Question. If Man is man, then which ultra is a dude?
Sorry I had to bring up the whole "Drax's distinction of a man and a dude" thing from Infinity War. :lolol

Yeah, I read the SciFi Japan interview with the director about the film's premiere, and apparently there were a lot of women in the audience for a franchise with a predominantly male demographic. The director speculated that many were likely fans of Nakano.

Oh, nice! Apa khabar!

Another question I had: If "Ultraman" is a rank/title given to Ultras who serve in the Space Garrison...what exactly is Ultraman's real name then? Does he just not have one? Or is it just "Shodai", because that's what TsuPro seems to refer to him as, on occasion.

Also, I just got to the Ep. 37-38 two-parter of Return of Ultraman and JEEZUS. This show went from 0 to 100 real quick. It started out as pretty light, typical Ultraman fare but oof. Even though I knew what would happen going in, it was still pretty rough to watch. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but this two-parter alone makes Return a must-watch for my money.

It's been long enough since I've seen The Origin Saga that I can't really fight you on this, but I would like to give a counterpoint here. It was a pretty strange beast in terms of its plot (especially since it's clear they deliberately made it a massive stylistic departure from a normal Ultra show), but as I remember it, it was a solid series once I adjusted to it. Gai and Juggler were absolutely the highlights the entire time. I think it was set at the most interesting possible point in their relationship, and explicitly breaking them up for a huge chunk of the show was the right move in my opinion. It allowed them to be developed more as individuals, and since the story was about them starting to drift apart anyway, it was a natural fit. It was cool seeing how they each had to adjust, and their respective attitudes towards the situation.

The actual nonsense sci-fi plot, I was never totally sold on either, but I disagree that The Origin Saga dropped the ball on the Gai/Juggler drama. They don't have to literally be together for the show to be about them. The way the guest Ultramen were handled was also a pleasant surprise at the time, so I'll let my past self explain that one:

I'm sure they were only in there because Tsuburaya wanted to get more heroes in their big Amazon-original show (thus drawing in more viewers), and/or because there's some kind of quota for Dyna and Cosmos appearances they've been trying to hit ever since Saga, but their actual role in the plot felt significantly less arbitrary than I expected.

Besides, this is Orb's origin, right? Isn't getting his butt bailed out by four different awesome Ultramen in his first big adventure the perfect explanation for how he became #RespectfulGai? :p

Anyway, The Origin Saga is a long way from perfect, but I do feel like there's a lot to love about it.

You know, I was actually just thinking about something like this the other day. In my case I was wondering what Mebius and Hikari used to be called, because it was pretty explicit in that show that they each got those names after leaving the Land of Light.

The simplest explanation would be to assume everyone has names in their native language or whatever, but it'd be cool to know if this has ever been elaborated on officially. Although in the case of your question, I believe it's been said that all the other Ultramen are named in honor of him. I know that's hard to believe given how little respect it looks like OG Man gets, but they do care about the guy.

Mostly Nakano's personal fans + his V6 fans and probably also Tsuruno's female fans too. We gotta remember that during this time Tsuruno had a boost in popularity for his regular appearances as part of the collective of participants who got the answers wrong a lot at a game show. :lolol


Iirc there was a time Mebius referred to him as just "Man", but my personal speculation about it is that maybe they did not think too much about the naming convention during the early years(say around Ultraman and Ultraseven) until the franchise was big enough via more sequels and lingo started forming such as dropping the Ultraman part and people just started calling specific ultras "Jack" or "Ace" be it officially or unofficially.

I don't think I necessarily had an issue that the story chose to separate Gai and Juggler...if it had chosen to follow both characters on two different narratives, showing the growing divide between them. The problem is, after Juggler leaves the main group, the story immediately shifts gears to focus entirely on the main War God/Bezelb conflict, downgrading the Gai-Juggler relationship to the B-plot.

What ends up happening at that point is that Juggler starts feeling like a guest star in a show that should've ostensibly had him as the dual protagonist. The entire A-plot is devoted to Orb and the Ultras (plus the Kanons) fighting against Dr. Psychi, and Juggler just shows up in the final battle as some extra muscle. I don't need Gai to be with Juggler 24/7, but once Juggler leaves, the story stops following his character arc.

The closest we get to character work for Juggler at that point is Agul making one comment about "I used to be like you", and maybe Orb saying "Juggler always saves me." I don't know. It was disappointing, especially coming off the main Orb series where the Gai-Juggler dynamic was teased so much.

