Ultraman (or the Ultra Series) is the name of a tokusatsu franchise created by Eiji Tsuburaya in 1966 and managed by Tsuburaya Productions. It has become one of the most prominent franchises in Japan today. If you know of Power Rangers, then the feel of Ultraman will be familiar!

What exactly is an Ultraman?

Ultras are “beings of light” that use their superpowers to bring peace to the universe. Most Ultras come from a planet called the “Land of Light” in a nebula called “M78”. Citizens of this planet used to look just like humans until their sun exploded. Their top scientists worked hard to create a new, artificial sun called the “Plasma Spark”. Once this was created, everyone suddenly became much more taller and alien-like, and gained superhuman strength and powers. They swore to use this power for good. Some Ultramen aren’t from M78, but they all have the same goal.

When coming to Earth to help with its seemingly never-ending kaiju problem, Ultramen can only take their Ultra form for three minutes due to the Earth’s pollution. Therefore, they merge with a human host, and work with them to help bring order to Earth. The human host is more often than not part of an organization that already exists to fight supernatural occurrences, but sometimes the host is just an ordinary guy. Occassionally, the Ultraman has their own existing human form. Each series not only documents the appearances of kaiju and everyone’s efforts to defeat them, it also focuses on the human host and their relationships with the people around them.

My experience with Ultraman

I don’t have a lot to say, really. I was introduced to it by an online friend sometime in early 2020. During the pandemic, the series really made me happy (though not in a “OMG it saved my life!1!!” kind of way). All the Ultras really do have enjoyable personalities – and if they don’t, the fanbase will make damn sure they do! I really enjoyed consuming content, official and unofficial, of my favourite Ultras.

After the conclusion of Ultraman Z in 2021, my interest waned a fair bit. I tried to watch Ultraman Trigger, but I only ended up watching the first episode and the first appearance of Z. I think I also watched the Ultraman Trigger movie in 2022 but my memory fails me. I completely ignored Ultraman Decker.

In February 2023, I watched the series Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad, which had concluded just two weeks earlier. I really enjoyed it, and suspected that my Ultraman phase would be coming back in again. Fast forward to April 2023, and Ultraman Blazar was announced. I loved the trailer and the premise so much that it practically sealed things. I’m back with my boys!

Notable Ultramen

My favourite Ultramen and other figures

Short reviews of series and movies I’ve watched

Ultraman Z – Amazing! All of the characters are very likable and there were definitely some fangirly moments. Yoko is unironically me. My favourite series far!
Ultraman Taiga – also very good! I think I have a thing for series where the Ultra actually talks and interacts with the human host rather than just randomly appearing when required.
Ultraman Max – I only watched half of this while it was airing on the official Ultraman YouTube channel. It was fine, nothing to write home about. I think I’m not really a huge fan of early- and mid- Heisei Ultraman. (The zoomer in me is jumping out)
Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends The Movie – The first piece of Ultraman media I watched! I rewatched this in April 2023 and it’s not as good as I remember. It does have its flaws and the CGI is dated, but it still makes for good mindless fun. This is the first appearance of Zero and Belial!
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy – probably the last series I watched before a semi-hiatus from Ultraman I took from 2021-2023. I like how they brought back lots of Ultras that haven’t made appearances in decades! Good plot as well.
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad – Sequel to the above. It was released in 2022 but I watched it in early 2023! This and the announcement of Ultraman Blazar brought me back into the franchise. I miss my boys! Good series too.
Ultraman Regulos – Kind of mid, but you can't expect much for a show with a total runtime of an hour. I'm sure the sequel series next month will end up being far better. (spoiler: I never ended up watching the sequel series)

There are several more series and a lot more movies that I’ve watched, but don’t remember well enough to give a sufficient review. I’ll update this section as I watch more stuff!

The Hot Takes

When I say “people”, I am referring to the Western fanbase. Specifically the Men. I also don’t have much controversial opinions on Ultraman so this is a short read.

I think people forget that Ultraman is first and foremost a children’s franchise. A Japanese children’s franchise at that – most Western children still have no idea about Ultraman because it hasn’t gained a solid footing in the West up until the past five years. With that in mind, I think it’s understandable that Bandai and Tsupro want to milk all the toys it can get out of each series. It’s annoying, and I know some of the stuff that happens in shows have the blatant purpose of introducing a new toy, but what can ya do. Think of the children, people!

STOP SHITTING ON Z!!! 4chan’s /m78/ has (or it currently seems to be 'had') this grudge against Z for some reason and I won’t stand for his slander.

I’m not interested enough in Trigger and Decker to watch their series. Okay, not controversial. You want controversy? I’m not interested in Mebius either.

BRING BACK THE ULTIMATE FORCE ZERO tsupro PLEASE!!! Also I notice that this team is super popular with the women. Tumblr sexyman effect?

I’m not really a huge kaiju nerd. I know a lot of the popular ones like Red King, Gomora, Zetton, etc but I can’t name much more than that. The hot aliens and men are more enjoyable for me. Sorry not sorry.

