Shigeru Furuhashi

Shigeru Furuhashi (フルハシ・シゲル, Furuhashi Shigeru), aka Ultra 3, is one of the members of the UG in Ultraseven. At the start of the series, he was 29 years old, and had been a member for 7 years.

History[]

Ultraseven[]

Coming from a wealthy family that lived in Hokkaido ^{Return to the North!}, Furuhashi is rather comedic as he suffered injuries when dealing with certain situations, such as convincing Zero One that he was Dan Moroboshi ^{Operation Android Zero}, etc. Despite this, he is very serious when dealing with alien attacks, such as nearly self destructing his ship when it was attacked by Alien Cannan. ^{Return to the North!}

Heisei Ultraseven[]

Approximately 10 years later,^[1] in an alternate universe where Ultraseven was the only Ultra to have come to Earth, Furuhashi was promoted to captain of the Ultra Guard, now with members Kaji, Lisa, and Togo. He attended a meeting to discuss global warming and came to see the Hyper Solar System, urging Professor Kusuhara to escape when it malfunctioned. When a girl was detected near the satellite dish, Furuhashi was certain that she was an alien and related to the incident. Maintaining his straightforward personality from years prior, he scolded Kaji for thinking nothing of the girl, as well as when he was unable to find a kaiju or alien capable of causing the damage in their database, claiming he "lacked guts".

Furuhashi and Kaji were later called to a hangar where they discovered Ultraseven's body was being stored. Seeing him injured and unconscious, Furuhashi grew emotional, impassioned that Seven was still protecting Earth after all this time. When the Alien Pitt's saucer threatened to fire a laser at the building, Furuhashi refused to leave Seven behind. Kaji in turn refused to leave Furuhashi, and they argued until Kaji declared that he would stay as well, convincing Furuhashi to leave. The laser then struck the building, causing it to collapse on top of the Ultra. While Furuhashi was initially distraught, he shed a tear of joy upon seeing Ultraseven leap out of the rubble and head into battle. After the fight was won, Furuhashi and the others happily watched him depart Earth once more. ^{Ultraseven - Operation: Solar Energy}

During Alien Metron's second invasion attempt, Furuhashi never met Dan Moroboshi despite him utlizing his human form on Earth, only hearing from Kaji and Lisa that they had encountered a wanderer who called him by his surname instead of by any honorific. When Ultraseven eventually appeared to combat Alien Metron and Dinosaur, he was thrilled, having known it was him and calling him reserved. In the Ultra Hawk No.1, he aided the Ultra in the fight, launching a missile to clear the dark clouds and allow him to absorb the sunlight. However, after winning the battle, Ultraseven was engulfed in Ecopolis's self-destruction and vanished, though Furuhashi was certain he had survived once again. ^{Ultraseven - Planet of the Earthlings}

At some point after this, a certain incident occurred that presumably took the lives of either his 2 fellow crew and, according to the novelizations, some TDF members. He told Kaji, his only known surviving crewmate, that he's enough with such sacrifices. That infuriated Kaji, who blamed him for his bad decisions, and he ultimately quit the Ultra Guard. ^{Legends and Glory}

Some years after, Furuhashi was promoted to a staff officer of the TDF and a new UG team was formed. ^{Lost Memory} Dan took the appearance of one of its new members, Masaki Kazamori, while hiding his body within a kaiju capsule. While he had only briefly seen Kazamori like this, Furuhashi realized that it was Dan, but by the time he gleefully confronted him, Dan had already swapped back, leaving him and the other UG members utterly confused by his claims. ^{Eternal Earth} After the Banderas incident was settled, he finally met with Dan after he pretended to be his chauffeur back home from the TDF's base. Furuhashi revealed to him that he would soon be a grandfather and they agreed that humans continue to grow as the next generations take over. As they shook hands, Furuhashi told him Earth would welcome him anytime he gets the chance to visit. After Dan turned into Ultraseven and flew back into space, Furuhashi couldn't help but shout Dan's name one more time. ^{Betrayal Sun}

On the day of his retirement from the TDF, he, along with several others, was attacked during Alien Valkyrie's rampage in the Moon Base. Forcing his men to abandon him for their own survival, the staff officer decided to take his last stance against the mysterious invader alone. Wandering in the dying base, he encountered the gaseous alien who quickly tried to repeat what it had done to those dead soldiers on Furuhashi. Refusing to be subdued by the invader, Furuhashi used his last strength to point his gun at himself and shoot. When Dan arrived, Furuhashi entrusted things to him in his final moments, saying, "I can feel your warm heart." ^{Legends and GloryUltraseven EPISODE: 0}

