I don't think there's much of a competition to be had here really, Aizen is adorable and very good in being bad but he simply can't measure up to a god.

Yes, I forgot about the meta comments, those were great.

Episode 9 isn't quite the absolute masterpiece that 8 was, but that might only be because I wasn't expecting how amazing Orb Dark is last time. It's still great, and one thing I especially appreciate is how much thought seemed to go into the scripts for both these episodes.

Aizen's motivations, for example, are actually totally internally consistent with that big checklist on the report card in episode 8 which made it clear that, in-universe, he literally sees Ultraman the same way a viewer out-of-universe (or even a writer) does. It's basically like pro wrestling to him, with the routine of a cool hero fighting a villain being more important than the reality. Hence his willingness to cause the problems he solves.

I don't know, I'm probably making this sound more complex than it is, but considering how easy it is for a character like this to use "he's crazy!" as an excuse for sloppy characterization, I'm just impressed R/B has found the time to do this big metaphor for people who wouldn't like R/B, have it make sense, AND still make room for constant references to Orb and other past Ultraman shows in the dialogue without sounding awkward or forced while they're at it.

I'm surprised that the bros got their payback so soon. I thought it would last for at least 2 episodes. Hope we'll get to see Orb Dark again soon

My favourite dumb thing about episode 9 is that Aizen paid for all of those shirts he ordered and is actually going to use them all. Aizen is great.

But yeah these last couple of episodes have been so good. Keep it up, R/B!

This is my favorite show of this season above LupPats and Zi-O. Hands down. And it's all because of Aizen. When I have time I fully intend to do screen caps because some of the over the top is just too fun.

You can't just help liking Aizen. First, he pays for the shirts that he ordered from our heroes and now he still offers them lucrative overseas jobs even after they get beaten by Horoboros. :D :D :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCnPT_qu1vg

I'm just going to drop this here. Its hilariously surreal.

Well, episode 10 of (O)R/B (Dark) is definitely not doing anything to break this show's hot streak. This whole storyline right now is so brilliant and so fresh it's almost got me worried whatever comes after can't possibly live up to it. Almost.

I'm almost certain you said just about the same thing regarding Geed last year. In this case, it's good to be proven wrong.

I had a lightbulb moment just now watching ep. 10. Aizen is playing by the Akibaranger handbook. No wonder I like it so much.

Episode 12 - the plot suddenly thickens! I knew Asahi would play a more important role than just their kawaii kid sister.

Well, with episode 11 R/B has finally reached such a consistent level of excellence that I find myself lacking anything new to say. So... yeah.

Aizen's report card isn't going to look as good after this one, though. Sure, he remembered to excitedly wave his hand when returning from battle, but all that property damage is going to lose him some serious points when it comes to not destroying the city. Sloppy, sloppy...

I'm dissappointed that Aizen didn't send out any attack team to attack the kaiju first, then he henshin and save the team. A hardcore Ultra fan like him should have thought about it

Back to the main story, here's my theory about the female villain: She is actually Orb Dark's human form. Like how Rosso & Blu turned into crystals when they came to earth, something happened that turned Orb Dark into the Orb Origin crystal, Aizen used it to create the Neo Orb Ring. Now Orb Dark awakens and will try to take back the Neo Orb Ring from the bros to regain its original form

Nah, Aizen wouldn't want an attack team getting all the glory. He's a fan, but he's a gloryhound first and foremost.

Now as to this episode--a genuine surprising twist pulled in the last few seconds! So much so that I'm not actually going to talk about it here just yet. We do get a genuinely intriquing mystery though. And that on top of a genuinely great Ultramen vs giant monster classic episode with some great family drama tossed in for good measure.

Seriously. That's going to have some interesting consequences in the future. Not next week though, 'cause clipshow. Meh. Oh well, Geed and Orb had rather fun ones so I'll watch this too.

Anyways, I really like our new villain, the actress is cool. Also, Horoboros is a really good monsters, loved all the effect work on it and that they brought it back with a twist.

What really makes the twist so good is they've actually foreshadowed the heck out of it the entire series so far, but every time it's happened it's such a quick moment the viewer wouldn't pick up on the significance if they weren't looking.

It's generally not easy to hint at something that often and still have the reveal come as a surprise, so, once again, major props to R/B for being so excellent.

So Aizen really did see Orb in the past, so that’s why he’s such a Gai fanboy. ������

Still waiting for Gai and Juggler to appear

Rumor I stumbled upon a minute or so ago surfing the net

New Ultra named Giallo, obviously Italian for Yellow, but who will it be? I am guessing Asahi.

Using the Makoto Crystal, Giallo, Rosso, Blu will trinity fusion into Ultraman G/R/B.

Basis of that rumor
https://i.imgur.com/fEBijmDl.jpg
Less clear image
https://i.imgur.com/MdzRfhx.jpg

So - is Color Timer subs done? Usually they post updates when things take longer but their Twitter is kinda dead. Where are you guys watching the episodes subbed now?

They're just taking a while. I'm in a discord with a number of their members and a couple of them are just caught in other commitments right now. It will come soon.

Sweet. I can't fault fans for taking their time with subs, there are much more important things in life, and they do it for free as well, I just wasn't sure what was going on since I used their Twitter for info and didn’t see anything on the subject.

Thanks for clearing that up!

Toy scan spoilers
https://i.imgur.com/xlVzMB7.jpg

I have no idea who these guys are but they look dope. Is that orange, rather feminine looking Ultra... Asahi? Because that would be amazing! Or are all three of these enemies?

Also, a vinyl figure of Pega? That's nice, might have to get that one.

