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brooktrout96 · 4 years ago

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The Dream That You've Always Dreamed is Suddenly About to Flower.

Chapter 1 of The Deeper The Darkness The More Dazzling The Light Shines!

Part 1 of The Zero to Hero Series

AO3 is here

Zero had been traveling all over the universe and even the multiverse. He had see many things like the beautiful green emerald like crystal of Esmeralda to an alternate earth where his arch-rival's son lived and protect. In all his (long) life, he never expected to land in a world where have superpowers was the norm until he did and taking a host with one of those superpowers

Izuku Midoriya was Quirkless and he was told by many that he couldn’t be a hero, that he was useless, until one day his idol and the number one hero told him that he could be a hero, that he was useful. He knew he had to work extra hard to be able to become the best he could be and become a hero that everyone believed in. But no one said that he would be meeting a 49-meter-tall alien that would have to share his body with as he works towards his dream of becoming a hero as he fight giant monsters that seem to be right out of a pre-Quirk TV show

"Midoriya!” His eyes snaped open as he awoke to All Might standing over him but he couldn’t move. It felt like his body wasn’t his own, like he was under someone’s control but there stood his mentor, if a Villain had use their quirk on him to see why the No. one hero had taken an interest in him, they would find out that his mentor was injured and that would make him an easier target. He had to protect All Might and his secret as he fought for control of his body and won control

“So, you’re more like Leito or Taiga then Run then.” Izuku heard a voice say as he looked around. All he saw was All Might standing in front of him with a concern look on his face

“My boy, are you alright?”

“Yeah All Might!” Izuku said with a smile on his face. “I just wore myself out move the junk; I think I’ll call it a day today. See you later.” All Might gave Izuku a smile as he took off and toward home

“Geeze, I thought I was a real bad liar.” The voice from before spooked Izuku as he looked around as he noticed that there no one there, as Izuku return to walking as a transparent ‘person’ appeared in front of him. It was red and blue with silver accents with two strange horn things on its head. On his chest was a blue light, that a lighter shade of blue then the blue on its body

“What!” He squeaked as he looked the ‘person’ that just appeared in front of him and spoke as he studied it. “What are you? Who are you?” He begins to mutter as it let out a sigh.

“My name is Zero, Ultraman Zero.”

Izuku looked at the ‘man’ as he introduced himself. “Ultraman? Zero? What’s a Ultraman?”

“So, it seems that Ultras don’t exist in this world.” Zero muttered as he then look at the young boy. “You’re heading home, right?” Izuku nodded his head. “I’ll explain on the way and then you can explain to me what this world is about.” Izuku continued to walk as Zero sit on his shoulder, explaining to him what an Ultra was.

~***~

Izuku moved the last piece of trash to the pile that he had made and he paused and took a deep breath as he set down to study his hard work. The beach was completely clean, there was no trash at all. He smiled, exhausted as Zero set on his shoulder with a grin on his face. “You did it kid, when your mentor get here, he’ll be so proud and maybe a little confused on how strong you are but you did it.” Izuku laid back as he let out a long-exhausted sigh as he closed his eye to relax and regain a little of his strength as he waited for All Might to get to the beach

“Yeah,” Izuku thought more to Zero then to himself. “I don’t think he was expecting me to finished cleaning until closer to the Entrance Exam.

All Might in his true form made his way to the beach where he knew young Midoriya was. He paused as he took in the beach

“Oh my.” He looked around the beach in shock as he puffed up into his hero form. “Oh, my GOODNESS.” Izuku stood up to greet his mentor but he looked like he was drunk as he stumbled in exhaustion toward him. All Might caught him. “You’ve earned a rest.” He said with a (real) smile on his face.

“All Might! I… I did it… I did it!”

“And you did an astonishing job of it, too! Especially for a teenager!” All Might put Izuku back down on the ground as he pulled out his phone and showed him a photo from seven month ago

“What’s this…” Izuku trailed off as the exhaustion continued to hit him hard as he looked at the photo on the phone.

“This is you, seven months ago!” All Might looked at Izuku, who looked like he could keel over if the wind blew right. “You did really, really good. We’ve only just reached the faintest mirage of the path that lies ahead but you’re a bona-fide vessel now.”

Izuku looked down at something in his hand as Zero had swapped shoulder to sit on, from Izuku’s right to his left. He let out a sigh.

“I feel like…. I’ve cheated somehow.”

“I mean you kinda did.” Zero chimed in as Izuku began to cry as the emotions began to take over.

“All Might, you went so far for me, and I feel too blessed!”

“What’s this all of a sudden? All Might thought in confusion. “It was all you, kid.” All Might let out a sigh as he shook his head as he pluck a strand of his hair as he spoke. “You know what they say, right? There’s a difference between something you were born with out of pure luck and something won after busting your ass for it! Puff out your chest and be proud. This is the power you earned fair and square kid. Now eat this.” All Might held out a strand of his hair out to Izuku

“Come again?” Izuku had a look of confusion on his face as Zero had fell from his perch on Izuku’s left shoulder in shock

“Technically the way you take my DNA doesn’t really matter but this is the easiest way to do it.”

“This isn’t really what I had in mind.”

“Even us Ultra have less confusing/disgusting way to transfer our powers.” Zero muttered to Izuku. Izuku took the strand of hair from All Might as he let out a sigh and put the hair in his mouth and swallowed (not without gagging but that was a given, it was a strand of hair for crying out loud).

He didn’t feel any different but he assumed that unlike the boost that he got as Zero’s host which was noticeable as soon that evening as his mom had a klutz moment while the two of them were doing dishes, she tripped and lost one of the plates out of her hand and he caught it before it could hit the ground. He at first thought that it was a side effect of his training with All Might but afterwards he questioned the Ultra that he shared his body with and he explained that being his host gave him a boost in all aspects of fighting and that if he needed, that he (Zero) could take control of his body if need be.

“Young Midoriya, take the day off to recover and adjust to the power of One For All. We’ll continue training tomorrow with it and the rest of the three month. For now, just rest and take time to get acquainted with the power but don’t try to use it.” Izuku nodded his head as he turned to look at now clean beach with a smile.

~***~

Izuku hadn’t even started on his way home, when the ground shook and Zero let out a sigh as he looked up, Izuku followed his gaze and he noticed a huge yellow and black narwhal looking creature that slowly lumbering threw the city

“What is that thing?” Izuku mumble as he pulled out his notebook as Zero floated in front of him.

“It’s a Kaiju called Gubila, Izuku I honestly didn’t think that Kaiju existed on this earth, a earth with no Ultras to protected it.” He paused. “Izuku I need to borrow your body, unless your up to fighting in my body.”

Izuku shook his head. “No, I’m so exhausted from cleaning, go ahead.” Zero took control as Izuku’s hair became more wilder as he pulled out the Zero Eyes and put them up to his face and hit the button as his arms spread outwards and Zero's body forms via ribbons of light.

He then appeared in front of the Gubila as he got into a fighting stance as the Gubila charged at Zero as he sidestepped the attack and grabbed the Kaiju’s tail.

Izuku watched in awe from Zero’s Inner Space (Zero kindly explained the first night what the space he would be in when they transformed is called, his form changes and what might be needed of him as his host) as he wondered if he could apply the moves Zero is using on the Gubila to fighting a villain.

Zero chopped the tail with his hand as the Kaiju let out a roar and quick swung it tail send Zero flying into one of the nearby building. “Shit! Oh, that’s right!” Izuku heard Zero mumble as if he just remember something. He quickly got up as he switched over to Luna-Miracle. All of Zero’s red colorations had disappeared and he became completely blue with silver highlights

Zero, I thought you said that Luna-Miracle was mostly speed and healing based, so it doesn’t do any real damage.”

“Right but the thing is Gubila are native to most earths I’ve been to but they tend to hide further under ground then most human would be willing to dig. Most of them rampage because a earthquake tends to wake them up. I try not to kill if I can help it and right now it’s not trying to attack the city on purpose. It just confused and wants to go home. Isn’t that what a hero do, help people in need?”

Izuku nodded as the bracelet on Zero’s wrist began to glow as he generate a soft ray of light that calmed the Gubila and he pick it up and took off flying trying to find a spot for the Gubila to be safe and away from civilization that it and the human won’t bother each other before it could return underground.

“He returned and saw a voluptuous young woman with purple eyes and white pupils, with elegantly long eyelashes. She has long, voluminous, creamy blonde hair reaching her waist, with two shorter strands curled to frame her face, parted slightly to her left. She was wearing a purple and pale tan-colored skintight bodysuit, accented with orange stripes, purple gloves with orange accents on the edge of the cuff, and she also wearing a purple domino mask with horn-like protrusions on the sides.

“Izuku, who’s that?”

“That’s Mt. Lady. She debuted seven month ago, and she has a Gigantification Quirk.” Zero took one look at the short (at least compared to him) hero as his Color Time began to beep as he let out a sigh as he looked toward the Hero

“Stop right there vigilante.”

“Vigilante? I’m no vigilante, my name is Zero and Kaiju are my specialty.” He said quickly as he took off before any hero could do anything to him

~***~

Izuku had spent the remaining time before the entrance exam sparring as much as he could getting use to the strength of One For All and Zero’s powers. It seems that he could use all or most of Zero’s skills outside of being transformed. He had the speed of Luna-Miracle and the strength of Strong-Corona but none of the abilities that came with those forms as far they could tell and he was glad, he could deal with the boost of speed and strength as saying he just got the boost from One For All

Izuku paused at the gate to Yūei as he took in the spectacular building that is the number one hero school in Japan, he took one deep breath as he made his way to where the exam were being held and then tripped as he was save by a girl’s Quirk as Bakugo shoved him out of the way as he yelled. “Fuck off Deku!” Zero almost took control right then and there. He hated villains who hide behind a heroic façade, essentially bullies, those who attacked the people who were weak and unable to fight back but Izuku was able to wrangle him back from taking control as they made it to the exam hall.

“Zero, I’ll let you take control for the exam, so you can let off some steam.” He muttered as he set down as Zero grinned as the duo watched other student hopefuls enter and set down. The protractor enter the hall and greeted the exam takers

“Welcome one and all to my live show! Everybody say Heeey!” Zero thought the man looked like a cockatoo dressed in black leather as he shook his head as Izuku began to mutter to him. “I’ve got shivers down my spine, too, Listeners! I’m gonna give you the low-down on how this will go down! Are you ready!? Yeah!” The room was silent as could be as Izuku was muttering to Zero in his thoughts

“That the voice-type hero ‘Present Mic.’ We listen to him on the radio every week.”

“Ah! That is why his voice sounded semi-familiar.”

“Now pay close attention, Listeners! We’ll be testing your mettle by running a ten-minute practice run at our replica city-district!” The others let out a small bit of sound as Mic continued to explained. “We’ll be sprinkling a large number of ‘villains’ over the battlefield and they’ll appear in three different varieties, with point values scaled according to difficulty!! Using each of your individual Quirks, dispatch as many ‘villains’ as you can. Your goal, Listeners, is to rack up a high score.” Zero tuned out Mic’s speech as he continued to explain the exam

~***~

Izuku was excited as he looked at the mock city that he was at because it was time for him and Zero to show how they were worth of becoming a hero.

“Zero.” He thought to the Ultra

“Yeah, Izuku?”

“I’m going to tell you which bots to go after to maximize our points.” Izuku said as he let Zero take control. Zeku (Izuku started to refer to himself as this when ever Zero would take control) had a grin on his face. Robots created by humans were nothing compared to the Darklops Zero that the Alien Salome created and then Belial mass produced.

Zeku zoomed off as soon as Present Mic was finished and he was destroying any bots and helping other hopefuls as he

“I think we got about thirty points from the bots but I don’t think we can get any more though.” Izuku said to Zero as Zeku zipped threw the cityscape looking for more bots to take care of while he was searching or more injured or trapped applicants as they eventually heard a loud woman’s scream as Zeku turned and followed the scream and saw a girl on the ground as the Zero Pointer

“Zero, what are you planning on doing?”

“We can’t let her die.” Izuku and Zero knew exactly what needed to be done as they jumped into action as the green sparks surrounded him as he jumped into air. Zeku went flying into the air toward the Zero Pointer. Zeku then punched the damn Zero Pointer and damaged it enough that it fell to pieces

“Ultra Zero Punch!”

It was in that moment both Zero and Izuku realized that they weren’t in Ultra form, so they didn’t have the innate ability to fly and that is when they realized that the hardest part would be landing, no matter what happened or how they land, it would probably end with something breaking. In their frantic effort trying not to die, they didn’t notice the young woman that they had save floating on a piece of the Zero Pointer and she slapped him as he felt his decent slowing as he ended up floating maybe an inch off the ground as Present Mic call the test

Zeku turned to the girl as he gave her a smile. “Thanks’ for saving me.” He notice she was looking a little green around the collar. “Are you alright?” Zeku heard a woman voice asking if anyone was injured or need any help. “That must Recovery Girl, come on let get you over to her so she can check you over.” Zeku greeted Recovery Girl as she looked over the girl who had save him, gave her a kiss and a gummy. She then turned to look at Izuku as Zero had give him back control as soon as the exam ended. “What about you, are you alright?”

“I feel fine but it wouldn’t hurt for you to look me over, Recovery Girl.” Izuku said with a smile on his face as she looked him over and saw nothing wrong with him, all she did was hand him a gummy. “Thanks Recovery Girl.”

~***~

Shota Aizawa was many thing, a Underground Hero, a teacher at Yūei and a loving husband. In all his years teaching at Yūei, he had never see a kid take off quickly and then efficiently take down the bots, it was like the kid was training all his life to fight. He listen as his husband ended the exam a as he head to the staff room and his desk as he studied the top ten applicants

Izuku Midoriya: Villain points, 30, rescue points, 60, total 90

Katsuki Bakugo: Villain points, 77, rescue points 0, total 77

Eijiro Kirishima: Villain points 39, rescue points 35, total 74

Ochaco Uraraka: Villain points 28, rescue points 45, total 73

Ibara Shiozaki: Villain points 36, rescue points 32, total 68

Itsuka Kendo: Villain points 25, rescue points 40, total 65

Tenya Ida: Villain points 52, rescue points 9, total 61

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu: Villain point 49, rescue points 10, total 59

Fumikage Tokoyami: Villain points 47, rescue points 10, total 57

Yosetsu Awase: Villain points 50, rescue points 6, total 56

Aizawa was pondering the top ten as he thought back to the top two applicants. “Though he earned zero rescue points Bakugou came close to taking 1st, if it wasn’t for Midoriya saving Uraraka from the Zero Pointer near the end there and gaining those sixty rescue points, he probably would have with his plan.” He let out a soft sigh as he knew that if Midoriya ended up in his class that he found his problem child for three years. “Then there Midoriya. We’ve had entrants face off against the Zero Pointer but it has been quite a long time since someone’s sent it flying.”

“So, what do you think of the top ten entrants?”

The voice came from down and to the left of Aizawa as he looked down and saw the principal of Yūei, he was a stout ‘man’ who appears to be a possible combination of several different animals, including a dog, a mouse, and a bear. He has the head of a mouse with circular black eyes, a large scar over the right one, relatively rectangular-shaped ears with pale pink insides slanting outwards from the top of his head, and an elongated muzzle with a small round nose. His fur is white and has large, dog-like paws with pink pads and a thin tail like that of a cat. He sports a white dress shirt, a dark red tie around his neck, a black double-breasted waistcoat and matching dress pants and he’s wearing orange lace-up sneakers with incredibly thick soles which seem to be quite large on him.

“Midoriya seem to be a puzzle, Nezu.”

“What do you mean, Aizawa?”

Aizawa pulled up Izuku’s attack on the Zero Pointer on his tablet. “Right after the punch, it seems like he wasn’t expecting to fall, that is what puzzling me.”

“You’ve heard of the new vigilante called Zero, right?”

“Yeah, he has some sort of Gigantification Quirk and first appeared when that weird narwal monster appeared.” Nezu put a piece of paper on his desk and Aizawa looked down at the paper and then back to Nezu. “So, do you have a plan?”

“Aizawa, you’ve taught at Yūei for how long now?” The principal of Yūei smiled. “I always have a plan.” Nezu let loose one of his iconic laughed as Aizawa let out a sigh and a shiver. No one should get the eyes of Yūei’s principal on them

#my hero academia #boku no academia #ultraman #ultraman zero #my hero academy fanfiction

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writingpaperghost · 4 years ago

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I Would Offer It Happy With a Smile On My Face (Chapter 13)

Chapter 14: Whatever Darkness Awaits You

I meant to upload this sooner, but got distracted. Anyway, I’m gonna put the next chapter up tomorrow because of how this one ends and they go hand in hand. Not to mention I have it written. Then I’ll disappear for a week with no internet and write chapter 15 and probably 16 we’ll see.

You can only keep a secret for so long, and when there are people you technically interact with often, it’s a little harder.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24860734/chapters/62696500

Despite what Fuyuko had told Jun a week before, with Chikako’s help, they did have a conspiracy board. It just wasn’t in the break room like the last one. No, this one was located in a rarely traversed hallway in the back of KPaRS’ base. And what Fuyuko told Jun was technically true, to an extent. After all, this board had nothing to do with that monster man or the other Ultras. Just Grigio. More importantly, who Grigio was.

Because she had to be hiding among humans, one way or another. She couldn’t just, disappear whenever she wasn’t fighting monsters. Even more interestingly, though, was the reporter Tomomi Hashimoto. Recently, he’d written a whole bunch of articles about Grigio, really, he was about the only person who wrote about her with such consistency. Which was kinda odd when you thought about it. After all, he was the one who gave them all the name Ultrawoman Grigio in the first place. And so much information about her, things that couldn’t really be learned just from watching her fights. At first, it’s nothing really worth taking a second look at. Any one article alone wasn’t anything particularly interesting, barring the subject matter. But if you look at all of them together, it almost seemed like Hashimoto knew more about Grigio than he was letting on.

Of course, he could be making it all up. That was very much a possibility. A lot of what Chikako and Fuyuko had on the board was pretty circumstantial. There wasn’t really a lot about the guy they could prove. Really, they wouldn’t even have noticed the… oddness of his articles if it weren’t for the fact that their captain always seemed to read them. Which was something that, looking back, had always happened, not something new because of Grigio.

They could ask Matsuoka, but looking into Hashimoto and Grigio like this wasn’t really something they were supposed to be doing. At least not while they were working. After and before work was a different story. Still, they didn’t want to risk being told by Matsuoka to knock it off. Besides, there’s other ways to look into someone. Like the internet. Not that the internet was going to help them learn who Grigio was, really. But it could tell them about Hashimoto.

So that’s what Chikako was supposed to do. Search the internet for something more about Hashimoto, something that may be able to let them connect him to Grigio. Because no matter which way you looked at it, he had to at least know something about Grigio.

Fuyuko’s job was a bit different. She was to look for where Grigio came from when she appeared. She may have often flown off after defeating a Kaiju, but she didn’t just come from nowhere or anything. It should be possible to figure out where she came from. At least one or two times, she had to return to wherever she came from, and they’d find her then. The only problem there was that they probably wouldn’t be able to recognize her… But Chikako insisted they’d cross that road when they came to it. Fuyuko wasn’t so sure about that, but really, Chikako was quite persistent, and Fuyuko did not have that kind of boundless energy to argue about it.

---

The investigating didn’t really get them anywhere. As it turned out, there was nothing special about Hashimoto, other than his penchant for writing articles on Kaiju. It’s been written in a few places that Kaiju where a hobby of his. It wouldn’t be a stretch of logic to assume that his articles on Grigio were simply acting as an extension of that. So, they were back to square one there.

As for where Grigio came from before a fight? No consistency, at least none that they could find. It was infuriating, simply because they were running out of leads and nothing new was popping up. Could they be missing something? Possibly, but they sure had no idea what.

Fuyuko didn’t mind this as much as Chikako did. Fuyuko came up with theories and made boards for them all the time. Chikako just sort of… came along for the ride on this one. She didn’t normally do this sort of thing, but something about Grigio triggered the part of her brain that liked to make theories. The part that hadn’t really been active since she binged watched Gravity Stream a few months ago. And the only reason that had made her theorize was just because that’s the sort of show it was.

But none of that meant that either of them were going to give up. They just needed one good lead and then they’d certainly find a big clue. Or something. To be fair, this wasn’t really in either of their territories of theories. Neither of them ever really theorized about things they could actually investigate. Not of something going on in Kurokita. But it wasn’t like either of them were afraid of playing detective.

---

“Chikako,” Katsuhito began when Chikako had returned from her lunch break. Lately, she’d taken to pretty much disappearing whenever she got a break of any kind. Normally, this wouldn’t be too much of a concern, but with her recent interest in Grigio and Fuyuko beginning to do the same, he was becoming a bit worried. Not because he thought she was going to cause trouble, but simply because Chikako had a habit of finding trouble. “You’ve been awfully busy during your breaks recently. What’s that about?”

Chikako shrugged, giving him a smile, “You know, just doing my thing. And getting food when it’s lunch.” Then she leans in raising a hand up to her mouth, “And occasionally other times, but don’t tell anyone I said that.”

It would almost be an insult to expect Katsuhito to simply just, believe that. And he didn’t. He gave her a look, one that he knew she’d be able to tell meant he most certainly did not believe her. He placed his hands on his hips and frowned, “You really expect me to take that vague of an answer.” He rolled his eyes and then crossed his arms.

She smiles sheepishly, raising her hands in defense with a shrug, “I mean, it was worth a shot, right?”

“Not really,” It was times like this that made Katsuhito wonder how Chikako managed to get a job here. Or at least how she managed to keep it. It wasn’t hard to see she was good at her job, but it also wasn’t hard to notice that sometimes, she acted like she was still a teenager. “Now are you going to tell me what you’ve been up to…?”

She put on a face of thought, then responded, “How about… Nope!”

Why wasn’t he surprised? He supposed it simply showed how used to her he was. They’d worked together plenty, after all, he’d joined not too long after her and they ended up assigned to work with each other a lot. Even now it was impossible to escape the whirlwind that was Chikako.

“Fine,” He sighed, turning his back to her so he could go back to working. They both had plenty of things to do, after all. They needed to finish off their newest device for KPaRS. The simplest way to describe it was as a net that could both send an electrical charge to shock a Kaiju, but it could also release large amounts of a freezing solution. In case there was a Kaiju that couldn’t simply be shocked.

It wasn’t finished yet though. That’s why they needed to get back to work, and why Chikako disappearing off the way she had been was kind of concerning. There was too much to do and not enough time, let alone enough people to work. They needed to prove this could work, or they might be forced to make something far worse. Even if they weren’t forced to make it, then someone else might do so willingly.

“I’m… surprised you dropped it so easily,” It was a casual comment, made as she wandered to her desk, spinning a screwdriver in her hand. “Something’s must have you stressed.”

“Yeah,” He responded, taking a deep breath to hide his annoyance, “You know, this net that we need to have finished by today?”

A glance over at Chikako showed her eyes widening as she glanced at her computers clock, checking the date. “Shit,” She said, scrambling to grab a piece from the corner of her desk. “Shit that’s today.”

“Yes, it is.” Katsuhito would be the first to say that overall, she was a wonderful person. A bit childish at times, yes, but that was ignorable when placed with the rest of her personality. But the part that always got him was when she did this. Get distracted by something and then not realize that there was other things she needed to have done until the last minute. He knows she doesn’t mean to, but it doesn’t make it any less infuriating.

“Don’t worry! I’ll have this piece finished in –“ She glances at the clock again, “Half an hour, tops.”

But at least the quality of her work doesn’t suffer, even when she’d rushing to finish it last minute. Somehow.

---

“So how have you been, Fuyuko?” It wasn’t unusual for Matsuoka to pose questions like that. He was always interested in how their lives were going. Whether it was out of pure politeness or genuine care most debated. But Fuyuko remembers working at KPaRS for a few years before he was captain and she knows that his care is genuine.

But she was still a bit surprised. Mostly because that’s the sort of thing he’d ask at the beginning of the day. Not after lunch. Still, it’d be rude not to respond and she never really liked being rude to him. He was far to nice to her when she first joined KPaRS for her to repay that kindness with being rude.

“I’ve been fine,” She said, ignoring the eyeroll from Jun off to the side. Jun was always like that, really. Of course, Jun had also known her longer than most of KPaRS. They’d gone to the same high school, and while they weren’t the same age they were friends. Despite not seeing each other for several years after Fuyuko graduated, neither had really forgotten the other when Jun joined KPaRS. But that also meant that Jun was the most familiar with Fuyuko’s tendencies, especially when it came to theories.

“Right, not making too many crazy theories?” Jun offered with a smirk.

“Of course not,” Fuyuko huffed, “What is with you and always bring those up? And they’re not crazy.” She had crossed her arms.

“I hear that you’ve been looking into Grigio,” Matsuoka adds, “I can’t imagine you’ve had much luck.”

“No,” She laughed, “As it turns out, it’s really hard to find information on something no one knows much about.”

“Who’d have thought,” Jun commented, sitting herself at her desk. “But why look into her?”

“Well, she has to be hiding somewhere, right? Maybe she’s disguising herself as a human.”

“Wherever she is and whoever she might be,” Matsuoka began, “Is none of our business and I imagine if she wanted us to know, she’d tell us.”

“I dunno,” Jun offered, “It’s seems a bit suspicious that no one knows much about her. Why not just come out and say it or something?”

“Regardless, it’s not in KPaRS’ jurisdiction. So, while I don’t care what you do outside of work, keep your sleuthing out of work time, alright?” Their captain, as friendly as he is, always surprises when he becomes so serious. Maybe it was because he was so often friendly and relaxed it was such a surprise. “Both you and Chikako.”

