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A new undersea science station is opened with honored guests, but quickly becomes the target of a monster attack, in episode #24 of "Ultraman":

 

The monster Mayasaurus poisons Kyotaro with the strange element Strontium-41, in episode #30 of "Mirrorman":

 

Strontium-41? That would have only 3 neutrons! "Strange" doesn't even describe it.

 

The new YT-exclusive "Ultra Galaxy Fight" series "The Destined Crossroad" begins with this prologue.

Japanese with English subtitles:


English dub:


Also today Tsuburaya uploaded "Ultraman Ginga S - The Movie: Showdown! The Ultra 10 Warriors":

 

The final entry of the year into the 55th Anniversary Campaign (wait, won't this end with the year, as well?) is episode #25 of "Ultraman Geed":

 

And I guess the final upload of 2021 is episode #13 of "Ultraman Mebius", guest-starring Mika Shidou of "Gransazer" fame:

 

It appears there was no new Trigger this week (and no "special" to fill in for it), which is not surprising as it would have aired on New Year's Day in Japan.

But the uploads started again today with episode #25 of "Ultraman":

 

I find Japanese New Year's celebrations (as featured in many tokusatsu shows, including Zenkaiger the other week) very interesting. They have all these distinctive, very Asian New Year's customs -- traditional Japanese dress, mochi-making, Buddhist bell-ringing, Chinese lion dancing -- but they use the Gregorian calendar to define when the new year begins. It's a very Eastern celebration, but on a very Western timetable. Apparently Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873, having previously used the Chinese calendar or derivatives of it. Although from 1872 up until the end of WWII, they used an Imperial Year system dating from the legendary founding of Japan in 660 BCE, which was officially abandoned post-war because it was too nationalist.

I also find it interesting how the Japanese celebrate an entirely Westernized, commercialized Christmas followed by a heavily Asian, traditionalist New Year's a week later. It's like they're deliberately trying to maintain a balance between past and present, East and West.

 

More Ultraman series and Gridman are on Tokushoutsu



Ultraman 80
The Ultraman
Gridman The Hyper Agent

 

I hope that means they add Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia before much longer.

I'm glad they added 80, because I'm nearly done with Taro and about to move onto Leo, and I gather 80 is the next one after that in the classic continuity.

 

Tsuburaya Productions CEO Vows To Grow Ultraman Fanbase Without Making Changes For Western Audiences: “In Order To Compete On The World Stage, We Need To Make Use Of Japan’s Identity”

https://boundingintocomics.com/2021...e-we-need-to-make-use-of-japans-identity/amp/

 

I just saw the first two episodes of Ultraman Leo, and apparently they're an older release with more primitive subtitles that sometimes don't entirely fit within the superimposed boxes they occupy. They also don't bother to translate the theme song.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about the show yet. It seems to be trying too hard to be Intense and Dramatic in a self-conscious way. But then, I hated the first few Taro episodes, but it quickly got better. Maybe they just need to find their balance. It is an interesting premise, having Dan Moroboshi back on a regular basis as Leo's mentor, but unable to become Ultraseven. I've said before that I appreciate it on those rare cases when someone else is in on the Ultra's secret and they can actually talk about being an Ultra and what that means. Although so far it looks like it's largely just going to be Dan training Gen/Leo in new finisher moves. (And it seems a bit derivative that Leo's finisher is basically a Rider Kick.)

It's a bit weird that the series opens with Dan already living on Earth as the leader of MAC and defending it as Seven until he's sidelined by injury and has to pass the torch to Leo. I guess I can surmise that he decided to come back to defend Earth after Kotaro gave up being Taro. They must've run out of new younger brothers in the Ultra Family. Lucky the Ultras' species seems to have cousins in the Leo constellation.

After today's viewing, I think I'm finally starting to get an idea why Ultras maintain such strict secret identities, even when it seems pointless and counterproductive. First we had Kotaro giving up his link with Taro to show Kenichi that humans should rely on themselves. Then we have Dan telling Gen (who, like him, is a pure Ultra in human disguise rather than a bonded human host) that they have to live as humans while they're on Earth and mustn't use their alien powers in their human roles. I guess it's kind of an Ultra Prime Directive -- don't interfere except in the gravest emergencies, let humans solve problems using human abilities and technologies as much as possible, so that they don't become dependent on godlike aliens. It just so happens that the gravest emergencies crop up about once a week.

 

No Mirrorman on Monday, no replacement show for Cosmos on Tuesday, no 55th Anniversary Campaign (or replacement) on Wednesday... I guess there's a bit of a New Year's break for the shows Tsuburaya uploads for the Japanese audiences, so after Sunday's Ultraman episode, today's episode #13 of "Ultraman Mebius" marks the only uploaded episode this year so far:

 

Trigger continues with #23, and things get pretty dramatic:

 

Pretty intense stuff this week. I hadn't expected Darrgon's arc to come to a conclusion like this, or so soon. How long is an Ultraman season these days, anyway? I'm used to them being year-round, but here we are at only episode 23 and it feels like we're in the season's endgame, with two of the three main villains gone and the third mutated into her final monster form. Is this just a short season, or will we get a whole other storyline in the back half?

 

Mebius was the last series that went for the whole 50 episodes, and even the two directly preceding it, Max and Nexus, only managed about 40 episodes. After that, there were only short series, UltraSeven X (12 episodes), the two seasons of Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle (13 episodes each), Ginga (12 episodes), Ginga S (16 episodes). All following series ran for 25 episodes.

 

Oh, okay. So we've probably got 2 episodes left, then. Will we then get a hiatus of nearly half a year (given all the postponements and recap specials) before the next series?

 

Yes, the new Chronicle series will bridge the gap between the end of Trigger and the start of Decker.

 

This week's episode #26 of "Ultraman" is the first half of the Gomora two-parter:


And star comic artist Jim Lee shared this awesome art piece on Twitter:

 

Mirrorman returns this week with episode #31: