Yes.

...

Huh?!

Who's saying this?!

Z's been honestly a good refresher for me in terms of watching Toku. It has this comfy feeling of the saturday action shows that I watched as a kid and It'll be a bit sad to see it end quicker than I'm used to. Hope to see Haruki in future appearances tho!

I should probably go back and watch the older shows tho. The shorter episode count sounds good for some binging. Tho, I'm afraid I'd get sucked in and start thinking about buying SHFs all over again. :lol

Anyone know the show Grigio is from tho? If she's not movie-exclusive. Need to see me some cute female Ultras.

She's from the R/B movie, and showed up in a few spin-off things after that!

My thought exactly. I’ve seen more people call S the weaker of the two in terms of plot. Myself included.

An assessment that's been gleamed from overtime, from the vague memory of various comments to preserved series reviews from years past to everyone's praise of "Gan-Q's Tears" to my own reactions.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2014/01...ltraman-ginga/

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...-series-review

Between this and stuff like Sora from Absolute Conspiracy, I'm becoming very aware not so much of all these obscure Ultra characters, but of the general fact there will always be somebody somewhere out there who is extremely happy to see them get so much as a shout-out. :lol

I might complain about this once the series ends too, but yeah, Kaburagi got done real dirty. Every single show since Orb has had a rival/mastermind kinda character who has a pretty great presence (even the weaker ones were good, and the best ones were Orb Dark Noir Black Schwarz), and yet poor Kaburagi gets almost all his thunder stolen, ironically in a show also starring Juggler, the guy who started this whole archetype to begin with.

It's good that Celebro is still important in the end, but I can't help help but feel it's a bit of a shame Kaburagi's actor didn't get to do more. I thought he handled what little material he was given quite well; Wajima's dictator generalissimo shtick right now doesn't even compare.

This has always been my impression of the reception of both shows, and I'm someone who loves Ginga's first season way more than S.

S just had a bigger budget and brought a more familiar, more exciting Ultraman flavor back with a more-or-less proper defense team and everything. I think Ginga was viewed as a bit of an odd duck by existing Ultra fans, and the low-key vibe of it didn't exactly impress newcomers who were fans of Rider or Sentai or whatever at the time and expected to see a revival of Ultraman on TV that would convince them this franchise was some great thing worth their time. S was way more of attention grabber for both parties.

I don't know how widespread those sentiments are, or if that's been toned down over time (which usually happens), but I definitely remember hearing things along these lines years ago.

At least within the circle I'm in, I think the general consensus was that while Ginga S was definitely better on a technical level and had its fair share of fun and memorable episodes, Ginga overall felt like it had a bit more depth to its themes and messages, which I think for some people helps to overcome some of its very obvious technical deficiencies.

I watched both Ginga and Ginga S not long after they aired on Crunchy so I saw them only a couple years ago, and my main issues with the former were two-fold.

First, the low budget was a serious detriment. The fight scenes were pretty poor throughout the entire show, and the show's small cast and reliance on shooting at one location for 90% of the series made it all feel rather inconsequential.

Speaking of the cast, that brings up my second point. The cast, for the most part, was terrible. It honestly has some of the worst acting I've seen in any show from the big three toku franchises. I don't think it's a coincidence that, aside from Hikaru, the only cast member brought back in a large role for S was Tomoya. I also didn't think the show was funny when it tried to be, and it really felt like a Fourze knock-off but without that show's charm.

That all being said, Ginga S wasn't a major improvement. Sure, it looked better but I never bought into Victory personally and the story is pretty forgettable.

The show may be almost over, but the toyline continues until at least February.

Ultraman Zero Access Card with Ultra Medals (mantle variants)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eomf5kBW...png&name=small

And the New Generation medals for you DX completionists.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eomf9myW...png&name=small