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111-832: Although Ultraman is the first series to feature an Ultraman character, it is the second installment in the Ultra Series , following Ultra Q . This is symbolised by the Japanese show opening with the Ultra Q logo exploding into the Ultraman logo. Ultraman and its titular hero became a major pop culture phenomenon in Japan, generating dozens of sequels, spin-offs, imitations, parodies and tributes. Ultraman went on to generate $ 7.4 billion in merchandising revenue from 1966 to 1987 in Japan (equivalent to more than $ 20 billion adjusted for inflation) and become

222-455: A Moviola , sometimes a projector, and I’d go back and forth over each line carefully and carefully, building the line to look like English." Fernandez also went on to explain that a grease pencil was used to mark scenes that needed to be dubbed, even if it were only a few lines. A loop of the film would be projected so that the voice actor could memorize his or her lines and see where the scene needed to be dubbed. The voice actors had to wait for

333-536: A manga and tokusatsu TV series created by Osamu Tezuka . The TV series, produced by P Productions , aired on Fuji TV from July 4, 1966, to June 26, 1967, lasting a total of 52 episodes. It is the first color tokusatsu TV series in Japan, beating Tsuburaya Productions ' Ultraman to the air by six days. The show later aired in the US, dubbed in English by Krantz Films , as The Space Giants . Digital Manga crowdfunded

444-508: A "wrinkled" face. The mask was originally intended to have a mouth-opening mechanism but the latex-coating prevented such functions. Bin Furuya mentioned that Type A fitted him poorly and it forced him to hunch a bit. Followed by the deterioration of the Type A suit, Type B was made later on. Its mask removed the mouth-opening mechanism concept and latex coating, opting instead for a full FRP cover. Some of

555-538: A beeping signal before starting, Fernandez explained: "So in the studio you hear “Beep… beep… beep…” then you talk, as if there is a fourth beep. Those beeps are drilled into me. They are two-thirds of a second apart. Later on, the film is reassembled and mixed with the original music and sound effects." The English dub was featured in the BCI Eclipse DVD release of Ultraman , as well as subsequent DVD re-issues from Mill Creek Entertainment. In April 2013, Tsuburaya held

666-503: A boy named Mikko, his mother Tomoko, and his journalist father Ito Mura. The family became involved in the story due to the villain Rodak's desire to publish news of his presence to world media. The Mura family found themselves continually caught in the crossfire of monster attacks and harried by the Lugo men and Rodak's spies. A major sub-plot in the series developed when Mikko's mother was kidnapped by

777-485: A chance to perform together with Ultraman's suit actor Bin Furuya, as both recorded in their respective scenes (real life for Kurobe and special effects studio for Furuya). Kurobe himself has a daughter named Takami Yoshimoto ( 吉本 多香美 , Yoshimoto Takami ) , whom played Rena Yanase, the secondary protagonist of Ultraman Tiga . Initially, Kurobe prevented his daughter from acting in the series but eventually gave her his blessing to do so. They both appeared together in

888-763: A collaboration with Peko-chan, Fujiya Co.'s main mascot (from the milk confectionary Milky), as said company was celebrating its 65th anniversary, which served as a tie-in to the Ultra Series' 50th anniversary. Ultraman's soft vinyl doll had been sold several times by Bandai since the 1990s. In 2010, Ultraman was given his first release as a highly articulated action figure in the ULTRA-ACT toyline. Following his temporary corruption into Ultraman Dark in Ultraman Ginga , both he and Ultra Seven Dark were released in 2014 as repainted versions of their original figures. To commemorate

999-472: A destruction beam with the heat of 500,000 degrees and power level of 500,000 horsepower. Said mineral itself is the main weakness of Alien Baltan, one of the adversaries of Ultraman, and is frequently used to defeat other monsters-of-the-week. However, Spacium also has a counterpart, Spellgen, which was used by the second generation Alien Baltan (ep. 16) to counteract the Spacium Ray, prompting Ultraman to slice

1110-484: A four-disc set with the same special features from the previous release. On July 10, 2019, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that it had acquired most of the franchise library from Tsuburaya Productions through Indigo Entertainment, including 1,100 episodes and 20 films. Mill Creek released the series on Blu-ray and digital on October 15, 2019, in standard and steelbook editions. Mill Creek released The Birth of Ultraman Collection on Blu-ray on July 10, 2020. It included

1221-507: A futuristic fountain pen. During the casting process, TBS suggested actors with Western appearances in order to appeal to overseas markets, however, most of the cast came from Toho . On March 22, 1966, the copyright offices approved the shows's registration, now titled Ultraman . Each episode was produced on a budget of ¥20−30 million . The early Bemular version was originally conceived by Kinjo as an intergalactic reptilian creature that would enlarge itself to 164 feet (50.0 m) and come to

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1332-490: A giant rocket ship. Indeed, he is considered one of the earliest transforming mecha, even before the anime super robot , Brave Raideen , which set the standard for the genre. He also shoots rockets out of a panel located in his chest, and (as do Mol and Gam) shoots electrical bolts from his antennae. The Space Giants is the English title of this series. The show is most notable for its humanoid robot heroes who responded to crises by transforming into rockets to combat

1443-534: A group of Ultra Warriors dedicated to protecting the galaxy. Ultraman's statistics below were never mentioned in the original series, but were brought up in magazines and official websites. There are also certain succeeding series that deviate Ultraman's original statistics: As the official website of Tsuburaya Productions stated: "[Ultraman] visited the Earth after chasing the Space Monster Bemular, he protected

