The Impostor Blues

The Impostor Blues
Ultraman Orb, episode 9
Information
Airdate	September 3, 2016
Directed by	Suguru Tomita
Written by	Takao Nakano
Continuity
Previous	The Urban Merman
Next	Juggler Dies!

The Impostor Blues is the ninth episode of Ultraman Orb.

Synopsis

Don Nostra of the Planet Invasion Union sends Alien Babarue to earth, with the plan the humans' trust by disguising as Ultraman Orb and destroying buildings, but their plan is ruined when a monster interrupts them, making the Fake Orb defeat the monster, and things go more awry as Jetta finds him and thinks he is Orb's secret identity.

Plot

In outer space on their spaceship, Don Nostra and Jugglus Juggler came to the conclusion that the hope and trust of the humans is what gives Ultraman Orb strength as well as the fear of hurting them during battle. Nostra then initiated his Space Command M774, ordering his collaborator, Alien Babarue Babaryu to use his shape shifting abilities to turn into Orb and attack the surface, therefore destroying the trust in the process. Babaryu accepts the command and transformed into Orb.

Back on Earth, Gai and the SSP were having lunch at a local café with Shin showing Naomi his artificial intelligence programs that will the majority of the work for him and Jetta getting bored with the lack of monsters when the latter spotted something outside, it later turned out to be a light which then revealed itself to be "Ultraman Orb". Jetta decided to lead the SSP in filming the Ultra and he gives Gai the duty of covering the footage before he can transform into the real deal. Before the pusedo-Ultra can wreak havoc on the surface on orders, the monster Telesdon suddenly burrowed up from underground, and thinking he was the real deal, started to attack Babaryu, much to the surprise of both him and Don Nostra. With no other choice, Don Nostra urged Babaryu to protect himself and eventually, he did, but very poorly. After he inadvertently protected two kids, the alien became enraged and attacked Telesdon head-on until the monster decided to burrow out of here with the "Ultra" commanding him to get out and stay out. After that, his disguise started to ware out, so he turned himself back into light and left. Jetta decided to discover Orb's identity after the two kids thanked him for saving him.

Babaryu was aching and confused from the fight when Jetta discovered him and he was forced to change into a human identity titled Ruyji Baba. Jetta concluded that it is hard to operate for a hero like him if everyone knows his true identity and the two of them promised to keep it a secret between the two of them and the strange man left, with Gai watching him.

Back on the spaceship, Babaryu tells Don Nostra that he will continue with the space command. And at the SSP office, the latest monster attack was told on the news and Jetta told Gai that he though he was Ultraman Orb until he saw his "real" secret identity but couldn't tell him. To pay off his debt, Gai was forced to come with Jetta all day.

Meanwhile, Babaryu was planning on randomly smashing stuff as Orb to ungain the human's trust, but he was caught red-handed by VTL leader Ittetsu Shibukawa and was about to get arrested until Jetta and Gai showed up and the former told him that the two of them went to high school together before leaving. Jetta then calls up the kids from earlier and their friends and gathered around "Baba" became really uncomfortable with this. Jetta encouraged the kids to ask him some questions and he, with help from his "friend", told the kids that in order to be what they want to be and do, they have to do the right thing every day and keep putting their minds to it.

As the sun went down, Baba thanked Jetta for his help and after gazing in awe at the presents the kids gave him, Baba asks him if heroes are great and Jetta flashes back to his childhood days when he wanted to be a hero, and answers his question by telling him he can do by simply telling someone about heroic deeds.

Babaryu then went back onto the spaceship in his true form, looking at some pictures the kids drew him and told a recently arrived Alien Nackle Nagus that he thinks that making people happy is better than making them hate them, but Nagus dismissed that fact, calling Babaryu an oddball.

The next day, Baba went back to Earth in his human form, and plays with the kids at a local playground, truly embracing himself as role model among the kids, as his words of encouragement gave the kids improvement in their lives, while wondering if he can keep it up. Suddenly the Planet Invasion Union's ship showed up and Don Nostra, tired of waiting, angrily urged Babayru to do what he was supposed to do. Baba transformed into Orb thanks to the encouragement of the children, but instead of crushing the landscape and the children, he stood up to him and told them that even he can be hero thanks to the children, much to the frustration of Don Nostra, as he ordered Jugglus to execute him.

