[Fish Sandwich]

So I've been pretty quiet about the love of Ultraman I picked up a couple years ago but I finally caught up on Orb and um... Wow. I might ramble for a bit here, so bear with me.

I fell way behind on Orb really quick because, even though I liked it and I thought it was the most solid Ultraman show we've gotten since Ginga kicked things back off, it wasn't clicking for me nearly as much as X did. That show basically embodied everything that makes Ultraman cool and unique to me, whereas Orb has been a more straightforward superhero show, though still unmistakably Ultraman, of course. I must say however, it's only gotten better and better.

I think I was sort of let down at first by the how it opened with that super somber flashback that Gai's whole character centers around only for it jump straight back into the same lighthearted tone we've been getting these past few years. For a while I felt like it was a show that wanted to be a bit more serious than it was but in light of the past few weeks I think it handles the contrast between its various elements pretty well and arguably it's only better for it, since it makes the dramatic moments feel that much more dramatic.

Thunder Breaster's debut really kicked crap into overdrive though. I went from being thoroughly entertained to downright compelled after episode 12 and I'm really impressed by how much the show actually let Orb act like a bad guy. He's f***in' scary man. Usually when a story does the whole "rampaging hero" bit, it doesn't amount to much but here it's very easy to understand why Gai is so angsty about it.

Speaking of Gai, he's great. He's at once a very old-school type of larger than life toku hero we don't see much these days and also something pretty unique, being a very broken individual who isn't traditionally mopey (or an a**hole) so much as kind of empty, but not to the point he can't crack a joke or enjoy himself a bit. Just a really well-rounded character and I like the break from the norm, which I guess they felt comfortable doing because Naomi functions as the POV character/audience surrogate/co-protagonist/whatever.

I'm pretty impressed by Orb at this point and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Still kind of bummed out by the official subtitles though. They're subtly clunky in spots for one but mostly I just consider it an unforgivable sin they don't translate the songs, especially when the lyrics are so relevant to the show. I'm sure a lot of people don't care either way but in my opinion that's an important part of the experience to just miss out on.