#Superior 8 Ultra Brothers

[chernobog13]

SUPERIOR 8 ULTRA BROTHERS (2008)

[redsamuraiii]

The Superior 8 Ultra Brothers (2008)

The best Ultra Movie I've ever watched. So much nostalgia!

[aroacenezhaanddainsleif]

so i was rewatching the end of lmk s4 with some friends today, and i noticed that in 4x10 peng says smth to nezha like "let the demon child come out and play!" and like. if i knew more about nezha lore thatd probably be quite concerning to me as a lorehead. and you seem knowledgeable. so. any thoughts?

oh boy. (cracks knuckles) it's late and i should be sleeping but I'm also sad so Nezha interest go BRRRRR

i will say for any accurate/culturally referenced info, go check out @ruibaozha - i am simply summing up as much as i can and some stuff is missing/not elaborated on

let me break down the basic elements of the Nezha myths.

Nezha is born his mom and his military dad, Li Jing, and his older brothers Muzha (second) and Jinzha (first). but Nezha is like fucking. superpower baby for some reason? Apparently the heavens decided to bless Li Jing with a powerful son for his military prowess, and Nezha's mom, Lady Yin(?), was pregnant for 3+ years. Then Nezha popped out as a goddamn ball of flesh. His dad attacked him because hey! Flesh ball! But then Nezha's ball split open and he jumped out as an already formed young child (ages often unclear- ppl say he's 7, or 12, and in some cases he died after only 3 days(?) alive.) either way, Taiyi Zhenren swoops in to be Nezha's master, and everything is fine for some time.

at least til Nezha kills Ao Bing. this part of the myth is really what defines Nezha as a "demon child" or not. in Fengsheng Yanyi/Investiture of the Gods, ONE of the older/more well-known written versions of his story, Nezha washes his sash in the East Sea and causes the dragon palace to quake. Ao Guang understandably gets pissed and sends up his general to ask him to stop, who Nezha kills. then Ao Guang's 3rd son, Ao Bing, who Nezha also kills (and rips out his tendon to wear as a belt)! sometimes Nezha also kills a demon, apprentice of Lady Earth Flow, miles away on accident because he randomly fired a bow. yet in another cases, Nezha is the hero- a demon came up to eat children at the shore, and Nezha obviously killed the dude, then Ao Bing, same thing. but in other other versions, Nezha was friends with Bing and accidentally killed him while playing due to being ultra powerful...

and then Ao Guang threatens Nezha's town, because the kid killed his son. (sometimes Nezha goes and strangles Guang before he can talk to the Jade Emperor, so...) Guang demands an apology and/or Nezha's life or he'll flood the whole mountain pass. and Nezha decides to slit his own goddamn throat to apologize to his parents and "return his body to them". Aka: he commits suicide at like, seven(?)

From here on, stuff differs: Li Jing is a shitty dad (like he REALLY really hates Nezha. calls him a curse and beats him), Nezha gets a temple and Jing burns it down, Nezha gets reborn in a lotus body by his master and/or Buddha, goes on a murder rampage against his dad and Muzha (beats up Muzha w/ a golden brick), is forced to submit to his dad through a Golden Pagoda, making Li Jing the Golden Pagoda Bearing Li Jing, sometimes Jinzha gets to flog his brother, and Nezha's basically a bitter fire god (child) put into the literal armies of heaven. he's also got his 6/8-armed and 3-headed war form in the myths...

now, this is a very long yet still EXTREMELY short explanation of the myth(s), and the "message" really boils down to what version you tell- the boy who started stuff by (unintentionally) murdering people, or the hero. but a lot of the main point of nezha's myth was originally about filial piety, and can be told as a story to remind kids that the parents are always superior, but in more modern myths and stories, Nezha has ended up shifting more into a symbol of rebellion. He's the protection deity of children: the outcasts and the demon children, the kids who question things and are loud and outspoken and aren't what people (especially their parents) want them to be. Nezha's story entirely depends on region, context and intent, which makes him a very versatile figure.

Now, put that into LMK?