1554-431: A horizontal position and placed forward while his right arm is in a vertical position and placed backward, reflecting a shuriken . This finisher launches a beam of white energy which consists of an extraterrestrial mineral called Specium ( スペシウム , Supeshiumu ) that can be found on Mars (ep. 2). When his arms form the "+" stance, his right hand emits negative Spacium and his left arm emits positive Spacium, thus creating

1665-469: A humanoid rocket-boy named Gam, in the image of Mikko Mura, complete with his trademark red-and-white sweater vest. All members of the robot team were capable of transforming into rockets identified respectively by gold, silver, and red-and-white color schemes. Each had bulb-tipped antennae protruding from their heads, capable of discharging directed blasts of gamma rays . Goldar and Silvar were capable of firing missiles from their chest cavities, but Silvar

1776-492: A living giant forged from gold. In fact, true to his original manga appearance, in the series' pilot opening, Tetsuya Uozumi, the actor who played Magma, actually wore gold make-up on his face. But such difficulties as Uozomi's own face turning beet-red, drowning out the gold make-up, quickly arose. The solution proved to be an easy one; in all the show's subsequent episodes, Uozumi wore a golden human-like mask. Magma, just like his human-sized wife Mol and son Gam, transforms into

1887-559: A long series of popularity and has continued to appear in various works in the Ultra Series. Apart from that, he also has a lot of popularity trademarks that make him memorable to this day: his Color Timer, the Spacium Ray stance, and his famous cry "Shuwatch" ( シュワッチ , Shuwatchi ) . In the series, Ultraman's grunts and his iconic shout "Shuwatch" were provided by Masao Nakasone ( 中曽根雅夫 , Nakasone Masao ) , who would later voice him as an actual character in episode 33 during his fight with Alien Mefilas. His dialogue in episodes 1 and 39

1998-402: A metallic complexion and be distinguishable from similarly designed monsters to avoid confusion. As a result, Tsuburaya and Kinjo discarded Bemular's original design in favor of a humanoid appearance. The name "Bemular" was dropped for the hero but given to Ultraman's first foe in the debut episode "Ultra Operation No. 1". In January 1966, the production's title was changed to Redman to reflect

2109-535: A monster. This was never brought up again later on. In episode 39, the series finale, both Ultraman and Hayata were gravely injured after Zetton defeated them. Zoffy arrived to recover Ultraman and gave Hayata another life, allowing him to live while being separated from Ultraman. In the original Japanese ending, Hayata was left without any memories of Ultraman, but in the English dub, he retained his memory while telling his SSSP teammates that Ultraman would return to Earth. Coincidentally, this ending appears to have become

2220-460: A non-combatant officer, having originally been sent only to observe the Milky Way galaxy before becoming more intimately involved in Earth's affairs. The name Ultraman was originally what the alien spaceman from Nebula M78 called himself when he spoke to a comatose Hayata about merging their forms as compensation for the accident that caused their ships to collide. After Ultraman's first battle with

2331-476: A press conference announcing the new Ultra Series show and character, Ultraman Ginga , where they also announced that the original 1966 show will be given an HD remaster treatment in Japan. In July 2013, Bandai Visual released an HD transfer of Ultraman on Blu-ray titled Ultraman HD Remaster 2.0 , to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Tsuburaya Productions. Bandai Visual released the series on three separate box sets, each containing 13 episodes. The first box set

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2442-410: A sensation. The song describes the singer reminiscing about his childhood and friends, particularly pretending to be Ultraman and Ultra Seven with them, while realizing his life and theirs is nothing like what it used to be. In September of the same year, Ultraman was the important guest of the year's Hugo Award ceremony. His design is presented in the year's Hugo Award, sculpted by Takashi Kinoshita of

2553-400: A white helmet, with built-in antennae, on his head. Earth gives Mamoru a whistle, with which he can call Gam (when blown once), Mol (when blown twice) and Magma (when blown thrice) in times of crisis. So when Goa unleashes his various daikaiju , chances are that Magma, Mol, and/or Gam will fly to the rescue. Ambassador Magma, despite his robot-like appearance, is not a true robot, but actually

2664-488: A wide variety of dinosaur -like space monsters, and faceless, ninja -like villains called Lugo men (人間モドキ ningen-modoki literally mock-human ) whose corpses melted into oozing, blob-like slime whenever they were killed. The main conflict of the story involved an evil space villain named Rodak who continually tried to conquer Earth by sending a new dinosaur-like monster from deep space to attack Japan. The stories were generally resolved in two to four episodes, much like

2775-615: Is 23, which featured the appearance of Jamila, a monster who was mutated from an abandoned astronaut and tried to seek vengeance upon the government. Furuya mentioned that he genuinely cried while portraying Ultraman when he was forced to kill the monster. He also stated that although he liked playing the role of Ultraman, he enjoyed his time as Member Amagi for being able to expose his face. Furuya originally did not like acting as Ultraman, fearing that several scenes on set would bring harm to him, especially when recording scenes in water, which would enter his suit and he feared he would drown, but in

2886-433: Is also one of the original concepts of Ultraman Taro and it first appeared in acknowledgement during the 1984 film, Ultraman Story . Additionally, Ultraman Jack was meant to be Ultraman returning to Earth, but was made as a separate character out of respect for the late Eiji Tsuburaya, who passed away in 1970. Ultraman is an Ultra Warrior ( ウルトラ戦士 , Urutora senshi ) that hails from Nebula M78 . While chasing

2997-628: Is always shown stored in Hayata's SSSP jacket. In episode 22 of Ultraman , the Beta Capsule (or to a lesser extent, Ultraman's power) had the ability to free Hayata from external influence, as the Underground People tried to control Ultraman by brainwashing Hayata until Ultraman's transformation freed him. But despite this, the gadget can also be easily lost, as shown in episode 26 during Ultraman's fight with Gomora, where he accidentally dropped it and it