As for the guest Ultras, I wasn't super against it necessarily. I can see your argument for Dyna/Cosmos, and it does make sense to play up the mentor-mentee dynamic, especially for a newly-minted Ultraman like Orb. I think I was more thrown off by Gaia/Agul, who both felt left-field with the whole "The Earth summoned me!" excuse. I get the notion of contrasting Gaia/Agul with Orb/Juggler, but at that point, it felt like an afterthought because the final battle was already in full swing.

Oh and for Ultraman's name, I don't know if that explanation tracks either. Was the name "Ultraman" coined by Hayata then, and if so did Shodai just not have an actual name before? Are all "Ultramen" from the Land of Light named after this one random Space Garrison member who lowkey didn't really have any super-memorable battles? Wouldn't it make more sense for everyone to be named after Zoffy, who's supposed to be this legendary Great Ultra War hero?

SO MANY QUESTIONS TSUPRO.

Fair enough. Again, it's been long enough I can't perfectly recall, but it's definitely true that Juggler becomes more of a background player as things go on. I guess it just didn't bother me for whatever reason.

Okay, let's try and work this out. First of all, in the very first episode of Ultraman, Ultraman introduces himself to Hayata simply as "an alien from the M78 Nebula", and during that entire conversation never gives a name. It's also worth noting his slow, robotic diction, which implies he doesn't normally speak Japanese, and presumably human speech in general. At the end of the episode, when asked what this mysterious red and silver giant's name was, Hayata's immediate response is that he doesn't have one, before coming up with "Ultraman" after the issue is pressed further. The part where this gets tricky is that Hayata and the freshly-named Ultraman are now one in mind and body, so there's the question of who exactly is saying what here.

Now, I've never seen more than that first episode of the original show, so as someone who just watched the whole thing again, I'll leave it up to you to fill in the details on how playing host to an Ultraman worked in that show, because the impression I've gotten has always been that it's slightly unclear. Also, this entire preceding section may or may not be relevant at all depending on whether you want to put stock in the franchise's beginnings as the building blocks for what came after, or ignore it as being the weird, early oddity of a show that couldn't have known how long its legacy would last.

What's obvious in the now is that OG Man was the first guy to hang out on the planet and live among the species that everyone in the Land of Light has since become slightly obsessed with, so it makes sense they'd pay tribute to that. Perhaps "Ultraman" just replaced some existing title for guys in the Space Garrison who go around doing hero stuff. Perhaps it's the greatest coincidence in the history of the universe. Perhaps thinking too hard about the logic of a series about giant spacemen wrestling monsters is a good way to go insane. Who knows? :p

THE PEOPLE DEMAND ANSWERS TSUPRO.

OK, let's say we assume that the OG Ultraman's name explanation is legit and not a case of Early-Installment Weirdness. So, Hayata essentially christened this alien being as "Ultraman." And then subsequently all the Ultras who visited and defended Earth adopted the "Ultraman" title in honor of Shodai. If memory serves, Zoffy introduces himself as "Space Ranger Zoffy" in the finale, so maybe the Ultras who serve in the Space Garrison are just called "Space Rangers," or Ultra Warriors instead of Ultramen.

BUT THEN WHAT ABOUT ULTRAMAN KING. Or all the times when the shows use the terms Ultra Warrior/Ultraman interchangeably?

Ugh. Ok, here's my headcanon: In Nebula M78, there is the Land of Light populated by a race of beings known as Ultras. They have a peacekeeping force known as the Space Garrison, and Ultras who serve in this force are known as Ultramen/Ultrawomen. And OG Ultraman's full name is Ultraman Shodai, because that's what they call him in Return of Ultraman and that's what MAKES SENSE.

OK and now you've just opened up another can of worms I was thinking about. Do ALL the Ultras in the Land of Light view Earth as this special planet? Granted, all eleven of the Legendary Ultra Brothers have defended that world and there were some noteworthy battles in Ultra history that occurred on that planet (Empera being the big one)...but besides that, is there really anything distinguishing Earth from the thousands of worlds that the Space Garrison presumably defends?

OK. I'll stop now. My head hurts.

I apologize in advance for another Great Wall of Text.

Return of Ultraman

After the eerie sci-fi morality tales of Ultra Seven, it was good to return (hehe) to the uncomplicated basics with Ultraman Jack. Just a spaceman fighting rubber suit monsters in Tokyo again, the way God intended.

First off: I think Hideki Goh might be my favorite of the human hosts/forms of the Showa series so far. I love OG Ultraman, but Shin Hayata was bar none the dullest character of the Science Patrol team, whose members I universally liked. Dan Moroboshi was largely equally dry (the rest of the Ultra Garrison didn't fare much better either), and both Ultramen always felt largely devoid of personality, despite having their names on the marquee.

