But why Zoffy? A movie based on a character 18 years after said character is introduced is a tad awkward! Sure Zoffy is important, but why center it specifically around him?

He was pretty known at the time, thanks to Andre Melos.

Sorry, but I'm not familiar with that name!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andro_Melos

It was a miniseries thingy that Zoffy was in in some capacity or another. I haven't watched it and thus don't know, which really further reminds me how much I definitely should not be trying to make definitive statements on Ultra history. I don't think I even knew about Andro Melos until the Taiga voice dramas did a homage to it.

It baffles me sometimes just how many weird odds and ends this franchise has assembled over the decades. I've been actively into Ultraman for years at this point and it still feels like I'm constantly tripping over information I've never heard. I don't think I get this same sense of wonder and discovery from Rider or Sentai, you know?

I used to think the Ultra Brothers were literally all brothers, like they were all Father of Ultra's children. Picture the strange world where Zero and Taiga are cousins, and Mebius is both of their uncle.

That's kind of the world we're living in, they are second cousins, Mother of Ultra's sister is Ultraman Seven's mom :lol

Well now I want to see the Ultra-family reunion more than ever...!

I did a little bit of digging and seems like there was a LOT OF TOKUSATSU that year. There was the Kamen Rider ZX one-shot for starters, followed by Machine Man, Bioman, Shaider, some obscure ones called Dokincho! Nemurin and Pettonton, a 5-episode clip show called Ninki Kaiju Dai Parade that aired certain episodes of Tsuburaya titles under a certain theme per episode from the looks of it, and finally the two Ultra movies Ultraman Zoffy and Ultraman Story.

Which one was Machine Man? Sounds like the Marvel miniseries around the same time!

Machine Man is a standalone hero by Toei, his suit is a black, red, and yellow suit and he rides a car/jet but rides it like how Daniel from Transformers rides his exosuit in alt mode if I recall. Oh and he has a clear vinyl cape and helmet visor is positioned very low almost like Kamen Rider Birth.

Did Machiko Soga do a voice in this one? If it's the series I'm thinking of, I think I read somewhere that she was part of the cast list.

Yep and yep. Says that she appeared in episode 36.

The 7th episode of Ultraman R/B was really good, probably the best one so far. I like that it built off the previous episode. Isami was very relatable in his fear of hurting others and having to work on his own.

Relatability is definitely R/B's strong suit. The characterization in that show is down-to-earth in a way I don't think I've seen in many other toku shows. It's essentially an Ultraman show about people who don't care that much about Ultraman, and I still think there's something kind of magical in that. Hope you enjoy the rest of it too!

I mean, there's certainly one man in it who cares way, way too much about Ultraman! :p

Exactly! An overly obsessed Ultraman fanboy is one of R/B's biggest villains! If that isn't a statement on where its priorities as a series lie, I don't know what is.

R/B: Has a main villain, one of whom's flaws is obsessing over past Ultras to the point where he hates the main duo.
Me: Finally, a show for me!

(I promise I'm still watching Z, more hot takes on that maybe coming soon!)

Hey so what's the deal with Noa, Nexus, and The Next? They're like the same power source but different people right?

From what I understand it's basically a backwards Pokémon evolution - Noa is the original and the strongest, The Next is a devolved version of Noa and Nexus is the most basic, weakest version of Noa.

I haven’t seen a single episode of the shows where those characters appear in though. Except the Nexus guest-appearance in Ultraman X I guess.

Spoilers for the Nexus series ahead:
So Noa is the original and most powerful guy, except he got kneecapped in the distant past and lost a lot of his strength. He bonds to a human in Ultraman: The Next movie, and thus becomes Ultraman The Next. He levels up a little in power to become Nexus, and as the series increases he both switches around hosts and gains power until he's able to regain all his power in the final episode and become Noa again.

So, it turns out that both Z and Geed can get new forms from the Ultra Medal sets.

Z: Zoffy + Tiga + Mebius = Sigma Breaster

Geed: Jack + Cosmos + Nexus = I don’t actually know, I couldn’t hear it that well.

Anyways, here’s my source https://youtu.be/1eWRwJMTo4I

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...16/unknown.png

Ultraman R/B 16: So long to the best villain. I miss him already. A single tear for Ultraman Orb Dark Black Noir Schwarz.

Oh yeah, also Asahi having a serious existential crisis, with Katsu and Isa being dragged down into it because, well, if their memory's are faked, who the heck is Asahi? Answer they decide on - does it matter? She's family, and family supports each other. Wherever she came from doesn't count anywhere near where she is now. Honestly, I'm just really enjoying the vibe of R/B? It's heartfelt and kinda laid-back, and the interpersonal drama in fun to watch. Especially now Saki's here, because I can't figure out her motivations at all. Especially her Machiavellian quote of "To know happiness, you must know suffering." Is that why she's unleashing the monsters, so people can appreciate what they have more? Is it a ploy to strengthen Rosso and Blu against some upcoming menace? Who knows?

