Watched "The Alien Boy" tonight. Really, really lovely and sweet episode, probably my favorite of the series so far. The show definitely seems to be picking up as promised.
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Tonight was the two-part Dyna episode, "The Clarkov Won't Surface!" and it has to be one of the better Ultraman shows from any of the series I've seen so far. So exciting and ambitiously conceived, with multiple ticking clocks counting down simultaneously by the end. It features really effective and dramatic moments for most of the characters, with several getting a turn at being the Big Damn Hero. Most particularly, it's a great episode for Mai, who I thought was going to annoy TF out of me at the series' beginning, but who had already turned that around completely and become my favorite character on the show, even before tonight's showcase.
This really felt like it could have been a series finale, so much so that I wonder if the actual finale will top it. (Probably so, but it has its work cut out for it.) Tomorrow is the team-up movie, Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light, since the Ultra wiki says it follows these episodes in continuity. Again, though, it may have a tough time surpassing tonight's episodes.
This really felt like it could have been a series finale, so much so that I wonder if the actual finale will top it. (Probably so, but it has its work cut out for it.) Tomorrow is the team-up movie, Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light, since the Ultra wiki says it follows these episodes in continuity. Again, though, it may have a tough time surpassing tonight's episodes.
I know exactly what you mean. Mai is one of my favorites.
I generally try to watch the movies in sequence too, but they rarely have close continuity connections to the series, and sometimes the timeline placement is approximate at best. I don't recall how well or poorly this movie fit in, though.
Meanwhile, having finished Cosmos and Mebius, I wanted to move on to a rewatch of the Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle series (which doesn't have a complete decent fansub available anywhere I could find, at least for season 2), but nobody seems to be streaming it currently. Thanks to interlibrary loan, though, I managed to borrow a Blu-Ray set of both seasons and the movie (Ultraman Zero's debut), which is the first time I've gotten to play actual Blu-Ray discs on my hand-me-down Blu-Ray player (which I wasn't able to start using until my recent acquisition of a smart TV with HDMI inputs). The image quality is certainly great, but this isn't a show that benefits from that much. Despite being the franchise's first widescreen/HD show, it was produced with a fairly low budget on limited sets, mostly just a few ship interiors and a barren alien landscape. But so far, it's not bad for a show based on a monster-fighting game, and I like the actor who plays the captain/"boss."
For some reason, I didn't write much about Tiga while I was watching it. I just wanted to say that I loved pretty much everything about that series, but most especially the character of Rena. One of the other characters describes her early on as a "rebellious tomboy," but she also has an amazingly tender heart and an incredibly passionate spirit. (I was also very invested in her love story with Daigo.) Probably my single favorite character of all the series I've seen so far. Between Rena, Mai, Max's Mizuki and Elly, and to a slightly lesser extent Nexus's Nagi and Mizuo and Tiga's Captain Iruma, the Heisei era shows seem to have a pretty strong track record with female characters. (Dyna's Ryo has yet to hook me very strongly, however.)
I agree with most of this, though I don't remember what I thought of Nexus's female leads, and I didn't like it enough the first time to want to rewatch it this time around.
Ultraman Omega trailer
Okay, another Ultraseven-inspired design -- an Eyeslugger-type crest/blade, a mostly red body with silver highlights and a chest protector -- but with conventional oval blue eyes instead of yellow angular ones like other Ultraseven-inspired designs, and with a large pentagonal Color Timer. I admit, I would've expected a timer with an omega shape, to follow the precedent of other Ultras named after letters like X or Z (and Orb had an O-shaped timer).
Coming April 22nd (or at least that’s the release date for now!). Ultraman Z
I've been rewatching Ultraman X lately, and it's even better than I remembered. It's easily my favorite New Generation series. It does overdo the crossovers a bit, but that's typical of the era. I'd forgotten that it was another series like Cosmos where the team was trying to protect and understand the kaiju instead of just destroy them. I wish we had more like that.
Ultraman Omega revealed
A red-faced Ultraman? We haven't seen that since Ultraman Zearth in the spoof movies. Ultraman Rosso has red "hair" atop a silver face, and Ultraman Z's Beta Smash fusion form has a red "mask" over his silver face, but neither is as dominantly red as this. It's a bit off-putting.
