurring the line between fiction and reality.
The conference room scene in Hasunuma's world was shot in the actual conference room at Tsuburaya Productions.
In the episode, Hasunuma's script is titled Ultraman Max episode 39, "Ultra CLIMAX(ウルトラCLIMAX, Urutora CLIMAX)."
Although Yuji Kobayashi doesn't appear in the episode, his presence is implied through dialogue.
Visually, the episode employs a variety of expressive techniques, such as showing paper butterflies dancing in the style of kabuki theater. It also juxtaposes Hasunuma's apartment with the DASH command room, blurring the line between reality and fiction.[1] To create the set for this merged space, art designer Tetsuya Uchida built an apartment interior at the entrance to the DASH command room.[4]
Hasunuma's room is filled with various elements related to the Ultraman Series. These include magazines and books such as Ultra Q, Operation: Mystery, and Eiji Tsuburaya's World of Tokusatsu, as well as soft vinyl figures of Ultraseven, Zetton, Alien Baltan, and Kanegon. The room also features models of Gavadon B and Jamila, both of which appeared in episodes directed by Jissoji himself.
In this episode, Kuniaki Haishima's theme music is completely absent. Instead, the main theme is the children's song "Chouchou," accompanied by piano. Additionally, various everyday sounds are used throughout the scenes, including casino machine noises, train crossing alarms, and the sound of passing trains.
In the episode, the woman refers to Kaito as a "Monster Disposal Specialist," which is actually Ultraman's alias. When naming the monster "Madeus," she references Tetsuo Kinjo and also incorporates the concept of Deus ex machina into the name.
During the filming of this episode, Hikari Mitsushima was praised by Jissoji as being "well-suited to acting." In an interview, she shared that the recognition she received from multiple directors during Ultraman Max inspired her to continue acting and laid the foundation for her future career as a renowned actress.[6][7][8]
Kaoru Sanada, who plays the role of the Woman, was an acquaintance of Chisako Hara and is primarily a stage actress. Reportedly, after receiving only minimal guidance from Akio Jissoji, her performance was left entirely to her own interpretation.[1]
Two versions of the script exist: the early draft and final draft, both published together with "The Untargeted Town."[1]
In the early draft, the monster was named Deus Ex Machina, while the name Madeus first appeared in the final draft.[1]
Although there are no major plot differences between the early and final drafts, the ending, where a mysterious woman appears and takes away the script, was unique to the final version.[1]
As the script developed, the portrayal of the mysterious woman became increasingly refined. In the early draft, she disappears partway through; in the final draft, she remains present until the end, silently watching as Hasunuma is horrified by Madeus's destruction of the city.[1]
In Kobayashi's early draft, Hasunuma was envisioned as a rookie writer who was bullied by more experienced colleagues. However, Jissoji suggested the role would be more compelling if Hasunuma were a veteran scriptwriter, someone like Renji Ishibashi. As a result, the character was reimagined as an experienced writer, and Ishibashi was cast in the role.
Initially, Masami Horiuchi was considered for the role of Akihiro Saeki.[1]
This episode aired in the United States on TOKU on March 13, 2017.
