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kamenstranger · 10 months

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Well, with the home release of Shin Ultraman, it's finally time to close up my reviews on Anno's Shin Trilogy. Of course, if you're in the know you may be asking how I was able to review this, given the state of said release, which we will get to in a bit. Just know that any subs you see in screenshots were from a fan script I downloaded. With that out of the way, let's jump in.

So this is probably gonna sound a bit familiar. The film starts off with a montage of various Kaiju emerging across Japan, dubbed S-Class Species (all of which are Ultra-Q references.)

The S-Class Species Suppression Protocol (SSSP) is established to handle Kaiju going forward. During an incident with the electricity-eating Kaiju Neronga, an extraterrestrial (Ultraman) crashes to confront and defeat the beast, but in doing so kills SSSP member Shinji Kaminaga (Takumi Saitoh) who dies protecting a child in the area. Shortly after the Neronga incident, a new member joins the SSSP; Hiroko Asami (Masami Nagasawa) an anaylist transferred from the Public Security Intelligence Agency, who is partnered with the now very much alive and very weird Kaminaga.

Suffice it to say, Kaminaga is Ultraman. Although we never have a meeting between Ultraman and Kaminaga, we're just thrown into the two being merged, and even that's quite a bit different. In fact, Kaminaga is simply a subconscious we never hear. Ultraman is the dominant personality, leading to some funny awkward interactions as seen above. This is one of the things I love about Shin Ultraman from the very start; that Ultraman is the star and personality. There's a greater emphasis on the alien nature of the character as a result, which hadn't really been a thing since the very first series- and even then only in the first and last episodes. That ethereal quality is very much a part of the franchise not often referred back to, given how those were just unrefined elements. But it's a clever way to play up familiarity while setting yourself apart from a 50-year backlog.

Likewise, much of the same can be said about the SSSP, who are a diverse group of specialists in biology, physics, strategy, etc. that work in conjunction with the JSDF to defeat Kaiju. As much as I love pulpy 60's atomic-age stuff, a researcher combating kaiju with lasers isn't the tone this movie is striving for. This is all about Anno's forte of people in suits in a boardroom/field tent while making it one of the most compelling things.

As you might expect, the film is rather simple in the broad strokes from there on. We have that initial setup with the SSSP and Ultraman, followed by another Kaiju attack where we see Ultraman engage in a way that shows the SSSP he's an intelligent and likely friendly being.

Then we have a longer more elaborate segment with the Alien Zarab (Kenjiro Tsuda) just showing up, whose goal is to manipulate governments first against Ultraman by impersonating him, and later each other. By the halfway mark there's Alien Mefilas (Koji Yamamoto) probably my favorite segment as he is so deliciously er, devilish. He offers the same power as Ultraman to the humans in exchange for being obedient, something which the Japanese Government is a little too eager to do. And finally the last quarter with stopping Zetton. It's basically about 4-5 vignettes. And if any of that sounds really familiar to my review on Rider, it kinda is. Reviewing Shin Ultraman so recently after Shin Kamen Rider is interesting. Both have similar backgrounds as beloved franchises to Anno, both embody the spirit of the original shows, have cute references, and incorporate initial ideas that may have changed before or during production (no Color timer for Ultraman. Ichigo requiring great speed to transform) and later concepts for the franchise. (Ultra's merging with selfless humans. Gaia theory) Things move at a brisk yet good pace; not suffocating. While the movie does go from one event to the next, Ultraman flows more fluidly in tying everything in a nice cohesive package. I don't want this to be a compare and contrast to Shin Kamen Rider, but seeing the two so close together, well, it's hard not to notice how structurally similar they are. And I think the key reason why Ultraman nails it in a way I don't think Rider did is that Ultraman doesn't feel like it's doing too much. Things are kept simple with two kaiju, Zarab, Mefilas, and technically Zetton as antangonists. They all establish elements that will come into play down the road while giving them mini stories. Zerab provides data on Ultraman to high-up officials in the guise of a benevolent act.

