It is the year 2049. The world has been at peace for decades but not for much longer. A meteor containing a space capsule crashes to Earth, suspiciously close to The Citagon, headquarters of the Terrestrial Peacekeeping Commission (TPC.) Inside the space capsule is a holographic message intended for the members of GUTS (the Global Unlimited Task Squad) TPC’s investigative agency and special combat squad. The message warns that monstrous creatures will soon destroy the planet. GUTS is told that their only hope is to locate the Pyramid of Light in the ancient land of Tiga. Inside the Pyramid they will find the statue of an ancient warrior, who protected mankind 30 million years ago. They’re told that one person, and one person only, has the power to awaken this giant so that it can resume its role as protector of the planet. Just as the hologram is about to reveal that person’s identity, there’s a malfunction with the space capsule and the holographic image disintegrates. Now time is running out because two monsters, Melba and Golza, have been sighted and they’re headed for Tiga. The GUTS team gets to the Pyramid ahead of the monsters but they’re confused about which one of the three statues inside is the true ancient warrior. They also don’t know how they would go about reviving it. The monsters arrive and begin to destroy the Pyramid, along with the statues of the three ancient warriors. The GUTS team watches helplessly from their Gutswing jets overhead but Daigo, one of the GUTS fighter pilots, decides to take matters into his own hands. Using laser beam artillery on Gutswing 1, he attacks the Golza & Melba. His lasers are no match for these monsters, who have already completely destroyed the Pyramid of Light and two of the three warrior statues inside. Suddenly—Daigo’s jet is hit and he loses control. At the brink of disaster, just as his jet is about to crash to the ground, Daigo is transformed into light and merges with the one remaining giant warrior statue. It is at this sudden and secret moment that Ultraman Tiga is born. Incredibly, it is Daigo who, according to the hologram, was that one and only person able to revive the ancient warrior. Ultraman Tiga battles Golza and Melba and defeats them both. Soon after, Daigo emerges unscathed from the GUTS Wing crash site but his colleagues at GUTS have no idea that their friend is Ultraman Tiga. World peace has been restored. . . at least for now
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May 5, 2010
#1
How sad for the smaller kids that the powers that be chose not to include an english dubbing! A FoxBox version DVD would be the best version for the kids, but alas, not available- WHY???
May 5, 2010
#2
This DVD collection of the first thirteen episodes of Ultraman is pretty good, but not GREAT. The Video and Audio transfer is good. The special effects are pretty good for a TV show, and I would recommend this DVD to fans of Godzilla-type giant monster action. It’s a great substitute for the Godzilla Movies that we cannot get on DVD in the USA, but read my whole review for caveats.
The stories are definitely written for kids, which is kind of a drag because the subtitles can go by pretty quickly, possibly too fast for children to read. They should have included both a dubbed and subtitled versions on the DVD. (For my tastes I like the original Japanese soundtrack, but it would have been nice to have the option so I could watch this with my nephew.)
The extras are a little light. There is a spotlight on the GUTS team and Ultraman that is pretty good and in English, however the Monster Gallery only covers half the monters from these first thirteen episodes. The same extras are on both disks. What happened? Did someone forget to put new options on the second disk? Also the ‘collectors box’ is the cheapest piece of flat cardstock cardboard I have ever seen. It won’t last a month! The included t-shirt is size L. Don’t bother with the starter set, just get the Tiga part 1 DVD.
The episodes are VERY formulaic. I remember the Ultraman from 30 years ago as being crazy, complicated, full of action, very serialized, and a lot more fun. All these episodes stand alone and have little if anything to do with each other. I was hoping for a more Starblazers-like serialness. There isn’t even a two part episode in this batch. VERY disappointing. I will do a lot more research before buying the next volume.
P.S.: If you really like Giant monsters check out the newer “Gamera Guardian on the Universe” trilogy best Kaiju ever!
