#started ultraman arc

[paperconsumption]

youpi? well i sure hope you do

[cherryamelia]

I don't know why but, the way he tilted his head just looked so cute to me

[churchydraws]

What's wrong with you (knows exactly what's wrong with her)

[stickers-on-a-laptop]

this is like. no longer 🤨🌈❓. it's just 🌈📍❗

[friendlyloveaffair]

Yuma Hize (Yuki Totsuka) and Captain Gento Hiruma (Tomoya Warabino) switch transformations! As the rest of SKIP and SKaRD teams.

Gento had to do a "take 2" in his Arc transformation (that kinda spoiled his badass start. Yuma was like, "can I help you with that?") 😅 Yuma did a good impression of Blazar 😄

To be honest, I think the Blazar Brace seems more fun to use than the Arc Ariser.

From Ultraman Arc/Ultraman Blazar online roundtable discussion (November 23, 2024)

[longwuzhere]

Ultraman Rising Fans please give Ultraman Arc a try!

Good start to this Ultraman series! Love that the Ultraman/host is not part of the defense force but he's part of the safety and crowd control team that does Kaiju research. And hell yeah an Ultra powered by imagination! we love to see it! Also the camerawork for the climax was awesome seeing the battle between Ultraman and the kaiju through office buildings, behind windows, and stuff like, Also we got to see some miniatures return for this! Love practical effects like that! If you enjoyed Ultraman Rising, give the newest entry of the Ultraman franchise, Ultraman Arc a try or if you prefer a more feral Ultra and a literal dilf who is the Ultra's host, give Ultraman Blazar a shot. Blazar finished so you can binge it all, Arc just started and will debut new episodes on the Tsuburaya youtube channel with subs and dubs!

[fae-morrigan]

Okay, guys, I have to be so honest, the cyborg Jon stuff is not actually out of nowhere if you've been paying attention to the themes and ideas present in Jon's story. Actually, something to this affect has been hinted and foreshadowed all the way back in Supersons.

Jon's story, fundamentally, has always been about agency, and how being the son of a public figure like Superman hinders his ability to self-determinate. It is an idea that is present in every story, yes, every single one, starting from his debut as a character.

The cyborg stuff isn't meant to be a replacement of past traumas- it is an evolution, the thesis of what all the things he's been through have been leading up to. It is the ultimate culmination of everything Jon has been struggling with his whole life- being seen as nothing more but a tool that can be exploited.

Clark and Lois robbed Jon of knowledge about who he was for a large portion of his childhood (1). Manchester Black tried to use Jon as a weapon against his father, actively possessing him in order to do it, explicitly against Jon's wishes and opinions (2). Kid Amazo wanted to use Jon as a flesh puppet, a new healthy body that he could take over (3). Ultraman robbed years of his life and literally confined him in a place where he, literally and metaphorically, had no power. Jor El and Jon had a whole conversation about fate vs. free will in the age up arc (4). The entire central conflict of Son of Kal El was Jon fighting against a capitalist dictator who was trafficking marginalized people, altering and taking over their bodies for profit (5). Adventures of Superman Jon Kent has Jon going up against a version of his father thats a dictator, a man who has (in the words of the text) made the whole world a prison (6). In all of these situations, Jon's put in these positions specifically because he is the son of Superman, and he will forever be defined by it against his will. It is commentary on what it means to be the child of a hero, and it is an exploration of legacy that I think is very very interesting.

We've BEEN headed here! It was always going to come to some plotline of this nature. Sure, we couldn't know it'd be specifically this, him getting borged was specifically a surprise, but Mark Waid is an incredibly intelligent writer who knows what he is doing and does not just present events in a story, but ideas. The Speed Force is a love story. Absolute Power is about, well, power. And Jon Kent is fundamentally, at his core, about agency. The robot stuff isn't meant to be strictly literal!

Post Bibliography so you can check that I'm not bullshitting you. I didn't want to go look up panels because I'm laaazy, you can go see for yourself:

Superman: Lois & Clark by Dan Jurgens

Super-sons by Peter J Tomasi

Superman Rebirth by Peter J Tomasi

Superman 2018 by Brian Michael Bendis

Superman: Son of Kal El by Tom Taylor

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent by Tom Taylor

[chernobog13]

ULTRAMAN ARC IS COMING!

The new Ultraman series starts July 6, 2024!

[asteroidarts555]

Day 14 & Day 15 of Tokucember

I came back to watching Ultraman Arc and man...i started crying.

[valtharr]

So. Which Ultraman series would you recommend for starters? Also would Shin Ultraman be a good starting point if you have never seen anything Ultraman related?

