Ultraman General Discussion

[Tactics]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/N4cB4dXu-nQ

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Next episode is .... recap episode, smh.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

At this point, do I even still need to keep counting? It's kinda obvious that the show won't even bother making new original kaijus. The best case scenario is that they will try to make something original for the final boss only, and that's just me being optimistic.

Oh look, for once, my optimism is being rewarded coz this episode teased Mother Spheresaurus for upcoming episode 24 only to blue-ball us next week with a goddamn recap in between . Isn't it sad when the "best case scenario" for Decker is like the least effort an Ultraman show can do?

Meanwhile, as if recycling kaijus from other shows is not enough, in this episode 23, we have three recycled kaijus from this very own show coz, f@ck it, who cares anymore?

Also, Agams amnesia is practically just a plot device to turn him into Mother Spheresaurus' hype-man. Aside from that, there's very little story in this episode other than Ryumon finally putting 2 & 2 together and figured out that Kanata is Dekka.

If this episode doesn't have good/great action-direction, I would've threw it straight to trash.

[justavisitor]

Agams is getting really annoying (as if he wasn't annoying already)..he was briefly returning to normal after he regained his memory, free from sphere's influence. And the first thing he did? He summoned the giant robot and served sphere's right away...Well he will still be saved, but I really hope Kanata can't keep this promise

And what an awful time to have a recap episode...someone one in youtube says it's two week off, so we could get two recaps in a row...

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

A simple video from honest-to-god Ultra fans:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/VTthd7vakFc

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[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Oh look, for once, my optimism is being rewarded coz this episode teased Mother Spheresaurus for upcoming episode 24 only to blue-ball us next week with a goddamn recap in between . Isn't it sad when the "best case scenario" for Decker is like the least effort an Ultraman show can do?

Meanwhile, as if recycling kaijus from other shows is not enough, in this episode 23, we have three recycled kaijus from this very own show coz, f@ck it, who cares anymore?

Also, Agams amnesia is practically just a plot device to turn him into Mother Spheresaurus' hype-man. Aside from that, there's very little story in this episode other than Ryumon finally putting 2 & 2 together and figured out that Kanata is Dekka.

If this episode doesn't have good/great action-direction, I would've threw it straight to trash.

I guess they felt because it's New Year's next weekend that they would be better off just throwing out one last recap episode before running straight through the final arc.

I guess they didn't want to waste those Sphere Kaiju suits, even if the Sphere could this the whole time they probably would've won by now. Even Dynamic Type barely beat three at once .

Kanata also got to know the "original" Agams so that deepened their emotional connection and might prove pivotal to the endgame.

[Tactics]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/uZ7rLqGjqxs

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Honestly felt like this episode would have more impact if we're not spending (second) time with Trigger and amnesic Agams in case they want to kept that Godzilla tribute episode. Similarities of enemies goal with Trigger's felt like warning me to kept expectation low for new Gaia unless Tsuburaya can prove otherwise.

I like how Mother Spheresaurus looking clean with some white and blue coloring compare to other kaijus so far.

[justavisitor]

If ppl think Kengo's "smile smile" is annoying, Agams's uttering of basic vocabulary is at least 10 times worse I am glad that he is gone

Kanata getting infected by sphere is a bit odd. Some ppl say it's from episode 1...no way it will take over a year to have an effect on the host imo

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

I'm here just to see Mother kicking ass & taking names coz she is the only original kaiju that came out from this show. I mean, would you believe that? Only one original kaiju came out of a brand new main Ultraman show. It's not like Trigger was any better but how the mighty has fallen (which applied to most Newgen shows). At least when I saw Geed, that show has a running team of kaiju-fusion, so we get to see some neat kaiju combis. But then Trigger & Decker just randomly fused 2 kaijus together in their first two episodes without any rhyme or reason.

As far as the story goes...yay! Agams the stupid sunovabitch is gone!! It really pissed me off what they did with his character and wasting the talent of Yu Koyanagi who previously played Run, the first host of Ultraman Zero in Belial's Revenge movie. Wasting a character & bringing down a good actor along with it is something I really hate in Toku shows. And yes, his chant of basic words is more annoying than Winter Soldier's trigger words. To hell with that.

And.....Fuck, Kengo is here again 😑. God knows I want to be Mother so much in this episode so I can just squish him as hard as possible so that nothing will be left of him 😈

Meanwhile, Ultra Galaxy Fight continued to be the better "show" to follow. I like that the last two "episodes" are following secondary Ultras. Too bad Agul was Earthbound so he can't really participate in this scenario.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/yCxb5nxAXRY

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[Tactics]

Felt like a monkey paw deal from Trigger.

