me and my sunflowers against the world

1. Z: i thought this one just had a lot of love put into the effects and the robots used by STORAGE were cool and i love Z and Haruki’s relationship and also Juggler. every single episode felt like it had such a great story and i was enjoying myself the entire time. also introduced me to my favourite kaiju, Kanegon :3

2. Geed: really loved seeing the themes of parenthood in this one. it’s present in nearly every part of the story. Geed’s relationship to Belial and Riku being raised as an orphan, Laiha being without parents, zero being a son who bonds with a host that is a father. even somewhat in how Riku was raised watching Donshine and wanted to become a hero that kids could look up to like that, and becoming that by the end. very interesting stuff. the suit designs were some of my favourites in the series, particularly Solid Burning (which may be my favourite ultra form ever) and Magnificent, however i feel that Geed’s form changes were a tad under-utilized in the latter half of the series. the original kaiju designs were incredible, but i also feel like there wasn’t a lot of kaiju variety and Geed often fought the same kaiju over and over again for multiple episodes. the latter half of the show did drag a bit, but ultimately stuck the landing really well and the ending felt like it had payoff. i also enjoyed how much emphasis they placed on the damage inflicted by these battles. they loooooved throwing Geed through buildings and having them explode, or having chunks of debris fly all over the place when he walked. honestly overall loved this season and if those few gripes were fixed, i really think this could have dethroned Z for me.

3. R/B: it’s not a conventional ultra series but i liked how it focused on family dynamics and a pair of ultra brothers rather than a single ultraman. made the fight choreography really fun

4. Blazar: i had trouble ranking this one. even though i like the story and setting of Orb Origin more, i found the characters and individual episodes to be more compelling here. the almost fully-new cast of kaiju were all extremely cool and well-designed and i had a lot of fun seeing the crew learn how to counter them. Earth Garon is maybe the best defense force robot and that's saying something considering Z is all the way at the top of my list. i also really liked how simple and to-the-point this series was compared to other meandering ones i've seen. Blazar had a really cool powerset, though i feel he stopped being as creative with his powers once he unlocked the ability to sword spam. i also loved the sort of caveman aesthetic going on. the weird grunts and ape-like movements that blazar showed off, his main finisher being a spear (that also turned into a fishing rod for an episode), having a dinosaur companion, his upgrade form being based on fire. it was all pretty neat. very solid series overall!

5. Orb Origin: way cooler setting/story than Orb, enjoyed the narrative even if i found it a bit confusing at times, and Juggler’s characterization was way cooler and consistent here than in the original series. having also seen Saga and a little bit of Gaia, all of the other ultra cameos were really neat and welcome! enjoyed this one quite a bit

6. Orb: looooved SSP and the idea of the show following some nerds who run a blog instead of a defence force. Gai’s character arc was really neat, the idea of a wandering stranger who can transform into ultraman but doesn’t use his own powers and slowly finding out why, with him learning to accept himself at the end and unlocking his final form which is really just his original ultra form? so cool. also Juggler was there i guess. got better towards the end but the show really dragged for the first half.