Taiga episode 1 sub
https://twitter.com/RiderTimeFansub/...35470671892481

I really liked the first episode of Taiga. The characters and setting are great and thankfully they've finally gone back to original Ultraman characters. Even though they are based on past Ultraman, they aren’t fusions or transform because of other Ultraman powers, they just use these bracelets to power up their finishing moves which is so much better.

Having a private security company as the core setting for the characters fits Ultraman very well, and the alien auction house is so clever. I wonder if it is original because the idea is too good to not have surfaced decades ago.

I quite like Taiga's personality too, he reminds me of Ultraman Zero. Tregear is great as well, they didn’t just make him another Belial, he feels sinister but in quite a different vein than Belial. Also, immediately integrating the bad guy into the main story helps a lot, quite a few Ultraman shows suffer from the main villain only appearing in the last two-ish episodes, with smaller threats taking the stage until then.

The effect work was great, the usual high standard for Tsuburaya productions, but did anyone else notice the CG? Like, in a positive way for once? It's obviously a thing which will fade further down the road as usual with Toku shows, but I think the few times the Ultraman were completely done via CG in this episodes looked quite alright. You notice its CG because of the fast and sharp motions, but the models themselves didn't look crappy like they usually do in Rider or Sentai shows.

They also didn’t go overboard with it which helped a lot as well.

So yeah, thumbs up for the first episode. If this keeps up they’re back in the saddle after the slight slip-up with R/B.

I've only watched a few episodes of Ultraman X and that's about my only real foray into the Ultraman franchise outside of Figuarts and news about fusion forms.

Do I have to watch a previous Ultra Series to understand what's going on or will it be like Kamen Rider and Super sentai where cameos just show up and I can understand the plot without needing to know heir backstories?

I really want to get back to the Ultra train, but I don't want to to have to know the complete history or something before watching it.

Dang... THAT DROPKICK. :lolol

Ultraman has a bit more continuity than Rider or Sentai do but it's not too heavy. The first episode of Taiga shows the past New Generation Heroes battling Tregear, and of course Taro makes an appearance, but I don’t think you need to know any of these characters to get what they're going for.

Also, they give their powers to the new guys so I'd say that's the last time we see them until the finale maybe.

Try it, I don't think you'll feel lost; you can enjoy it as is.

Yeah, ultimately a lot of it just comes down to the fact that there are previous Ultras. There's a good amount of small references, especially returning monsters, but most of the time you don't really need it. I'm not so sure about Taiga and Taro but I went into Geed without knowing Belial (beyond 'is evil') or Zero and it worked fine.

I was never that big into the Ultraman series. The only ones I finished watching were Nexus and X. I was in the middle of Orb but lost interest in it, Probably cause I find them a bit slow paced. However, this episode I admit was really good, which my get me to watch this one weekly.

Cool. Nice to know that I can watch without worrying about continuity too much.

Any recommended Ultra shows aside from X? Is Cosmos any good?

Max. Max is fantastic.

Like what Switchblade said, Max is good. And Mebius is good as well. Cosmos is kind of a different spin on the franchise in that his shtick is he mostly pacifies the kaijus instead of just blowing them up into smithereens(OCCASIONALLY he will but mostly he tends to use non-lethal methods to take them down). So watch Max, then Mebius, then maybe Cosmos for a change. Cosmos is not a "bad show" it's just that it is a different approach and Max and Mebius lean more towards the classic elements and tropes of the franchise while not feeling outdated and you already saw X so start with those two. And after seeing Max, Mebius, and Cosmos, and you want something more grim dark, watch Nexus.

Ultraman Geed is the single best Ultraman show I have ever seen. It's great.

I admit that I'm biased because I like Ultraman Belial & Ultraman Zero a lot so the concept of a show featuring Belial's son as the protagonist and Zero as a companion for him already won me over on paper. But they handle it so, so well too. The characters are great, the story is fantastic and full of powerful and well played out moments, and the action is, as always with Ultraman, top-notch.

And as FerrousMaelstrom said, you don’t need to have much knowledge about Ultraman to enjoy this one. And if you do want to know where Belial and Zero come from, you only need to watch one movie as opposed to an entire show.

I cannot recommend Ultraman Geed enough, I love it.

First episode is really good, it's kinda weird seeing Ginga leading the NG Ultramen (IDK Hikaru himself never seems to be a leader type to me but it's awesome nonetheless).

