[Frontier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

The transformations and form changes are long here, like they are in most most New Gen shows, but I found them way, way more annoying in Orb for some reason, which is the peak of transformation stock footage in my mind. I think it was the way they tended to stick his form changes right in the middle of the action that really broke the flow for me.

I will say though, I have come to have a greater and greater appreciation over time for how Kamen Rider uses very little stock footage in general. You can just transform in a flash or light or something and it's great!

I actually liked it in Orb because Gai just committed so hard to it and the "Ultraman-san! Tiga-san!" just really did it for me.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frontier

I actually liked it in Orb because Gai just committed so hard to it and the "Ultraman-san! Tiga-san!" just really did it for me.

I do love how polite his transformation sequence is. Like Mitsurugi said in R/B... if you are going to ask someone for something you should show the utmost courtesy!

[GoldenXtreme]

I finished Ultraman Taiga. It was a show that was quite interesting, even if undeniably sloppy!

I went in expecting another light, humorous show since it features Taro's son, but I was quite surprised to find it was actually quite dramatic and full of moments of intensity and sadness. The setting is similarly intense, featuring the Human-Alien relations on Earth, almost like a more serious version of Dekaranger. At the same time, it also just throws random psychics and magic in because why not. Again, messy, but certainly interesting! It has a unique situation for the human host too, where he hosts three different Ultras (including one from Joneus's homeworld!). While I liked them, we didn't learn very much about any of them honestly. The E.G.I.S. team, being a security company headed up by a kind yet tough ex-cop who decided to work outside the government after becoming disillusioned with her inability to help aliens from within the system? Great. Hiroyuki himself makes a good protagonist, a nice guy... who has a rough time. Homare as a prickly yet protective human-passing alien was also quite fascinating. Pirika... is more like a plot device than a fully realized character though. Tregear is bizarre and terrifying, but again, the viewer isn't actually given much detail on what caused him to end up *like that*.

This all illustrates the greatest strength and weakness of the show. It does SO much... Episode by episode I found it very enjoyable, but before I knew it the show was almost over and it became obvious that it wouldn't be able to develop everything fully. I think a lot of the earlier New Gen shows just don't use their allotted time very wisely to develop their casts and world. Or in R/B's case the show just focuses on a very narrow scope. But Taiga is absolutely packed and STILL can't fully flesh everything out because it tries to do so many things. I really enjoyed what it did explore, so I can't say I felt disappointed, but I definitely felt the pain of only 25 episodes quite keenly here.

I'm pretty pleased with this one in spite of some shortcomings, so I'll give it a B! TBoth this and R/B were good, that's a trend I like to see! ...Speaking of R/B, I still can't decide if I actually loved it that much or if I just got a little overexcited by seeing an Ultra show I had strong positive feelings about after a long streak of "meh".

[Byg42]

Taiga is the point where I've started feeling that the current 25 episode count has started to hamper aspects of New Gen Ultra. I do still enjoy most of the shows that came after but my consistent feeling has been "I wished it had more episodes". I think just an extra 5 would be a good sweet spot.

Anyways, I personally really loved Taiga. I felt the show was really bold in terms of what themes and subject matter it decided to tackle. However I do feel its biggest issue and perhaps the reason I've seen it get a bit of a meh reception, is that the aesthetics of Taiga doesn't fully communicate what the show is about, in worst case it sets up false expectations of what the show will be. Taiga being the son of Taro and being in a team of Ultras would make you think that the show is going to be a Taro tribute, with maybe a Den-O like dynamic with the Ultras. However most of that remains a background setting that mostly explored in side materials. The real focus of Taiga is exploring its setting of aliens secretly living amongst humans. And again, I really love all that stuff but I suspect a lot of people went into Taiga expecting it to be about something else.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Byg42

Taiga is the point where I've started feeling that the current 25 episode count has started to hamper aspects of New Gen Ultra. I do still enjoy most of the shows that came after but my consistent feeling has been "I wished it had more episodes". I think just an extra 5 would be a good sweet spot.

Anyways, I personally really loved Taiga. I felt the show was really bold in terms of what themes and subject matter it decided to tackle. However I do feel its biggest issue and perhaps the reason I've seen it get a bit of a meh reception, is that the aesthetics of Taiga doesn't fully communicate what the show is about, in worst case it sets up false expectations of what the show will be. Taiga being the son of Taro and being in a team of Ultras would make you think that the show is going to be a Taro tribute, with maybe a Den-O like dynamic with the Ultras. However most of that remains a background setting that mostly explored in side materials. The real focus of Taiga is exploring its setting of aliens secretly living amongst humans. And again, I really love all that stuff but I suspect a lot of people went into Taiga expecting it to be about something else.

It's really strange that they chose such a serious show to feature Taro's son in. Maybe they wanted to surprise viewers, but I feel like Taro is a little TOO famous as a goofy show, so the marketing for the show is a bit too misleading.

As far as the episode count goes, I definitely felt very keenly with Taiga that they wanted to do more than they had time for. Nowadays the Ultra series is doing much better financially, so I think Tsuburaya should really look into at least stopping the recap episodes at this point. Unlike a lot of series, I think they also COULD fairly easily add more episodes, since they have those recap shows in the same timeslot for the other half of the year. Every episode they could add would help!

[Frontier]

I feel like you go into Taiga with the foreknowledge of him being Taro's son and you kind of expect him to be "New Generation Taro" which is accurate even less than Trigger being New Generation Tiga.

[TokuKnight89]

My home state had its yearly Comic-Con recently and I found this to my near-complete surprise!

Did Dark Horse adapt/license a pre-existing Tiga Manga or create this on their own!?

[GoldenXtreme]

This time I watched the Ultra Galaxy Fight subseries, plus the Regulos stuff! Probably accidentally spoiled some minor things from Ultraman Z but... oh well! This stuff really puts the "stupid" in "big stupid crossover". I found this stuff was best approached by just turning my brain off and being amused at all the obscure characters. Just let Ultraman Zearth and Andro Melos wash over you! The actual quality of this subseries isn't all that high though, the plot is obviously flimsy window dressing for the crossover content. Not to mention that as much as I enjoy some good suit acting, it might be too much to have this much content be done purely via guys in costumes. I think the Ultraman Regulos series in particular really shows the cracks in the format. Stripped of the absurdity of seeing randos like Ultraman Xenon again, you're left with a rushed martial arts drama.

Presumably they will continue this whole miniseries eventually, but it hasn't happened yet, so we don't have a satisfying conclusion currently. Still, if they do follow it up eventually then I'd like to see Rei show up since they were teasing a revived Alien Reiblood at the end of First Mission. Also... they should throw Gridman into the crossover madness, just for shits and giggles.

[GuardianAngel87]

^I apologize in advance but I think you forgot about the New Generations Climax movie that took place after the events of Ultraman Taiga. Admittedly, I still haven't gotten around to start watching this series myself since I am very preoccupied with rewatching Gokaiger and OOO along with watching a few episodes of Goggle V.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuardianAngel87

^I apologize in advance but I think you forgot about the New Generations Climax movie that took place after the events of Ultraman Taiga. Admittedly, I still haven't gotten around to start watching this series myself since I am very preoccupied with rewatching Gokaiger and OOO along with watching a few episodes of Goggle V.

I actually did watch it, but I guess I just forgot to make any comment about it since I was so caught up in talking about Taiga proper! It was another big wacky crossover movie! I honestly wish Hiroyuki himself had gotten a bit more focus in it, maybe give him a scene where he shows the Tri-Squad that he'll take care of himself properly, so they feel comfortable saying farewell.