Ultra Seven aired on Japanese TV in 1967. It was created by Eiji Tsuburaya, this follow up to Ultraman went on to become one of Japan’s greatest fantasy TV series. Such is his popularity that Ultra Seven (or simply ‘Seven’) has appeared or at least made cameos in nearly every Ultra Series following his own and has had far more exposure than even the original Ultraman (though the original Ultraman is without a doubt the face of the Ultras).
Ultra Seven was not only visually different from the first Ultraman (being mostly red with a removable crest/weapon and more ‘boxy’-looking eyes), but often faced numerous moral and ethical dilemmas. On one occasion, he was forced to break a promise Dan had made to a young boy who was undergoing an operation in order to protect the hospital from a monster. On another occasion, he was forced to battle the sole survivor of a small planet that was destroyed by a careless weapons test, making him wonder if he was fighting for a worthy cause. On yet another occasion, as Dan, he desperately tried to contact the inhabitants of a space faring city before it was destroyed by the Ultra Garrison, to keep it from crashing into Earth.
Also, Ultraseven did not possess a mortally injured human to use as his host but instead used his powers to scan a brave human that he had saved from being fatally injured and used that human as a template to create a human form for him to shift into. Thus, Dan Moroboshi literally IS Ultraseven while the original Ultraman would instead merge into the body of Shin Hayata to make two beings into one. However the consequence of Ultraseven transforming into a human form is that catastrophic injuries he receives as Ultraseven can and will pass on to his human form of Dan Moroboshi. This was especially shown in episode one of Ultraman Leo when Ultraseven was badly beaten by three monsters and then one of the monsters breaking his right leg. After he reverted to his human form, the injuries were still there and as a result of the injuries as well as the severe energy drain he suffered, Dan was unable to transform back into Ultraseven and his Ultra Eye was damaged in the process. Ultraman Leo, Ultraman 80 and Ultraman Mebius also used their powers to create a human form to transform into and thus they also would share this same weakness as Ultraseven.
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