I made the mistake of going straight from watching Z to watching The Absolute Conspiracy.

...man, I'm already missing the visual distinctiveness of Rider Crossovers.

I did the same. I have squat knowledge when it comes to Ultra so when TAC rolls around and I went to watch it I was just...

"Ah, so that's Ribut. He's from... OH, that's Joneus from uh... Oh, it's Taiga, Titas, and Fuma, I think I know them. Grigio? She's from... Uh... Ah, finally someone recognizable! Zero!

I can recognize Zero, the R/B brothers and Victory.

The worst for me is trying to keep track of Ribut in battle. The only differences between him and one of his mentors is eye colors and chest markings, which blur in battle.

Ultra Galaxy Fight was always the strangest of choices to me to have dubbed, as they boil down to minimal story in favour of fanservice. Like it's basically a reward for people who are already big Ultraman fans, so I don't get why they'd make that an entry point of sorts through being the only thing aside from the anime to get a dub.

Well, nobody having a moving mouth might make it that much easier to dub? I'm not sure if I'm being serious about that suggestion or not?

There were also English dubs for... uh, let's see... Ultra Fight Victory for some reason, and then the Ginga S and X movies, I think? It seems like these things very much happen at random, when they happen at all. I'm curious about the reasons myself.

It seems this was around the time Tsuburaya started making the move to appeal to non-Japanese fans overseas come to think of it. X which succeeded Ultra Fight Victory was simulcasted on Crunchyroll, but trying to dub a fresh new show while it airs in your own country would probably be scheduling hell for sure unless you are Netflix where stuff is all prepped and ready prior to release. So they probably decided to go with what was recently done as a means of testing out the waters, in this case Ultra fight Victory.

Well, whaddya know. Turns out that Ultraman Z manga is a prequel not too far from episode 1 of Ultraman Z. Taguchi is writing the story and art is by someone named Tetsuya Kawaishi. And it will be serialized starting with the April issue of Terebi-kun.

https://m-78.jp/news/post-5795

correction: Dang typo made me say sequel, it's a prequel. :lolol

So we're getting the Sevenger Manga that we deserve? Good.

isn't it a prequel?

Why is Ultraman Cosoms 65 episodes long?

Also adding onto to that it also had 3 movies during it's run.

Okay, but why is it so damn long compared to the rest of the franchise? Were they having free slots on TV they had to fill it until a new program fills in or the studio had way more money than usual so they spent it by making as many episodes until they use all their budget or what?

Cause despite the more peaceful tone of Cosmos, the primary actor was accused of assault. The legal issues meant that Cosmos was suspended and Neos aired in it's place. When the charges were dropped, Cosmos returned with an extended run which has yet to be rivaled in terms of length.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2016/06...traman-part-1/

Dang typo, I just noticed it. Thank you for pointing that out.:lolol
Yes, I meant to say a prequel not too far from episode 1. The artist Kawaishi seems to have previously done SD Gundam stuff and Heisei Godzilla manga prior.

How do they get the description so mixed up?

This sometimes happens on streaming services. I've since lost it but I once had this great screenshot of Netflix where it had the BBC Sherlock image, with the title "Gavin & Stacy", and Attack on Titan's description

Watched the Geed movie. Loved seeing all the characters again, and setting it in Okinawa was a great change of pace. Unfortunately I haven't seen Orb, so that part was a bit lost on me. I do wish we had seen Leito's family one last time, but still a fun movie overall.

Sorry for the double post, but does anyone know if the Ultraman shows on WatchToku are subbed well? I heard the Agito subs are pretty bad, but I don't know if it's the same translators/QC team.

I've heard there Mebius subs are worst then Crunchyroll. Cosmos and the anime one are pretty stitled. The rest I believe are the same.

All of the Ultraman shows I watched were on Crunchyroll. Though some of the shows have since been dropped, I remember watching Leo, 80, Gaia, Nexus, Max, Mebius, the New Generation shows up to Geed and was disappointed R/B wasn't been added, and own the original and recently Ultra Q (Which I've yet to watch), and some of Tiga.

At least now we can watch them on YouTube, thank you, Tsuburaya!

Well, that's a shame. Probably not worth the subscription, then. Thanks!

