Tear Jerker / Ultraman Z

• In general, this series was penned by writer Kota Fukihara, who used to work with director Kiyotaka Taguchi on several J-Drama, including the series Ultraman Z as their recent collaboration project. Kota passed away back in May 2020, just one month shy from Ultraman Z premier, thus preventing him from watching the end result of his effort.
  • Additionally, his death made his cameo appearances in episodes 1 and 8 come off as Harsher in Hindsight to the audiences too.

Episode 1: I Ask That You Chant my Name!

• A smaller note, but its not uncommon for people to leave behind their pets in the middle of mass evacuation. Good thing Haruki managed to rescue a dog from Gomess despite being given an earful from the director.

Episode 3: Live Coverage! The Monster Transport Operation

• Unlike most of the owner-less Gomora we've seen in previous series, this one is basically a Non-Malicious Monster and STORAGE's original intention was to remove it far from civilization without any ruckus, until a hay fever ruins it all. Despite Z Beta Smash's display of power, Gomora at the end of the day would've just been transported instead of being obliterated.

Episode 4: Robot- 2 Activation Plan

• Like Gomora above, Telesdon also suffers from being a victim of human civilization. It was only trying to destroy a construction site due to being disturbed from its noises. Alas, the monster was subjected to Celebro's experiments to see the result of his Monster Medals.

Episode 7: His Majesty's Medal

• When Celebro's Valis Raiders kidnap Riku to harvest some of Riku's B-Factors to help create the Belial Medal, Riku begs them to let Belial rest in peace while flashing back to his final battle with his father. It's shown that the event rattled him far more than he showed in his own show and that he still harbors familial love for the fallen Ultra.

Episode 8: The Mystic Power

• The Pitt sisters here are portrayed as less villainous and more of Punch-Clock Villain at best. Apparently just as the younger sister suggested to take a vacation, Celebro brainwashes them on the spot into his mindless slaves, which ended them eventually arrested.

Episode 11: What Must Be Defended

• Haruki's past here was revealed that he used to have a loving father back in his elementary school days. While the family were on a camping site, Giestron attacked and Haruki's father left off to protect other people, but loses his life in the process despite promising his son to return beforehand.
  • A bit of a Fridge Horror here: the original Giestron in Ultraman Taiga is Gaia's Vengeance incarnate, so what did mankind do in Ultraman Z just to cause the death of a young boy's father?
• On the day of his father's death anniversary, Haruki was given the day off to go to his parents' home. Then, two Red Kings show up. Haruki and Z kill the male, and then try to deal with the female, but then realize both of them were just trying to defend their own unborn hatchling. Haruki feels terrible because of this, and then defends the life of the remaining Red King before she can get killed by STORAGE's King Joe. To add a little more sting, one of the two moves used to finish off the male Red King used the Ultraman Cosmos medal, Cosmos is well known among Ultras as a pacifist who spares monsters from being unfairly killed. It's even worse considering how the situation could've been solved peacefully if the heroes didn't immediately jumped to taking the violent route.
  Haruki: That's an egg? [...] Then, that other one was just trying to defend its child? What have I done?
  • Although the female Red King and her son were spared, Hebikura's remark that the younger one will return to avenge its father doesn't help at all.

Episode 12: The Cry of Life

This episode by itself is the most saddening one the show has to offer so far, so ready some tissues if the feels become too much.

• Haruki can't bring himself to kill Grigio Raiden after it seems that PTSD and hardcore guilt has set in. He doesn't want to kill anymore monsters after his spirit was broken killing the male Red King. This is dangerous in fights though, as it causes Z's timer to blink faster at first, and lose his transformations at best.
• Yoko and Haruki's views on kaiju also seem to conflict. Haruki says that killing monsters can't always be the way, but Yoko says that it has to be. She says that they can't keep relying on Z to kill the monsters himself, and she'd rather take the fact that she has more blood on her hands rather than him. She says there's simply no place for monsters on Earth. It's not really their fault, but their size makes them living alongside humanity basically impossible, and to Yoko that means they must all be killed.
• Haruki's flashbacks to all the other monsters he's killed unfairly.
• Even in their second round, Haruki can't seem to bring himself to kill Raiden after seeing the monster cry for its life, just firing it's cannon on repeat in order to save itself from being killed. And yet, it's no good. Yoko in King Joe STORAGE does kill the poor monster, leaving Haruki further heartbroken in response.

Episode 13: I'll Feast on Medals!

• Z doesn't seem to understand why his relationship with Haruki seems to be falling apart. As he listens throughout the episode though, he begins to realize why, and then states that he should've listened to Haruki better.
• When Kanegon just thinks killing monsters is cool, Haruki steps in again, saying that it really isn't that simple, and the monsters aren't just destroying things just because.
  Haruki: Stop. It's not that simple. We fight monsters to protect people from tragedy and grief. We fight for peace. But, monsters have a reason they attack, too. Its not like they just want to kill. The Red King was just trying to defend its family. But what I did to it... if I hadn't done anything, lots of people would have suffered. But... the Red King had a family... [...] I don't know what should I do! The more I think, the more I get confused! Yoko made her decision to fight. I feel... ashamed.

Episode 14: Four Dimensional Capriccio

• This episode opens with the revelation that Sevenger's being retired, Passing the Torch to King Joe. It's pretty disheartening to see STORAGE's first mecha unit being shut down forever, now being shipped off to a museum.
• Haruki meets his father through Bullton's Reality Warping. His dad barely registers the fact he's seeing his future son before Haruki goes back to the present.
  • How that happened is tragic in of itself. Haruki decided to focus on envisioning what he wanted most, a way to stop Bullton. His heart settled on his father.

Episode 15: A Warrior's Duty

• This is the first time the heroes actually lose a big fight. Z can't keep fighting, Juggler gets injured in battle and gets beaten out of Five King, and Geed gets absorbed by Greeza. And the only hope they have of really getting him out is having the exact right medals to beat Greeza's reality shattering.. well, everything, but unfortunately, the Belial medal needed isn't there. Thankfully though, Juggler knows how to turn the tables.

Episode 16: The Lion's Cry

• Horoboros getting forcefully converted into the cyborg Metsuboros by Celebro and forced to fight and destroy against his will, right after Yuka managed to pacify him. Unfortunately, the process can't be reversed and Z is forced to put the poor monster down to spare it the pain of its new form. The only thing keeping this from being a complete tear jerker is the fact that Horoboros' spirit is shown to be at peace.

Episode 17: Beliarok

• With Celebro finally switching bodies, Shinya's finally back to his senses, with no memory of what's been happening for the possible months Celebro's took him over. When the Japanese police finally capture him, he yells that he has no idea where he is, or what's going on in general.

Episode 18: Do-Over in the Year 2020

• Even if Kemur's invasion attempt was foiled and all the victims were rescued, Kaori stays in the present as she was abducted way back in the Showa Era and has no way of returning to her timeline. Its however toned down with her finding peace after years of being possessed and readily adjusting to the new era.

Episode 21: D4

• STORAGE is disbanded. That's all you need to hear.

Episode 22: Individual Tomorrows

• The team's friendship further breaks apart as everyone went into separate ways, either quitting GAFJ as a whole or moving to different departments. Remember those Power Trio we often seen alongside Inaba? Well, two of them decided to work for SAAG, STORAGE's successor in order to make ends meet for their family members. One of them even call them out on it for abandoning their pride in STORAGE. Inaba on the other hand entrusted his two former men to keep an eye on both Windom and King Joe, knowing full well that those two robots were the only things left in memento of what they had built for.

Episode 23: Prelude to a Nightmare

• This episode starts off rather somber. The team is watching Celebro (now officially revealed to be using Kuriyama's body) talk about Ultroid Zero on TV. It's pretty clear none of them are buying his crap. Yuka even says outright he's not protecting the Earth with it. Just humanity.
• Haruki misses piloting the Mecha units, and Yoko outright says it's not the same piloting them anyway, since the rest of the crew isn't with her.

Episode 24: The Game to Extinction

• The remaining Red King trying to protect her egg, she is not even fighting back. Instead, merely using her body as a shield against Ultroid Zero's attacks, then she can only try and prevent Ultroid Zero from reaching it as it kills and absorbs her into itself, luckily Z is able to protect the egg in her stead.
• At the end, Destrudos is able to destroy Ultraman Z, forcing Z and Haruki to end their partnership. Z sounds exceptionally choked that he has to say goodbye.

Episode 25: Warrior's Shining Beyond

• Yuka crying over not being able to locate Yoko's cockpit. Although she managed to do so later on, its very clear that Yuka was almost close to the fear of losing her friend to an alien parasite.
• Haruki saving Yoko is this mixed with Heartwarming. She doesn't actually recognize him at first, but the last arm wrestle they do jogs her memory, and she's too emotionally broken to win this time around. Both are choked up at the fact Haruki even won to begin with, not to mention the fact that means they may or may not get married now.
• The ending. Haruki actually leaves with Z in order to fully stop the destruction across the universe, and only visits his STORAGE friends so many times a year.
• At the very end of the credit has a small tribute to none other than the late Kota Fukihara, the series compositor who made the entire series possible with Kiyotaka Taguchi's help. It goes to show that Tsuburaya Productions wanted to give their gratitude over the deceased writer for everything in the series, as without him, Ultraman Z may not reach to how it turned out to be today.

---