So just realized the reason why 80, Neos, 21, Great, Powered, and Max are being highlighted in UGF:TAC; it is their anniversaries this year. One thing to consider is while Great actually is a 1990 show and Powered a 1993 show, both of their Japanese dubs aired in Japan in 1995. So by Japanese broadcasting year standards:

Ultraman 80, 40th anniversary
Ultraman Great and Ultraman Powered, 25th anniversary
Ultraman Neos, 20th anniversary(Ultraseven 21 is the secondary ultra of the show)
Ultraman Max, 15th anniversary

Oh and fun fact, Kane Kosugi who played Jiraiya/Ninja Black in Kakuranger was protagonist Kenichi Kai in Ultraman Powered and Kunio Masaoka who was Shohei/Oh Green in Ohranger was one of Ultraseven 21's(read as Two-One) many disguises in Ultraman Neos. And Jun Takatsuki who was Satoru/Kamen Rider Tiger in Kamen Rider Ryuki was Genki Kagura/Ultraman Neos in Ultraman Neos.

Huh. Given the choice of theme for the Chronicle shows usually reflects the next series in some way (however minor), I have to wonder if that'll hold true here. Maybe Tsuburaya is toying with the idea of backing away a bit from Showa nostalgia now that Heisei is retro too? I assume Z is only there to keep things familiar for the modern audience, at any rate.

You never know, though! Seems like Z did really well, after all. Maybe this is all just prepping us for when Tsuburaya makes next year's show Ultraman ZZ: the student of Z, who is also the son of Tiga for some reason. :lol

90s is considered retro so there is that, and Ultraman is currently Bandai's top-ranked toku franchise this year so far. And with the 55th anniversary coming soon next year I would not be surprised if they took a sabbatical with the Showa stuff like you said and revist the TDG trio starting with Tiga since it is the show's 30th anniversary next year.

I also think part of it was how well the fandom seems to have responded to Gamma Future considering it won the official twitter poll for favorite Z form. And maybe it just me but I feel like Tsuburaya put in the most amount of work in thier references and deep cuts to the TDG trio in Gamma Future compared to not just the other Z forms but all Ultra Fusions.

Yep, I mean it SUMMONS afterimages of the trio. SUMMONS.

Perhaps the best thing would be to do a new movie with TDG in the starring roles?

I'm reminded of the Saga film and wondering if a Part 2 to that entry would suffice..."Ultraman Saga Future"!

And here I was, under the impression that footage for Tiga was off limits due to V6 being protective of the guy who played Daigo making any form of appearance (hence why Tiga stock footage is barely featured in Retsudens). Did they cut a deal, or was I mistaken?

Perhaps they finally have worked something out on the rights issue. I'd love to hear Take Me Higher again (I know I can listen to it whenever I want, but you know what I mean)!

I'm curious if this means Tiga will get a proper voice actor or Hiroshi Nagano will return. The former is the most likely though.

Oh, you can bet that 2021 Ultraman will have his name ends with "-a" to go along with Tiga, Dyna and Gaia. Ultraman Giga? Magna?

And it seems that Alpha Edge will be 'obsolete' and Z will be represented through his Original form like Nexus Junis and Orb Origin did.

That seems possible and factoring what GrandComplete said with Gamma Future proving to be a fan favorite form, even if they continue the New Generation route of using senpai collectibles I have a feeling the TDG trio might be the center of attention for next year. Maybe they can do what Max did and have the actors from that late 90s era guest star like how the Showa Ultra actors appeared in Max.

I will only accept yet another fusion form gimmick if one is formed by Zearth and Nice

The slugger will be shaped like a toothbrush and the Ultraman pelts kaijus and aliens with chocolate beans instead of lasers. :lolol

Second episode of The Absolute Conspiracy is up!

If you're a fan of Great, Powered, Neos, 80, Cosmos, Justice, and UltraSeven 21...then this is for you! Max fans might be a little upset that he's under threat.

The backstory for Ribut continues. I kinda want a Ribut figure and I'm glad he's getting a chance to do something genuinely significant.

Huh it weird seeing Powered fight normally for once. Also they gave Powered new grunts that neat so glad Kane Kosugi came back. For context in his own show Powered simply reused the OG Ultraman grunts. And 80's referenced the Saga movie so this takes place before Orb Origin but after Saga.
Edit: Also does anybody know who voiced Great in the dub? He's uncredited. I hope it's actually is Matthew O'Sullivan reprising his role.

I guess the new Powered suit is not the same material that they used back in 93. Yeah, I tried looking but can't find anything. Odd. Could it be Dore Kraus? But if so they would have posted a short clip by now like Kane Kosugi I assume.

Finally watched this week's Absolute conspiracy. Very cool to see a lot of Ultramen that I still don't recognize, except maybe Cosmos.

Ultra Justice tho, there something I should know about his voice? Design looks very cool too. Ooh, did Justice have a female host?

Justice is vocied by Megumi Han who also voices Sora in this. You might reconize her as Pega in Geed. In the english dub Justice is vocied by Rumiko Varnes. And yeah despite being male Justice intentionally took on a female host/voice because to him justice is "one that transcends gender",

So, he one day decided true justice will not require the notion of gender? That's very cool.

