Well, after a couple of weeks with no such case, we have another upload without the promised English subtitles, episode #62 of "Ultraman Cosmos":
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- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
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The 55th Anniversary Campaign this week presents us with episode #12 of "Ultraman Cosmos", which feels so long ago now:
With episode #63, "Ultraman Cosmos" is inching towards the series finale:
This week's promotional Tsuburaya Con/Imagination upload is episode #19 of "Ultraman X":
And in episode #11 of "Ultraman Mebius", the Mother of Ultra is trying to heal Tsurugi:
This week's promotional Tsuburaya Con/Imagination upload is episode #19 of "Ultraman X":
And in episode #11 of "Ultraman Mebius", the Mother of Ultra is trying to heal Tsurugi:
Today's Trigger is built around two battling ancient demons (battling each other, that is) recycled from an episode of the original Ultraman, which unfortunately means that the monster suits are rather crude and silly-looking compared to the usual state of the art today. I wish they'd kept the broad concept but updated the designs.
But they were mainly just an excuse to get Ignis to become Trigger Dark again, as Kengo is immobilized for much of the episode and Akito becomes convinced that he can trust Ignis to help. And it does seem that Ignis has reached the pinnacle of a redemption arc, turning Trigger Dark into a heroic Ultra who fights alongside Trigger. Their teamwork is much more dynamically executed than the battle of the goofy-looking red and blue demons.
I thought the payoff was a little weak, though. "Uh-oh, we can't kill the monsters since their blood will poison the city!" "Okay, we'll just kill them real fast, then!" I guess it kind of makes sense -- burn them up completely before the poison can spread -- but I was hoping for some kind of a clever plan to capture them alive and return them to containment.
I really should've seen the final twist coming, given that it's the payoff to what Ignis's overtly stated goal was from his very first appearance. He just needed the core trio to trust him so they'd let their guard down. I admit, I let myself be fooled.
But they were mainly just an excuse to get Ignis to become Trigger Dark again, as Kengo is immobilized for much of the episode and Akito becomes convinced that he can trust Ignis to help. And it does seem that Ignis has reached the pinnacle of a redemption arc, turning Trigger Dark into a heroic Ultra who fights alongside Trigger. Their teamwork is much more dynamically executed than the battle of the goofy-looking red and blue demons.
I thought the payoff was a little weak, though. "Uh-oh, we can't kill the monsters since their blood will poison the city!" "Okay, we'll just kill them real fast, then!" I guess it kind of makes sense -- burn them up completely before the poison can spread -- but I was hoping for some kind of a clever plan to capture them alive and return them to containment.
I really should've seen the final twist coming, given that it's the payoff to what Ignis's overtly stated goal was from his very first appearance. He just needed the core trio to trust him so they'd let their guard down. I admit, I let myself be fooled.
They probably had the suits for Aboras and Banila in storage from their appearances in Ultraman Ginga and Ultraman X. And Bandai probably didn't want them to redesign the monsters, as that would require them to make new molds to sell them in their Trigger line.
Trivia 1: Aboras and Banila actually were redesigned for the US-made "Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero" (aka Ultraman Powered) series from the 1990s, but as was the problem with most of the monster suits on that series, they were too delicate to allow for truly engaging fight scenes:
Trivia 2: The first episode of "Ultraman Max" did feature new monsters with the same rival concept, Grangon (though "lava" not "fire") and Lagoras:
Trivia 1: Aboras and Banila actually were redesigned for the US-made "Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero" (aka Ultraman Powered) series from the 1990s, but as was the problem with most of the monster suits on that series, they were too delicate to allow for truly engaging fight scenes:
Trivia 2: The first episode of "Ultraman Max" did feature new monsters with the same rival concept, Grangon (though "lava" not "fire") and Lagoras:
Well, whatever the reason, this was the first episode where a large part of the giant-battle action has simply underwhelmed me. Not only were the suits unimpressive, but so was the fight choreography. I could've done without that overlong bit where the one monster spins the other one around over and over again. That was just silly. I mean, they've made comedy monsters work before -- they did just last week -- but this was presented as this super-serious, potentially cataclysmic situation, so it worked against that to have the monsters be kind of goofy.
Episode #23 of "Ultraman" features a monster with quite the tragic backstory, causing Ide to have a crisis of conscience:
Well, "Mirrorman" #29 comes without English subtitles, again, and it's a shame, as this was the first appearance of Gorgosaurus, who would go on to appear in "Ultraman Taro":
But on the bright side, the Tsuburaya Convention 2021 Special Program has been made available, with English subtitles:
But on the bright side, the Tsuburaya Convention 2021 Special Program has been made available, with English subtitles:
"Ultraman Cosmos" has English subtitles again, fortunately, as it closes in on the big finale with penultimate episode #64:
I just watched the Ultraman Taro 2-parter that brought back all four of the previous series' lead actors, the first time any of them had a substantial return appearance rather than just a brief cameo. It was weird, though, because it glossed over the idea that the human hosts (other than Dan) had their own separate identities before they were joined to Ultras; it treated all of them as just human disguises for the Ultra Brothers, like Dan was for Ultraseven. Or else it just assumed that the human hosts' identities had become completely and permanently subsumed to the Ultras' identities, which is kind of creepy.
I guess it was necessary to simplify the premise, because the plot involved the elder Ultra Brothers possessing Kotaro's ZAT teammates so that he wouldn't know they were helping him, to teach him a lesson about self-reliance. Although then we got to the moment in part 2 where the Brothers possessing the ZAT team had been identified by the alien villain and had to hide, so they hid inside the bodies of a knocked-out volleyball team. So you had the Ultra Brothers, inside the bodies of their human hosts, inside the bodies of the ZAT team, inside the bodies of the volleyball team, nested like Matrioshka dolls, and I think at this point the writers were just messing with the audience.