3108-528: Is in charge whenever Captain Toshio Muramatsu is unavailable. Although portrayed as a dutiful officer, there are also times where he was out of focus, sometimes for the sake of comedy. His connection to Ultraman remains a secret to the rest of the SSSP members even until the series finale; however, in episode 14 Muramatsu and member Arashi noticed that Hayata shared a similar injury to Ultraman after his fight against

3219-495: Is no longer the original human who became one with Ultraman, but rather the Ultra Warrior in a human form, in a similar manner to Dan Moroboshi with Ultra Seven. While the reason for this is unknown, it is possible that Hayata and Ultraman separated sometime after Ultraman Mebius or the fact that since Return of Ultraman , the two never met again, thus "Hayata" becomes his human form ever since Ultraman's re-emergence. Hayata

3330-399: Is portrayed by Susumu Kurobe ( 黒部進 , Kurobe Susumu ) in all of his appearances. Originally, there was no audition for the role of Hayata, and he simply took the role after he was approached by Toho execs to take the role. In certain circumstances, Ultraman would possess other people as substitute human hosts. In the Ultra Series, Ultraman's main body has become the basis for most of

3441-637: The Ultra Series and by extension, Tsuburaya Productions . His appearance in the entertainment world helped spawn the Kyodai Hero genre with countless shows such as Godman and Iron King . Ultraman first appeared as the title character alongside his human host Shin Hayata in the 1966 Japanese television series, Ultraman which ran for 39 episodes. Following Ultraman's success, Tsuburaya created another Kyodai hero series still as part of their Ultra Series project, Ultraseven . While both series shared

Ultraman (1966 TV series) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-457: The BBC 's Doctor Who , and a new monster would be found by Rodak to begin another two- to four-part struggle. Rodak's efforts were opposed by an ancient white-bearded wizard named Methusan (sometimes called Methuselah or Mathusem), aided by a trio of humanoid robots who were all capable of transformations from humanoid form into rocket forms. The human interest in the story was a family of three:

3663-461: The IGN describes both Hayata and Ultraman as "a Peter Parker -style everyman becomes a superhero whenever alien monsters invade Earth, which conveniently occurs at least once every episode; subsequently, some fairly awkward fight scenes ensue, and the world eventually is saved from certain destruction." He also said that among the reason of the series' popularity were either due to Hayata talking directly to

3774-510: The Lugo men and held in uncertain conditions for a number of episodes. In the first episodes, the robot team were a duo consisting of a 50-foot (15 m) gold robot aptly named Goldar and his companion, a silver-clad humanoid female named Silvar. It was implied that they had been created by the wizard Methusan. Early in the series, the wizard Methusan completed the team to mirror the Mura family by creating

3885-523: The Marusan toy company back in 1966, the same year the character and his series' debuted. Said toys were later displayed at the Yokohama Doll Museum on March 12 and 13, 2016 as part of the 50th anniversary of the Ultra Series celebration . Tsuburaya has also collaborated with Fujiya Co. twice; once in the 1990s where a chocolate confectionery was released alongside an Ultraman card and later in 2016 in

3996-462: The Ultraman Eve Festival , a live TV special intended to introduce Ultraman to viewers that would air on July 10. This was also done to help the crew catch up and finish the premiere episode. The special was retitled The Birth of Ultraman: An Ultraman Premiere Celebration . Kunio Miyauchi, who composed the music for Ultra Q , was brought back to compose the music for Ultraman . The lyrics to

4107-413: The definitive ending to Tsuburaya, as Hayata later appeared in subsequent series with Ultraman. Revive! Ultraman also gave an alternate ending that allowed Hayata to retain both his connection with Ultraman and his memories. Although Hayata does appear in person later on in other Ultra Series entries, starting from the following events of Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy , it was revealed that Hayata

4218-400: The definitive ending to Tsuburaya, as Hayata reappeared several times throughout succeeding Ultra Series as Ultraman's host in times of need. Revive! Ultraman gives an alternate ending to the series 29 years after the series finale, where Zoffy recombined Hayata and Ultraman after giving the former another life force. After the battle against Zetton, both Hayata and Ultraman were shaken to

4329-421: The "release" of a 40 m scale of Ultraman's figure (which is Ultraman's own size). This was only during shown on said day and never revealed again afterwards. Having gained a long time popularity, Ultraman has also been featured in several promotions and merchandises, either by Tsuburaya Productions itself or by extension, a cross-promotion. The first one was a set of action figures from the Ultraman line sold by

4440-434: The 1966 series as one of the shows they grew up watching as kids. Del Toro named Ultraman and Pigmon as his favorite characters from the show and cited Ultraman as an influence on Pacific Rim . Ultraman (character) Ultraman ( ウルトラマン , Urutoraman ) is a superhero who debuted in the pilot episode to his 1966 TV series of the same name , entitled "Ultraman". He is the first tokusatsu hero launched by

4551-595: The 50th Anniversary in 2016, exclusively produced and distributed through AnimeImages and Lakeside Television Company in a joint partnership for production and distribution. Ambassador Magma makes a cameo appearance in the 2004 Astro Boy: Omega Factor game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance , along with a number of other characters created by Osamu Tezuka. Ray Owens (second) Yoshio Kaneuchi (series) Ray Owens (second) Ray Owens (second) Masako Nozawa (episodes 42-43) A 13-episode OVA anime remake

