Urutoraman Reo (Ultraman Leo) ran April 12, 1974 through March 28, 1975 (51 episodes)
Main Cast episodes 1-40:
| Character | |
Actor/Actress |
| Otori, Gen | |
Manatsu, Ryo |
| Ultraman Leo | |
Nikamoto, Tatsumi |
| Moroboshi, Dan | |
Moritsugu, Koji |
| Omura, Shoji | |
Fujiki, Yuu |
| Yamaguchi, Momoko | |
Okano, Kaori |
| Nomura, Takeshi | |
Ito, Yukio |
| Umeda, Toru | |
Arai, Tunehiro |
| Umeda, Kaoru | |
Tominaga, Yoshiko |
| Narrator | |
Sagawa, Tetsurō |
Main Cast episodes 40-51:
| Character | |
Actor/Actress |
| Otori, Gen | |
Manatsu, Ryo |
| Ultraman Leo | |
Nikamoto, Tatsumi |
| Umeda, Toru | |
Arai, Tunehiro |
| Miyama, Sakiko | |
Harukawa, Masumi |
| Miyama, Ayumi | |
Sugita, Kaoru |
| Miyama, Izumi | |
Nara, Fujiko |
| Commander Black | |
Obayashi, Takeshi |
| Narrator | |
Sagawa, Tetsurō |
Suit Actors
| Ultraman Leo | |
Nikamotomi, Tatsumi |
| Ultraman Leo | |
Kawaguchi, Kazunori |
| Astra | |
Kusumi, Momoruo |
| Ultraman King | |
Oaku, Toshiya |
Urutoraman Reo (Ultraman Leo) is the seventh Ultraman series. Just as Ultra Seven was a darker series than its predecessor Ultraman, Ultraman Leo is a darker series than its predecessor Ultraman Taro. Japan is nearly destroyed in the first episode, humans fighting the invading monsters actually die frequently and in episode 40 they are entirely wiped out, with Morobashi, Dan (Ultra Seven) MIA and only Otori, Gen (Ultraman Leo) left standing. Ultraman Leo despite having Morobashi, Dan in it is nothing like Ultra Seven. I call it the Kamen RIder of Ultraman as Ultraman Leo spents most of the series punching and kicking the giant monsters to death rather than using energy weapons. The Ultra Guard could actually defeat alliens, MAC tries but fails. In Ultra Seven the aliens were intelligent creatures who came to Earth in space ships with actual plans for invading. In Ultraman Leo most of the aliens just appear and start killing and destroying for no apparent reason. In Ultra Seven if aliens attack women its because they feed on female chromosomes, in Ultraman Leo an alien attacks women for no apparent reason it just does. Aliens in Ultra Seven spoke, usually to address Morobashi, Dan as Ultra Seven. If the aliens known Otori, Gen is Ultraman Leo you have no way of realizing it because most of the hostile aliens don't speak. All of the friendly aliens talk. Ultra Guard members have personalities and are important to the plots. MAC members, not so much. Ultra Seven's main cast remains the same for the entire series. In Ultraman Leo you best not like anybody too much as most of the characters are gone after episode 40. Otori, Gen/Ultraman Leo and a young boy Umeda, Toru, are the only characters that appear in every episode. Ultra Seven is meant for adults, despite all the deaths Ultraman Leo is meant more for children.
Daikaiju (giant monsters) are once again appearing on Earth. Ultraseven returns from Nebula M-78 to protect mankind again. Formerly a member of the Ultra Guard he forms a new group Monster Attacking Crew (MAC). During one battle as Ultra Seven he's double-teamed by two monsters, Red Gilas and Black Gilas. He probably would have won the fight if the giant alien Magma-Seijin had not appeared. Attacked by three giants, Ultraseven is badly wounded in his leg and the Ultra Eye is damaged.
With the Ultra Eye damaged Moroboshi, Dan can not become Ultraseven. The fallen hero is saved when another giant warrior appears. Ultraman Leo had moved to Earth after Magma-Seijin had destroyed his home, Planet L77 of the Leo constellation.
