Ultraman

I expected Ultraman to be some type of lame superhero anime, but instead, the series shows respect to its audience since the very beginning. It quite clearly asks the viewer to just to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride without asking too many questions. Its approach made me go in with the preferred mindset effortlessly, and I found our series terrificly entertaining.

The art and animation are one of the strongest merits. The fight choreography are insanely detailed and visually fluid to a point it can hardly be called an anime. Punches during fight scenes truly deliver impact and shit explodes at ridiculous magnitude. CGI ... series tend to suffer from low frame rates and compromises when it comes to animation, but Ultraman did not aim to save money here. The production itself is more than enough of a reason to give this a try. I believe some practical effects were even used here to achieve this unique style, but I am not too familiar with this niche in the industry.

The writing offers some idiocy, and especially towards the end, the series seems to be falling quite flat with its Super Power vs. Super Power story line -- some things are just downright out-written to conclude the series, but the English dubs make up for most of it. There are dudes throwing one liners half-ironically and the bros just sound ridiculously manly and badass all the time. I couldn't find him in credits, but I swear Clancy Brown was there. I highly recommend watching this English dubbed for maximum entertainment, the Jap version is just too serious and not very fitting.

From the character department, Ultramen are portrayed so OP that there's even a scene where one of them has an inner monologue moments where he literally says "I wish I hadn't fucked up that dude so badly." I just love stuff like this. For the first half of the show, it really looks like the characters weaknesses are not morals or cryptonite but being so powerful they might actually kill people whom they try to help. It balances out once more powerful super aliens jump in. There are also two quite questionable characters in the series, specifically Ultraman Jr. and Idol Girl, they have their development, and one the reason for their questionable ideals seems to be leaving room for this development, but still one could argue they are annoying to some extent.

In short, hang onto the good sides and you're in for some genuinely entertaining series.

As much as I’d genuinely like to put in a good word for CG and the advancements which it can surely bring to the medium of animation when done well, the crushingly few amount of times in which it’s actually been implemented with any sense of craft whatsoever has really restrained me from doing so. Too often have I seen such immense talent put behind so many promising projects which came to shocking fruition against all odds, only to have their monumental achievements undercut and outright trivialized by the mediocrity and downright incompetency of all other CG producers in the landscape. For every complete technical ... mastery of fully 3DCG anime the likes of Land of the Lustrous, there’ll be a couple dozen absolute failures the likes of Berserk (2016). For every expert blend of CG prop integration with hand-drawn animation the likes of that in Psycho-Pass, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, or B: The Beginning, there’ll be another deluge of visual atrocities the likes of Overlord III. For every ravishingly immersive, artfully detailed, and stylistically perfect 3DCG background environments the likes of those in Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress or Attack on Titan, there’ll be more frame-rate fever dreams the likes of the hellish Gantz or Inuyashiki anime adaptations. The only brand of CG I feel has truly found its place in anime is purely experimental CG, which simply is not trying to quote-unquote “look good.” SSSS.Gridman or Gatchaman Crowds are two perfect examples of shows with creative, talented, and ambitious staff behind them, but which simply lack the technical resources and mastery to produce anything better than what they did. However, even in this context, there are still exceptions like Tiger & Bunny, a smart show made by accomplished creators at a powerhouse studio, but who’s atrocious CG doesn’t fit the aesthetic like that in Gatchman Crowds nor does it get hand-drawn when necessary like that in SSSS.Gridman. At this point in time, the only way I see to guarantee quality assurance is to properly fund and staff a studio dedicated to the advancement of CG, and while Polygon Pictures has been trying and failing to be exactly that for the last decade, Studio Orange has showed us quite recently just how irrelevant years of cultivation really is when it comes to doing CG right, and it looks like Production IG is trying to prove the same with Sola Digital Arts.

You can’t imagine how high my expectations were for this show. Keeping up with the career of Kenji Kamiyama following his time as the creative director heading Production IG’s in-house TV animation staff has been honestly depressing, and I truly believed this would be his big comeback. After he barely stumbled over the finish line with the theatrical finale of Eden of the East, let’s be honest, I think he and everyone around him really lost faith. Production IG is and always has been the best of the best, the gold standard of Japanese animation, and back in the 2000s and in the 90s, the common consumer was actually smart enough to know this, so acknowledging how high a bar they’d set for themselves by their own painstaking efforts, I honestly see why they replaced Kamiyama, not after he made something which wasn’t absolutely perfect (following his team’s two prior projects which were), but after he simply lost his creative drive on a project before finishing it. It’s no surprise Ishikawa put Naoyoshi Shiotani in the director’s chair given his and Urobuchi’s fresh, daring, and thoughtful passion project to come in the epic figure of Psycho-Pass, and after Tow Ubukata spent the last five years proving Shiotani’s brilliant cinematography can’t make something good without competent writing underneath, it’s also no surprise Ishikawa switched Shiotani out for Kazuto Nakazawa, since he’s even more of a studio veteran than Shiotani is and has cultivated his creative senses in the shadows with cult classic after cult classic after cult classic for decades. Simply put, Kamiyama was beginning to stagnate, and while you’d be a fool to say he’d already done so, it was certainly a fate on the horizon, and the fact the graduates of his team lead by his co-director Masayuki Yoshihara, his co-writer Shōtarō Suga, and their art director Takeda Yūsuke could work without him and make a masterpiece the likes of The Eccentric Family—at a studio other than IG, no less—really said a lot about the industry’s need for his presence. And speaking personally, the manner in which Kamiyama sought to keep himself busy outside the limelight didn’t inspire much confidence either…because it was CG. 009 Re:Cyborg was a good movie, and what made it good was his inspired visual direction and uncharacteristically smart theming for the genre, but the SANZIGEN CG animation simply could not do said direction justice and clashed awfully with the beautiful hand-drawn background art from Production IG. And while Hirune Hime suggested a more fundamental issue with Kamiyama’s screenwriting, it was a step in the right direction visually, boasting the talent of Production IG’s animation legends, but more importantly, it proved his creative vision was still alive and kicking, dying to prove his expertise once again.

