Ultraman General Discussion

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

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

I understand his character type can be grating and the "Smile Smile" might've been taken too far, but he really grew on me here and I think they portrayed a more mature and capable Kengo here .

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

I actually love Dyna though .

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

It all looks cool to me...

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.

I just don't think it's financially feasible for them to produce new Kaiju suits as much as they used to, otherwise they probably would make more, but it costs too much. They work around it by limiting it to a few and repurposing old suits.

I think the New Gen show with the most new suits was probably Taiga?

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.

Did you check out Orb?

[justavisitor]

@Tactics
Wait, so we don't have new generation Gaia anymore??

Originally Posted by Frontier

I just don't think it's financially feasible for them to produce new Kaiju suits as much as they used to, otherwise they probably would make more, but it costs too much. They work around it by limiting it to a few and repurposing old suits.

I am fine if they have 5-7 new kaijus in a 25 episodes series (This standard is already really low)...but you can't just have one, one new kaiju in an ultraman series. Especially kaiju is a big topic in ultraman.

Even Kamen riders don't go that low. They mask the old ones with new cosmetics so you can't really tell. Imagine every kamen rider show floods with N·Daguva·Zeba and the Weather dopant. XD

This is already getting closer to ethical issue from Tsuburaya imo (I am half serious here...this is getting insane)

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I understand his character type can be grating and the "Smile Smile" might've been taken too far, but he really grew on me here and I think they portrayed a more mature and capable Kengo here .

I actually love Dyna though .

It all looks cool to me...

I just don't think it's financially feasible for them to produce new Kaiju suits as much as they used to, otherwise they probably would make more, but it costs too much. They work around it by limiting it to a few and repurposing old suits.

I think the New Gen show with the most new suits was probably Taiga?

All your defense for NewGen Ultras only tells me that the general glory days of Showa & Heisei Ultra shows are truly over and can't really be replicated anymore.

The only generally good thing that constantly came out during the NewGen era is probably the Ultra Galaxy movie series (starting from Ultra Galaxy Legend in 2009) where they revisited, explored & expanded the older Ultra stuffs & have battles with much better FX, choreography & cinematography which later bled into some of the TV shows too.

Ultraman Zero (probably the most popular Ultraman today) was born from the Ultra Galaxy series. His first host was Run, played by Yu Koyanagi (who was squandered here by playing the Agams role in Decker show). And thanks to Ultra Galaxy, I can see Ultraman Great & Ultraman Powered (from the Australian & American shows respectively) being embraced & brought together with the rest of the Ultras. Even animated Ultras like Joneus, USA Ultra Force (Scott, Chuck & Beth) & Ribut are now recurring characters.

Originally Posted by Frontier

Did you check out Orb?

Not yet. Maybe someday.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Is it weird to say that this OP theme feels nostalgic even though I never grew up watching this American Ultraman Powered

YouTube

https://youtu.be/VDk-t4KYnsQ

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[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

One of the finest deep-dive videos about a Tokusatsu movie out there. This review (with spoilers) is practically a documentary:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/BsI8NgjA3cg

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[justavisitor]

will watch the movie for sure...just don't have time yet, damn it

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/3dSec30sqS8

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[Tactics]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/92wLt-nIZuk

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[justavisitor]

So new generation gaia is no more. Good Everyone knows they can't exceed gaia at this stage anyway XD

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

So new generation gaia is no more. Good Everyone knows they can't exceed gaia at this stage anyway XD

Ultraman X was the closest that a NewGen treated a science attack team seriously. But even that show was plagued by blatant merchandising where the kaijus are Spark Doll figures .

[justavisitor]

agree!!

X has an amazing ED in my opinion
The heroine cares about the MC
The final boss does make you feel despair

I think the spark doll comes from Ginga...probably they think what it worked in Ginga would also work on X. Luckily they changed courses afterward

[Tactics]

Decker movie is out and ... a decent movie, thanks to Decker second half.

Spoiler for The plot:

Kanata lose Decker power by end of series; alongside Ichika, not sure what to do in future compare to Ryumon who get promoted, live up to his goal becoming Murahoshi successor. It doesn't take long time until an unknown extraterrestrial detected, causing kaiju rampage. GUTS-Select cornered and saved by mysterious giant of light that resemble Decker, Dinas.

Dinas revealed it true form as female alien with same name.
She explained to GUTS-Select the invader is a mad scientist who invade planets for theatrical reason of achieving 'the most beautiful invasion'. She got the power of light from Dyna, who found her dying as he drive away the invader (somewhat explained how Decker powers being Dunamist-like, different for each hosts). Following that she resolved to put end to the madness, traveling through galaxies to prevent the worst; soon the mad scientist made global announcement, telling the reason he invade Earth is because he's amazed by Japanese people (no kidding) prowess of defeating Sphere, which acknowledged as most potent invader in space, so he would like to absorb humans, especially them, as power source.



Kaiju sent but Dinas is too weak to continue to fight, eventually Kanata able to prove himself to be worthy of the light as he came into realization he want to keep going, help people anywhere. Kanata then became Decker using Dinas' light and defeat the invader.

By ending, Ryumon became new captain of Nursedessei, Murahoshi promoted as new GUTS chief while Sawa return to her initial job, field research scholar. How about Kanata and Ichika? Both alongside Dinas, became part of new GUTS team, with new battleships they will be responsible for bridging communication with aliens and providing help against invaders, similar to Viral with Cathedral Terra in Gurren Lagann anime. Kanata became commander of this operation and the movie ended as he announced departure to D97 (reference to Ultraman Dyna 1997).

