Plan 9 Crunch: All About Cult Films: The Themes Of Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga

By Joe Gibson

Here on Plan9Crunch I have written articles and even some videos (links at the bottom of the essay) pertaining to major landmark kaiju and tokusatsu franchises (Godzilla, Gamera, Kong and Giant Robo). Indeed, my father Doug Gibson has said that I am the resident kaiju expert on Plan9Crunch. Now whether or not that is true for those subjects I will not say, but the fact is that, as far as Ultraman is concerned, I am barely 2 steps ahead of most of the rest of you. Ultraman is simply too large of a franchise to quickly master, and, before this year, I was content to never even try to dip my toe in. Over thirty shows, over a thousand monsters, the thematic web of Eastern symbolism and Christianity, the multitude of genius suit actors, suit designers and show writers, it is all too much for me to wrap my head around to impart to you, so this is not what that is for. We have released a video as a very rough introduction to Ultraman on the YouTube channel (Getting Into Ultraman - Plan9Crunch), but, for today, we are focused on a very specific chapter in a very specific corner of the Ultraman multiverse (yes, it’s a Multiverse with multiple universes that the Ultramen can switch between at a moment’s notice, don’t question it, at least not yet). Specifically, my focus is on what a specific show seems to be saying about the juxtapositions of war and peace, darkness and light and power and weakness as well as the moral implications of these things.

Ultraman Orb was the 2016 anniversary show and consequently featured gimmicks stacked on gimmicks to sell more toys and cards that I will not mention here, but it was also quite an ambitious project to where the 25 episode series was just one chapter in a planned 10 part story, the story of the leads Gai Kurenai and Jugglus Juggler. Forgive me for spoiling a rivalry built up with a good deal of tension and intrigue, but Gai is the eponymous Ultraman Orb and Jugglus Juggler, katana wielding suit wearing Majin (demon) used to be his close friend. Juggler, within the context of his modern day appearances in Ultraman Orb as well as later series, is a self centered multiversal terrorist that makes unwanted sexual advances toward strangers (it is unclear when he is joking and when he is serious about it), but one that ultimately has the capacity for redemption whether or not he will choose to act on it. Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga, essentially a classic action serial about Gai and Juggler’s first mission together, basically has the task of showing who Juggler was to Gai before and what caused their split.

This leads to the first topic of note. Though it was technically ordered to Amazon Prime Video as the adult alternative to the more kiddy Ultraman Orb main series and is much earlier in the 10 chapter story (Origin Saga is Chapter 1 while the main show is Chapter 6), it is still a prequel and the expectation on the viewer is that they understand the core dynamic of Gai and Juggler. This is evident in how the series builds and releases the tension surrounding the integration of their friendship in the main plot. As they both faced the trial to become Ultraman Orb and both expected Juggler to be chosen, the mission Gai gets from Orbcalibur (the transformation gimmick is a sword, and if that seems arbitrary, Ultraman Zero transforms via eyeglasses) is both Gai and Juggler’s mission. Gai, emotional and reckless, struggles a lot early on as Ultraman Orb, and Juggler, as a more measured, cold and composed counterpart, is an early mentor. This is the opposite of their dynamic in the main show where Gai was a wise loner and Juggler was the hot headed impulsive freak carrying out various acts of terror so his old friend would notice him, and that is where the show first challenges your expectations.

The end of each episode features a teaser for the next one, and I think quite clearly is playing into audience expectations waiting for the shoe to drop and these iconic rivals to become enemies finally, showing the upcoming swordfight between Juggler and Gai…that turns out to be mere sparring training and the still very human Juggler getting infected by the evil armored buglike Bezelve/Bezelb possibly to explain his armored Majin form…but he gets cured almost immediately and the Majin form is something he discovers himself not some curse thrust upon him. The inevitability of his heel turn means that no matter what positive role he has to Gai and or Micott (one of the royal guards of the planet being menaced by the Bezelves), the audience knows he is doomed to fall from grace somehow and also knows it will happen over the course of a war between Dr. Psychi and Empress Amate that Juggler himself warned Gai not to get involved in.

