by Nippon » Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:37 am
I watched episode 1 myself just last night. I gotta' say, while it wasn't terribly original (in fact, it was nearly a carbon copy of the first episode of "Ultraman The First" in the most basic premise) it was very, VERY entertaining without being too annoying or preachy.
Kaito is one of the best Ultra Hosts yet, IMO. Not because of his character or his background or his acting, but because of the idea that he really EARNED the right to be an Ultra. That guy threw himself right into the bowles of hell if it meant he could help someone. Though he was the "look before you leap" type, it was still a great concept.
If someone needed introduction to the Ultraman franchise, this would definately be an episode to use. And man, they went OLD SCHOOL with this stuff. They even had the sillohetes (sp?) for the opening! Great stuff!
My only problem is that, while it embodies the concept of what Ultraman should be, it suffers from this lack of originality. True, there were little bits and pieces that were a gas to watch (the swords on the DASH jets, the kaiju actually fight and fight WELL, that cute-as-hell android in the DASH HQ) but it was just so...unoriginal, and lacked the uniqueness of shows like Tiga, Gaia, and especially Nexus.
Ah well, I suppose viewer ratings are a harsher mistress than some random US fanboys. Looking foreward to seeing Red King in action!