Ultraman (1966 TV series) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4662-587: The 50th anniversary of the Ultra Series, Ultraman got his second release in July 2016 as a poseable action figure in the S.H. Figuarts line alongside two of his iconic enemies, Alien Baltan and Zetton. In 2014, Ultraman and several of the Ultra Monsters from his series helped promote TOEIC to Japanese citizens, while being portrayed as a well-dressed businessman. A promotional video features him communicating with Dada while English subtitles are displayed. Ultraman helps

4773-542: The Alien in half with the Ultra Slash attack. Certain monsters in the series have been shown to be resistant to the Spacium Ray, and took more than one shot to be killed. Ultraman also uses the Ultra Slash ( ウルトラスラッシュ , Urutora Surasshu ) , an energy projectile saw disc attack launched from Ultraman's right arm in a manner of a flying disc . This is mainly used to dismember an opponent, usually by slicing them into half down

4884-528: The Earth against monster and alien threats. Aside from his main attack Spacium Ray, he also possesses a number of techniques. His place of origin is Nebula M78. Despite his strength, he is also friendly to non-hostile monsters. His human form on Earth is Shin Hayata of the Science Special Search-Party. He is also a member of the Ultra Brothers." Hayata himself transformed into Ultraman through

4995-551: The Greek concept of Chaos. Narita also drew inspiration from classical Greek art, ancient Egypt, the European Renaissance, and Miyamoto Musashi. Tsuburaya and Kinjo also gave their own input on Narita's designs. To reflect Ultraman's cosmic origins, his silver skin symbolized steel from an interstellar rocket and the red lining represented the surface of Mars. Narita's assistant, Akira Sasaki, sculpted clays, but became concerned about

5106-559: The SIA's aid. The early design was a cross between Garuda , a mythological Hindu/Buddhist guardian bird, and Tengu , a Japanese folkloric crow-goblin. Eiji Tsuburaya found the early designs to be "too alien and sinister" and requested that production designer Tohl Narita continue drafting additional designs as teleplays were being written concurrently. Narita took inspiration from the Greek concept of cosmos (order and harmony), in contrast to Narita's monster designs for Ultra Q , which were rooted in

5217-614: The U.S.) , was a rich cyan color. As time goes on, the color timer turns solid red, and then starts to blink, giving off a warning chime as it did so. When Ultraman runs out of energy, the color timer goes out and turns black. Ultraman's color timer is linked directly to his heart, and damaging it will cause mortal injury or serious pain to Ultraman. Ultraman and other Ultra Warriors from M-78 receive their Color Timers through modification surgery in hopes of notifying them about energy reduction when fighting against monster threats on certain planets or locations. According to Tohl Narita, Ultraman

5328-496: The Ultra Series, such as Ultra Seven and Ultraman Ace. On November 2, 2015, a special violin painted with the attributes of the Ultraman series was presented in a concert at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Concert Hall and was sold to a lucky spectator at the price of 780,000 yen (US$ 6,428). Ambassador Magma Ambassador Magma ( マグマ大使 , Maguma Taishi ) is the title and protagonist of

5439-468: The Ultraman suit was very thin, he mentioned having received injuries in several ways during the set, so much so that Kurobe and Hiroko joked "of all the casts of Ultraman , he would be the first to go". When being asked what Ultra Warrior and Ultra Monster is his favorite, he answered the original Ultraman and Red King respectively, having enjoyed their fight scene in the show. His favorite episode of Ultraman

5550-515: The adventures of the Science Patrol, a special scientific team investigating and combating threats from aliens and kaiju . Unbeknownst to the team, fellow member Shin Hayata possesses the ability to transform into the giant alien superhero Ultraman in moments of crisis. Due to the success of Ultra Q , Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) requested a similar themed show from Tsuburaya Productions Company (TPC), this time filmed in color and with

5661-429: The alien by giving him advise on how to start a business, but he confronts him after Dada's business plan turns out be an invasion of Earth. In the fashion world, Ultraman is also a part of "A Man of Ultra", a branch of a fashion house with clothing themed after the Ultra Series. Ultraman himself had been present to promote the company's products, though sometimes the character is also accompanied by other characters of

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5772-596: The audience , the SSSP investigating cases, or Ultraman's battle with the monsters and aliens "whose girth is matched only by his ability to flail his arms and flash his eyes." He gives the series the rating of 8 out of 10. While reviewing the complete DVD series of Ultraman , R. L. Shaffer (also from IGN) described Ultraman as "a giant, skyscraper-sized extraterrestrial being that protects us from equally gigantic monsters, aliens, dinosaurs and other nefarious foes. Each week, Ultraman faces off against fantastically fun villains, destroying towns, villages, forests and cities along

5883-512: The core following their previous defeat. Past monsters were mysteriously revived and Ultraman defeated them again, but he was once again weakened by Zetton. When it seemed that his defeat would be repeated, SSSP member Ide created a specialized formula that replenished Ultraman's energy, allowing him to finally defeat Zetton and properly put an end to his mission on Earth. He would later join the Ultra Brothers ( ウルトラ兄弟 , Urutora Kyōdai ) ,

5994-417: The design being a cross between Garuda and Tengu . The original treatment was that Bemular would assist an attack team against threats such as other Kaiju . However, worries rose that viewers would be confused upon which monster to root for. Ultraman's memorable design was done by Tohl Narita and clay sculptor Akira Sasaki, with the grey alien concept in mind. Three Ultraman body suits were created for

6105-447: The end, he grew more absorbed in his work and took a liking to it. According to Susumu Kurobe, during his time playing Hayata, he felt uncomfortable when wearing the SSSP uniform during shooting, especially when filming on location, but Hiroko Sakurai stated that she had no problem with it and even commented that the cast once went out to lunch while wearing the uniform. Despite his character Hayata and Ultraman being related, he never get