“Yes sir,” Fuyuko gives a small smile, “No detective work while at work. That’s fair.”

And really, he could do far worse than just tell the two of them to knock it off. But as long as they kept it from interfering with their work too much, they ought to be fine.

---

To say Chikako was fuming was an understatement.

There was a Kaiju attack today, nothing to bad, and really, Grigio seemed to have it handled. But it was decided to be perfect timing and the perfect time to test their new net. But when Jun and Rin fire it at the Kaiju, it just doesn’t work! So now here she was with Jun, to lead them to where it fell, and Fuyuko, to make sure nothing happens, trying to find the damn thing and figure out why it didn’t work.

What really got her, was that her and Katsuhito had quadruple checked that it worked before they loaded it into the plane. There was no reason it should have just. Not worked like that. Yet, that’s what it did. And she was really pissed. All that work and it’d probably be for nothing. There went their chance to prove they could make good ways to stop the monsters that weren’t straight up freaking guns!

But they still had to go retrieve it. In front, Jun was idly leading the way, hands in the pockets of her pants. In the rear was Fuyuko, who seemed rather disinterested by the whole thing. Chikako didn’t blame her. Frankly, she herself would like nothing more than go home and remedy her emotions with a bunch of ironically bad movies and sixteen cups of hot chocolate filled with marshmallows.

“So what do you think that like…net thing was about?” A girl’s voice asked from a distance away. It wasn’t too quiet, but by the sound of it, the girl was talking a bit loudly. Oddly, the girl sounded familiar. Had Chikako heard her somewhere before?

“I’m not… sure.” A man’s voice responded, he sounded much more unsure. Like the girl, he also sounded familiar. Strange. “But we should probably get going. No point in staying around here.”

“I guess you’ve got a point…” Fuyuko snuck ahead, making her way towards the voice, Jun and Chikako not far behind. They turn the corner finding the source of the voices. The man they could easily identify as Tomomi Hashimoto. The girl on the other hand, they weren’t so sure.

“What are you two doing, hanging around here?” Fuyuko asked, a hand on her hip. The two jumped slightly, the girl more than Hashimoto. The two spun around to face them.

Hashimoto looked somewhat unsure, which was strange, “Ah, well…”

Then the girl butts in, cheerfully responding, “I like to climb stuff.”

“What?” Jun asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“I like to climb stuff,” The girl said again, then moved over to a pile of debris. She places a foot on it and makes an attempt to climb upon it, only to fall when she loses purchase. “See, I, uh, like to climb stuff.”

Jun rolled her eyes, “Sure…” Then sighed, “Why don’t you two head out of here, yeah?”

Hashimoto nods, “Of course, we were just planning to do so.”

Then the girl cheerily reaches in to her pocket, producing three candies and holding them out. “Would you like some candy?” She asked, then added when she noticed their confused faces, “Like some goodbye candy!”

It was that action that made something in Chikako’s head click. “Ah, you’re that girl that was taking photos for Hashimoto like, a month ago. The one with the candy!”

The girl tilted her head in thought, then snapped her fingers when she seemed to also realize something. “Oh yeah! You’re the one we talked to!”

“Mostly you,” Hashimoto laughed, “But yes, I believe she is.”

“That’s pretty happy, huh?” The girl adds as the three take her candy, “I’m Asahi, by the way.”

Jun stretches, “Alright, well we need to get going…”

“Oh yeah,” Chikako groaned, “The freaking net.”

“The net from earlier?” Hashimoto asked, “I think it fell over that way,” He points off in a direction.

Jun thinks for a moment before nodding, “Yep, sounds about right.”

“Alright!” Chikako cheered, “Let’s go find it and figure out why the damn thing didn’t work!”

Once the three of them parted from Hashimoto and Asahi, it didn’t take them long to find the net. It lied on the ground as though it was draped out, like when you set a blanket down.

“Well that explains why it didn’t work.”

Chikako said mainly to herself when she went to inspect it. At first glance it seemed like nothing was wrong… But when she looked at the part that housed the battery for the electrical charge, she noticed it was broke open. Rather crudely, and the battery was not so much taken out as it was ripped from it’s place. She had a hunch as to why the freezing function didn’t work either, but it was best to check it. There, where the many small bottles holding the cooling compound were, was a lot of holes, in both the bottles and the tubing leading away from them.

“That easy?” Jun asked, crossing her arms and tilting her head.

“Yeah,” Chikako was pretty sure her immense irritation was obvious, “Somehow, someone ripped the battery out and punctured the tube and bottles for the cooling agent.”

“And no one noticed this?”

Chikako laughed at that, “Listen, it was fine when Katsu and I gave this thing to you. Somehow between then and you and Rin firing it, this happened.” She sighed, “I don’t know how but it did.”

Fuyuko spoke up next, “But how? It would be impossible to pull this off once it was inside the plane.”

“Beats me,” Chikako shrugged, then began to pick the net up, “Let’s get going. We’ll ask the captain what to do about it.”

Then off in the distance, a voice that they’d heard not all that long ago. “Aha! I found it!” That was strange, didn’t Hashimoto and Asahi say they were going to leave? Why were they still around? And what had Asahi found…?

“Great,” Came Hashimoto’s voice, “Now we really should be leaving.”

“Right!”

Jun looked at Fuyuko and Chikako, “Should we go check on them…?”

Fuyuko sighed, “Probably.” Then she glances around, “A lot of the buildings around here might not be entirely stable. No one should really be around here. Something could collapse, that wouldn’t be good for anyone.”

“Right then,” Jun began to head towards where they heard Hashimoto and Asahi’s voices from. “Off we go.”

Fuyuko and Chikako followed, Chikako carrying the net, still grousing about it’s state. It didn’t take them long to catch up with Hashimoto and Asahi. When they found the two, Hashimoto was watching as Asahi attempted to climb over a pile of rubble. She wasn’t having too much luck, though she was trying and trying. Hashimoto eventually just sighed and walked around the rubble.

“Oh,” She said, looking over at him, “Around works too.”

“Thought you two were leaving?” Jun asked, crossing her arms. She rolled her eyes slightly at Asahi’s antics.

“We are,” Asahi smiles, sliding down from the pile of rubble she was on, “We just gotta get past all this… uh, rubble.”

“Right…” Fuyuko rolled her eyes, “Well it’s not safe to hang around here, yeah?”

“Of course,” Hashimoto agreed, “We’re really trying to leave. It just… takes some time.”

“Yep!” Asahi nearly cheered, “We’re on our way home now!”

“Good,” Chikako sighed, because she really, really, wanted this day to be over. The net not working, or rather somehow getting messed with, really put a damper on her mood. So now, she’d like to deal with the net and go home and then not worry about monsters or what have you. “Now let’s get go-“

Why was the ground rumbling?

Fuyuko was the one who spun around and found out why. “It’s another Kaiju!” She yelled, pointing towards the source of the rumbling. Sure enough, there it was, another Kaiju. This one was a dirty brown sort of color with two horns on the side of its head and one on its nose area. Its stomach seemed to be raised almost like a pine cone.

“Another one?” Chikako grumbled, because this day truly couldn’t get any worse. “Just our frigging luck!”

The Kaiju had grabbed and piece of a building and threw it. Soon there was a loud crash and-

“Hey!” Asahi yelled and shoved Chikako to the ground. They had been the furthest from the rest of the group, but now they were in the middle.

It took Chikako a moment to orient herself after that. But she rather quickly realized what had happened. The piece of debris the monster threw had collided with one of the buildings they were next to, causing pieces to fall. And there was a large chunk that would have landed right where she was standing if it hadn’t been for Asahi.

Wide eyed, she managed to mutter a thanks.

Asahi just grinned, “No problem!”

“We do have a bit of another problem, though,” Hashimoto said, then pointed around them, “We happen to be trapped beneath a whole lot of wreckage.”

“That we are,” Fuyuko pursed her lips, “I’m contacting the captain.”

#ultraman rb #ultrawoman grigio #asahi minato #my writing #i would offer it happy with a smile on my face #waiting at the end of the road is happiness

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des-shinta · 6 years ago

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Access Flash! On Gridman and it’s new anime.

So Tsuburaya Productions recently branched out into the realm of anime with this collaboration with Studio Trigger. And for those who haven’t been following, it’s with a series you 90′s kids might recognize.

The name Tsuburaya should need no introduction if you’re in the Tokusatsu or giant monster(Kaiju) Fandoms, but for those unfamiliar; Eiji Tsuburaya is the special effects wizard responsible for all the effects in the original Godzilla. A Life-long fan of scale models and recreating the world in realistic miniature, he is in many respects considered the Japanese Counterpart of Legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen. In example of his amazing talent and attention to detail, he was consigned during world war Two to make propaganda films of the Japanese military winning in engagements across the pacific and the productions for the time were paid so much attention to detail that no-one at the time was able to tell that they were fakes. He got a lot of flack for that after the war ended, and was barred from filmmaking in Japan for several years.

His company, Tsuburaya Productions has carried that fortitude for effects and quality storytelling with it throughout the decades. Since 1966, their primary product has been the “Ultra Series” Franchise, Primarily focused in The titular Ultraman of the entry, and their adventures.

The franchise focuses on benevolent Giants from the M78 Nebula (though some originate from elsewhere as there’s actually an Ultra-multiverse) who act as troubleshooters for random giant monster calamities; bonding to specified hosts (or on occasion take human form themselves) to conserve their own powers while away from their own homeland; allowing the chosen humans to utilize their powers to defend their home and what’s precious to them. The downside of the Ultra’s is that in planetary environments they can only use their immense powers for approximately 3 Minutes before they need to rest, as their powers are garnered from light energy given off by stars, who’s rays aren’t intense enough to sustain them in-atmosphere.

The currently running series, Ultraman R/B is actually really good, and has a lot to say on the subject of caustic fans who miss the point of the merits of a series due to only caring about the action/spectacle of a fight and adherence to Tropes, and not understanding what a hero may actually be fighting For. While that might initially read poorly to some people as it attacking fandom (as a certain other current toku series does every week)--and that not helped by words from the Head of Tsuburaya from before R/B debuted--it’s more focused in social commentary refuting the Idea that the genre is message-less nonsense, and wants people to actually put thought into what being a true “Ally of Justice” means; Doing the right thing. Links to 3 Relevant twitter threads discussing this: 1. 2. 3. For the interested, R/B is currently being fansubbed by the group Color timer, as Tsuburaya has not had luck in getting it officially distributed as of yet. Crunchyroll, who’d previously been getting the import library, has recently begun dropping Ultra series left-and-right in favor of other licenses, with the only ones remaining being ones they originally subbed. If you’d like some older Recommendations, Ultraseven (available from Shout Factory) is considered the best overall series, And has multiple sequels with the adventures of Seven’s Son Zero (trying to list all of Ultraman Zero’s appearances is ridiculous, as he’s mainly been the star of a long collection of movie’s), and then 2017′s Ultraman Geed (available on Crunchyroll, the movie for the series also from MCS fansubs), focused in turn on the Son/Clone of Zero’s Greatest enemy Ultraman Belial which then had Zero act as a secondary protagonist part of that series’ Ensemble. Tsuburaya however has been having something of a hard time the last several years. The chinese Company Chaiyo, using falsified documents, laid claim to many of the showa-era (pre-1989) ultraman series and all Distribution rights to All of The related content of the franchise from Tsuburaya, preventing them from making money internationally while Chaiyo flexed those rights themselves to make them an immense sum of money. The litigation and lawsuits basically bankrupted the company as Chaiyo argued under the technicality of having a proper authentication of their document from one of Tsuburaya’s sons that the agreement was a foregone conclusion; requiring Tsuburaya productions have an in-part buyout from company Namco Bandai to continue running.

This is why recent ultra Series (Ginga, Victory, X, Orb, Geed, R/B), have ended up being awash with collectibles; Bandai over-merchandises every thing they can get their hands on. Previously the merch licenses resided with Takara/Tomy (transformers, zoids), and were a LOT more restrained as while Tsuburaya Pro Knew merchandising was important to the longevity of a series as an additional revenue source...the storytelling of the series would come first. with series before this, most of the toyetic items came in the form of scale models and figures of both the title ultra’s, some roleplay items, and an assortment of assist vehicles and jets the normie humans would use in battle to support the main protagonist against the situations of the week. That monetary support however helped, and in a newer lawsuit Tsuburaya won through and prevented Chaiyo from screwing with the company again...however, the legal distribution rights for their own assets are still in legal limbo, as the latest case only allowed them to claim Dominance over north-American distribution. which while still a significant market is still small in comparison to the rest of the world; especially with the stigma these live-actions show have in the US. to the non-converted. Really, I think that’s part of the reason why they ended up pushing a new entry of a series that Chaiyo had NOT previously been able to touch at all.