There will be more to say on Juggler in a bit, but the main plot of the show is the invasion of Planet Kanon by Dr. Psychi, and this is the main demonstration of its themes. On the lush Planet Kanon, the very naive Empress Amate rules a peaceful society informed by the wisdom of the Tree of Life that spreads its seeds throughout the universe, is believed to sustain the entire planet and has spread its seeds and associated wisdom throughout the universe, and Amate is capable of calling upon the power of the Tree to become a godlike protector known as the War Deity. Characters later link this same tree with the development of intelligent life throughout the universe.

Conversely, Dr. Psychi rules over the Bezelve (I am using the spellings available to me in the Millcreek closed captions; as I understand it, the more widely accepted spelling is Bezelb, which will be important when we get to where the writers derived that name from) horde in a barren wasteland where the Bezelves infect other beings with a poison called Kugutsu to take over their minds. The Queen Bezelve incubates and distributes this Kugutsu across her subjects, reinforcing a governmental structure but also mimicking the spread of the Tree of Life (this comparison will be important later). Psychi comments on this comparison, and, through Amate’s diplomacy efforts (sending Captain Shinra to talk things out after Psychi’s threat of invasion) the show forces us to hear him out.

Psychi’s thesis is that dystopian peace is better than the suffering of war, and he compares the Kugutsu to the utmost obedience to the Empress that Captain Shinra and the rest of the peacekeeping structure have. In that comparison, the Kugutsu technically has higher efficacy. All of the Bezelves and their slaves cooperate perfectly, whereas Amate’s wartime cabinet are at each other’s throats to where warhawk General Raigo frames Captain Shinra for attempting to assassinate the Empress just so that he can influence Amate to be more radical in her response to the invasion. The flaw with Psychi’s argument is that the very first thing one infected with the Kugutsu does is fight, because fighting increases the amount of Kugutsu in the system, meaning that, ultimately this “peace” is born from constant invasion and suffering. That underlying truth creates two possibilities (Psychi is lying or Psychi is naive), and each would play into a different existing theme.

Psychi is obviously a terrorist invading a sovereign nation for very selfish reasons, but the show allowed us to at least consider his viewpoint. Why do I say that? This conflict, at least initially, notably does not take place on Earth where we, the Earth-bound audience, have a preexisting bias to prioritize our viewpoint and way of life over alien invaders, and Kanon, blank slate as it is, contributes heroic characters but also dissidence in the highest levels of the military structure and confusion in the primary decision maker. (Even in our world, a government with a confused and inept ruler and a bloodthirsty hawkish top General warrants some criticism to say the least.) Most importantly, the heroes of this show are Gai and Juggler, who have nothing to do with Kanon outside of saving it from this invasion. However, this show, through Psychi but also Amate’s own unwillingness to fight back against the invasion for the suffering it would bring, carries the implication that fighting back against oppression can be bad because of the suffering it will bring, but this is a show about Ultraman, who always will fight for what is right no matter the cost to himself (specifically, this is Ultraman Orb, who only spares the kaiju of the week once or twice in the main show). This is a complicated scenario also because other Ultras are in play (badass Ultraman Dyna, pacifist Ultraman Cosmos, and rivals Ultraman Gaia and Ultraman Agul), each of whom had their own show and journey. Consequently, except when expressly relevant, I will try to ignore the later and earlier shows.

The stakes of battle in this conflict tie around control of the Tree of Life (though Psychi threatens to destroy it, he actually wants its fruit as an insurance policy. More on that in a moment) and being under control of the Kugutsu. All monsters and humans beaten by a Bezelve will undergo infection from the Kugutsu (via tail spike insertion), and, as we learn once Juggler falls to it, a seed from the Tree of Life is the only cure. So while Psychi can comment all he wants on the similarities between the structure of the society built around the Tree of Life and the one built around the Kugutsu, and he can claim that the Kugutsu is the safeguard for the rapid expansion of the Tree of Life and its associated side effects of wisdom and war throughout the universe, it is more true that the Tree of Life uniquely can negate the Kugutsu. The Tree of Life reigns over all, and the Queen Bezelve only exists because of it, and Psychi can only carry out his plan because of the wisdom the tree evolved the whole of the universe to bear, while Psychi himself also wants to keep his wisdom, just rob everyone else of theirs.

The series goes on to connect the concept of wisdom to the Tree with the revelation that the Tree of Wisdom’s dispersal through the universe leads to the evolution of reasoned wise man, with Psychi’s ultimate goal to be creating a universe lacking wisdom that leads to the free will to launch wars. However, the War Deity (the benevolent protector giant Empress Amate could choose to become in order to protect her people) and the Queen Bezelve are actually sisters. If this all has seemed very alien and abstract to you, my audience that I presume has very little context for anything Ultraman and far less about the mythology of Planet Kanon, it might start making more sense now. These are warped Christian symbols.

The Tree of Life is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because it is responsible for the wisdom of man throughout the universe, spreading its seeds so that this wisdom but also the ensuing war can reach Earth. Even corrupt warhawk Raigo and his pregnant wife still exist culturally in orbit of the Tree of Wisdom because it reaches the core of every human or humanoid. This could make Kanon the Garden of Eden, as, in the second half of the show, the conflict and our characters move from there to Earth, and, incidentally, Jugglus Juggler as a demon wielding a flaming sword is the reason it does, but we’ll get back to him soon enough. The characters that taste of the fruit of the Tree of Life (need detoxification from the Kugutsu) are Amate, Juggler and Gai, so we will have to examine their character arcs in a moment. (The various monsters under the Kugustu are not important in specifics, because, otherwise it would be absurd to have Birdon as one of Gai’s weak starter villains and equally absurd not to have Red King as one of the monsters brainwashed to fight forever and ever to multiply Kugutsu [Red King loves to fight].)

Queen Bezelve infects the War Deity twice, and, because the other romanization of her species is Bezelb (Beezelbub), it is clear she is a Satan parallel (and her insectoid design is apparently a reference to the devil’s title of “Lord of the Flies”), but, because she is quite literally tempting The War Deity, a protector both divine and human that has an end times prophecy related to the fate of the Queen, that means the War Deity is the Christ figure here. The textual evidence for this comes from the prayer that Amate recites to become the War Deity, wherein she asks the Tree of Life to consume her flesh, an inversion of the sacrament. However, this takes us from mainstream back into a niche because the idea of Christ and Satan as siblings strikes me as uniquely Mormon.

In Mormon lore, Lucifer presented an alternative plan and destiny for humanity where they lack free will entirely and all go to heaven because they commit no sins. A third part (category designation more than mathematical calculation) of the host of heaven follows Satan out, and demons go on to possess people up to Christ’s time, similarly to how the Kugutsu overtakes a person. Psychi’s plan through Queen Bezelve is to prevent war through Kugutsu mind control, ensuring peace at the cost of wisdom. (I should also clarify that the Queen also wants to spread the Kugutsu through the universe but also presumably wants Psychi under its influence and without the robot companion Partel he built using wisdom, so both villains are Mormon Lucifer coded in their goals, just one more than the other.) While I hesitate to say any similarity to Mormonism in media is intentional, the similarity is uncanny.

As humanity evolved its wisdom from the Tree of Life, Gai's ascension into Being of Light Ultraman Orb and Juggler’s journey into his Majin form must be considered a form of evolution in this universe. Indeed, Shohei the earthling who evolves onscreen from the Tree to gain a form of telepathy with Amate mirrors how Juggler describes the exponential growth of Gai after attaining his evolution. It is all somewhat miraculous, and the envy from the characters unable to tap into this corrupts them (Juggler constantly muses about how he feels betrayed by himself but also by destiny for not being chosen, and the form that he does attain is that of a demon born from his suffering), but the fear of losing it also motivates Raigo’s hawkish actions and the confused mistakes Amate and Shohei make in trusting The Queen on their respective planets that almost plunge the entire universe into chaos. Saying this all still feels like the religious symbolism holds, especially because The Queen is a deceptive villain, posturing herself as a sympathetic fallen angel being used by Psychi in order to get a clear shot of Kugutsu into the War Deity multiple times.

The only complicated thing here is that there seem to be multiple characters applicable for Christ and Satan appointments. Psychi could represent Lucifer, but Queen Bezelve has the Mormon sibling relationship to The War Deity, who is both God and woman. Actually, Psychi does end up having to merge with the Queen for the final battle in this show, so that is intact as far as Christ and Shadow relationships go. To whatever extent we can question how different Amate is from the War Deity, we can also question that for Psychi and Bezelve in their final form. However, where do Gai and Juggler fit into this? As a being of Light that is also a man sent to Earth to save the world, Gai is already suited to be a Christ figure, and he suffers through the temptation of the Kugutsu just like Amate. Moreover, while there is no sacrament symbolism in his power, the prophecy of the Crusader’s Peak where Gai and Juggler try to attain the power talks of a Gifted One, and Crusader’s Peak literally choses Gai to be that Gifted One by Anointing him with the color timer, making Gai an Anointed One, which is a name for Christ, whatever.

A large part of Gai's arc in the main series is dealing with losing himself to his extreme power and forgiving himself for the mistakes made when under the influence of darkness and light. The setup for Ultraman Orb the main series is that he has lost his original form Orb Origin due to the trauma of accidentally killing a former lover while dealing with a powerful monster called Maga Zetton, and that is why he is a fusion Ultra (one of the gimmicks of the show) that has to use the cards of previous Ultra heroes to transform into a hero. Eventually, after a lot of development while fighting Jugglus Juggler, Gai unlocks Orb Origin once more as his final form of the show but also technically his base form. Orb Origin in the main show is predominantly a black and silver design with some red highlights, but the version of Orb Origin that appears in The Origin Saga is red and silver with small black sections.

Here is where we must examine Gai and Juggler in terms of what they gain and what they lose. They both want to be the Gifted One Crusader of Light, and Juggler is physically better in almost every category, but something about Gai makes him special. After getting Orbcalibur from the Light, Gai begins to exponentially increase physically, particularly in endurance using his Ultraman Orb form, in offensive capabilities and in his wisdom. Juggler’s Majin form is a dark reflection and inversion of this but also still additive. Where Juggler’s strength was in offense and he already carries a sword, his Majin form gives him armor, and, while his sanity was starting to slip from the moment Orbcalibur chooses Gai instead of him, the Majin form gives him a sense of clarity and purpose, gaining the wisdom that the Tree of Life is the centerpiece of the conflict. Once on Earth at his most enlightened, Gai will protect the Tree from whoever is attacking it, but at Juggler’s most enlightened on Kanon, he chops the tree down, ending the fighting but at a great cost. Ultimately, as I discussed, Juggler's sanity resume and continue its downward spiral, but in this cosmic cosmological battle, where the options were defend the Tree of Life or conquer it, Juggler found a third option using the same slicing technique he'll use in the third to last episode of the main show to draw Orb out for their fight.

The main thing that keeps these two from being the Christ and Satan of this story is that this is just the prequel. Gai’s greater temptation with darkness happens far later, and Juggler from now until his latest appearance shows and films later is just too dynamic of a character to be any static allegory, and, to my understanding Juggler is also the Ultraman equivalent of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, a villain far too beloved and charismatic to stay a villain. Even on this show, aired after the main show and playing with imagery from it, Juggler never does take the full plunge into evil that we expect him to.

While I watched this show the first time, I had the suspicion and even the hope that Gai would find himself infected by the Kugutsu at some point but be able to shake it off himself, at the cost of staining his original suit dark. That does not happen, but my thought process was that it wouldn’t be a contrivance since the inciting incident of this story is the inferior in skill and mental acuity (at least compared to Juggler) Gai being chosen to be Ultraman Orb, and it would be interesting for him to be the one chosen to be a being of light because of incorruptibility. Standard prequel stakes already apply to where we know he cannot die or stay evil, and it would make his later brief corruption all the more frustrating for him if he started his journey functionally incorruptible.

