A volcano erupts, and the area is evacuated. Nobody except one boy knows a monster is hiding in the mountainside. Kaito, a volunteer, accidentally gains a new power, while another threat is discovered. Who is the giant?
Plot[]
At a volcanic mountain in Japan, a young boy named Shota sees a monster in a cave before a sudden eruption occurs, however, nobody believes his reports. Kaito is one of the volunteers helping the evacuees from the area.
Shota brings a camera to obtain a picture of the monster, but Grangon bursts out of the mountainside, terrifying him. While everyone else is being evacuated, Kaito hears of the boy's plight and goes to rescue him in a van.
The UDF sends out DASH to combat Grangon. They engage, but are distracted by seeing Kaito on the ground, who had just managed to rescue Shota. He flees in the van, with Grangon breathing fireballs in pursuit. DASH manages to freeze the monster, breaking it into pieces.
At the DASH base, Professor Yoshinaga explains her theory: that kaiju are humanity's natural enemies, due to their harmful effect on nature. Just then, Lagoras appears. DASH attacks, only to discover that Grangon is still alive, and Lagoras is heading for his location.
The two monsters battle, while Kaito helps people evacuate. In the process, the DASH planes are downed. Mizuki's, hit by Grangon's tail, lands nearby. Kaito takes over, but is soon shot down by Lagoras. He is saved by a Giant of Light and he gave Kaito a transform device and then they merged.
Lagoras and Grangon continue their fight until an Ultra appears. He destroys both kaiju. Later, Kaito is admitted into DASH, and gives a name to the Giant of Light who saved him: Ultraman Max.
Although Shusuke Kaneko served as the pilot director for the series,[2] he was not part of the original planning for Ultraman Max. The early concept was developed by Takeshi Yagi, Yuji Kobayashi, and Kengo Kaji. In December 2004, Yagi met Kaneko at a Directors Guild of Japan meeting and invited him to direct an episode or two, but Kaneko was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts.[3][4]
On February 8, 2005, when Kaneko's schedule opened up, Yagi approached him again, this time offering him the position of main director. Yagi regarded the first two episodes as crucial in setting the tone of the series, but he was unable to direct them himself while also serving as producer. Kaneko officially joined the project on February 10.
Despite budget limitations and location challenges, Kaneko adapted quickly once filming began in March 2005. Drawing inspiration from Ultra Q and Ultraman, he modeled the debut episode after Ultra Q's first episode, "Defeat Gomess!," in that it featured two kaiju, and used the clear, straightforward narrative structure of "Ultra Operation No.1" as a reference for introducing the new series.
The series' opening sequence features the traditional Ultraman silhouette style. The silhouettes were designed by Jiro Kaneko,[6][7] a student of papercut artist Shizue Kaneko.
Because of the short development period, the scripts were something of a patchwork, and much of the first half of the series was filmed simultaneously rather than sequentially. The only consistent throughline was the relationship between Kaito and Mizuki.
In a 2021 interview, Kobayashi recalled that the story for this episode originated with Yagi's proposal. Initially, the plan called for three kaiju instead of two. Yagi explained that the intention was to highlight the kaiju as the true stars of Ultraman Max from the outset. They noted that typically such a setup would be spread across two episodes, but they deliberately chose to resolve it within just one.[8]
This episode was later featured in Ultraman Retsuden episode 15 "Birth of Ultraman Max! Defeat the 2 Monsters!!"
This episode aired in the United States on TOKU on February 27, 2017.
As one of many selected to celebrate the Ultraman Series' 60th anniversary, this episode was made available on the Ultraman YouTube channel from September 3, 2025 for two weeks, following September's theme of "The Story of Trust."[9][10][11]
