#ultraman z episode 10

[starry-saturn-nights]

Well that’s going to be a problem

[averageartistamber]

It's Ultraman Day!

Y'know, I first heard about Ultraman through the Godzilla fandom, and honestly, I kinda slept on it until very recently. Ended up getting into it when I heard about the upcoming release of Rising and found out that a decent chunk of content is accessible on YouTube. Okay, gotta admit those "Ultraman Without Context" videos were also a huge thing that sold me on the series, as a thorough enjoyer of Wacky Shit.

So, for Ultraman Day I'm gonna start briefly yapping about the Ultraman Stuff I've seen so far. It's almost entirely the newer stuff, but I might check out some of the older shows.

Let's start with the first series I checked out, Ultraman Blazar (as it was the most recent at the time).

Note there will be some spoilers here and there.

Blazar

-The series I started with, and it's pretty different to typical Ultraman faire. Has this...Not really darkness but I guess kind of a grounded sort of...moodiness? Dunno if that's the right word. The whole V99 Conspiracy plot gave it a distinct flavour that I haven't seen so far in the other shows.

-The fight scenes are pretty fire, as Blazar himself is an incredibly fun character to watch. The whole "feral" shtick took me a bit off guard at first, but it makes him really unique. The spear/javelin main weapon that transforms into different things is such a ccool concept for a "base" power.

-The dynamic that Captain Gento has with Blazar where the latter occasionally takes control is really neat, even when he's just doing it to observe. Gives the Funny Caveman an interesting bit of depth.

-I quite like SKaRD as an attack team, even if they never really score a single W for the entire series. Emi in particular is one of the best Human characters I've seen so far, probably since she essentially gets a whole side plot attached to her (The after mentioned conspiracy and wanting to find out what happened to her dad.

-I honestly did not expect to end up liking Earth Garon in particular as much as I did, even if he just gets his ass kicked constantly. I think the scene that truly sold me on him was in the episode where he's given his AI, therefore a real voice and personality. The scene where Emi is freaking out after being hit with the Monster of the Week's Fear Ray and Earthy tries to calm her down. Did not think he'd be chill like that honestly it was a pleasant suprise.

-One of the big highlights of the show was definitely the monsters (which I thing all of them bar Red King, Guigass and Demaaga are new?). Pretty much all of them have creative and memorable designs. I will go Blazar levels of feral if they ever reuse Dorgo, Nigikagachi, Molgusion, Deltandos or Zangill (If he counts) again.

-Speaking of Zangill, his episode is probably my favourite on its premise alone: Guy shows up to ask for assistance with collecting the wandering souls of all the Monsters of The Week that the heroes had slain. Including one who's Real Fuckin' Mad and tries to get revenge. It's so freaking cool. Makes you wonder about literally every other MotW show actually...

-At first I found Big Bad a bit anti-climatic. I think I walked into my first Ultraman series expecting some big badass final boss with an EEEEEEvil Alien Overlord or something. But instead, the main villain of Blazar is basically just Some Old Guy (who is fiercely determined to cover his crimes, fatal consequences be damned).

Honestly, from the other shows, he's currently tied with Rising's Dr. Onda for the best Ultraman Big Bad. I've been a little disappointed with the others I've seen so far, which I think I'll explain further when we get to them.

-Last thing, the opening song makes me feel like that Spongebob Ascending Meme. It's awesome (I especially like how they show the monsters, starting with a newspaper then going to TV camera footage and satellite images.)

Overall 8.5 WHOOOYS! out 10

Next time I'll probably yap about either Z or Decker (or maybe Rising?) when I get around to/ remember to do it.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (April 2-8, 2023)

Tsuburaya's Big International Push™ for the Ultra Series has been missing one huge element for a while—English dubs for the new shows. These are supposed to be for kids, right? Well, they're finally correcting that with Ultraman Z. This is the only New Generation show I've actually finished since R/B, so I'm pretty thrilled, and it's extremely well-done to boot. OkraTron 5000, the same Dallas-based studio that handled Shin Ultraman, is behind it (and they got Sean Schemmel, Goku himself, as Ultraman Zero). I'm not sure of the exact pace at which they'll be releasing these, but episode 2 is already out as well.

