Ultraman Tiga Gaiden: Revival of the Ancient Giant (2001)

More like a DVD extra

Here's the thing about Ultraman Tiga Gaiden: Revival of the Ancient Giant, while it may be somewhat unremarkable as a little side venture and as an extension of the Ultraman Tiga story, the idea of setting a giant hero story in Stone Age Japan is an inspired one and an idea I could easily see being fleshed out again someday.

Five thousand years ago, an ancient red-and-blue warrior of light defended a village against a giant, golem-like monster, but disappeared after that, where the Ultra is worshipped by superstitious locals as a guardian protector. In the present time of 2038, Super GUTS pilot Tsubasa Madoka (son of Daigo and Reina Madoka) pursues the monster Jomonoid, before suddenly getting dragged into a wormhole. Upon arrival, Tsubasa realized he's stuck centuries in the past, specifically, in the same village that Ultraman Tiga once guarded, and there are evil forces who want to prevent the re-awakening of Ultraman Tiga while re-summoning monsters of the past...

The original plan for Gaiden had been for Hiroshi Nagano to return as Daigo, but unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with his band V6's then-ongoing tour, he was unable to participate in the production. Thus, Daigo and Rena's son, Tsubasa Madoka, was created in his place. This isn't as major of a complaint as I'd initially thought because the new cast of characters is quite good fun, especially given the premise and setting with Tsubasa being quite a fun little protagonist even if he goes on a pretty similar journey to Daigo in learn to come to terms with co-existing as both himself and as Tiga.

There's a lot of lavish direction in this story thanks to the efforts of frequent Tiga, Dyna and Gaia director Hirochika Muraishi, who also helmed my beloved Final Odyssey. He makes great use of the larger budget the effects team were afforded and puts them to work with some stunning destruction sequences, the Kaiju vs Ultra fights are well staged, but there's the odd bit of front projection and CG that like most of the early Heisei Ultra shows hasn't aged very well.

The cast of Gaiden is all made up of returning actors from the entire TDG trilogy aside from Hiroshi Nagano and Takami Yoshimoto doesn't return as Rena either despite Letterboxd crediting both of them for some reason. Shôgo Yamaguchi is quite a fun protagonist in the form of Tsubasa and Yuri Yamazaki portrays a great badass in the form of the warrior Mahoroba, but I cannot get behind Makoto Kamijo as Amui who is borderline insufferable at times and pretty much robs Tsubasa of his heroic moments.

Tatsumi Yano retains much of the classic pieces from his Ultraman Tiga score and they all do their job just as well as they did in the TV show. Perhaps my biggest criticism is that both Take Me Higher and Brave Love Tiga are nowhere to be seen in Gaiden. Instead, Kodou~for TIGA~ is the theme and I'm honestly not a fan, it's one of the weaker songs that's been used to signify Tiga as a character.

Overall, Ultraman Tiga Gaiden: Revival of the Ancient Giant is ultimately little more than an extended episode of the TV show but its production more than carries it despite it feeling quite disheartening to not have the original cast in it. It's closer to an exciting DVD extra more so than a film.

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