Ultraman vs Daimajin was lamer than expected
https://i.imgur.com/0UyKIwc.gif

My Return of Ultraman thoughts thread:
https://twitter.com/mohammadkadhim1/...04010627043328

I finished up watching the original Ultraman, which I was watching for, well, no reason in particular, save to remind myself that I can just watch a thing for no reason in particular. Obviously it's an iconic series I've always been meaning to get around to and all, but I mostly wanted to sit back and enjoy some toku without any deeper motivation.

Naturally, I have a ton of things to say about Ultraman.

To sum it up as quickly as possible, I feel like I just watched the guy who invented the slam dunk. Like I just wanna go and high five everyone who made this series happen.

I'm far from knowledgeable about a lot of the deeper historical context here, so keep in mind I'll be speaking out of ignorance to some extent, especially not having yet watched Ultra Q, but, man, I was consistently impressed by how much Tsuburaya utterly nailed this formula on the first go. Just about everything I love about Ultraman is right in here to some extent, and while it's certainly still going to come off as dated to people who don't care much for older shows, I found it shocking how well the original Ultraman holds up.

Much of the special effects work is insanely commendable for the time, which I think probably everybody has heard before, but it's true. It's not always so much about how real it looks, per se, (especially watching the show with picture quality that was definitely not a consideration back in the day), but how evident it constantly is that a ton of delicate thought and care was put into realizing a lot of these fantastical ideas on the screen. It's rarely if ever cheap sci-fi B movie stuff; this is a show with serious craftsmanship behind it, and the pride that goes with that. A perfect example is the episode "Oil S.O.S.", where the climax is dominated by shots of everything on the miniature set exploding and being set on fire until Ultraman can eventually dump water on the set bit by bit. It is utterly glorious, and I have a feeling they went overboard to film it, because I recall some of the footage being reused in a later episode, as if to make some money back on it.

The drama supporting those impressive action scenes is as varied as you'd hope for from what is essentially still an anthology series, with a lot less repetition than I expected going in, and yet an equally low amount of episodes I thought were stinkers. The first 13 episodes, with Ultraman's delightfully ugly original suit, especially, I remember thinking had this feeling that each episode was doing something totally different. I wondered if they were maybe blowing all their unique ideas too soon, but even though the series broadly settles into a formula of adventurous monster showdowns mixed with the occasional creepy alien story, from start to finish, Ultraman is quite good about finding some kind of distinctive element to the antagonist or the overall plot to keep the episodes feeling fresh. Episodes that go for a notably different tone or atmosphere than usual are a regular delight, including the aforementioned alien episodes, as well as some of the monster ones, like "The Mysterious Dinosaur Base", and "Overthrow the Surface", the latter of which had some extremely tense and eerie direction, befitting a story where Hayata is unable to join in on the action for most of the runtime.

Speaking of Hayata, another thing that I found worthy of praise was the main cast. It might just be because my only other exposure to the early run of Ultra shows is Taro, which I thought struggled a bit with this, but Ultraman keeps a nice, trim unit of characters with very distinct traits, and as such, I can actually remember their names and everything! They're not deep, complex, or original characters, of course, but they don't need to be when they serve those anthology stories so well. You've got Muramatsu, who is The Commander, with a capital "T" – the reliable authority figure holding the team together; Ide, who is rather uniquely both the gifted inventor of the team's gadgets and weapons while also being the designated comic relief fool, giving him arguably the most range; Arashi, the guy who's always most eager to use those gadgets and weapons to take the fight to the opponent of the week; Fuji – The Girl – which I'd maybe complain more about if this show from Japan in 1966 didn't also treat her as such a valued, capable member of the team. Like, yeah, plenty of times she just sits at the base answering the phones, but a lot of the time she doesn't, and nobody really questions it. Hayata himself is almost a total blank slate of a character, to the point where he almost wouldn't stand out from the crowd, but Susumu Kurobe's performance is so charismatic it kinda fills in the blanks. A warm smile or a concerned expression of stoicism from him is often worth more than anything that even could be in a script.

It's a pretty iconic bunch for a pretty iconic series, I'd say. I'm really only scratching the surface of the show here, but since there's no way I'll cover every last thing I'd like to in this one post anyway, I think I'll start winding it down by talking about a few personal favorite episodes, all of which happen to be from the same writer, Mamoru Sasaki, who I realized after a while had something of a monopoly on my favorites, and also wrote two pretty great Taro episodes to boot, so it's a name I'll probably want to remember from now on. Of the ones he wrote for the original Ultraman, my absolute favorites had to be "My Home is Earth", "A Gift From the Sky", and "The Monster Graveyard".

