039: SoraRabbit Spotlight: A Gift From the Sky

Welcome to the first official edition of SoraRabbit Spotlight. Note that this isn’t actually a new feature, just a rebranding. I did two other spotlight posts, both for Ultra Q: “Grow Up! Little Turtle” and “Kanegon’s Cocoon”. However, at the time those were labelled as SoraRabbit Watches. I decided that I would rather save that feature for season or series-long explorations and from now on the deep dive episode posts will be under the SoraRabbit Spotlight label. Got it? Cool. Moving on.

Just like with the previous two deep dives, I want to show you what an episode of Ultraman is like by exploring an atypical episode. I won’t get into the characters or premise, as that was covered in depth in my full Ultraman series post. This will be a plot summary and review. This post is about Ultraman Episode 34: “A Gift From the Sky” featuring Megaton Monster Skydon. While not necessarily as bonkers as the Ultra Q episodes I reviewed, this one is still pretty weird. It certainly takes itself less seriously than the other Ultraman episodes, so it deserves a look for that. Plus a kaiju butthole is a major plot device. Yes, you read that right. You’ll see.

The narrator has a gift for the obvious. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

As the episode opens, Tokyo is experiencing a rare snowfall. (At least Hayata states that it’s rare.) The narrator talks about things falling from the sky and Fuji gushes over how pretty it is.

We have a title! (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The narrator says that now it’s raining and I have to wonder if it’s the same day or was the snow a flashback? Captain Muramatsu calls Fuji, who answers the radio with her mouth full. She has to swallow before she can respond. (My first indication this will be a silly episode.) Cap has decided to have Hayata use their technologically-advanced and likely very expensive company jet to bring him an umbrella so he doesn’t get wet. Hayata drops the umbrella down to Cap as he flies overhead, which seems very dangerous and irresponsible, but whatever. They’re professionals.

This is a terrible use of taxpayer’s money. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The narrator says dangerous things also fall from the sky and we switch to a very odd and out of place scene where Ide witnesses a suicide jump.

Yeah, this episode casually features a suicide. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

It’s dark and never mentioned again, having no lasting impact on the episode or Ide. It’s also not raining, so now I’m sure we’re jumping around. (No pun intended.)

Damn, man. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

And in case you’re wondering, no the man is not saved at the last minute. We see Ide grimly giving a prayer and then wincing upon the sound of the man’s impact. Then the narrator visits the graveyard, lingering on the headstones for a bit before continuing his monologue.

Completely forgetting about the tragic loss of human life we just witnessed, the narrator decides to start talking about a fireball. (Yes, I see now. We’re all just pawns in the narrator’s sick game.)

I wonder if this is gonna be a kaiju? (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The Science Patrol are all awakened by the force of the fireball’s impact, which is a perfect time to mention something I neglected to bring up in my full Ultraman post. They don’t just work in the SSSP HQ, they all actually live there. Together. In fact, Ide and Arashi have bunk beds.

They all sleepily assemble in the control room, Hayata already suited up and ready for action. (I imagine he sleeps in his uniform. That’s how rigid and serious our friend Shin Hayata is.) Here we learn a piece of Ultraman trivia we must forever cherish. Muramatsu, serious and stoic Captain of the Science Patrol, wears jammies in the same design as his uniform. Isn’t that precious?

Aww, I want those jammies. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The fact that he’s wearing his holster over his jammies either means he sleeps with his gun, or that he strapped it on in his haste, forgetting he wasn’t dressed yet. Take your pick, because they’re both great possibilities.

Anyway, they all get dressed for real in between scenes and rush off to the Harumi landfill to investigate the mysterious red fireball.

The Science Patrol is on the scene! (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The team arrives at the landfill and now is as good a time as any to mention one thing I noticed on this episode. I’m not sure if it’s a cameraman issue or the directing, but most everything seems just a little off-center in this episode. (Example above.) It’s a little odd, but not really a serious deal. Just made it kind of hard to get decent screenshots.

Anyway, the crater is huge, so they know it must be something heavy that landed. Something moves in the crater and they heroically run for their lives. This is when we’re treated to our first view of this episode’s kaiju, Skydon.

