History of Ultraman: Showa continuity
Jan. 8th, 2018 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameVery soon, I will be reviewing the Ultraman X movie: He's Here! Our Ultraman, and following Power Rangers in Space, I plan to review Ultraman Orb, and I hope to one day also review Geed. But if I'm going to do any of that, I need to break down the history of the Ultra Series a little, so I'll be doing that across a series of posts. I can't promise that I've watched all of these series that I'm bringing up, but I've read enough to give enough of a run-through to explain things.
The franchise is as old as Star Trek, having premiered in January 1966 with Ultra Q, an anthology series about giant monsters, in the vein of The Twilight Zone, but with leftover suits from Godzilla movies. And mind you, I say this with the utmost respect. After the success of Ultra Q, creator Eiji Tsuburaya immediately followed it up with Ultraman, the story of a giant alien from the Land of Light in the M-78 nebula, who bonded with Shin Hayata, a member of the Science Special Search Party, who worked under United Nations authorization to seek out the strange and bizarre and protect humanity from giant monster threats. Hayata was nearly killed after his ship crashed into Ultraman's travel sphere, and out of guilt, Ultraman fused with him, allowing him to heal Hayata's body and bring him back to life. But whenever a giant monster or alien threatened, Hayata could use the Beta Capsule to transform into Ultraman and stop the threat...but only for three minutes, as Earth's atmosphere filtered out the solar radiation that powered Ultraman and his kind. A color timer on his chest would flash when he was either too injured to continue or running out of power, and as long as he could finish the battle and transform back into Hayata, he'd be fine. Otherwise, the consequences could be fatal. Occasionally, Ultraman was aided by Zoffy, a highly-decorated officer within the Ultra's Space Garrison, who eventually had to help separate Ultraman and Hayata and bring Ultraman home to M-78. Hayato originally lost his memories of the fusion, but this was ignored in later appearances.
In 2011, a manga follow-up to Ultraman created a new universe, positing that the revelation of Hayata's fusion with Ultraman led to the SSSP protecting him and his family from government experiments, particularly because his DNA carried a trace of Ultraman's power. This power showed itself in his son, Shinjiro, a teenager with super strength who was recruited into the SSSP to fight aliens in a human-sized Ultraman suit. As opposed to the series, the manga keeps Hayato's amnesia, and he dislikes the Ultraman Factor that has plagued him and his family. An alternate version of Dan Moroboshi (Ultra Seven) also appears in this manga as a member of the SSSP who fights in the Ultraman suit version 7. This manga has been released in the U.S., thanks to Viz, and a CG anime adaptation will be produced for a 2019 release.
The Ultra franchise continued with Ultra Seven, which shook things up a little bit. Rather than forming a fusion with a human, Ultra Seven took on a human guise, Dan Moroboshi, taking on the appearance of Jiro Satsuma, a brave young man who he witnessed risk his life to save a mountain climber. Seven—then referred to as Agent 340, a military cartographer from the Land of Light—saved Jiro and was inspired by his courage. He joined the Ultra Garrison, a defense force in the same vein as the SSSP, as their sixth member. Eventually, Ultra realized that Agent 340 was clearly aiding them, so they gave him the callsign Ultra Seven—the seventh member of the Ultra Garrison, official or not. Ultra Seven proved highly influential, eventually earning a sequel in 1994, dubbed "Heisei Ultra Seven," which, like the Ultraman manga, ignored the shared continuity and set up Seven as the only Ultra in that universe. It continued as a direct-to-video in 1998, 1999, and 2002. Another Heisei era sequel, 2007's Ultra Seven X, featured Seven merging with a man known only as Jin, an agent of the supposed hero group DEUS, but who fled with his girlfriend Elea when they stumbled onto an evil plot and an alternate universe. Seven revived Jin, but at the cost of Jin's memories and his own consciousness, until the day Jin could fully heal and Seven could return to his own universe, and his human girlfriend, Anne Yuri from the original series.
