Ultraman Leo now on Crunchyroll

[Gman2887]

I finished this awhile back and have been meaning to bring this up. I'll try to phrase this without spoiling any specifics, but did anyone get burned by all the red herring in this? I felt like there was a lot of things set up to happen and a lot of unanswered questions that sat throughout the series without any resolution. It especially made the last ten episodes, with all their mounting tension, feel like they dropped the ball.

[lhb412]

[Gigan71]

Is there any way to download this ultrama leo episodes with the subtitles from crunchyroll ?

Is there any software out there that will do it ?

[Dr Kain]

I watched the first 4 episodes today and they were pretty good. The direction seems completely different from Ultra Seven and the original show, which I guess makes sense, but I was kind of hoping for it to at least feel the same given it is from the same era. Right now I'm not sure how I feel about Gen as he seems to be just a hotheaded mess that wants instant gratification. I'm also not a fan of how they turned Dan into a total jackass. Something just feels off and why is he working for Space Patrol instead of Ultra Garrison? In fact, where is UG anyway?

The fight scenes are kind of cool and I liked that each story was a two parter. Although, Leo doesn't seem to have any really good specialty moves to call his own like how Ultraman has the Specium Beam and Seven has the Ultra Slugger. There are a lot of characters in this show that have already been introduced, so I'm hoping that means there are enough plots to develop each one of them without things getting stale. Oh, and can I say that holy "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" the poor father getting cut in half was completely unexpected? DAMN!

So far I like what I have seen, even if it isn't perfect. Looking forward to watching more.

[hanshotfirst1138]

They don't seem to have toku as a sub-genre to search for. Curses!

[sentaison]

[Dr Kain]

I'm up to episode 8 of Leo and things still aren't working for me. I don't know what it is, but the formula is really bothering me in this one. Every episode has a monster attacking, Leo can't beat it, Dan bitches him out for it, makes him do some training to get better, Leo figures it out and then defeats the monsters. I know getting frustrated at a Toku show for a set formula is kind of foolish, but it's just not jelling with me for this show. I guess I just miss the really weird and complex nature Ultra Seven had. But then, even Ultraman was quite enjoyable despite being formulaic. I've also yet to find a character to grow attached to (and turning Dan into a jackass didn't help) and I'm not finding Leo himself to be anything special. I like that he is an inexperienced Ultra, as he was a civilian and not a cop, but it makes it hard for him to really have a signature move of his own when half of the time the monsters just seem to disappear rather than be destroyed. I didn't even realize the monster in episode 7 had been defeated until Dan cheered.

Also, I really want Tooru and Kaoru to go away. I don't care if they get adopted by another family and leave or get killed, I just want them gone as they are really annoying me.

[Specium Ray]

[Dr Kain]

I watched episodes 9-11 tonight and I have to say that episode 9 was really really good. What is weird is that it featured a child friendly monster that Leo just goes right out and attacks because he and Dan are dicks in this show, but the episode itself was really well shot. It had that strange and unique vibe that Ultra Seven gave me.

Too bad it didn't last though as episode 10 was right back to Dan screaming at Leo for having a heart. The next one wasn't bad, but it seemed like it was trying to play off of shock value by killing a kid's aunt and uncle more than anything else. The fights were cool though, as was the alien.

[Dr Kain]

Watched episodes 15-17 tonight of Leo and those were pretty good episodes. Actually, scratch that, episode 16, about this ghost flower monster girl, was a damn good episode. It felt like a missing episode to Ultra Seven that was updated for the new characters. It was also refreshing to not have Dan yell at Gen for losing a fight for a change. It also had some badass camera work and the fights were pretty cool. Although, I don't think they needed to grow big as it would have worked just keeping the ghost the way she was with a quick confrontation that is ended in a more clever manner over another battle. Still, great stuff nonetheless.

[Dr Kain]

So yesterday I watched episodes 18-26 of Leo. There were some really great episodes and then there were meh episodes. One episode I was confused with though had Leo's brother appear out of nowhere. This is the first time we have ever heard of Leo talk about a brother, who died years ago when they were kids, but then he randomly shows up in the middle of battle to help him defeat the monter brothers because he didn't die, and then just leaves. WTF? You haven't seen each other in years, Leo thought you were dead, so you don't even turn into human form to chat? That makes no sense whatsoever.

[Dr Kain]

so yeah... I've been watching Ultraman Leo all day and I just got up to the introduction of Commander Black. I need time to process what just happened.

[sentaison]

Yeah, like I said earlier, not every character makes it through this series. The Commander Black/Black Directive story line started very brutally, even for this series.

