FIF#217-The Ultraman

Earth, the 21^st Century, is under attack from monsters of unknown origin.  The Science Defense Squad fights a neverending battle against them.  But they’re not without help.  Unbeknownst to them, their newest recruit, Hikari Chouichirou, has bonded with an advanced Alien, an Ultra Person, called Ultraman Jonias.  Though this joining, Hikari is able to become Ultraman, the titanic guardian who has the power to fight the Monsters on their own terms. 

 
So this one came as a bit of a surprise for me (a friend stumbled across one of Shout Factory’s 24/7 series streams).  Of course I know of the current Ultraman Netflix CG Anime but I never knew that Ultraman had an Anime adaptation prior, especially one dating as far back as the late 70s.  This seems fitting considering the 70’s were all about Giant Mecha teams being used to fight against Kaiju and Aliens.  So why not one of Japan’s most iconic superheroic defenders? 
 
The episode of The Ultraman I caught featured a young boy befriending a baby Kaiju that was rapidly growing to full size, becoming an inevitable threat.  Now I’ll admit, I’m not super familiar with Ultraman outside of his many different looks over the years.  So I was a little surprised to see Ultraman was part of a self defense force dedicated to Kaiju combat (or at least he is in his secret identity before he has to slip away, transform, and handle the threat solo).  Seeing all of the advanced fighting planes gave me Gatchaman and Voltron vibes, so much so I was wondering when Ultraman himself was going to pop up (and what he’d look like).  I was actually watching this episode with my friend who mentioned that the characters looked like something from early Gundam and sure enough, he was right. Sunrise is the animation house behind Ultraman’s first Anime and it looks just as good as their golden Mecha Boy Mobile Suit Gundam, which, Fun Fact: these two Anime aired at the same time in Japan, actually Ultraman predates Gundam’s first airing in 1979 by two days.
 
I did notice how the episode didn’t really focus on Ultraman or his alter ego that much (also coming in about a quarter of the way through the episode I caught no ones name, sorry).  Instead, we get another teammate trying to convince the aforementioned young boy of the danger of his pet monster. It goes about as well as you’d expect and doesn’t have the happiest ending, predictable or not.  So when Ultraman does slip off to get to work, it almost feels like an afterthought, like “oh right, what’s his name has to sneak off and do his real job, we almost forgot.”  Still, when Ultraman does appear, the action is pure classic 70s Kaiju on Kaiju fun.  Ultraman has all of his signature moves and attacks and you can see the live action influence on his more wrestling focused set of grappling attacks that you’d normally see between suit actors.
 
While I’m not the biggest Ultraman fan (I’ve only seen an episode of the Netflix Anime and Hideaki Anno’s Shin Ultraman movie…which I didn’t think was that great tbh), The Ultraman is a nice glimpse into a pivotal part of the history of the hero, being his very first Anime series.  It’s got all the hallmarks of what made 70’s Monster Action Anime so legendary and isnt afraid to give screentime to characters other than Ultraman nor hold back on how grim Kaiju battles can be despite the colorful animation.  Might be worth a glimpse or two here and there but for a one off it’s a fun little treat.