Ultraman Decker: The Complete Series + Ultraman Decker Finale: Journey to Beyond review by Bobby Blakey
Ever since I was a kid, I have loved all things Kaiju. Like most I sat around the TV watching Godzilla and all the other monsters do battle, destroying cities brought a smile to my face. When I discovered the world of Ultraman this changed everything. I still loved the monsters, but there was a superhero element to it and could not get enough of it and have dived into every iteration since the original series UltraQ in 1966. Now Mill Creek is bringing yet another version to the fans with Ultraman Decker: The Complete Series starring Hiroki Matsumoto, Yuka Murayama, Nobunaga Daichi, Sae Miyazawa, Masaya Kikawada, Hiroshi Tsuchida, and Yu Koyanagi. Will this tenth (37th overall) entry into the “New Generation Heroes” era deliver, or will it fail to save the city?
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Ultraman Decker follows Earth that once again seems at peace after the threat of monster attacks fades. Humanity turns its eyes to the stars and heads to space, while its monster attack countermeasures continue to shrink. It is in this new age when “Sphere,” an invading swarm of mysterious floating space objects, begin to attack Earth. Humanity loses contact with space and becomes a lone star. Their attack throws our hero Kanata Asumi’s peaceful life into chaos. Destruction spreads before his eyes and a giant monster appears. With no heed for his own safety, Kanata jumps in front of the enemy and transforms into Ultraman Decker. “I gotta do it now!” Having discovered the light of Decker within himself, Kanata pledges to protect humanity’s daily life and joins the expert team GUTS-Select, newly reformed as a counter-Sphere squad. As its newest member, Kanata and his young unseasoned team stand against these great enemies, together.
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Every one of these series takes me right back to my childhood. I still love this
show and seeing Ultraman in classic action brings a smile to my face. While I will always be partial to the original Ultraman look it is still a load of fun to see all the different variations. I enjoy these new takes on the characters that tend to be more in the vein of Power Rangers and leaning into the kid market whereas the original series seemed to take itself more seriously and focus more on the kaiju world. This is still all intact with plenty of outlandish kaiju to battle there is just a different tone to it all.
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This series is a direct sequel to Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga taking place years after its finale. The series focuses more on a futuristic approach and looks to change up the tone a bit from the previous series. While there is some silliness still here it looks to be attempting to bring some of the old school flair back and made me smile. Each episode brings all the same fun action and sometimes silliness that fans expect from it and manages to craft a worthy entry into the franchise thanks to the previously mentioned serious aspect. Of course, it is jam packed with all the Ultraman versus Kaiju you could want with most of its man in suit as it should be, but still with a lot of the current CGI added in that is hit and miss with me.
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I am not a big fan of all the extra effects used here, but I get it that they are trying to step things up. I just feel it loses some of the magic of what makes the series so great. To be fair though, getting to still see any version of Ultraman in action and finding new audiences is better than nothing at all. If you are a fan of the franchise, then this is once again worth checking out and makes for a perfect Ultra binge.
This release not only offers up all 25 episodes of the series, but 3 recap episodes and the Ultraman Decker Finale: Journey to Beyond film. Join the intergalactic kaiju battle and grab your copy of the Ultraman Decker D: The Complete Series + Ultraman Decker Finale: Journey to Beyond when it hits Blu-ray on April 22nd from Mill Creek Entertainment.