[Androzani84]

Well, thanks to a YouTube channel called “TokuMANIA”, I managed to watch the Ultraman Taiga movie, after a year of buildup. (To the point one person watching Ultraman Z on YouTube admitted he’d memorised the entire trailer). I thought I’d use it as a dry run for my upcoming thread.

So we open the movie with EGIS trying to stop a gang of Dadas from stealing the Stone of Baraj, an artefact from a country that mainly exists to show that Ultramen haven’t always landed in Japan. And for some reason, this is the only appearance by EGIS’ non-human members in the whole film (ignoring the credits montage). To cut a long story short, the robbery is foiled and the Tri-Squad destroy the Dada when he summons his Megazord.

We then cut to Taro on the planet Borges, where Ultraman Tregear’s… ghost? illusion? (The movie isn’t clear what it is in this scene, since he’s back alive in the rest of the film). He reveals that his last battle with Ultraman Taiga unleashed a demon named Grimdo that he was keeping in his chest (nice going there). The NewGen heroes tried sacrificing their powers to seal Grimdo away (kind of like that Mebius movie with the Ultra Brothers) but the seal is already breaking.

Back on Earth, while the Tri-Squad are discussing something, every humanoid member of the cast ends up going off to investigate the Villain Guild’s latest scheme with various things happening. Hiroyuki meets with Katsumi from the previous season, who claims his store (in reality, it’s more like a stall) is being harassed by an alien, whoch unintentionally has evidence pointing towards a culprit (Taiga notes that one of the people there [Riku] has the essence of Ultraman Belial), Pirika ends up infected with a virus from a black market website from the planet Fanton and gets saved by Daichi Oozora, Boos Lady (I forget her name) gets rescued from Villain Guild members by Gai Kurenai and Homare encounters Kirisaki (see what I mean?) and gets rescued from danger by Hikaru Raido and Shou.

Grimdo then makes his appearance, at which point Katsumi and Isami (who was running the store with him) reveal their identities to Hiroyuki and reveal that loss of powers is basically the prop becoming unpainted. Hiroyuki gives them their Ultra-lets back, restoring the paint, er powers of Rosso and Blu. After a short fight in which they seem to have the upper hand, Kirisaki them reveals that Grimdo is only at half power, with the other half being within himself… and the part that’s free still manages to survive the blast and overpower the three Ultras (not helped by Kirisaki stealing his monster rings back from Taiga). It’s at that point that Taro makes his reappearance, aiming to destroy Grimdo with the Ultra Dynamite… which is what it was counting on. When the smoke clears, Grimdo has merged with Taro and proceeds to defeat all three Ultras, with Hiroyuki being saved by Hikaru and Shou, who in return get the paint back on their toys.

Taiga’s then has something of a sulk about his dad turning evil to save him (I mean, he is the Ultra equivalent of a moody teen, so it makes some sense), and gets brought out of it by a motivational speech from Hiroyuki and Riku (who introduces himself and gets his Riser fixed). And then it turns out the Tri-Squad don’t need Hiroyuki anymore and have been planning to leave for a while (some friends they are). After Hiroyuki calls them on their bullshit, we cut back to the Super Minato Bros who mention that time moves differently on this Earth, which is why they didn’t show up to help earlier.

With the preparation done, everyone goes to confront Kirisaki, who gloats about Earth’s impending destruction at the hands of two Grimdo-powered Ultras. Gai and Daichi then get their toys fixed, allowing for all 8 of our stars to transform (don’t expect a flashy sequence. They just do the pose and show the rise footage). Kirisaki then transforms into Tregear and summons his 5 monsters Hellberus, Segmegler, Gigadelos, Night Fang and Gorothunder so that this qualifies as an epic battle. But the main focus is Taiga’s battle with Tregear, especially when Titas and Fuma split off and join the battle, overpowering the evil Ultra in an epic display of the power of friendship. But then evil Trap comes in and uses his Grimdo powers to buff the 5 monsters, forcing the 7 veterans to assume their strongest forms (Grigio shows up for Rosso and Blu to form Gruebe) in order to blow them up for good. Taiga then frees his dad from Grimdo by fusing with the other two to form Taiga Tri-Strium and using his own variation of the Ultra Dynamite, which only succeeds when the other three do their own Ultra Dynamite (don’t ask how Hiroyuki doesn’t die horribly from setting himself on fire. I don’t know how).

However, the half-Grimdo survives, with Tregear sacrificing himself to empower it as a fully-powered giant (by Ultra standards) Grimdo, who surrounds the eastern hemisphere in darkness and proceeds to grab Taro like he’s a damsel (guess part of Tregear controls the monster). Since none of the Ultras can scratch it, Taro suggests they send their energies into Taiga’s ‘Ultra Horns’. This has the effect of turning the 6 into a red Zero Eye, which Hiroyuki uses to turn Taiga into his ultimate form, who effortlessly rescues Taro and shrugs off everything TreGrimdo (Sonce they’ve obviously fused minds, that’s what I’m calling them) throws at him, before using his New Generation-let which he got from… somewhere… to destroy the beast once and for all.

With that done, we get a repeat of the ‘passing the torch’ scene from the first episode, only with the human hosts. With everyone gone, it’s now time for the Tri-Squad to leave as well, to star in the next Ultra Galaxy Fight. Boos Lady let’s them know they are now official members of EGIS, with the three getting a really emotional speech about how their friendship is forever, followed by the 4 Ultras (Taro is still there) leaving as we cut to the credits.

Overall, would I recommend the movie? It’s been worth the wait, I’ll say that. Whether it’s any good is up to you (I thought it was ok).