The Ultraman Thread

[ray245]

Thought I might as well create an Ultraman thread here for any people potentially interested in more Ultraman stuff.

The new Ultra-series is coming out this July on simuldub on youtube, so it's a good fresh Ultra-series for new fans to get onboard.



Older classic series that people should try out ( and are easy to find) are:

Ultra Q (twilight zone style kaiju series)
Ultraman 66 ( the classic)
Ultraseven ( widely considered as on par with Star Trek TOS)

Ultraman Tiga (the first new entry in heisei era and ranked one of the most popular Ultraseries)
Ultraman Dyna (Tiga but with even more space travel stuff and is similar to 2001: A space Odyessy)
Ultraman Gaia (A more 'realistic' take on the series)

Ultraman Z ( the best 21st century Ultra-series)

Most of these shows are all self-contained spin-offs, so you do not really need to watch all of earlier Ultra-series to know what they are about.

[Majin Gojira]

My first ultra series proper was "Ultraman Mebius."

I'm old enough to have caught airings of Ultra Seven on TBS in the early mornings every now and again.

Z is a GREAT series, and they recently came out with a dub... that I've been meaning to get around to watching.

The camerawork in Z is just spectacular.

[ray245]

My first ultra series proper was "Ultraman Mebius."

I'm old enough to have caught airings of Ultra Seven on TBS in the early mornings every now and again.

Z is a GREAT series, and they recently came out with a dub... that I've been meaning to get around to watching.

The camerawork in Z is just spectacular.

Mebius is a wonderful series.

Z is great and I'm really hoping that Blazar will hit it out of the park with it being directed by the same guy as Z.

Have you seen any of TDG by the way?

[Majin Gojira]

I have not!

[ray245]

I have not!

I think you should give them a go, especially Tiga. It's one of the peak of kaiju genre in terms of storytelling and also the quality/scale of effects for a toku tv show.

[ray245]

New trailer for Blazar is out:

[Q99]

I watched the whole 'New Gen' period starting with Ginga* and up through Taiga, since they're smaller and thus easier for me to consume. I enjoy them to various extents, with Geed and Orb being IMO the best.

Ultraman '66 really feels like a Showa era kaiju movie every week, only half an hour. Great production values and creative plots. Ultraseven is more alien focused, and Ultra Q is a bit more Outer Limits/Twilight Zone, only with kaiju some of the time. Return of Ultraman is also really good, and the first one that really ties the Ultraman series to the same continuity, with '66 and Seven showing up. Personally I'd argue it's the strongest of the first four.

Q and '66 were especially experimental, so I liked that, while by Seven and Return they kinda knew what they were doing more.


*Well technically with.... breaths in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, which is in the same universe only about someone who controls kaiju. Pretty fun, even if it was when their budget constraints were at maximum due to a BS lawsuit. That leads into the Ultra Galaxy movie, which is fantastic and marks the return of Budget as well as showing us the Land of Light for the first time, and introduces Ultraman Zero and Beliel, Zero being the eventual mentor to both Geed and Z.

[ray245]

I watched the whole 'New Gen' period starting with Ginga* and up through Taiga, since they're smaller and thus easier for me to consume. I enjoy them to various extents, with Geed and Orb being IMO the best.

Ultraman '66 really feels like a Showa era kaiju movie every week, only half an hour. Great production values and creative plots. Ultraseven is more alien focused, and Ultra Q is a bit more Outer Limits/Twilight Zone, only with kaiju some of the time. Return of Ultraman is also really good, and the first one that really ties the Ultraman series to the same continuity, with '66 and Seven showing up. Personally I'd argue it's the strongest of the first four.

Q and '66 were especially experimental, so I liked that, while by Seven and Return they kinda knew what they were doing more.


*Well technically with.... breaths in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, which is in the same universe only about someone who controls kaiju. Pretty fun, even if it was when their budget constraints were at maximum due to a BS lawsuit. That leads into the Ultra Galaxy movie, which is fantastic and marks the return of Budget as well as showing us the Land of Light for the first time, and introduces Ultraman Zero and Beliel, Zero being the eventual mentor to both Geed and Z.

Seven is arguably the most sci-fi series out of the early showa era shows, in that it mostly deals with aliens of all sorts.

I find new gen hard to get into at times, too low of a budget and too power-rangery most of the time. But Z is a must watch for the new gen era.

I'll still argue in favour of the TDG era as one of the peaks of the franchise. Tiga is just really good and you can see a lot of interesting themes and ideas in that series, so it's not just a modern update of showa Ultraman.