Leo takes on the human guise of Otori, Gen member of the Monster Attacking Crew (MAC). Moroboshi, Dan commands MAC and is Otori, Gen's mentor. [Originally the MAC commander was to be an ordinary human named Kawakami, Tetsutaro not Morobashi, Dan, but Moritsugu, Kohji who was to play the role knew fans would always believe he was really Morobashi, Dan/Ultra Seven so the character was changed to Morobashi, Dan but without the ability to become Ultra Seven.] Moroboshi, Dan in this series is a harder, less friendly person than he was in Ultra Seven but than he's now the man in charge and the responsability ways heavily on him, he feels the loss of his human team members more than he lets on. He came back "home" to Earth to defend its people and he's frustrated that because of his own failure he has to leave the hard battles to another, especially when that other is untrained and untested. He only hopes this other alien who claims to love Earth as much as he does is actually up to protecting it. Moroboshi, Dan actually smiled in episode 8.
On his home world, Planet L77 of the Leo constellation, Ultraman Leo had a pet named Ron. He believed it was killed in the destruction of the planet. But actually it survived and grew into a monster ravenous for magma. When it arrives on Earth (episoe 10) he's forced to fight it. Once he's subdued the giant he's able to restore its lost memories of him, shirnk it back to its orignal size and seems to carry it off into space. But later Otori, Gen gives Umeda, Kaoru a puppy, named Ron. Now there are two aliens from L77 living diguised on Earth. (Of course after establishing that Ultraman Leo's pet is alive and well I don't think the dog is ever actually seen again in the series.)
Otori, Gen transforms into Ultraman Leo with the "Leo Ring", shouting "Leo!" Ultraman Leo starts out not having any energy beam attacks, he beats the monsters to death. He gains new powers, including energy weapons as Otori, Gen is taught to fight by Moroboshi, Dan. Ultraman Leo can only function on Earth for 2 minutes and 40 seconds before he runs out of energy. Moroboshi, Dan. is a very harsh teacher, his training of Otori, Gen is brutal. Its a good thing he keeps reminding the audience that that two of them are aliens. At the start of the series Otori, Gen is too emotional and it leads him into making rash decisions which Moroboshi, Dan is constantly warning him against. He's always wanting to storm off enraged to seek revenge, the older and more experienced Morobashi, Dan has to calm him down so he doesn't make a bad situation worse. If Dan is unavailable to train Gen than he will sometimes get his human friends to help. Takeshi a young coach from the Jouan Sports Center, who wants to join MAC someday must think this training is normal and he's almost as brutal as Dan. The odd thing is they don't equate these training sessions with the new skills Ultraman Leo suddenly has when facing the monster that he couldn't previously defeat,
With his leg twisted, Moroboshi, Dan has to walk with a metal cane, which he also uses a weapon. Although he can no longer become Ultra Seven he can use "Ultra Will Power" (Urutora Nenriki)to temporarily stun the giant monsters. This power is very draining so Dan cannot use it for long.
Go, Hideki (Ultraman Jack) gives Morohashi, Dan the "Ultra Ball" (episodes 34) which like Dan's capsules from Ultra Seven contains a monster that will fight for him, the robot Sevenger. Unlike Dan's other capsule monsters which fought until Dan recalled them or they were killed, Sevenger can only function for 1 minute before it automatically returns to the Ultra Ball where it must recharge for 50 hours. Ultraman Jack takes the Ultra Eye back to the Land of Light to be repaired while Morobashi, Dan chosses to stay on the Earth. Later Morobashi, Dan declines the Ultraman King's offer to take him back to the Ultra Planet (episode 39). An offer he should have accepted as he's nearly killed in the next alien attack (episode 40), in fact Otori, Gen tells a child his brother who was tough but kind was killed by the Saucer Creatures (episode 46) as he believes Morobashi, Dan/Ultra Seven is dead, until he has a vision of him before his final battle with the Black Star Flying-Saucer Life Forms (episode 51).
The Monster Attacking Crew (MAC) tries to defend Earth against daikaiju (giant monsters) and seijin (aliens), from an orbiting space station. MAC starts out with 2 aircraft and ground assault vehichle, in later episodes they may have as many as 4 aircraft but they don't last long as they're always beeing shot down by the aliens. When MAC needs help (which is always) Otori, Gen becomes Ultrman Leo. Moroboshi, Dan and Otori, Gen have a problem, no one else in MAC knows one is Ultra Seven and the other is Ultraman Leo. Sometimes they don't understand their captain's orders when it come to Gen and resent the "special treatment" they think he's getting. MAC members die and are replaced regularly. In episode 14 its said that 8 MAC officers are killed at once when both MAC aircraft are knocked out of the sky. In episode 22 Haruko, Matsuki reports 3 dead, 16 wounded and 4 aircraft lost to the giant monster Gallon and that was before his brother Liter (not kidding) showed up. Its difficult in most cases to determine when exactly MAC officers died as they tend not to mention their names. Dan might say "we lost a good man" before forgetting the person existed by the next episode. All MAC officers who survive to episode 40 die when the Flying-Saucer Life Forms from the Black Star attack the station shortly after the crew wishes Haruko, Matsuki' a happy birthday. When MAC is destroyed Moroboshi, Dan becomeis Missing In Action (MIA).
