Introduction
This month, I added Ultraman Taro to my watchlist after finishing Ace. Ace was a bit of a mess, which you will see in my review soon. Taro has been going from strength to strength in its early episodes and I hope it starts that way.
Ultraman Ace
This is the fourth Ultraman series but involves the fifth Ultraman series after Zoffy, the og, ULtraseven, and Jack. This time, we have the evil dimension breaking Yapool and his terrible monsters against the TAC and the two Ultraman Ace hosts Seiji and Yuko.
Watch Ultraman Ace for free on Tubi.
Episode 48
This episode is wild and also starts the final arc to this show. Yapool's fragments from his death has found its way in attempting to defeat Hokuto/Ace for the final time. Hokuto has a dream on his mission focusing on the appearance of Verokron once again. Same with his toothache which leads to him visiting a dentist who is actually a villain and she does put Hokuto in a place where he is shooting his gun in the air thanks to his dentistry ruining his psychology. It's a good episode that TAC actually trusts something happened to Hokuto and he's not at fault again despite his terrible public display.
Episode 49
This episode was completely nuts in a good way. It is the classic alien overlord invasion while turning people into servants through their use of powers and the people this alien goddess chose are simple farmers that with motivations can worship them. This happened with the farmers turning into people who can easily burn TAC members at the stake. So there is a lot of work that TAC has to do to prove the aliens are fake gods. Then the alien versus Ace fight was fun. This is such a good time.
Episode 50
Oh man, another banger episode. Especially with the lights on the street lights turning into pure death in Tokyo as the aliens just use them to obliterate everyone through laser beams through the signals. It started small with TAC running into a woman running in a store when the light was weird. Then the aliens come in and it gets worse. Very cool to see it stopped by Hokuto and another TAC member destroying it in the sewer. Even the Ultraman fight after it was great too.
Episode 51
This episode was peak, weird Ultraman Ace. It centers itself on a boy who wants to play baseball with his friends, but is forced to play the Violin by her mother. She clearly sees him as a famous Violinists and he doesn't care about it. Pretty classic stuff right? the difference comes from a Terrible Monster inhabiting the violin and slowly taking over the souls of people which Ultraman Ace needs to defeat them to get their souls back. This was also the lesson for the mother to not push her dreams on her son. It was peak Ultraman because the writing was effective and good same with the Ultraman fight at the end.
Episode 52 (Finale)
This episode was a great finale even with all of it in a thirty minute episode including commercials. It was about the ideals of what being an Ultraman was while also giving the kids a complex situation they don't know how to handle. This episode started with a supposed alien running away from another threat and kids beating on this alien for being different. Something which Hokuto had to talk them out of. Also, the situation became more complex when that alien turned out to be a reincarnated Yapool and to win over the kids after he shot the alien they protected, Hokuto had to turn into Ace and hopefully not try to damage the kids in Hokuto turning his back on what he said. Fantastic episode all around.
Ultraman Taro
This is the fifth Ultraman series and it's pretty different. Like ZAT wearing mostly blue retro space outfits instead of orange like every super police kind of group wore when fighting kaiju. The main protagonist named Kotaro Higashi returned to Japan from wherever and wanted to become a boxer. Too bad he joined ZAT and then was killed in a plane crash so he was revived as Ultraman Taro. It's a bit more goofy then the others and it kind of rocks.
You can watch Ultraman Taro on youtube here or tubi here.
Episode 1
This is basically the introductory episode of Ultraman Taro and it was just a lot of fun. Kotaro Higashi is a free spirit that doesn't want to be grounded by anything. Yet, he joined the anti kaiju police force that is going to weight him down. I mean, the guy is homeless and refuses to be told to live at anyone's house. But this episode was well paced and had amazing kaiju fights and model work. It's a really good time.
Episode 2 and 3
I wanted to combine the two because this one is a two parter. It is a set of episodes that combine the story of a Kaiju kotaro saw in the fog that we was confirmed by a child and the Kaiju that was the hole kids continually things into for it to disappear. There were scary moments like Kotaro and the dog Pochi stuck in a Kaiju stomach and Kotaro in Taro form having his arm broken then repaired by Ultra-mom who was their. The through line of Kotaro losing a boxing match and him training more and more. Lots of goofy moments with Zat and just good human moments too. This show continues to just be really good so far.