Some rare Godzilla video game news that isn't a Battle Line update or a mobile game collaboration: Zen Studios' Pinball FX will be releasing a trio of Godzilla vs. Kong-inspired digital pinball tables. So a console game collaboration... still an upgrade! (And believe it or not, this is the first game either MUTO has appeared in since that Candy Crush clone back in 2014.) The trial starts April 13.

After only uploading Godzilla Island episodes for a few weeks, Toho's English Godzilla YouTube channel is branching out again with subtitled episodes of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again. It starts... well, April 11, which is why I'm scrambling to get this post out. Since the show is so new (and not a web exclusive), there might be a quick hook on these, so be sure to download them; the TOHO animation channel has already removed the first episode.

After limiting itself to figures of MonsterVerse kaiju who have already been covered by S.H. MonsterArts, Hiya Toys is innovating with a Skullcrawler figure, now in the prototype stage. This is only the third articulated figure of the character, and should easily trounce the Lanard and Playmates versions. Note the elbow spikes: it's either the Skull Devil from Kong: Skull Island or Number 10 from Godzilla vs. Kong.

[pleuvoire]

2, 3 and 15 for the toku asks !

2. what was the first show you watched?

w! but i also count ooo as my first rider as well... i watched like 2 episodes of w then like 3 episodes of ooo then two years later i tried watching ooo again and got six episodes in this time and then i marathoned w with my friends. and then marathoned ooo with my friends. so they're like... intertwined lol

3. what shows have you watched so far?

completed: ryuki, faiz, blade, i've watched hibiki to its SPIRITUAL completion which is what counts, kabuto, kiva, w, ooo, drive, ex-aid, zero one

seen more than 10 eps: v3, kuuga, den-o, decade, fourze, wizard, gaim, ghost, build, revice, zenkaiger, donbros

seen less than 10 eps: rider 1971, zi-o, saber, go-onger, toqger (my beloveds), kyuranger, lupat, ultraman orb, ultraman z, tropre, delipre

literally just one or two eps: x (kamen rider), amazon, super-1, agito, amazons, timeranger, gokaiger, gobusters, kyuranger, ryusoulger, ultraman x, ultraman r/b, kaiketsu zubat, changerion, legend hero samgugjeon, dogengers, tokusatsu gagaga

(i am easily distracted and bad at watching shows so i tend to sample a lot </3 faiz is the only toku season i finished without ever groupwatching and it took me a year. at least sampling around a lot makes me feel cultured and knowledgeable)

15. least favorite series?

KIVA

[thekaijudude]

Team MLV vs the Ultra Brothers: Who will win?

Either way, let’s also set up 3 basic rules. The first concerns both sides, the second concerns only the Ultra Brothers, and the last only concerns only Team MLV, because if they have this, they WILL win.

—1: No enhanced forms or fusions.

—2: No reality manipulation or dimensional manipulation or whatever you were talking about in my last qn. I don’t know where Taro and Ace showcased this, but even if it was in their shows, it’s clearly considered non-canon now. I mean, why wouldn’t they have just used that to find the Kingdom in UGF3 if it was canon? 

—3: No elemental abilities, ‘cause if Team MLV has this, even if Vylcan’s the only one using them, the Ultra Brothers have no shot, especially given the other rules. I mean it, if their elemental abilities were allowed, Vylcan could probably just amplify himself enough to destroy any one of the Ultra Brothers with only a few punches.

Anyway, I’ve sent you a doc with all of the abilities of each member of Team MLV. (Btw, recall that Ultraman Adam is my name for the OG Ultraman).

