Ultraman General Discussion

[Tactics]

Gotta say this episode started with nice delivery of information. One year time skip since first episode, five King Sphere that responsible to the barrier, eight years since last kaiju appearance that lead to lack of resources allocated to GUTS-Select; its nice to know there's goal to look forward and some questions to be answered as Trigger sequel, because usually stuffs like that only brought after situation became worse.

Really love how they do "Why Kanata is the one taking pilot role". I expected we got Murahoshi telling he's better pilot compare to the other two, instead we saw how he's the least awful pilot in early test on top of being the one who spirited enough to stay awake and personally visit Hanejiro to practice multiple times. Easily made you think Kanata deserved that pilot spot until others were capable. Also Decker naming came with Deka excuse, felt like gave a glimpse of naming process behind the scene.



Yeah, this time the social aspect seems to be it strong point. Hanejiro? Just befriend it (although it became really casual by end feels kinda off, I expected it became casual by next one or two episode LOL). Also that handshake from Yuichiro really sell how its a big achievement that contribute to organization reputation. Against an enraged modified Gomora with successful "protect hospital", no less.

Maybe it just me but the visual effect execution seems improved after Trigger.
Blur during Sphere Gomora initial breath gave some thought if it got some kind of EMP I thought all aircraft would crash.

[justavisitor]

This episode surprised me twice, both in a good way

1) The members still fire the solid rounds after get selected into the team. Weird, 8 years ago they already fired laser beam and all of a sudden they go back to solid rounds...I am not going to complain lol as I prefer this over the laser shooting

2) When Kanata got chosen to be the pilot, I was about to wonder how many times he was going to crash so he can transform, and it really surprised me that Hane2 solved the problem easily for the main hero. Well I am not in the military, but in the year of 2022, isn't it super easy to see and listen what happens in the cockpit? Well the first rule of watching tokusatsu is that, you have to be grateful that they bother to explain. So while it's not perfect, it's amazing that they try to answer it XD

Keep the effort going!!

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

Well I am not in the military, but in the year of 2022, isn't it super easy to see and listen what happens in the cockpit?

True, by current standard there would be a security camera to observe cockpit activities.

Even so such circumstances also fall under "current aircraft series is originally designed to operate unmanned" explanation.
Weird cockpit as mentioned by Obelisk, lack of modern surveillance system so only Hanejiro see what inside cockpits; I'm guessing laser (Trigger) to bullets (Decker) transitions to be result of both lack of kaiju activities on last 8 years (Yuichiro and Kaizaki hinted lack of support after GUTS disbanded by end of Trigger) and awareness Sphere can emit electromagnetic pulse (Episode 1, Sphere easily take over Earth by messing electric equipment first) so it better not risking going all out hi-tech; made Decker valuable ally as well.

Small things arranged pretty well here it satisfying.



Next episode will involved civilians, kinda made me curious if it partly lead to Decker version of "Dyna Fans Club" in future.

[justavisitor]

I am def not complaining. In fact, like you said, they arrange small things really well here. I am not looking for 100% explanation, but at least they give it a try to explain, and this is all I need

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/dGsINQwsCqc

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*sigh* This episode is actually pretty fun in a traditional Ultraman way. We practically get an onsen business episode like the one from Ultraman Taro where a kid was loking for his dad who was digging to make an onsen only for a kaiju to get in his way. I like the comedy where the kaiju is basically a giant-size advertisement for a WMD (unlike the one in Dyna, this version of Meranie alien took tech-demo to another level ). I also ldon't disike the Gryphon combiner and all the action.

But, why oh why, there's no original kaiju in sight??! We have 2 two kaijus & 1 alien appearances in this episode yet all of them are just straight up recycled suits. During the training, we have Bemular which everybody should know coz he's the first ever kaiju that Ultraman fought back in episode 1 of 1966 show (and 1 alien from Ultraseven that I won't even bother with the name). As for the actual threat, we have a recycled Mons-Ahga from Dyna. I mean, shit, they didn't even bother to "Sphere-oid" it as a power-up to give us a new appearance. And next week we'll get Eleking (from Ultraseven) again?? How many Ultraman, Ultraseven & Dyna-things that they want to just recycle? Does this show have no budget to make an entirely original kaiju?

Next week will be 5 episodes in without a wholly original kaiju. Is this a new record for an Ultraman show? I don't know. I remember Ultraman Powered show that mostly used re-designed classic kaijus but that's because it was an American production made to introduce Ultraman in Murica.

[justavisitor]

I like this episode a lot. It's more like a filler but it's a very interesting filler.

The chemistry between Hane2 between Asumi is getting good. The way Hane2 to impersonate Asumi's voice was unexpected but fun (Hard to think HQ won't be unware of that buy anyway...)

