Ultraman Agul

Ultraman Agul is the all-blue ultraman who appears in the 1998 tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero series Ultraman Gaia. Throughout the entire course of the series, Ultraman Agul is sometimes a rival, sometimes an adversary, but eventually a teammate, of Ultraman Gaia. Dark and menacing in contrast to the red-and-silver Gaia, Agul originally showed an interest in defeating monsters that threaten the Earth, without any consideration for human lives that he may endanger in the process.

History
Agul's human form is Fujimiya Hiroya, a boy-genius formerly with the Alchemy Stars. Fujimiya created the giant computer known as "Crisis," able to predict future catastrophes. Its first prediction, however, showed the total destruction of the Earth. When queried further, the computer had one response: AGUL. At that moment, Fujimiya yelled in pain. In a vision, he sees a destroyed world, with a blue-and-silver giant towering over it. Through Crisis, Fujimiya discovers the cause of Earth's destruction: mankind.

Fujimiya breaks away from the Alchemy Stars, obsessed with discovering more about this being that continues to contact him, although each contact brings great pain. He builds a giant water tank, the basis of an experiment to contact "the Earth" to find out what to do. At one point, as Fujimiya stands on a catwalk above the tank, Agul contacts him again. This time, Fujimiya sees the surroundings: complete destruction, the remains of a civilization similar to Earth's! In shock, Fujimiya tries to shut down the experiment, but is convinced by his friend Kyouko to keep going. Returning to the tank, Fujimiya witnesses a great light forming at the bottom of the underwater tunnel. The light erupts from the tank, and flows into Fujimiya.

After this, Fujimiya shuns all human contact, although he still has feelings for Kyouko, and develops feelings for a female reporter; however, when she doubts Agul's benefit, Fujimiya shows resentment. Fujimiya becomes a mysterious figure that appears and disappears seemingly at will, while Agul is perceived first as another force for good, then as a potential menace. Agul at times will help Gaia, but on several occasions they have come into conflict; the second time, Agul tries to destroy the XIG Air Base, but is stopped by Gaia.

At one point, Agul is severely injured, and we find that Fujimiya, too, is gravely wounded in the same place (his side). He returns to the facility where he first joined with Agul, and reentered the tank. Apparently this not only revived Fujimiya, but it also increased Agul's power, for a later fight with the same monster, which takes on the form of a fake Agul, results in Agul quickly overpowering his evil twin.

Several incidents change Fujimiya. He finds himself saving a young girl from being crushed by falling debris when a monster destroys a nearby skyscraper. This puzzles Fujimiya, that he should care so much about a human. Yet, his bitterness increases when his beloved Kyouko is killed by a monster ... even though she tries to control the monster herself in an attempt to stop XIG (presumably she believes in Fujimiya's visions, and wishes to destroy mankind to save the Earth). In a fit of rage, Fujimiya, as Agul, begins to drive his force-filled right fist into the Earth. Apparently it is a summons to various beasts that he has fought before, and to others he knows still exist. Unbeknownst to him, it also summons a giant serpent-like beast, the Zoalim, which resembles the great serpent Gaia was fighting when Gamu first discovered him. By this time, though, Fujimiya is drained nearly to death, thanks to the nightly infusion of energy, plus a knock-down drag-out battle with Gaia. He and Gamu help evacuate a hospital, where Fujimiya sees a young boy's crayon drawing of Gaia and Agul joining hands to save the world.

Zoalim begins to enter our world through a giant vortex in the sky, created by the combination of Agul's and Gaia's energies during their battle. Gamu prepares to change to Gaia to battle the monster. Fujimiya tries to talk him out of it, but Gamu realizes that he cannot; he also makes Fujimiya realize that it was through his actions that the Earth -- not just the humans, but the entire planet -- is threatened with destruction by his own actions. This makes Fujimiya realize that he no longer deserves to be an Ultraman, and surrenders the blue Agul-force within his Agulator to Gamu, who takes it inside the Esplender along with the red Gaia-force. Fujimiya walks away, apparently consumed by a fireball shot to Earth by Zoalim, and is presumed dead.

In episode 36, Fujimiya reappears very much alive. He still tries to fight what he perceives as "the good fight" against humanity and the Root Destruction. He no longer has the power of Ultraman, though, to help him, and realizing he was powerless to stop the Root Destruction, he sank into depression; finally, he stumbled into the ocean, only to be rescued by the nearby Gamu. Later, after he regained his health, Fujimiya witnessed a giant robot Sigma Zugul capturing Gamu as he tried to transform into Gaia. Fujimiya still believed humanity would be responsible for the great calamity predicted by Crisis, but he also knew Gamu/Gaia was the Earth's last hope. Fujimiya called out to the Earth ... and it responded, freezing time, as it did when Gamu called out to Gaia. A great wave crashed over Fujimiya, and as the waters began to glow with blue light, the ocean parted to reveal a revived Ultraman Agul V2. With his power restored, Agul used his Agul Blade energy sword to free Gamu from the robot's clutches, and destroyed the robot with his new Photon Screw attack.

Later, Fujimiya discovers that the prediction that humanity was the cause of the Root Destruction was actually placed into the computer by the great Entity of Root Destruction itself, as two more monsters arrive on Earth through a wormhole created by GUARD itself. (The idea was that GUARD would send a pre-emptive strike missile through the wormhole to the planet on the other end, in the hopes of destroying the Entity. The plan failed, but the wormhole allowed the Entity to send two monsters to Earth.) Agul and Gaia finally team up and, together, defeat the monsters. The rivalry has ended, and the Ultra-team has begun.

