"Once Woola lands on a planet, it would eat the entire crust before swallowing the planet whole. Its birth planet was said to be the first one it ate."
- ―Ultraman Titas explaining Woola's nature in episode 24
Woola [1] is a kaiju, a pseudo-living entity that was unintentionally created from the accumulated space junk that alien civilizations continuously produced. It first appeared in episode 24 of Ultraman Taiga.
Subtitle: Space Devouring Monster [1]
Conception[]
Etymology[]
Woola's name comes from the Chinese phrase for "I am hungry" [2]
. It was named by Sotaro Hayashi and confirmed by Takao Nakano.History[]
Ultraman Taiga[]
Woola was somehow created from the waste in space that was dumped by advanced civilizations across the universe. It flew across space as a meteor, devouring many stars and destroying many planets by consuming their nucleus. The first planet it devoured was said to be the one responsible for its birth. It traveled across planets pleading for help as it was constantly hungry due to the black hole inside itself, but its primal instincts instead led it to devour each planet it visited, consuming not only these planets, but the negative emotions of their inhabitants as well, which caused Woola to become deformed into its current state. Several androids were made and deployed throughout the universe with the ability to disrupt Woola; one of which landed on Earth and became known as Pirika Asahikawa.
Kirisaki/Ultraman Tregear discovers Woola's existence after invading Pirika's mind, and sets out to bring it to Earth to cause destruction. Withstand the Lightning Strike! He uses the drill missile from Alien Ghose' ship to strike at the Earth's Ether, which causes the planet to send out a signal across space that Woola detects, changing its flight course. Friend in Earth
Woola lands on Earth, activating Pirika's protocols. Kirisaki summons Galactron MK2 from its Kaiju Ring as bait for it to emerge to the surface. Ultraman Taiga Tri-Strium tried to fight Woola, but he made the mistake of firing the Taiga Tri Blade's Tri-Strium Burst directly into Woola's mouth, which did nothing but provide the creature with more sustenance. After firing the beam for a prolonged amount of time, Taiga became weak, allowing Woola to get close, grab the Taiga Tri Blade in its jaws and yank it free from Taiga's hands. Woola then attempted to consume Taiga, draining his energy and forcing him to retreat just to survive the onslaught.
A short while later, Woola re-emerged at the same location it had appeared before. Injured but not defeated, Hiroyuki set off to fight the monster, and was given words of encouragement from Taiga, Titas and Fuma. I'm Pirika However, their efforts prove futile as Taiga is defeated once more. Woola burrows underground and causes destruction to nearby infrastructure. Inside Woola, Pirika was able to communicate with the monster and learned of how it came to be, and that it had no malicious intent, and was merely looking for anything to satiate its unending appetite. Sympathizing with Woola, Pirika contacted EGIS to inform them of what she had learned, and that she wanted to save Woola. Maguma and Markind decided to help EGIS and devised a plan together to neutralize Woola's black hole. Maguma and Homare fired a Magma Wave from his spaceship, baiting Woola to the surface. They then fired a missile containing a white hole that counteracted the black hole inside Woola. They then relied on Taiga to fire his Ultra Beam at Woola to feed it and hopefully satiate it.
Just before the plan could be completed, Tregear interfered and tried to stop Taiga. Woola tried to help the Tri-Squad after recognizing them as allies, but easily gets shoved aside by Tregear. Tregear makes the mistake of firing a dark energy sphere at Taiga, which he redirects to Woola using the Taiga Wide Shot. Woola eats both attacks and its body is destroyed, while its core floats upwards and dissipates into a glittering light that spreads across the Earth, simultaneously redeeming and ending the once world-threatening Kaiju. Buddy, Steady, Go!
Trivia[]
- Designer: Masayuki Gotoh
- The countdown for Woola's arrival starts at "666", which is known as the Number of the Beast.
- This monster is very similar to Magatano-Orochi, in that they are greatly feared yet malformed space monsters who are reputed to be planet destroyers who eat everything they can. They also share similarities in their fight scenes, in which they eat the Ultra's beam (from their swords) and at some point attempt to devour the hero themselves.
- Woola's origin as pieces of space junk that gained sentience is very similar to that of Yumenokatamari, which formed from rubbish on Earth that gained sentience.
- Weighing 500,000 tons[1], Woola is unusually heavy for a monster its size. To put it into perspective, it is 10 times heavier than Hellberus, more than twice the weight of Grand King and Gatanothor, and is close to the likes of Zog's second form's or Giga Khimaira's weight, who stand at many times the height of Woola.
- Woola's suit was created by modifying the Ururu suit from the Dinosaur Great War Izenborg documentary series Return of Izenborg.[3]
- Woola's suit would be altered into Metsu-Orga by repainting the color with grey and removing its arm.
Data[]
- Stats
- Height: 68 m
- Weight: 500,000 t
- Origin: Space
- Powers and Weapons
- Meteor Travel: Woola is able to travel across space by flying around in a meteor-like form.
- Huge Mouth: Woola's signature weapon is its huge mouth, which it uses to eat everything in its path. It can devour an entire Galactron MK2 in seconds. Anything it eats is sent into a black hole inside its stomach, which is why it is constantly hungry.[1]
- Consumption: Woola can consume practically anything, from buildings to light energy. It can also consume the energy of other beings like Ultras or even a planet after burrowing down into its core, reducing it to a barren wasteland before destroying it completely.
- Burrowing: Woola is capable of burrowing underground as a form of locomotion, either to move across the land or heading towards the planet's core to consume it.
Gallery[]
Ultraman Taiga[]
Miscellaneous[]
References[]