It’s been a few months but now I am back to watching Ultraman Orb. Just finished it’s eighteenth episode.

Now watching Ultraman X and in doing so I couldn't help but feel something was familiar about it. And sure enough it turned out to be directed by Taguchi as his first Ultra series.

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...-ultraman-taro

Not much to share here, but it's still mildly interesting.

Hideaki Anno shared his love of Taro and select episodes from the series. He also noted that he was one of the few amongst his immediate friends and acquaintances back in the day who even cared about shows like Taro.

I thought he was a RoU fan who didn't like Taro!

So, I've been trying to grasp all of the strange spinoff material Ultraman has recently and caught wind of Ultraman Retsuden and the other "recap" series. But... I just don't understand! Do these have like... interesting production details included in the narration, or is it all just a glorified clip show with a tenuous plot? Why are there so many episodes of these shows? Are they any good? Had anyone bothered to sub any of them?

There here to fill in the time slot since Ultraman can't do 50 episode shows anymore. But if they don't put something there they'll lose it and it would be a pain to find somewhere else to air Ultraman in Japan when they already carved their little own place.

They use to be related to what the next show was going to be IE Zero The Chronicle aired in between Orb & Geed & Zero himself was a major character in Geed. Or TDG clipshows before Trigger & Decker came out. But ever since Blazar it seems like the franchise is becomibg less legacy oriented that no longer the case and it just generic clipshows based off the most recent stuff of the New Gen Ultra's.

I feel really silly now, I knew that modern Ultra shows were shorter but I had somehow convinced myself that meant they aired two a year as opposed to having a multi-month gap between them... even though I've been around long enough to see the announcement cycles for numerous new Ultra shows. Having these shows as padding makes a lot more sense.

They also used to exist as a way to keep Ultraman relevant during the years when Tsubaraya didn't have enough money to make new shows.

Vallaron the Space Bomber Kaiju! And fittingly he's like some alien Kaiju terrorist who is going to BLOW UP THE FRICKIN' MOON!!!

Earth Garon Mod 4! Earth Garon's Final Form! It has all of it's upgrades included and is ready for space battle! It can even seat four members of SKaRD! The only problem is that it's basically being rushed into completion and it's basically a suicide mission, but that's not going to stop SKaRD!

So Blazar not doing anything is their take on the Ultra telling the Host they can't keep transforming anymore.

Ah yes, the classic "do what you want to do before the final battle" moments...Anri running to classical music, Yasunobu with his one true love washer, and Teruaki checking in on his dad.

Retsu looks so weird out of uniform, but he still knows how to command Gento to take care of Emi.

Of course Gento has one last dinner with his family before heading off. Satoko puts on the face of a brave wife but on some level knows just how much danger her husband is really in.

Who knew all they had to do was ask Earthy for the plot relevant information!? Though it helps that Earthy has learned the power of friendship!

Dang, they caught Emi quicker than I expected. She just unlocked the dang thing too!

Dobashi walking into the command room like he's Ryubei Sonozaki...which he is, but seriously what is this dude about!?

Poor Earth Garon is only fighting Vallaron for two minutes and he gets blown up for his trouble. Jeez.

"Let's go...Blazar" That's pretty much as close as the show gets to the classic "yell out your Ultra Name" transformation and I'm fine with that.

I didn't think it was so bad that the Color Timer would immediately kick in the moment Gento transformed. And that's before Blazar has to contend with Vallaron's bombs, saw torso, and multi-lasers. It's all Blazar can do to get Earth Garon out of there, set the moon into orbit, and de-fuse with Gento before shutting down. And did we mention Vallaron absorbing his energy to transform into an even fierce form?

So...things aren't looking good. Emi is in custody, Vallaron is heading to Earth (and will obviously arrive), an invasion force is on its way, Earth Garon is damaged, Gento and Blazar have de-fused and Blazar is now floating helplessly in space. Quite the cliffhanger to lead into the finale!

Boy, what a weighty penultimate episode...

The brief callbacks to the other members lives before the operation (Anri jogging with music, Teruaki's and Gento's family, Yasunobu with the Washing Machine), even getting to see Retsu again, who I'm starting to wonder if he's going to turn out to be the surprise hero seeing as he managed to recover Emi's father's journal.

