Members of the Japan Kappa Club headed towards Lake Ishu, where the legendary creature Kappa was rumored to be found. At the same time, Ultra Guard was also heading towards Lake Ishu to investigate an UFO. Takemura, a member of the Japan Kappa Club was killed. The truth turned out to be a race of aliens who had the same appearance of Kappa were lurking in the lake waiting for Earth invation!
This episode was actually the 42nd in the production order. The next episode, "Ambassador of the Nonmalt," was produced earlier.
This episode underwent four revisions. The initial drafts were titled "Large Torrent" (大激流, Dai Gekiryū)[1][2].
In this early storyline, Ultraseven falls into Alien Pandora (パンドラ星人, Pandora Seijin)'s trap and faces the imminent collapse of a dam triggered by Pandora (パンドラ, Pandora). Children playing by the lakeside nearly get caught in the flood, but Ultraseven rescues them in time. The draft also included scenes that highlighted Anne’s feelings for Dan.
The first draft featured Alien Pandora directly threatening Ultraseven by claiming that Pandora could destroy the dam at any moment. Ultraseven was faced with a dilemma: allow the flood to destroy everything in order to save himself or confront the "Blue-White Knight." Ultraseven responded, "Summon the Blue-White Knight, Alien Pandora."
In the second draft, the story still centered on the lake crisis and the destruction of the dam, but the alien Pandora was replaced by the Alien Dikroleis (ディクロレイス星人, Dikuroreisu Seijin), an unusual kappa-like alien with one leg who controlled a space monster. This draft removed the direct dialogue between Ultraseven and the alien and omitted the scene involving children in danger.
Tepeto's original design by the contestant
The Alien Dikroleis design originated from the "Creative Alien Design Contest," which was hosted by Yomiuri Shimbun. The design was based on the gold prize-winning entry by 15-year-old Susumu Nozaki from Nagoya. Noriyoshi Ikeya later revised the concept and turned it into Tepeto, the monster featured in the episode.[3]
In 2010, Susumu Nozaki revisited and redrew his original Alien Dikroleis design for the first time in 42 years.[4]
There were two versions of the finalized script for this episode, both of which were close to the final structure of the episode. This version introduced the concept of the "Japanese Kappa Club," though the story had undergone significant changes from the initial drafts by this point.
In the first finalized draft, Anne loses consciousness when a motorboat carrying her is swept away by a strong current. During the battle with Tepeto, Ultraseven rescues the boat from the rapids and brings it safely to shore. These sequences, along with the earlier dam-break crisis and sudden drop in the lake’s water level, were later removed.
In the second finalized draft, a new scene was added in which Anne wakes up as the boat rocks back and forth. Dan, at the helm, looks back at her, smiles, and winks before moving on. This scene was also cut from the final version.
In an interview with Yoichi Iwasa, producer Ken Kumagai shared details about the creative direction of the episode:[5]
The story was originally intended to lean more toward science fiction, but TBS requested "a stronger eerie atmosphere." In response, the team collaborated with Bunzo Wakatsuki to conceive the concept of kappa as aliens. Inspired by one of the audience-submitted monster designs that resembled a kappa, they redesigned it into a kappa-like bipedal alien.
Kumagai noted that water scenes were often rejected in tokusatsu productions. However, since this episode aired in the summer, the team was allowed to include one or two. The team carefully limited the setting to a mountain lake.
Kumagai introduced guest actor Sakae Umezu, who is a close friend of director Kazuho Mitsuta. Later, Nonagase invited Umezu to appear in an episode of Horror Theater Unbalance.
The location shoot for this episode took place at Mitsui Bridge on Lake Tsukui.[6]
In one of her autobiographies, Yuriko Hishimi wrote that several lines in the tent scene were originally written for Furuhashi but were reassigned to Dan because Sandayu Dokumamushi, Furuhashi‘s actor, had become drunk with Kohji Moritsugu and Bin Furuya at a bar before filming the scene.[7]
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