[GoldenXtreme]

It's finally happened: I've seen every New Generation Ultraman show now that I have finished up Ultraman Decker!

It was certainly a vast improvement over Trigger for me, and I would even say I think this is the best New Gen show with the traditional military defense team format honestly. Still, the ties to Trigger are easily the worst part of the show, with the setting and style of the two clashing so heavily (and with a completely unbelievable time gap to boot), that I desperately with they had been kept separate. Decker also has some issues of its own, with an inexplicable time lapse after the first episode too and the whole story with Agams feeling very underdeveloped. Not to mention this is another Ultra show where the secret identity thing causes so many problems I couldn't help but wonder why the hero didn't at least tell their allies. Still, I thought the setting with Earth being cut off from the rest of the universe by the Sphrre was a cool idea, and it granted the show a more introspective feeling than most Ultra shows, focusing on people who had to put their true passions on hold to deal with the Sphere while Kanata himself was a bit aimless as he tried to figure out what drove him. The cast has pretty simple personalities and character arcs, but they made for a compelling team and also have much more grounded and subdued personalities than in many contemporary Ultra shows. I found them all very pleasant to follow throughout the show! I also think the show had a lot of good and unique individual episodes (Lord Ragon was probably my favorite), though it certainky has some mediocre ones too, including a finale that just didn't quite land for me. The movie was a nice conclusion though, even if I laughed at the idea of Kanata somehow being made captain of a spaceship at the end there. Dinas was pretty cool, I liked how brave she was when it came to helping other planets, and how that inspired Kanata to head out into the universe. Overall pretty good stuff, I'll give it a B.

Since I finished all the New Generation shows, I also wanted to talk about my broader thoughts on the series too! I've seen most of the shows and movies from the Ultra series at this point and I certainly consider myself an Ultra fan. I do feel like at the end of the day I am more of a Toei tokusatsu kind of person though. I think it's a combination of the facts, like that I prefer more martial arts oriented fight choreography, I am very into the character drama angle that Toei leans more heavily into, and the fact that the Toei stuff tends to be WAY campier. I also just find that while there are plenty of Ultra shows I like, very few manage to achieve that illustrious "A tier", reserved for shows that make me go a little feral when I think about them, lol. Still, the Ultra series has an impressive legacy. I think the best Showa era Ultra shows were far more daring and ambitious than most of the Toei stuff, and combined whimsy with drama in ways that astonished me. I also quite like most of the Heisei Ultra stuff, which took in various influences from other popular series (and prior Ultra shows), but put a unique spin on them. But... I don't know, I find the New Generation era to be a real trend chaser, while also being prone to exploring the exact same concepts repeatedly. I really think they would benefit from more fresh blood in the writer's room and to reevaluate if they really need to many elements to repeat most seasons just because it is "standard" for the series. Still, I think things have been improving since around when the Reiwa era began, with more shows that try to break the mold and try new things. Omega has been quite unique so far, so I'm hoping we get to see a bright new era of Ultra shows that forge a new direction for the series!