This episode of Ultraman Omega is fantastic.
It's definitely the best Ultraman Omega episode
so far. I bet it will be the best or in the top
three of the entire series of Omega. And it's
definitely one of those transcendent episodes
that goes beyond Ultraman and goes into just
great television, great storytelling. It was
much more mythic than science fiction. Yeah,
it's much more mythic than science fiction, and
it reminds me of some discourse I've seen online
from a certain person I follow on Twitter or
X, whatever. And anyway, I'll probably talk about
his discourse. I should actually credit him and
see who it is I'm talking about before I just
go ahead and blab on about this. So hold on just
a moment. Here he is. I found the man. It's Ultra
Kiel. Ultra Keel, there we go. So it says, his
bio says, I'm a Tokusatsu fan and I love Godzilla
and the Heisei TGG era Ultraman. My hobbies include
mobile building. model building, sorry, miniatures
I communicate between Japanese and Western Tokusatsu
fans. You can see there's me looking at it. Crazy
face I'm making. Anyway, so yeah, he's a lot
of fun. He says some interesting stuff about
Ultraman, and I find it interesting, which is
why I talk about it. I've asked him questions.
I find it interesting, like, I'm not saying because
he's Japanese I need to take his opinion as gospel.
Of course not. It's just, it's interesting to
see a Japanese fan, an older fan, who's into...
well i'll let you i mean he said reason two in
his bio so um does he said something about kaiju
being gods and like godzilla being or you know
kojira whatever being like a god and that's the
kind of story a kaiju story is kaiju are not
giant animals and i just i have a i like ultraman
a lot um but i have an interesting relationship
with kaiju the concept of kaiju which i got introduced
to in a bigger way by concrete revolution of
the anime which you might think sounds ridiculous,
but I don't think it sounds ridiculous. It's
fairly reasonable, and we'll talk about why as
we go on. It's something I'll touch on at some
point, but I want to talk about the episode overall.
There is this, like I said, so the kaiju ends
up being Ohibinushi, the serpent deity beast,
and he is, he's named after, actually, so there's,
I'd say, I think it's Ohibinushi Nomikoto or
Nomiko. This girl here is, hold on, I'll show
you. here we go why am i not okay so here we
go this girl is miko and this kaiju she named
mikoto but then his name is transformed to something
else he starts off as a little guy that can fit
in the palm of her hand and you see throughout
the episode that uh he's pulling energy from
her here um and it's interesting because she
lost her mother and She's mourning and her aunt,
she's living with her aunt now and her aunt is
a farmer lady who's out in the sticks and she's
trying to take care of her. But it's hard because
she's a teenage girl. She lost her mother. She's
very sad about that. And I just found it interesting
that Soroto is introduced to the word Tomodachi,
friend, and also they speak about family so there's
family and friend and like friends can be family
and family can be friends so to speak and like
there's a lot going on with his learning and
i've kind of forgotten about this aspect of omega
that he's an alien so auto is an alien learning
to be human or learning to fit in a human world
and he also has these dealings with kaiju so
this is like a very interesting episode because
it's not some big spectacle the fight is cool
um but it's not like you know this bad kaiju
is doing these things it's this girl's sad and
she finds joy and comfort in this little animal
and i was thinking about it uh she lost her mother
then she goes to live with her aunt and her aunt
has this kaiju on her on earth for some reason
and it's a tiny thing that she finds out in the
woods out in the sticks um literally and uh by
the way what's with this jacket isn't she wearing
the jacket that the guy from build war I'm pretty
sure that's the exact jacket, and I think they
even put Kentaro Kisaragi in that at some point,
which is weird, the way they seem to share props
among Toei Kamen Rider stuff, but then also Tsuburaya
gets in on the action. I'm pretty sure that's
the exact jacket that Banjo was wearing. Anyway,
just a little tangent. But anyway, so she's hurt,
and she's lonely, and she's sad, and she's depressed,
basically. But then she finds this little guy,
and she starts taking care of him, and as she's
nurturing him and investing... in him, he's growing,
and she sees that, and he's kind of like this
pet slash friend that she has this relationship
with, and the story, she, there's like a shrine
or a marker of some sort, I don't understand
the full significance of it, because I'm not
Japanese, didn't grow up in the Japanese country,
haven't studied or researched it, and she says
that there's a legend that there was a snake
god who fell in love with a woman, and I don't
remember what she said beyond that, or what happened,
and I didn't go back to the episode, because
time, I'm pressed for time, so anyway, it's very
interesting she has affection for this snake
and she's giving him life he's siphoning energy
from her she's becoming anemic actually so it
seems like uh the the energy the life energy
that he's getting from her is actually like you
know literal life energy so he eats metal but
then he also seems to get nourishment from the
iron in her blood and um you know her aunt is
concerned for her reasonably and uh It's just
interesting that she lost her mother, then she
becomes like this surrogate mother to this snake
thing. I don't know if they didn't just cast
an older woman and have it be a reflection of
the woman in love with the snake god story for...
