I honestly can't believe I've been at it for 3 months already. It's thanks to cool folks in chat that make it a blast to do this!

It's nice that there's a lot of wrestling out there that's free to enjoy from all over the world.

I keep hoping they pick up the Garo license, even just for the newer shows.

Fingers crossed for Tokusatsu news!

So that's been Ultramas 2024! I'll probably keep watching Decker so who knows what #Ultraman content will be coming in the new year. Have a good New Years Eve and watch more Ultraman!

The Kaiju fights are a solid classic style. Spheresaurus is a cool new design, Deathdrago was a great Trigger design and Gomora is a classic. Decker's ability to temporarily summon in other Kaiju for assists like a fighting game is neat, though only used once so far.

The first three episodes are perfectly fine Ultraman, I think its just tough because Decker is bracketed by Z, Trigger and Blazar which are all really good to great. By episode 3 our cast is gelling and it makes it much more watchable.

Also we get the idea that the Sphere can merge with Kaiju to create new, more powerful forms. It's also interesting they go out of their way to say that Gomora is resisting the Sphere merger, as if Earth Kaiju might not be on the same side as the Sphere.

This is a less exposition packed episode then the first two, so our three leads get a chance to flesh themselves out a bit. You can see some actual friendship start to bloom between them, which just makes the show more enjoyable.

Episode 3 Introduces us to HANE2, the AI pilot and Yuichiro, whos the tech/R&D guy of the group. Kanata has to learn to work well with HANE2, but then normally docile kaiju Gomora shows up angered, does it have something to do with the Sphere? Will Kanata be able to hide he's Decker from an AI?

We find out that during the time-skip Kanata hasn't been able to summon Decker and that he's falling behind the more regimented trainees. However the appearance of the Kaiju Deathdrago leads to some more revelations about Decker...

So episode 2 is one year later, Kanata is now a trainee as well, butting heads with Soma over how to do things. We find out Soma's single-minded purpose is to be a member of the newly former GUTS-Select, whose goal is to break earth free of the Sphere (the aliens) and rescue Mars.

Orb like Aliens invade Mars, then earth. Our cast are at the spaceport for various reasons and do their best to help. Kanata gets abducted but mentally fights back, opening the way for Ultraman Decker to bond with Kanata and take out the invaders. However Earth is encased in a sphere....

we're introduced to our hero, Kanata Asumi, who is the living embodiment of a Shonen main character. He's got big Luffy energy and that might not work for you. We also meet our other main cast members: Head Trainer Taiji, Kaiju scientist Sawa, put-upon trainee Ichika and hard-ass trainee Soma.

Our lead writer is Toshizo Nemoto, who's got quite the interesting background. He's been a writer for some great anime series (Durarara, Gundam, Macross) and is a writer for the Kamen Rider anime, Fuuto PI. He started with Ultraman in 2017 with Ultraman Geed; but Decker is his first major gig.

So Ultraman Decker was the 2022 Ultraman show and is directed by Masayoshi Takasue. He's spent most of career as an episode director for Tsubaraya, starting with Ultraman Orb in 2016. As of late he's gotten to direct some of the films as well, so Tsubaraya obviously has faith in him.

All in all this is by far the best of the films I've watched for Ultramas. I really encourage you to check it out, or even check out #Ultraman Blazar. I think its still on Youtube and if not its on Tubi for sure.

The final fight outside the Diet building evokes Godzilla's classic destruction of castles in Godzilla Raids Again and Godzilla vs King Kong; as well as ties back to some of the questions the film raises.

One thing Blazar did great was use miniatures to give scale and perspective. This film has some cool shots, my favorrite being driving down the highway as the big bad of the film rampages and you get a front row seat to the carnage.