Finally finished Watching Ultraman Nexus....

[Shougo B'Stard]

What about old hosts, like Hyata or Moroboshi Dan? They had personalities as did their team mates.

I think one of the reasons (besides cool stories) that Ultraseven is my favorite (Ultra series) is because Moroboshi was actually the Ultra himself, therefore, he had more going for him than the usual guys. That's just a pretty boring concept, IMO, that the guy's always just a piece of meat for the Ultraman to possess. Far cooler that Moroboshi was Ultraseven in disguise, if you ask me.

Hayata slid by, IMO, because Susumu Kurobe has presence. There's times when a character won't have much to them on paper, but an actor can still make them flow by their charisma, presence and talent. Two more huge examples of this would be Hiroshi Miyauchi in V3 and Hayato Tani as Sugata in Maskman. I don't really champion V3 as the great series that everyone seems to; I think Kazami, as a character, doesn't have much going for him, and certainly wasn't as interesting as Fujioka/Hongo and Sasaki/Ichimonji. But Miyauchi, needless to say, has charisma up the arse, so he made it more tolerable than someone like Shunsuke Takasugi, who was plastic and didn't pull Super One up from the mediocre pits it sat in.

 

[Barom 1]

I think one of the reasons (besides cool stories) that Ultraseven is my favorite (Ultra series) is because Moroboshi was actually the Ultra himself, therefore, he had more going for him than the usual guys. That's just a pretty boring concept, IMO, that the guy's always just a piece of meat for the Ultraman to possess. Far cooler that Moroboshi was Ultraseven in disguise, if you ask me.

Hayata slid by, IMO, because Susumu Kurobe has presence. There's times when a character won't have much to them on paper, but an actor can still make them flow by their charisma, presence and talent. Two more huge examples of this would be Hiroshi Miyauchi in V3 and Hayato Tani as Sugata in Maskman. I don't really champion V3 as the great series that everyone seems to; I think Kazami, as a character, doesn't have much going for him, and certainly wasn't as interesting as Fujioka/Hongo and Sasaki/Ichimonji. But Miyauchi, needless to say, has charisma up the arse, so he made it more tolerable than someone like Shunsuke Takasugi, who was plastic and didn't pull Super One up from the mediocre pits it sat in.

I think Koji Moritsugu also was great as Moroboshi and that helped Ultraseven. And I agree that Susumu Kurobe did make Hyata work and that Kazami was a flat character and that Miyauchi did carry the character on his charisma.

You might want to check out Ultraman 80, as 80 did an Ultraseven and made his human guise, this is also true of Mebius. I'm not 100% sure but I think that Gen is Leo and not a host too, and Moroboshi is the team captain in Leo.

 

[Igadevil]

How is Max? When I saw it, I was overwhelmed by the kiddishness and prodigious amount of sparkles and whatnot and gave up on it. Does it have a compelling story?

Give Max another shot, it's a great show, and got me back into Ultraman. Keep in mind that, as Barom said, it's more in the vein of the Showa Ultras, with more single-episode stories. After Gaia ended it felt like Tsuburaya was really trying to find the groove it had with the Tiga-Dyna-Gaia trinity, and we got some pretty good hits and some real misses. I liked Cosmos and Nexus in their own ways, but Max really hit that middle note that made it so enjoyable. The overall story isn't terribly dramatic, but it's a good, fun little show with some really cool stuff, even if it doesn't break new ground like the shows before it did. I will say though that I found the Metron episode to be the one of the best episodes of any Ultra series (or Tokusatsu series) ever, just because of what it tries.

I liked what little I've seen of Mebius, but I keep missing it (ironically it's on in the afternoon too :sweat: ) so I haven't gotten a good feel for that show yet. The upcoming movie looks pretty sweet though!

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

See, for me it was the opposite. I liked Max because when it wanted to be funny, it was naturally funny. But when it wanted to be serious...it just didn't work, it could have been the fault of the cast because I did have trouble believing the serious stuff, but the writing really only shined when it didn't take itself as serious, which kinda blew since some of the key moments just didn't work for me. Though I did like it better than Cosmos and Gaia for sure since it was a pretty fun show.

Also, in Mebius they more or less say that he's the first new Ultra to appear in 20/5 years, but Max is from M78 as well isn't he? What happened there? Was Max kicked out of the original continuity in favor of Mebius? Because as far as I know Max was supposed to be set in the world of the first continuity.

 

[MaraJade]

Give Max another shot, it's a great show, and got me back into Ultraman. Keep in mind that, as Barom said, it's more in the vein of the Showa Ultras, with more single-episode stories. After Gaia ended it felt like Tsuburaya was really trying to find the groove it had with the Tiga-Dyna-Gaia trinity, and we got some pretty good hits and some real misses. I liked Cosmos and Nexus in their own ways, but Max really hit that middle note that made it so enjoyable. The overall story isn't terribly dramatic, but it's a good, fun little show with some really cool stuff, even if it doesn't break new ground like the shows before it did. I will say though that I found the Metron episode to be the one of the best episodes of any Ultra series (or Tokusatsu series) ever, just because of what it tries.

