Ultraman Teo 07

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When Understanding the Kaiju Matters More Than Defeating It

Ultraman Teo 07 was a big surprise for me.

First of all, the whole thing with Pucchi going giant-sized and then basically having the fight end was a little bit of a letdown. I was expecting him to stick around longer. Giant Pucchi is super cool, and I wanted to see more of him.

But shortly after that fight ends, we get the mystery of Pucchi’s ability to synchronize with or feel people’s emotions, and I think what the episode does with that is much more interesting.

What Emotions Does Pucchi Actually Feel?

Pucchi gets some of Emma’s fear, but mostly he seems to be syncing with Bechi.

I’m not sure why. Maybe Pucchi just likes beefcakes. Stud muffins. I don’t know.

But I wonder if it’s actually strong emotions that Pucchi tunes into.

Initially, Pucchi transforms because Bechi wants to protect the cats. Then at the end of the episode, Bechi is seriously angry with his friend while outwardly putting on a nice face. He’s feeling one way internally while doing something completely different on the outside, and Pucchi responds to what he’s actually feeling.

Then there’s Emma.

She’s genuinely afraid because she hadn’t really thought through the fact that this little kaiju, little alien, whatever Pucchi is, could probably turn into something fearsome and dangerous. Kaiju are new to this world, and she’s especially afraid of them. Why wouldn’t you be?

Her fear is raw and potent, and Pucchi picks up on it.

They also try testing this ability with Ibuki saying that he’s hungry, and then the translation app tells them Pucchi is hungry. But Bechi points out that those two are always hungry.

So that might just be a coincidence.

Also, hunger isn’t really an emotion. It’s a physical state of being. Maybe Ibuki didn’t learn that in kindergarten.

Either way, it feels like the episode is hinting that Pucchi may be responding particularly strongly to people who are feeling something intensely. I don’t know if that’s actually the rule yet, but I like the possibility.

Giant Pucchi Is Cool, but Is That Really Pucchi?

I still want to see more of Giant Pucchi.

His giant form looks great, but it feels less like a bigger version of Pucchi and more like a classic Digimon evolution. It’s like having a little floating head thing turn into a dinosaur and then a teddy bear. You know, go from a Greymon to a Monzaemon. It’s random and doesn’t necessarily make sense, but whatever. It can work.

There are details that seem to carry through between the two Pucchi designs, though, particularly some of the harder gray parts and the grooves on his body. I’d like to get a better look at both versions and see how much the giant form really does evolve out of Little Pucchi.

Mostly, though, I just want Giant Pucchi to come back and actually do something for longer.

Vermilios Doesn’t Really Need to Be Defeated

Then there’s the animal translation app.

It’s ridiculous.

Apparently this pet translation app works on kaiju, which is so silly, but I’ll accept it because of the magic of tokusatsu and because I really enjoy what the episode does with it.

Vermilios is a great bird kaiju. I love seeing him in action. But then we learn about his abandonment issues, hear him calling for his mommy through this ridiculous app, and the entire conflict gets reframed.

Vermilios is effectively just a lost animal. He’s a baby who wants home, belonging and his mother.

And he’s been abandoned.

That sucks for him.

I do have questions. Why did Vermilios seem to target the Astronomy Club? Was it because they were in the building where he had been hatched and raised for a little while? Maybe there’s some kind of scent thing going on and that’s why he went toward them looking for his mother.

Also, where was this gigantic bird hiding?

That’s part of an overall issue I have with kaiju in this kind of setting: they’re just too dang big. If kaiju in Teo could normally exist around Pucchi’s size and then grow when necessary, it would make some of this easier for me to handwave.

But I’m not going to fixate on that because none of it really matters once you get to the emotional point.

This is a creature looking for somewhere it belongs.

The Win Condition Is Changing Vermilios’ Emotional State

That’s what makes the resolution so interesting to me.

They don’t really need to defeat Vermilios.

The win condition is basically making this kaiju feel better about his emotional state and his lot in life. He has to understand that this woman can’t take care of him anymore, so he has to go somewhere else to get what he wants.

And then he just goes away peacefully.

I always find that interesting.

The episode doesn’t need Teo to destroy the monster. Vermilios just needs to stop causing damage, and once the emotional problem behind that damage is addressed, he does.

I also think Pucchi makes that resolution easier for me to accept. If Pucchi can feel people’s emotions, then it makes sense that Vermilios might also be able to feel their emotions. He could understand where they’re coming from and understand that this woman can’t take care of him anymore.

It’s sad.

But it’s also satisfying, and I really appreciate Ultraman Teo doing something different with the conflict.

Bechi Might Have More Going On Than He’s Showing Us

I especially love how strongly Bechi connects with Vermilios.

It makes me feel like Bechi has some dark backstory or something. Maybe he was abandoned. Maybe there’s something else there.

I don’t know.

The episode doesn’t tell us, and I like that. We don’t dive into it and have him explain exactly what happened to him. We just see that this particular situation means something to him.

Bechi isn’t just a muscly guy. He’s a muscly guy with heart and potentially some trauma or interesting history.

And that brings me back to Pucchi.

At the end, Bechi is outwardly being nice while internally he’s seriously angry with his friend, and Pucchi knows it. There’s something interesting about a character who can put one thing on his face while feeling something completely different underneath, especially when there’s this little creature around who apparently can’t be fooled by that.

