Talk:Ultraman R/B/@comment-27186083-20190106003354

Okay, now that we're at the end of what could possibly be phase 1 of the New Gen Era, I think I might wanna rank the finales. From lowest to highest, here they are.

Ginga - Though at the (figuratively speaking) bottom of the list, it's not bad for what it was. It mostly suffered from the lack of development from the most part. You see, Ginga, after thinking about it, actually suffered from "Having too much to work with". I believe this need not be said, but given the plot we had, I don't think the series could have benefitted at all with only 11 episodes. A lot of anime and some other series managed to do that, too, but Ginga was supposed to be the leg that will help support the rest of the following series. But for a series that had too little to be able to work with, it was a pretty nice closure.

Geed - I have mentioned it before, Geed mostly had problems with things once the tension finally peaked. For the most part in Episode 24, Koichi did well with invoking emotions -especially Leito and Mayu, goodness- but fails to do anything with it shortly after. The emotions felt by the characters do not drive them, they're there only to let the viewers know why they're doing it. That's okay, but letting the viewers see the true threat wcould have been a better alternative as to why that is so. Heck, even the protagonist's resolve could have been their sole motivation. But no, Geed didn't cap on what it had and instead, decided that it will do better with just filling the end with "extreme" action. The action is good, don't get me wrong. But it would have definitely been better if -again- characters drive the episode, and not have unnecessary cuts throughout.

Ginga S - Oh wow, a finale where Koichi actually managed to do something right. lol, enough trash talking. So yeah, I've figured this out a while ago and I realized that part of the reason as to why Ginga S' finale is so much better in my eyes -successful even- is because all the plot threads have pretty much been woven into a single one, where it no longer needs much work at the end other than resolve them. Because of that, we did not have unnecessary interference during the episodes. I don't consider the Furuhoshi students cameo to be forced. In fact, I actually thought it was pushed in surprisingly cleanly. Though we could have used some time with Kenta. Poor guy. Wanna know something else that makes for a better ending? It's the emotions they make you feel, and I felt a lot during my first time watching it.

X - How did this rank higher? Because it did what Ginga S did, a little better. Giving the spotlight to the characters. Even if slightly, the characters managed to bring together a good opening. And hey, I always thought the Voyager duo did so much more in the last two episodes than Asahi did in the entirety of R/B. And although Greeza was never mentioned prior to this, at all -which is why this is lower than it is-, his introduction was amazing. Let's not lie, Greeza had the most spectacular entrance by the sheer fact that his presence alone caused abnormalities to the surroundings around him. We get a little exposition from X after his presence was known, but it was short and they let a scene of Greeza landing do the talking. His landing alone cemented his status. Everything in a 1 km radius was destroyed, absorbing every Spark Dolls stored at the base where he crashed into. As a result, he gained a new form. Unfortunately, it happened around 11 minutes in whereas Vict Lugiel made his entrance prior to the 2-part finale. X also suffered from having little development, which is the only thing stopping this from going higher.

R/B - Already covered. But let me compress. For the most part, R/B's story has been quite cohesive. But ufortunately, trouble came and they went through a lot of downs that even the greatest ups didn't quite make up for those problems. They problems? Well, they didn't treat the characters with the respect they deserve. The events surrounding the story also became pretty much dismissable had it not been for the few characters that actually reminds us that there is a larger threat at hand and could have destroyed them at any time. *cough*Saki*cough*. Even then, the first part of the finale didn't bring to us the true stake of everything, they did that in the 25th episode. The absolute finale. That is quite inexcusable, to be honest. The finale itself also didn't quite bring a satisfying closure. At least, one that was truly worth the trouble. It also felt like Saki was nonexistent starting Episode 25.

Orb - Wow. Big surprise, right? But let me say this, Orb played it safe. Because of that, it got a whole lot more stuff done. With some twists and subversions here and there, Orb also managed to pull itself through with the characters that have been developed.


 * Okay, let me say this again that I am disappointed that Jetta and Shin never did get the development they needed. But they did something noteworthy and in-character for the finale. That's a big kudo for the staff to actually do something with the appropriate characters.


 * At least in this one, they made clear that despite what they were doing, the threat they are facing is very much real and very close. Much too close for comfort. The scene with Gai, Juggler and Naomi for example, they were framed in a way that still shows Magata in the background while Z-VTOLs desperately tried to fend it off. That's how you make the premise clear. Gai is trying to get through to Juggler, so he will let go of Naomi, while still very much acknowledging Magata's presence in the area. Considering the beast's size and range, it really doesn't take a genius to figure things out here. I have so many scenes about this episode that I truly hold dear. Juggler going mad over Gai's speech about love, Jetta and Shin realizing Shibukawa's true stand, and Gai's entire endeavor in fighting against Magata.


 * Here's another thing; as a final monster, Magata makes sense. Not only has the concept around him has been around during the starting point of the series, but all throughout, the Demon Beasts have been something that never left the picture. Geed also did right in this regard, by the way. It also helps that even before making his debut, Magata was already shown to have negative effects on the world. So much so, that not only was there extremeties around the area he was in, but he also posed as a threat so big that aliens fled the area before he awoke. Underground monsters die as a result of him absorbing their life-energies. Many of those happened in less than half of the episode.

So, overall, I think my topic for the day is done.