Cruel! Light Monster Pris-Ma

Cruel! Light Monster Pris-Ma
Return of Ultraman, episode 35
Information
Airdate	December 3, 1971
Directed by	Eizo Yamagiwa
Written by	Shin Akegawa
Special Effects Directed by	Kazuo Sagawa
Viewer Ratings	20.9%
Continuity
Previous	The Life That Can't Be Forgiven
Next	Kick the Night Away

Cruel! Light Monster Pris-Ma is the thirty-fifth episode of Return of Ultraman.

Plot

Boats and lighthouses were disappearing one by one. Go and Sakata had a feeling of something was coming towards Japan and went to the sea. When it came to the night, monster Pris-ma appeared and revealed its power to be absorbing light! MAT started an operation to lure Pris-ma out and freeze it in absolute zero. However, the time for the operation is limited. It's time for Go to make his desperate attack!

Cast

• Hideki Go : Jiro Dan
• Ryu Ibuki : Jun Negami
• Takeshi Minami : Shunsuke Ikeda
• Ippei Ueno : Ko Mitsui
• Yuriko Oka : Mika Katsuragi
• Fumio Kishida : Ken Nishida
• Ken Sakata : Shin Kishida
• Jiro Sakata : Hideki Kawaguchi
• Narrator : Akira Nagoya

Guest Actors

• Doctor : Kei Iinuma
• Nurse : Midori Tamai
• Foreign Sailor : F. Bossard

Suit Actors

• Ultraman : Eiichi Kikuchi
• Pris-Ma : Takanobu Toya

Appearances

Ultras

• Ultraman Jack

Kaiju

• Pris-Ma

Home Media

• Return of Ultraman Volume 9 features episodes 33-36.

2002 release

2010 release

Trivia

• The script for this episode was written by Ken Sakata's actor, Shin Kishida, under the pen name Shin Akegawa. Kishida was inspired by J.G. Ballard's science fiction novel The Crystal World.
• The battle scene between Ultraman Jack and Pris-Ma was filmed in a large swimming pool. However, due to faulty insulation on the power cables submerged in the water, Eiichi Kikuchi, who played Ultraman, was electrocuted when he entered the pool. His convulsions looked like he was jokingly dancing, which led to him being scolded by the episode's director, Shohei Tojo.
• According to the discussion led by Eizo Yamagiwa, Shigemitsu Taguchi, and Akihiko Iguchi during a seminar in 2017, Yamagiwa stated that while directing this episode, he decided to cut some scenes mentioned in Kishida's original draft. Yamagiwa explained, “From my subjective perspective, if an ice monster emits light, that light will turn into heat, causing the ice to melt.” After providing this reasoning, he approached producer Ken Kumagai and the laboratory at the Laser Research Institute for further discussion, as the light emitted by lasers does not generate heat.
  • Since Pris-Ma remained static in the story, the production team decided to make Pris-Ma move.
  • Yamagiwa added, "I don't particularly recall Kishida having any specific requests in the script. Taguchi mentioned that Kishida was very eager to write the script, to which Yamagiwa replied, 'However, even if I made suggestions, he wouldn't modify it.'"
• In a 2021 interview, Yamagiwa revisited the process through which Kishida submitted the script for this particular episode.
  • Yamagiwa shared that Kishida had written scripts in the past, even while acting in the series. On one occasion, Kishida approached him with a new script and said, "I’ve written another one, please do it." After reviewing it, producer Ken Kumagai remarked, "Well, this one should be directed by Yamagiwa."
  • When Yamagiwa first looked at the script, he found it lacked any theme or message, which left him feeling quite troubled. During the meeting, he made several suggestions, but Kishida's response was essentially, "Please feel free to handle it however you like." As a result, Yamagiwa made a few minor adjustments, but the core structure of the script remained almost identical.
• Pris-Ma's suit actor was Takanobu Toya. However, in the actual filming, he only pushed the Pris-Ma prop from behind. Despite this, he received the same pay as usual, which made him feel quite embarrassed.

• The sparkling light effects used in this episode were later repurposed as the background for the opening animation of Ultraman Ace.