Reimagining Gamera As An Ultraman Season?? Gamera’s 60th Anniversary Celebration

 

By Joe Gibson

 

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the original Gamera film, I am doing a couple “What-If” scenarios for Gamera corresponding to other notable Tokusatsu franchises. In this essay, I will be crosspollenating the Gamera characters and tropes with the Ultraman formula as a template for where the franchise could go from here (as unfortunately Rebirth seems to keep the tradition of being very good and yet killing the Gamera franchise indefinitely that previously happened with Gamera 3 Revenge of Iris and then Gamera The Brave). Along those same lines, you can look forward to a video in the coming days where I throw my hat into the ring with my idea for how a Gamera vs Godzilla film could function.

 

Gamera Rebirth actually is a pretty good template for how to adapt the series into this premise, but it is a very short show dealing with a small monster cast (but also more focused on being season one of Hiroyuki Seshita’s unique Gamera vision). Still, the bond between Boco and Gamera, as derived from Asagi’s metaphysical connection to Gamera in the Heisei movies, would be the analog to the merging of Ultra with human, and the sinister Eustace Foundation that teams up with the kids but also has ill intentions toward them would take the role of the attack team pretty much as is. Other important tropes for this exercise would include the increasingly powerful enemies and unlocking abilities of the hero. Rebirth was a little arbitrary about when Gamera could use his higher level abilities, so the status quo here will pertain to the increasing knowledge of Gamera’s child priest/priestess and willpower contrasted against increasingly strong kaiju. In place of a color timer, the concept of this child taking on the same damage that Gamera does will serve as a time limit for each fight (notable in Rebirth as well as the Heisei series).

 

One of the challenges behind any Gamera revival is balancing Gyaos with the other monsters because, as the Heisei series codified, Gyaos is not only the main villain of this franchise but also very easy to tie into Gamera’s own origin for peak efficiency. Rebirth introduced the idea that the same faction created Gamera and Gyaos but also Jiger, Zigra, Guiron, Viras, etc, but adding back in Ultraman means that the original alien origins for at least Zigra, Viras and Guiron should be important again even if a faction like the Eustace Foundation can still be controlling most of the Monsters of The Week.  To start, Gamera’s origins will be an overarching mystery but akin to the Heisei series setup of being created to destroy Gyaos and also existing alongside Iris, who is either a failsafe for him or an evolved Gyaos.

 

Ultraman Omega episode 1 features the Vagsect horde that (presumably) reappears later with a separate monster as the primary antagonist MOTW, so that would be the ideal situation. Gamera rises to deal with the Gyaos swarm in a cold open, and the ensuing battle leads the child to a weakened Gamera and the magatama bead to connect them. As they bond, the other characters in the Research Attack team can track the real MOTW released by the villains (that will end up to be this research team as a plot twist later on), and I would suggest Barugon as a weak(er) episode one kaiju that can very easily be released from an egg within the same episode it rampages. The child will start a friendship with one of the agents in the attack team here when the plotlines converge, and the following episode can have the actual recruitment occur. (As much as this premise relies on Ultraman tropes, being a child-led toku show means Johnny Sokko’s structure is also necessary to think about.)

 

Though Toru is the best child character in the entire franchise, and Asagi and Ayana are the runner ups, I think this star should go in a different direction from those and also probably be a girl. There are fewer well developed female child characters than male, but that is not actually why I would want the lead character to be female. Gamera vs Guiron features a sort of Cassandra archetype in Akio’s younger sister Tomoko who gets left out of their adventure and tells the adults what happened (but no one believes her). A lonely left out character like this would justify how the allure of the attack team overpowers her finer sensibilities. Also, Tomoko’s only real friend in the movie is Officer Kondo, a very goofy incompetent police officer played by a notable comic actor, and replicating that dynamic in the confines of this attack team could lend one sympathetic Special Agent character left after the reveal of the organization’s ill intentions (casting a comic actor in this role would also help). There are a few Ultraman shows that do something like this.

 

Naomi’s uncle in Ultraman Orb was a VTOL agent but also very comedic slapstick character, and, in Ultraman Geed, Riku’s older sister figure is essentially an ICE agent but very selectively competent at her job (and it’s that last part that keeps her entertaining). Adding back in analogs to Akio and his friend Tom as side characters to get kidnapped and eventually grow to respect the Tomoko stand-in could round out this cast (it is not unprecedented to abruptly kill off the entire attack team midway through an Ultraman show, so it is important to have other characters exist).

 

Most of Gamera’s enemies get a film to themselves to prove them a great threat to Gamera so powerscaling is difficult to establish. Of the Showa era kaiju, Viras was actually pretty definitively the weakest, only lasting one fight, but Rebirth positioned him as a boss kaiju. In a 25 episode season, we could easily do both especially because Viras is just the larger form of notable Virians. The Virians would shape up as larger villains, but, unlike the Gamera films, Ultraman television shows usually feature multiple alien invaders at the same time, and it would be cool to see disparate alien campaigns fail and the survivors unify against Gamera (basically we see the Planetary Invasion Syndicate from Ultraman Orb form but with Virians, Zigrans, Terans, etc). So as part of this storytelling, Zigra and his ilk would be deliberately compared to the Virians and then exist alongside them so Zigra himself will be more powerful than the weak Viras but less powerful than the strongest Virian.

 

If episode one covers Barugon, episode two can be the Virian’s first attempt at conquering Earth (through kidnapping and replacing humans with Virians and then, when discovered, converging into one being Viras and fighting Gamera). I think it is somewhat important to include a scene where the lead character knows some people are Virians in disguise but no one believes her. Then we can adapt Nezura if some rats feast on tissue samples of the fallen Gyaos (eventually revealed to be intentional by the attack team), with episode four being the Zigran’s first effort, contrasting the previous Viras episode (instead of disguising themselves as humans, they just brainwash a human that the attack team mistakenly kills and waging a more overt offensive to lure Gamera out). These would be increasing in threat level, but the main advancements for Gamera would be agility and endurance. Barugon froze Gamera but was tanky while Viras was a very slick opponent, Nezura would have strong rat teeth but each be as wriggly as Viras, and Zigra, with his ocean aesthetic, paralysis beam, strength and speed, would wrap most of these attributes together, necessitating more abilities from Gamera than just fire breath. With Zigra dead, I would have it that no other Zigran can grow to giant size but the invasion force still needs to colonize Earth so they approach the Virian delegation.

 

Ideally, there would be hints within the show at the attack team's true intentions, maybe as simple as literally showing something very damning before the context of that is clear. But the thing is uh Gamera Rebirth did a great job of crafting its Eustace Foundation twist, but it seems no one else paid attention to Emiko’s clear manipulation in episode 3 of that show, so it has to be even more blatant for it to register in this fandom I guess. Garasharp can be the fifth episode's MOTW, and the main thing of note for this is that we can just adapt the short film’s ending where Gamera wants to save and protect Garasharp’s young this time against the attack team. If Garasharp has two children, they can both come back in a later episode post reveal, the attack team having gotten to one of them.

 

Six episodes feels like enough time for other monsters to shine consecutively, so one Gyaos will have grown to giant Super-size in the meantime, and I suppose if you want to play up the inorganic body horror angle some incarnations apply to Gyaos, you can have it be that Super Gyaos is actively mutating to better combat Gamera. After a hard fought battle codifying whatever new power also defeated Zigra (let us say the heated Plasma Fist), Gamera dispatches Gyaos into several pieces scattered about the countryside, and the episode can leave off on a lizard chewing on some pieces.

 

In a pre-existing video ranking all the Gamera Kaiju, I declared Guiron my number one Gamera kaiju (All 30 Gamera Kaiju Ranked, Except Iris Who Joe Forgot). As such, he is the most important kaiju for me to get right in this show, and I want to take a big swing with him that you will see unfold over the rest of this pitch. In the original Gamera vs Guiron, two young boys travel to an alien planet where there are two sole survivors that want to eat their brains and assimilate Earth culture. There is a sort of shadow relationship between Tera and Earth down to every notable aspect, the people, the guardian monster and even the monsters that attack that planet. Adjusting that slightly, the dark mirror of Tomoko and special agent Kondo would be an abusive mentorship (which will expedite the plot point of one Teran shooting the other midway through the adventure). As I am still recycling Akio and Tom into this premise, we can still have the Terans kidnap Akio to feast on his brain and have Tom get captured trying to save him. Up until this point, they would be minor characters in this show, only interacting with Tomoko, but the attack team rescuing them would lead to further importance and heightened stakes when the attack team can also kidnap them post villain reveal.

 

For the actual kaiju matters, Guiron is too cool to go down this episode, so, even after trying every new power he has, Gamera is unable to destroy the knifeheaded monster. Still, there is a pretty clear thematic point of comparison in this battle to clarify why Guiron cannot win either; Guiron is being controlled dispassionately by two evil beings in conflict with each other. The warm partnership of Tomoko and Gamera with their mutual respect for agent Kondo will be able to survive longer than the partnership of the Terans with Guiron. The last Teran dies in an explosion, Guiron is left on his own for a later episode to explore him, and the Zigran and Virian coalition moves into the Teran base to begin construction on a new monster to defeat Gamera once and for all.

 

Two episodes after Super Gyaos’ debut and dismemberment is enough time for that lizard to eat the carcass and mutate into Zedus. Though this monster is one of my favorites, I cannot contrive a scenario for him to reappear, so not only will this be a definitive battle, it will probably be a very quick one since, by design, Zedus is only really a challenge for a Baby Gamera. Because every Ultra series show has around 20 episodes, not every monster fight is an increase in challenge, but the hero still does progress the whole time, so you will pretty immediately run into an overkill scenario where the hero uses one of their special forms or kaiju helpers in a fight against an admittedly pretty weak villain. Zedus’ tongue will pose little challenge to Gamera, but he will still use the Plasma Fist to show that the bond between the Tomoko character and Gamera has more energy than before to where it is less draining to use this move.

 

I wanted to save Jiger for later, but, as I am now realizing, it is very difficult to pace these monsters over the course of 25 episodes in a way that does not feel arbitrary, and every creative currently doing so on the Ultra series has been doing so far longer than I have been. In any case, episode 9 is far enough separated from Barugon so as to not feel redundant of including another overpowered quadruped. One of the areas Rebirth fell short was adapting Jiger; she came off as more or less a dinosaur version of Nezura with none of her old powers, so this episode would take roughly Rebirth’s perfectly updated design but stick all of the powers back on. She will shoot barbs of hardened snot, be able to fly and all of her various powers, but notably, she will also impregnate Gamera again. Gamera will have to use his Burning Fist on himself to abort the child, and, while this happens, on the human end of this relationship, the child character will have appendicitis. This feels like clever mirroring for that.

 

Now, with all of the main Showa foes out of the way, Powered Gyaos can show up, and, as you may not know, the conceit behind Powered Gyaos is that it is a Voltron of these Showa era foes. (To round this monster cast out, I have to bring in some obscure ones that you hear about in my ranking: All 30 Gamera Kaiju Ranked, Except Iris Who Joe Forgot) Now obviously, I have plans for the Virians, Zigrans and Guiron outside of this Voltron later, so it will just be a composite of cells left behind in their fights against Gamera. Specifically, the show will imply it is the Zigran and Virian coalition’s doing, but, post heel turn reveal, the Earthbound attack team takes credit for it in the back half of the season. Even so, the Ultra series does not need as rigid of an explanation for how a fusion of kaiju can appear between appearances of the kaiju within; Ultraman Orb has two different forms of Zetton, one of which comes back after Zeppandon, who is a separate fusion of a classic Zetton and Pandon, who also appears in a new form in that show before that point. I have less to say about the actual fight.

 

For the midseason two parter, the Zigrans and Virians with Teran materials will have created W, the two headed Wyvern kaiju and scrapped archenemy to Gamera. This feels like a natural place in the season for such a concept and also for another powerup for Gamera. The only problem is he seldom powers up too much, so we are only left with a few moves from previous shows (even Gamera the Brave had to make flight one of the powers Gamera has to grow into). If handled with the proper gravitas, “bigger concentrated fireball” can be the powerup; otherwise, it can be a new armored form akin to Rebirth’s design or maybe eye lasers because Godzilla also got those once for some reason. All we know about the original Gamera vs W movie pitch is that they would have fought within flames, so a more durable form would make a certain kind of sense.

 

Episode 13 seems to generally be the obligatory Recap episode, showing stock footage of all of the previous fights as we go into the next half of the season. In the past, I have skipped Recap episodes for some shows; other shows have a built in reason not to skip the Recap episode, be it unpacking a major plot development/reveal and actually including a monster suit as in Ultraman Omega. For this fictional season of television I am envisioning, this is the best place to have the main characters figure out that the attack team is up to something and even behind some of the monsters’ attacks. What adds to the tension building between our leads and the faction though is that the next conflict, in a two parter, will be the invasion of the Legion horde that forces a teamup. Legion is far too big of a concept with far too many forms to fit into one episode, and, frankly, they could be 4 episodes easily, but the basic idea is to put Legion into the Galactron role in Ultraman Orb. Legion will be the strongest monster up to this point in the show and probably one of the three most powerful in this show in general.

 

For episode 16, I would want to have the return of Guiron, and, like in Gamera Rebirth, I want Guiron to chop one of Gamera’s arms off (the specific scenario would be Gamera trying to use the Plasma fist attack but Guiron being able to parry and riposte). This would again force the idea of potentially teaming up with the attack team, but their full heel turn would come about here, raising the stakes by kidnapping one of the characters. Now I have written myself into a corner entailing the divorce of a little girl’s arm from her body since it happened to Gamera, but I want to pull some shenanigans. The magatama bead or whatever plot macguffin links the girl to Gamera would be the beta capsule here, and Ultraman often loses his transformation device, so in an Ultraman 1966 Gomora scenario, Guiron wins and leaves, and the hero drops the magatama bead, resulting in her not suffering the damage but also being unable to move Gamera until she finds it.

 

In episode 17, our heroes will try to rescue the kidnapped friend (let us say it is Kondo to tap into that Johnny Sokko rescuing Jerry Mano homage) without the use of Gamera and the magatama bead. The attack team will unveil the Monster Of The Week, Iris, an alternative hero to Gamera with another magatama bead link from the same civilization. Ideally, up to this point, the mystery of Gamera and his origins has been sufficiently teased. This episode would fill in those answers about the prehistoric civilization creating Gamera and some of these monsters, but we would deviate from Rebirth’s reveal that some of the people in charge of the villainous faction seemingly are from those days; this attack team is just interested in control. 

 

We can juxtapose that with the genuine friendship Gamera has with the kids, and so, while one notable attack team member uses the Iris magatama bead to control it, Gamera will ultimately step up to protect Tomoko and her friends without her needing to control him. I want this to be a notable subversion in the show where the audience expects that the traditional “losing the transformation device and finding it in the right moment” trope will start happening in the show, but instead, it just exits the show. I also kind of want to include this as this is more similar to Johnny Sokko in that I have separated the lead character from the fighting force, and that show was a little bit hard to read in terms of when Giant Robo gained sentience and independence from Johnny. The kids successfully rescue Kondo, and the attack team gets to work on other alternative monsters to Gamera, but we can leave that plotline for an episode.

 

Next would be the reappearance of Viras, and the vision I have for Viras II is that a different notable Virian that survived the events of the W two parter slinks around the ship assimilating the other Virians and Zigrans there to become a horrifying giant mutation of a Viras. It would be a different kind of cold open than Gamera vs Viras proper had but with a similar doom aboard the spaceship. The actual battle would be fiercer and grosser than the first Gamera vs Viras fight in this show, and this can be when Gamera unveils a new special move. In order to fully disintegrate this writhing mass, Gamera’s plastron opens and a greater beam comes out as you have seen before in the Heisei films. Naturally, that would be very physically taxing, and Gamera will be very weak for the next episode, which will entail that other Garasharp that the attack team will have modified into a weapon in a tragic turn of events.

 

It is very difficult to find enough content to spread over a 25 episode season. The ideal solution would be that the creative team makes new monsters, but, just stretching what we do have, the mushroom headed long armed absurdly named Marukobukarappa that has been planned for several projects but never appeared could work here. And since the comedy has been lacking up to this point, make the episode a comedic farce. That’s all I’ve got for that. Then, I think Bodera from Gamera Rebirth Code Thrysos was a really cool design for a prototype created kaiju so the attack team can send that out, and then for episode 22, Guiron will get his third episode. Since Gamera is currently down to just one arm due to the knife headed monster, there will be a ferocious rivalry, but I want their fight to resolve peacefully. As the horde of giant mutated Hyper Gyaos roll in, Guiron decides to fight on the side of Gamera, becoming the obligatory helper kaiju, the sword and shield fighting together to save the Earth. Maybe it is obvious that I like Guiron a lot, possibly too much, but that is the big swing I would want to take with his character since he is anomalous for being a mirror to Gamera in that original film and still being treated as one of the evilest villains despite killing the most Gyaos of anyone. This will also be the end of Gyaos as a villain in this show.

 

One thing I find very poignant about serialized television is that it ends, and I have really come around to the idea of that ending, at least in tokusatsu seasons, denoting the death of the giant hero. Ultraman and Giant Robo both die in their series, and it is an early lesson to a child audience of the fragility of life and nobility of sacrifice. Gamera also dies at the conclusion of his Showa film series (and Gamera Rebirth), ambiguously dies at the conclusion of the Heisei series and dies at the start of Gamera the Brave, so he takes to this. Gamera’s Showa series death was against Zanon, a metal ship that could send out his previous monsters, and I talked about a way to rehabilitate that concept with a different monster in my kaiju ranking video. 

 

The final two episodes of this show, marketed as the Death of Gamera, will be about fighting Morphos, the artificial shapeshifting kaiju made of metal the attack team creates that destroys them before taking on the form of every other monster Gamera has fought in this show. Whether in stock footage or new battles, it is the opportunity to do something really interesting here and exhausting for Gamera, but the final form of Morphos will be a metallic Gamera, and Gamera will have to use his Plasma Glow across his entire body alongside the plastron beam to recreate his self destruction move from Gamera the Brave to take out Morphos.

 

I will discuss this in the Gamera vs Godzilla video, but this exercise is interesting in that I am not fully satisfied with the pitches I make as a fan of these franchises for them. The urge, and in this case obligation, to pull from all corners of the franchises I am referencing constrains me into very odd and specific writing decisions. But of course, I wanted to do something special to celebrate Gamera’s 60th anniversary, and I will now turn it over to you to share your thoughts in the comments. Let us know your thoughts on this pitch and if you would like to see Gamera and Ultraman crossover, even how you think it could go.

 

Some Truncated Thoughts On Ultraman Omega Episodes 1-9

 

By Joe Gibson

 

Intro

 

Ultraman Omega is the newest Ultraman show, airing as I have been writing this and when this will go up on the blog and probably after for a little bit. (These new Ultra shows will generally have 25 episodes and a movie.) I suspect some of our audience here has watched a few of the older Ultra shows when they aired on American sci-fi channels, but outside of whatever die-hard or new Ultra fans stumble upon this article, I think you could fairly call it a Herculean task to keep up to date on the Ultra series. Though I have long been a fan of Godzilla and tokusatsu in general, only recently have I begun to get into the Ultra series, and that is because of the sheer amount of content to sift through. After all, there are at least as many Ultraman shows as there are Godzilla movies, and, unlike the now 2-3 year gaps between Godzilla releases, a new Ultraman show comes out every year, and maybe they will slow down after the anniversary next year, but who really knows?

 

We are technically in the Reiwa era of tokusatsu entertainment, but New Generation is the subtitle most often applied to these new 21st century productions after the Showa series and Heisei series have passed. New Generation is not only a category grouping production cycles, season lengths, common creatives and common tropes, but it has also become a large part of the discourse given that some new shows have deliberately referenced previous shows as the “New Generation” version. As such, it kind of poisons the well to compare any new show to anything that came before in the fandom, which makes it simultaneously the best and worst time to jump into any new Ultraman show. At its worst, a show will be blatantly inspired by a previous one and/or have like 7 past Ultra heroes show up alluding to previous themes and conflicts, and, at its most unobtrusive, there will be an episodic crossover with the directly previous Ultra hero or possibly a secondary Ultra in the show that either has his own previous adventures or not. Ultraman Omega, thus far, is on the self-contained end of this spectrum, even downplaying the Ultraman part of Omega’s identity when he remembers his name (he is an amnesiac in the show).

 

As of right now, 9* episodes of the 25 have aired, mostly vague Monster of The Week filler episodes emphasizing the characters involved in the show, with the most recent episode being a recap episode (I usually skip these, but I especially like this cast compared to other Ultra shows, so I watched it as well). Based on the descriptions for the September batch of episodes, the show is about to pivot into more overarching plot considerations with an actual attack team, so, from almost every angle, now is the best time to come here and debrief on my thoughts on the show so far. (For American 20-26 episode television, there is usually a midseason break after the 9th episode anyway.) I have noticed a large variety of opinions on this show ranging from positive to negative, so my goal here is to influence you to watch a couple episodes from my coverage and add to the discourse or just to put my thoughts out there for those already watching it, since this is a somewhat unprecedented situation for me, being able to post and talk about a tokusatsu show as it is airing instead of years later. 

 

So, enjoy my recollection and impressions, as truncated as I can make them (still ultimately about 5000 words), of 9 episodes of television back to back.

 

Episode 1

 

 

Ultraman Omega opens with an action set piece on some kind of moon involving a horde of insect type creatures whose suit has been repurposed from a previous kaiju. Actually, in this scene, CGI portrays these monsters, and you cannot really tell (but I also think they will come back in suit form for an episode later on), which is good because while I take the hardline stance that I think the Ultra series should stick to suitmation because they are the only ones still doing it, it is really only in the last couple decades that the CGI in kaiju media has been good especially on a television budget. Advancement in the genre is advancement in the genre. In any case, the name of these creatures puzzles me a little bit. 

 

Evidently, the creators wanted to mix the words bug and insect, and, for whatever reason the b turned into a v. Vugsect, depending on how you say it, can sound a little crude, but the other romanization of this word is Vagsect, which is closer to a yonic symbol than it is to the original pun (and again, especially in plural, the name sounds pretty crude). Anyway, Omega fights the horde of Vagsects, destroying the moon, and falling to Earth to lose his memory with no real context for all of this.

 

What happened with Omega and the Vagsects on that moon seems to be one of the main mysteries, especially insofar as Omega himself will also probably want to figure that out. I do not know where the show is going with this, but I am insistent one of the larger Vagsects will have to come back as either a MOTW or one of the final three foes. Since I have not seen anything officially identifying Omega as part of the Intergalactic Defense Force (the garrison most Ultras find themselves under serving in), I think it would be really interesting if the original Omega pre amnesia was more morally dubious, but given how quickly Omega in human form relearns empathy, I think he either is part of the garrison or will be offered a place there after the movie (Ultraman Orb notably refused to join their ranks when offered, but Omega wants to make friends and find his place in the world, so he probably will accept).

 

In any case, after he lands on Earth, he loses his memory, and, through very efficient character building scenes in his lodging with his favorite foods and childhood relics, we learn a lot about the other lead of this story, Kosei. Omega, in his amnesiac form, needs someone to play off to show the nuances in his Ultra instincts and growing humanity, and Kosei, especially when reacting to Omega relocating him through the air away from danger, is perfect for this. Kosei’s strong sense of morality also both endears him to the audience and keeps him relevant to the action as he refuses to abandon a crying girl in the danger multiple times. I am speeding past the nuances here because I do not want this to go on too long, but I encourage you to watch episodes one and two for the best showing of Kosei’s character and episode five for Omega’s.

 

The MOTW is not actually the Vagsects but a new creature and suit as far as I can tell named Graim, who has a drill on his nose and sharp claws. As a genuine threat to not only the small humans but amnesiac Omega, I find the fight compelling and not merely obligatory, though there is some debate on the choreography and intrigue of it. While I have my issue with the concept of the slugger (mohawk blade many Ultras have in order to detach and use as a knife), this episode shows the coolest use for one in what happens to Graim. (Though Graim dies, he does not blow up, which I found curious, and, sure enough, he will be back in the next batch of episodes.) The last important thing of note to this fight is that the English subtitles have an annoying habit of translating every sign and billboard whenever they are available, not even always in English. If you are the kind of viewer to make drinking games, take this into consideration*

 

Episode 2

 

I found the character work in this episode even better than the premiere, and that is because of the introduction of Ayumu, a researcher now part of the government’s effort to understand the kaiju, who chances upon Omega, the man who has all the answers but remembers them one vague hint at a time. Specifically, Omega, who Kosei names as his cousin Sorato as a cover, is too naive not to reveal his identity to Ayumu, and Kosei has to keep her from realizing the full magnitude of what Sorato has just done repeatedly. (In the coming episodes, Sorato will literally summon his slugger in front of Ayumu.) Though this bit has a shelf life and absolutely should not go on too long, it is gripping here. Arguably, stuff like this puts Kosei as not just co-lead and deuteragonist but as the main character and protagonist. 

 

I define the main character by having the most screen-time but protagonist as the most important character, like how a narrator and POV character is not necessarily who the story is about such as in the Great Gatsby or Attack on Titan. Sorato being a mostly content comedic vessel in these episodes contrasted against Kosei who is not only the POV character but the active character keeping a secret and befriending Ayumu tips these scales a certain way. However, it is also true that Ultraman Orb, very early on, seemed to have more screentime and perspective for Naomi than for Orb, reversing this gradually until it was fully Orb’s show, so we will have to watch the entire series closely to truly appoint a main character and protagonist.

 

Dugrid, an amphibious kaiju converted from a preexisting suit, actually deals the greatest damage to Omega, ripping the costume in the real world. But no uh, though this fight is on a technical level less original than Graim’s, the presence of a dam and the recollection of Omega’s beam keep this fight interesting. What I gravitated toward the most in this episode was the squelching sound effects placed over the fight that were near constant to communicate the beast’s texture. One criticism of the show I have heard is that the soundtrack is quite dull, and, since the only sound I can strongly remember is Dugrid’s sticky body, that might be true. As the obligatory counter, this episode does not have notable inexplicable billboard translation, so I thought they had fixed that, but it was just because there were no billboards present in this final fight (those intrusive translations will be back the next two episodes)*

 

Episode 3

 

 

So, ever since the third show in the Ultraseries, Ultraseven, the kaiju have not just been Monsters of the Week but have also been helpers to the main hero. Ultraseven had capsule monsters, Ultraman X had Cyber Gomora, Ultraman Z had Sevenger, Ultraman Blazar had the clearly Mechagodzilla-inspired Earth Garon, and Ultraman Omega has the Meteokaiju. This episode debuts his first helper kaiju, and, interesting enough, this monster bonds with Kosei, not Sorato. Though Omega struggled against Graim and Dugrid, to justify a team-up, this fight has to be even more difficult, and, so, the MOTW is Pegunos, a very impressive penguin that can fly…by using the power of cold. Rekiness is the name of the meteokaiju, so called because of his telekinesis, and, while I cannot necessarily argue that the choreography of the first two episodes is not as uninspired as other commentators have claimed, weaponizing its own flight inducing cold to restrain Omega and then being telekinetically attacked by rocks makes Pegunos’ one of the most interesting kaiju fight scenes I have ever seen. Pegunos is, of course, a heavily modified Peguila suit, Peguila also being a penguin with cold powers. In Peguila’s case, it was a monster from Ultra Q, and the first Ultraman season that came after modified that suit into Chandlar, so there is precedent for this specific instance of suit conversion.

 

Though there is progression in the trio’s dynamic (not necessarily enough yet since they are still keeping Ayumu in the dark; she ought to be the Hermione of the group yet more often than not has a cameo level appearance), Rekiness surprisingly steps up as a character with his specific fondness and connection to Kosei instead of Sorato as we might have expected*

 

Episode 4

 

 

In this episode, there is a rather childish split between Sorato and Kosei that somewhat infantilizes Kosei in the way it happens (especially how he needs a kind and warm father figure to explain the theme to him after having essentially a tantrum), but that is merely my perspective, and the vast majority of auto translated comments under the YouTube video found the plot inspiring. In any case, it codifies the friendship and partnership of Sorato as Omega and Kosei as Rekiness on the battlefield, so there is plot utility to these decisions even if I find it a waste of time. I think my issue is that, in the early episodes, the stakes were so high or weirdly specific for Kosei that to see a more down to earth simple conflict of feeling left out did not feel similar to my previous understanding of the character. Ayumu’s integration in the plot to investigate the MOTW with Sorato makes sense and follows up on her previous trajectory, but it is a little strange that she has not figured out Sorato’s secret yet especially when very little would change this point on if she learned it here (I guess that spoils that she is not that important in this batch of episodes despite third billing).

 

This week, the monster is an evolved dinosaur, a Therizinosaurus called Therizirus that can also turn invisible for as of yet unclear reasons. As you might have guessed, this suit is not new either, instead a converted Basser, a bird kaiju that has only appeared in special forms like Maga Basser or Rai Basser and never the actual base Basser. The suit’s conversion into Therizirus likely means we will never see normal Basser, but Therizirus is cooler anyway, with his birdlike movements, sharp claws and more fierce design. Rekiness has to condense himself into a weapon for Omega to use, a sword that he can slice with at superspeed, which is where the toyetic parts of the show come into play.

 

The meteokaiju will largely exist as armor/weapon pairings for Omega, and, as they are based on mythical creatures from Eastern culture, there will likely be four of them. Rekiness is the Azure Dragon, Trigaron from this same batch of episodes is the White Tiger, I believe I have seen art depicting the Vermillion Bird kaiju, and the Black Tortoise may appear in the show or the movie or the stage show or not at all. The episode reveals that Rekiness can function for 10 whole minutes, which debatably takes the cool factor away from Omega’s 3 minute capabilities, but the fact that he is a culture symbol and reference contextualizes why he is so darn cool (Western audiences have no problem with Jesus archetypes having cool special powers; in fact, we expect it)*

 

Episode 5

 

Episode 5 is the main thing holding me back from declaring Kosei the unambiguous main character and protagonist because this episode keeps the focus solely on Sorato encountering and learning to understand a specific human character conflict that happens to involve a monster. Teenager Miko, reacting to traumatic family circumstances gravitates toward a snake kaiju that subsists on metal, I think specifically iron because while alloys in farming equipment suffice, it also sucks the iron out of Miko’s blood or something to that effect. The episode is somewhat ambiguous about what Mikoto’s intentions are (it could be anything from a sinister parasite to a magical spirit), but, as we see this situation through Sorato, his emerging beliefs about friendship give a sympathetic reading of these events, even after Mikoto grows to giant size. The show is able to balance the power creep of Omega fairly well because the struggle in this fight for Sorato is emotional not really physical. I have less to say about this episode except that Mikoto is a new suit or I guess puppet, and I do not recall any billboards in the subtitles*

 

Episode 6

 

In this episode, Ayumu and a coworker inspect the fallen body of a pink mole kaiju that died mysteriously when its mate emerges and chases them into the forest, where Sorato and Kosei wind up. As I mentioned that Sorato playing off a more in-focus Kosei helps to visually develop the amnesia, I also appreciate how some episodes have Sorato and Kosei as a dynamic duo comedically crashing a different character’s focus episode to communicate that Kosei is also learning the Ultra side of things from Sorato, mastering his own capsule monsters like a hyper specialized Reionics. The issue here is that the focus ends up split between Ayumu, who sorely needs it, and her annoying coworker, who defies the very notion of a hero’s journey or story cycle to interject the same annoying personality flaws into every scene. I should clarify that my knee jerk reaction does not mean the episode is poorly written; the utility of a singularly annoying character would be to make Ayumu look better by comparison, very simply show off an antitheme, or just have a consistent character true to his core flaws (mainly this latter category). I just will rewatch this episode less because of that man.

 

The pink moles are called Gedrago, and, even though they are yet another reused suit, this new monster is interesting on its own, demonstrating an iconic mating dance the entire time during the fight because it only emerged to reproduce with its now dead mate. As Ayumu is nominally the main character of this episode, she is the one that figures out that Gedrago is basically a larger version of a fictional mole in that universe that does the dance, and Sorato listens to her because she is his friend and again nominally the main character this episode. (I really hope she figures out that Sorato is Omega soon.)*

 

Episode 7

 

 

While this episode deals with the arrival of the second Meteokaiju Trigaron and a vile streamer trying to discredit Omega, it would be disingenuous for me to start with anything but the reappearance of Gomora, a classic kaiju from the original 1966 Ultraman show who has made intermittent reappearances since Ultraman 80, because everything in this episode points back to Gomora or makes him look good in some way (which I appreciate because he is a good kaiju, one of the best, in fact). The episode begins with a fight against Gomora where Omega thoroughly loses (it is technically because Sorato has just contracted his first cold), and Gomora even shakes off Rekiness’ telekiness (he’s just that strong). Finally, the meteokaiju, for whatever reason, is inside of a meteor that resembles Gomora’s distinctive horns for no reason other than to make us think Gomora has something to do with Trigaron (he does not). The only thing that gives me pause about this episode’s reverence for Gomora is that he is usually a more sympathetic kaiju than this (even a hero sometimes), but that is probably the tradeoff of coming right after two sympathetic kaiju and being the kaiju that forces a team-up. Also, they wanted to reference the “Gomora gets his tail cut off again” bit, which works a little better if we are rooting against him.

 

While I can give apologetics for Ayumu’s coworker’s minimal characterization last episode, the main human antagonist of this episode, clickbait streamer Wolfy, is a very shallow caricature of the worst human being (rude to people on the street, farms for content with clickbait and also generative AI misinformation) but holds this episode back from being a thorough interrogation of the trust society places in Omega. There just is not sufficient time in the episode for the confrontation between him and Kosei in the episode to make more than one or two points, and the show resolves it with Kosei’s rock turning into a kaiju in front of an entire crowd with nobody commenting on that. Ideally, Wolfy would have been a more serious character interrogating the trust Kosei and society have in Omega a little more effectively, which I think means that it would have been a two parter, something Gomora is no stranger to starring as MOTW in*

 

Episode 8

 

 

It is interesting to reread the script up to this point and realize just how much better this episode is than the last few consecutive ones. I almost want to review it by itself. It manages to avoid many of the issues with the previous episodes, while also being one of the most bizarre homages I have ever seen. This is the Brigadoon episode, essentially where time and space separates a specific town from the outside world, only accessible under irregular circumstances, but Mons Ahgar, a monster from previous shows, is trapped there with the spirit of a little boy that warns travelers away.

 

A group of college kids with absurdly advanced technology and very eccentric personalities called the Ghost Riders contact Ayumu to aid in their investigation. Ayumu, who is a more active character than usual, drags Sorato and Kosei along with her, very driven to investigate this phenomenon, which follows up on her development in the episode with Gedrago (committing herself more seriously to her work). When the little boy spirit warns her not to go forward, she still does because she wants to understand what is happening and help the child, which mirrors Kosei in episode one and seems like an important step to elevating her to full tritagonist.

 

The Ghost Riders show exactly how insane the SSP from Ultraman Orb would seem if they were not the main characters, and, also, just like that show, the writers seem to be hinting at Omega’s backstory through an episodic adventure that involves a ghost who seems to know Omega and may come back later in a more important capacity.  But even though the Ghost Riders are actually insane, putting way too much trust into an AI that immediately malfunctions and almost sucks Mons Ahgar into the real world, the show takes otherwise annoying characters and makes them funny with how both Kosei and Ayumu are confused at their behavior, but Sorato finds them so amusing he joins in. This is the kind of trio dynamic that the show needs, and also, with how Ayumu witnesses Omega in giant size doing the Yippie Yi Aye dance of the Ghost Riders, she should have everything she needs to figure out who Omega is in the near future.

 

The show finds a way to implement its gimmicks (drinking game list) of Sorato sniffing the kaiju, funny Kosei and Sorato banter, Ayumu musing aloud about the episodic mystery, Sorato randomly remembering the kaiju’s name and pulling off a new ability out of instinct really tightly back to back in the quintessential episode thus far.

 

One of the main draws of the episode is the mythology it insinuates that many years ago a crimson giant Daidarabotchi sealed away a celestial evil Aga (likely this is Omega and Mons Ahgar given how the child recognizes Omega and uses Omega’s same hand sign that he uses against all the kaiju to keep Mons Ahgar in place, and also how Omega is able to close the ensuing portals barehanded in the first place). This could mean reappearance for the child to give Omega some kind of additional power-up, but it would be more unique if due to some timey-wimey Brigadoon shenanigans, the little boy spirit is in fact Omega through his missing memories or maybe an impression of a previous time he visited Earth and sealed the monsters. I am not saying that speculation is canon to the show. I don’t know exactly the kind of story they are telling, but there are many directions they could go with it. We also should not forget that Mikoto also legitimately could be some kind of deity in this pantheon.

 

The battle is also the most inventive since the Pegunos fight. While Mons Ahgar is essentially just very strong and able to spontaneously harden the soft spot of his head, the Ghost Rider’s AI is constantly creating portals around them that Omega has to stop from sucking them in. The meteokaiju in play this time is Trigaron because he got introduced recently, and they need to follow up that momentum. Given what happens in the fight, Rekiness would be the better choice, but Kosei tries to use both and realizes he can only use one at a time, an organic implementation of important exposition. 

