[FreshToku]

I've just been thinking about Tiga a bunch, thanks to both the chronicle series coming up and also the fact that I rewatched it a little while ago, and I just feel like typing out some thoughts about a specific part of it. I love it a ton and also appreciate it for being a different but still classic take on the Ultraman themes.

Instead of an alien from another world who protects Earth as a otherworldly friend, Tiga is viewed like a divine guardian created to protect humanity. Though of course Tiga himself, or rather Madoka Daigo, isn't just some machine to fight threats, but is someone who believes in the worth of humanity in it's own right.

There's a lot of episodes that lean into that, but the one my mind always flashbacks to, and the thing I felt like I have to type about or I might explode, is episode 28. I don't know if I'd go as far to say it's my favourite, but it might just be the one that sticks in my mind the most! There's a few different threads of characters wondering if they're doing the right thing, or if they're on the right path, like Daigo and Rena being opposed to the government's plan to wipe out an entire native Earth species because of it's threat to humans (and to be fair, the critters and Gazort are no joke!), and Yazumi being challenged on whether its brave or foolish to be willing to die.

Those are all nice questions to raise and all, but for me it's really all in the big climax, when a big bug monster attacks a camp full of injured soldiers, and the show's (instrumental) theme song has already kicked in! Rather than jump straight into the fight like he has the past 27 episodes, Daigo talks to his Spark Lens and asks Tiga just what all this fighting even is for, and if it really has any meaning. This is immediately memorable because this is the only time in the whole show where he does the classic Ultra trope of shouting Tiga's name as he transforms, and the context of him actually pleading to Tiga for answers just makes it feel particularly awesome to me?

The fight itself is standard but good stuff, and naturally it's the end of the fight that has what made the episode stick with me all this time. Bug monster's got Tiga on the ropes, and just as Take Me Higher goes into that beautiful bridge as in zooms in on Tiga's face. Daigo apparently gets his answer from Tiga at this point, the answer of why the both of them fight. It quickly flashes images of his fellow GUTS members as Daigo concludes that he (him and Tiga) fight to protect people because he loves them!

His love is so powerful and overwhelming that it makes the monster explode into pieces, and it's capped off by a wonderful shot of Tiga standing at dawn. This is what he does, and he'll keep doing it for as long as he needs to.

Some other stuff happens afterwards with the critters that's also neat and thought-provoking, but the climax to the monster fight...! It really does encapsulate the messages of, maybe not the series as a whole, but definitely the theme song! 愛を抱きしめて いま !!!