Neos was originally supposed to be the show that followed 80 and a pilot was made in 1995, but it got shelved and Tiga became the show that brought back the franchise in 1996. But they later decided to make a 12-episode show and was released direct-to-video in 2000. When Sugiura was temporarily unavailable for Cosmos due to an incident they filled in the gap by airing Neos. You can tell they really had intentionally planned it as the franchise reboot with Neos feeling like a rebooted Ultraman and Ultraseven 21(read as Two-One) a rebooted Ultraseven on the design side of things. I saw it sometime ago and it was almost like watching Max or X in that the show was very back-to-basics with their approach.
And like I said before Jun Takatsuki who played Satoru/Kamen Rider Tiger was the protagonist Genki/Neos. Ultraseven 21 was pretty much Shurikenger before Shurikenger not sticking to one alias when in human form, and one of the disguises was played by Kunio Masaoka aka Shohei/Oh Green from Ohranger. I really like Neos and Ultraseven 21's designs, very nice throwback to the first two Ultras while keeping it modern at the time.

I almost didn't recognise Cosmos because those forms he used might just be more 'obscure' to my mind than even Neos!

Tsubaraya is doing everything they can to make me love them more, and it’s WORKING ��������������������

Only normal merchandise here at Premium Bandai!

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Why is it Jack though... Wouldn't Ace make more sense! Or even Man (the original) or Zoffy (the most 'special' one)...

he never gets anything; let him have this :lol

He still doesn't. I'm pretty sure that is OG Man; the "shorts" make it the most obvious here. Also I looked it up and that Ultra Sign above his head is apparently his too, so there's that.

Not that it even matters who it is when any talk of that just distracts from what an amazing concept for merchandise this is. :lol

Anyway, Absolute Conspiracy is still really cool; Cosmos gets two different introduction screens because he's just that awesome. Although admittedly a lot of the fanservice here is lost on me when it's leaning heavily on the post-series movies I've never seen. Still loved hearing Spirit though!

I mistook those really thick lines as Jack's signature stripes... Now I have to turn in my Ultra-fan card.

Yeah, so... what I wasn't expecting to come away from Absolute with was "I really really need to watch Cosmos" :lol

Here I was, going to watch all the Heisei Ultras in order and this episode has singlehandedly made me decide to skip ahead to Cosmos immediately after Tiga.

Well, it is the longest Ultra series, at 65 episodes (7 of which were DVD-only, due to issues with the actor for the Ultra host going to jail for something he turned out to be innocent of).

Plus Cosmos had 3 movies and a reedited version of the 2nd movie too without the main actor.

And he is also the one Ultra whose prime directive is to pacify rather than go guns blazing and beam the kaiju or alien to death unless he really has to. And despite the negative response from some fans and the scandal Sugiura had during the show, the show I believe was very well-received at the time. Also can't go wrong with the design for his de facto form Cosmos Luna, very simple blue and silver but it is really nice and clean. Notable toku alumni in the show would be Daisuke Shima who played Yuusuke/Red Falcon in Liveman as Hiura the leader of Musashi/Cosmos's crew.

Is Tsuburaya uploading Taiga episodes to their YouTube channel? Did they already upload and pull Ep. 1?

It's just like the other episode uploads -- this Z episode had Guesra in it, so they're uploading the Guesra episode from Taiga.

But the timestamp suggests that it will take another day or two for the episode to upload! Wouldn't it have made more sense to upload it BEFORE the most recent Guesra episode?

Will there be more Taiga episodes or is this just a one-time thing that's relevant to what Z is doing and which kaiju it incorporates?

That's just how all these uploads go. It's no different from them uploading Ginga X's Five King episode or Ultra Q's Kemur Man episode -- they and many others were a couple days later and unrelated to anything else.

They've done this before actually they uploaded episode 19 of Ultra Q which had Kemur Man and the same thing happened they released it after the Z episode. Your right it would make more sense relasing the relevent episode before the Z one but it just what it is.

Someone who is a bigger Ultra-nerd than I am, please help me identify these monsters!

https://i.imgur.com/d9eKXc4.png

I've had these toys since I was (practically) a baby but I remember neither their names, nor which series are they from, I'm only 90% sure they are even Ultra monsters. I want to say at least one, probably both of them is from Gaia?? Can't be sure of that though.

The red and beige one is from Gaia it name is Uqbar and it frrom episode 29 of the show. Probably one of the most sureal episode in the entire franchise.

The blue one is Sandros it's from Cosmos 2nd movie Blue Planet

The next episode of The Absolute Conspiracy is up!

Ribut finally meets the Galaxy Rescue Force!

The villain who's clearly central to this story, Absolute Tartarus, actually does something here.

If you're a fan of Cosmos and Justice, then you'll love the Ultraman Legend cameo.

Since Max has also been at the forefront, there is a new article about Max that's worth a read: https://ultramangalaxy.com/who-is-ultraman-max/

XENON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

Not only that, but Andro Melos AND freakin Gukuru Shisa?!