It's quite interesting that our "villains" all seem to have humanity's interest in mind in terms of surviving, but they really don't want people learning more than they should, so it'll be curious to see what that's all about.

And Valloran has a Gigan Buzzsaw! That's neat. Also, it would appear that not only Gento, but Blazar as well suffered in continuous transformations, leading to a reverse sequence of Gento trying to save Blazar. This show knew what it was doing!

Next Episode: The Final Battle with the Bomber Boy from Beyond!

Alright, I've wrapped up The☆Ultraman! There's no denying that this show has truly unfortunate subtitle quality, but if you can deal with that then it's an interesting little experiment for the series. I think the show was at it's best when it played to its strengths with the more "galactic-scale" episodes revolving around big space conflicts, which would be hard to depict in a more traditional tokusatsu show. A lot of the more standard tokusatsu show. A lot of the smaller scale episodes tended to vary between boring and mildly interesting for me, many of them felt like traditional episodes from Showa toku, but stripped of a lot of their typical appeal and crazy energy. I do think that this show had a few innovative aspects that were cool though! Hikari seriously struggled with the secret identity he had to keep up, and he was often seen as a bit of a flake by other members of the team because he was constantly disappearing in fights. Marume in particular had a lot of tension with Hikari that I thought was interesting. The cast in general was pretty well characterized for an older show, though this makes Tobe's near complete lack of focus even more jarring. Not to much to say on this one, it was a pretty good attempt at converting the series into animated form, even if in the end I doubt it'll be the kind of show I regularly think about.

I like that the show managed to really capture the vibe of an Ultra show and all the usual trappings of one in animated form wayyyyy before the Gridman anime universe was a thing. It may not have captured it as well but the effort was there and it kind of made me want more Ultraman-style anime in traditional form compared to the Netflix show which was basically just Kamen Rider.

Mutsumi is one of the best Showa girls...

It was also one of the first times we saw a host and their Ultra really communicate with each other on an ongoing basis alongside Jack Shindo and Great.

I did find it kind of funny how they had like a Captain transition like you'd expect from a live-action show replacing actors (like what happened with the Captains in RoU) only to come to replace a normal captain with a more anime captain.

Now that you mention it I think Tobe only got like two focus episodes, one of which involved that crazy professor that was always getting them involved in stuff.

It was pretty interesting how close it was to a tokusatsu in animated form, though it was a bit of a double-edged sword, I admired their clear love for the source material and tokusatsu genre but also wished they shook things up more at times.

Mutsumi was alright. She got a decent amount of focus but didn't leave me wowed. I was sort of thrown off by how blatantly thirsty the show was for her, I guess it's a lot easier for an animator to do something like that vs having to ask a real person to casually act out your fetish! I think my favorite member of the team in The Ultraman was Marume, he's an abrasive hothead, but has moments that show his kinder side too. I think my favorite Showa girl was Anne from Ultraseven, but I also rather liked Jono in 80. Ironically, those are my two least favorite shows from the era overall.

I did like that Hikari and Joe actually communicated properly a lot of the time. A sign of things to come judging from my limited knowledge of the more modern shows!

The captain switch was so strange! Maybe the voice actor got too busy... I didn't like the second captain as much, I often felt like his leadership skills were lacking. At times I thought they were going to do a proper character arc with him about how he feels inadequate for the role at times, but it didn't happen... Oh well.

And then there's Tobe. A character who gets so little attention I kept mixing his name up and calling him Kobe. I honestly think his defining character trait is his sheer terror every time that wacky professor guy shows up.

I have finished Ultraman Orb today and it is a very well done Ultraman series from start to finish and as such as, it is now among my top five favorite Ultraman series right alongside Mebius, Tiga, Z, and Ultraseven. After I watch and finish its post-series movie and the special/miniseries. Ultra Fight Orb, I will finally start watching my copy of the Blu-Ray set of Ultraman Geed and yes, I will watch Ultraman Orb Origin Saga eventually.

I do think some of the Kaiju they depicted would've been harder to do in live-action.
Mutsumi reminded me a lot of Rena and Anne actually, especially with how early they started pairing her with Hikari (and Rena also got a few swimsuit scenes).

Jono's great. I really wish they'd done better by her.
If anything his arc was the team realize where they were inadequate! But he reminded me of Captain Hibiki, just animated. I think he had a bit of a rough/harsh start but over time when he starts settling in I think he became a good captain and bounced off the team well.
Especially because he always singles Tobe out!