Captain Moroboshi, Dan (Ultra Seven) - disappeared after MAC attacked by Silver Bloom
Vice Captain Kuroda (deceased)
Vice Captain Hirayama, Atsushi (deceased)
Vice Captain Akaishi, Kiyohiko (deceased)
Vice Captain Sato, Daisuke (deceased)
Officer Suzuki - sliced in half (episode 3) - agreed to take in two recently orphaned children only to be murdered himself, appears only in this episode just to be first named MAC officer to die
Haruko, Matsuki (deceased)
Haruko, Momoi (deceased)
Aoshima, Ichiro (deceased)
Shirakawa, Junko (deceased)
Shirato, Jun (deceased)
Kajita, Ippei (deceased)
Otori, Gen (Ultraman Leo) - sole survivor of attack by Silver Bloom (episode 40)
Yoji, Kitayama - left MAC to take part in a sking tournment so was not killed
Sato, Saburo - honorary member, left for Himilyas to search for yeti so was not killed
Commander Takakura - of the Earth Defense Force, Morobashi, Dan's commanding officer (last seen ialive in episode 39, despite other web sites claims that he died in episode 40 he was not actually in episode 40, that he died is base on the assumption he was with MAC but since he actually spent very little time with MAC its more reasonable to assume he was not onboard the space station when it went down.)
There are many other unnamed MAC members who get killed in almost every episode, usually by failing to eject from a crashing aircraft. MAC officers are for the most part under developed as characters. Of course its not only MAC officers who get killed. In episode 6 MAC officer Shirato, Jun 's girlfriend, Yoko, is crushed to death by a giant sized Karly-Seijin. He survives to episode 40.
In the final episode a healed Ultra Seven appears in a vision to Otori, Gen. [According to an Utraman Mebius book, Morobashi, Dan was teleported to safety by the Mother of Ultra who healed his wounds and gave him a repaired Ultra Eye and he then left the Earth.]
After the loss of MAC the Japanase military attempts to defend Japan against the monsters (twice anyway) but of course fails.
The MAC officers are not actually the most important supporting character in Ultraman Leo, its the adults, teenagers and young children of the Jouan Sports Center, who are Otori, Gen's friends. Saddly shortly after MAC is lost, three of those friends will also die and even the sports center is written out of the series (even though many more members of the sports center may still be alive for example we don't know what happened to its owner).
Umeda, Toru and Umeda, Kaoru are young orphans. At the start of the series there mother has been dead for some time. Then in episode 3 their father is brutatly murdered before their eyes. Followed by the married MAC officer who opened his home to them.
Yamaguchi, Momoko is Otori, Gen's human girlfriend, and she will take Umeda, Toru and Umeda, Kaoru into her home to become their foster mother.
Nomura, Takeshi is one of the older members of the Jouan Sports Center, helps coach the younger children, plans to join MAC when he's old enough. he will never get the chance.
When Silver Bloom wipes out MAC, young Toru will lose his sister, foster mother and friend as they are all killed as well. Poor kid, everyone he loves dies (except Otori, Gen who will actually leave him in the end to explore the rest of the planet).
Although there were other coaches and children at the Jouan Sports Center who presumably survived Silver Bloom's attack on MAC and Tokyo and need him even more with the loss of Takeshi and Momoko, Otori, Gen never returns there and we never see Omura, Shoji, the centers owner either. Without the Jouan Sports Center (his first job) or MAC (his second job) Gen does not appear to be employed anymore. Yet he can pay for civilian clothes and to keep fuel in the car he's now driving around. [Some web sites are saying the sports center was destroyed but it was SHOPPING center thats smashed on camera and Gen's friends die because they were out shopping, they were not exerrcising at the sports center when they died. I dont' understand why they killed off these three characters then turned around and brought in three more but they did.]
