Ultra-Spooky Tiga! (4kids edition)

Oh no! There's a witch causing problems for children on Halloween! What do we do! SEND IN ULTRAMAN! It's Halloween and the GUTS team suspects a monster. The team investigates (in costumes, it's Halloween... duh) and soon discovers a witch handing out lollipops to children. Trick or Treat? It's a TRICK! The witch is stealing the children's dreams and converting them into energy! Good thing Ultraman Tiga is here to save Halloween!

Originally Posted 9/16/2022 *now with the 4kids version of the episode*

Ultra-Spooky Tiga!

Oh no! There's a witch causing problems for children on Halloween! What do we do! SEND IN ULTRAMAN! It's Halloween and the GUTS team suspects a monster. The team investigates (in costumes, it's Halloween... duh) and soon discovers a witch handing out lollipops to children. Trick or Treat? It's a TRICK! The witch is stealing the children's dreams and converting them into energy! Good thing Ultraman Tiga is here to save Halloween!

originally posted 9/16/22 

 

Have a Ultra Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas Ultraman and friends!

 This year, Marine Toys for Tots has set an ambitious goal to donate 11M in toys. A partner since 1996, Hasbro is proud to champion this challenge by donating more than 4.3M toys in 2024.

Let's all do something super this Christmas and donate to Toys for Tots if you can.

Have an Ultra Christmas!

Merry Christmas Ultraman!

This year, Marine Toys for Tots has set an ambitious goal to donate 11M in toys. A partner since 1996, Hasbro is proud to champion this challenge by donating more than 4.3M toys in 2024.

Let's all do something super this Christmas and donate to Toys for Tots if you can.

Gridman Universe

Ultra-Spooky Tiga!

Oh no! There's a witch causing problems for children on Halloween! What do we do! SEND IN ULTRAMAN! It's Halloween and the GUTS team suspects a monster. The team investigates (in costumes, it's Halloween... duh) and soon discovers a witch handing out lollipops to children. Trick or Treat? It's a TRICK! The witch is stealing the children's dreams and converting them into energy! Good thing Ultraman Tiga is here to save Halloween!

Ultra Christmas

New Week On The Grid

Monday sure can kick your giga butt, butt don't worry, Zone Base is here with an all new week of fun! There's an all new episode of 'Not As Brightly Lit' up to scare away that weekday boredom and I've got a fun week of new posts in mind. Thanks for continuing to read Zone Base and as always, please share with your friends!

New Week Combine!

It's time for another exciting week here on Zone Base! There's a new episode of Not as Brightly Lit available in case you missed it. They'll be another every Thursday, so please check that out. I've got some neat stuff to talk about this week. As always, please share with your friends!

Diaclone X Gridman

An Ultra Christmas

That really just happened.

Kaiju Con.Line Report

I normally do a weekend report post on Mondays, but seeing as I did a virtual convention this weekend... I thought I'd just do a con report. Though some of what I did will be peppered throughout the report as... it's a weekend report post in a way.

To explain Kaiju Con.Line, it was a free virtual kaiju convention organized by Kyle of Kaijucast. There was no G-Fest this year because of covid-19, so Kyle organized a bunch of live streaming panels, and other online activities under the banner of Kaiju Con.Line to give fans of rubber suited monsters something to do this weekend in place of the annual gathering.

It was pretty nuts as there was not only the various live stream panels, there was watch parties all over the place. Either affiliated or other groups running their own thing. Not to mention Tsuburaya ran an Ultraman stream and Shout Factory ran a Kamen Rider stream all weekend. There were a million discord chats and various online vendor rooms to buy from dealers in name of the weekend. I've got a t-shirt for the event on the way from the official store, because I needed to support this. It's great when fans come together to do something positive.

As I've said a million times before, traveling to conventions is getting harder for me to pull off. A state or two over is one thing, across the country... dude. So I've been wanting something like this for awhile. That way I can participate while still handling my home and work life. This literally was a breeze. I've mentioned before that I work at night. Because I do. So when I got off work Saturday morning, I had some things to do. While shopping at these stores I would pop in and check in on con stuff. I've went to stores during a con before, but I've never bought mulch while at a con before.

During these errands I picked up some of the Bandai Godzilla 65th anniversary sofubi boxed figures I've been needing. I just need Anguirus and Hedorah to complete the set! Target and Walmart had no new Earthrise sadly, but in time I assume. I did score some face mask adjusters at Staples though. I've got a big old head and in the new normal of wearing these things, sometimes they are just a touch too small. It's nice to not have sore ears. I need to pick up the Playmates Space Godzilla. I've got all of the Playmates Godzilla figures except him and I might as well complete the set. I mean, duh.

I spent the rest of Saturday with the cons panels playing while I did various things. Eating pizza? Right in front of a panel. Putting together newly bought furniture? Right in front of a panel. I'd pop in and out of panels and watch parties also. That was something really cool. In my living room, I'd just watch the panels on TV. Up in my room, I had it running on my tablet fully taking advantage of picture in picture video screens. Muting subtitled videos to listen to the audio from live streams. That was neat.

