Oh what should I bring up first? I know the fact that Hikaru's actor is laughable. In the last episode he had a hard time with his performance as he tried a little too hard at times. In this episode, every time we were closed on his face he looks like he is going to burst out laughing. I am not kidding he couldn't pull off a convincing face at all. There are many times where he has a constant smirk and again it makes him look like he is going to laugh anytime soon. Unlike the first episode where he tried too hard, this time it felt like he wasn't even trying as it seems he is already laughing at this show like I am.
Now with Hikaru's character he doesn't really get any development which is bad because this is easily supposed to be about his relationship with Misuzu and only she had the development. All he learned is why he fought the way he did for the first time, which is pretty easy and I'm glad he didn't start talking to himself about why he did. I will say how he was treating this situation wasn't good at all either. Misuzu is constantly doubting herself and Hikaru never says any words of encouragement at all. All he does is listen which isn't a bad thing, women like good listeners, but they need people who respond as well. Hikaru didn't even improve as a fighter in this episode so for the second episode of an eleven episode series, Hikaru has no movement has a character so far.
As I stated before, Misuzu was more the developed character for this episode, but it's not any good. Her part of the story is that she finds out how much of a coward she is. She starts to pick this up when a biker was chasing her and all she did was running away from him. I have to say for a girl who isn't dealing with constant fears of what the next Kaiju is going to be I think she is fine. Now she does bring up how she froze when the first Kaiju appeared yet she brings up something else first. She tells Hikaru the story of when she was alone in the forest when it was dark. This comes out of nowhere and the only reason this was brought up was because of the Kaiju for this episode. I even have to call bull on the fact that she didn't remember how Hikaru even saved her from that time. I have to say if I was her I would be right next to the guy since he is the only person saving her. Then let's just cross that off the checklist of cliches as well, the fear development.
It's sad when the only realistic character in this episode is yet just another cliche. The foe of this episode was a rebel biker who loves to scare people with his bike. He just has fun with what he does and that alone is all we get from him. Again this is the only character that seems reasonable since he is just a sadistic biker, that is all. I'm actually surprised we didn't get a sad story about him or some out of place back story for why he chases people. Even his actor was more convincing that the main cast because he may be overreacting, but at least it's his sadistic side he is showing off.
Reminding me of over the top performances, the main villain the gold creepy guy was just doing the most random of movements. Then for some reason this jumps to the Kaiju of this episode. The Kaiju is called Kemur Man as he appeared in Ultra Q and the first Ultraman. I don't know if this guy was so goofy like he was in this episode, either way though it was so dumb. This guy just does the most random of movements and just had me laughing when I know I was supposed to be afraid of this guy at times. The whole time he is chasing Misuzu I never felt scared, I just wanted to get to the fight. Even when it got to that he was just goofing around, so I'm calling bull on the villains for picking this monster. I mean you have a rebel biker give him a monster that will ram people.
There was a new character that got introduced in this episode and boy the checklist of cliches just keep getting constant check marks. Ichijouji, the silent kid. The two minor characters talk about him being a smart kid who is really athletic, but is not sociable whatsoever. Okay this is really getting annoying, this show feel more like a live adaptation of a bad anime series even more. What makes it worse is that all of a sudden Ichijouji starts talking with Hikaru, what a surprise... I can even tell he is going to be a future villain since after the big fight he was in the background watching the whole thing, oh no now he knows Hikaru's secret... I will have to ask why he is looking into Hikaru like he is right now since I don't want to say he is the main villain since that would be really stupid. Maybe he just as an interest for giant monsters, who knows and I don't really care either way.
Finally, I can talk about the action as last time that was a saving point for the first episode. This episode though decides to keep up the bad comedy. Hikaru transforms into Thunder Darambia and cannot defeat the Kemur Man with that. Really, Hikaru is a huge thunder Kaiju and cannot defeat a quirky monster. The monster even farts in Hikaru's face, I'm not joking! Then when Ginga comes out again, it's just Ginga winning like last time and unleashing a finisher move. I will say though I did like how Hikaru just tosses the monster into space and there he performs his finisher. It was the only thing that got me excited in this episode since the finisher was impressive to look at. The move is called Ginga Fireball as Ginga's light becomes red and he summons fireballs, it's pretty basic when I describe it, but with the space environment as the background, it made the attack look better than it sounds like. Sadly, the camera work couldn't have been this good for the whole episode...
The camera work in this episode was really bad. We had a very shaky camera for no good reason when things could have been still. So many scenes that were shot in the day, but were just tinting the colors to make it look like it was at night. I mean there are some scene that are actually shot at night time, so why not just have the other scenes actually shot during the night? I mean the whole chase scene was convincing enough, so why not just shoot scenes in the night light? The fight also had this problem, but it wasn't as bad though since some areas looked dark for the most part and having Ginga's light glow made it more convincing. Next time however, if they can't shoot things in the dark just don't shoot things in the dark! There are ways to have scary moments in the day time.
This episode is a complete failure in many ways. The acting got surprisingly worst for many parts as even Ichijouji is not a convincing actor as well. Hikaru just wants to laugh the whole time and Misuzu can't even show fear correctly. The Kaiju was presented in a poor manor and the fight really downgraded because of this. The only saving factor was the finisher, everything was terrible. I give this episode an F.
Next Time: Burn baby burn!
To me, Ginga is a waste. When I first saw the design, I was so stoked. The first episode was okay, but then the second and third just killed it. The actors can't act, and the spark doll thing makes the show feel like a toy commercial. So I can understand what you're getting at. But do you even like watching the ultra series? Because Ginga's the only series you're reviewing, and you seem to dislike it.
ReplyDeleteWell I only review the current Toku series that is one thing. Also I have been trying to find the many Ultra series. So far I still haven't finished one, but I can easily say I am loving Ultraseven and Nexus. Max is a series I started to look into as well, but it doesn't look like it will do well. So I don't hate the Ultra series, it's just I don't know a lot about it as of now. Still there are many flaws to this series other than a poor representative of the Ultra series.
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