This week we look at two more episodes of Ultra Q.  Garamon makes a surprise return in Garamon Counterattacks.  Will he be less derpy?

In the 1/8 Project, Yuriko accidentally undergoes “voluntary” over-population reduction.

John and Eugene discuss.

Garamon Counterattacks Episode Synopsis

A strange man approaches the Astronomical Physics Lab at night.  He uses a small, hand-held radio device to remotely open the safe, freeing the Tilsonite meteorite that previously acted as the electronic brain controlling the invading robot Garamon.  The meteor flies out the window and leaves with the strange man.

Yuri awakes Jun and Ippei with the bad news.  With the meteor on the loose, the Garadamas meteor may be on their way for a second invasion – and, in fact, they are.  Not just one this time, but a whole swarm.  They head to the radio lab to consult with an expert.

The strange man, meanwhile, has the meteorite in a cello case and has hitched a ride out of Tokyo to Haruna via a commercial truck.  Along the way, he launches the attack.

The signals are detectable, though, and Jun, Yuri, Ippei, and the radio expert give chase, eventually catching up with the truck and the strange man, who runs off on foot.  Hordes of Garamon have now hatched and are wrecking Tokyo.

They chase the strange man until he is finally shot.  They recover the meteorite and seal it in a radio-suppressing bag, causing the invading Garamon to “die.”

The strange man isn’t dead yet and he reveals his true form.  He walks out into the lake as a spacecraft rises from the depths.  His mission is a failure, they kill him and fly off.

Oh, the day may be saved once more, but as long as the indestructible meteorite remains on Earth, the Garamon may return again someday.

The 1/8 Project Episode Synopsis

Tokyo is a crowded place.  Trains stations, doubly so.  Yuriko is crushed beneath the feet of the inexorable rush of people.  Remember this for later.

Sometime later, Jun, Ippei, and Yuriko are passing a building.  There’s quite the commotion as crowds of people are applying for something called the ⅛ Project.  People accepted into the project will be given homes in the all-new Model District 8.  Young and old are welcome.  They will be free from paying taxes.  Free from the Citizens’ Three Obligations.  Free to have as many children as they like, with costs paid by the government.  They will live in a beautiful, paradise-like model pre-planned community.  Yuriko can’t believe what she’s hearing until she learns the catch.

In an effort to reduce environmental and population stress, the new citizens of Model District 8 must be miniaturized to ⅛ of their current size.  She thinks that’s inhuman, but owing to an elevator mix-up, she ends up in the shrinking machine.

She’s welcomed into District 8 at the Immigrations office by the Mayor and a welcoming committee.  She’s informed she must forget her old life and even her old name.  We only go by numbers here.  You are number 6.  No, that’s not right.  You are number 103924.

Sadly, before she can start her new life, immigrations figures out she wasn’t approved to enter and she’s sent to jail, where she’s put in a cell with a hungry giant.  He wants to be shrunk, but he’s too big for the current machine.  He takes pity on Yuriko and helps her escape by lowering her captivity box out the window… and into a stream.

Things are looking bad when some children fish the box out of the stream and give it to a pair of nuns, who decide to return it to District 8.  Yuri awakens and talks with them, convincing them to drop her off at Jun’s airline.  They do, but Jun and Ippei aren’t there.

Yuri is startled by a photo of herself on the desk.  Jun and Ippei soon return and Yuri does what any sensible person who’s been shrunk and has come looking for help from her friends – she hides.

Jun and Ippei enter.  Ippei is holding balloons.  He sees the mysterious box from District 8 sitting on the desk and thinks it looks like a great place to secure the balloons.  Jun and Ippei discuss that the 7 days of mourning for Yuriko have passed and that Ippei should get rid of the picture now, but just at that moment an important job comes in and they leave.

Heartbroken, for some reason, Yuriko gets back into the box… somehow takes the box outside and somehow changes the laws of physics to that the box, and herself, can be carried aloft.

Soon, on a crowded, bustling urban street, two giants appear Jun and Ippei.  They are stopped by a tiny policeman and told they’re causing a disturbance and need to leave.

They will, but they’re looking for a friend and they’ll leave when they find her.  They wander the streets causing mass panic and wrecking a few bits of buildings in the process until finally, they come upon Yuriko in her apartment, with her giant camera.

Jun wants to take her away to Professor Ichinotani to see if they can reverse the process, but she wants Jun to leave and forget about her.  She flees the apartment into the crowded hallways that are filled with panicked people escaping the giants. Yuriko is crushed beneath the feet of the inexorable rush of people.

I did tell you to remember that for later.

Yuriko is in hospital, recovering from being crushed in the train station.  Jun and Ippei have come to see her and, when she awakens, she is overjoyed to learn they’ve been shrunk, too, and now she won’t be lonely.

Jun signals for Ippei to get her a doctor.