Ultraman Rising
 

the first image from the upcoming Netflix project.

Style and aesthetic feels modern retro.

I wasn't expecting an Ultraman Powered Reboot. :lolol

Sorry, the blue eyes got to me. Anyway, I love the slim body making him look more alien and stylized for animation, and the fact that this is being worked on by some of the people involved with Kubo and the Two Strings, makes me excited since that was a good movie.

Love the look of it, though am iffy on the Ken's personality bleeding wholesale through Ultraman himself. Makes him feel a bit too MCU-y from what we've seen so far...

Agreed. Visually, it's looks very nice and stylized with some added flair as we've seen from the stills that got shown off earlier, but the fact that Ultraman's Ken has more presence it kind of bugs me (as you said, it feels a little too "American Superhero"). Probably isn't as annoying as Disney's Wish, but I really hope the humor doesn't become too annoying...

That said, I do really love how aesthetically accurate the Kaiju is to Tsuburaya's creature gallery. Really shows how much they want to make it look like Ultraman.

I'll be the hipster and say this leans more into the New Generation writing.

The animation looks fantastic. The sound effects are on-point.

All the same it's just weird how...talky the Ultraman is. Like I'm not sure if they're going to get into the nitty gritty of it, but like is it 100% the host in charge? Who even is the Ultra?

Also that Color Timer was FAST.

The AI Robot reminded me of REM from Geed.

It also doesn't look like there's a Rise Sequence since the transformation is instantaneous.
Even the New Gen Ultras don't talk that much.

Ultraman being talkative isn't bothering me, the fact that people seemingly understand him is. That's as far as I know, entirely new, and makes his banter a bit weird. Like he has to actually watch what he's saying. Not a fan of the "pupils" in the eyes either, I could do without them.

Aside from that though this is interesting. The animation is really, really good. And that's very refreshing after the previous Netflix Tokusatsu anime endeavors that, well, looked pretty terrible in motion.

I'm interested, this is something different, and the baby monster storyline has me hooked, that could be cool.

It looks fucking phenomenal, goddamn. Only gripe is the uh. Americanization, for lack of a better word with the talking like everyone else points out. I handled CastleVania Nocturne pretty well despite it absolutely killing it's best scene so this is still a day 1 watch

Visually, it feels like a blend of the Star Wars 3D animation stuff, The Incredibles, and both Transformers Prime and Earthspark. The overall light-hearted comedic tone reminds me of Ultraman Max and Ultraman R/B for a lack of better comparison. I kinda like how Ken's mannerisms feel very Spider-Man as Ultraman. Definitely not the usual Ultraman stuff we are used to, and while the plot seems nothing new, I like what I'm seeing.
BTW, Yuki Yamada aka Mr. Gokai Blue himself will be voicing Ken in the Japanese dub, so another reason I am interested. Because they not only have a toku alumni voice Ken but considering he's up there with Takeru from Shinkenger and Philip from Kamen Rider W in terms of an acting career gives me the impression that they're not half-assing it.

That could be it. Because it's not him talking that bugs me, the fact that people maybe understand him is odd (if that is the case, if not it'd honestly be funnier), but there's just something about it that I'm not particularly enjoying about it. Unlike the New Generation Ultras where yes, their personality is more emphasized, but here I think it feels like too much, and that's even considering that this is an animated Ultraman.

Again, it looks good, the fact that the team (not Laika) behind Kubo and the Two Strings is behind it, and the very clear Ultraman style it's going for is amazing. Maybe I'm just nitpicky and getting really tired of western media and its trends, but I'm not saying I'm not liking what I'm seeing and hopefully it's not too much (unfunny and modern) humor.

I know very little of Ultraman and even I was caught off guard by him talking like his human form. Admittedly I'm unfamiliar with the brand overall, but I was never under the impression that Ultraman was like Kamen Rider or Sentai where it's just a suit.

