Dinas apparently being able to utilize the Mons cards in combat actually highlights my biggest issue with Decker now that I think about it.

They did nothing with the card gimmick.

Like yeah, he could summon the capsule monsters, but you'd think they'd play into that more as a utility rather than just as a form swap mechanic like any other gimmick. Imagine how cool and even more fitting of the diversity angle the finale hit on if Decker just summoned the capsule monsters and purified versions of some of the monsters he defeated in past episodes to fight Mother Sphere alongside GUTS Select. All different species, all of which caused conflict due to those differences, coming together for the same cause of saving the Earth.

And Decker is finally done. Slightly better than Trigger. I liked this rendition of GUTS-SELECT, Agamos was slightly more engaging than the giants, Hanejero was actually likable over the Furby from Dyna. But watching the series weekly was not good with the abundance of delays it suffered through. I know delays are nothing exclusive to this series but it wasn't handled greatly here. The card gimmick was surprisingly lacking. The Capsule Monsters were forgotten and there weren't many forms or abilities to utilize. Agamos had the right idea of having cards with monster powers but neither Decker or GUTS thought about it.

This is easily my favorite Ultra series I have seen till now, by a long shot.

It's just great. Fantastic characters, great direction, incredibly good one-offs, and a solid plot. This is peak Toku!

Kanata is a very fun and engaging character that really makes seeing him grow super fun.

The entire GUTS-Select team is incredibly well characterized and is used exceptionally well. They really feel like a tight nit family. From robots to grumpy coworkers!

The action and fights are shot fantastically and are never dull, so typical for Ultraman.

Agamas is a good villain, not fantastic, but he works perfectly well and creates exactly the amount of development and conflict he needed to do.

And that last scene with the spaceships coming home was just... surprisingly moving.

This show just radiates joy in every second it's on air, and I'm going to miss it hard. Without a doubt, the best Toku of 2022, even better than Geats and my new 3rd favorite Toku in general.

In short, this show is beautiful!

Well, Decker is over and all I can say is… Good riddance to bad rubbish.

But I should probably elaborate, so here’s my full review.

The good:

The show starts off fairly strong with an invasion and the idea that the Ultra can call upon monsters to fight him.

The shared universe aspect gets some prominent focus, with Kengo and Marlulu getting to make comebacks (and Kengo actually gets to keep his own GUTS Sparklence rather than converting to the D Flasher), so there?s also that.

The Terraphaser. I just love that thing’s design and functionality.

Epsidoe 10, for the fact it introduces a tangible villain who actually makes a very good point about humanity’s relationship with monsters.

HANE2 and Asakage, mostly because they stand out among the cast not just for having actual personalities rather than archetypes and their believable relationship with Kanata (Kaizaki fits into the former, but not so much the latter, so she half-counts).

The acting. Not only is Asakage practically a completely different character from Agams, but the fact the rest of the cast spent half the season pretending they didn’t know what was going to happen (an odd choice, since most directors would just not tell them what?s going to happen until they?re actually filming).

The bad:

The characters. Aside from the aforementioned three, none of them have any real personalities and are basically left to fill some stock plots. And there’s a reason I specifically listed Asakage above…

Agams. He’s basically a completely unnecessary addition to the show, who is far less sympathetic than the writers are going for. And the actor is so over the top he idea that he could ever pretend to be normal is ludicrous. The lack of foreshadowing as to his existence really doesn’t help. By the time he died, I felt it was “too little, too late”.

The early episodes. Besides Hanejiro and Kanata buddying up, nothing happens at all until Trigger shows up. They were so boring that I almost quit the show after 5 epsidoes, while someone I know who seldom posts on this forum actually did quit the show after 3 episodes.

The Shield Caliber toy. It’s probably one of the cheapest functioning weapons I’ve seen, to the point it seems like a defect waiting to happen.

The inclusion of past monsters. A lot of them are massively shoehorned in, with Gregorl-Man, Pandon and Geomos feeling like their episodes were written by people who were unfamiliar with the monsters beyond thinking they looked cool.

