Last week I watched Ultraman Kids. I had some nostalgic attachment to so I watched it, and it wasn't as cringy as I remember it. But the ending was a complete bullshit.

Today I finished watching Neos. While I liked its return to the earlier Showa style, it didn't have the most memorable episodes save for the Alien Zamu episodes. Felt like an attempt at rebooting the 66 series with some similar ques but gave it another name just to be safe. Also gotta love how they came up with the "Ultraseven 21" name.

And now... the Cosmos gate is open...

I meant hard to take seriously in a different way. It cheapened the feel of the production for me. But then again, I don't like dubbed films and only saw this one because that's when I was able to. I watched a clip of Mefilas in the Japanese, and that felt a lot better to me. I'm glad you were able to enjoy it, though.

On that note, I haven't seen much Ultraman but I watched a clip from the original Mefilas fight and I love how faithful the Shin fight was to it.

I didn't like what I saw of the dub myself. Though to begin with dubs are a lot harder to watch in live-action than animation; it's harder to match the lip flaps and it's a lot more uncanny

It even more faithful during the Zarab fight.

https://twitter.com/penpen_iii/statu...bQKul8dog&s=19

Funfact that scene with Ultraman shaking his hand in pain wasn't scripted. That was the suit actor in real pain and it actually did damaged the Fake Ultraman helmet with that chop.

More Hyper Keys

https://twitter.com/bandai_toys/stat...ifaGTR8Og&s=19


I'm glad the chinese keys are finally getting a release I'm so glad there continuing the Hyper Keys since therotically Bandai can keep pumping these out forever.

I saw the Japanese subbed version, and I have to say, I felt exactly the same way. I was deeply, deeply disappointed.

The movie lacks any sense of dramatic tension. There is almost zero character development. The performances are uniformly wooden. It’s not a strong narrative, just a series of unrelated incidents strung together. Its weird attempts at humor undercut all the gravitas it was clearly trying to muster.

It fell into all of the fan service traps that Shin Godzilla deftly avoided. Like, cool, the Ultraman/Mefilas fight is shot for shot the same as the original series. But… why? What do I, an Ultraman non-fan, get from that? It was just so full of fanboy shoutouts that amount to nothing but a wink to the diehards.

It tried too hard to shoehorn in the visual aesthetic and bureaucracy-centricity of Shin Godzilla instead of lookin at Ultraman and deciding what visual and narrative approach would be best for his story.

There were some cool visuals, I’ll give it that. But ultimately, I think the lack of Anno in the director’s chair really hurt the movie. Higuchi, while a great designer and toku affects artist, just isn’t a great director. He lacks Anno’s vision and it results in a very lackluster movie.

To be fair, humor plays an important role in the original show and it was impossible to shoot without it at all. But yes, the jokes weren't great.

I'm finally doing it. I'm now watching Cosmos.

Not so much an Ultraman question, but an Eiji Tsuburaya one.

What was the man himself like? Yeah, none of us here have first-hand knowledge, but what have biographers written about him? What quotes are attributed to him?

I know a few details.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2021/07...iji-tsuburaya/

He was an avid pilot, fascinated by the 1933 King Kong, and would add effects that are intentionally cheap and goofy because they were funnier!

I know he did WWII Propaganda Films and that led to him being blacklisted for a time, but what were his genuine feelings about the war?

This came up in a discussion with friends and I realized that I didn't know quite enough. He sounds like an interesting character outside of being the "Father of Tokusatsu"!

One note about Eiji Tsuburaya is that he's a converted Catholic, and you can kinda see how that influences certain themes and visuals in Ultraman and Ultraseven.