Grew to like Gomora as time went on, Baltan, Eleking, Golza, Red King, Demaaga from X became a fast favorite, Galberos from Nexus.

Hello,

I've heard of UM (forum won't accept my post with UM spelled fully for some reason), but haven't felt the urge to watch it yet. For a newcomer, which UM show would you all suggest I should start with to get into the series?

The ones on Crunchyroll are nice starters. Max and X I think are good starters from the recent stuff(though Max is from almost 12 years ago).

Thank you. Age doesn't really bother me that much so 12 years ago is fine...unless it's in black/white, then my eye starts to twitch a bit lol jk.

Ultra Seven as you can buy it on DVD or watch it on Shout!'s website. The original series is great too and you can pick up the DVD for like $7.

For newer stuff, start with Orb.

Max. It's a great show with really likable characters and it does a good job of encapsulating what an Ultraman show is while paying homage to the past but still doing its own thing. X and Orb are also really good shows and I'd definitely recommend Gaia, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYFDdbFgqL4

Check out what was just uploaded to the Tsuburaya channel. I think its an advertisement for a Kaiju themed bar but I can't read Japanese so... That being said, I'm very pleased with myself for recognizing most of the Kaiju and Seijin that appeared, even if I don't remember their names.

So I'm trying to figure out all of the series Crunchyroll does not have available outside of the original and Seven. Tell me what I'm missing:

Taro
Return
Ace
Tiga (licensed by Funimation)
Dyna
G (American made)
Ultra Seven X
Ultra Seven Heisei

and then some Australian series, right?

There's also the Ultraman anime from the late 70s and Ultraman Cosmos from 2001. I'm not surprised that the shows that are part of the Chaiyo legal debacle aren't there, but I'm a little surprised that Dyna isn't on the site still, especially since they've had Gaia for over a year now (and I need to finish watching it).

Not familiar with the anime. Is it actually part of the show's canon?

I honestly have no idea. I tend to doubt it, because as far as I know there's never been a live action suit built after it.

There is.
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...20160801051617
As far as continuity is concerned, debatable. One thing that is certain though is that Joneus hails from the planet U40 rather than the Land of Light where most of the Showa Ultras came from.

I always assumed that, while the American Ultra shows themselves aren't canon, the Ultras that hailed from those shows are. I don't have anything offical to back this up though.

I stand corrected. That design translates into physical form nicely.

Got a question. I'm doing a panel at NDK next month called "Ultraman vs Ultra Seven: The Origins of Toku," but I need a song to open the panel with. What do you think would be funny to have playing for like 30 seconds while I have clips from both shows flying by?

We finally just started Ultraman Ginga and after four episodes, I'm not really feeling it. The biggest factor is how ugly everything looks. Did they film this with the cheapest cameras possible? Why does it look like the show is moving in slow motion at like 10 frames per second? I thought it was just my PS3 doing it, but I've turned Crunchyroll onto three difference devices and it is happening on all of them. Episode 2 was the worst, especially during the scene when the biker was chasing the only characters who seem to actually exist at this school.

That brings me to my next thing, where is everyone? Why are the monsters only attacking a school that is in the middle of nowhere? Are there no townspeople around? No villages? How far away from the city are they? Additionally, if there is no civilization around, why do they have a lone cop on a bicycle? Wouldn't it be more effective for him to have a motorcycle so he could actually catch criminals as they drive away? I also do not care for the supporting cast, especially the girl who sounds like she is on helium. Where is the Science Patrol-like organization? I know Ginga joins one since he was part of one in the movies and in the X crossover episodes, so where are they?

The fights so far haven't even been all that good. It's been mostly reduced to stare downs with a few moves here or there.

Okay, calm down, I know it's only been four episodes. However, I am bored right now. I did like the updated Pandan design. He looks far more threatening than he did in Ultra Seven. There have also been some nicely done creepy parts, so that is a plus. I just wish it didn't revolve solely in the school hallway.

Ginga was pretty clearly made on a shoestring budget. Everything about it was pretty clearly made very cheaply. Ginga S is a much more conventional series and definitely had a higher budget.