Denkou Choujin (Lightning superman, though the title is localized as Hyper Agent) Gridman was a 39-episode Tokusatsu series that ran in 1993, and more recently was imported and subtitled to completion by the US Premium channel TOKU.

It followed the adventures of Naoto Sho and his friends Yuka and Ippei as they, after encountering the titular Gridman inside of a video game they’d been developing on a kitbash computer (Junk), must assist him in defending the computer realm from the attacks of Khan Digifer (subtitles writing it as ‘Digipher’).

Yes, we know he looks like the shredder from TMNT. Both Gridman and Khan originate from the “Hyper world”, a realm comparable to cyberspace where all entities exist as living data (*cough*Digimon*Cough*), and thus can manipulate less complex data to their own ends. With Khan’s goal being the destruction/conquest of the computer world, which would allow him to transcend digital limitations and begin his conquest of the real world, ala Code Lyoko XANA means of devastating anything electrically powered which could lead to bad ends for those involved (like, say, screwing with a nuclear power plants regulation systems).

PLOT. POINT.

Khan’s efforts are Assisted by Takeshi Todo, A classmate of Naoto and Co who is an introverted social outcast and Victim of bullying; though Khan’s manipulations have turned him into a selfish, petty man. Khan uses him to create the series’ monsters-of-the-week by Takeshi programming them into a homebrew game similar to the one Naoto found Gridman in, with Khan’s incentive for doing so being to allow Takeshi some catharsis from the awful things that have happened to him in his life, oblivious/not caring towards the entities deeper machinations as making homebrew monsters in his game was how he’d previously endeavored to vent his frustrations in a healthy manner...that Khan has just taken to the opposite extreme. Though the show makes clear that Takeshi is fully an Indoctrinated thrall of Khan’s power to even allow him those indulgences so he can’t see the outstretched carrot is naught but a Stick.

To Fight Khan’s attacks, Naoto uses the transformation trinket the “Accessor” brace to Digitize himself and fuse with Gridman, With the transformation cry “ACCESS FLASH!” allowing his body to be turned to data and fuse with Gridman to upgrade his capabilities. Yuka and Ippei likewise assisting them with the programming and transmission of weapons and vehicles/robots that add additional arsenal to Gridman’s counterattacks.

And unlike Previous tsuburaya productions, Gridman was the first to have these assist robots...actually be able to combine with the core hero.

Now, you 90′s kids in the audience might be thinking, “Hey, this all looks familiar” And you’re right. Because the series got imported in 1994.

In response to the rise of Power Rangers Adapting the Japanese super sentai series, there was in turn an attempt to make bank on...basically doing the same thing.

Saban made SEVERAL adaptations of other tokusatsu series from toei’s library; Making VR Troopers and Beetleborgs from Toei’s “Metal heroes’ franchise”, and Saban’s masked rider from the Kamen Rider series “Black RX”. They did not do as well as Power Rangers, primarily because they repeated many of the same mistakes MMPR made but grew out of, and lacked quality storytelling to really keep people invested. While VR Troopers and Beetleborgs To this Day have their merits and defenders...well, the only thing Worse than Saban’s Masked Rider that Saban has made, is Power Rangers (Super)Megaforce...Though some argue That Samurai, Dino Charge and Ninja Steel are very close as well. But THAT is where We Find DIC in all this.

DIC entertainment Was a Company active in the late 80′s, 90′s and 2000′s most known now-a-days for being the original distributors for Sailor moon and it’s awful original Dub, and producers for Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters, the 90′s Sonic Cartoons, the 90′s Carmen Sandiago series, and Alienators: Evolution Continues. Those were their “good” Productions, most of the rest of their library was schlock and terrible both at the time and looked back on in hindsight.

Stargate fans do Not talk about Stargate Infinity.

But in the Power Rangers craze, DIC made two contributions to this in an attempt to cash in on the Hype. The first...is the infamously awful tattooed Teenage alien Fighters from Beverly Hills.

A Transparent ripoff if there ever was one, while many of the PR-clones of the era are accused of being ripoffs, ALL of them with exception with this show ultimately did their own things. TTAFfBH though? No. On every level it’s an awful, obvious knockoff, and only True Power Rangers Ripoff. Not-so for the series we (in the round-about way I’ve taken) should actually be discussing:

Yeah...Ironically, that name was decided on to avoid hedging in on Power Ranger’s naming conventions, SSSS was originally going to be imported as PowerBoy. No, seriously. it ended up doing the opposite, but the intention was to have no relation.

The series...actually did a lot of things right. Co-Produced with Tsuburaya, SSSS was pretty much a direct adaptation, with the plots of the week being adjusted to an Americanized setting. culture and subplots...just with the standard campiness expected of a DIC production...and even less of a budget than Power Rangers at the time had.

A Teenage basement band calling themselves Team Samurai (though why they called themselves that escapes me, I’ve yet to get the show on DVD so am working on memories from 1994/1995 and clips on youtube), end up involved in stopping that attacks of cyberspace monsters after their lead guitarist Sam Collins (Played by Matthew Lawrence, later the sidekick to Will Friedle when he would join the cast of Boy Meets World) somehow gets zapped into his computer and endowed with the powers of Gridman’s counterpart Servo, who then take up the duty of stopping the machinations of the Escaped military AI program KiloKahn (voiced by the ever-awesome Tim Curry. Seriously) and his Human servant Malcom Frink (basically just takeshi’s character again) as their various attacks upon any devices connected to electricity can end-up having real-world consequences...Just as they did in the original gridman series. Astoundingly, SSSS ran Longer than Gridman did, totaling in at 53 episodes; padded out with creative re-cutting of battle-footage alongside getting some test footage for a Gridman sequel that...unfortunately never got made. It was rumored that had SSSS done better a full sequel Starring a character named Gridman Sigma would’ve been greenlit to provide more footage and story for adaptation...but sadly by 1995 and the show’s end, much of the PR Ameri-toku craze had ended, and Gridman/SSSS became a backburner to history. ...at least, until 2015

youtube

Co-Produced by Studio Trigger, Denkou Choujin Gridman: boys invent great hero was an animated short for the japan Animator expo. taking place 22 years after the original series (and the opening several minutes acting as a recap of it), Former villain Takeshi Todo seeks his own redemption for his past actions when Khan (or potentially a successor) re-emerges with more power; Takeshi taking the form of the blue-bodied Gridman Sigma to engage in battle with Digital kaiju that now appear to be manifesting within the real world with intentions to rewrite reality. Again, PLOT POINT. ...which thus leaves us with 2018′s recently released SSSS Gridman.

High school Freshman Yuta Hibiki awakens one Day Sans his memories, and begins to see illusions of Giant monsters in the skyline. Finding Gridman within a Junk computer at his friend Rikka’s Home, he sets out to uncover the mystery of his lost memories, why these monsters are appearing, and what it means for his world as the kaiju begin emerging into the real world, forcing him to fight in the real world as the new Gridman. The series is written by Keiichi Hasegawa, who over the years has written more content for Tsuburaya than any other person; Writing on Utlraman Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, Cosmos, Nexus, Mebius, Ultraseven X, and Most of the Ultraman zero content. He has also worked on Kamen Rider’s W, Fourze and Drive, The Big O, and Zoids Chaotic Century and new Century Zero. the series is being directed by Akira amemiya, previous on the series inferno Cop Already, if you’re aware of the backstory of Gridman, a few things pop out at you. First off:

The Kaiju apperaing as phantoms before they fully emerging intro reality? While also echoing enemies in Digimon and Rockman.exe, This is the same thing that was showcased in the ‘boys invent great hero’ short and was the endgame the heroes were trying to stop in the original series. Thus, the same inference: Khan’s successor--

--(called Alexis・Kerib) has succeeded in transcending the limitations of digital existence and now is seeking to conquer and Destroy the real world.

Kerib has set himself up as a benevolent ‘genie’ to the social outcast and kaiju Fangirl Akane Shinjo, and is then proceeding to do the same thing Khan himself did with Takeshi; use her and her social issues to create his minions and monsters, realize them in the real world and devastate it while incidentally dealing with her real-life antagonists. This all conveyed through Studio trigger’s excellent visual storytelling, when Akane heads home to find it empty, and her room’s floor populated with an insane amount of bagged garbage; something no-one with actual parents in their lives would let happen. A pseudo-social outcast with no-one to turn to; no parents in their lives to give nurture and comfort, seeking companionship through the internet as a source for what can’t be found in real-life so they can be happy, only to be manipulated by a predator for the vulnerable?

All we’re missing is a marred-up desk and suicidal thoughts to make her a Yandere version of Chigusa “Atoli” Kusaka from .hack//G.U. Still time to do that, too. I honestly feel like there’s a Lot more to say on this character and the nuances to her portrayal thus-far that makes her character and actions work in a far better light than those who endlessly try to excuse other utterly-irredeemable people who bear similarities in their backstory. it’s clear she’s just lashing out and kerib--like Khan--creating an environment and unhinged mental state where she thinks any slight can be wished out of existence to make her empty life better. And people lashing out? They can be reasoned with, talked down and reformed. Not-so with those who would, with clear thought turn others into victims and steal from them their own lives; those who are truly abusive in their conduct towards others for petty reasons or only received retaliation in response to their own awful conduct. And yet the reverse is often shown to be true; the irredeemable given the chances they’d wasted before and the consequences of their actions ignored or handwaved to not be applicable, while people like Akane and Takeshi are left in the dark to suffer and be punished to start the cycle anew. However...this time there’s a twist to the kaiju attacks.

The people who died in the kaiju attacks...Die Retroactively. Whatever Kerib is doing, it allows him and Akane to in limited way rewrite reality. in the First/Second Episode, it’s revealed that The volleyball team at Hibiki’s high school were killed in the first attack, but it was noted when Hibiki and Rikka went to school the next day that not only was the school undamaged from the previous night’s attack, no-one remembered the girls that were on the team, or a team for the sport even existing. The best way I can describe the phenomena, since Kerib is appearing to manipulate the world as if it were one gigantic computer, is The kaiju metaphorically clicked on the folder containing all information on the volleyball team, and dragged it to the recycling bin; deleting their existence as the team, and killing off the girls part of it at the point the team would’ve been formed.

And even as hibiki is the newest person to take on the identity of Gridman--

--The battles at best are ones that will only prevent more people from Dying. As we’re only two episodes into the series right now, it’s unknown if any other bystanders caught in the crossfire are also being erased, or if it’s only focused on the targets Akane points out. We just don’t know at this point. What we do know is this series is not supposed to have a direct connection to the original, but because so much of SSSS Gridman is based upon the worst case scenario from the original, that could mean anything at this point; even the posibility that reality itself has been rewritten and is the cause of hibiki’s amnesia.

As a Studio trigger anime series though, there are some things that fans have been pointing out. First off, the names of the volleyball team victims are an amusing collection of homages: Tonkawa Sakiru > Tonka and Cy-kill Toiko > ToyCo Kena-chan > Kenner Doi Hako > Toybox (Hako means box) Takara Nana > TAKARA and Seven (Nana means seven) Cy-Kill was a Gobot from Tonka’s gobots series that was absorbed by Takara and transformers respectively. ToyCo is a toys and collectibles retailer, as Was Toybox. Kenner/Playmates was the US toy liscenser for SSSS toyline in the 90′s, and Takara...well, is Takara. the animation of course, is full-on Expected studio Trigger gar in it’s homages as well

Feel the Obari Pose! Expect the Obari Pose! Love the Obari Pose! “you know, when they do that, it makes it look as if they have a giant Di-” IGNORE THE OBARI POSE!

but the well goes far deeper, my friends.

This is SSSSGridman’s character designer. Just...look at that desk. I spot 5 power ranger/super sentai mechs (Kyoryujin/DC megazord hidden on the top right), gaogaigar, The box for Brave exkaiser, Gurren Lagann, a 3rd-party Optimus Primal, and Shattered Glass Megatron. that last one is kind of important, as the director, Akira amemiya, is a Huge fan of shattered glass transformers.

Shattered glass, for those not in the know, is basically the transformers mirror universe originally created for the transformers convention botcon. it’s a Universe where the autobots are the bad guys and Decepticons the good guys. For more info, I will leave a link to Chris McFeely’s transformers: the basics video on the subject. Watch him, it’s good stuff. Now why is that relevant? Every character in this show is based on a transformers design or color-scheme. Most Significantly those from shattered glass. Akane? Shattered glass Optimus Prime

Hibiki, Rikka, and Sho (who’s knowledgable on kaiju and Ultra series tropes) are cliffjumper (Classics-verse autobot who jumped into shatted glass), SG Sideswipe, and SG megatron.

The autobot Matrix

SG Starscream and Soundwave/ravage.

aaand just a few more for you all.

These four are based on the movie-verse Dinobots, and are gridman’s support programs turned into human beings. the one on the top left whose name is Samurai Calibur (yes seriously) turns into Gridman’s sword the Gridman calibur. The other three turn into the support mechs showcased below. oh, and for the checkback? Sakiru Tonkawa from the volleyball team:

But it doesn’t end there.

