|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
03-08-2014, 05:15 PM | #221 |
Fangirl Kaiju
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 172
|
I think the limit exists not necessarily because of the expense of building miniatures, but to keep him from being completely overpowered. All those monster defense groups would be out of a job if Ultraman didn't have his limits.
But, I gotta say, I think three minutes is a rough estimate rather than "Three minutes and *BAM* ded Ultra." They'll frequently cheat the time limit and fight for much longer. And this is just for those who have that limitation. Some others don't. |
03-08-2014, 05:18 PM | #222 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
|
What so Max gets some longer Ultra fights later on?
__________________
|
03-08-2014, 05:28 PM | #223 |
Fangirl Kaiju
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 172
|
That was just in general, but yeah, Max does get longer fights.
Just don't go expecting big ten minute fights. It's a 25-minute show, after all. Last edited by Zaragon; 03-08-2014 at 05:31 PM.. |
03-08-2014, 05:32 PM | #224 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
|
Oh no I wont, but I just found it lame Max fought for about eighty seconds in the wrap up of every episode so far.
__________________
|
03-08-2014, 09:39 PM | #225 |
Victorious Knight
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 422
|
In the original series the three minute warning was tossed in as some ecological message about how earth's atmosphere was polluted - at the time there was a huge ecological movement in Japan. In reality, it's something I think Eiji Tsuburaya picked up from his days working on the first Godzilla film. The suit is so hot and cumbersome that the suit actor cannot safely wear it for more than a couple of minutes. (the original suit actor for Godzilla was said to have passed out in suit a couple of times) It also makes sense with the theme of the original shows. Strictly speaking, Ultraman's first couple of shows weren't so much about a transforming hero but about bizarre sci-fi elements that the team of humans encountered episode to episode.
Quote:
Oh yeah damn, I was reading a post about Kouga's Dad in GARO and did a brain fart Either way, all of the Ultraman show's I've seen have been EXTREMELY similar, like almost beat for beat in Nexus and Max's case. The changes between shows are even more novel and arbitrary than sentai and that says something. For the longest time, Ultraman's strengths were in its production quality. It might seem weird if you look at it from a Western-centric viewpoint, but this works for Japan and the miniatures scenes are high quality. You might just see "cardboard buildings" but a lot of work goes into the placement of the buildings as well as various details to make the sets look more like an organic city. There's also the filming of the giant scenes which, most of the time, do a great job of rendering scale in an impressive manner. Last edited by Aoi Kurenai; 03-08-2014 at 09:44 PM.. |
03-08-2014, 09:56 PM | #226 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
|
I'm feeling more and more that Ultraman just isn't for me, I've tried, multiple times but everything you're saying just falls flat to me. If Nexus is a reinvention of the franchise, I find that hilarious as about the only difference between the shows is the tone. And if those cities in Ultraman are supposed to feel organic...that is hilarious as well.
Ultraman is low budget, even by toku standards, and is formulaic, even by toku standards or at least that is how it comes to an outsider like myself. And if what you're telling me is true, I guess it shows I won't ever match up to the general consensus.
__________________
|
03-08-2014, 10:06 PM | #227 |
Victorious Knight
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 422
|
It's definitely formulaic. I think that's why people have such a hard time getting into it. If they find one show that does a version of the formula they like, that's great, but after a while it does get old if there's no twist that makes other shows interesting. For my money, the first three shows (Ultra Q, Ultraman, and Ultra Seven) all do the sci-fi angle in this really awesome old school way and serve as time capsules of advancements in Japanese TV. Believe it or not, Ultraman was actually the most expensive TV show produced in Japan at the time. The only Ultraman shows I really latched onto aside from the aforementioned three, Gaia, Nexus, and Max. Gaia and Nexus because they attempt a much more story heavy and serialized approach to the formula and Max just because I had a lot of fun watching it throughout.
I'm not sure what's wrong with the cities in the shows though. They're not done as well as something like Go-Busters or Ultraman The Next (which I think has some of the best miniature scenes ever) but they work for the fast paced TV production of the shows. There's real care and craft that goes into them. I can understand if maybe you just don't like miniature scenes and would prefer superimposed giants, but I've always felt the city scapes were some of the strongest visual aspects of the shows. That's just regarding the city scapes though. There are things I really hate, like the aircraft presentation in Nexus, now that is some pitifully done stuff. It works for the older shows because they're going for more realistic designs and the flight patterns are just a whole lot more subdued, but the the newer ones, with more fanciful jet designs and whatnot, just seem like toys flying across the screen. I still cringe whenever I see the jets and tanks in the Nexus openings. |
03-08-2014, 10:21 PM | #228 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
|
I guess it's just because the things wrong with the miniatures are just so...obvious. That goes for Ultraman, Sentai etc.
