[GoldenXtreme]

I finished Return of Ultraman today! That was just a dang good show, very pleased with it.

The Good

• The episodes were not only generally high quality, but varied as well! A lot of older tokusatsu can get too formulaic, but I was consistently interested.
• Go was an unusually flawed protagonist for the 70s. Generally likable, but there were many episodes where he messed up or even just annoyed everyone around him with his behavior. Quite ahead of its time!
• I don't think I ever got tired of how MAT was constantly given a hard time by both ungrateful civilians and government higher-ups. Really made you want to root for them since you know how hard the organization is trying against such an overwhelming threat.
• There are a lot of very serious episodes. Go has friends die. Kishida's father was involved in making a terrible chemical weapon. The ugly side of humanity leads to the death of a friendly alien. This show is what I THOUGHT Ultraseven was going to be like when people described that show as "dark". It was fascinating!
• While generally serious, the show did offer some levity, which generally struck a good balance.

The Bad

• I think the members of MAT weren't too interesting overall and they generally blur together.
• Sometimes the editing of the episodes felt strange? Music cutting out abruptly, disorienting cuts, some weird things with continuity, etc.

The Other

• Y'all, so many monsters from Wild Arms are based on Ultra Monsters. It's so funny to see kaiju in these shows and go "So that's where the design is from!" I'm probably one of the only people in the entire English speaking world who cares about this, but care about it I shall!