I guess it was necessary to simplify the premise, because the plot involved the elder Ultra Brothers possessing Kotaro's ZAT teammates so that he wouldn't know they were helping him, to teach him a lesson about self-reliance. Although then we got to the moment in part 2 where the Brothers possessing the ZAT team had been identified by the alien villain and had to hide, so they hid inside the bodies of a knocked-out volleyball team. So you had the Ultra Brothers, inside the bodies of their human hosts, inside the bodies of the ZAT team, inside the bodies of the volleyball team, nested like Matrioshka dolls, and I think at this point the writers were just messing with the audience.
^My head canon is that the Ultras use their previous hosts as models for their new human forms, similar to how Seven used a human model to create his Dan Moroboshi form (and later Mebius to create Mirai).
That would explain OG Ultraman and Shin Hayata, since Hayata was separated from UM and lost his memory. But Go left Earth and stayed permanently bonded to Jack -- presumably because he died and couldn't live without Jack -- and when Hokuto revealed that he was Ace, it supposedly required him to sacrifice his human form and become Ace permanently. (Which would fit with this, except that Ace was able to turn back into Hokuto's form.)
Not to mention that the story treated Kotaro and Taro as one and the same as well.
In other news, it's weird to have Taro constantly referred to as "Ultraman Number Six" when there's already a Seven, who's counted as Number Three (with Zoffy as the eldest). It'll be even more confusing once we get to Leo, the actual #7. You could practically write an Abbott & Costello routine around it.
This week's entry into the 55th Anniversary Campaign is episode #4 of "Return of Ultraman":
It's frustration time, as "Ultraman Cosmos" reaches its big finale with episode #65, and they forgot about the English subtitles again:
Well, at least, the second upload of the day, episode #12 of "Ultraman Mebius" comes with same subtitles:
Well, at least, the second upload of the day, episode #12 of "Ultraman Mebius" comes with same subtitles:
I forgot about this week's Trigger until this morning. A major episode, resolving the cliffhanger of Ignis's abduction of Yuna in an unexpected way, when Hudram crashes the party and Trigger Dark has a decisive battle with him. Meanwhile, Trigger battles a "Mecha Musashin" robot left as a defense by Ignis, which is very, very steeped in Japanese culture (the great swordsman Musashi, kabuki theater, ukiyo-e art), oddly so for the creation of an alien. But then, Ignis likes to play games, so maybe it was a "When in Rome" sort of thing.
Kind of a fakeout at the end --
No city miniatures this week, since the battle was out by the ancient ruins. A couple of very familiar tokusatsu filming locations showed up, Mount Iwafune for the ruins' exteriors and the Oya History Museum underground quarry for the interiors -- amusing, since I just saw both of those locations in this week's Zenkaiger and Kamen Rider Revice episodes, respectively. I wonder what the shooting schedules are like on these oft-used locations. Do the Tsuburaya and Toei crews ever have to work around each other? Or do they go on alternate weeks?
Unusually, we got to see "real-time" henshins of Kengo into Trigger and Ignis into Trigger Dark, instead of the usual stock-footage cutaways. Kengo/Trigger grew immediately to giant size as he leaped at Musashin, but Ignis initially turned into a human-sized Trigger Dark, looking more like a Sentai change or an early-Heisei Kamen Rider henshin before they added all the fancy CGI mechanics around them.
Kind of a fakeout at the end --
It did look like Hudram might have teleported out at the last second, and then we saw that he had survived, yet Carmeara immediately killed him to avenge his betrayal, then took his darkness for herself.
No city miniatures this week, since the battle was out by the ancient ruins. A couple of very familiar tokusatsu filming locations showed up, Mount Iwafune for the ruins' exteriors and the Oya History Museum underground quarry for the interiors -- amusing, since I just saw both of those locations in this week's Zenkaiger and Kamen Rider Revice episodes, respectively. I wonder what the shooting schedules are like on these oft-used locations. Do the Tsuburaya and Toei crews ever have to work around each other? Or do they go on alternate weeks?
Unusually, we got to see "real-time" henshins of Kengo into Trigger and Ignis into Trigger Dark, instead of the usual stock-footage cutaways. Kengo/Trigger grew immediately to giant size as he leaped at Musashin, but Ignis initially turned into a human-sized Trigger Dark, looking more like a Sentai change or an early-Heisei Kamen Rider henshin before they added all the fancy CGI mechanics around them.
Trigger #22:
They also announced (and showed an ad during the Trigger episode) for the new Chronicle series which will apparently (and not surprisingly) be Dyna-centered.
They also announced (and showed an ad during the Trigger episode) for the new Chronicle series which will apparently (and not surprisingly) be Dyna-centered.
^
Yep. Ultraman Chronicle D
https://news.tokunation.com/2021/12/24/ultraman-chronicle-d-announced-72780
Yep. Ultraman Chronicle D
https://news.tokunation.com/2021/12/24/ultraman-chronicle-d-announced-72780
Wait a minute, "Tiga/Dyna/Gaia trilogy?" I thought Gaia was in a separate continuity, aside from appearing in a crossover movie with the others.
It is, but because the three shows went on without interruption (starting just a week after the previous show ended) and the fans of one show became fans of the next one, Gaia is considered part of the trilogy. That's also why he appeared alongside Tiga and Dyna in the 2008 film "Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers".
And there's a new monster called MegaLothor coming. Sadly it won't be played by Grant McFarland