Is it just me that I think Decker is getting more budget? The background of the battle scene is pretty detailed and noticeably different from other battle background (somewhat). Besides the recycling of Kaijus, I think Decker is doing really fine right now. (This time, even I remember the kaiju from the preview is at least from Tiga, or Gaia, so it is from Ultraseven already (Thanks for the info Obelisk ze Tormentor))

I am not that into Kaiju but, have they started to re-cycle kaijus a lot since Mebius??

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

(This time, even I remember the kaiju from the preview is at least from Tiga, or Gaia, so it is from Ultraseven already (Thanks for the info Obelisk ze Tormentor))

Eleking never appeared in Tiga or Gaia (please note that Gaia had entirely new kaijus which were original to his own show which is one of the many reasons why I love that series).

IIRC Eleking also appeared in Taro during the showa era & Ultraseven Heisei (clips in Ultraman Story notwithstanding).

Originally Posted by justavisitor

I am not that into Kaiju but, have they started to re-cycle kaijus a lot since Mebius??

Some classic kaijus already made cameos since Taro but were in small portions compared to all the original kaijus that Taro had. Heck, Taro was rich with original kaijus to the point where they had some single episodes with two new kaijus in one. Even Ultraman had episodes with two new kaijus at the same time.

I don't count the re-appearing kaijus in Ultraseven Heisei because it's a story continuation from the Ultraseven Showa era. Tiga, Dyna, Gaia mostly had original kaijus. Cosmos had some big cameos like Baltans (but the design is pretty distinct from the Showa Baltans). But it's not until the commercial flop of Nexus that Tsuburaya decided to shower Ultra shows with recycled kaijus ever since. The most blatant & glaring example was Max which was an AU ultra show yet it was chock-full of recycled Showa kaijus in order to bring audience back with nostalgia bait. After Max, they doubled down even further with Mebius by bringing back the Showa timeline complete with their line-up of even more Showa kaijus which were ready to be recycled. After that, no Ultra show can escape a slew of recycled kaijus ever since. I didn't even follow most of the NexGen Ultra shows but I know they have recycled kaijus just by reading their kaiju list on the Wiki.

[Frontier]

I'm used to original Kaiju showing up a lot after watching all the other New Gen shows .

I think there's been confirmation we're getting Sphere Eleking as well? Even though they didn't show it in the preview. Seems like they'll be making use of Sphere versions of Kaiju to make up for reusing some of them.

[justavisitor]

Thanks for the correction , Obelisk ze Tormentor

Now that I think about it...I def saw Eleking before in the heisei era...maybe in Max??

Man, now that you mention it. I can't believe shows like Gaia used to have completely new kaijus on a weekly basis. Standards keep dropping and now no staffs have the drive to design new kaijus that will last only for 1 or 2 episodes (same things for riders...recently Revice's group just keeps beating the same mutant army week after week....)

speaking of nexus, I do hope this new generation gimmick can continue to nexus, so I can see Dark Lucifer to take the proper final antagonist role as it was intended to be

[iko_uwais]

Tsuburaya has announced Shin Ultraman theatrical release for SEA, Middle East and Africa. Malaysia and Singapore will be the first ones with a September scheduled release.
Can't wait for Indonesia

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by iko_uwais

Tsuburaya has announced Shin Ultraman theatrical release for SEA, Middle East and Africa. Malaysia and Singapore will be the first ones with a September scheduled release.
Can't wait for Indonesia

Meh, I'll prepare myself for disappointment. It'll most likely be screened in very limited theaters which most of them located in Jakarta and the surrounding areas.

I was pretty sad when Gundam CDI got that treatment even though the previous Gundam Narrative movie was able to be played in theaters of my hometown and I managed to watch it on the big screen.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/cdLzgBnfBLw

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This episode is pretty average. It would've leaned more towards "good" from the creativity side if they used an original kaiju. At least the "Miracle" type of Decker lived up to its name in this case.

Originally Posted by Frontier

I think there's been confirmation we're getting Sphere Eleking as well? Even though they didn't show it in the preview. Seems like they'll be making use of Sphere versions of Kaiju to make up for reusing some of them.

As you can see, Eleking in this episode is a straight up reuse suit, so I was right. I don't know what kind of source that told you this episode would have Spheroid Eleking but it's obviously not true

What's even more sad is that they not only redo Eleking, but also redo his fight with Miclas from Ultraseven back in 1967 (see video clip below), only much shorter & low effort in this Decker episode.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/LqR3nLtZ9cc

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They even reused the baby-Eleking

[justavisitor]

The episode is fine..the problem is that it's just another filler. It would be ok if you have 50 episodes, but they only have 25...

