Read a pretty cool translation of an interview with Blazer's director, Kiyotaka Taguchi. He was approached to do the 2023 show while Trigger was still in production but was reluctant to sign on because he didn't want to do a Gaia remake. He just didn't think that was something that anyone could do justice to in the current production environment. Seems like Tsubaraya was on the same page because they wanted him to do something new instead of remaking Gaia.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultraman/co...st_time_about/

I'm currently watching Ultraman Leo and wondering...why does MAC even exist?

Like as an Attack Team they're so ill-defined and barely stand out. It's basically just Gen, Dan, and some other guys and that one girl. Aoshima only stands out because he got two episodes where he conveyed everyone in the team seemed to hate Gen (it was that kind of show). I know they all have names but at the moment (I'm on the episode where King first shows up) I could not put names to those faces.

It's just in stark contrast to ZAT who grew into fairly distinct and recognizable characters and a tight-nit group over time. Even TAC, as bad as they could get with their whole "not believing Hokuto until the last minute" deal, at least got focus episodes and I could name pretty much everyone in the group and their whole deal.
I don't disagree though at the same time it just feels weird that we got Trigger and Decker and now...no direct Gaia tribute.

But it's probably for the best.

Give it time. All issues will be resolved.

I'm including a link to a key Kaiju in MAC's history. Avoid it if you don't like spoilers!

https://tsuburaya-prod.com/encyclopedia/silverbloome

Cleopatra release of Shin Ultraman does not sub text on screen and has freqeuent errors in the subs. Shame.
https://i.ibb.co/Z6Dk1N1/20230704-143824.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/y00vjFZ/20230704-143925.jpg
https://twitter.com/_CZQ_133/status/...HdBGMhYiw&s=19

Well it's the only way I can watch the movie so I have to live with that I guess.

That's really bad. I wonder what stopped them from just licensing the subtitles from the theatrical release.

Was thinking about watching Mebius after Max, but then I thought maybe it's better if I go with Ultraseven X and get over with it real quick before moving to the longer series.

I can now officially cross Ultraman X, both the series and the movie, off of my Toku watch list since I managed to finish its Blu-Ray set today. I am considering watching the two seasons of Mega Monster Battle and its movie plus the movies and specials featuring Ultraman Zero before jumping into watching Ultraman Geed and after I finished up on watching either Ultraman Max or Ultraman Taro. I am also hoping to get my copy of the Ultraman Orb Blu-Ray series set from Amazon soon or, at the very least, this upcoming Sunday at the earliest.

Ultraseven X wasn't bad...

It was BORING!

When everyone was describing it as the worst thing to come out of the Ultra Series I was expecting a real stinker here, but all I got was an extremely dull series. What was so "mature" about it exactly? Because when I heard about this description I was expecting more "adult" stuff like extreme gore or nudity or sensitive topics that couldn't be shown or discussed on the regular Ultraman airing slots, but it was extremely tame it makes the Showa era the more "adult" of the two. Even Heisei Ultraseven had more interesting stuff going on than this snoozefest. None of the characters were interesting, the setting was boring, and I didn't like Seven's shoulders.

Nice. At one point I was hoping they would do something that is a Gaia remake because of the whole TDG trio connection but I think they were right to go with Blazar. Because given how even within the TDG trio Gaia was its own thing iirc, Tiga and Dyna were in a shared universe. In that sense they are fulfilling that remake quota in a way given how Blazar is also its own thing from the look of things so far. And who knows, maybe we'll get the Agul to Blazar's Gaia along the way but right now I think they were right to go the path they did instead of the obvious/expected one.

I thought the show would start out with Gento already leading SKaRD, but instead we get him para-jumping (or Jet-jumping) from the sky with a tactical squad to take down a Kaiju. Kind of gave me Legendary Godzilla vibes.

Bazanga! The first of many new Kaiju to come, I'm happy to see! I like the detail of his antenna and working tongue. Also he really pew pew'd the heck out of everything that went up against him. Really made you feel what it's like for a normal group of people trying to take out a seemingly unstoppable giant monster.

I wonder if they would've been able to take Bazanga down had they been able to use hit him with both special armaments.

That live show seems pretty cool. Sphere!Trigger!? Trigger and Carmeara fighting Alien Barossa!?

I wonder how much of Gento's "Captain Vision" we'll see.

"I'll go" - The definition of a great captain is one who is willing to put himself in the front line for the sake of his subordinates, but it's also something that defines a main character. Though I admit a part of me keeps expecting a reveal that Gento is a Roidmude or to watch him put on a red jacket.

Blazar Brace! Thank you for showing up in the nick of time and forcing me to transform before I got smushed by a building!

So Rise Sequence in episode 2? I'm surprised we got to see Blazar fly off at the end there. Like he was conscious that "uh oh, I better go!" after seeing all the collateral damage of the fight.