Ultraman (2019) is, if nothing else, inspired. Aside from the usual suspects like a mildly choppy frame-rate and unnaturally rigid facial features, the show doesn’t look atrocious for what it is. The digital effects are as clean and crisp as those of a ufotable show; the 3DCG environments were as expansive as those in the Kizumonogtari films, if not as polished; from the sound of concrete slowly cracking under the pounding footsteps and sparkling metal armor of the heavyweight iron men duking it out in the middle of the city to the differing sounds a coffee cup makes depending on the surface it’s placed on, the highly detailed sound design brought both the spectacular and the smallest, most tedious audio to life with its incredible attention to detail; the soundtrack is a truly phenomenal mix of Hans Zimmer’s orchestral tracks in “Man of Steel” and Daft Punk’s atmospheric electronic BGM in “Tron: Legacy,” and it made so much of the action hit harder and so much of the emotions run higher, which was certainly something I did not expect at all from such an innocuous looking superhero show; the lighting effects and shading gradients weren’t quite on the level of a Studio Orange production, for example, but they still fixed the Polygon Pictures face and made the characters able to emote like few CG casts have been able to before without falling into the uncanny valley; and the Motion Capture Animation for the character acting upped the ante to such a degree, I can call the production as a whole a genuine and unique step forward in the medium of CG anime. But with the technicalities aside, the standout quality of the show is in that clear inspiration. While dialogue scenes can be standard at times, the actions scenes and really any scene paying homage to the illustrious Ultraman title is bursting at the seems with cinematic love for the franchise, respect for the creators who’ve helmed it before them, and of course, their own personal flair branding the show with their own creative identity whilst still staying true to its roots. Ultraman has always been any other classic superhero story, and I went into this new adaptation with the expectation this fact would hold it back a ton, or at least water down its intellectual content, if any, not because I think the genre is inherently limiting, but because I’m an American who’s seen it done more times than they can even count. I come to anime because the Japanese are fifty billion times more creative than we are, and anime as a medium allows infinitely higher levels of unfiltered imagination to shine, so the idea Ultraman was the likes of any other dime-a-dozen Western Superman really left me listless on concept.

Luckily, the characters serving as the heart and soul of the narrative were more than worthy to. Our main character Shinjiro is the newest name I get to add to my list of shounen leads who actually deserve the title of “hero” and does more than simply piss me off. Most shounen leads are indecisive, melodramatic, whinny, and generally immature, but not in a way which is constructive to character development. Whenever I get a Kamille Bidan or an Eren Yeager, I get to see a hundred thousand Izuku Midoriyas or Kaneki Kens, and thankfully, Shinjiro belongs with the former. He's awkward and unsure of himself like anyone his age, but he's a great kid, and the supporting cast feels so much more well realized than many who share they're archetypes, especially Rena, the main heroine. If you’re an American like me, and you can empathize with my exhaustion towards commonplace superhero stories, then you can probably also agree with the assertion the genre as a whole is plagued with the issue of one-dimensional female leads. The girl is only there to be a pretty face and a worthless damsel in distress just so the hero can come and save her, and forgetting about how grossly misogynistic that trope is, it’s just straight-up boring from a narrative perspective, so if you’re going to do it, it may as well be with a human character who you actually care for and who the creators actually put effort into building, and like Shinjiro, Rena delivers. She has character, personality, actual narrative relevancy, and honestly puts more thematic meaning on the table than any male character in any suit of armor in the entire show. But speaking of the show’s themes, Ultraman (2019)’s marvelous inspiration is really all it has going for it. The story is just the standard superhero vs alien invaders flick, and while the human elements and cinematic elements are overflowing with creative passion and the production is outstanding among its CG contemporaries, the storyline itself is as bare-bones as it gets and the message behind it is so trite as to be entirely insignificant. What I will say, though, is what I say about Haikyuu. This show is all tropes, but it knows which tropes are actually good, it knows why they’re good and why screenwriters have used them since the dawn of time, and most importantly, it actually has the tact to take that knowledge and deliver it to screen in the exact manner which it was meant to be. If I had to describe Ultraman (2019) in one word, I would say loved. Kamiyama’s direction is utterly nonexistent from a cinematic perspective, and Shinji Aramaki seems to have been the actual director, which isn’t really a good thing given the show’s overlong action scenes and technical flexing, but he obviously grew up loving Ultraman, because every single frame just screams dedication. Of Kamiyama's many masterpieces, Ultraman (2019) is a joke, but I don't think he even wanted it to make it his own. Just as he held back his intellectual experimentation in the anime original episodes of Guardian of the Sacred Spirit out of reverence for author Nahoko Uehashi’s meticulously characterized world, I think Kamiyama actively treaded no new ground with Ultraman (2019) out of respect for the series and its genre legacy, and for that, I cannot possibly fault him.

