TV Review: Ultraman Max Episode One

I got a chance to see the first episode of the new Ultraman Max series during the "Ultramania" festival in California this weekend. The series, at least the first episode, is the anti-Nexus: kid-friendly and a cookie cutter plotline. You can tell who will become Ultraman the minute you meet him: a young twentysomething guy who does volunteer work and likes rescuing kids from rampaging monsters. You'd also be able to guess the love interest pretty quickly. (Hint: the only female member of DASH.)

It was neat that this Ultraman hails from the famous Nebula M-78. It's been a long time since we've seen an Ultraman come from there. I've already discussed my feelings on his design, but he is cool to look at when Max springs into action. The battle between Max and the two kaijus is way too short, and Max already resorts to his signature move to destroy both monsters, which while I'm not a huge fan of "hand waving" is a little lackluster.

While there's a couple hiccups in the plot, "Hey, I suddenly mention that I took an entrance exam to DASH last week and can now fly the ship," it was still pretty enjoyable. All those disspointed kaiju fans who gave up on Nexus will have plenty of reasons to to love this series. While I enjoyed watching the episode, I'm not overly thrilled with it, so that makes it about a... C+