Blazar is very...vocal for an Ultra that just grunts. Like, he was practically yelling all his lines! Is that how Blazar talks?

How much of Blazar is Blazar and how much of it is Gento? He seemed to acknowledge Gento's subordinate who was in danger, but is that Gento or showing how Blazar cares for others? Though he was probably mostly there to fight Kaiju.

Emi! Was she part of the operation the whole time? She's not really dressed for it. Is she part of a civilian detachment that just got involved or...?

You always love it when an Ultra rips off a Kaiju's body part/weapon.

Time for the Ultra Beam! Or...we could summon a giant, honking, energy lance. That works too!

It's a Taguchi show, did you really not think we'd get the Showa Ultra-esque title cards?

Never thought I'd hear MindRayn in Ultraman, but here we go! Another banger from her!

Next week: The formation of SKaRD! And the debut of Gedos and the Earthgaron!

The debut of Ultraman Blazar and it was a fantastic one!

From the get-go, it felt very Godzilla-esque, partly the helidrop sequence, but mainly of Vs. Biollante and the start of Megaguirus with the elite ground team fighting within the Kaiju's line of destruction.

Also, a very unique way for the first transformation being forced upon him and him clearly questioning his form once he's able to regain his bearings without seeing his inner thoughts (nothing wrong with that, but I liked how well they portrayed it through Blazar's actions). Bazanga is a fantastic Kaiju design and the fight was also a lot of fun (Blazar went Spiderman for a moment and I thought that was hilarious).

I do enjoy how they show us Gento as a captain, he's responsible, calculating, and cares for his teammates. They absolutely nailed how a team leader should be which makes Gento already a great first impression.

I will admit, while I love Blazar's "roars" (this Ultraman is very animalistic, which reminds me of Geed but to a more extreme extent), I do feel he's a little too vocal, not a bad thing, but I'm not too big a fan of him growling/grunting constantly. Again, not a bad thing, I love how bizarre he sounds, but I feel it's a little too much of it.

Anyway, I'm absolutely loving this and can't wait to see Earth Garon!

Next Episode: Insert Obligatory "I'm putting together a crew" line here.

It could play into the fact Blazar is asymmetrical. One half Gento, one half Blazar.

Emi is an undercover member who also gathers intel according to her actress when she was announced.

Always love them. They never get old.

Already love it.

First episode of Blazar was good, can't wait to see more. Though I'm curious as to how you listen to the dub track for the episode since the title implies it should be there as well

Really good premiere. Loved the cinematography, not just in the kaiju fight but for all of it. There's a verisimilitude to this that I'm not used to seeing in Ultraman and I really loved it.

They had trouble with it, so it isn't live yet. There's a note about it in the comments. It will be up once it's working.

Can't decide if Blazar was a monkey or a caveman, but it was hilarious seeing such a feral Ultra screaming and throwing tantrums after being familiar with the sophisticated Ultras for years.

I really liked this first episode.

I think I was very vocal about how I did not enjoy Trigger and Decker, they weren?t bad shows but I just couldn?t get into them. Z was the last Ultraman show to really grab me.

But ? Blazar is doing the same thing for me, which is weird because it is very unlike Z actually. While Z had fun being open and vocal about what was going on, Blazar tells you nothing. You see what is happening, but it is not explained. I love that. While Z was super fresh and fun with Z talking a lot and basically showing Haruki the ropes, with a transformation tutorial included, the Blazar Brace just appears on Gento and the transformation is basically forced.

And a lot of what goes on after said transformation is not explained either ? like, we see Blazar being confused about what is going on, looking at their hands, protecting their injured comrade, but there?s also the pure savage instinct and alien movement.

The suit actor did this so flawlessly, it was amazing. All the body language, the emotions being portrayed through movement, the way he jumps around like a mad child which is strange to see for us, but a natural thing for Blazar. Ultraman is an alien; it doesn?t fit out understanding of how one ?should? act.

Blazar as a character I?m enjoying a lot. The way they portray this new Ultra, with not only action but also sound. The new ?grunts?, more like an entire language of growls and howls, is awesome. Makes the Ultra even more alien to us humans.

And the finisher! I never thought I would be happy to see the classic beam gone but here we are. And of course Blazar will use one at some point, maybe final form, it?s way too god of a setup not to.

This was stylish! Just because I've been watching it lately, it reminds me of Witch from Mercury where this is the prologue and next week is the actual "first episode".

I wasn't expecting angry monkey Ultraman but it's an interesting angle. Blazar jumping around like a kid and then ripping off Bazanga's arm thingies and throwing them at him is pretty harsh, oh and that's after he broke Bazanga's arm. I guess we'll learn how in control Gento is (if at all?) as the show goes on.

Night fights are cool. The whole episode was a night fight.

