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#4351 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,001
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For me, I don’t really mind Saki as a villain, conceptually speaking especially considering her backstory, but she is a bit of step down in comparison to Aizen and the way he is written out of the show is very clumsy and rather dumb and how she is executed as a character is mixed at best. I liked her better than Agams in the second half of Decker though. Still, I managed to enjoy R/B for the most part despite this. I especially love the family aspect of the series and the movie that took place after it is nothing short of fantastic. Anyway, I have just watched the original Japanese version of last week's episode of Ultraman Arc and I'm about to watch the English dub of it and with that, I am finally all caught up with the series just in time for tonight's episode. Still have yet to continue right where I left off on Ultraman Cosmos though.
Last edited by GuardianAngel87; 11-15-2024 at 05:26 PM.. |
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#4352 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,238
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Oh no, not more Taganular! Luckily we've got some great teamwork from Arc and the local Defense Team! And Arc using the Final Form within the first few minutes!
I can imagine how so many back-to-back fights and transformations would be exhausting. If only Yuma could meet another Ultraman, preferably one from the season prior to his own! Bathroom excuse for a transformation? Hebikura would respect that. I mean, I guess SKIP is the group most closely associated with Arc? Even if it's mostly just been them being at places where Arc shows up. But yes, he did overhear their conversations once! It honestly would not surprise me if Shu already knows and is just humoring Yuma...though at times it did feel like he was still oblivious. I guess it could go either way. How do we communicate with this alien being who is totally not one of the people involved in the planning session for how to communicate with him? YouPi gets an allowance!? Man, Rin really is his mom! Those are some Abare Red level of poses, Ban. Imagine writing a letter to yourself! I would probably be pretty stiff too. Arc was so nice to let everyone do their own method of communicating at the same time! Thank goodness he already knew the plan though otherwise nothing would have happened. Hey gang, it's Bazanga! The original Ultraman Blazar Kaiju! Rare you get the Final Form twice AND going back to the baser forms rather than letting it end the fight. Arc making the sacrifice play of pushing Hellnarak into the portal even if it closes behind him, trapping him. But, uh...is anyone going to wonder where Yuma is? Did he go to the hospital for his obvious stomach problems? Oh snap, did Yuma get ported to Blazar's Earth? I mean, it's Earth Garon! And Shu if he were a member of SKaRD!? Next week: Like a blazar, Ultraman Blazar returns! |
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#4353 |
Henshin Heaven
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Inside a Hyper Battle Video, help.
Posts: 1,325
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I watched Ginga and Ginga S. I went in with pretty low expectations given what I knew about the show's and Tsuburaya's situation at the time.
Ginga was a particularly odd show, sort of like an extra cheap version of Gridman, what with the school-aged protagonists, the socially awkward classmate guy working for the villain, and the love triangle situation going on. The video editing is often very sloppy, and the plot is running at turbo speed so things often get resolved very quickly, which gives the whole thing a certain amateur charm. It was also nice that the protagonist would fight a bit in monster form before turning into Ginga, something Ginga S largely dropped. Still, it's such a slapdash effort overall that I can't say I would really recommend the show. As a side note, this is the last Ultra thing Keiichi Hasegawa wrote for, kind of glad to be leaving him behind to be honest. Ginga S is a substantially better crafted show overall, with much more ambition both narratively and visually. It ultimately just kind of ends up as such an archetypical tokusatsu that it's hard to find much excitement in it though. It does have a few episodes that were interesting though, especially later on! I liked the one where Shepherdon dies, the one with the girl who was from the exiled group of Victorians, and the ones with the Alien Metron who got really into idol culture (which also has him do a Kaiketsu Zubat parody at one point? What the heck, lmao.) I also have a few observations that really apply to both shows. Listen, people always say you will ultimately come around to the wrestling-inspired fights in Ultra shows, but I never really did. Like... as far as choreography goes I pretty much only liked Cosmos before this with his tai chi moves and emphasis on subduing his opponents most of the time. But I liked the style in both of these shows a lot! They were more like what I would generally associate with tokusatsu shows, with cool martial arts combat. I also liked Victory being more of a kick fighter than Ginga, which made him stand out. Really hoping this style sticks around in future shows. My other observation was... more of something I HEARD. I noticed that both these shows, but especially Ginga S has a lot of moments where the audio peaked (but perhaps that was due to Ginga S having a lot more shouting, haha). It got me thinking about how a lot of older tokusatsu records all the footage without sound, then dubs the audio track on later, even for out of suit scenes. Was Ginga or Ginga S Tsuburaya's first show that tried to record audio alongside the footage? It would explain the issue. Anyways I feel comfortable ranking these 2 shows separately since I feel like they both stand on their own fairly well. I'll give Ginga a D since its just a bit too janky for me even if it has some charm, while Ginga S gets a C for being perfectly acceptable but wildly unambitious. |
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#4354 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,238
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Welcome to Hoshi-Moto City Yuma! Home to SKaRD, Earth Garon, and another Ultraman!
I'm like 80% sure both Shu's know Yuma is Arc. Even Arc!Shu just had this...look to him like he knew. When Earth Garon takes an L and you hear the HOWARARARARA you know ULTRAMAN BLAZAR in all his unga-bunga glory has arrived! Sorry for anyone who wanted to actually see any of the actual Ultraman Blazar cast, but instead we get the members of SKIP as AU versions of themselves, including Yuma. Y'know, it's kind of sad that their in different divisions rather than on a team. It's team-up time! Honestly Blazar takes to the sudden arrival of another Ultra more smoothly than I expected, but there's a Hellnarak to fight! Cue an epic tag-team culminating in a Spiral Burrade + Arc Beam combo! It's weird how they only used Bazanga's subtitle in this episode even though he was in the last one. Also, poor Earth Garon, can't even beat Bazanga! Yeah...the secret identity is definitely going to take a major hit when you suddenly vanish for four days straight. Curse that time dilation! I didn't know Blazar could do the "passing my power onto you and your gimmick!" I was half-expecting a Blazar armor but I guess channeling Blazar's power in Arc's sword works too. Why didn't Blazar use the Firdran Armor and Arc the Galaxy Armor? Team-up logic! I kind of wanted to see the Blazar Beam...but honestly it would be overkill on Bazanga. Okay, I guess we're just sticking with Yuma's bathroom excuse until he opens up to the team. Honestly he should be lucky SKIP gives him as much leeway as they do. Next week: Gomess and Chief Ban's daughter! |
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#4355 |
Henshin Heaven
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Inside a Hyper Battle Video, help.
Posts: 1,325
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I gave Ultraman X a watch. It was decent, but lacked a hook to make it stand out from other Ultra shows. Probably the biggest thing it did that was new was really strongly differentiate the Ultra and human host as characters. It is generally a nice looking show, more polished than Ginga and Ginga S and it definitely has a few nice episodes later on (I particularly liked the one about the captain and his estranged adult daughter who was getting married). Greeza was also a very cool and uncanny final villain. Still, overall the cast was just explored in much depth, made worse by the amount of episodes that are dedicated to crossovers with other Ultra shows. I also found that the show's way of trying to tell a story about coexisting with monsters just wasn't as interesting as say Cosmos or Gaia either.
I also think this might be the show where it felt the most bizarre that the main character didn't reveal their Ultra identity earlier on. Due to the crossover aspect, Xio encounters multiple other Ultras, sees humans turn into Ultras, the vice captain turns into Nexus, and no one on the team seems all that bothered by any of it. Yet Daichi only comes out of the Ultra closet during the climax of the show! Very weird. So yeah, it was another one for the "decent but uninspiring" pile. Orb is up next though, which definitely seems to be one of the big ones people love. Even I know that it has Jugglus Juggler in it, a character I have never seen someone talk about normally. So that's exciting! |
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#4356 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,238
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Quote:
I gave Ultraman X a watch. It was decent, but lacked a hook to make it stand out from other Ultra shows. Probably the biggest thing it did that was new was really strongly differentiate the Ultra and human host as characters. It is generally a nice looking show, more polished than Ginga and Ginga S and it definitely has a few nice episodes later on (I particularly liked the one about the captain and his estranged adult daughter who was getting married). Greeza was also a very cool and uncanny final villain. Still, overall the cast was just explored in much depth, made worse by the amount of episodes that are dedicated to crossovers with other Ultra shows. I also found that the show's way of trying to tell a story about coexisting with monsters just wasn't as interesting as say Cosmos or Gaia either.
I think we also got some solid cast focus episodes, even in the crossovers (like Tachibana in the Nexus crossover). Quote:
I also think this might be the show where it felt the most bizarre that the main character didn't reveal their Ultra identity earlier on. Due to the crossover aspect, Xio encounters multiple other Ultras, sees humans turn into Ultras, the vice captain turns into Nexus, and no one on the team seems all that bothered by any of it. Yet Daichi only comes out of the Ultra closet during the climax of the show! Very weird.
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#4357 |
Henshin Heaven
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Inside a Hyper Battle Video, help.
Posts: 1,325
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Quote:
Maybe it's because X was my fifth Ultraman show but I really enjoyed it. "24/7 Xio" basically cemented it as one of the best Ultra shows in my opinion and I really liked Daichi/X's dynamic and X's whole aesthetic.
I think we also got some solid cast focus episodes, even in the crossovers (like Tachibana in the Nexus crossover). Still, with stuff like X and Daichi's dynamic it just left me wanting more I guess. Same with the episode with Tachibana and Nexus, which was neat but also pretty much the only episode focused on her in the entire show. Some of this is honestly just a "me" problem though. I don't tend to get invested too easily, so shows with episode counts in the 25 range and a large cast are just going to need to have some dense storytelling and characterization! I guess I have also just seen a lot of Ultra at this point, and Ultra shows tend to have a much more restricted format than Rider or Sentai, so certain storylines tend to reoccur a lot. Yeah, this is certainly what the show was going for, but it just left my wondering why they kept the secret for so long. In some other shows it's clear that the Ultra and/or host is worried their teammates might react badly or they fear that Ultraman will become too relied upon, but Xio demonstrated how willing and reasonable they were with other Ultras multiple times, but neither Daichi nor X seemed to even consider revealing their secret. Felt sort of strange to me. |
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#4358 |
Echoing Oni
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,599
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Quote:
I also think this might be the show where it felt the most bizarre that the main character didn't reveal their Ultra identity earlier on. Due to the crossover aspect, Xio encounters multiple other Ultras, sees humans turn into Ultras, the vice captain turns into Nexus, and no one on the team seems all that bothered by any of it. Yet Daichi only comes out of the Ultra closet during the climax of the show! Very weird.
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#4359 |
Henshin Heaven
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Inside a Hyper Battle Video, help.
Posts: 1,325
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Quote:
![]() I will say though, I really hope there is at least one Ultra show where the protagonist plans to keep a secret identity, but accidentally transforms in front of everyone really early on. The idea of this just really amused me, regardless of how it plays out. |
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#4360 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,238
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I guess that's one way Geed really stands out Riku's identity gets pretty much figured out by everybody in the main cast by like episode 8 or 9.
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