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Dumb question. What's the difference between the Ultra-Act and SHF?
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Another difference which is mainly do to the Figuarts being newer is the slightly updated body type and sculpt. http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...9&d=1479172033 |
I ask because I ordered an Ultra-Act Mirror Knight figure.
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Finished with Ginga S finally! Overall I have to say I'm really impressed. I knew it would be better than Ginga but I expected this to still be sort of the "awkward puberty phase" before X happened. There's nothing awkward about it though. Ginga S rocks, and while it was definitely surpassed by what came after, it might actually be more fun than those shows.
I'm not particularly confident in that claim, but this show was a real blast to work my way through. Heck, with the masterpiece that is "Gan-Q's Tears" in there, the rest of the series could be awful and I'd say it was worth it. Fortunately that isn't the case, as every single episode hits the mark. Instead of trying to cover every last element of the show, I'm just going to highlight a few particular things that made me love it: - This is kind of a small thing to start with, but it wouldn't feel right to not mention the songs at some point. They're all great. The opening is almost too cool for the show its attached to, and the redone version of Kirameku Mirai works surprisingly well for the ending, even if I would've preferred something unique. The insert themes are every bit as great. Ginga's is wisely unchanged, and Victory's manages to be almost as cool. Almost. - The action is super fun. Koichi Sakamoto only personally directed the first and last few episodes so I don't know if it's just a coincidence that the rest of the show still feels influenced by him. Ginga and Victory move pretty fast and are liable to use all sorts of crazy weapons and attacks instead of just awkwardly wrestling the monsters for a bit before going for the finisher. This show is also where the habit of shooting things creatively for the heck of it started, and I'm not complaining. I don't know why I need to watch Victory fight a monster through their reflections on a building for one shot, but it looks pretty dang it! Writing-wise the show gets a lot of mileage out of having two heroes to keep things from getting too formulaic. Fight scenes can happen at any point in the episode, Ginga and Victory can show up in either order or at the same time, and frequently there will be extra tension because one of them can't show up right away. It's all extremely engaging. - That leads me pretty naturally into my next point. Hikaru and Shou and great protagonists. I loved Hikaru to begin with but Ginga S takes him to a whole new level. For one thing, Takuya Negishi's acting has gotten notably more natural (as has pretty much everyone else's), and his eternally outgoing, bubbly personality contrasts perfectly with his new co-star's stoic demeanor. Shou is cool in his own right. Instead of just making him a jerk or something simple like that, his attitude is the result of him basically caring too hard. He's very disciplined in everything in he does and as a result it's only natural someone as unfettered as Hikaru would rub him the wrong way. They're people who are, in more ways than one, from two very different worlds. Putting them together is where the show starts to shine. After butting heads for a few episodes, they quickly start to come to an understanding and gradually become inseparable partners. I really appreciate the show dodging standard "rival" tropes for Shou, and the downplayed, very genuine way his relationship with Hikaru builds over time keeps them getting along from being boring in any way. I remember when Ginga S was announced being unsure about the notion of Ginga getting a "sidekick", but having now watched it, I have to say, it's my single favorite thing about the whole series. I almost can't picture them apart anymore. Like, Taro may be part of the Ultra Brothers, but Ginga and Victory are Ultra Bros. - Lastly, I was impressed by how much Ginga S actually did feel like a continuation of the first season, despite in a lot of ways being a completely different show. I mean, everything is all about *ACTION!* now. Ginga poses in front of explosions like an 80's action movie hero, he and his new friends at the sci-fi military organization he joined get into fistfights with human-sized mooks, it's all pretty weird when you stop to remember this show used to be about a bunch of goofball kids in a small town trying to follow their dreams. And yet, despite all this, there's enough connecting it back that I buy all the changes. Despite the whole "dreams" thing being almost completely gone, friendship is still a very present motif throughout. Hikaru is thrust into a more typical Ultraman show, but he's the same as ever, even making a cheesy speech about the sky in the first episode just so you know it's still him. His friends all show back up to varying degrees of importance, too. Kenta gets a little screwed compared to the others, but I'm surprised he was there at all. There's a clear respect for Ginga's not-so-great first season that makes me super happy to see when it's pretty obvious they wanted as much of a fresh start as possible. The Victorians are also a society consisting of like 6 people, so some of Ginga's budgetary problems are still there. :lol Well, that'll do it. I could go on for a lot longer if I wanted to, though. Ginga S is an almost shocking improvement on its predecessor. Part of me was always worried, as a weird person who genuinely loves Ginga, that it would push me away with how different it was, but now it just feels like the promotion Ginga deserved. It's as if getting people to go "Wow, Ginga's cool now?!" was Tsuburaya's mission, and if it was they succeeded spectacularly. |
Well, I've finally stepped into the Ultraman Franchise, actually started about a month ago when I was suggested to watch Ultraman X on twitter. I watch the first episode and it's not until yesterday that I decide to Marathon the series because I got bored.