However, they chose a different path for this plot point. Orb Origin changes color very abruptly with no explanation toward the end of the show, but Gai does undergo Kugutsu corruption. It is actually Juggler who pulls Gai out of it though, and this connects back to the main show (sorry to spoil it here). The thing that ends up redeeming Juggler is that twice (the original fight against Maga Zetton and against Magatano Orochi at the end) Juggler actually saves Gai’s explicit or implied romantic interest. The specifics for why are not exactly clear, though it seems pretty blatant that Juggler is 1 still in love with Gai 2 still attracted to the idea of fighting alongside an Ultra and 3 might have some level of attraction to Naomi the second of these damsels (she actually brings up one of his earlier sexual innuendos back to him as the final push he needs to fight alongside Gai). This show actually offers forth a new explanation that is quite interesting.

I’ve brought up the birth of Juggler’s Majin form as significant a few times, but this is where I can reveal exactly what happens. Because of his own festering resentment for being passed over by destiny to become Ultraman Orb, he is very antisocial to the Kanon royal guard he encounters, especially Micott, who takes a special interest in him. Micott practically throws herself at Juggler, most likely romantically but explicitly through wanting him as a teacher with his special swordplay style. In the final battle of Kanon midway through the show, Micott is fighting a Bezelve, and Juggler can see exactly the mistake she is about to make but has not trained her not to make it and so cannot stop the Bezelve from killing her. In a fury, Juggler kills the Bezelve and every Bezelve he can find, eventually tapping into a rage dark enough to adorn his body in a demon armor. Though Juggler tries to corrupt Gai the same way he was corrupted over the next few hundred years in universe, he cannot actually bring himself to do this to Gai, because this is one of the worst experiences of his entire life, and that is why he saves Natasha and Naomi in the main story.

Proceeding from this point in the prequel though, this new Majin form, a new power only Juggler has to counterbalance the unique power of Ultraman Orb he wanted, Juggler now has the clarity to understand that the Tree of Life is the centerpiece of this conflict. Juggler, flying in his demon form, flaming sword in hand, chops down the Tree of Life in order to eject our main characters and conflict from this setting. The characters who stay on Kanon, symbolizing Garden of Eden, are no longer important to this story, as Amate, Shinra and Ricca (Micott’s partner) all follow Gai to Earth. Though these characters will eventually return to Kanon after the conflict is resolved, their God their War Deity is now divorced from them after Jugglus Juggler, a demon who has tasted from the Tree of Life, transgresses on their soil.

And the Earth arc is where things get even more complicated. The Ultra series is set in a multiverse where most Ultras protect their own Earth, but this is not the same Earth that Ultraman Orb finds himself on in the main show, nor is it the Earth of Ultraman Gaia and Ultraman Agul, the Ultras Orb meets on this Earth. At the same time, this is where the more elaborate of Queen Bezelve’s manipulations happens, so the twists and turns of the show, the moments where the characters decide and revise their decision of who is the more immediate enemy the Bezleves or Psychi or the Earth military forces, add to the somewhat jumbled confusion we have already been parsing. Whether intentional confusion or not, it gets much more complicated, but I believe I have isolated the thematic concepts whose throughlines carry through the end of the show. I have not had other thoughts to compare notes with in making this, which is part of why this has taken so long to release. I invite all of you who have seen Ultraman Orb The Origin Saga to share your thoughts and point out your own interpretations or areas where I might be wrong. If you haven’t seen the show, it is available to stream on Prime video, so I invite you to watch it there and give your thoughts here to let me know if I should release a follow-up to this with clarifications and concessions. Thanks for reading, and here are some links to other kaiju stuff on Plan9Crunch.

Kaiju Playlist on Plan9Crunch YouTube link:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzpsBkJrfDIEBg2cFH6uobJXIPocsfuWs&si=Kl1yE3m8eRvU_YP5

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