Ultraman Season 2

Let me say this prior to anything else: the only reason I gave this anime this high of a score is because I love tokusatsu to no end. That being said, I want to know one thing: what the actual F*** happened?!

The first season of Ultraman aired back in 2019. That same year, a second season was announced. Fast forward to 2022, or three years later, and after much anticipation season 2 is finally here. A whole six episodes of about 25 minutes each, less than half of season 1's 13 episode runtime. Quality over quantity you might say? Nope. Instead, we have 6 episodes ... of rushed and messy plot.

If you don't know, Ultraman is based on a ongoing manga series of the same name. If season 1 was a faithful adaptation beat for beat of the manga, season decided to be original and diverge somewhat of the source material. The problem is that the anime condensed a big and eventful arc of the manga in a half-season. Furthermore, while they rushed the main plot of the manga and cut some of the biggest arcs of major characters, this anime had the gal to create new characters and side plots that were worse than the original. The result: a boring and uneven anime that feels empty and incoherent.

Like I said, the only reason I liked Ultraman season 2 is because of the action and tokusatsu vibe. The animation is a bit better than the first season and the first episode had me hooked for the rest of the season. I didn't know by then that everything would go down hill.

I don't know what happened, but even without an official statement from the producers of this show I'll theorize that this anime had a ton of production problems. How can Tsuburaya Prod. and the other studios producing the Ultraman anime can only deliver 6 episodes of bad anime in 3 years of production? There's no way this was the original plan for this project. Why go from a 13 episodes season down to 6? Why faithfully follow the original manga in the first season only to create a worst version of the source material? Why take 3 years to make a half season of anime? Something must have gone wrong really bad during these three years because even if Ultraman season 1 was no masterpiece, season 2 made the wrong choices at every turn and it's not even funny.

Ultraman season 2 is seriously a waste of time for everyone, fan of the first season or not. The long wait wasn't worth it and I cannot see the general audience having a good time watching this series, even with the short runtime. I don't expect a third season, but if it does ever happen I have no doubt this series will never be good again.

Great anime, the cgi improved by alot. I liked how there's 6 ultramen now. The art and the cgi looks really good compared to the first season. The fights were amazing and very enjoying to look at.

I really liked the art.

I didnt really have any dislikes

I liked the introductions of new characters and I liked the expansion of the ultraman brothers. I am hopeful that we'll see more ultramen in the future.

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Season 1 was a great season. Likable characters, amazing story, nice character development and a nice world building in Ultra-verse all around. So what was the problem? Well the animation was garbage. The CG makes the likes of Arifureta s1 look like a masterpiece in comparison. Yeah S1’s CG was pretty bad which badly impacted which of which was otherwise a pretty great series. So what does s2 have in store? Let’s find out


Pros:
-I liked the latest character, Kotaro Higashi… He is pretty much a journalist that discovered the disappearance of the people in America. He didn’t have much substance in the earlier episodes; ... it was thanks to him that the SSSP realized who was responsible for said disappearance. His character truly shined for me when he became a monster for revenge for his girlfriend, Izumi. Eventually he becomes similar to Shinjiro during the earlier episode, a greenhorn with ambitions to save the world. Usually, this type of behavior would be nothing more than platitudes. But in his case, it’s pretty decent. We see his naivety like his despair cause he couldn’t save his girlfriend to the point he decarded his name to his Ultra name (Taro)

-This arc focused more on the other characters. For one thing, Jack… he didn’t do much (if any) in s1, but in s2 we truly see what he can do. It was thanks to him that Kotaro was able to control his fire power via the Ultra suit. I was kinda glad that we got to see more of him. Dan, I didn’t like him at first. He was brooding aloof and a bit of a prick. But after awhile you know he becomes more open minded, when he was accepting towards the newest character very early. His fight towards one Alien Pendants general, Alien Bell… this was his best moment. As for Souji, he was okay. He didn't do much other than save Shinjiro. And his badass fight with Alien Llubihic.


