sennetari | Entries tagged with ultraman mebius

( The day I spoil the story in one painful (?) sentence of varying length per episode. )

Current Music: Fusion Rise

( Related to my unfinished and/or unposted Ultraman fics )
(And I'm sneaking this one in since the length is about right for twitter, I think.)

I'm way happy that Shunji Igarashi is back in entertainment business. Whether he will ever return to play Mirai/Mebius, I wish him the best. And Happy Birthday, too. :)

Current Music: Ultraman Zero the movie ED

Wow, I almost screamed when out of my random Spotify playlist, I heard Ultraman Mebius OP being played in 8-bit version. Still can't find a way back to it, however.

Speaking of Mebius, it's been 15 years now since the first episode premiered. Time sure flies. I'm due for a re-watch (for the nth time, I honestly don't remember how many times I've seen this series), but now I'm just so lazy (hence listening to Ultra music instead of watching).

Hopefully, I'm not too lazy for my weekly Ultraman Z fix. Episode 18 is tomorrow after all. :) And it's one of my favorites. (Then again, I don't remember a not favorite Z episode, at least not in this last stretch. At the very least, I could listen to Ultraman Z sing the ED forever - I'm doing it now.)

Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Tasuku Hatanaka - Promise for the Future

I watched a few Ultraman movies. And I'm putting my scattered thoughts all in this post. Spoilers abound (even for the end of Dyna and sort of for Mebius and Cosmos).

Ultraman Saga and The Ultra Galaxy movie: ( Mirai; Future Earth. )

And, since I'm too lazy to make a separate post, I might as well have this tagged on, even though I wrote about this movie way after I watched the two movies above and it has nothing to do with them. Wait, that isn't true. Ultraman Zero is in it, so I guess it has something in common with the rest of the movies, after all... (Oh, Taro and Mebius also appear, sort of. ^^;;; Yes, I mean the fusion. I would scream with joy if it's them in the flesh.)

Ultraman Orb the Movie: ( I actually like this movie more than I made it sound under here. Lots of random spoilers. )

(Ah, this turned out sillier than I intended. No series before Tiga because I can't remember the ones I'd seen very well. And some entries may have spoilers.)

Tiga: ( Statue )
Dyna: ( Forms )
Gaia: ( Earth )
Cosmos: ( Universal )
Nexus: ( Bonds )
Max: ( Alternate )
Mebius: ( Timeline )
UltraSeven X: ( World )
Zero: ( Shining )
Ginga: ( Spark )
X: ( Quantum )
Orb: ( Dark )
Geed: ( Fanboy )
R/B: ( Crystals )
Taiga: ( Bracelets )
Z: ( Dimensions )
So I don't know where all the above came from. (Gee, surely the Ultras don't talk like that. At least, I really hope Tiga and Dyna don't.) I only meant to talk about how I totally prefer human forms (or the form where the Ultra side is silent) over human hosts, but now I am not so sure. Some host/Ultra relationships are amazing, after all.

(Just seems like a silly disclaimer, but I've seen all of these series. If I don't mention something obvious (probably a lot of them), it means I either forget about it, don't want to be repetitive, or don't want to for spoiler reasons.)

Whoa, Shin Ultraman will not be coming out in the early summer? Certainly not the news I wanted to hear. But at least they finished filming way back in 2019, so they will have to release the film at some point. I remember another Ultraman movie similarly delayed and it still came out in the same year, so I hope Shin Ultraman release date will be rescheduled to some time this year. ETA: The film will come out when it can. I don't mind the wait if it means safety for everyone involved (moviemakers and moviegoers alike).

In any case, I suppose I should be grateful that there are still so much Ultra-related things for me to watch (and re-watching is always a possibility).

( Mebius as a gateway into the Showa Series )
That said, I am only one voice. Maybe someone else might think these cool old guys (well, three plus Taro, who had no human form) are represented accurately in Mebius. And maybe someone might think the first episode of each of these series accurately represents that series as a whole.