The jet booster and drill cannon Combinations:

yes, seriously. The heavy arms configuration as well is a common practice seen with partial-combiner robo’s as well, particularly with those lacking certain combination limbs, particularly those part of the scramble city play gimmick these robot configurations are also homage-ing with the limbs and legs being swap-able. And as all the support arms are based on Dinobots:

“Me grimlock have Anchor arms: now am Jerk and everybody loves me!”

So yeah, to wrap things up, SSSS Gridman is Tsuburaya’s revival of a 90′s gem in an era where a lot of similarly-themed series exist and have done what it has since this series ( Digimon, .hack, Rockman.exe, Code Lyoko just to name a few), but is bringing it back with a fresh transformers-toned coat of paint for a new generation and original storytelling based on the worst-case scenario of the original series, and thus-far it is absolutely glorious, and I hope is able to follow through ‘cause I just generally love series in this little subgenre.

And I will leave you with 3 things: First and second, The Anime’s opening mashed up with Gridman and SSSS openings (link and Link) and lastly an Image of hibiki’s English VA roleplaying with the original series’ toy sword while recording his voiceover:

SSSS Gridman is available from Funimation.

#gridman #tsuburaya #Ultraman #tokusatsu #anime #studio trigger #SSSS #superhuman samurai syber squad #Transformers #shattered glass #Keiichi hasegawa #.hack #Digimon #rockman.exe

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twitchesandstitches · 6 years ago

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some more OCs of note!

Lilisheb: a gigantic shoggoth girl, a massive tentacled and many-eyed amorphous flesh that is virtually immortal, older than several stars, and can assume nearly any morph she desires. And she’s a very gentle and good-natured lady who wants a quiet life and shies away from stress and shock. VERY affectionate and pampering. Her body is green with black undertones, generally with a hyper curvy body, massive boobs, REALLY big hips and a lower body made of tentacles. Lots of eyes, tendril-hair, and a generally featureless face but for huge lips. Stands over 13 feet in human-scale scenarios, almost 80 feet in giantess ones.

Madraog and Mactir: a pair of femboy space dwarves who have a thing for way taller girls and getting into trouble; Madraog is a 3ft redhead with hyper curvy hips, and a gentle, super-passive personality. Mactir is a buff, hunky 4′5 biker dude among their people and is a very challenging ‘COME AT ME BRO’ personality. Both are Irish, and given their dog/wolf themes, can be actual dog boys or full on anthro wolf/dog-people.

The Counselor: An absolutely inhuman robot with a nearly 13-foot long serpentine body, standing about seven feet when raised up, equipped with an array of arms and a head vaguely resembling a conical flower. They are a hive mind of countless robots who died in an uprising against human oppressors, and their mind is a consensus of their viewpoints. While they gravely resent and distrust humanity, they wish for peace and cooperation, and act as a moderating influence.

Liz the Transylian: A fan character Transylian from Ben 10, she resembles a nearly nine foot tall amalgam of alien flesh, biomechanical machinery, energy-baesd weapons technology, and electrical equipment. And LOTS of stitches, making a composite engineer who resembles a humanoid alien woman with green-brown skin, cable-hair, and a very buff, super thicc form. A bit grouchy, grumpy and confrontational, she’s somewhat aloof but genuinely interested in technical work beyond her planet’s know-how.

Shurak: Depending on her current state, she can resemble a kaiju monster girl with dark brown scaly skin and nuclear-green eyes, or a mass of bizarre machinery that feels almost organic in places... or a combination of the two. She is an amalgam of living technology and biomass she has incorporated, taking on useful traits from whatever she has assimilated, and achieved sapience after an early life of mindless consumption. She’s actually a pretty nice person now, but lives in mortal dread of her origins being considered proof of her being an existential threat to the universe. Virtually unkillable and ridiculously powerful, but scared of fights.

Springheel Jill: originally created as a Changeling: The Lost fan character, and remagined as a goblin girl. Extremely small, shortstacked, and seriously scarred, she’s a very surly and angry person who has become the latest Springheel, sacrificing her feet for a pair of magic boots that split apart into hungry mouths and give her immense jumping/kicking power, but must be fed. She has also lost her arm, trading it in for a magic bludgeon/prosthetic. Her hair can magically expand in size and transform into various forms, and she can devour nearly anything, growing larger as she consumes for a power boost that lasts a short amount of time. Generally around 4 feet tall, but can grow to limitless size for brief times by consuming.

The Boyz: not a specific character but the same ork group that Bitz and Gritzgrotz came from; originally a 40k Ork warband, they have been reimagined as a nomadic horde of orks following Bitz and Gritzgrotz respectively, orks and goblins of all sorts, all of them very buff, thicc and stacked. The boys are buff and handsome, the girls are ultra-curvy and amazonian, and they’re all a cheerful bunch of bruisers that get affectionate with EVERYONE even as they pummel to pieces anything that seems Bad. (will probably have to think of a better name for them.)

Professor Preposterous: a goofy, TMNT-themed mutant allosaurus uplifted by time travel energies, this once-ordinary dinosaur developed into a more humanoid form, gaining the power to shift from a ferocious war-form into a curvy, superstacked beastwoman body, to a cute monster girl variation. She then became SUPER educated adn has become a time-traveling heroine, popping up in random time periods to right wrongs, do good deeds, and generally be a pleasant nuisance to all! Enjoys drinking tea, baffling people, and building strange devices that just SHOULD NOT WORK. (IS super, duper fluffy wtih feathers in all forms.) Imagine a weird combination of the archetypes of ‘Hot Teacher You Had a Crush On’, with the like of Miss Frizzle from the MAgic School Bus... only she’s an uplifted allosaurus gal.

Scyala: A chimerical dinosaur girl that has been made with parts of velociraptor, emus, various kinds of snakes, and Megalodon shark, producing a hyper curvy and busty monster girl with a huge tail, sickle claws, an hourglass figure, and a huge mane of red feather hair. (And a propensity to swallowing prey in a single gulp.) She’s a mild and constantly curious newbie to the world, wandering off from her containment facilities where she was made, and tends to cause trouble whenever she goes. Something of a gadgeteer genius!

#/#//#///#////#/////#queued #my OCs #some of these i havent used in YEARS #so i have em updates!

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thankyoumskobayashi · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

allow me to wax poetic about why i love this video so much. the blond with the guitar onstage is Takeshi Tsuruno, the actor who played Dyna's human host on 1997 Ultra installment Ultraman Dyna.

That is my birth year Ultra, and although I don't have a Kamen Rider for my birth year I appreciate the superheroes (as a zodiac-esque kind of thing) I do have. That said I am waiting to watch Dyna, as if looking for some cosmic sign or mental switch to just go and do it. However, when I do watch I will have some level of comfort in knowing how it ends, because of the movie I watched already.

Ultraman Saga is a movie about how combining the strengths of many create a force greater than any one person combined. This is shown after the three Ultra heroes (Zero, Dyna, Cosmos) fuse into the titular Ultraman Saga, Saga's power alone is not enough to defeat Hyper Zetton. Only with the quick thinking and tricks laid out by the Earth Defense Team (played by members of actual idol group DiVA), can Saga beat Hyper Zetton.

It is in that movie that I first heard this same song in the above video, "Kimi Dake Wo Mamoritai" or "Only You Will I Protect." I was enthralled by it, and looked it up, and read about how it was the first ending song of Ultraman Dyna, but Tsuruno sang it often on the set because he liked it so much. He covered it around the time Dyna ended, in 1998, and that launched his music career in addition to acting.

Fast forward to the Saga movie, around 2014, when he's had time to mature as a musician and develop his voice more. It was actually written into the movie plot that Tsuruno's character loved singing that song; one of the members of DiVA also covered it because her character was inspired by Tsuruno's character. Out of all the iterations of this song available, Tsuruno's second cover is the version I still prefer above all, even moreso than the original song. Which will bleed into why I love this video even more.

Onstage, in addition to Tsuruno and his backup vocals, are suit actors waving and dancing as four Iconic Ultras. The one with the diamond on his forehead is Dyna. The one with two gray boob-shaped markings on his chest (at least I always think the markings resemble them) is Ultraman. The one with one head crest is Ultra Seven, and the one with two forehead crests is Zero, Seven's son.

The reasoning behind choosing Dyna is the most obvious, he is Tsuruno's character's partner in the tv show and film. This is doubly confirmed when his dancing mirrors that of Tsuruno's moves; the two are in sync as all good Ultra and human host couples are.

Ultraman is onstage because he was the first Ultra character in the series, way back in 1967. His show is technically the second season but many consider it to be the first one, because its predecessor, Ultra Q, featured the stock Earth Defense Team fighting the kaiju, but no Ultra figure secretly (or perhaps unsubtly) protecting them as well. He is onstage perhaps because diehard fans would feel ripped off if he weren't.

Ultra Seven is there because although Man is the titular character, Seven was the most popular Ultra figure back in the first era of Ultraman. Seven is looked up to as inspiration by many people, including wrestler Shinsuke Nakamura.

Look at him hugging Ultra Seven. He's so happy to meet his childhood hero.

Ultraman Zero, as you might remember from before, was one of the Ultra warriors besides Dyna who fused into Saga. If that was the case, one might ask, then why isn't Cosmos up onstage with them?

Well, I would respond. The totally blue Ultras are exponentially less popular than the red Ultras. Cosmos happens to be mostly blue. Zero is half-and-half, Dyna is approximately half-and-half, and Man and Seven are both red. Suit design goes a long way into affecting the popularity of each alien Tsupro designs, which I won't get fully into rn. Even without factoring in Zero's hot design, there are other reasons he's up on that stage and not Cosmos.

Zero is the son of Ultraseven, first introduced to the Series in a 2009 movie with a title longer than probably many you've heard. To do a mini-tangent here, I love the long Ultra movie titles. They are essentially saying to anyone who hears: "It matters not how long our movie names are. We could make them even longer and people would still flock to theaters because they love what we do and we make sure to put the utmost level of care and love into crafting beautiful & enjoyable narratives."

Zero was introduced as a "taking the baton/torch from Seven" type of hero. He's from a different era; he's got an updated design that resembles his father enough to be distinguishable. Actually, he was designed as the next generation's "most popular Ultraman" which is proved by the concrete evidence: Tsupro chose award-winning voice actor Mamoru Miyano (Light from Death Note) as Zero's voice. And (if stage shows are to be taken as extended canon), Zero's human form as well. Miyano has success in singing, dancing, acting, and voice acting along with his own fashion line.

So, he could definitely bring success to Zero by giving the character a voice that brings in a lot of fans.

Enough success to make Zero the iconic Ultra of his era, and bridge the gap between eras through blood relation. It is not mistake that the Iconique Ultras from both eras (Showa and Heisei) are related: in fact that might be a power move on Tsupro's part. They are bringing back old fans as well as dragging in new ones. They are trying to unite their fans by connecting the generations, a theme which is returned to in the finales of many recent-era seasons: united people can together defeat the final boss. Somehow. Everyone working together no matter how old, those endings always get me right in the heart. And it's that sense of heart, of belongingness that keeps me returning to the show.

The Love is Stored in the Ultra Series.

Welp. That explains the four aliens onstage, and part of why they're there. Now on to more things. The red lighting early in the beginning is reminiscent of the Showa era episode titlecards, which had a red or black silhouette of an ultra or kaiju against a black or red background. This performance mimics that as best it can, showing the suit actors in red lighting which makes them seem almost like blue silhouetted themselves. Actually, this is a deliberate inversion of its own popular trope, and might have been breathtaking to a fan sitting in the crowd.

During the performance, there were clips from the Ultra Series playing on a projected screen behind Tsuruno and the suits. They had clips from-- what exactly, I don't know, but now I am curious to find out. Placing that screen of clips serves a triple purpose: inciting curiosity about the Ultra Series, reminding experienced fans of the cool stuff that went down in the show, and adding awesome fight scenes as a backdrop to some of those Warriors waving, thumbs-uping, dancing, and playing air guitar. So there's a nice contrast there.

