Ultraman Blazar ep 3 Review: Burn up, Blazar! (Literally)

July 27, 2023Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
Skard is back in gear – well mostly! This episode is the debut of Skard’s mecha unit – the Earth Garron. Another great episode held up by amazing chemistry between the team members, great tone switch as well as comic relief moment during action. And of course, we get to peek jussttttt a little bit into Captain Gento’s personal life – which will no doubt be affected by Blazar.

The “conflict” for this time is a Kaiju swallowing resources called “Teaterium” from different parts of the world, and it’s nice to see the origin of this made-up new energy resources to be explained by someone in a show. Speaking of, let’s talk about Yasunobu Bando, the last of SKaRD’s member to be introduced. From the first few minutes of the episode, we can see that he’s the science/IT guy of the group. The way he explains the arsenals and the inner workings of Earth Garron as well as him describing science terms.

Now we move on to the SKaRD themselves. As a special squad that is newly formed, these people are really quick to bond with each other. From Emi, Anri, and Yasunobu shaking hands together to all squad members having a fun training session together. Especially the one when they’re simulating the Earth Garron fight with a maquette of a town, that brings a smile to my face. Watching that reminds me of the days when I play with my toys, with how they shout out commands and making special effects and all.

A scene after that showed him reminiscing about something in front of his work locker. It was when he rescued many people in a building and him seeing a portal that led to a being of light, which Gento mistook as a person needing a rescue. Is this the incident that occurred three years ago that was mentioned back in the first episode, where Gento rescued a lot of people? Also, him meeting this light figure is similar to the flashback we saw in episode 2 where he gave the codename “Ultraman Blazar” to Chief Haruno. So, could this Gento’s first contact with Blazar? If so, Blazar’s appearance in front Gento is right when he’s rescuing a lot of people. Did Blazar want to contact Gento because of his courageous nature, did he ask for his help, or is it just a coincidence? I’m excited to find this out more later. Furthermore, we also see him putting on his ring – signifying he has 2 modes: family and work mode. And we can also see he has a picture of his family attached to the locker. This small details is great to show Gento’s gradual development.

With this, SKaRD decided to deploy their anti-Kaiju mecha, Earth Garron. The way the shot this scene is really good. It gives me Pacific Rim vibes, with each members confirming the status of each equipment and the English speaking in the speakers. Not only that, Earth Garron’s entrance when it’s landing is so cool. Something about a mech shot in the dark and engulfed in smokes/fogs with the mech’s light beaming through the darkness is so menacing. Bonus points if the mech is “monster-like” and it starts roaring with its eyes lit up.

Another thing that makes this mech cool is how it is a two-seater. One person pilots the mech and the other that provide supports by giving the pilot commands according to the situation on the battlefield. This gives a “brain and muscle” dynamic to the two pilots, where one pilot is a muscle that moves the mech and one pilot is the brain that gives commands to the muscle. Of course, since this requires a proper coordination between two pilots, one pilot has to be strong enough to move the mech and another one has to be able to make a correct decision on the battle field. This episode’s pilots are Anri and Gento, so this is a perfect combination for Anri is physically strong and Captain Gento is already capable of assessing the situation on the battlefield. Although, it is stated that the Anri and Yasunobu work in shifts to pilot Earth Garron, so I’m eager to find out how capable Yasunobu of piloting Earth Garron in later episodes.

the fight between Earth Garron and Taganular starts. Despite the difficulty, Earth Garron is still capable to put up a good fight, that is until the Kaiju unleashed radiation right after Earth Garron punched it, catching the mech off guard and fell off when trying to retreat. While this is a minor thing to point out, I find it funny how when the mech fell off its eyes turned into those cartoony spiral eyes commonly found when cartoon characters are knocked unconscious. This gives the Kaiju an opportunity to consume more energy until its body temperature reached over 10,000 degrees. Gento goes out to fix the Earth Garron from the outside, and then Blazar Brace shows up to his left arm which gave him the signal to transform. In this episode’s transformation, we can see now that Gento is more ready than before due to his previous experiences in the last two episodes.

Blazar comes again to claims the glory of exterminating the Kaiju, in an “entertaining” fight. Imagine, your opponent is over 10,000 degrees and you’re trying to touch it with your bare hands, that’s how the Blazar fight in this episode goes in a nutshell. The sounds he made when he hurt himself when touching the Kaiju is hilarious, since it just sounds like an ordinary human when touching a hotter than average pan. Despite that, Blazar still have to try fighting it, and sure enough he managed to overcome that obstacle. When Taganular head’s temperature reached over a million as if it’s ready to shot something out of its horn, Blazar tries to hold its horn upright so that whatever Taganular will shoot won’t cause a devastating damage. After launching a powerful blast, Taganular cooled down and left made Blazar confusion. Just Blazar’s look of confusion alone makes me giggle. It’s like him saying “Wait, I can touch it again?” Both exchange a baffled look until Taganular starts to attack again, and then Blazar finishes it with a Spiral Burrade.

The episode ends with a heartwarming bonding moment between SKaRD members. Gento reassuring Emi that their operation has “met expectation”, despite their glory is stolen by Blazar. What Gento said resonates with Yasunobu that he starts jogging, with Anri and Emi followed suit. Teruaki starting to put more trust to Gento and also asking him to jog with the others. Slowly but surely, Gento is becoming the dad of this rowdy household.

Lastly, I find it interesting that due to the official order by chief Haruno, Emi stated that Blazar defeating as a “bad thing” since he stole SKaRD’s glory. This gives Blazar and SKaRD an intriguing relationship dynamic where they’re depicted as rivals.  Speaking of Emi, the next episode is going to focus more on her, so I’m looking forward to what she would bring to the table to be given a highlight episode.

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