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Ultraman Discussion Thread
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07-15-2020, 08:49 PM
#
1626
Kurona
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
So! Been a bit quiet on this, but I've spent the last month or so binging myself a toooon of Ultraman and I'm not slowing down any time soon!
Orb
- This was a really fun series! I didn't exactly vibe with its...
unique
storytelling methods, but it did lead to a lot of fun stories and at the end of the day even it still told its story well and in a way I was able to take in. Juggler is a ridiculously fun villain with a ridiculously fun name, Gai is a really enjoyable moody traveller type, but the highlight's really gotta go to the SSP for me. I really,
really
like it when a superhero show decides to make its focus the smaller people, and at that journalists who just want to keep people safe and have no power of their own. It's very refreshing and very good to see!
Zero Movies
- ... uhhh... I... didn't enjoy these, really. They got better with each one, for the most part I just found them a bit dull and boring. Monster Battle doesn't really seem to have any idea what it wants to focus on and Revenge of Belial comes off as very generic -- and, talking of which, unfortunately so do Zero and Belial as characters. Zero's like a void of personality (until he actually appears in other series, where he becomes obnoxious), and Belial is alright but he feels like he should be at least five times more fun. I also don't enjoy seeing the sort of Ultraman society set up in this? It has... implications I don't enjoy and kinda makes each hero feel less special to me. That said, really liked seeing what would become the Ultimate Force Zero! I'm a big sucker for seeing other non-big-franchise heroes getting the reverence and respect they deserve in a revamp, and that was EXACTLY what I got with Jean-Bot and Glenfire and Mirror Knight. Were their personalities also a bit heavy on the tropes? Sure, but they were still enjoyable and for one movie they do the job well. Jean-Bot was also a really fun case of me seeing the vehicle mode, IMMEDIATELY going "OH THAT'S A TRANSFORMER" and just being hyped to see that transformation the whole movie, where it STILL managed to surprise me in how it transformed! Just a lot of fun with that specific part.
That aside... I dunno, I just could not enjoy these. ... Well, except for...
Saga
- Giving this one its own category because until about an hour ago this was my favourite Ultraman thing I'd seen. Zero's still a bore but he's hardly in it so who cares; let's just jump right into an awesome story about the last of humanity banding together to protect some kids with their bravery rewarded by Ultramen winning the day! This was just an awesome movie with the heart where it mattered; a really fun dynamic with Taiga (hey, uh, Ultra fans; does this just make the Ultraman Tiga/Ultraman Taiga differentiation even more confusing?) not wanting to BE an Ultraman, and overall the "EDF" just won the movie for me. Cosmos was great as well, and then you had Dyna wake up which... I could tell this was a big Dyna tribute and I knew nothing about Dyna, but I didn't NEED to, because this took me right back to Gokaiger where the tributes were so good and full of care and love that I could get so into it despite not even knowing the dude's name! Just such an extremely good movie.
Ginga & Ginga S
- Grouping together even though they're very different because I have about the same things to say on them -- very emotional stories! Lovely characterisation, very personal; a lot of mystery that gets you invested and lures you into a couple seasons of joy and faith in humanity! ... aaaand I'm just kind of meh on them. I'm not even sure
why
! All the building blocks are there for some great (and short!) shows, but... something's missing for me. I dunno.
Like, I can go on about the positives all I want -- I adore Ginga's very cosy and very close-knit setting; which allowed for both close character dynamics and a wealth of outdoor settings which are rare for the usually urban-bound masked hero genre! Ginga S especially in its first episode done a phenomenal job of setting up a new status quo and really making it its own, while still honouring what came before! TARO!!!
But despite all that it was just alright. Again, didn't hate watching them; and there's so much good I can see about them. But I couldn't get into them that much, and it started to make me wonder if maybe the issue was that it was Ultraman as a whole. I already said that even Orb which I really liked had storytelling...
quirks
that made it hard for me to get into, and that kinda continued here. It really made me wonder if this was just how Ultraman did things, and maybe that meant it wasn't for me. That's okay, of course; I don't have to like
every
series! But it did make me a bit sad that with all said and done, Ultraman wasn't for me.
X
- UH NO HANG ON A SEC, ME OF A WEEK AGO, TURNS OUT IT REALLY
REALLY
IS YOUR THING!
It's not been long since I finished but holy
f*ck
X is top-tier Toku! I, like -- everything I was liking about Ultraman is done here in the best ways I wanted them to happen; every character feels realised; the themes of the series are so wonderful and optimistic... I'm speaking in vague terms right now because I'm super super dosed on emotion at the moment! How could I put this into words when I'm so busy being in love!!
Like, where do I
start
? The tribute episodes? ... sure, good a place to start as any! Was a bit odd to me that there were so many returning Ultramen, especially with the 50th anniversary being
next
year, but I've hardly got room to complain when they're this good and all have something important to the story! The Ginga S crossover was a wonderfully surprising 2-parter that gave Daichi so much hope; the Max crossover felt thematically appropriate and gave the characters that boost they needed; the Nexus crossover... am... am I allowed to say one of the single best Tokusatsu episodes I've ever seen? It feels a bit early to judge that but
WOW???
I was already loving Tachibana as a character and this just guaranteed first place ranking on my list! Is this, like, indicative of Nexus' quality as a whole? Because that, Tiga and Geed are the seasons I was most interested in and if so this has gotten me even more excited!!!
But do you need direct crossovers to be great individual episodes? NO! Kamiki's focus episode with him and his daughter is a beautifully complex story about the dilemma of being both a soldier and a father; which doesn't dare to take lightly how complicated that situation can be. The daughter in particular I was so so happy to see -- "I know that ultimately this has to happen, and I won't complain; but it
still
hurts" is a very difficult very mature theme to nail and they just landed it first try. It sets the scene for the whole episode -- it doesn't try to tell you whether one way or the other is correct, it doesn't try to tell you one of them is completely in the right, because that isn't the case at all. It just hands you a relationship which is full of realistic uncomfortable feelings, but with an undeniable love and bond between father and daughter that
gets
that situation. Beautiful!
The episode where Gomora gets to come back to life? Wonderful! Gomora being treated as a friend the whole season is emblematic of Daichi's goals and dreams and ideals and they
know
it and go out of their way to make this episode go as hard as it can! I'm a bit bothered by parts of M1's monologuing (a LOT of what he says does not fit the 'cold logical conclusion' when it is straight up not indicative of the situation he's observing), but the overall idea is still there and still works. Daichi
still
reaches Gomora with his ideals and he barrels through an impossible situation on that alone. Beautiful! Oh, and I already said his name; but what a
sick
use for an old Ultra Q monster! Between this guy and Kemur Man I'm really gonna have to check that out one day, it literally looks like classic doctor who with giant toku monsters and I'm all for that!
I could go into so, so much more. How the final villain isn't some mastermind or evil organisation or whatever but just a
nightmare
from the depths of space; how the Rugby episode really made me feel for a group of suits I was rooting against just a series prior;
THE PIGMON EPISODE THAT MADE ME CRY!
But I think I'll just leave it here at... X is fucking incredible. Watch it. Please, please, PLEASE watch it if you haven't. My god. Geed, I'm excited for you; but you have GOT to do some legwork to match this!
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