FRS Ultraman Tiga revealed at Shizuoka Hobby Show, scheduled for October 2024 release. :rock:

Apparently FrS Tiga will be the first to have zero decals.

Our next cast reveal is Natsume Rin, played by Kaho Mizutani (previously Mayu Natsume in Kamen Rider Ghost)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNM-FRZa...jpg&name=large

She's a cutie!

New Ultraman Rising Trailer! Movie releases on my Birthday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwXgOMDONK8

Aba Red is playing the chief
https://tsuburaya-prod.com/news/7296

I like this. :rock:

I just finished watching Ultraman Blazar!

The short version of my thoughts are that while I generally enjoyed it, it stumbles in a few areas that keep it from being anything super special for me.

Like, I agree with the director on wanting there to be a second season. Not because I feel the show was super good, but because alot of aspects to its plot and character arcs felt rather undercooked.

The final episode I think is especially symbolic of this. The overall theme of communication, and the idea of the conflict being resolved via the GGF just talking things out with the V99 is a wonderful idea, especially for a show that showcased that not all Kaiju are bad. And Blazar's' final power up coming from Gento's' bond with his family is great.

However, said finale then sorta shoots itself in the foot by not having the V99 leave with Valoran afterward, making the message come across as "Actually violence really was the answer all along." If they wanted the best of both worlds, they could've just had Valoran get defeated first, and then have the V99 fleet show up afterward. And that's not even getting into how Dobashi walks away scott free after everything he did.

And on the character side of things, while I generally like the cast, and did appreciate how more of them got development than alot of the cast of Nexus did, the tradeoff is that alot of said development falls a bit short. Teruaki gets a grand total of one focus episode that doesn't even fully belong to him, and Gento's' son very clearly having depression is never really addressed; Not to mention Gento kinda being an absentee father ontop of that. I guess the episode where he's seen as a hero by the news was supposed to sweep all of that under the rug?

But enough negatives. One thing the show absolutely nails is its overall aesthetic. I've read that alot of the budget went into the suit designs this season and man does it show. Every Kaiju design is killer, Earth Garon has a ton of great detailing if you look close, and Blazar himself is probably my overall favorite main Ultra design. All of this is then complimented by some great effects work and some standout music during certain scenes. There are also some rather pretty episodes in terms of cinematography, such as the music episode. Things like this really do help in carrying the show's' overall atmosphere.

As I said before, I did overall like the show and had a good time with it, and it's currently at the top of my rather short list of Ultra shows that I've seen, but it's a case of it being so close to being great and just missing the mark, you know? Regardless, as my first "proper" Ultra show, I felt it did good, and I hope to keep having a solid time as I slowly move through this franchise.

I think the intention was that they couldn't stop Vallaron like how Delos couldn't stop Giga Basark in Max after already releasing it.

Are you referring to the Nijikagachi two-parter? I think the episode with his family was a pretty clear Teruaki episode.

The Zangill and Cicada People episodes were my favorite in Blazar. Of course, and the episode with Yasunobu's dating scene with the washing machine. :lolol

While the Rainbow two-parter was really weird in how its focus went, no, I was referring to the one regarding Teruaki's' family. That part of the story wasn't focused on enough, in my opinion.

Episodes 6, 10, and 22 were definitely the big highlights for me.

Listings for Mill Creek Ultraman Taiga blu-rays coming out on July 30th have surfaced.

https://www.deepdiscount.com/ultrama.../683904636386?

So stocked that Mill Creek finally moving onto Reiwa Ultra (and hopeuflly the new deal also fill out some oddities left out in their original deal.)

I was just thinking about this series while I was finally continuing right where I left off on Ultraman R/B. I am even a few episodes away from getting to that show’s halfway point. I seriously hope this is true.

Finally, Taiga!

Nice! I had started to assume this was never coming.

I was hoping we would see something like this soon since quite a few of the Reiwa shows aren't available for easy streaming anymore.

Awww yeeeeah! Finally!

And soon, Z.

Also known as the series that is just, at least for me, Ultra Peak! :D :rock:

I still wonder if they're going to do dubs for Trigger and Decker before putting them on DVD again because otherwise they'll be this big dub gap between Z and Blazar.

Yes. :lolol :rock:

Would be great if they did, but I understand if they don't because of budget and whatnot.

Yes Bandai, show us if you can make this into a toy. We will buy it anyway! :lol
https://images2.imgbox.com/31/68/jlNo3eQN_o.jpg

As of now, I am finally now a little more than halfway through Ultraman R/B.

Sevenger Final Form!

The OP and ED for Ultraman Arc have been revealed.

https://tsuburaya-prod.com/news/7346...ocw47ZfgmYBkwG

The OP is “arc jump’s to the sky”, performed by access. The pair’s never performed a Toku song as a group, but as individuals, one’s done the first OP for Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga and the other’s done some inserts for Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.

And the ED is “Mera Mera” by Arcana Project.

Boy albums come with recolours of Arc in soft vinyl figure form.

He's also the actor for Cronus from Ex-Aid.

