Awesome / Ultraman Z

Series

"Don't just rely on your eyes."

In general, Ultraman Z is the oddball among the recent New Generation Heroes Ultra Series because of a few reasons, taken from the Uchusen 169 interview with director Kiyotaka Taguchi:

• The series was planned and filmed two months earlier from normal New Generation Ultra Series, going as far as August 2019 due to the supposed Olympic games in 2020. When said event cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the two-month advance in filming make up for the exact two months devoid of filming when Japan was under the state of emergency.
• When Taguchi was offered the job of the main director, not only did he asked Kota Fukihara to be the main writer, but he also proposed his own draft of the series, despite Tsuburaya already making one. That's right, Taguchi and Fukihara drafted an entire season from scratch, and without them, Ultraman Z could be a different Ultra Series altogether.
• The reason why recent Ultra Series were devoid of Badass Crew is due to Tsuburaya no longer having enough budget and labor to process the entire attack team necessities, but Taguchi managed to get Tsuburaya to accept it by changing the usual Cool Plane we always seen to Humongous Mecha in the show.
• The show itself hires two military advisors to make sure that everything STORAGE did reflects the real life military, such as the team's salute to Kuriyama as seen in episode 1.
• Taguchi's decision to include Sevenger is how he believed that it can serve as both a combat robot in-series and a cute charm in real life. Predictably, Taguchi was right when Sevenger made it to the Ensemble Dark Horse status.

Episode 1: I Ask That You Chant my Name!

• The Cold Opening in this episode where the smaller Gomess chasing against Haruki while ended up being chased by Sevenger earlier. The massive size differences shows how Tsuburaya still has it in displaying characters of varying sizes in one scene altogether.
• Z Alpha Edge vs Genegarg is a real tonesetter as Z uses his Sluggers as nunchaku/bolas instead of just throwing them like usual. The battle concluded with Z finishing the shark monster with Zestium Beam, where it sent crashing to the ground before exploding.
  • Special credit also given to the scene where Genegarg pushes Z through a building. The camera shifts momentarily to an inside shot of an office before returning to the outside just in time for Genegarg to finish pushing Z through.

Episode 2: A Warrior's Principle

• Thanks to Hebikura's training, Haruki as Ultraman Z is able to predict each of every Neronga's moves by focusing on sound rather than sight to catch it while invisible. The kicker is that he fires the Zestium Beam at the fleeing monster, while it's still invisible no less, and nails the thing for the kill shot.

Episode 3: Live Coverage! The Monster Transport Operation

• Although Sevenger ended up losing all of its power, Haruki managed to display his use of Karate against Gomora and accidentally trip on the monster itself. The sheer display of said robot was enough to convince the American GAF to provide additional support for the second SAA unit.
• Z Beta Smash is all in its glory using wrestling moves against Gomora and ended the fight with a Zestium Upper.

Episode 4: Robot- 2 Activation Plan

• Yuka's "Eureka!" Moment through, of all things, Haruki's accidentally baked pudding. She uses the salvaged Neronga's horn to charge Windom, circumventing the robot's slow paced charging period in time to save Geed.
• Remember how Telesdon in Ultraman X has that drilling attack? This series has it attacking Z Beta Smash multiple times with its drills.
• With Windom, Yoko makes her Big Damn Heroes moment where she uses the boosters and missiles while displaying the robot's full performance at its glory. Not bad considering the original universes' Windom was a complete Butt-Monkey.
• Erimaki-Telesdon is a pretty cool transformation. Not only does it have tons of brand new powers with him firing lasers and even acting as a shield with his frill, but it's also the closest thing will probably ever get to seeing Jirass come back in the series since him coming back in full might cause a copyright strike from Toho

