Ultraman Orb Episode 12 – The Dark King’s Blessing Review

Sorry for the unfortunate delay, but I have been busy plotting to take over the world and it has affected my ability to write Orb reviews in a timely fashion. Luckily enough this week I plan to make an attempt to catch up especially since the following episode is a clip show. Now, watch me get screwed over by writers block or trying to work more towards finding actual job stop me from keeping this promise.

Summary:

Maga Orochi collapses in the city due to exhaustion, and hours pass allowing a city-wide evacuation aside from the members of S.S.P. and Naomi’s mother. Back at the S.S.P. office, Gai had been found and brought there to rest, during that time he calls out for Natasha in his dreams. Hearing the name Naomi is concerned it’s Gai’s love, along with tries to attempt in convince her mother to leave. However, mother decides to play match maker with Naomi and Gai, as well as seeks to join S.S.P. in hopes to understand her daughter’s love for the unknown. At the remains of the forest the team finds it in ruins, as well as the memorial to Tamayura. Seeing the forest destroyed, Naomi’s most also attempts in planting new seeds to restore the forest.

Gai heads out to search for Juggler discovering his card holder is missing, and fails to reclaim it due to his injuries. In the confrontation Orochi awakens, and turns back towards the forest as Naomi’s mother seemingly causes a miracle to occur and summons Tamayura spirit! The spirit manages to provide Gai, both the Zoffy and Belial cards as well as explains that excessive force can stop the calamity which convinces him to fuse the two. However, Gai’s attempts to fuse the two fail until Tamayura’s spirit is destroyed by Orochi causing Gai great grief and rage to connect to Belial to successfully transform into Thunder Breaster. After a brutal battle, Thunder Breaster manages to defeat Orochi, along with receives back his card holder as token of victory from Juggler. Gai eventually makes his way to forest to pay his respects, as Naomi’s mother accepts her daughter’s choice as well as choice in a man. Yet, she receives an eerie vibe from Gai’s music before making Shibukawa taking her shopping again.

My Thoughts:

This episode was a solid sequel to the previous episode, but I felt some aspects did contrast with one another, mostly when it pertained to Naomi and her mother. The mother is an odd character who is either seeking to push her own agenda onto Naomi, or simply testing her daughter’s ability to be independent. If the mother was seeking to see her daughter’s drive to be independent or take part in obvious dangerous things, then that’s what seemingly came off from the character in this episode as she easily was willing to join S.S.P. to help them in their work and better understand Naomi. Then when it actually occurred, Naomi’s mother just immediately began talking about nature and life, while trying to help restore the Forbidden Forest that luckily caused a miracle. Now, the motives and the execution alone felt weird, as parts of this situation were obviously out of place either to add the heightened drama of Orochi’s resurrection, or it is something easily missed in translation from Japanese to American audiences. Luckily enough from the overall situation, Naomi’s mother seemingly became fond of Gai and hopes her daughter gets her man.

Now as for Gai and his on-going struggles with Juggler, the scenes with the two interacting focus on how Juggler wants Gai to either rejoin the side the darkness and work together, or simply allow him to obtain a victory for once in his life. The dialog between the two easily assists in adding more into their clouded history, which is seemingly going to be revealed soon since Orb Origin Form will be debuting soon or continue to be pieced together where it will all be revealed in the finale. I would have thought that with Juggler stealing the cards from Gai he was not entirely trying to stop him from defeating Orochi, but rather more using the creature and the Belial card to force Gai’s hand into turning “evil” again. I believed he’d present the Gai the Belial card to use to try and save the world, whereas Naomi would have found the Zoffy card or she’d receive it from Tamayura. Yet, that was obviously not the case and its presentation was more of an analogy or metaphor to convince Gai, that Belial’s evil power could be force to commit good deeds by Tamayura. Then the destruction of her spirit was sort of an interesting concept, but loosely felt like it should have been to protect Gai during the transformation and not to invoke it. I also found Juggler return Gai’s cards to him after the battle with Orochi, as an odd gesture, expecting him to keep the cards for a few more episodes until Gai would eventually master the Thunder Breaster form and to be then reclaimed by Gai after a battle.

Speaking of Thunder Breaster, aside from how the form was introduced and achieved I find it be one of the best and worst suit thus far mostly due to angles. Yet, once looking over the fact that angles throw off the suit’s proportions it is easily the best form in show, as claimed by a majority of the fans. What I personally love and like about the form is how Belial is the center piece for its design, as well as the vicious/primal-like fighting style. I think the brutish ground, and pound method is perfect for the form in its early on episodes, since Gai seemingly isn’t fully in control as after the battle he is to be exhausted and to be in shock along with explain the excessive damage done to the city. Now, something I noticed with other fans from the forms debut was that they want a more vicious main Ultra or one that’s more in the grey who either directly destroys his surrounding or allows it be destroyed. This concept or idea is roughly something that could work, but entirely would not be done, at least correctly as it is loosely similar to some complaints people including myself have about Superman. The reason it could not be entirely achieved for Ultraman is that most Ultras are practically like cops or entities whose goal are to protect the earth and its life but it could start with an Ultra not fully understanding what being a hero means like in Leo or Mebius. However I do believe the fan sought concept could work better if done in an adult Ultra series, similar to Ultraseven X where its audience is for the more matured fans.

In conclusion the episode is highly eventful since Naomi seemingly won’t be bothered by her mother anymore, the girl from Gai’s past was named, Orb got a new form, and Orochi has been defeated for the moment. I just wish that by now the series would have given its audience a more in-depth flashback about Gai’s past with Natasha or his past with Juggler, but it would probably spoil the entire finale the production team has planned for us. Overall I find that Orb is easily continuing to outdo several of its predecessors, and returning to what Ultraman used to be like. The only sad thing about this is the series has a smaller episode count that several of the rest and where we are currently at means we only have just a little more time left with this wonderful Toku series. Anyways the next review should be real easy, as mentioned earlier as it is nothing more than a clip show!

Rating: 5 out of 5