Well, obviously every human host/form keeps quiet about the fact that they are Ultras. (Why do they? Why can't they tell people?) My question is more about other people. Do they remain clueless until the finale (or even beyond)? Or do they figure it out somehow?

Just going to do this with new series. I don't remember/still haven't seen some series before Tiga (and I thought, apart from very few exceptions, they usually didn't guess about the hero back then either). This is going to spoil the series mentioned, so if you don't want to know, you really should not proceed.

Tiga: ( Take Me Higher )
Dyna: ( Ally of Justice )
Gaia: ( Group Hugs )
Cosmos: ( EYES on you )
Nexus: ( Secret )
Max: ( Hero )
Mebius: ( Forever )
UltraSeven X: ( Pay Money for My Pain )
Ginga: ( Small Town )
Ginga S: ( Bigger Town )
X: ( Musketeers )
Orb: ( Vagabond )
Geed: ( Legacy )
R/B: ( Family )
Taiga: ( Teamwork )
Z: ( Torch )

(Okay, you probably wonder who this person is who went silent for almost seven years. It's more likely that I'm talking to myself here, however. Anyway, went out for the first time this month on Friday and found that the outside world is still the same, so maybe I'll start posting again. Which might not be sustainable since I still don't really want to watch anything other than the Ultras, but never say never.)

Doing this from Ultraman Tiga onward, here are my personal opinions on transformation items the Ultra hosts use. (No, I don't own any, more's the pity.) Not counting the secondary Ultras, if any. I would comment on the transformation scenes themselves, but most of them aren't that memorable, except the three-century-long ones, only because I was seriously tempted to skip them. But I'll say I mostly prefer that the Ultra hosts don't shout out their Ultra names while transforming (except Mebius. He can shout his name all he wants).

Spoilers, maybe. But nothing that will ruin the series, I hope. So I'm not separating the cut into individual shows. The Ultras are listed in the order their series aired, as far as I know.

( Toys and more toys )

So maybe I should say something about the human form or host of each series (the main ones and Zero's)? I don't know, but let's just do it, then. I like to have excuses to talk about my favorite characters. (That means I probably might not limit myself to talking about the hosts/human forms only.) Unlike the above section, there are lots of spoilers and I don't mark them. Uneven length. For some I have paragraphs, and for some I have three sentences. How much I write is usually no indication of how much I like the host and/or the other characters, however.

Tiga: ( Take Me Higher )
Dyna: ( Ally of Justice )
Gaia: ( Beat on, Dream on )
Cosmos: ( Spirit )
Nexus: ( Hero )
Max: ( From Galaxy Faraway )
Mebius: ( Adorable, Adorable, Adorable )
UltraSeven X: ( Pay Money for My Pain )
Zero: ( 20,000 years too early )
Ginga: ( Future Ultraman )
X: ( Cyberspace Ultraman )
Orb: ( Wanderer Ultraman )
Geed: ( Adorkable Ultraman )
R/B: ( Ultraman Brothers )
Taiga: ( Tri-Squad Ultraman )
Z: ( Ultra Nerd )
And how much I enjoy a series is almost always directly proportional to how much I like its main character. I think only Nexus actually breaks that mold (but then I practically like most of the dunamists, so maybe there's that). I won't say which series I like more because I don't like to play favorites, though perhaps you can tell? I'm not all that objective anyway.

Wow, so I guess what I wrote a few weeks ago (for episode 3) is even more relevant now. Guess who the voice of Ginga is. :) (Would never dream he would be Ultraman now.) Ginga and the big bad really couldn't talk to each other ~~since they are actually the same being separated into two entities~~. (The scary thing is, I'm not sure I'm not serious about that.)

( Mostly me trying to psycho-analyse the kids, which is probably not all that accurate. Spoilers up to episode 6. )
Overall, I find Ultraman Ginga to be somewhat an uneven series. But I love it just the same, flaws and all. (And the mid-series finale is, imo, very cool.) Very much looking forward to the second half of the series in November. In the meantime, there is Shin Ultraman Retsuden (glad and grateful that Over-Time already subbed the Valkie episode and the Jean brothers episode, and might sub some further episodes).