It's off-putting because nowadays even Sentai has a bit of armor padding on it's spandex. Ultraman traditionally looks like what it is. A giant in a spandex costume. No belt either also makes it look odd
From the perspective of someone more familiar with Toei designs, maybe. But by Ultraman standards, it's a very typical, even generic Ultra design from the neck down, the latest variation on the Ultraseven template. If the face were the standard silver, it would be one of the two most back-to-basics Ultra designs of the past 20 years (Ultraman Ribut being the other). Although it's similar to last year's Ultraman Arc in keeping the body pretty standard and doing something more distinctive with the head.
It would be odd if an Ultra did have a belt. The only live-action Ultras with belts have been Father of Ultra and Ultraman King (though that's more of a cuirass with a belt-like lower portion and a buckle-like seal). In animation, Ultraman Joneus and Loto from the '79 anime and Ultraman Scott and Ultrawoman Beth from the '80s American pilot movie have belt-like design features at their waists.
Correcting myself here. I just finished rewatching Geed, and I now feel that the run of X, Orb, and Geed was consistently as strong as anything in the Heisei era. Way too toy-driven, of course, but otherwise the writing, direction, and production values have been fantastic.
Used a little bonus to pick up some viewing for the summer, so I have Ultraman X coming tomorrow. I won't get to it right away, I'm working my way through Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, and then I'll be doing a Zero film rewatch into a Geed rewatch into a Z rewatch if that releases on time.
But I'm looking forward to it. That will just leave Ginga and R/B for me to catch up on and I'll have seen everything in the New Generation and forward.
But I'm looking forward to it. That will just leave Ginga and R/B for me to catch up on and I'll have seen everything in the New Generation and forward.
My rewatch plans hit a snag when Shout and Tubi pulled most of their Ultra series from streaming a few months back. They put a lot of them back, but the only way I could watch Mega Monster Battle legally was to request the Blu-Ray set through interlibrary loan. It's unfortunate that it's hard to find -- it's a side series, yet it lays so many foundations for what follows, with the whole Reionics mythology that leads into Belial, and the movie introducing the modern depiction of the Land of Light. Also it set the precedent for Gomora being a friendly kaiju, as followed by X. Heck, just in general it was the debut of the New Generation practice of bringing back classic kaiju from all past series regardless of universe.
Like you, I followed it up with a Zero film rewatch, and I briefly thought of going right from that into Geed, but I wanted to rewatch X and Orb first. I skipped Ginga, since it was my least favorite NG series (though its season 1 theme song is one of the franchise's best).
R/B is next for me, after the Geed movie. I wasn't especially fond of it the first time around; the comic villain in the first half was quite annoying, though the second half was better. But I figured I'd give it another chance, since I want to rewatch the first half with knowledge of the secrets I didn't know the first time around.
The buzz on social media is that Ultraman Omega will be unveiled soon, possibly Friday. Reports from a Bandai toy preview in Thailand are that people responded well to Omega's gimmick, which is another armor-based approach like X and Arc.
The two armors revealed so far are Azure Dragon and White Tiger, two of the Four Symbols of Chinese constellations (East and West respectively), so presumably there will be Black Tortoise (North) and Vermilion Bird (South) armors added later.
The two armors revealed so far are Azure Dragon and White Tiger, two of the Four Symbols of Chinese constellations (East and West respectively), so presumably there will be Black Tortoise (North) and Vermilion Bird (South) armors added later.
Hmm, there's more silver in the face than I thought at first. It does kind of look like Ultraman Z's Beta Smash fusion form.
Maybe it's something to do with the wonky scan, or artistic license for the photo, but it looks like Omega's eyes have the same complex internal texture as his color timer, like they're revealing the "inner light" inside the Ultra.
Maybe it's something to do with the wonky scan, or artistic license for the photo, but it looks like Omega's eyes have the same complex internal texture as his color timer, like they're revealing the "inner light" inside the Ultra.
Ultraman Omega officially revealed!
tsuburaya-prod.com
Synopsis
I think this is our first New Generation Ultraman who doesn't have a human host, but a human form.
New TV Series ULTRAMAN OMEGA Broadcast Starts July 5th 9:00 a.m. JST on the TV Tokyo Network and Worldwide! | Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd
New TV Series ULTRAMAN OMEGA Broadcast Starts July 5th 9:00 a.m. JST on the TV Tokyo Network and Worldwide! Ultraman official website by Tsuburaya Productions.
tsuburaya-prod.com
Synopsis
I think this is our first New Generation Ultraman who doesn't have a human host, but a human form.
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