Okay, Decker got super form that actually strong with reliable host but the antagonist will be benched for most times.
Feels bad to Agams, man got coping mechanism, wanted to be taken seriously but his sub-plot hijacked by Trigger, Yapool, some filler kaijus and recap.

[justavisitor]

I am done with Agams when he sides with sphere again as soon as he regains his memory...when the episode aired and the text on the side line asked would he be saved? I was screaming inside "Please damn no!!"

Guess I am not chosen by the light then XD

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

I am done with Agams when he sides with sphere again as soon as he regains his memory...when the episode aired and the text on the side line asked would he be saved? I was screaming inside "Please damn no!!"

Guess I am not chosen by the light then XD

Nah. You're still as good as Zero & Agul. Those Ultras take no shit from anyone. They'll off Agams when necessary in a hearbeat.

Also, most Showa Ultras had to kill kaijus & aliens too. Ultraman had to kill millions of Baltans coz they could never stop making trouble. And by "trouble" I mean invading planets.

[Tactics]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/6PNtc12o7W0

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Too bad that being better than Trigger is not a high hurdle. Starting strong but last quarter is pretty underwhelming: filler and recap, nearly carried by the fight.
Reusing kaiju can't be helped (as Sentai and KR retooled a lot for series nowadays, movie as well) but Tsuburaya really need to stop that obligatory Showa tie-in, let Ultra Galaxy Fight be the one do that; Decker got enough to be its own show and may score better if more focused (either time travel or Sphere - Agams deal to make Agams more interesting).

Another help from Trigger starting to looks like they're doing their best to redeem Trigger rather than actually make him mentor for Kanata.

Now, gotta pray hard so new Gaia, new Agul and new XIG doing better than this.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Underwhelming. Truly underwhelming. The fight in this finale is not even Top 5 worthy. The fight in episode 1, the fight where Decker massacred legions of underground kaijuus & the fight where Decker & Terraphaser nuked a city are actually better than this.

My overall Decker season impression:

The Good:

• 60-70% of the action in the show is actually pleasant to watch. It has some decent direction & style.
• Likeable MC & protag group which are leaps & bounds better than what we got in Trigger.
• I'm glad they didn't force in a "rival ultraman"-character into the show although you can argue that the role was divided into Agams & Kengo (ugh).

The Bad:

• Instead of more involvement with Dyna, we got a lot more involvement with Kengo the smiley bastard.
• Instead of going down the more serious time-travel route, the Decker-dude episode was just a one-off even though the main Ultraman's name was derived from him. He should've been more involved like the "Future Trunks" that we all thought that he'd be.
• Instead of fleshing out the Spheres, the show was too busy with the Showa tie-ins to the point where it stopped the story momentum dead like the episode with Yapool and the strict Metron commander. Menawhile, the Spheres turns out to be a tired one-note villain chanting what amounts to "everything must become one for universal peace". I'm already tired of since the Borg from Star Trek abused the trope. At least, the ELS from Gundam 00 movie assimilated things to understand them, and their violent approach was caused by a misunderstanding and once it cleared, they stop their aggression. Meanwhile, Sphere is just a more boring-version of Borg.
• Instead of having the likeable protags do interesting things, you made them do the most standard and boring things most of the time with not much of a payoff. Heck, back in the Showa era, I get to see the loveable Hideki Go (Ultraman Jack's host in Return of Ultraman) trying to strangle a kid to death (coz the kid was a murderous alien) that made him look like a complete psycho in front of the MAT crew. That episode was bonkers & memorable at the very least.
• Agams happened. Nuff said.

The Ugly:

• Decker's powerup form & powerup device/weapon actually look more toyetic compared to Trigger. I can't believe it.
• Total numbers of Original kaijuu that we get within the span of 25 episodes are: 1.5 (if that doesn't sound depressing for the current Ultra franchise, I don't know what is)
• The absurd dependency on the Showa stuff is truly pathetic which has become a long-running issue for the franchise since Ultraman Max. It's almost like Tsuburaya's balls got cut off after Ultraman Nexus. Tsuburaya, you're not in the red anymore. Nexus' "commercial dark age" is almost two decades away now. Will it kill you to try something goddamn new? Ever since you got traumatized by Nexus, you've been too scared to make a brand new show with no connective tissue to Showa. You're like a scared child clinging to your parent's sleeve. Knock it off, godammit!