Episode 5: First Juggling

• Juggler's return. Better yet, he's revealed to be disguised as STORAGE captain Hebikura and finally transforms into Zeppandon again after 3 years since the monster was last seen in Orb.
  • To say the fanbase went wild at Juggler's return is selling it short. The man himself ends his return with a Leaning on the Fourth Wall moment where he faces the camera:
    That was fun.
• Because of Juggler snatching Haruki's Z Riser Haruki can't become Z. He has a moment of despair because he cant' rescue Yoko from the frozen Windom until he hears Yoko proclaiming she still wants to fight and be a professional. Haruki remembers he is Brought Down to Badass and they still have Sevenger His rescue of Yoko shows that even without Z he's still a force to be reckoned with, defrosting Windom, pulling Yoko out and setting Sevenger on auto-pilot to Rocket Punch and knock Peguila back to buy some time.
• Z's fight with Peguila taking place both in aerial combat and to the shot of him falling down. The Z Lance Arrow also allows the Ultra to demonstrate just how strong it is by destroying Peguila and later Zeppandon.
• On the SFX sides there are some very impressive shots with two standing out in particular. One is a POV as though someone is sitting the front seat. The car is flipped in one shot with various car clutter flying around before the car crashes and gets stepped on. The other is a shot inside an evacuated kindergarten room where the toku battle makes various objects rattle and fly.

Episode 6: The Man Returns!

• Geed returns to the series as Galaxy Rising. Although losing his Geed Riser and all of his Fusion Rises up to this point, the new Z Riser and Ultra Medals were enough for Geed to destroy Gillvalis with Galaxy Rising's finisher, the Wrecking Phoenix despite its core escaping. King wasn't kidding when he said Geed still had untapped potential. Bonus points for playing Geed's opening theme, Geed no Akashi, during the fight.
• Z and Geed double-teaming against Gillvalis, with awesome choreography all over. And just to get viewers pumped up, they played Geed's insert theme, 'Fusion Rise'', during the battle.
• Yuka once more using her wits to help the Ultras. She uses the unanswered questions from Millennium Prize Problems, six mathematical equations so complex that whoever solves one can net a $1 Million USD reward, and uploads them to Gillvalis by having Yoko use Windom's punch as an infection vector. This allows Z and Geed to scrap it and destroy the Core, at least for now.
• This is earlier in the episode, but you gotta admit, for being the lesser of STORAGE's two mecha units, Haruki and Sevenger still do pretty well against Windom.

Episode 7: His Majesty's Medal

Sheesh, where to start? This episode has tons of these!

• We have our first human sized brawl in this show with the STORAGE members against the Void robots. Haruki and Yoko don't win, and they steal Riku, but they put up a good fight.
• Yuka once against using her intelligance to find Riku
• Z forces himself into Haruki's body in human size, and with only being able to use it for 50 seconds, he takes the robots out swiftly, even destroying the last few with Yoko by... dancing. The last part also counts as a Funny Moment
• Shinya and Celebro transform into Skull Gomora, but that's not all. They also transform into Thunder Killer and Pendamium Zetton! Something nobody saw coming!
• Zero's glorious return. How did he escape Bullton's grasp? He goes into Shining mode, and then reverses the flow to time to escape! Granted he was weaker, but still.
• Another win for the SFX team is the start of the big battle where the camera is looking straight up at Z and Geed fighting Celebro's Skull Gomora. It's a lengthy sequence where rather than a typical flat angle it's like the audience is right beneath the giants and goes to show suitmation is still dazzling when pushed.
• Then we reach the grand finale of the entire fight. Z freezes Pendamium Zetton solid, and all three Ultra's can take them down with the Wide Zero Shot, Zestium Ray, and Wrecking Phoenix. The three combined blasts finish Shinya's transformed state once and for all.

Episode 8: The Mystic Power

• Gamma Future in itself is just awesome. It adds an incredibly awe inspiring metallic tone to Z's voice, can make clones off the Ultramen he's combined with to hurt enemies, and can even shrink himself.
  • Going even further the shrinking ability is rarely used for Ultras but before that Z froze Five King, shrank then finished the monster off by flying inside and wrecking with beam attacks.
• Bako actually knows a thing about fighting! He actually catches Haruki off guard!
• Juggler is getting closer and closer to pretty much fighting Shinya at this point. In fact, he's already found out Celebro is possessing him.
• Yoko and Yuka fight off the two twin girls, revealing them to be two Alien Pitts in disguise

Episode 9: The Unidentified Object Convoy Order

• Simply the fact that King Joe is back. After a couple episodes with more modern Ultra-Kaiju, it's nice to see a more classic foe back again.
• This is the first time Haruki (at least on screen) controls Windom, and he puts up a good fight against King Joe.
• King Joe's ability to split is used more expertly in this episode, seeing him chase Juggler and Yuka through a tunnel.
• Although he's still not much of a match, Z goes into Beta Smash and actually pushes King Joe off him, followed by him putting up a better fight than Alpha Edge, but still not winning.
• This episode introduces Ultra Medals that only causes the medals to just form attacks instead of a fusion. The first three that use this is medals of Ultraman Cosmos, Ultraman Nexus and Ultraman Mebius. The attack causes a storm to start and lighting strikes down onto their foes. This is actually what causes King Joe's defeat, after he splits apart showing his inside wires (which Yuka said was it's weakness earlier on) which ends it.
• This episode foreshadows that King Joe will soon be apart of the STORAGE lineup of mecha's, after Juggler tells the rest of his crew that Director Kuriyama is going to salvage it's parts.

Episode 10: Here Comes the Space Pirate!

• Kojiro has a Big Damn Heroes moment, using his lunch box to fool Alien Barossa, then Haruki electrocute's him with it!
• The final showdown between Z and Barossa. It's played as a standoff like one would see in an old school style western, but with tokusatsu.
• Z's new Ultra-Medal power. Using the Medals of Ultraman Jack, Zoffy and Father of Ultra, he creates a sword of pure energy that's puts Barossa's stolen weapons to shame. Then he sends the space pirate into a tornado, and finishes him off with an old school style Ultra- cut up attack, which makes the alien explode.

Episode 11: What Must Be Defended

• King Joe STORAGE. Everything you love about Sevenger and Windom? Turned up to eleven with this robot! Not only is it incredibly tough, but it's left arm acts as a gun, and it's right one is basically one giant warhammer.
• We see that the Ultra-Medal attacks aren't only limited to Gamma Future, and it can be used in all forms. Haruki and Z use them back to back to slay the male Red King. Though that actually isn't much of a good thing, see the heartwarming page

Episode 12: The Cry of Life

• King Joe STORAGE's splitting mechanic is really cool, allowing it to barrage an enemy all at once. It even withstands a ray of Grigio's flame breath!

Episode 14: Four Dimensional Capriccio

• STORAGE has a party to celebrate King Joes' success. Also doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
• Bako somehow catches this giant tuna to use as a feast for the party! And he's also really good at magic tricks.
• Celebro gets some spotlight in this episode, creating Bullton to mess with STORAGE.
• Haruki finally gets over his "kill or not to kill issues" from a pep-talk from his father. Another that doubles as a Heartwarming moment, and also a Tear Jerker.
• While both King Joe and Z in Gamma Future can't best Bullton, Z in Beta Smash isn't even remotely phased by Bullton's Reality Warping powers. Then, he splits him in half with the M78 Tornado Slash in Alpha Edge!
• Next time is certainly something to be excited about. Riku returns to fight with Haruki again, it will introduce Delta Rise Claw, and the main antagonist of it is none other than the Big Bad of Ultraman X: Greeza.

Episode 15: A Warrior's Duty

• Geed and Greeza's return of course!
  • What really sets this return is the two transforming together in one scene, at the same time. Complete with Haruki borrowing Riku's "Sitting around doing nothing..." before transforming, to which Riku himself replies "...won't get us anywhere!".
• Juggler really deserves props in this episode. He decides to finally use his Dark Riser again, and uses Celebro's forgotten medals to turn into Tri-King to fight Greeza, and eventually Five King as well! Unfortunately, this doesn't cause him to win, but still certainly a valiant effort.
  • When Greeza proved to be too much for Tri-King, Juggler decides to drop his stoic façade and raise his voice to transform into Five King out of determination. His transformation catchphrase into Five-King also deserves notice.
  Juggler/Hebikura: Let me borrow...A LITTLE MORE POWER OF DARKNESS!
• Geed gets a pretty good, kinda-sorta Big Damn Heroes moment. He hands Z a medal of him in his Primitive mode, just because he knew he certainly wouldn't be able to beat Greeza alone, which turns out to be true as he ends up getting absorbed by him. Still though, it helps win the day in the end.
• Juggler sends Haruki on a mission to just storm Celebro's lair guns a blazing, and they succeed. Mind you, he's still injured from the fight with Greeza.
• Much like how Gai Kurenai had trouble with it, the Belial Atrocious medal won't go in at first, but Haruki and Z force it in on their own and unlock. Whereas Gai was required to fall into a mental depression to get Belial's card to cooperate, this episode demonstrate that the sheer bonds between human and Ultraman isn't just a blatant power-up excuse.
• Delta Rise Claw. Holy crap. This form manages to free Geed instantly, and Greeza, in all his Reality Breaking power is no match for it. The Beliarok, albeit being rather lazy about it, can get the job done!
  • Greeza deserves one here: despite this being the debut of a new form, it's not a straight Curbstomp Battle in Z's favor. Rather, Greeza still manages to put up a fight.
• Lastly, a moment to Hikari for fixing the Geed Riser! This also leads to Geed giving the Ginga, X and Orb medals to Haruki.