Like, I'm not sure why they didn't just do that,
because that seems like the most logical thing
to do. But, I mean, this is sweet and innocent,
but also dangerous, because she wants to be with
Miko. She named after herself, which is kind
of funny. And... she wants to be with him and
like leaves home even though she knows it's having
this negative effect on her. She has these silver
streaks in her hair, which you can kind of see
here. Let me see if I can find a better picture
of it. Oh, and then here you can see it much
better. And I noticed that about her like right
off when we first saw her. And I thought, oh,
because it was conspicuously placed on purpose.
It's a visual medium. And they're trying to tell
the story in the best way possible. So, you know,
there's something going on. But I thought she
was withdrawn. So I thought, oh, she's just like
a, you know. rebellious teenager kind of deal
doesn't like being out in the country whatever
she longs for something and that's going to be
related to the kaiju of the episode so um that's
not exactly how it went um this silver streak
in her hair is a sign that i think some of her
life some of her vitality her youth is being
sapped by this creature and the creature even
does it to her aunt which i didn't grab a picture
of but um yeah it's just it's really interesting
that And look at this look on her face. She looks
like she's so happy to be doing this, to be giving
this life energy to this kaiju. And this is a
world that's new to kaiju, or that kaiju are
new to. How do you phrase that? I don't know.
But she's saying, oh, you think this is one of
those kaiju things? And she obviously wants to
protect him and care for him and nurture him
and love him in a pet way or in a friend way,
not in a lover's kind of way. That doesn't seem
to be... to be the implication. But I know there's
like something deep going on here. Like, is he
a replacement for her mother? Is he like her
son? Is he like a lover who would comfort somebody
after a tragic passing like that? I don't really
know. And I'm not really sure what they were
going for. Who's the they I'm speaking of? The
they are the author or the writer and the director
of this. So the writer is Masaya Honda. And the
director is... Tominobu Koshi. So I grabbed their
information to talk about them because I thought
it would be relevant. So let me see, which one
do I have first? This goes, okay, so let's talk
about the director first. Yeah, let's talk about
the director first. Well, no, I want to talk
about the writer first because I thought the
writing in this was really interesting. Let's
see, that's trivia. Okay, so here we go. Masaya
Honda is a Japanese screenwriter known for his
work on anime series. He has served as a writer
for Ultraman during the New Generation era. He
worked on Ark. He wrote Message, You Are Givas,
and The Man in the White Mask. I love Givas from
Ark. He's fantastic. Message is related. It's
the first part of the Givas story, and it was
really good, really affecting, and gave me a
lot of affection for this strange... Creature
from another world. Interesting. Kind of a theme
there. And then The Man in the White Mask is
about somebody who wanted to end suffering, I
think. And this episode touches on suffering
and grief. Yeah, this episode, Miko and Mikoto.
So let me see what else we have about here. Okay,
so that's all that there is said about the writer.
So Message, You or Give Us, The Man in the White
Mask, those are important. Those are from Ark.
Those were great episodes. I love them. Absolutely.
And this episode, I also have a lot of affection
for. Let's move on and talk about the director.
So the director is Tomonobu Koshi. He's a Japanese
director. Koshi's first role in the Ultraman
series was an assistant director in Ultraman
Max in 2005. He continued to work as an assistant
director in subsequent entries. and began directing
episodes from Ultraman Taiga in 2019, becoming
a well -known Ultra Series director in the 2020s
while continuing to be an assistant director.
