[AkibaSilver]

I've just realised, I never actually came back and gave my thoughts on the R/B movie! It's good! I'm unsure if it's just me, but Katsumi always felt like the slightly more focal brother with which the series acts on, so to put the emphasis of the film squarely on him is a good choice. And it's a solid emotional foundation, and maybe too relatable. While everyone around him seems to have stuff figured out, he has no clue what to do with his life, and it's stressing him out. Him finding out his former friend has become an emo gamer (gasp!) doesn't exactly help him much, as the guy completely rejects their bond and offers no help. Him accepting Tregear's deal, even though it might seal him away from his family for good, simply because it's something he *knows* he can do, and it makes a difference? Entirely believable!

Speaking of Mr Tregear (or, as I'm told, Ultraman Tregear, despite him acting very un-Ultra-like), he's alright. Very trickster-y, no idea what he was hoping to accomplish with any of this besides "cause chaos", but he's alright, even if his manipulations are painfully obvious. Lucky all his subjects are either gamers, or going through a crisis.

The rest of our Minato family? Well, they're also here, and get a good showing. Isami is probably a little too in the background, poor guy, but his and Katsumi's bond still gets a good showing - who else is gonna pull him out of a Hadron Collider. Asahi finally gets to become Ultrawoman Grigio, which I thought was a TV show thing but nah, and that's pretty neat to see. Also respect how they included her in our big 3-way fusion, Ultraman Greube, which is certainly made of CGI. Some of the shots looked good, others much less so. Ushio gets to be funny with naming everyone Falcon 1, and it's nice to see Mio in a situation where I'm not expectng her to betray the family every five seconds.

Now, you may be asking - but Akiba, isn't Geed also here? Don't you hate deep lore? To which I'd answer that it's a crossover movie, I'd be silly if I didn't expect some of Geed's lore to come into play, but also wow Geed only has one bit of lore Toei seems to care about. So many famous Ultra fathers, so few mothers, essays on Institutional Sexism on M78 on postcards pls. In all seriousness, Riku is very much a supporting character here, in a way that aside from a little chat with Asahi which is as much hers as his, he could be any Ultra and it wouldn't matter. Or maybe, after Ultraman Z because "Geed and Zero show ft Z" for those two episodes, I know enough to get by. If you're a Geed fan, the lack of focus on him is probably a negative, but it reminds me of how the recent Rider crossovers have put much more emphasis on the current Rider than past ones, so maybe it's a shift towards this to cut out needing to watch two shows to understand one movie. For what it's worth, he gets a good showing, in what I assume are most of his forms, although he does get his ass kicked by Tregear a little before the power of friendship saves the day. Pega also exists to have her Dark Zone exploited for the plot, but they seem cool. I still have no idea why Tregear stole them from their own universe, really - did he know Riku and Isami would get along so well it would further alienate Katsumi, thus driving him to more easily ditch them so he could leave him to die on Pigmon Planet? To be fair, Riku and Isami get so close so fast they already mix together their catchphrases (good moments), so maybe it wasn't that tough a guess.

Overall, I enjoyed this film! The final fight probably went on a little too long, and Riku and Pega could probably have been worked into the plot better - Riku does get a few moments of confronting emo gamer about how his mum feels, which might be a play on Daddy Issues he probably has, but I'm unsure - but as a finale to purely Ultraman R/B, it gets coloured with my recommendation.