Ultraman Ace (lost Hiroshima attack sequence scene from Japanese TV series episode; 1972)

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EW3CTx5UMAA3Yy2.jpg

A still from the lost deleted scene.

Status: Lost

Ultraman Ace (ウルトラマンA(エース), Urutoraman Ēsu) is the 5th show in the Ultra series. Produced by Tsuburaya Productions, the series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System from April 8th, 1972 to March 31st, 1973, with a total of 52 episodes. Starting from this show, the series has a superhero fantasy feel to it. This show also marked the first time every previous Ultra-Brother (Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Zoffy) make an appearance together. However, in recent years, several photos have appeared on the internet of a mysterious scene that was cut from the first episode that depicted a choju, Velokron, attacking Hiroshima and destroying the Genbaku Dome. No known official DVD release has included this scene. However, it may be possible that it survives on bootlegs, as an image of the scene being played on a DVD does exist.

Before Filming

In 1967, Tsuburaya Productions, the company who created the Ultra series, found themselves in hot water after creating an alien (Alien Spell) for the TV series Ultraseven that was modeled after a victim of nuclear radiation. Immediate backlash fell as the appearance and the subtitle for Alien Spell, "Hibaku Alien", made many critics and parents extremely angry because of how Tsuburaya was using a tragedy as a basis for an Alien Creature. Because of the backlash, Tsuburaya made sure the episode never aired in Japan again, and never released it on any official home media release of Ultraseven. However, they did include the episode for American broadcast when Ultraseven aired in 1975 and 1994.

The Scene

The scene was always meant to take place in Hiroshima City, As Moriichi Ichikawa, main scriptwriter of the first episode of Ultraman Ace, and inserted it in the script as a scene to show distress as a monster destroys a symbol of peace (The Genbaku Dome). But the opinions of the TV station in Hiroshima Prefecture, survivors of the atomic bombing, and various considerations from the writing team effected the scene. Because of this, the scene of Verokron's attack was changed from Hiroshima City, to Fukuyama City.

After Filming

After the removal of the scene, it was made unclear if the scene even existed or not, and it only existed as a playground myth for many years. But as time moved on, and information was made more readily available with the invention of the internet, images of the scene slowly appeared emerging online. To this day, nobody knows exactly how the images appeared online, some speculate that it was simply some obscure Ultra series related magazine or book that went un-documented and un-digitized on the internet.

The Scene Today

Although the scene is still relatively obscure in the Ultra series' Fandom, The fans who are aware of it's existence regard it as an infamous scene that they're glad was cut. But other's have reacted with curiosity and an interest in discovering and finding the cut footage (if it still exists). This curiosity eventually led to the discovery of an image of the scene playing on a TV that was on a Japanese blog post. This solidified the fact that the scene still exists, but on an unknown (possibly bootlegged) DVD release since the scene is not known to be on any official DVD release of Ultraman Ace. As of 2020, no contact attempts have been made to this user.

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