Due to the nature of acting as a Stealth Sequel to Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna, spoilers pertaining to the two series will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga, or simply Ultraman Trigger, is a Toku series released on July 9, 2021, created by Tsuburaya Productions and the 33rd entry in the Ultra Series.
30 million years prior, a giant of light sealed a great darkness away and went into slumber on Mars. In the present day, Martian settlement resident Kengo Manaka heads out to his work as a botanist. Unfortunately, his peaceful life is disturbed by a monster attack at the same time the sealed darkness starts to move and evils of the past return. Kengo has a fated encounter with the giant of light from the past, whose name is revealed to be Ultraman Trigger, and becomes the user of the ancient giant of light's power.
This series celebrated the 25th anniversary of Ultraman Tiga, hence the titular hero's many similarities to the original Tiga as an alternate retelling of the former series intended for the current generation of audience. While Trigger is not set in the same "Neo Frontier" continuity as Tiga or its Sequel Series Dyna, the show has hinted that there is a direct connection between the two series.
Just like the previous two series, it is accompanied by a Voice Drama released on the Tsuburaya YouTube channel, but since the titular Ultra's own past is already being covered in the series itself. It instead focuses on the lives of Ultraman Ribut and Sora after joining the Galaxy Rescue Force in Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy Chapter 1: The Beginning.
The series is followed up in a theatrical film, Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga: The Movie: Episode Z, serving as an epilogue to the series, and a Sequel Series set in the same continuity as Trigger called Ultraman Decker.
Recurring Ultra Series Tropes
- Big Bad: Carmeara, leader of the Dark Giants who is pursuing the Eternity Core so as to conquer the universe.
- Boss Subtitles: Per tradition for the franchise, old monsters from Tiga even get their original subtitles back and the Dark Giants' presence causes some to be changed after their interference.
- By the Power of Grayskull!:
- Trigger has multiple, depending on the form:
- "Build the future, the light of hope!" (Multi Type)
- "Seize the victory, the light of strength!" (Power Type)
- "Dominate the sky, the light of speed!" (Sky Type)
- "Illuminate the universe, the ultra ancient light!" (Glitter Trigger Eternity)
- ...all of which end with Kengo yelling "Ultraman...Trigger!" before transforming
- This would be downplayed in the case of Trigger Truth, as Kengo simply yells "Ultraman...Trigger!" before transforming
- Trigger Dark has "Stain the future, the deep darkness! Trigger Dark!"
- Creature-Hunter Organization: This series has GUTS-Select, which is heavily based on the original GUTS and employ remote-controlled weaponry and large airships to fight kaiju with. They're also one of the few examples of a team deliberately modeled after a previous one, since its founder Mitsukuni Shizuma, was a member of GUTS in the past.
- Critical Annoyance: Trigger has a Color Timer per usual for Ultras. It is diamond-shaped unlike the usual circular shaped Color Timers of most other Ultras. The Dark Giants have a similar structure but it doesn't seem to works like Trigger's own.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Most kaiju are defeated this way. Even the Dark Giants suffer this though none of them are killed off for good this way, Except for Darrgon. It also happens to Absolute Diavolo in episode 15 who does get obliterated... But regenerates from his heart core.
- Henshin Hero: Kengo Manaka/Ultraman Trigger serves as this series' main hero. Kengo transforms into the hero using a modified GUTS Sparklens.
- Hour of Power: Per tradition, Trigger can only stay active for a few minutes on Earth. Strangely enough, the Dark Giants themselves, except for Trigger Dark post-split, don't show this weakness despite.
- Kaiju: The series features a slew of new kaiju such as Golba (a fusion of Golza and Melba), Oka-Gubila (a land-based species of Gubila), Deathdrago and Satandelos (a new variant of Gigadelos); in addition to Showa ones (Gymaira, Zaragas), New Generation Era ones (Gaogorgon), and even Heisei ones that hadn't been seen in a while (Gazort, Powered Dada).
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Midway through the series GUTS-Select finishes developing the Battle Mode for the Nursedessei, letting them use their mobile base to fight enemies much more effectively.
- Multiform Balance: Trigger has three forms that he normally uses (one for strength, one for speed and the other for a balanced approach), each of them are parallels to Ultraman Tiga's own forms.
- Jack of All Trades: Multi Type, Trigger's default form, it's neither as strong as Power Type, nor faster than Sky Type. Instead it aims for a balanced approach to fighting when neither an overwhelming speed or strength are needed.
- Mighty Glacier: Power Type, a red/silver form used for close-quarters combat and strength matches. It is slower than Multi and Sky types but far stronger and more destructive in comparison.
- Fragile Speedster: Sky Type, an indigo/silver form used for quick and aerial combat, it has far less physical strength than either Multi or Power type in favor of being much faster and agile.
- Golden Super Mode: Glitter Eternity, which harnesses the Eternity Core to combine Trigger's three forms into a Deadly Upgrade.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: Trigger Truth, which merges Trigger's light with Trigger Dark's darkness.
- Swiss-Army Hero: As mentioned in the entry above, Trigger can change between many forms that each has a specialized role to fulfill depending on the necessity of the fight. For example, Sky Type is better suited to fight nimble enemies, Power Type is suited against juggernauts and heavyweight opponents while Multi Type is less specialized and thus works better against balanced foes.
- Title Drop: Like the heroes before him, this happens soon as Kengo shouts Ultraman Trigger's name when transforming.
- Toku: A series that calls back and is a homage as whole to Ultraman Tiga.
- Transformation Trinket: The GUTS Sparklence is a composite of the original Sparklence and GUTS Hyper Gun. To transform, Kengo has to load in a GUTS Hyper Key that corresponds to Trigger's Type Change. When Ultraman Z and his host Haruki Natsukawa appear in the series, Akito makes another custom GUTS Sparklence to let them transform after their Z-Riser was damaged.
Ultraman Trigger provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: In the climax, Ignis gives Trigger Dark's power to Trigger, allowing him to transform into his ultimate form, Trigger Truth.
- Ancient Evil: The forces of darkness that Trigger fought against in 30 million years in the ancient past have returned in the present day starting with Carmeara though Hudram woke up first.
- Badass Crew: GUTS-Select, which is established as a team that is newly founded in the wake of monster attacks that occurred six years prior to the series' start.
- Battle in the Rain: The peak of the first episode's climatic battle has Trigger fighting Carmeara in the midst of heavy rain on Mars, with the wet, muddy terrain making the battle difficult for Trigger.
- Bittersweet Ending: Carmeara/Megalothor is stopped, gets a sympathetic last moment with Trigger and the world is saved as is the Eternity Core without the need for Yuna having to sacrifice herself like her ancestor, Yuzare, did... Because Kengo is the one who sacrifices himself instead to save the universe from the Eternity Core's breakdown. While his sacrifice and heroism is well-remembered by the people of Earth months later, it's shown that his friends greatly miss him, especially Akito. Furthermore Ignis leaves Earth to find a way to bring the Lishurians back while Darrgon (who had come to befriend the heroes) remains dead.
- Book Ends: Carmeara is both the first and final opponent Trigger faces though in the latter case when she becomes Megalothor.
- Breaking Old Trends:
- Unlike previous "New Generation" Heroes, Trigger doesn't rely on a set of powers that have connections to past Ultras or monsters, instead having its own powerset inspired by Ultraman Tiga with modes based on offense, speed and balance.
- Also unlike previous New Gen heroes, Ultraman Trigger doesn't employ the host/Ultra or Ultraman in disguise tradition, instead opting to use the original Tiga's Empty Shell status with Kengo (Trigger's host) simply inheriting the power of the long-gone hero and the capacity to transform into him. Although it's later revealed that Kengo is Trigger's reincarnation.
- Evil Ultras that weren't a Split-Personality Takeover, Enemy Without or an Evil Knockoff were almost always reserved for either the series finales, movies, or specials and even if they were present from the start, they mostly stayed as background players that only took direct action in major arcs. Here, the Dark Giants make their presence clear from the get-go and actively antagonize the heroes.
- The Bus Came Back: A plethora of Neo Frontier kaiju and aliens return in the flesh after long absences in the franchise, such as Gazort, Deban and Kyrieloid. Other lesser known kaiju/alien such as Powered Dada of Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero also make their return in this series.
- Canon Welding:
- Episode 9 reveals that Chairman Shizuma was an intelligence officer from TPC in Ultraman Tiga's world that ended up in this reality via a wormhole and used the knowledge from his world to create the Shizuma Foundation and GUTS-Select by proxy once Deathdrago awoke.
- Absolute Diavolo, an Absolutian and ally of Absolute Tartarus, alongside the aforementioned Tartarus and Ultraman Ribut shows up in episode 14 "The Golden Threat", connecting this series in some way to Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad, sequel to Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy. The series itself would reveal this one to be its sequel-of-sorts as the Absolutians end up in Trigger's universe at the end of Destined Crossroad.
- Chekhov's Gun: Literally with the unusable prototype Spark Lance that Akito left in his lab, which is stolen by Ignis who uses it to become Dark Trigger.
- Continuity Nod: Chairman Shizuma apparently knows about Ultraman Tiga, briefly referring to him when giving Kengo a pep talk in the first episode. In fact, a brief shot of Tiga himself appears as a flashback in the episode.
- Turns out he knows about Ultraman Tiga because he's from Tiga's world.
- Foreshadowing: Many major reveals and events are foreshadowed through the first episodes and opening:
- The first episode has Mr. Shizuma bring up that Golba is a fusion of the kaiju, Golza and Melba, he remembers having met the hero Ultraman Tiga and on top of that is strangely familiar and adept with the situations involving the Ancient Ultras. He turns out to have been a native of the Neo Frontier Universe and a former high-ranking member of GUTS to boot, who wound up on Trigger's world after a freak wormhole sucked him in during a mission.
- Various times in Kengo's visions a Dark Giant is seen attacking him or staring ominously, similarly, he is alluded to have had some kind of personal close story with the Dark Giants with Hudram even saying that he once was "more elegant". It eventually turns out the original Trigger was the evil Trigger Dark who sought the Eternity Core.
- Ultraman Z once commented that Kengo looks like Trigger himself. He's not far from the truth.
- Ignis in the opening titles appears next to the silhouette of the aforementioned Dark Giant, in his debut episode he's mistaken for Hudram's human form/host and later on in the series he contemplates taking Trigger's power; first for his own selfish greed and later on to find a way to stop Hudram once and for all. He eventually gets the power he wanted when Trigger Dark's leftover essence possesses him after Trigger Glitter Eternity seemingly destroys the Dark Giant in episode 12 and starts transforming into it after episode 14.
- In their debut episode, Ignis and Hudram are shown to have a feud (mostly on Ignis' end as Hudram forgot and when beaten in the same episode Hudram tries to destroy Earth in a fit of rage before his fellow Dark Giants take him away. Likewise Marluru states that he tought all Lishurians (Ignis' species) had gone extinct upon meeting the treasure hunter. Episode 7 eventually reveals that Ignis hates Hudram because the Dark Giant committed genocide on his people and destroyed his home planet, leaving him to wallow in misery and filling a desire for revenge that he has in the present.
- Friendship-Hating Antagonist: Hudram, despite being part of the Dark Giants, actually sees friendship as a weakness, constantly belittling his boss Carmeara's loyalty towards Ultraman Trigger, having intentions to betray and backstab all his allies and usurping leadership and later mocking the heroes' bonds as friends while trying to kill everyone. It bites him rather impressively in the ass at the series' end.
- Heroic Second Wind: Right in the pilot, when Trigger is on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Camearra, he suddenly had a vision of his past using his mystical weapon called the Circle Arms, at which point Trigger immediately summons the weapon from the excavation site to his hand. Cue Trigger turning the battle around.
- Love Dodecahedron: Initially the series has Akito having feelings for Yuna and growing jealous of hers and Kengo's growing friendship, then into the whole debacle enters Ignis who starts turning into a romantic rival for Akito AND then Darrgon joins in on the mix, directly clashing with Akito and Ignis for Yuna's heart.
- MacGuffin: For the Dark Giants there's the Eternity Core, a yet-to-be-described artifact that's supposed to allow them to conquer the universe and cover it in darkness, its presence on Earth is the sole reason for which they arrived at the planet. They need Yuzare in order to locate it.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The teaser trailer have a few shots whose color grading doesn't match the finished product. For instance, Trigger demonstrating the Circle Arms' slash on Golba is shown with clear blue skies
in the teaser, implying the debut episode takes place on Earth, while in the actual show the skies are brown-orange due to the debut fight being on Mars. - Revisiting the Roots: The series forgoes a lot of the elements from previous New Generation shows in favor of more traditional Ultra Series elements, such as a narrative completely divorced from the M78 universe instead having a subtler connection to Neo Frontier Universe, Multiform Balance as the heroes' source of power instead of past heroes or kaiju's powers as well as a traditional fully fledged attack team with airships.
- Ring on a Necklace: Chief Mitsukuni Shizuma carries the ring belonging to his late wife, Yurika Shizuma, on a necklace, which he then presents to his daughter Yuna on her 18th birthday by putting it around her neck. Said ring is actually an artifact from another dimension which can deflect attacks from monsters.
-
Spiritual Successor:- To the Heisei Ultraseven spin-offs in that both series take place in an Alternate Universe rather than in the original continuity of their respective shows—as Trigger is an alternate modern retelling of the story of the original Ultraman Tiga, whereas Heisei Ultraseven's story is a What If? Ultraseven was the only Ultra to set foot on Earth and the Ultra Guard never disbanded after he finished his mission on Earth.
