Really funny little team, they're basically just missing Agul!

Should have REALLY committed to it by using Andro Mars, though :p

For those curious here's what the dub of Shin Ultraman sounds like

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OGH50q...ture=emb_title

I just finished Ultraman Mebius and this series has truly become one of my favorite Ultraman series right alongside Tiga and Ultraseven and I seriously love Crew GUYS as this show’s defense team even more so than GUTS and the Ultra Guard respectively because they are effectively the underdogs that ultimately grew to become a very effective team that works alongside the Ultra Hero and even helps him out just as much as he helps them.

Hikari FTW. :rock:

YES! Hikari is indeed one of the best. I seriously loved him! <3 :D

Shin Ultraman is getting a physical release & it not done by Mill Creek. Anybody knows who these guys are?

https://news.ultramanconnection.com/...u-ray-release/

Afraid I don't.

On another note, due to unavoidable circumstances, I won't be able to see Shin Ultraman in theaters. Even if I did pirate it, I'd have still liked to see it again on the big screen.

Shame it was even close to me...

At the very least, the physical release shouldn't be too far.

The press release there says America specifically, but I hope they're able to bring this over to the UK and other countries as well. Shin Godzilla was, I believe

Maybe CR like they did with Shin Godzilla?

Saw the dubbed version tonight. Honestly didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I'm not a fan of movies that are structured like episodes stuck together, and this was no different. I also wasn't very engaged in any of the "episode" stories beyond the first one, which wasn't helped by the non-kaiju fights all feeling a bit anti-climactic.

Hopefully I'll enjoy it more on a rewatch, when 1. my expectations are properly set and 2. it's in the original language.

Saw the dub of Shin Ultraman last night, and I found it surprisingly fun! The cast they got fit the characters well, and this being my second time seeing the movie, I actually appreciated it a bit more than the first time around. Whoever they got to play Mefilas nailed it.

I had similar experiences. Shin Ultraman is a good introduction to the original series and a good introduction to the franchise, but as a standalone I wouldn't call it a success. Maybe Anno should have made a mini-series after all, not a movie.

I saw the subbed version and had a great time.
Im definately getting the DVD

Oh no, now Ultraman is becoming a Sphere!?

Heading into the final arc with all the Mecha down!? Wow. Although it looks like it's all fixed up by the finale (somehow).

It's at the end when they need him most that Kanata has become the rock that GUTS-Select needs. Although that's also hide to his own pain that he's grappling with to be there for everybody.

I feel like it's a testament to GUTS-Select's professionalism and competence this season that they were able to successfully carry out an operation to take down those Sphere towers. Terraphaser, on the other hand...

Dang, I think that's the most destroyed the Nursedessei ever been.

Kanata hits the nail on the head...Agams blamed Earth for his own failures and wanted to basically commit suicide with the whole human race, but in doing so he was corrupting everything Laelia wanted to see on Earth that became his code phrase. And Decker defeats Terraphaser for the umpteenth time.

Well, we finally get our Agams redemption moment as he destroys the last Sphere Tower and finally breaks the Sphere over Earth. Humanity is finally free! Well, other than the Mother Spheresaurus coming in to kill them all, but still!

Oof. Another loss for Glitter Trigger.

Mother Spheresaurus is pure, raw, power. Even if everyone wasn't on their last legs they'd probably struggle against her. I almost wish she had a voice like Gransphere though just to mock humanity and expouse the Sphere doctrine.

Ichika found out Kengo was Trigger. Will she put two and two together finally?

Oh snap! Not only is Kengo even more infected, but they destroyed the D-Flasher! They could do that!?

Well, at least Agams got to go out as himself and believing in humanity in the end. Hopefully he's reunited with Laelia.

Time for the final battle! Everybody versus Mother Spheresaurus! Decker's final battle (until the movie)!

I'm starting to get a Revice feeling with this show.

So, while I do think Agams should have been done better, I still think what they do isn't bad, per se. I know I was a little harsh with how they portrayed him, but in the end, it still worked all right. Much like Revice, I grumble a lot in the middle, but in the end, I'm still (somewhat) satisfied with the results.