I have a lot of hcs abt why LMK Nezha is the way he is, but my main one comes down to that "demon child" line. I like to think that Nezha was basically an uncontrolled force of war power and killed Ao Bing (regardless of the situation).

But then he got put into heaven and 1. realized how he acted and had to deal with crushing guilt and self-hatred and 2. got groomed into a (then) child soldier 👍

He was still a general, but learned to channel all that destructive power into being a protector and how to defend instead (ex: his shields, sealing power, etc). He takes his current job very seriously bc he sees it as his only reason to still be worth existing. he also dislikes Wukong bc he sees far too much of a younger him in Wukong; doomed for destructiveness and chaos. this is also why i put parallels to Nezha and MK because. yeah. (and imo, although i know Nezha paid it back w/ his suicide, I'm a bit surprised Mei wasn't taught to hate him, due to how much family matters to dragons...)

so aka, my hc of: "dude was literally always seen as a demon child/symbol of destruction, and therefore after being used as a literal war weapon and then being made to guard a map for ages (probably because he didn't want to harm anyone else), DUDE'S GOT ISSUES!"

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Brooklyn 2

This year marked my first time attending a kaiju convention that wasn't G-Fest. In my defense, there were no real options besides G-Fest until very recently, and those options kept getting scheduled during my semester (All Monsters Attack) or had hefty travel costs attached (the cons in Texas, Arizona, and California). But Kaiju Brooklyn's sophomore outing caught my eye, not the least because it was being held in my home state.

Kaiju Brooklyn's existence is fairly serendipitous. Artist and set painter John Belotti Jr. scored the t-shirt rights to the Ultra Series in 2022, but Tsuburaya didn't approve his designs in time for him to sell them at any of the major New York City conventions. After learning that an event space had opened up in Brooklyn's Industry City, he hit upon the idea of a kaiju convention—and thanks to the twin WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, he had ample time to plan one.

Kaiju Brooklyn 2 expanded significantly on its predecessor, adding a full lineup of panels, a second film screening, a Friday night VIP party, and an Ultraman screening room. I sprung for the VIP package because I thought it would better justify the trip and I was originally supposed to go with my vastly more outgoing QPP. I ended up skittering around the outskirts of the party like the wallflower I am until some of the volunteers noticed my Wikizilla shirt and started gushing about the site/channel. (Keeping the site up to date has been seriously draining as of late, so that really meant a lot.) The swag bag consisted of a Kaiju Brooklyn-branded string backpack and lanyard, a sticker for the night's movie, and a Blu-ray of Superior 8 Ultra Brothers. At first I thought the Blu was the big prize, but the backpack ended up making my life a lot easier the next day. @mainblag (April) showed up for the outdoor Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends the Movie screening. The crowd was enthusiastic and the venue terrific; unfortunately, the overhead lighting never dimmed, making the picture hard to see. I had seen the film enough times to be able to follow it regardless, but it was April's first viewing. Mill Creek Blu-ray, Japanese with English subtitles. (I hoped in vain for the dub.)

I arrived at the con early the next day to see how far I could stretch my limited funds in the dealers' room. There was a TV at the entrance to the hall playing Godzilla Minus One, serendipitously added to Netflix mid-con. (Enough of us stopped to watch the atomic breath scene in Ginza that we briefly blocked said entrance.) The dealers were splendid. I recognized a few from G-Fest; speaking of the Chicago con, it was refreshing to see so many kaiju artists in one room again. Amazingly, no Toho lawyers descended from the ceiling. My haul is here. Took me long enough to pick up a MinusGoji. Also, props to Tsuburaya for having a booth; the free Ultraman: Rising cards went quickly.