Point 2 is gonna rub some feathers tbh cause the reason why they dont use those abilities anymore is the same reason why main series ultras dont just show up and instantly annihilate Tier 2 kaiju even tho theyve shown very clearly that they could, same reason why Tartarus dosent also instantly destroy US Zero since it was clearly shown in UGF3 ep 10 that even the upgraded US Zero barely makes him flinch (recall that Seven was also involved in that fight thus I can say that AT's damage was due to Seven rather than him, consistent with the fact that he took a hit from Shining Ultimate Zero and was still standing AFTER getting a beatdown from the Leo brothers), same reason why PI Belial didnt also instantly dissipate Geed and Z as well despite the vast difference in power and why can Deathcium Ray Burst knock down PI Belial as well

Its all to make a good show, otherwise fights would end in under a few seconds, and the entire displayed conflict between the Ultras and the Absolutians would also end in a single ep since I pointed out that there simply isnt enough Elite Absolutians to handle even the entire cast of UB-level Ultras

Otherwise by your rationale, the infamous Ginga S episode 12 meme where the Zoa Muruchi that solo'ed both Ginga and Victory would be universal level

There are fans that are for and against those feats still being considered canon or nah. Personally, considering the other ridiculous feats of power we've seen beings other than Ultras have protrayed, as well as how powerful Ultras get as they grow older, Im of the opinion that those hax are canon, and they only reason why they dont showcase those abilities anymore is as said, to have a more interesting fight sequence

(Additionally as I also answered before, TsuPro wouldnt want to have to address a situation of "Hax vs Hax" regularly cause it inevitably introduces an extremely convoluted system, iirc i talked in depth about this in the Chaos Darkness vs Sphere ask)

And with good reason too, as the franchise has tried its best to shift away from delving into higher and higher powerscales beyond New Gen Ultras (Movie form++ like US Zero is the current cap) or else theyll eventually encounter the same problem like Dragonball by writing themselves into a hole whereby the in-universe/multiverse/omniverse scaling cannot keep up with its inhabitants (unless they would have a do a metaversal level of retconning every few years just to avoid this issue, which is an absolute pain in the ass to do due to its implications like what Marvel and DC comics do from what I can understand), which was something they alr did up till Taro which was why u saw that they toned it down so much up till now, with the exception of rare occurences of Legendary Ultras and High Tier fusions obviously

(Note that we're currently not even vibing at Multiversal scales mind you, low multi-universal at best with the current UGF plot, expect things to stay this way for the foreseeable future until TsuPro decides to shift their target audiences to young adults)

Thus Im vibin with this canon, and by removing those abilities, youre bascially nerfing them as far as Im concerned

But again, this has too many characters in a single ask, recall I told u max 2v2 yo, unless u can generalize 2 groups in a short summary via numbers or sth within the ask itself (or summarize and highlight the main attributes like base power, multipliers or sth, not just a reference scale to yet another OC which we dk the scaling for) cause I sure as hell aint gonna read all that in the link u sent just for an AU ask

[yeonchi]

The running of each Ultraman series in the Reiwa era has become quite imbalanced. Since Orb, each series’ run goes for 26 weeks from July to December, which includes an “episode 0” introductory special and the usual 25-episode run with a series-requisite clip show for episode 13.

Taiga maintained the pattern of previous series, but subsequent series would add additional clip shows in the most ridiculous of places while also keeping the episode 13 clip show. Z added a clip show between episodes 10/11 and 19/20, though it still managed to end in December due to Ultraman Chronicle ZERO & GEED presumably having 2-3 episodes cut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trigger is where it starts to get ridiculous because there is a two-part clip show after only 4 episodes. Decker is less ridiculous in comparison because the first clip show was just after episode 5, but we’ve got the last clip show coming up with two episodes left in the series. Presumably, the clip show series that came before them (Chronicle Z and Chronicle D) decided to just go with the pattern and reallocate three episodes to the following series as additional clip show episodes just so they could pad it out when in actuality, it only messes up their airing schedule. But Tsuburaya has had the Saturday 9 AM timeslot on TV Tokyo since April 2016, so they’re really just doing what they want at this point.

[catastrophic-crisis]

stealth watching ultraman z from where i picked off cuz fuck it, it's only 25 easy to consume episodes and apparently I had made it further in than I thought. going to say that both suits in ep 10 (what z had and my introduction to barossas) were pretty poggers and im sorry to all the ultra dudes that I can't tell apart because I don't know them yet (unrelated)

[radroller]

I don’t think i could make a top 10 tokusatsu episodes but Ultraman Z Episode 24 would be on it.