"My Home is Earth" has a pretty macabre undertone to it that I found myself a sucker for. It plays out like the typical monster fare at first, but introduces a moral quandary when it turns out Jamila has a very tragic motive for attacking humanity, blurring the line of justice and forcing the SSSP to consider the weight of their actions more than usual. It's a very well-told, melancholic story that gets some great emotion out of Ide, of all people.

"The Monster Graveyard" takes those ideas and runs with them, and I'd consider this episode to be the seed that would eventually grow Ultraman Cosmos, meaning I have nothing but deep respect and gratitude towards it. It's a late-series episode that outright turns around to say that, yes, in fact, Ultraman does feel sorrow for the monsters whose lives he must take in order to save people, retroactively adding depth to the routine of a great many of the monster plots, where the SSSP could arguably come off more as trigger-happy pest control than heroes. I think even this one episode stopping to ask if maybe Gomora didn't do anything wrong, or if the monsters that did had their reasons, was a HUGE deal. Dramatizing it through a low-stakes plot about a creepy skeleton dinosaur who the SSSP actually help get back home in space because it's clearly suffering from depression and doesn't even want to fight takes it to the next level. There's a sort of gentle sincerity to the story that's utterly captivating. I've never been able to lock down a singular favorite Ultra monster, but after watching this episode, I think Seabozu might have to be it. That's a design I've always liked, and knowing the story it was in is such an instant-classic has massively grown my attachment to it.

"A Gift From the Sky" is the episode right before, and is one that I loved for how smart it was about being completely dumb. This is the one where Hayata briefly mistakes a spoon for his Beta Capsule, which is maybe all I need to say. Apparently there was argument among the staff about whether it was a good idea to do a huge farce like this, but I can't see why they were worried. There's such a confidence to how this episode messes with the formula that's so welcome towards the end of the show. I believe it's the first one to ever break the typical rule of Ultraman only transforming right at the end, and that's emblematic of the freedom it relishes in. It's an absolutely delightful story about the SSSP coming up with ridiculous plans to move a big chonky monster with the horribly on-the-nose name of Skydon, made entertaining by a pretty breakneck pace and great sense of escalation. Evidently, it won't be to everyone's taste, but I honestly think this is a brilliant episode that goes to show how creative this show could get. Whatever else you can say about it, it's certainly not just another formulaic monster story.

...And that'll be about it, I guess! Again, I could definitely go on and on about the great things in this show for a while longer, but part of the goal in watching it was not to dissect every little bit of it in writing, and I think this is still a decent sampler of how I feel about it. Ultraman is a truly phenomenal series, and it takes no effort at all to see how it forever captured people's imaginations to the massive level it did.

https://i.imgur.com/Mk8WFn1.png

It's always just so good to see you go on at length about a show like this, and especially when your last review was... uh... Zi-O vs. Decade, it's all the more fun when it's something so fundamental and experimental and pioneering. The raving for those special effects; the respect for everyone involved; finding something to love in every little thing.... I've yet to see Ultraman (hopefully soon!) but this was a joy to read.

Funnily enough Fish, the particular episodes you listed at the end (Including Overthrow the Surface earlier on) are all directed by Akio Jissoji, who is often credited with his unique style when it comes to directing Ultraman episodes. There's a distinct styling that just helps compliment the writing when it comes to him and I love it a lot.

He also did The Pearl Defense Directive, and Terrifying Cosmic Rays episodes too.

Thank you! I think you're in for a real good time when you do get around to watching it!

That explains a whole lot. Probably one more name I'll want to keep in mind, then!

The original Ultraman was the first Ultra series I watched, back when it was on Hulu, though I was only able to see 10 episodes, all dubbed, until eventually owning the series, which I absolutely enjoyed. There's just so much passion put into this show that just wins me over, and seeing as Tsuburaya continues to put heart and effort into their shows, going for quality over quantity, makes Ultraman easily over Rider and Sentai (Also because I haven't seen their original shows fully, or much of their respective shows in general).

I don't know why, maybe because I grew up with those cheesy sci-fi shows like Johnny Quest or the Showa Godzilla films, but I honestly love these old Toku shows. Though the only Showa Ultras I've watched are Leo and 80 back when they were on Crunchyroll, and I've got to get around to Ultra Q, which is sitting next to me.