 

In this episode, Trigaron communicates to Kosei that he also has a weapons mode, but I don’t even care to frontload the review with that part because I find it really well done how visibly tired Sorato got from resisting the portals even before his color timer started blinking and how well the battle flowed into these points. The sincerity of the show and this battles shines through in moments like when he puts down his weapon to do a thumbs up and then speed-blitzes Mons-Ahgar to death.

 

In the wrap-up, Ayumu chews out the Ghost Riders for using science as a toy, keeping the commentary on AI in this show largely negative, and she goes back to Kosei’s lodgings with them to hang out, sharing an “older sister advice” moment with Kosei (he has previously referred to her as that kind of figure to him, but this is the first episode to show that in an efficient way). As of yet, this is the best episode to understand Ayumu and what she can bring to the show*

 

Episode 9

 

Do you remember how Gomora’s episode gave the most shallow exploration of how the public views Omega that it possibly could by having a one dimensional villain fake independent news in a subplot?

Well, the recap episode, rather than the traditional clip show episode set-up, actually ostensibly follows up on that premise (you’ll learn why I say ostensibly; though the episode trailer promised this, it leaves something to be desired). If they were going to do this, they should have led naturally from that episode into this one because I feel like after Brigadoon and ghost children, I am the only one still thinking about Wolfy and the crowd he incited.

 

Kosei works and lives in the Taiyo Warehouse, somewhat noncommittally looking for another job and residence while benefitting from the generosity of his boss. In the same building, on the level above lives Nariaki Akaji. He listens to the radio and essentially has an “As You Know” dialogue between himself and the Radio hosts that overlays the stock footage. Fictional radio hosts actually do narrate the episode previews every week, but, as you know, I think “As You Know” dialogue is bad writing done any way except satire, so….

 

Nariaki looks back fondly on those first two battles, even modeling Omega’s slugger and beam attack (I am choosing to believe childish Nariaki Akaji is a parody of childish Gamera director Noriaki Yuasa; it is up to you if you want to believe that as well). However, he is surprised to learn of the incident with Mikoto in the countryside as he could not directly witness that (or implicitly either of the previous ones). It is interesting that the radio program jumps straight from Mikoto to the Ghost Riders, but, in universe, they sent a lot of reports about Mons Ahgar and the Brigadoon, so they would reach out to a radio show.

 

Nariaki actually reflects on Sorato’s contemporaneous arrival to Japan with the kaiju and even models Sorato’s physique and style in the same way as he does for Omega. This all implies that this absolute moron is closer to figuring out Sorato’s secret than Ayumu without even being in the field with them. Kosei and Nariaki actually are friends that go out to lunch, and Kosei has apparently explained much of the relevant backstory to Nariaki, hence how he can flirt with this conclusion. Nariaki is also strangely attracted to Ayumu, but it is a more childish hero worship akin to how he feels about Omega than a sexual thing.

 

The episode finally gets to exploring the actual premise of “how do the civilians feel about Omega” in its final three minutes, when the mother of the crying girl Kosei and Omega saved in episode one calls in and (unknowingly) commends Omega (and Kosei). Nariaki finds it very moving, and though he is acting in an annoying over the top way, we are not really meant to look down on him for this. That’s why my mind jumps to Noriaki Yuasa: a very simple eccentric man communicating an earnest point in a weirdly passionate way. I like his movies more than I like this episode.

 

The stock footage for the Dugrid fight had the music, so, upon another watch, I maintain the squelching sound effects are more impressive, but the track goes from whimsy to tense buildup to an exciting rock chorus. Finally, the radio episode preview reveals next week’s episode to be horned whale Gubila’s inevitable appearance (Gubila being another kaiju from the original Ultraman that I like but is one of the most overused Ultra kaiju ever). Though there were nice moments brushing the surface level of this premise, the episode did not explore the general public’s opinion on Omega. For what it is worth, the episode’s YouTube description clarifies, it is just Nariaki’s biases and opinions explored in the episode, but still.

 

I hope there was not tonal whiplash from me gushing about one episode and heavily criticizing the next, but, for one thing, the recap episodes generally aren’t good, and I actually lied to you earlier; this was not episode 9 but a special episode, so it is just barely above a stage show in terms of importance. You can easily skip this one if you want to, but Nariaki is still a better character than Ayumu’s coworker from the Gedrago episode*

 

Conclusion

 

So far, I love this show, and, while I am trying to be more clinical in my breakdown of the show here, I enjoy every episode exceedingly and might count it as my favorite Ultra show so far. I may or may not cover the rest of the show in a blog post or on the YouTube channel (I am about to get a lot more busy with school), and you can let us know if you like the show, if you do not like the show or if you want us to give more thoughts on it. As I said, I would encourage you to give the show a chance. I find it to be quite special, and you might too. I would rank the monsters thus far from best to worst: Pegunos, Rekiness, Gedrago, Therizirus, Graim, Trigaron, Mikoto, Dugrid, Gomora, Mons Ahgar, and the Vagsects. The thing is though I love almost all of those kaiju, hence Gomora, one of the all-time greats being that low. It truly is impressive for a monster show to create such a compelling monster cast with mostly recycled suits, and, with that, I will leave you with some of the best intrusive billboard subtitle moments.