[iristial]

best of toku 2020

After finding a “best of toku” post I made in 2018, I decided to do one for 2020. Bear in mind that this year felt like forty years of desert wandering clumped together so my memory’s rather rusty (did I really finish OOO in linear order at the beginning of this year?)

best new show of 2020 - The stress of keeping up with recently airing shows got to me, but Kiramager was nice and sweet and features my fave - a disastrous deconstruction of the stoic archetype, Shiguru! I look forward to catching up with it next year

best new-to-you show of 2020 - I’m simply going to list every toku I watched and finished this year because each one has its virtue

OOO. It’s telling when you watch this out of order, think to yourself it’s the most well-written Neo-Heisei series, then watch it in linear order to find your opinion was factually correct. Very harmonious and tackles depth without going overboard or too grim. I can’t believe I watched this at the beginning of this year. Feels like eons ago

Fourze. Like OOO I watched this out of order over the years so nothing new popped out to me. However, I had the pleasant surprise of crying over acts of kindness, and while I thought it could’ve benefitted from exploring some elements in depth, the series is more about the infinite space that is youth; embracing yourself but also working hard to improve, and retaining faith

Ultraman Orb. Either someone recommended this to me or I searched it up because comparisons were made between Z Haruki and Gai Kurenai. Then I emerged in love with the latter. I’ve only completed two Ultraman series but Orb has left the strongest impression on me

Ultraman X. Next to Orb I found it quieter and lighter like cotton candy. The cast are such good-hearted folks; I love the armour attachments; and it has my favourite kaiju by far - Gomora. This darling deserves the world

Dekaranger. Suggested by @rikakobloomer for the characters. Proven correct as I loved observing everyone’s actions, responses, and the patterns to their focus episodes. The chemistry between each cast member was integral because there weren’t any blatant character bonding episodes (aside from the Tetsu ones), but when they proclaimed themselves as partners and friends - I wholeheartedly believed them

Den-O. Suggested by @quatresnuku for its popularity in fandom. I emerged out of the train wreck thoroughly confused and thoroughly entertained, filled with strong impressions, and with a new ship on the brain. Kobayashi knows her stuff indeed

Honorable mention to Kuuga, which I haven’t finished, because there’s a charm to discovering new facts alongside Godai (which is why I purposefully avoid going on the wiki)

best rewatch of 2020 - Zero One. Highlight the words “double rewatch”. I’m so fond of everything on a conceptual level, and seeing how everything tied together without a huge hiatus lodged in elevated some of my murkier opinions. Honorable mention to LuPato since it’s as amazing as I remember. No rose coloured glasses for you

best movie of 2020 - LuPato vs Ryusoulger because LuPato content, Episode Red appeals to the romantic in me, Reiwa: The First Generation had an amazing premise for the alternate world, and Dekaranger 10 Years After is how I want all Sentai tributes to be executed

best main lead character - Aruto. There’s a charm to him that compensated for the not-so-well-written bits, flaws and implications. I like a character who makes me smile over the big and little things, and retains his optimism in spite of all odds

best female character - Yua as my feelings went from borderline apathy to sheer adoration, and Umeko is sunshine incarnated

best male supporting character - Yuuto Sakurai (he probably shouldn’t count but it’s so hard for me to like secondaries; pettiness is good in this case), Deneb (hashtag best boy), Kintaros, Doggie Kruger (if anyone beats him - unless you’re Kagura Izumi - I’m obliged to think you’re cheating), Fourze JK (he had some engaging focus episodes I liked)

best female supporting character - Airi Nogami. I would drink coffee for her (and I don’t drink it, mind you)

best villain - metsuboujinrai.net. I stumbled upon a post I made when the first episode aired, citing Horobi as a “Kaito Kumon lookalike” and being off-put by Jin “the psycho villain”, and now I wonder how I would’ve taken my current obsession with a cult of villains. In my defense, they look good while doing their job