-Might as well bring out the Alien in the closet. The CG improved by a very large margin. The animation looks so realistic. The motion doesn’t look as stiff compared to s1. And the lighting also improved as well. I mean what else is there to say.



Cons:

-The story, I’ll be honest about this arc. This arc is really underwhelming. It’s just an Alien wanting to rule the earth… or at least half the earth in his book. Speaking of him, Pendant is just so damn generic. Then again this is a Ultra series, most villains are gonna have cartoonish plans. Even his methods kinda seemed cliched, capturing Ultraman for ransom for his plans.

-I don’t like the Waardan alien crew. I mean they aren’t bad, but they are sadly underdeveloped. I mean their reason for capturing the humans was understandable, but at the same token there wasn’t any depth into it onto why they had to follow Pendant’s plan. Maaya was an okay character, but the problem is that when she does ONE good thing, she dies.



Overall, Ultraman s2 was a grand improvement in contrast to s1. However, I forgot to mention it came with a double edged sword. We get good animation/CG, the episode count gets cut. Unfortunately, the next season of Ultraman will be the final season. Most likely the final season will have an anime original ending. Do I recommend s2? Of course, I mean s1 might not be the best in animation but aside from that s1 was amazing.

The anime version of ULTRAMAN is back! Not only bigger (by team numbers) but also... smaller. Six episodes for a whole new season. Yeah, I was already skeptical about this one, even if I was hyped up after seeing the trailers.

Let me just first clarify that I am not the biggest Ultraman follower out there. The more background I have with the series is the Heisei era (Tiga, Dyna, Nexus, Cosmos, etc.) and not so much about the Showa era, which is where this anime adapation (and the manga) works as a remake and sequel to the original Ultraman from the 1960's. With this ... in mind, I actually enjoyed a lot of the first season of ULTRAMAN from 2019. As much as people criticise the use of 3D animation in anime, this is a rare example of 3D anime done right! Especially during the fight scenes, which featured some of the most eye-pleasing 3D actions scenes I have ever seen in anime. The story from the first season was not bad, but was not that great either. It wasn't meant to achieve awards or anything storywise. But one thing it was for sure: enjoyable and entertaining.

Does the second season favour in these aspects? No, not really. Story is a mess, character development focuses on just one particular character, and the overall enjoyment felt lacklustre compared, at least, with the first season. Let me explain why theme by theme:

Story: 5/10
This is where the second season of ULTRAMAN falls flat. The story takes place after the events of the first season: Shinjiro is trying to conjugate his personal life with his heroic life, Dan Moroboshi is still the stoic and no-bullsh** man working in the SSSP, and Hokuto is nowhere to be found except on the last 3 episodes - which is the second half of the anime based on how small it is. Then out of the sudden, a massive disappearance of people in Tokyo and in other parts of the world is happening and no one knows what, where and why this was happening. It is up to the Ultramen to solve this mystery.
At first glace you think "ah, it's another alien enemy who is kidnapping all life on Earth just to pursue his own goals of conquer". If that's what you thought right from the first episode, then my friend you just won the million dolar prize. The main villain, named Pedant, is basically the Thanos of this story. And when I say Thanos I mean literally: wipes out half the people of the Earth so that he can be its true ruler; and if no one agrees with him and/or confronts him, he'll just wipe out all life on the planet.
An important aspect of this story is the introduction of another alien race called the "Wadoran", led by their princess Maya. From what we know, Maya's race feeds upon the lifeforce of planetery beings for survival, and, of course, that includes humans. But Maya is forced into doing Pedant's bidding as he threatens the extermination of her kind by...killing her? So if she dies, her kind dies with her? What about the lifeforce they feed upon other planets? Would Pedant kill every single life-being and the Wadoran would die? It is never fully explored and explained, very broad. I wish we could learn more about the story of the Wadoran and why Maya was forced to join forces with Pedant in the first place.
Then the end of the story is underwhealming. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but you can probably tell that there's going to be a final fight between the Ultramen and Pedant. And the final fight is a joke, the build up to this alien guy as a strong, fearsome and undefeatable fighter is not compensated at the end in my opinion. So overall, the story is basic, clichéd (not that is necessaringly a bad thing) but with some details all over the place - especially with the Wadoran race they introduced here. With six episodes you could so much, but even so I felt a lot of void in these episodes in terms of exposure and execution.