Honestly, those are both kinda tough questions 😅

Let's start with the Shin Ultraman one:

Shin Ultraman is a great movie, probably my favorite kaiju movie (sorry Pacific Rim and Final Wars), and you need no prior knowledge of Ultraman, mainly because the movie is basically an abridged version of the original 1966 series. So, as a movie, I recommend it, but I'm not sure about it as an introduction to Ultraman. Mainly because - just like Sentai and Rider - Ultraman is primarily a kids show, while Shin is aimed at a more mature audience, which is why I don't consider a great representation of the franchise as a whole. Don't get me wrong, it totally gets the themes and everything right, but the vibes are just different. So, I recommend watching it, but not necessarily as an introduction to the main franchise.

As for which actual series I recommend for a newcomer... well, I should preface this by saying that I've only really seen New Generation series (late Heisei and Reiwa era). The main reason for that is honestly that those seasons are shorter (about 25 episodes instead of the Showa and Heisei 50). But yeah, my recs are gonna be New Gen only.

I think the safest bet in my eyes would be Ultraman X. It doesn't really call back to any previous seasons, and it's pretty "vanilla" in its setup: The Ultra and his host are distinct characters from each other, the host works for an anti-kaiju defense force, etc. It sticks to the "formula" pretty closely, closer than any of the other New Gen shows I've seen... with the exception of one:

Ultraman Z is also pretty by the numbers, and has the distinct advantage of being fully legally available one Youtube, both subbed and dubbed. The main reason I recommend X over Z is that Z leans a bit more into the greater universe of the franchise, with appearances from old characters, one of which actually ends up playing a major role. That said, it was the first Ultra season I watched in full, and it wasn't like I was totally lost, but I would recommend watching Orb and Geed before jumping into Z. Speaking of which...

Ultraman Orb is actually the most recent season I fully watched, and I really like it. The main character is just really cool, and while the supporting cast starts off as kinda annoying, but they grew on me a bit over the course of the show. It's also pretty serialized, with some mysteries that slowly get revealed throughout the story.

Ultraman Geed, like Ultraman Orb, is a bit of a fan favorite. Now, technically, the main villain of the show is a major villain in the greater Ultraman lore, which at first might seem like this would be a bad entry point, but the show provides you with enough context that you can just treat as backstory. I also like that it kinda gives you a bit of "best of both worlds" when it comes to Ultras: The main character is actually an Ultra in human form, but there's also a secondary Ultra who does the more classic "bond with a human host" thing, so you get both common flavors of Ultraman in one series. Also, for what it's worth, I once commissioned a Youtuber who knew basically nothing about tokusatsu, let alone Ultraman, to review Geed, and he ended up liking it.

Finally, I'm gonna shout out Blazar and Arc, the most recent seasons, with Arc's second episode having just aired the same day I'm writing this. Blazar has some Ultraman staples, like the defense team and the human and Ultra being separate entities, but also does some new stuff with those tropes, like the Ultra not being able to properly talk, and the host actually being the head of the show's main defense team. Obviously, I can't say much about Arc yet, but it seems to go in a bit more traditional direction. Both are also available on Youtube, with Blazar having two audio tracks (Japanese and English) that you can switch between, and Arc having separate uploads for its sub and dub

Also, I should mention: Every Ultraman season prior to 2020 is available on BluRay via Mill Creek Entertainment, and from what I can tell, they seem to be region free. At least I had no problems watching them on my German PS4.

[thekaijudude]

Trademark for 2025 Ultraman revealed

Ultraman Omega

This came out of nowhere but this is confirmed by 809

Really early tho. In fact, I don't recall an Ultra trademark dropping this early

Now onto what could the theme be, "Omega" can be interpreted as the last or the greatest

In the broader context, "the last" may probably mean the last of the NG? As it is TsuPro's 60th Anniversary in 2025, so that might mean they wanna start a new era or sth? But as for what that could be, its a discussion for a whole other time.

As for "the greatest," I don't think they'll pull off another Max nonsense (the "fastest and strongest"), where his title is all but in name only. In this context, I'll at least expect some actual OP feats and actually cool af forms to match the vibe here. But at most, just be the strongest NG below Ginga?

But in all, I believe "Omega" is gonna actually be indicative of this Ultras' theme of the character itself. Hell, even the symbol for Omega could also be his color timer too.

On a seperate note, we alr got the trademarks for the Arc Movie and the 2025 series, why dont we have any trademark leaks for Arc's final boss?

Bruh dont tell me the series is gonna end in ep 23 or sth and final boss is literally just Trigelos fr i imma crashout if that happens

[sorenblr]

since we're on the subject what are your honest thoughts on eva. me personally i think its really great in a lot of ways but also completely full of shit and really falls apart when analyzed non-emotionally (in more ways than just it's *extremely* loose Christian theming)

I think it's fantastic, at least the original series and EoE. Many of the criticisms commonly levied against it are justified- this is a series that castigates its otaku audience for leering at its grossly sexualized portrayal of adolescents while at the same time constructing one of the most vociferous merchandising apparati ever conceived around exactly that purpose- but it's greater than the sum of its defects.