Thank you for reading.

yay, its Spring 2019 ! Netflix what do you have? NETFLIX's Orginial Ultraman ? lets give it a try...

.. what is ultraman? it's a Japanese live action science fiction television series...Netflix has adapted the live action into an anime for us ... thank you Netflix .. V-E-R-Y... N-I-C-E....

Its a CG anime... Its CG , i mean its a full CG anime...... i won't really hate on it... coz you get accustomed to the CG ... and its not really that bad...

The "FIGHTS" are really boring...i didn't find anything amazing or spectacular about the fights...they are all CG fights anyways... and ...they are all average... ... 6/10

The characters are not very likeable.... some are ok, like moroboshi and -----.... most of em are ahole's..but.. its really funny whenever the "pop idol" meets our mc, coz she always forgets who he is....(RIP, it baited you into an idol show,but not really)

This music is not very memorable... and the OP.... This time Netflix didn't make a skip intro icon... why? because the OP ... the OP.... IT DOESN'T HAVE ONE!...hu?.. Its Netflix what did you expect...

THE DUST! THE FREAKING DUST ! in this anime is too realistic to be true!!

In the end.. it was enjoyable ...now you know why you should watch it... yes you watch it for the 8D dust particles..

Ultraman is a callback to a simple era of superhero shows. Where heroes would come to grips with their powers, fight bad guys and save the day. And yes there's a ton of fighting.

Gloriously choreographed action sequences set against the backdrop of not too far into the future society where aliens are slowly assimilating with humanity. The show looks beautiful with high quality models, perfectly suited backgrounds and fitting lighting. Almost every scene in the series will undoubtedly look good.

Unfortunately there lies the show's most divisive aspect. It's stylized low frame animation. It often feels choppy and takes time to get accustomed to. Thankfully ... this is a non issue during the action sequences. But it is a significant annoyance during the more standard dialogue moments. Which is honestly the second issue. The writing of the series never feels inspired. But it isn't bad either. It just feels typical for the genre. This unfortunately extends to the characters as well. You'll get a sense of deja vu at times, as if you've heard those lines somewhere else.

But those negatives really doesn't stop Ultraman from being a highly engrossing action show. It's a blast to watch. At least every episode will have a spectacular action sequence that make blood boil. And at the end it succeeds at entertaining it's viewers.

Hmm. My impressions of Ultraman are mixed. The show is definitely good enough so that I will watch a second season, though it has many, many faults.

STORY: 5/10
The story: your typical shounen story. Shinjirou's father was Ultraman, and... ta-dah! Now he has to take over in his place due to a new threat. The story is about his journey to becoming the reliable, admirable Ultraman that everybody needs. Although it is a typical shounen story, I feel that the show tries to do a bit much with it. There are plot twists, backstories, and other little tricks and gimmicks that try and make this series ... seem different, though they come off as... well, little tricks and gimmicks. I cannot say much without spoiling, though. I will say that the final arc, though necessary for the main story, seems very out of place and came off as an unnecessary way to end the series with an exciting scene. The events that happen in this scene and many other scenes also seem kind of forced and it felt like there were many things our hero and his "friends" could have done to get out of some bad situations. The romance/society side of the story was okay at best as well. Coming into this series, I was really looking forward to Shinjirou's outside life as a regular high school teenager, though this series does not do a good job with it. There is a whole sub-plot (and really a whole episode) dedicated to this, though it is extremely cheesy and cliché and not really satisfying, though it is one of the best parts of the show in my opinion. I felt kind of let down and was looking forward to the end of this arc. Although my favorite shows are usually shounen, and especially shows that have a character with a secret that they must keep, I feel that this series did not do a good job creating a strong main and side stories.

ART: 7/10
To be honest, I did not mind the CG animation that this series has. If anything, it is one of the series' strong suit. People complaining about it either 1) do not have eyes, or 2) are 2D waifu elitists. The animation was actually very good, although it does kind of look like one 5-hour long video game cutscene. Movements all seemed natural and smooth. The fight scenes were animated pretty well, especially toward the end. At times, when Shinjirou was in his Ultraman suit, it seemed like the show was live-action. Although some fight scenes did seem a bit cheesy, it did kind of remind me of the live-action Ultraman show that I've seen snippets of. I don't know if that was what the animators were going for, but whatever. The art in this show is pretty good and the animation was smooth, though some fight scenes seemed a bit cheesy.

SOUND: 7/10
The sound was definitely the strongest aspect of the show. The orchestral OST during fight scenes is good and the ending theme by OLDCODEX is also really good. I watched the show with earbuds and the sound quality and placement were all good. I can't find anything wrong with it, though it isn't outstanding by any means.