best returning past character - Jugglus Juggler is the most engaging part of Ultraman Z. It helps that I prefer him post-Orb, still insane but slightly mellow and selfless

best actor - The easy answer would be Takeru Satoh and his amazing emulation of the Taros. But I’m giving this to Shuya Sunagawa, who was eating snacks before he went and filmed Horobi’s crying scenes. Actually I’d give it to all the Zero One men for doing their best despite the pandemic

best actress - Tamaki Matsumoto (she made the switch from Yuriko Shiratori’s Hana to her Kohana work), Noa Tsurushima (she really shined towards the end), Hiroe Igeta (I swear she needs recognition or else)

toku crush of 2020 - Jin, Horobi, Yuuto Sakurai, Gai Kurenai

best writer - Yasuko Kobayashi, since I’ve watched two of her best works this year and drowned in a puddle of tears. Honorable mention to Naruhisa Arakawa for Dekaranger and my current watch of Kuuga

best director - This year I’ve kept up with behind-the-scenes bits and pieces for current series (thanks to @kanacaecilius​), but I still can’t name the staff off the top of my head ^^;

best suit design - Burning Falcon, Lightning Hornet, Zero Two, SWAT Mode, Dekamaster, Zeronos, and Tajador

best weapon/vehicle/mecha - Yuuto’s sword (I always rewind the scene where he swings it in episode 20), D-Sword Vega, AttacheArrow, the SlashRiser

best fight scene - Zero One episode 41, where Aruto and Horobi team up to fight the Ark. It’s a thing of beauty

best dramatic scene - Zero One episode 15, Horobi’s death scene featuring Jin. Same series, episode 45, Horobi and Aruto confronting the pain in their hearts and letting themselves breathe. OOO episode 48, Ankh dying. Den-O, whenever we’re confronted about Yuuto’s fate of being forgotten. Fourze, Gentarou’s homiecide. Every death scene hits hard, okay

best comedic scene - Everything in Den-O. Even the finale made me chuckle, I was supposed to be sad

biggest “what on earth did i just watch?” moment - The entire Dekaranger vs Abaranger crossover. I have words about the chiropractor

best song - “Realxeyez”, “Climax Jump”, “Everything Goes”, “Switch On”, both Dekaranger ending songs, a number of original soundtracks that cleave my soul (i.e. OOO in a nutshell)

best piece of merchandise - I would say the Progrise Keys...however I’ve bought a lot of photobooks this year ^^;

biggest surprise of 2020 - When Aruto became Ark One or Horobi making it out alive after the final battle

single worst thing in 2020 tokusatsu - Probably the hiatus? It was beyond everyone’s control though, so I don’t blame anyone (unless people are not obeying health regulations despite the risks to everyone’s health)

[ultraheadcanons]

Innaugural Ultraman Z Headcanons Based on the First Episode

Director Kuriyama’s stomach aches are caused by stress. Hikari is responsible for 90% of that stress, with the other 10% coming from the knowledge that millions of lives are dependent on STORAGE doing a good job.

STORAGE’s mecha aren’t the original models. Rather, Yuka built them as replicas of Sevenger and Windam because she’s such a historical giant robot geek.

Yoko likes spicy food.

Captain Hebikura and Ultraseven would get along very well if they ever met. They’d have plenty of stories to share about their respective idiots. Although if Hebikura heard of just how brutal Ultraseven sometimes was, well...

[toku-explained]

The Sword of Light

Z: Obviously this is mostly a recap, but there is some pertinent information, most of which we already could infer, even if I didn't. Seems like Yoko's testimony plus Yuka's research on Celebro has probably allowed STORAGE to be absolved. Except Hebikura no doubt, also of you somehow doubted the Dark Z Riser had been destroyed it's confirmed here. So we now know Celebro's actions were all in aid of causing humanity to create a weapon that would then destroy earth, so most of his actions were to encourage the creation of increasingly dangerous weapons. He created Erimaki-Telesdon to test Windom, he drew out King Joe so STORAGE would adapt it. He had nothing to do with the development of D4 as far as we know, didn't even bring out Barabas. The major new information is that Celebro is responsible to Grigio Raiden landing on earth 10 years ago, my presumption therefore is that it was the ultimate weapon created on another world he destroyed.

