Juxtaposing the emotions that music can evoke, Ultraman Blazar’s beautiful ninth episode brings us from joy to despair through the medium of sound.
Hey all, Sean here again, and I’m back at it with another Ultraman Blazar episode! This time, it’s another Anri focus episode.
Monster of the Day
This week’s kaiju is the Robot Monster Garamon, A classic kaiju from Ultra Q! With a body covered in Tilsonite plate, and the ability to emit a sonic shockwave, SKaRD have their work cut out for them, as the sound of music is what controls this beast.
SKaRD Team
We start off with a flashback to 10 years ago, and a younger Anri meeting a group of musicians, led by Hoichi Tsukushi, and asks if they’re professionals due to how good they sound, to which Hoichi replies their semi pro’s at best.
After a conversation where Anri recount how she gained a love for music, she asks them to play again and the band does so. In the present day, Anri has received a concert ticket in the mail from Mr. Tsukushi.
Meanwhile, SKaRD only has 24 hours to repair Earth Garon, as decided by the Chief of Staff.
Gento tells Bando what he was told by the chief of staff: “Will the kaiju wait for us?” much to the disdain of Bando and Emi.
Nagura asks Bando how much sleep he got and Bando says 3 hours. Nagura tells him to get some sleep in the nap room, to which I reacted while watching the episode “they have a nap room?”
Gento’s eye flashes blue (I think Blazar briefly took control) as Gento takes Bando’s drink before snapping back to reality.
Honestly, Nagura’s face in this picture is meme worthy. Gento then sits down to think and when he opens his eyes, he’s in space.
Some stars in front of him form into the shape of Blazar and Gento asks a few questions, Blazar doesn’t respond.
After that sequence, Gento wakes up, and looks at the Blazar stone, confused as to what just happened.
We then see the band, looking sadly at the sky. One member comments that he wishes they had more time to play as a meteor goes by.
Later, they’re on stage and, as the curtain rises, there’s no audience.
They begin to play, starting off discordant, then, their music awakens what was in the meteor: Garamon.
SKaRD has already begun it’s operation to take down Garamon, with Bando commenting the name sounds old fashioned.
Earth Garon is deployed and begins to fight Garamon, while Anri notices some changing soundwaves.
Garamon’s tilsonite body plates have damaged Earth Garon and Bando is out cold, so Gento transforms into Blazar and begins to fight Garamon with what appears to be a new version of the Blazar Rise.
Anri finds Mr. Tsukushi and his band and asks why they’re controlling the kaiju. It’s revealed that Tsukushi and his band aren’t humans, They’re Cicada People, another species from Ultra Q.
In a black and white flashback, it’s revealed that the Cicada’s scatter their people, pillage, call Garamon, and leave.
They’d already activated the device to summon Garamon to Earth, all that was left was to pillage.
However, they encountered something, the music of Earth. Their faces lit up hearing it, they became so captivated, they became musicians themselves.
Now, they feel they’ve run out of time. The other three try to stop Anri from reaching Mr. Tsukushi, as Blazar still fights. Anri then asks why Mr. Tsukushi sent her the concert ticket. She realises it was because he was hoping she’d stop him.
Anri does, by shooting Mr. Tsukushi, it reveals his true forms hand and Garamon bleeds, buying Blazar the time needed to defeat the kaiju.
Blazar uses the attack he gained last episode and defeats Garamon.
Mr. Tsukushi bids Anri farewell through a monologue about sound and music as the curtain falls.
Conclusion
Words cannot describe how much I love this episode; the emotions in it and the fact that it’s a tribute to Ultra Q, the first entry in the series, even ending with a cover of the Ultra Q theme rather than “BLACK STAR”, to me, was a nice touch. I want to see more episodes like this.
You can watch the episode here:
What did you think? Did you enjoy this week’s episode? Let us know in the comments. I’m Sean, once again, signing off.
