Return of Ultraman1971

88/100 Not quite as good as the 1966 original and nowhere near as good as Ultraseven, but still manages to carve out a niche for itself which it accomplishes quite well. First off are the characters here, which I actually think it does better than Ultraseven. MAT itself is admittedly a pretty weak team, but a few of the members, such as Minami and Kishida, are fleshed out enough that you grow to care about them. The show's main strength character-wise, however, are in its stories outside of the attack team. Go himself is certainly a great protagonist, demonstrating the main theme of improving as a person present throughout the show. Being Ultraman is something he has to learn, setting him apart from his predecessors and adding some personal drama into his life, with several episodes dealing with him messing up either accidentally or due to some fault of his and having to redeem himself. The characters of Aki, Jiro and Ken Sakata also add a human element to this show. Jiro himself might be the best I've seen these toku kids handled, almost never being annoying and actually being useful several times. Ken is also played by Shin Kishida, whose acting does a lot for this character, propelling him to my favourite. This makes it all the more tragic when he and Aki are killed off three-quarters of the way through, a shakeup to the status quo with long-reaching effects handled well. As for the monsters here, while Tohl Narita's absence is definitely felt and the final quarter of the show definitely sees a downgrade in terms of quality, the monsters still have some bangers, especially with more unconventional monsters such as Pris-Ma and Vacuumon. Overall, I felt my favourite opponents here were Black King and Alien Nackle from the show's final two-parter, with Pris-Ma as a contender. The show's action is also very good, with some high energy. This is also usually backed up by well-crafted stories, with a mix of 1966's more fairytale approach and Ultraseven's sci-fi storytelling allowing for a blend of tones appealing to a wide variety of audiences. Overall, when the show hits a low point, you can definitely feel it, and for some point in between the final two-parter and the finale, you can feel them running out of steam for a bit, but it's only ever a small moment in an overall great show.