Series / Ultraman Geed

All spoilers for the Ultraman Zero media are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Sitting around doing nothing won't get us anywhere!

"Fate – prepare to decide."

Ultraman Geed is an 2017 tokusatsu series created by Tsuburaya Productions, and the 29th entry in the Ultra Series and a direct sequel to Ultra Fight Orb showing us the adventures of the Ultra that debuted in The Stinger. It was simulcasted by Crunchyroll.

Long ago, a lone Ultraman succumbed to temptation and attempted to steal power from the sun-like Plasma Spark, putting the very existence of all Ultramen in peril. He was exiled from the Land of Light and corrupted by evil forces, becoming the Fallen Hero Ultraman Belial. Throughout history, Belial has arisen time and time again to threaten the peace of the universe, most notably clashing with the heroic Ultraman Zero.

During his latest uprising against the Ultramen, Belial was able to occupy the Earth and detonate a dimensional bomb that destroyed the universe itself. Yet the universe was revived by an unknown power, and life on Earth continued as before, with the Ultramen who opposed Belial fading into rumour and memory over the following years.

Riku Asakura is an innocent young man who believed himself to be an ordinary human. But when a giant monster suddenly attacks his home city, he discovers that his blood contains the "B Factor" that marks him as a "son" of Ultraman Belial. Disregarding his bloodstained legacy, Riku learns to combine his own strength with the "Ultra Capsules" containing the powers of his Ultraman predecessors, fusing them together and becoming the heroic giant known as Ultraman Geed.

Riku soon finds out the monsters are targeting humans who carry "Little Stars" within their bodies, granting them supernatural powers. With the aid of mysterious swordswoman Raiha Toba; his best friend Pega; Woman In Black (and childhood friend) Moa Aizaki; and Reito Igaguri, an ordinary office worker who becomes the new host of Ultraman Zero, Riku fights to defend the peace of Earth while figuring out just what it means to be an Ultraman.

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Ultraman Geed provides examples of the following tropes:

• All Your Powers Combined: Much like Orb's Fusion Up, Geed can combine the powers of two separate Ultramen for him to transform using the Ultra Capsules into forms called Fusion Rise. Said forms are:
  • Jack of All Stats: Primitive, Geed's default form, fusing the powers of the original Ultraman and Geed's father, Ultraman Belial.
  • Mighty Glacier: Solid Burning, Geed's strength-based form, fusing the powers of Ultraseven and Ultraman Leo.
  • Fragile Speedster: Acro Smasher, Geed's speed-based form, fusing the powers of Ultraman Cosmos and Ultraman Hikari.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Magnificent, fusing the powers of Father of Ultra and Ultraman Zero.
  • Ultraman Zero also gains this with Ultraman Zero Beyond, combining the powers of four Ultramen: Ultraman Ginga, Ultraman Victory, Ultraman X, and Ultraman Orb.
  • Super Mode: Royal Mega Master, fusing with the powers of Ultraman Belial and Ultraman King.
• Anti Anti Christ: As mentioned above, Geed is the son of Belial, the Big Bad of the first two Ultraman Zero movies and resident Satanic Archetype. Unlike Belial, however, Geed is The Hero of the series.
• Artificial Human: Riku was created to host the Ultra Capsules by Kei Fukuide 19 years before the main events of the story.
• Apocalypse How: Belial initiates and successfully detonates a universe-killing bomb, with Earth at the epicenter, which also was rendered into a ball of flame.
• Bait-and-Switch: One that took about seven episodes: In episode 12, Sui mentioned that he knew what Riku hide under his bed thanks to the Little Star power. The audience's Wild Mass Guessing is Porn Stash at first, until episode 19 reveals that Riku was just keeping a Donshine magazine about a princess named REM, who is no less his AI's namesake.
• Big Bad: Although Belial is involved with much of the backstory of the series, Kei Fukuide seems to be taking this role on for the time being, as he is the one in charge of summoning the Kaiju, similar to Juggler.
• Book Ends:
  • The series begins with Ultraman King's sacrifice by reversing the damage caused by Belial in the Crisis Impact and ends with Belial's defeat led to Ultraman King being restored back to his physical form, along with the universes Belial destroyed.
  • The series in general would be the last time Zero and Belial cross each others' paths, which goes back all the way from Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends.
    • Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends began with a fierce battle between Belial and Father of Ultra, whom he defeated as he steals the Plasma Spark. In the final episode, Father of Ultra arrives on Earth and takes on Belial Atrocious after the latter defeated his son, only to be defeated again moments before Riku/Geed makes a return.
    • Ultraman Belial's descent into madness begins with him accepting Alien Rayblood's power. His last moments with his son, Geed ends up with Rayblood being expelled from Belial's body moments before his demise.
• Childhood Friends: Riku and Moa, whose parents actually found him as a baby and raised him alongside her. Riku seems somewhat oblivious to the fact that Moa wants their relationship to evolve into a Childhood Friend Romance however, even when she gets painfully jealous of Raiha and Riku's seeming closeness.
• Continuity Nod: The opening credits show four Ultra Capsules featuring the four Ultramen preceding Geed, Ginga, Victory, X and Orb Origin. They are also the capsules that make up the New Generation Capsules Alpha and Beta, used by Ultraman Zero to transform into Ultraman Zero Beyond.
• Darker and Edgier: Aside from the beginning as listed below, the series seems to have darker elements in its story, close to the ending part of the last series. Then again, Belial is heavily involved in the plot.
• Defector from Decadence: Tri-Tip is an Alien Pitt who betrayed her kind and fled to Earth with an infant Eleking to keep it from becoming a weapon. After the grown Eleking is killed she joins AIB to help keep the knowledge of Alien presence on Earth a secret.
• Downer Beginning: Belial initiates a universe-killing bomb, with Earth in flames at the epicenter. No Ultra could best him this time, not even Ultimate Zero, and wins. Sure, Ultraman King manages to undo it (as Zero lays it down for Reito), but the sheer impact of it all trumps Ultraman Leo's ending by a long shot.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Geed appears in The Stinger of the final episode of Ultraman Orb's miniseries spin-off Ultra Fight Orb by finishing off Reibatos with his Wrecking Burst. It's revealed in the Finale that he was actually killed by Belial himself with the Deathcium Ray.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The series opens with the Crisis Impact event where earth gets blown up by Ultraman Belial, only for Ultraman King to intervene and re-forge the universe.
• Empty Shell: Kei considers himself to be this. His home planet Sturm was once a beautiful planet until his people fought among themselves. Kei, who was once a weak existence grasping for power saw Belial and decided to become his loyal servant ever since then, seeing the dark Ultra giving the alien a purpose of his own when he's lost.
• Evil Counterpart: The Kaiju Capsules are this to Geed's Ultra Capsules, allowing Kei Fukuide to fuse various Kaiju into new monsters. By extension, this also makes Fukuide one to Riku Asakura/Ultraman Geed.
• Extradimensional Emergency Exit: Ultraman Belial pulled this at the beginning of the series when he initiated the Crisis Impact, retreating into a separate dimension to hide from the Ultras so as to avoid their interference while waiting for the pieces of his plan to come into motion.
• Foil: The titular Ultraman is one to Ultraman Zero - both are the son of another Ultraman (Ultra Seven is Zero's father, and as previously mentioned, Belial is Geed's father), initially unaware of who their father is. However, whereas Zero is a rebellious teen who only wants strong power (like Belial no less) and redeems to become the hero he is, Geed is an aspiring hero who gains his wish, only to be a case of Blessed with Suck when his face looks like Belial.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Whenever Riku transforms into Geed, for a brief time, Belial in his Early Style can be seen.