I liked what little I've seen of Mebius, but I keep missing it (ironically it's on in the afternoon too :sweat: ) so I haven't gotten a good feel for that show yet. The upcoming movie looks pretty sweet though!

If the great Igadevil bids me watch, I shall All joking aside, I do want to see how Showa Ultras are because I have surprisingly gotten very into Ultraman in general. Prior to Nexus, I had steered clear of it and Kaijuu like stuff, but Nexus hooked me well and proper. From there it was only a matter of time. I think I have a good grasp of Heisei Ultras, but I am curious to see where its beginnings are. Barom has recommended Ace, any you'd recommend?

As for Mebius, my initial thoughts were that it was trying to bring things back but also felt like it was trying to be a bridge between the two. Not quite sure beyond that.

 

[Barom 1]

Also, in Mebius they more or less say that he's the first new Ultra to appear in 20/5 years, but Max is from M78 as well isn't he? What happened there? Was Max kicked out of the original continuity in favor of Mebius? Because as far as I know Max was supposed to be set in the world of the first continuity.

I'm not sure exactly where that leaves Max, as Mebius indeed picks 80 as the last series in that timeline, in Ep 1 of Mebius they cite it being 25 years since the last time a kaiju attacked Earth. Ep 1 of Mebius started 25 years and 14 days after 80 ended, so I assume they mean 80 and Yullian's final battle before they headed back to M78. Max was stated as hailing from M78, as was Great, Powered, Neos and Ultraseven 21, so I guess they just went with the original Showa timeline and are ignoring everything inbetween.

I'd also suggest checking out Ultraseven Mara, as it is the Japaneses' favorite Ultra series.

 

[Igadevil]

I found Max handled juggling serious and goofy episodes a lot better than Dyna or Cosmos. Max has a couple that tried to be totally serious and don't come off quite as cool as they could have, but they still didn't feel jarringly out of place because a lot of episodes had a nice mix of drama and comedy anyways. I love Dyna, but that show couldn't do the super-serious episodes- they usually feel really out of place amidst all the great goofy ones. The borderline ones worked (like the aforementioned Dyna vs. Dyna episode) because they mixed in a lot of tongue-in-cheek stuff to offset the drama. But the ending, which tried to be so overly serious, just fell flat to me. Which is a shame, because one of the ideas they used towards the end- of the monster being made from a man-made Ultraman- was pretty damn cool.

But Cosmos has the most radical shifts between episodes- you go from one episode where he has to help deliver the baby for a pregnant monster or use his powers to calm some rampaging beast that isn't actually evil, just misunderstood, and the tone is pretty light-hearted...and then you get a super-serious episode where he's getting his ass kicked up and down the planet by one of those Chaos Header guys before he changes to a new mode and blows them the hell up! What happened to the "kinder and gentler" Ultraman? :laugh: I'm all for having goofy episodes and serious ones, but in Cosmos or Dyna I felt they were just better off going the lighter route, where I think Max etsablished itself from the get-go as a more balanced show, so the episodes that leaned more towards one mood or the other worked in that. Kinda like Tiga, which is mostly serious but has some great "wackier" episodes. By contrast, I think Gaia or Nexus worked best as straightforward drama, although I liked the comedic moments in Gaia and the one goofy episode is really, really funny.

Mara, I can also vouch for Seven & Ace. Return of Ultraman is pretty good in parts.

 

[Forever Knight]

I haven't seen too much Ultras, but I do think Nexus is the best of what I have seen so far. I'm hoping TVN finishes it off soon.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

I'm not sure exactly where that leaves Max, as Mebius indeed picks 80 as the last series in that timeline, in Ep 1 of Mebius they cite it being 25 years since the last time a kaiju attacked Earth. Ep 1 of Mebius started 25 years and 14 days after 80 ended, so I assume they mean 80 and Yullian's final battle before they headed back to M78. Max was stated as hailing from M78, as was Great, Powered, Neos and Ultraseven 21, so I guess they just went with the original Showa timeline and are ignoring everything inbetween.

Weren't there supposed to be connections to the original timeline in Max and Ultraseven 21 though? Or would those just sort of fit in better with an alternate original timeline?

 

[Barom 1]

Weren't there supposed to be connections to the original timeline in Man and Ultraseven 21 though? Or would those just sort of fit in better with an alternate original timeline?

:sly: I'm not 100% sure what you mean by Man, do you mean the original Ultraman series? I thought there was supposed to be a connection between Neos/Seven 21 and everyone else from the Showa M78 timeline, because IIRC Zoffy shows up in the series.