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This just in: New viewer discovers that old sentai shows are... Old. I can't imagine, if I hadn't been a PR viewer since the beginning, watching anything older than, say, Megaranger. And even that show is kind of rough (and even at the time you could tell as stock footage looked fuzzier and more washed out than the western shoots.) It really seems like Gaoranger was the start of some kind of revolution where somebody said, "you know what, 80s cameras won't do it anymore." Still, I maintained that I would watch a couple seasons from before the PR era, and it is enjoyable. It's just weird how you can have one episode about a wacky plot to take over the world, a somber episode memorializing a dead character, and then another wacky episode with the goofiest monster costume possible.
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Aug 29, 2016 12:50
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Ultraman is like Superman; the original who doesn't get enough respect from anyone except nerds. Except Tsuburaya is not run by a bunch of shitheads, so there is still good Ultraman shows with regularity (or at least there have been since Ginga ended)
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Aug 29, 2016 15:21
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OnimaruXLR posted:Ultraman is like Superman; the original who doesn't get enough respect from anyone except nerds. Speaking of Ultraman, I've finally started watching those. I decided to do it like I did when I first watched Kamen Rider (watch one episode from each series at a time). Ultra Q is a weirdly endearing show, it's kind of like Godzilla meets the Twilight Zone. Couple questions though: 1. Has anybody subbed Ultraman Ace? All I've managed to track down so far is an English dub that aired in Malaysia. 2. From what I've heard, Mebius is the Ultraman equivalent of Decade/Gokaiger. How much from previous series' does it spoil then? 3. Are the Ultraman movies that important to their shows? That is, if I watch a series without seeing it's movie will I be confused regarding plot points later on?
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Aug 30, 2016 16:48
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Larryb posted:Speaking of Ultraman, I've finally started watching those. I decided to do it like I did when I first watched Kamen Rider (watch one episode from each series at a time). Ultra Q is a weirdly endearing show, it's kind of like Godzilla meets the Twilight Zone. 1. No. There are Malaysian English Subs running around if you look hard enough, you can also buy them on Ebay pretty easily, but no one has done a fansub. That's okay though because the Malaysian English subs are generally pretty good- not perfect, but they're better than HK or TVN subs by a mile. The same is true for Return of Ultraman and Taro. 2. Almost nothing. They allude to big events once in a while but generally it's kept on a pretty loose basis so you can enjoy Mebius all the more. The biggest one I can think of off the top of my head is something that happens in Leo's first episode, and the fact that Seven got crucified and then saved by the Ultra Garrison. 3. Not at all in any way. The Cosmos movies are I guess but gently caress Cosmos you can watch the show without the movie. Ultraman Nexus is a sequel to Ultraman the Next, but the connection between the two doesn't come up until near the end of the series and trying to connect the two before you have all the info might confuse you more than anything. Ultraman Mebius is the only one with a movie that happens in its universe during the series, around episode 20 or so, but the only thing that really comes from it is explaining a plot point that mostly only exists in the movie, and a character that would appear once in the actual series way later on. Beyond that the movies tend to stand on their own, or are sequels to the TV series but do not impact them themselves. Heisei UltraSeven and Ultraman Tiga Final Odyssey in particular. Ultraman Zero is one of the rare Ultras who has only ever had movies to tell his story, but the gist of him is fairly simple- absurdly powerful and cocky son of UltraSeven does stuff across the multiverse like his dad.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:07
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Ryosuke Sakamoto, Bioman's Red One, has announced that he is going to be undergoing surgery for esophageal cancer in September. If you want to wish him well, The Tokusatsu Network will collect tweets with the hashtage #GoRedOne, translate them, and pass them on to Sakamoto.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:48
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Aww Christ Thanks for the heads up
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Aug 30, 2016 18:03
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I'm like 3 episodes into Ultraman Orb on crunchyroll, and it's a lot of fun. The protagonist who turns into Ultraman uses cards like Decade to combine two previous Ultramen into a hybrid that he transforms into, and his evil counterpart uses Monster cards in a similar device to awaken and power up dormant kaiju. The support cast is a conspiracy/UFO/cryptid blog that keeps getting mixed up in stuff while they try to get a hot scoop.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:16
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Ultraman Orb is definitely the best Ultraman series since Mebius, no doubt. It goes a little heavy on the comedy at times, something I think Mebius balanced out better, but it's nowhere near as bad as Ginga or as kind of bland as X. It also has some great character interactions. While the two male leads who aren't aliens can go die in a fire, the female lead whose name I forget is fun, and her weird relationship with the villain is fantastic. I love how he's just inexplicably totally into her.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:19
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A friend of mine described Orb as "Ultraman sets up shop in Fuuto" and I really like that turn of phrase. Whole show has a W feel to it.
