I thought it was random how some guy turns up and has a working relationship with Marluru, and he was introduced in a spinoff...

man ultraman orb looks hype

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

Finally finished The☆Ultraman (Joneus). It had a weak start since it tried to be an Ultraman remake in anime, but once the U40 plot introduced then it turned to a much better series to set it apart from the rest.
https://twitter.com/mohammadkadhim1/...61493245284358

I finished Ultra Q, which was also my first time watching an Ultra show! It is definitely incredibly impressive for its time period and still feels very unique to me as a modern viewer. Not too much to say though, it was just a cool proto-toku!

Is the plant going to be important? Everyone kept staring at it!

Megalothor is such an awesome design I love it so much. Then the evolved version looks even cooler. Add in Carmeara screaming MANAKA KENGO and man, it's just the best. One of those "I Feel Sorry for the Suit Actor" kind of costumes though.

The shots of Carmeara's face inside Megalothor remind me of the Triceratops Dopant from Kamen Rider W. Oh hey, those episodes were also directed by Koichi Sakamoto!

The reveal of Kengo being Trigger didn't seem quite as dramatic as they wanted it to be? But I guess half the people there already knew and the Captain sort of knew. I did like the Captain bowing and thanking Kengo. He's cool.

I also didn't know who the guy talking to Marulu was. But now I do!

I'm excited for the finale!

Started watching Ginga S, 3 Episodes in deep.

It definitely has a noticeable budget upgrade, and some neat new characters. But other than that there's not much going for it for me right now. Willing to give it a bit of time though but so far I still consider Ginga (Despite the budget constraints) above Ginga S in terms of my enjoyment.

Ginga S is what I'd call one of the weaker New Gen entries. Many of its creative decisions are a response to fan feedback saying they disliked Ginga largely because it didn't have many of the usual Ultraman tropes... and it really shows? It takes the square peg of Ginga and tries to stuff it into the colour timer-shaped hole of standard Ultraman, and a lot of that just doesn't work out. I feel there's definitely a lot of things to like in the show, particularly some of the last few episodes; but on the whole it's not fantastic imo.

I-- yeah

Ginga S was the first series that actually killed my interest and the movies were an absolute chore to get through

Ginga was quirky, S was just meh

It almost killed it for me, too? My journey with Ultraman was Orb, then the Zero Movies, then Ginga, then Ginga S. And at the time I appreciated what Orb and Ginga were doing but they weren't entirely for me, I got nothing out of the Zero stuff and then Ginga S was. Haha! Not great for me. So I thought Ultra might just not be a show for me. ... and then the next thing was X which very quickly very easily changed my mind

Z (but really Geed), then X for me with Ginga/S after it
very glad I waited to watch Orb after X, Ginga/S because it revived my entire interest in the franchise.