Missing Link 8 Bit Remix - Ultraman Omega
8been a goddamn while since i've gotten to sperg out about ultraman.
arc was the first reiwa show i watched (mostly) in full as episodes were releasing, and i thought it was... fine?? i guess??? i like arc's design, yuma's story was kinda neat (even if he was fucking BORING as a protagonist), and the man in the white mask episode was fucking stand-out fantastic (WAITER, MORE ULTRA Q-STYLE EPISODES, PLEASE), but the series as a whole didn't really do it for me. it kinda just killed half an hour every friday night for half a year. that in mind, i was less-than-primed to give a chance to give this new series a shot when i saw the trailers a good while back, but then i ended up catching the first episode and i've not missed once since. i like it.
ultraman omega is about an amnesiac alien who (for reasons that have yet to be explained) woke up as a human on earth, where big ol' monsters have started appearing across japan following his awakening. omega is then basically adopted by a normal dude, kosei, who gives omega his human name: sorato okita (funny joke, 'cause the name can be read as "risen [sic: born?] (from a foreign place) from the sky" because kosei is a fucking idiot and was like "dude you came from the sky??? you're an alien?? shit dude i'd better call you 'ALIEN-WHO-FELL-FROM-THE-SKY JONES' or something, 'cause nobody will suspect that you're an alien with that name") and tries to teach him about humanity. sometimes, sorato turns into his big 'ol ultraman form to beat the shit out of kaiju whenever he isn't hungry. that's the plot. no attack team or nothin'. just two bros having fun.
fuckin' love when the secondary cast of an ultraman show knows that the protagonist is ultraman. if you've never seen an ultraman show: it is a very common trope for an ultraman's human host (or form) to conceal his identity from whatever group of people he'd find himself involved with. because omega is totally unaware of what humans learning of his existence may lead to (i.e., him getting killed or captured for study), his handler, kosei, has to teach him how to act like an almost-normal guy and hide his identity as omega from anyone else. this'll probably lead to a confrontation with whatever kaiju reasearch organization that the tertiary member of the main cast, ayu, is involved with. it's shaping up to be fun, especially if they pick up the plot thread of omega being a potential subject of a study that was set up early on. this series almost feels like it could be a different approach to the themes that shin ultraman was like an inch away from tackling fully.
i like the blunt comedy of sorato being a fucking weirdo and kosei having to cover for his constant slips. it's simple, but there's nothin' wrong with that.
the first few episodes weren't anything special for shot composition, but the fucking shot of omega killing mikoto in episode 5 really fucking got me. great fucking shot that instantly made up for the lack of interesting cinematography and honestly immediately set it above arc for me in terms of camera shit, too.
ultraman is another one of those things that i have a hard time reccomending. it's like how i love sonic but can't bring myself to reccomend any of the games in earnest besides MAYBE sa1. it's an acquired taste - and not in the pretentious "ermmm you need to be able to be capable of identifying the jungian archetypes in every scene and appreciating the nuance of such a form in order to begin to understand"-way. more like in the "you need to be comfortable with the fact that you will be watching grown men in rubber suits pretending to punch each and other preceded by flashy transformation segments made to sell toys to japanese kids"-way. unless you're a fun-hating dipshit who needs to take everything in life 100% seriously, maybe you'll get some mileage out of ultraman omega. i dunno, it's a comfy show for me. even if last night's episode was beyond terrible (the only redeeming part was sorato just walking around with a stick poking at the ground for no reason while ayu was telling a serious story because that was actually the funniest thing ever. i hope that the next episode will be better, 'cause 5 was great. i don't watch ultraman for the monster fights, i watch it for fun and creative scenarios and the dynamic character interactions that drive them (this is why i keep emphasizing how much i like sorato and kosei)), i still think that it is goddamn a good entry in the ultra series.
i'm not trying to sell you on ultraman, but talking about the elements that i appreciate might help out with illustrating why i enjoy tokusatsu as a genre. just 'cause i like books and fuckin' black coffee or whatever other things that are socially acceptable to like as a Grown Ass Man™ doesn't mean that i can't also like silly alien antics (or a blue hedgehog, for that matter)!!
that's the show? damn, that's the show. that's all for today. hope you enjoyed the video :)
have a wonderful day, gentlemen. god bless.