CHARACTER: 3/10
The characters are definitely the worst part of the show. The characters did not seem well designed to me. I couldn't seem to get close or relate to any of the characters. The best-designed character and most likable in this show is definitely Rena, but I cannot say much without spoiling the show. Though this kind of relates back to the story, I feel like Shinjirou could have been made better through more information and scenes about Shinjirou's life outside of being Ultraman. This would make all the characters', not just Shinjirou, more interesting, relatable, and closer. One of the characters later into the show, Seiji Hokuto, is a prime example of bad character design. The best way I can say this without spoiling the series is when he is first introduced, he is framed to be unliked by the viewer, but then the show seems to want us to like him towards the end just because of a pretty lame backstory that is revealed later on in the series. The characters in this show are the weakest part of this series due to badly designed characters and bad backstories.

ENJOYMENT: 6/10
The best way I can describe the enjoyment of this show is "addicting." I felt that this show is extremely addicting. It hooks you in and makes you want to watch more. As I said, if a second season comes out, I will probably watch it. However, this does not mean the series is good. The story and characters really aren't that good, as described above. It is like I only enjoyed the show while I was watching it, then afterward felt kind of let down.

OVERALL: 5/10
To wrap this review up, Ultraman is a show that is pretty good, but not great. It has many faults, though it is an addicting show. The best parts about this show are the art and the sound, though those are not the biggest factors in how good a show is. These are the story and characters, which are not this series' forté. Overall, I recommend this show to big shounen fans, especially fans who like hidden powers.

While I'm not too familiar with previous Ultraman shows and content, the opening chapter of this show grabbed my attention with an interesting setup and style that managed to make up for the bland presentation. But as the show went on, the focus shifted on to the actual main character and things started to fall apart.

Story:
Fairly standard and about what you expect based on the setup. For a show like this it doesn't necessarily need to be much better.... provided the other elements are good which, sadly, isn't the case.

Art:
As some previous Netflix shows, this is basically entirely made using dated looking, ... low framerate CGI. Several of the fights are well choreographed but that's not enough to overcome the fact this looks like a cutscene out of a videogame from several console generations ago. The abundance of aliasing (or jagged edges) in a lot of scenes is also extremely distracting.

Character:
This is where in my opinion the show falls apart. A lot of the focus is put on 2 characters (the usual male and female leads) who more than uninteresting are quite frankly unlikeable. There's one or two good ideas here in terms of their internal struggles, but they are executed so poorly that they come across as whiny and unreasonable.
The side cast at least is more interesting but ultimately feels wasted as it makes you wonder why we don't spend more time with these characters instead of the annoyingly generic and trope ridden protagonist

Overall:
I can't say I enjoyed watching this. Looking at the decent reception I kept watching in the hopes it would get better but for the most part it just got worse.
It's an ugly looking and unremarkable show that would have probably been straight up irrelevant if it wasn't for the Ultraman brand

Ultraman!

Is it the japanese version of Superman but instead of Clark Kent we have a japanese highschooler saving the world? Well, kinda... But the very early version of Superman who just found out about his power and struggle with about what is right and what is wrong. Not the seasoned veteran who saves Metropolis on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, I havent watched the original version of Ultraman. On MAL its listed as alternative setting but after watching the first few episodes I think thats wrong. The events of 2019 Ultraman set place 10 years after the end of 1980 Ultraman. So its a sequel and a ... lot of things doesnt make sense in the beginning... or even later into the series.

Story 6/10: 10 years ago a man who was only known under the name of Ultraman saved the world and disappeared. Now, a young man in highschool has superpowers but doesnt know how to use them. Are they connected? Until he gets the oppurtunity to use them for doing good in the first episodes. So he joins an organisation that is supposed to save humans from aliens. The stories are somehow all connected but dont follow a clear path. There is no obvious antagonist or some ultimate goal they want to achieve. One plot leads to another. Which isnt bad as the entire first season focusses on character development of our Highschooler and the introduction of several side characters.

Characters 6/10: Honestly. The MC is boring. He doesnt have any idea what is going on, looks overwhelmed all the time, hesitates in important situations and is not sure if what he is doing is good. Understandable even if a little annoying. There isnt much too say about him. The sidecharacters have a more unique personality. Some of them are really interesting while others are just lame. But overall the series does a good job for several decent characters while nobody stands out.

Animation 7/10: Everything just looks like cheap CGI... is what I thought after I saw the faces for the first time. But I was wrong! While they didnt do a good job with the faces, the action sequences actually looked really good and they made the best out of the CGI technonogly. The last fight looked amazing.

Sound 6/10: I dont really know. Nothing good, nothing bad. There was nothing outstanding that I noticed but also nothing annoying. I wont rate the dub because I didnt watch the show in japanese. So it gets a Fine.

Should you watch it? The answer is simple. If you like superheroes, yes. If you dont like superheroes, no. There is nothing special about the series. Its not bad but also not good. If you want some action in cool suits you will probably enjoy it.

Peace.