The second half’s approach to exposition. Things revealed to one character (like the whole deal with Agams, the nature of the mysterious Yuzare and Kanata being Decker) or only to the audience (like Dyna actually being in the show inspired by him) are suddenly known by everyone, with nary an explanation.

The future Decker. Like Agams, he’s an unnecessary addition to the show who does nothing but rob Kanata of having a real goal in favour of railroading him to follow his own goal. And his lack of foreshadowing or later appearances make it clear he was only there for exposition Agams himself could’ve given.

The lack of characters in the know. I singled this out near the start of the show?s run, and my fears were founded. Kanata has no real chemistry with any of the cast as a result and no reason is given as to why he has to or wants to keep it a secret.

Episode 4’s attempts at comedy. They were massively out of place with the previous somber tone, and not at all funny.

The lack of any real connections to Dyna. Yeah, the Spheres are there, but they have a completely different design and MO (destroying planets rather than absorbing them). Yes, there’s a few monsters, but they’re limited to filler episodes (and like I said, other than Mons-Ahgar, come off like they were written by people who’d never seen their original episodes).

The fact that the Synthetic Beasts in this series are simply called Sphere (name of monster). Compared to Dyna’s more creative names for its Synthetic Beasts, it comes off as lazy and uninspired. (I mean, what sounds cooler. Neo-Darambia, or Sphere-Red King?)

The whole of episode 9. From the obnoxious teenage daughter, to the health problems that never get resolved in any meaningful way, to the returning alien feeling like name-slap rather than an attempt at a homage, it’s easily the worst episode of the series.

Basically, I?m going for a score of 5 over 1.8 out of 10. Not a recommendable series.

This is the stuff I love the Toku community for.

You can have a post saying it's one of the best Toku's they've ever seen, followed by one tearing it to pieces, and both are valid. Such a diverse fandom always makes a discussion interesting.

That said, I can not stand for the slander of episode 4!

A made-to-order monster infomercial is a genius idea that left me wheezing once it was clear what this was about! And I will not accept any disagreements! :D

Pretty good series overall, then! Not one I found particularly exceptional, but it easily passes a bar for me and was just a good, fun show every week. A likable cast, a strong premise, a wealth of fun individual episodes that Ultraman is so good for... yeah, I was pretty happy to have this one on every week! Not my favourite but you can do a lot worse; it's another great New Generation Ultraman show to add to the list :]

I found Decker to be even less enjoyable than Trigger and am firmly in the "good riddance"-camp, but it wasn’t bad. It was just way too mediocre and boring for its own good. Trigger was worse as a show overall, but stood out more IMO, the Trigger-cast was so inflated that you didn’t have a lot of time to focus on each character, meanwhile Decker has good focus episodes but they are just the same boring old stuff. Not once did this show anything to surprise or excite me.

I have high hopes for the next show, I just want to have fun watching a new Ultra series again.

As far as finales go, Decker's finale was pretty standard. It doesn't introduce any big bombshells or revelations, it doesn't end in some unexpected way, it simply does everything it needed to do and wraps the show up neatly. And I think that itself is kind of a perfect summation of what I really love about Decker. That outside some specific references and elements, it's very much just a traditional Ultraman show that's executed and done really well. It simply nails all basic fundamentals and concepts of Ultra, showcasing how well those elements hold up even in modern toku. The show also probably has one of the better balances between episodic and plot related content in New Gen. There's certainly some things that could have been improved, I understand the heavy Agams focus in the second half turned some people away, so perhaps some additional non-Agams related episodes could have help with that. In the end though, Decker left me joyful and satisfied, reminding me exactly why I love this franchise so much. Here's looking forward to the movie and what's next to come for Ultraman.

Did anyone else feel like the commercial breaks and segments really took away from the tone of the finale? Normally I don't mind them and fully understand their need, but they were a real clash in this episode.

Anyway, I ended up liking Decker more than I was expecting. I was let down with Trigger and could not finish it. Decker did feel like it was missing a true standout thing, though Hane2 and Terraphaser are really great and I hope we see more of them in the future. About the coolest thing for me was the meta-awareness of Future Decker being Masashi Taniguchi and therefore making him the 2nd person ever to be a main character in the big 3 toku, but that has nothing to do with the show itself.