These past couple months, I've been watching some Ultra Q! It's been... uh... interesting? It's just a bit to strange that I feel like my mind's being melted every second I watch of it; with character decisions and plot beats that despite the leeway I give it due to what I feel is a sub-par set of subtitles, are just a bit too odd for me to get into. Still, when something lands it lands; going off of Fish Sandwich's little review of Ultraman there, the special effects pioneering is fantastic to see. So many great props and set design; and so much wanton destruction of them that had to have been costly! In this episode - 13, Garadama - you've got the destruction of a dam causing so much water to sweep through reams of land and villages, and it's not the first something like that has happened in the show!

In this scene I want to highlight here? It's just a really cute one and one of my favourites in the season so far. The professor's actor carries it with such a kind, gentle yet excited energy that makes it clear it's a subject he loves personally and loves to explain; and it's a great way to illustrate to kids how vast our universe is and helping to expand their minds to think on those terms. It might be hard to imagine kids not realising space is big, but this was 1966 -- it hadn't been very long since Earth had made its first voyages into space, so while I'm hardly an expect here on the general knowledge Japanese kids in the 60s had; I could certainly see it being a thing that shows like this would have to open their minds to. Just a really nice, down-to-earth scene despite the subject!

https://i.imgur.com/ie9tOTG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7Y22ToE.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/MDgR4oV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vl4Otjf.png

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

https://i.imgur.com/iUs8IXo.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/fM6ZCeT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sDXo73D.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/fz2A1Qv.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/56JzfJT.jpeg

It's cool to see people digging into the older Ultraman stuff. I haven't seen any of these shows all the way through, personally. I find that I can only watch so much of it before I need to take a break and do something else for awhile. I've loved all of it so far, but it's not very binge-able (and I'm not a binge watcher to begin with).

Honestly I feel you, I tried to binge Ultraman to very little success.

Got done with a good 10 episode binge before pausing a good while. While I managed to do a good two episode a day or ever other day for after I came back. I didn't quite get success until I was in the 20's or so. When I decided "Showa Ultraman makes a nice late night Watch" and the atmosphere of it being like 9 or 10 at night and watching the 66' series really helped me power through the rest of it.

Whenever I get to Ultraseven I'll probably do that again.

It is the issue I often have watching Showa stuff. Can be very rewarding, but difficult to sit through a lot of it.

I just love seeing more people discovering the original Showa stuff because that's what I grew up on thanks to early-morning airings of Ultraseven on TNT, as well as already being a fan of Tsuburaya thanks to the Godzilla series.

Akio Jissoji is an absolute legend in the Ultra franchise. His episodes are widely celebrated as some of the best episodes of tokusatsu ever filmed period. He directed some incredible episodes of Ultraseven as well, and he was so celebrated that they edited a compilation movie in the late '70s that only featured clips of his episodes of Ultraman. He has also directed the 1990 Ultra Q movie, and a handful of episodes of Tiga, Dyna, Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy, and Max before he passed away in 2006. His style is recognizable almost immediately, but he has been copied and paid tribute to multiple times in the franchise since.

And that's really what I love about Ultraman, and that can be seen as far back as the original series. It feels like an auteur-driven franchise, especially when compared to Toei's works. I mean, we've got Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno, Japanese Academy Award winners, directing an Ultraman film this year.

The what?!

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Ultra_...d_of_the_Stars

It's something else.

Guess who’s back?!?!?!

https://www.nihonhero.com/post/shunj...HNFLMwXgN5kAGw

Oh, awesome!

Hey question for all you ultra-savy people, why are spark dolls and cyber cards so flipping expensive?

The ones with the Cyber Cards are from the Ultraman X line of figures, which I only own Gomess from that line, and he cost me $15, not including the Legend Rider History Wizard I got him with. I was only lucky to find him for that price when I did, though I should have waited for the Ultra Monster Series release, but what's done is done.

Anyway, to summarize: The figures from the Ultra Hero Series Orb or earlier, usually go for higher prices, since they were older releases and because they included cards for the transformation gimmick. I have a few that said on amazon they from the Spark Dolls line, but they're actually from the Ultra Hero Series main line, as they don't include the Ultra-live sticker for the Ginga Spark to read.

Aaah, that makes sense, but also that's rough for me who wants to get the orb cards, and X Devizer sounds. What can you do though.