Ultraman Ginga: New Ultraman Retsuden?

So, we finally have a new Ultraman for television after all these years. According to all information seen so far, the series will be called New Ultraman Retsuden (off all things) and the main hero is called Ultraman Ginga.

The premise is supposedly:

A long time ago in outer space, a certain evil caused all Ultra heroes and giant monsters to turn into small dolls. These dolls where scattered all over the universe, until they arrived on Earth through a meteor shower. In present time, a young boy finds the Ginga Spark, that allows him to help the dolls revert into their true form. With the Ginga Spark, he can “UltraLive” to merge with the dolls.

It sounds a lot like Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (which I haven't actually seen), and that's a little odd since Mebius was already the Ultra Series equivalent of Gokaiger. HJU's report claims that it will be set in present-time Japan, which (I'm guessing) could either mean "2013 in the main Ultra universe" or a world not unlike our own. If it's the latter, then that would mean a situation similar to Battle in Hyperspace.

I'm not really sure how to feel about this. I don't quite like the design, but I guess they're intentionally going for something different. The high school setting also sounds like they're trying to be experimental with this series, which is not a bad thing, although I'm guessing this means the non-powered characters won't be much help in combat, since they aren't a defense team. But it is quite far from the full reboot I was hoping for, and that's disappointing. I do hope Tsuburaya actually remember that they can do a complete reboot. And another thing: if you look at the promo picture at the top of this post, Ultraman Tiga is among the dolls floating there. I have no idea how this would work for continuity, due to the whole "separate universes" thing. I really, really, really hope this doesn't mean that Tsuburaya will just ignore the whole multiverse concept. But maybe Tiga won't appear in the story at all, and I'm just worrying a little too much.

From the sound of it, the show will only be 11 episodes with 2 specials, and there will be some sort of break between episodes 6 and 7. Far from a full-length series, but I'll have to see what Tsuburaya will be able to do before I can judge. There was a translated press conference with the cast on YouTube, which has now been removed. But it did make the series sound a little promising, especially a line at around the end of the conference:

Ultraman Ginga will be brought to you by a new and fresh cast. Full of hopes and dreams, I hope you'll enjoy it

If "full of hopes and dreams" is correct, I'm cool with this. No doubt I'll at least give this a try, and possibly watch all the way through.

Ultra Series and New Ultraman Retsuden © Tsuburaya Productions