Urutoraman Reo (1974–1975)
6/10
This one starts out strong, creative, and violent, but loses its way...
6 October 2021
The first dozen episodes of Ultraman Leo are quite special.

These have great Showa era kitchen sink monster designs with tons of textures and spew real fire or vapor or soap. The fights end with lots of violent dismemberments---Leo often rips out fangs and fins and then stabs his enemies with these weaponized bits. Also, the drama portions of these shows are largely brutal martial arts training sequences akin to those found in Lau Kar Leung's Enter the 36th Chamber and 8 Diagram Pole Fighter.

BUT the show then progresses to more toddler-centric story lines with shrill kids shrieking and overacting and making almost all of the non-fight stuff a bit of a chore to sit through. The monsters remain cool, especially the UFO/flying saucer designs, but the battles are toned down/less violent by the last third as well.

The original Ultraman series and Ultraman X are better uses of your Ultratime.
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