Speaking of which, it appears that this week's Shin Retsuden will feature Ultraman Mebius. (According to the (very very spoilerific) preview, probably on episodes 30 - 31.) Since I've never watched the old Retsuden, I don't know when Mebius last showed up (or whether he ever did host any episode), so of course I am excited to see this (even though I suspect it'll be more about that cheeky flying saucer. ;p He got a soft vinyl coming this month, after all). BTW, doll!Taro and Hikaru will be hosting this episode, so that's even better. :)

Started watching Gridman. I'd wanted to watch it for a while now, but was in no hurry since I thought that Gridman was just a computer program that the protagonist controlled via a remote or a computer console (or a keyboard). Anyway, have seen many people brought it up recently, in comparison to Ultraman Ginga (that his design might be based on Gridman (personally, I'm more reminded of the Jean brothers when looking at Gridman). And the protagonist and his friends are teenagers). (And I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but Gridman is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa. Ultraman Ginga's human host is Hikaru Raidou.) So I was very curious with all the parallels and decided to check out the series.

In short, I like it a lot. Might be premature to say that with only five episodes in, since it usually takes a while for me to fall in love with the series I end up loving. But I think my favorable feeling will last, for reasons I'll mention under the cut.

( More thoughts. Not really specific spoilers. )

For all the similarities, Gridman, in a way, is the opposite of Ultraman Ginga. ( Elaborations. Non-episode specific spoilers for both series. )

Wow, should have started watching this series a long time ago. But better late than never, I suppose. And waiting is good in this case since I can watch episode 1 with subtitles. :) Wish the rest of the series would be subbed, but so far I have no real trouble following the storyline.

Oh man, if nothing else, the theme song rocks big time.

So, yes, outside of the special effects, Ultraman Ginga is, imo, pretty J-drama-ish (acting-wise, and budget-wise). But, for me, it is very much fine for what it is. (Might also help that I happen to like the mostly quiet countryside setting -- most people are so nice there.) ( Addressing complaints? )

Imo, the important thing (i.e. the reason the show uses the toy angle and does not even try to hide it) is for the children and adults in the audience to buy the toys, so there will hopefully be money* for the new traditional full year series down the road (in three years for the 50th anniversary of Ultraman? I can hope).

(*I suppose Tsuburaya used up most of the money earlier this year on Neo Ultra Q (which I still haven't seen, but apparently it got a pretty good reception, certainly more than Ginga seems to be getting), but don't quote me on it.)

And I am grateful that there are subs available. At least now I won't be misunderstanding stuff (as far as language goes, not the stuff that has to be inferred).

Speaking of which, having watched it subbed, I'll put my thoughts on episode 3 here instead of making another entry (since I already have one for this episode). Spoilers ahead.

( Probably not making much sense since this is more of my guess rather than what is actually shown. )

Honestly, I just love this show more and more each time I watch it. (And I have never disliked it, been disappointed by it, or had whatever negative impression of it. (Which actually is kind of scary since such a perfect series does not exist.) While can't be 100% certain of the future, I think my happiness with the series is very likely to continue increasing as time goes on.) I probably shouldn't be surprised -- a series (at least of the live-action variety) having a group of curious teenagers dealing with the supernatural seems to work for me lately.

It's going be real boring if I write an entry like this every week, but seriously, can't find one single fault with the story so far. They are all so very heartwarming, imho.

( More discussion, hopefully. Spoilers up to episode 3. )

EDIT: Apparently, I have a lot to say on this episode, so here is another entry on it.

It has been five years, but I used to write little comments on Ultraman Dyna episodes.

Episodes 1-7, Episodes 8-24, Episodes 25-36

Well, I found my notes for the rest of the episodes, so I'm going to post them up.

The following notes are not recent, so I can't actually remember much of what happen in the episodes, let alone if my notes are all that accurate. In any case, there will be spoilers.

