Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! Previously on Ultraman Omega, Kosei and his newfound Kaiju partner Rekiness lent their strength to help Sorato – Ultraman Omega himself – to take down a predatory bird Kaiju Therizius. The contrast between the two of them, the friendly Meteokaiju versus the viciously voracious avian dinosaur, help to illustrate one of the most common elements of any Ultraman series. That is, the wide variety of individual Kaiju!
These appearance of strange, gigantic creatures on this version of Earth are shockingly disruptive to the known science and history of the planet, but so far many of the Kaiju have been comparable to more mundane creatures. Scientists like Ayumu seem to be studying them under that paradigm, and make conclusions about their biology and behavior by relating them to similar animals.
It might be the case that Sorato is also using this same guideline, but he’s probably more familiar with Kaiju who either originate from elsewhere in space, or could be found on many different planets. He can sniff out some Kaiju, such as Graim in the first episode, but others seem to catch him by surprise.
Nobody expected to find a Kaiju in the rural setting of this latest episode, that’s for sure! But when Sorato shows up to hand-deliver a package, he also finds Miko, a teenage girl dealing with the sudden loss of her mother and a newly-isolated life in a small village. She’s made a new friend though, a mysterious snake with an appetite for metal scraps.
Miko names the snake “Mikoto” after a local legend, but we never find out whether the snake’s arrival has any relation to that story. Sorato doesn’t recognize it, or know anything about its origins. He’s more than eager to help Miko feed the snake, however this time his eagerness to help out quickly backfires.
Mikoto doesn’t just enjoy feeding on random pieces of scrapped steel, its hunger also drives it to find iron anywhere it can – even from Miko’s blood.
Sorato was on his own in this episode, a day’s travel away from Kosei or Ayumu who might have simply decided to destroy Mikoto, because of the threat it posed to Miko and the village if it continued to feed. Because the audience follows Sorato’s perspective, the story takes on a much slower and more methodical pace, weighing his encounters with the characters he meets – both human and Kaiju.
This balance of perspectives, understanding the lives of human beings and the Kaiju who also inhabit the world, always has been a critical element within the role of Ultraman, even from the first series in 1966. Some of the most memorable episodes from the classic series also deal with this dilemma, and why it is important to consider the lives of Kaiju and other monsters in the first place.
In the modern day, in this episode of Ultraman Omega, you could even make the argument that Mikoto only became dangerous as a result of its encounter with human beings. When Miko first found it, the Kaiju was only a tiny creature that fit in her hand! In the same way a bear becomes dangerous when it is habituated to associate human beings with food, her friendship with Mikoto might have caused the snake to grow too large, too quickly, and to turn destructive in its search for more food to support its new size.
Although the Kaiju in the world of Ultraman Omega resemble mundane creatures, they don’t fit into our mundane world and friction often occurs when they find themselves outside of their own habitat. Come to think of it, this isn’t the first time a Kaiju has threatened human lives for that reason. Dugrid, in episode 2, attacked a dam in order to seek a better place to hibernate, a place it no longer had after the river’s course was changed as a result of the dam! Even Therizius wasn’t irrationally bloodthirsty, it was an apex predator outside of its ecology, trying to establish the same hierarchy it lived by within its natural environment. I wonder if this will become a recurring issue with other Kaiju as the show continues.
In Mikoto’s case, the most shocking twist wasn’t when the snake's hunger for iron drove it to more destructive extremes. Even when Sorato discovered this, Miko begged him not to kill the snake and was willing to die in order to keep it safe! Was Miko’s life less important than Mikoto’s? What about her aunt, or the lives of the other townspeople? This episode thrust Sorato into an unexpected trolley problem of sorts, a predicament made even more paralyzing when considering Miko’s personal wishes.
Up to this point, Sorato has been extraordinarily amenable and friendly towards anyone who needs his help. He volunteered to run this errand on Kosei’s behalf in the first place, and once in the village, couldn’t help himself again trying to help Miko and her aunt with their own problems. As we’ve seen in other episodes, Sorato is looking for his purpose in fighting as Ultraman, a mission of some kind which he must fulfill.
And this is really the first time where – regardless of what he chooses to do as Ultraman – tragedy is bound to result.
There are plenty of episodes in the Ultraman franchise which depict the tragedy of Kaiju. There are many episodes which end on bittersweet notes such as this one. Omega defeats Mikoto with the help of Kosei and Rekiness, protecting the lives of everyone in the village, but at the cost of Mikoto’s destruction. This episode hits in a unique way though, because of Sorato’s perspective as Omega.
Slowly, as he lives on Earth among human beings, he’s uncovering his mission as Ultraman and relearning what that responsibility demands of him. I’m sure at one point, before his amnesia, he had already experienced this tragedy – it seems to be a necessary rite of passage for all Ultra heroes across history. But I wonder what it feels like to go through such an experience fresh, when so much about his own history and identity is still forgotten and hidden away. How will it affect him, or affect his mission if he ever rediscovers it?
Until then, be sure to stay tuned right here at Ultraman Connection for more.