They super impose the giants into the cities first, and a real city is noisy, it's dirty, it's cramped...it's full of life. So to suddenly cut to a silent, empty soundstage is like a slap to the face. All that vibrancy just....vanishes, all the sense of scale is completely off. And that is speaking generically, the amount of time they're fighting at say...a defined location like a dam only for the miniature scene to take place in an entirely different location and then the show cuts backwards and forwards and tries to act like that shit is even happening in the same place. Why not play over the miniature , sounds of traffic and people? To have absolutely no sound playing but the soundtrack is probably my biggest distraction in these scenes. If two skyscraper sized people are fighting right there in the streets there'd be screaming, crying, explosions, car horns, speeding vehicles, the noise alone would be deafening. Why not avoid shots of the empty the streets lined with toy cars? You just showed hundreds of people and vehicles scattering in all directions between looming towers of concrete and steel, it's amazing how quickly apparently the entire city vanished in some kind of instant mass exodus and the buildings also conveniently grew much smaller so the monsters and Ultramen could fit between them. That is to just name a few - I'm very tired right now sorry - tweaks that I think are just SO OBVIOUS and would put so much back into the miniature sections to give them a sense of realism. Toku is goofy, but for the most part the sense of detail on a rubber suit is so profound you can one hundred percent buy into the fact that it is a real thing. Or the battles are so strictly ground in a sense of internal logic that we can one hundred percent swallow as people fly through the air and shoot laser beams. But with all these WONDERFUL productions, they seem to never ever ever ever make any attempt whatsoever at making the soundstages look and feel like anything other than soundstages. I remember once someone said 'Gobus shot their giant stuff outside', like that is some incredible breakthrough in a section of toku that honestly has barely changed in about three decades while the rest of the show around it has packed up shop and moved to a different planet all together.
__________________
|
03-08-2014, 11:49 PM | #229 |
Fangirl Kaiju
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 172
|
Quote:
I'm feeling more and more that Ultraman just isn't for me, I've tried, multiple times but everything you're saying just falls flat to me. If Nexus is a reinvention of the franchise, I find that hilarious as about the only difference between the shows is the tone. And if those cities in Ultraman are supposed to feel organic...that is hilarious as well.
Ultraman is low budget, even by toku standards, and is formulaic, even by toku standards or at least that is how it comes to an outsider like myself. And if what you're telling me is true, I guess it shows I won't ever match up to the general consensus. Within the Showa continuity: Ace was the Two-In-One Ultra. Leo is from L77 and one of the last survivors of his planet. 80 is a schoolteacher that moonlights as a UGM officer. Zero's first two movies don't take place on Earth. Ginga has no defense team and instead focuses on high school students (too bad about it not being very good.) Then there's stuff like Ultra Q and Ultra Galaxy, which aren't about Ultraman. And I'm not so certain what there is that makes it anymore low budget than other TV shows. You've already made apparent your distaste for Tiga, but there's no doubt in my mind that it looked TONS better than Carranger which was airing around the same time. To be honest with you, it seems as though it really ISN'T your thing. Quite a few of your complaints are about mainstays that aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Quote:
I guess it's just because the things wrong with the miniatures are just so...obvious. That goes for Ultraman, Sentai etc.
It doesn't really bother me too much because complete realism is the last thing I expect when they're making the sets week by week. Otherwise I'd be tearing my hair out over some minute thing, like ENORMOUS flowers on a natural landscape because they couldn't quite work out the perspective. There's some instances for cities where it's nearly unacceptable (an episode of Ultraseven where somebody forgot to put in sidewalks comes to mind.) But most of the time it's alright. Anyway, I think that most people would rather not think about all the people Ultraman must be killing when the monster smacks him into a building. Last edited by Zaragon; 03-09-2014 at 12:21 AM.. |
03-12-2014, 11:41 AM | #230 |
Ranger Rider Ultra Fan
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 236
|
I've been watching Ultraman Cosmos. I find it to be really cool. I like the original monsters in the first ten episodes. You can sense the attraction between Musashi & Ayano. Especially after what I read online. But I want to see the movie where Cosmos debuted.
I'll be watching several episodes of Ultraman Max today & tomorrow. I'm on Episode 4. I've watched ten episodes of Ultraman Gaia & eleven episodes of Ultraman Mebius. Only seen seven episodes of Ginga. And several episodes of Powered & Great. Still haven't found episodes of Ultraman Dyna. A friend who reignited my Ultra fandom gave me a link to the first episode. But I can't find the others. |
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
SH Figuarts BoonBoomger Red |
Hasbro Licenses Power Rangers Toys to Playmates Toys |
Discotek Media Licenses Mobile Cop Jiban |
What's going on with CSM? |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:27 AM.
|