So I watched the first 14 Episodes yesterday and the rest as well as the Ultraman X Movie today. So Short And Sweet: I'm ready to jump in and dive deeper into Ultraman. Long Version: So X was one I wasn't sure about, if only because while I had seen snippets I didn't think I'd get attached to this series. But as time went on, around the Episodes 6 and 7 which was the first two part episodes we got I started to get more invested. If there's one thing I like about Ultraman X is that X isn't the only effective line of defense, and there are times when he needs help and Xio can help provide that support. It really felt like most of Xio had a purpose, even the science division. I think the only two characters that never really did anything aside from their jobs were those two communication characters that sat around and mentioned whenever an attack or wherever an attack was going to be. Like during the penultimate episode when their having a standard conversation and playing rock, paper, scissors, I was like, "Wait, their doing something other than sitting around?" That being said enjoyed the cast, it was nice to see Dr. Maki's actor again and Taiga's actor before he became an FPS Rider. Daichi was also a nice main hero and I do like how things were shown not told all the time. Also I definitely have a new favorite monster in the form of Gomora, he was really cool to see, especially when he was use to help fight whenever X wasn't able to or when he fought alongside him. Also Greeza, I really want to know if there are odd disturbing Kaiju like him in terms of the noises and movement, I really enjoyed him from what we saw. The other past Kaiju's too are pretty cool when seeing them in action as well. As for the past Ultraman cameos, I enjoyed them a lot, for the most part they were there for me to get interested in each Ultraman and possibly check out their series. The most blatant crossover one was Ginga and Victory, since that apparently tied into previous stuff that happened but I didn't mind. And now all I need to do is try and figure out what Ultraman Series to go after next. Max and Nexus definitely seemed interesting, though Zero also peaked my interest in his cameo, especially since I know he's unorthodox that he doesn't have a series but a set of movies and specials he's in. |
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Rounded out Ginga S with the movie. I could tell you how fun it is but I'd rather let this montage of back-splosions speak for itself:
https://i.imgur.com/pd76rfw.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xOQiYHm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/UtJJZYC.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pPqfQEm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Ap38fvQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/n5PnTHR.jpg https://i.imgur.com/SbmPAZ5.jpg https://i.imgur.com/vjUO6rj.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ZH8LMtW.jpg https://i.imgur.com/2BQEAbw.jpg Honestly I don't know what more you could want out of a film. :lol |
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I saw the Ginga movie back in Jan when it was released in theaters. It was pretty cool, I just hope it doesn't take too much longer for it (and X) to be released on BD with subtitles.
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Started Ultraman Max, am currently on Episode 6. So far so good, never realized how much I loved Max as a design till now.
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Ok, question. What series should I watch? So far I've only see Geed and Orb, I'm planning on watching Tiga, Nexus and Max
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Something you need to remember though is that, unlike Orb and Geed, most Ultraman shows are very episodic as they tend to focus less on an actual story and more on how people react to the constant giant monster attacks and the effect it has on them. While there is a big bad sometimes, the monster attacks are usually due to a combination of nature and human carelessness. There are some shows with actual storylines, such as Nexus and Gaia, but you need to prepare yourself for show's like Tiga, which have more or less has no plot and almost every episode is stand alone.
That being said, I cannot recommend Mebius enough. That first episode man... |
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Out of the ones you're planning to watch I can only recommend Max as I've never seen anything Tiga or Nexus. |
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X is definitely one to get around to as well though, if you like the other newer shows. It's only like 20 episodes too, so I mean, why not, right? |
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So I am a quarter done with Ultraman Max, ended up watching 10 Episodes yesterday and I don't know, I am somehow really enjoying the episodic nature of this?