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Aug 31, 2016 00:02
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Waffleman_ posted:Ryosuke Sakamoto, Bioman's Red One, has announced that he is going to be undergoing surgery for esophageal cancer in September. Maybe if we all get together and pray really hard............ Tokusatsu Network would see fit to release a podcast thats actually about tokusatsu instead of anime or western comics.
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Aug 31, 2016 02:04
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Back to Ultraman, do any of the shows eventually develop something akin to a primary villain or at least explain where all these monsters are coming from? (I know Ginga and Orb do but I'm not sure about the others). Also, do any of the Ultramen and/or the monsters they fight ever shrink down to human size or are the majority of the fights in these shows all giant battles (not that I mind them but I was just curious)? Larryb fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 04:32
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Larryb posted:Back to Ultraman, do any of the shows eventually develop something akin to a primary villain or at least eventually explain where all these monsters are coming from? (I know Ginga and Orb do but I'm not sure about the others). Also, do any of the Ultramen and/or the monsters they fight ever shrink down to human size or are the majority of the fights in these shows all giant battles? Yay I get to be important to information They do and fairly quickly, though it varies from series to series heavily. With OG Ultraman, kaiju are just a fact of life on the planet generally, with the occasional alien invaders. That's why they keep appearing- they were there before Ultraman and they'll be there after. Most of them are native to the planet and part of a species- an Ultra Q monster sees another member of its species appear in Ultraman, in fact, and there are multiple Red Kings running around. As far as a more traditional primary villain, that would happen with Ultraman Ace and the introduction of Yapool. Though still lacking story lines that crossed multiple episodes, Yapool was the force behind the Super Kaiju that plagued the world. After that it's entirely variable. Ultraman Taroh has none, Ultraman Leo gets one in his last ten episodes or so, 80 has none, Heisei Seven takes after the original so he doesn't... Tiga kind of has one in a loose sense, Dyna not as much. Gaia definitely does though it takes a while to build up to. Cosmos, Nexus and Mebius all do, while Max does not. As far as explicitly explaining where the monsters come from, it's either because of the primary villain, or just because they exist in the universe. Now for the fun one- size changing. UltraSeven is the only Ultraman to regularly fight at human size, and size changing as a power is one he uses intelligently a few times. He tends to fight human sized enemies as often as he does giant ones, and a few episodes never sees him grow large at all- this holds true for UltraSeven X and Heisei UltraSeven. Beyond him, fighting at human sizes is rare. It happens only every now and again, and generally if there is a human sized enemy, they are fought by human characters. Notably Leo has the villains have two forms, a small human sized one and a giant one, and Leo fights them in both stages as either himself or his Ultra alter ego. Tiga and Mebius are the only series I can think of off the top of my head that feature an Ultra fighting at human size against a human sized foe and both of those were like, once in the entire series. Ultraman himself was only ever human sized once because of a shrinking power from an enemy.
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Aug 31, 2016 04:47
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Cliff Racer posted:Maybe if we all get together and pray really hard............ western comics are dope namaste
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Aug 31, 2016 05:08
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I'm going to have to agree to disagree there.
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Aug 31, 2016 08:24
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Good to know, also do any of the MotW in these shows ever talk and/or have some kind of personality or are they all basically just mindless beasts? Overall though I've been enjoying the Ultra series, it's just that it's a very different beast than what I'm used to from Kamen Rider or Sentai (though it was made by the same guy who created Godzilla so it makes sense that it's set up the way it is).
