Watched the first two eps of UltraSeven X (and another one of Mebius but that's not important right now). And wow that was very different but in a good way, a crazy awesome way.

The show continues on the darker and edgier tone of Nexus but it's framed in an orwellian dystopia, it condenses the story driven and character centric style of Nexus giving it a very accelerated pace that never slows down, and it's awesome.

Visually the show is impressive, the effects are great, the city looks completely futuristic and the fights are pretty awesome too, granted Seven hasn't done much fighting yet but that'll hopefully change in the upcoming eps.

It looks very promising, hopefully it holds up.

Ultraseven X. Fighting. :lol

Might have to help you out there with an upload! I should still have the movie and Final Odyssey is fantastic. Watched it well before I actually started picking up the DVDs.

Oh well, even if all he does is throw his Eye Slugger around I'm still enjoying the big guy. :lol

And even if the following scenes are the only action scenes in the entire show I would still be happy, because it looks awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOfNAjVKlk
(Seriously anybody knows the name of the song)

According to the opening, "X". Too bad I don't know the artist(s), since the name of the song could not possibly be more vague...

Slightly more useful than "song" though. :p

It's by a band(?) called B'z it's compeltely unrelated to the show though. It seems UltraSeven X has no op.

Yeah, that's what I thought, hence my unheard of confusion regarding that video.

UltraSeven X: 3 and 4
3 was excellent, the villain and the "hopeless" had simple but realisitic motivations, there are also some hints for the big bad. (I hope)
4 focused on Alien Pejinera and Agent S debuted, it was fun too, wonder what the deal with the ice was...

So it still runs on rule of cool, it's defintely episodic but it shows hints of a larger plot, and the battles while criminally short, show some excellent production values.
The Eye Slugger is definitely overpowered but it works for me, I always thought that a mind controlled boomerang should be OP as heck.

3 also featured an Ultra battle at regular size, that was different, definitely not used to it. :lol

Glad you are digging Ultraseven X, I find it to be a very "modern" style sci-fi show. I really enjoyed the heck out of it myself.

Yeah! The Ultra stuff is rather minimun but the Sci-Fi side is very enjoyable, and it has a great style too.

UltraSeven X 5 and 6:
In 5 they conmemorate Earth Peace Day which ironically featured the longest battle so far, Seven evenused his Wide Shot that was pretty cool. Of course once eveything is done the aliens return to war. *sighs*

6 was a calmer episode, dealing with a ball of light, is it you Noa? :lol It was a heartwarming episode focusing on dreams and developing Jin, there are more hints about Jin's past as well.

Halfways through and a lot of fun.

Two things:

A) I'm up to 4 in Mebius, so far it's neat, Crew GUYS is likeable and they have defined personalities, personally I would have preferred if they had joined one per one instead of all at once for no apparent reason but their episodes have been good.
The other main elelment of Mebius is METEOR, banned technology developed from alien tech, it's limited to one minute per use. Not only their ships and weapons have access to METEOR but it has also been used to create the Maquette Monsters, so far Miclas is the only one they have.
"Today we could fight for 4 minutes" :)

B) The trailer at the end of the newest Retsuden ep focused on "Daikaiju Battle Rush: Ultra Frontier" an arcade game apparently, it's different that's for sure, not sure how I feel about the kaiju redesign...

New Baltan is pretty cool though:
http://i.imgur.com/KxjTNQ8.png

There was a Battle Rush movie shown with the Ultraman Ginga Theater Special where the team hunted down Dinosaur Tank. I thought this segment of them fighting Red King was alright, unfortunately I'll never be able to play the game so the tie-in is not all that useful for me, heh!

So the Dino Tank segment is CGI and not live action. That's kind of a letdown. :lol
Meh, more Dino Tank is always a good thing.

Up to 8 on X: 7 was another heartwarming one, very well done. And 8 was a more tragic one filled with twists. The quest for Jin's memories continues.
Pretty fun so far, I mean so far not a single episode has been bad and they continue to drop hints about Jin, it would have been cool if this show were a little bit longer.
The fights lasting more than a minute would have been nice too. :lol

*Edit: Junichi Shimura/Glaive was on episode 8, cool!

Watched the Christmas episode of Max this morning. It was fun and had some nice moments (honestly, Elly is kind of the secret star of this show). One of the better Christmas tokusatsu episodes I've seen, but nothing will ever top the craziness that is Shaider's ball of Yuletide insanity.

Finished Ultra Seven X, the Ultra stuff was minimum and honestly "Toku MiB" wouldn't be a bad way to describe it, but it was a very fun ride from start to end.

Project Aqua was completely different from what I expected and Seven's role in the show was actually bigger than I expected at first, still minimum for a show called Ultra Seven but he was relevant.

Like father like son, it seems Seven and Zero can't get away from alternate universes.

Seeing Dan return to Anne feels weird considering Zero can't be her son, but whatever man.

