Ultraman Orb

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Mxylv
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Ultraman Orb

Post by Mxylv »

(Original title: What Ultraman Orb Needs)

Lately the Ultra Series hasn't quite been its 2001-07 self.

It's gotten much better since Ginga, and I really enjoyed X, but the series still felt a bit lacking compared to how it used to be. Fortunately, the upcoming Ultraman Orb is reported to be a "classic back-to-basics Ultraman" (given the post-Ginga advertising era, I'm really liking the word "back"), and appears to have dumped Spark Dolls. Although their production motto of "When in doubt, play around" seems a bit risky, the show has potential. And so, I've decided to compile a list of items that either its Toei rivals currently have (particularly with Ghost) or that the Ultra Series itself previously had that could make Orb a great show:
  • A vast, overarching plot (such as contemporary Kamen Rider's)
  • A more nuanced advertising plan (once more, to a small degree, like contemporary KR's)
  • A fairly consistent tone (such as with previous Ultra series), and
  • A human host (taking inspiration particularly from Nexus)
Below are all the points with more detail:
Spoiler
  • Spoiler
    A vast, overarching plot
    While I was watching Ghost, it occurred to me that, although X had a nice subplot about Daichi's family, a subplot about X and the purple orb he was chasing, and an event around halfway that effects the other half of the series to a small degree, the show never *really* changes. Near the beginning of Ghost, in contrast, the main villains seemed to be Saionji, Alain and to a degree even Makoto, but by episode 20 it felt like hardly even the same show. With a few character and story-driven twists and turns consisting of more than just upgrades, it could jump to something beyond a monster of the week show.
  • Spoiler
    A more nuanced advertising plan
    It's a sad truth that advertising in Tokusatsu isn't going away anytime soon. However, it's within reason that it could be less direct. X hid its advertising far better than Ginga did, but it still required the willing suspension of disbelief to look at a toy and think of it as a monster when the show's trying to take an event seriously. I think using cards instead is a step in the right direction (especially as they can be useful in real life, i.e. credit cards), but I feel like I'd be able to deal with collectible items like eyecons/lockseeds, which yell neither "low budget" nor "buy our stuff" quite so much as action figures.
  • Spoiler
    A fairly consistent tone
    I'm still relatively new to Tokusatsu and the Ultra Series, but my impression has been that each and every Ultra Series (even from the Showa era) has had a distinct tone (arguably with Taro and Max the happiest, Leo and Nexus the grittiest, and Mebius somewhere in between). X was a lot more ambiguous; whereas episodes 9 and 18 felt like virtually Max-level weirdness, 3 was somewhat creepy and 20 had a character-driven, realistic story. In short, whatever in M-78 would happen with the tone was completely up to the directors. While I think it was an interesting experiment, it also made the lack of an overall story all the more evident: again, most of X seemed like basically a MoTW show, and the lack of consistency in directing style made it even clearer that they were focusing on individual episodes rather than the series as a whole.
  • Spoiler
    A human host
    One thing I liked about Nexus was that it asked what someone entrusted with massive power could actually do with it, and the consequences of having such power. Ginga and the fairly constantly smiling Hikaru felt like the antithesis of this, and while X partially fixed this, I feel like the extra, human level is still missing.

So, what do you think? Is there anything in particular that would get the Ultra Series back into shape? Could they actually achieve a state similar to their rival's or previous self's success again in the near future?

(Translation credit for the interview of Orb's staff goes to The Tokusatsu Network: http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2016/04/fir ... rb-emerge/)
Last edited by Mxylv on Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What Ultraman Orb Needs

Post by mantis »

I've heard a few mixed reactions so far from it being a little too goofy to being fun and one person calling it Ultraman Who. I haven't watched the first episode yet but I am reserved. I actually prefer the more serious tones in the Ultra series and that may be because I don't care for Japanese humor that is directed toward kids.
MythrilMoth
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Re: What Ultraman Orb Needs

Post by MythrilMoth »

I've watched the first two episodes of Orb, and I'm gonna be honest:

- The acting is horrible. I'm pretty sure the entire cast are Toei's SS/KR rejects.
- The production values are barely above late 90s Toei.
- The whole gimmick for Orb is a shameless ripoff of "mega anniversary" stuff Kamen Rider and Super Sentai have previously done (ESPECIALLY Decade and Gokaiger).

