While it is at core, another typical invasion story with little symbolism that lurks around most early episodes of the sci-fi genre, The Lost Hours still hammers in a fittingly unusual (duh) and satisfying identity. While the past four entrees have been rather brash and fast-paced, throwing every sort of extra-terrestrial attack and pyro kinetic explosion in your face while the show uncovers its roots, I’d consider this to be the first to have a carefully constructed tension building completely through the episode’s course. Putting Dan in his first true rock-and-hard place situation and having one of the first inside-job antagonist strategies.
Dr Yushina, a young Ultra Garrison scientist (with 5 bleeding doctorates) is set to travel to Japan’s headquarters to inspect the facilities after doing research in the Antarctic (with a rather cold reception hehe) as well as using his newly-made Yushima Diodes to upgrade the SLD radar. During his flight, however, his jet inexplicably freezes itself and all its passengers in mid-air for a short time. But it’s not like anything catastrophic could happen in a few frozen seconds, say Yushina getting a mind-controlling alien heart implanted in his brain? Unless perhaps there’s a particularly cunning alien that can manipulate time to his will?
I tend to think of this episode as a tighter, more focused take on The Green Terror with a little less chlorophyll, given the reintroduced Body Snatcher motive being handled so much better, seeing the alien give commands to his host adds a very deceiving layer to this being, although adds a little predictability to the story.
When we first see the Bira alien, we also first see the entranced Yushina, who adopts a delightfully eerie expressionless, almost Auton-like character when under control. The stingray-like (no I simply refuse to relate him to a facehugger) Bira’s entrance is equally as intriguing as he inexplicably shows himself through Yushimiya’s TV screen with the enshrouding eerie green light and mist and entrancing music capturing that surrealism just right. The hand-wringing, or rather uh….tail-flipping, alien’s plan to invade the planet involves using him to sabotage The Ultra Garrison’s radar by rigging his diodes and then dismantling the Ultra Hawk jets. With nothing to detect or fight back against any incoming threats, the men in grey would be helpless against the incoming invasion. This is part of what sells Ultraseven to me, it has aliens that are designed so primitively and surreally, but they continue to surprise with their intricate and cunning methods to success.
Dan grows wary almost immediately of Yushina’s behaviour and even catches his possessor red-handed giving him orders using his advanced vision, but here’s where the chain pulls back: he
can find no credible way to raise everyone’s alarm without uncovering his own identity. Bira then plays a round of joyously intense mind games with Dan, carefully spreading witnesses to debunk any possible accusations he makes using his non-human senses and ruthlessly accuses him of being the infiltrator by having him deploy the tainted diodes. This amusing satire of human limitations the alien suppresses on Dan lures out an essence of savagery and recklessness you’d never have thought he had below his assertive, collected persona, going as far as assaulting and drawing his gun on Yushina in front of his comrades while he desperately mentally switches between concealing his identity and killing the threat.
One of the more infamous scenes of the show occurs when his own comrades lock him up in a cell after his questionable display, not only pulling his last hope but making him suffer the ultimate humiliation from having his own friends go against him before the final blow! But this, even more so than your usual episode, ends anticlimactically as he switches into Seven to break the bars and stop Yushina destroying the Hawks with ease, making Bira’s whole invasion rather pointless.
On the other hand, this one moment got me thinking about the true resemblance of the Ultra Eye. It was intended by the writers as a last resort when all hope was lost and given how many panic-inducing situations Seven has resolved with a few flicks of a finger, it’s almost as if its to demonstrate how scarily unequipped and delusional humanity is even in the technologically-advanced future, provided how easily they would’ve been crushed or even destroyed themselves with such disguised enemies, unpredictable firepower and obscure strategies. Ultraseven is a sort of metaphor of military perfection for the ideal retaliation against a spectrum of threats and given how largely the Ultra Garrison lack in perception and resourcefulness, it’s interesting to think of what they’d be without him. But seeing how the Garrison increasingly win by their own and even save Seven on one occasion, he proves to also be a figure of hope and determination to strive better, with this episode even adding a little nudge of national pride (with Japan’s morality still needing some boosting and inspiration here and there after WW2) with Yushina claiming he heard ‘The Japanese base puts the rest of the world’s to shame!’ demonstrating the show’s secondary purpose to inspire future generations with pride for their carefully succeeding country. Seven is the one to reel in the crowds with his admirable feats of justice and ethicality, the Ultra Garrison is there to exploit them with humanity’s independence and overcoming of challenges.
Back to the episode though, I have to say I particularly admire the miniature set for the finale, with an insanely detailed display of traditional Japanese shrines and gardens conjuring a nice cultural feel. The other thing I love about the finale is, of course, Bira himself. The idea of abandoning the concept of a suit actor and simply using a stringed prop sounds dodgy, I mean take a look at Alien Kuruu, but this one shatters all doubt, not only having an authentically unique and detailed crustacean design but also being impressively brought to life, take for instance when he uses his sting charge. That aside, the finale isn’t that memorable, due to mostly focusing on a horribly average jet duel with the Bira ships that doesn’t really balance out. Come to think of it, isn’t it odd how a lot of Ultra aliens claim to be in a collection and yet it’s usually just one that arrives to challenge the hero?
I’d say, overall, the episode’s two defining features are the intense mind game between Dan and Bira and the impressively constructed finale. But given how uselessly the alien’s plan is defeated by not even confiscating the Ultra Eye (though I guess 3 steals in a row would be a bit excessive) and letting Dan flip the tables so easily makes it mostly for nothing, aside from seeing some surprising moral standards from the squad, making it rather unappealing for a rewatch. And the finale, while packed with detail and delicate prop usage and suitmation, is just too short and predictable to be considered exceptional. Also, isn’t it just hilarious how Bira actually has to tell Yushima all about their race and what they intend to do when he’s already completely under his control? I guess this show is a little inexperienced with filling in the audience while retaining the episode’s credibility, huh?
I’d probably look on The Lost Hours with more keenness if it had some more moments of characterisation, such as Soga or Amagi showing remorse or reflection on Dan after jailing him or the episode actually giving some for Furuhashi, which is surprising given he was handed a pretty meaty role as Yushima’s bodyguard that never really went anywhere (Maybe they could’ve humorously exploited his comically-hardened bodyguard duty dedication a bit further?). But anyhow, this is another inventive, yet somewhat inexperienced and anticlimactic entrée.
72/100