Summary: For this week we decided to visit tokusatsu's third pillar, Ultraman, by reviewing Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial. We picked it both because it's the latest Ultraman release, but also one of the more interesting and accessible ones. As a spoiler note: we usually discuss blocks of episodes so it'd be possible to listen to the podcast, watch the corresponding block of a show, and then be surprised by a few things. Since this is a film (and a tightly-written one at that), we end up going through the plot of the entire movie as we discuss it. Depending on how sensitive you are to spoilers, you may want to watch the film before you listen to the podcast. If you're not sold on the movie, you can give the podcast a listen anyway and see if any of the highlights we describe pique your interest. In addition to the movie review, we touch on our feelings about the current status of Beet Buster in Go-Busters, how Ultraman influenced our early days in the fandom, and the various things that may keep fans these days from liking Ultraman stuff. Just as an aside, at one point in the podcast I mention that I've got no idea if Zero's in the upcoming (on home video) Ultraman Saga flick; we were corrected on that before the file even went to the sound editor! So yeah, Ultraman Zero does appear in Ultraman Saga. I'm sure you guys can find plenty of other things we got wrong to tell us about in the comments. One thing that comes up at one point during the podcast is the idea that Heisei Kamen Rider has kind of trained tokusatsu viewers to not really expect anything significant from a hero's supporting cast. Now, actually, I'd say there's two big exceptions to this general trend, but the conversation in the podcast drifted in another direction and it never got mentioned. The sound editor brought it up, though, so I thought it'd be worth a note here in the blog. The two Heisei Rider shows that violate the trend toward supporting casts being nonentities are Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider Hibiki. These two shows share one very important factor: they're the only two Rider shows produced by Shigenori Takatera, who had a very different approach to the Rider franchise than his successors. I also feel like you could argue Agito is also an exception, but if so, it'd be part of Agito's general tendency to try and handle certain things the way Kuuga did. That trend goes away in Heisei Rider very quickly and is all but gone by the time you reach Blade, let alone post-Hibiki shows like Kabuto and Den-O. Well, in our opinion; I'm sure somebody out there feels different, and if so, feel free to bring it up in the comments!