[Dr Kain]

[sentaison]

I read somewhere quite a while back that Leo had the lowest ratings of any Ultra show up to that time. There were big budget constraints on f/x and casting. And then the producers got into the pattern of doing "gimmicks" to try and boost ratings because they were worried that it would kill the franchise. So you had things like Astra appearing and disappearing, and the Ultra Brothers two parter, and then the Black Directive with the big changes to the cast lineup. I think that giving Astra a human form and having a storyline other than appearing at convenient times would have been great. Leo was a great concept, with some truly enjoyable episodes. But it was also the reason that the Ultraman franchise didn't have a new series for five years after.

[Dr Kain]

I can see why. It's not a bad show by any means, but I'm afraid becasue some have said this show is the best of the Showa era. I just don't see how anyone can think this show is even remotely close to being as good as Seven.

[Dr Kain]

Well I watched episodes 41-48 thus far and I am finding myself bored (I couldn't even watch them all in one sitting). None of the new characters are all that interesting and every episode is pretty much the same. Black Star Commander orders a new monster, monster arrives, something happens, monster is defeated by Leo, BS Commander orders new monster, episode ends. Over and over and over again. Is he going to get any development? I mean, you would think the guy who would be given at least some sort of character development.

Another thing that bothers me is that Gen never mentions he was part of MAC at all. Like there was one episode with two brothers and an episode with this selfish father who he tried to help, but neither party listened to him. Why didn't he tell them he used to be part of MAC? They would have listened to him then. It's like all traces of MAC have just disappeared. Or has MAC become a disgracful name? If so, we probably should know this.

Then we have Astra, who once again showed up for plot convenience and then left because reasons. Is he unable to stay on Earth for more than a few minutes? Does he not have the ability to change into a human form? How did he even survive the fire Gen thought he died in?

Don't get me wrong, there has been some cool stuff in these. I liked the episode with the tentacle saucer monster thing that was sucking the blood out of people and the one that featured Izumi was also well done, but these episodes are so repetitive that I just don't care. I want to be done with this show.

[Dr Kain]

Well I decided to just go ahead and finish the last three episodes of Leo since I had nothing better to do tonight.

Okay, where do I start? Well first, I did think episode 49 was great. The Teru Teru Bouzo was a pretty cool episode and the fight at the end is by far one of the best from the entire show, if not THE best. I loved the red tined over the screen and the rainy look.

Then episode 50 happened and I have no idea what was going on here. The alien dude brings Gen to Commander Black, but Black has no idea who he is. HUH?! He only confronted him three times before when he wasn't transformed into Leo, so how the hell does he not know who he is? That doesn't make any sense. Also, I found it to be utterly pointless for them to slice Leo up when Ultraman King was easily able to put him back together without there being any repercussions for it.

However, I can get over that, what I can't get over is how lame of a villain Commander Black turned out to be. The dude How does that even happen? Even Sentai has never gone into the realms of making a villain this pitiful and I just watched a show where the main villain was a Commander Black went from becoming one of my top favorite Ultraman villains to one of the lamest. He didn't even get a lick of development.

Another issue I had with the final episode was Astra never even showed up. WTF? What was his entire purpose in this show? Why did he even exist in the first place? Oh, and is Seven dead dead? Because if so, how does he have Zero? Also how come the arm band Leo received from King is sometimes there and sometimes not?

Good god, this show as a whole was a complete let down. It started off rocky, but it got better in the teens, which featured a ton of exceptional episodes. Then the forties hit and this show quickly crashed and burned to the ground. For being a 51 episode series, there was little to no development, MAC is hands down the most useless defense force I have ever seen, and the tone of this show is all over the place. It feels like Tsuburaya had no idea who their target audience was. It's too mature for kids to watch, but it has way too many childish episodes that adults would find annoying. It's monsters are over the top dumb and cheap looking half of the time, which means even Kaiju fans would be turned off. It rarely has enough science fiction in it to please the sci-fi fans and it seemed like the show stopped doing horror-esque episodes in its first half, so it wouldn't even attract the horror fans for that long. The romance barely occurs and it is completely irrelevant in the end, so it couldn't be for women. Who the hell were they targeting this thing towards? Fish?

Now that isn't to say there weren't things I enjoyed in this show because I said earlier, there was a lot to love. However, it gets bogged down in its formulaic nature and doesn't try to do anything new that the original and Seven didn't already do better. My favorite episode is hands down the one with the ghost flower woman who turns people to stone (??). I also did love the one with Akumiya (called Demoniya on the subs) and the one with Ultraman Returns. On the other hand, my least favorite episode is a toss up between one that featured a monster that decides to use a smoke stack to inflate itself and the one about a kid with a monster in a jar. Those were both just miserable episodes to sit through.

If I were to score Leo, it would be a 2/5 and it is right now my second least favorite Ultra show. As such, my current rankings go (for only series I have completed):

1. Ultra Seven
2. Orb
3. Ultraman
4. Tiga
5. X
6. Leo
7. Seven X