And like I said previously, I love Taiga's youthfulness. He's really brash, and it's pretty amazing to see an Ultra who's younger than Mebius doesn't screw up his first battle on Earth. Episode 0 shows that he has yet to meet the other two, but the prologue shows that they're already a team. Hopefully we get a backstory to that.

Also can we talk about Ultraman's timelines? I know Ultramen has longetivity and the prologue started 12 years before, but that would imply that Hikaru, Shou, Riku, and Minato bros would've aged up 12 years by then. Granted, each Ultra series now takes place on different Earth. My guess is either time works differently on each Earths, or that the human hosts doesn't age once they're bonded to Ultramen.

Oh, and Taiga is confirmed to have 24 episodes. Either that's 1 episode less, or no recap episode.

The official Taiga episode 1 on TsuPro's youtube page has English subs for me. Does it also have for you?

It does. But I think it's just fan captions, since actual translators won't use the word 'senpai' unless you're TV-Nihon.

It's blocked for me, so I don't know! I'm glad that 2(!!!) groups subbed the first episode though.

I thought it was pretty good! The action and effects looked great, which is not unusual for recent Ultraman but it seemed EXTRA good looking in this. Taiga and the EGIS guys and girls seem like fun characters. Hellberos is a cool monster. Taiga's transformation doesn't seem obscenely long. Yeah, it's all good.

If you want some more Taiga, Genm Corp subbed the first Voice Drama as well.

Watched Taiga's first episode. Big surprise, it was great. I wasn't totally feeling the prologue (although I appreciate that it lets the other two main Ultras get an appearance in), but once the actual plot starts, it gets interesting fast and never looks back. The pacing here really stood out to me for how well it's done. There's no breaks whatsoever. It's essentially one big, constantly evolving sequence of action that expertly peppers in all of its exposition without ever stopping to have someone narrate things. Granted, usually when a show does this, it simply means we'll get the boring lectures in a later episode, but even if that turns out to be the case here, the premiere is still better off for it.

It does a lot of showing, and very little telling, and I found myself invested in Hiroyuki and Taiga remarkably quickly. I guess it's the Cosmos fan in me, but saving some hideous giant monster's baby like it were any normal human infant is a surefire way to win me over. I didn't totally keep up with all the announcements and everything for Taiga, so I had it in my head that his host would probably be slightly abrasive or something for contrast. I think I like this better though. It's obviously hard to totally grasp their personalities from one episode, but it seems like neither of them is going to be a total repeat of something we've already had, which is impressive. I especially appreciate that Taiga isn't just a redundant copy of Mebius or something.

Yes, immediately! I think the reason the models look better than in something like Kamen Rider has a lot to do with Ultramen designs being so simple and clean. All the details on the actual suits are flat and static to begin with, so there's less to worry about animating in a believable way. If we get a CG shot of some Ultra or another wearing a cape later down the line, I think it's bound to look worse even if it's still technically the same quality. At any rate, I really enjoyed how cool and agile Taiga looks in those shots, including the opening.

Speaking of which, farewell to the elaborate silhouette title cards for the episodes. I mean, to be honest, they were never as cool as they were in Orb, but still, I'm gonna miss them. Although apparently that shot of Taiga posing in front of an explosion was explicitly inspired by Koichi Sakamoto, which is definitely an acceptable replacement.

I think it really speaks to how consistently amazing Ultraman has been lately that I'm almost as upset at you for this incredibly mild criticism of R/B as I am when you rag on Ghost. :lol

Another thing to note is that current Ultra series are filmed months in advance since IIRC R/B started filming in March (compared to Kamen Rider which are filmed about a month or so), so maybe they fine-tuned the CGI, which is saying something because even in X the special effects are gorgeous.

Speaking of which, I'm surprised that the new actress scenes are reshoot rather quick. Granted, she may have filmed her scenes way before she's announced to replace the previous actress, but I'm surprised that they have a scene with her on the outdoors. You can tell it is a reshoot since Dekagold was wearing colors since she was depicted to wear beige colored in promos and the first episode always feature the characters wearing the outfits they presented in promos.

Also, Dekagold aged well. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Taiga episode 2 sub by Genm Corp
https://genmcorp.mangadex.com/ultraman-taiga-02/

Holy... episode 2 was amazing.

Like, where do I start? First of all, the dynamic between Taiga and Hiroyuki is great. I love how neither is necessarily wiser or stronger than the other, it really seems like this time around it's actually the Ultra who has much to learn from his human host.

