The Return of Ultraman (帰ってきたウルトラマン Kaettekita Urutoraman?, roughly meaning "Ultraman Has Returned"), is a tokusatsu science fiction/kaiju/superhero TV series, and is the fourth in the Ultra Series.
Eiji Tsuburaya had originally intended for the Ultra Series to end with the 1967 series Ultra Seven (Urutora Sebun, 1967). Ultraman (Urutoraman, 1966) proved to be too popular a character to omit. Eiji Tsuburaya died in 1970. His son Hajime Tsuburaya (who took over Tsuburaya Productions until his own death in 1973) revived the Ultra Series withReturn of Ultraman.
The show features a new Ultraman named "New Ultraman" (新ウルトラマン Shin Urutoraman?), or just "Kaettekita Ultraman" (帰ってきたウルトラマン?). In 1984, he was renamed "Ultraman Jack" (ウルトラマンジャック Urutoraman Jakku?)due to licensing issues. Tsuburaya and Bandai (which had just bought the Ultraman toy license in Japan) held a contest for children to pick a new name for this Ultraman. Although he is called "Ultraman Jack" for licensing in and out of Japan, he is still sometimes referred to as "New Ultraman"/"Kaettekita Ultraman", by some fans (and also in some official sources). This change was done due to a last-minute decision as the original plan for this series was for the original Ultraman to return to Earth to resume the fight against aliens and monsters.
While nearly identical in appearance to the original Ultraman, the red pattern on his silver suit is slightly different. Furthermore, the new Ultraman can be distinguished by his shorter pants, the pinstripes along the red areas, and the fuller sleeves/kneepads. The characters and related events are described below using in-universe tone.
This series is a follow up to the original Ultraman & Ultra Seven. The first episode begins with a fight between two giant monsters named Takkong and Zazahn, in Tokyo. Amid the monster destruction, young race-car driver Hideki Go is killed while trying to rescue a little boy and a dog from the falling rubble. His valiant sacrifice is noted by everyone, including his friends and the new defense force MAT (Monster Attack Team), but an unseen being also takes notice. Looking over Hideki is "New Ultraman (Ultraman Jack)", who is so touched by the race car driver's heroism, that he decides to combine his life force with that of Hideki, thus bringing him back to life (just like the original Ultraman did with Shin Hayata), much to everyone's astonishment. MAT then asks Hideki to join the team, which he does, especially since in this frightening new "Age of Monsters" Earth will need a savior. In times of crisis, Hideki will raise his right arm and, by force of will, transform into Ultraman Jack to fight monsters.
MAT (Monster Attack Team)
Other characters:
For the first time, Ishirō Honda, best known for his work on the Godzilla movies and other classic Toho tokusatsu, worked on the Ultra Series, and directed some of the episodes of this series, including the first episode (titled "All Monsters Attack" (怪獣総進撃 Kaijū Sōshingeki?), which is the same as the Japanese title for the film Destroy All Monsters).
The Ultra Series (ウルトラシリーズ Urutora Shirīzu?) is the collective name for all the shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad Ultra Monsters. The Ultra Series is one of the prominenttokusatsu superhero genre productions from Japan, along with Toei produced series Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and theMetal Heroes. The Ultra franchise is also one of the most well known examples of the daikaiju genre, which also includesToho's Godzilla films, and Daiei Film's Gamera series. However, the Ultra Series also falls into the kyodai (Giant Hero) subgenre of Tokusatsu shows.
Ultraman and his many kin are usually red-and-silver (although several color variations have been seen in recent years) and have glowing yellow almond-shaped dome eyes (although there are exceptions to both the shape and color) and various abilities, most notably to fire energy beams from various positions of crossed hands. The Ultra beings' main weakness is that they can only stay on Earth in giant form for a limited span of time, usually not longer than three minutes, owing to a limited supply of energy (Earth's atmosphere filters out solar energy). This is marked by a light on the character's body usually called the Color Timer, or "warning light," which eventually begins to blink with increasing frequency as his energy supply dwindles (and turns from blue to red). At this stage, the Ultra beings must either find a way to recharge or finish the fight as soon as possible, or involuntarily revert to human form, or worse, risk certain death. Some say another reason for Ultraman to recharge is because the Earth is badly polluted by humans, so Ultraman only has three minutes on Earth, but can survive long enough in outer space. The time limit only happens inside the Earth's atmosphere but they have none of those setbacks outside. To counter this, Ultramen almost always merge with a human host or create a human form for themselves in order to survive on Earth, more often than not reviving a recently dead person with their own lifeforce. Ultra beings also appear to be near impossible to permanently kill, as several times an Ultra being has been killed only to be revived by another member of their species. In other cases a large enough amount of energy can be utilized to bring them back to life, usually provided by their human allies, even after being completely destroyed, as was the case with Mebius' death at the hands of Empira, only to be revived shortly thereafter by the life energy of his allies. Ultraman always try to avoid battles in inhabited areas or fighting in a place where there are innocent bystanders and try to cause the least amount of destruction as possible, from the side effects of their fights when confronting in the city, when and if they can't; a city like Tokyo would be destroyed. The Ultra-Garrison are ranked from low-tier cosmics to high-tier cosmics.