The katakana romanization is tetoraito kurosu, so best assumption I have for now is Tetlight Cross with Tetlight maybe being a portmanteau of 'tetra-' and 'light'.

Her motive is kind of cool, you'll see! I like Saki even though I missed Aizen, she's great.

Interesting. Sigma is far down in the Greek alphabet and Geed is out of the show (for now?), so… maybe some sort of arcade game exclusive forms or something?

@Topic: Hey look, my single most favorite Ultraman episode is available subbed on YouTube! Go watch it, even if you have no knowledge of Ginga, you don’t really need it to appreciate its message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK23BazjZcY

Man, there's nothing that brings me and Kiwami together quite like having the exact same opinions on Gan-Q's Tears. :lol

Gan-Q's Tears is a wonderful episode! Ginga S unfortunately has a lot of failings to me thematically, both as a sequel to Ginga and in exploring its own stuff; but where it absolutely succeeds is some stand-out episodes. This one and the late-game episode which was more or less about the dilemma of WMDs were very well done!

Trailer for the next mini series "Ultra Galaxy Fight" just dropped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWK8pDCms8

Also, it seems they recently got their Gold Play Button for hitting 1 Million subscribers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqYCD5bIsgo

I suppose an accurate statement would be "Everyone is Here!" because oh my goodness that is a lot of Ultra's showing up, some of which I wouldn't even expect!

You've got stuff like Powered and Great being foreign Ultra's, Seven 21 and Neos, heck, even Sora shows up in that shot with Yullian and 80 and she's from one of the freaking Ulfes stageshows!

Speaking of Stageshows, in that shot with all the Zetton's you can see Z the Zetton from a stageshow too in there!

And that's not even counting the one of the main guys who's on the cover of this all, Pre-Corruption Belial.

I gonna be honest, even though the thumbnail is right there in front of me, seeing Ultraman holding a YouTube play button still feels surreal to me. Nevertheless it still is pretty wholesome seeing the Ultramen all thanking people in different languages.

Cool. Hopefully subtitled, I skipped the last one because of the horrible dub.

Cute. I'm aware that they can't cover every single language on Earth but... no french, no italian, no dutch, no german... feels a bit like Europe got left out.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. This is like a dream come true. 80 and Max finally getting the focus they deserve.

The Japanese Version of the previous Ultra Galaxy Fight has subtitles. You got to choose between dub or sub each week last year.

It's a good as time as any to watch Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes if you haven't already!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Q0z0V8VnI

Gotta love that little sequence around the middle where all the new-gens talks about awesome and wonderful Zero is while 'Susume! Ultraman Zero' plays. (I actually do like it because it's cute and also I love that song).

Also I was extremely unfamiliar with Ginga at the time I watched this, so when he turns into Ginga Stirium, I was confused because I could not tell he had changed appearance whatsoever. I figured the only thing 'the power of Taro' actually did was let him set himself on fire.

Huh - I remember checking multiple of the episodes for subtitles but they didn't have any. Weird.

But...

I know what I'll be watching this weekend :lol

Yo, that trailer was nuts. Ultra Galaxy Fight was hardly a deep, thought provoking thing, but it was cool shit happening for 50-ish minutes. So I'm excited for more of that!

What's the minimum knowledge to go into the New Galaxy Fight with? Because 50 minutes is easily doable, but if I'm gonna get 50 minutes of confusion, I'll probably still do it, but some warning would be good.

You remember those big Spring Rider movies where a bunch of random old characters are presented, and some of them slightly more prominent than others so they get to have nostalgic callbacks to their shows? This is basically like that.

Ultra Galaxy Fight New Generations is also technically a follow-up to the R/B movie and has spoilers regarding that one's events, and I know you're in the midst of watching that show so that might make you want to hold it off.

Yes indeed. :rock:

Ahh, a Taisen movie, I follow. Thanks for letting me know not to go for it just yet, though! Also for reminding me that a R/B movie exists, and I should track down a source for it.

You'll need a basic knowledge of Geed and the R/B movie to be able to fully understand the NG Galaxy Fight. Since stuff from Geed is mentioned quite a lot and the series is basically Ultra Fight R/B feat New Generation Heroes.

But Ultraman Victory did mention Rosso and Blu needs to be trained by Leo and Zero, but it's mostly throwaway so you won't be lost.