Also mentioned in the article is that Arc's soundtrack will be done by Yuki Hayashi. He's done quite a lot of stuff, though my closest familiarity is his work on Build Fighters, which is really good.

I'm expecting some bangers!

Ultraman Orb The Origin Saga: As a standalone series it was okay with some good parts in it. As an origin/prequel to Ultraman Orb, it didn't work too well for me. I mean Juggler's reason to go evil felt pretty straightforward: He was jealous he wasn't chosen to be a Warrior of Light. There wasn't any need for this backstory and especially by how they presented it here.

Kiramagers Ultraman version. It looks banal, but very cute. I smiled the entire trailer. The song is also very good and creates a light-hearted atmosphere.

I'm down for this. I like that is an investigation team this time around, which means more relaxed structures and more breathing room for the characters, the last four seasons were all military groups which is fine but the constant use got a bit boring.

Seems business as usual otherwise, but what I find interesting is that Arc can only use armors once his Color Timer flashes red? Huh. I mean it doesn’t change the flow too much because usually Ultra only bring out form changes once they get beaten up, but actually tying it to the Color Timer is new.

That's interesting that the armors are only usable when the Color Timer starts blinking. It even covers up the timer so we can't see how much more time he has left.

Also glad we're still getting new Kaiju after Blazar but it looks like they sacrificed Telesdon and Black King in the process.

Love seeing Kouichirou Nishi playing a commander character within the genre considering he's had his chipper red ranger role with Ryoga and then a villain in Kamen Rider W and the Sharivan movie where Riki Miura who played Geki Violet in Gekiranger was the new Sharivan. He finally hit the Tokusatsu Haul having appeared in Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Metal Heroes, and now Ultraman.

It also looks like he's playing another married captain considering the ring on his finger.

Oh, I guess we could expect a potential dad or husband to the rescue episode at one point.

Ultraman Rising is streaming now
https://www.netflix.com/title/81007144

Just as Netflix finally cracked down on the password my friend shared with me :lol
I'm sure it'll be uploaded elsewhere soon to watch, but I actually wanted to support it

Just finished watching Ultraman: Rising, I really liked it. Very well done movie. Super fun time, strong message carried from start to finish with great characters and beautiful animation.

More like this please.

Ultraman: Rising...

It's not bad. I thought it was good. I have some nitpicks and a few criticisms, but I liked it overall.

A nice Birthday Present as well!

I guess because I didn't like rewatching Kamen Rider Geats much I completely blitzed through Ultraman The Next and Ultraman Nexus.

The Next is interesting, it is definitely an Ultraman film, but is a little more serious than normal and takes some notes from Kamen Rider and full-blooded Kaiju movies. Lots of great spectacle, but it feels so radically different from its followup that I can barely accept them being in the same universe.

Nexus was a wild, wild ride. Once again it becomes immediately obvious that this show really wanted to copy the success of some of the darker, early 2000s Kamen Rider shows, but it did plenty to make itself stand out as it went along. It was really interesting how they kept the viewpoint character Komon and the characters who were Nexus separate up until almost the end. Previously I have often slightly disliked Hasegawa as a writer, but I thought he did quite well here. The first 2/3rd of the show with the Himeya arc was some truly special stuff, with the way it blurs the line between truth and fiction for both the characters and the viewer themself as they wonder what and whom can even be trusted. The way it gets your guard down by acting like it is going to play out a more simple story arc before sucker punching you with something much more insidious, such as how they give Komon's girlfriend Riko a bunch of death flags to distract you from her actual nature or give the Night Raiders shiny new powerups only for something terrible to unfold after they use it. It created a truly oppressive, fearful atmosphere, yet ultimately let hope bloom. Awesome stuff, I was completely addicted to watching one episode after another during this part. Unfortunately I didn't like the Ren stretch of the show nearly as much. It seems like Ai Ota was the writer who took charge of most of that stretch of the show and typically I like her, but I was just kind of meh on the Ren arc with it's predictable plot beats and lighter tone. The Himeya arc of the show tended to have very grounded character drama for the most part, but between the more soap-operay concepts (a kid who is dying from cellular breakdown! Mizorogi has amnesia!) and adding a bunch of extra characters instead of fleshing out the existing ones it just didn't really grab me. I don't think anything really happened during this part of the show that surprised me, except for the sheer frenzy of a final episode (and that didn't surprise me in a good way). Of course, the show was supposed to be longer initially too, which means many story elements had to be compressed into the Ren arc or flat out dropped, which just generally made it feel sloppier too. Would have loved to have seen a fully fleshed out Nagi storyline like was originally planned! Some issues plague both parts of the show. The budget for the series is blatantly rock bottom, which results in a low amount of effect sequences and fights. There was also a truly comical amount of flashback sequences in this show, likely to pad for time due to the aforementioned budget. So... I liked it, but it definitely had a lot of problems. I think if I suggested the show to someone I would actually just suggest watching the Himeya arc, because I felt more satisfied after that was over than when I finished the whole thing!