elaby | Warera no Urutoraman!

Thanks to a certain

anonymous_greg, we've had the pleasure of watching a crapton of this 1960's Japanese television series called Ultraman. It's classified as a tokusatsu ("special effects")/sci-fi/kaiju ("monster")/superhero series, which boils down to guys in rubber monster suits crushing balsa-wood sets and setting things rather impressively on fire while a band of trusty human heroes try to stop them, aided by giant almost-invincible otherworldly beings. It's exactly as awesome as it sounds XD

The premise is basically this: In the near-future (1993! Hee!) the Science Patrol fights off giant monsters that menace the populace. Well, I say menace, because the monsters are always shown to be extremely destructive, but "annoy the populace" would probably be closer. I mean, they have to deal with something stepping on their homes/workplace/ski resort several times weekly, and they never seem surprised. Half the time they recognize the monster and call it by name. This is old hat for them! Into this setting comes Ultraman, a giant space guy. I can't exactly remember why he showed up on Earth in the first place; he might've been chasing an escaped monster he was supposed to be transporting to prison. Anyway, his spaceship crashes into the plane of Science Patrol member Hayata, killing him, and Ultraman in atonement joins his body with Hayata's to resurrect him. Thus, Hayata can transform into Ultraman using a ~~sailor senshi make-up pen~~ stick thing called a Beta capsule. Ultraman then defeats the monster du jour, with varying degrees of help from the rest of the Science Patrol. Rinse and repeat for every episode.

At first, the draw of this show was the monster wrestling matches, the rubber costumes, the toy airplanes and model spaceships, and how ridiculously bad they all are. But the reason I'm still watching it after 30-odd episodes is the characters. In spite of their relative one-dimensional-ness, they grow on you like crazy. I'm surprised there isn't more fic (I've done some checking, and I can find hardly anything!) Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places. Anyway, the cast goes like this.

Hayata: The Protagonist. I'm told by Wikipedia that his given name is Shin, but even after 30 episodes I had no idea. Hayata is handsome and brave, but as far as I can tell has little to no sense of humor. Being handsome and brave and sharing his body with Ultraman is pretty much the extent of his personality.

Captain Muramatsu: The Authority Figure. The rest of the Science Patrol calls him "Cap" (Kyappu! XD). Muramatsu is the one in charge, the one with all the experience and responsibility, and he often delegates that responsibility to Hayata (who is, I suppose, the most capable subordinate member). I am very fond of Muramatsu because he smokes a pipe and often plays the part of Concerned Mentor. The crew looks up to him and often seems afraid of disappointing him (okay, maybe that's just Ide), but he never fails to encourage them.

Arashi: The Brash, Impetuous One. Arashi is the munitions/weaponry expert, and likes to shoot things. He gets very cranky if he doesn't get to shoot things. He's normally the first one to say something mean or to tease other characters, but as the only person to call Hoshino by his first name, I think he's got a secret soft spot. He also occasionally says randomly out-of-character things about feeling bad for the monsters, but I think in those cases he's only trying to back get on Ide's good side after a particularly jerkish comment.

Ide: The Goofy One. Ide is the Science Patrol's resident inventor. He's excitable and enthusiastic, and is often something of a bleeding heart. He provides comic relief by frequently making an idiot of himself. Surprisingly, Ide is the character with the most emotional depth: he's the only one who ever questions their indiscriminate killing of the monster du jour, he has a deep mistrust of politicians because of their manipulation of the people, and his self-confidence is easily shaken. He also has the distinction of being, so far, the only character about whose pre-series history we know anything at all. I <3 him like whoa. And I didn't expect to.

Fuji: The Girl. Yes, Fuji is the Science Patrol's token female, and the only grown-up whose given name (Akiko) we ever hear used. I assume she's the communications officer, because she's always the one using the radio (Uhura, anybody?). Fuji doesn't get to do much except be the only woman on the team, but she's very competent and business-like when she does go along on missions. She keeps the others in line. She also likes shiny pretty things, like pearls and diamonds, and often comments on the prettiness of any natural splendor they encounter.

Hoshino: The Kid. Hoshino exists to get in trouble and pester the grown-ups and occasionally save the day with his plucky creativity. He has a penchant for hiding in Science Patrol vehicles so they'll take him along with them on adventures. Later on, he even gets his own Official Science Patrol Orange Jumpsuit. His given name is Isamu, which Arashi calls him once (I can't remember under what circumstances), and for some reason in the English dub they make him Fuji's little brother. I guess it might be because he calls her "onee-san," but I'm pretty sure it's just in the "friendly title for a young woman who is older than you" sort of way, seeing as they don't have the same last name. And anyway, they call Ide "Ito" in the English dub, so it's not like there's no history of inexplicable changes.

This series is full of little hidden delights, the likes of which I'm happy to sift through dozens of mediocre episodes to uncover. And when I say the episodes are mediocre, I don't mean that they're not entertaining - because they are - but once in a while fanpersons such as myself will be thrown a bone, and

caitirin and I will go "Ooh! They're actually addressing such-and-such controversial topic!" or "Whoa, surprise character background cookies!" (the latter has happened exactly once).

Also? Ficplz. I can't find a hint of it, except one mention in a blog somewhere that no one else has been able to find any e_e The characters would lend themselves so well to silly ficcish hi-jinks, not to mention serious ones, and considering the slash fandom's ability to slash, well, everything, I would think these guys would be a given. I incline towards Arashi/Ide myself, as they're buddies and have banter and sleep in the same set of bunk beds. Did I mention that they all share a dorm? *giggles* Well, I don't know if we've seen Muramatsu in the dorm, because his rank might get him his own room, and Fuji would of course bunk with the other (nonexistent) women. But the whole dorm thing just goes to show that they're like a cute little family, and they'd take to fic marvelously. Fuji drags Ide shopping with her in one episode, and makes him carry her packages because he makes fun of her for ooh-ing over jewelry. They all draw straws to see who gets the good assignments - the winning straw has a star drawn on the end - and Hayata, as last straw-drawer, sabotages them by "winning by default" because he in fact didn't put a star on any of the straws. Hey, maybe he does have a sense of humor somewhere in there after all!

I have no Ultraman icons, so Reboot!Spock with a vaguely quizzical expression is going to have to do XD