So I recently started watching this as maybe my last of the Showa era Ultra shows. I'm about halfway through the second disc and I've really been liking it so far!
It's funny how, right from the get-go, it just kinda *feels* 70's compared to the previous two series. From the out of focus disco ball-style background in the intro (complete with James Bond meets Charlie's Angels silhouettes) to the slightly darker visuals (like, literally slightly darker, not tonally) reminds me a lot of the same period of Godzilla movies, where you could just kinda tell the times had changed. It's definitely a "Return of Ultraman" in just about every way though, with the format returning to much more of the kind of thing we got in the OG show compared to Ultraseven. Guaranteed monsters in every episode, way less aliens, slightly "simpler" stories etc. I love the fact that almost every episode so far has had "monster" in the title, and that the little "featuring such and such monster" preview text at the end of the intros are back too!
But then they've also added some new elements that make it feel different from the shows that came before too. As has already been mentioned here, Go is much more of an everyman character thrown into the world of MAT than someone who was already a monster-fighter beforehand. Heck, he practically seems forced into it by everyone else in those first episodes! And having a lot of the focus be on his life outside of MAT and the people he knows there is a good way of not completely abandoning that aspect of the show past the first couple of episodes, since it'd be easy to just have him turn into "another leading man member of the monster fighting team" given that he's out flying jets and shooting monsters pretty much as soon as he joins. So that's an interesting new twist that helps him stand apart from Hayata and Dan.
I'm also surprised that they got rid of any "transformation device" in this one, and instead just kinda have Ultraman appear when he decides the situation is dire enough to warrant it. I'll admit that was a little disappointing at first since I've come to enjoy seeing what weird new items each show is going to introduce for that purpose, but to be honest, with shows like Ultraseven especially where Dan was *literally* just Seven in human form, it often doesn't make a lot of sense that they'd need some sort of external device to change.
There have also been more two-parters really early on than I was expecting. In Ultraseven I only really remember there being a few over the entire run of the show, but I've already watched two and judging by the titles of the episodes I'm about to watch on the second disc I'm about to head into two more! I'm also kinda loving the "next time" previews at the end of each episode too, especially this last one that had the narrator breaking the fourth wall and saying how the SFX team has put a lot into this tsunami sequence that's going to be featured!
Always a good way to keep the interest high while bingeing shows like this.
Also just a random thought I had while watching it, but Twintail seems very similar design-wise to the first monster that Ultraman fights in Towards the Future (after Gudis). I wonder if that was a roundabout "sort of" nod to him, or if it was just a coincidence? Either way Twintail's definitely been one of the standout monsters of the show for me so far.
Oh and a random Godzilla, Rodan and Ghidorah mention in one episode too! Clearly this confirms Ultraman and Godzilla are part of the same universe!
Though I *am* hyped that apparently this is the show that merges the previous Ultra shows into one continuity, and even has appearances of previous characters! So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing those guys pop up in whichever episodes they first appear.
But yeah, for now Return of Ultraman is another great kick of classic Tsuburaya monster goodness, and I'm really enjoying it!