But Goh is great. He's got a civilian life outside his attack team duties. He shares a passion for racecars with Sakata. He's got a romantic thing with Aki, and plays big brother to Jiro. He struggles to get along with his teammates at MAT. Sometimes he makes mistakes, or he fails, but he always trains and tries harder. I actually really liked Goh in this, and I guess it also helps that Jiro Dan was an absolute HUNK (pause) in his prime. Goh isn't a cardboard cutout toku protagonist, and he feels like, y'know, an actual character here and that's great.

Except for that one episode where he pimp-slaps Aki but...yeah, I got nothing. Boy the 70s were a different time.

Now most of MAT are pretty standard, but I will give a S/O to three characters. The first two are the commanders (Kato is replaced by Ibuki later on). Both are my favorite commanders of the Showa series so far, and we really get a sense that underneath their stern temperaments, they really care for their men the way good officers should. The last one is Kishida, who I actually started off absolutely hating for being a by-the-book tool. But then the show fleshes him out, showing how his military family background dries his behavior, and when he starts warming up to Goh, they end up as pretty close friends. Which is just like how things sometimes work out in real life.

Ok anyway, I feel like I'm gushing too much about the character work here (which really is the best of the Showa shows so far), so let me just touch on the other aspects. The action, costuming, and set design are par for the course for the era. I actually really dig Jack's suit. But I will say that most of the kaiju/seijin are kind of underwhelming, sans a couple of really iconic ones (e.g. Nackle, Black King, Bemstar, Twin Tail & Gudon...Takkong?).

Also, the Ultra Bracelet is crazy OP, it's basically half the reason why Jack defeats his enemies. There's an episode where Snowgon freezes Jack and breaks his body into pieces and he literally reassembles his chopped-up body through the power of the Ultra Bracelet. Speaking of the Bracelet, I kind of wish we got more of Shodai and Seven in this, but I guess that's what the next series Ace is for. I did appreciate the short Hayata/Moroboshi cameo though.

One final note: Even if you don't want to go through all 51 episodes, I will suggest two episodes that every Ultra-fan should watch. The first is the finale, which is honestly fantastic, and features Fat Zetton as well as the classic Five Ultra Oaths that we see mentioned later in Mebius. The second is actually the Ep 37-38 two-parter which is the DARKEST Showa Ultraman I've seen up till this point. It's absolutely grueling. I have a newfound respect for Nackle now.

Ultraman R/B Select! The Crystal of Bonds

SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN IT. If you want to, Genm. Corp gotchu fam.

I loved this. I'd forgotten how heartwarming R/B (and even Geed) was, and this was a genuinely fun experience for me. You could even say it made me HAPPEEEH.

This really could've been like most of the past Heisei movies, i.e. a mindless CGI-heavy fightfest advertising a new form for kids to buy. But instead, this movie chose to have story arcs and build on preexisting relationships, and they leaned on the strongest aspect of the R/B series: the actual characters themselves.

I don't want to delve too much into spoiler territory, but needless to say, character work has always been the highlight of the R/B show. I loved Katsumi's arc and his relationship with Toi, which I imagine is super-relatable to anyone in their 20s. I loved Riku and Asahi connecting over their complicated parental issues. I loved Isami and Ushio being all Dad-like when they find out Asahi is popular with guys. The entire R/B cast is just so goshdarn charming and likeable, and adding Riku and the adorable Pega just made this peak kawaii (yeah I said it, whatchu gonna do about it fightme).

I also loved the use of Tregear here. Granted, it was probably just a plug for Taiga's series, and his role as the Big Bad doesn't really amount to much, but I like how they establish him as this Machiavellian trickster. Kind of like Heath Ledger Joker, where he just preys on peoples' weaknesses and insecurities.

The battles were also cool for the most part. I dig the Ultrawoman Grigio suit. I'm still 50/50 on the Groob "suit" though. On one hand, it's not offensively hideous like many of these combo designs have been (LOOKING AT YOU ORB TRINITY). On the other hand...it's also entirely CGI. I'm glad that TsuPro is pushing their VFX more, and maybe one day all our Ultramen will be CG but...it does look odd at points. There are some shots where the all-CG Groob looks great, and you genuinely can't tell that it's not a guy in a rubber suit. And then there's some where his weird proportions make it look like a PS1 cutscene.

And boy, they're really getting their money's worth out of that Mecha Gomora suit, huh.

Anyway. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Onward to Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Max!