Ultra Series has gone from being the progenitor of tokusatsu hero shows to being a bad copy of the more successful ones. It's way past time for Tsuburaya Productions to just be sold to Toei and folded into SHT so at least future Ultra Series won't be this embarrassing.
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Mxylv
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Re: Ultraman Orb

Post by Mxylv »

So I've just caught up with Orb. Here are my thoughts on it so far:
Spoiler
General notes:
  • Spoiler
    The subplots are way more interesting than the episodic plots. Orb seems like a hybrid between a solid story and MotW, and while it pulls off its subplots better than X, the MotW parts aren't grabbing me.
  • Spoiler
    Kudos to making the SSP leader female; that keeps it from being completely stereotyped. Don't think we've had that before. A nice next step would be making her competent (see the below point).
  • Spoiler
    The SSP looks suspiciously similar to the KR Ghost team. Both teams contain a girl, a guy and a comic relief character in a role normally associated with respect and dignity (a monk in one show, and a genius in the other). That said, there's just about no chemistry between the members, and none of them (not even the professional, tactical uncle) is competent. Gai has to run in and save their necks way more often than he should (rather than, say, saving an entire city).
  • Spoiler
    Definitely meant for younger kids. Well, at least it's consistent I guess.
Spoiler

What I particularly like:
  • Spoiler
    I like the Ultra himself. Having a human form is a nice break from the human hosts we've had for the last few years. The color scheme actually isn't as off-putting as I'd thought, and the voice actor is a huge improvement over X's in my opinion. The monster fights are pretty good, and they don't feel particularly low-budget.
  • Spoiler
    Juggler is actually a pretty good villain. Lots of mysteries and many cards in his hand--figuratively and literally. It's been a while since we've had a consistent villain who keeps showing up.
Spoiler

What I particularly dislike:
  • Spoiler
    The rise is way too long. It takes a little over 30 seconds to turn into Orb in each form; they could easily do with half of that (heck, almost anything pre-Ginga had just the rise and that did fine). Seeing Orb in all three of his base forms means a minute and a half of footage that I've already seen where nothing in the plot happens.
  • Spoiler
    Catchphrases. In fact, a catchphrase for each form. This is also most likely knocking off of Kamen Rider, but it's another angle I think we can do without.
MythrilMoth wrote: Ultra Series has gone from being the progenitor of tokusatsu hero shows to being a bad copy of the more successful ones. It's way past time for Tsuburaya Productions to just be sold to Toei and folded into SHT so at least future Ultra Series won't be this embarrassing.
Given Ex-Aid's design, I'm rather hesitant to give anything to Toei :p
Watching:
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Watched:
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Ultraman '66, Leo, Great, Nexus - U7X, Ginga - Blazar
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GS Sho, Dogengers S1-4
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MythrilMoth
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Re: Ultraman Orb

Post by MythrilMoth »

Mxylv wrote:Given Ex-Aid's design, I'm rather hesitant to give anything to Toei :p
Given Ex-Aid's design (which I only just saw for the first time today; I'm massively out of the loop toku-wise) I'm sadly inclined to agree. :P
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Mxylv
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Re: Ultraman Orb

Post by Mxylv »

The show's three episodes into its second arc now, so here are my thoughts on how it's going:
  • Overall, the first arc felt pretty meh. It suffered from the issues I mentioned earlier, especially comical scenes. That said, starting with episode 10, it feels like they generally knew when to be more serious.
  • Toward the end of the first arc, they've been picking up the pace. I found Thunder Breaster and the consequences of using him to be an excellent idea.
  • There's much more chemistry between SSP than there was at the beginning, so that's a definite improvement. It still isn't at the level of X's cast's chemistry, but SSP do feel like they're part of a family where they'd previously failed at giving that impression.
I still think it has a lot of unnecessary comic relief, but those moments don't feel like they were stuffed into otherwise dark scenes like Ghost's did for me. It's still a generally lighthearted show intended for a younger audience, but it's one that presents moral dilemmas and a flawed, soul-searching protagonist. That's more than I can say for much of Ghost and post-2012 Ultra shows already. Overall, it's looking a lot better than the first few episodes had implied; hopefully it'll continue to improve.
Watching:
Kamen Rider Kuuga, Gotchard

Watched:
KR W, Gaim, Ghost - Build, Geats
Ultraman '66, Leo, Great, Nexus - U7X, Ginga - Blazar
Donbrothers
GS Sho, Dogengers S1-4
When in doubt,
Image
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Re: Ultraman Orb

Post by DaVinci030 »

Can't say that much on this show.

Ratings Poll viewtopic.php?f=58&t=20464

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