The End of the Contract is the fourth The Final Chapters episode of Heisei Ultraseven.
Synopsis[]
Kazamori and Shima were patrolling Ryugasaki village, where Shima often visited for fishing on his days off. Along the way, Kazamori encountered an elderly man dressed in old-fashioned attire, while Shima came across a beautiful woman who seemed to be searching for someone. At the same time, an abnormal event occurred where past time flowed into the entire Ryugasaki village area. In Ryugasaki village, there was a slightly different legend of the Dragon Palace, unlike the usual one...
Plot[]
An unnamed young man regained consciousness at the beach, being surprised to see everything “alien” to his surroundings.
UG officers Shima and Kazamori spent their time alongside an old fisherman in the middle of their patrol in Tatsunomiya. Kazamori decided to buy the old man’s fish and had a restaurant serving it. According to the diner’s father and son, the old man arrived at their village about half a year prior and was rumoured to be abducted from his original time by the aliens. Shima discovered a young woman washed on the beach, but she quickly disappeared after letting her out of his sight. Through the mystery woman, Tatsunomiya was transformed into the village that fits the old man’s depiction. The old man revealed to Kazamori that the illusory village was his old hometown before he lost consciousness.
The hallucination lasted for a brief moment, and the townspeople returned to their usual activities. Mizuno compared the eyewitness’ testimonies to the Ryugasaki village in its past. This incident was hypothesized to be the work of tachyon energy gathering in that village and is probably the work of an unidentified life form using its time powers. The mystery woman heard the grieving noise from the sea and rest at the house of Shima’s aunt.
According to the doctor, the old man supposedly died but managed to keep on living despite his age. Another man entered the ward and revealing himself to Dan, knowing his identity as Seven. The man warned him that a similar incident will happen the next day, causing Tatsunomiya to fall apart unless the elder remember his promise. When Dan try to further get the answer, the man disappear and Rumi appeared, giving Kazamori his meal. She compared his report of the old man to the story of Urashima Taro, especially since this town had its version different from the original folktale.
The mystery woman returned to the beach at night where Shima recounted his childhood in his village, playing with his father at the beach each time during summer. He lost his mother to an illness at the age of 9 and had been under his aunt’s care since then. Despite Shima’s father promising to return, he disappeared after that, but the officer had since made peace with his past. The old man escaped the hospital the next day and the mystery girl’s power transform Tatsunomiya into its past form once again. Tatsunomiya begins to enter a time slip as it blend with the past and even the day before. The mystery woman found the old man and asked him why did he opened the shell.
After putting two and two together, Kazamori/Dan realized that the old man is actually the eponymous Urashima Taro. Tatsunomiya’s version of the tale is that Otohime are twin sisters and their version of Tamatebako is a spiked shell which Taro and the older Otohime promised not to open through their pact. The old man also regained his memories, feeling remorse of his actions. The time slip finally stopped. The mystery girl/Otohime reunited with Urashima Taro and the old man that Dan met before turned out to be the turtle that Taro rescued 300 years prior. However, the older Otohime, whom Taro made a pact with, had died by the time he opened the shell, thus the one he faced with was her younger twin. Otohime threw the shell into the ocean and summoned a draconic monster to kill Taro. Dan transformed into Seven and fought the monster, but in the middle of their duel, a familiar voice to Otohime called out Seven for selflessly defending mankind despite their inability to fulfil their promise. Urashima Taro realized that the monster was the older Otohime and presented her the moonflower he promised to deliver. Otohime (older) absorbed the old man and disappeared. Otohime (younger) and the turtle returned to the ocean together.
Exactly what happened with Urashima Taro and the older Otohime was never explained. Whether she forgave Taro and brought him into Ryugujo is also a mystery.
Cast[]
- Dan Moroboshi : Kohji Moritsugu
- Sanshiro Shiragane : Koji Nanjo
- Masaki Kazamori : Katsuyuki Yamazaki
- Keisuke Shima : Kunio Masaoka
- Takuma Mizuno : Wataru Koga
- Satomi Hayakawa : Kaoru Ukawa
- Rumi Honjou : Rieko Adachi
Guest Actors[]
- Taro Urashima :
- Young: Jongho Lee
- Old: Kojiro Kusanagi
- Otohime : Noriko Tanaka
- Kadono : Takashi Itō
- Nishizaki General Hospital Doctor : Shiro Kasuga
- Shopkeeper : Setsuko Kawaguchi
Suit Actors[]
- Ultraseven : Hisataka Kitaoka
- Dairyuhkai : Kotaro Fujimoto
Appearances[]
Ultras[]
Kaiju[]
Home Media[]
Each episode was originally released on a separate DVD. The complete series was later released in a DVD box set titled Ultraseven 1994～2002 Perfect Collection on April 18, 2012.[1][2]
Trivia[]
- This episode is the fourth Ultraman installment inspired by the story of wikipedia:Urashima_Tarō Urashima Taro. Earlier versions appeared in Ultra Q episode 6 ("Grow Up! Little Turtle"), Ultraman Leo episode 28 ("Japanese Folklore Series! - Return of the Captain Mustache!"), and Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars.
- Though both "Grow Up! Little Turtle" and this episode feature a character named "Otohime," they are unrelated despite sharing the same name.
- Kaji does not appear in this episode.
- Screenwriter Ai Ota joined the series after producer Masahiro Tsuburaya invited her. She wanted to explore themes of "time and memory," originally imagining an ocean setting. Ota based the story on the myth of Princess Otohime and Urashima Tarō to express the idea of "connections between worlds," showing one side fighting external threats and the other fading away.
- This was Ota's first hour-long script. She focused more on creative vision than structure, receiving guidance from screenwriter Junki Takegami, who helped integrate faster-than-light particle concepts to enhance the sci-fi elements.
- Assistant director Naoki Ohara described the location scouting for the seaside village as grueling. The team searched from the Miura Peninsula to Chiba, then Fukushima, and even Niigata's dunes and mountains, covering about 6,000 kilometers.[3]
- In The Final Chapters, Kazuo Ootomo of Swara Pro handled sound effects for episodes 1, 2, 3, and 5, while episode 4 and 6's effects were done by Swara Pro's head, Katsumi Ito. At the time, Ootomo was also working on Ultraman Gaia.[4]
References[]