The dreaded Skydon emerges! (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Like most of the kaiju designs, Skydon is pretty well-crafted, albeit a tad goofy. His skin has a cool leathery texture. I like his dinosaur-esque appearance and spikes. His footfalls are thunderous, showing how heavy he is. He walks over to what looks like a construction site, his feet sinking into the earth with each step. He breathes fire, setting everything ablaze. One of the Jet V-Tols arrives (without bothering to tell us who’s piloting it… I mean they were all just on the ground!) The Jet blasts him, having to dodge fire. It gets a few direct hits, but the blasts don’t seem to affect Skydon.

Skydon gets bored with the fighting and decides to take a nap. They all have to wait around for him to wake up.

They love their jobs. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The narrator lets us know that the kaiju’s name is Skydon and the SSSP is putting together Operation Skydon Attack. (Which is pretty on the nose. but I guess you’ve got to name the operation, right?) Hayata says their only hope is to throw it across the universe using the SSSP’s Operation Wire Lock. (So it’s an operation within an operation now? Okay.)

Morning comes and Skydon awakens, disrupting the peaceful lullaby music with his roar. They use the Jet V-Tols to lure Skydon into their rope snares. They tie ropes around his front legs and tail, each attached to a Jet V-Tol.

Hey, it worked for King Kong. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

I don’t know exactly what the plan was here, unless they were thinking they could drag him all the way into space? We never find out because Skydon is too heavy for even three jets to lift. At first Cap tells them to stop whining, then he agrees and orders them to cut the lines. Hayata’s jet is snagged and Skydon flings him into the ground so that he’ll have a good chance to transform into Ultraman. (When you’re Hayata you have to find any opportunity to get away from the rest of the team and transform. Not that I’m implying he crashed on purpose… but… )

The epic showdown begins! (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Ultraman kicks and hits Skydon, to no effect. He even sits on him, smashing him in the head.

Ultraman doesn’t ride enough kaiju. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

His punches seem to bore the kaiju. They scuffle for a bit longer, with Ultraman trying to flip him over and then trying to drag him by his tail.

Poor Ultraman. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

In a very amusing moment, as Ultraman attempts to pick up the heavy beast, the heroic Ultraman theme song peters out, the notes souring and failing.

Honestly not sure what he was trying to do here. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Skydon lands on top of the fallen Ultraman and the SSSP loses hope. Not even Ultraman can lift him.

Fuji took obviousness training from the narrator. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

The color timer is going off and Ultraman is on the ground, crushed under Skydon’s weight. He struggles out from under the beast and has to fly off to transform back. (Remember if he stays transformed too long, he’ll die.)

Hayata staggers up, stating the Jet V-Tol is damaged beyond repair. Ide suggests they use Operation Autogyro.

What an excellent pla— wait, what? (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Yes, another operation. And yes, it’s better than the last one. Using their last two Jet V-Tols, they drag in an enormous propeller. They shoot anesthetic in Skydon’s nose that only lasts for ten minutes. Then, while he’s drugged up, they put the propeller on him.

I’m sure you can see where this is going. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Yup. They put a giant propeller on a kaiju. They went for it.

Note that they didn’t build this giant propeller specially for this operation. There wasn’t a montage of R&D and manufacturing. Nope… this was something they had on hand. In a warehouse or something. Just for this sort of very specific situation. Ide mentioned Operation Autogyro like it was something they were all fully aware of.

This looks like so much fun. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

It flies off into the distance and the team celebrates back at HQ. At least they celebrate until they feel a huge crash. They realize that the propeller ran out of thrust before reaching the zero gravity zone.

Which brings me to an interesting point… They appear to be fine with letting this living creature float into space to die a painful, freezing death. Our heroes! (Best to not think about it. They’re protecting Earth, after all. Skydon is destructive and dangerous.)

Skydon is back and he’s pissed that they tried to murder him. Fuji suggests using the rocket they used on Gamakujira. (Episode 14: “The Pearl Defense Directive”.) This one is just called Operation Rocket. Arashi is super thrilled by this idea.

Arashi gets excited when he gets to shoot something. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

As they prepare the rocket, Skydon knocks over a bunch of toy cars. They shoot him in the tail, but again he’s too heavy. You’d think they’d notice the pattern. The rocket is unable to lift him and instead makes him dance around as silly music plays and the team runs for their lives.