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Aug 31, 2016 12:14
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Larryb posted:Good to know, also do any of the MotW in these shows ever talk and/or have some kind of personality or are they all basically just mindless beasts? MotW in Ultraman is usually basically a giant animal with weird powers. Depending on the series, sometimes there's a meta-monster who is talky, like an evil alien who's using a tamed Kaiju as a weapon.
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Aug 31, 2016 13:41
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Larryb posted:Good to know, also do any of the MotW in these shows ever talk and/or have some kind of personality or are they all basically just mindless beasts? This is something that hugely varies. The older shows tended to give a lot more personality to the kaiju, even when they were just animals. They were never just mindless, they always had some kind of tic or something that made them unique beyond looks and powers. Red King is a blowhard and a bully, Gomora is a scared innocent baby who didn't deserve anything that happened to him, Sabozu is just really loving sad and depressed and please don't hit me You do have the mindless beasts worked in there, especially in series after the original series, but they get balanced out by the aliens. The Alien MOTW always, ALWAYS have a personality and talk. They're basically equivalent to humans and they all have their own quirks and identities. Ultraman has the Dada, the Zetton, Mephilas (Who goes on to return in Ultraman Mebius himself, the same one) and most famously, the Baltan. UltraSeven basically just features a cavalcade of alien invaders and its rare to find him fighting something that doesn't talk back. A really fun one from Ultraman, so to speak, is Jamilia and well... Just track down teh subbed, NOT the dub, version of My Home Is Earth It's one of the best episodes of the original Ultraman and just extremely poignant. http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/ultraman/my-home-is-earth/55d25bf769702d04de2d0901 Hell here Watch it A huge reason why Ultraman is so different from Kamen Rider is both because Ultraman predates and helped to make Kamen Rider. Though this does lead into an interesting thing that's related to your earlier question- Kamen Rider was the toku series that got popular enough to seriously take notice of, and was made because Return of Ultraman was being made. Much for the same reason Johnny Sokko was being made back in the 60s to cash in on Ultraman and UltraSeven. Unlike Johnny and his Flying Robot however, Kamen Rider was a huge success, and Tsuburaya the company, as sadly the man himself had died in 1970 during the preplanning of Return (kind of like Ishinomori would do with Kuuga), took notice. Ultraman Ace was made in 1972 and it was very clearly inspired by the more colorful and outlandish parts of Kamen Rider. Ace did actual poses, his finisher was exaggerated a bit, he was given way more powers than almost any Ultra before or after him, and the big one- he was given a main villain, Yapool. Yapool was basically Ultraman's Great Leader in a few respects, though not in the completely ridiculous extent that the Great Leader would be. And when I say actual poses I mean that. I don't consider the finisher attacks for Ultraman and Seven to be posing- there's nothing exaggerated about them, they are just what they do to fire their beams. Outside of them, the two are very pragmatic fighters and don't waste time looking cool for the camera or stopping to strike a pose like Showa Riders often would. Seven in particular is one of the most cutthroat Toku heroes of them all, as his fight scenes would only last as long as the enemy could keep up with him. Seven would often open his fights by throwing one of his finishers at the enemy, and it often would end the fight then and there. The only times he got into long battles was either because something else was up, or the MOTW was powerful and dangerous enough to take his finishers and keep coming. Which is something I wish would happen more often in Toku.
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Aug 31, 2016 16:57
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 never heard of them
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Aug 31, 2016 19:24
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Blaze Dragon posted:
The seem extremely showy though
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Aug 31, 2016 20:32
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Burkion posted:A huge reason why Ultraman is so different from Kamen Rider is both because Ultraman predates and helped to make Kamen Rider. Yeah, I understand that. Basically if Kamen Rider is the father of modern tokusatsu as we know it then Ultraman is the grandpa, though of course the whole concept can be traced back to Godzilla (unless there was something even earlier than that). Up to Meibus in my watch currently (I'm just watching one episode from each series at a time.) and while it looks promising so far my first impression of the title character is that he's kind of an rear end in a top hat (he ends up causing more damage to the city in his first fight than the monster does), but I'm assuming he gets better as the show goes on.
