[Salaryman Zero]

It's 4:20am here and I've just finished Ultraman Max. Thoughts:

To start, I was a little surprised by how "Showa" this series was. I'd heard Max was a back-to-basics approach after the more experimental Nexus but damn, this was essentially a forty-ep love letter to Showa Ultraman. It really did feel like TsuPro's preliminary practice run before they really dived back into the Showa-verse proper with Mebius. Damn near every episode had at least one reference to one of the Showa series, with certain eps even being entire homages (it was awesome to bring Jissoji back for the Targeted Town sequel...even if the episode makes zero sense continuity-wise...). I also loved that they brought back the Showa-era actors. Even in their golden years, I still see them as Shin, Fuji, Ide, and Dan, and it always warms my heart to see these legends return to the franchise they helped launch.

Onto the writing: I don't have much to say here, besides that it's your typical Ultraman fare. Self-contained kaiju-of-the-week episodes are basically the bread and butter of the Ultra-verse. My favorite episodes were definitely the homages though, with most of them referencing Shodai and Ultra Seven. Although the infamous Butterfly Dream episode definitely deserves a S/O too; it's insanely experimental for a children's TV show. I thought I was watching Black Mirror for a second with that one...

Anyway, I liked the characters for the most part. Kaito is your typical Ultra human host, though he's at his most compelling when the show dives into his romantic tension with Mizuki. The other members of DASH fill the archetypal attack team roles of sharpshooter, scientist, and commander. But my favorite member of the Max cast was undoubtedly Elly. Aside from being incalculably kawaii (she's a close second to Geed's Moa, for my money), the whole "I'm an android" thing allowed for many creative Elly-centric episodes. Every attack team should have a cute fembot now, is what I've concluded.

Fight scenes are par for the course as well. I liked Max's suit for the most part, and while it's ostensibly based on Seven's, I was getting touches of Taro too with the chestplate and Storium-esque charge-up for his final move. Also, can I say how refreshing it is that Max has zero midseason form-changes or silly toyetic gimmicks? (Before you mention the Max Galaxy, that hardly counts--it's basically the same as Jack's Ultra Bracelet). That just adds to the overall Showa aesthetic of the show, which is always a plus for me.

Another thing that's super-Showa? Xenon showing up for one episode to help Max with Zetton and then effing off to not return until the finale. Shame too, because I kind of dug the Xenon suit. Oh, and I feel like Max's monster designs deserve some love as well. Nowadays with the more recent shows, it feels like every kaiju is just a Gojira expy or Mecha Gomora, but Max genuinely impressed me with the sheer variety of its foes. We got a water dragon, space cats, whatever the hell IF was supposed to be etc...

Anyway. On a final note, I guess I should say I enjoyed the series overall. Not my favorite, but solid nonetheless. Also, I can't decide if Max's theme song is really catchy or an auditory abomination against God. Discuss.