There has been an urban legend circulating along the lines of
Ultraman destroying a city in the final episode of the series. For Ultraman fans, it would be obvious that this is not true. The memorable final episode featured Zetton, a kaiju even Ultraman could not defeat, probably shocking a lot of kids in those days. However, a considerable number of people have memories of watching such an episode on TV of Ultraman causing mass destruction. Some even say he teams up with a monster to go on a rampage. What is this? A
Mandela Effect??
Such rumours have been circulating since the 1980s in Saitama Prefecture in Japan. There is an explanation for this. A tokusatsu show by the name of
Iron King, featuring
an Ultraman-like hero, was rebroadcast on Television Saitama from 1985 to 1986.
The final episode of this series, episode 26, does not actually end with the hero destroying everything, though. Such a scene appears at the end of the
second-last episode, episode 25. Of course, Iron King does not intentionally cause destruction. He is hypnotised and possessed by
Cricketton (
クリケットン Kuriketton) a member of a race of aliens called Titanians. He turns evil and blows stuff up in the first half of the finale,
Iron King in a Panic!, and the episode ends there with a cliffhanger. This is resolved in the next episode,
Great Tokyo War, where Iron King overcomes the possesion and destroys the Titatian.
 |
| Possessed Iron King |
 |
| Cricketton |
 |
| Tokyo in flames |
 |
| Destroying the city |
The series was no broadcast completely on TV Saitama, leaving out the last episode. This was because the 16mm film of the final episode was borrowed by
Noriaki Ikeda, an author and editor of several tokusatsu books. He forgot to return the film punctually and so the final episode could not be broadcast. (This really makes me feel the times when there were no digital copies and the physical films had to be used.)
The second-last episode was intepreted as the final episode and Iron King was mistaken as Ultraman due to their similarities.
"Ultraman destroys a city in the last episode",
"Ultraman causes Tokyo to go up in flames",
"mysterious final episode of Ultraman" and such things were spread in the form of urban legends by viewers.
Apparently, there were people who saw the morbid nature of the final episode or misunderstood the situation at that time. Some protests against TV Saitama were launched and it might have become taboo to rebroadcast anymore tokusatsu shows on TV Saitama due to this incident.
This all happened because someone forgot to return the film? Perhaps Cricketton possessed him to not return the film and cause confusion to damage the reputation of Ultraman and Iron King. Oh no.
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