Ultraman Decker: The End

Ultraman Decker aired its series finale last Friday, ending the 32nd entry into the long running Tsuburaya franchise. I found it to be much better than the uneven mess that was Trigger, though not as great as Z.

The series began with a swarm of spheres from space attacking both the Earth and the recently colonized Mars. The main character Kanata bonds with Ultraman Decker during an attack, becoming his human host. Kanata joins the newly formed GUTS Select to help fight against kaiju threats, bonding with his new teammates. It was eventually revealed that Professor Asakage was secretly an alien named Agams from an Earth-like planet named Bazdo. The sphere had invaded his planet, killing his wife in the process. He blamed Earth’s technological progress for the Sphere having found his planet, so he was now working with them to help them destroy the Earth, so he can have his vengeance on the ones he held responsible for his loss. When he revealed himself to Decker and tried to kill him, a man from the future named Asumi came and stopped him, transforming into Decker himself. Asumi turned out to be Kanata’s descendant from the future. He revealed that he came back in time to stop Agams from destroying Earth, and urged Kanata to save Agams, who was blinded by hate and infected by the Sphere. Agams built a robot called Terraphaser that he used to fight Decker and attack Earth. Over the course of the show, Kengo Manaka from Ultraman Trigger made several appearances. Agams eventually was killed, but not before realizing the error of his ways and telling Kanata how to defeat the Sphere’s final monster, Mother Spheresaurus. Kanata joined forces with Kengo and his GUTS Select teammates (who eventually learned that Kanata was Decker) to stop the Sphere once and for all.

While the series was enjoyable, and stayed consistently enjoyable for its runtime, the final episode felt a bit rushed and the final battle was underwhelming. I enjoyed how all the members of GUTS Select teamed up to stop the threat, instead of simply relying on Decker. They just overloaded the episode with too much, such as Kanata beginning to get infected by the Sphere, and the Sphere attempting to access the Earth’s infinity core (knowledge they learned from scanning Kengo’s memory when they captured him in an earlier episode) to destroy the planet. This seemed like a random development that kinda came out of left field. I guess it was another attempt to tie it with Ultraman Trigger, but it felt unnecessary. The Sphere’s motive was similar to that of the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation; to absorb and assimilate humanity into their one consciousness. The last fight against Mother Spheresaurus didn’t have the urgency that a final battle should have. But the characters all were given their moment to shine, and the bond between them all is what held things together.

All in all, Ultraman Decker was an enjoyable series that worked because it took the time to build the characters and their relationships. It simply tried to end things with a bang by going big when it should have stayed more grounded. Still, it was a huge improvement over Trigger. Decker will return in a movie called Journey To Beyond, which will premiere on February 23rd.