ray243 wrote:https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/ultrama ... w-ultraman
Talk with the people making the US/international adaptation of the Ultraman franchise.
There's a good bit of discussion of the recent Ultraman series being skewing far too kid-friendly and making it hard for older audience to enjoy the show. This is good because I am really looking forward to a more mature or family-accessible tone in future Ultraman series. So hopefully an Ultraman series that is similar to the MCU in terms of tone and seriousness will be developed in the near future.
The toy gimmicks and lack of world-building depth in the Ultra-series is something that has turned away older audience and it seems that even Tsuburaya themselves are aware of such problems.
LegendZilla wrote:Not sure if I said this before, but I would like to see a future series return to the Tiga/Dyna continuity.
The Tiga/Dyna continuity has a huge potential because all the depth that recent Ultra-series lacks. It's more of a commentary on human society as a whole that makes it feel similar to shows like Star Trek in many ways. There's a lot of exploration of technology and its impact on human society, which is more sci-fi than the newer shows ( which are less sci-fi).
Hopefully the sci-fi element will return to the franchise. The recent Ultraman series have been quite disappointing in that regard.
We have been getting small episodic nuggets of a more challenging/eclectic take on Ultraman across the recent series. But on the whole, I have to agree with you that the recent TV Tokyo entries are tipping hard toward the kid audience. I just hope that Tsuburaya doesn’t make yet another decision of a swinging the pendulum too hard towards ‘dark’, since those entries often end up embarrassingly dull for my taste.
As for Mr. Gomez, hearing a fellow fan go through the intricacies of UM is reassuring, knowing that he’s the one helping the franchise gain a foothold in the west. Realistically though, I don’t think Ultraman will crack mainstream America the way it is. The technology behind the production - Suitmation & miniature sets - will most likely be sacrificed and replaced with standard TV pipeline-friendly CGI which, as minor a gripe as it may be for a lot of people, will take part of its uniqueness out of the equation for me. If an Ultraman series for the international audience actually happens, I hope that Tsuburaya finds a production company who respects the franchise as much as he does.
At best, this brand new lore that Mr. Gomez is creating will bolster the quality of the mainline series in Japan and make it appear more salivating to streaming services like CR (if the choose to continue streaming the series)