Ultraman R/B Review

I decided to check this show out on a whim not long ago because I thought it would be a fun distraction. I ended up getting a lot more out of this show than I was expecting to and I had a lot of fun with it. I tend not binge shows these days to avoid burnout but this show had me hooked pretty early on. I ended up watching four episodes a day instead of my usual two a day. Without further adieu...Color me with your power, R/B!

Premise: Ayaka City is a peaceful city funded by a mega corporation called Aizen Tech. On the 15th anniversary of their mother's disappearance, a monster appears while two brothers are investigating strange vibrations. The brothers, Katsumi and Isami Minato, are saved from certain death by the R/B Gyros and granted the power to become Ultraman Rosso and Ultraman Blu. From then on they protect their city from monsters that seem to be popping up mysteriously.

Characters: The main characters are the Minato family consisting of: Katsumi, Isami, Asahi, and their father Ushio. Their mother, Mio Minato, mysteriously disappeared 15 years ago. They still run the clothing store they ran back when she was around. The whole family overall is pretty likeable. Katsumi and Isami play off each other well and their bickering is pretty believable. Katsumi tends to be more serious and careful, always looking out for Isami and taking his role as older brother seriously. Isami is pretty smart and carefree while being able to think quickly in an emergency. Asahi is wonderfully upbeat and is always striving to keep Katsumi and Isami from fighting too much while bringing them back together when they storm off. I kinda see her as the glue holding the family together. Ushio plays the goofy dad pretty well and cares deeply for his children. He also gets a pretty good and touching episode to himself. Not gonna lie, I would totally buy his gag shirts cuz I like weird stuff like that. While they have moved on, her disappearance does tend to weigh on Katsumi, Isami, and Ushio from time to time. Asahi has this whole other thing going on with her but I'm not really gonna get into it cuz it would result in me giving away a big spoiler.

Villains:

Makoto Aizen is a joy to watch on-screen. The dude is pretty much a quirky tech genius as well as being a massive fan of Ultraman Orb. He can be rather overzealous in his views of what an Ultraman should be and how they should act. He isn't actually evil, he just has misguided views on Ultras and goes overboard. In fact, the dude is so misguided that he managed to twist the power of the Orb Origin crystal to the point where it made him into a dark version of Orb. He goes so far that he will prioritize taking down a monster over protecting the city and even people. Dude causes a lot of collateral damage in his fights. He also kinda likes to use Ayaka City to play out his little hero fantasy. Motoki Fukami plays the role well and its amazing how fast he can go from quirky and eccentric to dead serious and scary. He also gets pretty hammy in his introduction and I love him for it. Seriously, Aizen is practically made of  ham before he reveals what his deal is.

Saki Mitsurugi is such a great villain. In fact, her story is so good that I'm going to do my best not to spoil a big revelation about her. She is cold, distant, and unattached due to the pain of losing someone close to her. She is completely driven by this pain and is willing to do anything to fulfill a vow she made to the ones she lost. Her actress (Ayane Kinoshita) perfectly portrays the sense of desperation and callousness that the character needs to work while also giving her that nice amount of humanity when her facade cracks to make her seem more real and complex. Its usually really hard for me to like villains like her since some tend to just ignore the human aspects of pain and loss and just what they can drive a person to do. While Aizen is the quirky fun villain, Saki is pretty much the serious driven villain who is fundamentally broken as a person.

Favorite Episode: 

Aside from the endgame stuff (not talking about that because it delves into stuff I don't want to spoil), my favorite episodes are episodes 10, 11, and 12. Its where the show has a major shakeup and the stakes just get higher after these episodes. These are pretty top notch episodes and they introduce a new monster to the franchise that quickly became a favorite of mine: Horoboros. Horobos straight up feels like a force of nature and its design is fantastic. They way it fights just feels me with so much joy, its like a watching a wild animal ruthlessly hunting its prey. It completely wipes the floor with the Minato brothers and Aizen at one point during this arc. It makes the brothers finally overcoming it feel so amazing. I finished these episodes before watching Horobos' episode in Ultraman Z so I was really hyped to see this monster again.

Effects: As is the usual with Ultra shows, the effects are pretty good. All the miniatures are fantastically detailed as is expected from Tsuburaya. One episode features a really good effect where a sinkhole appears in the model city and the roads crumbled so well that I was kinda of awestruck and had to rewatch it three times. The show also has them interact with the model sets a lot and its pretty cool each time it happens. Whether its pole-vaulting over a building for a drop kick, ripping a tree out of the ground to smack a monster, or even Aizen washing his hands in a lake mid-fight, it all looks fantastic.

Action: Since there are two Ultras from the get-go, just about every fight is a two-on-one fight. It leads to some pretty cool combo moves between the two brothers. The show manages to keep the action nice and tense each episode despite the two-on-one odds. Some fights even feel unwinnable if only one of them is fighting. The show handles the elemental aspects of Rosso and Blu's powers rather well. The powers work differently depending on which brother is using which crystal. It leads to a nice variety of abilities between the two so they don't feel same-y despite the crystal swapping. It also lets them use some sweet looking combo attacks.

Final Thoughts: The show is rather small scale in terms of the setting with each episode taking place in this one city making it feel comfortable and cozy. At the end of the day, Ultraman R/B is a story about family and it handles that theme really well right down to the bickering and arguments. Like I said in the introduction, I wasn't expecting this show to draw me in the way it did. I also wasn't expecting it to go as deep as it did with the villains. I was legitimately crying by the time the final episode came around because I didn't want it to end. Overall, its a pretty solid and well made show with a lot of love poured into it. My only complaint is that the crystals being themed after Ultramen doesn't really come up in the show but thats a pretty minor complaint and the Ultras chosen for each crystal were nice choices. If you haven't seen yet, I recommend it. I'm hesitant to rank this show at the moment because at the time of this post, I've only finished Ultraman 1996, Ultraman Nexus, and this as far as this franchise goes.