It’s been almost 60 years since Gabora appeared in the Ultraman Series. Sure, we got a version of it in Shin Ultraman, but like everything else in that movie, that was a reinterpretation. Nobody is saying Mefilas from Shin is the same as Alien Mefilas from the show or anything. Gabora, on television, has not appeared since episode 9 of Ultraman, all the way back in 1966.
Except, you know, when he literally flew back into our lives in Episode 21 of Ultraman Omega, “Raionji, Enraged.”
In one of the craziest episodes in the entire run of the show (and that’s saying something), the absence of team leader Sayuki Uta leads the KSCT team of our heroes Sorato, Kosei, and Ayumu leads to their supervision by Inspector Makoto Raionji, Uta’s self-proclaimed “eternal rival”. Raionji is a hoot, a wacky, pompous windbag with a tendency to try and make himself look cool and in-charge and a thirst for glory. I felt like I was watching the return of Aide Toriyama from Ultraman Mebius, one of my favorite characters, though Toriyama got more time to prove that he had a good heart underneath it all than Raionji.
And in a very Toriyama way, Raionji is the cause of the main problem this episode, when the head of a Kaiju he christens “Ice-Tip King” emerges from the ground near a power plant. His bossy and thoughtless demeanor ends up shutting down a signal from the plant that was keeping the Kaiju in the ground, and the creature emerges, its “head” unfolding to reveal Gabora!
And then it starts to fly.
As mentioned at the start, Gabora’s first appearance was episode 9 of Ultraman, “Lightning Operation.” A uranium-eating monster like its “relative” Pagos, Gabora was a problem for humans due to its radioactive beam, but for Ultraman, it was just another battle. Its other counterpart, Neronga, was the primary version to appear from that point forward in other Ultraman media, with any occasional sightings of the frill-necked Gabora usually being comments on its similarities to Neronga.
The most notable occasion of that, of course, was Shin Ultraman, which this Gabora draws much of its new tricks from. An alien bioweapon, Shin Gabora’s frill was no longer just protection, but also a drill, allowing it to bore through the earth and break through barriers. In addition, Shin Gabora was roiling with radiation, leaving a massive biohazard wherever it roamed. Thankfully, though Ultraman had a tougher time with this creature than Neronga, after finally pinning it down, the silver giant killed it with a single punch to the head.
This Gabora has inherited its cinematic counterpart’s tricks, and supplemented them with even more, with the frill now able to spin fast enough to enable flight. And Gabora is a threat in the air, knocking around Omega and Valgeness at the same time. Maybe it’s because he’s no longer eating Uranium, but the alien mineral Kaen-102? Either way, it’s enough of a threat for Omega to combine with Valgeness, with the crimson armor beheading Gabora a few moments later. (DO NOT mess with Valgeness Armor, it always ends badly…)
As for Raionji, he too has been cut down to size — by his own incompetence, that is, not Omega. Constantly touting his “Lionel Method” and pushing people around, he got the Kaiju’s emergence location totally wrong and wound up destroying his own reputation in the process, as blowhards tend to do in professional settings. He leaves obediently, tail between his legs, and Ayu and Kosei chase after him to return the aviator shades he wore for most of the episode.
Of course, that leaves Sorato alone, to confront a mysterious doppelganger that asks him if this is what he should really be doing…
Unnerving ending aside, this is a great episode, very much in line with the great one-off tales of the past. In a series like Omega, with only 25 episodes, there needs to be a balance struck between pushing the serialized narrative forward and making time for fun, and in the second half, there are only a few chances for a story like this.
Now that it’s over, however, the time for fun and games has ended. It’s like the other Sorato said: “Is this really what we should be doing?” Let’s see what Ultraman Omega has in store for us, as we approach the grand finale…