There’s more going on with Bechi than he’s showing us.

I’m curious whether we’re eventually going to find out what it is.

How Does UTTF Know What Pucchi Is?

I’m also very interested in Kyoko and UTTF.

Somehow, Kyoko knows that Pucchi is the kaiju linked to the Pod.

How would she know that?

Where did UTTF get that information?

She doesn’t seem to care much about Vermilios. Instead, she’s interested in Pucchi, and she’s somehow able to identify Giant Pucchi based on…what?

I don’t know.

Then at the very end we get that crazy stinger of her approaching some hog-looking kaiju out in the middle of nowhere at night.

There’s clearly something going on with UTTF and these kaiju that we don’t understand yet, and I’m very curious to find out what it is.

Ultraman Teo Continues to Surprise Me

I’m really enjoying the Astronomy Club, too. Rintaro appears again and, in his own way, he’s basically covering for them. I like seeing that he does care, even if he shows it differently.

I’m just feeling very good about Ultraman Teo.

The pet translation app is ridiculous. Giant Pucchi disappearing almost immediately was disappointing. I still have questions about how gigantic kaiju are supposed to exist in this world without anybody noticing them.

But the emotional ideas underneath all of that work for me.

Ultraman Teo 07 takes what initially looks like another giant-monster problem and makes the real problem abandonment. Vermilios doesn’t need to be beaten. He needs to be understood. At the same time, Pucchi may be showing us that the feelings people don’t express can matter just as much as the ones they do.

That’s interesting. It’s offbeat. And it’s exactly the kind of thing that’s making me really enjoy this show.

All Zeztz Analysis | All Omega Analysis

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Inspector’s Notes

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Loose Threads

Ultraman Teo’s Barrier Powers Are Way More Flexible Than I Expected

I absolutely love how powerful Teo is, and I love how flexible his powers seem to be. Ultraman Teo 07 gave me another example of just watching him do things that I never thought he would do, and seeing him being able to do whatever it is, it’s really fantastic for me.

I kind of like structure and rigidity. I thought I liked hard magic systems. And it turns out I actually like soft magic systems, too. I like just letting characters have the ability to do supernatural, fantastical things, and then watching them go off and do them to whatever extent that they can. I think it’s really fun. I think it’s really slick.

I had no idea that Teo’s barrier ability would be so flexible.

I really appreciate that it’s got the hexagonal pattern. I don’t know if it’s geometrically or physically true that with hexagons you can make any shape you want as long as you have the scale correct. That might be true, it might not be 100% true, but either way it’s close enough. A soccer ball is obviously round, and it’s made of hexagons with pentagons in between them.

I’ve also seen similar things in Digimon. In Digimon Liberator, I’m pretty sure some of the battles happen in dome barriers made up of hexagons. And I think in Digimon Adventure tri. they have hexagonal spheres that they Digivolve inside of. None of that is really important except that, yes, you can make a sphere out of hexagons.

Teo’s barriers are made up of hexagonal segments, and he’s popping and dropping segments in place as he’s fighting Vermilios. Originally, I thought he was going to run forward as Vermilios was hitting one shield, circling and advancing at the same time, almost strafing, setting up barriers as he went.

Instead, he does something amazing, which I also think is a little bit of a cheat. He’s able to put a ring around Vermilios, and then that ring grows into an entire dome.

I wish it had been done a little bit differently. You could show Teo running, or imply with close-ups that he’s running, show him with his hands up and the reflection of the barriers. You don’t need to do a whole super-expensive CGI thing. Just show us the blocking, the motion and the movement of the character so that it’s instantly readable.

Then once he’s made the ring by running around Vermilios, let the dome form. I would have been completely okay with that.

I don’t know why I’m okay with that but not him projecting the ring and then having the dome form. I’m just saying I think it would have been better that way.

This is a tokusatsu production. You should be saving every bit of budget you have. Put the camera and the suit actor on a track, have him run around in a circle, do the tracking shot. I think it would look better, and I think it would be cheaper.

I’m just trying to save you money, Tsuburaya. Come to me. Fly me to Japan and we’ll take care of it.

Anyway, I think it’s a really cool thing.

Because Teo is dealing with a bird, and earlier they’re in the warehouse with all the birdcages, I thought, okay, cool. Through the staging, the direction, the shots and compositions, they’re showing us that he’s going to put Vermilios in a cage.

And that’s true.

I expected it to be more of a cage with bars and gaps, which would have made a little bit more sense to me. But it’s fair that Vermilios ends up in a dome that completely encloses him.

Then I love Vermilios attacking the dome, breaking out of the cage and coming after Teo.

I just continue to like this show. I enjoy how overpowered Teo is. I enjoy the flexibility of his powers and seeing all the different things that he can do, because I think it’s cool, and I think he’s cool.

And I love how this nonconfrontational guy who doesn’t want to fight is able to kick butt, do well, and be inventive in his fights.

Is it because he doesn’t want to fight and he doesn’t want conflict that he’s good at making barriers?

I don’t know, but that’s kind of a cool way to look at it.

There’s not evidence to say that’s actually the case. But I think the speculation is natural and easy. It flows, it’s on theme, and I really like that.

Staying on theme is important.