Author: Daisuke Ishizuka Official Site: ulfes.com/2013 (Japan) ULTRAMAN FESTIVAL 2013 (?????????????2013) planned another great event. On August 16th, Mr. Koji Moritsugu, who played Dan Moroboshi, and Ms. Yuriko Hishimi, who played Anne Yuri in ULTRA SEVEN (???????, Urutorasebun, 1967-1968), were the special guests for a Premium Gallery Talk. Last year they were invited on different days, but this year Dan and Anne spoke together at the Festival. Reservations for the event filled up in a day so I was lucky to make a reservation.
The format of the event was the same as the Premium Gallery Talk with ULTRAMAN stars Mr. Susumu Kurobe and Ms. Hiroko Sakurai, which was held on August 2nd. We watched one ULTRA SEVEN episode that was chosen by Mr. Moritsugu and Ms. Hishimi. Their choice was Episode 22: THE HUMAN RANCH (????, Ningen Bokujyou). After watching the episode of ULTRA SEVEN, we walked the festival hall with the two special guests. 60 or more fans attended the event so it was sometimes difficult to walk or find a good position to take photos in the crowd. Ms. Hishimi found a display showing Alien Pegassa from Episode 6: THE DARK ZONE (???????, Daaku Zoon). Suddenly, a "real" Alien Pegassa stepped out from the back of display. The two special guests had not been informed about this in advance so Ms. Hishimi was very surprised to see Alien Pegassa approaching her. But she warmly greeted Pegassa, saying, “Nice to see you. How are you?” (the alien had also appeared at Ms. Hishimi`s 2012 talk). A photo session of two special guests with Alien Pegassa started. As we were leaving Alien Pegassa after the photo session, Ms. Hishimi said, “See you again”, and Mr. Moritsugu told the alien to, “Go back to the Dark Zone”. Ultraman Zero is the son of Ultra Seven, but the identity of his mother is still mystery. Ms. Hishimi found a display of the Ultra woman Yullian from ULTRAMAN 80 (??????80, Urutoraman Eiti, 1980-1981) and she asked Mr. Moritsugu, “The mother of "Ultraman Zero is Yullian, isn’t it?” This was new opinion we hadn`t heard before. Ms. Hishimi found a display of Father of Ultra and Mother of Ultra, and she hummed the opening theme song of ULTRAMAN TARO (??????T(???), Urutoraman Taroo, 1973-1974). Then, Mr. Moritsugu started conducting and we sung one chorus of the song. Dan and Anne are still really beautiful couple. After walking the Festival hall, Ultra Seven joined us and took photos with the attendees. At the end of the event, Mr. Moritsugu and Ms. Hishimi signed their autographs on the program book for ULTRAMAN FESTIVAL 2013 and gave them to us. That day, Mr. Moritsugu appeared at ULTRAMAN FESTIVAL stage shows in the morning and afternoon. It was a long day for Mr. Moritsugu, but he is still a tough guy. The day was great, same as the event ofwith Mr. Kurobe and Ms. Sakurai. I have to say "Happy 50th anniversary" to Tsuburaya Productions.
For more information on ULTRAMAN FESTIVAL, please see the earlier coverage here on SciFi Japan: