![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameSo let's get one undeniable thing off my chest right off the bat: 2016 was a terrible year. Sure, every year seems to be considered the Worst Year Ever (TM), but 2016 really seemed to be THE Worst Year Ever. Between celebrity deaths and contested elections in America and referendums in the UK that brought to the surface possibly irrevocable divides in two major superpowers, things really sucked.
And I think the general bleakness of Western society at the time is what helped contribute to Orb's success overseas. It was not the first Ultra series to be subbed on Crunchyroll, but it was certainly one of the most popular. It had massive gains over its predecessor, Ultraman X, both in terms of toy sales and streaming, and three years later, it is still one of the most beloved entries not just in the Heisei/New Generations Era, but in the entire franchise. It just had the right combination of factors coming together: the 50th anniversary of the franchise and the 30th anniversary of Tiga, the balance between a celebration of the past and a compelling new story, some heavy drama fused with much-needed lightness, and a talented cast with two experienced leading men. And it's not like the show was playing it safe, either—the main series is chapter 6 of a plotted 10-chapter storyline, called the Ultraman Orb Chronicle. We start in media res, which is a dangerous place to go—we're expected to follow along with allusions to past events we've never seen. We're following the fall of two characters who began as friends and potential saviors, after both have utterly failed to save anyone in their lives. And we're doing all of this in a completely new concept in Ultra worldbuilding—gone are the science patrols of the past 50 years. The Earth of Orb has history with kaiju attacks, but no real idea of how to fight them. VTL, the organization tasked with protecting the planet, is out of the series' focus and barely makes a dent. Instead, we follow a lone hero, his eternal rival, and some goofy bloggers that get caught up in the middle. It's like if someone took Kamen Rider Decade or Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger or even Power Rangers: Shattered Grid, added the scale of the Skywalker drama alluded to in the original Star Wars trilogy, showed the deep scars of trauma and betrayal from Kamen Rider OOO, and then threw in ORE Journal from Kamen Rider Ryuki for no real reason.
And it WORKS. For all of this mishmash of bizarre concepts, it works, and it sets the stage for the remainder of the New Generations Era. Both Geed and R/B do away with the science patrols. Riku Asakura is largely left on his own, with background aid from the very alien AIB and guidance only from fighting side-by-side with a defeated and depowered Ultraman Zero. Katsumi and Isami Minato have to figure out how to save the world while battling the resources of AizenTech and its destructive fanboy CEO, Makoto Aizen, and his successor, the nihilistic nigh-immortal Saki Mitsurugi. At the time of this review, the first of the Reiwa Era Ultras, Ultraman Taiga and his amazing friends, has not yet debuted. But already, we have elements introduced from Orb being incorporated into its internal mythology—one of the lead Ultras, Ultraman Fuma, gained his powers from Orb's home planet of O-50. It looks like they're going back to the idea of a science patrol, since the Ultras' host, Hiroyuki, definitely seems to be part of one. But either way, I'm curious to see how much Orb will continue to influence the future era.
All that said, let's start.
The Sunset Wanderer (writer: Takao Nakano / director: Kiyotaka Taguchi): Apologies if the screencaps all vary in size, subtitles, and video type—I collected them over the course of the show, using Firefox Screenshot straight off of Crunchyroll, using ctrl-prt sc when that failed, and also ripping video from Ultraman Orb: The Chronicle on Youtube, so it's going to be all over the place.
We open to a blurry view of a giant being of light, battling a giant monster. Though its name isn't revealed, the full Chronicle reveals that this is Maga-Zetton, the King Demon Beast of Light. As we zoom out, we see the battle is actually reflected in the eye of a mysterious blonde woman, who is watching the battle in a forest. She screams for the giant, although we can't hear her voice. Still, she manages to distract him long enough for Maga-Zetton to blast a fireball at him. The explosion ricochets toward the woman, who screams as she falls. The giant turns to look for her, but when he fails to see her, he is enraged and summons a shining, iridescent sword. He draws a ring of light into the sky and absorbs it back into the sword, firing a multicolored beam of light at Maga-Zetton, and flinging the sword straight into it. But the explosion absolutely levels the forest for several hundred square miles. A man is left all alone in the devastation, holding a large blue ring as light from the monster's remains is drawn into it, creating a card that depicts the original Ultraman. The man places the card in a holster at his side, then looks at the destruction he's caused. Oh, hey, it's Kai from Kamen Rider Den-O! Okay, no, his name here is actually Gai, but that's one freakin' letter off. Come on, Ultraman, you're not even trying. But hey, at least Kai/Gai is actually sorry about destroying everything this time.
The event leads into the opening, beginning with the titular Orb standing in the burning forest. And dear god, the opening is an experience! See, when I first heard that Kai was going to play the hero, I thought, "Huh, this could be interesting." And then Tsuburaya released the video of the opening sequence and I was all in. It is the perfect amount of wtf. The song is very old-school manly heroic, which is appropriate for Gai, as we'll see over time. One of the singers is Ichiro Mizuki, the singer for Kamen Rider Stronger and Captain Harlock and a whole host of others; the rest of the vocals are done by Voyager. All of the main characters are introduced, but in an extremely silly decision, instead of taking a still image of them standing in a dramatic pose...they all have to hold the pose for a few seconds. Only Hideo Ishiguro (Gai) and Takaya Aoyagi (Juggler) have any kind of dignity in this process, but others, like Miyabi Matsuura (Naomi), just went for the most ridiculous face they could possibly make. I mean, seriously, you can see them all twitching from having to hold still!
The story returns to the present, where a mother is reading a book to her young son. Since everything in the universe must be absolutely appropriate, the story is about a wind creature. The kid points to sudden storm clouds and says he sees a bird, just before tornados rip up skyscrapers and toss them into the park, narrowly missing them. The disaster makes it to the local news, which our trio of intrepid reporters, the Something Search People (yes, that's what they're called), watch over and wonder about. "Cap" Naomi Yumeno says nobody's going to look at their weird phenomenon blog, while videographer Jetta Hayami argues otherwise, showing a social media post about a giant bird. Naomi warns it could be fake, and she doesn't want them to get flamed again. However, resident tech genius/physicist Shin Matsudo has tracked the weird weather in Tokyo over the last few days and thinks it's worth looking into. He talks a big game about chaos theory and overdimensionality, and if you remember anything from my Ryuki reviews, please remember that I do not speak physics, so I can't fact-check any of this shit. Either way, he's developed a storm tracking machine...which I'm pretty sure is called radar, but whatever. Naomi's worried about the cost to their electric bill, especially since she hasn't paid last month's rent yet. But with their landlady knocking on the door, it's time for the SSP to move out.
We now come to my all-time favorite introduction scene. A refrigerated truck is driving through Tokyo when the driver suddenly hears harmonica music coming from the freezer. He pulls over and opens it to investigate, finding a man covered in frost, playing a strange alien harmonica—reintroducing our hero, everybody! Gai steps out to brush off his hat, while the driver freaks out, since he's been in -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) temperatures for five hours. But Gai only needs to dust himself off and stretch, thanking him for the lift before heading off.
It's absolutely perfect in setting the tone for the series, and really gets to the heart of how utterly ridiculous Gai is, no matter how much tragedy he's carrying. It's the "Eiji in his underwear" of Ultraman; no matter what trauma our hero has that he's struggling to get through, at his very core, he's a fucking DORK.
The SSP is arguing by the river when Naomi's uncle, Ittetsu Shibukawa, comes up to them and accuses them of causing a blackout. Shibukawa is a member of VTL (Versatile Tactical Leader), the organization I briefly mentioned in the preface. They're not nearly as advanced as Xio from X or any of their other predecessors, since the SSP complains about them always being late and secretive about everything. But their argument is interrupted by a strange noise, and Gai appears, warning them that the "devil's wind" is coming. He then runs off as the machine records incredibly low barometric pressure and tornadoes form. Naomi, Shin, and Jetta head to their car, the SSP-7, which only makes me worry what happened to SSP-1 through 6, especially when Shin's driving is terrible and Jetta's filming. They drive through massive winds, a billboard of a cow that I swear has to be a reference to Twister somehow, and an explosion. Oh, and then Gai jumps onto their windshield and yells at them, because what even is Gai? The tornado sucks all of them up, with Gai just hanging onto the roof of the car. They see the bird, which Gai calls Maga-Basser, the King Demon Beast of the Wind. He then jumps off the car and freaking flies on the air currents. Jetta loses his camera, so Naomi pulls out her phone to record. They soon see a giant being fighting Maga-Basser, but then they start falling. In a flash of light, the giant's hand appears and catches the car, landing them safely on the street.
They're thrilled at the footage they got...until they get back to the office and realize that Naomi's phone was stuck on selfie mode the whole time. Shin decides to check online scans of an ancient document, the Pacific Records, managing to find both the "devil's wind" and "Maga-Basser." He discovers that the weather all over Japan is full of tornadoes, and seven typhoons are in the Pacific (okay, technically, there's only one or two typhoons—three of them are hurricanes, since they're in the eastern Pacific, and two are southern cyclones, plus an Indian Ocean cyclone and an Atlantic hurricane he missed). They're also snow on the pyramids of Giza. Shun explains that Maga-Basser's wing flaps and wind powers are creating a butterfly effect, potentially devastating the entire planet.
The next day, they resume their search, but they're grouchy when they can't find anything. The guys make Naomi buy coffee, but on her way back, a well-dressed stranger bumps into her—Jugglus Juggler. Quick note: this is the spelling I am going to use, since it's the most frequent. The Origin Saga (which I'll review down the line) and S.H. Figuarts prefer "Juggrus," but...somehow it's worse? It is a weird name. And it's not the only one that's hard to work with, as we'll see in a little bit. Juggler's clearly annoyed to have his nice suit ruined, but he's polite to Naomi. She offers to get his suit cleaned, but she jumps at the sign of another storm coming. Juggler flirtingly says he likes storms, since they bring excitement to a boring world. He likens it to "un coup de foudre"—a French saying that literally means "a bolt of lightning," but is used to describe love at first sight. Naomi's clearly struck by the obvious flirting, but suddenly, there's a literal bolt of lightning—red lightning that illuminates the shadow of a demon in his place, before he disappears.
The storm chaser activates, and the guys call Naomi back, but the storm is right on top of them. They try to take cover, but Naomi is sucked up by the tornado. And then in what is obviously a Superman reference, Gai flies up and scoops up the distressed reporter in his arms, telling her to close her eyes while he really flies. But she can't keep her eyes closed throughout the totality of the chaos, which is lucky for Gai, since she notices his harmonica slip out of his coat pocket, and she's able to catch it. They escape the tornado and manage to gracefully land while a building crashes down behind them. There's another humorous bit where he asks if she's okay, before promptly deciding she's no longer his problem, because Gai is nothing but terrible at interpersonal relations. But then Maga-Basser lands, and that promptly becomes his problem. He hands off Naomi to Shibukawa, then runs into a photo booth.
Now, I swear, this is a Megaranger reference. There's an episode of Megaranger where the Red Ranger, Kenta, has his identity exposed after he stupidly morphs inside of a photo booth. While I haven't seen Megaranger, the plot was copied wholesale into Power Rangers in Space, only with the Black Ranger, Carlos. When I saw this episode for the first time, I really, really wanted to just use this to lambast how fucking insane the PRiS scenario was. You KNOW where you're transforming, Carlos. You KNOW there's a chance that there may be photographic evidence. And you know what? Gai is a fucking idiot, and even HE knows to retrieve the evidence before some random little girl finds it!
So, in case you for some reason haven't guessed, Gai is indeed the giant of light. I mean, he was doing such a great job hiding all of his powers. His Fusion Up sequence is really cool, similar in some ways to Kamen Rider Decade, in that he uses cards of his predecessor Ultramen to transform—in this case, Ultraman and Tiga, whom he uses the honorific "san" with, making it essentially translate to "Mr. Ultraman, Mr. Tiga, I'm borrowing the power of your lights!" So polite! However, unlike Tsukasa, Gai uses two cards to transform, fusing the powers together to create the form Specium Zeperion.
Another note on spelling here...I honestly have no idea how this is supposed to be spelled, since both "specium" and "spacium" are used for the element. Specium comes from the original Ultraman, so it shows up frequently throughout the franchise, including in the 2019 Netflix anime. Mind you, I haven't actually watched it yet, mostly because I haven't read all of the manga that it's based on, so I don't know if it's spelled the same. Viz uses the spelling in the manga, however. But Bandai uses "Spacium," which does make sense, since it's a space-based element. Either way, expect me to sometimes forget what spelling I'm going with and use "Spacium Zeperion." Also to not know how many p's are in "Zeperion."
Gai announces himself as Orb, who will light the darkness and strike at evil...which makes me want to add, "And that means you!" because that is a Sailor Moon catchphrase if I ever heard one. Naomi recognizes Orb, though she can't explain why. As they record, Juggler walks up and explains that Ultraman Orb is the "galaxy's shining star" and "what you might call a warrior of light." Maga-Basser is unwieldy for Orb to fight, with wings and a long neck that make him a lot bigger, and also flight. And jumping on him. It doesn't help that Gai is really bad about collateral damage, throwing the kaiju into buildings. Orb does manage to barely clip its wing with his Light Ring attack, which is quite honestly the most successful use of the attack throughout the entire show. But he does take the battle to the air, which is rare even for the Ultra series, where the heroes can fly. Those kind of wireworks are tough. As a nice introduction to the franchise's three-minute time limit, the photo booth flashes a one-minute timer, coinciding with Gai's color timer flashing. And here's where it gets a little disturbing—since Orb's form is a fusion between two other Ultras, when time runs out, the fusion starts to split apart into its component Ultras, and you see eerie phantom images of Ultraman and Tiga falling out of him. But of course, that means it's time to break out the finisher, and Sperion Ray finishes Maga-Basser off. And translation note, I'm using "ray" here just because that's what Crunchyroll uses for this series, whereas for X, they used "beam." I honestly think this is the only one of the official subs that did that.
The SSP celebrates as Orb flies away and VTL finally shows up. Gai returns to the photo booth to transform back...because he's Gai...then runs over to a chunk of Maga-Basser's remains. He holds out his Orb Ring to it, and the remains break down, forming a card of Ultraman Mebius. As it turns out, in ancient times, Mebius fought Maga-Basser and sealed him away. So Gai thanks him, because he's Gai. Oh, and remember what I said about him being an idiot and still knowing to get his photos? That's what he does! Even if he has to fight the machine for some reason. The SSP notice him and get his attention, and he stuffs the pictures in his pocket as he asks how they are. Naomi hands him his harmonica, which for reference's sake, is called the orbnica. Because this show. Gai is shocked to realize he'd lost it, then takes it back with deep gratitude, explaining that it's something important to him. Well, Gai, maybe you should take better care of the things that are important in your life.
...Okay, that was a low blow and I feel really bad about it now.
Naomi thanks him, and he starts to walk away. When they stop him, he says, "Look, the Earth is round. I'm sure we'll run into each other again eventually," before dramatically exiting into the sunset and playing his tune on the orbnica. Jetta ribs Naomi for being obviously lovestruck, but she denies it, instead saying that his melody sounds oddly familiar.
But Gai's not the only one to collect a card that day. In the middle of the night, Juggler gathers Maga-Basser's power into a card with a very similar device, the Dark Ring. And he asks if Orb will be the light of hope or the infinite darkness...
The King Demon Beast of Earth (Yuji Kobayashi / Taguchi): Jetta starts off the episode by making a video diary, recounting to his successful future self about the adventures of episode one...which, yeah, my review is clearly going to pale in comparison to sunshine puppy's, but anyway. He declares that discovering who and what Orb is are their top priority, even while Naomi is complaining about how he and Shin are spending nights at the office and making her do their cleaning. Seriously, not cool. She should at least cut your pay for this. Site traffic hasn't increased, even though they broke the news about Orb and his name, but as Naomi points out, the mainstream media has picked up on his name as well and has better quality video and pictures. They just need a story no one else has. Meanwhile, outside a local bathhouse, Gai drinks some ramune and looks out over the city while a little kid near him struggles to open his own ramune bottle. Gai comments that the city's changed since he was last there—for example, he used to have a clear view of the sunset from the bathhouse, but now there's a building in the way. When he sees that the kid still can't get the bottle open, he tries to help, only for it to fizz all over him. But right after that, they notice the building that was blocking his view suddenly sinking into the ground. The story hits the news, and the SSP look into the rumors. Jetta and Shin like the one about a subterranean civilization sending a warning to the surface, but c'mon, guys. Prince Sho is a lot more direct than that. Naomi decides the story is worth investigating, especially if it can save lives. But she has to go to her part-time job to pay their rent, so the boys are on the case.
Gai walks past a police barricade to the giant sinkhole left behind by the collapse. He telepathically senses something sleeping within the earth, recognizing another King Demon Beast. But Shibukawa finds him at the hole and warns him to leave. Gai manages to change the subject and thanks him for his service. Do you just...do this whenever you're in trouble, Gai? You get pulled over for speeding, and you just start commending the officer on the work he's doing, just in the hopes he's so flattered that he forgets to ticket you? Regardless, Shibukawa recognizes him from the other day, but more buildings sink nearby, and Gai runs off too fast for Shibukawa to stop him.
Shin and Jetta learn about this new incident and discover that the sites lie along the same fault line. Taking Jetta's boombox, now modified into a seismic recorder, Shin tries to predict the next sinkhole, all while Juggler stands in some basement, scanning some of his kaiju cards through the Dark Ring. He chants in an unknown alien language as he tries to break the mystical seals a past Ultra left on the King Demon Beast buried deep below the surface. But he cringes suddenly when he hears Gai's music, telling him he's ruining the mood. Gai says he's not there to put Juggler in a good mood, and Juggler says that this is their fated reunion, getting right up in Gai's personal space. Get a room, you two. Juggler sacrifices his next card, destabilizing the ground. Nearby, Jetta and Shin try to warn a security guard about the imminent collapse, but they've got the wrong building—the one Juggler destroyed is down the street. Jetta feels useless and mad that the machine didn't work right, but Shin realizes he's been looking at this wrong. This new building didn't fall on the fault line—he needs to look at the urban feng shui of Tokyo itself.
We find Naomi passing out coupons (and tripping over her own feet) for Bubbly Coffee, when Shin calls with the update. He explains that qi flows underground through "dragon veins" in the city, and that disrupting them leads to natural disasters. The Pacific Records reveal a red, horned giant sealed the beast using the dragon veins, and cross-referencing the ancient text with the map of disasters reveals where the last seal is...just as Naomi spots Juggler walking toward a nearby building. She follows to the parking level, watching him scan another card and start chanting again. She tries to record him, but Shin and Jetta call back. When she turns around, Juggler's gone. He's now right behind her, being a total creeper and invading her personal space in the most "Hello, Clarice" moment you'll see...until the final episodes, really. As you see, it's a thing with him. Props to her, she does an impressive job keeping her cool, asking what he's doing there. He flirts while threatening her, but Gai shows up and calmly tells him to let her go. Juggler explains that the King Demon Beast will rise out of its pumpkin patch and bring death and destruction to all the good little kids on the surface...or something like that. I'm probably mixing it up with something else. Naomi, rightfully, asks who are you two weirdoes. Gai says she'd be happier not knowing, but she says she isn't pursuing happiness, but the truth instead. And honestly, even Juggler looks surprised. He promises to continue this discussion sometime over coffee at dawn, but then he throws her at Gai. THIS ISN'T HOW AN OT3 WORKS, JUGGLER.
Gai catches her, but she passes out, conveniently just before Juggler breaks Maga-Grand King's seal. He taunts Gai that the roar of a King Demon Beast is sweeter than his music, but honestly, music is always up for debate. Although now I'm curious what his Spotify playlist looks like. We know Gai's is just that one song, so... Anyway, Gai leaps out of the sinking building, carrying Naomi, and remarks that she's a handful before setting her down and going to fight. Shin and Jetta find and wake her as Maga-Grand King emerges and Juggler goes all poetic. Orb struggles against the kaiju, even while using the built-in Power and Sky Types from Tiga to strike and dodge. Maga-Grand King's armor is just too tough. Even Sperion Ray fails, forcing Gai to dodge again...and let a bunch of buildings get holes in them. Jetta has been recording and narrating the whole time, so the SSP is right there when a building starts to collapse. He and Shin run, but Naomi freezes, and Gai has to catch it before it can land on her, then shielding her from the next blast as his fusion begins to fall apart. By chance, Maga-Grand King's next beam reflects off a glass-walled skyscraper, giving Gai an idea. He create a mirrored force field to reflect the attack back, and Shin realizes his strategy—Maga-Grand King can't use both its armor and its beam at the same time. Gai is thus able to finish it off, blasting through the hole he made and blowing the thing up from the inside. The victory is followed by a very nice, understated, quiet moment. After Orb departs and the SSP thanks him for all he's done, they turn around to look at the city and see all the damage their destructive savior has caused. And Juggler harvests Maga-Grand King's card while Gai breaks down Ultraman Taro's seal into a card of his own, thanking his four predecessors.
Work begins to repair the buildings, but for just a little while, the sunset is once again visible from the bathhouse. Gai reunites with the kid and manages to properly open his ramune bottle this time. As the kid thanks him and leaves, the SSP come to bathe. Naomi asks what he knows about everything, but Gai again says that she'd be happier not knowing the truth. Still, she's persistent, so he at least gives her his full name: Gai Kurenai.
Monstrous Waters (Sotaro Hayashi / Taguchi): In the middle of the night, we see a strange-looking kaiju creating explosions at a lake. But in the daylight, we have Naomi getting sprayed by the leaky pipes at the office. Shin's new invention, the Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) gun, helps fix the leak by shooting what looks like a proton beam, creating goo all over the faucet. But while they're handling house repairs, Jetta is depressed over the flames he got on his commentary of last episode's battle. Naomi and Shin realize he's crying, but he denies it, running off to take a shower. They try to leave it alone, and Shin asks for more money to improve the SAP gun, but Naomi reminds him they have bills to pay. But then Jetta screams and runs out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel. In the middle of his shower, the water suddenly started stinking, and now the smell is all over him.
Gai arrives at the bathhouse to find it closed, much to his devastation. The owner sees him and apologizes, since Gai always comes early in the day to use the bath first. The owner shows him the stinking water, and Jetta runs up to learn the bad news. They're not the only ones suffering from the water stench—kids in the street, pools, laundromats, the problem is all over the city. Jetta then recognizes Gai and asks how he can handle the smell. Gai says it's not bad at this concentration, but if he wants to be the first in the bath, he'd better put a stop to it. Plus, he owes the owner for the business.
Jetta douses himself in deodorant while Shin and Naomi find even the SAP-coated faucet stinks too, although the water quality isn't reading as abnormal otherwise. Naomi checks their emergency food and water supply, but they only have one bottle of water left—Shin's been eating their stock during his late nights there, but by now, the stores will be out of water. They put slices of ginger all over Jetta, including creating a shield and a skewer for him. He doesn't appreciate it, though, complaining that he looks like he's fighting a ghost. No, Shin's the one working with the Ghostbusters, based on the SAP gun. You worked with the Go-Busters. The ginger doesn't help anyway, since Shibukawa immediately smells him when he walks in the door. Shin quickly denies any responsibility in the stink problem, but Shibukawa admits that VTL's been looking into it for weeks, all over the country. They just haven't had any leads, so he was hoping they might know something. Shin consults the Pacific Records and discovers an entry about Maga-Jappa, the King Demon Beast who turns the waters foul.
Gai finds Maga-Jappa soaking in Lake Okunara and...I'm sorry. This is the dopiest-looking thing I've ever seen. I honestly love it. It is just so stupid-looking that I don't even know where to begin. Speaking of stupid, Gai proceeds to lose his shit over Maga-Jappa failing to observe proper bathing etiquette by not washing its nasty self off before going into the water. Maga-Jappa objects to Gai being so rude and blasts at him. Gai dodges, but loses his Orb Ring, and Juggler walks over and picks it up. He taunts Gai for his "embarrassing" loss, pointing out that the Ring is important to him, so he should have taken care of it. He urges Gai to take not just the Ring back, but the person he used to be. Gai says he hasn't changed, but Juggler asks how he can act so cool when he can't even transform without borrowing other Ultras' powers. Annoyed, Gai takes a swing at him, but Juggler tells him he wants him to take the fight seriously, asking if this is all he really is anymore. But Gai manages a kick under his defense and retrieves the Ring. Juggler disappears, reappears behind him, and gets up to his shoulder, admitting that Gai's not rusty before he leaves. Did he need to go for the most creepy and uncomfortable way to make that admission? No, but he does it anyway.
VTL alerts Shibukawa to Maga-Jappa, and Shin realizes that all of the occurrences have been near lakes, and if they're large and deep enough, they can be accessed underground. Jetta begins posting the information from the Records, and Shin and Naomi outfit him in a deodorizing armor, which he geeks out over because he wants to be a superhero. Shibukawa says he's going with them to the lake, and Naomi agrees, so long as they share intel. They smell Maga-Jappa about as soon as they arrive, and Shin determines that it's headed for the Narasawa Dam, Tokyo's largest water source. Jetta points out that the whole world will be at risk if the kaiju continues this way, and Shibukawa says it's officially become too dangerous for civilians. Naomi argues that this scoop will save their business, but Jetta admits it's a lot more than that—sure, they may be a bunch of goofy comic relief characters, but that's because it's the only way they get noticed. If they do straight-up journalism, they're ignored in favor of established news organizations. So they have to treat the news as entertainment. But when they have the chance to cover a story live, no matter how much they get flamed or overlooked, they've gotten word out that might save people's lives and given them notice to evacuate. Also, he really wants a bath, something that Gai appreciates from a distance.
Until VTL can arrive, the SSP try to slow Maga-Jappa down by firing the SAP gun over its head and coating it with goop. But Shibukawa gets overconfident and runs in closer for another attack, getting himself blasted. At Naomi's cries, Gai fuses up. But Maga-Jappa jumps on Orb, interrupting his catchphrase. This close to the source, Gai can't handle the smell anymore and has to keep breaking off his attacks, giving Maga-Jappa the advantage. It even draws him in close to breathe on him, making it worse before turning invisible and sneaking up on him. Gai finally switches to Taro and Mebius, helping to "bring the heat" as Burnmite, who is "burning crimson red." With great strength and flames, he wrestles, punches, and kicks himself toward victory before using his Stobium Dynamite attack, where he surrounds himself with flames and the explodes right on Maga-Jappa, destroying it...and half the forest. Goddamnit, Gai, you've wrecked enough forests already! At the very least, this time, he's able to put out the flames from the force of flying into the air. As the excitement fades, the SSP realize that they never saw exactly what happened to Shibukawa, and their fear starts up all over again. Fortunately, he comes running up to them again, safe and sound. And as Gai collects Ultraman Jack's power from the seal, Juggler collects Maga-Jappa's card and...sniffs it like a fine cigar. WHY ARE YOU SO WEIRD, JUGGLER? But he says that he's counting on Orb to help him get the "last one."
Gai and the SSP head to the bathhouse for a well-deserved scrub and soak, and as he relaxes in the tub, Gai claims that being the first in the hot water is Earth's greatest luxury. Shin and Jetta are sure he's exaggerating, but Jetta has to admit that access to fresh, clean water is a blessing. Gai starts to look impressed by them...and then the dudes jump into the tub like it's a pool, and he proceeds to lose his shit again.
Beware of Fire in the Midsummer Sky (Akio Miyoshi / Yuichi Abe): It's 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Tokyo, and Naomi is working inside a Hawaiian-themed restaurant today. The restaurant is packed, which means that poor Jetta and Shin are sitting at the outdoor tables, regardless of their connections. They review footage of Orb's fights, noticing that he can only stay fused for three minutes at a time. But otherwise, they can't find any answers about him, or about the monsters. Or Gai, who Naomi is interested in learning more about, and she wonders just what he's up to now. It turns out that's an easy answer—he's trying to decide between buying his usual ramune or a ramune ice pop. He decides on the ice cream, but as soon as he's about to eat it, a blast of hot wind, vaporizes it, much to his shock. Damn it, toku. Between this and all of Kamen Rider OOO, what is with your crimes against ice cream?
A massive fireball appears in the sky, and people start fainting from the heat. Gai recognizes it as the Maga-Pandon, the King Devil Beast of Fire—and yeah, from here on out, the subs basically decide to call them the "King Devil Beasts," but expect me to switch back and forth depending on what sounds better in my head that day. Gai gets ready to fuse up, but then realizes he's about to scan his popsicle stick because this is the level of moron we're working with here. But Specium Zeperion heads off to battle anyway, the SSP following and shielding themselves with an umbrella because this is the level of weirdo genius we're working with here. Orb suddenly develops the ability to shoot jets of water from his hands, trying to douse the fireball. It doesn't help. Nor does creating a giant Light Ring. He blasts it with a Sperion Ray next while running extremely fast around it, creating the illusion that there's more than one of him as he fires from all sides...which still doesn't make sense to me no matter how many times I see this kind of thing, but whatever. But it exerts all of his energy, so finally, he generates a forcefield to protect himself as he flies up, pushing the fireball out of the atmosphere.
Then his color timer goes out while he's in space.
Helplessly, Orb falls back to the planet, burning up on re-entry. He lands in a huge him-shaped crater before reverting to humanoid form, weak, overheated, and coughing. Juggler shows up to rub it in his face and step on his hand, admitting he's disappointed. He calls Gai the "chosen one," yanking him up and getting in his face, telling him to make this "enjoyable" for him...because Juggler is nothing if not the kinkiest dude in the galaxy. He then throws Gai into the side of a nearby building...and even this looks awkward. Mind you, there's no cheap way to CGI your lead being slammed into a wall at full-force, but it looks extra-weird when Hideo Ishiguro keeps his arms down like he just walked up against it...and is also Hideo Ishiguro and generally always looking weird and awkward on a good day. Gai collapses to the ground as Juggler leaves and the SSP arrives at the empty crater. Naomi spots Gai unconscious some feet away. They turn him over, but he's so feverish that just touching his skin burns them. Shibukawa arrives and determines that Gai's heart is beating...which is pretty freaking lucky, considering that Gai is an alien and not human. Seriously, it's not a given that a humanoid alien is going to have any similar physiology to a human—look at Doctor Who! Time Lords look human, but they have two hearts, and one iteration of the Doctor was actually killed when a human cardiologist tried to conduct surgery on him and inserted a probe that critically wounded his circulatory system. If Gai had a different cardiovascular system from a human, Juggler might be even more disappointed at how easily he dies just from basic human medicine.
The SSP bring Gai to their office to cool down, since all of the hospitals are full of heat stroke victims. Shin sorts through his belongings, but fails to find any ID or next of kin to contact. Naomi tries to change the damp cloth on Gai's head, but burns herself again from the residual heat. Meanwhile, Gai dreams of the past—a forest, where he plays the orbnica for the blonde woman from the flashback in episode one. She sings along before Gai then sees the explosion and her death again. He starts breathing heavily and calling out in his sleep—something Naomi notices while Shin and Jetta research. Gai grabs Naomi's hand in a daze, again burning her. The incorrigible shippers notice, though she insists it's not what it looks like, but Jetta and Shin stop teasing her when they realize Gai is opening his eyes. He's not fully awake, still delirious and unsure where he is, letting it slip that he was fighting someone—a detail that immediately catches their attention and worries them. He tries to get up, insisting he's fine, but he collapses and loses consciousness again right away, even as Naomi complains that he's being ungrateful.
Fun fact: Whensavethelilin and I saw that together, we had this exchange:
Wei: You have a type.
Me: ...I have a type.
Shin returns to his research, determining that the fireball is still close to Earth. Jetta points out that Orb disappeared right about where they found Gai, so, logically, Gai is probably Orb in human form. But Shin shoots down his hypothesis with good old conservation of matter...something that Ultraman has never managed to justify. Shibukawa stops by, revealing that VTL has failed to stop the fireball with their freezing missiles. He suspects it's really a kaiju, so he asks them to check the Pacific Records. And sure enough, there's an entry about a twin sun...which apparently had nothing to do with Tatooine. The heat from the second sun alone will cause things to ignite, and of course, right on cue, it starts to descend to the Earth. VTL fires surface-to-air missiles, lighting up the night.
And in the dawn of twin suns and explosions, Gai finally cools off enough to wake up. Again, he doesn't recognize his surroundings, but this time, he's able to sit up. He does remember everything once Naomi and Jetta rush over to check on him, but he tells her she should have just left him alone. And naturally, she grumbles again that he should just say thanks and shut up already. Shin announces that the fireball has stopped above the city, and inside it, Maga-Pandon blasts fireballs everywhere. Gai can still barely stand, but he insists he's okay, which is good enough for Naomi to throw him a heat-resistant suit that Shin threw together and tell him to evacuate to the basement, where they have emergency food and water and he can ride out the attack in safety. In the meantime, they're going to cover the story, undeterred even as the power goes out. Naomi jokes that they'll blow away the heat with their "journalistic passion," and that finally gives Gai the breakthrough he needs. As they head off, he decides he can't just stand around and do nothing, so he fuses up into Burnmite.
Stobium Burst breaks up the fireball, also blowing away the SSP. Juggler, looking hilariously chill with shades and an umbrella, watches with amusement that Gai very literally "blew it away" with an explosion. Naomi admits the same, and Shin tells her the science is sound. Because we all know that our sci-fi needs to have sound science. Maga-Pandon is now revealed to have two heads attached to the same "neck", which both spit fire. However, Orb has two fists, and he shoves them into the kaiju's mouths. He then throws Maga-Pandon around for a while before blasting it with Sperion Ray. Maga-Pandon approaches him the whole time it's being shot, but the attack finally succeeds, and it explodes, leaving Gai to collect Ultraman Zero's card, and Juggler to collect the last of the King Devil Beasts. With all four elements, plus light and darkness, all he needs to find now is the "Dark King."
Gai makes it back to the office before the SSP, eating some of the ice cream they'd offered him before when he'd woken up. They start gushing about the footage they got and the battle, but Naomi admits that now he's better, she'd like to ask him a few things. She stops, though, when she realizes that he's eating their ice cream. His third ice cream. They run to the freezer and find it's empty, except for what looks like a used lollipop. Naomi is about to explode on Gai, but it's a really good thing that he's feeling better and he's a super-fast alien, since he's already left, leaving behind a thank you note and some money.
A Heart That Won't Flee (Hirotoshi Kobayashi / Abe): We open with Gai finding a torn ragdoll in the park, its arm coming off. For some reason, the sight of the doll reminds him of the young woman he lost, and he picks it up and walks away.
Meanwhile, in less traumatic news, Naomi's current part-time job is at a construction site, where she's apparently highly respected and appreciated. Her boss even worries about how many all-nighters she's been pulling between her multiple jobs and tells her to go home and rest as soon as her shift is over. Damn, have we finally found the ideal toku boss? As she's leaving, she gets a phone call from a high school girl who says she's tracking down an alien and needs help. She rushes over, phoning Jetta and having to leave a voicemail telling him and Shin to come help. The ringing phone wakes up a napping Shin, but he gets caught up in a brainstorm and starts work on another invention. Naomi ends up alone when she meets up with the girl and follows her to the basement of a dark building. They hear something, and the girl covers Naomi's mouth as they spot a kaiju, Hyper Zetton Deathscythe...because apparently kaiju go for the same naming rules as Gundams. But then the girl whispers to Naomi that she fell into her trap. During a struggle between them, the girl is thrown into a...ballerina twirl, for some reason, revealing herself as Maddock, an Alien Zetton criminal. Who still has human-looking knees, for some reason. It's weird. Naomi tries to run away, but she crashes into a pipe, losing consciousness.
Gai comes to the SSP office, where Jetta was also napping, clinging to a Malibu pillow and dreaming of California. Why are you so friggin' cute, Jetta? Shin, in the meantime, is building a system to predict the future, since he suddenly realized that time isn't so much a linear path of cause to effect, but a spiral, like a great big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. Jetta, however, argues that the future isn't predictable—you have to make it yourself. Hence why he makes at least four volumes of video diaries to his future self, which he decorates with drawings of rocketships and stars and my question still stands, why are you so friggin' cute? Gai enters, showing them the doll and asking if they have anything he can use to sew it back together. In another moment of unbearable cuteness, Jetta immediately takes the doll, recognizing it's handmade, admitting that he makes the same things for his little sister. Wow, can we see this sometime, Tsuburaya? He worries that the little girl who lost the doll may be crying now, and that makes Gai feel guilty about taking it from the park. He plans to take it back, but Jetta convinces him that instead, they should post flyers and social media ads, letting the neighborhood know they found it. Shin admits that the doll reminds him of Naomi...which is weird. Why do ripped dolls remind these dumbasses of actual girls? But it reminds Shin that she called Jetta's phone. Jetta puts the voicemail on speaker, getting all excited to go alien-hunting...until a second message plays, with Naomi trying to call for help. She's cut off by Maddock's voice, challenging Gai to come save her, and Gai coldly asks Jetta and Shin where she went.
Naomi tries to fight her way free as Maddock chains her to the pipes. But unlike the usual cackling villain, he encourages her to continue, since the more desperate she seems, the more likely Gai will fall for it and take his bait. So, like a total badass, Naomi holds still and remains calm. It's moments like these that really speak in this series—sure, Naomi seems like a silly, clumsy, comic-relief romantic interest a lot of the time, but there's a serious edge of courageous steel in her that I have to celebrate. After changing from his schoolgirl uniform to a worksuit, Maddock realizes she really isn't going to scream, so he tries to threaten her. She just argues that nobody's going to hear her that far underground, so what's the point of panicking? But Maddock warns that while other humans wouldn't hear her, Gai certainly will. He throws one of Naomi's shoes at Deathscythe, which instinctively attacks and destroys it. This is enough to scare her into screaming finally, but in the midst of Maddock's laughter, they hear the orbnica playing. Maddock gives her an "I told you so," but she screams a warning to Gai that it's a trap. But Gai's already there, saying he's the kind of idiot who would rather ignore a warning and press the big old red button anyway.
Maddock shoots at him with an electric blaster, but he leaps to safety, grabbing a gear off the floor and flinging it at Maddock's head like a shuriken. As Maddock falls, Gai frees Naomi, yelling at her for being so reckless. Deathscythe slashes at them, and while Gai is able to get Naomi out of the way, the blade cuts into his back before slicing the pipe they were at, causing it to spew oil. Naomi worries about Gai's injury, but he insists it's just a flesh wound, handing Naomi her phone before they run. She struggles to put on her work boots, since Maddock destroyed her shoes, and tries to get video before fleeing, but Deathscythe fires at them. Again, Gai throws her out of the way and takes the hit. Naomi apologizes, but Gai pulls her over to take cover, while Maddock brags about knowing so much about Gai and how he'll always "rush to save" Naomi. She's surprised, but Gai denies everything because he's an emotionally repressed moron, telling her to get out while he stays back to draw their fire. She points out that as a wanderer, he's probably pretty good at running away...which I'm not entirely sure on the logic there, but okay. He says he doesn't like getting involved with other people, but she asks him why he bothered to save her, if that's the case. And because he's an emotionally repressed moron, he threatens to leave if she keeps asking questions.
Deathscythe fires again, but this time, Naomi warns Gai and helps him get away. But at the same time, he's hurt and can't take much more, so she spots a fire extinguisher and blasts it at Maddock. Gai then drags her to safety before Deathscythe rises to full height. Maddock chases them out of the building, threatening to shoot, but so does Naomi, refusing to run away. It's only the falling rubble of the collapsing building that stops her, since it's beating the crap out of Maddock for her, and Gai tells her to take the opportunity to run, once again reminding her not to mistake recklessness for courage. This time, she listens, and he privately reflects that she wouldn't be able to reveal the truth she prizes so much if she gets herself killed.
Specium Zeperion takes on Deathscythe, and unsurprisingly, his Light Ring immediately fails. Maddock boasts that he knows all of Gai's powers, so he can't win. So Gai decides to try something nobody's seen yet, asking Zero's and Jack's cards to "give [him] something with an edge"—Ultraman Orb Hurricane Slash. Proving that he's absolutely powered by Ultraman Zero, Hurricane Slash lands on top of a roof, running a hand against one of the sluggers on the side of his head as he brags that he'll "cut down darkness faster than the speed of light." He then proves it by launching into a series of quick kicks before trying to throw Deathscythe. Unfortunately, being a Zetton, it teleports out of the way every time he tries to score a good hit, getting too close to Naomi. Orb throws his sluggers to try to discourage it, but it only teleports behind him and blasts him. Shin and Jetta arrive and spot Naomi, deciding to start filming. Gai figures out that they're Deathscythe's next target and teleports to meet him right on top of them, clashing before teleporting out of the way. Deathscythe fires, but Orb uses his spinning sluggers as a shield before transforming them into the Orb Slugger Lance. As Deathscythe fires again, Orb powers up the lance and shoots a beam from it. Deathscythe successfully holds off the attack, but it was only a diversion to mask Gai's movements as he gets in close enough to stab Deathscythe with the lance, powering it up again and destroying Deathscythe altogether.
Shibukawa arrives, calling Naomi's tip into VTL so that they can be on the lookout for an alien kidnapper. Gai, however, has already found Maddock and quickly engages him in hand-to-hand combat. And I'm not going to lie—I love this fight. You'll hear from the Power Rangers fandom the cheers of "unmorphed fight scenes," which are original footage to Power Rangers (i.e., not a scene from Super Sentai) where the characters fight in their civilian identities. It's uncommon in Power Rangers because of the cost-cutting formula of the medium; Sentai and Kamen Rider can afford it a little more. However, there's always risk because you're sending the face-actor into a situation where they can be hurt—and need I remind you, Kamen Rider's very history exists the way it does because the face actor was injured doing a stunt fairly early in the series. So there has to be some very good choreography, along with occasionally swapping out the face-actor for a stunt double and hoping the audience doesn't notice. Again, risky, but also more on the expensive side, as with Power Rangers. And I think especially for New Generations Ultraman, this is especially risky. From the 90s until 2007, Tsuburaya was dealing with massive debt and insolvency. 2007 is when Mebius finished, when Ultra Seven X came out, and when the pay-per-view Mega Monster Battle came out. 9 years never feels as long as it is. The fact that Tsuburaya felt confident enough to throw in this fight scene, trusting Hideo to know his shit and not get himself hurt and set them back for months, says a lot.
Maddock is thrown from the roof, and Gai pursues him, even after Maddock fires his blaster. In a really awesome bit with the Ultra cards, Gai holds up Ultraman's card and channels its power to summon a barrier to reflect the shot. It's brilliant, and other card-based toku heroes should fucking do this. Now that he's managed to subdue Maddock, Gai demands answers about what his intentions were with Deathscythe. But Maddock only says that he just wanted the bragging rights for killing Orb, which would be a huge boost to his rep in the criminal underworld. He watched for a while and noticed how much Gai cared about Naomi, so he used her to lure him out. He asks what makes her so special, out of any other human, why her? But Gai, because he is—once again—an emotionally repressed idiot, just says that she's always running into him and his business; there's nothing personal between them. He backs away, just in time for the SSP to arrive. The dudes start geeking out over finally seeing a real-life alien, but Naomi holds them back, warning he's dangerous. They ask if Maddock plans to invade the planet, but Maddock only laughs, claiming that the Earth is "half-rotten" and not even worth it anymore. He warns that one day, Earthlings will abandon it just like everyone else, and then dies, his body breaking down into foam. The "half-rotten" comment bothers Jetta, but Naomi muses that it's just like when her mama always told her to clean up after herself; she won't run away, just make sure she cleans things up. Gai tells them good luck, insisting it's nothing he needs to care about, and tries to walk off. But Naomi yells at him that he should care, since it's their planet and everyone's business. When he still tries to walk away, she says she wants to thank him and offers to cook. The promise of food stops him in his tracks where nothing else will, and when Shibukawa finally catches up to them, Gai jokes that the alien is behind him, then going off with Naomi and the others.
Naomi serves an Eastern European-style mushroom soup with sour cream. I don't know enough to say for sure if it's Russian or Hungarian, but as we'll see later, countries in Orb have different names, so the whole thing is kind of moot. Gai takes one bite of the soup and finds himself suddenly nostalgic. He explains that it tastes like something he thought he'd never have again, and he starts thinking of the young woman he lost. After eating, he's about to leave when he notices an antique matryoshka doll on the shelf. He picks it up and starts opening it, as Naomi says he's just like the dolls nesting inside—there's always another part of him that they discover hidden within. But as Gai pulls out the last doll, he warns that all that's left is emptiness. He's about to open the doll to prove it, but Naomi stops him, explaining that it's not supposed to be opened, much like Pandora's box.
A little girl responds to their flyers, and the SSP returns the doll, warning her not to lose it again. They point out that Jetta fixed it after Gai found it left behind. The little girl thanks Gai, and he starts to get embarrassed, even while he smiles—it's clear that it's been a long time since he felt good about something he's done. He insists he should go, but Naomi invites him to stay. He relents, admitting he could "impose" for a few more days, and he really did like her soup. So they all sit down for more, beginning a new partnership.
And I think the general bleakness of Western society at the time is what helped contribute to Orb's success overseas. It was not the first Ultra series to be subbed on Crunchyroll, but it was certainly one of the most popular. It had massive gains over its predecessor, Ultraman X, both in terms of toy sales and streaming, and three years later, it is still one of the most beloved entries not just in the Heisei/New Generations Era, but in the entire franchise. It just had the right combination of factors coming together: the 50th anniversary of the franchise and the 30th anniversary of Tiga, the balance between a celebration of the past and a compelling new story, some heavy drama fused with much-needed lightness, and a talented cast with two experienced leading men. And it's not like the show was playing it safe, either—the main series is chapter 6 of a plotted 10-chapter storyline, called the Ultraman Orb Chronicle. We start in media res, which is a dangerous place to go—we're expected to follow along with allusions to past events we've never seen. We're following the fall of two characters who began as friends and potential saviors, after both have utterly failed to save anyone in their lives. And we're doing all of this in a completely new concept in Ultra worldbuilding—gone are the science patrols of the past 50 years. The Earth of Orb has history with kaiju attacks, but no real idea of how to fight them. VTL, the organization tasked with protecting the planet, is out of the series' focus and barely makes a dent. Instead, we follow a lone hero, his eternal rival, and some goofy bloggers that get caught up in the middle. It's like if someone took Kamen Rider Decade or Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger or even Power Rangers: Shattered Grid, added the scale of the Skywalker drama alluded to in the original Star Wars trilogy, showed the deep scars of trauma and betrayal from Kamen Rider OOO, and then threw in ORE Journal from Kamen Rider Ryuki for no real reason.
And it WORKS. For all of this mishmash of bizarre concepts, it works, and it sets the stage for the remainder of the New Generations Era. Both Geed and R/B do away with the science patrols. Riku Asakura is largely left on his own, with background aid from the very alien AIB and guidance only from fighting side-by-side with a defeated and depowered Ultraman Zero. Katsumi and Isami Minato have to figure out how to save the world while battling the resources of AizenTech and its destructive fanboy CEO, Makoto Aizen, and his successor, the nihilistic nigh-immortal Saki Mitsurugi. At the time of this review, the first of the Reiwa Era Ultras, Ultraman Taiga and his amazing friends, has not yet debuted. But already, we have elements introduced from Orb being incorporated into its internal mythology—one of the lead Ultras, Ultraman Fuma, gained his powers from Orb's home planet of O-50. It looks like they're going back to the idea of a science patrol, since the Ultras' host, Hiroyuki, definitely seems to be part of one. But either way, I'm curious to see how much Orb will continue to influence the future era.
All that said, let's start.
The Sunset Wanderer (writer: Takao Nakano / director: Kiyotaka Taguchi): Apologies if the screencaps all vary in size, subtitles, and video type—I collected them over the course of the show, using Firefox Screenshot straight off of Crunchyroll, using ctrl-prt sc when that failed, and also ripping video from Ultraman Orb: The Chronicle on Youtube, so it's going to be all over the place.
We open to a blurry view of a giant being of light, battling a giant monster. Though its name isn't revealed, the full Chronicle reveals that this is Maga-Zetton, the King Demon Beast of Light. As we zoom out, we see the battle is actually reflected in the eye of a mysterious blonde woman, who is watching the battle in a forest. She screams for the giant, although we can't hear her voice. Still, she manages to distract him long enough for Maga-Zetton to blast a fireball at him. The explosion ricochets toward the woman, who screams as she falls. The giant turns to look for her, but when he fails to see her, he is enraged and summons a shining, iridescent sword. He draws a ring of light into the sky and absorbs it back into the sword, firing a multicolored beam of light at Maga-Zetton, and flinging the sword straight into it. But the explosion absolutely levels the forest for several hundred square miles. A man is left all alone in the devastation, holding a large blue ring as light from the monster's remains is drawn into it, creating a card that depicts the original Ultraman. The man places the card in a holster at his side, then looks at the destruction he's caused. Oh, hey, it's Kai from Kamen Rider Den-O! Okay, no, his name here is actually Gai, but that's one freakin' letter off. Come on, Ultraman, you're not even trying. But hey, at least Kai/Gai is actually sorry about destroying everything this time.
The event leads into the opening, beginning with the titular Orb standing in the burning forest. And dear god, the opening is an experience! See, when I first heard that Kai was going to play the hero, I thought, "Huh, this could be interesting." And then Tsuburaya released the video of the opening sequence and I was all in. It is the perfect amount of wtf. The song is very old-school manly heroic, which is appropriate for Gai, as we'll see over time. One of the singers is Ichiro Mizuki, the singer for Kamen Rider Stronger and Captain Harlock and a whole host of others; the rest of the vocals are done by Voyager. All of the main characters are introduced, but in an extremely silly decision, instead of taking a still image of them standing in a dramatic pose...they all have to hold the pose for a few seconds. Only Hideo Ishiguro (Gai) and Takaya Aoyagi (Juggler) have any kind of dignity in this process, but others, like Miyabi Matsuura (Naomi), just went for the most ridiculous face they could possibly make. I mean, seriously, you can see them all twitching from having to hold still!
The story returns to the present, where a mother is reading a book to her young son. Since everything in the universe must be absolutely appropriate, the story is about a wind creature. The kid points to sudden storm clouds and says he sees a bird, just before tornados rip up skyscrapers and toss them into the park, narrowly missing them. The disaster makes it to the local news, which our trio of intrepid reporters, the Something Search People (yes, that's what they're called), watch over and wonder about. "Cap" Naomi Yumeno says nobody's going to look at their weird phenomenon blog, while videographer Jetta Hayami argues otherwise, showing a social media post about a giant bird. Naomi warns it could be fake, and she doesn't want them to get flamed again. However, resident tech genius/physicist Shin Matsudo has tracked the weird weather in Tokyo over the last few days and thinks it's worth looking into. He talks a big game about chaos theory and overdimensionality, and if you remember anything from my Ryuki reviews, please remember that I do not speak physics, so I can't fact-check any of this shit. Either way, he's developed a storm tracking machine...which I'm pretty sure is called radar, but whatever. Naomi's worried about the cost to their electric bill, especially since she hasn't paid last month's rent yet. But with their landlady knocking on the door, it's time for the SSP to move out.
We now come to my all-time favorite introduction scene. A refrigerated truck is driving through Tokyo when the driver suddenly hears harmonica music coming from the freezer. He pulls over and opens it to investigate, finding a man covered in frost, playing a strange alien harmonica—reintroducing our hero, everybody! Gai steps out to brush off his hat, while the driver freaks out, since he's been in -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) temperatures for five hours. But Gai only needs to dust himself off and stretch, thanking him for the lift before heading off.
It's absolutely perfect in setting the tone for the series, and really gets to the heart of how utterly ridiculous Gai is, no matter how much tragedy he's carrying. It's the "Eiji in his underwear" of Ultraman; no matter what trauma our hero has that he's struggling to get through, at his very core, he's a fucking DORK.
The SSP is arguing by the river when Naomi's uncle, Ittetsu Shibukawa, comes up to them and accuses them of causing a blackout. Shibukawa is a member of VTL (Versatile Tactical Leader), the organization I briefly mentioned in the preface. They're not nearly as advanced as Xio from X or any of their other predecessors, since the SSP complains about them always being late and secretive about everything. But their argument is interrupted by a strange noise, and Gai appears, warning them that the "devil's wind" is coming. He then runs off as the machine records incredibly low barometric pressure and tornadoes form. Naomi, Shin, and Jetta head to their car, the SSP-7, which only makes me worry what happened to SSP-1 through 6, especially when Shin's driving is terrible and Jetta's filming. They drive through massive winds, a billboard of a cow that I swear has to be a reference to Twister somehow, and an explosion. Oh, and then Gai jumps onto their windshield and yells at them, because what even is Gai? The tornado sucks all of them up, with Gai just hanging onto the roof of the car. They see the bird, which Gai calls Maga-Basser, the King Demon Beast of the Wind. He then jumps off the car and freaking flies on the air currents. Jetta loses his camera, so Naomi pulls out her phone to record. They soon see a giant being fighting Maga-Basser, but then they start falling. In a flash of light, the giant's hand appears and catches the car, landing them safely on the street.
They're thrilled at the footage they got...until they get back to the office and realize that Naomi's phone was stuck on selfie mode the whole time. Shin decides to check online scans of an ancient document, the Pacific Records, managing to find both the "devil's wind" and "Maga-Basser." He discovers that the weather all over Japan is full of tornadoes, and seven typhoons are in the Pacific (okay, technically, there's only one or two typhoons—three of them are hurricanes, since they're in the eastern Pacific, and two are southern cyclones, plus an Indian Ocean cyclone and an Atlantic hurricane he missed). They're also snow on the pyramids of Giza. Shun explains that Maga-Basser's wing flaps and wind powers are creating a butterfly effect, potentially devastating the entire planet.
The next day, they resume their search, but they're grouchy when they can't find anything. The guys make Naomi buy coffee, but on her way back, a well-dressed stranger bumps into her—Jugglus Juggler. Quick note: this is the spelling I am going to use, since it's the most frequent. The Origin Saga (which I'll review down the line) and S.H. Figuarts prefer "Juggrus," but...somehow it's worse? It is a weird name. And it's not the only one that's hard to work with, as we'll see in a little bit. Juggler's clearly annoyed to have his nice suit ruined, but he's polite to Naomi. She offers to get his suit cleaned, but she jumps at the sign of another storm coming. Juggler flirtingly says he likes storms, since they bring excitement to a boring world. He likens it to "un coup de foudre"—a French saying that literally means "a bolt of lightning," but is used to describe love at first sight. Naomi's clearly struck by the obvious flirting, but suddenly, there's a literal bolt of lightning—red lightning that illuminates the shadow of a demon in his place, before he disappears.
The storm chaser activates, and the guys call Naomi back, but the storm is right on top of them. They try to take cover, but Naomi is sucked up by the tornado. And then in what is obviously a Superman reference, Gai flies up and scoops up the distressed reporter in his arms, telling her to close her eyes while he really flies. But she can't keep her eyes closed throughout the totality of the chaos, which is lucky for Gai, since she notices his harmonica slip out of his coat pocket, and she's able to catch it. They escape the tornado and manage to gracefully land while a building crashes down behind them. There's another humorous bit where he asks if she's okay, before promptly deciding she's no longer his problem, because Gai is nothing but terrible at interpersonal relations. But then Maga-Basser lands, and that promptly becomes his problem. He hands off Naomi to Shibukawa, then runs into a photo booth.
Now, I swear, this is a Megaranger reference. There's an episode of Megaranger where the Red Ranger, Kenta, has his identity exposed after he stupidly morphs inside of a photo booth. While I haven't seen Megaranger, the plot was copied wholesale into Power Rangers in Space, only with the Black Ranger, Carlos. When I saw this episode for the first time, I really, really wanted to just use this to lambast how fucking insane the PRiS scenario was. You KNOW where you're transforming, Carlos. You KNOW there's a chance that there may be photographic evidence. And you know what? Gai is a fucking idiot, and even HE knows to retrieve the evidence before some random little girl finds it!
So, in case you for some reason haven't guessed, Gai is indeed the giant of light. I mean, he was doing such a great job hiding all of his powers. His Fusion Up sequence is really cool, similar in some ways to Kamen Rider Decade, in that he uses cards of his predecessor Ultramen to transform—in this case, Ultraman and Tiga, whom he uses the honorific "san" with, making it essentially translate to "Mr. Ultraman, Mr. Tiga, I'm borrowing the power of your lights!" So polite! However, unlike Tsukasa, Gai uses two cards to transform, fusing the powers together to create the form Specium Zeperion.
Another note on spelling here...I honestly have no idea how this is supposed to be spelled, since both "specium" and "spacium" are used for the element. Specium comes from the original Ultraman, so it shows up frequently throughout the franchise, including in the 2019 Netflix anime. Mind you, I haven't actually watched it yet, mostly because I haven't read all of the manga that it's based on, so I don't know if it's spelled the same. Viz uses the spelling in the manga, however. But Bandai uses "Spacium," which does make sense, since it's a space-based element. Either way, expect me to sometimes forget what spelling I'm going with and use "Spacium Zeperion." Also to not know how many p's are in "Zeperion."
Gai announces himself as Orb, who will light the darkness and strike at evil...which makes me want to add, "And that means you!" because that is a Sailor Moon catchphrase if I ever heard one. Naomi recognizes Orb, though she can't explain why. As they record, Juggler walks up and explains that Ultraman Orb is the "galaxy's shining star" and "what you might call a warrior of light." Maga-Basser is unwieldy for Orb to fight, with wings and a long neck that make him a lot bigger, and also flight. And jumping on him. It doesn't help that Gai is really bad about collateral damage, throwing the kaiju into buildings. Orb does manage to barely clip its wing with his Light Ring attack, which is quite honestly the most successful use of the attack throughout the entire show. But he does take the battle to the air, which is rare even for the Ultra series, where the heroes can fly. Those kind of wireworks are tough. As a nice introduction to the franchise's three-minute time limit, the photo booth flashes a one-minute timer, coinciding with Gai's color timer flashing. And here's where it gets a little disturbing—since Orb's form is a fusion between two other Ultras, when time runs out, the fusion starts to split apart into its component Ultras, and you see eerie phantom images of Ultraman and Tiga falling out of him. But of course, that means it's time to break out the finisher, and Sperion Ray finishes Maga-Basser off. And translation note, I'm using "ray" here just because that's what Crunchyroll uses for this series, whereas for X, they used "beam." I honestly think this is the only one of the official subs that did that.
The SSP celebrates as Orb flies away and VTL finally shows up. Gai returns to the photo booth to transform back...because he's Gai...then runs over to a chunk of Maga-Basser's remains. He holds out his Orb Ring to it, and the remains break down, forming a card of Ultraman Mebius. As it turns out, in ancient times, Mebius fought Maga-Basser and sealed him away. So Gai thanks him, because he's Gai. Oh, and remember what I said about him being an idiot and still knowing to get his photos? That's what he does! Even if he has to fight the machine for some reason. The SSP notice him and get his attention, and he stuffs the pictures in his pocket as he asks how they are. Naomi hands him his harmonica, which for reference's sake, is called the orbnica. Because this show. Gai is shocked to realize he'd lost it, then takes it back with deep gratitude, explaining that it's something important to him. Well, Gai, maybe you should take better care of the things that are important in your life.
...Okay, that was a low blow and I feel really bad about it now.
Naomi thanks him, and he starts to walk away. When they stop him, he says, "Look, the Earth is round. I'm sure we'll run into each other again eventually," before dramatically exiting into the sunset and playing his tune on the orbnica. Jetta ribs Naomi for being obviously lovestruck, but she denies it, instead saying that his melody sounds oddly familiar.
But Gai's not the only one to collect a card that day. In the middle of the night, Juggler gathers Maga-Basser's power into a card with a very similar device, the Dark Ring. And he asks if Orb will be the light of hope or the infinite darkness...
The King Demon Beast of Earth (Yuji Kobayashi / Taguchi): Jetta starts off the episode by making a video diary, recounting to his successful future self about the adventures of episode one...which, yeah, my review is clearly going to pale in comparison to sunshine puppy's, but anyway. He declares that discovering who and what Orb is are their top priority, even while Naomi is complaining about how he and Shin are spending nights at the office and making her do their cleaning. Seriously, not cool. She should at least cut your pay for this. Site traffic hasn't increased, even though they broke the news about Orb and his name, but as Naomi points out, the mainstream media has picked up on his name as well and has better quality video and pictures. They just need a story no one else has. Meanwhile, outside a local bathhouse, Gai drinks some ramune and looks out over the city while a little kid near him struggles to open his own ramune bottle. Gai comments that the city's changed since he was last there—for example, he used to have a clear view of the sunset from the bathhouse, but now there's a building in the way. When he sees that the kid still can't get the bottle open, he tries to help, only for it to fizz all over him. But right after that, they notice the building that was blocking his view suddenly sinking into the ground. The story hits the news, and the SSP look into the rumors. Jetta and Shin like the one about a subterranean civilization sending a warning to the surface, but c'mon, guys. Prince Sho is a lot more direct than that. Naomi decides the story is worth investigating, especially if it can save lives. But she has to go to her part-time job to pay their rent, so the boys are on the case.
Gai walks past a police barricade to the giant sinkhole left behind by the collapse. He telepathically senses something sleeping within the earth, recognizing another King Demon Beast. But Shibukawa finds him at the hole and warns him to leave. Gai manages to change the subject and thanks him for his service. Do you just...do this whenever you're in trouble, Gai? You get pulled over for speeding, and you just start commending the officer on the work he's doing, just in the hopes he's so flattered that he forgets to ticket you? Regardless, Shibukawa recognizes him from the other day, but more buildings sink nearby, and Gai runs off too fast for Shibukawa to stop him.
Shin and Jetta learn about this new incident and discover that the sites lie along the same fault line. Taking Jetta's boombox, now modified into a seismic recorder, Shin tries to predict the next sinkhole, all while Juggler stands in some basement, scanning some of his kaiju cards through the Dark Ring. He chants in an unknown alien language as he tries to break the mystical seals a past Ultra left on the King Demon Beast buried deep below the surface. But he cringes suddenly when he hears Gai's music, telling him he's ruining the mood. Gai says he's not there to put Juggler in a good mood, and Juggler says that this is their fated reunion, getting right up in Gai's personal space. Get a room, you two. Juggler sacrifices his next card, destabilizing the ground. Nearby, Jetta and Shin try to warn a security guard about the imminent collapse, but they've got the wrong building—the one Juggler destroyed is down the street. Jetta feels useless and mad that the machine didn't work right, but Shin realizes he's been looking at this wrong. This new building didn't fall on the fault line—he needs to look at the urban feng shui of Tokyo itself.
We find Naomi passing out coupons (and tripping over her own feet) for Bubbly Coffee, when Shin calls with the update. He explains that qi flows underground through "dragon veins" in the city, and that disrupting them leads to natural disasters. The Pacific Records reveal a red, horned giant sealed the beast using the dragon veins, and cross-referencing the ancient text with the map of disasters reveals where the last seal is...just as Naomi spots Juggler walking toward a nearby building. She follows to the parking level, watching him scan another card and start chanting again. She tries to record him, but Shin and Jetta call back. When she turns around, Juggler's gone. He's now right behind her, being a total creeper and invading her personal space in the most "Hello, Clarice" moment you'll see...until the final episodes, really. As you see, it's a thing with him. Props to her, she does an impressive job keeping her cool, asking what he's doing there. He flirts while threatening her, but Gai shows up and calmly tells him to let her go. Juggler explains that the King Demon Beast will rise out of its pumpkin patch and bring death and destruction to all the good little kids on the surface...or something like that. I'm probably mixing it up with something else. Naomi, rightfully, asks who are you two weirdoes. Gai says she'd be happier not knowing, but she says she isn't pursuing happiness, but the truth instead. And honestly, even Juggler looks surprised. He promises to continue this discussion sometime over coffee at dawn, but then he throws her at Gai. THIS ISN'T HOW AN OT3 WORKS, JUGGLER.
Gai catches her, but she passes out, conveniently just before Juggler breaks Maga-Grand King's seal. He taunts Gai that the roar of a King Demon Beast is sweeter than his music, but honestly, music is always up for debate. Although now I'm curious what his Spotify playlist looks like. We know Gai's is just that one song, so... Anyway, Gai leaps out of the sinking building, carrying Naomi, and remarks that she's a handful before setting her down and going to fight. Shin and Jetta find and wake her as Maga-Grand King emerges and Juggler goes all poetic. Orb struggles against the kaiju, even while using the built-in Power and Sky Types from Tiga to strike and dodge. Maga-Grand King's armor is just too tough. Even Sperion Ray fails, forcing Gai to dodge again...and let a bunch of buildings get holes in them. Jetta has been recording and narrating the whole time, so the SSP is right there when a building starts to collapse. He and Shin run, but Naomi freezes, and Gai has to catch it before it can land on her, then shielding her from the next blast as his fusion begins to fall apart. By chance, Maga-Grand King's next beam reflects off a glass-walled skyscraper, giving Gai an idea. He create a mirrored force field to reflect the attack back, and Shin realizes his strategy—Maga-Grand King can't use both its armor and its beam at the same time. Gai is thus able to finish it off, blasting through the hole he made and blowing the thing up from the inside. The victory is followed by a very nice, understated, quiet moment. After Orb departs and the SSP thanks him for all he's done, they turn around to look at the city and see all the damage their destructive savior has caused. And Juggler harvests Maga-Grand King's card while Gai breaks down Ultraman Taro's seal into a card of his own, thanking his four predecessors.
Work begins to repair the buildings, but for just a little while, the sunset is once again visible from the bathhouse. Gai reunites with the kid and manages to properly open his ramune bottle this time. As the kid thanks him and leaves, the SSP come to bathe. Naomi asks what he knows about everything, but Gai again says that she'd be happier not knowing the truth. Still, she's persistent, so he at least gives her his full name: Gai Kurenai.
Monstrous Waters (Sotaro Hayashi / Taguchi): In the middle of the night, we see a strange-looking kaiju creating explosions at a lake. But in the daylight, we have Naomi getting sprayed by the leaky pipes at the office. Shin's new invention, the Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) gun, helps fix the leak by shooting what looks like a proton beam, creating goo all over the faucet. But while they're handling house repairs, Jetta is depressed over the flames he got on his commentary of last episode's battle. Naomi and Shin realize he's crying, but he denies it, running off to take a shower. They try to leave it alone, and Shin asks for more money to improve the SAP gun, but Naomi reminds him they have bills to pay. But then Jetta screams and runs out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel. In the middle of his shower, the water suddenly started stinking, and now the smell is all over him.
Gai arrives at the bathhouse to find it closed, much to his devastation. The owner sees him and apologizes, since Gai always comes early in the day to use the bath first. The owner shows him the stinking water, and Jetta runs up to learn the bad news. They're not the only ones suffering from the water stench—kids in the street, pools, laundromats, the problem is all over the city. Jetta then recognizes Gai and asks how he can handle the smell. Gai says it's not bad at this concentration, but if he wants to be the first in the bath, he'd better put a stop to it. Plus, he owes the owner for the business.
Jetta douses himself in deodorant while Shin and Naomi find even the SAP-coated faucet stinks too, although the water quality isn't reading as abnormal otherwise. Naomi checks their emergency food and water supply, but they only have one bottle of water left—Shin's been eating their stock during his late nights there, but by now, the stores will be out of water. They put slices of ginger all over Jetta, including creating a shield and a skewer for him. He doesn't appreciate it, though, complaining that he looks like he's fighting a ghost. No, Shin's the one working with the Ghostbusters, based on the SAP gun. You worked with the Go-Busters. The ginger doesn't help anyway, since Shibukawa immediately smells him when he walks in the door. Shin quickly denies any responsibility in the stink problem, but Shibukawa admits that VTL's been looking into it for weeks, all over the country. They just haven't had any leads, so he was hoping they might know something. Shin consults the Pacific Records and discovers an entry about Maga-Jappa, the King Demon Beast who turns the waters foul.
Gai finds Maga-Jappa soaking in Lake Okunara and...I'm sorry. This is the dopiest-looking thing I've ever seen. I honestly love it. It is just so stupid-looking that I don't even know where to begin. Speaking of stupid, Gai proceeds to lose his shit over Maga-Jappa failing to observe proper bathing etiquette by not washing its nasty self off before going into the water. Maga-Jappa objects to Gai being so rude and blasts at him. Gai dodges, but loses his Orb Ring, and Juggler walks over and picks it up. He taunts Gai for his "embarrassing" loss, pointing out that the Ring is important to him, so he should have taken care of it. He urges Gai to take not just the Ring back, but the person he used to be. Gai says he hasn't changed, but Juggler asks how he can act so cool when he can't even transform without borrowing other Ultras' powers. Annoyed, Gai takes a swing at him, but Juggler tells him he wants him to take the fight seriously, asking if this is all he really is anymore. But Gai manages a kick under his defense and retrieves the Ring. Juggler disappears, reappears behind him, and gets up to his shoulder, admitting that Gai's not rusty before he leaves. Did he need to go for the most creepy and uncomfortable way to make that admission? No, but he does it anyway.
VTL alerts Shibukawa to Maga-Jappa, and Shin realizes that all of the occurrences have been near lakes, and if they're large and deep enough, they can be accessed underground. Jetta begins posting the information from the Records, and Shin and Naomi outfit him in a deodorizing armor, which he geeks out over because he wants to be a superhero. Shibukawa says he's going with them to the lake, and Naomi agrees, so long as they share intel. They smell Maga-Jappa about as soon as they arrive, and Shin determines that it's headed for the Narasawa Dam, Tokyo's largest water source. Jetta points out that the whole world will be at risk if the kaiju continues this way, and Shibukawa says it's officially become too dangerous for civilians. Naomi argues that this scoop will save their business, but Jetta admits it's a lot more than that—sure, they may be a bunch of goofy comic relief characters, but that's because it's the only way they get noticed. If they do straight-up journalism, they're ignored in favor of established news organizations. So they have to treat the news as entertainment. But when they have the chance to cover a story live, no matter how much they get flamed or overlooked, they've gotten word out that might save people's lives and given them notice to evacuate. Also, he really wants a bath, something that Gai appreciates from a distance.
Until VTL can arrive, the SSP try to slow Maga-Jappa down by firing the SAP gun over its head and coating it with goop. But Shibukawa gets overconfident and runs in closer for another attack, getting himself blasted. At Naomi's cries, Gai fuses up. But Maga-Jappa jumps on Orb, interrupting his catchphrase. This close to the source, Gai can't handle the smell anymore and has to keep breaking off his attacks, giving Maga-Jappa the advantage. It even draws him in close to breathe on him, making it worse before turning invisible and sneaking up on him. Gai finally switches to Taro and Mebius, helping to "bring the heat" as Burnmite, who is "burning crimson red." With great strength and flames, he wrestles, punches, and kicks himself toward victory before using his Stobium Dynamite attack, where he surrounds himself with flames and the explodes right on Maga-Jappa, destroying it...and half the forest. Goddamnit, Gai, you've wrecked enough forests already! At the very least, this time, he's able to put out the flames from the force of flying into the air. As the excitement fades, the SSP realize that they never saw exactly what happened to Shibukawa, and their fear starts up all over again. Fortunately, he comes running up to them again, safe and sound. And as Gai collects Ultraman Jack's power from the seal, Juggler collects Maga-Jappa's card and...sniffs it like a fine cigar. WHY ARE YOU SO WEIRD, JUGGLER? But he says that he's counting on Orb to help him get the "last one."
Gai and the SSP head to the bathhouse for a well-deserved scrub and soak, and as he relaxes in the tub, Gai claims that being the first in the hot water is Earth's greatest luxury. Shin and Jetta are sure he's exaggerating, but Jetta has to admit that access to fresh, clean water is a blessing. Gai starts to look impressed by them...and then the dudes jump into the tub like it's a pool, and he proceeds to lose his shit again.
Beware of Fire in the Midsummer Sky (Akio Miyoshi / Yuichi Abe): It's 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Tokyo, and Naomi is working inside a Hawaiian-themed restaurant today. The restaurant is packed, which means that poor Jetta and Shin are sitting at the outdoor tables, regardless of their connections. They review footage of Orb's fights, noticing that he can only stay fused for three minutes at a time. But otherwise, they can't find any answers about him, or about the monsters. Or Gai, who Naomi is interested in learning more about, and she wonders just what he's up to now. It turns out that's an easy answer—he's trying to decide between buying his usual ramune or a ramune ice pop. He decides on the ice cream, but as soon as he's about to eat it, a blast of hot wind, vaporizes it, much to his shock. Damn it, toku. Between this and all of Kamen Rider OOO, what is with your crimes against ice cream?
A massive fireball appears in the sky, and people start fainting from the heat. Gai recognizes it as the Maga-Pandon, the King Devil Beast of Fire—and yeah, from here on out, the subs basically decide to call them the "King Devil Beasts," but expect me to switch back and forth depending on what sounds better in my head that day. Gai gets ready to fuse up, but then realizes he's about to scan his popsicle stick because this is the level of moron we're working with here. But Specium Zeperion heads off to battle anyway, the SSP following and shielding themselves with an umbrella because this is the level of weirdo genius we're working with here. Orb suddenly develops the ability to shoot jets of water from his hands, trying to douse the fireball. It doesn't help. Nor does creating a giant Light Ring. He blasts it with a Sperion Ray next while running extremely fast around it, creating the illusion that there's more than one of him as he fires from all sides...which still doesn't make sense to me no matter how many times I see this kind of thing, but whatever. But it exerts all of his energy, so finally, he generates a forcefield to protect himself as he flies up, pushing the fireball out of the atmosphere.
Then his color timer goes out while he's in space.
Helplessly, Orb falls back to the planet, burning up on re-entry. He lands in a huge him-shaped crater before reverting to humanoid form, weak, overheated, and coughing. Juggler shows up to rub it in his face and step on his hand, admitting he's disappointed. He calls Gai the "chosen one," yanking him up and getting in his face, telling him to make this "enjoyable" for him...because Juggler is nothing if not the kinkiest dude in the galaxy. He then throws Gai into the side of a nearby building...and even this looks awkward. Mind you, there's no cheap way to CGI your lead being slammed into a wall at full-force, but it looks extra-weird when Hideo Ishiguro keeps his arms down like he just walked up against it...and is also Hideo Ishiguro and generally always looking weird and awkward on a good day. Gai collapses to the ground as Juggler leaves and the SSP arrives at the empty crater. Naomi spots Gai unconscious some feet away. They turn him over, but he's so feverish that just touching his skin burns them. Shibukawa arrives and determines that Gai's heart is beating...which is pretty freaking lucky, considering that Gai is an alien and not human. Seriously, it's not a given that a humanoid alien is going to have any similar physiology to a human—look at Doctor Who! Time Lords look human, but they have two hearts, and one iteration of the Doctor was actually killed when a human cardiologist tried to conduct surgery on him and inserted a probe that critically wounded his circulatory system. If Gai had a different cardiovascular system from a human, Juggler might be even more disappointed at how easily he dies just from basic human medicine.
The SSP bring Gai to their office to cool down, since all of the hospitals are full of heat stroke victims. Shin sorts through his belongings, but fails to find any ID or next of kin to contact. Naomi tries to change the damp cloth on Gai's head, but burns herself again from the residual heat. Meanwhile, Gai dreams of the past—a forest, where he plays the orbnica for the blonde woman from the flashback in episode one. She sings along before Gai then sees the explosion and her death again. He starts breathing heavily and calling out in his sleep—something Naomi notices while Shin and Jetta research. Gai grabs Naomi's hand in a daze, again burning her. The incorrigible shippers notice, though she insists it's not what it looks like, but Jetta and Shin stop teasing her when they realize Gai is opening his eyes. He's not fully awake, still delirious and unsure where he is, letting it slip that he was fighting someone—a detail that immediately catches their attention and worries them. He tries to get up, insisting he's fine, but he collapses and loses consciousness again right away, even as Naomi complains that he's being ungrateful.
Fun fact: When
savethelilin and I saw that together, we had this exchange:Wei: You have a type.
Me: ...I have a type.
Shin returns to his research, determining that the fireball is still close to Earth. Jetta points out that Orb disappeared right about where they found Gai, so, logically, Gai is probably Orb in human form. But Shin shoots down his hypothesis with good old conservation of matter...something that Ultraman has never managed to justify. Shibukawa stops by, revealing that VTL has failed to stop the fireball with their freezing missiles. He suspects it's really a kaiju, so he asks them to check the Pacific Records. And sure enough, there's an entry about a twin sun...which apparently had nothing to do with Tatooine. The heat from the second sun alone will cause things to ignite, and of course, right on cue, it starts to descend to the Earth. VTL fires surface-to-air missiles, lighting up the night.
And in the dawn of twin suns and explosions, Gai finally cools off enough to wake up. Again, he doesn't recognize his surroundings, but this time, he's able to sit up. He does remember everything once Naomi and Jetta rush over to check on him, but he tells her she should have just left him alone. And naturally, she grumbles again that he should just say thanks and shut up already. Shin announces that the fireball has stopped above the city, and inside it, Maga-Pandon blasts fireballs everywhere. Gai can still barely stand, but he insists he's okay, which is good enough for Naomi to throw him a heat-resistant suit that Shin threw together and tell him to evacuate to the basement, where they have emergency food and water and he can ride out the attack in safety. In the meantime, they're going to cover the story, undeterred even as the power goes out. Naomi jokes that they'll blow away the heat with their "journalistic passion," and that finally gives Gai the breakthrough he needs. As they head off, he decides he can't just stand around and do nothing, so he fuses up into Burnmite.
Stobium Burst breaks up the fireball, also blowing away the SSP. Juggler, looking hilariously chill with shades and an umbrella, watches with amusement that Gai very literally "blew it away" with an explosion. Naomi admits the same, and Shin tells her the science is sound. Because we all know that our sci-fi needs to have sound science. Maga-Pandon is now revealed to have two heads attached to the same "neck", which both spit fire. However, Orb has two fists, and he shoves them into the kaiju's mouths. He then throws Maga-Pandon around for a while before blasting it with Sperion Ray. Maga-Pandon approaches him the whole time it's being shot, but the attack finally succeeds, and it explodes, leaving Gai to collect Ultraman Zero's card, and Juggler to collect the last of the King Devil Beasts. With all four elements, plus light and darkness, all he needs to find now is the "Dark King."
Gai makes it back to the office before the SSP, eating some of the ice cream they'd offered him before when he'd woken up. They start gushing about the footage they got and the battle, but Naomi admits that now he's better, she'd like to ask him a few things. She stops, though, when she realizes that he's eating their ice cream. His third ice cream. They run to the freezer and find it's empty, except for what looks like a used lollipop. Naomi is about to explode on Gai, but it's a really good thing that he's feeling better and he's a super-fast alien, since he's already left, leaving behind a thank you note and some money.
A Heart That Won't Flee (Hirotoshi Kobayashi / Abe): We open with Gai finding a torn ragdoll in the park, its arm coming off. For some reason, the sight of the doll reminds him of the young woman he lost, and he picks it up and walks away.
Meanwhile, in less traumatic news, Naomi's current part-time job is at a construction site, where she's apparently highly respected and appreciated. Her boss even worries about how many all-nighters she's been pulling between her multiple jobs and tells her to go home and rest as soon as her shift is over. Damn, have we finally found the ideal toku boss? As she's leaving, she gets a phone call from a high school girl who says she's tracking down an alien and needs help. She rushes over, phoning Jetta and having to leave a voicemail telling him and Shin to come help. The ringing phone wakes up a napping Shin, but he gets caught up in a brainstorm and starts work on another invention. Naomi ends up alone when she meets up with the girl and follows her to the basement of a dark building. They hear something, and the girl covers Naomi's mouth as they spot a kaiju, Hyper Zetton Deathscythe...because apparently kaiju go for the same naming rules as Gundams. But then the girl whispers to Naomi that she fell into her trap. During a struggle between them, the girl is thrown into a...ballerina twirl, for some reason, revealing herself as Maddock, an Alien Zetton criminal. Who still has human-looking knees, for some reason. It's weird. Naomi tries to run away, but she crashes into a pipe, losing consciousness.
Gai comes to the SSP office, where Jetta was also napping, clinging to a Malibu pillow and dreaming of California. Why are you so friggin' cute, Jetta? Shin, in the meantime, is building a system to predict the future, since he suddenly realized that time isn't so much a linear path of cause to effect, but a spiral, like a great big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. Jetta, however, argues that the future isn't predictable—you have to make it yourself. Hence why he makes at least four volumes of video diaries to his future self, which he decorates with drawings of rocketships and stars and my question still stands, why are you so friggin' cute? Gai enters, showing them the doll and asking if they have anything he can use to sew it back together. In another moment of unbearable cuteness, Jetta immediately takes the doll, recognizing it's handmade, admitting that he makes the same things for his little sister. Wow, can we see this sometime, Tsuburaya? He worries that the little girl who lost the doll may be crying now, and that makes Gai feel guilty about taking it from the park. He plans to take it back, but Jetta convinces him that instead, they should post flyers and social media ads, letting the neighborhood know they found it. Shin admits that the doll reminds him of Naomi...which is weird. Why do ripped dolls remind these dumbasses of actual girls? But it reminds Shin that she called Jetta's phone. Jetta puts the voicemail on speaker, getting all excited to go alien-hunting...until a second message plays, with Naomi trying to call for help. She's cut off by Maddock's voice, challenging Gai to come save her, and Gai coldly asks Jetta and Shin where she went.
Naomi tries to fight her way free as Maddock chains her to the pipes. But unlike the usual cackling villain, he encourages her to continue, since the more desperate she seems, the more likely Gai will fall for it and take his bait. So, like a total badass, Naomi holds still and remains calm. It's moments like these that really speak in this series—sure, Naomi seems like a silly, clumsy, comic-relief romantic interest a lot of the time, but there's a serious edge of courageous steel in her that I have to celebrate. After changing from his schoolgirl uniform to a worksuit, Maddock realizes she really isn't going to scream, so he tries to threaten her. She just argues that nobody's going to hear her that far underground, so what's the point of panicking? But Maddock warns that while other humans wouldn't hear her, Gai certainly will. He throws one of Naomi's shoes at Deathscythe, which instinctively attacks and destroys it. This is enough to scare her into screaming finally, but in the midst of Maddock's laughter, they hear the orbnica playing. Maddock gives her an "I told you so," but she screams a warning to Gai that it's a trap. But Gai's already there, saying he's the kind of idiot who would rather ignore a warning and press the big old red button anyway.
Maddock shoots at him with an electric blaster, but he leaps to safety, grabbing a gear off the floor and flinging it at Maddock's head like a shuriken. As Maddock falls, Gai frees Naomi, yelling at her for being so reckless. Deathscythe slashes at them, and while Gai is able to get Naomi out of the way, the blade cuts into his back before slicing the pipe they were at, causing it to spew oil. Naomi worries about Gai's injury, but he insists it's just a flesh wound, handing Naomi her phone before they run. She struggles to put on her work boots, since Maddock destroyed her shoes, and tries to get video before fleeing, but Deathscythe fires at them. Again, Gai throws her out of the way and takes the hit. Naomi apologizes, but Gai pulls her over to take cover, while Maddock brags about knowing so much about Gai and how he'll always "rush to save" Naomi. She's surprised, but Gai denies everything because he's an emotionally repressed moron, telling her to get out while he stays back to draw their fire. She points out that as a wanderer, he's probably pretty good at running away...which I'm not entirely sure on the logic there, but okay. He says he doesn't like getting involved with other people, but she asks him why he bothered to save her, if that's the case. And because he's an emotionally repressed moron, he threatens to leave if she keeps asking questions.
Deathscythe fires again, but this time, Naomi warns Gai and helps him get away. But at the same time, he's hurt and can't take much more, so she spots a fire extinguisher and blasts it at Maddock. Gai then drags her to safety before Deathscythe rises to full height. Maddock chases them out of the building, threatening to shoot, but so does Naomi, refusing to run away. It's only the falling rubble of the collapsing building that stops her, since it's beating the crap out of Maddock for her, and Gai tells her to take the opportunity to run, once again reminding her not to mistake recklessness for courage. This time, she listens, and he privately reflects that she wouldn't be able to reveal the truth she prizes so much if she gets herself killed.
Specium Zeperion takes on Deathscythe, and unsurprisingly, his Light Ring immediately fails. Maddock boasts that he knows all of Gai's powers, so he can't win. So Gai decides to try something nobody's seen yet, asking Zero's and Jack's cards to "give [him] something with an edge"—Ultraman Orb Hurricane Slash. Proving that he's absolutely powered by Ultraman Zero, Hurricane Slash lands on top of a roof, running a hand against one of the sluggers on the side of his head as he brags that he'll "cut down darkness faster than the speed of light." He then proves it by launching into a series of quick kicks before trying to throw Deathscythe. Unfortunately, being a Zetton, it teleports out of the way every time he tries to score a good hit, getting too close to Naomi. Orb throws his sluggers to try to discourage it, but it only teleports behind him and blasts him. Shin and Jetta arrive and spot Naomi, deciding to start filming. Gai figures out that they're Deathscythe's next target and teleports to meet him right on top of them, clashing before teleporting out of the way. Deathscythe fires, but Orb uses his spinning sluggers as a shield before transforming them into the Orb Slugger Lance. As Deathscythe fires again, Orb powers up the lance and shoots a beam from it. Deathscythe successfully holds off the attack, but it was only a diversion to mask Gai's movements as he gets in close enough to stab Deathscythe with the lance, powering it up again and destroying Deathscythe altogether.
Shibukawa arrives, calling Naomi's tip into VTL so that they can be on the lookout for an alien kidnapper. Gai, however, has already found Maddock and quickly engages him in hand-to-hand combat. And I'm not going to lie—I love this fight. You'll hear from the Power Rangers fandom the cheers of "unmorphed fight scenes," which are original footage to Power Rangers (i.e., not a scene from Super Sentai) where the characters fight in their civilian identities. It's uncommon in Power Rangers because of the cost-cutting formula of the medium; Sentai and Kamen Rider can afford it a little more. However, there's always risk because you're sending the face-actor into a situation where they can be hurt—and need I remind you, Kamen Rider's very history exists the way it does because the face actor was injured doing a stunt fairly early in the series. So there has to be some very good choreography, along with occasionally swapping out the face-actor for a stunt double and hoping the audience doesn't notice. Again, risky, but also more on the expensive side, as with Power Rangers. And I think especially for New Generations Ultraman, this is especially risky. From the 90s until 2007, Tsuburaya was dealing with massive debt and insolvency. 2007 is when Mebius finished, when Ultra Seven X came out, and when the pay-per-view Mega Monster Battle came out. 9 years never feels as long as it is. The fact that Tsuburaya felt confident enough to throw in this fight scene, trusting Hideo to know his shit and not get himself hurt and set them back for months, says a lot.
Maddock is thrown from the roof, and Gai pursues him, even after Maddock fires his blaster. In a really awesome bit with the Ultra cards, Gai holds up Ultraman's card and channels its power to summon a barrier to reflect the shot. It's brilliant, and other card-based toku heroes should fucking do this. Now that he's managed to subdue Maddock, Gai demands answers about what his intentions were with Deathscythe. But Maddock only says that he just wanted the bragging rights for killing Orb, which would be a huge boost to his rep in the criminal underworld. He watched for a while and noticed how much Gai cared about Naomi, so he used her to lure him out. He asks what makes her so special, out of any other human, why her? But Gai, because he is—once again—an emotionally repressed idiot, just says that she's always running into him and his business; there's nothing personal between them. He backs away, just in time for the SSP to arrive. The dudes start geeking out over finally seeing a real-life alien, but Naomi holds them back, warning he's dangerous. They ask if Maddock plans to invade the planet, but Maddock only laughs, claiming that the Earth is "half-rotten" and not even worth it anymore. He warns that one day, Earthlings will abandon it just like everyone else, and then dies, his body breaking down into foam. The "half-rotten" comment bothers Jetta, but Naomi muses that it's just like when her mama always told her to clean up after herself; she won't run away, just make sure she cleans things up. Gai tells them good luck, insisting it's nothing he needs to care about, and tries to walk off. But Naomi yells at him that he should care, since it's their planet and everyone's business. When he still tries to walk away, she says she wants to thank him and offers to cook. The promise of food stops him in his tracks where nothing else will, and when Shibukawa finally catches up to them, Gai jokes that the alien is behind him, then going off with Naomi and the others.
Naomi serves an Eastern European-style mushroom soup with sour cream. I don't know enough to say for sure if it's Russian or Hungarian, but as we'll see later, countries in Orb have different names, so the whole thing is kind of moot. Gai takes one bite of the soup and finds himself suddenly nostalgic. He explains that it tastes like something he thought he'd never have again, and he starts thinking of the young woman he lost. After eating, he's about to leave when he notices an antique matryoshka doll on the shelf. He picks it up and starts opening it, as Naomi says he's just like the dolls nesting inside—there's always another part of him that they discover hidden within. But as Gai pulls out the last doll, he warns that all that's left is emptiness. He's about to open the doll to prove it, but Naomi stops him, explaining that it's not supposed to be opened, much like Pandora's box.
A little girl responds to their flyers, and the SSP returns the doll, warning her not to lose it again. They point out that Jetta fixed it after Gai found it left behind. The little girl thanks Gai, and he starts to get embarrassed, even while he smiles—it's clear that it's been a long time since he felt good about something he's done. He insists he should go, but Naomi invites him to stay. He relents, admitting he could "impose" for a few more days, and he really did like her soup. So they all sit down for more, beginning a new partnership.