Ultraman: A Special Effects Fantasy Series

This is one of my all time favorite shows, I'm trying to go through as many of the ultraman shows as I can and he is slowly becoming one of my favorite superheroes. This may be an acquired taste, I LOVE things like godzilla or gamera, my whole life I've loved the giant rubber monsters, but I feel like even if you're not into all of that there is still a lot here to enjoy. This shows comedy is gold, my favorite character is Ide and hes the comic relief. Every character in this show is extremely lovable and they all get there time to shine with episodes surrounding each of them. This show gets better the longer you watch it and if you love Japanese monsters, or just science fiction I would recommend this of course.

And with that title I refer to a specific point device used in this series - I. E. the fact that the titular character seems quite a bit hellbent on losing his transformation device because reasens - that reminds me of some magical girl shows like Hime-Chan No Ribbon or Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, which is quite interesting considering this is a manly men's show about a manly superhero (I'm telling it as a fan of both Majokko series). Anyway, this series is very interesting, it was clearly very influential not just on Tokusatsus on the whole but also on the whole mecha genre and animation in general, and not only because of what a certain fanboy (Hideki Anno) made out of a lot of the stuff present here in his Evangelion series. That said, some episodes drag on a bit and I would personally have developed a couple of them in another direction, but whatever. Recommended with no problems whatsoever, even to first timers of this franchise like I am.

This is probably the best Japanese super hero, and it's better than a majority of American superheroes.

Acting is great, lovable characters, decent camerawork, and amazing special effects for a TV budget.

I think why this show is so good and memorable is the monsters. The roster is packed with weirdos and the designs are so memorable. Every single monster has a unique style and theme, except for Greenmon, that's just a giant plant.

This show follows a guy working for the SSSP named Hayata. Hayata is given the power to turn into Ultraman, a being from the land of light, and every week he fights off a unique but dangerous Kaiju.

The biggest problem I have with this show is Hayata, they didn't do the best job picking the protagonist. Hayata is the blandest character of the group and I think Ide should've been the protagonist.

But overall, fantastic show!

I'm 24, going on 25. I know that since I can remember, I have always loved Japanese monster movies (kaiju-eiga), and the films in that genre that featured Godzilla and Gamera. I know that for much of my life, I've always had a fascination with Japan in general. As far as Japanese superheroes are concerned, Ultraman was my second favorite (behind The Guyver, created by Manga artist Yoshiki Takaya).

"Ultraman," which debuted on television in 1966 in Japan, was one of those shows that I loved when I was a kid, but for some reason I could never watch it because it was hardly ever on, but I knew what it was about because I collected the action figures. Luckily, TV-on-DVD has worked wonders for TV shows long forgotten in the annals of showbiz history, which is how I came across "Ultraman" in all its original Japanese-language/bad-English-dubbed glory four years ago.

"Ultraman" features the members of Earth's (mainly Japan's) Science Patrol, who go around investigating all sorts of bizarre scientific phenomena. One of its members, Shin Hayata (Susumu Korobe), has a lethal close encounter of the third kind with an alien being that costs him his life, but said being resurrects him and gives him its powers, thus becoming the gigantic alien superhero Ultraman. Hayata is pretty adept at keeping his super-heroics a secret from his team members, since he conveniently disappears whenever Ultraman shows up to defeat some giant monster or giant monsters (one of whom, I understand, was actually a modified Godzilla costume). (Shame that his members never pick up on Hayata's dual life, but hey, it's a kid's show, after all.)

This is a great show, not just for those who love Japanese monster movies but those who love fantasy, science fiction, and comic books. In fact, Japan is notorious for putting sci-fi/fantasy spins on a lot of their Manga and Anime' material, so the most rabid sci-fi and fantasy fans are most likely to be pleased by "Ultraman." I know it's cheesy, the English-language dubbing is hilariously awful, and the special effects pale in comparison to today's overblown CGI effects-laden spectacles. Like most kaiju-eiga spectacles from that time, however, if you can put CGI out of your mind for 30 minutes, the fight scenes will simply take your breath away because of their "realism" and awesome displays of unparalleled monster-mashing destruction.

I have no idea why this show only lasted one season in Japan, yet during its time it still somehow managed to spark a massive pop culture phenomenon in the country that would later spark a world-wide craze for all things related to Ultraman. That craze has lasted all the way up to the time of this writing. I'm glad that I got this show on DVD four years ago. It's been a while since I had the opportunity to watch it, but guarantee that just writing about "Ultraman" right now is making me eager to break out the DVD set right now.

I hope that us greedy Americans don't get the idea to do an American update.

10/10

So, all I can say is, the 1965 Ultraman is indeed worth watching and in my opinion, it's really great and solid. It is silly and goofy as hell at the beginning of the show, and while the execution might get to be a little bit sloppy in few of the episodes, this is still enjoyable to watch. There are also plenty of interesting fights, and if that's what you did want to expect from this kind of show, then this is pretty much for you.