Directed by Hirochika Muraishi. Written by Chiaki J. Konaka. Airdate Feb. 22, 1997.
This sequel to “The Devil’s Prophecy” expands and improves on the original in every way. This is the episode Chiaki J. Konaka was destined to write: a religious-themed horror epic. We’ve had horror on Ultraman Tiga before, such as “The Fog Is Coming,” but this apocalyptic tale exists on a higher plane. It’s a powerful character study for Iruma, shows GUTS operating at their best as a team, delivers a hopeful message about human unity in the midst of terrifying times, peaks in a thrilling battle scene, and even nudges Rena and Daigo’s romantic relationship to the next stage. The best episode of Ultraman Tiga yet.
The Kyriels have returned, and they’re far more threatening this time. In their first appearance, the Kyriels were too oblique: an ancient civilization angry at losing influence over humanity. The ambiguity about who they were and what they wanted was a weak point in an otherwise good episode. The early script for “The Devil’s Judgement” gave a more thorough explanation of the Kyriels as “spiritual entities” from deep space who arrived on Earth in the Middle Ages and became the basis for the human concept of demons, an idea that the third Quatermass film, Quatermass and the Pit (1967), also explored.
Little of the expanded background for the Kyriels got into the episode, and that’s for the best. All that’s really needed to improve the Kyriels is to give them a greater presence and a sense of a grand plan — and we get that. The Kyriels manifest an angelic figure in the sky over the city to cultivate a messianic cult of brainwashed humans who will help them open a gateway to their own hellish dimension.
This could’ve come across as silly. But the execution of the apocalyptic imagery — giant stone doors floating on a dark cloud, the monastic hooded forms of the Kyriel in their human disguises — is just too good. The danger of the Kyriels and the way they’ve corrupted humans with the cult of “The Angel” is potent. The Christian-themed horror imagery helps put over the feel of end-of-days danger.
The concept of apocalyptic cults had a powerful resonance in Japan at the time. In March 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult killed 13 people and injured a thousand others in an attack with sarin gas on the Tokyo subway. Japanese viewers of “The Devil’s Judgement” in 1997 wouldn’t have missed the link between that horrific event and the Kyriels’ apocalyptic plans.
It’s a timely story and the Kyriels are intense and scary. But what truly makes the episode click is how the GUTS team and Tiga are entwined in the Kyriels’ diabolism, specifically Captain Iruma.
Iruma was the main character in “The Devil’s Prophecy,” but her connection to the Kyriels runs deeper this time. We’ve had hints of tragedy in Iruma’s background before; now we learn the details. Her husband died in an accident at a time when she was unable to return to Japan to care for her son, Tomoki, as she was trapped in top-secret work for GUTS overseas. Iruma’s mother-in-law, Keiko (Chihiro Haruna), instead took over raising the boy and swore Iruma would never see him again.
Although the circumstances weren’t under her control, Iruma feels she’s failed as a mother and doesn’t even know how to talk to her son. The heart of the story is Iruma trying to find a way back to Tomoki when Keiko becomes mired in the Kyriel cult. Keiko believes the lie spread by “The Prophet” of the Kyriels (Hiroyuki Takano, reprising his role from the earlier episode) that Ultraman Tiga is the real devil.
Mio Takaki gives one of her finest performances as Iruma. She brings out the character’s underlying vulnerabilities and the strain that her high-stress job places on her ability to be present in her child’s life. Iruma was robbed of the opportunity to do much at the conclusion of “The Devil’s Prophecy,” but she delivers the goods here in a coda that gets me teary-eyed.
On top of all this, the action and special effects are phenomenal. When Tiga attempts to shut the dimensional gateway, the Kyriels again take on a giant form to face him, the Kyrieloid. The first Kyrieloid design was good, but the multi-staged Kyrieloid II is a tremendous achievement of sleek, devilish design. The clash between the two giants is a corker: speedy, kinetic, and set in the best place to have a kaiju battle — the middle of a city at night. It’s exciting and gorgeous to look at.
The human side of the story keeps parallel pace with the kaiju action, combining the GUTS team in their vehicles, the civilians on the ground, Yazumi at HQ, and young Tomoki playing his own pivotal role from home. A lot happens, but it never feels overstuffed.
The most memorable moment in the finale is a visual tableau that places Tiga in a role from a famous work of Renaissance art. It sounds so overblown and cheesy, but the episode’s style and emphasis on Judeo-Christian imagery create the foundation to make it the perfect blast to send the episode into its climax.
In the middle of this dark spectacle, Daigo and Rena’s relationship takes a leap forward: Rena asks Daigo out. Sounds like a silly distraction, right? Yet it works because there’s a naturalness to how Rena says, “When this is over … let’s go out.” The world may be ending, so why not just put your feelings out there? Wonderful touch, and an example of the economy that makes the episode work so well.
There’s enough story material here for a two-parter, but I’m glad “The Devil’s Judgement” was contained in a single episode. It’s streamlined so that each moment hits and there’s nothing extraneous. This is how you make great episodic science fiction with emotion and action and contain it all in under a half hour.
Rating: Classic
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