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News Stay At Home With ULTRAMAN| Ultra Science Fiction Hour on YouTube

In episode #18 of "Ultraman Cosmos", a local legend of the souls of two lovers kept apart haunting Mt. Nibito comes back in form of a giant warrior to destroy a village:
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Fair warning: the subs are terribly lagging terribly behind the video in this upload.
 
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This week in the 55th Anniversary Campaign sees the upload of episode #45 of "Ultraman Gaia", featuring the first of the Roots of Destruction and thus the beginning of the show's endgame:
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In episode #19 of "Ultraman Cosmos", an alien comes to Earth seeking revenge:
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Episode 2 of Ultraman Trigger. We have an OP! And Sakamoto is raising the action

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Second episode was pretty good. More great action cinematography.

The GUTS-Select team are all personality quirks, but it makes them easy to identify. Is that the shop owner from Geed as the pilot? Nanase's bipolar personality seems like it should be fun. Ice cold to people, but a total joy addict as a pilot. I was honestly surprised that they resolved Akito's issue with not becoming Trigger so quickly. I didn't even realize that Yuna's actress played the girl in white until they called it out. And I did like the new Giant of Darkness. I tend to like the dishonorable rivalry villains, overall.
 
Samurai8472 said:
Episode 2 of Ultraman Trigger. We have an OP! And Sakamoto is raising the action

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Glad I'm not the only one sharing uploaded episodes. :techman:

And, as I didn't get around to it yesterday, here is episode #37 of "Gridman":
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Samurai8472 said:
Episode 2 of Ultraman Trigger. We have an OP! And Sakamoto is raising the action
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Pretty impressive. The miniature work is exquisite. I noticed in the late '90s/early '00s series I've seen how intricate the detail was in the miniature sets, and they've only improved in the 20 years since.

Storywise, it's a nice novelty to have other characters in on the hero's secret identity. But Kengo needs to develop more personality. At this point, he's just a walking catchphrase.

Yuna is really cute. Her mysterious alternate identity as Yuzare reminds me of Mai and the Woman of the Beginning in Kamen Rider Gaim. Of course, the original Yuzare in Tiga was a lookalike for Captain Iruma, but I don't recall that being a major plot point as this seems to be.
 
Christopher said:
Pretty impressive. The miniature work is exquisite. I noticed in the late '90s/early '00s series I've seen how intricate the detail was in the miniature sets, and they've only improved in the 20 years since.
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It will be very interesting in the next few years when the virtual wall set becomes more budget friendly for Toei and other companies to use.

I wonder if they'll adapt it since there's watercooler talk about Toei lessening the budget on certain shows and set space.
 
Samurai8472 said:
It will be very interesting in the next few years when the virtual wall set becomes more budget friendly for Toei and other companies to use.
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Oh, that's no fun. What I love is seeing so much care still being put into physical miniatures in these digital times. Tsuburaya is so much better at it than Toei, and always has been. Certainly the miniature cityscapes in recent Super Sentai seasons have been greatly improved, but they still don't hold a candle to this. They're pretty generic, while the Ultra shows' miniature sets are so full of detail that makes them feel more like recreations of real places.
 
I've seen Ultra Q and the first two Ultraman series and apart from the episodes with too much focus on child guest stars have enjoyed them but Trigger is my first attempt at watching one of the modern shows and after two episodes I won't be continuing with it.

It's astonishing that something made in 2021 looks cheaper than shows made in the 1960s. And while I know these shows exist primarily to sell toys I can't believe that they use the actual toys as the main props instead of making better looking versions.
 
StCoop said:
And while I know these shows exist primarily to sell toys I can't believe that they use the actual toys as the main props instead of making better looking versions.
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That's pretty standard with tokusatsu. I've learned to tolerate the silly equipment designs and just focus on the stories and characters. Although Trigger does need to do some work yet to give the characters more depth.
 
It's a niche genre. Giant rubber monsters and karate chopping spandex aliens. Even Star Wars has used electric razors with kibble glued on.
 
