#misuzu isurugi

[riot-in-bloom]

i went and put the fic for the yuri shipping olympics on the archive, too! no snippets for this one, but may i interest you in the webzine?

[ultraincorrectultramaquotes]

Hikaru: Bridge the generation gap by combining old and new slang into one!

Kenta: Tubular AF!

Chigusa: Mood to the max!

Tomoya, annoyed: Groovy, I hate it.

Misuzu, just as annoyed: If she's breathes, she's a square.

[2014federalbudget]

Ultraman Ginga Ep7:  The Closed World

[himitsusentaiblog]

Hi, First I love your blog! And I have something to ask. This question might ask before. What do you think of ultraman ginga? So far I only watch Geed and Orb. And I want to give Ginga a shot but I want to know your opinion first

Thanks for the compliment!  I always appreciate feedback like that.

Let me start by saying that Ultraman Ginga has one of my favorite modern design of any Ultra Hero.

It looks like a natural evolution of the design without being too bulky or overly armored. It also stick close to the coloration of the M78 Ultras with the red with silver highlight. The illuminated blue areas are a nice touch and I just love the character’s eventual origin (no spoilers).

As for the series itself, that’s a mixed back.  I will start with the good aspects. 

I love the cast!  The main hero, Hikaru Raido (Takuya Negishi) is a really likable protagonists with an intriguing backstory.  He had to leave Japan and move to London with his parents years before the start of the series and has now come back to his hometown and reunite with his friends from school. 

He discovers that the elementary school he and his friends attended is shut down and scheduled to be demolished but also that the local shrine was destroyed by a mysterious event and his Grandfather, the shrine’s priest, has temporarily moved the shrine into the empty school.

His friends are also well cast and include Hikaru’s childhood friend, would-be confectioner and possible love interest Misuzu Isurugi (Mio Miyatake).

The other two major childhood friends are aspiring photographer Kenta (Mizuki Ono) and wanna be Idol Singer Chigusa (Kirara).

They form to core cast of friends and all have interpersonal issues they need to work out through the course of the series.  That’s where Ultraman Ginga really shines though is not as a standard entry in the franchise but as a smaller scale examination of life in a small town and how you truly never can go home again without stirring up old issues, resentments and regrets. 

Where the show bothers me is part of the conceit of the series.  There was a war and all of the Ultra Heroes and monsters have been turned into Spark Dolls.  These are pretty much exactly the immobile PVC figures Bandai sells in one of their lower price point lines of toys and the show cannot help but feel like a 30 minute commercial for that line at times.

I recognize the fact that modern tokusatsu franchise series are almost all geared towards selling the accompanying toys and merchandise but this went into intrusive territory in my opinion.

These Spark Dolls aren’t just dolls, they are also the main transformation trinket, which Hikaru (and others) use to become Ultra Kaiju and Heroes using the Ginga Spark or, in the case of the villains, the evil Dark Spark.

The stakes in this series actually seem pretty small compared to shows like Orb and Geed where the threat is so much larger.  This isn’t so much the world at stake as one small town and the friends who share it. So, the conflicts are more personal and dramatic than world-sharking and cosmic. 

Is it a bad show?  No, not really.  It’s not one of the best but it is watchable and has likable characters despite often feeling like a giant commercial for vinyl figures.  It is also required watching before moving on to the (in my opinion) superior sequel Ultraman Ginga S where a lot of the character hooks in the first series see fruition and resolution.

[rfyle]

Ultraman Ginga Episode 10. 

[attractdistract]

look at these hot nerds.

[jokerxtreme36]

[rossoeagle]

The future of modelling is in her hand-- I mean, face.

[ultraincorrectultramaquotes]

During Ginga

Hikaru: I lost Taro.

Misuzu: How do you lose Taro!?

Hikaru: To be fair, he's very small.

Misuzu: But he's so loud!

Hikaru: And small.

[ultraincorrectultramaquotes]

Alternative take of the scene in Ginga when Misuzu sees Hikaru has the Ginga Spark

Misuzu: What do you have there?

Hikaru: ... A smoothie.

[ultraincorrectultramaquotes]

During the first half of Ginga

Hikaru: Tomoya gave me a get better soon card today.

Misuzu: Well that was nice of him.

Hikaru: It wasn't because I was sick or anything, he just thought I could be better.

[2014federalbudget]

Quality Tokusatsu Ships: Misuzu/Mana

Mana Let’s Run

[she’s not human she’s an android!]

Don’t worry. I’ll protect you