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Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

I have watched a few episodes of Max and plan to go back to it, I think that one was fun, and considering that the name is always mentioned when people ask for good Ultraman stuff to watch I don't think you can go wrong with Max.

Yes, Max is fantastic and definitely a good place to start or continue any Ultra experience.

As far as eras go, Ultraman is a lot more complex than something like Kamen Rider because it hasn't consistently aired on a yearly basis. Even as far back as the 1960s and 70s there would be periods where the franchise took a year or more off between shows. Generally, I would break Ultraman down into about four main eras (but keep in mind that while I'm a big Ultraman fan, I'm not a super well-informed one):

1. The Showa era (Ultraman - Leo, plus Ultraman 80): I group these shows together because most of them aired in the late-60s to mid-70s, with 80 being the odd outlier. These are the classic Ultraman shows that you see most of the modern shows mining for power-ups and fusion forms.

2. The 90s era (Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, and Cosmos): I again tend to think of Cosmos as a bit of an outlier here since it's got a more unique aesthetic and theme than the other three, but these shows aired from the mid-90s to the early-00s. They tend to be pretty serious sci-fi without a lot of obvious kid appeal. These shows are usually not considered part of the same universe as the Showa Ultras.

3. The 00s era (Nexus, Max, and Mebius): These three shows aired around the mid-00s and included the failed NEXT project. Max and especially Mebius saw the start of Ultraman beginning to embrace franchise nostalgia as one of its main driving forces. After Mebius, the franchise continued as a series of web shows and movies until...

4. The current era (Ginga and onwards): This era started with the Ultraman Retsuden series, which was mostly a compilation of clips from the older shows. Eventually Tsubaraya greenlit the low budget Ginga, which did well enough to launch Ginga S and X as part of Retsuden. Starting with Orb the current shows are actually their own entities again. There's a big focus on nostalgic Ultras and kaiju being used as power-ups via collectible gimmicks.