I wonder if the creators just assume that's what Ultraman is. A typical superhero but he just grows big.

That's a valid concern. Everything has to be a comedy these days. Nothing can tell a serious story or attempt an earnest emotional connection without kneecapping its tone with forced humour.

It isn't, more like a mecha made out of light with the human inside as a "core" but at the same time the person transforming 100% being Ultraman in personality is not uncommon nowadays.

The few archetypes I'm familiar with:

- After transformation Ultraman is an entirely new being, neither the human that transformed nor the Ultra alien that gave their powers. More like an amalgamation of the two, and does not speak.

- Ultraman is the alien and the human appearance is a disguise. In this case the "human" person talking is actually the Ultra themselves. Can vary from "not distinguishable from a real human" to "today I learned what food tastes like".

- Both human and Ultra co-exist. The Ultra speaks to the human in their mind, guiding them like a teacher, but it is the human on the steering wheel of Ultraman, so they can also talk and express themselves like they could as a human.

- It is 100% the human at all times, either by accident or fate they "found" the powers of an ancient Ultra alien from the past and transform into their shape. That is very similar to how Ultraman in Rising is portrayed.

There are certainly more cases but those are the ones I can remember from the top of my head.

Again, the talking and the human basically being Ultraman is not unusual, however, the humans around them being able to understand said talking is. They sometimes sprinkled in comedic bits every now and then in shows like R/B or Z in which Ultraman tried to speak with humans. We first saw the perspective of Ultraman, who is talking normally, but then it cuts to the humans and all they understand is grunts. I always thought that was a good way to handle it, all the speaking and jokes are understandable for us, the audience, but in-universe Ultraman always stays "alien" since people can't hear them talk.

Seems like that may be different here? And that's what kind of breaks the illusion for me, since Ultraman really does feel like a giant Spider-Man or something. But again, might just be weird because it's new, since at the same time it opens up some fresh possibilities too.

Valid concern, but not for Ultraman. Was always a show for kids; always had silly humor in it. The humor is just different now, let's see how it works.

You can be a show for kids with humour, there's nothing wrong with that, but a lot of humour these days is forced and a detriment to a lot of movies and TV shows. Rather than offering levity or just be funny jokes, it has to awkwardly push its way into every scene that would otherwise be played normally.

One of the things I love about Toku is that despite being "silly," it can often tell genuinely good and even emotional stories. It knows when to joke and when not to. Few mainstream American media seem to understand this, and it makes it really hard to stay invested.

I think it's just a case of Americanizing a Japanese property, since so much American animation (or Superhero fiction) relies on jokes or quips or protagonists that constantly talk.

Maybe it's how it was edited for the trailer but I'll stick to the chance Ken was just speaking English in his head and from the humans perspective he speaks in grunts.

This feels kind of Evangelion-y.

New trailer came out, film releasing on June 14th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwXgOMDONK8

I'm sure that the people who are the audience for this will enjoy it.

*raises hand* Mostly because Yuuki Yamada who played Gokai Blue is voicing Ken/Ultraman in the Japanese dub.

There's a whole lot of notable VA's in the jp dub. Besides Yamada, there's also other toku alumni such as Akari Hayami (Yumi Funaberi from Shin Ultraman), Fumihiko Tachiki (voice of the Gaia Memories), Hiroko Sakurai (Fuji from the original Ultraman) and Takaya Aoyagi (Juggler)

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...embers/.210884

*Sees Aoyagi* OH YEAH. :lolol

It definitely feels Americanized (and despite the cast being Japanese I wonder if they'll feel like that and not "Americans writing Japanese people") but it looks fun and the visuals are utterly gorgeous, and it seems like it gets the heart of Ultraman.

I'm guessing the Rise Sequence moment is at the climax.

New clip released

https://x.com/netflix/status/1799105689773584552

That was cute!

Ditching a date to go protect your monster child who sees you everywhere because you're famous. Classic hero problems.