• Generation Xerox: Just like how Seven was weakened in a fight, forcing him to play the mentor role to Leo instead of fighting himself, Zero is also weakened due to a previous fight and is forced to become a mentor for Geed. Unlike the more patient and cautious Seven though, Zero's impatient and combative nature causes him and his host to be more involved in Geed's fight.
• Genki Girl: Moa, with of hint of The Ditz. Given her job, this causes her no end of problems, though she doesn't seem to mind too bad.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Belial serves this to Kei, having organized the events prior to the series.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Moa gets this way when she hears that Raiha and Riku are living together, bringing up the fact that she and Riku used to bathe together when they were kids to try and get under Raiha's skin.
• Gratuitous English: Riku's henshin call to use the Ultra Capsules. "You go! I go! Here we go!"
• Locked Out of the Loop: Humorously, Moa and Riku are locked out of each other's loops. Riku is seemingly unaware that Moa is a member of a group dedicated to maintaining The Masquerade, and Moa is blissfully unaware of the fact that Riku is Ultraman Geed. This ends abruptly when Riku transforms into Geed to save Moa and an Alien Zobetai named Nabia from falling to their deaths after aggravating a Zandrias. Riku himself had learned of Moa's connection to the AIB and it's purpose moments before thanks to RE.M.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Aside from the already given fact that Geed is Belial's son, Kei Fukuide created Riku to house the Ultra Capsules for Belial.
• MacGuffin: The Little Stars, the power source of the Ultra Capsules and pieces of Ultraman King's power, initially only found in the bodies of children. As long as the Little Star is inside a host, it will give their host a power that their respective Ultra once used.
• Oddball in the Series: The series breaks two unwritten rules of the franchise in the first four episodes alone. One of Riku's potential love interests learns his identity in the first few moments they meet, and multiple Ultras have familial ties.
• Once More, with Clarity: During the finale its revealed that Geed's cameo in Ultra Fight Orb, which made no sense chronologically, was actually Belial.
• Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements: The Risers and Capsules seem to require either being an Ultra or having the power of one to use as Kei requires Belial to lend him some of his power to use them, and one clue Belial is still alive is that he can still transform into Fusion Beasts after Belial's apparent death.
• Product Placement: Aside from from PlayStation 4 appears in episode 11, the next episode has Riku and Sui Asakura playing Tekken 7.
• Shockand Awe: Kei's Thunder Killer and Pedanium Zetton Fusion Rises both manipulate electricity. Justified, since they both contain components from electric-wielding Kaiju.
• Shout-Out:
  • Two variations: Riku fights with the power of Satanic Archetype is confirmed by Word of God to be based on Devilman. Also coincidental in episode 12 when Riku plays Tekken 7 and chose Jin Kazama, the son of a villain who is otherwise a hero.
  • In episode 11, when Belial is pissed of how Kei fails him, the former said that Kei deserves 10,000 deaths.
  • One of Ultraman Zero Beyond's unrevealed attack is a rapid kick (Zero 100 Fierce Kick) is not unlike those of Tomoyo Sakagami from CLANNAD.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To Ultraman Leo, due to a crippled Ultraseven-based Ultra being The Mentor to the titular hero, as well as a Downer Beginning (coincidentally, the crippled Ultra in Geed is the son of Ultraseven, who was Leo's mentor). Somewhat lampshaded in-series by Geed's Solid Burning form, which uses assets of both Leo and Seven.
  • Also one to Ultraman Dyna, due to having a larger emphasis on outer space and Alien Invasion, as well as directly following the previous series (Ultraman Tiga for Dyna, Ultraman Orb for Geed) in some form (Dyna being a direct sequel to Tiga, Geed expanding upon the power fusing introduced in Orb). Doesn't hurt that 1) Dyna as well follows up Tiga's Type Change gimmick, not unlike how Geed did so to Orb and 2) Geed's series debuted in the 20th Milestone Celebration of Dyna's 20th anniversary.
• Transformation Trinket: The Geed Riser and the Ultra Capsules, as well as certain Monster Capsules used by Kei.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 7 has Zero sacrifices himself to save audiences held by Kei, all while buying some time for Geed to retaliate.
  • Episode 11. Kei reveals to Riku that the latter is not Belial's biological son but rather a synthetic son. Kei also tells Riku that his purpose is to collect the Ultra Capsules for his father.
  • Episode 16: Belial arrives on Earth and starts wreaking havoc on Earth by killing an Alien Godola. After that, he unleashes a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown towards his own son. If it's not enough, he transforms into Chimeraberos and devours Geed whole.
• Wham Line
  • Episode 6: "All goes well, my lord... Belial-sama. The power that you bless me with...will allow me to Fusion Rise once again." This was meant to debunk all theories that people believed that Kei and Belial are the same person.
  • Episode 23 from Arie: "Did you really think you can beat my son?" right during The Reveal that Belial had been possessing Arie all along.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Belial rips out Kei's Inversion Organ that's the source of his powers. He's mortally wounded and only has days to live rather than just being Brought Down to Normal, as having a vital organ torn out of your body is typically not a survivable experience.