The Ultraman Manga is an interesting thing. Instead of making a whole new Ultra in a whole new continuity (which would be the route fans would expect) it instead decided to go a more favorable path. It's set in the 1966's show's continuity, so you get references galore, Hayata, Ito...all great stuff for longtime fans. The opening chapter was light on the action, but remained an engaging read. It set up the whole Ultra-Gene thing with Hayatya, whom had passed it down to his son. We have a mysterious threat, who makes landfall here. While the first half of this chapter was pretty average, the later part makes up for it.
Here we have Shin, a teenager in high school whom is seemingly depressed. Hayata tries to talk with him, but he's not having it. Later he runs into a scary scene, three bullies about to attack a teenage girl. Shin steps into action and accidentally twists a foot on one of the guys, and flees the scene. It's there when things get interesting, when the alien reveals himself. First off, I should mention Shin. He was pretty cheerful as a little kid in the first chapter, but once the time skip came, he did a 180. I was going to reserve judgment until this chapter, he doesn't really improve. He's emo and depressed...and we don't get any real reason why he's those two things. He's so far not the greatest protagonist. It's the later half that makes the chapter.
This alien whom resembles Ultraman a bit is making for a pretty cool antagonist. Hayata claims he battled this guy 10 years ago, sadly I can't piece him with any of the classic aliens. Still, the dialogue is great and Hayata's appearance was interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing somethings explained. The art actually improves a bit. The opening pages does a great job showing how depressed Shin is and his father in vain trying to talk with him. The alien is drawn with a sleek design. I can now officially say this is good art and I'm looking forward to seeing how it will do big action sequences.
Overall, Chapter 2 of the Ultraman Manga further establishes Shin and our alien antagonist. Shin has yet to impress me at all, we're given no real reason why he has a very depressing outlook on things. Of course, this is only Chapter 2 of the first volume, so I would imagine he'll get character development in the coming chapters. The later half is truly exciting. The alien is by far the best part, and Hayata's emergence. I'll be looking forward to seeing how things play out in Chapter 3.
3.5/5
Shinjiro is kinda hard to pin point in chapter two somewhat in terms of character. The only thing that can explain for his mild depression is that he knows about his power, and that because of it he probably hasn't had a good life.
ReplyDeleteIt kinda makes sense, similar to Peter Parker as Spider-Man, except this Peter doesn't know where it came from or how to control it. As a result it could have lead him to be an outcast. How he crushed that other guy's legs like it was nothing, and how everyone reacted tells me its a possibility. Nothing can really back up my claim, but its a reasonable assumption I guess. But that would explain why he seems all down.
But hey! At least as a character he develops a little bit! He willingly protected someone, so at least we can say that he has his father's Moral compass. Surprising that he "wanted a girlfriend", you never see that in most manga protagonist at the beginning in these type of action mangas.
This Alien guy is surprisingly coming off as a badass. He's rather calm and level headed, but like you Destroyer, I also can't place him in the timeline. We'll probably find out later on in future chapters who he is. Great review!
Thanks! I'm really looking forward to seeing what the reveal is. For all we know he could be Alien Zarab.
DeleteI'm liking this Alien antagonist very much, he gives off this atmosphere similar to Belial. Cold, calculated, yet surprisingly collected. Those are the type of bad guys that you need to avoid at all costs! They may be talking in a level headed small tone, but that only means they can dish out a bigger harder can of whoop-ass!
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