Made me wonder if the draft idea is Dinas supposed to be Kanata and Ichika daughter, marking new future as callback to Decker Asumi. Then again, maybe better like this, Kanata got the girls and not as lonely as Asuka. LOL.

I guess ... KR Saber: Trio of Deep Sin still my top Reiwa tokusatsu movie, so far.

[justavisitor]

@Tactics

Thx for the spoiler!! the last two paragraphs make me want to watch it

I haven't watched any "extra" since the after-work from kamen rider build (because I was so curious to see how it connected from the ending)

I will find a time to watch this one definitely

To me, the best tokusatsu movie is still A to Z

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Just watched the movie and goddammit!........90% of it was a waste of time.

Spoiler for Decker Movie:

The Good:

• We get to see the future development of the protags.....mostly at the last minute of the movie.

The Bad:

• Very rote & boring plot/conflict/story. The villain is just a run-of-the-mill world dominator (like in the Dyna movie) with an eccentric method of merging human souls with kaijus which went absolutely nowhere, not even leading up to something interesting like a mutiple-kaiju fusion abomination.
• There's only 1 kaiju in this movie with 2 modes (with or without shoulder pads + mask). It's not even super-big like in the Dyna movie.
• Uninspired fighting choregraphy for the Ultras, kaijus & humanoid mechas. The fights in a couple of Decker episodes are even better than this.
• Dinas is some kind of a jobber even in-story who constantly needed help and she didn't even participate in the final battle. Tsub guys, this is the 2020s. Stop making Ultrawomen into jobbers to be saved. This is really a bad look for Tsuburaya. This is the one aspect where Kamen Rider & (especially) Super Sentai have left Ultraman in the dust: strong female heroes who aren't just relegated to healers, supporters or villainess. I want me some Ultrawomen that can stand side-by-side with the badass Ultramen like Ultrawoman Beth in Ultraman USA back in 1987. Yeah, remember her? Maybe Tsuburaya staffs really need to (re)watch that animated movie.

The Ugly:

• You dare to make a movie as a finale to Decker without even touching the future aspect of the story? With Decker (the man) nowhere to be seen? Seriously? That is some S-class potential that you just downright ignored .

The Random:

• I didn't expect that they'll use the fish alien from Ultraseven X as one of the grunts. I've been getting an impression that Tsuburaya wanted to forget that show .
• They actually remembered that alien Ikarus like to create random dimension to trap their enemy. That's a nice detail.

I really hope the teased new Ultraman is not them trying to emulate Gaia. Unless there are quality staffs behind the show, I'm sure it will crash & burn in their effort to reach Gaia's greatness.

[Tactics]

What I dislike about the movie:

Spoiler for :

- Enemies background, instead of expanding on loose ties of "Earth is have precious energy source" that thrown multiple times, we got rehash of Agams and Sphere blended into one. The fact it is scaled to Decker Flash Type power level doesn't help; it will delivered better if the enemy as strong as Dynamic Type, so made sense why Dinas easily defeated and the invader is feared.

- The lesson felt off. Sure you're trying to tell that Kanata is the true Decker and he did his best without light, but his prowess in this movie pretty much back to pre-Dynamic state that I don't feel like he deserved to be commander of new army (surprise if older audience also rooting for it). Murahoshi also rewarded sounds weird compare to Ryumon and Sawa who properly fleshed in series.

- Dinas. Tsuburaya, please, why you can't do another one who set the bar nicely like Justice who is more or less equal to Cosmos in Cosmos movie. This also how Decker eventually back to Kanata is the reason I seriously suspect the original plot of Dinas is she's supposed to be Ichika and Kanata daughter, similarities of her build to Ichika doesn't help.

Well, if the trusted leak to be believed, New Generation Gaia is shelved in favor of Blazar because Tsuburaya wanted to try something.
Funnily, this will be the second time they pull back ideas related to Gaia. Ginga is originally planned as sequel to Gaia but they scrapped it because they didn't have the confidence.
Now if you look to its naming also Blazar silhouette which resemble Gaia only with different left side of face and timer; won't be surprised if Blazar is testing New Gen Gaia ideas after Trigger and Decker average reception.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Rest in Peace, Jiro Dan. Your Hideki Go character was the first human host with character development and will always be remembered

YouTube

https://youtu.be/WIpPJDgVrOw

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https://youtu.be/O6M1KZsIckA

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[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/MSnseh90pkg

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Looks promising.

[kiak666]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

YouTube

https://youtu.be/MSnseh90pkg

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Looks promising.

The new protagonist is Heart from Kamen Rider Drive!!!

I haven't been following Ultraman, but I guess this is the first time we have an older protagonist?

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by kiak666

I haven't been following Ultraman, but I guess this is the first time we have an older protagonist?

By "older" do you mean 30+ years old? If so then this is far from the first time:

Ultraman USA: Chuck Gavin (35 years old)
Ultraman - The Next: Shunichi Maki (34 years old)

And if you count Ultraman that don't have human hosts, they are thousands of years old, like Dan Moroboshi (Ultraseven's human name), Gen Ohtori (Leo's human name), Takeshi Yamato (80's human name), etc.

[kiak666]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

By "older" do you mean 30+ years old? If so then this is far from the first time:

Ultraman USA: Chuck Gavin (35 years old)
Ultraman - The Next: Shunichi Maki (34 years old)

And if you count Ultraman that don't have human hosts, they are thousands of years old, like Dan Moroboshi (Ultraseven's human name), Gen Ohtori (Leo's human name), Takeshi Yamato (80's human name), etc.

Yeah, I'm referring to the actor's age. Apparently our new host is a married man with a child.