Integration

ljacone · 03-07-2013, 08:42 AM

My wife had to work last night, so that meant Ultraseven in the DVD player!

Ultraseven episode 1 - The Invisible Challenger. When an invisible alien invader demands the surrender of Earth, the Ultra Guard spring into action and a new hero rises. As an introduction to the series, it does a good job of setting the stage, showing us the Terrestrial Defense Force, the members of the Ultra Guard (who will always be the Ultra Garrison to me), the Pointer, and the Ultra-Hawk-1 (which is about a million times cooler than the Jet VTOL). We also get to meet Dan Moroboshi, see him change into a human sized Ultra Seven (!), use his Eye Slugger, and summon the robot capsule monster Windam, a personal favorite of mine. The theme of alien invasion which will be a constant in this series starts right here, with Alien Coul (as the subs call him; he's usually called Alien Cool) leading the way. I don't think this episode is as good a debut as the first episode of Ultraman, but it's still pretty neat. Things improve rapidly.

Ultraseven episode 2 - The Green Terror. An astronaut assigned to a space station returns to Earth for a holiday with his wife, but it seems like something else has come back from the stars as well. This is much more in line with what I remember of the (TNT dub) Ultraseven I had previously seen, with a strong horror vibe and of course an Ultra Seven fight. There's a great bit with a drunken salaryman being attacked by Alien Waiell -- he himself reminds me a bit of Greenmons, appropriately.

Ultraseven episode 3 - Secret Of The Lake. While investigating a space ship near a mountain lake, the Ultra Guard run afoul of the strange monster Eleking! The hits keep on coming with a great monster and a cool story involving a pair of aliens disguised as a young Japanese girl. We also get to see our second Capsule Monster, Miclas, who seems to have a bullish personality which is endearing. Eleking is definitely the highlight of the episode but it's a good one overall.

Some general comments on the DVDs -- so far the picture is pretty good. Not super sharp, but for a show of this age they look good. The color is slightly muted but a lot better than the TNT dubs. Honestly, so far the show looks about as good as the Mill Creek DVDs of Ultraman. The subtitles are good but sometimes they disappear a little too quickly, heh!

Overall very excited to begin watching this series and looking forward to discovering all of it.

(As an aside, I have also started DLing Raws of Ultraman Leo! Wooo!)

03-07-2013, 08:42 AM	#106
ljacone Uchu Kaiju Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: South Carolina Posts: 1,669	My wife had to work last night, so that meant Ultraseven in the DVD player! Ultraseven episode 1 - The Invisible Challenger. When an invisible alien invader demands the surrender of Earth, the Ultra Guard spring into action and a new hero rises. As an introduction to the series, it does a good job of setting the stage, showing us the Terrestrial Defense Force, the members of the Ultra Guard (who will always be the Ultra Garrison to me), the Pointer, and the Ultra-Hawk-1 (which is about a million times cooler than the Jet VTOL). We also get to meet Dan Moroboshi, see him change into a human sized Ultra Seven (!), use his Eye Slugger, and summon the robot capsule monster Windam, a personal favorite of mine. The theme of alien invasion which will be a constant in this series starts right here, with Alien Coul (as the subs call him; he's usually called Alien Cool) leading the way. I don't think this episode is as good a debut as the first episode of Ultraman, but it's still pretty neat. Things improve rapidly. Ultraseven episode 2 - The Green Terror. An astronaut assigned to a space station returns to Earth for a holiday with his wife, but it seems like something else has come back from the stars as well. This is much more in line with what I remember of the (TNT dub) Ultraseven I had previously seen, with a strong horror vibe and of course an Ultra Seven fight. There's a great bit with a drunken salaryman being attacked by Alien Waiell -- he himself reminds me a bit of Greenmons, appropriately. Ultraseven episode 3 - Secret Of The Lake. While investigating a space ship near a mountain lake, the Ultra Guard run afoul of the strange monster Eleking! The hits keep on coming with a great monster and a cool story involving a pair of aliens disguised as a young Japanese girl. We also get to see our second Capsule Monster, Miclas, who seems to have a bullish personality which is endearing. Eleking is definitely the highlight of the episode but it's a good one overall. Some general comments on the DVDs -- so far the picture is pretty good. Not super sharp, but for a show of this age they look good. The color is slightly muted but a lot better than the TNT dubs. Honestly, so far the show looks about as good as the Mill Creek DVDs of Ultraman. The subtitles are good but sometimes they disappear a little too quickly, heh! Overall very excited to begin watching this series and looking forward to discovering all of it. (As an aside, I have also started DLing Raws of Ultraman Leo! Wooo!) __________________ Check out my Japanese giant monster podcast --Earth Destruction Directive!