A series is often judged, more than anything, by its ending.The last moments of a show can make or break the entirety of public sentiment towards it, regardless of what came before. Look at Game of Thrones, and how that ended — and what people think of it now.
Thankfully, ULTRAMAN FINAL Season is not Game of Thrones. ULTRAMAN FINAL Season is Ultraman, and damn proud of it. 13 episodes cap off a tremendous story built on not only the previous two seasons, but the original 1966 Ultraman series, almost 57 years ago.
The story takes place a while after the battle with the Golden Fortress, and refocuses squarely on Shinjiro, whose powers seem to be growing stronger and stronger with every day. When it seems that those growing powers begin to cause terrible destruction, it heralds a conspiracy that threatens to sunder humanity’s faith in Ultraman — past, present, and future.
Just as in the past two seasons, the show is helmed by some amazing voice actors, including Shinjiro himself, played once again by Ryohei Kimura in Japanese, and Josh Hutcherson in English. Both casts have significant chemistry, which makes sense — they’ve had two seasons to really get close.
The new characters are certainly no slouch either, though. MAO’s Valcure is delightfully unhinged and boorish, and Koji Ishii’s Mephisto is harrowingly clever and diabolical — both of them add significantly to the story of the season, and their performances are utterly gripping.
A high point for us personally has always been the music of the anime, and “3” by NOILION has triple-digit play counts for us in the UC office last time we checked. This time, NOILION went even bigger, partnering with internationally-beloved guitarist and singer MIYAVI to create “RAYS,” a high-energy track that blasts through styles, tempos, and different sounds like a Spacium Beam. Definitely a worthy successor to “3,” with its own story to tell.
In addition, this time the ending, “AVIATION,” is provided by popular producer Void_Chords, AKA Ryo Takahashi, featuring Ryohei & Foggy-D. A fun, bouncy track, “AVIATION” is fantastic, especially as a cooldown piece to the high emotions and incredible action of the season.
In short, this is not a season to be missed if you’ve seen any ULTRAMAN material before. And if you haven’t, the whole series is now available; it’s a great time to start. We’ll have more to say about ULTRAMAN FINAL Season this week, so be sure to stick close to Ultraman Connection to find out more!