And, what the heck we will have a recap after just 5 episodes??? Is this the norm now after Trigger?? Come on, even tho this recap most likely won't count toward the proper episode list, but you got to do better than that.

Watching ultraman could be very frustrating...you could see they are trying to get better, but for some odd reasons, they think some of their weakness (like recycling kaiju, worthless recap episodes, etc) are their strength

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

Standards keep dropping and now no staffs have the drive to design new kaijus that will last only for 1 or 2 episodes (same things for riders...recently Revice's group just keeps beating the same mutant army week after week....)

Its the costume maintenance dilemma.

I read somewhere that kaiju costume maintenance can be costly so it have to be able to used multiple times so its not a loss.
There were idea to follow US "pure CG kaiju" but kaiju costume got it charm too among fans so they can't ditch it, while limited on making new kaiju for reason above.

Kamen Rider also suffering this issue, they solved it by making both Rider and kaijin costume running by parts (see: Zero-One, Revice, Geats).
So whenever they need new kaijin and Rider they only need to retooled, recolored, mix-and-match old parts. Allowing them to keep things going even with multi-Riders in mind at cost of making things look cheap. I think Tsuburaya themselves considered going with this route looking at how they do Trigger Dark during Trigger and Sphere-powered monsters in Decker.

[justavisitor]

icic..well as long as ultraman has the good story I could let it go...

but what's the deal with the early recap?? Sigh

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/I4dja7eU4Mc

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Another fun episode with multiple kaijus & good action. The episode explored Ryumon character and made him a big part of the solution. But of course, the factory problem is still there.

And whaddya know. We have 5 types of kaijus this time, and of course all of them are reused Suits. We have Agira (Ultraseven), Pagos (Ultra Q), Telesdon (Ultraman), Gudon & Twintails (Return of Ultraman).

What's funny is that Pagos even predates the OG Ultraman show. It was made from a borrowed/reused Baragon suit from Toho studio and appeared in Ultra Q show. So this Pagos is a reused suit of a reused suit 😂.

This is Baragon from the movie Frankenstein vs. Subterranean Monster Baragon (1965):

Images

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And this is Pagos from Ultra Q (1966) after being modified from Baragon suit:

Images

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[Tactics]

Gotta say that's a really nice action that make use everyone (Decker, Ryumon and base).

Even so I'm not sure about delivery of the problem. In first half we're presented that the factory is the problem, but as Decker goes underground we got implication the problem is amount (overpopulation) as Ryumon surprised there were three kaiju gathering on same spot. Feels weird we didn't got something like "The factory is regulated so there might be another cause" or the 120-years flower turned out bloom earlier implying big change happened underground, especially with Ryumon taking sample from that. Focusing on Pagos abnormal speed instead?

Ryumon got his closure here feels right, especially with reveal next episode will have Trigger which should tell about next step to deal with Sphere.
Nice to know his past didn't involve some kind of trauma leading into his serious attitude; at the end its just someone inspired (and motivated) to save lives on his dream job.

[justavisitor]

I am going to offer an unpopular opinion that while the teleportation/ warp gate technique used by Decker is cool, it introduces tons of plot holes

If he can teleport, he should use it to teleport outside of earth to attack the sphere from above, or teleport to Mars to check if his parents are ok

When will the staff understand that teleportation always introduces plotholes !!

Just like we were forced to content that the bad trio in trigger never teleported themselves to the ship to abduct the main heroine and kill others (while the dark trigger dude teleports inside the ship all the time), we are now forced to be okay that the MC will only use warp gate in a 1 vs 1 battle

I know that teleportation is a common technique in many ultras, but decker is the most unsuitable ultra to have one based on plot.

And I hate plot holes introduced by teleportation. XD

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

And I hate plot holes introduced by teleportation. XD

Yeah. I'm still waiting whether the show will be smart enough to address it.

Btw, OG Ultraman also can teleport back in 1966. He used it to teleport from a faraway planet to Earth coz the Baltans tricked him and 2 billions of them were attacking Earth when he wasn't there. So Ultraman had to teleport. The explanation given of why he didn't use it more often is because teleportation cost a great deal of Ultraman's life-span, which is a lot considering Ultras can live for millions of years.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/jjFcgbaBEo8

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[Tactics]

Wasn't Dyna also like that?

His base form can teleport only to place around him, made it impossible for him to teleport to place like other side of earth;
Meanwhile the Miracle Form be like 'rules is made to be broken'. Miracle Dyna never tired from using it, no need some urgent situation to justify use of teleportation.

I'll be surprised if they explained "Why I can't teleport to space" through duet with Trigger.