Zerab has an entire subplot of kidnapping Kaminaga, leading to Asami rescuing him and returning the Beta-capsule left in her possession. That's such a classic plot with the right amount of modern flair, and it provides a fun bit of character interaction between Kaminaga and Asami that the film sorely needed by that point. Something a bit more Anno-oriented is Kaminaga's identity being found out resulting in a fallout of the Japanese Government wanting to capture him and basically use him as a weapon. Which of course makes it all the more enticing when Mefilas shows up with his offer.

Speaking of, I have to praise Yamamoto's performance as Mefilas. He does a great job selling him as a conniving but kindly being in such a way that you almost want to believe in him. He exudes a love for life that borders on childlike if not unnatural, and you get the impression that perhaps if you spent time in his presence, you could see what he sees. And that's nowhere more prevalent than his talks with Ultraman, which is like a devil trying to convince an angel he's right. While I am simplifying things down, the film does a surprising amount with the antagonists, using them to their fullest by spending just the right amount of time with them. Part of what aids in that is a very natural flow of expository sections in boardrooms to make this connective tissue, and no I'm not kidding. Anno does very well in this environment and they help the pacing immencily. Simultaneously keeping things moving while also allowing a moment of brevity from nefarious aliens and action sequences. Unless of course, an Alien shows up in the middle of the office out of nowhere, which still works. Kaiju and Aliens suddenly showing up doesn't feel contrived in this setting, they don't need set up, they're mysterious beings and they go with it. As it stands, I never felt a moment where something was wasted, dragged on, oddly placed, over stuffed, or even repetitious- including the locations. It's not like we have Baltan and DaDa shoved in here overcomplicating the film just to have more iconic appearances.

That's not to say it's perfect, mind you. There are elements that feel a bit undercooked or just odd. But I wanna address some other points first.

One of the criticisms I recall hearing when this was running theatrically is that it wasn't as biting as Shin Godzilla… I don't know why anyone would expect that, but I wouldn't call that a problem. There is some degree of political intrigue here; talks about weaponizing Ultraman, some very-very minuscule incorporation of xenophobia, Japan being subjugated by war-hungry superpowers, the Government of Japan not being any better morally, environmentalism, etc. But it's all very surface level, which I think is for the better. The original show had its moments, but they were few and far between. It wasn't until Seven that we saw more complex morality and social commentary. Really, the most you have here is the SSSP's desire to do good contrasted with a Government willing to sell the earth for perceived power. It's something, but not particularly deep.

Political critiques aside, there is a theme of hope in the bureaucratic nightmare. Ultraman wants to believe in humanity, understand them, and greatly admires some of them. Although I feel that's sorta downplayed until the last act. BUT and this is a big but. I do think it works amazingly in conjunction with the ending.

See, Mefilas isn't the last threat. After he is taken care of, there is a bit of a conundrum in the aftermath. Ultraman's superior, Zoffy, makes his appearance. He is not happy. Ultraman, or rather Lipiah, violated their planet's rules by merging with another lifeform. Even worse is that Mefilas' actions showed that humans could possess the same abilities as Ultraman, making them either a threat or exploitable by aliens as weapons. The entire race is a liability, so Zoffy decides to wipe out the entire planet by deploying Zetton.

Well, that's not a space dinosaur.

And man, the symbolism here is wild. Also midly funny in a meta way. I remember when there was so much discussion around Eva's biblical imagery, and it wasn't much deeper than Anno just liking Ultraman. Of course, the reason it appeared in Ultraman was because Tsuburaya was Catholic, so depicting Ultraman in a Christlike fashion made sense. Now we have that same imagery being conjured for an apocalyptic weapon deployed by a galactic being who decided to murder billions as a preventative measure because it's just a drop in the bucket from a cosmic perspective.

It's not at all subtle, but it's also not too much. Zoffy isn't actively malicious, godlike, or even cold and calculated. While otherworldly, he speaks and sounds more natural than Ultraman initially does, albeit with a somewhat regal formality. This in a way shows that maybe Zoffy is more of a reflection of what humanity could become. A powerful being that arrogantly thinks they have the right to wipe out any civilization that could potentially become equal. Not to mention the fact that Zoffy is superior to Ultraman, so you have that thread connecting Zoffy directly to the same Government officials that were being shitheads the entire film. We don't get a great exploration of that angle, but it is something I noticed.

