After encountering and assisting a strange man he finds on the side of the road, Yuma Hize is shocked to find that the man is aware of his identity as Ultraman Arc. He identifies himself as Sascal, an alien from the planet Diggle that travels through time to bestow wisdom on the righteousness. Curious to see if Yuma is worthy of being a hero, he poses him three tests. Should he fail, then Yuma will lose his power as Arc.
A man seeking help from SKiP to protect a kaiju that once protected him. A space planet capable of hosting and manipulating humans escaped in SKiP headquarters. And finally, an enemy from Shu's past returns once more to launch another attack on the Earth. These are the three tests Yuma must face - battling kaiju, aliens and even a dark version of Arc himself.
Having achieved everything he had set out to do within the series itself, Ultraman Arc director Takanori Tsujimoto didn’t just want to follow the usual pattern of introducing yet another more powerful enemy for the hero to face – considering an escalation in battles to be “excessive”. This is why The Clash of Light and Evil takes the interesting decision to take place within the main series, but with (very minor) allusions to its conclusion. Like Ultraman Blazar’s movie Tokyo Kaiju Showdown it begins with an overview of the main story, but unlike its predecessor this isn’t included so that the viewer could watch it as their first exposure to the series. Here it doesn’t eat into the running time of the film, and is presented in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner to establish its position as a “midquel” of sorts. This tone is then carried through to the setup of the film, with Sascal presented as a rather eccentric figure through both his appearance and mannerisms. While his tests may come with an air of seriousness, his demeanour perhaps suggests otherwise. His dismissal of the show’s opening credits, direct addressing of the camera (albeit not addressed by Yuma) along with the appearance of onscreen text further emphasis this light-heartedness, all whilst playing into Arc’s central theme of imagination.
From there the film moves into three unrelated segments, with time resetting back to the same point each time Yuma completes the test and learns its lesson. These segments are more or less just regular episodes of the show, right down to them each including commercial bumper cards midway through. The format immediately sets The Clash of Light and Evil apart from other recent Ultraman movies, even if it does come at the expense of a more coherent and immersive story. It’s a (predominantly) low stakes movie by design, but the vignette format doesn’t lend itself particularly well to character development, especially when coupled with both where the film is placed in Arc’s timeline and how it resets after each segment.
From there the film moves into three unrelated segments, with time resetting back to the same point each time Yuma completes the test and learns its lesson. These segments are more or less just regular episodes of the show, right down to them each including commercial bumper cards midway through. The format immediately sets The Clash of Light and Evil apart from other recent Ultraman movies, even if it does come at the expense of a more coherent and immersive story. It’s a (predominantly) low stakes movie by design, but the vignette format doesn’t lend itself particularly well to character development, especially when coupled with both where the film is placed in Arc’s timeline and how it resets after each segment.
The first part of the film, entitled “The Dog-Wolf Kaiju and the Boy” is an all-too familiar story for fans of Ultraman, centring around a kaiju misunderstood as a ferocious creature when it is in fact gentle and with a strong affinity for humans. Whilst not necessarily doing anything new with the setup, the story is told with a lot of heart – Tsujimoto basing the kaiju DogIf (named Mugon) on his own pet dog adding that extra bit of emotion. Tsujimoto’s love for dogs also shines through in the design for DogIf, combining the look of Shiba Inu with classic Ultraman design sensibility into a kaiju that’s hard to believe is anything but friendly. Coming this late in the story it’s strange to see Yuma immediately dismissive of Motoki’s assurance that Mugon is friendly, but the story plays out just as you’d expect – the climax seeing Arc and Mugon team up against a pair of Shagong. With the latter arguably being Arc’s signature kaiju it’s great to see them returning for its movie outing, and the conclusion of the story offers a strong lesson about trusting in the experience of others. It’s a comforting story that will particularly resonate with both children and animal lovers, as well as playing into how SKiP are primarily about understanding kaiju rather than defeating them. With a little more fleshing out it could have made for a particularly strong story within the series itself, particularly in the early stretch of episodes when both the plot and characters were beginning to develop.
“Mystery! The Space Plant Incident” meanwhile is undoubtedly the “fun” portion of the film, where Ultraman Arc channels John Carpenter’s The Thing in a simple story about an alien hiding amongst the team and they all begin to suspect one another. What the story lacks in substance in makes up for love for its influences, even if apparently more direct homages were dropped from the story for fear of it ending feeling too much like parody. That said it’s still a story that plays into the more light-hearted mood of Arc, with Shu’s love of coffee coming in handy when it turns out that Gartura is weak against caffeine. Despite playing up the SKiP element moreso than Arc himself, the segment is notable for featuring a human-sized Arc in the climax. Though it's far from the first appearance of a human-sized Ultra, it still happens rarely enough that it’s easy to forget it’s an ability a lot of them have. The fact it was included purely because Tsujimoto wanted to see more of Arc at this scale just further suggests this was the part production were having the most fun with.
