[AkibaSilver]

Slight detour from Decker, but between yesterday and today, I watched a couple of the last Ultra Fight miniseries - New Generation Heroes, and Absolute Conspiracy. And... yeah, they're enjoyable! NGH is definitely the weaker of the two, having a barebones plot in exchange for an ever increasing amount of CGI fightscenes, but having Rosso and Blu around (plus Geed a little) helps out since I know who they are. Also, Ribut best boy.

Moving onto Absolute Conspiracy, and Ribut continues to be best boy. As the movie/miniseries progresses, you can sum up 90% of fights as "Ultras almost lose, but are bailed out by a different Ultra who gets their theme music", but theme music makes all fights cool, and even though I don't have any emotional connection to any of these guys, the choreography and effects are great. I do wish we had some better miniature work, the constant CGI backdrops would be my main criticism there, but I get it, YouTube miniseries while Z gets the bulk of the filming there. Character-wise, this one fairs a lot better, getting into the backstory of Tregear (Hey I've seen the R/B movie I know this guy!) and Bellial (Hey I've been an Ultra fan in the last decade, I know this guy!) and having them be, while not sympathetic, given some nuance in their falls. It's unfortunate they overshadow Tartarus, who I assume is meant to be a big impressive villain, but he falls flat, caught between the emotional drama of our two regular villain Ultras, and the immense casting call rota of the Ultra side. Because there are a lot of Ultras here! For someone like me, who's seen like 2 series, you just have to go with it. These two (Cosmos and Justice) can fuse together? Sure!