Directed by Hirochika Muraishi. Written by Keiichi Hasegawa. Airdate April 19, 1997.
Ultraman Tiga is doing another horror episode, this time with a different brand of fear: the ‘90s noir vampire flick. Welcome back to the days of leather-clad cool vampires who do backflips and make their lairs in deserted nightclubs. The episode goes all-in with a trendy vampire tale, and pulls it off, making for a superior Tiga episode to pick for Halloween than the show’s actual, bespoke Halloween episode.
The noir flavor hits from the first sip of a bourbon-and-blood cocktail. Smoky sax music hovers in the night air before a vampire descends from the dark sky to snatch a victim from a red sports car parked at the waterfront. Then we flash straight to the dimly lit bar where Vice-Captain Munakata is hanging out with his reporter buddy Onoda (Akira Ohtani). We’ve seen Onoda and Munakata in this watering hole before in “The Day When the Monster Appeared.” I’m glad to see Onoda back, since that means another Munakata-centered story. And yes, Munakata is still drinking milk at the bar.
Onoda drops his scoop: there are five recent missing persons cases, and he believes it’s a job for GUTS. Why GUTS? He suspects vampires are behind the disappearances. Munakata isn’t having it. Sure, the last time he worked with Onoda, they were dealing with a kaiju zombie, but vampires? Get outta here.
However, something else is gnawing at Onoda than just worrying about a possible vampire serial killer…
The vampires don’t waste much time striking again. One of them (Motoko Nagino) infiltrates the TPC base and nearly kills Iruma. Munakata blames himself for failing to protect the captain and letting the vampire woman escape.
Once a pack of vampire women rips through a TPC squad — a surprisingly violent scene — the GUTS team swings into action to track down the vampire leader (Hideki Shirakuni) and wipe out his central hive. Good thing Horii invented a UV gun to blast the vampires and provide extremely colorful effects for a shootout in dark conditions.
The vampire action of the episode is a good deal of fun. Watching GUTS members duel with acrobatic vampires in the shadowy confines of a closed nightclub, their UV guns crackling across the screen, is a neon-horror thrill. I always enjoy seeing members like Rena and Shinjoh get to tote their firearms and engage in some human-sized battles.
The eventual confrontation between Tiga and the giant vampire Kyruanos delivers the goods: a battle in the dark among shipping crates, with GUTS and Onoda helping to tip the balance. Kyruanos’s design isn’t quite in line with the stylish vampires in their human forms, but it works for a kaiju finale in a show that still needs to attract younger viewers.
The episode, though, is really about Munakata and Onoda. On that level, it only semi-works. Onoda’s personal tragedy with his vampirized colleague, Yukina, never gets the attention it deserves. Even though this subplot follows the right dramatic beats, the finale doesn’t land with the force it’s aiming for. I never have a strong grasp on Onoda’s feelings toward Yukina (fatherly? older lover? mentor?), so the “big moments” lack the emotional foundation they need.
Munakata, on the other hand, shines. The Vice-Captain of GUTS doesn’t have as many episodes dedicated to him as Rena, Horii, or Shinjoh, but he always shows there’s more to him than being a strong second-in-command and Iruma’s trusted field officer. He’s thoughtful about his job, and here we discover a key piece of his backstory: when Munakata was on the old Defense Force, Iruma saved his life after he made a terrible error. According to him, she pulled him out of an abyss of despair. Iruma means everything to him, and after the vampire woman nearly kills her and puts her in the hospital, Munkata is filled to the brim with guilt.
This leads me to the episode’s fascinating coda, where Iruma and Munakata are reunited after her recovery — back in Munakata’s favorite bar for milk stingers. We rarely see Iruma as a civilian outside her role as captain. She’s relaxed, funny, and … flirtatious? It’s hard to read this scene as anything other than a romantic moment between Iruma and Munakata. Do Munakata’s strong feelings about his captain disguise something deeper? Does Iruma feel the same way? The show never delves further into this, and I don’t mind. A slight breeze of it here is enough, and it does a great deal to sweeten the characters of both Iruma and Munakata.
Rating: Good
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