In the matter of broad aesthetics, direction, and composition, I would place Evangelion near the apex of the medium. The industry mechanism necessary to create something that looks like this simply no longer exists. The philistine reaction against the long takes, which would elsewhere be recognized as part of the basic grammar of any serious film, is a credit to Anno's sensibilities as director. There aren't any characters that I particularly dislike, and I think Shinji and Asuka are near to brilliant. And the first thirteen episodes are simply exceptional, even fairly undemanding genre fare. The fucking Israfel one is just an outstanding episode of television. The dramatic idiosyncracies that the series is known for don't manifest in greater quantity until the latter part, which is I imagine where less receptive audiences will start to check out, but I think they're both necessary complements to the whole.

I think about Eva-02 catching that missile to the face on a semi-regular basis. The entire MPE scene is one of the most compelling pieces of animation ever put to film. This and the Gouf battle from 08th MS Team around the same time are the acme of the thought that emphasized plausible heft and momentum in mechanical animation.

The extent to which the original series is celebrated as 'deconstructive', or as a radical departure from previous, less 'cerebral' works, is grossly exaggerated and I think dependent on a historical ignorance of the genre. That isn't to say that it's complete equivocation, but Amuro's first character arc in 0079 is going catatonic after being compelled to fight in the ambulatory war crimes machine, and Pen Pen is not some sort of embedded reflexive criticism- he is a fun penguin who basically loves to hang out. Much of the thematic material is indebted to Ideon-era Tomino, who was at least as catastrophically depressive as Anno during the period of his most prolific cultural output.

The greater innovation in Eva is its radical orientation towards psychodrama, which I think does finally reach a deconstructive apogee in EoE. Still, the basic theme of the series, the communicative impediments to human intimacy, is also the overriding concern of the first several incarnations of Gundam- but only Evangelion will have a character literally describe the hedgehog's dilemma aloud. So a lot of the perceived deconstruction is a maximal treatment of what was marginally less explicit in earlier works, and I think Anno's direction does produce striking and beautifully affective turns on that material. But the old joke that this mecha anime is about the characters is still descriptive of the entire genre. This isn't meant to be a criticism- I think it's infinitely more engaging to consider Eva as the ultimate Lost Decade continuation of earlier forms than some sort of iconoclastic rupture from tradition.

The Judeo-Christian imagery is another point of radical continuity with hyper-influential genre fare, in this case Ultraman. Anno's recent directorial output is enough to evince the tremendous debt owed to the series, but whereas the religious iconography was a genuine article of faith for Tsuburaya, in Eva the material is valued more for its aestheticizing effect. It was only when transplanted to a Western audience that the desacralized treatment of religion assumed a transgressive quality that happened to be a perfect 'in' for adolescents nationwide. Shinji is a Midwest emo icon and I can make an AMV of the series set to Chop Suey by System of a Down? This phenomenon is, to me, more interesting than the actual thematic connections the series draws from myth, which is certainly not what the thing is 'about' in any case.

Also, I am an episode 25-26 truther. EoE is great but the television finale is its obvious complement. If you're out here telling people to watch EoE immediately after episode 24... grow the fuck up! bitch!!!*

*parody parody

[fadedsaturated]

Ultraman has been doing such a good job of making things internationally available. Since 2020 they've been simulcasting and even now dubbing their shows.

Here the shows on there channels that anyone can watch for free.

Ultraman Z (2020) subbed

https: // youtube . com / playlist ? list = PLdcTdNdoJYrvyGSvCAuZET2JsMoa1RT30

Dubbed

https : // youtube . com / playlist ? list = PL9652bz5iwUDXDpXBVlxKqoEukbqLY2Fe

Ultraman Trigger New Generation Tiga (2021)

https : // youtube . com / playlist ? list = PLpsHuJyHc11q0KT_syIyBJQEnNutTr6fn

Ultraman Decker (2022)

https : // youtube.com / playlist ? list = PLvg2kpPeEdR4MFrxS-6fbtGfwfzkBc28y

Ultraman Blazar subbed & dubbed (2023) (One thing to note unlike the other ones the original Japanese with subs & the English Dub are in one video seperated by Audio Track so you'll have toggle which one you want unlike the other links)

https : // youtube.com / playlist ? list = PLaYd_oe9Z7YBFI-k7auHHmB1lLPjePSi1

Ultraman Arc (2024) subbed

https : // youtube . com / playlist ? list = PLEtQgKaVm_YoN1PMcRRcelgUM-X_DPTQ2

Dubbed

https : // youtube . com / playlist ? list = PLfE5wz8rGUF867XCgxFyhwe_z8hdx83Vc

Sorry about the spaces in between just copy and paste them in a url bar and delete the spaces.

