Ultraman Taro

[Kailem]

So after a much longer break than I'd initially planned, I've finally started Ultraman Taro; and so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit!

As always it's really cool to have these booklets included with each of these releases, especially since there are no extras on the discs themselves. I will say though that the text in this one, at least as far as the series background goes (I never read the parts about the characters/monsters/episodes etc. before I've actually watched them) really could have done with another editing/proof reading pass. There were a *lot* of grammatical errors to the point that even though it was only a few pages, it got to be pretty distracting.

But anyway, the show! I always like seeing these new intros for the first time. The very beginning reminded me of some classic Doctor Who, and I really liked how it immediately went into a pretty expensive-looking Thunderbirds-style sequence inside the ZAT HQ. Speaking of, what does "Zariba" mean anyway? No idea, but it makes for a catchy acronym, which I'm sure was the main reason they went with that name! And while the theme song might not be quite as catchy as previous ones, but at least the "Taro! Ultraman number six!" part certainly is!

Saburo Shinoda makes a good first impression as Kotaro, likeable and always eager to get into a fight - even with the ZAT members in episode one! - but not in a cocky or annoying sort of way. Indeed I like how one of the things they seem to be doing a lot of in this show is having him, or sometimes other characters, ending up clinging to monsters either because they're crazy enough to try to fight them hand to hand or just really unlucky. Each time I've started one of these shows I've wondered if any of them are going to have a main character I just don't click with for some reason, but I'm happy to say that's not been the case yet!

ZAT itself certainly has that super-colourful 70's vibe to their outfits, HQ and vehicles. Their car gives me the strong impression they just took the Pointer and stuck so many random lights and panels on it that it comes off looking like an ice cream truck more than part of a monster-fighting team! I also like that even though there's been a *little* of the obligatory "are you sure you really saw a monster?" stuff in these first several episodes, it's not nearly on the same level as it was in Ace! Overall ZAT actually seems pretty competent; or at least as competent as can be expected given that they can't *always* be allowed to figure out what or where the monsters are straight off the bat.

The supporting characters seem fun so far too. I like that the captain seems to have a thing for food, often deciding who gets to go on certain assignments based on what they had to eat recently. Just a quirky little detail that helps make him stand out as a character a bit more.

Tone-wise it definitely feels pretty close to Ace more so than any of the other shows, although saying that they also don't waste any time establishing the same sort of "surrogate older brother"/family dynamic they had in Return of Ultraman, and it seems to be working well so far (which, with Return as a sort of template for something like that, they likely figured it would). I'm a few episodes into the second disc so far, but there have already been some episodes I've really enjoyed, like the recent "Heaven and Hell, the Island Moves!" and "The Vampire Flower is a Girl's Spirit", the former because it introduced a really cool giant crab monster in Ganza - AND had him fight a giant octopus monster, Tagarl, when they didn't even really need to! - and the latter because of its creepy atmosphere and nice, semi-ambiguous ending. I'm a sucker for creepy atmospheres and crustacean monsters, so those two have definitely been some standouts.

The monsters themselves again seem closest to Ace in terms of their designs, which makes sense since that was literally the show that had just aired prior to this. Some wacky designs so far! And is it me, or did the first two or three monsters all have the same heads?! That felt like it might have been a bit of a cost-cutting measure there, especially as the initial "choju" got swallowed up, seemingly as the show's way of saying "we're going back to regular kaiju now!"

And Taro is a cool Ultra as well. I like that they show he can be compassionate early on, but that he also has some badass moves that he busts out frequently. And honestly, the horns don't seem to have been as much of an impediment to his fight scenes as I figured they would be! I was surprised Tsuburaya would have designed a character they knew would be fighting every single episode with features that could easily get in the way or hinder the performers like that, but if they have been I've not noticed it!

So yeah, even though it took a bit longer than I would have liked, I'm happy to finally be digging into this show! Unless things take an insane downturn in quality during the rest of the series I think I'm going to have to go ahead and order the Ultraman Leo set at some point too, because I really do just want to keep this Showa train running!

[lhb412]

I don't think Ultraman Taro really matches the quality of the best episodes of Ultraman Ace, but Ace was such an inconsistent series that backtracked on its core premise while Taro is confident in its own take and stays consistent for its entire run. I'm not sure which I'd say is technically "better"?

