A Marxist Analysis of Ultraman Omega Episode 9

By Joe Gibson

 

…There are probably a lot of points of preface I should bring up before I actually launch into this.

 

Disclaimers

 

First, I recently reviewed what I initially thought were the first 9 episodes of the series Ultraman Omega, airing now, that you can read here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2025/08/some-truncated-thoughts-on-ultraman.html. The last episode I covered in that post was actually a recap episode very cheaply made from the use of stock footage and even from a writing standpoint but still arguably helped flesh out the characters and their relationships in an important way. However, if I review the back half of the show in another blog post, I would be putting myself at a disadvantage rereviewing a ninth episode mathematically, logically, neurotically, etc. It makes more sense to me to review the 9th episode as its own thing so I can still feel like I got through 9 episodes of the actual story in one chunk. That said, how do I keep this entertaining/justify the existence of a solo episode review amidst episode chunk reviews?

 

One of my favorite types of essays to write for Plan9Crunch is the ‘wacky premise followed through.’ Though “Who Is The Better Savior of Humanity: Jesus Christ Or Gamera” is an objectively absurd question, there is a conversation to be had there at least once (and you can watch that here: Gamera vs Jesus Christ: Who Is The Better Savior of Humanity? April Fools 2025). Viewing an episode of children’s Monster Of The Week television through a Marxist lens is silly enough to get a click but also still a fruitful challenge for me, a 20 year old undergraduate with only passing knowledge and some textbooks’ knowledge of Marxism, to do properly. (So this also requires active research from me, which I think makes this premise slightly funnier.)

 

Marxism, while a political ideology, is also a strain of literary criticism and, like Structuralism or New Criticism, is a tool to understand stories both in terms of their content and the consumer culture they exist in and further through their marketability. Tools (whether for literature or labor) exist to be used when they fit for the job, and just because I use a hammer to strike a nail does not mean I am about to pick up a sickle. I find each version of literary criticism silly and exclusionary in its own way, but I have attempted to use Jungian Structuralism to understand Gamera films, Radical Ecofeminism to understand Nosferatu 2024 and close-reads for many of my other reviews because they work contextually, so why not try this?

 

Analysis

 

Ultraman Omega Episode 9 is titled The Kanenari Kaiju Park because essentially the CEO of the Kanenari Corporation wishes to build a theme park around a sleeping kaiju to rake in the profits. This episode contrasts the views of Sorato, Kosei, Ayumu and the CEO surrounding this kaiju and even serves as Sorato’s introduction to the concept of money (he is not only an extraterrestrial but an amnesiac one, so neither he nor I know if his original society functioned on a monetary system). This episode also exists in the context of tokusatu entertainment where, via costumes, practical effects and some computer generated imagery, performers act as the kaiju and heroes in battles to entertain and sell toys every week. Both the content and the real world existence of this show will be necessary for this analysis.

 

After a cold open discovering the monster Gubila and then the theme song, this episode opens with how Kosei is broke before payday and thus he and Sorato (who both have advanced hunger needs from their work as the Metokaiju and Ultraman respectively) have to fight over a banana with rock/paper/scissors. In an earlier episode, we met Kosei’s boss, a seemingly very benevolent fatherly boss that was letting Kosei live in the warehouse while he figures out if he wants to keep the job and even gives an extension on that offer. He is absent here but implicit to this episodic conflict as the employer. 

 

Sorry, let me rephrase that. A compassionate person characterized as the ideal boss still cannot administer a fair wage to meet his employee’s needs, causing infighting between the poor and hungry labor force that keeps Japan from getting destroyed by kaiju every week. This seems like either an accidental or intentional criticism of capitalism, and this episode goes on to interrogate the characters’ views on money through the materialist concept of understanding life and money through food. 

 

You may be thinking that this commentary is in vain because the hunger of Kosei and Sorato is a comedic cartoon side effect of their heroics and not just class commentary. If the joke functions consistently as is, why read anything else into it? Well, for one thing it keeps coming up in the series and is clearly important to the beginning, middle and end of this episode, but also Marxist literary criticism has a multi-pronged approach to the anthropological use of literature, the expression of political revolution and struggles, and how the form of the literature codifies the ideology. Basically, that means that for this exercise, I have to analyze not only blatant class commentary but the passive literary devices of form including subtext and also the interaction of the art itself with the labor. And let’s do that last one first so it is out of the way for the rest of this.

 

Interrogating anthropological criticism of this episode and the series as a whole, this type of art exists to entertain, and it employs a lot of labor to do so. Suit acting is a very grueling line of work and dangerous with the pyrotechnics involved in the battle scenes on top of the risks of pro wrestling in the sweat lakes generated in the suits themselves. Special effects artists in Japan are also very notoriously underpaid and overworked (one of the major reasons a film like Godzilla Minus One can cost less than 10 million dollars to make). Ultraman exists in a very special zone of this though where the toy company Bandai has a stake in Tsuburaya Productions, and toy “commodity” commercials air within the YouTube uploads as part of the 28 minute video. Not only does this production model hide the faces and withhold capital from the workers, the toy sales will then further alienate the consumers from the quite dramatic labor cost of producing those scenes. 

 

When the children at home recreate the fight scenes, they will be alienated from the means of production of those fight scenes in that they will not have to create the suits and buildings or physically act as them and suffer the costs of fighting or animating. This is almost more dramatic than the example of the factory worker only making a component piece and never seeing the whole or the example of alienation where we do not make our own pants from scratch anymore. Furthermore, the delusion of consumer choice with the vast amount of Ultraman toys, reissues, repaints or even card games would, from a Marxist’s perspective, trick the proletariat into accepting the status quo through the illusion that whichever toys they buy are an expression of their individuality or status. Worse still are the scalpers that find a way to turn the toys into capital through reselling at higher prices.

 

All that said, some shows still do make an effort to be less toyetic and give actual meaning to the character of the Ultra, the personalities of the monsters, or the efficacy of the weapons. Whether or not that improves anything for a Marxist is unclear to me at this time, but it does represent a contradiction in how the show is being made and what it is trying to do. Rekiness, the first meteokaiju in this show, is one of the most expressive characters and is the power that working class Kosei gets to change the world, yet usually appears in a miniature CG form that resembles the transforming toy you can buy on the market right now. Technically speaking, there is an inherent contradiction here, but that is actually sort of expected within Marxism.

 

In Marxism, the concept of dialectics refers to how contradictions (be them the way workers like Kosei are fooled into valuing capital over their own labor when what he really needs is enough food or more philosophical arguments) develop themselves and also negate in order to create new concepts. I cannot myself wrap my head fully around dialectics because Marx did not invent them as a philosophical concept and while dealing with the preexisting baggage of that term still did not define it better than previous thinkers. And that is all I am able to really say about dialectics. They are surprisingly difficult to explain, but they do seem to fit here as a Marxist mechanism for analyzing the contradiction inherent to Toyetic Characters, yoyoing between mere capital and storytelling. Any deeper into that topic already gets us into the ideological criticism of a story’s form and structure, exemplified through defeatist Western Marxist writings, so let us discuss that and then we’ll get to how the episode actually conveys concepts of revolution once we’re done.

 

One of the main emerging criticisms of Ultraman Omega is how it seems to be very cheaply made with reused suits, an Omega costume that broke in episode 2 and many battles in a random forest environment. (I have seen the claim that it is actually more expensive to film in that particular forest for whatever reason, but the point stands without that last common critique.) Gubila is this week’s Monster of the Week, and Gubila, the drill nosed whale has the honor of reappearing so weirdly often that people speculate he might be Tsuburaya Production’s favorite kaiju. 

 

 

In any case, Gubila keeps appearing and recently came back as Oka Gubila, a new form with I think slight modifications to “enhance” its look and threat level. However, this is the Oka Gubila suit referred to as only Gubila with no acknowledgement that it is not the original Gubila. The contradiction of reusing suits in different contexts as both new and old or same and different is a constant throughout this show and could play into the dialectics we talked about earlier, but one of my sources in the research for this essay also brought up the idea that Marxist cultural critique includes not only how the art is politically expedient but in the ideology of the audience.

 

Whether or not Tsuburaya Productions thinks the audience is bored of Gubila is unclear (why give him a new form in his latest episode if base Gubila were resonating, and conversely, why take that form away if it rehabilitated a character). The top comments on the YouTube upload are all positive, some even specifically praising Gubila, but the vocal fans disdainful of Gubila would be more important to the planning stages of the episode. It would change the rhetorical situation of the episode if the average audience member’s viewpoint falls on a spectrum from “Gubila enhances the text so I will focus less on metatext” to “Gubila is such a drawback I have to think of why they would possibly include him.” For my own part, I most recently saw Gubila as a sympathetic kaiju in Ultraman Orb, so I did not expect the darker twist here until it happened. It should suffice for now to say that Gubila is also one of their most commercialized kaiju, getting a new toy for every New Generation appearance, so any author intending to make a criticism of toyetic capitalism would choose Gubila for this story and any fan sick and tired of Gubila would zero in on that possible subtext as well.

 

As far as the form of the episode, it is pretty straightforward; nothing is told out of order, and the arcs of Kosei, Ayumu and Kanenari play out subtly with split focus with the guiding throughline of Sorato understanding capitalism through their different outlooks. There are some contrivances though, and those should be helpful in analyzing the form of this episode.

 

Kosei very abruptly almost craps his pants when he is about to eat the same luxury food he dreams about, having to leave the room (nothing sets this up, and, given that the only food we know him to possess at this time are bananas, nature’s antacid, there is no reason this should be happening in the first place). Instantaneously, he happens upon a flyer revealing the Kaiju Park and gets back to the group just in time to contradict Kanenari’s lies that he only intends to keep the kaiju safe from the government with the proof in his hand. Kanenari, while Kosei was gone, was trying to convince Ayumu to work for him to care for the kaiju, so the contrived discovery of the poster also reveals the broken premise of his plan: that Kanenari wanted to lie to Ayumu about what her job was while publicly marketing it. Here’s the thing though. Taking these plot holes as intentional Marxist short cuts, they actually make sense on their own and as advancing themes in the episode.

 

Kanenari wants to market the Kaiju Park to an audience in the thrall of a commodity fetish (the same way he wants to capture our trio with luxury food). That target segment of the population probably describes Nariaki from the recap episode best of all but mainly fits Kosei within the earlier set-up, so in a moment of capitalism failing, his marketing was too successful and too targeted for his own good. Also consider that the framing device for every episode trailer, the sensational newscasters interpellate the populus to value the kaiju, and Kosei himself literally collects the meteokaiju that you, the viewer, yes you should pay good money to see fight in the stage shows. Kanenari is Tsuburaya Productions, and Kosei is the viewer having to unravel this exploitation. 

 

But also, Kanenari’s desired end for Ayumu is literally Marxist alienation: he wanted to employ her labor on the veterinary component of running a zoo without her ever seeing the larger whole of the product. An incomprehensible, contradictory scenario that only makes sense under dialectical materialism. Also, Sorato as the actual POV character has to be the one that stays behind so he can get exposition from Ayumu about CEOs and wealth while also witnessing the alluring and disgusting parts of how Kanenari conducts himself.

 

In ideological criticism, as I understand it, the central conceit is that art is indirectly political, through reifying the status quo but also being able to criticize it through satire that interplays between the art, artist and audience but is not actionable for revolution. This kind of metatextual critique seems to fit that idea, but, again, I am not a Marxist and had to carry out research new to me for this. Please leave your thoughts on how well I am presenting this, and if any of you can explain dialogism in a way to help me understand whether it better fits Sorato relearning heroism while learning Kosei’s language in this show or Ultraman Geed, for instance, being literally being inspired to be a hero by a television show and its merchandise, please clarify that as well.

 

Alright so when it comes to Marxist literary criticism, what you probably expected going into this was “how can I make this story about heroic worker characters rising up against the constraints of capitalism,” and that is an important part of Marxist political literary criticism we will discuss in a moment. Still, it technically would not be essential to this type of analysis as portraying capitalism failing without the presence of revolutionary characters can still be a Marxist appeal. That is just a truism of all the critical theories; a work that deliberately fails the Bechdel test to prove a point about the patriarchy is still feminist. The original King Kong functions as a valid critique of colonialism and the Slave Trade all while using the popular 30s trope of conflating lustful gorillas with Black men. Especially for a Marxist, storytelling is an innovative type of thought, and it is one of the greatest tragedies how rigid it became as either supporting or contradicting consumerism outright. However, in this case, at least on an individual scale, this is the type of story with an actionable Marxist revolution.

 

Focusing on the arc of Kosei and Sorato, that opening image is one of comedic desperation. Rather than a system “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs” involving Sorato, Kosei, his boss and even friend Nariaki who lives above them we met in the recap episode, Kosei genuinely believes that he has to fight out who gets the rationed banana between him and Sorato. Kosei attributes this newfound poorness as Sorato’s fault, but, since episode 3, they both have had advanced metabolisms. Kosei thinks about what he would do if he were rich, naming off  luxury foods like steak and sushi and fried shrimp (breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively) because this thought started with hunger, finally settling on a new fishing rod and traveling the world. Living in a society valuing capital above labor has interpellated Kosei with a false consciousness that values money and status. Specifically, Kosei has a commodity fetish because his desire for food translates into luxury food, and his fantasy progresses to more items, wanting more and more commodities. Kosei fantasized about those food items because of their exchange value, not their caloric suitability to his needs (use value).

 

Kosei is not the root of this issue, so the episode introduces us to Kanenari, the CEO of one of the largest companies in Japan and a very rich man, single minded in his devotion to money and pursuit of commodities. The marketable experience of stumbling upon the sleeping Gubila will become capital, he brings forth those same commodity foods to seduce Kosei, Ayumu and Sorato to his team, and a conveniently timed phone call reveals that he sees employees as products to do their job (which is help him make more money).

 

The trio convene wanting to get close to the kaiju so Sorato can identify it, but guards discover them and bring them before Kanenari, when he tries to recruit them with the aforementioned lunch. Sorato follows the leads of Kosei and Ayumu in bowing to Kanenari as well as in his initial understanding of capitalism, instructed in how much money Kanenari makes by government employee Ayumu but trying to contextualize that in an amount of bananas because of the practical example of poor worker Kosei. Sorato also witnesses how Kanenari can yell at an underling and complain that useless employees are the worst thing in a world where terrorizing kaiju exist but then be nice to Ayumu and make a humanitarian case for her working for him. In Sorato’s shoes we see how odd it is that such an unpleasant man is at the top of this hierarchy dictating capitalistic choices, but through Ayumu’s perspective we understand that that is just the way it is. When Kosei and Kanenari verbally spar about the ethics of the kaiju park, Sorato shares what he has learned.

 

Amidst Kanenari appealing to his operation as fiscally responsible and safe because he has the money to hire experts to enforce his capitalistic perspective as common sense through the Marxist concept of cultural leadership, Sorato questions this status quo, asking why Kanenari needs money, stating that money is for exchange and then asking what he plans to exchange it for. Society has interpellated even us viewers with the idea that having a lot of money makes sense, but, acknowledging Marxist materialist realities, money exists to help us get bananas. Ayumu ends up taking a version of Kanenari’s offer, and it seems she listened to Sorato’s words because she chooses not to get paid for the work and only stays there to help Sorato identify the kaiju.

 

Because he is Ultraman, Sorato knows all or at least most of these kaiju from previous excursions. However, because he has amnesia, he has to rely on physical sensations to remember the names and abilities of each MOTW. A partial view of Gubila’s backside is not enough; he has to be in the same area as the beast, usually smelling them (possibly as antitheme to alienation from the means of production). That said, the major weakness in this reading is that this time, and this time alone, a full body thermal imaging render procured by Ayumu is enough to jog his memory. To be fair, Gubila has a pretty distinct silhouette, and the audience might question if Sorato could see his body and not realize who he is. I’ll yield further deliberation of this plot point to you all however you choose to comment or engage.

