Well I finished Ultraman 80. I really liked it a lot. Was so annoyed they ... do I do a spoiler on an almost 40 year show?
I quickly went and watched that Mebius episode that brought back and sort of wrapped up Takashis Yamatos story. As someone who spent close to 10 years teaching it was pretty touching for me personally. I can't imagine at the moment liking any other Ultramen as much as Takashi. There's a certain "I relate" quality to his character.
I've watched 5-6 Episodes of the first Ultraman and I like it a lot. So far I've dug the monsters more than pretty much any of the Ultraman 80 monsters. Baltan and Ragon especially. Bemlar too but possibly just because he was the first.
And I watched about 5 Episodes of Ultraman X,..just to see something newer. I'm torn on that show,...the effects and film quality are so much better,..but it really reminds me of Power Rangers or something in that it's so "kiddy",..and they're shoving actual toys in your face every couple minutes. Plus Ultraman seems so young and watching the other 2 shows Ultraman was/is a grownup, not a teenager. So that's taking some getting used to.
...though I guess it worked because I've bought 4 Ultraman figures in the past couple weeks off of eBay.
and when not watching Ultraman I've been trying to make my way through all the Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, Rodan movies...of which there seems to be about 50 of them. Many of them I've seen already but it's fun to revisit them. And I seem to appreciate them a lot more now than I did growing up. (at the time I was more interested in Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface,..than Kaiju.)
I'm really looking forward to Ultra Seven because the clips that were shown of Ultra Seven in Ultraman 80,...he seems like a completely brutal badass,...just decapitating monsters left and right,..hacking off limbs and stuff. I was very surprised to see that but it looks cool!
But I feel like I should finish watching the Original Ultraman first,...because it's the Original.
There's so many series to look forward to. I found a bunch on Crunchyroll,..a couple on Kissasian,..and a couple on Jatuko,....plus some of them it looks like I'll have to order the dvds, like The Return of Ultraman (Jack),...because I can't seem to find that anywhere to stream.
And some of the movies I found like Superior Ultraman Brothers 8, I can't seem to find any English subs for it. Which stinks because from what I see that movie looks
really cool. I guess some of the shows and movies haven't been made into English Subbed versions. ..I'm still trying to figure it all out.
Ultraman The Next was really cool. But then I couldn't really find a figure of him. ..it's so odd how some stuff is easy to find and other stuff seems impossible to find.
I can see this will be a challenging new hobby in a way. Especially because I prefer Subs to Dubs.
But I grew up loving horror movies (especially 80's ones since I was a kid at the time), but I've been busy working and such the past 10 years and haven't really had any time for a hobby or collecting or anything. Somehow in the past couple months I stumbled onto Ultraman 80 and just fell for it hook, line and sinker. Now I'm neck deep in Kaiju and Ultraman and really loving all of it. And I'm finding myself wanting a ton of Ultraman figures, Kaiju monsters, (plus Godzilla/Mothra/Etc figures) ..and a bunch of DVD's!
So the collecting bug has hit just as hard as the bug to watch all the Movies and TV shows.
and half the time if I'm online and not watching an episode I find myself at the Ultraman wiki just reading all about the history and backstory of the characters,..or how the shows were made.
I found a great documentary on Youtube that used clips from a movie called, 'The Men of Ultraman' that seemed to be a movie all about how the show was made, but I can't find that movie online at all. I guess it's another one that never made it online and never got a sub/translation of any kind. It seems like quite a few of the Ultraman properties are like that. Kind of a bummer.
(Probably everyone in this sub-forum has already seen it,..but this is the documentary on Youtube I saw. I thought it was pretty interesting.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnyuQLbJ_q8