I also watched the R/B movie, I think it was okay. Tsuburaya exceeds at making crossovers fun, so I wasn’t surprised to enjoy the Minato family and Riku scenes as much as I did. Making Katsumi the focus of the story worked quite well too.

I did have some issues with this though. The movie was full of strong messages which for the most part were done beautifully, but one in particular felt disappointing to me. They had a powerful moment with Asahi declaring that her gender won’t hold her back in fighting alongside her brothers, they have an epic transformation scene for Ultrawoman Grigio - and then she's just the cliché, cutesy "I can’t fight all that well and I’m clumsy too, hihihi" token girl hero character. What an absolute letdown that was. I don’t expect her to turn into the John Rambo of Ultraman but come on, if you preach such a strong message then follow it up properly.

Then... Groob. Why wasn't this one a suit? The design is great, all the Minato siblings joining together is genius, but it being all CG ruined it. Don’t get me wrong, the short chase sequence with Tregear was great, but after that the effects were just terrible. It looked awful when they had Groob interact with real life objects.

While we’re at it... Tregear. I really don’t know how you can have a villain be this meaningless. He was just there, with no reason given. I read on the wiki that Tregear created the monster form of Reugosite, yet it isn’t mentioned in the movie at all? Not even as a throwaway line? The hell? This could’ve been an excellent reason for conflict between him and the R/B-crew. He feels so out of place in this movie it’s not even funny.

Oh well, the movie was mostly good, it just kind of all feel apart at the end for me. Much like R/B in general honestly.

I'm never going to stop laughing at the name 'Groob', by the way.

Groob does have a physical suit.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...path-prefix=id
I think Tsupro wanted to experiment and test some new CG technology they had and given how good the CG integration in Taiga has been, I think that experiment was well worth it.


That info was only given in the R/B Cho Zenshu book.

Idk about you guys but Groob looked like a downgrade of Ruebe honestly. Like he was based more on Rosso and Blu's base design than what's supposed to be an evolution of Ruebe.

What happened with Jean-Nine in Ginga?

During the days of the Ultimate Force Zero, he was the upstart!

As far as his appearances in Ginga: He was referred to as "Jean-Killer" before regaining his original name, never spoke, no mention made of Zero or Jean-Bot, and he actually transformed with an original sequence!

Afterwards, he left and didn't return for Ginga S even though his partner in Ginga did!

I forgot that he was an alternate version of Jean-Nine and not the Ultimate Force Zero version. My guess is that Ginga S has too many heroes in it already, Ginga, Victory and even Shepardon. Having Jean-Nine is too much and you have to remember during Ginga S they NG series are still finding their footing.

Yeah, I share your criticisms as well for the most part.

It would've been a strong message for young female viewers (as well as being a solid end to Asahi's character arc) if we got to see Ultrawoman Grigio show off her powers a little with some fighting chops, before she went straight to fusing into Groob. Maybe the writers thought Grigio being all cutesy was in-line with Asahi's character?

And yeah, Groob's CG was really hit or miss. Although I did think that final sequence where he does the handshake with Geed was pretty impressive CG work. I had to blink to make sure it wasn't a suit.

Tregear was definitely left-field, but he was so charming I gave him a pass. Even a pointless Tregear is far more entertaining than the other NG movie villains like Gilbaris or Murunau, in my opinion.

Taiga Episode 5... damn. Is it possible to be so blown away by a single episode that I cannot even put into words how much I enjoyed it? Because it just happened to me. Taiga is going places, like "Favorite Toku of all time"-places. I cannot fathom how good this show is. It's almost insane to think that with shows like Orb and Geed under their belt Tsuburaya continues to rise up in quality. They aren’t even close to being finished yet, they barely started, and I love it.

Also, the voice drama episode... holy shit, Titus is related to Belial? Like, his suit colors made me think that at first because it's obvious who they belong to, but they're actually confirming it? Wow. I assume he's a cloning experiment on the road to creating the perfect specimen, Geed?

It drives me nuts that a voice drama of all things can be this interesting. Tsuburaya, you absolute madmen, I love you.

Oh it definitely fits her character well, the throwing energy pellets to restore vigor especially, I just wish they made her a bit more… capable. Kinda like Kamen Rider Poppy who was cutesy and girly but also kicked some major butt during her first appearance.

That was one of the shots I didn’t like because it was too obvious to me that the Geed-suit was reaching into nothingness, but the scenes where he fought against the CG Tregear with the Minato family fleeing in their car in front of them was very well done.

