Ultraterrific!

Ahh, the glory that is the Book-off chain of book stores within Japan. For a buck, I picked up this pictorial collection of Ultraman's first set of Villains from his first (of innumerable) series. Without further ado, here are some of his baddest 怪獣 (kaiju = strange creatures.)












First up is ベムラー or Bemular, a dinosaur-ish creature from outer space who guested in the Big U's first ever episode.








One of my favourites and one of the more popular baddies is バルタン星人 or Alien Baltan an entire race of Crustaceans who must taste quite yummy with garlic butter.





This guy, ネロンガ or Neronga
can turn invisible, eat electricity and shoot rays from his horn.







アントラー or Antlar (a Scarab Beetle-type kaiju, that Wiki says looks like an ant-lion, yet I don't see it), regardless, he looks cool.







Another really popular dinosaur-like monster is レッドキング or Red King who started back in '66 and has shown up in most incarnations of his series.






ギャンゴ actually started off as a sentient meteor who can take on the shape of whatever one dreams up. A thief thought up Gyango and the rest is wacky Ultraman history.






A Rodan clone with feathers: Roc & Roll ヒドラ (Hidora)!








Forget about Sodom, we proudly present Gomorrah! Actually ゴモラ or Gomora can burrow like an insectivore and is named after "Go Mole!"






Woo-hoo! I really like this Yeti-wannabee, Woo.









Finally we see Ultraman giving noogies to ザンボラー or Zambolar a dimetrodon-esque creature that can generate intense heat and start forest fires.






Stay tuned, I've got two more of these books to go!