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Blazar #15, "Betwixt Morn and Dusk":


Episode 15 is a new take on the same episode of the original Ultraman, a comedy featuring the kaiju Gavadon, which comes to life from a drawing made by children due to cosmic rays. Except this time, the kid who first draws it is Gento's son Jun, who in many ways seems more mature than his father, and certainly more sympathetic toward innocent kaiju. Jun tries to protect Gavadon along with his friends, a brother and sister, and the girl playing the sister is adorably hammy and charming.

There's a really cool twist on Blazar's transformation as he comes directly out of the rise sequence into the action. The fight sequence is straight-up comedy as Blazar is unable to do any damage. There's a bit of an homage to the original when Blazar drops Gavadon into a miniature concrete yard; IIRC, the original Gavadon was drawn on the side of a concrete pipe in the yard that was frequently used as a toku location in those days.

There's a guest appearance by Taro Suwa, a recognizable actor who's done numerous toku roles, notably the "Piano Man" in one of Kamen Rider Den-O's most poignant episodes.

 

Blazar #16, "Terror from the Underground":


Going largely for humor this week, as a kaiju dubbed "Mogusion" (mogera, "mole," + "illusion") makes everyone see their worst fear, giving us quick character insights. Teruaki sees bean cakes, which he hates; Anri and Yasanobu see the kaiju from their earlier focus episodes; Gento sees Earth Garon broken and defeated; and apparently Emi's worst fear is herself, which leads to some fun shots of giant Emi fighting Blazar. I hope we get some more insights into Emi explaining why she fears herself.

Meanwhile, Earth Garon gets a talking AI officially called EGOISS, but nicknamed Aa-kun (from the first syllable of "Earth Garon" in Japanese phonetics). He's very polite.

Excellent miniature work, including what I think is Blazar's first use of a shot from inside a miniature room, an office that actually has people matted in. There's also a quick shot of a miniature MOPY driving up to the battle, which is less convincing. Blazar has some good physical comedy, reacting in dismay when his Rainbow Kourin attack backfires on some buildings, and hiding his eyes from Mogusion's illusion flashes. Then we get a rare instance of an Ultra "closing" his eyes, with the lights going off, and fighting blind.

The early illusions that the witnesses see allow for cameos by a few classic kaiju, including the M1 ape creature from Ultra Q.

Next week is another sidebar clip show, but not bringing back the reporters from the last one.

 

A rather silly clip special this week, "Blazar Digital Picture Scroll":


They've apparently abandoned the conceit of the past couple of years of having the sidebar clip shows take place in-universe. This goes back to the older pattern of just having a cute mascot critter narrating Ultra and kaiju action clips to the audience, this time in low-budget animated form that's very much aimed at small children. Though it's different from the previous ones I've seen in that it's almost exclusively devoted to Blazar and this season's original kaiju, with only passing allusions to earlier Ultras or kaiju rather than whole segments about them. I guess TsuPro's focus has shifted from promoting the old favorites to shilling the novelty of this season's creations.

I'm disappointed. The teaser text last week said "What is the true identity and purpose of the thing that is keeping track of of Ultraman Blazar's battles...?" That made it sound like it might actually tie into the mystery arc of the season, but apparently not.

 

Here's the trailer for Netflix's upcoming Ultraman: Rising CGI movie:



Oh. That's very much not what I expected. A Dreamworks-ish English-language animated comedy in which Ultraman becomes a reluctant daddy to a baby kaiju. Well, at least it's different from the other animated Ultraman thing on Netflix.

One thing I appreciate, at least, is that whenever there's an English-language Ultraman production, they still give the role of Ultraman's host to a Japanese-American character instead of whitewashing it. The only exceptions were the three leads in the 1984 Hanna-Barbera pilot movie.

Edit: The lead character Ken Sato is voiced by Christopher Sean, who played the lead character Kazuda Xiono in Star Wars Resistance. The cast also includes Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Keone Young, and Julia Harriman.

 

This is probably going to go down as one of those "moments"

"and we don't talk about that time Ultraman had to take care of a baby kaiju"

 

Not sure what you mean, since this is a different Ultraman and host from the others, despite his resemblance to OG Ultraman. Even if he's called Ultraman in English, the Japanese will probably give him an individual name to differentiate him, like they did with the previous English-language Ultras now known as Ultraman Great and Ultraman Powered (and the animated Ultra Force, Ultraman Scott, Ultraman Chuck, and Ultrawoman Beth). They might very well call him Ultraman Rising.

And I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a live-action version of Ultraman Rising (or whatever) in a future installment of Ultra Galaxy Fight, or in a stage show.

 

I meant that this movie is going to be one of those moments in the franchise people possibly cringe and try to forget like "Batman and Robin"

 

Way too early to say that based on a brief trailer. I did find its tone a bit off-putting, but that's just because it wasn't what I tend to think of as Ultraman, feeling more like a conventional American animated comedy film. But it could still be a good movie on its own terms. And it's not like the franchise hasn't done silly things before, e.g. Ultraman Zearth.