He was entertaining as hell; I just wished they fleshed him out a bit more. Not mentioning the Reugosite-thing bothered me so much. In fact, I think they could've cut a bit more of the gamer-kid stuff to focus on Tregear. On the other hand, the scenes with him and Katsumi were so good. By the way, Tekken 7 appeared in three different Toku shows now, that could actually be a record of sorts.

The new Taiga was solid, it continues the series' theme of exploring alien-human relationships. I'm still impressed by how sobering the show's tone is as well; most of the episodes so far don't really have what I would call happy endings.

The SFX and VFX departments also continue to blow my mind. The action scenes are always a joy to watch, and I loved the detail on the Ferris wheel, which looked meticulously constructed and well-made (before, y'know, Titas ran into it). I was also really impressed by the VFX work for Alien Seger's force-field.

The only thing I'll say is that I'm hoping we get a battle that takes place outside the city soon. I love the miniature city set, and of course we're only a mere five episodes in, but I'm excited to see Taiga fight in say, a forest or in snow. Maybe we'll get a water battlefield when Takkong-sama makes his grand reintroduction!

Anyway, the voice drama episode was great too, I continue to love the Tri-Squad's dynamic, and Titas' uncomfortably specific description of his homeboy's muscles was unintentional comedy gold. I feel like Titas is just a gymbro born on a literal Planet Fitness. But it would be nuts if Titas' was related to...y'know, like Kiwami said. Also, another stray thought: it's great that they thought of the voice drama, because the Tri Squad aren't honestly given a lot of screentime yet, at least in the last couple of episodes.

So I just wanna briefly get out of the way my thoughts on the latest set of Taiga episodes before moving on to the R/B movie:

- This show is a real bummer.

- The audio dramas are mandatory listening at this point. I'm actually looking forward to hearing the conclusion to Titas' story than I am the actual next episode.

- Like, seriously, the attention to detail is consistently impressive too. Did you notice the title for this one is written with a filled-in "★" instead of the "☆" that The Ultraman's title usually is? Because I didn't until a YouTube comment helpfully pointed it out for me. This isn't even the first time they've gotten clever with the title.

- Also, Titas is best Ultraman.

Anyways, the R/B movie. I still think X's movie was the most all around solid of the post-series films we've been getting. Every one since feels a bit too cluttered in spots with how they're written. However, the upside of this is that they've also been getting progressively more in-depth stories, and this was the best one yet. The human drama with Katsumi was exceedingly grounded and relatable in a way you can't get from any Ultra show other than R/B.

The core of the story here is very solid, and I like a lot of the individual elements too, but the problem with them, just like in the rest of these movies, is that that's all they are. Singular little moments that never fully connect to the main plot in a satisfying way. Take Riku for example. The scene where him and Asahi have a chat is great, and makes great use of his unique backstory to contrast him against R/B's cast, but beyond a brief callback towards the end, it just doesn't pay off. That's also why Grigio is fairly unsatisfying. It doesn't feel like the culmination of anything because it isn't. Asahi doesn't have her own B-plot or even an arc here, so I think the scene where she transforms playing it up like some huge feminist moment was supremely ill-advised given the nature of the story demands she can't actually do anything too exciting, because there's a million other things happening all competing for attention.

So narratively, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but the stuff that works does work well. Although frankly I'm glad my first exposure to Tregear was in Taiga. His central gimmick of toying with people's sense of morality is established here, but he came off more like a discount Khan Digifer from Gridman with how he felt the need to work with some dumb emo kid. The character we're seeing on TV right now somehow seems above that to me.

All that being said, it's time for my regularly scheduled disagreement with Kiwami:

Obviously I wasn't a huge fan of how Grigio was handled here either, so I understand the desire to see her do something cool, but I think it's worth pointing out that Rosso and Blu are also clumsy and can't fight too well. Obviously they get their moments and Asahi didn't, but a huge part of R/B's identity as a series was showing Ultramen acting goofy. The very first scene of this movie is Katsumi with his head stuck in a building.

And this is just... I mean, are you sure about this?

You can go frame by frame on that handshake and see Geed and Groob's hands touching almost perfectly. The CG was astonishing by the standards of these things. Tell me this doesn't look like a suit:

https://i.imgur.com/PX6PB5j.jpg

For f***'s sake, they straight up modeled in wrinkles where the material on a real suit would be liable to bunch up! Check out that armpit!

https://i.imgur.com/cQkTJOl.jpg

Ordinarily, I'd be the first to complain about bad CG, but they seriously knocked this one of the park. If your eyes weren't fooled, than that's that, and I can't argue, but if you can look at that shot of Groob smashing through those buildings and immediately see a big green cylinder going through them instead, I feel a bit sorry for you.

That clip I linked to talks all about how how they specifically decided to make Groob all CG to push what they could do with mixing digital and practical effects, and while there's always going to be growing pains, we're already immediately seeing this experiment pay off every week on Taiga. So please consider cutting Groob some slack? If they had decided to use a suit, you wouldn't have half the cool action in that show.

They probably not referring to Belial and are instead referring Hellar, a character from The☆Ultraman who had a similar concept.

No. The action scene with Tregear was good, for everything else there should’ve been a real suit. That's the end of that discussion for me. Part of what fascinates me about Toku is costumes, the design and craftsmanship that goes into making them, completely replacing the suits with digital models annoys me to no end.

Oh I get it, thanks for pointing that out, I have no knowledge about that series at all. This makes way more sense than shoehorning Belial into it.

Now I want Ultraman Groob and Good Cool Kaiser VSX to team up.

I had to think about Rabbit/Dragon myself :lol

It's okay, Kiwami. There's no shame in admitting you're only upset about Groob because they introduced a Crystal that's better than yours and then named it after a character from Ghost. :D

In all seriousness, though, I think we actually have a lot of common ground on this issue. But here in the mirror universe, CGI requires craftsmanship in its own right, and that's worth appreciating too. While I'll be right there with you if this becomes a regular thing (I can tell you right now I'm going to be bummed when Shin Ultraman inevitably isn't done practically), I just don't think there's any reason to take such a hard-line stance on this when all signs point to it being a one-off experiment. Groob shouldn't have only been CG in that flying scene because that would've completely defeated the entire purpose of what Tsuburaya was actually trying to do with the idea. That's where the discussion ends for me.

I won't press this issue any further, especially since I do completely understand your position here, but I don't know. My initial reaction to Groob as I was watching the movie was a dejected "oh..." when I realized what was going on, but as the climax played out I found myself impressed by just how much hard work it's evident went into all those shots.

I watched the R/B movie and I thought it was great. R/B's comedy, lightheartedness and general corny themes of family and growing up really appealed to me and the movie REALLY doubling down on all of those things just reminds me of how damn much I liked that show. I'm gonna say it's the best of the New Generation movies.

Evil guy in computer makes loser's monster drawing come to life to wreck stuff? Getting awfully Gridman there, R/B.

Grigio is cute. It's a shame she didn't get to do more.

CG Grewb was... actually ok? I was pretty impressed by how well the CG model interacted with stuff. The bit with him grappling with Snake Darkness could have looked really bad, but they pulled it off. His rise when he transforms also looks really cool.

Taiga: Episode 5 continues the running theme of every episode ending with a Pyrrhic victory. Which - from watching the R/B movie - is the kind of thing Tregear's into so I guess it makes sense. I'm enjoying the show so far.

I also liked the tiny Tri-Squad on Hiroyuki's desk.

Yes, Titas IS the best.

So this was kind of a random find but the Dada alien in episode 18 of Geed is apparently voiced by Shouma Yamamoto aka Dan from GARO and Taiga Nobori/Saga/Dark Kiva III from Kiva.

6 episodes in and Tsuburaya is just showing off with the practical sets I love it. Subs isn't out yet and the episode is dialogue heavy so I'm interested to see what they're talking aboot. Also, I love the small bit where Kana cheered on Fuma and he briefly paused to look at her. It's like "Yes! I'm acknowledged by the hoomanz now!"

It's 4:20am here and I've just finished Ultraman Max. Thoughts:

To start, I was a little surprised by how "Showa" this series was. I'd heard Max was a back-to-basics approach after the more experimental Nexus but damn, this was essentially a forty-ep love letter to Showa Ultraman. It really did feel like TsuPro's preliminary practice run before they really dived back into the Showa-verse proper with Mebius. Damn near every episode had at least one reference to one of the Showa series, with certain eps even being entire homages (it was awesome to bring Jissoji back for the Targeted Town sequel...even if the episode makes zero sense continuity-wise...). I also loved that they brought back the Showa-era actors. Even in their golden years, I still see them as Shin, Fuji, Ide, and Dan, and it always warms my heart to see these legends return to the franchise they helped launch.

Onto the writing: I don't have much to say here, besides that it's your typical Ultraman fare. Self-contained kaiju-of-the-week episodes are basically the bread and butter of the Ultra-verse. My favorite episodes were definitely the homages though, with most of them referencing Shodai and Ultra Seven. Although the infamous Butterfly Dream episode definitely deserves a S/O too; it's insanely experimental for a children's TV show. I thought I was watching Black Mirror for a second with that one...

