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

Reading posts about the Mill Creek home video releases on another forum, and it’s kind of weird to me how many people are obsessed with the English dubs for these series. I mean, I guess I can understand a nostalgia factor if that’s how you first experienced the shows as a kid or whatever, but you probably also had a bicycle with training wheels. Doesn’t mean you want to keep using them as an adult. :p
 
That seems a bit harsh. I personally don't care for dubs with live action shows/movies, but having them definitely expands your audience and I'm sure in japan a lot of the mainstream US stuff they see is dubbed into Japanese so I don't see the English dubs of Japanese live action stuff being that different. Only Tsuburaya knows if its worth the cost, but them having it really doesn't matter to me as long as they also keep releasing everything in Japanese with English subtitles.
 
Omega #22: "He Who Looks to the Stars":
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So we finally get Omega's backstory, through a long recorded infodump, which is perhaps not the most effective way it could've been done, although they try to spice it up some by making it a scavenger hunt of sorts. And it turns out that in this universe, Ultras are basically Watchers and Omega is Uatu, the one "Space Gazer" who broke the rules and got involved. That's the second season in a row where the Ultraman has an unconventional origin and is at odds with at least part of his own civilization. I don't mind unconventional origins, but this one's pretty derivative.

It's actually not unusual for Ultras to have non-interference policies of a sort, but the usual rule is "Let humans figure things out for themselves unless all their efforts fail, at which point you can save them as a last resort." Which is kind of like the TOS version of the Prime Directive ("The people... may be changed by the knowledge, but it's better than exterminating them"), whereas Omega's people follow the more rigid TNG-era "leave them to die" version.

And yes, there's an alien invasion coming, but it's not from the Ultra's own people this time, just from the last race they declined to save, which is now looking to conquer Earth as their new home. Which explains why their warrior Zovaras's design was based on the Baltan from the original series.
 
Finished Ultraseven, which I really enjoyed, and went straight into Return of Ultraman. I’m only four episodes in, but so far I’m really loving this. It’s hitting a very sweet spot for me, what feels like a transition point between the earlier Showa series and something more character-oriented. It still has all the practical effects, shot on film, vintage episodic charm of Ultra Q/Ultraman/Ultraseven, but Go already feels more developed and defined in four episodes than Hayata did in 39. The family of civilian characters is a great addition, opening the world of the show up beyond people in jumpsuits in control rooms. (Not that I don’t love the people in jumpsuits in control rooms, but a little expansion and variety of character and setting is nice.) I really hope the show continues in this mode and at this level.

(If anyone cares to comment on this post, please refrain from even vague spoilers or hints of what’s to come. I went into this series completely cold, and I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks!)
 
The Realist said:
Finished Ultraseven, which I really enjoyed, and went straight into Return of Ultraman. I’m only four episodes in, but so far I’m really loving this. It’s hitting a very sweet spot for me, what feels like a transition point between the earlier Showa series and something more character-oriented. It still has all the practical effects, shot on film, vintage episodic charm of Ultra Q/Ultraman/Ultraseven, but Go already feels more developed and defined in four episodes than Hayata did in 39. The family of civilian characters is a great addition, opening the world of the show up beyond people in jumpsuits in control rooms. (Not that I don’t love the people in jumpsuits in control rooms, but a little expansion and variety of character and setting is nice.) I really hope the show continues in this mode and at this level.

(If anyone cares to comment on this post, please refrain from even vague spoilers or hints of what’s to come. I went into this series completely cold, and I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks!)
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IIRC, Return is probably the most mature, solemn, and dramatic of the Showa Ultra series. Well, Leo is also pretty solemn, but I like Return better.

More a clarification than a spoiler: The original intent was that this was indeed the return of the 1966 Ultraman, but they changed their minds before filming began and made it a different Ultra, who would retroactively be named Ultraman Jack in 1984 (after Jack the Giant Slayer and Jack and the Beanstalk, though perhaps also as a playing-card counterpart to his successor Ultraman Ace), after being known variously as New Ultraman, Ultraman II, or just Return of Ultraman. Ultraman and Ultraman Jack have essentially the same face, but different red patterns on the body, with Jack most easily distinguishable by the pinstripes on the edges of the red portions. (It took me quite a while to figure out what the differences were and learn to tell them apart when they appeared in later productions.)
 
The Realist said:
(If anyone cares to comment on this post, please refrain from even vague spoilers or hints of what’s to come. I went into this series completely cold, and I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks!)
Click to expand...
If you want to be completely unspoiled you shouldn't be here, it's not anyone's job but your own to protect you from spoilers. The show you're talking about is almost 55 years old and this is the general Ultraman thread, no one should even think about censoring themselves for your benefit, that's a selfish and pretty rude request.
 
Takeru said:
If you want to be completely unspoiled you shouldn't be here, it's not anyone's job but your own to protect you from spoilers. The show you're talking about is almost 55 years old and this is the general Ultraman thread, no one should even think about censoring themselves for your benefit, that's a selfish and pretty rude request.
Click to expand...
Um … piss off?
 
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