Heisei Ultraseven

Heisei Ultraseven (平成ウルトラセブン) is a collective of Japanese direct-to-video instalments, serving as a standalone sequel to the 1967-68 tokusatsu series Ultraseven. The series took place in an alternate universe featuring Ultraseven diverging from Ultraman and other succeeding Ultra Series starting from Return of Ultraman.

The project initially started as a pair of television specials in the year 1994, made to promote environmental awareness in Japan. It received a trilogy of specials in 1998 to promote Ultraseven ' s 30th anniversary and a hexalogy in 1999 to ostensibly wrapping up the entire series. To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Ultraseven, the Evolution pentalogy was introduced in 2002 as a direct follow up to the 1999 hexalogy and became the definitive ending to Heisei Ultraseven.

NTV Duology (1994)
10 years after Ultraseven's fight with Re-Pandon, the Ultra crash-landed on Earth after being injured from the fight against Alien Pitt. At this point, Furuhashi lead a trio of young members in the Ultra Guard in protecting the Earth against invading forces. When the Alien Pitt unleashed their monster Eleking against mankind, Seven was revived after the aliens' assassination attempts went awry. The newly resurrected Seven managed to kill Eleking and the Alien Pitts after freeing their hostage.

At some point of time, the Alien Metron siblings set their sight on Earth to make it as their secondary home. The siblings pose as environmental terrorist to fool a college professor into their aid, going as far as to even clone a massive dinosaur as their supporter. Seven's human form, Dan, returned to assist the new members of Ultra Guard in their investigation, but preferred to hide his presence from Furuhashi. Seven disappeared after the death of Alien Metron and the alien base's destruction seemingly consumed the Ultra in an explosion.

30th Anniversary Memorial Trilogy (1998)
Dan survived the explosion of Alien Metron's base, but this resulted with an amnesia and forced him to take refuge at the Murata family. Meanwhile, Furuhashi has elevated to the rank of TDF staff officer, while a new batch of Ultra Guard members were selected under Captain Sanshiro Shiragane. After regaining his memory, Dan assisted the new Ultra Guard members in their fight against another extraterrestrial threats. In several occasions, Dan tends to masquerade as the UG rookie Kazamori by switching places with the youth. Seven departed from Earth once more after reuniting with Furuhashi for the final time.

The Final Chapters Hexalogy (1999)
Several years later, former Ultra Guard member Kaji was promoted into a TDF staff officer and became a war hawk who proposed the Friendship Plan to annihilate potentially hostile alien planets after losing his teammates in the past. Kaji's actions caused the Alien Valkyrie's invasion on Earth, leading to the death of Furuhashi and forcing Dan/Seven to masquerade as Kazamori for an entire year. Without Furuhashi to supervise, Kaji took the late officer's role and further complicating matters for the Ultra Guard members in their missions against the alien invaders.

When a lone Nonmalt appeared to enact her revenge on mankind, the existence of TDF's Omega File were brought to light as it would threaten mankind's status quo on Earth, due to their predecessors were revealed to be invaders that had overthrow the original natives (Nonmalt) as the planet's dominant species. Nevertheless, Seven chose to dedicate his life in protecting mankind by killing Nonmalt's monster, Zabangi, despite his action was marked as violating the rules of outer space by interfering with a civil war. After returning the real Kazamori to the Ultra Guard, Seven left Earth to face his comeuppance, as he was imprisoned in the Horsehead Nebula for his actions.

Ultraseven Evolution Pentalogy (2002)
Five years after the Omega Files incident, peace returned to Earth after TDF agreed to sign a peace treaty with the outer space civilizations. Although Kazamori had long retired from his service, the Ultra Guard was due to be disbanded due to TDF's arms reduction policy, but a string of incidents caused them to operate once more alongside a new member named Kisaragi, eventually going rogue after discovering TDF had been infested with alien invaders. Kazamori on the other hand face against the threat of Alien Garut, the mastermind behind the secret alien invasion as he and the other invaders plan to conquer Earth by taking control of the Plant Life Form, a race that was supposedly inheritors of Earth's future.

Kazamori bonded with Seven after Satomi's death freed the Ultra from his prison and had protected the Plant Life Form from both aliens and TDF/Ultra Guard members alike. Once discovering that mankind was never forsaken for Earth's future (as well as Alien Garut falsifying the Akashic Record for his own benefit), Kazamori/Seven killed the alien to end his invasion plans. After entrusting the Akashic Record and the Plant Life Form to the Ultra Guard, Kazamori parted ways with his former teammates.