Second, it is well known that I'm a sucker for the token "The monster isn't necessarily evil"-episodes in Toku and Ultraman always does these exceptionally well, but this one was among the best. For a few reasons, but the most important for me being the timing and how it ties into the early character development. It's only episode 2 for crying out loud, Hiroyuki has barely stared to grasp what being Ultraman means, but they already confront him with the fate of dealing with a monster, even if it is a friend, and he already has something taken by him. It is also a tragic bonding experience for our heroes as both now had to see a friend being destroyed by the same evil entity.

Which brings me to the next thing I highly enjoyed: Tregear. He's a fantastic villain. Evil, menacing, yet not the overwhelmingly dark brute type we see regularly. He's a bit more low-key, almost like a trickster, but even in his short appearance he already surpassed quite a few past villains in cruelty. I haven’t seen the R/B movie but apparently he was a scientist back in the day and it shows in his demeanor.

Tsuburaya is at again, this show is great so far. And I assume it'll only get better from here because next week the second of three Ultraman joins the show - and I already quite like where this is going.

Can we talk about the voice drama? They're so awesome! First episode is about Taiga's frustration for being the son of Taro, and we learned a bit more about the tribes of M78.

The second episode is about Mebius, who feels sad that due to him living longer than Crew GUYS, they'd probably pass away before Mebius has a baby. And the second episodd even has an illustration (and we get to see a bit of Phyllis, Taiga's blue friend)

We need more of this. More Ultra lore is always welcome. Hopefully it runs for the entire course of the series.

It's pretty fun, though I can't quite get over an Ultraman called Phyllis

Yeah, the voice dramas are surprisingly good. But seeing Taiga endure the hardship of living up to a larger-than-life father is so strange considering what Taro went through.

Although it’s different in a way, Taro always wanted to be like his father but Taiga wants to be seen as an individual, yet they still face the same issues.

Tregear's a dick. I like him.

I'm enjoying the voice dramas as well. They tie into Mebius and I really like Mebius so that's cool.

I'm watching The Office and I just immediately see Phyllis as an Ultraman lol.

I guess it's more because Taro had more feats than Father that was shown to us. All we know about Father is that he is the leader of Space Garrison, while Taiga himself stated that Taro is Father & Mother's chikdren, a part of 6 Ultra brothers and an instructor.

Mostly because the fact that Taro is as legendary as his dad, it puts pressure to Taiga because he needs to live up to the family name.

So I decided to check out Geed on Kiwami's suggestion and jeezus did I enjoy it. I haven't had this much fun watching a toku in forever; it made me feel like a 9 year old kid watching Ultraman for the first time all over again. I enjoyed it so much, I binged the entire thing in three days and went on to devour all the Zero movies and the gaidens too.

Geed was awesome. It had a compelling premise to start (the heroic son of a supervillain trope always works), but what really sells this show is the heart of the characters. In only 20+ episodes, the entire cast was given real depth, and our heroes are all incredibly charming without ever being cheesy or saccharine.

I loved Riku coming up with Geed's name, and the Don Shine flashback explaining his love for the character, and how a boyhood hero inspired him to be Ultraman. I loved his friendship with the adorable Pega. I loved Moa (whose actress might quite literally be the human personification of kawaii). Even the Shadow-Seijin guy got really solid character work in one of the show's strongest episodes (the Zegan one, which actually had me choked up at points).

And Zero. By the Plasma Spark, I loved Zero in this. This show might've made Zero my favorite Ultraman (as my username implies). It's such a simple concept, but having Zero-Leito be a less-dysfunctional version of Hulk-Bruce Banner was a genius idea. I loved their dynamic, and I loved all the family stuff with Leito's wife and kid too. We need more Ultraman hosts with families, it just made Leito's desire to fight as Ultraman all the more relatable and touching.

All said, there were some minor aspects I didn't care for. I understand it's a toku show made to sell kids' toys, but woof, the henshin sequences with all the capsules were soooo long. I got bored of 'em by the third episode. And on this week of Greatest Unsolved Mysteries: What Exactly is the Geed Claw?

Most of the power-up forms were also aesthetically meh in my opinion. I didn't care much for Geed's Fusion Rise forms (besides Solid Burning, because I'm a big mecha nerd), and neither did I care for Zero Beyond. Geed's Primitive form was alright though (really reminded me of Powered, of all things), and Zero's base costume is still - as always - the pinnacle of modern Ultra suits for me.

