User blog:SolZen321/Why Nexus was so Good

Now Nexus, that's an interesting show. I was asked to write this blog for a friend, who wants to explain to his friend why they should watch this show. So I'm going to try to be as detailed but as concised as possible, if that is even possible. However, there is one thing I say upfront, Nexus is not good because its 'Dark and Gritty', far from it, it's 'dark and gritty' nature is a side effect, not a goal.

An Ultra Series
To get to the root of Nexus lets look at what makes an 'Ultra Series'. Now some shows do deviate from this, ironically enough, even the first show to bear the title of 'UItra', Ultra Q. In there, there is no Ultraman, no formal defense organization, or 'Attack/Defense Team' as it is more commonly known by fans, and the monsters of the week, aren't always goliaths, nor are the alien simply trying to invade. Ultra Q was made for a specific reason...because Eiji Tsuburaya (the special effects director for the first Godzilla Movie and most, if not all, of the Showa films in the Godzilla franchise) wanted to make a medium where in his he could hone and experiment with his new craft 'Special Effects', or the Japanese version of that, which involves miniatures, men in suits and a metaphorical metric ton of pyrotechnics.

Ultraman...was made for kids. If haven't I advise watch Goji73's three minute reviews on Youtube, to really get an idea of how the story in the show and characterization....weren't always the best, but the original did have very good moments. Regardless all other shows would follow, some sticking more closely to its example (sometimes more than they should have...Jack...) and other times making deviations here and there, sometimes with success (ala Ultraseven, which was rather 'Dark' at times) and sometimes...to question marks... (I'm not even going to bother putting a name here, just know for once it's not Jack...)

The basic formula for an Ultra Series is basically this. There is a team of specialist tasked with protecting Earth from giant monsters and invading aliens and just investigate any weird happenings on Earth. One of their members is secretly the titular giant character in disguise, or merged with them. They investigate something, an alien or monster appears. The team often times gets shot down, or just the main character's plane, or he gets some other contrivance to disappear without question (sometimes they don't even bother) and transform into the giant hero. The hero fights the monster and he has to beat it within three minutes before his power runs out.More often than not, there is some silly camp, or just humor thrown into the mix. Rinse repeat, a change here or there and you have a series that has been running for decades... Nexus breaks almost all of these 'rules'.

The titular character and his host are not part of the defense team, the defense team is actually competent and if there is humor, it's because someone said something witty. Ultraman was made for kids, 'Ultraman Nexus' was made for an older audience.

Kindness Vs Strength
Immediately proceed Nexus, was Cosmos, a series noted for showing Ultraman's 'kindness' where previous shows opted to show his 'Strength'. In cosmos, most of the time the monster was pacified and those that were destroyed were either monsters, evil aliens, or evil clone/puppets of said monsters controlled by an almost Eldritch intelligence (don't ask, this is not about Cosmos). The Defense team had a sanctuary for the monsters they saved and the goal of the main character was to get mankind and monsterkind to coexist peacefully. Spoiler Alert, it ended with the villain being reformed by the power of 'friendship', the only instance of that in the entire franchise so far. That was no Nexus.

The creators of Nexus said, (and I paraphrase) 'Cosmos was about believing your dreams, Nexus was about overcoming hardships to achieve your dreams'. Nexus was dark, the monsters were called 'Space Beasts' and their primary diet, while it varied from substance to substance,...also consisted of a heavy dose of people. Nearly every episode someone was literally eaten alive. The main character once had to go through depression, literal, clinical depression and not because he was 'simply' sad, for the sake of it. The hero in the story, although he was, as the villain described him, 'a comic book hero', doing good because, was deeper than that. Don't get me wrong, he was the strong heroic archetype, but that wasn't 'all' he was, as you would find out if you watched the series.

Yet despite all of this...Nexus was not cynical. Bad things happened, good people died, and yet those that survived, they showed that people could still live their lives and flourish despite how tragic their pasts may be. Nexus is without a doubt, the darkest installment of the franchise, rivaled only by Ultraseven X (even the original Ultraseven was not presented as this dark) but, deep in that darkness there is the light of hope, a mere spark, a curiosity at the start, but growing brighter and brighter as the show moved on, until even the battles were being fought in the day on a regular basis.

Conclusion
Nexus was dark, mature, and such, but it was not gratuitous, and ultimate not cynical. It presented a message of hope while not shying away from how dark things can be, and making that statement all the stronger and more meaningful for it. If you're grown and not interested in anything kiddy and if you have to chose any of the shows to watch, I would suggest Nexus. Also it's not that long, only about 36 episodes. (37 if you count the special added on episode) instead of the normal fifty at the time. Also Nexus, like many 90s+ shows, has no direct connection to the Showa era shows, so there is no need to learn any background lore before you start the series.

Other Suggestions

 * Ultraman Tiga: It's light hearted but filled with serious drama, and decent action. Many of the stories are character driven.
 * Ultraman Mebius: Possibly the best place for newcomers to get introduced to the lore of original Showa Series
 * Ultraman Max: Basically a Showa era show but with more modern effects and story telling.
 * Ultraseven: The most serious of the Showa Era shows, and the one with the most competent story telling.
 * Ultraman Neos: A short twelve episode series
 * Ultraseven X: If you like Melodrama
 * Heisei Ultraseven: Because these OVAs were more Seven goodness.