Ultraman

Fifty years ago, an extraterrestrial giant of light known as Ultraman saved the earth but vanished. Ultraman's human host, Shin Hayata, was left with no memory of his time as a hero. Hayata's young son, Shinjirou, is found to have been born with a more powerful and durable body than any normal human. The organization who aided Ultraman, the SSSP, reveals Hayata's past to him. His father then dons a power suit again, assuming the role of Ultraman once more.

One night, Shinjirou is attacked by an alien named Bemular and rescued by his father, who is severely injured in the battle. With dangerous aliens lurking in the city and Hayata out of commission, it falls to Shinjirou to pick up the torch. But in working with the SSSP as the new Ultraman, Shinjirou finds himself wondering how far is he willing to go to help people.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hayata, Shinjirou Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Hayata, Shin Supporting

Tanaka, Hideyuki Japanese

Moroboshi, Dan Supporting

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Sayama, Rena Supporting

Morohoshi, Sumire Japanese

Hokuto, Seiji Supporting

Han, Megumi Japanese

Bemlar Supporting

Soze, Kaiji Japanese

Adad Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Jack Supporting

Takeuchi, Ryouta Japanese

Ace Killer Supporting

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Endou, Yousuke Supporting

Hanawa, Eiji Japanese

Simone, Jamie Producer

Arisawa, Ryouya Producer

Nabeiwa, Akiko Producer

Kawaguchi, Tooru Producer

Reviews

Apr 2, 2019

Karhu

Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 4, 2019

cubeslice

Mixed Feelings

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 10, 2019

fbh

Not Recommended

Preliminary (12/13 eps)

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

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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