I will add that I really appreciate the new Ultraman series' being just 25 or so episodes. Keeps things nice and cohesive for the most part, though I did feel like Decker could have used more episodes due to how grand the story tried to be.

Personally, I consider Decker to have been a better version of what Trigger was trying to do. I thought it was really solid, but still below the standard set by shows like Orb, Geed, or Z. That’s a very high standard, though, and I would definitely never call Decker bad, just unremarkable.

I did appreciate how this show brought the supporting cast back into the foreground again. After Trigger made the Captain, Workout Bro, and FALCON-CHAN!!! into glorified extras, it was nice to actually care about Ryumon, Kirino, and the commanders. I especially liked Kirino’s reaction to Kanata’s secret and how much that visibly hurt her. I didn’t think Agams was nearly as successful as a villain, but he worked well enough for me.

I know we’re probably stuck with New Generation TDG for one more year, but I feel more hopeful for Gaia Redux now than I did a year ago.

I want this New Generation TDG to end so we get back to more original Ultras that aren't held back by their originals legacies or trying to be pseudo-remakes of them.

The TDG aspect is the one thing I'd say I dislike about this show, yeah. It was reasonable enough to do it for one season because big anniversary of popular beloved guy Tiga, but I really dislike the idea that so much time is being spent on it. Decker is a show I like in spite of it being a New Generation Dyna, and from what I know it is actually a very different show to Dyna which helps... but that just makes me question why we're borrowing that season's aesthetics and such at all, then.

The upcoming Chronicle show not involving Gaia at all makes me hopeful that we have actually stopped this now. Perhaps the TDG revival wasn't working out that well for them and they decided to cut it off short, or they hilariously only planned to do 2/3 to begin with? Or maybe it's a complete misnomer and we will be getting Ultraman Garner and his good buddy Aglut

I should preface this by saying that, as a whole, I enjoyed Decker and thought it was a solid Ultra show and was fairly well produced and acted.

That being said, if I had to list my issues:

- GUTS-Select was a very effective Attack Team and as a whole the cast felt likeable and competent and actually had focus episode compared to Trigger. Yet at the same time the cast felt very clinical and didn't really stand out that much aside from Kanata and Hanejiro. Comparing them to Super-GUTS and they just don't come off near as memorable.

- On some level it was refreshing that they weren't trying too hard to ape Dyna and instead tried doing their own thing, yet at the same time...as a fan of Dyna it felt like the actual elements from Dyna were lacking. Like this was a chance to develop and expand on the Sphere more but we got sidetracked with the Agams plot and it takes until like 15 minutes into the last episode for us to get the Sphere's motivation and it's just the same as it was in Dyna. And why would you have Kanata and Asuka actually meeting happen in a stage show, of all places?

- I understand that Kaiju suits cost a lot of money which is why they reuse as many classic Kaiju as they do, so I don't really have an issue with that, so much as it feels like we could've at least seen some more actual Kaiju from Dyna in this show. Like not even Reicubas? I know they tried to make up for it with the Sphere Kaiju but those felt few and far between (and didn't they have more in the stage shows?).

- Unless they plan to explain Yuzare 2.0 and what Decker actually is in the movie, the fact that we get no explanation for either by the end of the series

Reicubas not showing up was a surprise to me, especially when we got Grace and Geomos which I'm pretty sure were from the original show. I thought Reicubas was meant to be one of the more notable Dyna kaiju, hence its use in Fiveking?

Okay, finished Decker by binging all the episodes from after I left off (which was right after Dynamics debut).

King Ragon is seriously a contender for one of my favorite Ultra episodes now. I feel like we hadn't gone something of that level since Tears of Gan Q (Note that the only New Gen stuff I haven't seen are R/B and Taiga), so I was pleasantly surprised.

Other than that, uh, Decker was pretty cool! Perfect Ultraman? Nah. But it was good to have a lot of optimism for this series and have it pay out after Trigger was kind of... meh to me.

But yeah, Decker, pretty cool. I have not much else to say on the subject other than I await the movie in February.

