Ultraman Dyna: The Return of Hanejiro

Because this is what this thing is, an episode from the main series stretched out to a 44-minutes runtime because again the fetish for TV movies taken from main series of the japanese producers is a real thing hence they felt the need to do this. Clear influences from Dragonball Z are full on display - the alien female villain particularly is "inspired" by C-18 from that anime - and, while not being great on itself, it is at least watchable and not a 100% complete waste of time, more than it can be said for the Tiga Vs. Dyna useless movie. Give it a go if you have it with the main package, but it's not something that will stick with you for very long TBH.

In many ways, The Return of Hanejiro feels similar toTiga Gaiden, but unlike Gaiden, Return of Hanejiro feels closer to the tone and content of its parent show. A last gasp of the sillier elements before the finale, this film lays the jokes on thick and fast, giving a large focus to the bumbling Miji trio. However, the silliness is in earnestness and the special is a fun little side venture, one I certainly enjoyed more than Warriors of the Star of Light, it's much better paced for one thing. Set just after Hanejiro's farewell to the cast but produced 3 years later, it ultimately means the continuity between the two is very off as everyone has noticeably aged between projects, especially Mai who is practically unrecognisable. The production values are still fantastic though, Masaki Harada's direction is great, the cast is all fun to watch and Tatsumi Yano's music is always a winner. For everything that The Return of Hanejiro does well, it does still feel like an expensive DVD extra more than its own entity, regardless... I would die for Hanejiro and I'm sure many more of us would to.