The series ends with Gaia and Agul fighting a giant swarm of creatures that completely block Earth from the Sun. All transmissions, except for television broadcasts, are blocked. The creatures combine to form one, two, and even 3 great monsters, battling Gaia and Agul almost to exhaustion. Suddenly a gigantic "angel" appears from the wormhole, destroys the great beasts, and recharge Agul and Gaia. This "angel," significantly larger than even Agul and Gaia, turns out to be the Entity of the Root Destruction itself, and sets about defeating the two Ultraman. Their ColorTimers gone dark, the two collapse in a pile, their eyes even going dark. The angel then extracts the essences of Gaia and Agul into herself, causing the giant Ultramen to shrink down to Fujimiya and Gamu. (While XIG had become aware of their secrets a few episodes previously, now the whole world knows.) The two are not dead, though, and are rescued by their friends. Meanwhile, various other Earth monsters appear, trying to fight off the alien invasion, to no avail. Catherine Bach, one of the prettier members of the Alchemy Stars (who also has a "thing" for Gamu), realizes that the Earth monsters have power that could be made useful. Using specially-equipped XIG fighters, the Stars draw off blasts from the monsters (who seem to have some idea what's going on) and transmit the energy to the spot where Gamu and Fujimiya stand. The light re-energizes them, allowing them to become Ultramen one more time. After vaporizing all the critters covering the Earth, they attack the angel with full force, stunning her. She transforms into a horrible monster, and charges the Ultramen. Realizing that their combined energy had summoned Zoalim in the first place, the two fire their beams at a spot between them, creating a mega-beam that shreads the Entity. Earth is finally safe from the Root Destruction, and Gamu & Fujimiya go off on well-earned rests.

In 2001, a 45-minute OVA was released, entitled Ultraman Gaia Returns, and follows the lives of Gamu and Fujimiya after the events of the original series. In this story, the entire world now knows that Gamu was Ultraman Gaia and Fujimiya was Ultraman Agul. Gamu has resumed his studies at university, while Fujimiya wanders the Earth looking for ways to protect Earth's monsters.

Gamu is reunited with his friends who try to set him up with a girl who is really an Ultra 'groupie.' Fujimiya is framed by a TV report as being the cause of a nuclear disaster, when in truth he was using his cybernetic monster control system to get a monster away from an advancing tank platoon. One of the tanks gets in a lucky shot and causes the monster to detonate, resulting in a nuclear blast. Somehow Fujimiya survived, but sustains serious injuries. In agony he loses the Agulator into the waters again. Meeting a mysterious girl who seemingly is afraid of an impending disaster, seen through Fujimiya's visions of darkened skies cloaked with swarms of buzzing, flying creatures similar yet different from those that appeared in the last battle, visions that eventually come true, casting the earth into danger once more. Cornered by government agents by the sea, Fujimiya witnesses his Agulator rise from the depths of the ocean and his newfound friend transform into a nimbus of glittering light that restores the Agul power in it; The girl belongs to a pacifist race of undersea creatures made of light unknown to mankind yet have coexisted in secrecy for millions of years. Empowered once more, the agents leave the Agulator with Fujimiya, and as fighter jets engage the onslaught of monsters, Fujimiya transforms, and is the first Ultraman to be resurrected to save the Earth from the new dangers, engaging a new monster and later reuniting with Gaia, whose investigation in the sea with XIG's team Seagull also brings him into encounters with the undersea race help resurrect the Ultraman Gaia power.

Ultraman Agul
Ultraman Agul Version 1

Height: 52m Weapons: A blast of energy that sprouts from the Bright Spot on his head. Similar to Ultraman Gaia's Photon Edge. This attack is usually used to finish off monsters. A ball of energy. Not as powerful as the Photon Crusher against metal-morphing liquid entities such as Algeuroth (Epsiode 16) or Miemos (Episode 27), but deadly to other kinds of monsters. Ultraman Agul can fire several Liquidators in rapid succession to overwhelm enemies. A blue-white energy sword that gives Agul melee combat ability. Contrary to it being made of energy, it displays properties of solid matter, being able to support the metal cross imprisoning Gamu inside the Sigma Zugul robot without slicing through in Episode 41. Short, sharp bursts of energy Agul can shoot from his hands. Ultraman Agul Version 2
 * Weight: 46,000 tons
 * Flight Speed: Mach 19
 * Running Speed: Mach 5.5
 * Swimming Speed: Mach 1.2
 * Tunneling Speed: Mach 1.5
 * Home Planet: Earth
 * Human Form: Hiroya Fujimiya
 * Team: Alchemy Stars (formerly)
 * Photon Crusher
 * Liquidator
 * Agul Blade
 * Agul Slash
 * Agul also has the ability to convert matter into antimatter and back again. This ability allowed Agul to transform Gaia into antimatter to safely enter an expanding mass of antimatter and fight monster Antimatter in that realm.

Height: 52 meters Weapons: A very powerful energy attack Agul gains in his V2 form. The Photon Screw is a missile/ball of energy that has far greater destructive power than the Liquidator. Agul V2's energy attack, fired in the L-style. Often combined with Gaia Supreme's Photon Stream to create a super-powerful energy blast that ensures the complete destruction of very powerful foes such as Super C0V and Super Pazuzu, and the Root Entity itself.
 * Weight: 46,000 tons
 * Flight Speed: mach 23
 * Running Speed: mach 7.4
 * Swimming Speed: mach 1.5
 * Tunnelling Speed: Mach 1.8
 * Photon Screw
 * Agul Stream
 * Agul also retains access to all other weapons used in his V1 form.