A Brief Guide to Ultraman, Japan’s Ultimate Size-Changing Hero

Today , Netflix release the first time of year of itshighly anticipatedUltraman anime , bring one of Japan ’s most iconic superheroes to a whole newfangled audience . concerned in match it out , but require to know more ? We ’re here to help .

The Origin of the Ultra Series

Before we get to Ultraman , the Ultra Series itself actually started before its most iconic character even existed . In 1966 , particular effect studio Tsuburaya Productions launched Ultra Q , a sci - fi Tokusatsu series — the same sort of SFX - get legal action show and celluloid that cover everything fromGodzillato other Nipponese superheroes that Ultraman would go on to revolutionize ( like theKamen RiderandSuper Sentaifranchises ) .

The show keep abreast extrasensory police detective as they tackled threats ranging from the supernatural to the more exotic and … well , of thegiant demon kind . Tsuburaya had been require by broadcaster TBS to contain more Kaiju story to draw in kids . The show was a monumental success , cementing its legacy as part of the grand Kaiju Boom of the ‘ 60s in Japan — but after it came to an end , just weeks later Tsuburaya quickly come after up with a spiritual replacement that would go on to exchange the Ultra serial always : Ultraman .

Ultraman accept what made Ultra Q a hit — the Kaiju — and gave them a likewise - sized hero to confront off against . define in a humankind where an organization address the Science Special Search Party ( informally know as Science Patrol ) safeguards Earth from grotesque aliens , Ultraman followed the adventures of Shin Hayata , an SSSP police officer who , after fusing with an alien Ultra Warrior from Nebula M78 , gains the power grow in size and become the giant hero Ultraman .

Three generations of Ultra Warriors—the original Ultraman, the armored star of the new Ultraman anime, and the brotherly protagonists of last year’s Ultraman R/B.

Three generations of Ultra Warriors—the original Ultraman, the armored star of the new Ultraman anime, and the brotherly protagonists of last year’s Ultraman R/B.Image: Tsuburaya Productions and Netflix

As Ultraman , Hayata could use an Ultra Warrior ’s enhance potency and energy attack like the muscular Specium Ray ( fire by Ultraman making a cross - gesture with his forearm , which would become the character ’s iconic pose ) , but his transformation — which demand solar energy — was on a timer of around three minute , giving him only a modified time to vote out the monster of the calendar week .

The show proved to be even bigger hit than Ultra Q , but Tsuburaya faced a snatch of a job : Ultraman ended with Hayata and Ultraman being uprise after a fatal scrap with a monster foretell Zetton , but in the process Hayata was separated from the Ultra Warrior , and fall back all his memories of ever having been the hero . And so when TBS tasked the studio apartment with a be - up , a new protagonist — and a unexampled Ultra warrior — had to step in , beginning a seasonal round of new submarine and Modern Ultraman designs ( an idea Toei would adopt for both its Kamen Rider and Super Sentai franchises in the ‘ 70s ) .

Starting with Ultra Seven in 1967 , and then across another 28 TV serial and unnumerable film spinoffs in the 10 since — some of them direct sequels or continuations of the cosmos established in the original show , some simply part of the Ultra multiverse — Ultraman became a staple of Nipponese kids ’ boob tube . There have been several attempts to impart the dealership beyond Japanese shores — in the West , it ’s chiefly been in subtitle and knight figure , with places likeCrunchyroll , dedicated streaming chopine likeTOKU , and even Hulu playing host to several of the serial publication in late years . But beyond dubbing the Nipponese shows , late last year , Tsuburaya announced young plans to license the dealership out for Western hearing in a major way , hoping to establish a potential sodding reboot of the serial .

Image: Shout Factory

Cover art for Shout! Factory’s 2013 DVD release of Ultra Q.Image: Shout Factory

Before all that though , we have Netflix ’s plans to introduce Ultraman to international audience … although it requires its own bit of account first , and a crabwise trip into another medium .

Ultra Manga

Netflix and Production I.G.’snew animated seriesisn’t in reality an original entry in the Ultra series — it ’s an adaptation of Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi ’s Ultraman manga , which began publishing way back in 2011 ( English terminology translations have been offer by VIZ medium since 2015 ) . It also follows a setup that actually postulate you to unlearn a act of what you just learned about Ultraman .

The Ultraman manga — and the Netflix show — is actually a lineal subsequence to the original Ultraman TV serial publication , but localise roughly 40 years after its climax . With Ultraman run and Earth innocent of alien encroachment , the SSSP has disband , and Shin Hayata ( who still does n’t remember having been Ultraman in the past ) has be active on with his life , starting a family and raising his Word Shinjiro . When not Shinjiro start exhibiting superhuman abilities as a child and alien threat get to re - egress , Shin ’s store — and the revelation that his past nuclear fusion reaction with Ultraman transformed him into a human / Ultra Warrior hybrid — are reawakened , and he ’s called into action as Ultraman again .

Except there ’s a major deviation between the Ultraman Shin becomes this time : He can no longer produce in sizing or transmute into the Ultra Warrior . Instead , he fights in a specially designed set of great power armour that recreates many of his old abilities , while enhancing the now latent superhuman powers he and his son share — namely tops metier and the power to bound massive heights , while the courting itself can fire the get-up-and-go used to produce Ultraman ’s iconic beam attacks .

Image: Tsuburaya Productions

Ultraman fires his iconic ultra beam attack, the Specium Ray.Image: Tsuburaya Productions

In the continuity of the manga , Shin operates as Ultraman for several more twelvemonth using the suit , until the yield of one of his oldest foe , Bemular ( base on the similarly name Kaiju from the original TV show ) , result him seriously injure — forcing Shinjiro to step up and inherit the Ultraman Mickey Charles Mantle and suitas his own .

The lack of size of it - changing and the fact that Ultraman is an Iron Man - esque lawsuit enhancing a superhuman paladin is just one of the bigger diversions the Ultraman manga take from what ’s become of the tv set show enfranchisement — it has all sort of its own connection to make with the dealership ’s now 53 - year - old legacy , offering new twists that you ’ll have to read it discover yourself . Or , you know , watch the new gum anime !

The world of Ultraman may have only had an encroachment out of doors of Japan in fits and starts , but with Tsuburaya ’s big push to make its fabled zep a truly global phenom , and his reaching on a weapons platform as wide - reaching as Netflix in this new shape , there ’s never been a better minute . A banging 53 years after he first explode onto the scene , one of Japan ’s most beloved superheroes is just about ready for a universal limelight .