The Absolute Conspiracy: Now in the third part of Chapter 2, we move close to the "present" of the M78 timeline, Zero explaining the change of Belial and Tregear's fates splintered the timeline. On Planet Golgotha, the Ultra 6 Brothers confront Guar Army generals Juda and Mold, who we saw were part of Tartarus' army. Evidently, to Taro's confusion, the pair were taken out of the timeline before the events of Ultra Fight Victory and X, and as Ultraman, Jack and Zoffy fight Mold, he demands to face the Andro Super Warriors, making Zoffy realise they're from the past. Taro, Ace and Seven face Juda, and both fights are very evenly matched. It's a good thing Gina wasn't there. The brothers give Taro their power to use the Cosmo Miracle Ray in them, the brothers die calling on Gina to avenge them. Another portal opens, and Belial and Tregear emerge, Zoffy realising the two have come from branched timelines. Belial faves the elder brothers, and Tregear the younger, demonstrating Tartarus has given them great power. The mention of Absolutions is noticed by Zoffy, right before two days defeat the Brothers, but Zero leaps right in. He recognises Belial, and faces the pair, doing okay until Tartarus arrives, defeating him swiftly, he takes his allies to The Kingdom. After the fact, Father of Ultra, Zoffy, 80, Mother of Ultra and Taro discuss Tartarus, and decide on the need for a special team to form to deal with the threat, Zero is charged with assembling such a team, given his ability to cross universes. The presence of his Ultra Zero Mantle places this most likely after Z & Zero voice drama and before Z.

Saber: It's the Geed Cameo episode everyone! Tassel only knows the story is going to be evolving thanks to his friend the hooded man. The Megiddo need a new plan, and Reika believes with Caliber gone Touma is the person so lead them to the Sword of Light. Everyone at Northern Base is trying to move forward, Touma remembers what Caliber said but is sure he can trust everyone. Various people can now see Wonder World in the sky after being in the vicinity of the open gate, which gives the Megiddo another avenue. Reika attempts to recruit Touma to Southern Base, he refuses. Something is obviously up with Reika and Southern Base, but it's hard to work out what. Touma told Mei what Kamijo told him. Luna evidently knew Touma was important when they first met. Reika sows seeds of doubt in the Northern Base members, while she's actually the one who captured Sophia. The information given to Touma by Kamijo, combined with the manipulation of Reika, causes the other Swordsmen to turn on Touma, it does make sense Ren would be the first to act as well, and Rintaro's personal feelings towards Sword of Logos would make him refuse to listen to the idea anyone within is a traitor. And certainly, none of the Swordsmen of the Northern Base is the problem. Sophia could be, technically, but it's obvious they're part of Southern Base in reality, or the whole lot of them. After only observing since he gave King of Arthur to Touma, Yuri finally takes part, revealing the book Kin no Buki, Gin no Buki, he transforms into the sword Saikou, as Reika wanted, and takes down the Riders. And now Megiddo are born from implanting an Alter Book into a person who can see Wonder World.

Kiramager: So, turns out not even Yodonna has ever met Yodon, curious, he only communicates with her via Dark Changer, but Crunchula, now 4/5 of his whole, self, got some discipline from him. Okay, but Yodonna splitting Sena by accident is hilarious, the splitting of personality seems a little uneven to me. Hakobu this time escapes rather than being used by Yodonna and Garza again to get to Atamald. I mean we can already see where this is going with Sena 5 being separate, the other one will get in over her head because she doesn't consider the drawbacks. Okay but that beach scene was absolutely framed as like a lovers reunion, twice. Okay, so the revelation about Yodonna, I was actually wondering about that after last time. Her total lack of awareness is... interesting.

[mypersonaspace]

I’m Caught Up!

