Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! This week, we’re taking a closer look at episode 6 of Ultraman Omega, “The Kaiju’s Search”. In the previous episode, the search for iron as food – and for friendship, in some way – tragically ended when Omega was forced to destroy the mysterious snake Kaiju named Mikoto. I mentioned then that there are lots of different types of Kaiju, who all behave in different ways and fit into different ecological niches within each setting where they are found, and this week is no different.
There are a few other elements of this story which are, but we’ll get to those shortly.
This is also the first episode to focus significantly on the resident biology expert, Ayumu. SHe first encountered Kosei and Sorato in the second episode of Omega, but has frequently called on them for help whenever her own team’s studies fall short. She may not know why Sorato seems to be familiar with so many of the Kaiju they encounter – Sorato himself doesn’t know the reason either, to be fair – but she can’t deny that their help has been invaluable to her research.
We also get to meet another one of her coworkers who has abruptly been assigned to Kaiju research, named Yuta. Unlike Ayumu who seems cool-headed and composed, even in dire circumstances when facing down giant monsters, Yuta is… much more pessimistic. His vocal displeasure regarding his current assignment only gets louder when the pair find themselves stranded in a rural backwoods overnight.
Thankfully, Kosei and Sorato also seem to have developed a keen talent for finding trouble as well, and all four of them end up in a makeshift forest camp overnight.
In the previous episode, I admired the way this show developed Sorato’s character individually. It brought us a quieter sense of discovery as Sorato encountered the mystery behind Mikoto, and learned more about the individual humans and their unique individual problems outside of his small circle of experience on Earth. Sorato’s curiosity about human beings, which draws him into their troubles, small victories, and delicious food, has motivated many of the plots in the show thus far.
In other words, Sorato is still searching for his mission, and has been slowly uncovering it through those interactions with others. But he’s not the only one looking for a purpose in his life. Kosei wants to be a hero, to find a purpose into which he can pour his life and passion without regrets.
So what about Ayumu?
She admits to having doubts, just like Yuta, about studying the Kaiju. Neither of them signed up for traipsing around in the forest, running from the threat of giant monsters, or even considered that line of work when they started their research! Ayumu still finds herself fascinated by the Kaiju however, and renews her passion for studying these strange creatures by the end of the episode. What changes her mind?
Honestly, I think it’s the realization that these Kaiju monsters aren’t so strange or bizarre after all.
Gedrago’s appearance certainly seems bizarre at first. The first one appears above ground then mysteriously dies only a few minutes later. When the second one bursts from the same burrow, its behavior seems equally as strange. However, Ayumu makes a connection to animals she’s already familiar with as a researcher who specializes in endangered species. In episode 2, she understood Dugrid’s behavior when she recognized its similarities to endangered salamanders. Even though Gedrago is of gargantuan size, it has the same mating behavior as much, much smaller mole species.
And just like Dugrid, both of the Gedrago Kaiju are out of their normal habitats – tragically so.
This final realization, that both of these creatures might end up dead simply because they woke up at inconvenient times, to fulfill a biological instinct for every ordinary animal, turns this otherwise-comedic episode into a poignantly bittersweet one. It’s also not the first time this sort of twist has been pulled off in an Ultraman episode.
Kaiju are, in fact, living creatures (usually) and often have families of their own. In Ultraman 80, it’s played for laughs and poignancy in a similar way. Zandrias is a now-iconic Kaiju in the franchise, but its first appearance in the show posed a challenge for both 80 himself and the UGF defense team. No one seemed to be able to defeat one Zandrias, let alone two of them together! However, they soon discover that the first Zandrias is actually a child, and the second one that appeared was its – somewhat overbearing – mother.
Once they understand this dynamic though, they manage to solve the problem without actually killing the Kaiju! The mother and child together ended up bonding over beating the snot out of Ultraman 80. All’s well that ends well, I suppose.
Another example where things did not end well comes from the more recent series, Ultraman Z. Halfways through the season, the main character Haruki Natsukawa and his teammates in the STORAGE team face down a pair of Red King Kaiju, which aggressively appear near Haruki’s hometown. At first, defeating the two of them seems like a routine mission, but after killing one Red King, Haruki realizes that the pair had been defending an egg.
In that moment, Haruki is forced to see them not just as pests that need to be exterminated, but as a family, and that heartbreaking understanding becomes a crucial conflict underlining the rest of the show’s run.
In the present, Ayumu’s understanding of Gedrago’s behavior carries some measure of tragedy, but that emotional connection itself sparks a new passion for her. The Kaiju aren’t just unknowable forces beyond nature, or just simply pests that need to be eradicated. She realizes that there is an entire ecology of Kaiju existing hidden and parallel to the “known” world she has been studying all along. The knowledge to be gained, to understand and maybe even protect the Kaiju in the future, drives her to continue her work at the end of the episode… even if things get pretty messy.
I don’t know about you, readers, but I’m eager to follow her work in the future as well. Until then, stay tuned right here to Ultraman Connection!