Art: 8/10
Many will disagree with me on this one, but I really dig the CGI of this anime. Sure it's not perfect, but when it comes to 3D anime, the company did a good job on making the special effects on both seasons. Just like in the past season, the fight scenes animation is fantastic and fluid, unlike most CGI anime out there.

Sound: 8/10
It makes me wonder: did the first season ever had an intro music? If it did, I forgot about it because I never recall having one in the first place. But here in the second season, the opening song NOILION is pretty catchy and the more you hear it the more you fall in love with. The rest of the soundtrack has a mix of electronic and rock music which does fit the mood on each scene.

Character: 6/10
Another low point of this anime: the character development. As you might've seen in the trailers, we have two new full Ultramen members joining the team: Jack and Taro. Jack already made an appearance on the first season as an informant of the SSSP, but here he acquires a suit which turns him into Ultraman Jack. However, we know little of his character motivations and background, as it is never explored in this season. On the other hand, Taro receives the biggest screentime of the entire show - almost to a point I might even call this the Taro show. He is the only one given proper character introduction and development, though the explanation of how he acquired his flame powers is barely explained. It is also hinted that his girlfriend, Izumi, had a similar kind of power, as well as able to speak telepathically to Taro. But, just like many aspects of the show, it is never further explored.
What about the other Ultramen? Shinjiro (Ultraman), who supposedly is the main protagonist, is pushed back as a background character and has only his heroic moment in the final episode. Moroboshi (Ultraseven) is the same as ever - the calm, stoic and badass swordsman that strikes fear in the hearts of aliens - and has more heroic moments here than Shinjiro. Seiji Hokuto (Ultraman Ace) only appears after episode 3 and is still the happy-go-lucky "senpai notice me" boy that looks up to Shinjiro and he has only one cool scene fighting an alien monster inside Pedant's ship. And Shin Hayata, Shinjiro's father and the original Ultraman, has a suit upgrade and he's more cooler than ever, especially when fighting alongside the Ultramen. So I guess Taro and Shin are the only exceptions on the underwhelming character development of this show.
Also, remember Bemular from the first season? The mysterious and polarising God-like figure to the Ultramen that we barely knew anything about him? Well, don't except much of him in this season. He only appears twice, the first time only for a a few seconds alongside Hokuto, and the second time in the final episode where he, at the most desperate time, decides to show up and help Shinjiro and his father fight the main bad guy. Also, apparently he can ressurrect Ultramen from Ultra-limbo or something.

Enjoyment: 6/10
I would be lying if I said I didn't like this season at all, because, still, I did find some enjoyment as much as it lacked compared to the first season. I wasn't exactly sitting at the edge of my seat thinking about what would happen next in a very exciting way. From from what it is, it is average and fair. The one thing that kept me going was knowing more about Taro and the action scenes. Everything else was just a big "MEH".

Overall: 6/10
If you ask me, I would recommend this anime only to those who enjoyed the first season of ULTRAMAN and to Ultraman fans in general - especially fans of the Showa era. They did justice to the remade version of Taro and fans of the original 60'/70's shows will definately enjoy his moments. But to everyone else, I do not recommend it. There are better action-packed animes out there that deserve more attention than this second season of ULTRAMAN. To those people, I recommend watching the first season, you may enjoy it. Then you can give this one a chance if you want, but trust me you won't miss much if you don't. Overall, 6 out 10 is a fair score by me.

Im a big fan of the manga series, been following it since its release on 2011. Here are my thoughts on this series.