And the action overall was awesome and well-directed. I really liked that they showed the hosts "inside" their Ultra forms, which added a degree of humanity to the suit-acting that you don't usually see. The kaiju were cool as well (though some of the fusion designs like Thunder Killer are a little messy). Production quality was on-point the entire season, none of the CG took me out the show like Kamen Rider either.

Anyway, that concludes my Geed/Zero wankery. I'm off to binge R/B and anything remotely Ultraman-related next...

Oh man, so glad I could get someone to experience the greatness of Geed.

I really love this show, and reading your review only made me reflect on that in all the best ways.

Modern Ultraman is all-around great IMO, some shows are a bit weaker than others but they are all top-notch. The currently airing one, Ultraman Taiga, has me hooked; it’s really good so far.

I don't really have any prompting to say this all of a sudden, but after thinking about it, the Minato brothers might be my favourite main characters in all of New Generation Ultraman. R/B itself isn't a top tier show for me but our leads feel far more fleshed out than most. It's probably because of the fact that they bounce off each other and the rest of their family all the time that they feel more sincere compared to someone like Riku (whom I like a lot, but he's a bit more of a typical nice and optimistic hero).

@Kiwami: Well you have my thanks for introducing me to Geed! It's really reignited my love for the Ultra series.

Once I get done with R/B, I'll hop on the Taiga train and catch up with you guys. I'm really hyped for Taiga too, since Poppa Taro was one of my favorite Ultramen growing up.

Speaking of R/B, initial impressions of the first five eps:

I'm 50/50 on the more comedic tone of this season so far. I think sometimes it really works, especially when Rosso and Blu play off one another. But the general slapstick wackiness might need a little occasional seriousness to balance the tone.

I do really love how they deconstruct the Ultramen premise by having Rosso and Blu experiment with their powers. That bit with them testing their abilities Peter Parker-style in Ep 2 was super charming and endearing. The brothers are also a lot more tactical in battle compared to most Ultras; mixing their abilities for different strategies.

Action and production value are generally on-point. Ep 5's fight scene in particular, when they show Blu's POV as he flies through the air, was genuinely impressive. Although, like with Geed, I still think the whole transformation-trinket gimmick is waaaaaayyyy too long.

Minor note: the OP isn't as fire as Geed's, sadly. Although in my opinion, the most fire OP of any Heisei Ultra is still the first Nexus one. OTOKO NARAAAAAAAAA

...You ...You deserve a star mark for this. Matter of fact all 12 of Zoffy's. :rock:

Episode 2 of Taiga was indeed amazing. I was waiting for Color Timer Subs since I liked the job they did on R/B, but I broke down and went ahead with Genm Corp, which makes three different sub groups I've used for this show in two episodes, but honestly, if the show is going to be this great, I'll take it from wherever I can get it. Which would ideally be on Tsuburaya's YouTube channel, but, hey, what are you gonna do?

Getting back to Taiga, though, I love how strong the main characters come off here. Tregear has already totally distinguished himself from Belial in terms of his demeanor, and he's only liable to get more fleshed out from here. Taiga himself is also shaping up to be great. I always wanted to see a dynamic like this between an Ultraman and his human host, where they're both characters in their own right, and this show seems to be pushing it even farther than X did. I'm glad the little hologram Taiga is going to be a recurring thing, especially. It's cool that he can be in the talky scenes as more than just a voice.

I also love the personality he's been given. From what I understand, the idea is that he's had kind of a pampered upbringing in the Land of Light, which would explain why he comes off as arrogant and a tiny bit self-centered despite also being completely well-meaning. All the little comments he's been making so far suggest a guy who is extremely eager to be the star of an Ultraman show to the point he's taking it for granted. Again, just like Tregear and Belial, I was worried there'd be a lot of overlap between Taiga and Zero and/or Mebius, but he's already standing on his own two feet as a character. Which is awesome, because we have two more Ultramen on the way in this show.

Can I just say that R/B has been a personal sleeper hit for me? I mean, I liked it the whole way through to begin with, but the more distance I get from it, the more fondly I find myself looking back, to the point where it might be starting to rival Geed in terms Ultraman shows I'm completely head over heels for. The characterization in R/B was arguably even more stellar and nuanced than most of the New Generation shows already are, the comedic timing is absolutely perfect, and its overall style and tone were completely unique in the franchise in a super refreshing way. The way it poked fun at some of the usual Ultraman tropes also led to the Orb Dark (Noir Black Schwarz) arc, which was utter perfection.