6216-600: The entire series was dubbed into English by Bernard H. Schulman's Lakeside Television Company and syndicated to a limited number of U.S. television stations in early September 1970 (such as WSNS-TV in Chicago and WTAF-TV in Philadelphia), under the title The Space Giants . The show was not distributed widely to U.S. television stations until the late 1970s, when it became a staple of fledgling Superstation TBS afternoon programming. 52 episodes were made, each running 25 minutes. It

6327-470: The exclusive SVOD and AVOD digital rights to the Ultra series and films (1,100 episodes and 20 film) acquired by Mill Creek the previous year. Ultraman , amongst other titles, streamed on Shout! Factory TV and Tokushoutsu in the United States and Canada. Due to the show's success, a feature film titled Ultraman: Operation Giant was planned. Toshihiro Iijima was attached to write the script. The film

6438-400: The fallen hero with a special life energy, Ultraman pleaded for Hayata's life to also be spared, going as far as to offer his new life to the human, so that Hayata could live as a normal man. Zoffy agreed with Ultraman and gave Hayata a spare life energy, he then separated them, but left Hayata with no memory between the time that he first collided with Ultraman's ship (in the first episode), and

6549-611: The film Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers , with their characters likewise written as father and daughter. He has joked that the decision to have Hayata and Fuji married in the movie was a "mistake", as it made his wife "jealous". When asked who is his favorite Ultraman, Kurobe answered that it was Ultraman Zero . His favorite Ultra Monsters were Pigmon, Alien Baltan and Woo. If possible, Kurobe, Hiroko and Furuya wish to believe that Ultraman will surpass their lifetimes and hopes that Tsuburaya Productions will keep putting Ultraman in any form of media for all audiences worldwide to enjoy. One of

6660-689: The filmmakers feeling that Ultraman was too invincible, and also believed that it would invoke suspense and cheers from viewers. To keep production costs from going over budget, the series was filmed on 16mm stock and optical effects on 35mm. This met the network's requirement for making new episodes on a fast-paced production schedule, due to filming starting in March 1966 for July premiere. The production crew were separated into three teams, subdivided into separate live-action filming and special effects filming groups. TBS and TPC originally agreed to air Ultraman on July 17, but TBS delayed it by one week in order to cover

6771-454: The final 19 episodes, all presented uncut, unedited and re-mastered in color with stereo sound. These releases also featured the original Japanese audio and the English dub. When Navarre folded BCI Eclipse in December 2008, the series was shuffled over to Navarre's other home video label, Mill Creek Entertainment. In June 2009, Mill Creek re-released the complete series set on September 29, 2009, in

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6882-484: The form of Magma, an armored, golden giant with long hair and antennae. He and his human-sized wife Mol, both of whom were created by the wizard of Earth (who indeed lives deep beneath the Earth), are sent to defend our world against Goa. They befriend Atsushi and Mamoru; the latter has touched Magma emotionally, as he wanted to have a child with his wife Mol, so Earth creates a duplicate of Mamoru, whom he names Gam, and who wears

6993-482: The hero's color scheme and was unanimously approved for production a month later. In this version, Redman lands on Earth as a refugee after invaders destroyed his home planet. Redman fuses with Sakomizu and together protect the Earth from giant monsters and alien invaders. This version also featured the "Flashbeam", an early version of Ultraman's transformation device the Beta Capsule, however, the Flashbeam version resembled

7104-402: The hopes of continuing the series with TPC. TPC founder Eiji Tsuburaya and writer Tetsuo Kinjo decided to recycle the barebones idea of Ultra Q about civilians and center the show on a team, tentatively dubbed the "Scientific Investigation Agency" (SIA), specifically designed to deal with monsters and supernatural phenomena. Tsuburaya and Kinjo repurposed unused ideas from Ultra Q , as well as

7215-429: The main character of the fourth Ultra Series, The Return of Ultraman , would cause confusion due to sharing the same name, hence the original was called Original Ultraman and the second incarnation was called Ultraman II ( 二世ウルトラマン , Nisei Urutoraman ) before he received his own name, Ultraman Jack ( ウルトラマンジャック , Urutoraman Jakku ) by Noboru Tsuburaya, Tsuburaya Productions' president at that time. Said name

7326-548: The manga, and it is currently available for digital purchase on their Emanga site. The alien invader Goa plots to conquer Earth. He first warns the Murakami family (father Atsushi, mother Tomoko, and son Mamoru) of their invasion, and demonstrates his powers by transporting them to a prehistoric jungle and destroying a Giant Dinosaur (in reality, Agon , the title monster of a Godzilla -like TV series) before their very eyes. But they will not agree to surrender to Goa, so hope comes in

7437-479: The middle of combat, he sometimes used different skills that either assist him in the combat or neutralize dangerous situations that the SSSP are involved in. His skin possessed natural protection against extreme heat, electricity and atomic bomb explosions. His signature attack was the Specium Ray ( スペシウム光線 , Supeshiumu Kōsen ) , which was performed by having his forearms form a cross stance, with his left arm in

7548-532: The middle. Like the Spacium Ray, it had its own weakness, certain opponents like Gubila (ep 23) or Keylla (ep 39) were able to catch the disk moments before it hit them and throw it back at the Ultra Warrior. There are also other non-conventional uses for the Ultra Slash: Shin Hayata ( ハヤタ・シン （ 早田進 ） , Hayata Shin ) is the protagonist of the Ultraman TV series. He is 25 years old at

7659-412: The monster Bemular, Ide asks Hayata what the hero's name is; Hayata replies "Does 'Ultraman' sound all right?" This originally implied that the name was conceived by Hayata himself, but later appearances by other aliens and Zoffy confirm that it is his actual name. In certain media, Ultraman was referred to as Original Ultraman ( 初代ウルトラマン , Shōdai Urutoraman ) . Dating back to 1971, the emergence of

