#mochiron

Tokutember 2020 19/30: “Wooden”

Mochiron from Ultraman Taro ep. 39

23 icons of Miss Grintier from the series Mochiron, Isharyouseikyuu Itashimasu from debut chapter to current last appearance.  Icons sized 100x100. free to use & editable

*icons are from the manga and other official sources (ex; the Official Anthologies)

People have talked about the Ultraman Taro episode about Christmas, but it’s worth pointing out that the very next episode, 39, is about New Year, as well as about Japan’s relationship with Christmas and with their own traditions. It’s an episode with subtext that I can’t make justice but I can try to write about.

It’s also the debut of Mochiron, the mochi monster. This monster:

Now, what IS mochi? It’s a popular, dumpling-like candy made of rice paste. 

And what does this monster, that looks like a weird tree trunk thingy, have to do with mochi, you may be wondering? It actually becomes clear at the end of the episode, but I won’t spoil that bit. It’s a nice surprise that is actually foreshadowed.

Anyway, the episode begins with two main characters finding a leftover christmas star a few days after the festivity, wich they casually give to a passing kid to play with. One character laments that da kids nowadays don’t care too much about January, and that only the adults do so, as we see some people making mochi. 

The characters then come across a group of kids from an orphanage run by one old man, and decide to make mochi for them, much to the kids happiness and enthusiasm. The old man tries to make mochi himself but it’s too much for him, as it involves smashing rice with a giant hammer, leaving it to series protagonist Kotaro instead.

That’s when the giant monster Mochiron shows up. He comes from the moon, Mary Poppins style, but instead of an umbrella he has some weird metal zeppelin tied to a long cable. Mochiron eats the mochi the characters were making. All of it. Because he finds it delicious. Then simply floats aways, not caring about leaving the kids without mochi. And that’s terrible.

The whole sequence is so silly, funny and surreal...

...it can’t possibly prepare us for what suddendly happens in between it all... 

The thing that happens is sudden and unexpected (at least to a non-japanese like me) and the episode just carries on like nothing, but it just can’t be unseen... I can’t properly describe the experience of getting to this part and watching the rest of the episode with an eerie feeling in the back of my mind, so if you are interested in knowing first-hand what I’m talking about, this is your last chance to go watch the episode yourself. Ultraman Taro, episode 39.

Alright, so, remember that old man running the orphanage? The one that tried to make mochi? In between Mochiron’s glutouny, he starts reacting weirdly, like he’s having an episode or something, AND THEN for a few seconds a bunch of black-and-white photographs flash one after another, depicting a younger version of the man as a soldier, looking up to the sky in fear and then getting inside a basement or bunker alongside some civilians. The old man is having war flashbacks.

Then Mochiron, who has eaten all the mochi, flies away towards the other adults that were also making mochi. We witness a second set of flashback photos from one of them, who spins around crazily as pieces of mochi fall over him, shouting “It’s a bomb”. Indeed, the photos this time are of planes, throwing bombs, as well as one of the National Diet Building.

As mentioned, the episode continues on like any other (at least, like one would expect from an Ultraman Taro episode): Mochiron eats all the mochi, the good guys try to fight him with planes to no avail, Mochiron spins away at high speed like Sonic the Hedgehog, the good guys are unable to find him, the orphans are sad because no mochi, Kotaro meets a certain character from a previous Ultra series who explains what Mochiron is, we learn that it was created from the dreams and prayers of japanese people as they saw a crater in the moon as a rabbit making mochi (you may have noticed that Japan tends to associate the moon with rabbits in all kinds of media), they find Mochiron in a mountain and try to reason with him, as it turns out he can talk, but he’s stubborn so they decide to sort it out with a nice traditional sumo wrestrling match as Kotaro turns into Taro, then Taro’s father shows up and the stuff that I don’t want to spoil happens...

In the end all is well and good, the mochi is made, everyone is happy, especially the orphans who get to eat mochi, and Mochiron is returned to the moon...

And I just can’t stop thinking about those war flashback pictures. Fortunately, the episode hasn’t forgotten about them either, and decides to tie the loose end with some more, non-diegetic black and white photographs, this time of babies. Healthy, alive, chubby happy babies. Most likely taken after the war shown in the previous pictures. It’s an optimistic ending.

This all may seem random at first to a non-japanese guy like me, but it doesn’t take too much research to put all the story elements together.

Remember how the episode took place soon after christmas, in the last days of december? In Japan christmas tends to be celebrated as something fun and exotic, even romantic, christianity not being very common as a religion. It’ was likely one of several things brought over from the west after World War 2.

And remember how that one character talked about kids not getting exited about the month of January? Turns out in Japan it’s tradition to make Mochi during the last days of December and to eat it during the early days of January.

Now, the episode doesn’t seem to demonize christmas’s place in Japan like one may expect. I mean, the previous episode used it as the setting rather nicely, and the main character here is happy to give a christmas star to a kid. The other character lamenting the shift of holiday enthusiasm is also quickly brushed aside in favor of making those orphan kids happy, and later the priority becomes protecting people from a rampaging monster, and all the while a nice tradition is shown to still be alive and well.

This episode seems to paint an interesting picture, about acknowledging the past and the present, but while focusing on what’s really important as time continues to go on, while looking with optimism towards the future. It may sound hard to believe that a 70s superhero episode about a monster that looks like a tree pot could carry all this stuff with it, but that’s Ultraman Taro for you.