Ultraman Ginga's DX Ginga Brace Promo

The official BandaiJP YouTube channel posted the promo for the DX Ginga Brace from Ultraman Ginga. This item is used by the show's titular hero to defeat the bad guys.

Ultraman Ginga 2nd Half Trailer

The official Tsuburaya YouTube channel posted the trailer for the return of Ultraman Ginga this Winter. The series will conclude during this half of the series.


We previously reported that it is during this time that we will see the debut of the Dark Ultra Brothers. Even though Ultraman Ginga ends this Winter, Hikaru and friends will return in a special that will air in Spring 2014.

Ultraman Dark & Ultraseven Dark to Appear in Ultraman Ginga

The home video listings and the latest scan for Ultraman Ginga revealed that Dark Ultramen will appear in the series.

The home video listings for Ultraman Ginga featured an evil version of the original Ultraman and Ultraseven called Ultraman Dark and Ultraseven Dark. In addition, the episodes that are included in the Blu-ray/DVD are:

Episode 7: The Closed World
Episode 8: Galaxy Spark Deprived
Episode 9: The Jet Black Ultra Brothers

These three episodes are part of the show's 2nd half, which will air from November to December. The series ends with the 11th episode.

[Source: Shynilyte of HJU, okunohoshimichi of HJU]

Ultraman Ginga's DX Dark Spark Revealed

The Premium Bandai shop is now taking pre-orders for the DX Dark Spark from Ultraman Ginga. This is the device used in the show to summon monsters and evil Ultramen.

The DX Dark Spark features the same mold of the DX Ginga Spark, the only difference is the color, the faceplate and the sounds it produces. The DX Dark Spark costs 4,725 yen and is set for a February 2014 release.

UltraAct Ultraman Ginga & Jean Nine Revealed

This year's Tamashii Nations revealed UltraAct Ultraman Ginga and UltraAct Jean Nine! Both characters appeared in the Ultraman Ginga TV series.

As of this writing, the price and release dates of these figures is still unknown.

[Source: Henshin Justice]

Spark Dolls SP Ultraman Ginga Seven Colors Collection Announced

The Premium Bandai online shop is now taking pre-orders for the Spark Dolls SP Ultraman Ginga Seven Colors Collection. This set features the different colors of Ultraman Ginga when he is executing any of his finishers.


These Spark Dolls are fully compatible with the DX Ginga Spark. This set costs 3,676 yen and is set for a January 2014 release.

Ultraman Ginga 03 – Kenta's Motivation

And Taro is quite moe in this episode.

We learned that Hikaru's friend, Kenta lost his motivation to become a photographer. It all changed thanks to a girl. But Misuzu is concerned about Kenta because she feels that there is something wrong with the girl.

With a series lasting for 12 episodes and with the show's number of support characters, it's no surprise that this episode is focused on Kenta, one of the other two support characters in the series that I don't care since episode 1. Revealing the fact that he has a dream to become a professional photographer made me care for the guy a bit. By a bit, I mean, he finally has some personality aside from the other guy in the show. Also, if the earlier minutes of the episode is hinting us to something, it seems that he has a crush on Misuzu, but with Hikaru around, he can't make a move.

Since Hikaru is around and he is pretty close to Misuzu, it is no surprise that he will lose any motivation to try and get the girl. But I guess he is able to get through it thanks to a girl who recently visited their old school. Kenta's crush to this new girl kinda reminded me of those typical older girl crushes most guys have. This kind of plot is used a lot of times now that it's getting a little dull unless you put some twist in it. And boy, the twist is something that I didn't expect to see. The earlier minutes of the episode hints that Kenta will use a Dark Spark in this episode, but it is later revealed that Kenta's crush is the Dark Spark user!

The girl's motivation of becoming a Dark Spark user felt a bit bland. I mean, she keeps on reminiscing the past but she wants to burn the school and starts talking about crushing hopes and dreams? Man, her motivations are quite twisted. Outside of the plot, the monster battle in this episode is really interesting. It feels like the show finally understands how to make a good monster battle. My only problem with it is that the keep on talking while they are fighting! This is not what I want to see in a monster battle! What I want to see are monsters fighting and all I hear are roars, not a girl whining about her broken hopes and dreams!