How interesting. He worked on Ultraman Max, Ultraman
Mebius, Ultraman Saga, Ultra Zero Fight. Let's
see what else. Oh, okay. Specifically, also,
he worked on Ultraman Ark. What's important here,
which, okay, the full one's answer was... Interesting.
Internet Pentagon was just okay. The Light of
Fear, I liked. Demon Slicing Meteor Sword, I
really liked. The Man in the White Mask, very
impressive episode, which the writer also worked
on, so they worked on those together. And then
he's done 4, 5, and 6. I haven't seen 6 yet,
but Episode 4 had great action in it with, you
know, Punk Omega, which was super fun to see.
And then look at other works. Comrade Akiva,
Assistant Director. Okay, this guy's great. He's
wonderful. I love him. He was one of my favorite
Comraders. Don't tell Toei. Anyway, so that's
really interesting. That's who these guys are.
That's some of the stuff that they've worked
on. And I don't necessarily know why the episode
hit me as hard as it did. Like it's about loss.
It's about grieving. It's about trying to find
your way. But also Sarato has this aspect of
the episode where he kills this kaiju because
he has to, but he doesn't want to because he's
killing this girl's friend and he's killing...
somebody who could be her family, you could say.
And like, if she is grieving her mother and this
is like a replacement for her mother, he's in
effect killing her. But also what's interesting
and what's so deep and painful, like, look at
this, look at the performance. I'm sorry, I don't
know the actor's name, but like, this is great,
great sadness. And I love the contrast that Kosei
has no idea what's going on. He thinks, oh yeah,
we just killed a kaiju. It was bad. We need to
kill kaiju because they're bad. And you know,
it was going to destroy the town. Like, you know,
he's like, he's super happy right now. And Sorato's
over here. kind of suffering and bearing the
weight of having to have killed this thing. But
also, it wanted to die. Like, I'm pretty sure
that this kaiju committed suicide by Ultraman
because it... I don't know. Like, look at this.
Hold on, let me see. So this is it after she's
collapsed, after Mikoto has collapsed, or whatever.
He's trying to, like, take care of her, and he's
there kind of surrounding her, protecting her.
maybe even though he's draining life from her
which i don't understand what that means like
their love is unsustainable because he's a monster
he's a god he's from this other world they're
not meant to be together whether that's his lovers
or as you know just friends or whatever and it's
killing her to love him and to be with him. It's
strange. Like, that's what's happening. I don't
know why. I don't know the mechanics of that.
I don't know how that works in with human society
or real life, but that's what's going on here.
And then, you know, he fights Ultraman because
Ultraman shows up and that's what you got to
do. And Reckoness comes and attacks him. And
while he's fighting Reckoness, Omega's just standing
off. So Rato doesn't really know what to do.
but he sees the destruction he sees the the conflict
the fight going on which is a great shot too
and like the music yeah the music drops out and
you just get to hear um or it's it's it drops
out it's muted the sound definitely like limits
itself or is subdued and you can see this concentration
on omega in this interesting scene where it's
like uh i'm gonna call him mikoto uh like looks
at him and then he like, charges him, and I'm
pretty sure that this kaiju is crying, and there's
something about the performance of it, the hand
performance of this puppet, essentially, there's
something about it that was, like, really nice
and warm, like, in some places it looked a little
cheesy, like, when it was trying to slither,
it, you know, it looked fake, it looked cheap,
whatever, not cheap necessarily, but just, it
didn't come off as well as it could have, but
these composite shots where it's gigantic, work
great um especially like here i thought this
was wonderful it's great compositing work they
look like they're in the scene together and it
just really works also like this little cue going
back to the effects of they gave some fake shedded
skin to show that it's growing it's a wonderful
effect like that's so brilliant it's so cheap
um not cheap like is in poor quality but like
it's such an effective way to use your money
to build this thing which they probably cast
off of molds for this thing or for the the bigger
suit and I don't know maybe they expanded it
and then cast it doesn't matter but they did
it in such a cool effective way there's like
this this really works to sell this effect that
this thing has grown this snake dragon thing
with his hair tufts in his ear and his little
horns has grown and now he's this kaiju he's
this monstrous size and he can't be left alone
he can't be left to persist he can't be left
to live because if he does his life will destroy
the lives of others including the life of the
one he loves so therefore he attacks Ultraman
and despite the fact that he's fighting Reckoness,
I guess he knew Reckoness was a scrub. So he
charges at Omega and Omega just slowly pulls
