Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! Over the many episodes of Ultraman Arc, the show has examined different ideas of the concept of “imagination”. From scientific curiosity, the ability to see the best in others and trust in them, and even the creativity to take a dangerous threat against the Earth and turn it into the new Galaxy Armor, all of the characters in the show use their imaginations to both envision the future they want, and work to achieve it.
However, we’ve also seen examples of how one’s imagination can be dangerous. It’s all too easy to build illusions around ourselves, to hide from painful truths, or to plunge recklessly into a future that brings harm to others. Even when there is no random Kaiju appearing from underground, or from outer space, Ultraman Arc’s power is still necessary to protect the city from these cases of imagination run rampant, like we saw last week in “The Dream Bird”.
Through all these challenges, Yuma’s desire to protect the future he imagines, along with his friends who have joined him in these battles, fuels Arc’s power. As long as Yuma can continue to dream, it seems like nothing can defeat the amazing power of Ultraman he possesses.
But… What if something takes away those dreams?
From the first moment of this week’s episode, something immediately felt… off. The muted color palette and notable lack of any background music made the initial scenes seem empty at first, but that emptiness soon turned into dread as more things were removed.
Next, the SKIP office disappeared, and we found Captain Hiroshi running a cafe, seemingly with no memory of SKIP. Then they realize that there has been no rain for some time. How much time? We don’t know, it could be weeks, it could have been months. The space in which this episode occurs feels timeless in the most terrifying sense possible, where an eternity could pass without anyone realizing it, cut off from reality.
Yuma, Rin and Shu come to the conclusion that something must be altering their memories.
This realization comes too late, however. It seems like nothing can stop the mysterious masked man from his mission to strip away everything from Yuma’s world. The scenes where Rin, and eventually Shu disappear into thin air are chillingly sparse. There is no big fanfare or dramatic musical sting, in one moment they are simply standing on a street corner, then the camera shifts… and then they aren’t.
I had a few suspects in mind when first watching this episode. The big “Yapool!!” header across Rin’s phone while they were searching the internet for information certainly pointed to one possible culprit, and the tense dread of this episode’s aesthetic reminded me of episode 48 of Ultraman Ace. In this episode, Yapool had long since been defeated, but the remains of its hateful grudge against Ace created a ghost who cursed Seiji Hokuto with illusions of the Terrible-Monster Velokron. The dream-like sense of that story, and illusionary attacks which forced the main character to question his own sanity, let alone his strength to fight back, all bear a striking resemblance to this episode of Arc.
Other than stylistic similarities, this connection to Yapool appears to be a red herring however. Just as a spoiler alert, we don’t ever find out the true identity of the man in the mask, or even the origin of the mysterious “pillar” that seems to have granted him the power to reshape reality on his whims. Yuma eventually demands answers from him, but he only speaks of his grand vision to remove all threats to the world… by making everyone forget Kaiju ever existed.
Of course that sounds like a good idea on the surface, but it only takes a second’s thought to realize the issue with his plan. The power he wields literally strips away the vivid nature of the world, the variety of individuality in its inhabitants with their individual lives. He has to force each of the members of SKIP into this new illusory scheme, taking away their memories and their unique hopes and desires in the process! Earlier in the episode, Rin said she couldn’t imagine a different job than working at SKIP. It was what she always dreamed of, and worked so hard to achieve already.
In other words, this man can only bring the desires of his own imagination to life by destroying the imagination of others, limiting it to a narrow, grey-scaled tunnel vision which he can control.
And Yuma Hize is proving a remarkably hard subject to control. Not surprising, since Yuma’s imagination has created the power to defeat every other threat they have faced thus far.
Once we know the masked man also saw Ultraman Arc as a threat, several other strange parts of his plan started to make more sense. First, aside from the literal color of the world being drained away, we know that the man stopped it from raining. That seemed like an odd detail, but you may remember that Yuma first made contact with Ultraman Arc, shortly after joining SKIP, by seeing his reflection in a puddle of water. If it rained, the reflection from the water would’ve allowed Yuma to communicate with Arc, who seems to be immune to his reality-altering powers!
Second, the disappearance of the art school from Yuma’s childhood. Initially, it seemed like simply a petty way to break Yuma down, and deprive him of happy memories from his childhood. Initially, it almost seemed to work for the masked man and his plans.
After Yuma confronted him, and the man revealed himself as the one orchestrating this grand scheme to reshape the world into a “paradise”, Yuma appeared to lose his own memories and identity as well. But even if he had no memories of his life before these illusions, something still drove him to return to that spot, and to the whitewashed picket fence where he happily drew… something as a kid. He didn’t remember what he drew, but he did remember the rain that washed it away afterwards. And so, it wasn’t a big dramatic battle or some spectacular event that caused Yuma to regain his memories, all it took was a drop of water to reconnect him to Ultraman Arc.
I think the most powerful part of this scene was the way Yuma remembered Arc. The simple drawings from his childhood gave Arc his form and his power, so it seemed especially appropriate that their reappearance strengthened him enough to break the spell and allow him to transform once again. I also think it’s significant that Yuma associated his memories of Arc, and the drawings that inspired him, with the rain.
Yuma’s identity as Arc has always been inextricably tied to great losses in his life. Arc, or rather, Rution, bonded with him because of his parents’ deaths, and that loss still drives both of them to dedicate their lives to keep fighting as Ultraman. Just like how Arc and Yuma took the deadly energy from the sealed “Onyx” to create their most powerful armor, they have taken the pain of these tragedies and turned them into the strength needed to move forward, and create a happier future. And all it took was a fence, some chalk, and a sketchbook.
That’s a far more powerful way to change the world than putting on a mask and ripping off René Magritte.
As I said, we never learn the story behind this man, or his seeming interest in surrealist art. He even bragged that he had given up his name and identity in order to wield the power of the mysterious pillar. We didn’t even get a name card for the pillar once Arc appeared to fight against it! Once the world returned to its normal colorful appearance, it was as if they had never existed in the first place.
Is there more to the story? Is there anyone out there in the world who remembers the man before he put on the mask? A lot of times in Ultraman episodes, we don’t get easy answers. Like the heroes themselves, all we can do is take our regrets, the losses and tragedies in our past, in order to learn from them and face the future stronger than before.
Because if next week’s preview is any indication, Yuma and Arc are going to need all the strength they can find.
