THIS
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Ultraman, a SciFi series that started in 1966,
based on the character from Ultra-Q, a Japanese twilight zone style show, gets
a Netflix Original anime based on the manga by Eiichi Shimizu which is a sequel to the
original TV series. Produced by
Production I.G it shares some visual similarities to Netflix’s other 3DCG anime
Ajin: Demi-Human made by Polygon pictures.
The story follows a young Shinjiro Hayata
a second year in high school and the son of Shin Hayata the current Minister of
Defense and retired Ultraman of days past. Shin has lost his memories of being
Earth’s giant warrior after the threat of invading aliens has come to its
conclusion. Earth, now enjoying a period of peace, lacks a defender as slowly
but surely unrest and uncertainty congeals in the secret alien settlements of
earth. The SSSP, that is the Science Special Search Party, still operates in
secret and deals with an alien that breaks the law and has been “marked for
elimination”, a la Men in Black. It’s newest member is our protagonist Shinjiro
as he dawns the new Ultraman suit to protect the earth from evil aliens and saving
people from dangerous situations. It is also worth mentioning that the anime
deviates from the original as it is no longer a fight between men in rubber suits
fighting in model cities, causing massive collateral damage and death wherever
they fight, but rather becoming Japanese ironman in regular human size, thus
making the public believe the hero is but a simple cosplayer in the first act.
The story is grittier and more rooted in reality than the original as it
explores its themes of responsibility, power and the ability to wield it,
ethical murder, and terrorism.
As we follow our protagonist coming to terms
with murdering evil aliens, the responsibilities of dawning a hero’s mantle and
being able to use his abilities properly, his character becomes more heroic and
far less reminiscent of a whiny Shinji Ikari. A bit more time could have been
used to develop the relationships between Shinjiro and his father, as he barely
gets any screen time as it is and feels like a praise dispenser in the first
place, as well as the complicated relationship between Shinjiro and Dan
Moroboshi who dawns the mantle of Ultraman Seven. The story moves quite quickly
yet never feels rushed due to its extensive use of quieter and slower parts
that gives a bit of breathing room to its action-packed fighting sequences.
Another caveat of the show is that it spends quite a bit of time on world building
which is quite welcome to viewers who never even heard of the original series,
and like me, certainly weren’t around at the time to enjoy it. Yet it also has
quite a few glaring flaws. The whole season has a few distinct conflicts and
set pieces, yet by the time the final one rolls around one are left asking
oneself “Wait, what was that all about?
That was a bit sudden.”. In fact, the finale was marred by sloppy writing as it desperately attempts to connect plot
threads from the beginning of the season yet it came across as completely
forced and an excuse to indulge in some much-needed character development and
show off how awesome our heroes are. As far as character flaws go, and I don’t
mean the kind that is the hallmark of good writing, Shinjiro seems really
incompetent about keeping his identity secret, not out of malice or self-destructive habit, but simply because he can’t keep his mouth shut in front of
a girl. Its as if he never grasped the concept of “think before you act”.
Another glaring writing flaw is highlighted by the fact that Shinjiro has
trouble controlling his inborn superhuman strength despite living with it for
16 years. One would think that at least by then one would have mastery over
their own body. Furthermore, part of his character development is that he was
initially in it for the glory of being a superhero without all of the strings
that come attached with that, spawning a subpar plot of “will he or won’t he
ever take up the mantle”. In fact, Shinjiro as a character is barely believable
as it stands. On one hand, he seems to barely be able to rub two brain cells
together and on the other he is somehow a hand to hand combat master, holding
his own against powerful foes. No explanation is given as to why that is the
case by the way. Most of the supporting cast is either a walking talking
conflict generator or they react to what is happening on screen in a desperate
attempt to convey the emotions the audience is supposed to feel. Dan Moroboshi
is one of the few characters that break the mold. He despises Shinjiro for his
lack of experience yet acknowledges his outstanding talent that makes up for
it, making him a lot more interesting and complex than the protagonist. His
motivations are far more clear and righteous, even if he won’t hesitate to take
out “alien scum”. In fact, I subconsciously only started to tolerate the
protagonist when Dan did.
The sound design in Ultraman is quite the
treat. Sound effects are good and convincing allowing one to immerse themselves
in the show and the soundtrack is great. All the audio is in very high quality,
clear, well mastered and not grating or annoying. As a “man of culture” aka. “A
massive weeb” aka “dumpster fire connoisseur” I prefer the original voice
acting for anime and read the subtitles like a hipster film student watching French
movies in an attempt to look more sophisticated for his social circle.
Therefore it is not exactly an easy task to judge the voice acting as I don’t
speak Japanese. However from what I can discern it seems at least on par with
most shows out there. All in all, there isn’t much more to say, the soundtrack
has an excellent heroic main theme, the battle theme has some great electric
guitar, and quieter scenes get some nice strings and piano treatment. To
summarize, “it sounds good bro.”
Its visual style has become a point of
confusion for me. The character models all have enough depth and detail to make
the characters believable when they aren’t attempting to emote that is. 3DCG
does not work well when it comes to detailed animation. Facial expressions look
stiff, blank, and awkward most of the time. It certainly helps that the most
important characters emote with a mask on. Furthermore, the animation is wildly
inconsistent resulting in some hilarious eye cancer at times. More on that
later. The lighting is fine if not good in some scenes but the environments
suffer from the typical low-resolution texture work used for backgrounds.
Crowds and background character models are straight from bad CG hell. This is
not the only time something appears low quality or cheap though. A severed arm
and head that looked like it came straight from the PS2 era, odd character
movements, Video Copilot Action Essentials blood spatters and more. My biggest
gripe, however, is with the frame rate and animation quality. It is quite well
established that 2D anime will typically be produced at a lower frame rate in
general even half of what one would normally use in filmmaking and even less
for background characters yet this does not translate well to 3DCG. Like, at
all. A lot of motions look choppy and unappealing while at times it will be
smooth as butter. Its as if you are playing a game and your system from 1999 is
melting as it attempts to render cutscenes in real time. The worst part about
this is that the choreography is really excellent in its hand to hand combat
scenes. A lot of work was put into them and it shows. Clearly, this was a
stylistic choice and not a technological limitation, one I am no fan of.
Another issue pops up occasionally due to this choice as sometimes it is nearly
impossible to judge how fast something is happening. Most of the time when slow
motion is used it is very clear and deliberate, yet I remember one very
distinct scene where I for the life of me could not tell whether it was
supposed to be in slow motion or real time. But the worst animation seems to be
during the shows quieter dialogue moments. There are very few words that can
describe this particular brand of motion vomit but the best word I have for it
is jarring. This seems to be a fairly common trait when it comes to 3DCG anime,
however, this unsettling style can be used to one's advantage and doesn’t always
have to be a detriment. Ajin: Demi-Human is an excellent example of this. The
jarring animation and cel-shaded character models helped solidify the creepy
undertones of the story and especially the unsettling nature of the “Ghosts”.
The animation serves to illustrate the story and the style subtly adds to its
atmosphere. If you haven’t seen Ajin yet, it is certainly worth your time. Give
it a try.
In conclusion, Ultraman is certainly
watchable. It has enough action scenes where you can simply turn your brain off
and enjoy the spectacle. That is if you can stomach some of the choppy
animations. Set pieces are for the most part quite awesome without getting too
ridiculous, bar one exception in the finale, and the story will keep you
engaged long enough even if it is not something to write home about. So if you
have nothing to watch, give Ultraman a try, it's not great but not terrible
enough to never touch with a 10ft pole.
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