YMMV / Ultraman: The Next

• Complete Monster: In this prequel to Ultraman Nexus, Beast the One, also called simply The One, is a parasite from space. Fleeing from its enemy, Ultraman The Next, it escapes into Earth's oceans and attacks a submarine, killing everyone on board and taking Udo Takafumi as a host. Udo is slowly and painfully eaten alive, physically and mentally, with The One absorbing his memories to pose as Udo. After absorbing enough organic matter to escape, The One murders his way out of prison and flees into the wilderness. When led into a trap by Udo's fiancee Sara, it poses as Udo to try and prey on her feelings before attempting to kill her when the deception falls through. After escaping again, it flees into the sewers, eating and killing every human it comes across. This is when we find out that it talks, thinks along very human lines, and deeply enjoys killing people. It does not prey on humans for sustenance, as simpler creatures like lizards, rats and crows enhance its powers; it preys upon them for pleasure. At one point, after taking on its true gigantic form, it laughs while destroying the city, gloating and bellowing for the humans to run in terror. What made The One stand out over most of the other kaiju before or since was its utter sadism. It's a Psycho for Hire that deeply enjoyed killing and eating humans, in some ways worse than its creator. It is not a wild animal, or a tragic beast—just a monster.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This isn't the first time that an long-running Tokusatsu franchise has attempted a Darker and Edgier rebranding where the titular hero's design gets retooled to look more like a traditional entry in the franchise.
  • A voice actor also named Shunichi Maki would become part of the franchise later on and voice Alien Gapiya Abel and Darrgon.
• Special Effects Failure: The CG has not aged well, to put it lightly. The final fight in the sky is passable, but The One's low-res textured body bloating and pulsing as its head hits the ceiling to change forms looks very silly.