Here at Ultraman Connection, we love transformation devices. There’s very little that we find as cool as raising a flashing device to the sky and turning into a giant hero — even in our imaginations. Among the coolest devices in the entire Ultraman Series is the Spark Lence (Yes, that is how it’s romanized), from Ultraman Tiga. Relatively unique among devices in the series, the Spark Lence has multiple variations, each one relatively unique and very cool. Let’s take a look at a few!
The original Spark Lence appeared in the hand of Daigo Madoka, the host and reincarnation of Ultraman Tiga himself, after her first “became light” and transformed into the giant. Always with him, the Spark Lence was a vital element of transforming into Tiga, having to be held aloft and activated for him to become the giant. Tying to its first appearance, the Spark Lence was mystically connected to Tiga himself, and when Daigo gave up the Light to live as a human after the defeat of the evil god Gatanothor, the Spark Lence turned to stone, and disappeared forever.
However, the Spark Lence was not a unique device, and as Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey showed, more versions and variants existed. Most famous is the Black Sparklence, offered to Daigo by the mysterious villain Camearra. In addition to its dark coloring, the greatest divergence from its golden counterpart was that it channeled not the power of light, but instead of darkness, transforming Daigo into Tiga’s original Dark Giant form, fittingly named Tiga Dark. However, through the same methods as the original Tiga, Daigo was able to convert this darkness into light by battling his former allies, the Dark Giants.
Though it is only seen for a brief moment, Camearra also had her own Sparklence, which she used to transform into her Dark Giant form as well, indicating that these devices were the standard channeling and transformation devices of the Ancient Giants from the Ultra Frontier timeline.
In addition, almost two decades after Daigo’s fight ended, his son Tsubasa was sent 5000 years into the past, where he discovered an ancient bronze Sparklence and used it to transform — though, due to the fact that Tiga’s power had diluted since Daigo had used it, he wasn’t able to use the giant’s full power. Later on, the Madokas’ ancestor, Amui, was able to use the Bronze Sparklence properly, becoming the giant in his full glory!
The Sparklence has shown up in the hands and around other iterations of Tiga, and of course one can’t confuse it with the Guts Spark Lance (we’ll get to that another time), but that’s all the Spark Lences that are fit to print! Stay close to Ultraman Connection to learn more about other transformation devices and sources of Ultra Lore, and we’ll see you next time!