[Baltan II]

As the first LWW for an Ultraman thread, let me say I never expected this particular time ghost to take hold, and it makes me so happy that what I thought would be a futile push turned into this! Thank you guys who chose to give Ultraman a chance.

The Next is a wonderful self-contained Ultraman origin story, and rewatching the movie definitely reminded me of that. Considering the film is a Japanese toku movie from 2004, the special effects were great and virtually never off-putting in the least. Still, this movie could've looked fantastic and it wouldn't have mattered an iota if the story was bad, and it wasn't. Every character in this film had some purpose, screen time didn't go to waste, and the project was filled with plenty of love for the original. The One is an incredible design and his tragic origin and unfortunate fate of his host made for a great story alongside that of Maki's.

Some points about how The Next compares alongside Nexus and the Ultraman universe at large:

■ The Showa universe is the primary Ultraman continuity, and was only continued later through Mebius, Ultra Galaxy and the Belial/Zero movies. The Heisei era of Ultraman by and large shares no continuity between series (Dyna is an exception in two ways). Don't expect to see actual classical friends and foes in Nexus, but you may see the odd homage here and there.

■ The Next was Tsuburaya's attempt at a big-budget push to the big screen and was a successful portion of Tsuburaya's N-Project. It was originally planned to have a sequel but the failure of Ultraman Nexus to take hold in toy sales and ratings led to its cancellation.

■ Speaking of Nexus, it may not be as visually stunning as The Next, but its themes and design cues have been carried over. Nexus himself resembles classic Ultraman designs a little more but shares aesthetics of The Next, such as his grey Anphans and red Junis forms or the helmet design. The Space Beasts remain some of the most elaborate Ultraman villain costumes of their time. There will be a couple reasons why Nexus doesn't jump straight back into cityscapes, so hang in there on that front.

■ On comedy and failure... Nexus was pitched by Tsuburaya as a prime-time Ultraman series and skewed to an older audience. As such, Nexus is not filled with laughs. This also makes it a departure from the more family-friendly vibe of typical Ultraman series. Unfortunately, Tokyo Broadcasting System gave it an early-morning timeslot like it was a children's show, where Nexus was never able to gain a proper foothold with its intended audience and was far too much for kids. The intended run of 50 episodes was slashed to 37 aired, with an unaired director's cut of 29 and an additional Episode EX, leaving the ending more abrupt than intended.

■ On choosing this series... I pitched Nexus to watch because I thought more of you would appreciate its story, modern special effects and its lack of continuity making it newbie-friendly, but as I explained in the nomination, Nexus is not actually my favorite series nor is it my ideal introduction... except Ultraman Max is not fully-subbed without resorting to HK subtitles. I encourage those of you who want a modern Ultraman with a lighter tone to check the first half of the series out, and to ask Tokuplex (via GUIS) why it's taking eight years and counting to finish that series. You may be happy to know that for our next Let's Watch Wednesday vote, I will be championing Ultraman Mebius, the modern continuation of the Showa Ultraman universe but still rather palatable for newbies. Thankfully, Ultraman Mebius and all of his films have been subtitled!

■ On toys... Sorry, The Next doesn't have an Ultra-Act! You can find Ultraman Nexus Junis currently available on Amazon and all other Bluefin-supplied retailers. Junis Blue releases in July in Japan and will also be released via Bluefin in August. Six Space Beasts were released in vinyl form in Japan, one very familiar to those of you who know me. Fingers crossed that other N-Project characters are seen in Ultra-Act form in the future. In the meantime, you could attempt to track down the 1/10 articulated Hyper Hero Ultraman: The Next figures, but they will be hard to find.

I... think I'm done for now.