The new Ultraman Ginga finisher is a bit underwhelming, even though his new finisher has something to do with a sword. I mean, the finisher is basically Ginga cracking the ground to summon lava? It's not as awesome as the ones we have in the previous two episodes! Hopefully the next finisher is better than this one. At the end, the girl apologized for what she did, especially with Kenta since she just used him.

As for Ultraman Taro, aside from getting a bit lucky early in the episode when he is watching the girl strip before revealing her true nature, he is kidnapped by Ichijouji. This is when we learned why he is lurking behind Hikaru and Misuzu in the previous episode, he is also a Dark Spark user and that his partner is a robot giant named Jean Killer. What's his mission and why he is a Dark Spark user?

Ultraman Ginga 02 – Hikaru and Misuzu

 Those lights man.

Thanks to Taro, Hikaru and Misuzu can't tell their friends that Hikaru is Ultraman Ginga and other stuff related to it, such as the monsters that attacked their town days ago. Later, thanks to some mad biker, Misuzu realized how weak she is and that she is useless when it comes to helping Hikaru.

The episode focused on developing the relationship between Hikaru and Misuzu and they did a good job about it. Aside from the hints that these two want to be more than just friends, we also saw that Misuzu also has her own fears. Her fear is that she will just be a burden to Hikaru who keeps on saving her every time she is in trouble. She realized that she will just be a burden thanks to the evil biker in this episode, who will eventually end up becoming the host of the MOTW thanks to the Dark Spark.

The plot about Misuzu's fears is what makes this episode kinda mediocre. They handled it so bad that I don't care about it. Heck, I rather watch the evil biker chase her all day long than see her monologue about her fears! More on the chase scene, I can't help but notice the dark tinting of this scene, it looks like they shot this scene during day time and then added the tinting during the editing process. I know, this is because of the budget issues but I just can't help notice how badly tinted this scene is. Oh well, at least the classroom chase scene is convincingly shot at night.

The resolution of Misuzu's problem is really underwhelming since I already predicted it that it will happen that way. Oh well, at least that scene added the fuel for fans who ship her with Hikaru. Anyway, the monster battle in this episode is really creative. Aside from how Hikaru used Thunder Darambia in battle, the quirky movements of the MOTW made the fight really interesting. It is also during this time that I can't help but notice that Hikaru becoming an Ultraman felt like he is more of a traditional henshin hero and not an Ultraman.

Before any violent reactions, here's the feeling I have while watching Ultraman. Ultraman and his human host felt like they are two separate entities. In Ginga's case, it feels more like Ginga is Hikaru's transformed form and not a separate entity like most Ultramen are. Granted that kind of concept is similar to Mebius but at least the show still tried to convince us that Mirai and Mebius are two different entities. I guess the fact that Mebius only does grunt noises added us the masking of the two personas. Just like last time, Ginga's entrance is really awesome. What's more is that the lights in the suit look really fantastic at night.

The fight scene is seriously awesome and that the scene wherein Hikaru asks the MOTW while he likes to torment people is quite a weird scene for an Ultraman show. I know I see this scene in other tokusatsu shows but I find it weird watching a psychopath talk to an Ultraman on why he likes to torment people. Oh well, at least this scene lead us to Ginga's new finishing move! The new finishing move, which features Ginga flying outside of the planet after pushing the MOTW outside the Earth's atmosphere, is really great. The space scene looks really well done, add the fact that the new finisher is basically Ginga summoning fireballs and hurl it towards the opponent is really one cool way to wrap up the fight.

At the end, the day is saved and that Hikaru continues to share his fine moments as Ginga with Misuzu. While they are doing it, a strange figure in the form of Ichijouji, the silent transfer student is watching over them. Since he is the mysterious transfer student archetype and that he is really interested at Hikaru, I guess it is safe to assume that he will do something important in the series later on.

Ultraman Ginga Special Episode Trailer

Here's the promo of Ultraman Ginga's special episode that will air on September 7th. The special episode will feature the appearances of Dark Zagi, Ultraman Tiga and Jean Nine.

Ultraman Ginga 01 – Town of Falling Stars

Hikaru Raidou returns after years of staying overseas in his hometown only to discover that the old Ginga Shrine was destroyed before he arrives. What's interesting is that he returned because he feels like he needs to return. Is his arrival in his old town fate or goes something deeper than that?

