Chapter 241: Daigo: I've Become Light Again!
Daigo walked out of the hospital room with a heavy expression.
Standing outside, waiting anxiously, were Hayata, Dan, and Hokuto. They immediately surrounded him.
"How is she?" Hayata asked urgently.
Daigo slowly shook his head. "I'm not sure… But I want to help her."
The words sounded vague, but the three veterans could clearly feel the helplessness in Daigo's heart—because they shared the same feeling.
"...Yeah."
Dan crossed his arms and let out a long sigh.
Hokuto pursed his lips and tried to encourage everyone: "She's strong, Aki won't die."
Seeing the gloomy faces of his three seniors, Daigo tried to say something: "We…"
"Hm?"
All three turned to look at Daigo. Their serious expressions made Daigo swallow his words.
"What can we do?"
Standing off to the side, Rena had been watching her boyfriend closely. Her eyes flickered, she could tell that wasn't what Daigo had really wanted to say.
Among the three seniors, it was Hayata—who knew Daigo best—who first sensed that something wasn't right with him.
"Maybe… we really can't do anything," Hayata said to Daigo. "But if we give up now, that's when it's truly over."
He could tell Daigo had something in mind but was holding back out of hesitation.
What kind of solution a young guy like Daigo could come up with in this situation—Hayata didn't know.
But he knew this: as a senior, he had to offer support in this critical moment.
"Uncle Hayata…"
Daigo still wore that look of wanting to speak but being unable to.
"What needs to be done now… only you can find that answer."
Hayata's words gave Daigo the push he needed. He nodded firmly to the three elders and clenched his fists.
"...Please excuse me."
With that, he turned and hurried off.
"Daigo…"
As they watched his figure disappear into the distance, Rena's voice began to overlap with the sound of thunder outside.
"Looks like Daigo has made his decision now."
As the sorrowful background music swelled, Li Ri'ang immediately understood what was going on.
Daigo had made up his mind to replace Mebius and awaken the seven warriors of this world.
Logically, in a typical movie script, this would be the time for the main characters to regroup and prepare for the final battle.
But Shinji didn't let Daigo's transformation happen that quickly, nor did he allow the seven warriors to be gathered so easily.
In the original Great Battle! Super 8 (Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers), Daigo's conversation with the three seniors was actually cut due to shooting constraints, and only a brief shot of it was edited into the ending.
The dialogue itself was later published in the officially released script outline.
After reading it, Shinji realized this was a key turning point for Daigo's mindset, so he decided to restore this scene in the film.
To do this, Shinji rewrote the scene that originally came right after, where Daigo questioned the Mebius statue, moving it to just before Daigo's transformation instead.
He also made adjustments to the lines of the characters in the hospital scene, changing the one who encouraged Daigo from Dan to Hayata.
This wasn't just to give the original Ultraman some extra screen time—it was also because having Dan scold Daigo too harshly would always make Shinji recall the iconic "Three Questions" of Ultraman:
"What's with that expression of yours?"
"What's with those tears?"
"Can your tears save the Earth?"
Cough, cough.
Not gonna lie, just a slight tweak to the dialogue and that classic Ultra Three Questions could've fit right in without a hitch.
But since those lines were already delivered in the Mebius TV series, doing the same homage here would've felt repetitive and overdone.
Besides, Shinji knew full well—those questions were destined to become a meme among fans.
In order to prevent future audiences from bursting into pig-like laughter at such a tragic moment, Shinji ultimately had no choice but to abandon his mischievous plan.
Though he couldn't carry out his inner prankster's wish, Shinji remained extremely serious when it came to making movies.
To avoid narrative repetition and preserve emotional continuity for the audience, Shinji made several adjustments to the second act of the film.
First, he compressed what was originally meant to take place over two days into just one night.
From a purely logical standpoint, the original two-day timeline made more sense.
After all, a lot happens during this period, and characters need time to process everything that's unfolding.
But from a cinematic perspective, this sort of breathing room felt too slow, it almost made it seem like the Alien Hipporito was generously giving Daigo an entire day to go call in reinforcements, as if it wanted the Ultra warriors to foil its invasion plan.
This kind of conflict between narrative logic and film pacing is common, it often pops up when moving from script outline to the final edit.
Take Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for example:
In the movie, right after Harry's birthday and his shopping trip to Diagon Alley, he immediately heads to King's Cross Station to board the train to school.
But in the original book, Harry actually spent an entire month waiting back in the Muggle world.
That's a change that had to be made for film.
In a book, a month-long wait builds tension and anticipation.
But in a movie, audiences have no patience for that kind of delay—they'd be shouting, "I've already taken off my pants for this, and you're telling me to wait another scene? Don't make me put them back on!"
Of course, this kind of shift also leads to a continuity issue.
Harry's birthday is in late July, and Hogwarts doesn't open until September.
So what happened? Did Hogwarts just start a month early that year to make the Chosen One happy?
Dumbledore, you damned shady manipulator!
Fortunately, Great Battle! Super 8 (Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers) didn't have any official novel as its source material.