Names (tentative):
Top row: Ultrawoman Grigio, Ultraman Gruebe (fusion of Rosso, Blu and Grigio)
Middle row: Ultraman Toregia
Not sure about the one on the bottom row.
Edit: Found a name
Bottom row: Snake Darkness

Okay, that's awesome, no matter who she is, a new female Ultraman is always welcome, I really like the design too! Her having a fusion with Ruebe really points to her being Asahi too, a sibling combination! Sweet.

I just realized that R/B Kourin is basically Ultraman's Ultra Slash turned into a DX toy. Neat. Maybe Ace's Guillotine attacks will be next?

Also, a minor nitpick, they really need to redo the Ruebe transforming sequence with both Katsumi and Isami holding the Gyro and pulls it together. It's just awkward seeing Isami standing around while Katsumi doing all the pulling. Or, Have Isami do the first pull, then Isami second, and together for the third.

You know, the funny thing about Color Timer Subs falling behind on R/B is that they've accidentally made the recap episode more useful than it would've been otherwise.

I was ready to say episode 13 was actually pretty bad, but after spending its first half recapping what toys are on shelves instead of the story so far (which I don't remember Orb and Geed's recap episodes doing quite so blatantly), the back half has way more new footage and actually uses the old stuff to call attention to a few of the more subtle mysteries the show presumably plans to elaborate on in the future.

All in all it turned out to be a surprisingly solid episode for what it was.

Ultraman R/B The Movie
https://twitter.com/SpecialForm12/st...87018541199360

While this is a pretty good excuse for a clip show, it is pretty much a video toy catalog

I respect that they have, like personal lives and stuff, but I hope Color Timer subs catch up.

I'm just going to ignore the existence of the movie because it will inevitably take a million years to get subbed

Color Timer catching up by releasing 3 episodes of R/B this week. Nice.

Episode 13: A clip show. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Episode 14: A bunch of cool stuff happened in this episode but it's all drowned out by Aizen's Gai impersonation. Oh my God. Also a lot of goofy stuff that I laughed at, I'm still very much a fan of this shows sense of humour and general light heartedness. Grigio King raises the stakes at the end though, Next episode should be good!

Spoiler for future episode
https://twitter.com/ultraman_series/...25115189178369

I’ve caught up now, watched Episodes 13-15, thank you Color Timer subs crew!

I really like Tsuru, I think she works very well with the cast, the actress is cool too. A great addition to the character roster I quite enjoy already.

Clip-show episode was fun, it deepened the mystery of Asahi a bit, Episode 14 & 15 work better if you watch them back-to-back, Ultraman R/B (Ruebe? I'll just call him "Rübe", sounds exactly the same in German, but means "Turnip", fun fact for your day :D ) is quite cool, although I feel like they missed out on an interesting opportunity here: Of course you need to show the brothers inside handling the toys and stuff, advertising 101, but I think Rübe would've been better if he had a completely unique personality. Like when people fuse in Dragonball they create a new personality that is neither part but also more than both mixed together, something special.

I think I would've loved it if Rübe was a "true" Ultraman-type of guy with a different feel to Rosso and Blu with both kinda disappearing when fused. They could use a shadow-y, undefined humanoid to show off the toys inside Rübe.

Just a small nitpick though, I still like this new form for a lot, the halo-saw weapon is quite cool too (and surprisingly brutal, I bet the Showa-Ultraman would love this thing!), reminds me of a trick weapon from Bloodborne with the spikes popping out and all.

14-16

I'm really back and forth on whether I liked Aizen or not. He's kind of fun but his wackiness goes to far. The wannabee Ultraman element is by far the most interesting part. Much prefer Saki / Tsuru, though hopefully we get some answer on what she's been doing all this time other than meeting people to quote later.

And Ruebe appears. Like the suit deisgn at least but his initial apprentice is very toy heavy - the Ultraman and Belial crystals, the Kiwami Crystal, the New Generation Crystal and the Ruebe Halo. Given that fusions are not that uncommon in Ultraman, this was pretty easy to predict (ignoring that we saw it in leaks anyway).

Asahi feels a lot more important than a lot of Toku main girls. I guess we'll get answers about her when the mom comes back?

I'm all caught to up to episode 16, and this show is just as great as ever. Tsuru is super interesting and adds a lot to the dynamic of the show. As much as I like Aizen, I'm not going to miss him that much. It's also very nice to see how Asahi is being treated as a proper main character and not just a walking plot point.

I do have to say though, part of me hates Ruebe. I get that since we've had Ultramen fuse together before they were obligated to do it, but considering the whole appeal of this show is seeing two brothers working together, I think it's a power up that desperately needs to be on a leash, narratively speaking. Unfortunately, it seems they're just going to be busting it out every episode whenever they feel like it. The transformation stock footage is also pretty embarrassing for poor Isami. Still, Ruebe looks cool and has a sweet weapon, so it's not all bad news.

I wpuldn’t have minded the Ruebe transformation that much if the brothers swap the henshin sequence every time they transform, but of course, Katsu being the eldest takes precedence. They do swap for their final attacks, so why not the transformation?

This is actually what I assumed would be the case, so it was very disappointing to get to episode 16 and find out we're stuck with just the one sequence. I have to say though, it's telling how good R/B is that I consider a stock footage transformation one of its biggest misfires so far.

tbf Ultra's been so great lately that the stock footage commercial is biggest complaint I've been seeing across the web.

I'm hoping they pull out something like advanced tactics or just two kaiju at once so they don't always use Ruebe. At least it's a nice suit.

Maybe other fusion Ultras will turn up in the movie. Could have Ginga Victory, Saga, Orb and Geed kind of count on their own.