Oh man, where to start. Well, Ultraman Orb is a series that takes a more modern approach to the Ultraman formula by turning the usual pseudo team of experts that fight kaiju with jets and advanced weaponry into three broke young adults trying to make it rich by showing the paranormal to people online in Tokyo. There is also an Ultraman police force like VTOL in the background that sometimes does stuff. This is the Something Search People group run by the energetic Naomi, the intelligent Shin, and the heart Jetta. One day they run into Ultraman Orb fighting a kaiju and also the hot Gai that joins their ranks.
Overall, the whole show is very episodic which I enjoy quite a bit. It does a good job of playing the usual Ultraman stuff at a unique angle by being on the streets with the SSP instead of the latest crew showing up on the scene later or having the main protagonist of the super unit being at the right place at the right time. It's still a reactionary thing either way, but I think the ground level human nature of the show with our cast living in whatever happens in Tokyo when a monster attacks or some strange weather phenomenon grounds it even more. Love it all.
The main plot thread of the series is between Naomi, Gai, and the somewhat complicated villain Juggler. It mainly features uncovering the backstory of Gai and Naomi's great grandmother in the background of important episodes as a way for Gai, Naomi, and Juggler to grow a little bit. Naomi's dream of a giant of light saving her that turns out to be Gai and it is one of her ancestry's dreams. Juggler also spends so much time trying to convince Gai that he is evil like him when the whole time, attached to the dream, Juggler actually has good in him and the two work together. A very good sort of push and pull for 25 episodes.
The one thing that bothers me about the more recent Ultraman series is how many forms Ultraman takes. Especially with a lot of the more recent ones that combine forms of older Ultramen to create new ones instead of having one form with slight power ups. Same with the kaiju now that I think about it. I just think that all of that has some kind of lack of creativity or originality because it's a lot of rehashing. This one, like Z, is something that I don't mind when it comes to Gai regaining his Orb form. Or the fact that a lot of the emotional beats are felt because this is a story about Gai finally uncovering himself again. It's a good arc.
Ultraman Orb didn't completely congeal itself with its ideas, themes, characters, and episodic stories, but it was a good time. Even if all the ideas didn't meet together, they are very unique ideas and there is a lot of heart in Ultraman Orb. The monster fights are fantastic and unique with so much energy and emotion put into each one with a lot of honesty. The VTOL group finally becomes important in the end suddenly is that usual Ultraman group where the side characters are pushed to the side a bit. With all of those good and bad issues, Orb was a good ride and I never completely knew what was around the other corner.
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