- Also to Ultraman Mebius. In addition to both shows commemorating the franchise's
Milestone Celebration, both series take a stroll back to a previous continuity from the preceding Japanese Imperial era. The only main difference however, is Mebius takes place in the same universe with the Land of Light Ultras that have previously set foot on Earth (i.e., Ultraman to Ultraman Leo and Ultraman 80) whereas Trigger is an alternate retelling of the original Ultraman Tiga series in an Alternate Universe separate from the World of Neo Frontier Space (aka., the universe of Tiga and Dyna) intended for the current generation of audience. Mebius served as the 40th Milestone Celebration for the Ultra Series, while Ultraman Trigger celebrates the franchise's 55th anniversary, and the 25th anniversary of Ultraman Tiga.
- Stable Time Loop: Episodes 11-12 reveal that the series occurs within one, as a consenquence of Kengo's resisting against Camerra's Dark Curse sending Kengo into the past, allowing him to meet Yuzare in person, bond with Trigger Dark to become Ultraman Trigger to fight off the Dark Giants and protect the Eternity Core, and ultimately, after receving a part of the Eternity Core from Yuzare, launching the Dark Giants into space and petrifying them and himself, setting up the circumstances of the series.
- Stealth Sequel: Trigger acts as this for Ultraman Tiga (and by extension Ultraman Dyna), despite being a remake of that series. It also helps when Mitsukuni Shizuma is actually from the Neo Frontier universe that ended up in the World of Eternity Core and having established TPU and GUTS-Select as a derivative of Neo Frontier's TPC and the original GUTS and Super GUTS, respectively.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Trigger's Circle Arms weapon. Initially appearing as a giant sword in the Martian ruins, the Circle Arms takes on one of three configurations to match whatever form Trigger is in: a sword for Multi Type, a scissor claw for Power Type and a bow for Sky Type. The configurations are not dependent on his form allowing him to mix and match fight styles as needed.
- Taken for Granite: The Ancient Ultras were all turned to stone and scattered across the cosmos: Trigger ended up on Mars, Carmeara was left floating in outer space, Darrgon on the Moon and Hudram in parts unknown. All awoke in the present, though Hudram was freed of his prison one hundred years earlier than the others.
- Wall Pin of Love: In episode 10, Darrgon tries to woo Yuna with this, after some advice from Ignis. However, him being the so-called "Herculean Fighter", he damages the wall, leaving a prominent dent on it.
- Wham Episode:
- Episode 5 reveals that Akito and Mitsukuni Shizuma became aware of the threat of kaiju before anyone else did and developed a GUTS Wing to fight the first monster to appear: Deathdrago.
- Episode 6 has the reveal that Hudram committed genocide on the Lishurians and spared him out of Cruel Mercy so as to let Ignis suffer in his now dead planet which is why Ignis hates Hudram so much.
- Episode 8 has Yuna learning that she is housing Yuzare's spirit.
- Episode 9 reveals that Mr. Shizuma was a native of the Neo Frontier Universe and an intelligent officer and pilot of the original GUTS who wound up on Trigger's Earth after a rogue wormhole sucked him (and his GUTS Wing) in; also Yuna's mother was aware of her status as a descendant of Yuzare and that Yuna would be the reincarnation of the long-deceased white-clad woman; finally Captain Tatsumi was also aware of Yuna's true nature and Mitsukuni's origins as was Akito with all of GUTS-Select learning these two factors when the captain is told by his superior to tell them everything.
- We learn in episode 10 that Trigger was once a Dark Giant known as Trigger Dark who stood with his fellow giants against Yuzare.
- Episode 11 has even more than before as Carmeara corrupts Trigger back into Trigger Dark, Kengo is sent to the past and meets Yuzare, and the Dark Giants find the Eternity Core in the past using Yuzare to open the altar where it is located.
- Episode 12 reveals that Trigger and Kengo were one and the same all along, Trigger turned the other Dark Giants into stone with Glitter Eternity and then used the last of his powers to toss the statues into outer space setting up the events of the first episode, also Yuna finally learns that Kengo and Trigger are one and the same after Akito comes clean to her about it.
- Wham Shot:
- In episode 3, after Akito fires at Ignis when he believes the latter is going to harm Yuna, Yuzare's spirit emerges out of Yuna's body to protect Ignis which leads to the reveal that Yuna is Yuzare's reincarnation.
- After learning that Trigger was one of the Dark Giants, Kento has the same vision of a battle with Darrgon that he had before. Only now it can be seen that it wasn’t a battle, but a sparring match.
Smile Smile!