EDIT: Turns out this is from the writers of Kubo and the Two Strings, which was a fantastic movie. The two co-directors also worked on Kubo. Co-writer Marc Haimes also wrote Netflix's excellent Nimona movie. I'd say that's good reason for optimism.

 

While it doesn't look like a straight adaptation, the Ultra Series is a big enough franchise that it can explore such niches. Certainly if Star Trek can have an animated adult comedy series as one of its best installments, the Ultra Series can try this. And, yes, the talent behind this movie gives reason to be optimistic about the quality.

 

I thought that the Netflix movie trailer looked pretty awful, and I hate the chatty Ultra and the weird alien baby, so I think that will be an easy skip for me.

 

Indeed. Heck, it's a less radical departure than the other Netflix animated Ultraman production, which is about normal-sized guys in Iron Man suits.

 

Today's episode of Blazar was pretty cool. the actor who played Juzo in Shinkenger cameos as an, you guessed it, alien who behaves like a samurai.

 

I missed watching today's episode live because I didn't take the switch back to Standard Time into account.

"The Wandering Zangill" was an excellent one. A nice change of pace, to give Gento a chance to bond with an ally who knows his secret. I like how he went through a whole arc from wariness to acceptance to friendship. It was a touching story, in a way I didn't expect; I was assuming Zangill would be a recurring ally or antihero, something like Ignis from Trigger.

It was also fun to give Blazar a chance to play off of an ally for a change. A fun physical performance by Hideyoshi Iwata. We thought at first that Blazar was going to be a savage Ultraman, but he's turned out to be more like a wide-eyed, hyperactive child, and they've really embraced how funny he can be.

The plot about a mission to put vengeful kaiju ghosts to rest reminds me of that very weird episode of the original Ultraman where the SSSP discovered a kaiju graveyard in space and decided to hold a Buddhist (or Shinto?) funeral ceremony to honor the spirits of the kaiju they'd killed.

It's interesting that Zangill was using samurai-era Japanese, but I didn't hear the stereotypical "de gozaru." I guess they were doing a less caricatured, more authentic version, maybe.

The fact that Zangill has a chest light and can grow to giant size makes me wonder if his species is similar to Ultras.

Great miniature work this week. I loved the dolly move on the wrecked roadway ending on the teetering truck with the driver matted in, and I loved the business of Blazar catching it in the nick of time and the thankful driver's voiceover. I love it so much that there's still a production embracing miniatures over CGI. You can tell they're not real, but it's the intricacy and meticulousness of the miniature replication of reality that makes it so satisfying, like model trains.

More appositely, Mitsuru Karahashi played the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi in Kamen Rider Ghost. Though I know him mainly from his regular role as Kaido in Kamen Rider 555 and as Kamen Rider Calibur in Saber. I almost didn't recognize him here, since I've usually seen him with long hair.

 

Blazar #18: "The Towering Terror":


More family drama this week, and a weird threat that's more subtle than usual, and reveals more mysteries as the fight goes on, culminating in a cliffhanger. Meanwhile, Emi closes in on the mystery of her father's disappearance, and I wouldn't be surprised if the two storylines turned out to be connected.

Meanwhile, I saw someone on Twitter refer to Earth Garon as "Mecha Dogzilla," and now I can't unsee it.

 

Blazar #19, "Light and Flame":


Wow, a lot happens here. Emi unearths the secrets of the accident 3 years ago, and it turns out to involve a wormhole generator discovered in America. (I briefly wondered if we were getting a Stargate crossover.) When the extra-gigantic Brood Gebalga emerges and basically swallows Blazar, his pet fire dragon (Fadoran for short) comes through the wormhole to save him and give him an armor power-up. Blazar literally jumps for joy at being reunited with his old pal. (And they replayed it at the end of the closing titles over the lyric "We are same blaze.")

Emi also learns the fate of her father and gets a birthday visitation from... his ghost? Well, he was sucked through a wormhole, presumably to Blazar's home galaxy, so maybe there's a more "scientific" explanation.

A pretty big episode, but I'm a bit disappointed; when Emi was looking down into the pit and that Blazar-like light began to emerge, I was hoping we'd get a surprise twist where Emi turned into an Ultrawoman. That would've been much cooler than just a partial suit of armor that basically only protects one arm and shoulder.

 

Blazar #20, "Night of Insects Chirping":


An excellent one, focusing on Teruaki going home to face his family, and confronting insect kaiju that come in both a human scale and a giant scale, for a conflict that involves the whole team well. The miniature of a rural Japanese farming village is a great change of pace from the urban battles. And there's a fun subplot of the new boss forcing the team to put on an embarrassing sketch to teach civilians about kaiju safety. Gento and Anri are terrible actors in rehearsal, but naturally Emi gets smoothly into her role and Yasanobu hams it up enthusiastically.

There's a bit where Blazar is pinned down on the ground by the giant bug's secretions, and then Gento summons the Firdran Armor (which seems to be how they're spelling it) and Blazar does a whole new rise sequence, only to appear standing up in a pillar of flame. I'm not sure whether we're supposed to conclude that the rise sequence was symbolic and he broke free and stood up while we were watching the stock rise sequence, or that the rise sequence was literal and he dematerialized, "reset," and rose in the new configuration.