[justavisitor]

Yep, it's underwhelming. I think the finale the is most underwhelming tho. Let me see: (correct me if I am wrong)

1. Agams's data says mother has a weakness...no build up, plus why he didn't say it last episode?? (Director...hmm we forgot to give him the line )
2. No human technology can crack that orb from the mother...yet, later on the beam spam from the ship or the robot (I forgot) cracked it
3. It only takes 2 planes, 1 machine gun, a ship, a robot, and 1 determined ultra to take down the most terrifying monsters that in future timeline even a joined force army between planets cannot do it...Granted it, I know most ultra shows at the end it's only the ultra left fighting, but this final fight seems like a mid boss fight to me at best
4. It is so urgent and yet the alien wrestling star is not willing to help? A huge excuse for future decker to follow the monster to return to the present, join force with decker and give him an episode only extra final form? The staff is so lazy, or they care the money too much and not willing to return the cameo actors
5. Director: damn we again forgot to give the monster a reason for the invasion and the monster is about to be destroyed in 2 minutes...hmm all becomes one!!!
6. The barrier got taken off 30s earlier and ships from mars are already in the sky of Earth...this is one amazing technology feat
7. The final fight only has 5 earth team members + 1 trigger...this is even less than the fight against mid boss

The only saving grace is ichika seems caring for kanata and my ultraman's shipping goggles got activated. This is the only reason why I am interested to see the upcoming decker movie XD

Overall, they still can't break the mold from new gen ultras. Well z was next gen ultras and it was a lot better...and it was only 2 years ago

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

Overall, they still can't break the mold from new gen ultras. Well z was next gen ultras and it was a lot better...and it was only 2 years ago

Honestly, the Reiwa Ultra shows so far made NexGen shows like Geed & Z look like Citizen Kane. I didn't know how good they were before the Reiwa shows slapped me in the face.

[justavisitor]

When i said next gen ultras I was including x forwards...

Glad that you like Geed now!! XD

If anything, Trigger, Decker, and possibly Kaiser, will remind us how amazingly Tsuburaya was back in the late 90s to early 00s.

I am going to hold my breath and see how they reimagine, and eventually, wreck the idea from Gaia XD...it will be exciting to see how dirty they can do to probably the most classic ultras

[Tactics]

Spoiler for The New, Registered Ultraman For 2023:

Spoiler for :

Ultraman Blazer.

He's not listed under Tsuburaya's New Generation TDG plan, a stand-alone similar to Z and many others.
Even so some part of fanbase suspected he will have ties with New Generation Gaia considering not only Gaia itself is unique in that plan (no ties to Tiga and Dyna, two Ultras as MC) but also 2023 is Gaia 25th Anniversary just like how Trigger and Decker being Tiga and Dyna 25th Anniversary.

Well ... if you think about it, separating Gaia and Agul as different series sounds like a plan to handle 25 episode quota.

.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

The Bad:[*]Instead of more involvement with Dyna, we got a lot more involvement with Kengo the smiley bastard.

I thought they made Kengo really work though .

[*]Instead of fleshing out the Spheres, the show was too busy with the Showa tie-ins to the point where it stopped the story momentum dead like the episode with Yapool and the strict Metron commander. Menawhile, the Spheres turns out to be a tired one-note villain chanting what amounts to "everything must become one for universal peace". I'm already tired of since the Borg from Star Trek abused the trope. At least, the ELS from Gundam 00 movie assimilated things to understand them, and their violent approach was caused by a misunderstanding and once it cleared, they stop their aggression. Meanwhile, Sphere is just a more boring-version of Borg.

The Sphere's motivation was basically the same as in Dyna, although they arguably built up to it more instead of just foisting it all in the last half hour of the show.

Although Sayaka Ohara was a nice treat.

[*]Instead of having the likeable protags do interesting things, you made them do the most standard and boring things most of the time with not much of a payoff. Heck, back in the Showa era, I get to see the loveable Hideki Go (Ultraman Jack's host in Return of Ultraman) trying to strangle a kid to death (coz the kid was a murderous alien) that made him look like a complete psycho in front of the MAT crew. That episode was bonkers & memorable at the very least.

GUTS-Select was a pretty standard Attack Team, albeit an effective one, but I think that worked for what the show was going for and was better executed than GUTS-Select in Trigger even if I don't find them as memorable as Super-GUTS. But I feel like they developed Kanata well as a protagonist.

[*]Decker's powerup form & powerup device/weapon actually look more toyetic compared to Trigger. I can't believe it.

Honestly I don't notice a difference, but I thought the Shield Calibur was pretty cool so your mileage may vary.

[*]Total numbers of Original kaijuu that we get within the span of 25 episodes are: 1.5 (if that doesn't sound depressing for the current Ultra franchise, I don't know what is)

Kaiju suits aren't cheap. That's why they reuse them as much as they do.

If anything I think they should've reused more Kaiju that were actually in Dyna.

[*]The absurd dependency on the Showa stuff is truly pathetic which has become a long-running issue for the franchise since Ultraman Max. It's almost like Tsuburaya's balls got cut off after Ultraman Nexus. Tsuburaya, you're not in the red anymore. Nexus' "commercial dark age" is almost two decades away now. Will it kill you to try something goddamn new? Ever since you got traumatized by Nexus, you've been too scared to make a brand new show with no connective tissue to Showa. You're like a scared child clinging to your parent's sleeve. Knock it off, godammit![/LIST]

Again, the amount of money it takes to make Kaiju suits is pretty sizeable which is why they reuse classic Kaiju as much as they do. I got into Ultraman with the New Generation where it became pretty prolific so I guess I got used to it, so as cool as it is to seen new Kaiju suits, I'm fine with classic Kaiju popping up if they're used effectively.

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Honestly, the Reiwa Ultra shows so far made NexGen shows like Geed & Z look like Citizen Kane. I didn't know how good they were before the Reiwa shows slapped me in the face.

Isn't Z a Reiwa Ultra? The Reiwa era started off with Taiga, if I recall correctly.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I thought they made Kengo really work though .

You're free to think so. I will always think of him as a plague.

Originally Posted by Frontier

The Sphere's motivation was basically the same as in Dyna, although they arguably built up to it more instead of just foisting it all in the last half hour of the show.

Not enough improvement from Dyna. And I always think Dyna is such a low bar anyway.

Originally Posted by Frontier

GUTS-Select was a pretty standard Attack Team, albeit an effective one, but I think that worked for what the show was going for and was better executed than GUTS-Select in Trigger even if I don't find them as memorable as Super-GUTS. But I feel like they developed Kanata well as a protagonist.

I already said that the crew is leaps & bounds better than Trigger's caricature of a crew. And I also already said that Super-GUTS crew are more memorable & had better interactions in previous pages.

Originally Posted by Frontier

Honestly I don't notice a difference, but I thought the Shield Calibur was pretty cool so your mileage may vary.

That's okay. Both Trigger & Decker are bad in that aspect anyway. It's like deciding which is better, AIDS or Gonorrhea?

Originally Posted by Frontier

Kaiju suits aren't cheap. That's why they reuse them as much as they do.

If anything I think they should've reused more Kaiju that were actually in Dyna.

Again, the amount of money it takes to make Kaiju suits is pretty sizeable which is why they reuse classic Kaiju as much as they do. I got into Ultraman with the New Generation where it became pretty prolific so I guess I got used to it, so as cool as it is to seen new Kaiju suits, I'm fine with classic Kaiju popping up if they're used effectively.

Not having new kaiju suits in every two episodes is one thing. Having only 1-3 new Suits in 25 episodes is pretty much bankruptcy. If Gridman, Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, Neos & Nexus can have new Kaiju suits in at least every 2 episodes in the 90s after Japan's great economic crash of the late 80s & early 90s, today's Tsuburaya don't have many excuses to not make new kaiju suits every couple of episodes. Especially when Bandai is sponsoring them & showering them with money. The more monster suits you make, the more merchandise Bandai can produce & sell. The only thing that's stopping them right now is pretty much creativity/human resources.

Originally Posted by Frontier

Isn't Z a Reiwa Ultra? The Reiwa era started off with Taiga, if I recall correctly.

Yeah, I don't really keep tracks of these NewGen Ultra/Reiwa shows or whatever you call it. I don't even know which came first (X or GEED?) without checking the Wiki. I don't know what separates Ginga & Taiga based on era category. I just know that most Ultra shows after Mebius had become very very toyetic they drove me away. I pretty much put them all together. Geed & Z are two of few that I actually kinda like.

[Tactics]

I personally prefer GUTS Select over Super GUTS due to former being more "human", less weird decision and actually looks like people doing their job.
Even so, yes, I agree that GUTS Select fall short on making anyone that's not Kanata and Hanejiro memorable and it seems like they recognized it considering by second half of series Hanejiro pretty much absent from every important conversation for whatever reason after Terraphaser hijacked (damaged, restricted access, etc).

You would think Hanejiro will criticize Kanata why put Agams life on priority list but he always redirected into Murahoshi, who consider Agams his responsibility.

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Especially when Bandai is sponsoring them & showering them with money. The more monster suits you make, the more merchandise Bandai can produce & sell. The only thing that's stopping them right now is pretty much creativity/human resources.

Now you mentioned it, I'm surprised they're not using both Kaiju Girls and Kaiju Monster Rancher as momentum to develop more new Kaiju for Ultra to keep things going.
Personally I'm fine with one or two new kaiju but if this one or two new kaiju at best coming with Mother Sphere treatment (lack of proper build up, defeated in no more than one episode, lack sense of urgency compare to Terraphaser who is a mid-boss) then Tsuburaya really need quality control.