[Salaryman Zero]

Yeah, agreed, they're definitely short snippets. I just watched the latest one and it was fine; basically just the NG Ultras pairing off against their opponents. Cool that the Ginga theme seems to be unofficial NG anthem. It is a pretty badass song, though I'm partial to Zero and Geed's themes as well.

Also, have Color Timer and Genm Corp stopped doing Eng subs for Taiga? I'm watching Ep 17 on the official Ultraman page on YouTube now, but my Chinese is a little rusty.

Anyway, the Ep 15-16 two-parter was pretty great. Tregear finally revealed his evil plan of corrupting Taiga (which is...surprisingly heavy for a kids' show, though Taiga has been pretty heavy in tone overall), but of course The Power of Friendship TM prevails, and we get the debut of Taiga's new form. Which is...cool? I don't necessarily hate it, I like that the overall red color scheme is more evocative of Taro-san, but it's definitely not as unique as Photon Earth's samurai-Gundam look. The Tristrium sword does look pretty bad though; not Geed Claw-bad, but it's certainly toyetic. I'm convinced TsuPro has the budget to make more "realistic" weapons, but I'm not sure why they choose to keep them looking just like action figure accessories. Maybe to sell more toys?

But I'm enjoying Taiga, overall. The show's at its strongest when it focuses on the relationship between Hiroyuki and the Tri-Squad, and I far prefer focusing on the three Ultras bantering and showcasing each of their own unique personalities, rather than whatever guest star we happen to get that episode (like the sorceress--what was that about?). Which is why I actually enjoyed the clip show episode, it was a very comedic but character-driven way of presenting old clips; I love how the Tri-Squad bickers, just like how you'd expect close friends would.

Onward to catching up on the Voice-Dramas!