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Sep 1, 2016 04:04
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Larryb posted:Yeah, I understand that. Basically if Kamen Rider is the father of modern tokusatsu as we know it then Ultraman is the grandpa, though of course the whole concept can be traced back to Godzilla (unless there was something even earlier than that). Godzilla, and Tsuburaya himself, are just the originators of tokusatsu as we know it. There were special effects movies done before Gojira that were genre pieces, most notably the two Japanese King Kongs, but they both no longer exist and whatever techniques were used for them were lost with those films. Tsuburaya brought his special effects mastery to Toho and the rest is history. As for Mebius, the main thing with him isn't that he is an rear end in a top hat- he is simply an idiot and utterly inexperienced. Mebius is almost refreshingly weaker than the older Ultramen and remains that way. He is an utterly average and untested guy who never falls into the trap of being the most powerful ever because that's not his story. His story is about growth and learning to be better by relying on friends. His first fight is also really amazing because so often in toku you can stop and wonder why the hero farts around, takes so many attacks before using their finisher. Why they don't dodge more and that kind of thing. Well now you know- unless you're smart about it, like Seven, you will gently caress up royal and cause more damage than if you just bit the bullet and took the beating.
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Sep 1, 2016 04:14
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Burkion posted:Godzilla, and Tsuburaya himself, are just the originators of tokusatsu as we know it. I was thinking more of the part where he deliberately uses a building as a shield, but even that can easily be ascribed to the whole "Mebius is an idiot" thing. Though despite that this looks to be one of my favorites so far next to UltraSeven and Nexus (though the Ultraman the Next movie that chronologically proceeded it ironically reminds me a lot of the Kamen Rider The First/Next films, only this one is actually canon). Cosmos doesn't seem quite as bad as I'd imagined it though. He does actually destroy monsters occasionally as evidenced by the second episode (this might get contridicted later but at the moment I'm assuming that whenever Cosmos turns red that means he's done with the whole pacifism thing and is out for blood). Also, do any of the Ultramen ever talk during battle at some point or are most of the fights in the shows silent aside from interjections from side characters? Not that this is a bad thing per se, it's just that, again, I'm more used to shows like Kamen Rider and Sentai where there's a lot more chatter during combat. Larryb fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 04:20
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So, Ghost is a mess at this point, I have no idea really what is going on other than evil contact lenses and also the Ganmeisers seemed like they were going to betray Adel and now it seems like they just dropped that like a rock. What the hell is going on?
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Sep 1, 2016 04:35
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you know how drive got better and thematically tighter the closer it got to ending? ghost is the exact opposite of that.
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Sep 1, 2016 04:47
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Serious Frolicking posted:you know how drive got better and thematically tighter the closer it got to ending? ghost is the exact opposite of that. I'm guessing they'll be wrapping up the story by 48 and devoting the last two episodes to an Ex-Aid crossover (which hopefully will tie in with the current show's plot like Drive's finale sort of did rather than the whole "filler ending" thing Wizard pulled).
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Sep 1, 2016 04:52
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Larryb posted:I was thinking more of the part where he deliberately uses a building as a shield, but even that can easily be ascribed to the whole "Mebius is an idiot" thing. Though despite that this looks to be one of my favorites so far next to UltraSeven and Nexus (though the Ultraman the Next movie that chronologically proceeded it ironically reminds me a lot of the Kamen Rider The First/Next films, only this one is actually canon). Mebius is a really good show with an excellent finale. One of the best Toku finales of all. And yeah, Ultraman the Next is a sort of re-imagining of the original Ultraman, right down to the One's earlier forms looking like Bemular, just set in a more realistic setting. Cosmos never doesn't pacifist unless it's a crossover movie where he doesn't get final say. I think he kills a few villains, but that is not his MO and not what he's about. Ultras do talk in battle, but very rarely. Most of the time it's because by the time they're an Ultra, they've only got 3 minutes, so no use wasting your breath, but usually if they're fighting something intelligent that also likes to talk, they'll talk back. It's part of the whole more alien nature of the heroes, or in some situations, them keeping secret identities. One fun fact about Mebius that is really unique for modern Toku- the actor who plays his human form also wears the Ultra suit and does all of his own stunts.
