The Green Terror is a pretty under-acknowledged episode with fans of Ultraseven, which isn’t really that hard to see why. The vast quantity of sci-fi elements and huge scale The Invisible Challenger had would’ve likely have led to a lighter feel for its following episode, with the show now free from introductions and being allowed to run wild, so the awkwardness in getting a hard grip on utilising its science fictional writing and pacing is all sort of felt here. While The Green Terror does provide a lot of interesting concepts with alien lore, tension and slasher horror, it doesn’t quite match up to the professional scale of character development and engrossing adventure the show would go on to excel in. But for an early episode, it’s still damn interesting and creative in its own right (if you don’t count a couple of episodes of Ultraman, which it was almost certainly inspired by).
One night, an alien meteorite lands in the front garden of rich businesswoman Mitsoku, whose looking forward to her husband Ishuguro’s return from solitude in the Ultra Garrison’s Space Station V3 tomorrow. After taking little notice of the strange green rock when reunited with her husband, Mitsoku fails to notice how strange he’s been acting and how he’s secretly been hiding another one of these strange objects, which Dan Morboshi identifies as a material not from earth (Chillsonite 808 from Planet YR if you wanna get into the facts). Is this the true Ishuguro who left for space? And do these green objects have something to do with these terrifying plant creatures that come out at night?
If you’ve seen the original Ultraman series, you’d see the immediate resemblance this one has to two of its episodes: Secret Of The Miloganda and Who Goes There? I mean this not just in the sense of a humanoid plant monster murdering people but with the use of a human host disguise, like Keronia, and the slasher vibe from Greenmons. Even Alien Waiell himself looks more-or-less like a faceless combination of the two so The Green Terror’s identity isn’t too big-bang-level original at first, but its intense vampire-style narrative with Waiell’s savage personality and surprisingly articulated plan makes things a little tighter. Not to mention the focus being spread more around the Ultra Garrison and civilian characters’ point of view, rather than the adversary, allowing a more euphemistic tension and unease with the situation’s obscurity
Characterisation-wise, this one is a little weak, mostly centring around Mitsoku, who’s shown to be a stereotypical aloof rich wife, and her maid, who does get a couple of bonus points for being the first to grow wary of Ishuguro’s questionable behaviour but little else. If she stood up and tried to uncover all his secrets, that would’ve been more memorable, but being an early episode and all I guess they had to show off as much Ultra Garrison dirty work as possible for early impressions, though we do get a nice moment of Anne getting into the close-and-personal stuff for the first time when an infected attacks the crew. These can all, however, be seen to build up to the bits with Ishuguro and Waiell, which are greatly crafted. I particularly like scene where Ishuguro transforms into Waiell and escapes through the window and the one where he retransforms due to the simple, yet effective use of wired (or pulled) plant props to portray his morphing process.
The episode’s pretty unseen plot twist adds some nice complication of the Waiell’s character with the real Ishuguro turning out to be stored in the large green rock and his structure and characteristics being fed through a transmitter in the disguised Waiell’s smaller one. This is a key example of clever ingenuity with the show’s writing and lets you see the Waiells in a whole new light as they’re not simple savage beings as they know how to harness technology with a complex tactic of human disguise. Speaking of Alien Waiell, I have mixed feelings on how he goes from a local threat to a world-wide one (like The Invisible Challenger) while I love the idea of a plant race infecting humans and transforming them into more Waiells and rapidly spreading like a virus, it’s not as tense as it could’ve been, due to when ‘Ishuguro’ immediately gets uncovered when Dan finds and destroys the transmitter and everyone magically getting cured when the original Waiell gets killed. But the Waiells are still a pretty interesting hive-mind villain. And with the alien hosting in a normal civilian’s home rather than the defence force’s base (like Keronia did) it sustains a much more vulnerable feeling as you know full well these characters may die, being of no necessity to the show, adding more tension and feeling more like a stand-alone horror flick than a different twist for a typical Ultraman episode.
You even see some desperate nature to Waiell such as when he tries to escape the Ultra Garrison by leaving with Mitsoku, only for Dan to destroy the transmitter and end up desperately trying to suppress himself on a train like a werewolf (not to mention the Incredible Hulk as well, given the whole going-green thing while transforming) leading to a pretty gripping train massacre.
In the effects department, the episode is admittedly underwhelming, mostly due to having almost no computer effects and relying almost completely on the practical ones, which are a bit of a mixed bag, with ones such as the plant props slithering and bunching in Ishuguro’s clothes while he’s reforming being pretty inventive. I particularly love an effect when one of the infected attacks an ambulance driver, making the vehicle veer off a bridge and crashes in flames due to the impressive miniature with a stylish use of pyro-dynamics as well as a clever camera angle to add a civilian’s perspective rather than a typical up-close shot.
However, the scenes such as when Waiell prowls the streets for prey are rather rushed and comes across as looking a little too fake at times. Then there’s his battle with Ultraseven, the first giant battle in the show, and the effort in it is clearly seen, such as the usually nicely-detailed set and when Seven bursts through the mountain. But it’s so immensely short (around half a minute long) that it makes the whole build-up of the Waiell’s deception crumble anticlimactically as Ultraseven destroys the whole threat so effortlessly, but it doesn’t pull the episode too far down and starts a few traditions that would define the show.
The Green Terror is, compared to the rest of the show, rather forgettable and a little confusing in some parts due to some unexplained moments, such as messily explaining Waiell’s plan and how he actually needs to use two separate Chillsonites to disguise himself, not to mention the mysterious postman who delivers the transmitter stone to Mitsoku who never gets seen again. The pacing is rather disjointed and the finale is, while uplifting, pretty rushed with a miniscule final battle. But does that mean I didn’t like it? Certainly not (this is Ultraseven, after all!). The delicious classic slasher horror theme, along with a few Day of the Triffids vibes, is really nicely carved out with a really interesting, eerie nature to the aliens and lets you revel in their beastly savagery while also being curious at just how capable they are with their apocalyptic and resourceful strategies. I still enjoy this one as it takes a dive into the unknown with trying out types of settings for suspense and tension, which is daring but doesn’t escape without a few cuts and bruises, feeling one of the more down-to-earth episodes as a whole. This episode is rather average but if you like cheesy horror, slow-going suspense and monsters with a little more complex nature, I’d say give this one a shot!
74/100
I’ll see you next time for The Secret Of The Lake...