I enjoyed episode 1. It gave me a lot of early Heisei vibes. I bit darker in tone and cinematography.

I really like Blazar's fighting style and the asymmetrical design. Looking forward to this season!

I like how despite seeming to regress due to Blazar not talking, more emphasis gets done in the body language. Blazar's mannerisms feel more alien than any Ultra I've seen with even the familiar wrestling style moves standing out

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...-got-cancelled

Yusuke Kirishima of Nexus just learned that the series was cancelled all these years later!

To be fair, no formal show cancellation was ever announced.

It came to my attention that it's been 3 years since I entered the world of Ultraman with my start with Ultraman Z.

I am now up to episode 11 of Ultraman Max and I'm even currently a little more than halfway through Ultraman Taro. I also watched the first episode of Ultraman Blazar on a whim, both in Japanese and in English. Sadly, my order for the Ultraman Orb Blu-Ray series set from Amazon is currently delayed for some reason.

Blazar episode 1 was fun. It definitely is going a different route than the recent shows in terms of tone and the night mission scene felt like a teaspoon of Nexus and Ultraseven X was added. And Blazar's cries gave me Eva 01 vibes. Blazar's fighting style feels wild and unpredictable. Looking forward to how things unfold. Side note, anyone notice that Blazar's henshin device seems like it is using the same tech as Drive's belt or at least some of the components? Coincidence? :lolol

Unpopular opinion, but the first episode of Blazar kinda did nothing for me. I appreciate the unique setup and Blazar's characterization, but I zone out whenever an Ultra episode is 90% action. Hopefully things improve next episode when the story actually starts. I did like that they took a risk with making the fight a bit more violent than usual.

So Shin Ultraman came out on Blu-ray...and apparently they messed up the subtitles big time. Reviews indicate that not only is it dubtitles, but it looks like they must have accidentally included an earlier, unfinished version. I would recommend you hold off on buying it for now and wait for a potential fix (or at least wait for them to address what happened)

edit: here's an article: https://kaijuhometheatre.blogspot.co....html?spref=tw

I watched Shin Ultraman on google play/youtube and the subtitles were great. If anyone wants an alternative, go there.

I put on the Shin Ultraman blu ray, and it’s definitely a mess. Can I just say “The main menu sucks” and not explain why? Like, if you get it, you will see.

The subtitles on the blu ray appear to only have a deaf/hard-of-hearing track, and for the opening section with all the onscreen Japanese text, they did not bother to translate any of that. Maybe I missed selecting the proper track? If I did, I blame the awful menus. That text is translated on the Google play version though.

Why did I buy the blu ray, if I already bought it on google play? To check out the dub, of course! The dub is fine on the blu ray, lol. If you want to just watch the dub and don?t care about on screen text, maybe the blu ray is good. I only checked out the first little bit, so maybe the blu ray screws up later, but I actually like the movie enough that I will rewatch it just to see how the dub is.

Kind of wish they let Mill Creek handle this one.

Not sure if I'll actually keep up with posting about Blazar, but I really enjoyed the first episode. I kind of wonder if it's maybe not a great indicator of what the overall show is like, but it comes off like they deliberately traded establishing the status quo in favor of establishing the broad tone, and just leaving a big impact, both of which I think it did a fantastic job of. Taguchi just doesn't miss, man. You can feel the eagerness to do crazy fun new things like always, and while you aren't getting the instant charm of Z or the effortless charisma of Orb here, what you do get is a fast paced premiere that never once lets up on the momentum.

I also quite liked how Blazar himself was portrayed. This franchise has always been about wrestling matches with big mean creatures, so it's actually a shockingly good fit to have the hero be some kind of jungle adventure story savage who'll just straight spend a whole fight yelling ROOOOOY at a monster. I wonder if that might lose anyone coming to this show for the hard SF angle, but personally, I found it extremely endearing. "Communication" is apparently a big theme for this show, and I appreciate how much effort was put in to make Blazar feel unknown and alien not simply to new viewers, but even to existing fans who have expectations about these their Ultramen. Everything from the way the first thing he does in battle is turn around and climb a building down to the off sound his Color Timer makes is so delightfully weird. I have no clue what this dude's deal is, but if a big part of the story is finding out, that honestly sounds super exciting?

In the spirit of everyone doing that Kamen Rider Template I found, I figured I’d try with this Ultraman template (note: I did not make the template. If I did, I’d have a “favourite monster/alien” category instead of “Best Captain Team”.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...-09_125417.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...1/IMG_0817.jpg

I don't have enough ultrashows viewed for this template yet. But I like the trend.

Tempting, but the lack of "favorite kaiju" really makes it feel incomplete.

Eleking, for the record.

I can't for the life of me wrap my head around the whole 3rd / 4th Rider-thing, so that list won't happen, but Ultraman I can do!