Ultraman was followed by many other series. Sequels to the original series are: Ultraseven (1967, TBS), The Return of Ultraman (1971, TBS), Ultraman Ace (1972, TBS), Ultraman Taro (1973, TBS), Ultraman Leo (1974, TBS), Ultraman 80 (1980, TBS), Ultraman Tiga (1996, MBS), Ultraman Dyna (1997, MBS), Ultraman Gaia(1998, MBS), and Ultraman Cosmos (2001, MBS). Recently the studio tried a reinvention of the hero through the "Ultra N Project," which involved three heroes: Ultraman Noa (the "mascot" of the Ultra N Project, who appears in stage shows as well as the final episode of Ultraman Nexus) in late 2003, Ultraman Nexus (2004,CBC), and ULTRAMAN (2004, Shochiku Productions). This was followed by a return to old-school style series in the form of Ultraman Max (2005, CBC). In the course of Max series, another new hero known as Ultraman Xenon was also introduced. April 2006 saw the 40th anniversary series, Ultraman Mebius, which signalled a long-awaited return to the original canon. Another hero was also introduced: Ultraman Hikari, formerly known as Hunter Knight Tsurugi.
The franchise has also been in the movie theaters, starting with Ultraman Zearth and Ultraman Zearth 2, Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey, released in 2000, as well as ULTRAMAN, a movie that opened in December 2004. The straight-to-video market also saw the release of Ultraman Neos in 2000, as well as special features for Ultraman Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia, who have teamed up in theatrical features (Tiga and Dyna once, as well as the three of them all together). TheUltraman Mebius and Ultra Brothers movie opened in September 2006.
Foreign productions include the 1987 Hanna-Barbera co-production Ultraman: The Adventure Begins (in Japanese, Ultraman USA), an animated movie; Ultraman: Towards The Future (in Japanese, Ultraman Great), an Australian 1991 production and Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (in Japanese, Ultraman Powered), produced in the United States in 1993. Ultraman series have also been dubbed into various languages, including English, Spanish (only Ultra Q, the original Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Return of Ultra Man, Ultraman Great & Ultraman Tiga were known to be translated into Spanish), Portuguese (Ultraman, Ultraseven, Return of Ultraman and Ultraman Tiga in Brazil), Korean, Malay, Mandarin, Indonesian and Cantonese. Also of note is the American English dub of Ultraman Tiga by 4Kids Entertainmentthat aired in 2002. The dub considerably distorted the characterization and general mood of the series, and--possibly as a result--it achieved only limited success. An episode of the Hoshi no Kirby anime series ("Kirby: Right Back at Ya" in America) contains an Ultraman reference, leading to the possibility that "Tiga" may have only been licensed in order to explain the reference (both shows debuted on the same day).
In 1993, Tsuburaya Productions and Toei Company co-produced Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider, a crossover with the original Ultraman and Toei's Kamen Rider 1. This direct-to-video feature is co-copyrighted by both Toei (and its subordinates, Toei Video and Ishinomori Productions) and Tsuburaya Productions.
At present, Tsuburaya Prod. accepts 36 Ultramen as official (counting Ultraman Legend, the combined form of Ultramen Cosmos and Justice, as a separate entity). This figure does not account for Thai-produced Ultramen. (The figure is 38 if Next, Noa, and Nexus are counted as separate entities--it has been revealed in Nexusthat all three are a single being with various modes used by different hosts.) In 2013, the Ultra Series was cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the record-holder for the most number of spin-off shows.[1]
The government of Malaysia banned the printing of an Ultraman book because it compared the character of Ultraman King (from the film Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy) with "Allah", the Arabic word for God, even though it is commonly used in Malaysian to refer to any "God". The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that the comparison may "confuse Muslim children and damage their faith".[2]
An asterisk * denotes shows (or movies) that feature no Ultramen.
1998 Ultra Seven Series
1999 Ultra Seven Series
2001 Heisei Ultraman Side Stories
2002 Ultra Seven: EVOLUTION Series
2007 Ultraman Mebius Side Story: Hikari Saga
2008 Ultraman Mebius Side Story: Armored Darkness
2009 Ultraman Mebius Side Story: Ghost Reverse
2010 Ultra Galaxy Legend Side Story: Ultraman Zero vs. Darklops Zero
2011 Ultraman Zero Side Story: Killer the Beatstar