Video works

 * 1994 TV specials
 * Ultraseven - Operation: Solar Energy (ウルトラセブン 太陽エネルギー作戦)
 * Ultraseven - Planet of the Earthlings (ウルトラセブン 地球星人の大地)
 * Ultraseven 30th Anniversary Trilogy (ウルトラセブン誕生30周年記念3部作)
 * Lost Memory (失われた記憶)
 * Eternal Earth (地球より永遠に)
 * Betrayal Sun (太陽の背信)
 * Ultraseven 1999 The Final Chapters Hexalogy (ウルトラセブン1999最終章6部作)
 * Legends and Glory (栄光と伝説)
 * The Sky-Flying Iron Colossus (空飛ぶ大鉄塊)
 * The Day the Fruit Ripens (果実が熟す日)
 * The End of the Contract (約束の果て)
 * The Duplicated Man (模造された男)
 * I am an Earthling (わたしは地球人)
 * Ultraseven 35th Anniversary Evolution Pentalogy (ウルトラセブン誕生35周年"EVOLUTION"5部作)
 * Dark Side (ダーク・サイド)
 * Perfect World (パーフェクト・ワールド)
 * Neverland (ネバーランド)
 * Innocent (イノセント)
 * Akashic Records (アカシックレコード)

Novel
Both novels are written by Junki Takegami, illustrated by Shinobu Tanno and published by Asahi Sonorama in year 2002.


 * Ultraseven Episode: 0 (ウルトラセブン EPISODE：0): Released in May 2002. It served as a compilation of the hexalogy series with slight alteration to the storyline.
 * Ultraseven Evolution (ウルトラセブンEVOLUTION): Released in November 2002. In addition to being a novel adaptation of the Evolution pentalogy, it also served as a direct follow-up to the aforementioned Episode: 0 novel.

Production
In 1994, Ministry of International Trade and Industry established March 21 as the Solar Day (太陽の日), and a TV special program was held by both the Japan Solar System Development Association (JSSDA) and Yomiko Advertising to spread the awareness. The project was originally planned to be an animation work, but then-producer of Yomiko Advertising, Toshihiko Fujinami decided to do a different approach. Ultraseven was decided as the icon (due to the hero using solar energy to empower himself), hence the first Heisei Ultraseven, Operation: Solar Energy was broadcast on March 21, 1994 on Nippon TV, exactly on Japan's Vernal Equinox Day. The aforementioned special itself inherited a majority of the filming crew behind Gridman the Hyper Agent, and the same team would eventually work in the production of Ultraman Tiga. The use of Alien Pitt and Eleking, as well as Sandayu Dokumamushi and Yuriko Hishimi's return to their roles as Furuhashi and Anne were due to long time fan's familiarity with Ultraseven. As a result of the special's nature, Kohji Moritsugu could only provide narrative role for the story instead of reprising his role as Dan Moroboshi. Due to Operation: Solar Energy ' s popularity, another TV special was conceived to coincide with Japan's Health and Sports Day on October 10, 1994. The second special, Planet of the Earthlings, ended with Seven's apparent death. Director Shinichi Kamisawa hoped for a continuation where the Ultra survived, and he got his wish in the following home video series.

Starting from the 1998 trilogy, Dan had grown his hair and changed his outfit under Kohji Moritsugu's demand to be based on his favorite actor, Steven Seagal. According to director Shinichi Kamisawa, the central theme of Ultraseven was "protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial invaders", while the 1998 trilogy was "the coexistence of Earth and mankind". From here onwards, the collaboration with VAP for original video contents was due to their past association with Tsuburaya Productions during the making of Moon Spiral miniseries. With the exception of Kōji Nanjo, actors for the new members of Ultra Guard were carefully selected through an audition of 2,000 candidates. Shigeki Kagemaru was not able to reprise his role as Kaji due to the filming of Ultraman Tiga had already wrapped up by the time the trilogy's filming took place.

The Final Chapters Hexalogy was initially advertised as the supposedly definitive end to the Heisei Ultraseven as a whole, with the tagline of "Goodbye, Seven" (さらば、セブン) was even advertised in the June 5, 1999 press conference. Several of the Ultra Guard actors get to be the main focus of certain episodes. The central theme of the hexalogy was "there are enemies within the existence of human beings themselves". Shoji Nakayama, the actor of Kaoru Kiriyama in Ultraseven, was meant to reprise his role in the final instalment of the hexalogy, but the actor died at the same month of the filming (December 1998).

Cast

 * Dan Moroboshi (モロボシ・ダン), narrator: Kohji Moritsugu (森次晃嗣)
 * Shigeru Furuhashi (フルハシ・シゲル): Sandayu Dokumamushi (毒蝮 三太夫)
 * Kaji (カジ): Shigeki Kagemaru (影丸 茂樹)
 * Sanshirō Shiragane (シラガネ・サンシロウ): Kōji Nanjo (南条 弘二)
 * Masaki Kazamori (カザモリ・マサキ): Katsuyuki Yamazaki (山崎 勝之)
 * Keisuke Shima (シマ・ケイスケ): Kunio Masaoka (正岡 邦夫)
 * Takuma Mizuno (ミズノ・タクマ): Wataru Koga (古賀 亘)
 * Satomi Hayakawa (ハヤカワ・サトミ): Kaoru Ukawa (鵜川 薫)
 * Rumi Honjō (ホンジョウ・ルミ): Rieko Adachi (あだち 理絵子)
 * Takenaka (タケナカ): Kenji Sahara (佐原 健二)