I love Dyna so much and I love Ultraman so much. Thanks for reading if you've made it this far

#this is dyna #this is only a long post if you're a coward~#jk i will tag it oroperly this time #long post

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grigio-bone · 6 years ago

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ultraman rb movie plot synopsis pt 2

okokok

so katsus stuck in a building and bemoaning the fact that he still sucks at fighting. meanwhile, isa and riku sgree to team up and are like. instantly a great team which surprises katsumi. isami pulls him out of the ruin, katsu complains about neck pains. isami shoots bemstar and the beam is reflected back out of gan q, and riku hears pegas voice calling for help. he asks the bros to not fight because his friend’s in the monster and he wants to rescue him. the bros switch crystals and somehow get pega out.

after the fight riku rushes to pegas side. bros join him and are like.... so, you’re an ultraman too?

they invite riku and pega to dinner, mom asks just what pega is but dad says no food first questions later but then pega dives into his pocket dimension to eat and the nerd half of the family is Activated, asahi askes what happened to riku and he explains that one day a big hand just grabbed him and pega out of nowhere and dumped him in a different dimension. it was planning to kill him and lock up pega and katsu looks concerned before getting distracted scolding his sibs, the dinner devolves into familial bickering as riku looks on

after dinner riku and asahi talk about family together. riku tells asahi about belial, and asahi tells riku about how shes technically not bloodrelated to the minatos. shes was so confused about who she was for a long time, but then katsumi told her that it didnt matter what she was, because asahi is asahi. the bonds between family are strong and blood doesnt matter as long as u care about each other (i thiiink??) asahi says that since her family raised her with such care, she wants to help others too, and bring happiness to everyone

wild mood swing to tregear. apparently he came to toi specifically because theres something he wants from him- toi wants the kaiju that he made to appear in the human world, doesnt he? to destroy the society that looks down on him. what’s its name? after toi gives its name, tregear zaps him.

the news is on back at the minatos and its all people complaining about the property damage around ultra fights. isamis mostly annoyed but katsumis kinda upset, he goes back to tr and talk to toi again, a really sweet speech about dreams but toi interrupts him by saying literally shut the fuck up you didnt fulfill your own damn dreams so dont lecture me. katsumi tears up and runs away.

he stops in an alley and tregear appears to him and says hes here to fulfill his dream. tregear tells katsumi that he has two choices: live peacefully as an ordinary person, or live as an ultra warrior and protect all life in the universe with his power. tregear shows katsumi a planet where the pigmon are being killed off by a mecha gomora and tells katsumi that he has the power and responsibility to stop it. tregear can open a gate to that planet, but he cant guarantee that hell be able to get back. so, what will you choose?

back at quattro m mom is explaining that shes got a plan to get riku back home, but its gonna take just a bit more time. dad wanders in and asks if anyones seen katsumi?

meanwhile katsumis gone to planet pigmon, beats mecha gomora pretty easy but surprise, it was a setup by tregear. toi saw the entire thing and now that he knows that katsumis also ultraman hes even more pissed because it really does look like katsumi has everything he could want. he transforms into snake darkness and absolutely wrecks katsumis shit. says something about “if ur ultraman ur supposed to protect everyone’s lives right? well, kaiju have lives too!” starts whaling on katsu asking “well, how does THIS feel??” n shit. after defeating katsumi, he flies off

back on earth everyones looking for katsumi when snake darkness shows up. riku and isami get ready to fight. tregear shows katsumi an image of the fight and katsumi yells for toi to stop and then he sees the kaiju get defeated and hes like no!!! toi!!!! tregear shows up again and says hahaha, theyre doing pretty good, arent they. in fact, they dont even need you, huh. what a pity. youre not qualified to be an ultraman, and you cant go back to your old life either. well, nobody can predict the future, so keep doing your best, ehehe. he fades the fuck out

back on earth toi’s actually doing way better than tregear showed katsumi. after isami gets walloped, tregear appreas in front of him and mocks him for being unable to do anything without rosso. when isami accuses him of being evil he claims that hes just giving everyone what they want: evil to people who want evil, justice to people who want justice. people are selfish and bonds are easily destroyed.

asahi on the ground says that shes going to help out too with the gyro that saki left her but all three fighters are taken out right afterwards. tregear calls them all a bunch of foolish humans and leaves.

oh my GOD this keeps getting longer

#grigiopost #ultraman rb

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mst3kproject · 7 years ago

Photo

Gamera vs Jiger (1970)

That’s right, Hollywood After Dark was actually so fucking depressing I decided the only thing that could cheer me up was a Gamera movie – and lo! When I typed our sabre-toothed saviour’s name into YouTube, up pops this film, which I’d never seen! Gamera vs Jiger was directed by Noriaki Yuasa, who brought us the other Gamera films, and features a really annoying noise and some even more annoying little kids!

The city of Osaka is getting ready to host some kind of world’s fair. Young Hiroshi is particularly eager to see it, as is his American friend Tommy, because their families are both intimately involved with the preparations. Hiroshi’s father, an inventor, is building mini-submarines for one exhibit, while Tommy’s, an archaeologist, is bringing in a mysterious stone statue all the way from Wester Island in the Pacific. The statue is called The Devil’s Whistle and the natives don’t want to let it go, because a legend says it’s the only thing keeping away something called Jiger. Boy, I bet that won’t come back to bite anybody in the ass, will it?

Turns out the reason the statue is called the Devil’s Whistle is because when wind blows over the hole in its top, it makes a really, really annoying sound that drives everybody insane – the crew of the ship transporting it, the audience, and a weird warthog-dinosaur-looking creature. Sure enough, this is Jiger, who sets out to destroy the statue and anything else it might happen to come across. Looks like a job for Gamera to me!

Now, the formula for these movies is to have Gamera get injured in an early fight, so that the people of Japan have to try to take on the monster themselves. They then fail, and Gamera miraculously returns, summoned by the whining of bratty children in tiny shorts, to save the day! That’s what happens here, too. So how does Gamera lose his first face-off against Jiger? Is he frozen, like he was by Barugon? Held at bay by a threat to children, like he was by Viras? Beat up and forced to retreat to the water to heal, like by Guiron or Gyaos?

Hell no! Jiger is much more creative. The first time the two monsters fight, Jiger fires quills into Gamera’s arms and legs so he can’t pull them into his shell and fly away, then rolls him over on his back and leaves him on a rocky island to starve to death! Then we have to watch Gamera try to flip himself over again using his tail, screeching out in pain the entire time, and it truly is the sorriest I’ve ever felt for him. Then at their second encounter, Jiger stabs Gamera in the shoulder with some kind of stinger, and Gamera staggers off in agony. There’s then this bizarre sequence where the kids take one of those tiny submarines down Gamera’s esophagus and find that Jiger has implanted a fucking embryo in his chest which is now devouring him from the inside out like one of those creepy spider wasps! Holy shit! Since when did Gamera do body horror?

Gamera spends so much of this movie in obvious pain, I think it would probably be rather distressing for a child to watch. The part where the embryo is growing inside him, and Gamera turns white with his skeleton briefly visible before his glowing eyes go out, actually distressed me and I’m in my thirties. I think this might be the only time I’ve actually seen the children in one of these movies give up on Gamera in what sounds like honest despair, when Hiroshi declares, “oh, he’s dead!” It feels weird to talk about a Gamera movie being dark, but this one gets there.

After the ridiculousness of Gamera vs Guiron, Gamera vs Jiger represents the series trying to regain some of its self-respect and the respect of its audiences (as demonstrated by the fact that the next installment was Gamera vs Zigra, it didn’t work). The dark content is probably an intentional part of this, and it sits a little uneasily alongside the cheerful absurdity that naturally comes of this being a Gamera movie. Sometimes it kind of works, but more often it really doesn’t. The miniatures and matte paintings are as terrible as anything in Mighty Jack or, for that matter, in previous Gamera films. The music includes classics like We’re Gonna Ride our Bicycles and of course the immortal Love Theme from Gamera, sung by a chorus of slightly tone-deaf grade-schoolers. The pun ‘Wester Island’ is kind of awe-inspiring in its sheer lameness, and the dialogue includes technical language like ‘it’s based on super-ultra-violent waves!’ The foleyed-in footsteps sound like all the actors are wearing tap shoes. The dubbing sucks. The dubbing of the children, particularly Tommy’s little sister Susan, is so terrible it actually manages to suck and blow at the same time.

My favourite nugget of silliness is the scene in which one of the scientists shows a slide of an x-ray of Gamera. How the fuck do you x-ray Gamera?! Imagine the host sketch in which Joel and the bots try to figure it out!

But Gamera movies, like all kaiju eiga, live and die by their monsters and the fighting between them. The Gamera of Gamera vs Jiger looks as dumb and rubbery as he ever did (I’m particularly fond of his belly-flop landings), but Jiger is actually pretty cool and mean-looking, with a surprisingly plausible quadrupedal gait – while Guiron always looked like a guy crawling around in a rubber costume, Jiger actually moves like a four-legged animal and I can only attribute this to a very gifted suit-maker. Some of Jiger’s powers, like its quill-shooting, are quite interesting and scary. Others, like its ability to fly by shooting steam out of its ears, are laugh-out-loud stupid.

The fights themselves are kind of interesting in that they are battles of wits, as well as monster fights. Both Gamera and Jiger are depicted as observing their enemy and learning from what they see. In the first fight, Gamera learns that Jiger will try to wrap its tail around his neck, and pulls his head into his shell at the last minute. Jiger learns that Gamera must retract his limbs in order to fly, and uses the quills to prevent this. The fact that both combatants are intelligent ups the ante quite a bit, without giving them the childlike human motivations that turned the monsters of Godzilla vs Megalon into cartoon characters. The brutality I mentioned continues into the final fight, culminating in Gamera impaling Jiger in the face with the statue that started the whole thing!

Just as often, of course, the fights are ridiculous. There is a bit where Gamera throws Jiger up in the air, but Jiger lands on the other end of the fallen tower Gamera is standing on, launching him into some buildings in turn like something out of a kaiju-fueled Rube Goldberg machine.

The setpiece sequence of the film, and the one that sets it apart from any other Gamera movie, is the Fantastic Voyage bit where the two boys go inside him with the submarine to remove the Jiger embryo. Fantastic Voyage was made in 1966, so I suspect it was indeed the inspiration. Unfortunately, Gamera’s innards are not nearly as cool as anything in the earlier film – and in retrospect, Fantastic Voyage doesn’t even look that cool anymore. Instead, the baby Jiger chases the kids around on an obvious stage set, among tunnels that aren’t nearly gooey enough to be something’s anatomy. The inside of Gamera’s lungs are made of inflated plastic bags with some algae inside them, and seeing the Jiger suit at its actual size is laughable. For all that, though, the sequence is sometimes pretty tense, and when it fails at that it’s at least amusing.

I do like Gamera movies in general. I mean, yeah, they’re not very good, they’re not particularly meaningful and they’re not gonna win any awards, but they’re fun to watch, fun to write about, and fun to heckle with friends. I’d even say that Gamera vs Jiger is one of the better ones. It doesn’t have the annoyingly irrelevant moral of Gamera vs Zigra, and a lot more money, effort, and creativity went into it than that movie or Gamera vs Guiron. It helps a lot that the kids here are a little older – Hiroshi and Tommy are specifically described as being twelve years old, instead of the five or six-year-old Kenny and Helen from Zigra. The kids do keep ending up in places they don’t belong but for once the adults respond fairly realistically to this.

In reviewing Gamera vs Barugon I noted that insofar as Gamera symbolizes anything, it’s probably childlike faith in good overcoming evil. Apparently I was right, because that is explicitly stated in the closing scene of Gamera vs Jiger – the adults admit that Hiroshi and Tommy were right about Gamera being the hero Japan needs, and that they should have believed in him. This is still a weird attitude to take towards a giant monster that wrecks almost as much shit as Jiger does, but I guess that’s just something you have to accept about kaiju eiga. There’s also some attempt at a statement with the world’s fair setting, in that what Gamera has saved is a place where all humanity can come together to learn from each other. Gamera movies do seem to be basically optimistic in outlook, positing that humans are basically good and higher forces are looking out for us, and that’s probably one of the things I like about them.

As one final note, the movie claims that ‘Wester Island’ is the last remaining bit of the lost continent of Mu. Godzilla vs Megalon did something similar with Easter Island and ‘Seatopia’, and was made only three years later… did one inspire another, or were Easter Island and Lost Continents just big things in Japan in the early 70’s? If the former, that represents a rather curious inversion: Gamera began his life as a ripoff of Godzilla, but many years later we find Godzilla movies stealing ideas from Gamera instead!

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #gamera vs jiger #70s #antiimperialist kaiju

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ultra-swap · 4 years ago

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So is the Swap AU limited to just Ultras and Kaiju from the Showa Era, or can we ask about Kaiju from later eras too?

Technically it’s about the ultra series as a whole but as of right now I’m only truly familiar with kaiju and ultras from Ultraman 1966, Ultraseven and Return of Ultraman (I have 2 episode of Return left so I’m about to start Ace). I’ve read up on other ultras and a few kaiju from the rest of Showa (Ace, Taro, Father of Ultra, Mother of Ultra, Zoffy, Leo, Astra, etc.) as well as on a few more recent ultras (Belial, Geed, Geed’s Brothers, Zero).

There are still a lot of newer ultras I’m unfamiliar with, so I won’t be able to give a detailled backstory for them, but I might still be able to answer a few asks with small ideas and thoughts! Just nothing concrete. The same goes for newer kaiju, although if a kaiju’s wiki page isn’t too long and/or full of spoilers I might be able to give a better answer than for ultras!

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himitsusentaiblog · 7 years ago

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So I’m trying to dip into Sentai, Rider and other toku things. I come from a background of daikaiju and giant mecha and that’s mostly the hook I look for and then I figure out if I enjoy the show or not on its own merits. Coming from that background and being primarily interested in that, are there specific shows I should look into or avoid?

