Ultraman Omega standing in the city holding the Omega Rekiness sword Episode 4

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Ultraman Omega Episode 4 Reflection: A Confusing Episode That Gets Better With Time

I had a really hard time figuring out how to talk about Ultraman Omega Episode 4.

Not because I hated it.
In fact, the more I thought about it, the better it got.

And yet I still found it really frustrating.

That contradiction is interesting to me, especially because this is apparently a kids’ show. From what I keep hearing, Omega is being positioned as something closer to a preschool-level series in Japan. And I just don’t get that, because this episode feels like it’s operating on two completely different levels at once.

Some of it is very sophisticated.
Some of it feels oddly childish.
And the clash between those two things is the core issue I have here.

The Conflict That Doesn’t Quite Work

The main conflict revolves around Kosei flipping out when Sorato wants to go out on his own to meet Ayumu.

Sorato has been studying the train system. He knows how it works. He knows how to get from point A to point B. That’s great. Good for him. That’s growth.

Kosei, meanwhile, had been excited to go fishing. That was the plan. But when Sorato realizes Kosei would rather do something else, he basically says, “That’s fine. You go do your thing. This kaiju stuff is mine. We’ll both be fine.”

That should be reasonable.

Instead, Kosei reacts like a child.

He throws a full-on tantrum. The performance is extreme. The eyebrow acting is intense. He’s sulking, snapping, and wildly overreacting to the idea of Sorato doing something without him. I don’t know if that’s the actor, the direction, or a deliberate choice, but it felt like a tremendous amount of emotional escalation for no real reason.

And that’s what bothered me. The conflict feels forced by how petulant Kosei is acting, not by the situation itself.

The Shogi Scene and the Real Message

Here’s where the episode suddenly gets interesting.

Kosei’s boss, Oya, suggests they skip fishing and play shogi instead. As they play, listening to the radio, Oya explains the importance of pawns in the game. He talks about how even the Golden General can’t achieve the goal on his own. Every piece matters. Everyone has a role.

And without knowing anything about Omega, without knowing Sorato’s secret, Oya essentially explains to Kosei why he matters in Sorato’s life.

That he doesn’t need to be the hero.
That supporting someone is important.
That being there matters.

It’s a genuinely good message. A thoughtful one. A surprisingly mature one.

But it also creates a problem.

Oya has no context for this. He shouldn’t know how relevant this speech is. And more importantly, the lesson is almost undermined by how childish Kosei was acting to begin with.

The sophistication of the message clashes hard with the immaturity of the conflict.

Does This Work for Kids?

That’s the big question I kept circling back to.

Is this explanation going to land for kids?
Will they understand it?
Or is it enough that they simply see conflict followed by cooperation?

Because eventually, Kosei does show up. He calls out to Omega, who’s struggling. Omega is on his knees. He looks up. He nods. That moment matters.

Rekiness then does something new. Earlier in the episode, they were testing his abilities, and now that growth pays off. Armor unlocks. Omega uses it to defeat a really cool kaiju with a great design: Therizirus.

The fight works. The resolution works. The reconciliation works.

And when I sat with it longer, especially on a second watch, I started to see how the pieces fit together.

But it wasn’t obvious.

All Zeztz Analysis

All Omega Analysis

Project R.E.D. Analysis

Final Thoughts

I think this episode does work.
I just don’t think it works cleanly.

There’s a strange tension between storytelling that feels aimed at very young kids and themes that feel like they’re aimed higher than that. That tension is interesting, but also confusing.

I don’t hate this episode. I actually respect what it’s trying to say. I just wish the emotional setup had been handled with a little more care, because the message deserved it.

If you loved this episode, hated it, or landed somewhere in the middle like I did, I’d really like to hear your perspective. I care about how stories are told and what they mean, even when they’re about people in rubber suits fighting monsters in foam suits.

Until next time,
This is MJ with Henshin Inspection, signing out.

Drop a comment below or tag me @MJ_Scribe on Twitter. Let’s have some fun talking about this.

If you enjoy thoughtful stories for kids and families, check out my book Mockwing Mayhem. Its a heartfelt adventure about magical bugs battling monsters and protecting children.

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Bonus Reflection: Sorato Is Not Ready to Be on His Own Yet

One moment in Episode 4 stood out to me more the longer I thought about it.

Sorato is not ready to be on his own yet.

When a kaiju attack happens while Sorato and Ayumu are together, Sorato suddenly says, “I’ll go face it,” and runs off.

Ayumu pauses. She looks confused. And then she calls out, “Wait!”

And he’s already gone.

At this point, I don’t see how Ayumu doesn’t know something is going on. Between this moment and what happened in the previous episode, where Sorato openly used the Slugger in front of her, she’s being presented with back-to-back evidence that he’s not just an ordinary person.

If the show expects us to believe she hasn’t figured this out yet, I think that’s going to be disappointing.

This moment matters because it highlights the same issue running through the rest of the episode. Sorato is growing, but he’s still acting on instinct. He runs toward danger without thinking about the people he leaves behind. And while that sense of duty is part of what makes him Ultraman Omega, it also shows that he still doesn’t fully understand human connection.

Episode 4 seems very aware of that tension. The question is whether the show will let Ayumu acknowledge it, or whether it will delay that realization longer than it should.

Bonus Reflection #2: When Did Dinosaurs Become Kaiju?

There’s something about Episode 4 that doesn’t quite add up for me, and I’m still trying to work through it.

One of the ideas that seems central to Ultraman Omega is that this world didn’t have kaiju before Omega arrived. Kaiju are new. That’s part of what makes his arrival disruptive and meaningful.

But then we’re told that the kaiju Therizirus is based on a dinosaur. Ayumu even suggests that maybe the dinosaur somehow became a kaiju.

That’s where I get stuck.

Dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago. If kaiju are new to this world, when did a dinosaur have the opportunity to transform into one?

If this were a fossil that reanimated, I think I could accept that explanation. A dead thing brought back in a new form would fit the idea of kaiju as something unnatural. But Therizirus doesn’t feel like a resurrected fossil. It feels like a fully living creature.

So that raises more questions.

Did Omega’s arrival trigger the creation of kaiju? Did something about his crash or presence activate a process that turns existing matter, even long-dead matter, into kaiju? Is there some kind of kaiju genesis mechanism at work?

That’s a theory, but I’m not convinced it fully makes sense yet.

This might be something the show explains later, or it might just be a line meant to give the kaiju visual context without deeper implications. Either way, it stood out to me because it seems to rub against the idea that kaiju are entirely new to this world.

If I’m missing something obvious, I’d genuinely like to know.

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