Semi-regular cast

 * Tōgō (トーゴー): Takashi Matsuyama (松山 鷹志)
 * Risa (リサ): Ami Suzuki (鈴木 亜美)
 * TDF Staff Officers (防衛軍参謀): Taro Suwa (諏訪 太朗), Tsuyoshi Nakano (中野 剛), Yoshiteru Yoshida (吉田 吉輝)
 * Inagaki (イナガキ): Masahiro Noguchi (野口 雅弘)
 * Yuki Kisaragi (キサラギ・ユキ): Mika Katsumura (勝村 美香)
 * Saijō (サイジョウ): Masaki Nishimori (西守 正樹)
 * Suwa (諏訪): Kyoji Kamui (神威 杏次)
 * Tashiro (タシロ)/Alien Garut (ガルト星人): Tomokazu Seki (関 智一)
 * Mitsuko (ミツコ): Saori Nara (奈良 沙緒理)

Guest cast

 * 1994
 * Anne (アンヌ): Yuriko Hishimi (ひし美 ゆり子)
 * Special appearances: Hitoshi Takeuchi (竹内 均), Susumu Kurobe (黒部 進), Yasuhiko Saijō (西條 康彦), Hiroko Sakurai (桜井 浩子), Kenji Sahara, Masanari Nihei (二瓶 正也), Terumi Yoshida (吉田 照美), Noboru Tsuburaya (円谷 皐)
 * Chief Ōtaki (オオタキ主任), Commander (指揮官): Akitoshi Ōtaki (大滝 明利)
 * Professor Tonezaki (トネザキ教授): Hiroshi Tsuburaya (円谷 浩)
 * Alien Metron (メトロン星人): Kyoji Kamui


 * 1999
 * Shinichi Imanari (イマナリ・シンイチ): Shinobu Kameyama (亀山 忍)
 * Journalist (1): Ichirō Ogura (小倉 一郎)
 * Yoshiya Henmi (辺見 芳哉)/Alien Kyuru (キュルウ星人) (2): Shoichiro Akaboshi (赤星 昇一郎)
 * Ichirō Hayakawa (ハヤカワ・イチロウ): Shirō Namiki (並樹 史郎)
 * Mysterious man (2): Akitoshi Ōtaki
 * Alien Lemojo "Gale" (レモジョ星系人ゲイル): Kazuoki Takahashi (高橋 和興)
 * Urashima Tarō (浦島太郎): Lee Jongho (李ぢょんほ) (young), Kōjirō Kusanagi (草薙幸二郎) (old)
 * Oto-hime (乙姫): Noriko Tanaka (田中 規子)
 * Haruka Kanemitsu (カネミツ・ハルカ): Fumina Hara (原史奈)
 * Detective Otsuka (大塚刑事): Hiroshi Miyasaka (宮坂ひろし)
 * Mitsugu Ijuuin (伊集院貢): Kazumasa Seki (瀬木 一将)
 * Nonmalt (ノンマルト): Noriko Watanabe (渡辺 典子)


 * 2002
 * Teacher Sayuri (サユリ先生)/Alien Pegassa (ペガッサ星人) (1): Hiroko Sakurai
 * Shōko Shiragane (シラガネ・ショウコ): Michiko Shimazaki (島崎 路子)

Theme song

 * TV Special and 1998 trilogy
 * "Ultraseven no Uta" (ウルトラセブンの歌)
 * Lyrics: Kyōichi Azuma (東 京一)
 * Arrangement & Composition: Tōru Fuyuki (冬木 透)
 * Artist: Misuzu Children's Choral Group (みすず児童合唱団), The Echoes (ジ・エコーズ)
 * "Version 2" is played as the ending theme.


 * 1999 hexalogy
 * Opening: "Ultraseven no Uta 99" (ウルトラセブンの歌99)
 * Lyrics: Kyōichi Azuma
 * Arrangement & Composition: Tōru Fuyuki
 * Artist: Isao Sasaki (佐々木 功)
 * A remix version is played as the opening of the 2002 Evolution Pentalogy.
 * Ending: "Ultraseven no Ballad" (ウルトラセブンのバラード)
 * Arrangement & Composition: Tōru Fuyuki
 * Artist & Lyrics: Isao Sasaki


 * 2002 Evolution Pentalogy
 * Ending: ULTRA SEVEN 99
 * Lyrics: Kyōichi Azuma
 * Arrangement & Composition: Tōru Fuyuki
 * Artist: Isao Sasaki
 * Chorus: Shinichi Ishihara (石原 慎一), Naoto Fuuga (風雅 なおと), Nagato Fuchigami (淵上 祥人)