I have finally started on Ultraman Geed today and the show is already off to a pretty good start.

I finished Ace today...I still think the last episode is the best ending of the first few series so far

Nice. I hope you enjoy it. :rock:

Not often you see the Attack Team need to pick up the Ultra's unconscious body and carry it back to Earth...and then lose it in the atmosphere, but points for bringing him back!

Well, things are looking grim. Vallaron has arrived on Earth in his final form and is attacking Japan, Dobashi is non-plussed about the possible destruction of everything, Emi is in handcuffs and locked up...and SKaRD is barely holding it together.

But luckily all the relationships in the military that Gento has formed come through and re-supply the team so they can send Earth Garon back out there! It pays to form relationships!

HE SPEAKS!!! And he used Gento's catchphrase! I'm crying like Gento's crying! And then they do the hand reaching out moment for the final transformation!!! It's beautiful!!!

Teruaki being given captaincy felt so right, and of course the first thing he does is defy CCP so that Earth Garon can fight Vallaron with Blazar. That's exactly what Gento would've done.

I like how Anri and Yasunobu are the last Earth Garon combination and not just because I ship them.

Nobody puts Retsu's niece in handcuffs! Or distorts the truth about what happened to his close friend.

Nice of Blazar to start out with the Firdran armor, not that it does any good.

With a V99 invasion force facing the Earth, the truth comes out...there was never really an invasion, an exploratory vessel was assumed to be one and destroyed, with the tech harvested to build up the Earth Garon and the wormhole tech that went awry. But there were never any weapons and they killed innocent aliens for nothing, leading to the retaliatory action of V99.

For once this isn't a problem that can just be solved by an Ultra overpowering a Kaiju, it has to be solved with communication and laying down of arms, as Emi tries to convey to V99 that they don't want to fight. And, conveniently, Earthy made from their tech can actually communicate with them. And it works!

Of course...could they not command Vallaron to stand down or stop attacking? Do they have like no control over the Space Kaiju after they release them? I guess we still needed to finish the fight.

Is there anything more amazing than the power of Gento's son cheering him and Blazar on and his bracelet powering Blazar up to finally finish Vallaron off by finally unleashing HIS ULTRA BEAM?!?!?!?!

I like Blazar honoring Earth Garon and his efforts while Earth Garon gives him a thumbs up before Blazar flies off.

I'm kind of surprised the show ended with A. Gento still fused with Blazar and B. the team not knowing he was Blazar. Guess they'll handle that in the movie. Still, a good ending for SKaRD, Dobashi giving credit to the next generation, hope for the future of V99 beyond the blazar, and seeing Gento back with his family!

Shabeta!!!

Truly a wonderful ending to a wonderful season. Communication was absolutely the heart and soul of the theme through and through, granting us a nice resolution to the conflict.

I do feel like V99 abandoning Earth to deal with Varallon was kind of an odd move, but we got to see Blazar fire a beam out of it! Not only that, but the Kaiju all played a part in preventing the bombs from going off. Good stuff.

Overall, I'm happy with how this series went, sure there are some things I feel weren't done as great as they could have been, but I quite enjoy the show overall. Now to await when the movie arrives to see SKaRD again, but in the meantime, the road to Arc begins.

Finale was peak. This was my first Ultraman season, and I'm thrilled thar it ended up being such a great one

Thank you Tsuburaya for ditching Reiwa Gaia and making Blazar instead. As much as I would've enjoyed Reiwa Gaia this was a real good show. Dare I say Reiwa's finest tokusatsu shows sponsored by Bandai for me are King-Ohger, Geats, and Blazar. :rock:

In some ways it was kind of a spiritual tribute to Gaia in some sense even if it wasn't as direct as Trigger or Decker.

Yes, definitely not a direct tribute but in terms of doing things differently it does match up to a certain extent.

My one sour note about the finale is doing a final battle after all the speech about communication and laying down their weapons and ending the conflict in a non-violent way.

But we can't have an Ultra Series ends without a final battle to the end.

The scene with Gento talking to "Dead" Blazar was just so good. I couldn't help but get a little teary when Blazar actually spoke.

The show's themes of communication and understanding being the thing that actually saved the day for everyone (well, that and Blazar blowing up a monster) is a nice message.