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Sep 1, 2016 07:31
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So, there's a trailer for Ex-Aid up
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Sep 1, 2016 07:31
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That's certainly...something? I don't know what to think about that.
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Sep 1, 2016 07:37
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that's funny, because i like everything about it except the pink girl. sd forms, every rider is a doctor with a game genre, the hit effects, one of the doctor riders is basically black jack, etc. all of that sounds real good to me! pity that the doctor lady probably isn't also a rider, but hey, the female lead being a peer and equal is still nice. as the sole doctor at that hospital who isn't a transforming hero she will likely be the one who actually treats patients most of the time.
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Sep 1, 2016 08:13
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Ex-Aid loving sucks and I love him.
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Sep 1, 2016 12:16
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John McClane posted:Ex-Aid loving sucks and I love him. 
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Sep 1, 2016 12:52
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his design is like a rainbow puked on a sonic cosplayer, yeah.
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Sep 1, 2016 12:53
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This is looking like Drive and Gobusters had drunk sex in an arcade and then threw the baby in the dumpster behind Nick Studios. Of course I loving love it. Edit Seriously, I don't think I could design a more "90s Nickelodeon" belt if I loving tried. It's got the green and purple, the layered starbursts, it probably even sounds like a Bop-It. Edit 2 Unironically glad to see That One loving Conference Room returning. That One loving Amusement Park and That One loving Quarry were getting lonely. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 13:12
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Burkion posted:Ultras do talk in battle, but very rarely. Most of the time it's because by the time they're an Ultra, they've only got 3 minutes, so no use wasting your breath, but usually if they're fighting something intelligent that also likes to talk, they'll talk back. It's part of the whole more alien nature of the heroes, or in some situations, them keeping secret identities. Makes sense, and speaking of the 3 minute limit I'm guessing there's at least one series where an Ultraman's time limit runs out before a battle is finished right? That seems like a fairly obvious plot for them to do. As for Ex-Aid, I still think he looks like a rejected Akibaranger design but it looks interesting so far. It also seems to be the first series since Blade where we have more than one Rider active from the very start (though Hibiki, Gaim and to a slightly lesser extent Ghost did introduce their secondaries fairly early on). Larryb fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 13:57
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...what the rear end
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Sep 1, 2016 14:02
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we don't really know the chronology. maybe ex-aid is the first with the others following soon afterward, like gaim. or maybe he is the last, with all of the others already running around transformed from the beginning of the first episode. kind of early to speculate about that sort of thing, no?
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Sep 1, 2016 14:03
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Here's the story details of this hilarious horseshit: http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2016/08/kamen-rider-ex-aid-cast-and-story-revealed-at-press-conference/
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Sep 1, 2016 14:29
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Serious Frolicking posted:we don't really know the chronology. maybe ex-aid is the first with the others following soon afterward, like gaim. or maybe he is the last, with all of the others already running around transformed from the beginning of the first episode. kind of early to speculate about that sort of thing, no? True enough I suppose, it's just that that's the impression I'm getting so far. Even if Ex-Aid ends up being only Rider at the start I'd still probably expect at least one of the others to show up by the third episode at the most. Cricken_Nigfops posted:Here's the story details of this hilarious horseshit: Everything about this show looks ridiculous but then again so did Fourze to an extent and that ended up being one of my favorite Rider shows. Hopefully Ex-Aid will be good. Larryb fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 14:30
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quote:This will be the first time a doctor has been a Kamen Rider.
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Sep 1, 2016 14:36
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I'm new to KR, but isn't he supposed to have, uhh, a motorcycle? Also man oh man that pink latex leaves nothing to the imagination.
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Sep 1, 2016 16:39
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