( Episodes 37-48 )

And I have something longer for the next two episodes: ( Episode 49 ) ( Episode 50 )

( Episode 51 (a lot shorter comment than the previous two episodes). )

Me: Okay, what is this one about again?

Me 1: A fairy tale.

Me: Really?

Me 1: Really.

Me: Tell me this tale, then.

Me 1: ( Once upon a time... )

P.S. And I forgot that Ultraman Hikari is another Ultraman with a Japanese name. So Ginga, being the third one, isn't so special anymore. ;P

Current Music: Project DMM - An Oath to You

( A little snippet from Ultraman Taro Episode 37. )
( My thoughts based on the above snippet. )
( North, South, East, and West are all represented in ZAT. )

Ah, not very related to (and takes more space than) the rest of this entry, but I am cautiously excited for the new Ultraman (mini) TV series (starring Ultraman Ginga) coming out in July. ( More information. )
( My thoughts based on above info. )

Well, it has been more than two years and a half since I last reviewed episodes 41 and 42 of Mebius. Anyway, these are reviews in name only. I just write whatever comes to mind, and what I don't remember, I make them up. So these can't be considered anything other than my opinions.

Ultraman Mebius Episode 43: ( Yapool! )

Ultraman Mebius Episode 44: ( Ultraman Ace )

Current Mood: weird

(Well, that sure gets stuck in my head after listening to it for at least 30 times.)

After having seen 30 episodes, I hope I'm not too quick to say I'm enjoying Ultraman Taro a lot. ( Stuff about the main character and Ultraman Ace's. Some spoilers (for both Taro and Ace), but, imho, not important ones. )

( Taro and Ultraman Leo. Well, I'm sure they have met somewhere on screen in Ultra forms, but what about human forms? )

( Talking about Taro the series at last. A few comparisons to Leo. No detailed spoiler. )

( And back to Taro the character, again??? )

( Zariba of All Territory, a.k.a. ZAT. (And little mentions of XIG, GUYS, TAC and UGM.) )

Probably there is something else I've forgotten. But oh well.

Current Mood: content

( General thoughts on the series (up to episode 12). Basically boils down to 'I'm enjoying it but don't really know why' )

( What I plan to do on my next rewatch of Ultraman Mebius )

...and I really like this show. But then I knew that this one was totally my type of series even before going in. ( Because of the series' theme, and this Ultraman is a teacher. :) )

( More thoughts on 80. Some spoilers which are not episode-specific. And a few mentions (and spoilers) of Mebius 41. )

Oh well, I don't seem to have much objective thoughts on the series, since I really like it a lot. But with me, obsessions come and go, so who knows how long I'll remain interested. Hopefully for a long while, though.

Ah, finally watched the Darclops (or Darklops?) Zero side stories. Don't know what I expected, exactly. Feel like I could have skipped them, since they don't appear to have much of a story. But of course, not taking any chance of missing something, I would never skip anything. IMHO, the second stage is slightly better than the first one.

( Short version of the plot )

Stage 1: ( Me complaining about too much fight scenes, and some spoilers. )
Stage 2: ( Probably out of sequence and not so accurate details of what happens in this part. Spoilers. )

( I have few questions. Speculations and spoilers. )

After typing both names for numerous times in this entry, I am amused that Rei and Zero are two separate people in the Ultra franchise*. ^_^; And that's not only because rei means zero...

(*Probably would have made a similar comment the last time around too, but I haven't ever gotten around to posting more in details about the Ultra Galaxy movie (since if I did, it would be like saying farewell to Ultraman Mebius -- as far as I know, that is the last movie/special he appears in (and gets some focus, I mean)).)

And unrelated to the rest of this entry, I don't know which Showa Ultraman series I want to watch next, since I like Ultraman 80 (both the series and the character) so much I am afraid other series wouldn't match up. (I probably should have watched the series in chronological order so I'm less likely to be in this type of situation. ^^;)