And even if one existed, it would've been published under Shinji's supervision anyway.
These days at Tsuburaya Productions, Shinji is king, whatever he wants, goes.
So, in order to ramp up the tension of the story, Shinji not only condensed the plot of Super 8 into a single day, he also pulled forward the first conversation between the red-shoed girl and Daigo, placing it before he even went to the hospital.
This made it perfectly natural for Daigo, after being encouraged by Hayata, to go directly seek out Asuka and Gamu.
"Sir Matou is truly an amazing director,"
Alice said sincerely, unaware that Shinji had rewritten the script.
Still, she was completely won over by his storytelling instincts.
As a viewer, she could feel how well-paced Super 8 was, tense when it needed to be, sentimental at just the right times.
Because Super 8 was one of Matou Shinji's experimental films, it featured no magical rituals or theories from the Nasuverse at all.
This made it an incredibly easy and relaxing watch for Alice—it was the first premiere movie she'd seen where she could just turn off her brain and enjoy the experience.
Ever since falling in love with Shinji's works, Alice had seen quite a few of his films.
To her, Shinji's mastery of visual storytelling placed him in a completely different league from those other directors who dragged out their plots until they stank.
His pacing, his sense of when to push and when to pull—his ability to tell a story—made Alice's heart race whether it was her second viewing, her third, or even more.
And for a Fate-series fan, that was no small feat.
Because Fate films weren't just complicated, they were filled with lore and setups that made the average moviegoer's head spin.
Yet this film, which should've been complex and layered, became incredibly accessible under Shinji Matou's direction, it's easy to understand, yet absolutely thrilling to watch.
And Super 8? It was on a whole other level.
Even though the story had been simplified on the surface, Shinji managed to tell it in a way that was emotionally intricate, full of twists and turns that took viewers on a wild emotional rollercoaster.
Originally, Alice thought that after being encouraged by Hayata, Daigo would regain his determination and go rally his companions to transform into Ultramen and fight the monsters together.
But instead?
Daigo went straight to Asuka and Gamu, only to be coldly rejected.
The two of them didn't believe a word he said.
Worse, they got angry at him, thinking he was joking around during such a critical time.
"No wonder Sir Matou's films always crush it at the box office,"
Alice laughed in admiration. "He deserves every bit of that success."
"His masterful storytelling and sense of rhythm keep the audience's attention locked on the narrative the whole time."
"Even though I can guess the general direction of the story—that the Ultramen will eventually reunite—I still feel anxious about where it's going."
What Alice didn't know was that Shinji wasn't just talented—he was literally "cheating."
With an entire world of commercial cinema knowledge behind him, if Shinji wasn't the best in the business at crafting film pacing, then there'd be something seriously wrong.
And by textbook commercial film structure, Daigo was currently in the critical transition phase: stuck between confusion and epiphany.
The fact that he tried to recruit Asuka and Gamu for the battle shows that Daigo had already sensed the existence of "light" and was beginning to move toward it.
Looking back at the start of the film, the contrast is crystal clear:
Daigo began the movie as a total salaryman who'd completely forgotten about Ultraman.
Now, he believed in them again—he believed in heroes—and wanted to awaken them to save the world.
But the very fact that he sought help from others instead of transforming himself showed that he hadn't fully awakened yet.
He was still running away.
This was something Rena called out directly:
"Back then, you were the one who gave up on your ideals. Daigo, ever since you were little, you worked hard to become an astronaut. I always supported that version of you. But just when you were so close to making your dream come true, you gave it all up..."
Her words hit Daigo hard.
Again, when you reflect on the film's opening—it's all the more powerful.
Daigo started as a man who'd abandoned his dream, who'd forgotten about light, about hope.
But now? Now he believed again.
He wanted to awaken the warriors. He wanted to protect the world.
This moment in the story marked the true turning point—the pivotal beat in any hero's journey:
The moment the protagonist sheds their former self and chooses to become something better.
For Daigo, this change was triggered during the monster attack.
Black Silhouette had summoned Golza and Melba, and they were tearing through the city.
It was Rena's voice, broadcast to the people, urging them not to lose hope, that finally sparked the fire within Daigo.
At that moment, Daigo's courage—his own courage—ignited.
And with it, he felt the power of the light return.
"Damn monsters!"
Watching the kaiju wreak havoc amidst the ruins of the city, Daigo charged toward them with renewed resolve.
He looked up to the stars.
And then, the memories came rushing back.
"Daigo, if this world ever falls into crisis, will you become Ultraman to save it?"
The red-shoed girl's smiling face appeared in his mind.
In that moment, Daigo felt a power unlike anything before.
The experiences of a parallel world finally awakened within him.
A brilliant light began to radiate from his body.
"I remember now… the seventh warrior… the last one… was me!"
As if to confirm his words, the light condensed in his hand—forming the object that defined so many childhood dreams:
The Sparklence—the transformation device of Ultraman Tiga.
"This world, I'll protect it!"
"TIGA!!"
Never giving up until the very end—Ultraman will always come.
The Giant of Light—Tiga—once again stood tall upon the Earth!
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