I was not born at the time when Ultraman was broadcast on TV, so I will talk about anime in a straightforward way, after all, I can not feel nostalgia or understand references in that context. The anime: It follows a simple line, with the generic protagonist who was born with powers and has a simple sense of justice, at the same time we have his "rival" that is badass without an ounce of humor, a problematic friend, a suspicious organization , the girl he likes, well, that is especially debatable, she thinks that her mother was killed by the Ultraman while he tried to ... save the CITY, in those hours I remember One Punch and realize how much Saitama and the work are incredible, when Saitama is confronted about having saved the city, but having destroyed a part of it too, Saitama says: "I became a hero because I wanted to, not for you." Calm down, look at this context that the ultraman character refers to, at no time (by the time the new Ultraman saves her) does she think about how many people were saved by Ultraman the day her mother died. I'll stop here, the anime is decent, if there is a second season I'll watch, so give it a try, even though it's in CGI the anime is beautiful, it reminded me a lot of Knights of Sidonia. (I apologize for my spelling mistakes)

(PT-Br) Eu não nasci na época em que ultraman era transmitido na tv, então vou falar sobre o anime de forma basante direta, afinal, eu não posso sentir nostalgia ou entender referências nesse contexto. O anime: Ele segue uma linha simples, com o protagonista genérico que já nasceu com poderes e tem um senso de justiça simples, ao mesmo tempo temos seu "rival" que é badass sem um pingo de humor, um amigo problemático, uma organização suspeita, a menina que ele gosta, bom, essa é especialmente discutível, ela acha que sua mãe foi morta pelo Ultraman enquanto o mesmo tentava salvar a CIDADE, nessas horas eu lembro de One Punch e percebo o quanto Saitama e a obra são incríveis, quando Saitama é confrontado sobre ter salvado a cidade, mas ter destruído uma parte dela também, Saitama fala: "Eu me tornei herói porque eu quis, não por vocês". Calma, olha esse contexto que a personagem de ultraman se refere, em momento algum (até o momento em que o novo Ultraman a salva) ela pensa em quantas pessoas foram salvas pelo Ultraman no dia em que a mãe da mesma morreu. Vou parar por aqui, o anime é decente, se houver uma segunda temporada eu assistirei, então dê uma chance, mesmo ele sendo em CGI o anime é bonito, lembrou muito o design de Knights of Sidonia

It was very entertaining, and was pretty awesome. The CGI was pretty good, and the suits look awesome, but it does take a while to get use to the style of animation and of art.
The story was really good, but not perfect. Shinjirio and Rena's romance wasn't very good, and they got Rena out of the story by shipping her off to America. The inner conflicts of the characters is very good, since it adds to the story. It can be very brutal at times, and isn't Senin, but isn't shonen. It's somewhere in between the two, it uses common cliches, but knows the right ... ones to use.Some of it can be pretty dark however. I recommend it! It's a must-watch for those who like darker themes mixed with lighter ones.

A pleasant surprise and this title may change how most anime fans feel about CG anime. CG has always looked extremely corny in these seasonal anime titles (only a few very high budget anime-esque films have broken this trend). My first thought when seeing this title was that it was going to be another terrible CG anime. I was wrong!

As for the overall story of this anime, I thought it was very well done and kept me guessing. From determining who the actual enemy is to how certain characters feel about different things. This story definitely kept me watching one episode to the next to ... see what happens. It is also pretty clear that they intend on having a 2nd season to expand.

Now for the part most people are curious about, the art (in this case CG). First and foremost, the battle scenes were amazing, they were not corny and really fit in with the world and gave the viewer a sense of power. It was grounded in the reality of this sci-fi story and never felt super out of place or odd. I think how the CG done in this anime can prove that it can be done well. The only issue I had with the CG is that sometimes I did not like how the characters looked under certain lighting conditions.

No issues with the sound. Battle scenes were well done, like I said before, and the voice actors were great (except maybe one and his VERY SLOW VOICE, I believe they did that on purpose and I do not agree with the decision).

Characters were pretty solid overall. The MC has his stupid MC moments every now and then that all MCs seem to have these days, but he does learn from his mistakes and grows as the show goes on. All the side characters are pretty fleshed out throughout the season as well.

I have always been turned off by CG anime series, but I am glad I gave this one a shot and I would not mind if a couple more anime went this route with this quality.

Frist of all i want to tell you that this is the 2nd 3DCG anime that i have finished watching (the first one is Standby Me Doraemon) and i haven't read the manga which is this anime adapted of, so some of my opinion might be different to some of the readers. Let's get this started.

Story :
Let's recap the main story of this anime first. Taking place in Japan (ofc) decades after the last fight of Ultraman, the earth which is now in peace because of some agreement between earth alliance and outer planet, got terrorized by some evil alien (human-sized version of Kaijuu). Knowing ... this SSSP, the organization who fights against alien/kaiju and in which the previous host of the Ultraman work, and other party show their fangs once again by introducing a new iron-man-look-alike armor which will be used by the Ultraman. Long short story, this anime took a different route from what we used to know about Ultraman franchise. Eventhough this is so much different from what i know Ultraman is, i quite enjoy the story. We still can see and epic fight between this new version of Ultraman againts aliens or maybe Ultraman against Ultraman, who knows? Either way, the fight scene of this anime is the thing which you can't hate tbh. Moreover, there's more than one Ultraman in this series. Unfortunately, you can't see Ultraman Tiga, Cosmos, Mebius or even Orb in this series. Overall, this kind of story is not boring enough to make you hate Ultraman franchise and satisfying enough for a nostalgia.