I also think Taro provides the template for every friendlier, more lighthearted version of Ultraman that follows.

BTW, if you lose the crazy helmets I think the ZAT uniforms are pretty great!

[Benjamin Haines]

Ultraman Taro really does have the most consistent premise and tone from beginning to end of any '70s Ultraman show. At the same time, it also manages to have several notable themed mini-arcs to a lot of episodes as the series progresses.

It's interesting how the first episode of Taro depicts the choju Oil-Drinker getting eaten by the kaiju Astromons, indicating to the audience that this series will move away from Ace's concept of choju and go back to featuring monsters called kaiju, and yet the kaiju that appear throughout Taro's run tend to have zany characteristics and over-the-top abilities more reminiscent of the choju on Ace than the kaiju of prior Ultra shows. Before Ace, it was really just Return of Ultraman episode 27 that depicted a seemingly natural-born kaiju who had some biologically unnatural characteristics without any narrative explanation, with the kaiju Gronken who had buzzsaws for hands. Ace posited that all of the choju were created and/or modified by the Yapool, so that was a blanket explanation for all of their crazy traits throughout that series. Taro just takes kaiju weirdness to the next level and doesn't even bother to explain where the weirdness is coming from. The show just goes for it with a clear sense of what it's doing and it just works. I think it's a great series.

[Kailem]

"I also think Taro provides the template for every friendlier, more lighthearted version of Ultraman that follows."

And right after this came the episode where Kotaro accidentally fires an underwater missile into a monster's mouth, angering it, screws up even further by pulling out one of its teeth by mistake, only for Taro to finally appear and blow it to pieces! Sheltar did nothing wrong!!

I just finished watching what, unless I'm remembering incorrectly, is the first *three*-parter in Ultraman history? And man, Birdon don't play!! I could have sworn he was a returning monster who I'd seen back in Ace or Return, but I must have been thinking of a different one. Either way I can totally see him being one of the 'iconic Taro kaiju' after that! And hey, a new power too! I wonder if this bracelet and Ultraman Jack's are a matching set? Either way it was cool to see a story take place over even more than the usual two eps max.

I've also been enjoying how, a few episodes before that, they started actually using the forced-perspective Taro model created for the henshin shots in the actual action scenes as well! Only for brief little moments, usually at the start of the fights, but it's been funny seeing Taro with an obviously way-too-big fist punching some of the monsters in those scenes.

Oh, and it also took me *way* too long to notice Higashi's name is "KoTARO".

[Kailem]

Like Ace I've been kinda slow going through this (though that's a me problem and nothing to do with the show), but I'm about halfway through the fifth disc now and will soon be entering the home stretch. And yeah, I've found this overall a fun show so far! Certainly there are times when it's obvious they're working with a lower budget than previous shows (the "35 monsters" promised to appear in a recent episode turned out to be a clip show compilation), but as you guys mentioned before, it's very consistent and that's helped it avoid some of the lows of prior shows, even while also not reaching their greatest heights.

I do find it kinda weird how the captain just disappears for a very long time after the first several episodes, only to return briefly with no explanation or fanfare, and then seemingly vanish again. Makes me wonder if there was something that happened behind the scenes there, like the boy in the original Ultraman breaking his leg in real life and having to be written out of the last run of eps. Also: Birdon don't play!! Not necessarily the monster I would have expected to turn out to be one of Taro's strongest foes. Though I'm no longer sure Zoffy is all he's cracked up to be...

I also really liked the two-parter where all the previous Ultra heroes returned *properly* for their first major roles since their respective shows ended, because it was great to see them all back again for more than a one or two-shot cameo (barring "Not Go's" appearance in Ace). But man, they really should have gotten their messaging straight! First they're literally willing to let Taro die to teach him that he has to be able to do things himself and not rely on them to help, and then they're immediately mad that he says he doesn't *want* them to! Talk about sending mixed messages.

Oh yeah, and that little run of episodes that focused on returning monsters was cool as well, especially since this was the first time any of them had reappeared since their debuts. It's something I've actually been surprised by in general with these early Showa shows that overall there aren't many instances of returning monsters, given that I would have figured it'd be a fairly cost-effective practice to reuse suits; especially once it became clear which ones were big hits with the audience, who likely would have also welcomed their return. So that was definitely cool to see those guys back again.