Like it's hard for me to sit through something like Sentai for whatever reason due to that also having very episodic plots. Yet with Ultraman it's easier somehow. I don't know if it's the characters, the way the Kaiju Battles are handled, but the Ultraman Episodic Formula is one that I thought I wouldn't get into. Yet I watched 10 Episodes in one day because each one interested me enough to want to watch more. I also like how 10 Episodes in and Max looks like he's shown off all of his stuff, aside from one thing I remember from Ultraman X. But I think it makes the battles a lot more interesting because he doesn't have to use different armors or forms, he has to think and use what he has in his arsenal to beat the monster. Also the Opening Song is pretty catchy, I also like how as it starts up you see the title for the episode during the Opening. |
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♫ Max, Max, Max! ♫ Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun ♫ Max, Max, Max! ♫ Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun ♫Ultraman Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax!♫ |
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Watched the Ultraman Orb movie (with some pretty dire subs, so I look forward to TVN eventually getting around to it) and....feel kinda conflicted about it? Don't get me wrong I did have a lot of fun with it, but it wasn't anywhere near as good as the X movie and ultimately all felt a bit inconsequential. I guess the problem is when everything the franchise produces at the moment is so good when something doesn't quite meet that high standard it's more noticeable than usual.
The villain is really forgettable, and the other Ultras don't really feel as involved as I'd have liked. X is part of the story but feels like a punching bag most of the time, while Ginga and Victory are just kind of there to be part of the Trinity power up (which is kinda rad I'll admit). To be honest I was ready to write the movie off until Seven showed up, which was just as satisfying as when the original Ultraman shows up in the X movie. The good though? The characters are all on top form as usual, which is arguably the most important thing in Orb. The SSP really get to shine here, and Gai is just cool as ever. Juggler is...just kind of there and played mostly for laughs, but it's nice to see how things have changed since the series finale. So yeah, decent movie. Probably would have been better if the last few years of Ultra hadn't been so good but as it stands it definitely feels like one the weaker pieces in recent memory. |
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Back to topic I think Max is a good design and is a nice variant from the Ultraseven template. What I think worked for it at the time was that it was a nice back-to-basics approach tonally after the relatively grim-dark Nexus. |
Got through another 10 Episodes of Max, just finished Episode 20 so I'm halfway there.
Was definitely not expecting Xenon to show up, then again that also explains the Max Galaxy. That was a nice surprise since I didn't know Ultraman Xenon was a thing, he seems cool. That being said does Ultra use stock or more recognizable music a lot? Or is it just Max? Because I was surprised to suddenly hear Redrum being played while Max fought against Zetton. So far Ultraman Max is an enjoyable experience, words cannot even describe how I felt with Episode 15, Episode 16 was hilarious now that I know the full context and it was nice to see the Space Cats again. Though I also did just enjoy Episode 20 with Cloudos, just the attempt to try and keep this guy from waking up was hilarious. |
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Well it almost took a week but I'm done with Ultraman Max, for my second Ultra show, it was pretty great. I wasn't sure if going back to older Ultraman would be good especially since I'm okay with collectibles and gimmicks all over the place, but it was a very nice series.
There's something about it though, it's like one of the first series to really make me smile and laugh in a long time at basically all of it's humor. Not sure what it is, but I just enjoyed the humor greatly. The action was pretty nice too. I might do a more lengthy review of it but it was definitely a fun watch. Now as for the next Ultraman... I'm probably going to dabble in Mebius and then move into Zero's stuff afterwards so I can watch Geed, I feel like I'd have a better experience if I have all of Zero's history under my belt first. |
Well since Geed has inexplicably turned me into a huge fan of Ultraman Zero I decided to finally get around to... well, all the crap he was in. Including no less than three movies and numerous extraneous things. Most Ultramen would just be content to stick to a 50-ish episode television series, but hey, the franchise was in a weird place at the time.
