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

Kai "the spy" said:
For Dan's origin, I'm afraid you'll have to wait till episode #17.
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I just saw that one. Weird how none of the miners who worked with Jiro noticed that Dan looked exactly like him. And it's a little creepy that Ultraseven copied this guy's appearance without him ever knowing it. It kind of reeks of identity theft, even though he uses a different name. I prefer the usual arrangement where it's a consensual partnership between human and Ultra.
 
Honestly, I prefer Ultramen who aren't bonded with a human. It would be really boring for every series to be all about some random human, with no real character for the Ultra themselves because technically they only come out to fight a monster. One of the things I love about Ultraseven, Ultraman Orb and Ultraman Geed is that the main characters are the Ultramen, everything they go through and any character development is for the whole character, not just the human part of the equation.

Not that the human/Ultraman mix can't work, I enjoyed Ultraman X and Ultraman Z a lot, but I definitely prefer the main character to be the main hero, and not just a host for an Ultra that we never really learn anything about. The struggles and growth of the main characters feels so much more interesting and satisfying to me when its all in one character, and not just a human having adventures for 18-19 minutes before he swaps with a mostly characterless ultra for the last 3ish minutes of the episode.

The big exception here is Ultraman Zero in Geed, who had a really great relationship with his temporary human host, probably the most active human/ultra fused relationship in the franchise.
 
Kai "the spy" said:
Episode #25 of "Gridman" is the first part of the only two-parter of the series:
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And here is the concluding episode #26 of the "Gridman" two-parter:
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Episode #17 of "Ultraman Chronicle Z: Heroes' Odyssey" is all about Ultraman Orb:
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Money-eating Kanegon makes episode #13 one of the most humorous adventures of "Ultraman Z":
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One of the earliest crossovers, it's Ultra-Brother Zoffy to the rescue in episode #5 of "Ultraman Ace":
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Tsuburaya revived the concept from a classic UltraSeven episode of attacking toys for episode #27 of "Gridman":
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Episode #18 of "Ultraman Chronicle Z: Heroes' Odyssey" retells part one of the "Ultraman Z" finale:
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Things get weird in episode #14 of "Ultraman Z":
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Ultraman Ginga was the first real foray back onto TV for the Ultra series after almost five years (there was a "Neo Ultra Q" series just before Ginga, but not in continuity with the larger Ultraman narrative), and it worked on a significantly smaller budget the show ad to creatively work around. Successfully, as it was followed the next year by Ultraman Ginga S, though going back to a more traditional Ultraman formula. Today, Tsuburaya uploaded episode #11, the finale of "Ultraman Ginga":
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Today, Tsuburaya uploaded the first episode of "Ultraman Cosmos", and not as part of the 55th Anniversary campaign. Could this mean they will do a weekly run of the series like they did last year for 80 and Max, and currently are for Gridman?! Let's hope so. Anyway, here is Cosmos episode #1:
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Oh, I wish that had happened sooner. I've already seen the fansubs of Cosmos that are available on YouTube. It took me a while to get into, but it's pretty good. I like it that the team is focused more on protecting monsters and containing them non-lethally, like nature preservationists. It was quite a case of whiplash to go from that to watching the original show where Ultraman goes around bloodily ripping off monsters' body parts and so forth. (Though there's that weird episode near the end of the original series where the team holds a Buddhist funeral to pay respect to all the monsters they and Ultraman have killed.) It's interesting how the military Self-Defense Force is portrayed as the heroes in something like Ultraseven but more adversarially in Cosmos.

Cosmos is also different from the few other Ultra series I've seen in that it has more serialization. There's an arc involving a recurring enemy force called Chaos Header that shows up intermittently for much of the series, but evolves as a threat over time and becomes a more and more frequent factor in the plots, until the final run of episodes is completely serialized.
 
Netflix Developing 'Ultraman' Animated Feature With All-New Story| Variety

The streamer is partnering with Tsuburaya Productions to develop “Ultraman” as a CG-animated feature film aimed at bringing a new, wider audience to the beloved silver-suited character. Shannon Tindle, an animator who’s worked on “Coraline” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” will make his feature directorial debut with the project, from a script he wrote with “Kubo” screenwriter Marc Haimes. John Aoshima (“DuckTales,” “Gravity Falls”) will co-direct.
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The film will follow Ken Sato, a superstar baseball player who returns to Japan to become the latest hero to carry the mantle of Ultraman. His plans go awry, however, when he is compelled to raise a newborn kaiju monster — the offspring of his greatest enemy — as his own child. Sato will also have to contend with his relationship with his estranged father and the schemes of the Kaiju Defense Force.
 
In this week's episode #28 of "Gridman", people (including Yuka) are trapped in video cameras, while villainous Takeshi once again re-affirms his Incel status:
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This week's episode #19 of "Ultraman Chronicle Z: Heroes' Odyssey" presents the second part of the Ultraman Z finale:
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Long before the finale, of course, was episode #15 of "Ultraman Z", which is this week's international re-upload:
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And yep, Tsuburaya uploaded the episode #2 of "Ultraman Cosmos", alright:
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This week's upload in the 55th Anniversary campaign is episode #8 of "The Ultraman", the 70s anime series:
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And today, Tsuburaya uploaded episode #3 of "Ultraman Cosmos":
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Does that mean there's going to be two episodes per week? Yay!!!
 
I'm a couple of dozen episodes into Ultraseven now, and it's gotten fairly good. A lot of these Ultraman-franchise episodes are a lot more arty in their direction than the Toei stuff at the time, and the production values, while sometimes fairly crude (their rear-projection screen is almost as bad as the one in the Gamera movies), are often quite impressive.

I find it strange, though, that Dan needs the Ultra Eye to transform. It makes sense for humans to need a special device to transform into an Ultra, but Ultraseven is Dan's natural form. If anything, he should need the device to change back into Dan.

Also... you know those Capsule Monsters that Dan carries on his belt and sometimes tosses out to fight for him? Were those... the first Pokemon? :D
 
Christopher said:
I'm a couple of dozen episodes into Ultraseven now, and it's gotten fairly good. A lot of these Ultraman-franchise episodes are a lot more arty in their direction than the Toei stuff at the time, and the production values, while sometimes fairly crude (their rear-projection screen is almost as bad as the one in the Gamera movies), are often quite impressive.
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Of course, the Ultra shows had to be done on a TV budget and schedule.

I find it strange, though, that Dan needs the Ultra Eye to transform. It makes sense for humans to need a special device to transform into an Ultra, but Ultraseven is Dan's natural form. If anything, he should need the device to change back into Dan.
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Now, the real world reason for the Ultra Eye is, of course, for dramatic effect. As you have noted before, the plot of some episodes revolves around Dan not having immediate access to the Ultra Eye.

He does use the Ultra Eye to transform from Seven to Dan. It's simply invisible while he is in his Ultraseven form. The need for the Ultra Eye in-universe might be because of the limited time Ultraseven can stay within Earth's atmosphere.

Also, while this wasn't canon yet at the time the show aired, the Ultras are beings of light, so their physical Ultra form is not natural, either. When in their true form, the Ultras have been depicted as spheres of light.

Also... you know those Capsule Monsters that Dan carries on his belt and sometimes tosses out to fight for him? Were those... the first Pokemon? :D
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You know, I've never thought of that before.

In "Gridman", Takeshi has a constant hate-boner for something to make him unleash a digital kaiju to damage it, and in this week's episode #29, it's dogs:
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