A cargo ship has gone missing at sea and the Ultra Guard are sent to investigate this newest disappearance. They report to the Staff Officer Takenaka that witnesses saw what looked like the famous WW2 Battleship Yamato rising from the sea. Furuhashi and Amagi set off underwater in the Hydrangers and find some sort of flying saucer shaped like a starfish.
Meanwhile, the weapons-laden Yamato-like warship Iron Rocks surfaces once more and engages the Ultra Guard in a massive fire fight. Learning that the alien Yamato clone will self-destruct, Ultraseven flies into action.
The script for this episode's preparatory draft is considered one of the longest serialized stories in the series. It includes a mysterious ship disappearance, underwater exploration, a fierce battle with Alien Mimy, a large-scale offensive and defensive war between Iron Rocks and the TDF base, and an aerial battle between the Ultra Guard and Ultraseven. However, due to the complexity of the plot, the final version underwent significant modifications.
In the battle scenes, Captain Kiriyama was depicted piloting Ultra Hawk No.1, firing rocket missiles to successfully destroy Iron Rocks' mast, causing it to lose balance and fall. Iron Rocks attempted to rise again, firing a heat ray that narrowly missed Ultra Hawk No.1, destroying high-rise buildings in the city and engulfing the entire area in flames. The monster then collapsed after letting out a roar. In the final version, Iron Rocks was destroyed by Ultraseven in the ocean.
In both the early draft and final draft, members of the Ultra Guard are captured by Alien Mimy while exploring Iron Rocks. During this time, Anne, longing for Dan's voice, senses the appearance of Ultraseven.
The draft also depicted Ultraseven entering the interior of Iron Rocks to confront Alien Mimy's president. Alien Mimy explained the reasons for their invasion, aiming to exploit Earth's rich, untapped resources buried underwater. Ultraseven declared, "The treasures of this beautiful planet belong to humanity and will not be taken by anyone!" Alien Mimy then threatened, "Ultraseven, you do not understand our power. The TDF's Far East base has only five minutes to live." In the final version, most of this dialogue was omitted, and Alien Mimy never appeared on screen.[1]
According to an interview with producer Ken Kumagai by Yoichi Iwasa:[2]
The "Iron Rocks" featured in this episode was created by Onisuke Akai (pen name Eimei Miyazaki), the third member of the Tsuburaya Production's literary division. Akai, who primarily collaborated with Shozo Uehara on Kaiju Booska, made his official debut in Ultraseven with this work. He expressed a desire to incorporate the battleship Yamato into the plot, reflecting his strong interest in military history. This led to the storyline where aliens recover the sunken Yamato from Kagoshima Bay and use it to attack Earth. Despite initial instructions to avoid ocean-related settings, the concept was realized due to the extended rental agreement for the pool used for filming.
Originally, the plan was to showcase a massive ship, but due to budget and pool space limitations, only the ship's bridge and turrets were featured above the water. This hinted at the existence of a vast battleship beneath the surface, making it difficult for Ultraseven to defeat. There were discussions about having the ship battle Ultraseven either at sea or after landing, but due to budget and technical constraints, the story was changed to a time-limited explosive device plot, where the ship attempts a mutual destruction with Ultraseven.
Akai was particularly pleased with how the Yamato's bridge was depicted. Later, he also actively contributed to the naming and design specifications for mechanical elements in Mighty Jack.
Initially, the concept for Iron Rocks was to combine a battleship into a giant bipedal robot, with plans for Teruo Aragaki and Yoshimi Kato portray it. However, to distinguish it from King Joe's design, the decision was made to transform Iron Rocks into a battleship-shaped prop controlled by performers. To reduce costs, Iron Rocks' model was made by Tsuburaya Production's staff using wood and other materials, and the night-time setting was chosen to avoid detection. Due to budget constraints, the aliens could not be depicted either.[3][4]
Tohl Narita, stated that he was not the creator of Iron Rocks and that the "Yamato battleship" inspired monster was only Yamaton.[5] Yamaton was a creature originally planned to appear in the unproduced script for Ultraman titled Smash the Invasion Base. However, Narita later mentioned in his sketchbook that Iron Rocks was a design he came up with while considering whether to leave Tsuburaya Productions.
In the book "Anne and Yuriko," Narita mentions that the design of Iron Rocks was actually the catalyst for his departure from Ultraseven. According to the book, as the series progressed, the planning team started making strange requests. The next step was an unimaginable one for Narita: they wanted to design the battleship Yamato as a monster. Narita couldn't fathom turning the Yamato into a monster, describing it as "too cartoonish" an idea. He had always viewed tokusatsu and manga as fundamentally different, and debating the matter seemed pointless. Eventually, he reluctantly designed a monster based on the Yamato. However, the demands didn't stop there—they then requested a Dinosaur Tank. At that point, Narita began to feel that this was no longer a place where he could stay for long, which made Narita feel that his aesthetic principles were being undermined.[6]
In a 2013 interview with director Minoru Kawasaki, published in "Ultra The Back," Noriyoshi Ikeya claimed, "Iron Rocks is my design."[7] During a subsequent discussion in "Research Reader," Iketani confirmed that he was responsible for designing the monster turret configuration.
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