With his Dark Ring, he summoned the monster Kelbim to attack the "Ultra" and the monster had him on the ropes by beating his physical attacks with his own and his disguise wore off after being hit by a fireball. He confessed to the kids and Jetta and Gai about lying about being Ultraman Orb, but nonetheless, the kids and Jetta encouraged him to get up and fight back. With a new firey spirit, Babaryu once again took on the monster head on and he did manage to put up much more of a fight, but was still no match for the monster. Before he was about to get killed by another fireball however, Gai transformed into the real Ultraman Orb and saved him with his Sparion Shield. After an evenly matched fight with each other, Orb turned into his Hurricane Slash form and after sending Kelbim up into the air, destroyed him with his Trident Slash. After admitting that the real deal was awesome, Babaryu vanished, much to the worry of Jetta.

Back on the spaceship, Jugglus told Don Nostra that his methods of judging good and evil in human nature are outdated and leaves. On Earth, Babaryu, in his true form, was limping away and then he vanished after Jetta and the two kids thanked him for everything, making it seem like he died afterwards.

Back at the playground, Jetta and Gai were sitting around wandering where Baba went. They then saw a kind man in light blue and white clothing giving a little girl her hat back and hinted to them that Baba might not have died after all. The episode ends with Gai guessing that heroes are just as common as they think.

Gai's Ultra Hero Special Study

• Gai: Ultra Hero Special Study. Here's today's hero!
• Orb Ring: Ultraman Cosmos!
• Gai: Cosmos, the warrior of kindness. He can use mode changing to shift from gentle Luna Mode to his powerful Corona Mode. And today's monster is...
• Orb Ring: Kelbim!
• Gai: The Cosmic Misfortune Monster, Kelbim. A dangerous monster with sharp claws and a long, whiplike tail. Be sure to watch next time!

Cast

• Gai Kurenai : Hideo Ishiguro
• Naomi Yumeno : Miyabi Matsuura
• Jetta Hayami : Naoto Takahashi
• Shin Matsudo : Hiroaki Nerio
• Jugglus Juggler : Takaya Aoyagi
• Ittetsu Shibukawa : Shingo Yanagisawa

Guest Actors

• Babarue Babaryu/Ryuji Baba : Ryusuke Nakamura
• Jetta Hayami (Child): Atsuki Hagihara
• Jetta Hayami's Father: Katsuyuki Yamazaki
• Masato : Ren Matsumoto
• Shinji : Ibuki Morinaga
• Child: Rion Saito , Soma Ogasawa , Reo Yasuda , Rui Nagashima , Ayaka Oki , Sakura Kubota , Koyuki Takei , Seiran Fukushima
• Alien Mefilas Nostra (Voice): Hiroki Yasumoto
• Alien Metron Tarude (Voice): Koichi Toshima
• Alien Nackle Nagus (Voice): Tetsuo Kishi
• Radio (Voice): Miki Ootani

Suit Actors

• Ultraman Orb (Spacium Zeperion) : Hideyoshi Iwata
• Ultraman Orb (Hurricane Slash) , Alien Mefilas Nostra : Shinnosuke Ishikawa
• Babarue Babaryu : Daisuke Terai
• Telesdon , Kelbim : Kazunori Yokoo
• Alien Metron Tarude : Hiroyuki Arai
• Alien Nackle Nagus : Keita Rikimaru

Appearances

Ultras

• Ultraman Orb
  • Spacium Zeperion
  • Hurricane Slash

Kaiju

• Alien Mefilas Nostra
• Alien Nackle Nagus
• Alien Metron Tarude
• Alien Babarue Babaryu
  • Normal
  • Imit-Ultraman Orb
• Telesdon
• Kelbim

Trivia

Babarue's transformation compared to that of Mirrorman

• This episode is a tribute to episode 21 of Ultra Q, Space Directive M774, which is in fact Babaryu's codename during his service in the Union.
• Babaryu's transformation scene is similar to Dan Moroboshi's Ultra Willpower which is ironic considering that Dan have used the Ultra Willpower against Alien Babarue in Ultraman Leo.
  • Additionally, the sequence is very similar to that of Mirrorman without the blue background.