Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I think I'll pass on a retelling of Orb. The first time was frustrating enough.

So are they going to be releasing the Orb movie in the US or not?

it seems weird that they dubbed X for a couple screenings and then nothing... but here we are. No idea why they aren't at least getting these onto streaming

Maybe their entire English release strategy has shifted because of their legal victory?

I do feel that Tsuburaya thinks of the Netflix anime series as being a kind of introduction to the franchise for worldwide consumption. It'll be interesting to see how they take it from there.

^ It's interesting because TsuPro has taken this stance that Ultraman should be for kids, but the manga that the anime is based on involves serial slashers, and other non-kid friendly material. It's pretty standard shonen fair, but if this is their intro to the world, its a bit on the darker grittier side of the franchise

^This is possibly a good strategy. In Japan their target audience is children who will buy the merchandise. In America and other countries where the general population is unfamiliar with Ultraman the target audience will be... nerds, mostly folks who already have an appreciation of other Japanese pop culture.

Finally got around to watching the movie thanks to the very nice Mill Creek release. This was mixed bag for me -- the visuals for the toku scenes were top notch and included a few very impressive shots. The story was not my cup of tea, just based on the villain and plot if it were an episode it would probably be at the bottom of my rankings for the Orb series. In a lot of ways it felt more like a Power Rangers movie with the villain kaijus cracking jokes throughout the battle and the main villainess summoning more kaiju to fight from her flying chandelier house, so she could turn the world into beautiful jewels for her collection. Overall I'd say the Geed movie was a better Ultraman Orb movie

It's not something I would show someone if I wanted to sell them on either Ultraman as a franchise or Ultraman Orb

Honestly I found the goofy story kind of charming but it kind of ran out of steam halfway in. Mostly I just found the visuals significantly less inspired than those of the Ultraman X movie.

I haven't had the opportunity to see the X movie, so that's something to look forward to in 2020.

really enjoyed series. Has a nice theme song, interesting monster designs, and interesting villian and overall story arcs. Loved the moral ambiguity in the hero and villian. Also loved that the adapted Yamato no Orochi into a kaiju. overall I give this series a 9 out of 10.

Just finished my second viewing of this series with Millcreek's Blu-ray edition, and I think I was left a bit more satisfied with it this time.



I think the series improves tremendously around the halfway point. Accommodating all the toyetic elements, in addition to being confined to just about 20 minutes of actual episode content, can make modern Ultraman shows feel far too slight. That's certainly the case of the early episodes of Ultraman Orb, but at a certain point you get lots of multi-part episodes as well as the tendency for the standalone episodes to use their time more wisely by focusing on specific characters.

Since I just watched the first three Ultra series I was more keyed-in to noticing all the classic callbacks here. How did I miss the fact that the very end of the last episode is a big ole Ultraseven homage?

Me: "The legacy Ultras' large roles in The Origin Saga detract from what should be Gai and Juggler's story."

Also me: "Ultraman Agul! WOOOOHOO!!!"