Starting with Ultraman - Is this a good place to start?

[Kaji Motomiya]

Recently, I have learned that voice actor Mamoru Miyano was also the lead character for the Ultraman Zero-related movies, Ultraman Zero. As one of my favorite voice actors, I was thinking of taking up on the series starting with the movie where Zero debuts, "Mega Monster Battle".

Do I have to watch any of the past Ultraman series first? Like Mebius, Tiga, etc.?

 

[Scissors]

If you want to go on a full nostalgia trip and get the full enjoyment out of seeing some of the old actors return, then you should at least watch some of Dyna and Mebius first. Just to get to know everyone in the movie.

If you don't want to go through that, then you should at LEAST watch the Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle series before you watch the movie, because it basically introduces the main human cast that you will see in the movie.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

While it's a cool movie, Mega Monster Battle is also sort of the culmination of the two Ultra Galaxy TV shows, so you would get more out of that if you started there first.

That said, story-wise, it's a decent place to start. There are a lot of things in that movie that have been lingering questions throughout the franchise (What does the Ultra home world look like? How were the Ultraman created?) so you'll get the answers to those, but I'm not sure if it'll mean as much. Action wise, it's not the greatest representation of the franchise. The fighting -is- really great in the movie, but it's hella more fast paced than any series.

But if you don't really care about the franchise too much and only want to see it for the actor, go for it. Might even interest you enough to backtrack and watch a previous series.

 

[Kaji Motomiya]

That's what I was thinking. I only wanna watch it because I wanna hear Mamoru Miyano, but I feel that if that is the case, I should probably start with Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle first before Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy (same names, but different positions mean different types of media?! It's fucking weird, seriously...).

People say Tiga and Mebius are really good. So series wise, which one is best to start off with?

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

It's all in the way it's written. The shows are Ultra Galaxy Daikaiju Battle and Ultra Galaxy Daijaiku Battle Never Ending Odyssey (NEO) while the movie is Ultra Ginga Densetsu.

Anywho! I think Mebius is a cool place to start, it's set in the old timeline of Shouwa shows, but it has a pretty strong cast of characters that all feel pretty important to the show. It also has some of the previous Ultras and their actors guest starring in a way that isn't jarring or confusing to someone coming into the franchise for the first time. And it's got a lot of supplemental material like a three episode side story that takes place during the series and a two episode follow up that was released a year after it ended. (There's also yet another DTV series featuring Mebius, but that seems more like just the further adventures of Mebius rather than a continuation of the series)

Either way, they're both pretty great shows to watch.

 

[Forever Knight]

Start with Mebius. It'll give you some insight of most of the Ultras and is a great series.

 

[okunohoshimichi]

You can get a decent picture of the franchise from these vids:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a-FgNvOQE0"]SKILL - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jeqyvNAUio"]ULTRAMAN~45 YEARS OF MEMORIES~ BY ULTRAMANGOLD - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHSocQXfoNI"]ULTRAMAN~45 YEARS~ BY ULTRAMANGOLD - YouTube[/ame]