Ultraman Z:
The Complete Series
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 Z: The Complete Series starring Koshu Hirano, Rima Matsuda, Hikari Kuroki, Takaya Aoyagi, Jun Hashizume, Rihito Noda, and Hisahiro Ogura. Will this ninth (35th overall) entry into the “New Generation Heroes” era deliver, or will it fail to save the city?
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Ultraman Z follows a monstrous devil in the distant past that was shattered after a devastating battle. Today, the splinters of that powerful foe are still causing chaos throughout the universe. While the Ultra Heroes fight to restore peace to the galaxy, a mysterious new threat uses these splinters in its despicable schemes to destroy planets one by one. And now, that evil being is approaching the Land of Light. In its way stands the gallant Ultraman Zero and his disciple, Ultraman Z (Zett). At the end of a fierce battle, Z pursues the
monster alone towards Earth. On Earth, the anti-monster robot force STORAGE, joined by a hot-blooded new recruit, Haruki Natsukawa, face an invading space monster. Their fateful encounter begins an incredible story of their battles.
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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. I will say though that although this one has some silly elements there is a more serious tone more like the original, making it work better than some of the other recent ones.
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This series wastes no time getting right in on the action with a quick but epic showdown featuring kaiju and robot of some sort before Ultraman Z enters the battle. This sets the tone of the show and introduces us to the characters before getting into the latest Ultraman human merger that we all know will happen eventually. 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. I really dug the stories it is telling around the epic kaiju battles and the interaction between Natsukawa and Ultraman in a special dimension thing is great.
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Lately all these shows use more CGI than man in suit which is why I think it has lost some of its magic but getting to still see any version of Ultraman in action and finding new audiences is better than nothing at all. This time around it feels like they went back into that man in suit performance often and I love it so much. It just works better and really takes me back to the things that made me love the original. If you are a fan of the franchise, then this is once again worth checking out and makes for a perfect Ultra binge.
Join the intergalactic kaiju battle and grab your copy of the Ultraman z: The Complete Series when it hits Blu-ray on April 22nd from Mill Creek Entertainment.