"The Biggest Invasion in History" does live up to its subtle devastation.
| “ | Attention, TDF, immediately surrender to us, Alien Ghose. If you surrender to us, we will permit you to move to an underground city on Mars and guarantee the lives of the entire human race. We have powerful underground missiles. Earthling air and sea defenses are strong, but you are utterly defenseless underground. We do not wish it, but if you do not surrender, we will attack every major city on Earth simultaneously. An operation of exterminating all three billion humans will be executed. (evil cackle). | „ |
| ~ No further words. Just pure subtle evil and giving away his true nature early. Classic Showa stuff. |
Not too long ago, an acquaintance of mine familiar with one of the most beloved tokusatsu franchises, Ultraman, once mentioned on a finale one-shot invader that he has a mitigating issue akin to "a Father to his Men" moment where he and his group discussed over the loss of their first batch of comrades. Though having seen the two-part finale upon better observation, it's barely a preventing factor when digging deeper into the context and didn't take me awhile to deduce the flawed loophole behind it. That said, it leads us to today's current topic at hand and a short one at it.
To make clear cuts on this one, we're discussing the final villain of the finale of Ultraseven and all its galore, of course I'm talking about the leader of the Alien Ghose and how they are responsible for marking today's pinnacle for one-shot alien invaders on the moment "Seijin" came to light.
What's the Work?[]
Ultraseven is the 1967 tokusatsu superhero series and the third (technically second) installment of the Ultraman franchise, a legendary staple utmost famous for introducing the concept "Seijin". Just like how the very first Ultraman introduced Kaiju into the world, Seven introduced us to the nature of evil space invaders.
Taking the human form and renamed "Dan Moroboshi", Ultraseven was recruited under the jurisdiction of the Ultra Guard (UG) to fend off space invaders from galaxies far, far away (not to quote Star Wars lol) and protect the Earth from their diabolic schemes.
Who is He? What has He Done?[]
The unnamed leader of the Alien Ghose race is one of the most formidable space invaders and final enemy of Ultraseven himself, serving as his greatest adversary in the midst of his numbered days protecting Earth.
Setting out to conquer Earth's current population, the Leader dispatched a group from his own to make progress through their designated spacecraft, unfortunately, UG (Ultra Guard) caught a glimpse of their presence and already took care of the problem at first. With one of their batched groups down for the count, the Leader and his remaining troopers decided to take charge of the matters and begin invading Earth straight-ahead. First sabotaging UG by abducting one of their members, Amagi, trapped in a barrier bubble, the Leader would release the two-headed kaiju Pandon to have the team incinerated to near-death. It only took Ultraseven's intervention to prevent this, at the cost of him risking his lifeline whilst severing Pandon's arm. The Leader and his troops were last seen attacking UG's base and setting up their own on top of Kumagatake.
Later putting Amagi in a glass container to mind-control, the Leader broadcasted his message worldwide to offer humanity two choices; live as slaves in his homeworld's underground city via forced migration or he'll activated his nuking drills unleashed upon every major city in the world to exterminated 3 billion of the human race. Unfortunately, patience isn't on his virtue card and his response to humanity's lacking answer was to prove he's not bluffing. Having unleashed four nuking drills onto New York City, London, Moscow, and Paris, he reduced all four major cities into volcanic, dystopian-like wastelands, leaving anything but ash, hellfire, and rebel. He demanded Earth to respond in the next 30 minutes or he'll continue the nuclear bombings, Tokyo already being on his hit list.
With panic widespread among the Japanese crowd, Ultraseven goes out one final time to save Amagi and destroyed the Ghose's base along with their leader and his troops. Though for one final act of spite, he unleashed a reconstructed Pandon before Ultraseven to fight to the death, though with aid from UG, Ultraseven decapitates the two-headed kaiju for the count.
Heinous Standards[]
The mainstream universe, M78 Nebula, of the Ultraman franchise is no stranger to planet conquerors, invaders with a grand conquest plan or destroy Earth, and at worst, genocidal planet-destroyers. Of course, most one-shot baddies barely have anything to offer on the table in terms of heinousness but few contenders like the Robot Chief is a made example since folks like Ultraman Belial and Alien Empera are unfairly beyond their league.
The Leader of the Alien Ghose, on the other hand, may perhaps be the most heinous one-shot in the franchise. Compared to most one-shot Seijin invaders' attempts at conquest and destroying Earth, the Leader has the most destructive invasion planned out. Scoring a literal kill count over tens of millions upon nuking four major cities and reducing them to radioactive wastelands in the most horrific means executed. Doesn't help that he'll continue onward with Tokyo being next, followed with the attempt closing in 3 billion of humanity during that time period and giving them the sadistic option to become underground slaves. This certainly wasn't a thing most one-shot invaders have done in terms of fewer resources at hand, whereas the Leader relied on a dozen-set nuclear drills, few troops, and his kaiju pet Pandon.
Keep in mind, the method of nuking cities is utmost rare and never been done in the next few generations of the franchise before and hence, the Leader remains one of the few one-shots with an actual kill count. That said, the Leader easily passes not just in flying colors, but also making the finale's episode live up to its subtly, contextualized name; "The Biggest Invasion in History".
Mitigating Factors[]
What put him on hold for so long is that a few claimed he only began invading Earth out of retaliation for a fallen fleet earlier prior to his introduction, indicating he had cared for his fallen compadres and acted for vengeance. Though upon rewatching the finale as a whole... I find it hard to believe it's the case, but at best, it's absurdly unlikely.
During said introduction, the Leader and his troops were discussing in a language not translated for context, so it's not given credence to assume he was angered over loss of his fallen fleet. Which by the time he spoke through mind-controlling Amagi, he has never once mentioned anything about wanting to avenge his dead comrades throughout his limited monologue, merely establishing his heinous demands to humanity. If there is anything to assume from the discussion alone, I believe it's more of losing numbers in manpower than it is genuinely wishing to retaliate for his fallen fleet in proper context. Severely not much of an issue at hand, so to speak.
I mean... this is one I find weird because when did the Showa era gave a damn about redeeming qualities (though some exceptions) in the late 60s-early 70s? Besides one-noted redeeming qualities, Alternative Character Interpretation or complex nuances weren't a thing for them at that time period. It's basically Japan's term for the "Golden Age". To keep this short, nada, just another power-hungry alien out to conquer all humans and ultimately gave away his 'extremist' facade of "enslaving humans and not wishing their destruction" way too early.
Final Verdict[]
A very easy yes in my book.