Ultraman Teo’s fourth episode, “Workshop, Watch Out!” continues to build intrigue regarding its central mystery, with Pucchi and the mysterious ship in the woods taking center stage. Despite this, the episode falters a bit when compared to the previous three, although not enough to completely stop the momentum the series has built so far.
While definitely not a bad episode by any means, I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed after being treated to almost an entire episode of mostly character building in “Welcome to The Astronomy Club”, with this episode spending a fair amount of its runtime setting up the mystery regarding the show’s latest monster. Perhaps this is unfair to the episode itself, as it’s merely a single part in a two-episode story arc, but I can’t help but to want more focus on the show’s cast. We’re given an especially well-done sequence of Ibuki and Kanni reminiscing on the latter’s family pet and how it plays into her reluctance to continue caring for Pucchi, but it’s secondary to a protracted gag involving looking for samples of kaiju feces. This episode also continues to leave breadcrumbs regarding Pucchi and the strange ship that it appeared on Earth in. The beginning of the episode sets up the issue of trying to get the friendly critter back to its home planet via the strange spaceship that it was discovered in, with the cliffhanger at the end of the episode looping back to this.
Much like the show’s second episode, the fight is fairly brief. The choreography is taken in an interesting direction, with neither party involved coming across as particularly capable fighters. Teo, as established throughout the first few episodes, is not a warrior, and Doshihagachi is a subterranean monster who seemingly can’t see particularly well. This leads to Doshihagachi inelegantly rushing at Teo and depending on its tentacles to even out the fight. This is also the show’s first fight to not take place in a city, instead having the backdrop of a large forest at sunset, which I found to be very appealing.
“Workshop, Watch Out!” loses a bit of steam when compared to its immediate predecessors due to not spending as much of its run fleshing out its characters, but is still far from disappointing. The episode features an interesting fight and creates plenty of intrigue for next week, although I wish this episode was a bit more of a complete package.