Oh the Ragon episode was definitely one of the best Decker episodes, I agree. I really liked the unsettling tone of it all and how emotional it was. I appreciated how they used specific filming methods to sell the off-putting and creepy atmosphere. Dutch angles, close shots, etc.

I also really liked the episode where Captain Murahoshi was interrogated under the suspicion of collaborating with Agams. Mainly for how it connected to Ryumon and paid off the bit of backstory he shared with Kanata a number of episodes prior. Forming that connection between the two which would keep building up to the final episode where he's made deputy captain for their operation against Mother Sphere felt satisfying.

That's the thing I'll give Decker for sure: It was very good at subtle set-ups and pay-offs.

I think with Decker I like it overall. Especially after I saw where someone pointed out that the Sphere barrier around Earth was supposed be a reference to that feeling of being isolated during the pandemic shutdowns. Even if that's not really the case, it still kinda struck a chord.
With that being said, it would be nice going forward if they didn't start a new series on the basis that the main character Ultra was supposed to be the new generation version of some older, previous Ultra. Decker felt different enough from Dyna that I got into it despite this, but would rather future series just be their own thing from the start.

Catching up with The Destined Crossroads. This is definitely more my speed for an Ultra Fight than Absolute Conspiracy was honestly. I'll probably talk more about it when it's finished, but it's definitely pretty great from the 9 Episodes I saw.

Cannot wait for what I'm assuming is the final episode this coming Saturday.

https://twitter.com/hiroki329_staff/...DbuzL0F1A&s=19

Even more evidence we ain't doing New Gen Gaia

So looks like we're getting a special series between now and the start of the next Ultra series with New Generation Stars. Looks like it's gonna follow the New Gen Ultras as they try to recover their lost history by recounting the events of every series from Ginga to Decker.

Considering I really got into Ultraman last year, I'm glad this exists. Helps me get to know things better without immediately requiring multiple series binges.

It's something they do every year! Basically just a bunch of clip shows with a particular focus (last year was Trigger and Dyna) which often hints at what the next show will be about, or something in it. This one seems to be strung along with slightly more of a plot, even having its own DX item and card sets

The other purpose of these recap shows, other than being hints of the next Ultra show, is also to fill the airtime and keep the timeslot till the next show airs.

And it’s basically what kept the franchise on life support during the early ‘10s when Tsubaraya didn’t have the money to make a new show. I don’t know how many people remember this, but Ginga, Ginga S, and X all aired as chapters of the Ultraman Retsuden recap series that ran from 2011-16.

Anyone else reading Dandadan?

Very big Ultraman reference

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

Hah! That's funny. I probably should read it, but I'm currently reading JoJolion (an Ultraman figure is seen at one point) and writing my own Manga.

Also, in case anyone noticed in Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens and Go Rush! the card making machine is straight-up King Joe. Just a funny detail.

Since all the episodes for UGF3 are out, here are my thoughts on it.

Overall, I do think it's better than TAC. The overarching story feels a bit tighter, it has a somewhat more conclusive ending, and like before it manages to highlight various aspects of the Ultra universe that haven't been seen or used in a while. At the same time though, I think it still suffers the same structural problem that impacted TAC, namely that the story and concepts it's trying to tell feel a little too big and ambitious for the format that UGF offers.

TDC feels like it's trying to be the next big event in the Ultra universe, something that shakes up and impacts future entries. That however doesn't really work with the UGF format, which tend to be 80% fight scenes, with maybe a couple of down time here or there. TDC does have a couple of interesting themes and ideas, especially with the end goal it's putting forth that the Ultras and Absolutians can work together and co exist. Those elements however aren't given the time or brevity to sink in, since most of UGF3 concerns around big spectacle actions moments. Especially when you try to watch all of this at once as a movie, which is how I first viewed it back on Connection, the whole thing can feel like a bit of blurr, which also caused me to miss certain things in that initial viewing.