May 5, 2010
#3
I got the original series Ultraman sets, out on DVD. My son, age 4, blasted through those episodes in about a month. I quite enjoyed them myself, since they brought back found memories of coming home after school and watching Ultraman as a kid.
I was leary of buying these 1990′s versions of Ultraman to watch with my kids because they are in Japanese – no dubbing. No problem, my 7 and 4 year love watching them even without understanding the dialogue. The plots are pretty basic and formulaic, so my 4 year old gets the gist without beng able to read the subtitles. Caveat: A small number of the episodes are a little scary for the 5 and under, so screen them with junior.
May 5, 2010
#4
I grew up watching Ultraman and Johnny Socko and his Giant Robot. I was very excited to see a new Ultraman series come along. I have the 2 Ultraman movies on DVD and thought they were good. So why did I give this 3 stars? Because it is still Ultraman. The hero I grew up with and pretended to be fighting rubber monsters and crashing through boxes that were suppose to be buildings. Why I didn’t score it higher? I don’t speak Japanese. I don’t mind a good dubbing or even a bad dubbing for that matter. I simply hate reading subtitles and that is what you get. There is no option to have the stories in English.
The action is cheesy and the story is simple which is what I expected. Monsters are attacking the world and once again, we need the help of Ultraman. The Ultraman of the 60′s isn’t around and the world relies on Ultraman Tiga who can change into 3 different versions of himself depending on the monster he is fighting. He still has the weakness of only staying in the atmosphere for 3 minutes and the warning light begins to beep signaling that the fight needs to end quickly.
One last thing, if you buy the dvd with the t-shirt, it’s a size large which really sucks if you’re a XL or greater. Maybe my son will grow into it. If you really like Ultraman and don’t mind reading, you might want to rent this and wait for an English version.
May 5, 2010
#5
Episodes and rating for the firsst four episodes:
1. Inheritance of Light: A time capsule is found by the earth protecting team GUTS. It seems to forsee the future off chaos. It tells of the ground breaking Golza and sky hurling Melba that will attack the world. They can only be stopped by the ancient titan Tiga. As GUTS follows the two monsters to the ancient pyramid of titans. While GUTS try to battle Golza and Melba, the ace pilot of GUTS Daigo is killed by Melbo. Before he is burned up, Daigo is zapped into the Tiga statue that is attacked by Golza. Tiga and Daigo fuse together to reawake the titan.
My opinion: This is possibly the best episode on volume one. The monsters are great to look at, Tiga is well shown, the special effects are fairly well done for 1996, and the characters are memorable(for an Ultraman series). Critically it gets a B, in fun it gets an A+.
2. The Legend of the Stone: The time capsule strangely only talks to Daigo about that he is chosen to be one with Tiga and that more monsters will appear. During that time, a strange underground monster named Gakuma turns construction workers into stone. The GUTS fight the monster and wins. But, an even bigger and stronger and Gakuma destroys the entire construction site. Then, Daigo turns into Tiga and finishes the beast off once and for all, ending the Gakuma race.
My opinion: Very well done. Gakuma 2 is incredible, unlike the silly looking Gakuma 1. Tiga shows much power. This episode also helps explain the things left unsolved by the first episode. Critically it gets a B+, in fun it gets an A.
2. Prophecy of Evil: The leader of GUTS is used to prophisize on TV that the Kilaliens will take back the surface world and destroy Tiga. A Kilalien in diguise attacks the a building and the GUTS leader. Tiga then battles the largest of them all: the Killeroid.
My opinion: Not bad. It’s somewhat impressive. The Kilaliens are ruthless and powerful. The Killeroid is majorly tough. The GUTS leader is interesting in this episode. Critically B, in fun A-.
4. Sayonarra Planet Earth: A beast that thinks that friends are food attacks and eats a space crew. Now Tiga must stop the beast from space.
My opinion: Cool. Gazoto(the monster) looks great. Tiga kicks some but in this episode as well. You can actually feel the people’s terror. Critically B-, in fun A-.