Episode 16: The Lion's Cry

• The intro goes under a small change in this episode. Z in Delta Rise Claw and King Joe STORAGE are added at the end.
• This is a Yuka episode, and it's great to see her scientific prowess be put to use.
• Also, the return of Horoboros! And also the new form of Metsuboros, which is a fusion between Horoboros, Galactron and Gillvalis.
• Gamma Future has a new power in the form of the Z Aies. It's sort of like a shield. Though not like it matters, Horoboros smashes right through it!

Episode 17: Beliarok

• The second Alien Barossa is much more competent and also doesn't have to rely on a human host in order to speak an Earth language.
• Fitting since this episode is named after him, Beliarok is just plain amazing. This shows he's an amazing neutral force that only joins the side who can give him the best fight, and his powers are no joke! The Deathcium Fang in particular is pretty jarring. An awesome.
• More of Juggler's great detective skills. The ending shows that he spied of Celebro switching human hosts, and he's prepared to make his next move.
• Nice to see what Delta Rise can do without the Beliarok for once.

Episode 18: Do-Over in the Year 2020

• Ms. Kaori herself! She's been a pawn on Kemur for 54 straight years, but once she gains the will to fight back, it's really something.
• Kemur deserves props too though. After being stuck in the sidelines since the beginning of the series, this was a great return to the limelight!
• During the mission debriefing after everything is said and done, Yoko noted Kemur was stopped once before, "by civilians who worked with the police." You can almost hear the pride in Hebikura when he called them STORAGE (and perhaps for all science teams)'s brave predecessors.

Episode 19: The Last Hero

• This episode opens with a surprise appearance. Not Ace, not Baraba, but Bemstar! It's pretty shocking to see him show up, but his appearance, however brief, is quite nice to see.
• Getting to the main point though, Baraba himself! Holy crap, after his incredibly Long Bus Trip, only being mentioned when he's being used again as a component to form the much more popular Tyrant, he's finally returned, and he does not disappoint! And for that matter, neither does Ace, and the rematch between the two is amazing.
• One of the shot's just scream Visual Effects of Awesome. A turn around shot with Baraba trying to aim his sword at Ace and Z while the two Ultra's constantly bombarded him with laser attacks. It looks incredible!
• The reveal at the end, which Haruki finds out Ace is Z's Godfather.

Episode 20: To Care and What is Beyond

• It's pretty cool that STORAGE is becoming more open to spare monsters, as seen with M1. Even King Joe is shown as capable of having non-lethal methods of subduing Kaiju.
• M1 returning as well, with his last appearance being 5 years ago in Ultraman X
• The preview for the next episode shows the return of Kelbeam, last seen in Ultraman Orb!

Episode 21: D4

• The D4 weapon is Nightmare Fuel, and also a complete absolute unit of a weapon. This thing leaves a huge crater in the midst of the city and it takes Z with a giant Zestium Beam in order to stop it.
• Kelbim. Back in Ultraman Mebius, it was already a giant monster after just hatching from its egg. Now we know the reason why: because their own parent, aka. Mother Kelbim is a humongous monster on her own right by standing on 303 meters tall.
• Juggler gets major points for showing no fear nor hesitation to defy Kuriyama despite the latter's increasing ruthlessness, when even he thinks the D4 is too dangerous to be used, and even when Kuriyama disbands STORAGE, he merely defiantly lets out a small chuckle, unfazed by Kuriyama's decision.
• It's brief but Z and Yoko in King Joe have a back to back badasses battle against several Kelbeam. Bonus points for Z using Alpha Edge for the first time in a while.

