I Don't Even Know What I'm About!

IRL strikes so I have to deal with it first. Then it’s back to Ultraman for me!

Really love Tsuburaya for providing us these episodes.

“You were too rash, Fuma!”

“The way I see it, he ran away first.”

“Cut it out, you two!”

I f***ing love these three.

The series can do so much with these three: they can work with developing each of their personalities so we can remember them for more than just their gimmick.

But my problem with them is that... neither seems to be reflecting on what Tregear did to them and the other Ultras 12 years ago.

Maybe give it time...

**WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

Now, what would our Ultraman’s debut be without TREGEAR coming in to ruin it and show that he’s the alpha?

Jerk.

“Oh no, you don’t!”

Tregear is just such a troll.

Also, Tregear here calls Fuma ‘O-50′, which is the planet Fuma is from...

... I wonder what that means.

Is there some sort of significance of Ultramen who come from there than the rest to Tregear?

Also, as expected since the last episode: Titus seems to be the most level-headed one here and actually seems to know that Tregear is purposely trying to annoy them.

Probably why Titus didn’t care much about him compared to Taiga and Fuma:

And I was right in one of my guesses too: Tregear is purposely hitting them where it hurts. He took Titus’ punches like they were nothing and he kept up with Fuma’s speed without any problem.

... but why, though? Is he trying to encourage them to get stronger for whatever reason?

Part of his big masterplan?

**WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

So as mentioned earlier: Fuma is all about his speed.

And it shows in his fight against this week’s Kaiju.

He constantly moves around far more often than the typical Ultramen:

His attacks appear to lack the power of Titus’ or Taiga’s, but he makes it up with how fast and rapid he can dish them out.

And I think this is the first time I’ve seen an Ultraman who deliberately moves behind their opponent and finish them off from there.

Like a Ninja.

Don’t believe me? Just listen to the soundtrack here when Fuma finished the Kaiju off!

Now I hope Hiro comes across Ninja-related things so Fuma can fanboy over them.

... oh also, this happened:

**WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

Fuma is so cheeky and cocky; I love it.

So as expected: Fuma’s all about how fast he is. And that he’s a ninja.

A ninja Ultraman.

I don’t think we have ninjas up there in space so he MUST have learned this from Earth and became obsessed with it.

And that makes him Dork #3.

Also, I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a childish Ultraman. It’s refreshing, honestly.

He reminds me of a certain blonde ninja from a ninja village...

**WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

\So while I was wondering where the hell is Fuma in all of this...

... turns out Fuma’s in a crystal Homare’s old friend snatched from the alien baddies.

... did I miss it or was this never brought up until now...?

And are you telling me that when all this went down earlier, Fuma was there and didn’t do S**T?

Where was Taiga and Titus for that matter?

**WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

And it is not just the Ultraman’s fight that is nicely done, but with the humans too!

And of course... it involves THIS GUY.

And Tregear just shows just how much of a BOSS he is even in human form.

Like how he just dodges a point-blank shot like it is nothing:

Stealing Homare’s gun and pointing it at him without any intention of actually shooting him than just to be an a**hole...

Offering CHOCOLATE to Homare while still in mid-combat (GODDAMMIT I LOVE TREGEAR)...

Then shooting Homare with his hand mimicking a gun.

Do yourself a favor and watch this, at least. It is one of the smoothest, funniest fight scenes I’ve seen in Ultraman ever.

**WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

Okay, so at least they make up for the lack of Ultraman with a kick-ass fight. I have to say that they are REALLY improving on the CGI here, especially when compared to the first episode’s.

This has to be some of the best we’ve seen from the series’ history, outside of their movies, of course.

And they do not normally do combat where the Ultraman is flying around, but they use the blurring to great effect for the CGI.

Also, Taiga again showing just many other ‘techniques’ he has.

The shot/angle here is superb!

Even the crashing is done nicely!

First, let me just say I love the sequence here. The blurry, the shaking, and then the transformation are all top-notch!

There is just something about watching Hiro running in first as a silhouette and then coming out front and center that provides one eye candy of imagery.

But my problem here is that we only NOW are reminded that he is the human host for the titular characters of the series! We haven’t heard anything from Taiga, Titus, nor did anyone even bring UP the giant alien warriors that’s been saving the day for the last three episodes.

Not even the alien baddies!

Surely they MUST have expected an Ultraman to come to save the day with their so-called ‘Monster Bomb’.

In fact, throughout the last two episodes, we don’t actually hear or see the humans or aliens talk about the Ultramen.... Why? What’s with the lack of focus on our giant heroes here?

It really ruins the immersion for me about this world that is aware of the existence of aliens, where they do NOT talk about the skyscraper-sized ones punching, kicking, jumping, and flying around.

Part of building up a story is to have the world reflect/react on the existence of our heroes.

Without it, the world just feels so gosh darn empty.

Is it just me or they are not even being subtle about it? It’s so well-made, especially in the second picture where the dude with the shades gets shot right in the midsection.

I mean, you still don’t see blood or anything, but... they normally hide these things from being shown on screen, don’t they?

**WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!**

“Violence doesn’t solve anything!” exclaims Horama after he beat up the two alien baddies.

Right!

Except, yeah, when you beat up those aliens to save your life.

Also...

Pretty sure violence solved THOSE problems...

... but yeahhhh, violence doesn’t solve anything!

Until it is necessary...?

I get the kind of message they are trying to relay here, but you’re talking about a series that literally centers around giant alien warriors fighting and exploding equally giant alien monsters.

I feel like they could have worked towards this a whole lot better.

Like maybe have him actually acknowledge that violence CAN solve problems, but like everything else, if used for the wrong purposes than the said violence is wrong.

But I DID find this as potentially interesting. Why?

Rewind back to Episode 2:

But maybe I’m thinking too deeply into this?

Ah well.

Let’s move on.

Because Horame’s about to prove his words.

Through violence!

Homare, staph.

You’re creeping me out.

I swear I thought he was gonna reveal himself a villain here.

I call BULLS**T on this one.

Homare can break out of those chains AND throw an alien with just one arm...

... and he STILL got knocked out from one blunt swing?

With that said, what in the world IS Homare? He’s almost superhuman in strength that - if I wasn’t watching this series - I’d believe you if you’d tell me that HE’S the actual host for the Ultramen.

I wonder what Ultraman Titus will have to say about this?

Speaking of...

... we’re halfway through the episode and NO signs of any of the Ultramen!

***WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!***

So... our heroes are ambushed and then chained up.

Starting to REALLY question how ‘trained’ they have to be to join this line of work, especially if they got ambushed this easily.

IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, I MIGHT ADD.

Of course, you can make the argument that everyone can make mistakes or because they were distracted, but...

I LOVE these aliens,

For a moment there I thought I was seeing the Dr. Gourman, the Alien Fanton from the Ultraman X series.

Who is VERY underrated to me there compared to the human characters.

Also gotta love the special effect showing the Alien Fanton transitioning out of their human disguise here.

I am slow but I JUST got the significance of the narrator’s first line leading to the Opening song.

The whole series has that Men In Black vibe that... personally? I’m starting to really like it. But as far as plot-wise, it hasn’t exactly dawned on me how all of this will connect to Tregear in the long run.

It is a convenient plot point to get our main characters to places, though, and, as mentioned earlier, an intriguing gimmick to play with.

I feel like the Ultraman series has found something fun they can work with for years now with this ‘aliens live among us’ shtick beyond the Ultraman Taiga series.