Anyway to start things off I watched Ultraman Mebius: Ghost Reverse... which doesn't actually have Zero in it. But I love me some Mebius and it connects directly to the actual first thing Zero was in, although not in any way where you need to watch it. It's mostly its own thing, and it's alright. Not anything special, but I wasn't waiting for it to be over the whole time. If anything about it is truly interesting, it'd be the effects. The whole thing is one big space adventure and as such there's chroma keying up the wazoo. For better or for worse, I was constantly reminded of old 90's FMV games. Getting to the main event, we have *ahem* Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend the Movie. I'm pretty sure I got that title right but part of me refuses to believe that's the real name of a movie, especially when the series it takes most of its name from was Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle. Seriously, I'm getting a headache just writing this. :lol But who cares about names when the actual movie was super interesting. It really felt a big blockbuster movie version of Ultraman, having a ton of characters, a huge threat, and a similar style to Ghost Reverse with the composite shots everywhere, except here it actually looks quite nice. It's a far cry from how Ultraman is normally filmed, but it works. The effects are good and the action is fast, although with Koichi Sakamoto directing that's pretty much a given. About those characters though. They're both a cool thing about the film and a huge reason I appreciate it a bit more than I like it. Not that I didn't have a good time, but there's a distinct lack of a true protagonist that prevented me from getting into it as much as I would've liked. The movie spends a good 20 minutes of its 90 minute runtime sort of focused on Mebius, before finally getting around to introducing Rei, who the opening narration and title of the movie would suggest to be the main hero here, except for the part where Tsuburaya had this totally hip, new, cool character you're just gonna love! to shill. Not gonna lie, I didn't much care for Zero here. He wasn't too bad but seeing his debut here immediately reminded me why I just kind of assumed he was some terrible fan-fiction OC shoehorned into the franchise. By which I mean, that's pretty much exactly what he is here. The ensemble nature of the story means this new character, who is ultimately extremely important to the plot and it's kind of crucial you care about him, doesn't even show up until halfway through, and is only in a couple scenes building his character before having him play a HUGE role throughout the big climactic fight. It's kind of a lot to ask of the audience to give a s*** about this guy we've barely met and as such nothing involving him quite hits the mark. Like, sure, his backstory makes him an obvious parallel to Belial, but then, so does Rei's, and because the movie's attention is so split, neither of them get much of a payoff from that fact. There's just not much of an emotional hook going on. No real central theme or characters arcs (Zero's hardly counts), and that takes what could've been something great down to just being good, in my opinion. Of course, that's just looking at it from one perspective. Viewing the plot as a vehicle for fanservice and action, it holds up way better. There's returning Ultra actors all over the place teaming up to fight evil, and sometimes maybe that's all you need. Belial's a great, intimidating foe to go up against, and despite Zero trying to steal their thunder, all the heroes come off looking cool. Seeing the cast here even took Mega Monster Battle from totally off my radar to faintly on my radar! That probably sounds sarcastic, but it's amazing it got me to care at all when there's so many other things I could watch. Ultimately I'm probably WAY overthinking all this. At the end of the day Mega Monster Whatevertheheck is a big dumb movie that you can watch and have fun with, and that's cool. Definitely worth your time, although personally, I'm mostly just excited to see Zero become an actual character after this. :p Oh, and also the subs from GUIS were really weird. As I understand it, there were official subtitles they just touched up for accuracy, but half the dialogue is still basically made up whole cloth, in the weirdest way possible. It's almost like a completely different script with the same exact plot and characters. Just... bizarre. I don't even know how to describe it, and I guess it doesn't matter too much in the long run, but it was really tripping me out the whole time I was watching it. |
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On a somewhat related note, I find it hilarious that Ultraman Zero: The Chronicle actually airs this movie second while they air Super Decisive Battle, Zero's second movie, first. |
I really need to catch up on Geed. I watched teh first 4 episodes and then life happened.
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Currently watching Mebius after meaning to start on Sunday, what didn't help was me getting sick cause of food poisoning. Quick note, if your food arrives like 5 minutes after you order it, consider that it may not be top quality.