I went to three panels: Ultraman Goes West with Belotti Jr. and Ultraman Connection's EJ Couloucoundis; A Tale of 2 Godzillas with Shin Godzilla PA Yoko Higuchi, and Kevin Derendorf's incredible one-hour encapsulation of the Godzilla franchise right before the night's movie screening. The Ultraman panel was a real how-far-we've-come moment. Tsuburaya is doing far more to make their back catalogue and their ears available to U.S. fans than Toho at this point, and I was really impressed with how eloquently Couloucoundis spoke about the Ultra Series. The 2 Godzillas panel was hamstrung by the absence of Will Caban, who worked on TriStar's Godzilla, but Higuchi had more than enough stories about Shin and thoughts about kaiju to fill the hour. Great moderator too. There was also supposed to be a meet-and-greet with Monster Island Buddies; unfortunately, he had the flu.

The Cosplay Contest, held on the same rectangular turf lawn as the screenings, was great fun. Creative costumes; great performances for the crowd; a minimum of photographers lunging in front of everyone else for the perfect shot.

The outdoor showing of The Return of Godzilla was my first time seeing the film with a crowd, and I believe my first time revisiting it since my big Godzilla series rewatch in 2019. I took it in with the lovely group I had sort of glommed onto later in the day, along with April and the college friend who I was staying with. I much prefer the Kazuki Omori films that followed—the pacing here tends towards the sluggish—but it takes some big swings with the Cold War angle and, as one of only two Godzilla films made in the 80s, has a unique look. The crowd enthusiastically booed the American flag on the ambassador's car. The source was the Kraken Releasing Blu-ray, Japanese with English subtitles.

I want to end by talking a bit more about the venue, Industry City. This is a line of historical warehouses and factories now largely occupied by various small businesses, including The Shops at Japan Village. It's a vastly more engaging space than a hotel, at times even beautiful, and helped make up for the two-track nature of the con. If you weren't up for the current panel and had tapped out your Dealers' Room budget, there was still plenty to look at. The panels were held at various spaces throughout the venue, and getting to them was sometimes a bit of an adventure. The Higuchi panel was decidedly cramped. It seems inevitable that the con will keep growing, given Godzilla and Ultraman's ever-climbing popularity in the States, but I wonder how much physical room it has to do so in Industry City.

If you're on the East Coast, Kaiju Brooklyn's well worth the trip. For as much as kaiju fans bicker online, the ones who come to in-person meetups remain a blast to talk to, and they know how to put on a show.

[denebsapphic]

Superior Ultra 8 Brothers (2008) by Takeshi Yagi

5/5, Tokusatsu, Drama, Science Fiveman

Cried like five times while watching this and I didn't even know everybody yet. I'll probably come back to this and watch it again once I know more Ultraman too. 

[thekaijudude]

How do you feel about the Canceled Ultraman Mebius & Ultra Brothers 2 movie?

It was going to be the actual sequence to Mebius & Ultra Bros instead of Superior 8 with Taro being the main character and having Higashi Kotaro Returning as he didn't returned in Mebius series neither the Movie.

The complete script actually does exists and it's AWESOME but it just wasn't turned into a Movie cause of Chaiyo problems, Budget and etc so they decided to go with Superior 8 which in my opinion is inferior

Yeah thanks for sharing the link with me!

Ngl I never heard of this but it seems that this came from the 2009 Mebius Super Complete Works

This was definitely a love letter to the Showa era with just a shit ton of references to various episodes in the Showa series with the antagonist being Grand Tyrant, which I'm sure every veteran ultra fan has seen before:

I can definitely vibe with the whole plot since Taro was my first series I watched when I was 5 and he's my favourite ultra of all time as well so ik what happened with Kotaro and this plotline definitely did him justice

It definitely seems like it would've made a better movie than Superior 8 indeed (it felt so random iirc, not to mention it taking place in a parallel world).

Just certain aspects of the plot seemed too extreme like Marie getting the Hipporito treatment (tho it did somewhat made it into UZF s2 lol), Ken being kinda hands off, Leo, Astra, 80 and Hikari being not as involved etc as well as it seemingly having too much content to fit into a 2h movie (which tbf, made sense since they are trying to fit bascially a homage to 9 series into a single film while weaving a homage-based plotline, which is very difficult anyways)

Probably the only thing Superior 8 did better was the Giga Chimera's design lmao (I love the figure so much), Grand Tyrant just seems so cluttered

For those interested in the complete plot, here's a link to it:

Just activate the auto-translate and it'll translate the entire webpage automatically as you scroll

But also yes, the whole Chaiyo drama with the UB and Showa series lasted for 12 whole years before it was resolved, staggering TsuPro's progress greatly during that decade+, but thankfully TsuPro seems to have recovered from that but they're still facing some issues with BlueArc in China as well as the last bits of resistance from Chaiyo

Thanks for the question!

