This week John and Eugene look at two rather different episodes of Ultra Q with tales of a child’s fantasy world and a modern-day Tarzan – who fights monsters. Join us as examine Grow Up! Little Turtle & S.O.S. Mt. Fuji.
Grow Up! Little Turtle Episode Synopsis
At school a boy named Taro isn’t paying attention to his school work. He’s measuring his turtle. No, thats not a euphemism. He’s experimenting with a growth formula for his turtle. He hopes it will grow to 99 cm so it can take him to the Dragon Palace.
He is sent to the roof as punishment.
There is a bank robbery next door, which he witnesses. He ties to report it but, as the boy who lies all the time, no one believes him.
Later, still at school as he tortures and harasses his turtle he encounters the gangsters who have evaded the police and are hiding in the school.
His turtle has bit the leg of the gangsters and when they run, he pursues them, escaping with them into the back of a truck.
Meanwhile, for no logical reasons, pilots Jun and Ippei, along with reporter Yuri, are checking out the robbery. They enter the school and listen to the school break the bad news to Taro’s parents. Our heroes play no further part in this story.
On the truck, his turtle won’t let go, and as they come to a police checkpoint, Taro spies the gangsters’ machine gun and takes it from them, pointing it both the gangsters and himself. The gun goes off, drawing attention. The police chase them through an amusem*nt park.
They escape into some underground tunnels, Taro still following to retrieve his turtle.
He dreams about his Dragon Palace visit and the princess Otohime. When he awakes, his turtle has grown to 99 cm terrifying the gangsters who flee to turn themselves in, returning with the police to confront the giant turtle. Before they can, Taro rides the turtle off, where they pass through solid walls, and fly at hypersonic speeds out to sea, and the finally to the Dragon Palace.
At the palace, which is quite minimalist, he meets Otohime, who is a mischievous girl with a runny noise. First Taro gets blown up by a bluff atomic bomb, then he chases the girl on his turtle. She is flying on, first a rocket, then a dragon, and finally the turtle is shot down by the dragon
Otohime extracts a promise from Taro. He must never lie again. Then she gives him a present to used if he’s in trouble.
Next, he’s back at school with his worried parents. He promises to never lie again, but when he tells them where he was, they think he’s lying.
To prove it, he opens the box, but he is turned into an old man and everyone laughs at him, but then he’s back to normal.
Next day, in class again, Taro is studying, and everyone else is playing with turtles.
S.O.S. Mt. Fuji Synopsis
Yuri and Ippei are visiting a vulcanologist for a story. There have been signs that the dormant Mt. Fuji is awaking from her 250-year slumber. Lake temperatures in the area are rising and ice caves are melting.
Ippei is frightened into believing that Mt. Fuji has erupted when a group of children’s rocket launch goes awry. The local policeman arrives and runs them off, but he’s got bad news. His word is so distrusted in the nearby town that they don’t believe him when he says there are signs of volcanic activity. Also, he hasn’t been able to catch up with Takeru, the local Tarzan-like character that lives in the woods.
Ippei convinces Yuri that a local Tarzan story is far more interesting than a volcano. She agrees.
No on actually knows Takeru’s real name, but a local woman is convinced that the wild man is actually her missing younger brother, Takeru, lost in the forest 15 years ago when he was but four years old.
Later, the policeman is guiding Ippei and the local children on a walk through the forrest, telling them about Takeru when Takeru appears. The policeman gives chase, hoping to warn him about the volcano, but Takeru is too fast and loses him. About this time, the policeman witnesses what appears to be a volcanic even, a massive bolder is blasted out of a lake and lands nearby on a roadway. The public are notified that Fuji is active.
Yuri returns with Jun and the helicopter so they can survey the whole area.
The boulder is blown up by workmen and the rubble deposited back in the forest, under the watchful eye of Takeru. Later, during the night, the rocks form together around a mysterious white orb that was inside the original boulder and become a monster, which chases Takeru and eventually knocks a tree on him, trapping him.
Yuri, Ippei, Jun, and the woman who thinks Takeru is her brother are searching the woods the next day. They spy the monster. The policeman, also searching the forest nearby finds Takeru and rescues him, as the monster attacks again. They flee to Takeru’s cave, where the a briefly trapped by a rock fall.
They escape due to Takeru’s prodigious strength. They meet the others, and when the policeman tries to shoot the monster, Takeru knows what to do. He steals the gun and attacks the monster, jumping on its back, then digging in and, grabbing the white orb, leaps off the monster as the monster’s body becomes inert. Throwing the orb in the air, he shoots it, destroying it. An avalanche causes by the volcanic heat melting snow on Fuji briefly threatens everyone, but eventually just covers the monster’s carcass.
Takeru recognizes his sister and is taken back to civilization where he is given a suit, a tie, a haircut, and the attention of the Japanese press. As Takeru, a new man, stand proud, the local children finally manage to get their rocket to launch.
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