Tsuburaya started a weekly run of the original "Ultraman" series for international fans today, starting obviously with episode #1 (which originally aired on July 17, 1966):
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Tsuburaya's website warns, though, that it might not be available in all regions.

And also for international fans, the rerun of "Ultraman Z" today is up to its penultimate episode #24:
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So I'm now about halfway through Ultraman Orb, and generally enjoying it. I like the actor playing Gai a lot, but Gai himself is just kind of there. There are lots of hints to a tragic backstory, both with Juggler and with the girl he keeps having memories of not saving, but they haven't really gone anywhere yet.

Juggler is fantastic and makes a great bad guy. I enjoyed him as Hebikura in Z, but the character is delightful when he's malevolent. His utter disappointment when Orb overcomes Maga-Orochi was really well played. I think he's my favorite character so far.

I also like Naomi a lot. Her mom was a hoot. I'm actually a little surprised how overtly they are leaning into making her Gai's love interest. Usually in toku this stuff really needs to be read between the lines, but while they aren't necessarily being in your face with it, it's a lot more upfront here.

I just finished the debut of Thunder Breastar. Interesting to see Belial used in a fusion form, and more directly than as Beliarok from Z. I expect this will have some complications moving forward. It feels a bit like the berserk form upgrades Kamen Rider has been using for the last few years, so I expect Gai to be losing control any time now.

Good stuff.
 
Unfortunately, the intern at Tsuburaya screwed up once again, so despite what the video title says, this week's episode #7 of "Mirrorman" has no English subtitles:
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I don't mean to shit on the person who's job this is, relatively speaking it doesn't happen that often. But as a fan who isn't fluid in Japanese, it still sucks.

Edit: Just thought of this, I can at least share the synopsis underneath the video:

Toshio Okayma of Ohkuma Science Lab was steering a motor boat on a lake. He was shot by a beam from a spaceship and crashed into a rock. It was strange that he didn't hurt himself by the crash amd his charactor changed sudddenly. Dr. Mitarai heard about this accident from Toshio's fiancee Sayoko Naruse and thought that an invader was occupying Toshio's body. The invaders' target was the life of Dr. Ohkuma who was developing Sol-gun.
 
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For some reason, Tsuburaya's YT channel skipped "Ultraman Cosmos"' episode #20 yesterday. Episode #21 is already listed for tomorrow, though.

Before then, there's still the 55th Anniversary Campaign, which this week presents episode #39 of "Ultraman Leo", in which the Ultra homeworld is on a collision course with Earth:
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Well, after skipping episode #20, "Ultraman Cosmos" continued today with episode #21, part one of another two-part episode:
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"Gridman"'s episode #38 is part one of the two-part series finale:
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This week I remembered to go to the Tsuburaya YouTube page in time to watch Trigger live just about from the beginning (I was a minute late and caught up during the first commercial). I'm not sure the novelty of getting to watch tokusatsu live is worth being unable to skip the commercials, though.

Modern Ultraman feels a lot more like Kamen Rider/Super Sentai than it used to, with a serialized narrative, recurring villains, multiple characters in on the secret identity, and so on, as well as the toyetic talking devices and collectible plug-ins. And the characters are still very broad and one-note. I don't like the new character Ignis. The "galactic treasure hunter" schtick feels too much like Zox from Zenkaiger, or Diend from Kamen Rider Decade, but the twist that the "treasure" he wants to possess is Yuna herself makes him come off as very creepy and predatory. It's rather distasteful.

I'm getting confused about continuity, because I'd thought there was evidence of this being a sequel to Tiga instead of a pseudo-remake (like Shizuma recognizing the first kaiju as a hybrid of the first two kaiju Tiga fought), but this episode was written as if the world has never seen a Giant of Light before and doesn't know what to make of Trigger.
 
For those who missed the live stream, here is "Ultraman Trigger"'s episode #3:
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