The first few minutes of the episode gave us a proper introduction to Hikaru and his friends. All I can say is that the acting of the kids feels a bit stiff, especially with Hikaru's case in some scenes. As for the characters themselves, Hikaru is your average Joe who will help if people need his help. What I like about him in his first appearance is that he doesn't know why he decided to return but it feels like he must return. This led us to scene wherein he becomes curious on what's inside the case where his grandfather placed the shrine idol.

His curiosity to the idol and why it feels like he must get it something that I didn't expect to see in an Ultraman series. For most of the time, it's an Ultraman having a human host or them disguising as humans and that's about it. But in this case, it feels like this scene came straight out of Kamen Rider Kuuga wherein Yusuke feels that he should wear the Arcle like he is destined to wear it. When Hikaru finally had a chance to grab a hold onto the idol, we learned a couple of things on what happened prior to the start of the series.

There is a war between the Ultramen and the monsters that they once defeated. Compared to Kamen Rider Decade's Rider War and Gokaiger's Legend War, this Ultraman vs. Monsters battle scene is a bit brief and the reasons why it was brought up is for a later explanation, Hikaru's first meeting with Ultraman Taro and lastly, our look on the bad guys. But first, let's talk about Hikaru's first meeting with Taro, it was absolute hilarious. I just love the fact that Hikaru is looking for any speakers just in case it is someone who is pulling some practical joke with a doll.

Next is with the bad guys, the establishing shot in the war scene and the hand that we saw in the evil lair add up to the mystery of the identity of this shrouded figure. Because he is currently hidden in secrecy, the one who is doing most of the dirty work is a jester-like character whose job is too look for humans with evil hearts so that they can restore their own set of Monster Spark Dolls. Speaking of Spark Dolls, I just love that Hikaru continues to wonder how the heck Taro can talk while inside his doll form. Heck, he even tried looking around the Taro doll just to make sure that Taro is not hiding anything for him to talk. Considering his moves, I guess he used telepathy to communicate with Hikaru.

Thanks to Taro, we learn a bit of backstory about the war. What's interesting about the war is that it featured Ultramen who are in the Heisei Era aka the era that the producers of the franchise confirmed that most of it take place on an alternate universe. Another thing that interests me is that Taro said that the war happened over a million years ago. If this war happened million years ago, then I can safe to assume that this show takes place in an alternate universe after all Ultraman shows are over and that they landed in a planet with no prior history when it comes to Ultraman sightings.

This is when we learned that Hikaru's love interest, Misuzu knows Taro's existence and is the first one who tried enlarging Taro thanks to the Ginga Spark. This is yet another part of the show that interests me. It's interesting because having secret keepers in the Ultraman franchise is kinda rare but to have the love interest as the secret keeper can create a lot of interesting scenarios in the future. Another thing that interests me aside from that angle is that the Ginga Spark can detect other Spark Dolls and that Hikaru can use the Ginga Spark to transform into past Ultraman monsters! In this episode, he transformed into Black King.

The transformation sequence into Black King felt like it came straight from your traditional Ultraman transformation sequence. Also, I just love that Hikaru is enjoying every second he is as a monster before he starts fighting the MOTW, Thunder Darambia. The fight between Black King and Thunder Darambia is amazing and I am smiling like a little kid just watching this fight. This is something I love to see, a fight between monsters! What made it more interesting is how it materialized. Like I said, it is all thanks to the dark energy provided by evil humans but what surprised me is that they are the ones controlling the MOTW!

Because they are the criminals we saw earlier, I was expecting that Hikaru as Black King can easily handle it but nope, he is beaten badly by these two. In his weakened state, a mysterious Spark Doll appeared in Hikaru. This Spark Doll is the Ultraman Ginga Spark Doll and touching it revealed how the war ended. The original Ginga ended the war as he faced the man with the mysterious Dark Spark. With the Ultraman Ginga Spark Doll, Hikaru transforms into the said hero. The transformation sequence looks great but his entrance, man it is simply amazing.

Ginga's fight with Thunder Darambia is simply fantastic. It's quick and your standard Ultraman fight as we see two giants duke it out in the battlefield. Finally, Ginga's finisher is something that I didn't expect from an Ultraman, but considering that it is not the iconic beam blast, then I guess he might have multiple finishers. Unlike the previous Ultramen exits, Ginga just reverts back to Hikaru without doing the trademark flying away. This scene made me realize one thing; Ginga will not be your average Ultraman series.