Earth-kun giving a thumbs up. :thumb:

Back to Basics but at the same time doing it's own twist on the Ultraman formula. Ah Blazar, what a good show. Can't wait for the movie!

Yeah, I have to assume V99 had like no direct control or command of the Space Kaiju after they were released and they were simply designed to destroy.

Besides it would be kind of underwhelming to have such a great Final Boss Kaiju and then it just up and leaves after all the destruction it had done.

Plus we needed Blazar to finally use his Ultra Beam!

So we now have a modern Ultraman show that does not feature a talkative Ultra, can do without legacy support, is not about collecting toy trinkets, has no side forms and the show actually features a cohesive plotline that explains why a certain conflict which results in Earth being threatened is happening. Instead of some world-breaking monster just randomly being pooped out of space in the last episode.

I love all of this. On paper. Because in execution - I don't know. Blazar kind of lost steam for me during the last third. It's not that the show got worse or anything, I just stopped caring. It never really "got" me. Not once. Other shows have iconic moments for me that I fondly remember, Blazar doesn't.

I see nothing wrong with it; I'm just not crazy over it. I am very happy it ended the dreadful remake-trend though; I disliked both Trigger and Decker. It's also a great palate cleanser, when the next Ultraman show rolls around; I'm ready for the usual legacy fusion Ultra with four side forms and a silly catchphrase.

Ideally they further refine the Blazar formula but if I had to guess, they panicked after Decker, got Z's director and gave him free reign just to be sure they had something good on their hands, and such creative freedom won't return for a while.

I kind of miss the form changes. And the yelling out of the Ultra name when they transform.

I realized I haven't talked once about Blazar here when it started airing. So I guess better late than never.

In general, I enjoyed it although admittedly I feel like I respect it more than anything. I respect the style and tone that it goes for. I respect that it is willing to leave certain things a bit vague and let the audience think and ruminate on them. While I wouldn't really say it's my personal preference for Ultra nor would I want every Ultra show to be like it, I do appreciate that we can get a show like it in the current toku landscape.

From what we know from interviews, development on Blazar started roughly around 2021 when Trigger was airing. And by all accounts, Decker did well, continuing Ultra's upward momentum in sales and gaining a warmer reception than Trigger.

Finished Ultraman X. A series that was practically an evolution step from Ultraman Ginga S. Still following the classic formula while adding in some new spins and gimmicks that we will see more of as we go more through the New Generation era.

I'm still kinda barely posting around here at the moment, but I can't help but pop back in to say at least a little about how much I enjoyed Blazar's finale.

New Generation Ultra shows tend to make a big occasion out of that final transformation in some way or another, usually by making it into some memorable dynamic action that probably involves the protagonist falling from some great height or whatever, which is always awesome, of course, but I really appreciated the stark contrast here with this emotionally tender scene where Gento is moved to tears by the bond he and this strange alien being have formed.

It's an absolutely perfect note in every way, from the surface level of just how strong the characters have been written and how great that is to watch, as always, to the broader thematic level where the immense trust Gento and Blazar share -- that ability to see themselves in each other despite all the inherent differences and barriers between them -- is so symbolic of the larger conflict going on with the V99 and the way it ultimately needs to be resolved. Appropriately enough, Blazar, right to the end, has always been a show that's great at saying so much more than it ever actually says, and while just about every moment in the finale satisfies, that scene in particular is something I think is going to stick with me for a long time to come. I'm really glad we got to see this show.

So having finished Blazar, I think it sits right behind Z as my favorite series. Granted I only watched those two and Decker to completion.

I don't think it's as perfect as some might say, but I did absolutely love the characters. SKARD is a fantastic group; great dynamic and fun/engaging personalities. Earth Garon is also one of my favorite toku mechs. Love his design and abilities as well as how expressive it can be. So glad the whole sentient AI bit didn't go south like I expected it to and that Earthy stood a close and trusted ally the whole way through.

I only really have a few issues. One was the Gavadon episode. Probably the only one of the run I'd consider bad just cause the pacing, questionable character decisions and focus on mid-to-poor child actors made it a slog to get through, even if the final confrontation was pretty fun.