That aside, Mebius, so this is the one that takes place in the Showa Continuity compared to it's own compact little place like the previous Heisei Ultra's huh? I do enjoy that there's apparently been a lack of monster activity, so much so that GUYS gets utterly wrecked during their encounter with Dinozaur. That being said I'm on Episode 15 and I'm really enjoying it so far, I like how Crew GUYS is mostly fresh people and not professionals like previously. It really helps me connect with them a bit faster compared to the members of DASH and Xio. I also enjoyed the first plot with Bogar and Tsurugi, like you just get these little drops along with random monster attacks with this woman in white and then this man in black that looks like the dead captain sprinkled along with Tsurugi showing up, and you have to wonder what is even going on. And then it hits you once we get to those couple of episodes of focus which is pretty cool. It's kind of back to regular episodic stuff but I don't really mind since they still manage to keep it interesting, and it's nice to see small cameos even if I can't appreciate them as much as people who have seen Showa Ultra before. So far so good, can't wait to watch the rest. |
Continuing on with Zero's hodgepodge of direct to video specials and movies, I watched Ultraman Zero Vs. Darclops Zero. It was alright. Zero still isn't much of a character in it, but I came out even more convinced Mega Monster Battle is eventually worth my time, and heck, the plot is that there are bad guys making evil robot versions of Ultramen (and Gomora), so, what else could you want? :p
I also watched Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial. Even though that's not actually what it's called? Seriously I have no idea how anyone is supposed to keep track of all this stuff. That aside, Ultraman Zero The Movie: Super Decisive Battle! Belial Galactic Empire (or whatever), was, in a word: WOW I utterly adored this one. Way more than Mega Monster Whatevertheheck. It's a much more focused and, for lack of a better word, human, film overall and that make it easier for it to connect with me. Zero still doesn't do much in the way of growing, but he's portrayed as a slightly more mellow character and a very determined hero, versus just being some jerk who we're arbitrarily meant to care about. As far as I'm concerned this movie is his real debut. The basic plot of him traveling to another world and bonding with a human to fight bad guys even matches that of most Ultra premieres. The biggest thing that stood out to me here was definitely the visuals, though. They're gorgeous. So many insane sci-fi vistas and awesome actions shots brought to life to a level that's downright inexplicable. I mean, look at this crazy s***: https://i.imgur.com/EIOEjiN.jpg Or this crazy s***: https://i.imgur.com/DcbZQnX.jpg And what about THIS crazy s***: https://i.imgur.com/A4qn3xa.jpg "But all this space stuff gets a little boring!", you say. Don't worry, they've got you covered: https://i.imgur.com/lnVeds5.jpg What? "That's cool and all, but what I really wanted was-": https://i.imgur.com/ZlPC9bC.jpg Pirates? I hope you were about to say pirates, because this movie has pirates. The entire thing is pure eye candy from start to finish, and it really helps build up the epic space adventure feel they were going for. I mean, a movie where Ultraman assembles a misfit team of rebooted Tsuburaya heroes to stop an evil space armada? Sign me the f*** up! Watching this movie genuinely feels like going on some kind of grand quest. It's awesome and I love it. You don't even really need any context for anything going in so it's another movie like X's where I recommend it as a gateway drug. If you hate this film you probably hate fun. |
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Yeah, the Revenge of Belial movie is freaking great. It’s one of my favorite tokusatsu movies: this really great sci-if epic that also happens to have Ultraman in it.
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The Zero movie was so good. It essentially being a sci-if adventure story featuring Ultraman makes it so unique and it really helps to establish Zeto as a character. I also really love how they reimagined those old, long forgotten Tsuburaya heroes. Now if only we can get one for Redman
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First post here, mostly so I have a space to yell out about how much I've been recently enjoying these shows. I watched all of Max over the course of several days, and it felt like a really good way to be accustomed to what a 'regular' show in this franchise is, before I moved on to the next season.
Still not over episode 22 of Max though. |
Getting close to the end of my Zero-related checklist with Killer the Beatstar and Ultraman Saga.
Killer the Beatstar has a stupid name. It's also fairly enjoyable. More so than the other direct-to-video things I've watched doing this, but it still didn't leave a bigger impact than "that was pretty good I guess". One thing I will say is that you can tell how much they've honed Zero's character with his last movie, and it's great to see at least one adventure with the Ultimate Force Zero before he went back to teaming up with whatever other Ultramen were in vogue that week. Not gonna lie, I'd love to see a series on Amazon Prime or something about these guys set in the year between Revenge of Belial and this. Saga on the other hand is another really good one. It's no space epic, and it sure as heck doesn't have space epic level effects, though what it does have is a very solid script courtesy of Keiichi Hasegawa. I suppose with as much Ultraman as that guy's written it's only natural, but you can feel the love he has for the franchise here. This is sort of weird to say, but I get the distinct feeling that if I were a kid who grew up really loving Dyna back when it aired, seeing him here would choke me up a bit. While both Cosmos and him are portrayed as these awesome, larger than life legends, the extra affection Hasegawa has for the show he was head writer on is evident. Asuka is the star of this movie and he isn't even in most of it. Zero's pretty great here too. I was worried for a couple minutes I'd hate Taiga, but he makes a great host for Zero, and the movie's willingness to outright embarrass the both of them shows just how far Zero came as a character in just a couple years (i.e. he actually IS one now). Combine all that with some decently likable new characters for how many there are in such a short runtime, and you've got yourself a movie I like a whole bunch. |
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Just finished Ultraman Mebius, oh man that was a fantastic series, I don't think a finale for a Toku has gotten me that emotional in such a long time. Jeez I'm still trying to process everything. But yeah, Mebius, really good!
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