Typical I finish a Seven show and I talk about Zero :lol, definitely a solid show, with good characters and a solid story.
Strongly recommended. :thumb:

Thank you ljacone for recommending it to me, I had tons of fun with it.

I'm glad you liked it, algo!

As far as Zero's parentage, personally speaking, I tend to think of it like how Spock was conceived. Sarek and Amanda are from different species, but through science they were able to fertilize an egg and give rise to a son who was half human, half Vulcan. So until I learn otherwise, I tend to think that the science of the Land Of The Light allowed them to produce Zero. Somehow. Heh!

Heck yeah, my only gripe is that it should have been longer. :lol

Well, the Ultras and Human do share similar ancestors plus Seven can take Dan's form at will, so Zero being their children would be possible and very sweet. Maybe the reason Seven hided the truth from Zero was because of his heritage?

Anyways now I see Seven in a better light, going to such degrees for a cry for help from a different dimension was very noble. He and Zero really are father and son.

Mebius 5: Aka the only episode that isn't on youtube. :lol

George's episode, it was surprisingly good, both Mirai and George shined, his background was used nicely complete with chidhood dream: "I want to be Ultraman" *Sniff*

Debuting this week was Hunter Knight Tsurugi aka Andro Melos wannabe aka Ultraman Hikari, I tried to stay away from Mebius spoilers but that one is obvious. :lol

Things are getting exciting, next episode is Marina's and Tsurugi will reappear.

6: Marina's episode, it was enjoyable but not as much as George's. Tsurugi is so badass, from his Knight Brace to his appearance, he is way too cool. Also long tongue woman is revealed as long tongue Kaiju.

7: So Tsurugi's host is the famed Serizawa! Can't say I didn't expect it. And Mirai is mad, I wouldn't like to be Tsurugi right now. Bogal is also a freaking coward, visually impressive though.

This episode was surprisingly plot heavy, there was also a funny Fantonian story. Good stuff.

Shine blue light! Arise Ultraman Hikari!

So I'm up to 11 on Mebius and man I'm hooked, Tsurugi's arc was excellent, seeing two Ultramen fighting together is a nice change of pace after Nexus and Seven X, the battles in 10 and 11 were particulary great, with excellent cordination and acrobatics.

Tsurugi's backstory was excellent, Bogal was a fiery enemy and Ryuu had tons of character development.
The future of GUYS, Serizawa and Hikari shines bright.

It seems thing will return to the episodic format for a while, but after this excellent run I'm not mad, I can't wait to see the Ultra Brothers though.

For those in the know what would be a good point to watch the movie? According to wikipedia it takes place after 15, but I figured it would be good to ask here.

Sorry for the triple post, but... Mebius and Hikaru were fighting a statue and his giant fish, and I had to say it... best show ever! :D

http://24.media.tumblr.com/77d8f4db6...dbiao1_250.gif

I'd say between episodes 20 and 24 (the reasons will be obvious once you've seen those) and the movie.

Thanks for the info.
Though I sort of watched it already. :p

Up to 16 in Mebius, monsters with human lips are really unnerving.

Episode 17 of Mebius was another good one, Ryuu and Serizawa continue to be amongst the best characters in the show, Hikari left the show btw.

I love the five ultra vows, as silly as they are, they were used to great effect in this episode.

Watched Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial over the weekend. Fantastic fun from beginning to end. A little episodic as it introduces each one of Zero's allies, but you can't help but enjoy the ride.

It's a lovely movie, and Ultimate Force Zero is a great team, shame we didn't get more of their adventures subbed.
Check the Gaiden if you haven't already!

Yup, caught both of the gaidens. Helpful for being introduced to the Darklops concept, for sure.

Ultimate Force Zero is a fantastic group of characters. The problem with watching these is that it is impossible not to want to buy toys afterwards; it was a challenge not to immediately hit orders for Ultra-Acts of as many of them as I could!

I understand the feeling, I'm not much of a completist but I know if I pick one of the team I would want them all. :p

Well, none of them have Figuarts so that should've been a piece of cake to avoid! :p

You are soooo clever Mister Baltan. :p

Yeah well, pretty obvious I meant Ultra-Act, but since this board is obsessed with SH Figuarts I swapped it in my head.

What are the Five Ultra Oaths???


My favorite Ultras are the original, Tiga, Gaia, Max, Cosmos, Mebius & Ginga.

Now that I have more free time again I've been getting back into Max (and kicking myself for putting it off). I'm up through 31 now, which means only one episode left with non-Hk subs. :(

Thirty-one was another great example of how well this show did comedy, but the thing that struck me most was how great it is that the Ultra franchise is clearly full of actors who loved what they were doing and are always willing to come back for me. In Max alone we have two of the main actors from the original series as regulars, a third as a recurring character, and we've had cameos from the leads of both Ultra Q and Ultraseven. And having seen the first Belial movie, I know that this wasn't the last time we'd see Kurobe and Moritsugu. It's so nice to see these actors happily returning to the show, even decades later; especially when you compare it to the Sentai and Rider movies that are full of suits voiced by random voice actors.