Second was the amount of recaps. I know Ultraman tends to make like almost a quarter of the run recap episodes but it felt like we got so many and they didn't even feel very interesting unlike Decker's for example. Best was probably the first one based around a tv station trying to make a ratings-boosting story about Blazar and the kaiju he fought.

The last and biggest personal issue is I felt the V99 plot was wrapped up too suddenly. I really did like the finale, but it also felt like it cut off so suddenly. If the series maybe touched on V99 and the effects of the incident a bit earlier and sprinkled it around a bit more it probably wouldn't have felt as rushed to me, given things like Emi's dad or the journal he had would be touched on and then not pop up in what felt like ages.

Outside of that, though, I really enjoyed it. The Ultra Q tribute episode has to be one of my favorite episodes of toku period. And Blazar's design, personality and abilities are just A+ all around.

I finished Blazar a couple of days ago and I'm still a little conflicted about it. I liked the show a lot; good characters, good stories, good fights. I think the show did a lot of things right. It's also not really the show that I wanted it to be.

The big thing that hooked me onto the show right away was just how fucking weird Blazar is. I really wanted to find out what was up with this primitive, howling Ultraman with his crazy fighting style and odd, prayer-like victory posing. I figured that at some point we'd learn more about who he was, where he came from, and exactly what the hell his whole deal was and we just didn't. At the end of the show we know basically about as much about Blazar as we did at the start. That felt like a real missed opportunity and kind of holds down the rest of the show for me.

Ultraman Dyna is done and dusted!

I'm not sure where to start with this one. It was overall a very lighthearted show, many very cheerful or silly episodes, but at times more serious too. The thing is, I don't think the show was able to make these disparate elements elements mesh very well. To make a comparison, something like Kakuranger is able to be hilarious and serious in the same show because it has such a consistent throughline in terms of characters and setting, while Dyna doesn't manage that and it just feels like a show where the writers were rarely on the same page. Lots of plot elements aren't relevant until they NEED to be and the Super GUTS team don't have their own slowly building character arcs and quirks like Tiga did. I feel like Ryo's spontaneous crush on Asuka near the end felt pretty emblematic of the whole thing. Really the cast was kinda forgettable in general. Not bad, but when you have Kohda suddenly becoming vice-leader siper late in the show on his second character focus episode you know things aren't great. Not that I hated the show. I think the Neo Frontier setting was fun and Asuka was the most rogueish hero yet in the series. And the "Monster Drama" episode? Peak. Glorious. Akio Jissoji does it again. Overall just not something I could get invested in though, probably my least favorite Ultra show so far. I think I would have liked it better if they leaned a little harder into being some sort of hotblooded comedy? Would help distinguish it from just being "worse Tiga" and the show was often the most interesting when being silly.

It's been a little over a week (better late than never) but I am finally watching the final episode of Ultraman Blazar and as of last night, I am up to episode 11 of Ultraman Geed.

Okay I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about something. I think Ultraman Nexus sounds like a very cool show, but for a while now I've been keeping close tabs on Hasegawa as a writer while watching Ultraman shows and I've realized I actively dislike his stuff a lot of the time. I don't want to know any spoilers, but how does Nexus compare to his usual work?

I think it's one of his best.

Hard to tell I think Nexus does to a lot of things differently enough that you might like it especially if your already interested in checking it out. But if you dislike Hasegawa other body of work the execution might not be it for you.

Then again I am biased I personally think Hasegawa is one of the best writers & my love for Nexus is in part due to his style. But the show is lauded for how distinct it can feel. So 50/50?

Yeah, I was thinking my odds were about 50-50 myself. I don't always dislike Hassgawa but I'd say that most of the time I find him notably worse compared to other writers on shows he's worked on.At the same time, Nexus sounds absolutely wild to me and I know some people shine best when put in the head writer position. Further complicating matters, the Ultra wiki says Ai Ota was in charge of series composition for Nexus and I like her a lot! Really hard to tell if I should let myself get excited about watching Nexus or try to curb my enthusiasm a bit in order to enjoy it the most.

Can I say though... Hasegawa is 100% Toshiki Inoue Lite and I'm amazed I never found this out earlier. Really similar in terms of "dark" narratives, the regular inclusion of bitter romantic elements, the sheer amount of material and thus high level of influence they both have on the tokusatsu genre. And... they're both quite divisive. Hasegawa more restrained so I think he's a lot more accessible though.