Moving on...

I do enjoy the sec-ops style plan to take down the obelisk, which is just nice to see with Ultra Attack Teams where they're either evacuating civilians while shooting their guns at the Kaiju, or having their arsenal shot down.

And boy oh boy, Mother Spheresaurus is one beefy Kaiju and I love it! In a weird way, I'm kind of reminded of Peston from the Original Ultraman, just by the sheer bulk of the suit, even if it's nothing alike.

FINAL EPISODE! Hitting the Big Mom with everything we got!

Just like Sevenger Fight the Shin Ultra Fight series is now available on Ultraman Connection.

http://tsuburaya-prod.com/news/5680

The original actor or the dub voice? Because I thought Mefilas's dub voice was very hard to take seriously.

The dub voice. And that's the idea: Mefilas is a very eccentric character. Or did you really think we were supposed to take the dude who talks to Ultraman while on a swingset and tries to split a dinner bill with him super seriously? Cause I sure didn't, even in the original language.

Love this guy.

I adored Shin Ultraman.

Was it fast-paced? Yeah, but they really did make sure that everything going on was relevant to what the film was depicting: Ultraman's choice to want to ensure humanity's protection and humanity's ability to not just sit back and let Ultraman himself deal with all their problems, but persevere in the face of danger. As well as the focus on how the world would deal with kaiju and aliens becoming commonplace as time went on. How society reacts, how the government reacts, what the world tries to get out of it, etc.

It was such a fun, engaging, enjoyable film.

I also really enjoyed Shin Ultraman, and getting to see it on the big screen was fantastic. If there were anything that I'd complain about, it's that it felt like there should've been more before the story wrapped up. Maybe doing it as a miniseries or something would've been better, but I still really enjoyed what we got. As is, it felt like a love letter to the original Ultraman and Ultra Q.

By the way, anyone else a little worried by the company doing the home media release for the US?

Last week I watched Ultraman Kids. I had some nostalgic attachment to so I watched it, and it wasn't as cringy as I remember it. But the ending was a complete bullshit.

Today I finished watching Neos. While I liked its return to the earlier Showa style, it didn't have the most memorable episodes save for the Alien Zamu episodes. Felt like an attempt at rebooting the 66 series with some similar ques but gave it another name just to be safe. Also gotta love how they came up with the "Ultraseven 21" name.

And now... the Cosmos gate is open...

I meant hard to take seriously in a different way. It cheapened the feel of the production for me. But then again, I don't like dubbed films and only saw this one because that's when I was able to. I watched a clip of Mefilas in the Japanese, and that felt a lot better to me. I'm glad you were able to enjoy it, though.

On that note, I haven't seen much Ultraman but I watched a clip from the original Mefilas fight and I love how faithful the Shin fight was to it.

I didn't like what I saw of the dub myself. Though to begin with dubs are a lot harder to watch in live-action than animation; it's harder to match the lip flaps and it's a lot more uncanny

It even more faithful during the Zarab fight.

https://twitter.com/penpen_iii/statu...bQKul8dog&s=19

Funfact that scene with Ultraman shaking his hand in pain wasn't scripted. That was the suit actor in real pain and it actually did damaged the Fake Ultraman helmet with that chop.

More Hyper Keys

https://twitter.com/bandai_toys/stat...ifaGTR8Og&s=19


I'm glad the chinese keys are finally getting a release I'm so glad there continuing the Hyper Keys since therotically Bandai can keep pumping these out forever.

I saw the Japanese subbed version, and I have to say, I felt exactly the same way. I was deeply, deeply disappointed.

The movie lacks any sense of dramatic tension. There is almost zero character development. The performances are uniformly wooden. It’s not a strong narrative, just a series of unrelated incidents strung together. Its weird attempts at humor undercut all the gravitas it was clearly trying to muster.