Eiji Tsuburaya intended for Ultra Seven to be the end of the franchise, but following his death in 1970, his production studio, headed up by his son Hajime, decided to continue on. Following a series of cheap, five-minute mini episodes called Ultra Fight, which featured Seven fighting various monsters, interest was revived enough to bring on a 1971 revival. This mini-era within the Showa continuity begins with Return of Ultraman. It's a bit of an oddity, sort of like Kamen Rider's "Skyrider" character—the series is somewhere between reboot and sequel, ultimately absorbed into continuity with a whole new character. The "new" Ultraman was later dubbed Ultraman Jack, and it really doesn't help that he looks so similar to the original that it's hard to tell them apart, other than his bracelet and use of a lance. Hideki Go died saving a child and his dog from some falling debris, and Jack was touched by his kindness and merged with him, reviving him. However, Go's life was plagued with tragedy, with his girlfriend and her brother being killed by a sadistic alien assassin, who also went on to brainwash his teammates in MAT, the Monster Attack Team. In an unusual turn of events, after their victory, Hideki chose to remain fused with Jack, living in the M-78 Nebula as a united being permanently.
1971, of course, saw Toei Company's new tokusatsu series about some brainwashed guy in a bug costume and mask riding on a motorcycle and kicking monsters until they explode. For some reason, that formula was becoming highly successful, and Ultra found itself with some serious competition. However, Ultraman Ace in 1972 did something that the (currently) 47 years of Kamen Rider have failed to: a female title character, at least partially and for some time. Seiji Hokuto and Yuko Minami were a truck driver and nurse for an orphanage, dying to protect their children. Like Ultraman and Jack before him, Ace, along with his four predecessors and brothers-in-arms, was moved by their sacrifice, but he chose to fuse with both of them, giving them rings to allow the both of them to fuse together and fight as Ace...thus predating the Wonder Twins by six years. According to the wiki, however, sexism was still a problem, and in episode 28, "Farewell, Yuko, Sister of the Moon," Minami was written out. It was revealed that she was originally from the moon, and that most of her people had been killed by a rabbit-like monster. When it attacked Earth, she immediately went into action, urging Hokuto to transform with her to destroy it. But afterward, she had to bid him farewell, admitting her secret and leaving him with her Ultra Ring and the responsibility to fight alone as Ace before returning to the moon in triumph to try to rebuild it to its former glory. Hokuto continued their battle alongside the Terrible-monster Attacking Crew against the evil Yapool. This show was also pretty dark, with gory monster deaths, and...well, I'm not sure what "severe blood" means, but it's on the wiki's trigger warnings, so I'd suggest treating this as an adults-only show.
Ultraman Taro in 1973 returned to child-friendly material, with boxer Kotaro Higashi being thrown to his death in a monster attack. However, instead of the title character directly bringing him back to life, another female character was introduced: Mother of Ultra, whose husband, Father of Ultra, had already appeared in Ace. Mother of Ultra was brought Kotaro's body, as she was a skilled healer in the Land of Light. She did so, fusing him with her son, Taro, and giving him the Ultra Badge to transform. Hajime Tsuburaya died very suddenly before the series premiere, so perhaps because of the death of the founder's son, Tsuburaya focused on the concept of family with this season. Kotaro and Taro fought alongside ZAT, the Zariba of All Territory. However, by the end, Kotaro wished to return to a normal life and returned the Ultra Badge to Mother of Ultra, separating himself from Taro just before an alien attacked Tokyo, hoping to fight Taro, forcing Kotaro to defeat it on his own as a human.
But the lighthearted days came to an end the very next year with Ultraman Leo, which begins with the destruction of Planet L-77 in the Leo constellation, the home planet of the titular Ultraman Leo and his younger brother, Astra. With his home planet destroyed and all of his people dead, Leo settled on Earth, taking on a human identity as Gen Ohtori. He was soon joined by Ultra Seven, who was badly injured fighting the same monsters who destroyed L-77, leaving him unable to fight and forcing him to re-assume his identity of Dan Moroboshi and become a captain of the Monster Attacking Crew. Moroboshi recruited Ohtori and began training him to fight Black Star. And...well, this is not a well-fated team. Don't bother getting attached to anyone who isn't named Dan or Gen and can transform into a 50 meter tall warrior of light. A small child also dies with basically the entire team in episode 40. There is good news, at least: the legendary Ultraman King, a being so old that he helped create the technology that gave the Ultras their powers, saved Astra and later saved Leo from an incredibly violent death. Yes, they manage to defeat Black Star, but holy shit DO NOT LET CHILDREN WATCH THIS SHOW.
The☆Ultraman, an animated series following the adventures of Ultraman Joneus of Planet U-40 and his human host, Choichiro Hikari, followed in 1979—the first season taking place in an alternate universe. But he only ever appears again in a movie that is otherwise comprised of stock footage from other seasons.
Ultraman 80 premiered in 1980, featuring 80 living as human Takeshi Yamato, a junior high science teacher in Tokyo who also fought with the Utility Government Members, just in time for monsters to start re-appearing on Earth. This introduced the concept of "minus energy"—negative human emotions that Yamato theorized created the monsters. This concept would appear in later seasons, including the New Generation in the 2010s. 80 was later joined by Yullian, a princess from M-78 and his childhood friend who joined UGM as Ryoko Hoshi, to replace fallen teammate Emi Jouno, but she didn't assume her true form until the penultimate episode, six episodes later. Note that it's never revealed who her parents are, but she isn't related to Ultraman King—he's not an actual king, that's just his name. And while there are some deaths and some occasionally gruesome monster attacks, it is nothing compared to Leo, so it's probably safer for kids.
But 80 would be the last of Japanese Ultra series for a while. 1983 resulted in Andro Melos, but even though it featured Zoffy as the titular character, it was more of a Sentai style series with Ultras wearing super suits. It did, however, introduce the villain Juda, who would return in the 1984 movie Ultraman Story and in the New Generation as Juda Spectre. 1990 would bring the Australian co-production Ultraman: Towards the Future, known in Japan as Ultraman Great. When astronaut Jack Shindo lost his partner and found himself stranded on Mars, Great fused with him to help send him home, thereby avoiding a Matt Damon movie. Shindo joins the Universal Multipurpose Agency to defeat Gudis, the alien threat that caused this whole mess on Mars in the first place. In 1993, America joined the party and helped produce the thirteen episode Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Ultraman Powered in Japan), which starred Sentai alum Kane Kosugi as Kenichi Kai, host to Ultraman Powered, officer of WINR who helped fight off the Alien Baltan threat. And there was even a 1993 teamup between the original Ultraman and the original Kamen Rider; while Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider did not actually feature the heroes fighting, it did provide analysis and contrast of their signature attacks, interviews with the actors for Ultra Seven and Kamen Rider V3, and a short battle where they teamed up against a Shocker monster that merged with a giant monster and required Takeshi Hongo to...somehow grow to Ultra size. You honestly don't need subtitles to watch this one; it's self-explanatory and silly fun.
However, Ultraman's history during that time is marred by a licensing dispute between Tsuburaya and a Thai production company, Chaiyo. For a really good analysis of that dispute, see here. Suffice to say, Tsuburaya has recently won all rights to Ultraman, and none of the Chaiyo movies or characters are in any way canon.
