Ultraman Leo

"The eye of the lion is shining...Ultraman...Leo!"

Ultraman Leo was a Tokusatsu series that was part of the Ultra Series. It ran from 1974-1975.

The alien Magma, intergalactic slavers, come to Earth to attempt to find more slaves for their expanding evil empire. However, the Ultra Warriors have sent an Ultra to protect the Earth from the Magma--Ultra Seven.

The Magma, along with a slew of monsters, overwhelm Seven and injure his leg. Just as Seven is about to be killed, a red giant comes to save him. Driving off the Magma and defeating the monsters, the mysterious red giant reveals himself to be Leo from Nebula L77, a neighboring galaxy near the Ultra Nebula M78. Experiencing the same situation as the Ultras, Leo's people (called the Galactic Lion people) also underwent a physical transformation into beings of light.

The Galactic Lion people were subjugated as slaves of the Magma, and being one of the people who has been on the run and fighting the Magma across the galaxy, Leo has tracked them down on Earth.

Ultra Seven, seriously wounded, requests that Leo take his place as the resident Ultra Warrior on Earth, and bestows upon Leo the title of "Ultraman Leo". Ultra Seven, as Moroboshi Dan, agrees to stay with Leo to train him as a mentor. Leo takes on the form of human "Ootori Gen" (a human guise rather than merging with an existing human), and with Dan, joins the M.A.C.--yet another monster fighting science patrol crew.

Over the course of his assignment on Earth, Leo reunites with his twin brother Astra, who escaped the slave pits of the Magma, and joins with Leo to combat evil monsters. Leo also meets up with the legendary, all-powerful Ultraman King, who comes to save Leo and Astra on a particularly disastrous fight.

The other Ultra brothers also come to help Leo and Astra, and occasionally gets help from the recovering Ultra Seven, proving his worth as an Ultra Warrior.

Tropes used in Ultraman Leo include:

• Adaptation Expansion
• Alien Among Us
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: A tragic example
• Back for the Finale: Ultraseven
• Badass: Leo, so very much. His later appearance on Ultraman Mebius, Ultra Galaxy the Movie and the straight-to-DVD Ultra Galaxy Gaiden solidified this even more. ESPECIALLY in the Ultra Galaxy Gaiden, damn...
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Every Ultra has their own fighting style... but Leo will kick everyone's ass at fisticuffs range. Somewhat amusingly, by the time he shows up in Mebius, he seems to have actually become a monk.
• Big Bad: Alien Magma, but he eventually gets killed off by Leo. He's replaced in the last 12 episodes by Commander Black, who is much worse and Dangerously Genre Savvy.
• Big Damn Heroes: Leo pulls this in the pilot by saving Ultraseven. Both Astra and Ultraman King would do this several times in the series. The boys and girls Gen trained pull one in the final battle by beating and stomping the BigBad to death so Leo can kill off his final monster.
  • Leo saving Zero in the Ultra Galaxy Gaiden and it was AWESOME.
  • The Ultra Brothers in Episodes 38 & 39. They don't call that the Ultra Rumble for nothing!
• Bloodier and Gorier: Evident from Ep.1 onwards. Ultraseven's leg is literally bent out of shape with bones cracking and everything.
  • The sound effect used was appropriate given the level of violence. Also, see Darker and Edgier below.
• Boring Invincible Hero: Averted with Leo (throughout) and Seven (see above). And, in a depressing turn, with MAC.
• Broken Ace: Seven
• By the Power of Grayskull : He yells out, "Reo!"
• Cane Fu: Dan keeps human-sized aliens at bay, and even terrorized (um, trained) Gen a couple of times, with his crutch.
• Changing of the Guard
• Chekhov MIA: Astra, whom Leo presumed dead after L77 was destroyed, showed up in Episode 22 to save his brother from two kaijus. Seven vanished in Episode 40, but appeared in a vision in the last episode.
• Chekhov's Gunman / Beware the Nice Ones : Tohru and his friends
• Colony Drop: After Commander Black is killed, his planet falls to Earth in attempted Taking You with Me, but Leo just blows it up.
  • Planet M-78 in Episodes 38 and 39
• Continuity Nod: Music from Ultraseven (that tragic theme from that show's Ep.39 was Dan's leitmotif, but then the instrumental march theme came up in Ep. 40 when Dan disappeared in thin air before the MAC station was destroyed). Also, the Ultra Eye, Seven's teammates, and even M-78 appear.
• Cool Old Guy: Dan, also Gen when he appeared on Ultraman Mebius many years later
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Commander Black. The Only Ultra Big Bad to decide to ambush the Ultra's support group before they even know he exists and actually wipe them out! He also shows a knack for more complicated planning than his fellows and actually managed to kill Leo once, only being foiled by Ultraman King showing up. He also uses Leo's best friend to hold him hostage in the final battle so Leo will have to let Black End kill him. Also, Bunyo in Episode 50.
• Darker and Edgier: From the very beginning you can tell this isn't gonna be any ordinary Ultra series. The series eventually ends up becoming a huge Kill'Em All fest by the end.
  • You have, among other highlights, a crippled Ultraseven stuck in human form, people crushed, stabbed, shot, sliced in half, team members dying in combat, the whole team is later killed except for the two main characters (Dan vanishes and gets better), graphic kaiju (alien monster) combat and even the graphic dismemberment of a key character.
• Dead Ex Machina: Astra
• Deconstruction: Of the Boring Invincible Hero trope, which Seven represented in his own show.
• Deus Ex Machina: Ultraman King fulfills this role in each of his appearances.
• Deus Exit Machina: UltraSeven; subverted, given Dan's savvy and resourcefulness. Played straight in Episode 40.
• Downer Beginning/It Got Worse
• Dynamic Entry: Leo introduces himself to Magma-seijin foot-first, going between the twin monsters to do so.
  • Commander Black also pulls this off in a way that likely outdoes Leo's. He introduces himself by wiping out MAC, becoming the first, and to date only Ultra villain to successfully destroy the Ultra's support team, forcing Leo and the JSDF to fight him without any help.
    • Speaking of which, Silver Bloome didn't waste any time wiping out MAC and Gen's friends.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Episode 40, with a talking doll no less, after the shopping center was destroyed, killing Momoko, Takeshi and Kaoru.
• Excited Episode Title: The Rhinoceros Beetle is a Space Invader!, Battle! The Leo Brothers vs. The Ultra Brothers, When Seven Dies! Tokyo Submerged
• Expy: There are so many similarities between Leo and Seven. Also, Leo and Bruce Lee, as well as Leo and Superman.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Not just kaijuu and aliens this time...
• Friend to All Children: Gen, who found out just how much children loved him in return at the end.
• Game-Breaking Injury / Shapeshifter Mode Lock : Seven's leg, leaving Dan stuck in human form once he transformed back, which did not preclude him becoming a ...
• Handicapped Badass
• Heroic BSOD: Gen and Tohru right after the events in Episode 40. Dan in Episode 1 after his Shapeshifter Mode Lock.
• Heroic RROD: Seven in Episode 1, Leo many times, the best example being the end of Episode 3.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Anne Yuri in Ep. 29, Fuji and Hayata in Episode 30, Hideki Goh in Episode 34. Dan Moroboshi, too!
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Commander Black would have lived to fight another day had he not taken a hostage, especially not one who would fight back...
