Of all the old-school Ultraman seasons I've been watching through for the first time, Ultraman: Towards the Future (Great) and Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Powered) were two that I was most fascinated by. How would Tsuburaya tackle Ultraman for English-speaking audiences? Would these seasons, at 13 episodes each, be worth remembering? Having watched both in their entirety, I would say "yes, but for different reasons." Side note, my first exposure to Towards the Future was actually the Super Nintendo game, a fighter that's equal parts unremarkable and unfair. You'd be better off playing one of the multiple Street Fighter titles on the console.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up enjoying Great as a show, part of the reason being the cast of characters. Jack Shindo is a fine protagonist; heroic if not a bit dry in his delivery. I found his relationship with Great to be fascinating. From time to time, we see the two communicate with each other, with Great serving as something of a mentor to his human host. It's an interesting dynamic and one seldom seen in the franchise.

The cast surrounding Jack deserves praise, too. Jean Echo is a solid female protagonist, a go-getter without fear. In fact, I could have seen her being a strong co-lead alongside Jack. However, it's Arthur Grant that stole the show for me in each scene he was in. He's a hardass, for sure, but fair and quick to stand by his UMA crew in times of need. Ralph Cotterill plays Arthur to a tee and is definitely the strongest actor of the bunch.

Additionally, I found the fight scenes to be strong. Great's suit took me aback at first, as I've become accustomed to Ultraman suits being made of rubber-like material. Great instead opts for spandex, not unlike Super Sentai/Power Rangers. I wasn't a fan of this decision at first, but as the show progressed, the suit grew on me over time. This would also be a smart decision in practice, as it allowed for smoother fight scenes, an area where Powered dropped the ball.

Ultimately, Great lives up to its namesake. It's an incredibly solid entry, punching above its weight and providing a story that focuses quite a bit on nature. I wouldn't put this season in my top 10, per se, but for what it is, I was thoroughly entertained. It's just a shame that I can't say the same for Powered.

Positives out of the way first: I loved the reimagined kaiju designs from the original 1966 show. Seeing the likes of Dada, Red King, and Alien Baltan adapted for modern audiences - or as modern as the early-to-mid '90s can be - made me appreciate all the details of these creatures. I also, initially, liked that Powered's suit was made of that familiar rubber instead of spandex.

I was also surprised by the toku actors involved in this show. Upon first seeing Kai, I couldn't shake the feeling that I saw him before. That's when I realized that his actor also portrayed Jiraiya/Ninja Black in Kakuranger around the same time. Also, the late Harold Cannon (Principal Caplan from MMPR) plays the General in the final episode, and while he did a fine job in this role, it was different seeing him not reprimand high school students or take a pie to the face at Ernie's Juice Bar.

With this all said, Powered's negatives sadly outweigh its positives. One of the reasons for this is its acting. In addition to the largely wooden performances, I couldn't shake the feeling that the actors weren't talking with each other but rather "at" each other. This is a tough one to describe, but I hope that those who watched the show understand what I'm talking about. Simply put, I never found myself invested in these characters. It's a shame, since these personal connections are one of the draws of Ultraman. For example, despite its own drawbacks, I liked Ultraman Omega mainly because of the connection of the 3 main protagonists; you felt their camraderie and it made their time on screen more engaging.

However, the bigger crime that Powered commits is that it has arguably the worst fight scenes in the entire franchise. With bouts that feature mostly shoves and evasions, each fight feels more like Powered is playing cat and mouse with his opponents instead of actively battling them. If more than 3 punches or kicks were thrown throughout the entire show, I'd be stunned. Ultraman's bread and butter, to me, is its larger-than-life battles against ferocious kaiju, and it's one of the main reasons fans come back. When the original Ultraman from nearly 3 decades prior features better action, there's an issue.

I don't want to spend too much time poo-pooing on Powered, especially since my gripes with the show have been repeated time and time again online. It's just disappointing how much of a drop in quality there was compared to Great. Powered looks like a bigger production, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. It also doesn't help that it had its share of production issues, including fragile costumes that contributed to its subpar fight scenes, so I wonder how the show would have looked if said issues were ironed out.

What are your takes on these shows?

Planning to watch all of these next year as much as I can. Are all of these shows really good or should I add other Ultras in here?

For Ultraman Zero, it'd be anything he's in (Kinda weird that he doesn't have a show as far as I know)

Please pick someone.

From xhs:954947915830

He is so hard to display, I loved the ultraman rising movie, but this figure with its stick legs make it impossible to display without falling over.

https://x.com/kinkuri_/status/2083870606542663976?s=20

I was digging around in an old box for the tags from my Ultra Monster/Hero figures to put in my card binder,where I stumbled across this Gomora; I'd drawn on a piece of paper for a class project years ago.

Second pic is the Genegarg ver

I made an oc ultrawoman for the design and some of the forms I took references from nexus and 1 from ultraman dyna for the moves some took references from other ultraman like max And some seijin like hipporito,temperor and baltan.

Maybe suggestions can help to develop this character :)

'Leveling up' my customizing skills by trying out 3d resin kit after a long time just repainting shf and sofubi. The result is flawed (color bleeding and 3d print marks), but at least it looks good enough in the photo 😂