First of all, I will not recommend this season for anyone, the plot is messy and mediocre. There are plot holes everywhere, the characters are not well polished for example how Taro get his powers. For some reason, most of the plot this season is original except some of the villains remain the same in the manga.

For any new fans of this series or an Ultraman fan trying to get into this series, I would suggest you pickup the manga instead. The plot ... is much more polished and I had a great time on it. The main character for this season, Taro had better explanation on his character development in the manga as well.

Season one was fairly decent, the main plot is there, only some original plot was implemented from the adaptation that doesn't affect the plot as much. But this season most of the plot was original, and it changed the whole direction of the story.

There are some good in the series, the voiceovers are great, really like Tomoaki Maeno's take on Kotaro, Eguchi's still as cool as season one voicing Moroboshi. The opening is good, I did not skip once while watching it. The visuals are great, effects still on par of the first season, character models for Jack and Taro is amazing and accurate to the manga. I also do like the transform sequence of Taro. Also the 1 to 1 fights are very well done, the choreograph of the fight scenes are engaging and impressive except for the last fight where the good fight is going on between shin, shinjiro and the main villain, jack and ace were pin down for the entire fight, which is a let down.

Overall, if you are here for good fight scenes and cgi effects, this might be for you, but if you are here to know more about the world and plot, I would suggest to go for the manga instead. This show is a disappointment and I hope they do better for the next season if there is one.

Let me state that I haven't read the manga nor am I an Ultraman fan, so my review is based only on the anime and aimed at those with no particular attachment to the Ultramanuniverse.

I scored it a 7 basically for the good animation, character design, and action sequences. The series is really entertaining and fast passed. The fights have nice choreography and are visually astonishing. The scenes where the new Ultraman Taro (this is no spoiler, he is in the promotional banner) is the protagonist are highlights of the series and worthwhile watching by themself.

On the negative side, the whole story, which spanned only ... 6 episodes, feels really rushed. There are massive plotholes that are immediately evident to the viewer. It feels like there are at least another 4-5 episodes missing in between. Some characters appear out of nowhere and change the course of the plot just because. Definitive events are just reversed out of nowhere and without explanation, kind of ruining the experience of having an emotional investing moment that is totally meaningless 2 minutes later.

Overall, if you have seen the first season, I would recommend watching this one too... but be aware that you are going to have the feeling that this one is way too short in comparison. If you have read the manga.... then skip the anime.... don't watch it!! unless you are able to enjoy the animation without getting frustrated with how much it differs from the manga.

This review does contain a spoiler at the end, so please read at your own risk but it's not something major that'll ruin the story.

My first time writing a review, I only write it to really bring my overall discontent with the series, whilst I may have given it a 6, I would've given it a 5, but I like the show, so I stick with my current overall rating.

STORY 6/10:

The story within season 2, there's not much that goes around, and honestly, they mishmash a bunch of character reveals within the 6 episodes with nothing to really build up tension, it definitely doesn't ... compare to season 1.

It lacked a form of story, it's just everywhere, they put you into the whole show expecting you to remember what happened in the previous season, but I get it, that's fair, you're trying to move the story forward, but I felt that it was rushed way too much. But with that being said, there was story, enough to get by anyway.

ART 7/10:

For a CGI show, its Art is relatively good, I personally found it to be excellent use of CGI, and would love to see more of its kind in the future, the use of effects is superb and you can't say that the designs for the ultramen were bad, because I found them amazing to look at, and it shows that each one has a specialty within their looks.

SOUND 7/10:

I've not much to say about the sound, other than that it's great, explosions, fighting sounds and music were pretty on par with what you get.

CHARACTER 7/10:

I found the characters with their personalities to be fun and matches to what I expect of them, though the main character does get a little annoying from time to time.

The designs for the bad guys were also pretty unique, though, I still find it pretty lazy for aliens to just have humanoid physiques half the time with just a few alterations to their skin pigmentation and physical traits.

