RE: Ultra Series: Superhero Action (or, Why We Haven't Got Another Mebius)
Stephan222
This is just from my own understanding and may not be true, but isn't Tsuburaya still having financial problems due to loss of the lawsuit with Chaiyo? I think this may be the case, with the franchise becoming more and more focused on selling toys to children nowadays. Kinda like how after Kamen Rider Decade we have been seeing Kamen Riders with the so-called "collectable artifacts" trope in the form of Gaia Memories, Kamen Ride Cards and OOO Medals, Tsuburaya seem to have become more toy-ish in nature. This can be seen in the form of the Spark Dolls. By showing kids Lugiel's room of Spark Dolls, they were marketing the toys to children, because honestly how cool is it to have a museum of kaiju, right?
Besides, you can see that Tsuburaya is also giving less damns about the appearance of the shows. Yes, they do go overload on special effects, but have you seen the props? I'm being pretty nitpicky here, but have you all noticed how Hikaru may have been using a toy Ginga Spark since God-knows-when? He pushes the sides of the Ginga Spark down by himself during the transformations, kinda like the toy version. I mean, for the sake of the show, couldn't they have gone the further mile to make a proper one?
I think that all this just points to Tsuburaya's financial problems, both the focus on toys and the "poorer" quality of their shows.
I also want to talk a little about quality for a while. Shin Ultraman Retsuden, and Ultraman Retsuden before it, exemplifies how tight their budget in. By having a suit actor merely play an Ultra and a voice actor voicing over, Tsuburaya has been able to get away with nearly 3 years+ of playing reused footage. I mean, why make commentaries about your own shows when you can be pushing for a series?
All in all, I think that these reasons may answer the question on when the next Mebius will arrive. It may never arrive, if Tsuburaya were to be unable to recover from their losses. On the other hand, who knows? It may be possible that as I type this, they are already engaging in discussion over the next instalment of the Ultra Series.
Geez, why did I type an essay?
- thankschaiyo
(EDIT: Just saw Ultraman X's page. Hmm, seems like my essay just became redundant. I still want my proper series though.)