Although Zoffy actually learns a lesson and comes to respect human tenacity after they defeat Zetton. So perhaps you can read that as Zoffy not being as far gone as the LDP.

Jokes aside, the ending is a fitting one. Ultraman trusts the SSSP and humanity at large with the information of the Beta Capsule. It's up to them to learn the science behind it and how they should apply it. In the end, a practical solution is discovered in that the capsule undergoing a second activation would, in tandem with Zetton's plasma, create a temporary wormhole. In the end, the plan works, but Ultraman is taken in as well. He's saved by Zoffy, but rather than returning to the land of light, he opts to sacrifice himself in exchange for Kaminaga being allowed a full life. The film closes as Kaminaga opens his eyes back on Earth.

So I usually save this for the very end, but I might as well say now that I really enjoyed Shin Ultraman. I think of the Shin movies, this is Anno's best. There's not really anything here that bothers me in the way Shin Godzilla or Kamen Rider did. I like Shin Godzilla, but a lot of it felt like it didn't have enough bite to the social commentary despite the reputation. I needed the sterile dry cynicism of Government talk about economic impact contrasted with the human toll, which we don't really get. Shin Kamen Rider (which you can see here) has bonkers pacing and is overly stuffed with too many ideas. Taken in isolation some of the scenes are amazing, but not as a whole. Great moments Frankensteined into an overall confused homunculus. To paraphrase my girlfriend; "It feels like Anno understood the finer details more than the bigger picture."

Here? everything works. The story is cohesive, all the moments flow together wonderfully, and it captures the spirit of the original while being something different. I do still have my issues with it which we'll get to. But nothing that I think holds the film back from being as good as the presented work allows. It does just about everything I would want from an Ultraman film. It's also the most unusual entry from Anno. You don't typically associate something with such an optimistic light from the man. Undeniably there is that shade of cynisim in here, but it's there to contrast, not overwhelm. The ending specifically I think captures that fairly well. In fact, it's arguably more cheerful than the original series. Because in the show, a weapon stronger than Ultraman is made to defeat Zetton. Which, sure, the intent is they don't need him anymore. They can protect themselves and have surpassed their savior. But take a step back and it's kinda scary they have something like that. Here, they have a clever way to allow Ultraman to play an active role in saving everyone, while at the same time, it's the humans coming up with a relatively non-destructive solution. It's a bit of a contrast with the original series.

Of course, developing the beta technology and weaponizing it would be a good plot point for a Shin Ultra Seven. Just a thought.

If there is one knock against the movie I have, it's not having a lot to say about the characters. The main supporting cast is incredibly solid, don't get me wrong. I enjoy everyone here, enjoyable antagonists. But they are pretty bare. Even Asami and Kaminaga/Ultraman's dynamic isn't as developed as it could've been. They do have interactions, character moments, some minor conflict, and resolution on trust. They work, it's just that the film never finds the time to develop it beyond the barest of bare minimal. Asami is just sort of a smart tough woman, and Kaminaga a weird alien man who's a tad rebellious for his race. Yet I'm not really sure if they could do more without taking away something else, so I have to throw my hands up at the matter. Not ideal, but I don't have much to complain about.

I have similar sentiments about the visuals and SFX. I think the vast majority of the film looks good. I love that Bin Furuya was used for the rendering of Ultraman. His sillouette is Ultraman, no question. The added lankiness, slightly exaggerated limbs, and lack of both a color timer and back fin all do enough to emphasize that alien quality while staying true to the original design. Speaking of the original design, some of the close-ups show an ever so slight leathery/rubber texture to Ultraman's body, sorta like a more subdued type A mask.

I also want to point out that whenever Ultraman flies they mostly keep him in a completely ridged formation, even when he spins out of control-- like a model. Which I find charming, if a bit funny at times.

Not that they don't do some unique things with that creative direction. For me it's not even the sweet flipkick, it's how weighless they make his flight feel. You feel as if he's in complete control of his gravity.