After all their other friends are killed, a widowed nurse, Miyama, Sakiko will invite Gan and Toru to move in with her family. Miyama, Sakiko refers to both of her house guests as "you boys", treating them both like children. Gan never seems to work (he used to work at the Jouan Sports Center when he had days off from MAC) so I doub't he's paying any rent and therefore cannot object when she assigns him chores arund the house. Sakiko has two daughters Izumi (college student studing archaeology) and Ayumi (student who sits behind Toru in class. For about 10 seconds I thought Izumi might be jealous of another woman Gen was talking to but nothing ever came of it. And in one episode her mother "accidently" knocks them into each others arms, but again nothing comes of it. Thankfully. Izumi thinks the Saucer Creatures came to Earth to kill Ultrman Leo and would leave if he left. Gen who should know better is affected by this nonsense. They came to conquer the Earth but after their first 3 invasion attempts were stoped by Ultraman Leo, Commander BLack concentrated on trying to kill Ultraman Leo so his invasion would succeed. If Leo left, Commander Black would win. Ayumi will actually figure out that Otori, Gen is Ultraman Leo (episode 50) after the aliens abducr her mother but trade her for Gen.the others laugh at the idea and she seems to forget it. Ayumi will lead other children on an attack on Commander Black to rescue Toro. Izumi's idiotiocy has had a lasting effect on Otori, Gen who after the Black Star invasion is finally crushed removes the Leo Ring to stay "human" while he's on Earth.
Intitally Leo believes that none of his family had survived the destruction of his home planet. Eventually he's pleased to discover that his brother Astra survived (episode 22). Astra stays near Earth and comes to his Leo's aid on a few occasions. Together Leo and Astra can generate the powerful "Ultra Double Flasher".
Ultraman Leo meets Ultraman King legendary leader of the Ultras of Nebula M-78. Ultraman King gives Leo the "Ultra Mantle" (episode 26). Leo keeps this multipurpose cape weapon in the blue band he wears on his left arm. Unlike the other Ultras, Ultraman Leo and Astra are from Galactic Lion System in constellation L77 (instead of Nebula M-78). After Leo and his brother Astra stop the Land of Light (Nebula M-78) from crashing into Earth the Ultraman King adopts Leo and Astra into the Ultra family (episode 39).
After defeating the Flying-Saucer Life Forms from the Black Star, Ultraman Leo decides to stay on Earth. Otori, Gen sets out, by boat, to explore his new home planet. [He will eventually leave Earth for the Land of Light, but that happens years later, as he appears with the other Ultra Brothers in later films.]
Ultraman Leo guess starred 9 other Ultras, two of which were introduced by this series: Leo's mentor Ultraseven (episodes 1, 34, 51), Leo's brother Astra (episisodes 22, 33, 36, 38, 39, 46) ,
(Morobashi, Dan is episodes 1-39 but not Ultra Seven. Astra is the first of two new chararters introduded into the Ultra universe)
Ultraman King (episodes 26, 39, 50) the second of two new chararters introduded into the Ultra universe, Ultraman 'Jack' (episodes 34. 38, 39),
Ultraman (episodes 38, 39), Zoffy (episodes 38, 39), Ultraman Ace (episodes 38, 39),
Father of Ultra (episodes 38, 39), Mother of Ultra (episode 39) - (cameos, no dialogue)
(Why Ultraman Taro is missing I don't know.)
In the final episode Otori, Gen has a dream in which Ultra Seven appears and tells him to reveal himself to his human friends (as Morobashi, Dan did to Anne).
At the end of the final episode Otori, Gen wants to explore Earth as a human, he removes the Ultra Ring and sets out alone.
(At some point he must retrieve the ring because Ultraman Leo does appear in later Ultraman films),
Episode Titles
The Songs
Ultra Seven and Morobashi, Dan will appear in a series of direct to video specials beginnning in 1994, set in an alternate universe on an Earth which has never been vistied by any Ultras except Ultra Seven meaning in these videos this series never took place. In these videos the Terrestrial Defense Force and Ultra Garrison (formerly Ultra Guard) still exist although with new members.
Some photos provided by Arislan and Basri Ispandi
Ultraman Leo was proceeded by Ultraman Taro and was followed by the anime series The ☆Ultraman (1979) and the live action series Ultraman 80 (1980)
Ultraman Leo can be seen for free at Shout Factory TV.
On May 25, 2021 Ultraman Leo was released on Blu-ray in Japanese with English subtites, by Mill Creek Entertainment
Urutoraman Reo © 1974 Tsuburaya Productions
Pictures are for viewing only
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