Later on in the night, I'd watch the replays from panels I missed while running errands and when I took a nap. Finally around 3am I went to sleep as dude... tired. Sunday we worked on our yard, same thing. Break time, pop in on phone. When we got done, same thing. Either watch a missed panel or a stream. Though I only did one at a time. I was a little worn out from putting mulch out in the hot sun.

I need to go back and watch the rest of that Western monsters in Japanese fiction panel, it was pretty interesting. Unfortunately I wasn't able to pay the stream as much attention as I wanted to. Fortunately, it's available to view. I can dig this kind of convenience, it's easier to dig than some of those old branches out from under those bushes were.

Some of my favorite content was the show was in the opening ceremonies panel. There was a good 15 minutes of pre-recorded video messages from various actors and directors from various Godzilla, Ultraman, and other productions. They were generally messages of encouragement regarding the pandemic and pretty cool to watch. That western monsters panel I mentioned earlier and the Yokai War panel from Saturday I'd like to go back and watch in their entirety. Which I will.

The Kaijucast Reunion stream was pretty great as it pretty much went from kaiju discussion into trivia to musicians performing classic monster themes. Really neat. Daikaiju TV had a steady stream of watch parties going all weekend that was super fun to pop into and out of. If I was a better discord user, there were plenty of related chats going, but sadly I'm pretty bad at Discord. Though between the live streams and watch parties, I had plenty of live chat available.

In all, my first virtual con experience was a good one. There's others going on this summer and I'm pretty interested in doing more. While nothing beats the in person aspect of a con with other fans, this wasn't bad! I could see myself playing one of my micro consoles with my tablet nearby with a stream going. It was great to indulge myself in Godzilla and company with other fans in the company of my own home. Totally would do again.

SSSS.DYNAZENON!!!!!!!!

完全新作アニメーション『SSSS.DYNAZENON』の制作が決定！
原作：グリッドマン
監督：雨宮 哲
脚本：長谷川圭一
キャラクターデザイン：坂本 勝
音楽：鷺巣詩郎
アニメーション制作：TRIGGERhttps://t.co/eX4Su9yp0l#SSSS_DYNAZENON pic.twitter.com/BBtXyhPHbR

— SSSS.DYNAZENON公式アカウント (@SSSS_PROJECT) December 14, 2019

Production of completely new animation "SSSS.DYNAZENON" has been decided! Original: Gridman Director: Satoru Amemiya Screenplay: Junichi Hasegawa Character design: Masaru Sakamoto Music: Shiro Konosu Animation Production: TRIGGER https://dynazenon.net#SSSS_DYNAZENON

Looks like the follow up to last years AWESOME SSSS Gridman is on it's way and looks great!

Ultra Noodles!

Ultraman Taiga promo video

Starting July 6th 2019!

Netflix's Ultraman early impressions

After waiting for months for Netflix's new Ultraman series to start, I finally got a chance to watch the first few episodes earlier today. With the season consisting of 13 episodes of 22 minutes each, it won't take long to watch it all even on my schedule. The show is based on a manga series starring the son of the original Ultraman in a mature and gritty take on the 50 year old series. It's a sequel to the original Ultraman series, so it's easy to jump in even if you haven't watched much Ultraman.

I really like the show so far. The characters are written well and the plight of our hero is a relatable one. He's growing into his role as a super hero and dealing with all the inner turmoil that goes along with it. The Science Patrol has evolved with the times and is presented how a organization like it should. Visually, the show is striking. Though I will say the human characters are not as detailed as the other characters like aliens or Ultras. I don't know if that's just me though, and it might well just be my perception. Either way, it's not distracting, just noticeable. Earlier I mentioned the show was gritty and mature, and it is. However, so far that doesn't feel forced ala Zack Snyder movies (pouring sand into water to make it 'gritty' and as dark as a 14 year old in a ICP shirt). Rather it feels natural, and more like a serious take on the subject matter.

I've had high hopes for this show and am pleased so far. Really hoping that the rest of the season delivers and the show has more seasons.

SSSS. Gridman x Ultraman

Tsuburaya recently put out this little short clip as sort of a segway from SSSS. Gridman into the new Ultraman anime movie. It's a neat enough little clip, not that I needed anymore reason to look forward to the movie, but who am I to not appreciate a good bit of marketing?

SSSS. Gridman

I watched the final episode of SSSS. Gridman over my Christmas break. Wow, what a crazy ride this series has been. It started off weird and funny, only to end weird and a little sad. I won't go into too many details as I'm sure not everyone has had a chance to see it yet, but the ending wasn't what I expected. I certainly did like the way everything came together and feel just as confused at the same time. I don't know if that's a good thing, but I'm not complaining either way. It was great to see something I've always liked get a new life 20-ish years later and to see it done so well was nice. I really thought the overall vibe of the show was fun. Like others, the Transformers references in the character designs was something I found neat (though the weekly pointing out of it did get a bit old, just in time for the ones pointing it out to move onto something else to do fortunately). I hope to see more of Gridman in the future, and with the Ultraman anime movie showing up on Netflix in the spring, I will at least have something else to take it's place.

Tsuburaya-Last Christmas

Dada is feeling very lonely this Christmas.

Wreck the Halls with lots of Kaiju, your buildings will fa la la la la la all down

I know I plan to be putting in some kaiju time over my holiday break, how about you?