 

Sorato has a drive to understand the world and, since Kanenari did not answer him, he tries to research his statements to understand why he needs so much money. The CEO’s public statements amount to equating money with happiness, but Sorato can tell that Kanenari does not seem very happy (how he lashed out at the useless employee over the phone). Later on, when Sorato reflects on this whole adventure, he notices how Kosei managed to be happy even despite lack of money, which we will return to after the kaiju fight.

 

One of the most interesting aspects of this conflict is what exactly Kanenari thought he was accomplishing with a Kaiju Park of all things. Gubila is a sleeping kaiju, and he was going to make money off of a circumstance wherein people could see and get right up close to a kaiju with no threat to them. The people would continue to go to the park and line his pockets with cash, staying unaware of how they are being exploited yet growing more confident that they are not in danger because look at it sleeping there, a slave of the corporation, much weaker than them, the people paying money to see it. In this scenario, the consumer feels he has more power than the kaiju or the businessman, neither of which is true.

 

Before you tell me this is irrelevant speculation, Gubila actually is counting on this. His scheme this time is playing dead so as to build a crowd around him of smaller and weaker prey to gorge on. This is far from the sympathetic Gubila I remember or the “cute” character the radio show hosts were hoping for. Sorato knows this but only remembers in the story after he realizes how transparently backwards Kanenari’s priorities are.

 

When Kanenari trips in front of a hungry Gubila, he tries to pay off the monster to leave him alone, but before this episode can have a character literally “eat the rich,” Sorato grows into Omega, and Kosei helps the CEO up. When Kanenari sees Kosei and Ayumu go back to rescue employees so “useless” they could not escape, it inspires him to do the same.

 

The episode allows Kanenari to grow as a character, which is interesting. At the same time, he does not actually resolve Kosei’s hunger because Kosei never got to eat the food he offered earlier, and Kosei and Sorato still have to fight over a banana in the final scene, proving that this newly humanitarian CEO still did not seek out the heroes of the day to compensate them, so this is not even really a redemption for him. This could speak to what I brought up earlier, how the audience’s expectations are important to the story, and a writer of children’s television probably thought that tempered optimism was more important than radical realism.

 

I mentioned the phrase “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs,” and Omega and meteokaiju Trigaron genuinely do exemplify this at least in a way. Kosei and Sorato are doing everything they can there to actually save everyone who needs it, and Trigaron only joins the fight to help Omega when it is clear he needs it. Omega only asks Kosei to turn Trigaron into his Armor form when his color timer starts blinking, the last moments he can fight and first moment where his need fairly supersedes Kosei’s.

 

 

Finally, we return to the warehouse for another game fighting over the banana, and Sorato comments that Kosei was happy in the game and at other points, showing that happiness is separate from how much money and capital you have. In realizing he can share the banana and imparting that knowledge to Kosei, Sorato becomes the proletariat abolishing private property at least within their household. Sorato also was only able to learn and articulate this lesson because of experiencing this capitalist society.

 

Oh, and also Kosei having the meteokaiju at his disposal represents the concept of arming the proletariat for revolution. That's the meme answer to this topic.

 

To close, I also want to say that this episode follows the trajectory of episode 8 in fully understanding how the core trio functions, in how they all contribute something important to their investigations and how each are driven by altruistic values. Ayumu has witnessed another strange Sorato ability so she had better figure out who he is next episode, and the suit actors are getting even better at injecting Sorato's personality into the kaiju fight choreography (the moment where he asks for the Trigaron armor is specifically very endearing). Though I can analyze the show in this Marxist way, I will not say with certainty I think it is intended; still, I have no idea if they have some complicated reveal planned for the significance of Sorato’s hunger just given how often they keep bringing it up.

 

Sources (improperly cited because picking a style guide here would mean I have to commit to one in the essay itself)

Chapter 8 of The Fourth Edition of Robert Dale Parker’s How To Interpret Literature

https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/marxist-literary-criticism-an-introductory-reading-guide/

https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/periodicals/theoretical-review/19791002.htm