7770-561: The monsters for episodes three and ten. Nakajima also had two cameos, one in episode 24 and one in episode 33 as a police officer. Ultraman featured new monster suits, as well as recycled suits from Ultra Q . Two Godzilla suits were recycled from Toho for the monster Jirahs, with the head taken from the Godzilla suit from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and placed upon the body of the Godzilla suit from Mothra vs. Godzilla . The dorsal fins and parts of

7881-411: The most popular jokes in Japanese culture is the scene from episode 34 of Ultraman , which involves Hayata mistaking a curry spoon for the Beta Capsule while hastily trying to transform and stop the monster Skydon from falling down to Earth. This scene was devised by Akio Jissoji , and while receiving complaints from Samaji Nonagase, another Ultraman director, the episode's high viewer ratings justified

7992-407: The nose and mouth looking too human. They eventually decided on a brim-like nose that runs from the mouth to the top of the head like a dorsal fin, and applied flexibility on the mouth for speech. Early outlines had Ultraman capable of spitting fire and a liquid called "silver iodine", but these ideas were dropped. A three-minute warning light called the "Color Timer" was added at the last minute due to

8103-406: The only SIA member to know his secret identity, and a female SIA member was added late in production. Pre-production and story layout began in December 1965 as Bemular: Scientific Investigation Agency . Writer Masahiro Yamada completed a sample teleplay titled The Birth of Bemular that featured an unused scenario originally written for Ultra Q . TBS producer Takashi Kakoi demanded that Bemular have

8214-442: The original season. He would later go on to portray Ultra Guard member Amagi, one of the characters in the later series, Ultraseven . Ultraman appeared in later works of the Ultra Series played by various voice and suit actors. Although Susumu Kurobe did reprise his role as Hayata or provided the voice of Ultraman himself at times (though his grunts were still reused from the late Masao Nakasone) but there are other occasions where he

8325-422: The pre-premiere special and seven episodes from the 1966 series, which included the English dub. The Blu-ray featured artwork by Alex Ross (originally created for Marvel's Ultraman comic) and was sold exclusively on DeepDiscount. In July 2020, Shout! Factory announced that they had struck a multi-year deal with Alliance Entertainment and Mill Creek, with the blessings of Tsuburaya and Indigo, that granted them

8436-504: The rejected outline for Woo . Tsuburaya had spent significant studio money to build his miniatures for the Godzilla films, and TPC was seeking a new project to repurpose and monetize those miniatures. The first iteration of Ultraman was named "Bemular" and had a human host in his late 20s named "Officer Sakomizu", described as a "tough guy" in early drafts. Captain Muramatsu would have been

8547-482: The rights on February 18, 2015. The manga was adapted into a 3DCG anime of the same name and released on Netflix in April 2019. In September 2020, Marvel Comics launched a monthly series titled The Rise of Ultraman . In May 2022, Toho released a reimagining of the series, titled Shin Ultraman , directed by Shinji Higuchi . Using motion capture technology , Bin Furuya , the original Ultraman suit actor, portrays

8658-450: The same genre with very similar heroes, there was originally no relationship between the two. It was not until Return of Ultraman was created four years later in 1971 that both Ultraman and Ultra Seven came together into the same story. This event cemented Tsuburaya Productions' decision to have the Ultra Series continue to follow the trend of focusing on an Ultraman with each new entry. The original red-and-silver giant hero himself enjoyed

8769-569: The series "a rite of passage for Japanese boys (and a few girls) and their families" since the series' debut and noted "the series is as much a part of the national fabric as furikake (rice topping) and chopsticks." SciFi Japan called the 1966 series "the gold standard of Japanese special effects television series." Ultraman has been parodied, tributed, and referenced in various media such as Ben 10 , Ready Player One , The Simpsons , South Park , Kyoei Toshi , and Ant-Man . Chris Kirkpatrick , Will Smith , and Guillermo del Toro have cited

8880-414: The series to remove excess picture noise while retaining an appropriate level of graininess. BCI Eclipse Home Entertainment LLC officially released Ultraman on two separate DVD volumes in 2006 and 2007, licensed from then-rights holder Southern California-based Golden Media Group Inc. (via Tokyo-based UM Corporation). BCI's first DVD release featured the first 20 episodes, while the second release featured

8991-436: The show's opening theme music were written by Hajime Tsuburaya (credited as Koichi Fuji). Production designer Tohl Narita designed all of the show's monsters, and sometimes deviated from their original descriptions. A majority of the time, the writers did not include any specific descriptions in the teleplays and left most unnamed. The names of the monsters were decided via staff meetings, where it would also be determined if

9102-408: The show, all of which were based on the size of suit actor Bin Furuya . A lot of improvements to Ultraman's design were made during the series' progression. The first suit was known as Type A (episodes 1 to 13), followed by Type B (14–29), and finally Type C (30 and subsequent episodes). The Type A suit had its mask created from fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) and coated with latex , giving Ultraman

9213-494: The situation call for it. In the series finale, a race of aliens from the planet Zetton, and their vanguard kaiju, Zetton (named after its planet of origin), attack. Ultraman, aided by the SSSP, battled Zetton, but before Zetton was defeated, he mortally wounded Ultraman with a weapon the hero had not expected, one that directly targeted his Color Timer/warning light. That damage caused him to lose almost all his energy instantly. When Zoffy , Ultraman's superior, arrived to retrieve

