This post is very tangentially related to Inquisitive Dave, which can be wishlisted on Steam or here on itch.io!

I've been looking for good stuff to have on in the background while programming.  That is the one connection here to a normal devlog entry.

I settled on an old Japanese pulp sci fi series for two reasons. Firstly, I don't understand the language well enough to get distracted. Secondly, it's 90% inoffensive background noise, but sometimes something really weird and/or goofy will happen!

Part 1: The Series Itself

Wikipedia describes Captain Ultra as a pulp-style tokusatsu science fiction space adventure. Personally I find it to be closer to the old 60s Batman TV series - it may not have been an explicit comedy, but they were clearly leaning into camp as far as they could before the scenery buckled.

The first hint that we're in for something glorious comes at the start of the first episode when a redshirt is ejected into space, only to be miraculously subbed out for a deeply unconvincing model.

I'm going to give the series credit of assuming the character froze rigid in the vacuum of space, even though that's not how space works.

These too-small model shots are the default effect of the series and it's never not adorable. The last episode consists of (I think???) a bunch of kids playing with toys of the series' main characters which I guess is to lampshade the preceding 24 episodes but also uses the same action figures as the actual effects.

Speaking of the main characters...

Part 2:  A Look at the Main Characters

Tying everything up in a neat little bow is our hero, The Least Charismatic Man in the Galaxy. He seems to spend most of his adventures scowling at the sheer injustice of taking part in space battles which are Awesome and Rad.

To call him we have the series' answer to the bat signal - a laser gun sword which also serves as a signal flare.

Honestly I have no complaints about that part, it's awesome. Well, apart from the ship's sole female crew member has a super cool space gun sword that she mostly just uses to call for help.

Also joining the crew is a robot and some sort of rock wizard who can transform into space debris. The latter was apparently too goofy for even this series and ended up getting shooed onto a space bus ten episodes in.

The rest of the crew mostly stand by looking ernest until they are required to explode and/or get caught by the bad guys in order to move the plot along.

Speaking of the bad guys...

Part 3: Let's Talk About the Bad Guys

For the first half of the series, the bad guys are these walking garden waste bin bags with features glued on at inconsistent angles.

The biggest dramatic tension for the most part is waiting for one of their flimsily attached eyes to fly off and hit a crew member.

After a while we settle into more of a monster-of-the-week format, which gives the team a chance to break out yet more action figure based special effects!

The exclamation mark at the end of each episode is usually a giant space-monster that has to be space-battled by a space-ship.

Since these fights all end in a mostly predictable way, the majority of fun comes from the questionable costume choices applied to the monsters.

There are some human antagonists as well! A special shout out goes to the bad guy in Episode 9, who makes up for the charisma black hole that follows our lead by giving it his all in every scene.

His introduction sees him stumbling upon a pair of subordinates who have the nerve to brawl in front of a lady. Rather than simpy break the fight up he opts to join in, beating the snot out of the two with a big stick.

This actor chews so much scenery it's amazing the crew still had miniatures to work with afterwards, and is honestly the main reason for me writing this post!

This cartoon vibe brings us to the final point.

Part 4: The Surprising Joy of Captain Ultra

There's a lot to love about this series. I love how awkward the fight scenes with rubber suited extras are.

I love how seamlessly alien monsters are able to disguise themselves in human society until the dramatic reveal.

I love how the creature's abilities are decided by whatever's cheapest to film, like dusty but dangerous gusts of wind

or the monster who shoots water jets because the effects team only needed a bucket for that.

I love how you occasionally get a reasonable composite shot, which makes you wonder why they use unconvincing models so much of the time.

I love the episode that's just a kaiju re-imagining of rear window.  I love the episode where they're trapped on a space ship with a corpse ghost monster and it manages to be genuinely creepy.  I love the episode where robot turns evil and traps the scrappy annoying kid in the zero-G chamber, and his friends just all start laughing at him because screw that kid.

I started watching this fairly ironically as background noise, but now find myself genuinely changed by Captain Ultra. Maybe if you give it a try, it will change you too!

Eddy's game, Inquisitive Dave, has a page on Steam!
You can also see it here on itch.io