LAST EDITED ON Mar-20-21 AT 08:30 PM (EDT)
[ changed the time to 9 PM; the Japanese don't do DST --G. ]I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me to post about this before, but Tsuburaya Productions' official YouTube channel is rerunning last year's Ultraman series, Ultraman Z. New episodes drop at 8 9 PM Eastern time on Saturdays; today's was episode 6. Playlist is here.
Thus far, Ultraman Z hews very close to the standard Ultra-series formula they've been refining since 2013; if you've seen any Ultraman show of the current generation (that is, since Ultraman Ginga), you know pretty much what to expect. (And for that matter, the shows before that weren't all that different, except the production values weren't as flashy.) There is an implausibly small and poorly funded organization for defending Earth against giant alien monsters, and it has a name that is a funny acronym. (In this case it's called STORAGE. I'm not making this up.) STORAGE has a Serious Captain, a Bumbling but Painfully Earnest Guy Squaddie (who is inevitably Z's human host), a Very Competent Girl Squaddie, a Girl Genius with Aidoru-Like Mannerisms, and weapons that are not very effective against giant alien monsters.
Tsuburaya always throws in some variations on this theme (e.g., in Orb the Alien Defense Force were the comic relief, and in Geed they were the Men in Black; in neither case was the Ultra's human host a member), and Z is no exception--I won't say what the biggest one is, because it would be a huge spoiler, although if people want to discuss the series as it unfolds we can talk about it later--but it's all very comfortable and familiar, like a well-worn pair of pants.
To me, that is no bad thing, since the current-generation Ultra-series formula is a lot of fun, but I cannot dispute that it is also very dorky, and so blatantly toyetic it'd make the guys behind Transformers blush. I mean, in the more recent shows, it looks very much as if the characters are using the actual toys, not more elaborate hero props that the toys are based on, as the props for their weapons and power-up gadgets. I think that's part of the charm. Your mileage may vary. :)
--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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