The Cursed Monster Legend

The Cursed Monster Legend
Return of Ultraman, episode 3 (unproduced episode)
Information
Airdate	Unproduced
Directed by	Unknown
Written by	Masaru Igami

The Cursed Monster Legend was the unproduced third episode of Return of Ultraman.

Producer Yoji Hashimoto felt that the story conflicted with the series' early direction and how they wanted the early episodes to focus more on Hideki Go and the Sakata family. He thought it could work more midway into the series, but writer Masaru Igami decided on writing something else instead, causing the episode to be shelved. A different episode 3, "Evil Monster Realm of Terror," was made instead.

Plot

Kingsaurus III's skeleton is displayed in a museum and two security guards are talking about it during the night. Later, it is struck by lightning and brought back to life. MAT learns from the museum's director and paleontology expert, Dr. Akane, that the skeleton was uncovered alongside eleven emerald tablets written in the Atlantean language. When deciphered, they reveal that there was kaiju called Kingsaurus living on the continent of Atlantis 350 million years ago, which the ancient people modified to have special powers and follow commands. It also had the power to manipulate life cycles and regenerate from a single bone.

Akane's daughter, Akemi, implores Go to stop her father as he is obsessed with using Kingsaurus III to conquer the world. She is later chased by Kingsaurus III and falls, with her father rushing over to try and control the kaiju using the emerald tablets. However, with Ultraman's help, Go deciphers a twelfth tablet revealing that the Atlanteans had failed to control the kaiju and it had destroyed them all. Akane refuses to listen and is killed by Kingsaurus III.

MAT attacks the kaiju but their attempts are deflected by its barrier. Go becomes Ultraman Jack and eventually defeats it with his Ultra Beam and a freezing beam.

Cast

• Hideki Go : Jiro Dan
• Katsuichiro Kato : Nobuo Tsukamoto
• Takeshi Minami : Shunsuke Ikeda
• Ippei Ueno : Ko Mitsui
• Yuriko Oka : Mika Katsuragi
• Fumio Kishida : Ken Nishida

Guest Actors

• Akane
• Akemi
• Security Guard A
• Security Guard B

Suit Actors

• Ultraman: Eiichi Kikuchi

Appearances

Ultras

• Ultraman Jack

Kaiju

• Kingsaurus III

Trivia

• Hashimoto invited Igami to write for the series due to their prior collaboration on the 1970 drama Guts June. The draft of the episode was completed on February 1, 1971. He later wrote episode 9 and episode 49.
• Kingsaurus III was designed by Noriyoshi Ikeya before the episode was written and was later used in episode 4 "Definite Kill! Comet Kick" instead. While the kaiju no longer comes from Atlantis, both episodes had Kingsaurus III use a barrier of light. Additionally, the original Kingsaurus III could speak human language.
  • The reason why Kingsaurus III kept the "III" in its name depsite it no longer being relevant is unknown. Hashimoto later speculated there may have been plans for a "Kingsaurus I," but noted this was moreso conjecture as he no longer remembered.
• The concept for Kingsaurus III being revived from a skeletal state bears a resemblance to the origins of the skeleton kaiju Stegon, another monster from Return of Ultraman who was similarly revived.