Let's Watch Wednesdays Week 1 Ultraman The Next
 

Let's jump right in!

This film takes place 5 years before the Ultraman Nexus TV series, remember that going in, because things will change over the course of those 5 years.

How will the events of this film play into the existence of the TLT and the life of Kazuki Komon in the future?

Junis?

Noa?

Let's Watch Ultraman The Next!

One of the best aspects, to me, about The Next is that it stands totally on it's own, if you want to watch it as a one off. So this should be interesting to see everyone's comments on it.

I love the use of the colored spheres at the start of the film -- a callback to Bemular (my avatar) and Ultraman traveling through space in colored spheres in the first episode of Ultraman as our hero chases the fugitive monster.

Well... downloading the raw right now.

But I have absolutely no idea what to do with the .srt for the subtitles. :|

Just put the .srt file in the same folder as the video file. It should load alongside the film in your media player. Or you might have the option to load external subs on your player of choice.

Edit: I guess you really didn't need it, sorry. I finally read the other thread, my bad.

I found this movie on Youtube with English dubs. Heavily Japanese accented English dubs.

I'd watch it now but it's kind of late for a movie.

I had a creeping suspicion that I had seen this movie once before, and I was right. Once Ultraman changed forms it hit me.

The suits were interesting. The added texture to the base form of The Next helped to set it apart visually from his smooth brethren. The raised armor plating, sinewy details underneath and the general vibe of the design felt as if they were trying to steer the franchise into a more realistic slant. Kind of how the redesign in leather for Kamen Rider The First felt. Those design features were carried over nicely to the final version of The Next.

The design of The Beast was alright; nothing too outlandish with a limited color palette. Small details that were highlighted, such as the shoulder faces changing when it assimilated the birds for flight, were nice. Despite the weight, the suit moved fairly well, with the limited neck movement taking me out of the action every now and then.

The plot was fairly limited, but it hit the beats it needed to. All in all it was not a bad watch, not too slow paced and enough ultra on kaiju action to satisfy.

That was a pretty cool movie.It felt pretty slow in the first half hour,but once the first fight with The One happened the movie clicked.I was really impressed with the visual effects too,the use of a scaled interior where the first fight happened was great.Just a lot of nice techniques to make them look big.Also when Next shot his beam I couldn't help notice the obscured Bandai billboard,sneaky sneaky Bandai.

So should I expect fights like this in the show or no?I'll assume that dogfights aren't a usual thing,but is the combination of actual horizon shots and scale models used?

I feel like I'm rambling at this point,but yeah.As my first experience with Ultraman,I really enjoyed it.I'm really pumped to start the series now and if there's an Ultra Act Next I'm totally buying it. :D

Agreed on the use of the scaled interior, it was a great scene. I hope that Nexus comes close in visual quality. It was pretty top notch across the board.

My thoughts

The "origin" of Maki meeting Noa as a pilot, plane exploding and all that, is very reminiscent of Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern. But I like this better :p

The film on the whole is absolutely fantastic. Great productions values, as I've come to know Ultraman always has. FANTASTIC Kaiju suits. The One looks absolutely terrifying in all of his forms. Next himself was a really cool departure from the more normal stream lined Ultra form as well. Even the CG for 2004 is great. Perhaps my only real complaint is that there simply isn't enough action. The fights that do happen are great but I feel at least one more was needed.

Maki's actor really made me believe in him, he sold his part very well. The dedicated pilot torn by his family duties, his love of the air. He came off very genuinely.

Now I've seen the Ultraman Zero films and such before hand so this isn't my first foray into the franchise. But considering this film was originally a reboot for modern audiences I think it's a great entry point to the franchise for anyone interested. And if I understand correctly this is the alternate universe that Noa and the others come from that Zero travels to in Revenge of Belial. So really it all comes full circle eventually. Alot of pay off. A+

Ahh,I was gonna ask if this was an alternate reality story.I thought it was weird that no one in the movie knew what an Ultraman was from looking at Next.I just assumed every Ultraman show and movie was one straight continuity.

