The Ultra recommendations I usually give people are X, Geed and Z and I'd probably keep to that for you Die! I'm really sorry to hear you got Covid; stay safe...!

Max is the first one I watched. It's an adequate show. It's good for showing you what a standard Ultraman show is. Nothing unusual or ever particulary innovative, but nothing badly done either. It's competent and sets the right expectations, but nothing more than that. For the first show, that's not so bad.

As far as the franchise goes, it's a reset after Nexus, which is kinda the Hibiki of Ultraman. It took franchise in a radical new direction which fans did not like and stopped watching. Unlike Hibiki, it got to play out the season without being forced to change. It's actually pretty popular with western viewers.

But Max was made to win back the old fans, which is why is about the plainest vanilla you can get. It's good vanilla, but its still plain vanilla.

Don't really care for Zero-One but I see where mentioning Ultraman
recommendations to Die and I'm going to toss my suggestion in the ring and it gotta be Gaia! You like a show with a great rivalary between two heroes? Standalone with no connection to past series? An recurring antagonistic force that brought up enough to never forget end goal of a season? But still keeping the franchise greatest strength of episodic stories every week? And massive budget and world with a cast large enough to fill a world wide threat? Then Gaia great!

That is vintage me, yeah.

Lightning Hornet... I mean, I like the suit well enough, but I always found it to very much be a decision the show made that we got our first full participant female Kamen Rider and her primary attack in one form has made me spend the last three years actively trying not to type out the phrase "lactates bees."

Max is absolutely Ultraman-flavored Ultraman, but that's why I like it. It doesn't try to reinvent anything, it just does what it does really, really well and with a really likable cast.

Also, technically Nexus was cancelled. And I don't mean like how I always say Hibiki was cancelled to be spiteful. There was an entire arc of Nexus that was planned but ended up getting crammed down into the last two episodes because the show bombed so badly. Max only happened because Tsubaraya had a contract with the network and the network demanded that they come up with something to fill the time slot.

I'm so sorry! Please take as long as you need to rest and recover!
I would also throw in Orb which, despite the premise of the form changes, is actually one of the more standalone New Gen Ultra shows (at least until the movie) and a really nice watch.

I personally started watching the modern New Gen shows from the start with Ginga but that's just me being a completionist.

Now I'm not saying Takahashi series have a thing for virus, but it's certainly 'a' coincidence. Hope you recover quickly Die!

Also, while we're doing Ultra recs, I've only actually finished both of Nexus and R/B, and both are pretty good! Completly opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, but good!

I'm a bit late in saying this, but take all the time off you need, Die! We'll still be here waiting for you once you've taken back your smile. Go show that virus who's boss!

https://i.imgur.com/U2d3pHo.png

(Even if it probably won't be anywhere near as fun as Ex-Aid makes it look...) :p

Everyone here is so nice! My condition has not exactly improved (still feverish, lost my sense of taste and smell), but my mood is bolstered immeasurably by your incredibly thorough Ultraman recommendations and almost-as-thorough emotional support. Thanks so much!

(And, in retrospect, it was probably Ultraman Z that I was thinking of. But thanks for the many other suggestions!)

Yeah, I'd say that other than guaranteed recovery, hope that there'd be still available treatment for you to get and not have all those treatments filled in. For series part though, viruses would be related to Ex-Aid, and yeah, big irony that several of their actors like Hiroki Iijima (Emu), Shouma Kai (Parado), and Ruka Matsuda (Poppy) have contracted Coronavirus too, of course them being infected later one at least the latter 2 got game clear-ed for it.

Yeah, actually this'd be what I want to say to refer to the main characters as "the heroes". While for most part (in other series) it's true, it can be misleading to use at few occassions if it only refers to main character, and Zero-One as for now is one of them. Not even talking about Fuwa, who is a morally ambiguous hero (anti-hero, still subcategory of hero), but it's about Yua, who is one of Gai Amatsu's enforcer as for now, so. There are some good things she did, but it's meant to humanize her to some extent, instead of her being one of heroes at this point (as someone who is ambiguously bad at least before).

Take all the time you need to recover, hang in there Die! Lemon Juice helps with recovering taste.

Also, did somebody say Ultraman? Though, I believe everybody has given some great recommendations, so I guess I don't really need to say anything here. And yes, Z is probably the one you're thinking of, and also yes, it is a great show, though I also think all the New Gen and Heisei (that I've seen) are solid picks.

I'll probably drop more Zero-One thoughts later, but right now, I'm wishing you the best!