If I recall correctly, wasn't Ginga made during a point in time when Tsuburaya was still recovering from major financial troubles caused by a number of things including poor management and a huge lawsuit. If you take a look at the dates Ginga and Ginga S' episodes aired on, you'll see that both shows went on a break about half way through, an even bigger sign that neither show had a very high budget.

We watched 5 and 6 and nothing has improved. In fact, this show seems to be getting worse. Like the emotionless boy is pointless. Also, does the principal know what is going on? Is she a ghost? She just randomdly walked in on them during their conversation to spout exposition and then disappeared. The entire turning the friend against Hikaru only to have it end within a few minutes was so stupid. Dark Tiga was cool, and now he's gone. Oh, and the best character on the show is now back to being a Spark Doll. WTF?

And once again, why are there only five kids at this school? If it has been closed down, why are they even there? Isn't that a hazard to have a couple of kids without parental supervision be at the school? What if they injure themselves and the cop or principal doesn't teleport to their location to help them?

We're going to finish this season, but think we're going to skip the movie that Crunchyroll has listed as episode 7. I want to get through this series as quickly as possible.

I'm not going to try to defend Ginga. I will just say that Ginga S is much, much, much better.

I hope so. I also hope the cast learned how to act between seasons.

The sad thing about Ginga is that you probably could have completely skipped the show and jumped straight to S without missing a thing outside of the main character's origin story. Only two characters from Ginga return as cast members in S and the others are limited only to guest star roles.

Only two of them carry over, although the rest do cameo in a couple of episodes.

In all honesty, I would just say watch the first and last episode of Ginga then jump to Ginga S because your not missing much otherwise.

So, confession time! Or at least this feels like a confession given the awkward timing of me getting around to this (Hi Dr Kain!). I totally adore Ultraman Ginga. There's a lot of reasons for that, like the more meta stuff of it being the show that got me properly interested in Ultraman to begin with, or the design of Ginga himself being a favorite of mine (it's those glowy blue bits~), but I honestly love the show itself too, flaws and all. Sure, it may be the unnecessary answer to the unnecessary question of "What if we tried making Kamen Rider Fourze, but it's an Ultraman show, nobody can act, and the whole thing has a budget that makes old Doctor Who episodes look like major Hollywood productions?", but dang it, it just did it all with so much heart I can't stay mad at it. Ginga is a show you absolutely have to meet halfway to enjoy, but meeting it halfway is absolutely worth it as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, the point I'm getting around to here is that I haven't watched more than a couple episodes of Ginga S and have decided to rectify that. However, after a bit of indecision I went ahead and rewatched regular Ginga first. Partly because I wanted to see if it still holds up (to me I mean), and partly because I wanted to see if Crunchyroll's subs for it are as bad as the couple of bits of them I watched when they first added it.

We'll get back to that last bit in a second, but suffice it to say based on the first paragraph of this post, my thoughts on Ginga haven't changed much. The first half is great, and the second half is... better than I remember actually, but still very odd and nowhere near as sharp as the first couple episodes. The tone is kind of all over the place, for one thing, but, especially given certain plot developments, it also feels like the budget was even more stretched than it already was? Fortunately the finale is great and really leaves the show on a high note.

About those Crunchyroll subs though. They're awwwwwwwwwwwwfulllllllllllllllllll. I'm not just being facetious when I say I've seen TV-Nihon translations that are better than this. I don't know what the deal is either given that the subs we've been getting for X, Orb, and Geed range from fine to good. It's like the backlog Ultraman shows Crunchyroll has were pumped out over a weekend or something. It's absolutely insane. Basically every line is wrong in ways that range from subtle to glaring. For one thing, they've systematically sucked out every last bit of character from the dialogue, and given that Ginga's biggest strength is that aforementioned heart, it's kind of a problem if the show feels completely heartless and devoid of life. There's also the usual weird things like refusing ever say stuff like "an Ultraman" or "Ultramen" even when the result is rather clunky. That might just be a branding thing though so I'm not too angry about it.