Pigmon is the best kaiju. He's so cute! I need a plushie of him asap ;-;

M78’s Greatest Musical Creations

Take Me Higher – V6
Susume! Ultraman Zero – Voyager
Ginga no Uta – Voyager
Chant My Name! Ultraman Z – Koji Tamaki

Misc Stuff

Stage Shows

Another cool aspect of the franchise! Tsupro organizes live stage shows featuring Ultras, kaiju and villains in the flesh. Each show is roughly half an hour long and has a canon plot. The people attending the show are encouraged to help the Ultras by shouting words of praise. I wanna go to one someday even though I won’t understand what they are saying!

Several stage shows can be seen on YouTube with English subtitles! There are some on the official Ultraman YouTube channel. Some stage shows hosted in South East Asia have the characters speaking in English too. Larger-scale stage shows will sometimes feature the human protagonists as well.

Manga and Netflix series

A non-canon manga series of Ultraman was released by Tsuburaya, simply called "Ultraman". The plot is that after the events of the 1966 Ultraman series, humans create mecha robots using Ultraman's power. There is a Netflix adaptation of the series but it’s a 3D anime. I watched only one episode and I couldn’t stand how ugly the animation was. 3D anime was a mistake.

Pandemic activities

As you all know, 2020 was a thing. To help keep children active and engaged, the Ultraman YouTube channel uploaded some “fingerplay” and exercise videos. The original Ultraman issues a challenge for the viewer to do, and afterwards, some different Ultras help the viewer to complete the challenge. I do not know why I watched all of them. Moreover, I don’t know why I enjoyed them. Emotionally stunted women ftw. Here's the playlist if you're at all curious.

Voice Dramas

Since the release of Ultraman Taiga, a voice drama gets released alongside the release of a new series, with each episode of the voice drama releasing at the same time as an episode of the actual series. It’s pretty much what it says on the tin – only images of the Ultras speaking appear on the screen while they speak. You can see them all on the Ultraman YouTube channel, but a lot don't have English subs annoyingly, and third-party subbers don’t really seem to care for them.

Redman

A character and series not within the Ultraman universe, but was created by Tsupro. He fought most of the same kaiju. He is noted for being relatively more aggressive in defeating his opponents. You’ll see a lot of jokes about him among the Ultraman fanbase. The guy doesn’t fuck around.

Female Ultras

Ultrawomen do exist, but they aren’t very common and none have gotten their own solo show. Ultraman is for boys after all. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

Ultrawoman Marie/Mother of Ultra is the mother of Ultraman Taro and head of the medical division of the Inter Galactic Defense Force. Ultrawoman Beth is one of three Ultras that were the main characters of an anime Ultraman: The Adventure Begins. Ultrawoman Grigio is the sister of Ultraman Rosso and Ultraman Blu. Together, they transform into Ultraman Groob/Gruebe, a contender for the worst Ultraman name ever. There are several more citizens of the Land of Light that don’t hold an official “Ultrawoman” title.

One of Ultraman Ace’s two hosts was a woman. She and her husband both transformed into Ace together. Ultraman Justice has a female human form. Ultraseven 21 does not have a fixed human form or host, and has taken on at least one female host.

Chaiyo Productions

This was a Thai production company that "held" the international distribution rights to Ultraman for quite some time. Tsupro did work with Chaiyo in a legitimate capacity, producing a few movies that featured Ultraman characters, but things got a little controversial in the 90s. The details are unclear, but from my understanding, a document given to the founder of Chaiyo stated that they had the license to distribute the shows that were produced before 1974, and do the dubbing and subbing. However, Chaiyo took this as a license to do whatever they wanted with the characters that appeared in these shows, such as creating new movies and series, producing merchandise, and even attempting to create new characters. A long legal battle ensued between Chaiyo and Tsupro that only became settled in 2019. The document Chaiyo had to prove that they had the international rights was inauthentic. This was a huge source of financial burden to Tsupro and is part of the reason why Ultraman did not receive much international fame until recently.

Watch Ultraman

A lot of Showa and early-Heisei shows can be watched in full on YouTube! Most movies are also able to be watched this way. There is also a new official international website called “Ultraman Connection” that hosts a few newer series and movies, both free and rentals. International DVD releases are also happening! Otherwise, it’s time to do some good old treasure hunting.

I don’t have much advice for newbies :( I am sure there are lots of guides out there though! I know the absolutely vast backlog of Ultraman series or movies can be quite daunting, but a lot of series work as standalones and don’t require much prior knowledge. Blazar is currently airing on the official Ultraman YouTube channel too!

Discuss Ultraman

There is an official Discord for the Ultraman Connection website. I assume you don't want to use that though.

There are no dedicated Ultraman forums in English. The forums on tokunation.com have several Ultraman threads but no dedicated Ultraman board. Here's the main discussion thread. Here's a list of all threads discussing toku shows. The forums on godzilla-movies.com also sometimes gets Ultraman threads, but I find the forum hard to navigate, and sometimes even broken. A simple google search will bring up more forums of varying activity.

4Chan’s /m/ has an Ultraman thread. Populated by ESL speakers and has a lot of arguing about dumb shit. You didn’t expect anything else though, right?

Final thoughts

Ultraman is great, and I’m happy to get back into this franchise. I missed my boys in red, silver and blue! I don’t have much to say other than give Ultraman a try if it interests you.

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