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Yogzilla's UG - Ultimate Girl Tv Review

UG - Ultimate Girl tv Review

Story & Characters

The story (such as it is) is pretty standard anime fare (i.e. girl likes boy but is too shy, girl likes girl but doesn't want to ruin their friendship by confessing, monster of the week shows up and hero appears to fight it, etc), but they take all these concepts and weave a very enjoyable 15min episode out of them. Several episodes are multipart, but they all hold up on their own fairly well; there’s always a quick recap of last episode’s most notable events. The characters remain true to themselves, and there’s even a little character growth. Of course, at its heart, this is a show based on the Ultraman genre, and some of the explanations for the various monsters is a little odd, but in terms of action it… well, it works for a comedy. On that note, for a comedy series, the final episode was a bit on the somber side, but again that is in keeping with the situation that had been set up in the prior episode. All in all, very good writing and characterization throughout the course of the series. Just don’t expect any surprises or revelations; what you see is what you get.

Rating: 6

Art

TV Broadcast – Sadly, the animation is variable: some very nice segments with highly detailed artwork can be seen in the same episode as unmoving characters with many details missing/wrong. And episode 2 even dropped the ball by putting in a progress bar instead of showing the actual henshin sequences!! (To be fair, this was supposedly due to the animators not having the all the sequences finished, yet the decision was to air it on time - - I’ll leave it to history to decide if this was the right decision). It’s been reported that much of this will be fixed when the series is released on DVD; I’ll post a follow-up once I’ve seen it. On average, it was pretty average.

Rating: 5

Sound

All of the voice actors really hit their mark with their characters; special kudos to Misato Fukuen as Silk Koharuno (the main heroine) and Toru Furuya as UFO Man (the Ultraman-like character). Silk really does come off as a very shy individual, and she has the cutest little quaver to her voice. UFO Man is exactly as a hero should be, but occasionally we do get to see his lecherous side (ok, much more than just ‘occasionally’). The soundtrack is serviceable, but listening to the CD makes one realize just how much of it is pure synthesizer. This doesn’t make it bad, it’s just more obvious on it’s own than while playing during an episode. On the other hand, the opening theme “White Heat� by yozuca* is absolutely amazing and I recommend it for everyone’s anime theme collection.

Rating: 6

Presentation

Many people have pointed out the copious amount of fan-service this show has. I cannot dispute this; in fact, I dare say this show has more fan-service in a 15 minute episode than in a regular (30 min) episode of Girls Bravo Second Season! But I heartily suggest pressing on past this fact (if it’s what’s keeping you from watching the show). This is probably one of the best spoofs/homages of the Ultraman genre that exists. It’s very evident (particularly to this Ultra-fan) that the creators are fans themselves, and little inside gags and nods show up almost non-stop. Even the episode titles are derived from actual episode titles from the various Ultra shows (not that the titles have anything to do with the episode, though). For those completely unfamiliar with the Ultra-genre, this is still a very humorous and fast-paced show; believe me, you won’t be bored. And several episodes also tip their hat to other anime, as well (eg. UFO Man dressed as Tuxedo Mask is a particularly delicious little send up). If you can name every single reference in this series, then you probably have less of a life than I do… Ultimately (pun intended), what you have is bite-sized episodes (15mins each) that are genuinely funny, loaded with in-jokes and references, and positively soaking in fan-service - - what’s not to love? Highly recommended!!

Rating: 7

Final Verdict

6.1667 (average)

Reviewed by Yogzilla, Apr 11, 2005

Comments

  1. UberDog Mar 23, 2015

    As I'm the first to give this review some love, I have to admit, it's simple but good.

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