What does make me angry, more than any of that relatively subjective stuff, are all the outright mistakes. Sentences written so awkwardly they barely make sense, outright mistranslations, and just plain bizarre inconsistencies like being unable to decide if Taro has "Ultra Telekinesis" or "Ultra Psychokinesis". Not to mention the irrational fear the translator(s) seemed to have of exclamation points and contractions. The Spark Dolls Theater segments do better in this regard, but then they also use the word "moe" in there once like it's a real word. I mean, I know what it means, and I'm sure most of Crunchyroll's audience knows what it means, but you can't just assume this crap! Is this a translation or not?! And why aren't the episode previews translated? None of this makes any sense!

Like, guys, I'm sorry I'm so hung up on this but you gotta understand. I thought replacing Legend of Galaxy as the opening was going to be my biggest issue here. Ginga is a show that already has the odds stacked against it, so the thought of people getting exposed to it through this half-baked mess of a translation is genuinely depressing to me.

At least with the initial shock out of the way, I should be able to enjoy Ginga S without getting so frustrated I want to punch a wall. :lol

Its kind of sad how much of an uphill battle Ginga's fighting pretty much every step of the way. I'm critical of the show and I don't think its very good but, as you've already mention, it has heart and it served its purpose of bring Ultraman into the modern era.

It was also my first Ultraman show, which I watched with Tv-Nihon's subs, and, while it didn't exactly wow me even then, I might not have cared enough to watch Orb, the show that made me an Ultraman fan and made me actually interested in watching the rest of the series, had I not see Ginga first so its a win in my book.

Besides, I hope we can all agree that Ginga is one of the best designed Ultras in the entire franchise. Those lines, his blue Zenshin Crystals that change colors based on attacks, why is blue so rarely used as the primary color for non-sentai-esque tokusatsu heroes...

Its a shame about Crunchyroll's subs though. I've watched all of the Heisei Ultras they have on their site and, while I can't for how accurate the translations are, the overall quality of them seems to vary quite greatly depending on the show.

So first up, we finished season 1 of Ginga today. Episode 8 (really ep 7, but Crunchyroll has the movie as ep 7) was hands down both the worst and best episode of the season. How is that even possible? Well it is the worst because half of it was a god damn clipshow. Whomever thought it was a good idea to make the SEVENTH episode to be a clip show, was friggin retarded. It's not like the show has had months of development to even do a clip show. On the other hand, it is the best because the second half was hands down the most fun I had in the entire season. The fighting game bits were hilarious and watching the two monsters bro fist each other had me laughing immensely. I really did think I was watching a video to Primal Rage.

After that, the garbage just kept on coming. Oh, was the principal being the villain supposed to be a plot twist? If so, then it failed as I saw that coming light years away. I did like the designs of Black Ultra Seven and Black Ultraman though. Or is it Ultraman Dark and Ultra Seven Dark? They seemed to have changed their names between episodes.

The acting never got better, the camera work remained subpar at best, and everything looked so cheap. Also, for wanting to be an idol, Helium Girl can not hold a tune for jack. The whole thing was so stupid and then suddenly all of these people show up at the end without any rhyme or reason, but they apparentely live in the area. There was nothing in any of this show to indicate this school was even remotely close to a town, village, or city. Even the final battle was lame. Second worst Ultraman series ever! (Ultra Seven X is still the worst).

Now with that said, we also watched the first four episodes to its second season and wow, this show has a budget. They still need to work on their mics as it sounds like the actors are either speaking way too loud into them or they are way too close to them, but other than that, I have no complaints. The cast seems likable, Victory brings in an interesting dynamic, the fights have been pretty well choreographed, and I now wish my King Joe Figuart came with an interchangeable arm with that gun arm. The miniatures look good too. Why couldn't this be the show we got instead? The first season was an utter waste of time and money. I mean, people got paid to write that dogshit and they had to pay those people to "act."

The only thing that is bugging me right now is that princess of the underworld looks so damn familiar, but when I looked up her credits, the only thing listed I have seen is Sky High. I'm pretty sure I have seen her somewhere else before. Then again, the same went for the girl that transformed into Pandan in the first season, so maybe I'm just being racist there. :-)

I am also loving at how many Ultra Seven characters we have here. Android Zero One, her boss, King Joe, Eleking, and a Guts alien showing up has been pretty awesome so far. Oh, and Ginga's trident he used in the first two episodes rocked. I hope I get to see him use it again.