[mukkuruingly]

Superior 8 Ultra Brothers — Rena Hayata

[meltorights]

another funniest scene in tokusatsu is in the superior 8 ultra brothers movie when mirai is trying to reawaken the original ultra brothers and none of them know who the fuck ultraman is even tho mirai is always like "man-niisan!!!!!!" and THEN when he gets to Go he's like "jack-niisan!!!" and go is like ?? and then he's like "shin-man niisan!" and go is still like ? and then he's like "kaetekitta ultraman-niisan!!??" while daigo's desperately trying to drag him away.

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

okay i was looking at best buy to see if the Ultraman blu-ray was still holding at $8, and it is, but not only that but a LOT of ultra stuff is available at very low prices right now quick rundown:-

$5: Superior 8 Ultra Brothers, Orb Origin Saga $8: Ultra Q, Ultraman, The⭐Ultraman (Joneus), 80, Gaia $9: Return of Ultraman (non-steelbook), X, Orb, Geed $10: Ultraseven, Mebius, Zero collection $12: Return of Ultraman, Ace, R/B $13: Taro

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=ultraman

there’s a LOT of hits here for a steal

[sweetdemolitionlovers]

My favorites demons 😈❤️

Orias (My first demon, the king of the Incubus)

2. Zahan (Lone Incubus Prince, Orias' little brother)

3. Xahrel (Half Angel and Superior Demon, members of the High-Placed)

4. Kylaris (Incubus, Xahrel's servant)

5. Ostrin (Bérzèlut)

6. Mahranon (Soul Eater)

7. Zastradas (Ultra Superior Demon, Master of Hell)

8. Vanyar (Superior Demon)

9. Nylris (Zastradas' servant and secretary)

10. Ezrinaris (Superior Demon, Prince of the frozen part of Hell)

11. Arlenyx (Prince of the hottest part of Hell)

12. Alzaren (Half Demon and Elf, healer's apprentice)

[ultramanultimo]

At least he’s an honest Ultra villian.

[chernobog13]

HAPPY ULTRAMAN DAY!

Well, that’s it for this years’s Ultraman Day from Casa de Chernobog!  Time to go take an ice cold shower, because today was not the day to put this costume on (temp’s over 90F).

Then it’s time for my annual viewing of Superior 8 Ultra Brothers before dropping off into snoozeland.

Hope everyone has/had a wonderful Ultraman Day!  Until next year...

S H U W A T C H!

[redsamuraiii]

The Superior 8 Ultra Brothers (2008)

[ultra-facts]

Today’s Ultra Trivia:

Takami Yoshimoto who played the role of Rena Yanase from Ultraman Tiga (1996) is in fact the daughter of famed actor Susumu Kurobe who portrayed as Shin Hayata in Ultraman. 

Later on in a 2008 film called Superior 8 Ultra Brothers which takes place in an alternate universe, both father and daughter reprise their roles but this time, Hayata becomes Rena’s father.

[chernobog13]

This is my favorite Ultraman movie as well!  It’s an awesome love letter from Tsuburaya to all their fans!

The Superior Ultra 8 Brothers is my all time favorite Ultra movie until Joneus gets in one. Heres my quick homage to it.

[shittytokudetails]

Have you watched the really bad subtitled Ultraman movie on YouTube? It’s hilarious. It’s by roosterflix. It’s the Superior Ultra 8 Brothers but subtitled all horribly. I want to download all parts of it before it gets taken down.

No, but you made me really curious, I wanted to finish gaia before watching superior 8, I'll download and watch later

but I did see some gridman on the tsuburaya channel