Rounding off the film is “Decisive Battle! Arc vs. Guil Arc”, which is by far the most substantial element of the story – both in quality and in running time. It is also the segment that made up almost the entirety of the film’s promotion, with trailers teasing Arc facing off against a dark version of himself. With all the focus on Arc’s origins within the series itself, it was easy for imaginations to run wild on just who Guil Arc could be. But as surprising as his identity turns out to be, the reality of it is somewhat disappointing. (Spoiler alert) Guil Arc turns out to be none other than hypnotised Shu, running wild due to the machinations of the film’s main antagonist Alien Repo. Repo is a key figure from Shu’s past, their previous battle revealed to have caused the death of his previous partner. It’s a rich story with enough beats to cover the full running time, but instead the film bizarrely chooses to cover everything at breakneck pacing. No sooner than we’ve heard Shu’s history with Repo then we’re moving on to the alien making his move and creating Guil Arc. Any urgency from Yuma losing his Arc Ariser in the chaos is lost via a swift plot convenience, and following that it doesn’t take very long at all for him to pull Shu out of the jaws of darkness. With Shu learning of Arc’s identity in the process (only to forget it again in time for the series’ finale) there are plenty of ways his dissent into darkness could have been expanded on, feeling betrayed by his friend’s secrecy as well as (reflecting their personalities) Guil Arc being a more logic-driven Ultra to clash with Yuma/Arc’s imagination. Instead “Decisive Battle! Arc vs. Guil Arc” just speed runs a generic dark Ultra storyline, taking away a lot of the emotional weight it could have had.
“Decisive Battle! Arc vs. Guil Arc” does however really amp things up when it comes to visuals, giving it the level of spectacle one might expect from a big-screen outing. Dark Ultras have always been a firm favourite amongst fans and Guil Arc is yet another example of how a simple palette swap can work wonders for a design. The action makes frequent use of beam struggles between the two Ultras for visually impressive fight sequences, and Guil Arc also having the ability to use Arc’s armours is a pleasant surprise. The climax isn’t just the two Ultras battling it out either, as their team-up against Repo’s kaiju form Repodios atop a floating island features similarly strong moments. With Arc having fought as a solo hero over the entirety of the series giving him a partner adds a slightly different flavour to the choreography, as does giving Shu a much-deserved moment in the spotlight.
There are other things to like about The Clash of Light and Evil too. It’s good that the film features all of the SkiP team in a reasonably substantial role, which each segment highlighting a different member. “The Dog-Wolf Kaiju and the Boy” sees SKiP chief Hiroshi more sympathetic to Motoki’s plight than the rest of the team – relating his relationship with Mugon to the one he once shared with his own family pet. “Mystery! The Space Plant Incident” is more of a SKiP-focused story and as such features them all quite heavily, however Rin gets to have a little more fun than the others whist possessed by Gartura. Finally “Decisive Battle! Arc vs. Guil Arc” of course turns the focus on Shu, diving into his time before joining SKiP and the trauma he suffered during that time. The problem is none of it is particularly substantial, and like the stories themselves don’t really tell the audience much about them that they didn’t know already. Shu’s backstory would be the exception, but that too is both underdeveloped and hampered by an almost immediate character reset. Ultimately The Clash of Light and Evil’s biggest obstacle is its need to fit in – it can’t make any developments that affect the course of the series, because even its parallel timeline status is quickly walked back on. Enjoyable as both the series and characters may be, it feels like a series of simple stories made purely by a studio mandate to have an Ultraman Arc movie rather than anything more substantial.
For any other show this might be less of an issue this late in the game, but it especially hurts for Ultraman Arc because it was a show that build a lot of its appeal and intrigue around its mythology. Arc made a big thing about creating its own unique history and origin for its hero – something it admittedly didn’t do a whole lot with within the series itself but at the same time did enough for the core story to work. By the end of the series the Earth had been saved, but the larger issue of Rution’s home galaxy facing total destruction and the reign of the Dark Space Lord Ze Su still loomed. Yuma left Earth with Rution to find a way to end the crisis once and for all, which felt like a story for another time. However now it seems like this story may never be told, or at the very least never play out onscreen. The fact the movie contains hints towards this eventual ending are particularly painful, suggesting the involvement of both Sascal and Alien Repo in Arc’s final battle against Ze Su. Had the film stayed wholly within the confines of a midquel then it might not seem so bad, but these reminders – combined with Arc’s emphasis on forging its own path, make the film’s efforts feel all the more pedestrian.
Ultraman Arc the Movie: The Clash of Light and Evil is a lovely reunion with the cast of Arc, but as a film struggles to be stronger than the sum of its parts. The concept is ambitious but the execution flawed, with the first two parts better suited to being regular episodes of the main show whilst the fast pacing of the final third robbing it of any real impact. While certainly not without its moments, much of that is thanks to what’s built up over the course of the series rather than the movie itself. With so much left to play with in the Arc universe, it’s a shame this is how it had to end (even if it doesn’t technically come at the end).
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