Anyway, I liked the characters for the most part. Kaito is your typical Ultra human host, though he's at his most compelling when the show dives into his romantic tension with Mizuki. The other members of DASH fill the archetypal attack team roles of sharpshooter, scientist, and commander. But my favorite member of the Max cast was undoubtedly Elly. Aside from being incalculably kawaii (she's a close second to Geed's Moa, for my money), the whole "I'm an android" thing allowed for many creative Elly-centric episodes. Every attack team should have a cute fembot now, is what I've concluded.

Fight scenes are par for the course as well. I liked Max's suit for the most part, and while it's ostensibly based on Seven's, I was getting touches of Taro too with the chestplate and Storium-esque charge-up for his final move. Also, can I say how refreshing it is that Max has zero midseason form-changes or silly toyetic gimmicks? (Before you mention the Max Galaxy, that hardly counts--it's basically the same as Jack's Ultra Bracelet). That just adds to the overall Showa aesthetic of the show, which is always a plus for me.

Another thing that's super-Showa? Xenon showing up for one episode to help Max with Zetton and then effing off to not return until the finale. Shame too, because I kind of dug the Xenon suit. Oh, and I feel like Max's monster designs deserve some love as well. Nowadays with the more recent shows, it feels like every kaiju is just a Gojira expy or Mecha Gomora, but Max genuinely impressed me with the sheer variety of its foes. We got a water dragon, space cats, whatever the hell IF was supposed to be etc...

Anyway. On a final note, I guess I should say I enjoyed the series overall. Not my favorite, but solid nonetheless. Also, I can't decide if Max's theme song is really catchy or an auditory abomination against God. Discuss.

Max is so retro for a reason: this was Tsubaraya responding to the failure of Nexus by going old school. It worked, which in turn led to Mebius and the constant stream of nostalgia-focused series that we have now.

I really like Ultraman, but I miss the days when the hero wasn’t related to or empowered by older Ultras. That’s one of the main reasons why I haven’t watched much Taiga yet.

Also, Max’s theme song is fantastic. One of the best in the franchise.

I know what you mean. I adore Geed but I didn’t like the fusion theme much. R/B pushed it over the edge with the Crystals, that one really made me think: "Wait these are ancient heroes but they can only transform solely by channeling the powers of other Ultramen? That's kinda weak".

It’s not much of a big deal but I also prefer it if an Ultraman has a legacy by himself. Taiga in my opinion does this much better. They reference past Utramen by sharing their home planet or in Taiga's case being Taro's son, but their abilities and powers are their own.

The obligatory past-Ultraman gimmick manifests itself only in empowered finishing moves wish is ideal IMO. It makes more sense to call upon their predecessors by channeling their power for one attack, they are not dependent on them to transform.

Also, I find the whole "Son of..."-deal charming as it reminds me of the old horror movies where they just make a sequel with the son of the monster. Plus, Ultraman Zero, Geed and Taiga are all awesome, so that alone speaks for itself.

So basically Max is prettt much responsible for the nostalgia fest that Tsuburaya used till this day, and Mebius stole it from him? Mebius, you bastard!

You know the only thing I wish was that Max would appear in Mebius' series since he is from M78 after all. But alas, theybsaid that Max in his series is alternate M78 and the Max seen in Zero movies are his alternate counterpart...... Which could be retconned anyway.

And here I want to ask the same question I've been asking since Geed ended. How are Tsuburaya going to pull another gimmick with the toys? We've seen what they did to R/B which wasn't really received well, and Taiga managed to do this with only using past Ultras to enhance their finishers, plus most of the items are based on NG Heroes. So I can't imagine them using it again for the series after Taiga.

Then again, Taiga's gimmick surprised me so who knows.

I wouldn't even really count R/B as being powered by legacy Ultras though. Yes, their crystals had pictures of old Ultraman on them, but that was it. Nothing about those older characters actually translated to their forms or powers, which were purely based on your generic elements like fire, water, wind and earth.

I think it just weirds me out a little because my roommate's name is literally...y'know, Max. He probably doesn't appreciate hearing MAX MAX MAX from my room at two in the morning.

Can any Heisei OP truly top Ultraman Nexus's first one though?

Tsuburaya had a press conference in Malaysia(?!) and they said that Taiga will receive a worldwide release in 2020.

Since Tsuburaya is starting to invest to overseas marketing more and more, I kinda hoope they'd produce a new Ultraman game as well. We need a Fighting Evolution 4!

I don't think it will be broadcast here Brazil, we don't have such audience for tokusatsu like before.

Yeah I'd heard they were broadcasting Taiga on Astro Ceria or something next year. I would love it if the broadcast had English subs but that seems unlikely.

Three words. Take. Me. Higher.

Episode 06 of Taiga was great. I gotta say, the effects are really blowing my mind. The scene were Taiga's foot comes down on the street and tiny food is falling from the tiny table in a tiny, miniature restaurant - Jesus Christ the attention to detail is insane.

That being said, I think this is my least favorite episode so far, mainly because the plot didn’t do much for me and neither did the bag guy really. He was hilarious, don’t get me wrong, but I think one should’ve seen the appearance of his brother to fully enjoy this? I haven’t watched wherever he appeared so I don't really get what's going on with him.

Also, I think now's the best time I mention what I don’t like about Taiga so far: There's not enough interaction between Hiroyuki and the Ultramen. The little scenes they share together (episode 05 with the coffee mug) are great and I want more of that. I want Hiroyuki to deal with each Ultraman of the Tri-Squad for a whole episode at least. That could happen now that every member of the team had their own little focus story.

I don’t expect an Imagin-treatment but I do wish we would see more of the Ultramen, how they feel about Hiroyuki and them learning from each other.

I think I don't even care about the overarching Tregear narrative, I'm really just watching this show for the incredible fight choreography and cinematography. The restaurant shot that you mentioned had my mouth wide open, and the CG shot of Abel getting thrown across the river was incredible too. I guess the Groob experiment paid off.

As for Abel, honestly even if you have seen his big brother's first appearance (The Orb movie), it doesn't add much. The Gapiyans are basically just space bounty hunters. Charming, sure, but rather light on character. Though I did love the inclusion of the Perolynga aliens though. They're a lot less creepy than they were in their debut in Ultra Seven, and the redone suit looks great as well.

I do agree that we're long overdue for some Hiroyuki-Ultramen character growth though. The only real meat we get for the Ultra characters is through the voice dramas (which are great), but I would love an episode focusing on the Tri-Squad dynamic as well. Fuma was fun in this ep though; he's basically Ultra Naruto, and I don't just mean the running. Also, does Titas have the greatest rise sequence in the history of the franchise or what?

On next week's episode: Ehh, did we really need to bring Babarue back so soon? I know he hasn't shown up since Orb, but he feels super overused in the NG shows. Guess I can't blame TsuPro for trying to get their money's worth from the suits. When will Lord Takkong-sama finally make his grand entrance? :mad:

Episode _ of Taiga was amazing, and feel free to just plug whatever number between 1 and 20-something you want in there, because it's going to fit.

Of course, we're talking about 6 right now. The action in this show is absolutely astonishing and the kind of thing I'd want to show to someone who doesn't get why Ultraman is so awesome. The production values and direction just completely crap all over the competition so hard it's not even funny. I had to really fight the urge to just litter this post with screencaps from the episode, especially when the cinematography seemed even better than usual, including in the "normal" scenes. There were a lot of tasteful tilts going on and I really loved Tregear's scene especially. I love it whenever this franchise finds an excuse to remind everyone that Ultras don't actually have to be huge, and the way he's shot is totally different to how he normally appears, while still making him look menacing and creepy.

The story was quite solid, as well, although like Kiwami I do have to question Taiga's overall sense of structure. I've been giving a pass on the lack of focus on the actual Ultramen becasue, one, that's arguably true to the franchise's roots despite the Tri-Squad being the show's biggest selling point, and two, much more importantly, with the way all but the first and third episodes have been laser-focused on a single character each, I'm still giving them the out that we'll probably get episodes later down the line that flesh them out enough to essentially make up for that lost time.

What is weird to me is how they decided to lead off with so many depressing stories in a row right at the start if that wasn't going to be a consistent theme. Granted, this episode isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows, but it kind of seems like they might have been giving the wrong impression about the show's atmosphere? Maybe?

Again, it's hard to know these things until the series is over, but aside from the very strong and consistent theme of humans and aliens trying to coexist, I still don't have any clue what the more long-term goals of Taiga's plot are. Besides Tregear presumably plotting to turn Taiga to the dark side or something for kicks.

I seriously hope Jugglus Juggler is getting royalties now that every Ultra show has a character with his exact same role though. :lol

Also, two things that bear repeating:

- You NEED to watch the voice dramas.
- Titas IS best Ultraman.

https://i.imgur.com/MZbAGmo.jpg

I have a crush in Chiharu Niiyama since Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah movie so an episode where she plays a major role is going to make me biased. But the camera work in eoisode 6 is really damn good.

I fucking love how this is a meta commentary on how obscure U40 Ultras are.