Next: Dyna Episode 01
Wait, ANOTHER Ultraman movie release?! Two Ultraman movies in a year?! That's like a new record. I guess we'll just not do Ultraman stuff for the next four years or something then. Jokes aside, yes, your eyes do not deceive you. It's "The Final Odyssey" story that occurs two years after the main Ultraman Tiga series. As far as we know, this isn't licensed, and it's a great follow-up to the Tiga series. ("Revival of the Ancient Giant" is a pretty crappy follow-up. We're definitely not doing that.)
Tiga always has a special place in my heart; I watched Tiga when I was only 8 or 9 years of age, so it's one of those things that's really dear to me. I like the cameos made by the Ultraman Dyna crew, and even Ultraman Dyna himself (Tsuruno Takeshi appeared right at the very end). I also like that they expanded on the Ultraman Tiga mythos with the back story of the Dark Giants, as well as all the references to the original series.
Here's a list of the references from the TV series:
- The opening scene is from the very final episode. Captain Iruma's comments about Gatanozoa is also from the final few episodes of the series.
- Yuzare appeared a few times in the series.
- Masaki Keigo (mentioned by investigative team's leader before the Dark Giants revived) was Evil Tiga from the main series.
- Dive Hangar is the base of GUTS. I believe the reference to the darkness that attacked the Dive Hangar was in reference to the last arc of the series as well (Gatanozoa's revival arc).
I generally enjoyed the film, and I like the looks of the three additional types Tiga had in this movie, namely Dark Tiga, Tiga Tornado (red and black), and Tiga Blast (red, purple, and black). That said, I didn't quite like the designs of Hudra and Darramb, especially Hudra. Additionally, the first third of the movie really irritated me in terms of the way they edited the scenes. The cuts between Captain Iruma at R'lyeh, the GUTS team, Daigo and Rena's perspective, the Dark Giants' perspective and such were extremely jarring at some parts.