Ultraman Gaia
Aug. 6th, 2018 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameSo a few days ago, I completed Ultraman Gaia, the 1998 incarnation of the Ultra franchise. And now that I've had a few days to digest it, I have to say, I'm still really, really impressed by it. It may well be one of my all-time favorites.
The story is this: Young geniuses all over the world banded together to form an organization called Alchemy Stars, where they used their gifts to help all of humanity. But one of the supercomputers they created, Crisis, predicted the arrival of an Entity that brings Radical Destruction. How that destruction is "radical" is beyond me, but hey. It was the 90s. It was probably radical by default. In probably the most fantastical development of the entire show, upon hearing the youth of the world saying, "There's a problem and we need to solve it," the adults...listened. They formed GUARD and XIG and depended on the Alchemy Stars' technology to develop weaponry to hold off this Radical Destruction.
Gamu Takayama, played by Takeshi Yoshioka, is one of the Alchemy Stars, running experiments on virtual reality in 2000 in order to connect with the life of the Earth itself. He succeeds, finding the spirit of the Earth, Ultraman, and being chosen to wield its power himself. He joins XIG, mostly because he points out to Commander Ishimuro that he personally designed the repulsor lift that propels their Aerial Base and many of their other machines. His technical genius alone is what benefits XIG on paper. But he slips away and transforms into Ultraman, later designated Gaia, in order to protect the planet from the various monsters from the Earth and outer space. The Commander becomes aware of his dual identity, but he keeps it under wraps out of respect for Gamu, for a time.
Things become complicated with the creator of Crisis, Hiroya Fujimiya (played by Hassei Takano), makes himself known and begins endangering humans while trying to fight off the Radical Destruction. Fujimiya was also chosen by a spirit of the Earth, the oceanic entity Ultraman Agul, and transforms in order to protect the planet...but not humanity. His computations with Crisis brought him to a revelation to save the Earth—remove humanity from the equation. So he has convinced himself that humans are the problem. And it's not hard to see his reasoning—a lot of the Earth-born monsters are attacking because of environmental pollution, development, extinction, and even horrifying medical experiments. If this was set some 10-20 years later, he'd be that angry kid on tumblr going on about how awful humans are because of all the harm we've caused to the environment. I think it's why I like him so much.
And this is the conflict at the heart of the series. While Gamu and Fujimiya eventually join forces, there's always this issue in the way, where each sees the other's point of view. Gamu does start to worry that maybe he's doing the wrong thing by destroying the monsters—even the alien ones—because they're reacting to a change in their environment and getting defensive. He doesn't know how to solve all of the world's ills. And Fujimiya, try as he might, cannot bring himself to damn all of humanity. He still cares about people, instinctively protecting them. He realizes that he's been duped, with the Radical Destruction Entity hacking Crisis and tampering with his results. And the enemy continues to try to manipulate him into using his powers to destroy humanity. For a while, Fujimiya can't even transform—he relinquishes the Agul force to Gamu, providing him with a permanent form change and a power-up mode. He has to hit rock bottom and build himself back up again in order for the Earth to choose him again—this time to protect all of the species that call it home, not just the planet itself.
I really love these characters. While Yoshioka definitely plays Gamu a little naive, it's endearing because he really wants to believe that there can be a good outcome. And as on the fence as I've been with Takano's acting, he is absolutely perfect as Fujimiya, and I think I see why he struggled in Kamen Rider The Next: because they wanted him to play Ichimonji as Fujimiya, and the two concepts do not combine. It makes me appreciate the hell out of his Tezuka in Ryuki, though, since it looks like he's just kind of rolling his eyes at Ren like "I made this cool years ago." Which is also what he does in-character as Fujimiya to Juggler in Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga, so it's wonderful.
I can see where Chiaki Konaka started getting ideas for Digimon Tamers, for example, with the coordination of the Alchemy Stars, XIG, and GUARD in the finale—Tamers , of course, would feature Hypnos and the Wild Bunch utilizing computing power from everyone all over the world to help the kids defeat the D-Reaper. There's even a forest in one episode that encroaches on the city, much like the D-Reaper would. GUARD member Hiroki Hiiragi is basically Yamaki in an extra-large suit. The fact that there are no easy answers is very much what would come of Tamers. Mind you, I haven't watched enough of Tiga or Dyna to understand what was going on in the Revival Era before Gaia started, but based on my past experience with Konaka's writing, it seems like he tried to make things a little more about finding and maintaining a balance. Gamu and Fujimiya clash, then come to an accordance that keeps one another in check. Gamu's optimism tempers Fujimiya's cynicism, while Fujimiya's ability to ignore that little voice in the back of his head telling him something is wrong helps balance Gamu's fears that everything they're doing is wrong.
I do have some criticisms, I admit. Gamu starts to realize that maybe it's wrong to destroy the monsters just because they're rampaging, and on one occasion, he's able to get it to settle down and go back to sleep. This is forgotten for a while, which is a shame because the monsters join forces with humanity in the finale to help defend the Earth. It's hard to ignore the fact that Fujimiya spends the first half of the series as a terrorist and it openly called as such—while not everyone trusts or forgives him and he does have to go through a lot to redeem himself, it still feels weird seeing him being able to go out in public without people freaking out and calling the cops on him. And we don't actually see the Radical Destruction Entity itself—as Gamu realizes, it only sends minions, aliens that it has manipulated or just plain frightened into attacking. They defeat its last general, the angelic Zogu, but they never come face-to-face with the creature that hates humanity and thinks that we are a virus endangering the whole universe. So it feels a little incomplete.
Either way, the series is really good, and there's no coherent way I can discuss everything I loved about it in this one post. Just...go to Crunchyroll and watch it for yourself.
The story is this: Young geniuses all over the world banded together to form an organization called Alchemy Stars, where they used their gifts to help all of humanity. But one of the supercomputers they created, Crisis, predicted the arrival of an Entity that brings Radical Destruction. How that destruction is "radical" is beyond me, but hey. It was the 90s. It was probably radical by default. In probably the most fantastical development of the entire show, upon hearing the youth of the world saying, "There's a problem and we need to solve it," the adults...listened. They formed GUARD and XIG and depended on the Alchemy Stars' technology to develop weaponry to hold off this Radical Destruction.
Gamu Takayama, played by Takeshi Yoshioka, is one of the Alchemy Stars, running experiments on virtual reality in 2000 in order to connect with the life of the Earth itself. He succeeds, finding the spirit of the Earth, Ultraman, and being chosen to wield its power himself. He joins XIG, mostly because he points out to Commander Ishimuro that he personally designed the repulsor lift that propels their Aerial Base and many of their other machines. His technical genius alone is what benefits XIG on paper. But he slips away and transforms into Ultraman, later designated Gaia, in order to protect the planet from the various monsters from the Earth and outer space. The Commander becomes aware of his dual identity, but he keeps it under wraps out of respect for Gamu, for a time.
Things become complicated with the creator of Crisis, Hiroya Fujimiya (played by Hassei Takano), makes himself known and begins endangering humans while trying to fight off the Radical Destruction. Fujimiya was also chosen by a spirit of the Earth, the oceanic entity Ultraman Agul, and transforms in order to protect the planet...but not humanity. His computations with Crisis brought him to a revelation to save the Earth—remove humanity from the equation. So he has convinced himself that humans are the problem. And it's not hard to see his reasoning—a lot of the Earth-born monsters are attacking because of environmental pollution, development, extinction, and even horrifying medical experiments. If this was set some 10-20 years later, he'd be that angry kid on tumblr going on about how awful humans are because of all the harm we've caused to the environment. I think it's why I like him so much.
And this is the conflict at the heart of the series. While Gamu and Fujimiya eventually join forces, there's always this issue in the way, where each sees the other's point of view. Gamu does start to worry that maybe he's doing the wrong thing by destroying the monsters—even the alien ones—because they're reacting to a change in their environment and getting defensive. He doesn't know how to solve all of the world's ills. And Fujimiya, try as he might, cannot bring himself to damn all of humanity. He still cares about people, instinctively protecting them. He realizes that he's been duped, with the Radical Destruction Entity hacking Crisis and tampering with his results. And the enemy continues to try to manipulate him into using his powers to destroy humanity. For a while, Fujimiya can't even transform—he relinquishes the Agul force to Gamu, providing him with a permanent form change and a power-up mode. He has to hit rock bottom and build himself back up again in order for the Earth to choose him again—this time to protect all of the species that call it home, not just the planet itself.
I really love these characters. While Yoshioka definitely plays Gamu a little naive, it's endearing because he really wants to believe that there can be a good outcome. And as on the fence as I've been with Takano's acting, he is absolutely perfect as Fujimiya, and I think I see why he struggled in Kamen Rider The Next: because they wanted him to play Ichimonji as Fujimiya, and the two concepts do not combine. It makes me appreciate the hell out of his Tezuka in Ryuki, though, since it looks like he's just kind of rolling his eyes at Ren like "I made this cool years ago." Which is also what he does in-character as Fujimiya to Juggler in Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga, so it's wonderful.
I can see where Chiaki Konaka started getting ideas for Digimon Tamers, for example, with the coordination of the Alchemy Stars, XIG, and GUARD in the finale—Tamers , of course, would feature Hypnos and the Wild Bunch utilizing computing power from everyone all over the world to help the kids defeat the D-Reaper. There's even a forest in one episode that encroaches on the city, much like the D-Reaper would. GUARD member Hiroki Hiiragi is basically Yamaki in an extra-large suit. The fact that there are no easy answers is very much what would come of Tamers. Mind you, I haven't watched enough of Tiga or Dyna to understand what was going on in the Revival Era before Gaia started, but based on my past experience with Konaka's writing, it seems like he tried to make things a little more about finding and maintaining a balance. Gamu and Fujimiya clash, then come to an accordance that keeps one another in check. Gamu's optimism tempers Fujimiya's cynicism, while Fujimiya's ability to ignore that little voice in the back of his head telling him something is wrong helps balance Gamu's fears that everything they're doing is wrong.
I do have some criticisms, I admit. Gamu starts to realize that maybe it's wrong to destroy the monsters just because they're rampaging, and on one occasion, he's able to get it to settle down and go back to sleep. This is forgotten for a while, which is a shame because the monsters join forces with humanity in the finale to help defend the Earth. It's hard to ignore the fact that Fujimiya spends the first half of the series as a terrorist and it openly called as such—while not everyone trusts or forgives him and he does have to go through a lot to redeem himself, it still feels weird seeing him being able to go out in public without people freaking out and calling the cops on him. And we don't actually see the Radical Destruction Entity itself—as Gamu realizes, it only sends minions, aliens that it has manipulated or just plain frightened into attacking. They defeat its last general, the angelic Zogu, but they never come face-to-face with the creature that hates humanity and thinks that we are a virus endangering the whole universe. So it feels a little incomplete.
Either way, the series is really good, and there's no coherent way I can discuss everything I loved about it in this one post. Just...go to Crunchyroll and watch it for yourself.