The franchise is as old as Star Trek, having premiered in January 1966 with Ultra Q, an anthology series about giant monsters, in the vein of The Twilight Zone, but with leftover suits from Godzilla movies. And mind you, I say this with the utmost respect. After the success of Ultra Q, creator Eiji Tsuburaya immediately followed it up with Ultraman, the story of a giant alien from the Land of Light in the M-78 nebula, who bonded with Shin Hayata, a member of the Science Special Search Party, who worked under United Nations authorization to seek out the strange and bizarre and protect humanity from giant monster threats. Hayata was nearly killed after his ship crashed into Ultraman's travel sphere, and out of guilt, Ultraman fused with him, allowing him to heal Hayata's body and bring him back to life. But whenever a giant monster or alien threatened, Hayata could use the Beta Capsule to transform into Ultraman and stop the threat...but only for three minutes, as Earth's atmosphere filtered out the solar radiation that powered Ultraman and his kind. A color timer on his chest would flash when he was either too injured to continue or running out of power, and as long as he could finish the battle and transform back into Hayata, he'd be fine. Otherwise, the consequences could be fatal. Occasionally, Ultraman was aided by Zoffy, a highly-decorated officer within the Ultra's Space Garrison, who eventually had to help separate Ultraman and Hayata and bring Ultraman home to M-78. Hayato originally lost his memories of the fusion, but this was ignored in later appearances.
In 2011, a manga follow-up to Ultraman created a new universe, positing that the revelation of Hayata's fusion with Ultraman led to the SSSP protecting him and his family from government experiments, particularly because his DNA carried a trace of Ultraman's power. This power showed itself in his son, Shinjiro, a teenager with super strength who was recruited into the SSSP to fight aliens in a human-sized Ultraman suit. As opposed to the series, the manga keeps Hayato's amnesia, and he dislikes the Ultraman Factor that has plagued him and his family. An alternate version of Dan Moroboshi (Ultra Seven) also appears in this manga as a member of the SSSP who fights in the Ultraman suit version 7. This manga has been released in the U.S., thanks to Viz, and a CG anime adaptation will be produced for a 2019 release.
The Ultra franchise continued with Ultra Seven, which shook things up a little bit. Rather than forming a fusion with a human, Ultra Seven took on a human guise, Dan Moroboshi, taking on the appearance of Jiro Satsuma, a brave young man who he witnessed risk his life to save a mountain climber. Seven—then referred to as Agent 340, a military cartographer from the Land of Light—saved Jiro and was inspired by his courage. He joined the Ultra Garrison, a defense force in the same vein as the SSSP, as their sixth member. Eventually, Ultra realized that Agent 340 was clearly aiding them, so they gave him the callsign Ultra Seven—the seventh member of the Ultra Garrison, official or not. Ultra Seven proved highly influential, eventually earning a sequel in 1994, dubbed "Heisei Ultra Seven," which, like the Ultraman manga, ignored the shared continuity and set up Seven as the only Ultra in that universe. It continued as a direct-to-video in 1998, 1999, and 2002. Another Heisei era sequel, 2007's Ultra Seven X, featured Seven merging with a man known only as Jin, an agent of the supposed hero group DEUS, but who fled with his girlfriend Elea when they stumbled onto an evil plot and an alternate universe. Seven revived Jin, but at the cost of Jin's memories and his own consciousness, until the day Jin could fully heal and Seven could return to his own universe, and his human girlfriend, Anne Yuri from the original series.
Eiji Tsuburaya intended for Ultra Seven to be the end of the franchise, but following his death in 1970, his production studio, headed up by his son Hajime, decided to continue on. Following a series of cheap, five-minute mini episodes called Ultra Fight, which featured Seven fighting various monsters, interest was revived enough to bring on a 1971 revival. This mini-era within the Showa continuity begins with Return of Ultraman. It's a bit of an oddity, sort of like Kamen Rider's "Skyrider" character—the series is somewhere between reboot and sequel, ultimately absorbed into continuity with a whole new character. The "new" Ultraman was later dubbed Ultraman Jack, and it really doesn't help that he looks so similar to the original that it's hard to tell them apart, other than his bracelet and use of a lance. Hideki Go died saving a child and his dog from some falling debris, and Jack was touched by his kindness and merged with him, reviving him. However, Go's life was plagued with tragedy, with his girlfriend and her brother being killed by a sadistic alien assassin, who also went on to brainwash his teammates in MAT, the Monster Attack Team. In an unusual turn of events, after their victory, Hideki chose to remain fused with Jack, living in the M-78 Nebula as a united being permanently.