Art :
I'm not a fans of 3DCG anime or someone who enjoy 3DCG anime a lot, but i would say that the art of this series is pretty good and solid. The art does match the vibes of this series. Especially, the animation on the fighting scene is pretty solid and increase the positive vibes of this series. However, i don't know if i was watching with a slow-speed internet or not, but the frame rate of this series is not good, unstable if i can say, so maybe this is the weakest part of this series according to my opinion.

Sound :
Nice seiyuu (checked), Suitable ending song (checked), No useless music background (checked), Perfect opening song (crossed). It's such a shame that this interesting series doesn't have any opening song to support the vibes.

Character :
The variety of personality of the characters on this series is the next good point of this anime. Anti-hero, anti-villain, annoying shounen MC, and many more, you can see them in this series.

Overall :
For you who loves Ultraman franchise or maybe those who love 3DCG action anime, give this show a try. It's not that great, yet it's not that bad, so it won't waste your time. The action scene is kind of great, tbh, so for the last time, give this show a try.

After SSSS. Gridman I was ready for some big ol' tokusatsu boys fighting kaiju. While this was not the giant people I was expecting, it was still an interesting ride.
Art 7 -- Let's get the big concern out of the way. 3DCG is really hit or miss for a lot of people, but if it's something you can handle than this is definitely one to check out. These are the most expressive CG models I have ever seen in anime in all sorts of ways. The faces were aided by the addition of a few expression lines that moved around similarly to the style of ... Into the Spiderverse. The actual character models had more moving parts so they didn't look like plastic models the way most 3DCG shows do. The action looked good and was well choreographed with some clear MMA and WWE influence. My only real problems with the animation are some interactions between different models be they characters or static objects and some issues with characters strange movement when they had no dialogue. This is the best I have seen 3DCG look in a series and is pretty close to the likes of "Batman Ninja" and the OG JOJO openings.
Story 6 -- The reason this rating isn't better is because this is currently all of the story there is. If there are more seasons and they follow through with the story beats this season offered up, the rating could easily go up, but as it stands, this story is banking on just a few interesting ideas with very little interesting development. Only one arc felt completed within reason and it was only introduced in the second half. I think this has the potential to become a really interesting study of what it means to be a hero, but that will have to wait for more content. One big positive is that this story neither needs you to know the original Ultraman show nor does it try to do a flimsy fill-in in its first episode. That lack of an exposition dump was very helpful.
Sound 9 -- The voice acting was consistent and had performances from great seiyuus like Kenjiro Tsuda. However, what brings the score on this section up so dramatically is the sound mixing in general. The sounds of the world were great the whole time and the weapons sounds were also super, reminding of work like "Planet With." The most standout of these mixings though was the post work on the voices of Bemular and Edo. The reverb for Bemular sounded great and matched the sound design of his character in general. Edo's voice was something else. Every single time he spoke I was completely focused. Whoever came up with the idea to mix his voice high and low randomly did something really special. On a final note, I was not overly aware of the OST throughout, but what I remember was pretty good.
Character 5 -- The characters often felt more like cliches than actual people. I never found myself disliking them and the performances of their seiyuus made them all much more likable. They were fine methods of conveying the story, but I was never invested in them as individuals, but only insofar as they continued the show I was watching.
Enjoyment 6 -- I think this show was overall a fun thing to watch and I don't regret sitting down and bingeing this on Netflix. I think a good percentage of the enjoyment of this show is that it is very conducive to be binged. I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much week to week, but in its format, it held my full attention the entire time.
Overall 6 -- I think this anime has the spark of something very cool and I hope further seasons explore those opportunities. On its own, this show will likely be quickly forgotten, but I hope that Netflix renews it for more. Wanting more of something is the best criticism something can receive and I hope that whatever comes next follows through on the skeleton that this season built.

Well... I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this. Is that bad? Not really.

Netflix adaptations are notoriously trash, but Ultraman falls just shy of that.

I'll avoid direct spoilers as best as I can.

STORY:

It starts and ends really fast. Perhaps 12 episodes just aren't enough to fit everything in they wanted too, considering characters are introduced and left hanging. The story didn't leave much room for growth and the arc itself was very generic and rushed.

... ART:
It's full CG. My eyes burned after the first episode, but you get used too it fairly quickly. Sometimes it's even cool as heck, other times it looks very poor. It's viewers choice and it seemed like they were trying something new and strange, as Netflix often does. Either way, it was OK.

CHARACTERS:
Because the story was so rushed, there was no time for any real character development besides the MC. Endo is by far my favorite, yet nothing was added to his character at all. The same could be said for basically all of them. Characters were introduced so fast and sometimes too late into the show for me to connect or care about them.
As for the MC, his complete ineptitude and overall lack of confidence annoyed me more than it should have. I mean, You're 18, and this power falls into your lap, and you still feel inadequate or scared to fight? Come on, dude. Grow a pair.

This influenced my rating the most.

ENJOYMENT:
Fun to watch. Despite the cookie-cutter training and learning to cope with all this responsibility and mostly every other superhero trope known to man, I still wanted to keep watching.