Enjoyed this, the effects and production value were a lot higher than I'd expected. My eyes did glaze over during stretches of the exposition, but I think I got the gist. Could definitely have used a bit more action. Loved the suits and general tone of the film.

overall a great start for getting into ultraman. insanely good production and great acting. the suit designs were GORGEOUS. overall, absolutely loved this film and so excited to start ultraman nexus

Well…fuck…that was bloody amazing! It’s set the bar so high I’m not sure if Nexus will ever be able to compete. Honestly I really don’t have much to say, because I enjoyed it near enough from start to finish. It was stylishly directed, had great special effects, incredible action scenes and was just all round really great fun.

You would think taking a story that would usually be told in one or two episodes and then blowing it up to feature length by also including all the character development you’d get over a whole series usually wouldn’t work but it actually made the whole thing work so much better.

I was really convinced by this world and the characters that populated it, I wasn’t exactly convinced I was watching a documentary or something but very few Toku shows really have the time to truly establish the impact on the world and the people that populate it that monsters turning up and battling each other would have. The closest I’ve seen to achieving that was Kuuga.

I dunno, I just felt such a sense of investment in all the characters because their arcs were told over 90 minutes and centred around one specific battle, rather than spread out over fifty episodes and fifty battles. And it really made me realise how little I truly care about Toku characters in weekly shows, even if the movie was very corny at times. It’s gonna be hard going back to TV shows with MOTW where the world doesn’t really feel like it’s responding to what is happening at all.

Has the Next got an Ultra-Act?

The Next does not have an Ultra-Act, unfortunately. His design is amazing. One of Tsuburaya's concepts for Ultraman was that the red parts were supposed to be organic and the silver parts metallic. We finally see that come to real fruition here, as The Next is a real amalgamation of organic and technological. The big 3 pointed "Color Timer" is a nice touch too.

The One is a great monster, all of his forms are just really well sculpted and realized. I also love all of the little nods to Bemular... his jawline, the spines on his head, the blue fireballs he spits, all of those are references to my favorite Ultra Monster. So kudos on that front.

I still hold that The Next is a great introduction to the entire Ultra franchise. You can show this to someone who has never watched Ultraman and they can really "get" what the series is about just from this 90 minute feature. Plus some really strong special effects and even some decent acting and emotion. Not a bad package at all!

Yeah it was just a really well made movie in all regards and now I can't wait to see more Ultraman!

Totally agreed. The film just nails the concept down. Can't wait to jump into Nexus next week now.

Bandai has also slowly been getting the backlog of Ultra-Acts done. They revealed quite alot of them last year at Tamashii Features that have been released since but I expect quite a few new reveals in the next Features later this year. The Next is like the Kamen Rider ZO or J of Ultras, he'll probably be at the tail end of any line :(

This breaks my heart :( At least knowing that maybe one day he will be released will be something to keep me going. I just hope I own him before I am old and grey. :lol

Also I'm kinda worried about Nexus now, this movie was so good, I'm worried the show will suck in comparison.

Man, that was a fun movie; so much better than the other tokusatsu movie I've seen that was called "The Next." :p Some of the stuff with the kid was kinda boring, but I liked Maki as a main character and the action scenes were top-notch. I know Nexus proper isn't going to have the budget for scenes like that final battle, but on the whole it still has me pumped for more.

And definitely count me as one of those who kinda want a Next Ultra-Act. :lol

I was looking for an excuse to watch more Ultra, and holy crap did this deliver. It's kind of like a modern superhero movie adaptation, putting at least a tiny bit of focus on believability. One look at this Ultraman and you know he's an alien, not a robot or guy in a helmet. Those S.I.C.-esque designs were great, and now I really wanna' know what guys like Gomora and King Joe would look like in that universe. Excited to see how this rolls into Nexus!

I really did get a sense of that! It felt much closer to modern Marvel efforts in my mind than really a straight Toku movie, I guess that was a big part of the appeal

More praise incoming!

Man, I haven't been that impressed by a toku film since first watching Gamera: Guardian of the Universe back in 1998. I loved the organic look of The Next and The One had one of the best daikaiju suits I've seen in a while. The action scenes were just superb!

Especially the fight in the sky, that has to be some of the best CGI I've seen in one of these things and it had such a sense of energy. Plus, they really made it feel like they were actual giants smashing around a city, rather than two dudes in rubber suits on someone's model train set.

ok ok Time For white Ranger to get is Effect bashing out of the way first.

