Ultraman R/B Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Ultraman R/B Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 18, 2020

Mill Creek's Ultraman Blu-ray deluge continues with Ultraman R/B which ran from July-December 2018 on TV Tokyo. It's one of the newer in the franchise and it's also one of the finest. While it's true to the structural essence and established cadence, the focus on brothers who each control their own Ultra at the same time, and often do so to comic effect as they grow into the role and mature into a cohesive team, gives the franchise a jolt of energy while still maintaining allegiance to everything else that has made it so memorable, and long-lasting, through all these decades.

Official synopsis: When two brothers with clashing personalities obtain incredible powers, they focus on overcoming their differences to defend Earth as a superhero team. Families are always around us and hence they are likely to be taken for granted. This is a story of brothers, revolving around the main theme of "Bond" and "Love." One day, the brothers encounter a monster and almost lose their lives in the mountain. Then, two transformation items appear there suddenly, and the brothers will throw themselves into the battle world as Ultraman.

There are familiar themes at play in Ultraman R/B -- bonds of friendship and family – which are amplified because the protagonists are brothers, each of them granted the power of their own Ultraman. That duality carries from their human interactions into their cohesion (or oftentimes lack thereof) on the battlefield, and the show’s strength often flows less from the crudities of its action and more through the intimacy of the characters’ interactions, whether they are working in harmony or making gigantic (literally) fools of themselves while trying to save the day. While there’s plenty of familiar structure in play through the basic crude plot points and larger arcing narratives its the willingness to dig a little deeper into the characters and explore the power through the bonds of flesh-and-blood brotherhood (and bring plenty of levity to the table) which gives R/B a dramatic and thematic edge over so many of its predecessors, which tend to stick closer to a classic Ultraman structure and cadence. This is quickly familiar at the macro level but the writers (and actors) have done enough to differentiate the story and characters to bring new life to the franchise in what is one of the best of the modern era.

Not to be forgotten is Asahi, the brothers’ younger sister who may not have the transformative power of Ultraman R/B but who is in many ways the most critical part of their team, offering outside support in a number of different ways and, by the time the movie hits, finding a new and exciting way to assist. She’s the narrative glue and oftentimes elevated to the best character; she’s extremely well written and never relegated to dreaded “third wheel” status but instead proves vital to the brothers’ successes in battle but also in holding together that family structure and human interest drama that builds throughout the series outside of combat. Ryosuke Koike is terrific in the part, quickly finding both her voice and the characters’ spirit as the series begins and only positively building from there.

But the show isn’t all serious story and action excitement. There is an unmistakable lightness to much of the series, evident from the outset and particularly in how the brothers interact in their everyday lives and particularly on the battlefield in their transformed Ultra bodies. The first battle they fight isn’t the smoothest, to be kind, ever found in an Ultraman show. But it’s a blast for the lightheartedness intermixed with the more familiar visual structure and, most importantly, easily ingratiates the characters and world with the audience. Humor extends to the secondary and support characters, too; there’s a fun and playful extended sequence concerning the popular “rock, paper scissors” game in one of the earlier episodes, but it’s more the spirit and camaraderie of the sequence – which extends through the whole series – that makes it all work so well.

Quality production values are apparent from the outset, at least “quality” insofar as the typical level of Ultraman construction is concerned. The series holds tight and proud to the typical structure of actors in suits against complex but plainly miniature sets and props. The familiarity extends to the general flow and flavor, episode pacing, cinematography, and special effects, obvious even as all of these elements also reinforce the series’ unique personality.

This set also includes 'Ultraman R/B: The Movie - Select! The Crystal of Bond, which has also been granted an individual release. Please click here for a very brief review.

Ultraman R/B Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed Blu-ray presentation of Ultraman R/B holds consistent to the typical output of the more recent digitally photographed and released-to-Blu-ray Ultra series. The picture is clean, sharp, and satisfying. It's also enormously colorful, particularly with the Red and Blue heroes and the various graphics that accompany their transformations and attacks. Likewise, the selection of villains stands as one of the visual highlights with the various suits offering their own individual personalities and textural delights to explore, each one presented with enough clarity for audiences to soak in the details the production design team has painstakingly put into each one of them. Human facial textures are exemplary in close up; sharpness never gives way to softness and the level of clarity and rich, exacting detail in pores, hairs, and other skin elements never falters. The world around is tack-sharp, too, extending to the miniatures on display throughout the series. Colors, as noted, are bold and intense. The transformation scenes are the most abundantly colorful but also the most artificial. Real-world tones seen on clothes, environments, and natural greenery impress nearly as much for contrast stability, tonal depth, and color accuracy. Flesh tones are terrific and black levels leave no cause for concern. Light noise is in evidence at times, and brief compression artifact outbursts can be found from time to time, but for the most part source and encode qualities are in tip-top shape. This is another excellent Ultraman release from Mill Creek.

This set also includes Ultraman R/B: The Movie - Select! The Crystal of Bond,' which has also been granted an individual release. Please click here for a few words on its video presentation (which is essentially indistinguishable from this) and for screenshots from the movie; all of the screenshots in this review are from the series).

Ultraman R/B Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ultraman R/B features a single audio track in the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless configuration, also in the original Japanese language. The track could stand to offer greater attention to detail. As it is, the presentation struggles to find the aggressive yet accurate intensity of so many previous Ultra releases, particularly the shows form the modern era. When Grigio attacks halfway through episode one, the effect clearly wants for a more stout low end, but it's also just the feeling of incompleteness, the shallowness to music, the lack of crispness and detail to the effects, never mind the lack of more precise sound placement and movement that altogether don't neuter the sequence but that do render it far less than sonically ideal. Indeed, none of these elements rate poorly, but neither do any of them excel. Listeners will certainly be left wanting something more sonically complete, and that sadly holds true for most of the program. There's never that hardcore intensity and output power to really make the action sound as big as it looks. Music is likewise left wanting for a more authoritative presence, but at least front-end stretch and clarity are generally fine. Dialogue likewise enjoys lifelike clarity and natural imaging to the center area.

This set also includes 'Ultraman R/B: The Movie - Select! The Crystal of Bond,' which has also been granted an individual release. Please click here for a few words on its audio presentation.

Ultraman R/B Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras are included across the entire six-disc set, which includes the five discs for the series and the final disc holding the movie. It does include a small booklet outlining key characters and incudes a Kaiju guide, episode synopses, and a plot recap for the movie. No DVD copies are included but Mill Creek has bundled in a MovieSpree digital copy voucher. This release also ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

Ultraman R/B Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ultraman R/B is one of the best shows the series has yet delivered. There's just enough novelty and humor to offset its otherwise strict adherence to tried-and-true formula. It's fun but familiar and it plays very well, particularly with a top-end cast giving the amiable characters a life well beyond stock. The production values proper are little changed from its contemporary brethren, and that's not a bad thing. It's comfortable both as a traditionally oriented Ultraman series while confident in shaping its own characters and story. Mill Creek's Blu-ray set is, like all the others, featureless, but the video quality is strong. The two-channel lossless audio is a little lacking but more than serviceable. Highly recommended.