Directed by Tomoo Haraguchi. Written by Keiichi Hasegawa. Airdate Nov. 20, 2013.
After several months on hiatus, Ultraman Ginga returns to the air, ready to reignite interest for its remaining episodes and kick off the arc that will carry it to its conclusion. It does this by having its hero, Hikaru Raido, bravely … sit down in a chair and recount the events of the previous episodes with video clips.
In other words, this is that most feared entity in episodic television: a clip show.
Clip shows are a major irritation in the New Generation Heroes era. Many New Gen shows, though not all, have an episode that’s either partially or entirely dedicated to rerunning footage from earlier episodes, with a few minutes of new footage as a framing device.
“The Closed World” is a partial clip show: Hikaru narrates recap footage for the first 12 minutes, then a new story takes over for the remaining 12 minutes. That’s far too much rehashed material. I know the production team on Ultraman Ginga didn’t choose to do things this way. Like almost all clip shows (such as the infamous “Shades of Gray” that ended the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation), this episode’s structure was forced on the filmmakers as a way to cut costs. However, I cannot in good conscience give any Ultra episode that’s at least half a clip show anything better than my lowest rating. Consider this my message to Tsuburaya Pro’s money-handlers: let your creative people do better.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, how do the remaining 12 minutes of “The Closed World” fare once Hikaru has finished rolling old clips?
It’s … a good time! Although it closes on a serious note that promises major developments in the last four episodes, this mini-episode is otherwise a goofy romp. Hikaru turns into Black King and then Ultraman Ginga to punch the newest Dark Spark beast, Galberos, and it’s shot as if it were a wrestling match or a video game. On-screen graphics, the Taro figurine acting as a hyperactive ringside announcer, a crowd of Spark Dolls cheering (a legitimately funny use of the dolls), and Ginga and his opponent exchanging small talk and challenges.
The three-headed Galberos is a fantastic-looking beast that first appeared in Ultraman Nexus, where it was one of the kaiju highlights. Its dark, wicked design doesn’t gel with most of the other kaiju in Ultraman Ginga, but for a video-game-styled lark, it works fine. Good costume re-use choice.
With room to breathe over a full running time, I think this episode could’ve been a fun relaxer. It’s loose in a way that effectively uses the slender budget. If the build-up to the kaiju boxing match had integrated the new characters who are dropped into the last minute as hooks for the next episode, I think the balance of silly and serious would’ve made for the most enjoyable installment of the show yet.
But I’m not reviewing a hypothetical episode. Or even half of the actual episode. I’m reviewing the whole episode — and the first half of “The Closed World” is a clip show. As I said above, that means an automatic “Poor” rating. That’s too bad, because I genuinely like how silly everything else gets. The good kind of silly in an Ultra show, the kind I like.
Bottom line: skip ahead to 11:50 when you watch “The Closed World.” You won’t miss anything, and you’ll probably have some fun. The mini-episode gets a “Good” rating from me, but the whole episode…
Rating: Poor
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