That said, a lack of weight plagues many fights. The sad thing is I just don't feel the impact of 50 meter giants coming to blows. There's good sound design, wonderfully cute moments like Ultraman hurting and shaking his hand, and great shot composition as seen above. They caputure a lot of fine details from traditional suitmation, perform feats that would be impossible with it (which is the strongest point.) But they don't capture the visceral nature of a real physical object making contact with another physical object.

That's not to say all the fights are disappointing, just that there is an inherent flaw to them.

For what it's worth, my favorite fight was with Zarab, that entire sequence is great. I particularly love the night setting where all the lights reflect upon Ultraman's mercury-silver skin. Most of the battle is airborne as well, which helps greatly. You've got all the strong elements of the CG coming together to really make something that could only be done in this way. Zarab's hollowed out back being chief among them.

Still, it is pretty disappointing that most battles distill down to beams, which becomes more noticeable with time. Ironically, as much as I enjoy Mefilas as a villain, his fight is arguably the worst. Not helped by the fact that the CG takes a noticeable dip in quality at one point.

That environment is PS4 territory right there.

Thankfully, Anno and Higuchi are goddamn masters of composition, backed by a rather large team of cinematographers, many of whom were former units on Eva. These people have been mimicking the absolute best of Ultra visuals for decades, so it's no surprise that the film is stuffed with interesting shots. Admittedly, there is a bit of added fun in knowing what they're invoking. I talked about how one of the very special things about Anno is how he doesn't dip into nostalgia in a carbon copy sense, at least not often. Honoring original design elements is one thing, but that's more about understanding elements that worked in the original, not making a direct copy. A great example is how Zoffy in the series has "star marks" and a black fin. You can quickly gather he's different from Ultraman, even if you're stuck on a B&W TV. Here, he has a deep Gold color, more precious than silver. Familiarity is a vibe, not a straight rehash, and I think the purest form of that is the cinematography.

Take a look at Return of Ultraman and Ultraman Ace compared to Shin Ultraman.

Low angles, high angles, framing through an object.

Of course, I'm not pointing out anything that isn't already known. You've probably seen MachDent's wonderful write up on the the subject. I bring it up because not only does it transform the most mundane of sequences into something captivating, but it can mitigate shortcomings elsewhere, such as the lackluster impacts. There is one thing I should probably bring up here in terms of visuals, and that's the depiction of Asami, which is uh. Well, just in case you thought Anno didn't put a strong headed woman with some absolute territory in here, here you go.

Not a complaint mind you, just an observation.

Okay, that's a little fucking weird.

I guess the one last thing to mention about the movie itself is the music. Like Shin Godzilla and later Kamen Rider, there's a mix of new original music, old music from the series, and most interstingly; unused old music. At its best, it's remarkibly charming (love the Ultra Q theme in the opening) At its worst, some music feels out of place and out of time. As much as I love hearing old music tracks, there's a big disconnect between the music's audio, the film's audio, and the film's visuals. It'd be like if I put a James Bernard score over Monster Squad. Not every use of an old recording is like that, but enough to be mildly distracting. I know budgetary reasons make it unrealistic, but I do wish that they could've taken the original compositions and recorded new arrangments on modern equipment for all the tracks. Regardless, the original tracks and new arrangements by Shirō Sagisu are incredible.

What's not incredible was the home release. Oh boy, let's talk about that mess. I will say there is a slight silver lining, but we gotta talk about the problems and the weirdness. First off is the sub situation. The absolute worst thing to happen to subs this year cause this one didn't even take any billionaires. The initial batch sent out was Bad, unwatchable, and unreadable. On screen text is not translated, and like Shin Godzilla, there is a ton of it. Hell, the first 2 minutes is text that sets up the premise. Secondly, the subs themselves are misencoded by featuring brackets and coding used for closed captioning, not subbing. Along with that was a tirade of misspellings, line breaks, and generally bad formatting. It's because of this that Shin Ultraman is the only instance of me using fansubs when an official release is available, at least for a review. They dropped the ball as hard as they could short of the film not being audible or on the damn disc.

The good news is that the issue has been fixed, at least according to the distributor. New discs are being sent out with fully corrected subtitles. The format issues are fixed, the text is translated, and the ending song is translated. All good sounding news.

