I get why Tsuburaya did this, I really do. The 70's oil crisis, economical problems, the fact that it was cheaper to produce an anime than a live-action series with special effects, I even get why Sunrise did it. Ultraman, your first anime series ever, the perfect way to let you be known at your first official effort. Let me tell you, as a fan of both animes and Tokus (I've been getting more into the latter from an year only, but I have already watched something like 14 series at this point) and as a fan who actually paid Tsuburaya for official Ultraman merchandise and I gladly did it, this was something completely and totally unneded. Animes and Live-action Tokus don't mesh well, they never have except the Cutie Honey tokusatsu (fun, but not the greatest thing ever) which was based on the worst piece of animation ever produced in history (the original animated 70's cutie Honey Show), itself heavily based on the mechanics of Tokus and a complete failure in all regards, trumped by the 90's shoujo-injected Cutie Honey Flash series all day, all night. You watch Tokus for the special effects and costumes, you watch the animation for what it's impossible to make in real life, you can't mesh them by default, no matter if originally this series was popular with the Japanese viewers or not. Hell, you can't link live-action, non-toku series like Sukeban Deka to animes, you can't do it with an IP known 100% for its tokusatsu series and not the animes. Avoid this thing with no remorse whatsoever and watch the gazillion of live-action Ultraman shows Tsuburaya has made after this turd was made, you won't regret it.