Ok, after taking a quick look at your blog to get a feel for the kind of kaiju films and media you are into, I can see you do enjoy the older films as well as the newer stuff. I see a lot of Showa Godzilla and that Era of Toho posted and I have to say, you have GOOD TASTE!

That also means I don’t have to give the usual preface of ‘well, if you don’t have a problem with older shows’ that I often give. So, getting into the tokusatsu hero shows from a Toho perspective the easiest place to start is 1966′s Ultraman.

Toho’s special effect guru, Eiji Tsuburaya felt that TV was the next big frontier for entertainment and wanted to bring his monster making skills to it. Thus, he created Ultra Q, which was a black and white science fiction series with different monsters and aliens. The next year, he made a sequel in color and added the giant hero, Ultraman.

The shows feel like 30 minute mini-movies with imaginative monster designs and science fiction plots that wouldn’t feel out of place on the big screen. They even brought over some actors, most notably Akihiko Hirata who played Dr. Serizawa in the original 1954 Godzilla and the technical adviser to the Science Patrol, Dr. Iwamoto in Ultraman.

Heck, Godzilla himself makes an appearance (kind of) rebranded and given a frill as the dinosaur monster Jirass in episode 10 of the series. Toho often let Tsuburaya borrow the monster costumes and alter them for use on TV in exchange for his continued work on their movies. Jirass was based on the suit from Invasion of the Astro Monsters/Monster Zero.

Around the same time, Toei company was produced a giant robot based tokusatsu series called Giant Robo (known in the US as Johnny Soko and his Flying Robot).

This was another series to bring the giant monster action to the smalls screen with different kaiju and evil robots popping up to battle the heroes week after week. This one is special because it would later be merged with other works of the original writer and animated as Giant Robo the OVA in the 1990s, a rather amazing and famous anime work.

Another Giant Robot series worth mentioning is Super Robot Red Baron from 1973. This one is a bit like Giant Robo but with an evil organization out to conquer the world with an army of mechanical monsters stolen and reprogrammed from a world exposition of robots.

The three series I have mentioned above are available on DVD in the US and give an easy entry point to tokusatsu heroes on TV. They all also fall into the general category of Kyoudai (giant) heroes. It was in 1971 that the second massive boom of tokusatsu heroes began with the Henshin Heroes, heralded by the arrival of Kamen Rider.

Kamen Rider is a series I highly recommend and is an entry point into a franchise that has lasted to today. It actually holds up surprisingly well (especially the later episodes) with the story of man altered against his will into a cyborg and then rescued before he could be brainwashed to evil. He then uses his powers to battle the evil group that tried to take his humanity, Shocker. It’s much smaller scale than the other shows I mentioned but does feature interesting monster designs each and every week. The later shows get even more creative with the monsters and there really isn’t one I wouldn’t recommend.

When we get to Super Sentai, the first two series are more down to Earth (if that’s possible) than the later ones and have an espionage, counter-intelligence, government experts group feel to them. No giant robots, no huge monsters. If that’s what you want, as much as I love Himitsu Sentai Goranger, I’d give it a pass.

I need to take a side step here though and say that you -should- seek out and watch the 1978 Toei Spider-Man series. Here is where the giant robots that would become a staple of Super Sentai make their first appearance as well as the monsters that start human sized and then grow to enormous proportions.

As far as actual Super Sentai series I would recommend. The first one that really comes to mind is Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan! Not only does it have giant monsters and robots but some great villains in the form of the Evil Black Magma, their leader Fuhrer Hell Saturn

and the Mistress of Malice Queen Hedrian played by the amazing Machiko Soga!

These are all good places to start and get into things coming from the point of view of Daikaiju films (especially the classics). There is a definite sense of evolution coming from Toho’s creations down through Tsuburaya’s heroes and then to Toei’s smaller scale affairs. When it comes to modern shows and shows to avoid, the only ones I can really caution against are some of the more lackluster like Shuriken Sentai Ninninger and Kamen Rider Ghost. These do have their fans and I don’t want to say they are outright bad but they don’t measure up when compared to others, in my opinion.

One other I will recommend that’s a bit more obscure comes from Toho itself, that’s Chouseishin Gransazer from 2003. I am watching this series right now and it’s got an interesting story. The only caveat is that it takes a while to really get going and spends a lot of time introducing characters before the meat of the conflict and what’s really going on truly gets started.

The series focuses on 12 warriors who have inherited powers from a civilization that existed millions of years ago on Earth and was wiped out by aliens who feared the growing power of humanity, forcing evolution to start over again. These warriors are split into four tribes based on the classical elements of Fire, Wind, Earth and Water. Each of these tribes controls a giant robot and they use their powers to defend the Earth against space monsters sent to destroy humanity once again by the very same aliens who once wiped out the original version of mankind.

I hope this very brief list gives you some places to start! As a fan of both Heroic Tokusatsu and Daikaiju myself, I understand where you are coming from. Happy viewing!

#Submissions #Replying to Submissions #Tokusatsu #Daikaiju #Toho Monsters #Tsuburaya Productions #Toei Tokusatsu #Ultraman #Giant Robo #Super Robots Red Baron #Kamen Rider #Super Sentai #Eiji Tsuburaya #submission

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talesfromtheshatterhome · 8 years ago

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Monster island. Shatterdome.

Sirens were blaring. A pack of Godzilla type monsters had come to the island. The other monsters had left with some of the ultras. Presumably to regroup to face This new threat of Diablo. The whereabouts of Belial, and the status of the invading space ship Zanon were still unknown. Repairs were complete on Gipsy Danger and Cherno Alpha, MOGUERA was almost complete and prepared to move out.

“Herc you’re gonna want to look at this.” Choi said, walking into Marshal Hercules Hanson’s quarters.

“Whats going on out there?”

“Our Serizawa has been searching the satellite feeds for Godzilla. Our island sensors picked up a large group of Godzilla including Space Godzilla returning to the island. Godzilla himself however left and Serizawa has just found him somewhere near Ireland. He is in an area with some strange readings, and we cant really see whats going on but from what we can make out he is engaged in combat currently. It looks like some of the other monsters are on their way there as well. Whatever this Diablo thing is, I think we need to tackle it with the monsters while we can. Also unrelated, we need to code name the new Godzillas. Junior is still here. Space Godzilla is apparently here. Kiryu is gone. That hard-ass looking fella was Kiryu according to on site reports from the chrysalis location. So I guess space G over there hatched. Then there is the old man, no idea what that Goji’s story is, and then there is that one Chunky lookin fella Junior trashed a few months ago. So I had some recommendations for you.” Tendo Choi said.

“Walk while we talk.” Herc said. Standing from his desk and wandering down the hall. Towards the comms center.

“So the chubby guy I think we should name Legendary Godzilla. He wrecked up a whole bunch of monsters when Belial faced Diablo. Space Godzilla and Junior we already know. The other one looks like he is an older Godzilla and I think the code name ‘Ancient Godzilla’ would work. And Finally this one that Kiryu was built on. He seems to be the head of the pack now so I felt Alpha would be appropriate.”

“Sure Tendo. What ever works. What else is happening?”

“Well the other Serizawa showed up from the science patrol. Something about a break through with a genetic formula. He has been working on the Burning Godzilla issue, you know how Godzilla can absorb too much radiation and has the potential to melt down and destroy the planet and all that?”

“Right. I uh… didn’t know that… At all. Was that a thing that could have happened?”

“Yeah. It almost did while he was fighting us and all that craziness last year.”

“Holy crap I shot missiles at him…”

“Yeah good thing Mothra was there. Any way. So Serizawa has been trying to find a way to stabilize that. He said he figured out some kind of catalyst. I cant really make heads or tails of whats going on. Also Aparently all of the monsters from the island got swamped by Kaiju, were saved by some Ultras and now they all split with the ultras and Battra trying to find some kind of Guardian Monsters to fight Diablo.”

“WHAT?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME ALL OF THE MONSTERS FROM THE ISLAND LEFT?! BUT WAIT BACK IT UP… THE ISLAND WAS ATTACKED BY KAIJU DURING THE BLACKOUT AND WE HAD UNAUTHORIZED ULTRAS JUST SHOW UP AND LEAD EVERYONE OFF ON SOME KIND OF SEARCH FOR SASQUATCH?!”

“Well yeah. Sorry. Serizawa seemed really excited and now we have four more Godzillas then we used to. I guess I got distracted…”

“YOU GOT DISTRACTED?! WE WERE LITERALLY ATTACKED BY THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THREAT WE ARE HERE FOR!! THE ENTIRE PPDF WAS MADE TO FACE THESE THINGS AND THEY WERE ALL HERE AND THAT WASN’T A PRIORITY FOR YOU?!”

As they walked Serizawa came up frantically to them. “Sirs hello yes. I finished the compound!”

“The what now?” Herc turned

“Evening Marshall. So as I reported earlier. I have devised a Synchronous Uracil Parthenogenisis Epigenetic Radiation serum that we can inject into Godzilla to stabilize his Burning and melt down forms. All it would take is a sudden spike in radiation, and my syrum to prevent Godzilla from going into a full blown melt down!”

“Fantastic. When we need it next I’ll give you a call. Right now I need to deal with the missing monsters.”

“Oh they’re all trying to find the Guardian Monsters to face Diablo. He is the devil. After all.”

“And how do you know this when I am just finding out now?” Herc demanded.

“Well the Twins told us. You know? Mothra’s Faeries? They told Shinjiro who called us to keep us updated.”

“Who the hell is Shinjiro and Faeries? Mothra has Faeries?”

“Well Shinjiro is Hiyata’s son. And Mothra’s faeries have always been around. You never noticed them? They speak for mothra, talk about and to the monsters? Have you really never noticed?”

“Okay no. there have definitely not been two little faeries just running around and me not noticing. And is Shinjiro …. You know… like his dad?”

“Yes and yes there most definitely have been two faeries running around telling us all about whats going on with Mothra and the Monsters.”

“No way. How do you expect me to believe that? Hiyata having a son sure, but Faeries? A little far fetched don’t you think?”

“We are right here Marshall.”

Herc looked down. On a small tiny cat sized Mothra sat two little tiny women.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“Marshall, what language!” The faeries exclaimed. “But we have always been here. We speak for Mothra. She has gone with Anguiras and Rodan to help Godzilla in his Fight against Grand King Ghidorah. She doesn’t think Godzilla can win on her own. Battra has gone out with one of the Ultra’s and some of your monsters to find and awaken King Ceasar. Kong was going with the rest of the monsters to face the spirit of the great dragon. Mothra was to go with them to unlock the way.. but She sensed the Return of Grand King Ghidorah. So that was a larger priority. Without Godzilla we can not protect this world from such grave threats. More foes will come. Godzilla is King. And the King must protect the kingdom. Kong will be calling to Junior to aid him now in his place. We have come to ask you to send your metal monsters to Godzilla’s aid. We know it will take time, but we hope that they may yet arrive before it is too late.”

“That is why I have sent Arashi ahead to inject Godzilla with the S.U.P.E.R formula and hit him with a small nuke to catalyze the serum. I advise we mobilize the fleet to meet up with the aircraft carrier in the Atlantic, the U.S.S Enterprise I believe it was. It is large enough to hold two of the Mecha so they can recharge on the journey to Ireland to face Diablo.”

“You authorized a nuclear strike?! DO YOU KNOW THE SHEER AMMOUNT OF POLITICAL MADNESS THAT’S GOING TO CAUSE?!” Herc paused to collect himself. “And don’t tell me how to run my men…”

“So what do you want us to do sir? In light of all this new information.” Tendo asked.

“Send everything we have to meet up with the Enterprise. Have Mecha Godzilla and MOGUERA to land on it last and recharge before attacking once that nuke clears up.”

“The nuke will have no fall out. It isn’t technically a bomb, just a liquid form of molten uranium that will be applied to Godzilla in the same device that will be injecting him as the S.U.P.E.R serum. It is just all in a bomb delivery system attached to one of the Science Patrol VTOLLs that has been equipped with the strongest shield possible.”

“So much better… Order the attack. Target This fancy Ghidorah, and then if Diablo shows up we attack him next.”

#Godzilla #Pacific Rim #Tales from The shatterhome #Ultraman #Diablo

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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Manga the Week of 8/29/18

SEAN: Last week of August. Should be small, right? Hah. So much Kodansha digital. So much Seven Seas. Yen Press runoff stuff. It’s huge.

ASH: Let’s jam!

We begin with Cross Infinite World, who have another light novel for us with The Eccentric Master and the Fake Lover. Despite the somewhat salacious copy about bodily fluids, I think this is a woman-oriented romance title.

Dark Horse has the 18th and final volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Don’t worry, the omnibuses are still going.

ASH: I’m glad that Dark Horse has found ways to keep things in print, but I’ll admit the publisher’s printing (and reprinting) schedule can be frustrating.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 6th volume of To-Love-Ru Darkness.

