In last week’s review I mentioned how the series seems to really be picking up, and that the following episodes could be leading to an amazing hype train. Now, how does that statement hold up with Ultraman Orb Episode 5? Well, one will just need to scroll down to read ‘My Thoughts’ on if the momentum continued…
Summary:
Gai stumbles across a doll in the park, and recounts the battle with Zetton while off in another part of the city Naomi is getting off and receives a call about an alien. Chasing after the lead Naomi rushes to scene of the alien’s location, and attempts to get the others at S.S.P. to meet her at the site. Jetta and Shin miss the call, leaving Naomi alone with the witness who is actually the alien in disguise! The alien is a Zetton who is accompanied by a Hyper Zetton, seeking to capture Naomi and uses her to lure in Orb. Meanwhile Gai appears at S.S.P.’s office hoping Jetta or Shin can assist him in fixing the doll and locating its owner. Gai waits at the office briefly, as Jetta stumbles upon the missed call from Naomi alerting them of the trouble she’s in. The Zetton tells Naomi, that the person he seeks, Orb, will arrive soon and surely enough Orb appears, in a heroic fashion. However Gai is injured rescuing Naomi, when she attempts to snag a photo of the Hyper Zetton. Naomi then assists in the rescue, before Gai convinces her to escape thus allowing him time to transform into Orb.
This specific Hyper Zetton is then identified as Deathscythe, and was created knowing all of Orb’s abilities forcing him to unlock a new form, Hurricane Slash fusing Jack and Zero. Orb’s battle with Hyper Zetton Deathscythe is a very fast pace battle, as the two move at incredible speeds. Orb defeats Deathscyther using a special Ultra Lancer, the Orb Slugger Lance. Gai then reverts back to human form to battle the regular Zetton Alien in basic hand-to-hand combat. Gai soon discovers the Zetton merely sought to kill him to raise his reputation in the galaxy, before dying. Naomi then seeks to thank Gai with meal and he accepts, being treated to mushroom soup. The meal brings back to Gai the sensation of enjoyment and satisfaction he thought he had lost. Shortly after a girl appears at the office seeking to reclaim her lost doll, and Gai attempts to leave discovering the S.S.P.’s door is always open to him. To which he then imposes that he could stay there for next few days.
My Thoughts:
To start off, I felt the episode attempted to maintain the momentum coming off the previous episode, but it had a few ‘bumps’. One of the ‘bumps’ was how the episode is roughly a pseudo filler episode which only is used to debut Orb’s form, Hurricane Slash, since no new cards or Demon Beasts were introduced and Juggler does not even make an appearance. The second issue with the episode was this was the first of possible many other episodes where our protagonist should have been easily discovered to be the Ultraman of the series, but this complaint is more towards it being an overused trope/ theme in the franchise. My final issue stems off a terrible transition to a discussion between Gai and Naomi about Russian Nesting Dolls; it felt like it is supposed to tie into the overarching mystery behind Gai and tie into his flashbacks, but it just seemingly does not mesh well with the specific episode events within the episode.
Now, aside from the three issues I had with the episode I overly enjoyed it and found it incredibly entertaining, as it was an exhilarating episode which can easily be used to pass roughly a half hour. Having focused on the Zetton race as the enemy of episode, is an added plus as to why this episode is great, because any time a Zetton is involved great things tend happen. Just Google, Zetton, or search it up on the Ultraman Wikia and any one new the character can immediately see how Zetton is not just iconic, but a threat when used. However in this episode Zetton is not entirely a threat, but seemingly is a nostalgia draw similar to Pandon in last week’s episode. My personal favorite moment of the episode comes from the actual fight between Ultraman Orb and Hyper Zetton Deathscythe due the fast pace battle, and how the two were teleporting all about the area; the entire battle felt like a scene straight out of either an Ultraman movie or from Tsuburaya’s biggest competition Toei (Kamen Rider, Super Sentai). I also thought the method in how Orb dispatched Deathscythe, was a slight nod to Jack being sort of violent by impaling it before blasting it away.
In conclusion, even with the bumps/issues I had with the episode it didn’t seemingly detour from the momentum I have been feeling from the previous episode. However upon see the trailer for Episode 6, I do feel sort of complacent since it also seems to be another filler-like episode and seemingly does not focus on the conflict between Gai and Juggler. It leaves me wondering where the series is heading and if the series will have pacing issues, especially when ‘pivotal kajiu’ have been announced, and their episode appearances have been confirmed too.