Anyone of these are good starting point because Ultraman like all tokusatsu despite it's long legacy has newcomers kids in mind and there forefront so don't worry about massive legacies in the crossovers and just enjoy the show first and foremost.

Also if you live in the U.S there even more shows on youtube for free I can link up. Just say the word.

I really so appreciate this! I will have to look into these seasons once I officially start getting into Ultraman. Thank you anon for taking the time to write up such a detailed recommendations list. I can't thank you enough for taking the time ❤️

[pinkprettycure]

You talking about Ultraman frequently has made me interested in the franchise myself. What shows/movies/etc would you recommend to a newbie like me who wants to get into the series? ^_^

Blazar was very newbie friendly and it has a lot of good standalone episodes like Planet of Music, Betwix Morn and Dusk, and The Wandering Zangill so you can pick up something like one of those and see if you want to watch the whole thing or not.

Arc is currently airing. This is the season that has Clover's VA as one of the main characters btw! it's only 6 eps in and I believe this weeks ep is going to be a recap episode so if you start right now you won't really be all that behind or anything since we're effectively on a break week right now . it DOES have references to Return of Ultraman but I haven't seen Return of Ultra and I don't feel like I'm lost or anything.

R/B is one of my favorites and I think it's one that would be very appealing to people who are fans of magical girl series. the plot heavily revolves around the friendship between the younger sister of the two Ultras and the villainess and the theme is family.

There's also the Ultraman Rising film and Shin Ultraman. Rising is an animated film that's an american take on the franchise in collaboration between Tsupro and Netflix, while Shin is a live action film thats an adaption of the original Ultraman series and is considered part of Anno's Shin series of films (Shin Godzilla, Shin Kamen Rider, and the Shin Evangelion/Rebuild films. "It's"Shin Japan Heroes" is just a marketing name but they do have commonality by being remakes and reimaginings of older stories.) Ultraman The Next is a good movie too but I do think you should watch it as part of a Nexus watch rather than as a starting point, and Nexus might not be a good starting point since it's more for like a teen and older audience with a darker vibe and does a lot of different things from other series so it could give the wrong impression. It's an excellent series but I think something like Blazar gives a better impression of what to expect from Ultra than Nexus.

A LOT of Ultra references itself also. but while I think references to older series definitely are more meaningful when you're familiar with them, I started with Mebius and I definitely think i'd appreciate it more on a rewatch, but those things don't mean you won't find enjoyment from the season, remember: Ultra overall is a family franchise so every season is somebodies first season! They're made with both the parents and grandparents who grew up with them AND their young kids who would be seeing them for the first time! Even Nexus being made for teen audience would have still been a lot of these kids first season, so it's always being made with the assumption that a good chunk of viewers have never seen another Ultra show n_n

[stickers-on-a-laptop]

yuma reminding me i should probably go to MY local bike shop soon because i think i have a slow leak in the tires AGAIN

[sunshinemoonrx]

8 + 20 pls!!

Favourite alien/non-human character, and favourite hero/villain rivalry...

Okay I'm gonna give two answers for the first one because my instinctive answer is a character who /is/ an alien and whose difference from Earth humans is plot-relevant but who /looks/ human and that feels not quite the spirit of the question, so I will precede that answer with one who has an actual inhuman suit form: Ankh

What can I say? Our beloved bitchy wife learning to feel an emotion one inch at a time. He's fascinating, lovable, lovably hateable, and just like Eiji we'll wait years for him if we have to. Whether he's a bird monster or Miura Ryosuke in blonde curls he's beautiful. And speaking of Miura, I love all his physical acting for Ankh's mannerisms--perching up in trees, doing bird-like threat-display stances, leading with his monster-arm like the brain is in there and not his head, using the method he accesses Shingo's memories as an instinctive gesture for "think"...

Now, favourite human-looking alien: Space Sheriff Annie

You know, I only just noticed how cheap and crinkly this utility belt is compared to the pretty nice prop guns, lmao. Speaking of physical performance, what a tour de force here. Morinaga Naomi is genuinely one of the finest stunt actors in Toei's history. She puts Shaider to shame in every episode so thoroughly you start to wonder why he's even in the show. (If you wonder why I say this show isn't actually that good despite all the stuff in it I'm constantly raving about...well, the protagonist being nothing doesn't help) This character specifically is the genesis of like half of Spielban, too.

And now, favourite hero/villain rivalry...sentai gives us so many all-timers to to choose from, but I'm gonna have to swerve into:

Gai Kurenai/Juggler

A divorce so catastrophic it caused the Tunguska event and reshaped the next decade of Ultraman shows. A reconciliation arc that outlived the dropped 10-part saga that was supposed to tell it. Simply no-one is doing it like them.

As always, fuck off Tsupro, getting us all so invested in a man named Jugglus Juggler.