However, it was later revealed that he was revived and was sent to Earth 10,000 years ago to witness the destruction of their homeland at the hands of the invaders, the latter became the ancestors of humans. He was put into suspended animation until a disguised Nonmalt opened the ancient casket that contained him for Dan. After revealing to Dan the truth about the Nonmalts and humanity, he urged him to side with the latter believing that they are capable of forgiving their ancestor's mistakes. After Ultraseven killed Zabangi and separating Kazamori from him, Furuhashi returned to Moon Base. He announced the entire universe that the Friendship Plan, which was implemented by his ex-crewmember (Kaji), was abolished and the beginning of peace between it and the Earth. Dan, who was with him, told him that he won't be able to watch the said peaceful fate given what he had done during his battle with Zabangi. However, he admitted that he loved the Earth so much despite that he didn't know about it. Furuhashi, knowing Dan was both a friend and an Earthling to him, offered his and the Earthlings' protection for him. Dan turned down his offer and instead revealed his true identity to him and left to face his awaited punishment. ^{I Am an Earthling}

Ultraseven EVOLUTION[]

Although not appearing in the EVOLUTION OV series, he briefly appeared in its novel adapation wherein he participated in rebuilding the TDF Far East Branch, which was destroyed during the events of EVOLUTION series. ^{Ultraseven EVOLUTION}

Gallery[]

Ultraseven[]

Heisei Ultraseven[]

Miscellaneous[]

Trivia[]

• According to an interview in 2022 with Sandayu Dokumamushi and Kazuho Mitsuta, Furuhashi was originally to be named Keita (圭太, Keita) according to the script of episode 24 "Return to the North!" but it was changed to Shigeru (盛/シゲル), named after one of the lighting staff, Shigeru Arai, during the production of the said episode. Additionally, it was revealed that the Japanese kanji spelling for "Furuhashi" is "古橋".^[2] However, his original name was used in Jiro Kuwata's manga adaption of Ultraseven.
  • In the same episode, Furuhashi’s name is revealed when his mother calls him "Shigeru." According to Dokumamushi's interview, he was very pleased to learn Furuhashi's first name.^[3]
• His actor, Sandayu Dokumamushi, previously played Daisuke Arashi in the first series, Ultraman.^[4]
  • Dokumamushi has stated that, for his iconic roles in both Ultraman and Ultraseven, he initially hoped to distinguish the characters through different portrayals. He proposed to the director that using props such as glasses, facial hair, or additional marks on his face could highlight the differences between the characters, since the two series were produced approximately six months apart. He believed this approach would be more appropriate if Arashi and Furuhashi were presented as entirely separate individuals. However, the director and production team decided not to focus on these details and chose to keep the characters as originally designed. Consequently, Dokumamushi continued with the original portrayal, and he was surprised to find that audiences perceived him as different actors playing the roles in the two series.^[5][6]
  • Additionally, Bin Furuya mentioned, "Compared to SSSP's Arashi, Furuhashi's character might be closer to Dokumamushi's own personality.^[3]
• In episode 24, Furuhashi is seen returning to his hometown in Hokkaido with the collar of his coat turned up, a performance that was actually inspired by Ken Takakura. Dokumamushi even specifically asked Director Kazuho Mitsuta if I could perform like Takakura.^[3]
• In the non-canon 2016 novel Ultraman F, it is revealed that Shigeru is the twin brother of SSSP member Daisuke Arashi. Both men were orphaned as children, and Daisuke was adopted into the Arashi family as a child.
• Shigeru Furuhashi lives in Hokkaido the same place where Kohji Moritsugu, the actor of Dan Moroboshi and Ultraseven's voice actor, was born.

• In the special chapter "Morobushi Routine" of ULTRAMAN, an SSSP combat division member and subordinate of Dan named Furuhashi (古橋, Furuhashi) appeared alongside another member named Amagi (天城, Amagi) in the underground shooting training room. He is very likely to be a reference to the canon Shigeru Furuhashi.

References[]

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190410073125/http://www.vap.co.jp/u-seven/old/history.html
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k0S-oPgREI
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} https://hochi.news/articles/20221207-OHT1T51167.html?page=1
4. ↑ https://hochi.news/articles/20221207-OHT1T51166.html?page=1
5. ↑ https://www.asagei.com/excerpt/314026
6. ↑ https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/26811458/