Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I'm really loving ULTRA Q, the video quality is awesome! My one complaint is that the newly added sound FX are distracting. For $18 this set was an incredible deal!

I watched the first episode of Ultraman tonight myself and my god the quality jumps all over the place and the DNR is pretty bad in some spots. When Tsuburaya gets to doing a 4K release of this I hope they omit some of the DNR they applied because in some scenes in the first episode there's really no detail on characters faces.

I'm still content with the releases and I do understand where people are coming from not liking DNR and such.

And see, I think the faces are quite detailed.

The only time I've ever seen DNR go bad is on Predator and Sailor Moon.

My standard-edition sets arrived this week. The packaging is really nice. The cardboard box is sturdy, the multi-trayed plastic case is a welcome alternative to having stacked discs, and the booklet is glossy and fits snugly in the box. The spines look very cool on the shelf with the big image taking shape across them.

Ultra Q looks absolutely fantastic based on the two episodes I've watched so far.

TPC's added sound effects stick out like a sore thumb in the audio, especially in the "Goro and Goro" episode. The gunshots and urban wreckage sound like the cheap sound effects I've heard recycled in TV shows since the '90s. It doesn't ruin the show but it's annoying.

The 2000s decade was the heyday of physical media in North America and DVD was the dominant format. When it comes to Baby Boomers and Gen-X'ers reconnecting with the original Ultraman series, the vast majority of them have probably already done so with BCI's 2006 DVD sets or Mill Creek's 2009 or 2013 DVD reissues, all of which included the English dubs.

Heck, those Mill Creek DVDs are still available today for cheap prices! Like most dedicated kaiju fans, I would have preferred to have the English dubbing option on the BRD set, but for casual buyers who haven't thought about Ultraman in decades and want to reconnect with the English-dubbed Japanese superhero they watched as kids in syndication on lo-fi TV sets, Mill Creek's 4-disc complete series DVD set should do the trick.

Otherwise, the target demographic for these and Mill Creek's other upcoming BRD sets are folks like us, people who care enough about this stuff to post on message boards dedicated to kaiju and blu-rays and what not. Companies like Mill Creek or Arrow or Shout!Factory can generally count on folks like us to support physical media releases of niche titles that we care about. There's no reason to expect these shows to appeal to anyone who isn't actively interested in vintage Japanese sci-fi. No amount of advertising or classic English dubbing is going to make a difference there and that's okay. I appreciate Mill Creek for dealing directly with TPC to make these Ultra series available on BRD for folks like us.

I finished Disc 2 today and the only complaint I have is what was pointed out earlier, and that is they are constantly mispelling Monster as Mosnter. It happens twice in the Pestar episode. Very rarely do I have an issue with mispelled words in subtitles, as Bandai couldn't even figure out what Zechs' last name was until the halfway point of the show in Gundam Wing, but the fact that no one bothered to spell check "Monster" is just ridiculous.

^ Noticed someone pointing out in a screenshot that the word 'monster' was in a slightly different font than the rest of the subtitles.

My theory: last minute decision, perhaps a mandate from Tsuburaya, to replace some previous word ("creature?" "lifeform?" "kaiju?") and make "monster" the standardized phrase. A last minute rush would explain the inconsistencies.

Or the subs just weren't proofread.

I finished Disc 3 today, so now I'm just past the halfway point of the show. YAY!!

I will say the episode with the kids drawing becoming a monster didn't bother me like it did the first time I watched it.

However, I am still a little perplexed by the opening bit of the episode with the return of the Baltans as it starts off with a rocket ship and the JVOTL having a race to see who can get to space first, but they say the SSSP won the race despite it being the rocket that made it into space and not the JVOTL. Then it goes to Not-Serizawa talking about how he lost the race to be more careful. Huh? Your rocket is in space though...

Anyway, I'm enjoying this show just as much as I did the first time two years ago. My next episode is one of the two that had the mistimed subs on the DVD set, so I'm really looking forward to being able to actually watch that one.

Yeah, it's a little odd that it is the same word over and over again that gets mispelled.

The Walmart I work for didn't get the new Ultra sets but we did get Mothra recently in our "steelbook" section. Its a little overpriced ($17.99) but its still cool to see on the shelf when I walk by. If we do keep that steelbook section I'm sure our next major movie reset we'll get the Ultra stuff in.

I've definitely seen Mill Creek's Ultraman complete series DVD at Target stores in years past, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had these BRDs now.

There aren't any Target stores near where I live but the nearest Best Buy drastically reduced its physical media section five years ago.