Because of the odd direction it was hard to get a good shot, but trust me. He’s dancing. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

They all shoot Skydon with anesthetizing shots and he sleeps. Cap comes up with a new plan. The best plan. He orders them to gather as many hydrogen trucks as they can find. This is it. This is… are you ready?

When everything is ready, Cap gives the order, which in my opinion is one of the best lines in the entire series.

They should have named this “Operation Butthole”. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

I know this is an accurate translation because the older version of this episode I own has the line as “Aim for its anus.” Honestly I don’t know which one is better.

The hose connects and the implication is that it’s inserted rectally into poor Skydon. Ide starts pumping that kaiju’s ass full of hydrogen. (Gleefully I may add.) It works and Skydon plumps up with gas, rising up as it sheds the bonds of gravity. Why take my word for it? Here is a montage.

Operation Butthole in its entirety. You’re welcome. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Skydon floats away and the team rejoices.

SUCCESS! (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

They all head home to rest, their mission accomplished. But is it all over? Nope, we still have three minutes left. Jet fighters, having not gotten the memo about the huge balloon kaiju in their airspace, shoot down the Skydon Balloon.

But then… PLOT TWIST. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

This happens while they’re all having dinner. Fuji reports the bad news and Cap chokes on his meal. Hayata runs off, no one following him. Ide tries to calm down Cap as Arashi continues chowing down. Hayata transforms again, first lifting his spoon instead of the Beta Capsule.

Hayata and his spoon. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

As Skydon falls to Earth, trailing hydrogen, Ultraman flies up to meet him, crashing into him with a mighty explosion.

When Ultraman just gets tired of a kaiju’s shit. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

We cut to a scene of the group having a tea ceremony in a park. (Fuji is in a kimono!) Ide gets shit on by a bird and they all laugh. Fuji comments that it’s nearly spring. The narrator comments oddly that hopefully bad things won’t fall from the sky. Why? Because it’s spring and spring makes people’s hearts bright. (I’m thinking something about this sentiment was lost in the translation.) THE END.

Really, what is up with this director? Are we… are we spying on them? (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

And so that was A Gift From the Sky. Weird, huh? It was less odd than the Ultra Q episodes I reviewed but it was still lighter and more comical than most episodes of Ultraman. All in all it was an entertaining little episode.

Truly a noble beast. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Strange blocking aside, the direction was okay. They made good use of music. For instance, with the lullaby cut off by Skydon’s roar. I especially liked the souring of the theme song when Ultraman ran out of energy. After his failure in the battle with Skydon, Ultraman was sort of an afterthought, appearing just in time in the last few minutes to wrap up the battle quickly. (I don’t know about you, but I think an explosion is a much more humane way to go rather than floating out in space forever as a kaijusickle.)

Mainly this was just a fun, plot-driven episode where they had a problem they needed to solve. I appreciated the call-back to the pearl episode and the rocket they used to resolve that. But then there’s that strange, dark interlude where Ide witnesses a suicide. I get that it follows the theme of things falling from the sky, but it’s so odd. Like I said before, it’s out of place in a mostly-comical episode, which makes the moment stand out all the more even though it had zero impact on the plot or the happy-go-lucky Ide. (If any of them were to witness a suicide jump, why Ide? He’s the goofy comic relief character!)

Suicide notwithstanding, this episode was silly, what with the choking on food (which happened three times), the fly-by umbrella dropping, the ballonization, the dancing kaiju with a rocket stuck in his tail, the attempted spoon transformation… but the silliness wasn’t forced or overwhelming. They were clearly just having fun with the premise and they all stayed in character and on task. Also, due to Ultraman’s rare failure, this episode gives a very good example of what I mentioned in the full Ultraman post… the Science Patrol never gives up. When one operation fails, they don’t sulk or lose confidence. They jump right into the next plan, escalating their attempts until they ultimately get results. No matter how bleak the situation, how impossible the odds, how heavy the kaiju… the Science Patrol will persevere. And it’s this sort of dedication and determination that leaves me feeling like the Earth is in good hands, even after Ultraman has departed.

Ultraman is tuckered out. (Credit: Tsuburaya Productions)

Thank you for reading my latest Spotlight post. Hopefully you enjoyed this strange foray into the world of Ultraman. If there are any other episodes you’d like to know more about, let me know. Until then, never let heavy kaiju get you down! Good things fall from the sky too… and sometimes float off to die in space.