I do still want to talk about the oddity that is the company behind this. Because TsuPro didn't go through MillCreek who has been the main distributor of the Ultra Series in NA, which is kinda weird. This is purely speculative, but things have been odd all around lately. There hasn't been a major release since January, the one exception was a compilation in May spotlighting Red King episodes. The MoviesSpree service by Millcreek is dead and the main way to stream Ultra is through Shout Factory or TsuPro on youtube. All the Ultra releases are discounted, as low as $7 for a whole series. And then you've got the movie being handled by a whole other company. That's kinda weird, right? That looks like someone is about to lose their license. I'd say maybe TsuPro wasn't thrilled with the inconsistent quality MillCreek has had with Subtitles:

Which would be hilarious given the outcome here. Regardless, the company chosen was Cleopatra Entertainment, a film division known primarily for Documentaries on Bands, biopics, and horror schlock. It's an odd choice, to say the least. Why not pick someone like Discotek, Arrow Video, Shout, or Sentai Film Works? Granted, the latter two have had their own issues with subtitles, but they are at the very least experienced with it. There is however a bit of a wrinkle in all this, which is that another distributor had the same issue, Raven Banner, who is handling the Canadian release. Which sorta makes it sound like the source of the issue might've lied elsewhere.

This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened, either. As much praise as is often lauded to TsuPro for how prolific the Ultra series has become in NA, especially when compared to the fuck all anything from Toei- there is an offset. Many of the quality releases had quality subs to begin with, and were often shows that aired weekly on CR and later YT. But the stuff that didn't? That was 50/50. Might be okay, might get a copyright logo randomly shoved in there. If it's something previously subbed like Mebius or Gridman? There's a good chance of spelling errors, grammatical errors, entire words missing, very questionable localization, and punctuation that makes me look professional.

Undoubtedly those were made by some poor underpaid crunched to hell subber, the worst of it being from TOKU's handling of Gridman(CR is guilty of the Mebius subs.) But MillCreek will copy those wholesale, either cause it's cheaper or it's what TsuPro provides. Maybe both, given that TsuPro has used those releases on their youtube channel.

And I feel this is something that a lot of people have been letting slide for too long. An extreme example like Gridman aside, I'd argue even one episode out of forty having an egregious error is too much when they're charging for this. I don't care how cheap it is, or that it's just one line or a couple episodes. Charge more, go longer between releases, pay your subbers, and have better quality. But here? There's no way to downplay it as a line or two. The entire movie was fucked.

Look, I know that there are people at TsuPro who go above and beyond. The recently released Blazar has a whopping 9 different language options, which is incredible. We've got simultaneous airings with Japan. The Wiki is getting official oversight for accurate information. I love that, we need stuff like that. I also realize that it would be impossible for them to have a direct hand in every release, nor should they micromanage. The companies involved should know what they're doing when it comes to this line of work, or be competent enough to contract the right people that do. I am grateful this issue has for the most part been resolved, Cleo Ent. does seem to be doing the best of a bad situation. But it has to be said we've been overdue for some form of oversight and quality control from anyone. Nor should it have reached the point of the discs being sent out. Regardless of whoever dropped the ball, TsuPro are the ones ultimately picking these distributors.

As it stands, I'm in a bit of a tough place on recommendations. I think this is Anno's best film. I think it's worth watching, and with the subtitles resolved, it should be easy, right? The thing is, it's still too early to tell. If you do get a fault copy there's a form you can fill out for a replacement, which is good. But I gotta tell you, I don't wanna go through the headache. I enjoyed the film, but not enough for customer support and returns. I'll wait a while. I guess if you really want to you could do like me and buy the bluray, DL a script for the subs, and watch on your computer if needed. But that's still not exactly ideal, particularly if you don't have a PC Bluray player. Or as the Gloroius official subs for Gridman put it:

That's also what I think about the new layout. As always, thanks for reading, liking, reblogging, etc. If you like what I do you can tip me at my ko-fi here.

#tokusatsu #review #kaiju #tsuburaya #ultraman #shin ultraman

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