Ultraman Ginga
This story feels a lot like a classic sort of anime where a guy returns to his town and gains some massive powers to fight even. Except it's Ultraman and the guy, Hikaru is going to be fighting larger monsters after he returned home after 7 years to see his friends again. He is called to go back to this place for some reason and here he is to save the day from the monsters that may appear.
I'm watching Ultraman Ginga on tubi.tv. You can find that here.
Episode 5
Ok, I think my boredom for the show has lessened a little bit with this episode. The drama of one character feeling something and instantly being turned into a kaiju/villain has at least been pushed to the side for now. This episode was Kenta who just felt pushed aside by his friend's group and has been turned into the villain. The difference being this time the main villain did show up with his giant robot with the limitations of Ultraman Ginga being explored a bit. Though the mystery with Dark Ultraman Tiga really adds so much interesting mystery. Finally, it's going in a different direction.
Episode 6
Yeah, this show has finally started turning into something interesting. The first half was Hikaru giving the jaded Tomoya a dream of beating Ginga with his Jean robot. Ginga/Hikaru won of course turned Tomoya into the shonen rival and then the two work together against the Dark Tiga and the other comedic enemy. It was so good man.
Episode 7
This episode on Ginga is something hard to summarize perhaps. The boss summons kaiju in the forest which leads to our kids moving through the forest until they met one that turns into Mizumi and holds her hostage in exchange for the kaiju toys. So there is that fight between the monsters formed together and Tiga, then tomoyo fights an evil Ginga that appears to Destroy Tomoyo's robot and Ginga gives the dark Ginga a DBZ fight and wins. An episode that is good and works through character moments between Tomoyo and Hikaru, but is still kind of disjointed.
Episode 8
Half of this episode is a recap episode about Hikaru's experiences and how he met people. Then part of the episode where the school was sent into another dimension apparently. Not that you can tell because the entire show is dedicated to one location anyway. Now there are just more kaiju out there. A major episode of Hikaru and Ginga fighting against a kaiju in a tournament. A lot of really cheap toy and model works.
Ultraman Geed
This one has some interesting bits of lore behind it. Mainly sharing the complete backstory of Ultraman Belial in the beginning and then us meeting his supposed son on Earth. Even though Riku, the son, knows absolutely nothing about his past. Looks like this one is going to have some interesting things to say about the depths of good versus evil and whether or not a son of the evil Ultraman can be trusted.
Another one that I am watching on Tubi.tv. Watch it right here.
Episode 5
This is an episode that is starting to show the character chemistry in motion from the cast from the opening fully being introduced. Also, there is a focus on a continually failing comedian with his alien dog Moco after the discovery of stars (people having special abilities) are targets for aliens. So the comedian being able to heal people becomes apart of the news and of course, no one else knows the dog exist. So Moa is the person who originally takes the dog away from the comedian because of the danger and of course Riku and the chinese girl get involved and Geed fights the monster gains the healing ability as well as a third form. Of course Zero is there too in some form and Belial is plotting something at the end of the episode. It's a good episode.
Episode 6
This episode was really fun and just emotionally striking. Geed lost against Eleking and that kaiju only ran because Zero showed up. Then the salary man avatar of Zero and Riku got into a fight over who should be Ultraman, they change places for a bit to understand each other, and then the two connecting was what led to Riku getting a new ability. It was a fantastic episode. This show has been so strong and it looks like something big is going to happen next episode from Belial.
Episode 7
Some really handedly done chess plays in this episode from the main villain Belial. In human form, he is a famous author that wrote sci fi novels a lot of people love. In this case, novels that show Zero as the bad guy and then having a convention visit where Belial the human corners Zero and brings him out in a situation he could not win by summoning a monster in a convention center no one can escape from. Riku was only a mere pawn to add to the pressure because he was losing and Zero had to sacrifice his life to save the day. Now, Leito is only by himself. Man, what a master class level of writing on every level. I love that it just happened to be Ultraman on top of this top tier grudge.
Episode 8
After last episode, this was the amazing super hero follow up that needed to occur. Part of the episode is Riku preparing for a fight that he can't win against the kaiju from last episode that is impossible to destroy and needs to recharge. Riku does put in 17 practice simulations against it an loses, but he chooses to fight because he is Ultraman. Of course, Leito is the business man with a family that recently had zero supposedly die in front of him and its Leito that finally realizes its time for him to become brave and then he helps Riku. I mean, there was other stuff like another Ultraman granting zero power and then Riku powering up. It's the hero stuff you want to see.
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