Like I think back to UGF1. That story was a much simpler and straightforward affair, and I think as a result it ends up feeling the tightest and concise out of the 3 UGFs. While UGF2 and UGF3 do explore a lot of interesting concepts and developments, those elements aren't given the time and focus that they should, which leaves them feeling kinda undercooked. With the upcoming Regulos specials that were announced, I'm hoping that given those seem to be smaller affairs, they won't suffer the same issues that UGF2 and 3 had.

Some other random thoughts:
-While I do think the ending is better than UGF2, it still feels like they're pushing it to again end on another cliffhanger/tease for a future UGF.
-For how much he's been teased and advertised, it's weird how barely relevant Regulos himself is to UGF3, only really showing up in the 3rd act. And that just makes it funny when they do all this lore dump about him.
-It's cool and also just kinda funny how much spotlight Astra got in this. Like he plays an integral role in the 3rd act, and he's the character that Regulos has a connection to.
-The cliffhanger with Ribut is kinda weird. Like they try to play it as a bit of shocking and impacting moment, but by the time this aired, we had already seen him in Trigger more than a year ago. I didn't think we needed this whole explanation for how Ribut, Tartarus and Diavolo ended up in Trigger's world, especially since I think most of us thought this took place after the Trigger UGF tie-ins
-The initial way this released I think really hurt a lot of the interest and hype for this, with both the JP and EN versions locked to subscription services. It's weird too how the JP version was released as weekly episodes, while the EN version released as a full movie, which meant both sides ended up getting spoiled in some way or another

I'd say UFG 1 and UGF 3 are tied for me with UGF 3 edging it out just barely. And UGF 2 is at the very bottom.

As someone who hadn't watched R/B when New Generation Heroes was airing, it still felt incredibly odd to me that Rosso, Blu, and Grigio were kinda just there and sorta placed on like a "low level" status of sorts in terms of their presence. Like I get they're the new guys but they really went hard on "They're the new guys" to an annoying degree where I finally felt some relief after Rosso and Blu got to have some cool moments alongside Grigio showing her stuff towards the very end.

Meanwhile UGF3, pretty much everyone gets their turn to shine and do some cool things. Even some surprising people like Astra who I just stared with my eyes wide saying "He's doing something!". This is especially important after watching the Mebius OP with him included in the lineup of Ultramen who all cameo in different ways only for him to show up at the very end doing a combo beam with Leo for like 3 seconds of screen time.

But yeah, I also feel like... UGF3 just got rid of the fluff the Absolute Conspiracy was doing? Like, the beginning and end of the Absolute Conspiracy were pretty alright. The issue was the middle part dragging and the mystery/power of the Absolutians sort of just wearing its welcome to where I really couldn't care less about Tartar Sauce.

Destined Crossroad meanwhile sets up the stakes from the last one near immediately, gives us a few major points of what we need to do, runs through them while giving us cool other ideas and stuff, and doesn't let go until the very end.

Also I didn't really mind it ending on a "This took place before Trigger" footnote, purely because New Generation Heroes and Absolute Conspiracy both ended the exact same way so I already expected that. Just like I expected this was a middle installment given out of all the Absolutian warriors teased in that one poster at the very end of Absolute Conspiracy, we only got Diavolo and Titan, not the female silhouette and if she didn't show up at all then that meant we weren't done in the slightest.

Speaking of Absolutians though, Titan was a pleasant surprise after being kind of "meh" on Diavolo after his debut in Trigger. I suppose I prefer the knightly type to the brute force type when it comes to these two in particular. Titan's clashes with Ribut were nice to see and I really want both of them to become friends.

Anyway other than that, my thoughts would all kind of go into ramblings of "This is so cool!" to like nearly everything. So I'll probably just end it here for now. Maybe another post.

Oh, about that. They stated that the female absolutian was scrapped due to I believe time constraints; she was meant to appear in this but those plans got canned. I assume Gina Spectre is here to take her place

Oh huh... did not know that.

That's an absolute shame.

Though I did enjoy Gina Spectre's plotline with Grigio, so I suppose it wasn't really that big of a loss tbh.

If the next UGF ends in a lead up to Decker, that especially is going to feel a little weird given the explicit timegap between Trigger and Decker. Like the timeframe between UGF2 and UGF3 already feels a little wonky given that the entirety of Z happens somewhere in the middle of it.