I just watched episode 24 of Kamen Rider Saber. I am now officially caught up on it! Now I gotta watch Kiramager up from episode 10 to be fully caught up on Super Sentai, the Z/ Zero Voice Drama starting from episode 7 and The Absolute Consiracy from the Ultra series, and the entirety of the Dogengers to be officially caught up on all the tokusatsu that I watch on a regular basis.

I may or may not also have a whole stack of Ultraman Blu-Rays in my bedroom that need to be watched as well... Along with four other stacks of other DVDs/ Blu-Rays...

[reversemoon255]

Ultraman Z

So I finished my first Ultra Series! It's not that I haven't tried before; I've tried watching the original series, Nexus, Geed, and R/B. I can't put my finger on it, but there's always something that puts me off from Ultra stuff, which is weird because I love a lot of their ideas. They have a united continuity that spans through the series, not just the movies. They have a reoccurring cast of both Kaiju and heroes. Each series is sequentially followed by the next. They're all issues I've had with other Tokusatsu series in the past that are well executed here.

While I find it hard to suss out what typically doesn't agree with me, I think it's the writing. Either the comedy, or the juxtaposition between that and its serious moments, or its characters. It's actually really hard to pin down. Hopefully writing my opinions on the series will help me sort out those feelings.

The Good: Where to begin? The overall plot was a good one. A handful of episodic one-offs in between story progression. We've got a parasitic entity running around, originally only sticking to one host and moving on to more important ones as the series hit its stride, eventually ending up in one of our main characters. We have Jugglus Juggler as the leader of STORAGE and his plans, the sublimation of STORAGE into another organization. It's not a lot, but it's also a 25 episode series, so it feels like the right amount considering the filler episodes.

The characters were also very fun. Haruki could be a little annoying with his repetitive dialogue, but was heroic and a good person. His small arc in the middle of the show after fighting the Red Kings ended fantastically with his meeting with his father, and was definitely an emotional highlight. Seeing Jugglus Juggler come back in a major supporting roll was cool. He definitely proved he was a good guy, despite his chaotic nature. It was also cool that, when his identity was revealed, the team still trusted him. I like Yoko. As someone not as familiar with the human characters in Ultraman as the aliens, having her be the main pilot of the robots fighting off Kaiju was cool. I know other season have had combative female characters, but it's not normally toe-to-toe with Kaiju in the way Yoko was. Also, her possession at the end of the series, while sad she couldn't participate in the final fight, added a lot of personal stakes for the characters and worked very well. Yuka was ok. She didn't leave a big impression on me, and was definitely the weakest character in my eyes. As far as I know, this was Bako's first Ultra Series appearance, but it felt like there was this huge inside joke about him that I wasn't aware of. Still, I liked him. He was probably the most consistently funny character among the cast, and was a great actor that brought a lot of depth to a more minor character.

And the action in this series was great. I've watched several of the movies from the Ultra Series, but seeing it done for a televised format was really cool. The series I have the most experience with are the original from the 70s, and Nexus which took place on a naturalistic, earthy set. As someone who does work with miniatures, the set design for the monster fights was spectacular. Leaps and bounds above what Super Sentai normally does (as blasphemous as it is for me to say). They did a great job portraying the scale, with tons of fairly well-executed effect perspective shots. The actual choreography and use of effects was great, too. The episode with Ultraman Ace in particular was a sight to behold. As long as Tsuburaya keeps putting their shows up on YouTube, I'll probably keep watching for the action alone.

The Bad: Going in the same order, while the overall plot was fine, and the episodics were ok, they were hampered by the heavy inclusion of clip shows. Out of 26 episodes, 4 of them were clip shows, meaning the total number of episodes were significantly less than at first appearance. Also, those writing issues I talked about before were still here. The humor falls a lot flatter than other Toku series, and the characters, while they had stand-out personalities, didn't go through much development over the course of the series. After the Red King arc half-way through the show, Haruki stops growing as a person, and after getting Delta Rise Claw he stops developing as a hero. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think it's because this show was so short that I feel this way. If a Red Ranger stops developing his character 10-15 episodes before the end of the series, then we would have still gone through 35-40 episodes of growth, but here it's half.