In Ginga's defense, episode 7 aired after a several month long break without any new episodes. That being said, I'm glad your liking S so far. Victory is hella cool and the Victorians are surprisingly fleshed out despite the show's small episode count. I hope you enjoy the rest of the show.

They had a several month break between episodes? What madness is this? Since when does Japan put a show on for 6 episodes and then go on break?

I figure they wanted to spread the limited episode count over a longer period to keep Ginga "relevant" longer. Ginga S did the same thing, if I'm remembering right. Keep in mind both shows aired as part of Ultraman Retsuden (as did X), so in a technical sense it never went off the air.

Ratsuden? I have no idea what that is. This year was the first time I started to pay attention to Ultraman since Nexus was on the air.

As far as I could gather, Ultraman Retsuden was basically a weekly clip show hosted by Ultraman Zero along with various other characters in Ultra Series. It takes battles from certain episodes of shows all over the franchise and has Zero, along with whoever's host the episode for that day, providing commentary over them. Though it technically ended once Orb started, all the Ultraman Zero movies were cut up into 30 minute chunks and aired in between Orb and Geed. This was also when Ultra Orb Fight aired.

That sounds awful. Why not just reair the original shows instead?

They did, in addition to the aforementioned clip shows. I don't really know all that much about the show other then that though, since its wikipedia entries don't really go into much detail, but judging by the few episodes of the show that have been translated, some of the episodes are themed around something specific rather then just being a clipshow of a specific series and, as mentioned before, it often features returning characters or characters from the then current Ultra series providing commentary. Basically, it was a cheap way of not only keeping the show on the minds of children but also providing them a history lesson on the franchise as a whole. I doubt many kids would be interested in watching sit through a show 30 years older then they are.

Yeah, I wouldn't knock Ultraman Retsuden too hard, man. Budget conscious recycling or not, it ran year-round for half a decade and produced well over 200 episodes in the process. Clearly it did something right, or we probably wouldn't have shows as awesome as Orb right now.

Here's an example of an Ultraman Retsuden episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKbRE97nSEA

I actually like the idea of Ultraman Retsuden. Not only is it a fun way for a young child to learn about the history of the Ultra series, its a cheap way to advertise a toyline and show why kids should care about the history of a 60 year old show. Its actually really clever and something only really Ultraman could do, since it actually has continuity unlike Kamen Rider or Sentai.

So we watched 5-8 tonight and the show continues to impress. Although, it seems like Chibull is quite forgetful because he keeps telling Zero One that this episode is her last chance, she fails, and then he repeats it in the next. lol I'm really liking what they have done with Sho, but I do wish they would give Arisa and Gouki an episode each to develop their lives outside of UPG. That aside, it's pretty solid so far. Nowhere near as good as Orb or even X, but a vast improvement over the first season and maybe better than Leo. The last fight with Five King was pretty badass, especially when Five King was just leasurly landing from the sky. I was surprised that this wasn't the final battle with Chibull though.

Looks like Misuzu is back next episode... yay?

All right, so we just finished watching episodes 9-12 of Ginga S and they were a blast. Well, episodes 9 and 10 were your standard fare, but my god, 11 and 12 were hands down the most awesome episodes of the entire series thus far. They were like the Black Star Coffee from Orb and the 3 alien rugby one from X in the realm of badassery. THe first episode with Gan-Q was really cute and touching, something I did not expect to see at all from this show. It shouldn't have worked with this show's tone, and yet, it did. Then we have the last episode, which I was dreading because it brought back Helium Girl and they actually did have that she became a singer, but again, it worked. Seeing a Metron be a huge fanboy was down right hilarious. My favorite scene is when he is in the UPG car and sense Chigusa being attacked so he just says, "I'll come back later," and teleports out. I could not stop laughing my ass off from that one. Even the big battle at the end was great. I really hope the remaining 4 episodes can keep up this momentum.

The Metron in that episode was a very strong homage to the main character from Toei's 70s tokusatsu Zubat. His human disguise is modeled after Hayakawa's original costume, minus the cowboy hat.

Glad to hear you're enjoying Ginga S; it's a fun show. When you're done, don't forget to check out the post-series movie. It's available via TV-Nihon.