Directed by Koichi Sakamoto. Written by Akio Miyoshi. Airdate July 29, 2013.

The production team on Ultraman Ginga S wants you to know they definitely have a bigger budget than the previous show. See? They’ve got a battle in the middle of a city where Ginga and Victory take on a horde of Imperializer robots. You never got anything that large in plain old Ultraman Ginga, didja? Sure, the digital copy-paste is obvious, and the Victorians’ underground realm is mostly a flat green-screen limbo. But look at how much more of everything there is! How much more of it takes up the episode!

Directed by Tomoo Haraguchi. Written by Kenichi Araki. Airdate July 24, 2013.

The fourth of the show’s leads, Chigusa Kuno (played by the mononymous Kiara), now gets her own episode to explore her dreams and frustrations. Chigusa wants to be an idol, a type of Japanese popular entertainer. Considering how exploitative and manipulative the Japanese idol system is — it’s basically indentured servitude to a management agency that controls your professional and personal life — this isn’t an ambition I’d wish on anyone. But it’s a dream that makes sense for a teen girl like Chigusa. At several points in the episode, we see her dancing in one of the empty school rooms, practicing and imagining what it might be like to be an idol, and her longing for that lifestyle seems legitimate and heartfelt.

Directed by Yuichi Abe. Written by Keiichi Hasegawa. Airdate July 17, 2013.

The second outing for Ultraman Ginga is a minor improvement over the rough first episode. It’s standard for Ultra shows to have stronger second episodes because they need to jam less set-up into a half-hour. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” gives us more time with our new protagonists, Hikaru and Misuzu, to establish their relationship, and there’s an odd but enjoyable villain. Not a kaiju or alien villain, but a nutball motorcyclist who likes to run people over for committing crimes. Like being too flirtatious.