his slugger off and he runs past him and slashes
him and he kills him and he turns into a bunch
of cherry blossom leaves. And I think the cherry
blossom is supposed to be associated with death.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's something
I remember hearing. at some point i believe the
uh the japanese word for it is sakura and i believe
skull is like very close like skull man i looked
it up because i'm into ishinomori school man
and i'm pretty it's like sakura you know man
or whatever so like it's very close um if it's
not the exact same word and it's interesting
that like he represents death sort of um when
i say he i mean uh mr uh ohibanushi represents
death in this way and like i don't know it's
just it's interesting because like Concrete Revolution
told me that kaiju are like pure rage and kaiju
are just like these things that want to destroy
humans but they also represent like the monstrosity
of human beings and I don't know Concrete Revolution
is a complicated show like I like it a lot but
there's also things that I don't like um and
it's not aesthetics um it's like I don't know
like I'm not sure I like what it's saying I'm
not sure I know what it's saying but what I think
it's saying I don't think I like except for I
do so like I said I have a complicated relationship
with that show and I don't know what Omega is
saying about Kaiju right now. And I don't know
what it's saying about grief or loss. Like, just
to slow down, Mikoto is grieving over her mother.
Then she finds this friend who she can take care
of. And it gives her life to invest herself in
caring for this other being and in taking care
of him and in loving him and nurturing him. However,
he keeps growing and he gets too big and he's
becoming a drain on her. So, but she wants to
stay with him. and she follows him and what she
does it continues to drain her life and it continues
to put her in danger and his solution is to go
away where she cannot follow him she goes away
or he goes away and gets himself killed by omega
so that she can be free of him and then after
supposedly or assumedly, she mourns over his
loss. She is able to connect with her aunt who
she wasn't able to connect with before and see
her aunt as a loving family member, somebody
more than a friend. And it's like, is it about
letting go of grief and loss and letting yourself
move on to the next part of your life, not being
held back by grief? I don't really know. And
if kaiju are not just big animals which she treats
him like a big animal um eventually uh if they're
gods then like was this god's purpose to die
so that he could teach her how to live um i don't
know if that was the intent i don't know if that
was the meaning um but something about this episode
something about this story is stirring to me
and it's beautiful and i really like it and appreciate
it even if i don't really know what it is I find
that interesting and very paradoxical that I
don't really understand what it is, but I still
like it. I guess I don't understand my wife,
but I like her. So maybe there's a precedent
for that in life. I just find it really fascinating.
I'm wondering what you think about it. I'm a
writer. I want to know how to capture this. Do
the writers know? Do the directors know exactly
what they're doing? They have a plan for this
and they're executing it well or they're like...
just throwing things out there and it works with
who it works with and it works with who it doesn't
work with who doesn't work. Like, I don't know
the reception of this episode. Do people like
it generally? Because I think it's a great episode
of just, I think it's a great story, period.
And that's pretty much all I have to say. I wonder
what you think about it. I'd love to hear your
feedback, your thoughts on the show, the episode
itself, and also on my analysis of it. Did I
hit on something good? Am I like on the edge
of it? Like, had I known something, I would have
been able to say it better. I'd love to know.
I'd love to have that knowledge gap filled. I'd
love to have a conversation about it. So please
leave a comment here. Let's discuss it. And I'm
going to be back on... This is my triumphal return
to covering Ultraman. Again, I had to take a
little break. I had a bunch of personal stuff
happen. But I'm good now. Things are great. Things
are moving forward. And I'm hoping to catch up
with Omega while I'm also covering... And other
things. While also doing more writing. I'm working
on another book. And I have a book out right
now called Mockwing Mayhem. There's a trailer
for it here. It's about magical bugs battling
monsters. And you might like it if you like to
watch this magical dude. Or, you know, whatever.
Science fiction giant dude battle monsters as
well. So anyway, that's it for now, folks. Until
next time, take care. Magical bugs battle monsters
in this exciting fantasy adventure. Grimlings
prey upon children. Grow bugs protect them. When
a grimling finds a hidden grow bug fort, the
whole flock makes a surprise attack. How will
the grow bugs survive? Find out in Mockwing Mayhem.
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