I maintain that R/B deserves a bit more credit than I generally see it get. Not that anyone seems to hate it, even, but I firmly believe it to be on the same level as all the other recent shows.

Speaking of which, glad that the transformation sequence is far shorter. While I enjoyed X, Orb and Geed's sequences, you can tell R/B drags the shit outta it, and Tsuburaya knows.

They don't show it but internally those two were channeling their inner Ultra Magnus saying, "Open... Open dammit!". :lolol

@Sunred: You deserve Star Marks for that TF The Movie reference!

I'm on episode 20 of R/B now and the transformation sequence really is the longest thing ever. I went to go make lunch and they still weren't done when I came back.

So, I just finished binging R/B in like two days. I still might like Geed more, but R/B was still immensely enjoyable. I guess you could even say it made me HAPPYYYYY.

R/B was just fun. I loved seeing the Minato brothers acting like big kids even in Ultra form; they bicker, they wing their powers, they even play with the scenery. That scene where they took a selfie had me ROLLING. Most of the time Ultramen are just uber-serious silent warriors who are generally competent in their powers from the jump, but I loved that R/B was willing to try something new.

There were many episodes that could've descended into slapstick nonsense, but the show's commitment to the sheer absurdity of the Ultraman premise made it work. I loved how the entire Orb Dark Black Black Black arc was just one extended meta-commentary on the Ultra franchise. The space documentary episode was another hilarious example (Alien Nackle saying he'll bring his family for a vacation on Earth before it blows up had me weak). And the Dada Halloween episode might be the single greatest 20 mins of TV I've seen this year.

The whole show was just a whip-smart and refreshingly fresh take on the Ultra franchise. I also liked all the main characters, and the entire Minato family and even the main baddies were really fleshed out. The fight scenes were generally on point too. I could've done without the century-long transformation sequences (seriously, entire civilizations rise and fall in the time it takes for the Minato brothers to henshin), but all the choreography and action directing was top-notch. I loved how the Minato brothers relied on more tactics and strategies than the average Ultraman, and their personalities really shone with all the suit-acting as well. Though it did get confusing at times keeping track of who was Rosso and who was Blu with all the color swapping.

Anyways, apologies for the ramble. But to conclude, does anyone know where I can watch the R/B movie? I can't seem to find subs anywhere, so if someone could shoot me a PM.......

Welp, off to start Taiga now...

It's so nice to see someone enjoying Ultraman as much as I do. Thank you Salaryman Zero!

The R/B movie isn’t subbed because as far as I know it isn’t available on home media yet so there are now RAWs for the subbing groups to work with.

Kiwami, why isn't your avatar Ruebe yet? (Since they use the 'Kiwami Crystal' after all.)

Didn't like Ultraman Rübe too much to be honest. His halo weapon is super neat but something about the design isn’t sitting well with me.

I did however purchase a DX Kiwami Crystal, as a sign of approval for borrowing my name.

I think the R/B movie is out on home media very soon (maybe a week, I still can't really read Japanese) but of course there will be the normal wait for subs.

Ah makes sense then, I didn't realize the R/B movie wasn't released on home media yet.

Anyway, just caught up with Taiga. I'm liking the more serious tone so far, it's a nice breather after the lighter R/B and (kinda) Geed.

Taiga is cool so far, reminds me of a friendlier Zero. I didn't realize the Tri-Squad was just gonna be different "forms" for Taiga, though I guess having three Ultramen running around every ep would be too much production-wise. I'm loving Ultraman SWOLE though.

Tregear is great so far too. I was afraid he would be Belial-lite, but he's more of a Joker to Belial's Two-Face. Tregear feels menacing and genuinely evil. Ep 2 with Tregear whipping Chibisuke was basically just animal abuse. And him popping the girl's balloon at the end? Sheesh.

When's the next Taiga ep dropping? Also, are there Eng subs for Eps 2 and 3 of the voice dramas?

You know, I've wanted to make some kind of joke out of this since Ruebe debuted, but I've never actually been able to come up with anything in all this time. :lol

I don't know what your problems with Ruebe are, but it was the weirdly chubby face that threw me off at first. Like Casino Mascot Geed, the design took a bit of getting used to despite being cool at a glance, but I got there eventually.