Ultraman Gaia Review

For this entry on the Ultra kick, I'm going back a bit to cover a non-New Gen Ultra show. Part of the reason I picked this next is because I wanted to watch an older Ultra show and it was on Crunchyroll at the time. The other reason was because a friend of mine was raving about it. I don't have much else to say in this section. I'm going to do my best not to spoil the show. Its definitely worth checking out for yourself. Sadly, as of the time of this post, it is now gone from Crunchyroll. I don't have a decent intro reference from the show to make so...lets get into it.

Premise: Gamu Takayama is a member of a group of highly intelligent people known as the Alchemy Stars. While working on an experiment, Gamu's mind is transported to a strange dimension where he witnesses a giant fighting a monster. Shortly after, another monster attacks and Gamu contacts XIG asking if this was the scenario they had been preparing for. Gamu falls through a strange portal and meets the giant himself. The giant gives him the power to fight off the monster and protect the Earth.

Characters:

Gamu Takayama is a pretty smart dude even if a lot of what he says feels like techno-babble to me. He actually built the propulsion engines for XIG's fighter jets and their base. I love how his response after his first battle as Gaia is to immediately ask to join XIG so he can help the team fight off the monsters as more than just as an Ultraman. I also liked how he didn't have a henshin device at first and had to build it himself. It was a great way to show off his technical skills. His ideological clash with Fujimiya was great and pretty well written. Both make great counterpoints to each other, even though I tended to always side with Gamu because of his more optimistic approach. I rather like how episode 26 brings up just how much Gamu brings to XIG beyond Gaia's power. The team admits how valuable his analysis is when he keeps sending them information after they've briefly kicked him out. Overall, dude is a pretty nice protagonist who does his best to make sure humanity doesn't keep making mistakes that could potentially devastate the planet.

XIG is absolutely massive and I love the scale of it. Its got about 6 different teams on its payroll. It ends up having a pretty large recurring cast and I'm amazed I could keep track of them all. Teams Lightning, Falcon, and Crow are the fighter pilots, Team Seagull is the rescue squad, Team Hercules is the ground assault squad, and a sea-based squad called Marlin handles the underwater stuff. Tho team Marlin sadly kinda only gets one outing due to their underwater specialization. It was actually rather amusing when they got called in because one of their members was ecstatic about finally getting to do something. XIG even their own paranormal/mystery investigation team code-named Lizard. Another cool thing about episode 26 is that once Commander Ishimuro realizes that Gamu is Gaia, he doesn't report it to XIG. He just tells Gamu to rest up and heal because the real fight is about to begin.

If I had to pick my favorite team, it would probably be Team Hercules. They just seem so nice and they're legitimately worried about Gamu not getting enough exercise. They were also not even remotely afraid of the idea of taking on a dragon with nothing but their blasters and a machine gun once their tanks were out of ammo. Their appearances also feature some of the most detailed models in the entire show imo. Team Crow is a close second because I like their style and how coordinated they are. They're the most in-sync of all the fighter teams and their whole drive to prove themselves was great plus they had a nice confident hotshot entrance with some killer music.

Fujimiya is a former member of the Alchemy Stars who became disillusioned with how they wanted to achieve their goals. He is the host for Ultraman Agul and wants to protect the Earth. However, while Gamu views Gaia's power as a way to protect both humanity and the Earth, Fujimiya believes that Gaia and Agul exist to save the Earth itself, even if that means humanity goes extinct. He also believes that its pretty much the Earth's will for humanity to disappear so the planet can recover and he only focuses on the damage humans do to the Earth. It gets really heavy for him and I love his character arc. Seeing him question his entire purpose when he founds out exactly whats going on was great. Under the circumstances, I do see his point of view even though Gamu is right about him taking the easy way out by just wanting humans to disappear. His character arc throughout the whole show is fantastic and its great seeing him and Gamu finally team up near the end of the show. I love the way Agul fights and its a pretty cool first outing for a blue Ultra. Him having a light rapier for a sword was a perfect touch to set him apart from Gaia.

Reiko and her news crew give a nice look at the civilian perspective on all these monster attacks. Its fantastic because like XIG they're looking into whats causing the attacks and eventually whats driving the monsters to do what they do. It was a surprisingly gripping and unexpected angle to see in the show. Reiko herself gets embroiled into Fujimaya's stuff and she helps keep him grounded when he becomes conflicted about what his power is for. She is so integral at keeping Fujimiya from losing it that she gets targeted herself a few times. Her boss Tabata even gets some pretty nice self reflective moments and awesome action to himself. The man's drive and dedication to reporting is amazing and it helps contribute to some great moments. I'm glad they got so much focus as it really helped the show feel even bigger than it already did.

Favorite Episodes: This is a really tough call as there are quite a few contenders for this spot and I honestly don't think I can pick one so get ready for a list. A lot of the plots with Mezard (this creepy jellyfish monster) involved are pretty good with "Fourth Symphony Of A Nightmare" being my favorite of those episodes. "When The Rain Stops" is a fun little scifi episode involving cloned organs getting mutated into monsters by green rain. Episodes 23-26 are fantastic and they legitimately feel like a finale in and of themselves. "The Accursed Eye" and "The Future Seen Before" are an interesting pair of back-to-back episodes cuz they're both about fighting destiny but one is a little more literal in that regard. There a lot more episodes that I love but if I listed them all, this section would be way too long. The sheer amount of episodes that spring to mind when I think of Gaia says a lot about how well done the show is.

Action and Effects: The show has a high budget and oh man, it makes such good use of it. The creature effects look absolutely amazing with some great designs, puppetry, and suit-work. You also get to see them get blown apart piece-by-piece a lot in the show. The models cities are fantastic if a little less detailed here and there than I expected. The Ultra vs Kaiju action is fun, the choreography was good, and the miniature fights were nice and tense even if some of the jets maneuvering was a bit iffy due to cgi. My favorite effect in the entire show is from episode 50. Agul gets blasted and slides across the entire city while everything he crashes into just collapses beautifully. The action overall is excellent with everything feeling nice and heavy. The fights between Gaia and Agul were nice and tense. It was pretty cool seeing them slug it out at human-size inside the Aerial Base during one episode. I like just how much of a change Gaia Supreme's fighting style in is compared to regular Gaia. Supreme tends to prefer tosses and throws alongside energy attacks compared to base Gaia. It also makes Gaia look buffer.

Final Thoughts: I was a bit worried about the show being able to hold my interest over 51 episodes (due to me watching so much New Gen Ultra before this) but the show was amazingly consistent. There wasn't a single episode I disliked. The show handles its theme of how humans affect the Earth and how the Earth affects us in turn rather well. It even acknowledges that the monsters themselves as being part of the planet's natural ecosystem. I'm not sure how accurate the science in the show is but I was on the edge of my seat wondering what countermeasure Gamu would come up with each episode. I was surprised just how many times Mezard showed up. I was rather surprised to see the deliveryman from Wolfgas episode show up two more times and that he got attacked by another werewolf, thats some bad luck. Its also some nice minor continuity because he still has the scar from that first attack in his other two appearances. Its a fantastic show overall and I highly recommend checking it out. Its definitely up there with Orb and R/B for me and this show probably has my favorite final arc out of the Ultras I've seen so far.