Gaia and Me

[sennetari]

Finished Dyna, so I've been watching Gaia. Man, this show is not subtle at all with its messages. In fact, I think it's more preachy than Cosmos. Basically, humans are the cause of everything bad happening on this earth, the reason evil creatures appear, the reason normally placid monsters attack Earth.

Comments

[denshi_no_ultra]

So the general trend is that the series get less preachy as the time moves on, and the characters get more development, is that so?

[sennetari]

It might sound that way, but I don't know. I think Mebius is a special case for some reason. Because I'm sure UltraSeven X (the series after Mebius) is still being pretty much preachy (aliens wanting Earth, saying they will be able to take care of it better than humans do, etc. etc.).

Anyway, I'm not sure about trends, but let just say I think each (newer) series is whatever the writers want to take it: dark for Nexus and Seven X, mostly light for Cosmos, a perfect (imho) mixture of fun and serious for Tiga, mostly comedy for Dyna, mostly science and reality for Gaia, mostly Showa Ultramen fun but with updated technology for Max (and for some reason, I can't really categorize Mebius). The character development has always been at least decent (except for Seven X, probably, since it's a short series, and maybe Gaia, since it has too many characters). When I say things like I don't know the team members, I am referring more to the Showa Ultramen (i.e. series before Tiga), which are not included at all on the entry since I don't

[denshi_no_ultra]

Thank you for such an informative reply, it really helped to put things into perspective when I see all the series written down like that.

I think now I understand how it goes - all the newer series except Mebius happen sort of in different universes, and are not really connected, but Mebius is a part of Showa Ultramen, and is in continuity with those series.

You answered my question - now I see why it's difficult to say that there are any general trends at all there.

[sennetari]

You're welcome. And thank you for asking an interesting question, too. :) Hopefully, I haven't missed any series with Ultraman in it. (I haven't listed Ultra Q or Ultra Galaxy, since they don't have someone transforming into Ultraman to fight monsters, and in case of Ultra Q, I haven't seen even one episode of it.)

Yes, with the newer series (which usually are referred to as Heisei Ultraman series), there is one case of continuity: Dyna is a sequel to Tiga. Everything else takes place in a separate universe. But to please the fans, perhaps, sometimes Ultraman movies would bring those universes together so the characters can appear alongside each other and/or interact with each other. I never regard those movies as anything but as alternate universe versions, though, since they are usually not what viewers are familiar with from the TV series