User blog comment:Stephan222/Can we expect a darker Ultra Series?/@comment-5527544-20160328164148

In all honesty, Gaia was not the only 'dark' series in the Heisei area. It's just that instead of being about mature subject matters, the 'darkness' often takes the form of tragedy. In Tiga there are many instances of tragedy, Tiga always won, but many victories were bitter sweet, yeah mankind was saved, but someone's life was still either ruined, or irrevocably changed. There were times when tragedy started the issue.

Even in Cosmos, the most child friendly of them all, there was that one or two moments, of tragedy, granted I can't remember them, but they are there.

Max also had these dark moments, but it used them more of an excuse to look at humanity, when it's not at its best, like Kief. Max also had light hearted moments, where if you stoped and looked carefully, its was criticizing humanity. A fine example is the Adam and Eve, episode. For the whole episode to that point Hophop had done nothing but slept, and a reporter actually asked the head scientist why didn't DASH just killed it. When she responded that it hadn't done anything, the reporter asked basically, why not kill just to be safe. Stop and think about that, the level of fear, of paranoia, but since the atmosphere was 'dark' most don't remember it, I know I didn't until I watched the series again.

Another good episode was the Baltan two-parter, it wasn't dark, but it made me think, maybe most of the aliens invading aren't simply evil, maybe they are invading because they see mankind as a threat to peace in the galaxy. That was a very common excuse for many of the other alien invaders, not all but a lot. The whole reason for the situation is because the Baltans saw mankind as invaders, because mankind's history up to that point, did not paint a pretty picture.

My point is, while the Ultra Series, particularly in the Heisei era, may not have been all that 'Dark', it still had many mature moments and asked many mature questions even if they went unnoticed, under the air of lightheartedness associated with the series.