OVERALL:

6/10 I guess if S2 rolls out I'll give it a go. I want to know more about the backstory, I want to know more about Endo and the war. I want to see Ultraman after the events at the end of the show... But I guess we'll have to wait and see.

My earliest Ultraman memories brings me back to the many mornings of 2004. I used to wake up at 6am and turn on the TV as soon as I can so I can catch the last 5 minutes of Ultraman before going to school, coming to think of it, bit crazy they aired Ultraman at such a ridiculous hour, if I went to school at 7am I would have never watched the show. I never fully understood the plot of Ultraman from just the fight sequences, just a guy in a wet suit fighting a guy in a rubber dinosaur suit.
Fast-forward to 2019, Ultraman finally ... got an anime adaptation, a story about superheros.

Animation:

CG animes are usually awful because the lack of resources to make it look nice, but Ultraman probably has one of the most fluid CG animations I have seen in anime, I don’t think I ever recovered from Ajin to be honest, ffs Polygon. The fluidity of the anime looks beautiful, the fight sequences are well choreographed, the slow-mos are timed aesthetically pleasingly. The stills and landscape scenes have beautiful colour palettes, in particular the rooftop sunset scene in Ep1, the car driving into the sunset with skyscrapers in Ep3 and the light explosion sparks. The down side of the CG is that some regular non-fight scenes don’t look too great, especially the large CG crowd scenes, which is understandable since those are more transition scenes and not the main focus like the fights. By the back end of the show, the CG became less prominent and I was less actively aware it was CG since I got use to it.

Characters:

Following contains minor spoilers, proceed with caution.
Shinjiro’s character development is a bit shit or if he had any /major/ development. Upon first meeting Shinjiro, he seems to be indecisive and whiny like a typical shonen hero, but then I saw this quote on Wikia describing him “A somewhat lonely boy with a good heart”, it’s quite accurate, he is just a small 17-year-old boy who didn’t even know his dad was Ultraman for 17 years so… If you allowed yourself some space to think, his impulsive hot-headed action is justified given his situation, his continuous self-doubt if he is fitted to be Ultraman actually made him a little less robotic and more like a teenage boy given a big responsibility. HOWEVER, I’m not sure if he was written like this in the manga or the anime fucked it up, I grew very little attachment to Shinjiro, even though he’s lead and has probably the most screen time, I felt like there was very little development for him and he’s a bit bland.

Moroboshi is a character I grew fond of and began to like, damn he was awfully annoying at the beginning, I guess someone had to play the logical thinking cold character. When he appeared as Ultraman with his katana fighting style, that was cool as heck and I began to be invested in him. The balcony scene in Ep11 had me dying of laughter, brilliantly showcases the dynamics between Moroboshi and Shinjiro’s relationship.

Hokuto Seiji kun again is another character I dislike when he first appeared, bit cocky and the whole onichan thing was like what the fuck (non-related, he vaguely resembled Akechi from Saiki K and that added to the annoying factor). The big changing points for him in my opinion was the little snippets of his interaction with Yapool ojisan, especially the very last interaction they had, ojisan lived his life lowkey in the form of an old man got out of his way for Hokuto, that got me in the chest. If ojisan turned out to be a bad guy I’m going to slap a bitch.

Conclusion:

I’m quite glad this was a Netflix release that released all the episode at once instead of a weekly release, it made watching it smoother and information don’t drop out of my brain by watching it over the course of 13 weeks. The lack of OP and the ED skipped made watching seamless, almost like a long movie. If only all new anime was released like this. Overall a fun watch, has its flaws and plot holes, how Rena is 17 but Ultraman was last active 30 years ago and her mother was killed when she was born?? I didn't talk about the plot today, you'll just going to have to trust me on this - it has an interesting enough plot, aliens and superheroes, you don't need to know any more than that.

I would definitely anticipate in a season 2, I want to know about Hokuto and Yuko, the secrets behind the aliens and who the hell is a dad, I mean, Agent Adad.

Oh shit, I just remembered I forgot to talk about Bemular, well, I guess they’ll have to make a s2 so I can talk about him. Until next time, plus ULTRA!

SS Review – Ultraman
(Short and Sour)

Okay let’s go, PLUS ULTRA…wait…wrong show…

First of all. I have no knowledge of Ultraman going into this, I have never seen any production to do with Ultraman whether it be anime or live-action. On the other hand I know of him and have a general idea of what his shows are like (I’ve watched a lot of Super Sentai and from what I heard they are similar).

The plot revolves around Ultraman’s son and him coming to terms with accepting the title of Ultraman…that’s all 13 episodes pretty much.

Unfortunately I started to lose interest half way though the series for one ... main reason…the main character is the most naïve main character I have seen in a long time, I am not joking he has the mental age of someone in elementary school…not high school. He is incapable of making decisions until the last minute which does not add anything to the show and makes him a pretty unlikeable character. Not a good start…

The other supporting characters are no better, you have wannabe Ultraman one and wannabe Ultraman two. Both of them want to be Ultraman but of course technically can’t because they aren’t Ultraman’s son and do not have the Ultra-Factor as they call it. You also have a base female character who is also an idol just so the main character can have a relationship with her and she has some level of importance.

