Ultraman Geed The Movie: Connect The Wishes! (2018)
Director: Koichi Sakamoto
Starring: Tatsuomi Hamada, Chihiro Yamamoto, Mayu Hasegawa, Yuika Motokariya, Yuta Ozawa, Iwata Hideyoshi, Hideo Ishiguro, Takaya Aoyagi
Following the events of the television series, Riku (Hamada) and the Ultraman Geed team find themselves in Okinawa after a giant robot appears and attacks the planet. Facing a new threat, Riku, Laiha (Yamamoto,) Moa (Hasegawa,) Zena (Hideyoshi,) and Leito (Ozawa,) join forces with some new faces including an alien with an ancient secret and some visitors from another universe, specifically Ultraman Orb (Ishiguro).
Another adventure with the crew, this fairly entertaining, and short, feature outing is highlighted by some tokusatsu fanservice, a slightly elevated budget and production quality, and just a bit more of the hand to hand combat that the series never featured enough of in my opinion.
Ultimately playing out like an extended episode, it feels quite a bit like many anime feature films based on series in that it introduces a new character, brings back older protagonists, and adds a historical element to the mythos. While not necessarily a bad thing, Ultraman is nothing if not legacy-based, it does give it a more than typical ‘been there, done that’ feeling.
Hamada’s Geed, for some reason, falls back into an unfortunate character flaw that was seemingly resolved in the series finale; it is somewhat frustrating but I suppose it opens the door for conflict and fisticuffs, both of which are aplenty in this adventure. The returning Geed characters do well slipping back into their roles and recent addition Motokariya does an adequate job as the mysterious newcomer to the team.
Sakamoto amps up the out of suit action with a handful of fast paced and interestingly choreographed fights that highlight Yamamoto’s ability as well as Sakamoto’s penchant for exciting action direction. The in suit action is fairly standard in comparison to the Geed television series but blisters with new power ups, special effects, and team up maneuvers. It’s definitely cool in the way these modern Ultraman series tend to be, but my tastes have definitely grown to prefer the chops and kicks of the fights shown as opposed to the myriad of beams and projectiles thrown across the screen. Some overly dramatic music is easily recognizable as the work of Kenji Kawai whose 90s anime work is heavily ingrained in my memory.
Ultimately, this Geed movie should be an easy sell to fans of the series but will of course confuse anyone not up to date with the series. Regardless, it’s a colorful, fun, and energetic Ultraman tale which right off the bat should tell you if it’s meant for you or not.
