Synopsis
The second episode opens with Science Patrol Funnyman Ito breaking the fourth wall and comments that we noticed the remarkable shiner he's got on his right eye. Ito regales us with the tale of how he got his black eye - an admittedly smaller story scope than superheros from other planets crashing on Earth. I wonder if they'll talk directly to the audience ever again, or if this is just some sort of anomaly?
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| Ito, Japan's 40 year pre-emptive answer to Joseph Gordon-Levitt. |
On an earlier night, a UFO was reportedly spotted over the city and then traced to the scientific technical center. Science Patrol member Arashi gets his first real screen time as he's sent to investigate. Secretary of Annoying Children Hoshino is along for the ride - he's stowed away in the back seat of Arashi's car, emulating just a tad more Chim Chim than Spritle. Arashi basically tells him to buzz off and stay in the car while he searches the science center. Immediately he spots the security guard - frozen and green. The work of some unholy union between The Riddler and Mr. Freeze, no doubt. He makes a call for backup and continues looking around, only to be assaulted by a strange lobster-clawed creature.
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| Yeah, you might hate your job but at least you don't have to deal with things like this. |
For his efforts, Arashi gets the green freeze treatment as well. Our monster today has some confusingly displayed ability of self projection, or multiple selves that can morph back into one form? It's not clear. Hayata arrives at the scene at zaps the monster in the face with his little zapper gun. What's that thing called? I better start getting educated on the subject while I'm here... Oh. It's just called the supergun. Alright, then!
Back at Science Patrol HQ, Ito has decided he's created a language that all outer space creatures will understand. Hey man, that's a little racist. Doesn't he know that even the majority of people on this singular planet speak tons of different languages? Silly, presumptuous Ito. Speaking of, it's his turn to get sent into the science center. Seeing as we're only halfway through the episode and Ultraman hasn't shown up yet, I can only assume his plan of talking to the alien doesn't go well. The monster shows up and performs it's weird multi-projection stunt.
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| Freakin' out man! I'm freakin' out maaaaaan! |
I'm getting sick of saying "the monster" and they haven't named it yet so let's go dig up some more info. Baltan! There we go. Baltan leads Ito upstairs onto the roof, and begins communicating through a now-possessed Arashi. Hayata shows up and interrogates the alien. It says they came to Earth when their planet, also called Baltan, became uninhabitable thanks to nuclear war. They initially landed to fix their planet, but ultimately decided it was nice enough to live on. Hayata makes a bold claim stating the Baltans can stay as long as they abide by our laws. Baltan volleys back an even more outrageous claim stating that there are 60 billion of them on Earth, and they're all microscopic. Up next comes the best exchange I've heard in a long, long while.
Hayata: Why don't you go live on Mars? (asked with a slightly hateful tone)
Baltan: None of us like Mars. (delivered straight-faced.)
There's a vague mention of there being a good reason they couldn't stay on Mars, but it's dropped with a "I've said too much already." Baltan is tired with negotiations and supersizes himself and starts terrorizing the tiny humans. Hayata's beta capsule falls from the top of the building onto a ledge a few stories down, in the middle of the building. Baltan starts tearing the city up, while Cap, Fuji and Hoshino watch from HQ on the monitor. Cap speculates that the aliens can be killed with spacium(?), which is found on Mars(??).
Oh hell! Hayata does something way cooler than I ever thought I'd see on this show. He leaps off the building, grabs the beta capsule on the way down and becomes Ultraman before he hits the ground. Good lord, if they ever make a big budget Ultraman film they need to put that scene in. Ultraman and Baltan fly around for a while, getting a couple tackles in every now and again. The time for playing around is over, however, when Ultraman destroys Baltan with his beam. He uses previously unseen eyebeams to unveil the cloaked spaceship in the sky full of the microscopic Baltans. He then grabs the ship and flies off into space, making sure they're somebody elses problem besides Earth.
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| "Earth's only got room for one illegal alien. Off you go." |
Things get wrapped up, and Ito merely jokes about Hayata being Ultraman after jumping off the building and Ultraman showing up in the exact spot he leapt toward. No matter though, we're still waiting to hear how he got his black eye. Drumroll! He fell off the top bunk. That's a wrap, folks!
Afterword
This was a nice change of pace and tone from the first episode. I'm sure all of these are going to follow the Captain Planet mentality (why not just call Captain Planet/Ultraman in at the beginning instead of failing to stop the threat every time on your own?) , but that's come to be expected. I have no issue with that. I'm glad they gave Baltan a villainous reason to be attacked, over Bemular's "he's a monster... so he's gotta die!"
The characters so far all seem likeable and interesting enough to support the time we're not watching giant monsters tearing stuff up, which can be an issue in the longer runtime kaiju films. 22 minutes is a perfect amount to pop out one of these stories without any particular element dragging along.
Today's monster, Baltan, didn't do a whole lot besides freeze some people and took out a temper tantrum on the city which quickly was thrwarted by Ultraman. He's got a neat design that - god help me I'm going to reference Pokemon here - is reminiscent of pinsir's head and scythers claws. He has a deep pitched, muted laugh that he likes to throw out when things are going his way. This is evidently borrowed from the mushroom people that appeared in Matango - which is a completely bonkers movie that you need to check out if you haven't seen it yet. I thought the laugh sounded familiar but I figured it was just stock sound. His amount of figures seems staggering. It almost makes me want to start collecting these things.
So far, so good! Onto episode #3.
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