Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! We’ve explored the wide reaches of the multiverse over the past few episodes of Ultraman Arc. Immediately after Arc and Yuma unlocked their greatest power yet, they also encountered one of the greatest threats against their world in the form of Hellnarak, the Infernal Shogun Kaiju.
It began with an incursion of mysterious ghost Kaiju, and an equally mysterious alien samurai, all from a different universe, unknown to SKIP and the Global Defense Force of this world. As opposed to the Global Guardian Force of the other world. Confused yet?
Multiversal crossovers happen fairly regularly in the Ultraman franchise, going all the way back to Return of Ultraman in 1971. Okay, fine, that wasn’t strictly a multiversal crossover, but it did connect all three Ultraman series together in a new way, when previously they all were separated in their own self-contained settings. For a franchise which focuses on the bonds shared between individuals, and the collective power borne through those relationships, crossovers always serve a fundamental role emphasizing those themes.
We’d be here all day if I recounted all of them, but suffice it to say that this week’s crossover between Ultraman Arc and Ultraman Blazar is one of the most unique takes on that idea. This isn’t so much because of the events of the episode itself, but rather what it emphasizes about the equally-unique aspects of both series.
The episode itself picks up directly from last week -- with Yuma stranded in a familiar city, but watching an entirely unfamiliar giant robot fighting the dreaded Hellnarak through the streets. Viewers from last year surely recognize the Earth Garon however. It’s hard to forget the pivotal role the massive mecha served with SKaRD, the defense team featured in Ultraman Blazar.
We never see the SKaRD members themselves, only their battle from a distance. We do, however, meet other members of the GGF, the larger international defense organization which oversees SKaRD’s operations. It might seem like a disappointment at first -- I would’ve liked to see the characters we grew to know and love from last year’s show -- but it works with the smaller character focus of Ultraman Arc. SKIP after all is only a small regional branch of a much larger organization, and never focuses on fighting Kaiju directly. So it makes sense that we find the parallel versions of the SKIP members serving the same kinds of roles in this universe too!
I mentioned that multiverse crossovers happen a lot in Ultraman shows, but meeting up with alternate universe doppelgangers of familiar characters does not. And yet, even in a completely different version of Earth, the same people are still doing their best to protect and rescue ordinary people within Hoshi-moto City against the damage from a Kaiju attack. Rin and Captain Hiroshi Ban are medics, while Shu is still serving as an intelligence operative, and even this universe’s version of Yuma helps alongside them, with the same enthusiasm that our version of Yuma brings to his job in SKIP.
To be honest, readers, I actually expected things to be much darker in this Hoshi-moto City, considering the state of the GGF following the events of Blazar last year. The organization and leadership within the defense force was, in short, grossly irresponsible. I don’t want to spoil the series too much, for the sake of those readers who haven’t seen it yet, but the GGF’s leaders were always more willing to pass risk off onto the ordinary soldiers in the thick of things, and made every decision with a calculated callousness to avoid accountability for their mistakes.
That makes it even more remarkable to hear this universe’s version of Shu describe their mission against Hellnarak. Remember, the “Infernal Shogun”, the cause of this outbreak of phantom Kaiju which threatened to overwhelm the planet, had already tried to leave this universe and attack the world of Arc instead! And yet, Shu and the other GGF forces seemed almost pleased and proud of the responsibility to take on the fight against Hellnarak for another round, after Arc pushed it back into this universe. Why were their fighting so hard to keep it contained in this world, and suffer further casualties?
It’s simple. Shu explains that they cannot accept the cost of peace in their world, if it means sacrificing a different universe.
This is so totally, radically opposed to the GGF’s directives during the events of Blazar that I had to rewind and watch this scene again to make sure I heard it correctly.
Fittingly, it also parallels a huge conflict in Arc as well. Sixteen years ago, Arc came to Earth to protect it from becoming exactly this kind of callous sacrifice! The entire midseason event was focused on Arc and Yuma fighting their hardest to save the planet and humanity from being destroyed by a civilization who -- you guessed it -- tried to ensure their own peace by diverting a threat to befall a different civilization.
Instead, Arc saw the value in human lives and reached out to protect them, even if he knew nothing else about our world. In the same way that Arc was bound to Yuma as a result of that connection, Blazar also reached out to protect a single human life, that of Gento Hiruma. Even if you didn’t know that detail already, Blazar and Arc’s cooperation in the episode itself cements that theme of connections.
Arc and Blazar never communicate directly -- not surprising considering both of these Ultras only rarely communicate directly with their own hosts -- but they still work out Hellnarak’s weak point, and a plan to deal mortal damage to the Kaiju. Unfortunately, Hellnarak took the chance to escape once again to Arc’s world before they could finish the job.
Even when the two Ultra heroes were separated, forced to fight their own battles on completely different worlds, they both had faith in each other and fought their hardest to live up to that example. Arc even makes use of Blazar’s power to create his own version of the “Spiral Burrade” lance needed to end Hellnarak for good!
Sadly, without the interdimensional incursion from Hellnarak’s attack, it seems that these two universes will remain separate… for now. But even a brief encounter in time has given all the characters new horizons to look upon and wonder. The audience also had the opportunity to see that things have improved for the better in Blazar’s universe as a result of the ordeals he faced alongside Gento and the rest of SKaRD. Who knows, maybe the threat of another interdimensional conqueror will bring these characters together in the future, face to face this time, and we will be able to see how strong Yuma and the rest of the SKIP team has grown in the meantime. Has anyone checked in on Yapool to see what he’s been up to lately?...
Never mind, that’d be a terrible idea. But if you want to see what threats our heroes will face as we enter the home stretch, stay tuned right here to Ultraman Connection for more!
