Ultraman Geed (2017)
Starring: Tatsuomi Hamada, Chihiro Yamamoto, Mayu Hasegawa, Yuta Ozawa, Kunito Watanabe
Found on the steps of an observatory as a baby, Riku (Hamada) lives a quiet if slightly uncommon existence with his roommate Pega, an alien on Earth. When a giant monster attacks Earth, Riku discovers that he is actually imbued with the powers of an Ultraman, specifically Ultraman Geed. Using his newfound powers, he teams with his friends including Laiha (Yamamoto,) a master swordswoman and master of Chinese-style martial arts, Moa (Hasegawa,) his childhood friend and agent of the Alien Investigation Bureau, and Leito (Ozawa,) the temporary human vessel for the legendary Ultraman Zero. As Riku defends the planet against increasing giant sized threats, he gets closer to the truth about his origins and his father, the legendary villain Ultraman Belial, who nearly destroyed the universe nearly 20 years ago.
As a longtime fan of the Ultraman franchise, I have to admit that I had fallen out of touch with many of the recent iterations outside of the sparse clips available on YouTube and convention presentations. Primarily with the lack of availability in an English friendly format, I generally wrote most of the series off as something I’d have to play catch up on down the line. Thankfully, that time has come with the plethora of Ultraman series releases and more to come, from the folks over at Mill Creek Entertainment.
Geed itself is a great kickoff point for when I dropped off the franchise; utilizing the excellent, and perhaps most important modern recurring character in the series, Belial as a focal point for the origin of Geed. Hamada himself is your typical prototype kind of frustrating hero; he’s a tokusatsu otaku, not necessarily a bad thing of course, and he’s fairly inexperienced. He does show some growth but for the targeted audience of mostly adolescent Japanese children, he’s a fine hero to project growth and general purity/naivete. The supporting cast is fairly entertaining with Hasegawa’s Moa and Ozawa’s Leito both providing humor and manga-esque slapstick. The villain Fukuide Kei, played by the nicely over the top Watanabe, is fairly entertaining in the many different character tones he ends up portraying for the character. From cool, to angered, to fanatical, his Kei is a kaleidoscope of masks and motivations. However, the real standout to me is the nicely physical performance of the small in stature but huge in athletic ability of Yamamoto. A Japanese wushu champion, she has recently carved out a niche for herself in the unfortunately lacking action film sector of modern Japanese film.
Following the familiar format of the franchise, Geed features some nice miniatures, easily digestible episodic adventures, and colorful rubber suits. As always though, the things that set apart an Ultraman from their brethren is the supporting cast, of which Geed does excel. Highlighting some very fun choreography and evolved techniques, the action in the show is a decided step above the classic Ultraman of old and I found my interest and love for the series being revived. Despite running for 26 episodes, the show was over seemingly far too quick for my tastes, though the ending was pretty satisfying. With so many more newer installments yet to be seen, I look forward to catching up on one of the most prolific TV and film franchises in history.
