Hello and welcome, Ultraman Connection readers! These previous weeks of Ultraman Arc have brought us a wide variety of stories, characters, and Kaiju from the new universe featured in this season. Whether it was a hilarious comedy of errors, or a poignant look at the tragedies our characters have endured though, one element ties all of these stories together.
From its first episode, Arc cemented the idea of imagination as the central focus of the show. Arc himself takes on the appearance that Yuma Hize imagined as a child. All of the powers Arc uses in battle come from Yuma’s imagination, and the two fight together in order to protect Hoshimoto City and its citizens - human, and otherwise.
An active imagination can be a very powerful tool, as we’ve seen many times in the show. It’s not a weapon, but a way of envisioning the best possible outcome, and forging a path to get there. In many ways, you could think of it as a sense of optimism, or idealism. Yuma’s optimism in the face of their many trials and hardships drives the rest of the SKIP team forward, in addition to creating a path to victory for Arc himself!
That raises a question though – can optimism or idealism ever be dangerous? Could it lead others down a path of horrible defeat, instead of a brighter future? Could someone be misguided by their hope for the future?
This week’s episode answers that question with two unequivocal examples.
Previously, the Nezutron episode revealed a lot of Rin’s characterization for the audience. We saw how much she valued her community, and was willing to put her life at risk to protect the people of the town. She’s got a big heart, and deeply cares about the relationships she has to others, whether they’re friends, co-workers, or even just the local shopkeeper where she picks up lunch. That makes it even harder to watch her struggle with her mission this week, trying to investigate her respected mentor in Kaiju research, Professor Satoru Yamagami.
A number of Kaiju specimens had gone missing under Satoru’s watch, and the upper brass at SKIP HQ suspected he had a hand in dealing the samples out to black markets. Rin originally took the job because she didn’t believe he would be involved in something so dangerous and dishonest, and wanted to clear his name. As the episode goes on however, more and more clues started adding up in disturbing ways.
As a side note, it was really funny to hear Satoru talk about his research into four specific Kaiju – Neronga, Pagos, Mogura and Gabora. It was just a quick reference, but he mentioned a theory that all of these Kaiju share a common ancestor, and wanted to research their cells to try and prove it. Sharp fans of the Ultraman franchise probably know that he’s correct, in a way. All of these Kaiju come from Ultra Q and Ultraman in 1966, and all of them used suits that were originally modified from the same base. As for the identity of that original Kaiju design, their “common ancestor”... that will be left as an exercise for the reader to work out.
Anyways, as Rin pondered the mystery of Satoru’s real motivations, the audience saw a lot of her history as a student learning alongside Professor Yamagami. It’s undeniably true that she seemed happy at the time, absolutely thrilled to be recognized by the Professor for her intelligence, hard work, and achievements at the university. It almost appeared as if Rin didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility that Satoru was a criminal because of those rose-tinted memories. It must have felt like her own hard work and happiness would’ve been broken and invalidated if the investigation showed those suspicions were correct.
But eventually, her memories of Satoru as her mentor gave the team the breakthrough they needed to corner him. All it took was one tell-tale sign, a nervous tic she remembered from their time together.
I think it’s also significant to note that she realized he was lying in the present about the missing Kaiju cells, because she remembered a time when he blatantly lied to his then-fiancee about staying late at work! That scene, more than anything else, set off huge red flags and alarm bells as I was watching the episode personally. If he was so casual about lying to someone he was going to marry – while working late with a naive female student assistant who very obviously had a huge crush him – what else was he willing to lie about, even to Rin herself?
It’s clear why she idolized Professor Yamagami at the time, and may have overlooked these red flags. The opportunity to work with a young, dynamic, successful, well-respected – and very attractive – figure in this field must have seemed like a dream come true at the time. His mentorship gave her the hope she needed to be successful in an unconventional field.
And even though Satoru himself was revealed to be behind the stolen Kaiju cells, he also was acting out of a sort of hope. He wanted to research Kaiju to try and harness their incredible power, but was stifled by the organization he worked for. If only he had more funding (from an illegal black market) he could ensure the Kaiju cells could lead to an even better future. At the end of the day, he imagined that hopeful future for his son, and was trying to see it through.
There’s a huge irony in this story, that Rin and the others at SKIP probably would have done everything they could to help his research if it truly was for the good of humanity. He almost certainly would have found supporters, people who also hoped in that future, if he opened up to them and worked just as hard to find a way to continue his research without selling it off to shady businessmen.
Hope is a dangerous thing when it becomes too fixated on the future and forgets the present.
And imagination, the optimism to believe in that future, is easily broken when it dwells too much on the past.
Rin is forced to give up some part of her own past as the episode concludes. She had to admit that the man she idolized, the man she owed her career to, had become a corrupt liar at some point in time. Maybe he had always been a corrupt liar, and she couldn’t see it as a young student. After going through this ordeal, it would’ve been understandable to see Rin also give up on her optimism entirely. This was a really heavy episode after all, laser-focused on her emotional struggle. Arc’s fight against the Kaiju was spectacular as always – we got to watch him take on both Neronga and Pagos single-handedly – but it felt almost like an afterthought compared to the drama unfolding between Rin and Satoru. For that reason, I was so relieved to see YouPi come to cheer her up at the end of the episode, and show that he still believed in her even if she doubted herself.
The connections she had made with others, whether it was her coworkers, YouPi, or the townspeople we saw a few weeks ago, gave her the courage to do her best in SKIP in that previous episode. Those same relationships also seemed to pull her back from this most recent tragedy, and allowed her to move on from her regrets in the present day.
Next week, we’ll also move on into the future with more Ultraman news, updates, articles and more, right here at Ultraman Connection.