The show goes with a kind of “let’s do a monster of the week kind of thing but it’s on Netflix so we can’t do that, so let’s do whatever and hope for the best”. That’s mostly a joke but that’s how it feels most of the time.
So you can most likely tell I didn’t enjoy this anime and it’s put me off of watching anything else Ultraman in the future. The level of cheese that goes on in this anime is ridiculous and not in the so bad its good way either. On the plus side the CG animation is pretty good and fits with the series, for me anyway…the only plus…OST was basic, barely noticed it. Ech.

5/10

Ok this is my short review, without any spoiler

----------------------------------------------------------

The good :
+ Very well choreographed fights !
+ Impressive action
+ Variety of weapons
+ Epic soundtrack
+ Fluid animation
...
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The bad :
+ badly written MC, weak, hesitant and whiny
+ a lot of plot holes
+ uninteresting cast, not fleshed out enough
+ too many unanswered questions behind everyone's motives
+ rush ending setting a 2nd season

I enjoyed it overall but I expected more answers regarding everyone's motive. I hope the 2nd season clears everything up. Also having a pop idol character was very cliché.

6/10

Bunch of random words because MAL wants me to write more words just to fill a quota for the review. Shame !!!

Ultraman is reboot/Continuation of one of Japan's most venerable franchises. That said other than that I came into this show knowing nothing else. I was pleasantly surprised at what I experienced.

Shinjiro Hayata is the son of the first Ultraman the now aging Shin, and apparently, that power is genetic giving him superhuman strength and durability. The show does a good job exploring every avenue of being a hero from the collateral damage they cause and how it affects those around them and the heavy burden they must carry. The love interest Rena Sayama also highlights how green Shirato is to the hero business ... as he is pretty haphazard about hiding his Identity as Ultraman to her.

By the end of the show, there are three different Ultramen, and each represents a different Ideal of heroism, but they are still striving for the same cause. That being the protection of the Earth and its peoples. Shinjiro is the naive rookie who means well but has a long way to go in his development as a hero. Moroboshi and Hayata stand on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to their view of the aliens that now live on Earth. Where Hayata wants the aliens to be able to live out in the open and in harmony with humans Moroboshi would prefer they stay incognito with their human disguises and eliminate without prejudice any alien that harms humanity. It parallels issues society faces today and was not what I was expecting when I came to watch this show.

Animation wise the show, for the most part, is all CG. It manages to pull this off relatively well. There were moments where I was watching that things seemed weird in that the actions on screen were going too fast or too slow. These oddities did not happen too often, but when it did, it was jarring. That said the fights in the show are phenomenal. My eyes were glued to the screen any time there was a fight because I knew I was in for a treat.

In the music department, everything fit but nothing jumped out at me. I watched the English Dub of the show, and it was pretty good. The stand out performance was Steve Blum as Adad which was very delightful, and his introduction was one of my favorite episodes.

I liked the new Ultraman and hope there is a second season. I recommend watching it.

I'd never personally watched anything related to Ultraman before, but I'm aware of the great influence the character had on Japanese television since it's introduction. He's as big as Superman or any American comic book hero ever was, instantly recognizable by just about everyone. This show is based on a manga that was trying to be a sequel/soft reboot to the original continuity, with the original Ultraman's son as the new protagonist.

In our world of constant capeshit movies and reinterpretations of classic characters into a more modern setting, a show like this fits right in. The super technological spin they put on what was once ... essentially alien magic makes the suits function more like Iron Man than anything. But they decide to go with Iron Man meets Power Rangers by having not just one, but a small handful of these super-suited robot guys running around.

Honestly it's not that bad a show, but it's easy to be cynical about something when you've seen it done about a thousand times already. I found it okay at best, but entertaining enough to keep you invested I guess. 7/10 average

Ultraman

Was an anime that was recommended to my brother.
Upon watching the anime I had mix feelings, personally I did not really get behind the story itself, and found it did not make too much sense, i did enjoy the main characters story and development, but it felts like everything was kinda all over the place.

The animation itself was unique, and the music and sound was great as well but the overall story for me was not amazing, me personally when I watch a show be it anime or non-anime I need to get behind the story, and ultraman was nothing special for me personally, ... it does not mean it was bad, or I did not like it, rather it was an anime i watched to kinda pass time to be honest, im still glad i watched it, but i dont think it an anime i would personally recommend to my friends.

Definitely a bit biased coming from an Ultraman fan prior to this anime, but I feel like Netflix's Ultraman filled a void that the franchise was lacking for a long time, which was an anime.

This is the first Ultraman anime in a while and I think that it did a good job at being an Ultraman anime. The concept of Earth becoming more involved with interstellar relations is very refreshing for an Ultraman series. No longer is it 'ALIEN BAD' but rather that we are shown both sides of alien races, much like Men In Black.

But what Ultraman is here for is the ... action, which is very good here, I would say. The 3D is very smooth during the fight scenes and the choreography is that much better because this has none of the limits that practical effects have, unleashing a human sized Ultraman's full potential. Along with amazing sound design, these moments really did send chills down my spine.

In the end, Ultraman is and always will be a show that shows up and delivers your daily dose of monsters, explosions and laser beams. Characters and story are sometimes great, but never expected. And I feel like this show fits that role perfectly.