It fell into all of the fan service traps that Shin Godzilla deftly avoided. Like, cool, the Ultraman/Mefilas fight is shot for shot the same as the original series. But… why? What do I, an Ultraman non-fan, get from that? It was just so full of fanboy shoutouts that amount to nothing but a wink to the diehards.

It tried too hard to shoehorn in the visual aesthetic and bureaucracy-centricity of Shin Godzilla instead of lookin at Ultraman and deciding what visual and narrative approach would be best for his story.

There were some cool visuals, I’ll give it that. But ultimately, I think the lack of Anno in the director’s chair really hurt the movie. Higuchi, while a great designer and toku affects artist, just isn’t a great director. He lacks Anno’s vision and it results in a very lackluster movie.

To be fair, humor plays an important role in the original show and it was impossible to shoot without it at all. But yes, the jokes weren't great.

I'm finally doing it. I'm now watching Cosmos.

Not so much an Ultraman question, but an Eiji Tsuburaya one.

What was the man himself like? Yeah, none of us here have first-hand knowledge, but what have biographers written about him? What quotes are attributed to him?

I know a few details.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2021/07...iji-tsuburaya/

He was an avid pilot, fascinated by the 1933 King Kong, and would add effects that are intentionally cheap and goofy because they were funnier!

I know he did WWII Propaganda Films and that led to him being blacklisted for a time, but what were his genuine feelings about the war?

This came up in a discussion with friends and I realized that I didn't know quite enough. He sounds like an interesting character outside of being the "Father of Tokusatsu"!

One note about Eiji Tsuburaya is that he's a converted Catholic, and you can kinda see how that influences certain themes and visuals in Ultraman and Ultraseven.

He did convert to Catholicism from his wife. He was also one of the many (as hard as it is to believe for many people nowadays) people who wanted to forget about the war. Probably not to the extent of Director Ishiro Honda who was constantly haunted by his memories of serving the Empire and the war, but he wasn't particularly fond of those times.

He was also all for the tone change in Godzilla when King Kong vs Godzilla was being made, since he enjoyed the performances of Haruo Nakajima, whom he was close friends with. Later he was inspired by The Twilight Zone to create Ultra Q, then again by the Superhero Comics that were becoming popular in the 60s to create Ultraman.

That's what I can recall from the top of my head.

Since this topic has been brought up, I wonder where Shotaro Ishinomori got his fear of a secret revival of fascism, which shows through in his robots since Cyborg 009? He is too young to remember militaristic Japan. Is it the influence of a difficult post-war childhood or stories / works of elders?

Tons of young people today are well aware of the dangers of fascism. You do not have to have lived through an era of it to understand it. That's basically the basis of education.

He was born in 1938, so his earliest childhood memories would have been of WWII-era Japan. That said, I do remember reading something about this once but it's been years now; I want to say it was either on the V3 dvd notes or in some of the episode notes that went up with fansubs from the Showa series (maybe KITSubs?). Maybe it was on Igadevil's old site, I'm not sure. I don't remember enough details to provide a thorough answer, but I remember that there was something in the cultural zeitgeist that explained why fascist organizations and stuff like hidden Nazi gold showed up a lot in 70s Rider.

Huh, always just assumed they were convenient villains, kinda like Nazis in the Indiana Jones movies. Ties it to something real world, and everybody would've known they were the bad guys without much explanation.

Oh hey, Kanata's grandpa! I kind of forgot about you!

So, Ichika's not getting a big reveal moment, they're just going to casually have her in the know after finding out about Kengo as Trigger...? Although I guess that came around with her big emotional moment.

Honestly I thought Kaizaki and Murahoshi might've figured it out, but Kaizaki seemed genuinely shocked to find out Kanata was Decker. I can't tell if Murahoshi was quietly shocked/surprised or just processing the information. Though they were definitely surprised to find out Kengo was Trigger. Smile Smile! "That's enough of that!" how meta.

Kanata definitely hasn't been fighting alone. GUTS-Select has probably been the most on the ball Attack Team since...GUYS?

Throwing out genius like it's nothing...well, no doubt Ichika is straightforward and Kanata is a hard-worker. Also, captain Ryumon!