Anyone know where I can find episodes of Dyna??? A friend linked me to the first episode on Daily Motion and I couldn't find the second one when I tried to find it recently.

Okay, so I'm out of non-HK episodes of Max to watch (:cry) and the next episode in order isn't on YouTube anymore (and is the first of a two-parter, of course). I'm sadly forced to shelve that for now and have finally gotten around to starting Tiga properly. I'm up to episode 3 now and really liking it, even if the defense force in this one is ridiculously huge and I know I'll never remember who all of them are. It's a good mid-90s tokusatsu, though, and I can tell I'm going to have fun with it.

I will never not be bothered by how much the theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...IDUC-h-eQ#t=78

sounds like this annoying Eurodance song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...6QDNC4jPs#t=33

Locke tries to get into Ultraman again. He watches the first episode of Max. He LOVES the first episode of Max.

The giant stuff was integrated well, the special effects were top notch and the designs were great. What really helped Max's look was the limited use of miniatures and scaled sets. I hope the frequency of use of real locations and extras doesn't diminish as the series progresses, it really added to the whole experience.

Plus whenever they did have to resort to sound stages, the placement of miniatures and general detail and design was much more convincing as a real location than what you see in sentai.

The only real disappointment was seeing two kaiju fight, how'd you make two monsters battling boring? Well how about a five minute solid battle of two rubber suits bumping into one another and falling over repeatedly? That'll do it!

Max's entrance was a mixed bag, I actually like the concept of the Ultramen a lot more than the execution. Why does every Ultraman have an obvious zip down the back? Why do they build the suits out of material that creases and folds in the manner that they do? Why do they keep the bodies so simple that the heads seem huge in comparison?

Don't get me wrong Max's entrance was pretty cool, from the fact he seemed to fight the monsters so...normally for ridiculous effect, but just when you think it's gonna be ridiculously underplayed he fires some frickin' rainbow beam that causes the monsters to full on shatter into pieces. It's just gonna take me time to appreciate that suit - if I ever do.

Max is a fantastic show; loads of fun with a great cast of likable characters. I should warn you, though, I know you like your serialized shows and Max is not even slightly going to be that. Aside from a couple two-parters, this is all episodic, all the time. It's a phenomenal show, though, and I really hope the last five or so episodes get subbed before too much longer.

I'm not sure how it originally began, but these days the material that juts out like a fin is considered part of the design, even the toys have taken to using them now.

Max is a pretty awesome show all around. It's sort of a love song to the monsters of the franchise, featuring reworked versions of the monsters from throughout the years. (the star from the original show plays the commander here) I think my favorite aspect is that it's a showcase for big name directors from Japan. Takashi Miike even ends up directing some really great episodes. A pretty huge director by the name of Jissoji Akio ends up doing my favorite episode of the series as well, 22.

I guess cause I have no nostalgia for the franchise, I just find it ugly and distracting.

Heh, the choruses are pretty similar, aren't they?

1. The actor has to be able to get into the suit somehow. Part of why the fin exists on Ultraman is to disguise the zip a little better.

2. I think most Ultraman suits are a mixture of latex and foam rubber. Suit that use other types of material, IMHO, tend to look a lot worse. The spandex suit on Ultraman Great in particular. The worse cases of creasing I've seen are on Ace and Mebius, both almost entirely silver suits.

3. For better or for worse, they still have to keep the design recognizably "Ultraman." And that usually means retaining the big-headed, big-eyed alien look with some allowances on variation.

Seems kind of strange to rag on Ultraman for looking like Ultraman. :eyebrow

I'm not ragging on Ultraman for looking like Ultraman, I'm ragging on the engineering of the suit.

They could put a second piece of material to cover the zip so it doesn't look like well...a zip. They could sculpt the helmets better so they don't look like a bobble head. They could direct the suit actors to not move in such a way the suit billows out like they've got a fat gut.

Basic stuff.

That sounds like an invitation for the second piece of material to go flying off during more action-y scenes. It can't be permanently attached because the costume still needs to be able to be put on.

There's nothing technically wrong with how the helmets are sculpted. Not even sure they count as helmets since they appear to be attached to the rest of the costume from the behind-the-scenes photos I've seen. ANYWAY, I digress.

In most situations, I prefer larger heads. Ultramen also tend to be designed to have broad shoulders and barrel chests, so having a smaller head would just look even weirder. Like Ultraseven X. Now Max in particular probably could have used a smaller head. He always seemed kind of pencil-necked to me.

Also, could you explain what you mean by billowing? The material does tend to stick out at the front, but usually only when the actor is crouching or leaning forward in any way. Otherwise, it's supposed to be rather tight.