Episode 22: Individual Tomorrows

• Everyone gets a piece of action in this episode. Yoko pilots Sevenger, Haruki and Z whips out Gamma Future after a while, Juggler goes back into Five King. Even Yuka gets some action!
• Yoko gets control of Beliarok via pushing his buttons, but has trouble moving Sevenger via the third Barossa alien messing up the robots leg. Yuka controls King Joe's Leg Carrier component, and all three of them slices into the alien as he explodes. Yoko even gives the move a fancy name: the Sevenger Riding Wave Special Slash!
• A nice extra point is Z got to a chance to allow all his forms, even his base Z one, to shine with Gamma Future making a return after several episodes.

Episode 23: Prelude to a Nightmare

• Demaaga, Gomess, Pagos, Guessra and Takkong all sharing an episode? AND with Ultroid Zero too!? Already this episode is a total win!
• Ultroid Zero's powers are pretty remeniscent of an actual Ultra. Say what you want about how bad the place got, but the people making the robot weren't blowing hot air when they said it was powerfu.
• We get a pretty cool looking underwater sequence this episode! Only problem is the fact it doesn't last long.

Episode 24: The Game to Extinction

• Destrudos! An absolute Nightmare Fuel built abomination but it's just so cool seeing it on screen.
• This episode just jumps straight into the action with Zeppandon vs. Five King right of the bat!
• The episode's finale with Destrudos vs. Z. While the monster ends up besting Ultraman this time, it's not the end. Haruki wakes up with his STORAGE colleauges by his side, all preparing for the final battle against Destrudos..

Episode 25: Warrior's Shining Beyond

• When Mai and the remaining SAAG ground forces try to stop the STORAGE team from taking their old base over with their only justification being that Hebikura is an alien and ignoring the more immediate threat of Destrudos, Hebikura drops the act as soon as Mai took a potshot at Hebikura, reveals himself as Juggler and walks through them. It's made very clear throughout what could very generously be called a "fight" that SAAG didn't stand a chance. He even prevents an unconscious Mai from falling to the ground, merely to show off and taunt her.
  • On top of that, he does it without killing a single person despite them coming at him with guns and an intent to kill. Juggler really has changed.
• Haruki and Juggler lead the final stand against Destrudos with Windom and King Joe. But when it seems like they're about to be defeated again, who else shows up but.. Sevenger!! With Bako patrolling no less!
• Haruki finally defeating Yoko in arm-wrestling is both this and heartwarming, as it not only proves how much he's grown but also is the push Haruki needs to help Yoko purge Celebro out of her body and allow Z to rescue her.
• Beliarok's Heroic Sacrifice.. well kinda. He comes back later on since it turns out he's immortal, but it's still really cool. Also somewhat mixed with Tear Jerker as he bids farewell to Haruki and recalls that he had his fun fighting with him.
• Z defeats Destrudos. No Ultra Medals, no Beliarok, no nothing. He defeats this Eldritch Abomination capable of tearing reality itself apart with ease with nothing but the power of hope, friendship and sheer determination!
  • Of note, while Destrudos does not have his D4 Ray on the ready, he still fires a Breath Weapon against Z’s chest, yet Z manages to No-Sell it, before he grabs Z, in which he breaks out of its grip and lands a Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs on Celebro Destrudos, punching its jaw out and knocking it down, before Haruki and Z show their Ultra-spirit with a very passionate and powerful 'KAY!!!. Which leads to...
  • The final blow is a typical Ultra blast but Z's Zestium Beam curves until a GIANT 'Z' appears and the extra energy overpowers Destrudos' D4 Ray and obliterates the malevolent chimera for good.
  • All set to the tune of the blood-pumping opening theme, no less! The hype shot through the roof as the audience chanted his name one last time.