Powered-ful thoughts

Ultra Float!

Ultraman Powered (Ultraman: the Ultimate Hero, 1993) has gotten a rep as the worst Ultra series ever. Aside from Foxkids adaption of Ultraman Tiga, this probably does deserve the title of not best Ultra show.

it's too bad, as it mostly fails in the Ultra Action scenes.  the costumes, actors and miniatures all look pretty good, and the effects are quite nice.  the costumes look almost TOO detailed, which led to the stunt team being ever so careful with them.  hence Powered's basic fighting were the "Ultra Shove" and the "Ultra Push" (thank you, Andre Dubois for coining those terms way back when).  even Ultraman Great had better fight scenes!

Powered appears!

Powered himself does look great.  it's a great transformation sequence as well.

another problem was remaking classic episodes of the first series.  this was not a good idea, overall.  the monsters didn't quite live up to their original incarnations, though Kemlar (Kemular, Kemura) looks quite good in episode 2 ("Attack Kemular From Behind").

so I don't hate the show.  it's sad, as it had a lot of potential, but by making the fights boring, they really blew it.  for years, both Powered and Great weren't considered canon for the Ultra Brothers, but they both appeared in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie  (along with almost every other Ultra ever!) which I quite enjoyed.