ENJOYMENT 5/10:

I found it to be relatively mediocre, the first season had my interest, and the story grew with the main, but with this season, he was taken out of action for practically half the season, and it really threw the dynamics off,

even then they threw in 2 new ultramen and expect it to play out well, there was no real connection within the 6 of them and it just wasn't something I found fun to watch, this was a season that I will definitely only ever watch once.

The long awaited Season 2 of the japanese Superman! *cough*

They should rename the series into Ultramen as our young hero has barely any more screentime than the other Ultramen.

The first obvious change. Instead of a 13 episode season we only get 6 episodes. Good choice? Yes. It felt more like a movie.

Story 6/10: This time the story follows a clear path. We have an enemy and even if it isnt entirely obvious whats going on, all of the enemies have a common goal. So our heroes carve through the chain villains until they arrive at the last boss. Its exciting at some points, we get ... tragedy, a lot of confusion and some more or less expected plottwists. It would give an okay story for a superhero movie.

Characters 6/10: Now here it is becoming interesting. Our highschool boy loses a lot of relevance. Its like you were watching Iron Man and then the Avengers. While he is there most of the time, everything seems like a team effort. I think there is only one new character in season 2? But he is cool, so its alright as the majority of the cast was already introduced in season 1.

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. But how it is compared to season 1? Well, the overall quality of the series looks better. But... The outstanding last fight of season 1, in terms of animation, wasnt something season 2 could do as well. So overall animation is better but the peak is worst. I'll just rate it the same.

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. I did the same summary for season 1. I would say that in terms of story, the series improved slightly but the main reason why I give it a higher rating than season 1 is the choice of 6 episodes. Its like a movie you can watch in one sitting.

A bit on the short side for your typical seasonal anime. Netflix seems to like drafting these 4-8 episode seasons, and I can get behind it if it means trimming some of the fat from what we're used to seeing in the standard 12-13 episodes. A problem you can run into is that with such a short series it seems like it's hard for them to come up with promotional material that doesn't just spoil everything that happens in the season. The OP and ED of the show just straight recycle a bunch of animation and show you pretty much everything that's going to happen. ... The ED less so, and I think it's still pretty stylish on it's own with the disco dancing and that groovy song. But that's a problem a have with a lot of shows generally, showing too much in the OP so that nothing in the actual show can surprise you.

The whole plot seemed like a thin excuse to introduce the new Fire Ultraman to the toy lineup and make some more of that sweet sweet merchandising revenue. They have like 6 Iron Man suits now and I think manage to get at least one shot where they're all together fighting the big bad who despite them trying their best to make intimidating still manages to just feel like generic villain of the week number 27. The blue skin girl has the best arc, and I'm not just saying that because she was hot.

Overall my feelings on this show can be described with TJ Miller's character from the emoji movie. 7/10

Absolutely love the first season of Ultraman, before that I had never heard of the character. The whole arc with his son taking up the mantle and living up to his father reputation, was wonderfully executed.

The thing with season 2 is that, the protagonist isn’t the same, the guy we have followed this far has been incapacitated. His father puts on his suit again and I expected him to kick some ass but no instead he’s a background character throughout season 2.

So it’s up to the new Ultraman to take down the big bad and save the day, normally I’d consider it a ... spoiler but they literally show all the Ultraman in the opening credits. I like the shtick with the disappears in New York and then Japan, making the other Ultraman cross borders. Taro is also quite an engaging protagonist, having a love life already establish and his power suddenly flaring up, it’s cool to have an Ultraman who can do stuff without the suit, he only uses it to control his powers better as they’re new. Jack on the other hand whilst added a much needed levity to the series, never really gets a chance to shine.

There’s a bit of change of pace halfway through, with the big bad revealing himself and threatening to end the world. Add a kidnapping to the agenda and it goes full force, I’ve heard a lot of people says this cuts a lot out of the manga arc but as I haven’t read it I cannot compare it. I will say it didn’t feel as if anything was missing, even through it was a much shorter season it felt natural. The pacing was good, the way the plot developed was excited, I watched the whole season in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it.