[Kurona]

Thought I'd chime in as a very new Ultraman fan who's so far only watched through Orb and its movie? (pretty great, by the way! Not phenomenal for me and its storytelling methods weren't quite my thing, but at worst it was just some great Toku fun and at best had some wonderful touching character moments and themes going for it)


Uh, right, digression. As someone who's only just gotten into Ultraman and has yet to go beyond one season? This was AWESOME! I'm immediately liking so much of what's going on here -- how much care and attention goes into the sheer scale of Kaiju battles and the collateral damage and fear to the general public that would naturally cause; the cold opening setting things up so wonderfully; the humans actually being capable on their own with their own techs and anti-Kaiju measures; the clear callback to and reverence of older material without me having to even known anything about it to appreciate it; what little characterisation we have being endearing in its own way!


It's... a little funny going from a big anniversary season whose main hero's forms were fusions of past heroes using a circular motif; to a big anniversary season whose main hero's forms are fusions of past heroes using a circular motif. ... and Juggler's here too! But that only means that I can draw positive comparisons -- much of what I liked about Orb's first few episodes are present here; and much of what I didn't enjoy about Orb is completely addressed as well!


I'm very new to Ultraman so I can't say for sure which parts of my praise are unique to Z and which parts are just common to the franchise (which would imply that, oh boy, I'm gonna have one hell of a time getting into this), but either way I just found this an extremely strong opening and I immediately want more!