Ultraman the Next was a good film the Effects for me were Really Noticeable but where good enough for me to still Enjoy it the Green Screen Parts in the Army Base when The one and Next First fought was done the Cgi was good But I say that for a film from 2004 I think it Still Better anything Toei Threw in with Sentai and kamen rider but the CG was Noticeable when it first Showed the Planes they when that route and it did not keep the illusion of it being Real. But all in all I Really Liked the Film the Designs and the story was Really Good and I Can’t Wait to see what Nexus Brings us next week. This has gotten me in to the Ultra liking. And want more.

Yeah the CGI really sucked in the first half of the movie, like the monsters transformation animations were really shit, so was the time when Maki landed the plane at the airbase. But later CGI like the fight in the sky I thought looked great.

Just finished the movie a little earlier. I went in with blank expectations and really enjoyed it. The story, while slow at first, was overall very nice. It kinda felt like Hal Jordan's origin story, except instead of getting a green ring he got an Ultraman. And then we see he struggle between home life and the life thrust onto him being an alien being. Overall very enjoyable. The suit designs were spectacular. I loved each stage of The One and its horrortastic evolution. The Next's design was also really good. A shame these two have no Ultra-Acts, because I'd buy them in a heartbeat. The special effects were top notch in this film, being practical and CGI. The fight on the base was a hightlight for me due to the good use of the scaled set. And finally the fights were great. They really captured the feel that The One and The Next were giants clashing in urban enviroments with the civilians evacuating to not get hurt/killed as they fight.

I'm really glad I watched this movie. Many thanks to Baltan to providing the movie and the subs, in addition to creating the time ghost(a cookie if you get the reference :cool:) of wanting to see Nexus. Eager to start Nexus next week.

Was the original Ultraman similar to this in story? If so, I wonder if Green Lantern influenced it, the similarities are hard to ignore.

Very similar. Ultraman was chasing the monster Bemular to Earth when he crashed into Science Patrol member Hayata, who was flying a VTOL. Their life forces merged and Hayata became the human host for Ultraman.

Wow so just like Abin Sur and Hal then? Wow, err....

Well, sort of. Abin Sur died and gave Hal his ring. Hayata was at death's door, and Ultraman merged with him. At the end of the series, Ultraman is dying from his battle with Z-Ton. Zoffy arrives and brings a "life" for Ultraman. Ultraman says to save Hayata instead of himself. After Zoffy asks is he is sure, he tells Ultraman that he brought two lives. So both survive, though Hayata has no memory of his time as Ultraman.

The similarities are kinda hard to ignore though...

do they drop him forgetting he ultraman in the manga

I'm not sure how well-known American comic books were in Japan in the mid-60s.

It may not have been intentional but that origin for the Silver Age Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) predates Ultraman by 7 years. 1959 vs 1966. I'd say somebody involved at least took small inspiration from DC Showcase #22.

And heads up guys that I am now seeding the U-N batch of Nexus. It finished torrenting while I was at work today so it'll be up for the foreseeable future. Hopefully it's enough to help a few people get the episodes they need.

Got all of TV-N due to I'm fan of there subs

I'd say the connection to Green Lantern is about as tenuous as the connection between Kamen Rider and the 6 Million Dollar Man. Both are heroes who are cyborgs back when cybernetics were bleeding edge science fiction, but they really don't have much else in common. It's a neat coincidence but as American comics were not sold in Japan in the 60s, it seems to be just coincidence, like the Vision and Red Tornado in Avengers and Justice League of America.

Finished watching the movie. It was okay, but strange for my first Ultraman experience. It was very dark and gritty, and had no big jokes that I could pick up on. I'll wait for the series to start though before I Decide to give up on this series. Also, I'm seeding the TvNihon version. Yay!

You don't like serious toku?

I do, but I prefer comedy more than drama. That may just be because I haven't watched much serious stuff. I'm going to keep going with this though.

Fair enough!

Finally got around to watching.

It was alright. I liked the enemy using people and other animals to grow and change. The story was nice, and I liked Next's final form (Not a fan of the intermediate form, though).