Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Soooooooooooo since Megaupload's untimely demise forced me to call off my epic ENTIRE ULTRA SERIES MARATHON for the time being and because we had a little time after finishing our weekly dose of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and Kamen Rider Fourze, G.H.I.D.R.A.H. put on the first episode of Ultraman Dyna (subbed!).

Hm. It was... okay. A very cool monster, some fun ideas, but overall pretty underwhelming. More underwhelming than Tiga's opening episode, actually, and I was rather underwhelmed with that. The 90s video-composited effects kind of hurt my soul sometimes - I mean, while I respect that they're a necessary step in the modernization of the franchise, that won't make me magically find them aesthetically pleasing. I have plenty of respect for TRON but I have no intention of watching it again - it gave me a headache! No, but video effects aside, the bigger problem here was the pacing. That is, it felt sluggish sometimes and rather on the disjointed side, I suppose because it was introducing so much into one episode.

Not terrible but I think I'll keep soaking up the pre-Tiga stuff for now. Anyway, HERE IS A DYNA THREAD FOR EVERYONE ELSE.

I finally finished watching Ultraman Dyna over the past week and I have to say that this show is freaking awesome! Very adventurous, very heartfelt, very '90s, just a strong Ultraman series all-around!

Between Tiga and Dyna, it's amazing how Tsuburaya Productions in the late '90s was just bursting with creativity for new Ultraman shows after such a long hiatus. Dyna has a terrific cast of characters in the Super GUTS defense team, and while there are particular episodes that build toward the show's extremely satisfying three-part finale, it's all of the standalone episodes in between that really develop the camaraderie of the Super GUTS members. Dyna is a show that's just packed with great, memorable episodes.

I also watched the movie Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light, although I realize now that I didn't need to wait until after I finished the series because the film seems to take place in the middle of the series. It's a good movie, not much different from a triple-length episode of Dyna but it does have some more dynamic and lofty shots than what was typical of the show's action sequences.

Keiichi Hasegawa was the head writer on Dyna, after previously writing or co-writing eight episodes of Tiga including the final two. He scripted 14 episodes of Dyna himself, including the first two, both of the mid-series two-parters and the three-part finale, and he wrote the movie too. He went on to be the head writer for Ultraman Nexus and one of TPC's main writers for Ultraman shows and films, and he was a co-screenwriter for Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

Loved Dyna. Near the end of my watch I actually slowed down and rationed those last dozen episodes because I didn't want it to end! Now that's how you know you love a show.

It's weird, when I started the series I didn't quite know what to make of it because Tiga was in many ways more distinctive; that series would regularly throw episodes that went in-depth with the characters, had some unique narrative gimmick, or were just really dramatic or spooky. Ultraman Dyna, on the other hand, lacked a lot of that distinctiveness. In many ways, it feels like a backtobasics Ultraman show and I was kind of miffed by that as a follow-up to Tiga, but soon I began to settle in and the fact is that Ultraman Dyna is just so charming. That's the key; charm, an easygoing charm. By the halfway point I had to admit I liked it more than Tiga!