Sumio Uetake, the writer of the last two episode of Ultraman Blazar sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 54.
Uetake had been taken to the hospital on the 10th of February for an unknown reason and failed to recover before passing five days later on the 15th. The news of Uetake’s passing was shared on Twitter (Now known as X) by Takao Koyama, who had worked alongside Uetake on the hugely popular anime series Dragon Ball Z.
Taking to Twitter on February 16th to announce Uetake’s death, Koyama wrote:
“Sumio Uetake, one of our beloved screenwriters, passed away suddenly on February 15th. He was rushed to the hospital on the 10th and prayed for a miracle of survival, but the medicinal stones did not work and he was unable to return home. It's extremely disappointing. More than 30 years have passed since he left vocational school and came to me.
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Uetake, thank you for your hard work. I feel sad. I wish you all the best in your life. Palms together.” - (Translated by Google)
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| Uetake handled most of the writing for the 2004 mini series Kannazuki no Miko |
The late screenwriter had worked within Japanese anime since 1993 and had credits in titles well known to western audiences like the formerly mentioned Dragon Ball Z along with the popular kids series Beyblade before becoming a writer for the Ultraman franchise with 2021’s Ultraman Trigger.
Uetake wrote episodes 16 and 17 of Ultraman Trigger
Before his passing in 2023, Uetake had successfully delivered scripts for episode nine and ten of Ultraman Blazar that both ended up being two of the most thoughtful episodes of the series so far, paving the way for major change within Blazar’s characterisation going forward.
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| Uetake wrote episode nine of Blazar, where the Cicada Humans fell in love with music |
In episode nine we saw the return of the Cicada Humans from the 1966 series Ultra Q. 50 years prior, a small crew of Cicada Humans had arrived on earth with plans to attack. While waiting for their robot Kaiju Garamon to arrive on Earth, the group fell in love with Earth’s music and spent the decades long wait learning to play together as an ensemble quartet.
In the present, Garamon finally arrives on Earth and though the Cicada Humans have come to love the lives they have built, their sense of duty compels them to continue with the long planned attack. The group control the Kaiju with their music and play in the destruction of Earth. Once the SKaRD team realises that they’re in control and try to stop them, lead musician Tsukushi refuses to stop playing. Anri is forced to shoot his hand, stopping them from ever being able to fulfil the mission with their music. Tsukushi thanks the SKaRD team and disbands the ensemble, allowing them all to find lives on the Earth they’ve come to love.
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| Blazar and Gento fought over the life of a Kaiju in episode ten |
Episode ten had an equal amount of heart and appreciation for life with Gento’s beliefs that all Kaiju need to be destroyed being challenged not only by his son but Ultraman Blazar himself. The joint leads found themselves at odds with each other as one wanted to kill a Kaiju mother and her baby, while the other sought to protect them. A full breakdown of the episode is available here.