9324-450: The space monster Bemular, he accidentally collided with SSSP Officer Shin Hayata who was on a patrolling duty. Feeling guilty for playing a part in his death, Ultraman merged their bodies together and gave Shin the Beta Capsule. From that day forward, Ultraman staunchly defended Earth against aliens and monsters, with Shin Hayata and the SSSP assisting him. While Hayata worked alongside his fellow SSSP members, he would switch to Ultraman should

9435-439: The spot originally intended for the final episode of Ultra Q , which was pulled from the broadcast schedule due to not featuring any monsters. TBS also wanted to beat the release of Fuji Television's similarly themed Ambassador Magma . Though production on Ultraman was proceeding well enough, it was falling behind to meet the premiere date. After meetings between TBS, Tsuburaya Productions, and sponsors, they decided to produce

9546-422: The staff in the series were not made aware of the changes that were made and were surprised by Ultraman's face having a sudden change from an alien-like face to an "iron mask" looking face. The Type B mask even had its jaw feature more narrow and sharpened compared to the Type A design. Type B was also bigger compared to Type A and according to Furuya; "it was better fitting, and had padding so it looked like Ultraman

9657-471: The start of the series; he first encountered Ultraman when the giant hero accidentally collided with Hayata's VTOL Jet with his "Travel Sphere". Feeling guilty about the accident, Ultraman fuses himself with Hayata to ensure the man's survival, causing them to share the same life, also giving Hayata the means to fight against monster and alien threats. He is the Sub-Captain of the Science Special Search-Party and

9768-629: The succeeding Ultra Warriors onwards. This design can be seen in certain Ultras such as Ultraman Jack (who was originally meant to be the returned original Ultraman), Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Cosmos and others. Ultraman, as well as the elements from his own series, has been referenced and parodied numerous times in popular culture; examples include: The following below refers to Ultraman and Hayata's appearance outside of TV, such as manga and novel adaptations: Interview with Susumu Kurobe, Hiroko Sakurai and Bin Furuya, SciFi JAPAN TV Todd Gilchrist of

9879-441: The suit were sprayed yellow and a large yellow frill was attached to disguise the connection of the head with the body. The show also marks the first appearance of Ultraman Zoffy in the finale Farewell, Ultraman . Cast taken from Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters . United Artists Television picked up the rights for Ultra Q and Ultraman in the fall of 1966, two months after the first episode of Ultraman aired. Ultra Q

9990-616: The suits were incapable of sustaining long periods of time. What happened to each of the suits follows: According to Furuya, the original Ultraman suit was destroyed, but this has not been confirmed. Ultraman's victory was never assured, as Ultraman's powers and, indeed, his very life force, came from solar energy, which was heavily reduced by Earth's filtering atmosphere. His time limit was stated to be three minutes, though certain scenes do show him capable of still fighting while exceeding this limit. When Ultraman first appeared, his Color Timer ( カラータイマー , Karā Taimā , or "warning light" in

10101-615: The time that he is shown standing outside the Science Special Search Party Headquarters, holding the Beta Capsule but apparently not knowing what it is or what it does as he watched Zoffy take Ultraman home. This is a rather different ending to the series than stated in the English dub, which stated both that Ultraman would return and that Hayata retained not only his Beta Capsule but also, apparently, his full memories of all his experiences as he awaited Ultraman's return. Coincidentally, this ending appears to have become

10212-421: The titular hero alongside Hideaki Anno . Since its debut, both the show and character became international pop culture phenomena, inspiring rip-offs, imitators, parodies, tributes, and a multimedia franchise centered around spin-off characters based on Ultraman. The series has been recognized by Guinness World Records for "TV series with most number of spin-offs." Mark Schilling from The Japan Times called

10323-418: The total of voters. He is ranked first place in by female voters and second place by of male voters. Five years later on the Ultra Series' 45th anniversary, Ultraman was placed seventh in the popularity poll after losing to Zero, who scored the first place and ranked 11th in 2013 after losing to Ultraman Tiga. Ultraman's Ultra-Act figure participated in a 2015 April Fool's Day joke, where P-Bandai announced

10434-402: The use of the Beta Capsule ( ベーターカプセル , Bētā Kapuseru ) , a flashlight -like object which allows him to switch between his human state and Ultraman. By pressing the red button on the capsule, a stream of light forms a spiral-like circle which warped his body as Ultraman rises, appearing in a manner that involves his right arm forming a fist forward and his left folded down. The Beta Capsule

10545-576: The video game Ultraman for Super Famicom in 1990, and PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 for the Nintendo 64 in 1997. The games were released in Japan only. In 2011, a manga adaptation simply titled Ultraman began serialization in Shogakukan 's Monthly Hero's magazine. It serves as a sequel to the television series. It was released on August 18, 2015, in North America by Viz Media , who had received

10656-501: The way.". Nevertheless, he admitted that the series "become a cult sensation, largely thanks to its monsters and dazzling battles" and gives a rating 8 out of 10. Bin Furuya, Ultraman's suit actor, has said that when he first wore the Ultraman suit, Eiji Tsuburaya had predicted that the show would create good memories for the children watching. Furuya trained for his role in Ultraman by practicing its beam techniques and "Shuwatch!" pose, inspired by "tap dancing and karate movements". As

10767-419: The work. Because of this, certain Japanese media (mostly in anime and manga) tends to reference an in-joke to the incident either by repeating the same mistake or simply using a pair of spoons to replicate Ultraman's eyes. There is also a Mexican pro-wrestler Milo Ventura Chávez , whose alias during matches is Ultraman . His son is named Ultraman Jr. Although unrelated, another Mexican pro-wrestler Starman

