Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! Today we’re continuing our look back at the history of the Ultraman franchise, and highlighting one recurring alien encountered across different series. In addition to giant Kaiju, Dark Giants, or even more powerful foes in the cosmos, Ultra Heroes and their allies frequently contend against other aliens, or seijin who set Earth in their targets. Even within these alien races though, there’s quite a bit of variety, and not all individuals who hail from the same planet or civilization end up being villains, or make the same decisions as their predecessors.
That’s… not the case with the individuals we’re looking at today, two different Alien Chibull who both tried to conquer humanity, and destroy Ultraman in the process!
The first time we encounter the Chibull is in Ultraseven, with the episode “Operation Android Zero”. The “android” in question was built by the otherwise-unnamed Chibull scientist, and sent to assassinate Dan Moroboshi by the most deviously effective weapon imaginable – a pretty face.
Dan and the rest of the Ultra Guard don’t realize an evil alien is behind the incident at first, but while tracking down the mysterious android, they discover an even more sinister plot. The alien had disguised itself as a kindly toymaker, who cheerfully distributes weapons out to the neighborhood children, claiming them to be harmless.
The weapons are, in fact, quite operational. The toymaker has set them to be triggered at midnight, hypnotizing the children to become its personal army! Luckily, Dan and his fellow Ultra Guard members track down the disguised alien, survive its battery of toy tanks and remote-controlled airplanes, and confront it.
This episode of Ultraseven doesn’t end with a fight against a giant Kaiju, or a dramatic chase into space following the alien’s UFO. After its plans have been foiled and its disguise stripped away, Seven meets it face-to-face (a very unpleasant octopus-tentacled face, that is) and ends its life with only a single Emerium Beam. It seems like a rather ignoble end to the Chibull scientist, but I doubt anyone would feel sympathy for a villain who tries to use child soldiers as part of its plan.
The original Chibull’s scheme was based around subterfuge and deflection, manufacturing weapons and disguising them as toys, or gorgeous women. Such disguises brought it terrifyingly close to sparking a war which certainly would have destroyed humanity. In contrast, the next example of a Chibull villain in the franchise, Exceller in Ultraman Ginga S, disregards the disguises entirely and chooses extreme force instead.
Funnily enough, Exceller still makes use of an army of “toys” in its plans – the Spark Dolls, reanimated Kaiju sent to attack Ginga, his partner Ultraman Victory, and the defense team UPG. Another common thread between their plans happens to be their use of blond androids. Exceller has other underlings and generals to help oversee its plans, but it makes use of “Android One-Zero” to infiltrate and sabotage the UPG’s efforts. Unlike her predecessor, who was destroyed by her Chibull creator after her mission failed, “Android One-Zero” escaped from Exceller and later joined the heroes in the fight to protect the Earth from its attacks. She even gained a new name, “Mana” as part of her newfound individual mission.
That’s where the similarities between the original Chibull and Exceller end, however. This time, Exceller’s goal isn’t just to destroy humanity, it wants supreme power from the “Victorium” stones under the Earth’s surface. And when that plan is foiled, it sets its ambitions even higher, attempting to steal the power of Dark Lugiel.
For someone who claims to have the “Greatest Mind in the Universe”, you would think that it would figure out this is a bad idea at some point. Seriously, what is it with villains always trying to wake up and release ancient evil powers in the universe, it never goes well.
Anyways, Exceller is quite a bit different from its predecessor mostly on matters of pride. The unnamed Chibull from Ultraseven stayed hidden, putting its plans into patient motion over a long period of time, and was only seconds from successfully activating those plans when Dan and Soga showed up to stop it. Exceller – much like the name would suggest – set its ambitions to far more lofty goals, but ended up being destroyed by its own hubris.
Chibull aliens have shown up a couple other times in the New Generation Ultraman series, in Ultraman R/B and Taiga. Invariably they are mad scientists with unfortunate god-complexes, trying to make up for their diminutive stature by creating even more terrifying robots, monsters and other life-forms to use as weapons. But we’ve seen lots of variety in other recurring aliens in the franchise, maybe one day a Chibull scientist will learn from its predecessors’ mistakes and use their brains to help the side of good, instead of selfish ambitions for once.
In the meantime, the Ultra heroes and their allies will always be there to stop those selfish ambitions, and that fact won’t change.