I don't really vibe with the whole "hate/worst"-thing though, so I cut those and added more useful options instead.

And since "duo" can mean either people or Ultra, I get two picks.

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

Much respect for the Cap and Ide shout outs. Those were my two faves from that series.

Clever. May whip up something if I feel like it.

But with how busy I am, that'll all depend...

And now the UN of all things are now going after Johnny!
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...agency/.200277

About the Shin Ultraman subs on the home media release, apparently they are sending out fixed copies to retailers right now, and you can mail them through the link below with a proof of ownership, what version you bought and your address and they will send you a new disk.

support@cleopatrarecords.zendesk.com

Which is all fine and dandy, but I freaking imported that DVD from Amazon US, its en route right now. I asked them if they will send a replacement overseas.

My guess? "No, and screw you specifically. Good day".

Although I read that some people got theirs from Amazon already and the subs were fine? Hope I got lucky.

:thumb:

I'm still astonished about how much I adore OG Ultraman. Many older shows are bound to their era, and Ultraman is no exception, but for some reason I enjoyed it way more than other shows of its time period.

The characters were a huge part of that. Cap is the perfect leader, calm, kind, charismatic, but strict. Will whip you into shape without mercy, because he cares about you and wants you to be okay out there, and hug you when you most need it.

And Ide? Love that goofball. So much fun. The episode where he screws up royally and beats himself up over it is so good, it's the classic "get up after the fall"-message, but done very well.

Blazar fishes a Kaiju with his beam. Officially the best show and Ultraman.

No joke, I lost it when he turned his spear of light into a fishing pole, I love this show already.

The Opening is nice, probably going to love it after a few more episodes.

We got the formation of SKaRD, which had some cute moments with the cast's short notice reactions, along with a tour of the new base and armory. While it's only in its early stages, I think the cast already has quite a bit of promise, and I'm excited to see Earth Garon in action! Also, love the "wilco!" and Gento's "Walt Disney" policy.

Still love how Blazar's trail as he flies off is asymmetrical, and the Rise Sequence was really neat how the colors appear during it.

And boy, that one Captain Ahab guy was fun despite what little he does, and the underwater scenes are amazing. Love the feel they're going with this show.

Next Episode: "Mechagodzilla. Beat Godzilla to death."

Kind of makes sense that a Captain for a protagonist would have to focus on his relationship with the brass, in this instance Retsu Haruno who has high expectations for Gento in a very stoic and efficient manner and wants to rush in a new squad to deal more effectively with Kaiju...and thus SKaRD is born. And it seems like they'll be dealing with bureaucracy as much as they are Kaiju.

Did Gento connect to Blazar from his home planet?

The OP is pretty epic, with very Z-style cast introductions, and I like the use of social media to introduce the Kaiju and aliens.

Emi is very lively, sociable, and cute when off the clock. Also seems like she's connected to Haruno? Her and Gento fighting over the check was cute.

Teruaki seems like a solid vice-captain, nerve-wracked and prone to yelling as he is.

Anri feels like if Yoko and Asuna fused together with a dash of mechanical skills.

The hardest part about recruiting SKaRD was getting their signatures!

If I had a nickel for every time a legendary Sea Kaiju that fishermen knew about starts acting up, I would actually have a lot of nickels.

I love how even the crew are underwhelmed by the van, though it did get a bit upgraded.

"In my squad we go by first names and nicknames. This isn't some Showa Attack Team where we all go by our last name." And he really does just walk off until she calls him by his first name.

From the realistic guns of GUTS-Select to giant honking machine guns SKaRD.

Poor Anri not sure whether they go by "Wilco" when responding to an order.

Fisherwoman Emi!

If this was a Showa Ultra show, that fisherman probably would have been able to get his spear through Gedos' back.

So the Blazar medal activates when it knows Gento needs to transform? Kind of funny how Gento took a minute to remember how he did it, I thought it was going to grab his hand again.

First Rise Sequence! You can see the color lines being added to Blazar mid-sequence.

Attack Team earning their usefulness by damaging Gedos' headwhip so Blazar could free himself!

The Spiral Burrade became a fishing rod!? Wow.

Second fight and the color timer didn't kick in.

Earth Garon and Bando have arrived! Though now Gento basically has to compete with himself because his group has to defeat Kaiju before he does as Blazar.

Simulcasting the latest Ultraman series with English dubs is absolutely incredible!

You really have to hand it to Tsuburaya for the continued support of their franchise.

Ultraman Blazar episode 2 is now my all-time favorite toku episode of the year and possibly of my life. :lolol
Freakin' fishing and skewered kaiju?!!!! I mean, let's not forget that Urataros did something similar back in the days, but Blazar went to his hype amp and set the volume to 11. :lolol
I LOVE IT!!!!!! :lolol:lolol:lolol:lolol:lolol