A sudden earthquake causes a cave-in at a coal mine, trapping Jiro Satsuma, the man whose appearance Ultraseven copied for his human disguise, deep underground. When Dan Moroboshi learns of this, he makes it his personal mission to ensure Jiro is brought to safety. The team digs deeper and deeper to rescue the miner and soon discovers that the earthquake that trapped him may not have been natural.
Plot[]
Several miners work deep underground when bright lights suddenly flash and the walls around them begin to tremble. They quickly evacuate save for one miner, Jiro Satsuma, who rushes back into the mine shaft to recover his pet mouse, Chukichi. Large debris fall from the ceiling, trapping Jiro and Chukichi underground. His fellow miners attempt to rescue him but, fearing another cave-in, report the incident to the Ultra Guard instead.
Captain Kiriyama and his team arrive at the scene, where they are briefed on the current situation. The miners, having dealt with several similar incidents in the past, insist that the flashes of light were not electrical in nature. Though they are unable to confirm Jiro's status, the miners are confident he survived due to his nickname "Miracle Man", which he received after surviving a 200-meter fall straight into the bottom of a valley. Dan Moroboshi silently wonders to himself whether Jiro could be the same man he saved when he first arrived on Earth.
Amagi contacts the team from HQ and notifies them that there was no recorded seismic activity in the area. Jiro, alive but with no way out, formulates a plan to alert people of his location by repeatedly striking a metal pipe. Dan hears the faint clanging from one of the tunnels and notifies Soga. Using his x-ray vision, Dan discovers Jiro's location and confirms his identity as the man he based his appearance after. Resolving to save the miner, Dan volunteers to go in after him.
The Magma Riser is flown in from HQ, and the team use it to tunnel 1,000 meters underground. They burrow into a cave system deep in the volcanic layer of the Earth, and are alerted that the air vent supplying oxygen to Jiro's section of the mine has become blocked, giving them only 30 minutes to rescue him before he suffocates. The team encounters an unnaturally hard material while tunneling and are suddenly trapped by a large metal grate closing them in. Dan uses bombs carried by the Magma Riser to blow a hole in the wall, revealing an entire underground city.
The team lose sight of Dan and search for him in the city, where they are attacked by several human-sized robots. Dan awakens in a chamber strapped to a table, where he is slowly being roasted by a giant heat ray. Realizing his personal items have been removed from his body and placed several feet away, he quickly frees his arm and activates a device in his belt, which summons his Ultra Eye. He transforms into Ultraseven and frees himself before escaping the city. He rescues Jiro just before he suffocates and loads him onto the Magma Riser.
The rest of the team plant bombs around the city before reuniting with Dan, and the group quickly surfaces. The miners cheer for Jiro as he is carried away to receive medical attention. The team remarks on the existence of the underground city before the bombs detonate, completely destroying it.
The narrator praises the heroic actions of the Ultra Guard, but ponders on what the true nature of the city could have been.
This episode was the fifteenth produced after the series officially began. The final draft is the only confirmed script. It is the first episode to show how Ultraseven arrives on Earth and why he adopts the identity of Dan Moroboshi after saving Jiro Satsuma. It also explores why Ultraseven/Dan cares deeply for Earth and feels compelled to protect it.
In an interview with producer Ken Kumagai conducted by Yoichi Iwasa:[1]
Kumagai explained that the story may have originated from a collaboration with a hotel in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture. He was unsure if the coal mine setting was included in the initial story outline, but it was likely inspired by a request from Marusan, a toy store that wanted to feature the Magma Riser in this episode.
Hajime Tsuburaya reportedly said that Ultraseven's motivation to protect Earth needed to be clearer by the time the series reached the end of its second season (episode 26). Tetsuo Kinjo was tasked with addressing this issue. After discussing the story with Shozo Uehara, they developed it so that Ultraseven would come to admire a brave young man, just as Ultraman grew fond of Hayata. These elements shaped the final story.
After filming wrapped up, the production team hosted a banquet at the collaborating hotel in celebration of the first season's completion (episode 13).
The final draft depicted the underground city in detail: "A massive city with towering cylindrical air elevators, conveyor-belt roads, aerial offices, five-tiered roads divided into lanes and sidewalks, and a gleaming artificial sun. Everything was fully automated." The city's inhabitants were robots — essentially robotic underground residents. Some of these details were simplified in the final version.
The underground robots were initially labeled as Models A, B, C, and D in the script. The name "U-Tom" was added later.
In the final draft, Dan activated his transformation with a buckle mechanism. After pressing a button and aiming the buckle at the Ultra Eye, a fine steel wire extended from the buckle. Dan used the wire to flick the Ultra Eye. After a quick spin, the Ultra Eye aligned with Dan's eyes, triggering the transformation. In the final version, the buckle transmitted radio waves, delivering the Ultra Eye to Dan.
In the story, Jiro becomes trapped in a collapsed coal mine while trying to rescue his pet mouse, Chukichi. Ultraseven carries the unconscious Jiro away in the final draft, leaving Chukichi's cage behind. At this point, the fate of Chukichi is not detailed. However, the final draft explicitly states that Chukichi is dead, and Ultraseven takes the cage containing his body after carrying Jiro.[3]
He played two roles in this episode, but he focused more on his performance as Satsuma than as Dan.
Reflecting on the episode, Moritsugu noted a scene in which Dan used a buckle-equipped remote control to attract the Ultra Eye, a feature that appeared only in this episode. If this function had been retained, Dan would not have struggled as much when the Ultra Eye was stolen or dropped.
The episode was filmed at the Hitachi Mine in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture. The mine operated from 1905 to 1980 and extracted copper and pyrite. The site is now a museum and is recognized as one of Japan's modern industrial heritage sites.[5]
The August 2015 issue of SF Magazine, published by TSUBURAYA×HAYAKAWA UNIVERSE, featured a short story titled "Transformation Disorder," set 26 years after the episode. The story is included in the collection Return to Tatara Island: Ultra Monster Anthology and diverges from the original series while showing Ultraseven still fighting on Earth.[6]
A trailer for this episode narrated by Tomokazu Seki was released on March 1, 2023 as part of a series of trailers created to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Ultraseven, that also promoted the episode being made free on TSUBURAYA IMAGINATION for a month.[7][8]
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