• Hour of Power: Only 2min40sec as opposed to 3min... Not that it matters much in practice.
• Human Aliens: Dan, Gen, Commander Black, Bunyo, and others.
• I Can Still Fight: Gen pulls this stunt a few times (Episodes 4 and 39 come to mind) and goes on to save the day. Dan tries this after meeting Gen, and didn't do very well.
• Idiot Hero: Impetuous and rough around the edges, Gen's actions get him and others hurt (or even killed) unless he listens to Dan and trains to the point of exhaustion.
• Improbable Weapon User: Leo must fight a spear-armed Kettle-seijin at one point, way before he ever meets Ultraman King. He's unarmed and at a disadvantage, so what does he do? Rip some red-and-white smokestacks out of a building, bring them together, magically join them with a chain, and voila - NUNCHUCKS.
• Large Ham: Gen and Dan (both engage in frequent Ham-to-Ham Combat), but especially Commander Black.
• Looks Like Cesare: Commander Black (what is it with Ultramen and creepy humanoids, anyway?)
• Mauve Shirt: Some members of MAC, like the young lady who was celebrating a birthday when the Space Station was attacked; and Gen's True Companions. The rest of MAC were Red Shirts, including deaths throughout the show, except the two main characters.
• Mood Whiplash: Compared to Taroh. In-universe, episodes tend to start on a happy note, then verge into horror, then straight into tragedy, on to ass-kicking, then back to happy times and so on. Example: Episode 40, not for the squeamish...
• New Powers as the Plot Demands
  • Leo got more energy beam powers after the first 13 episodes, especially after Astra's arrival. In the beginning, he used brute force, improvised weapons, and even a burning kick or two.
  • From Episode 2 onwards, Dan was able to concentrate and generate some kind of aura he used to weaken kaijus. This power (Urutora Nenriki = Ultra Will-Power) wore him down severely. There was no indication whatsoever in the previous shows that he could do this.
  • Sometimes, Gen could see aliens even in human form.
  • Ultraman King never uses the same power twice!
• Not So Harmless:
  • In human form, Bunyo is bumbling, goofy and can't fight to save his life. Gen gave him a beating on their first encounter. Even Commander Black thought he was worthless. Now, once Bunyo figures who Gen is and he and Black set their plan to get Leo in motion, Mood Whiplash and tears are just around the corner.
  • Alien children invoke the trope.
  • So does the old man handing out flowers left and right in Episode 31. Children were Genre Savvy that time.
• Oh Crap: Dan and Gen are taken by surprise when the alarm sounds and that big dot on the radar approaches the MAC base at high speed...
• Older and Wiser: Two guesses, one for this show and one (actually two) for Mebius and Zero
• Panthera Awesome: The lion motifs used throughout.
• Prop Recycling: Look at Magma and Babalou. From the neck down, they're wearing what looks like an Ultra costume, like the example in the Ultraman Taro page. At least one other alien villain wears something similar.
• Recycled Soundtrack: A few selections from Return of Ultraman and Ultra Seven, yet Leo had lots of original music.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Dan uses his Ultra Will-Power. Coincidentally, Dan is the Blue counterpart to Gen's Red in...
• Red Oni, Blue Oni
• Retool: On Episode 40, the whole show premise changed with Commander Black's arrival and ensuing mayhem. Halfway through the episode, Gen and Tohru move to Mrs. Miyama's place. Gen is unemployed and needs to face emerging threats alone for the first time since he met Dan.
  • A minor one happened after Episode 13, with a more upbeat theme song and Leo's frequent use of energy attacks.
• Stern Teacher: Seven/Dan for Leo/Gen. Later, Leo himself becomes this for Mebius when he appear in Ultraman Mebius and in the new Ultra Galaxy movie, for Ultraseven's son, Ultraman Zero
• Student and Master Team: Zero and Leo in the Ultra Galaxy Gaiden
• There Is Another
• Training from Hell: Gen is trained by Ultraseven to be a martial artist and better Ultra very rigorously. Very, VERY rigorously. How did he train? With Dan Using Cane Fu, boomerangs and even Car Fu, Gen spinning in mid-air like a corkscrew and coming down HARD to land on whatever object or kaijuu he wanted to destroy, and even doing Le Parkour on a mountain ledge.
  • He can be very hard on himself sometimes...
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Episode 50.
• Transformation Trinket: The Leo Ring.
• The Unfettered: Dan wants to protect Leo and humans at all costs. Leo wants to jump in the fray at all times.
• Walking the Earth: Gen, having killed off the Saucer Beasts for good and with Commander Black dead, throws away the Leo Ring and does this. (By the time Mebius comes to Earth, he's tending the Twin Island originally submerged by the Gillas bros in the first episode.)
• Wham! Episode: Eps. 1 (Seven's role in Earth's defense changes dramatically), 3&4 (Leo realizes just how tough his job is), 22 (Astra -- Leo is not the only survivor of L77 after all), 26 (Ultraman King -- the mythical hero appears), 38&39 (The Leo Brothers prove their worth to the Ultra Brothers after a rough start), 40 (Tear Jerker & Retool)
• Wonder Twin Powers: Leo can only use his most powerful attack, the Ultra Double Flasher, when he's together with Astra.
  • They can also use the Ultra Double Spark, which can fix anything, when together.
  • The Gillas Brothers always attack together; in fact, that's how Seven was disabled. They even huddle and spin together.
• Zen Survivor: Dan in this show, Gen in Mebius.
• Zerg Rush: Children pull this on Commander Black in the last episode.