J-Novel Club has two debuts. Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles looks to combine both reincarnation isekai AND the magical academy sort of book.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen may sound familiar to those with long memories – its anime adaptation aired exactly 20 years ago, and the novels are even older than that. It’s a big ol’ epic fantasy.

J-Novel Club also has a 7th If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, which I believe catches us up with Japan.

Kodansha does have a few print titles next week. There’s Again!! 4, Aho-Girl 8, and the 4th Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle.

MICHELLE: Yay for more Again!!.

ASH: I’m excited to read more, too!

ANNA: Triple yay!

SEAN: The majority of stuff is digital, though. Technically there’s no debut, but Kodansha is releasing digital versions of Peach Girl 1-18. These are the old Tokyopop editions ported over, I think, rather than a new translation, but that’s fine. Enjoy some classic overwrought shoujo!

MICHELLE: Oh, neat! I didn’t know they were doing that. That said, I have a big stack of TOKYOPOP editions that I never read, so… I would like to see them finish Ueda’s Papillon, which Del Rey had been publishing.

ANNA: Yeah, Papillon was good!

SEAN: And there’s Ace of the Diamond 14, Defying Kurosaki-kun 3, Hotaru’s Way 6, I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 3, Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? 2, Liar x Liar 5, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 3. Phew!

MICHELLE: I regret that I haven’t managed to read Is Kichijoji yet, but still, yay for more sports manga!

SEAN: But wait, here comes Seven Seas, and they’re burying us too. Debuts first. Cutey Honey: the Classic Collection is another deluxe hardcover which collects the original Cutey Honey manga from 1973. It should be complete in one omnibus, and is a must-read.

ASH: Cutie Honey A Go Go! was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to reading the original.

SEAN: The other new title is Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project, which is a Young Champion series that imagines an alien invasion that needs Japanese monsters to save the day! There’s just one problem. The monsters are high school girls. This sounds fascinatingly wretched.

And we also have (deep breath) Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 5, Citrus 8, Holy Corpse Rising 5, How to Build a Dungeon 4, Magical Girl Apocalypse 15, Monster Girl Doctor light novel 3, and My Monster Secret 12. There’s a lot of stuff in that list I hate, so I am pleased it ends with My Monster Secret, which is hilarious.

ASH: I need to catch up on Dimensional Voyage, especially since the original Captain Harlock is now being released, too.

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 2nd Chi’s Sweet Adventures, for all your cute cat needs.

If you prefer snakes, why not read the latest Monogatari novel from Vertical, Inc? Otorimonogatari: Decoy Tale gives us the story of Nadeko Sengoku’s encounter with a snake aberration, but who’s controlling whom here?

Yen Press also has a few titles that didn’t come out last week. Digitally we have Corpse Princess 18, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 7, and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 7.

Yen On has the 2nd novel of better-than-it-sounds fantasy Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon.

And lastly, Yen debuts Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger, where a Square Enix employee and his sister die and are reborn in the world of Final Fantasy. Yes, isekai has finally met Final Fantasy. Can we cope with this?

Are you coping with all this manga? What are you getting?

MICHELLE: SuBLime has a small number of digital-only series and my very favorite, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, has a fifth volume coming out! I’m snagging that for sure.

MELINDA: Oh, hey! I need to catch up with that!!

ASH: One of the titles I really wish was getting a print release! SEAN: Whoops! Pretend I mentioned that up above.

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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spryfilm · 6 years ago

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“Pacfic Rim: Uprising” (2018)

Action/Science Fiction

Running Time: 111 minutes

Written by: Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, Steven S. DeKnight & T.S. Nowlin

Directed by: Steven S. DeKnight

Featuring: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Adria Arjona, Zhang Jin, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman

Voice: “What is a Jaeger? A Jaeger is the pinnacle of human invention. When the monsters came we did now wait for heroes to fall from the sky and save us, we saved ourselves. Innovation is our superpower. What is a Jaeger? It’s you times a thousand. Tall as a mountain with a beating heart that burns as bright as the sun, enabling us all to become the most heroic versions of ourselves.”

Critical Commentary:

How times change, after the release of “Pacific Rim” (2013) a Guillermo del Toro directed piece of science fiction that wanted to straddle the worlds of Wells and Lovecraft, that featured some of the hottest up and coming stars of that year in Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba as well as some fine characters actors in Ron Pearlman, Max Martini, Clifton Collins Jr., Burn Gorman and Charlie Day, it seemed the stories of Kaiju’s and Jaeger would never have another outing. With an outsized budget of US$200 million dollars and a really rather middling box office of US$411 million (most coming from International markets) there was little appetite for a sequel. Come 2018 with the more expensive actors as well as production people replaced by what really are B and C actors we now have a sequel in “Pacific Rim: Uprising” (2018), with a budget far less at US$150 million (even less when factoring in inflation) this has not been the hit that the studio (Legendary /Universal) or the producers had hoped for. With all the best intentions in the world, no matter how much story or plot that is attempted this potential franchise is still built around monsters fighting giant machines, which is of course its greatest strength, but also remains its greatest weakness, as does the unbelievable amount of collateral damage that is caused in every single action set piece of which there are more than a few, maybe too many as it transpires.

This sequel co-written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight who is possibly best known as a genre television writer has never been at the helm of a movie either as writer or director – for most of “Pacific Rim: Uprising” he makes a decent enough fist of it, although I do question handing the reigns of such a large budget to someone with very little actual experience. Where the lack of ideas as well as originality does show is in the general story and action that appears onscreen as well as the plot reasons as to why there is even a need for this sequel, when the original itself was not only uninspiring but very middle of the road with no real genre flourishes or originality beyond the fact that there were giant machines fighting giant monsters. I have pointed out continuously that just because there is a great idea for a movie, and don’t get me wrong the general conceit behind both ‘Pacific Rim’ movies is very good, it is the small details that make that good idea into a great film. Unfortunately, there is just too much of a plot to fit comfortably into the modest running time and budget. What is amusing is that it is the exact opposite problem that the first movie had, not enough plot, too much confusing fighting and issues with the world building as well as clearly defining not only the antagonists but too little seen of them and their location.

“Pacific Rim: Uprising” is set ten years after the Battle of the Breach, former Jaeger pilot Jake Pentecost – son of deceased Kaiju War hero Stacker Pentecost – makes a living by stealing and selling Jaeger parts on the black market. After he tracks part of a disabled Jaeger’s power core to the secret workshop of fifteen year old Jaeger enthusiast Amara Namani, both are arrested and are given a choice between the prison or return to PPDC as an instructor with Amara as his recruit.

Upon arriving at a Shatterdome in China, Jake starts training Jaeger program cadets with his estranged former co-pilot Nate Lambert. Nate and Mako reveal to him that the Jaeger program is threatened by Shao Corporation’s drone program. Mako is due to deliver a final assessment to determine the authorization of the drones at a PPDC council meeting in Sydney, but is killed by rogue Jaeger Obsidian Fury before she can report. Her death prompts the PPDC council to authorize the drone program and order their immediate deployment. Upon destroying its reactor, they find that Obsidian Fury was controlled by a Kaiju’s secondary brain, which testing shows was grown on Earth.

What is the stand out element for me, in fact for pretty much the entire movie is the casting (as well as co-producer) of John Boyega who proves he is going to be a big star of the future outside his ‘Star Wars’ appearances, which is no mean feat, as type casting is not just a thing of the past. Here Boyega has to live up to the memory of not only his characters father but the fact that his father was portrayed by the fantastic Idris Elba who maintains a presence in all the movies he has appeared in. Boyega in this movie is equally charming as well as being caddish, a boy growing into a man, even while he is teaching others far younger than himself. Therein lies one of the problems with the movie, which is the fact that this movie relies far too much on younger actors as well as the miscast Scott Eastwood who while he has pedigree (his father is Clint Eastwood) is not a great actor at all – the only saving grace is that his father matured with age as an actor so there is hope for him yet. The two actors that seem to know what movie they are in as well as stealing the show are the holdouts from the previous instalment in Charlie Day and Burn Gorman who are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of performance but complement each other exceptionally well. As for the rest of the cast they are mostly unknowns who serve a purpose but are really just filling to the massive CGI fights that take place for a majority of the running time.

Of course the real stars of this movie are the Jaeger’s and to a lesser extent the rival Kaiju’s who are all CGI creations. Carrying on from the previous movie the world has already been built and it is obvious to see that the bulk of the budget has gone on rendering these giants of destruction. My only real criticism is that the actual world that these giants operate in is pretty drab, faceless and lifeless. It seems like the flaws of movies like “Man of Steel” (2013) and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) have been ignored here, as we are witness to hundreds of buildings in multiple cities being destroyed with little time being spent on the human cost or even the social cost which is a major mistake on the filmmakers part – surely audiences are beyond this, perhaps this is a reason why the movie is bland as well as fairly unsuccessful at the box office.

One of the aspects of the movie that is unforgiveable, something Marvel movies learnt after “Iron Man 2” (2010) is the setting up of sequels before the first or second movies are good enough or successful enough to earn these on their own. So we see in the closing moments of the movie a blatant attempt to set up another ‘Pacific Rim’ instalment which is ludicrous as this one was never going to be able to spawn one with these filmmakers attached. This, coupled with a rather too expansive plot means that this movie at times is a hard watch as it really does bite off more than it can chew in terms of establishing brand new characters as well as new versions of antagonists from the previous movie, again while dangling even more story for a sequel.

The question in my mind is simply should this be viewed in cinemas and I would say that “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is worth a watch but maybe at home on Blu-ray or a streaming service. This is a movie that in the ‘old days’ would have been a direct to video release at best, which would have been a nice surprise especially with the edition of John Boyega. So wait and watch at home, you will enjoy much more.

Technical Commentary:

Vital Disc Stats:

Universal brings “Pacific Rim: Uprising” to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray as a two-disc combo pack with a flyer code for a Digital Copy. The triple-layered UHD100 disc sits comfortably opposite a Region Free, BD50 disc inside a black, eco-vortex case with a glossy slipcover. At startup, the disc goes straight to a menu screen with an image of the cover art and music playing in the background.

The Video:

There is no doubt that the picture is alive with the range of colors available when viewing this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, it has a with a lavish HEVC H.265 encode that never seems to shortchange the movie.

As soon as the movie begins it is easy to identify within the picture the rich greens, electrifying blues, and splendid full-bodied reds, which complement the over the top visuals, giving it just the right feel for the story it is telling. The Jaegers all look amazing on a large screen TV, they shine and shimmer never losing their majestic awe that should be standard when watching Sci-Fi life this. What I love to witness though are the backgrounds that shine as clear as anything else, the skyscrapers, water, signs and of course the Kaiju themselves. Most impressive has to be the actual breach where viewers can be bewitched by the ecstatic mix of blistering yellow, fiery orange, vibrant crimson and flaming magenta.

The 4K presentation also comes with perfect contrast that’s consistent and well-balanced while also delivering intensely hot, radiant whites, from the super-hygienically clean suits of Liwen Shao and the bright sterile labs to the luminously brilliant glow of various light sources and the soft, fluffy clouds.

Brightness levels are rich and luxurious with blacks that reveal superb gradational variances between the numerous shades, nicely separating the gear and straps from the rest of the uniforms. Silky, midnight shadows penetrate deep into the screen without hampering the finer aspects of the background, providing the 2.39:1 image with a stunning, cinematic appeal and three-dimensional quality. Shot exclusively on the Arri Alexa camera system with a max 3.4K resolution, the freshly-minted transfer, upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate, arrives in the nick of time with razor-sharp definition in every scene.

The Supplements:

Audio Commentary: Director Steven S. DeKnight rides solo for this fairly informative commentary on various aspects of the production, the performances, visual effects and overall story.

Becoming Cadets (4K, 6 min): A few minutes on Amara’s fellow recruits.

Unexpected Villain (4K, 6 min): Interviews on one character’s surprise twist.

Bridge to Uprising (4K, 5 min): Cast & crew interviews on connecting the sequel to the first.

Next Level Jaegers (4K, 5 min): Closer look and technical discussion on the new mecha characters.

The Underworld of Uprising (4K, 4 min): Discussion on the first act & surviving in the aftermath.

Hall of Heroes (4K, 3 min): John Boyega comments on specific details of each Jaeger.

I Am Scrapper (4K, 3 min): Brief look on the small Jaeger and its role in the movie.

Going Mega (4K, 3 min): Some time on the mother of all Kaijus.

Secrets of Shao (4K, 3 min): Focused on the ruthless businesswoman.

Mako Returns (4K, 2 min): Pretty much exactly as the title implies.

“Pacific Rim: Uprising” is out now on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray & DVD.

4K Blu-ray review: “Pacfic Rim: Uprising” (2018) “Pacfic Rim: Uprising” (2018) Action/Science Fiction Running Time: 111 minutes Written by: Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, Steven S.

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