I'm not sure how they even could lead into Decker unless, like, Seven creates cards for his Capsule Monsters and throws them through a portal or something. There's no explicit UGF crossover nor anyone from the Land of Light present in the show.

It looks like that new Regulos series is taking the place of UGF this year

I wonder if they still plan to include her at all or in UGF4 or just leave it at the three Absolutians and their Lord for now.

Considering we had a teaser with her silhouette I have to assume they at least have a design ready for her.

I could see it happening, actually! Tsupro has a knack for bringing back scrapped stuff from time to time

Yeah given the Regulos stuff is being pushed to the forefront, and given the interconnected nature of both Trigger and Decker... I would not be surprised if they're stalling for the next UGF just so enough time has passed for them to say "Both Trigger and Decker's series have ended" so they can bring in Kengo and Kanata with little to no issue.

Ultraman anime Final Season trailer:

[youtube]VxuRwJBCnpo[/youtube]

Looks like some fun stuff, and of course Mefilas, Zarab and Zetton are involved. If you want to make a climatic end to some kind of retelling of an Ultraman show, gotta have them.

A bit surprised to see the Marie armor though.

That being said, while I'm sure they're likely to get Void_Chords again for the ED since they've done both prior season's ED's it'll take a lot to beat Season 2's ED. Purely because they went hard for Season 2 with Transcending Time in both song and visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3c0yN7xnTQ

Oh man, I totally forgot about the Ultraman anime. I'd like to pick it back up, but I'm worried I'll be lost - it's been a while since I saw season 1.

I finished Cosmos series! It's been a while since I saw an Ultra series this fun and optimistic. The tone is lighter, sure. But I really enjoyed its execution and didn't use the tone as an excuse to dumb itself down and confuse "light" with "stupid" (You hear me, Dyna?).

Cosmos is a pacifist warrior done right. He doesn't whine about using violence, he doesn't go "violence is not the answer" and doesn't chicken out or lets himself be a doormat like how some media portray their pacifist characters. Just because he doesn't condone violence it doesn't mean he can't decide when to get serious. When he should or finds his pacifism not working, he will kill to save the world. And of course these issues weren't tossed aside and the series constantly tackles them on when lethal force is justified or if alternate solutions cannot be achieved.

EYES is also an excellent team and on the top of Heisei-era teams right behind GUTS from Tiga. All members were fleshed out, each has their own characters with plenty of development for them, which is something that cannot be said for many other teams that are just background decorations.

Yes, the long number of episodes is a bit intimidating for the viewers but the writing and characters do carry the show so you won't get bored from watching it that easily. I'd say one of its negatives are the excessive CGI effects with form changing being done in CGI instead of using the suits and other monsters and vehicles being rendered only in CGI instead of miniatures.

Decker movie will be available on Connection

https://news.ultramanconnection.com/...nnection-tvod/

The Ultra Galaxy Fight stuff has been up my alley for a while now just cause it scratches my itches. Big team-ups. Villains with multiversal/timeline-manipulating abilities. I just love the stories or scenarios that can come from that.

Best example if what they've been doing with Belial and Tregear and where TDC left them off. From a marketing standpoint, they're very popular villains and iconic Ultras just due to them being evil and having tenancies before their turn that went against what an Ultra should usually be. So bringing them into this in a new way after the reigns of their current selves have already ended makes sense.

What I didn't expect was to see them left at what's basically a, ironically, destined crossroad. After interacting with the individuals that would become some of their greatest adversaries, Geed and Taiga, and confronting the outcome of their actions in the main universe and what that's lead them to, it leaves you wondering whether these versions of Belial and Tregear are destined to follow the same steps that we know they do and still end up villains or do they do their own thing and go against that fate.

We went from a universe where Belial and Tregear were defeated and destroyed for good to one where alternate timeline versions of them before their falls to darkness are wandering the galaxy looking for an answer to their plights. Will it just be a way to ensure they become evil again to keep fan favorites alive? Will it be a way to make antihero versions of them? Will they be redeemed? I really want to know.