Temporary Moritirium On New Ultramen

[Aoi Kurenai]

Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia all aired in prime time, so they're naturally going to attract higher views. The spot they aired in was the predecessor to what became the coveted spot for anime series for a good seven years or so.

The whole thing with Nexus is that it was supposedly bumped from its original time slot for a Gundam anime and was specifically crafted for an airing time when they assumed older viewers would also be watching. While Max improved upon Nexus by a full percentage point, it doesn't seem like it actually aired against any other anime or tokusatsu in the same time spot, at least none that I can see, so it probably could have done better, but that ratings bump means it brought back a lot of the viewers that Nexus lost.

Mebius is somewhat harder to gauge because it was moved to both a different time slot and day. It dropped two tenths of a point from Max which...isn't too bad. (and it was also a good ten episodes longer) Morning anime and tokusatsu generally have higher ratings than anything airing in the afternoon where Mebius aired. And I think it also says a lot that these days the time frame Mebius aired in is known as the successor to the coveted anime prime time spot that the 90s Ultraman aired in.

So all in all, the only one of those shows that did bad was Nexus.

 

[okunohoshimichi]

...(at least I think 39 is the final episode, it's covering all of the final battles from franchise history)

Nope.

39 is a special episode features the deleted Ultra Brothers scenes from Saga.

Retsuden will still stick around for awhile, plus a new opening song sang by Voyager was announced.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/「ウルトラマン列伝」-新オープニングテーマ-Rising-High-ボイジャー/dp/B0077J46SO/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1

April episode list:

ソース電ホビ早売り
4/4　特番「力を合わせろ！ウルトラ兄弟!!」
4/11　メビウス「俺達の翼」
4/18　ダイナ「幻の遊星」
4/25　エース「大蟻超獣対ウルトラ兄弟」

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Wow, must have gotten an extension. One of the early announcements said it was going to run for 39 episodes.

 

[Daikamonohashi]

I feel wretched and I could really go for the announcement of a new Ultra series at some point in the near future.

I'M JUST SAYIN.

 

[knightphoenix2]

Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia all aired in prime time, so they're naturally going to attract higher views. The spot they aired in was the predecessor to what became the coveted spot for anime series for a good seven years or so.

The whole thing with Nexus is that it was supposedly bumped from its original time slot for a Gundam anime and was specifically crafted for an airing time when they assumed older viewers would also be watching. While Max improved upon Nexus by a full percentage point, it doesn't seem like it actually aired against any other anime or tokusatsu in the same time spot, at least none that I can see, so it probably could have done better, but that ratings bump means it brought back a lot of the viewers that Nexus lost.

Mebius is somewhat harder to gauge because it was moved to both a different time slot and day. It dropped two tenths of a point from Max which...isn't too bad. (and it was also a good ten episodes longer) Morning anime and tokusatsu generally have higher ratings than anything airing in the afternoon where Mebius aired. And I think it also says a lot that these days the time frame Mebius aired in is known as the successor to the coveted anime prime time spot that the 90s Ultraman aired in.

QFT. Considering that Nexus was specifically designed as a "darker" program, does anyone know why the TV station messed with the schedule?

So all in all, the only one of those shows that did bad was Nexus.

Word. Considering the ratings that Sentai has been getting lately, it may be sometime before any toku program sees the high ratings of the '90's Ultra series, Riders excepted.

 

[knightphoenix2]

Nope.

39 is a special episode features the deleted Ultra Brothers scenes from Saga.

Retsuden will still stick around for awhile, plus a new opening song sang by Voyager was announced.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/「ウルトラマン列伝」-新オープニングテーマ-Rising-High-ボイジャー/dp/B0077J46SO/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1

April episode list:

This is great news, Oku! It seems that Retsuden will go the full 51 weeks, and, perhaps, get a Blu-Ray series put out for it.

I'm looking forward to seeing my favorite Dyna episode, "The Phantom Planet (nee Shooting Star)", and nice to see Mebius finally getting some love, with the "Our Wings," episode.

Btw, speaking of "The Phantom Planet," does Hanejiro make an appearance in Saga, or not?

 

[Lynxara]

QFT. Considering that Nexus was specifically designed as a "darker" program, does anyone know why the TV station messed with the schedule?

If Nexus really did lose its time slot to a Gundam series, then presumably the network decided to give Gundam SEED Destiny the slot in question instead. This would make sense given how outrageously popular the original Gundam SEED series was, GSD was probably seen as a very safe bet. Nexus, while ambitious, was a fairly radical departure from what audiences might expect.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

I probably should point out that this line of thinking tends to come from various dates and history and what little insiders have actually said over the year. We know Nexus was bumped from its original prime time weekend time slot, that much is certain, the rest is guess work, but I would say it lines up. Tiga through Cosmos all aired in what would eventually come to be known as do-roku. Gundam SEED literally began airing the week after Cosmos finished airing. Both Nexus and SEED Destiny began airing one week apart from each other, on the same channel, on a Saturday.

The people working on SEED were given the green light for a sequel around the time the last ten episodes of that series were airing, which was also around the time the Ultra N Project began with those stage shows featuring Noa as this mysterious new Ultraman. (and this nifty little trailer)

While nothing is absolutely certain, I would venture to say Nexus being bumped for SEED Destiny is the most likely possibility. I've always wondered how Nexus would have done in that time frame because SEED Destiny had some incredible ratings, nearly reaching 10% a couple of times, but that makes me wonder what the difference in hype is beteen the first true Gundam sequel series since UC stuff and a new take on the Ultraman franchise. Given that Ultraman the Next was sort of a box office bomb, I'm not sure how great Nexus would have done, but I think it would have at least been able to run the intended 51 episodes. And as Bandai has a big hand in both properties, they probably had some say in things as well. (sort of how the proposed Kamen Rider Gaia never came to fruition because Ultraman Gaia was already in the works)

random, but I've always found it a little amusing that the time frame Tiga through Cosmos aired in became this coveted block for anime and then...the same happened with the time frame that Mebius aired in.

 

[Juspion]

It's completely Ironic if Nexus was bumped for SEED Destiny, considering SEED Destiny was widely panned starting from the middle of the series.

 

[Lynxara]

GSD was extremely popular until its ending, which as I understand it was Japan's equivalent of the reaction fans had to Mass Effect 3 a few weeks ago. People hated it to the point where it changed their feelings about the rest of the show. Sunrise has attempted to redo the ending two different times, but never got the bitter taste out of fans' mouths.

While GSD was panned critically, the DVDs sold extremely well and a lot of the merchandise did extremely well (especially character stuff). I think it also had a spinoff SD Gundam series of animated shorts and the Stargazer spinoffs. The main thins that didn't do well were the model kits of... well, everything that wasn't Freedom or Strike Freedom, which is why a third SEED series or sequel film never really materialized.

(Well, that and the writer developing brain cancer, which is the set-up for a thousand tasteless jokes.)