Ichika finally fulfilling her role as New Gen Ryo by piloting.

That was a pretty epic Ultra Recharge, and it gave Trigger something to do without stealing the show from Decker. Also, that final transformation!

Man, it's nice to see Hanejiro in Terraphaser so he and Kanata could tag-team once again.

Holy crud, is that Sayaka Ohara as Mothere Spheresaurus? Going with the same spiel of the Sphere from Dyna? I'm actually flattered they included Hanejiro in their Sphere space. He really is alive! But what a stellar repudiation from Kanata!

Everyone working together to weaken the Mother Spheresaurus core so Decker could finish it with a spectacular Ultra Bea!

At least Agams and Laelia are happy in the afterlife.

"Thank you, Ultraman Decker. See you in the movie!"

GUTS-Select seeing the fruit of their victory as everyone from Mars returns to Earth was a pretty great note to end on.

See you all in the Decker movie! And it looks like Dyna is in it too?

So if the next Ultraman isn't a New Gen Gaia, will we get that after the new one?

And so, we bid farewell to Ultraman Decker.

For what it's worth, it does have some problems, and heck, it may even be no better than Trigger at the end of the day, but I honestly enjoyed Decker way more. Sure, I did have gripes with Agams and a few things I'm unsatisfied with the final battle, but like with Kamen Rider Revice, I do think the end was at least nice to help me feel better after all is said and done. But unlike Revice, I had more fun with this show, nothing too much against the latter, but I genuinely thought Decker, despite its shortcomings and formula, was a good show.

I did absolutely enjoy seeing the final battle play out, with the Trigger to Decker switch and everyone pitching in to fight, it was a lot of fun. Also, Kengo with a gun!

Honestly, if the next season does turn out to be New Generation Gaia, so long as it does as much or preferably more and better than Decker, I'll be fine.

On another note, I love Mother Spheresaurus' roar and it was nice seeing Agams reunite with Lelia.

Well... Until next season. SHUWATCH!

Decker was my first weekly Ultra series. Not technically my first completed series since that would go to Z, but I did start Decker when it started airing and followed ever since, so it was a new experience.

I really enjoyed it. It thrived on its strong characters and the development they go through from start to finish. I also appreciated how they worked Trigger into it to show that yes, the events from the previous series do still play into what happens here, especially during the endgame, yet also didn't make it "Trigger 2" by keeping things on Kanata and everyone in this cast instead. I was glad that the final battle focused on Decker and his back-up while Kengo was small support.

All that said, the narrative does have really obvious issues. Completely sidelining Kanata's personal life like his grandfather or his parents being stuck on Mars for 99% of the series felt like a bit of a waste. Could have gotten some good drama out of that what with Kanata's tendency to shoulder his issues on his own.

The future aspect with Kanata's successor also feels a bit weird cause the concept was great, but nothing really came from it (Until this finale film anyway). Agams being from the future worked fine on its own without needing someone else to come in to really push it. It would have been cool to play that part up a bit more and have both present and future Deckers come in to fight Mother Sphere. Even plays into the theme of individuality and differences. Two vastly different hosts, but both have the same overall goal.

I really liked Agams, but the guy needed a better send-off moment. His relationship with Kanata being an unstoppable object up against an immovable wall was extremely compelling so him just up and dying and that's it last time felt way too fast a disposal, even though I loved the final scene with his and Lelia's spirits essentially thanking Kanata. Granted that brings up completely different questions, like if Decker was able to beat the Sphere now, doesn't that mean their home planet never succumbs to the Sphere in the future? Or that Earth never goes to them for refuge? So wouldn't that mean Agams never comes to the past to get revenge on Earth? Or that Terraphaser would essentially be erased from existence? Lot of holes pop up.

But even with those issues, it was just a fun time from start to finish. Not the top of my 2022 toku list, but I'm more than committed to following the next series now.

New trailer for the Decker movie, and more info on Ultraman Dinas
https://twitter.com/TsuburayaGlobal/...01474938671104
https://youtu.be/HV332w_1yZE