Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! We spent the last few weeks exploring the multiverse of the franchise, highlighting a unique crossover between the worlds of Ultraman Arc and Ultraman Blazar. It’s a shame that it took the threat of an interdimensional “Infernal Shogun” Kaiju, Hellnarak, to bring these universes together however. Despite the dire battles faced by SKIP, along with their counterparts of the GGF and SKaRD teams, their strengths combined with these two Ultra heroes managed to defeat Hellnarak in the previous episode. Who knows how many other universes may have also been saved by their actions? We may never find out, but now our heroes can rest easy knowing their relatively small corner of the world has been saved from disaster.
Okay, maybe they’re resting a little too easy at the start of this latest episode, “What is Passed Down”. In the first half of the show, Kaiju were attracted to Hoshimoto City as a result of the “Onyx” and the cosmic energy leaking from it. Then, after Arc and Yuma used that energy to create their new Galaxy Armor form, more Kaiju arrived at the bidding of Hellnarak – who just got exploded last week, as we’ve already recapped. The SKIP team doesn’t have much to do now that things have returned to “normal” once again!
But what does “normal” look like in the city? We’ve spent quite a bit of time getting to know the members of SKIP, especially Yuma Hize and the GDF special agent assigned to their branch, Shu Ishido. We’ve also seen stories from the perspectives of Rin Natsume, their engineering whiz, and their even-keeled, encouraging captain, Hiroshi Ban. The audience has come to appreciate the role SKIP and Ultraman Arc play in protecting the city through all these perspectives. It seems appropriate to now have some insight into what the people of the city think of SKIP and Ultraman Arc in return!
The story this week focuses on Hiroshi’s daughter, Tsugumi. We don’t meet her as a result of a Take-Your-Daughter-To-Work Day, instead Tsugumi appears as an intern… reporting for a local news station! She’s clearly awkward and camera-shy, even when handling a puff piece promoting a local bakery so you might wonder why she chose to pursue this career in the first place.
Her dad certainly wonders that as well, and the idea that Tsugumi doesn’t want to be involved with his workplace clearly eats at him as the episode goes on.
The Ultraman franchise as a whole frequently deals with the relationships between parents and their children, in a way that I believe is unique among other tokusatsu series. Here on Ultraman Connection, we’ve showcased many examples of Ultra warriors who are parents, and their children who carry on those legacies through new generations. The human characters and defense teams often carry on those themes of family relationships (and family struggles), for example last year in Ultraman Blazar.
Every human being is unique, and there are infinite unique ways we all relate to our parents – or to our children. So even if we get family drama every year, each Ultraman show finds a unique spin on things, and presents a story that still gets at your heartstrings regardless.
Captain Hiroshi has to reconcile his memories of Tsugumi as a young girl eager to follow her father’s footsteps, with the young woman who wants to strike out on her own path now. I was particularly struck by his conversation with Yuma over lunch, remarking that all he has left of her are small mementos like the bento box he uses. It was such an understated moment of emotion that it was almost easy to forget this isn’t a slice-of-life workplace comedy, instead of being an episode of an Ultraman show where a giant silver alien hero shows up to punch out giant Kaiju monsters every week.
Until the giant Kaiju monsters show up, of course.
The Kaiju Gomess is another monster familiar to the Ultraman franchise – and to the members of SKIP in this universe. In Ultra Q, Gomess was a prehistoric creature awoken by a construction project tunneling into a mountain. Luckily for the humans on the scene, the construction also uncovered a prehistoric egg from its natural rival, the avian Kaiju Litra.
Everything suggested by the SKIP team to counter Gomess, from its behavior patterns, its weakness to “citronella acid”, and even its unusually large size, are all references to this original episode of Ultra Q. (Gomess was only about 30 feet tall in its first appearance!) But the SKIP team also knows enough about the Kaiju to note that some things seemed… weird about its behavior.
Just for the record, nowhere in the Ultraman franchise – as far as I know – shows Gomess flying with antigravity waves or shooting blue lasers out its mouth. Considering where Gomess’ original Kaiju suit came from in 1966, and also considering another twist related to that distant relative having a surprise doppelganger revealed in a similar way, I think the writers and director for this episode may have had a different reference in mind. Just a thought.
Unlike that movie however, this Gomess imposter isn’t an alien robot meant to discredit Gomess’ reputation. Nobody on SKIP is quite sure what it is initially, but they quickly jump into action to protect the populace of Hoshimoto City regardless. I’m always impressed by how efficiently their disaster management procedures play out, even when they have to throw Plans A and B out the window in these fast-developing situations, and run straight to Plan Q, R or S instead. Eventually, they make it to Plan 9… er, I mean Plan “U” for “Ultraman Arc”, showing up to stop the Kaiju’s inexorable push into the center of the city.
At the start of the episode, Captain Hiroshi questioned why his daughter wasn’t interested in working at SKIP. Was she looking for something flashier, more glamorous, more lucrative than being a public servant in a small office? The answer surprises him, and the rest of the audience after Arc defeats the fake-Gomess in spectacular fashion. Tsugumi also cares deeply about the city, just like her father, and the rest of the SKIP team, and wants to express it in her own way, as a television reporter. For the first time without stammering or awkwardly forgetting words, Tsugumi delivers her heartfelt thanks to Ultraman Arc, and also to the actions of SKIP to secure the safety of the town in the middle of such an unexpected Kaiju attack.
The real victory at the end of the day wasn’t just that Arc defeated the Kaiju. The real catharsis and closure from this week’s story came from Hiroshi’s pride in his daughter, and the future she has sought for herself.
Speaking of the future, we hope to see you there, so stay tuned to Ultraman Connection for more!
