Ultraman X

[Hybrid Gojira]

Caught the first episode tonight - Demaaga is an awesome monster.

[The Great MM]

Absolutely loving this series. Demaaga was a great new kaiju and what they did with Birdon and Telesdon was awesome. Episode 4 was kind of meh, but far from bad. Looking forward to Episode 5 and the return of Andros Melos' Black King.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Ep 5 was great - loved Black King. I think the 1st episode and this were probably my favorites so far.

[kiryugoji04]

Yeah, episode five was fantastic. Really great pacing, some neat plot developments and the single greatest moment of the series so far: Ultra-selfie. XD

Next week starts a two-parter! Woo!

[lhb412]

Still an episode behind everybody. Really enjoyed Zarab and Bemstar (wasn't familiar with this guy, so I went back and watched his fights with Ultraman Jack).

I'm not entirely sure what Zarab was trying to do, besides just being a jerk.

[Baltan II]

He might merely be playing the jerk, but who knows, could turn out that he has some reason for trying to eff up Earth with Bemstar like a bigger bad pointing him this way, much like... I guess giving the example might be considered a spoiler to the series I'm thinking?

Anyway, that episode was alright, but episode 5 made me feel way the hell better about the crossover! Very happy with that episode and the fact that

[kiryugoji04]

[XvGojira]

I absolutely love this show. This was one of the best episodes so far. Loved the Ultra-Selfie with X slyly getting back into frame. Honestly it's something that most of us here would do anyway.

I think Rui is my new favorite character. Wanting to date Eleking, making a cotton candy gun and invisibility potion. She's just too damn adorkable.

A part of me wants to just go black out on all of Ultraman X until the season is done with and then binge watch. But I know I can't do that.

[Rody]

I know I'm late to the party, but I thought I'd share my thoughts now that I've watched the first two episodes of the show.

I'm generally liking what I'm seeing so far. The pacing of the show is nice and brisk, without a dull moment anywhere. Major plot developments and characterization aren't really present yet, but that's fine for what looks to be a good action series. I'm positively delighted to see an alien on the team.
Demaaga was a neat new monster, and I liked the utilization of Birdon in episode 2. The practical effects are really impressive overall, although the CGI is hit or miss. The vehicle transformations are going to become an eyesore for me, I'm sure. The camerawork is really something, though.
Spark dolls - ehh. This is my first time seeing spark dolls, having seen none of Ginga, but I'm definitely not enjoying the concept so far. I mean, it's such obvious advertising that it's downright funny (and not in a good way). Daichi's transformation into X looks particularly dumb.
Speaking of Daichi, I'm not sure what I think of him yet (I don't like how the actor looks, I know that), but I am enjoying how the Ultra/host relationship is working this time. Again, characterization has been pretty weak so far, but I'm only two episodes in. I like the tidbits I've seen for the various characters so far, and look forward to learning more about them.
Overall, I might sound like I'm complaining a lot, but I'm really enjoying the show. I've been trudging through Ultraman Leo, and X feels like a breath of (mostly) fresh air.


Confound it - the advertising is working. I want more Ultra monster toys.

[lhb412]

On one level I hate that Ultraman is having to follow the collectable game playing tie-ins of all other Japanese kids' action media... but at the same time; if that's what everyone else is doing I understand having to do that to keep up and stay relevant. From what I've seen of the previous few years of Ultra material (admittedly limited), it looked like an embarrassingly surface level toy commercial, like Power Rangers at it's worst and not very much like Ultraman.

I feel Ultraman X has been successful in keeping the toyetic mandate while at the same time keeping all the stuff that gives the franchise its identity (and with a few cool new twists!).

And it'd be a lie if I said I wasn't interested in getting some 'spark dolls.' They're cheap and the slightly smaller size means they won't take up much room! Why isn't there one of Dada?

[RobD]

[XvGojira]

I think that the on are why it hasn't. Mildly surprised that this issue didn't get in the way of X. But then again internet simulcasts might not be in the agreement that was (if I'm reading the info right) supposedly stuck in the late 60's.

[Baltan II]

Nothing later than the disputed series (Ultra Q to Taro) gets held back by the Chaiyo nonsense, but it does throw in an extra wrench in the works for promoting Ultraman because it's generally the traditional series that are most wanted, and even then the three biggest ones already came out and nothing else happened. Tsuburaya tried for years to get some kind of home video release of the newer stuff and no one bit, aside from the brief experiment with Tiga. Making 80 and a bunch of the Heisei series available to watch free is an improvement and if we're lucky leads to some bigger presence from the shows Tsuburaya can safely distribute.

[XvGojira]

Well that's a bit of a relief.

Hopefully the series will be a hit on crunchyroll and incentivize them to release more things. While I know some purists would hate this but I'd love to have a dubbed version of this and some of the other series as well. I watched an episode of Tiga on youtube dubbed and thought it was good.

[lhb412]

I wonder if Tsuburaya could figure out some sneaky work-around to license the classic shows over here? Maybe they could make compilation films with new footage (bridging material like classic actors hosting) that they could own and release without having to deal with Chaiyo?

"Hey, we're not licensing Ultraman Ace. We're licensing the Ultraman Ace movie trilogy!"

[Rody]

I've been wondering the same thing. Tsuburaya already has numerous movies, original or compilation, under their belts, such as Ultraman Story and Ultraman Zoffy. It would be great if Tsuburaya could use those as loopholes to bring the classic series here.

[Specium Ray]

What I noticed when Retsuden began showing up on YouTube in the West is that if it was an episode of Ultraman or Ultraseven, it would get skipped. I believe that the line of thinking is that Tsubaraya doesn't want to inadvertently promote Chaiyo products.

It's really a great time to be a ultra fan, and it's so encouraging to see people who are new to the franchise asking where to start. Hey, there are minor exceptions, but it's all pretty great. Just dive in!

[Baltan II]

That's exactly what I was about to mention. Their channel always made a point to region-lock Retsuden episodes that were recapping classic Ultraman episodes. That would definitely suggest either attempts at being sneaky would create more issues with Chaiyo that Tsuburaya would rather avoid or it's already known that they would cause trouble. Uses of the original characters in entirely new material doesn't seem to be a problem, and that's likely one of the reasons you see Tsuburaya working on that CGI project Ultraman n/a as well as using monsters the way series since Max have, blending together old and new instead of always-new kaiju with homages like you'd see in Tiga/Dyna/Gaia.

[lhb412]

[kiryugoji04]

HOLY JESUS I AM SUPER INTO EPISODE SIX OF ULTRAMAN X. SO GOOD. DAT CLIFFHANGER THO.

Monsters for upcoming episodes:

Episode 8: Antlar
Episode 9: Zetton
Episode 10: Houringa (new kaiju?) and the Zetton Armor
Episode 11: Baltan Seijin and Cyber Gomora

...and thus ends the first half of the series, apparently.

[Rody]

^More Antlar is always good.

Another thing I forgot to mention is the sound design for this show. I really liked Demaaga's cackling roar and the whistle of his fireballs, and those are just two examples of the rich sound effects each episode has. That's one of the things that bothered me about some other Ultra shows; after a while, every episode seemed to sound exactly the same.

I watched episode 3 last night and ep. 4 just now. The high heels issue in ep. 3 amused me. Who would've thought Ultraman could deliver on sounder logic than Jurassic Park?

[kiryugoji04]

I'm not really an Antlar fan at all but as long as this show keeps doing interesting things with its kaiju, I'm totally down for an Antlar episode.

[sentaison]

[Rody]

[kiryugoji04]

X gets a second form called Exceed X, which he will transform into using the X Slugger.