Also, I can't help but question what the budget for this series is. They have quite a number of sponsors, but they only really filmed 21 episodes if you take out the clip shows, and only a handful of costumes were new. There were only 4 new Kaiju designs, and 6 Ultras. Are the sets really that expensive? I know I'm just comparing them to Sentai and Rider, but they typically have 4x that in 2x the episodes.

Overall, I did enjoy this series. It has some of the best action I've seen in a Tokusatsu series. However, when it comes to investment in characters and humor I still prefer the other series I'm familiar with. Maybe in time, and as I watch more season, I'll gradually warm up to it more. Until then, I'm enjoying the weirdness that is Absolute Conspiracy, and eagerly await whatever's next.

[thekaijudude]

So Blazar isn't interesting because.......its being an old school ultraman series that does a MOTW format????

Sure

I believe this is a response to the most recent commentary post on the 2nd Blazar Trailer, I am just referring to the trailer content itself rather than the series (since it hasnt even been aired yet?). And as said within that post, there's simply nothing interesting to me that is shown to look forward to. I even said the same about the Decker 2nd PV, its simply about the content of the PV itself.

Unless this is a response to one of the recent asks that is very similar to this context when someone sent in an ask about my reasoning on why I dont like the MOTW format

To recap, its simply about personal preference. Because I really dont care for human drama and I am far more interested in the character development for the Ultra characters themselves since their relevance would be more substantial than the human characters which is only relevant for 1 series and 1 movie most of the time. And series with an actual overall plot tends to focus more in this direction.

I also especially prefer a cohesive plotline which enables writers to write more intense stories using tactics like foreshadowing, multiple climaxes in a story, dramatic twists and turns etc, so it personally keeps me interested to want to watch every episode every week to for example, see where this foreshadowing leads to, who is this mysterious character that everyone is hyping up in the series etc

But another obvious reason as I also pointed out was that in New Gen, TsuPro hasnt had a good track record of writing really good one-episode fillers imo. Like the last time I actually remembered a good filler was Taiga ep 10, and I dont even rmb a good filler even before that.

Tho these were obvious from my series commentaries

But Blazar in particular is especially concerning to point out due to the Q4 Financial Report that I also posted recently may I remind you. A mere 15% shows just how low of a confidence they have with Blazar, compared with Trigger and Decker if you looked back (remember, Decker was literally more than double the revenue for Trigger, and Trigger was as well to Z, so it's 100% growth down to a mere 15%)

Needless to say, Bandai has all the power behind TsuPro's production so their 15% prediction raised many brows in the fandom

If u missed the breakdown, here it is:

However, its not a case set in stone as I also said, because considering how much TsuPro has invested into this project (from the Taguchi interview, unprecedented marketing [SEA stageshows], and them essentially choosing over an obviously more profitable route that is New Gen Gaia), I fully expect the writing to be phenomenal .

Thanks for the question!

[fostersffff]

I was out shopping today and saw the original Ultraman on blu-ray for $10, so I figured what the hell. I've never actually seen any of Ultraman- or tokusatsu in general- but it seemed like something worth owning, especially at the price.

After the first episode, I gotta say: everything about this is really fun except for the music. I was excepting something along the lines of the theme from Mazinger Z with a lot of Big Bombastic Brass and timpani but instead it's like... nothing.

[redsnerdden]

Ultraman Trigger Episode Z is set to premiere Internationally on March 18th on Ultraman Connection

Ultraman Trigger Episode Z is set to premiere Internationally on March 18th on Ultraman Connection #ultraman #ウルトラマントリガーNewGenerationTiga #tokusatsu #tsuburayaproductions

News coming in from Tsuburaya Productions today, the newest film, Ultraman Trigger: Episode Z, will also be premiering on Ultraman Connection. The feature-length special Ultraman Trigger Episode Z, following the story of the Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga series, is coming exclusively worldwide* to Ultraman Connection on March 19th, 2022, at 10 AM (JST). Please Note: the Ultraman…