10878-497: The world's third top-selling licensed character by the 1980s, largely due to his popularity in Asia. A manga series of the same name serving as a sequel to the television series began publication in October 2011 and received an anime adaptation starting in April 2019. In May 2022, Toho released Shin Ultraman , a reimagining of the series directed by Shinji Higuchi . The series follows

10989-517: The world-famous model and figure company Kaiyodo Co., Ltd ( ja:海洋堂 ). Ultraman was also the one who presented Steven Moffat , writer of " The Girl in the Fireplace " from series two of Doctor Who with the Hugo Award. In 2006, a character popularity poll was launched in response to the 40th anniversary of the Ultra Series. Based on Oricon 's list, Ultraman was placed first in the list in according to

11100-425: The writer had created a creature that was capable or incapable of being filmed with the special effects technology available at the time. The monsters were sculpted and fabricated by Ryosaku Takayama, Akira Sasaki, and Ekisu Productions. Haruo Nakajima , who played Godzilla for the first 12 films in the Godzilla franchise, choreographed all the monsters' battles with Ultraman performer Bin Furuya and even played

11211-424: Was dubbed but never broadcast in the United States due to American TV stations preferring color shows over black-and-white shows. Ultraman ran in and out of syndication until the early 1990s. UA-TV also syndicated Ultraman internationally. Peter Fernandez , Corinne Orr , and Earl Hammond provided the voices for the dub. Fernandez also wrote and supervised the dub. Describing the process, Fernandez said: "I had

11322-577: Was known in Spanish as Monstruos del Espacio and in some English-speaking countries as Space Avenger . As of late January and early February 2017, Bernard Schulman still owned the North American television and home video distribution rights to The Space Giants , under his Lakeside Television banner. At that time, rumors continued to circulate that the series would be issued in Blu-ray and Digital HD format for

11433-599: Was more muscular". The Type C suit was nonetheless an improved variant of Type B, which featured slight changes in the facial positions of the eyes, mouth and ears. The rest of the body of each suit was a painted wetsuit , a design choice that was previously used for the Kemur Man from Ultra Q , the series that preceded Ultraman . Type A's boots were derived from modified Jika-tabi , Type B variants were pointed shoes with hidden zippers and Type C were red leather shoes painted silver. Due to being made with wet suits and latices,

11544-424: Was not originally meant to have a time limit, as his original design lacked one. This was actually made to reduce the cost of the special effects. The protagonist of the succeeding series, Ultraseven , averted this through his forehead "Beam Lamp" feature but subsequent Ultra Warriors after Seven, however, returned to the time limit trend. Seven's lack of Color Timer was explained by Tsuburaya due to his early days as

11655-437: Was only shown doing this once. A regularly featured plot device was Mikko's ability to summon the robots by blowing a special high-frequency whistle: once to summon Gam, twice to summon Silvar and three times to summon Goldar. The show first aired in Japan on July 4, 1966, and its international title was Space Avenger (one episode was dubbed for international markets). Originally intending to title it Monsters from Outer Space,

11766-572: Was picked up by a local boy, who mistook it for a toy. This was also played for the sake of comedy, as seen in episode 34 when Hayata mistook a curry spoon for the Beta Capsule before switching to the original one. Two other versions also existed: In the original concept for The Return of Ultraman , Hideki Goh (the series' main protagonist) was meant to use the Beta Capsule to become Ultraman Jack. Ultraman's combat technique usually relied on brute strength, which goes by fighting his opponents in melee combat, then finishing them with his beam attacks. In

11877-448: Was previously known by the name Ultraman Jr. The defeat of Ultraman at the hands of Zetton in episode 39 of his series delivers a huge impact to the audiences, so much so that it served as inspirations for Japanese pro wrestlers Atsushi Onita and Akira Maeda in their career in hopes of "avenging the fallen hero". In February 2007, a popular internet video called Omoide wa Okkusenman! simultaneously aired in Japan and quickly become

11988-433: Was provided by Hisashi Kondō ( 近藤久 , Kondō Hisashi ) while in episode 15, he was voiced by Koji Ishizaka ( 石坂 浩二 , Ishizaka Kōji ) , the narrator of episodes 1 to 19. In subsequent appearances, Ultraman reuses Masao's grunt while his voice is provided by Susumu Kurobe (Shin Hayata's actor) or just simply speechless during the screen time. Ultraman's suit actor was Bin Furuya ( 古谷敏 , Furuya Bin ) during

12099-410: Was released on July 10, 2013, the second one on October 25, 2013, and the final one on January 29, 2014. On November 25, 2020, Tsuburaya Productions and Pony Canyon released a 3.0 HD remaster of the series on Blu-ray titled Ultraman 55th Anniversary Ultraman Archives: Ultraman MovieNEX , suitable for large screen televisions. Composite technology EXA Quality Advanced Service (EQAS) was used to process

12210-673: Was to be filmed in CinemaScope and was to introduce new characters, such as a self-sacrificing automaton built by the Science Patrol, the Baltans invading Earth with the help of a human scientist, a new subterranean monster named "Morugo", and Ultraman was to be given a new sword weapon. A sequel series tentatively titled Ultraman Continues ( 続ウルトラマン , Zoku Urutoraman ) was also proposed; however, neither project ever materialized. Harvey Comics Entertainment published two short comic book series based on Ultraman in 1993 and 1994. Bandai published

12321-445: Was voiced by other voice actors. In Japan, the Ultraman brand generated $ 7.4 billion in merchandising revenue from 1966 to 1987. Ultraman was the world's third top-selling licensed character in the 1980s, largely due to his popularity in Asia. Writer Tetsuo Kinjo originally envisioned an intergalactic reptilian creature named Bemular to be the character that would become Ultraman. The creature could grow in size to 164 feet, with

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