Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Ultraman being introduced to the world! And today marks the (maybe folkloric) birth date of Eiji Tsuburaya!

Celebrate by watching the many Ultra shows now legally available for all. It's a far cry from 15 years ago, when middle school me only managed to get a couple of bootleg VHS tapes to check out the series.

- and August Ragone's blog will be updated with various cool Ultra stuff this month, so be sure to check that out:

http://augustragone.blogspot.com

Recommendations for episodes to watch on Ultraman Day, courtesy of Crunchyroll!

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-featur ... traman-day

Going to check out some of these recommendations.

Okay, in detail below. Most of these series are completely new to me (as I've only recently discovered some affection for Ulraman as a whole), so this makes a pretty nice sampler:

10.) “Prophecy of Baraj” - Ultraman Max, Episode 11
I suppose this is my introduction to a standard, more formulaic, child-oriented version of modern Ultraman, as previously the only post-'60s shows I've watched were Nexus and Ultraseven X. Shusuke Kaneko directs, but -- I'm not sure what it is -- the episode's campy acting mirrors my gripes with large portions of GMK. I don't know if that's endemic to Max or this particular episode, but it wound up being distracting rather than charming. One of the things I like about the '60s series is that everyone's more or less playing it totally straight and giving it their all, as goofy as the plots may be.

Otherwise, it's kind of a pleasant, light-hearted twenty minutes. We get some decent city destruction, with good-looking miniatures (not up to movie standards, obviously, but nice to see), though some of the shots of streets and buildings collapsing into the ground look bad enough to have been cut. Ditto a few shots when sand/dirt is pouring through the streets. We get a hammy lesson about faith in humanity and call it a day. There's a long monster fight, but it honestly grows a bit old for me by its end. I'm not sure if Max is more focused on the superheroics, but as someone who enjoys the '66 series arguably more when Ultraman's not on screen, I wasn't as interested as I might have been if the central sci-fi/mystery plot had a bit more focus. It all feels like setup for the fight.

Kaneko slipped his name onto a few miniature billboards, which is kind of cute.

Will I be watching more Max?: Probably not. On the surface it seems to want to mimic the '66 series, but as a kids' product in the 2000s, I can't say it has quite the same sincerity or charm (and certainly not the aesthetics). I wouldn't be put off from watching more one-off recommendations, as that was decent fun, but that's about it.

9.) “Showdown! The Leo Brothers VS The Ultra Brothers” & “The Leo Brothers, the Ultra Brothers, The Moment of Victory” - Ultraman Leo, Episodes 38-39
Well, the '70s are here, and they're apparent in the color and set design early on. On some level, it's cool to see, since I have some fondness for the '70s Godzilla movies, but I can't say I dig it as much as the '60s design.

As far as the content of the episodes, I don't have a lot of love for them. MAC's headquarters is dreary and I didn't get a good sense of the cast. I don't really care for the half-drawn mythology of the Ultra planet or the various family relations between Ultras, and I believe -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that that's mostly a product of this era. Once the conflict picks up, I'm just frustrated by the fact that no one's motivations make sense. No one will talk to anyone, no one can just take the key, the Ultra brothers have to announce they'll kill Astra to provide more drama, etc.

I get that Leo is supposed to be a ridiculous series, but this isn't fun ridiculousness so much as it's giant spaceman melodrama I can't get invested in. Doesn't help that the design is so drab too. The only thing I really enjoyed was that crazy-ass wuxia fight at the end of the second episode.

Will I be watching more Leo?: No.

8.) “Teacher’s Memories” - Ultraman Mebius, Episode 41
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Will I be watching more Mebius?: Maybeous. (Honestly, probably not the whole thing, since it's super long and seems very episodic.)

2.) “Dark Zone” - Ultraseven, Episode 6
This was my first full episode of Ultraseven, a series I'd already intended to check out, and it knocks it out of the park. Ultraseven himself makes the briefest of appearances, leaving the rest of the episode to play out as Star Trek-like anthology tale with likable characters. I'm shocked this aired as part of what was ostensibly a children's series, actually. While the '66 series feels like of like Avengers-esque spy-fi + giant monsters and superheroes to me, this felt like vintage Star Trek with the same (and while I've never been a huge fan of that series, I appreciate what it does).

Will I be watching more Ultraseven?: Definitely. It's one of the few Ultra series that was already on my list, and this just cemented it.