1971, of course, saw Toei Company's new tokusatsu series about some brainwashed guy in a bug costume and mask riding on a motorcycle and kicking monsters until they explode. For some reason, that formula was becoming highly successful, and Ultra found itself with some serious competition. However, Ultraman Ace in 1972 did something that the (currently) 47 years of Kamen Rider have failed to: a female title character, at least partially and for some time. Seiji Hokuto and Yuko Minami were a truck driver and nurse for an orphanage, dying to protect their children. Like Ultraman and Jack before him, Ace, along with his four predecessors and brothers-in-arms, was moved by their sacrifice, but he chose to fuse with both of them, giving them rings to allow the both of them to fuse together and fight as Ace...thus predating the Wonder Twins by six years. According to the wiki, however, sexism was still a problem, and in episode 28, "Farewell, Yuko, Sister of the Moon," Minami was written out. It was revealed that she was originally from the moon, and that most of her people had been killed by a rabbit-like monster. When it attacked Earth, she immediately went into action, urging Hokuto to transform with her to destroy it. But afterward, she had to bid him farewell, admitting her secret and leaving him with her Ultra Ring and the responsibility to fight alone as Ace before returning to the moon in triumph to try to rebuild it to its former glory. Hokuto continued their battle alongside the Terrible-monster Attacking Crew against the evil Yapool. This show was also pretty dark, with gory monster deaths, and...well, I'm not sure what "severe blood" means, but it's on the wiki's trigger warnings, so I'd suggest treating this as an adults-only show.
Ultraman Taro in 1973 returned to child-friendly material, with boxer Kotaro Higashi being thrown to his death in a monster attack. However, instead of the title character directly bringing him back to life, another female character was introduced: Mother of Ultra, whose husband, Father of Ultra, had already appeared in Ace. Mother of Ultra was brought Kotaro's body, as she was a skilled healer in the Land of Light. She did so, fusing him with her son, Taro, and giving him the Ultra Badge to transform. Hajime Tsuburaya died very suddenly before the series premiere, so perhaps because of the death of the founder's son, Tsuburaya focused on the concept of family with this season. Kotaro and Taro fought alongside ZAT, the Zariba of All Territory. However, by the end, Kotaro wished to return to a normal life and returned the Ultra Badge to Mother of Ultra, separating himself from Taro just before an alien attacked Tokyo, hoping to fight Taro, forcing Kotaro to defeat it on his own as a human.
But the lighthearted days came to an end the very next year with Ultraman Leo, which begins with the destruction of Planet L-77 in the Leo constellation, the home planet of the titular Ultraman Leo and his younger brother, Astra. With his home planet destroyed and all of his people dead, Leo settled on Earth, taking on a human identity as Gen Ohtori. He was soon joined by Ultra Seven, who was badly injured fighting the same monsters who destroyed L-77, leaving him unable to fight and forcing him to re-assume his identity of Dan Moroboshi and become a captain of the Monster Attacking Crew. Moroboshi recruited Ohtori and began training him to fight Black Star. And...well, this is not a well-fated team. Don't bother getting attached to anyone who isn't named Dan or Gen and can transform into a 50 meter tall warrior of light. A small child also dies with basically the entire team in episode 40. There is good news, at least: the legendary Ultraman King, a being so old that he helped create the technology that gave the Ultras their powers, saved Astra and later saved Leo from an incredibly violent death. Yes, they manage to defeat Black Star, but holy shit DO NOT LET CHILDREN WATCH THIS SHOW.
The☆Ultraman, an animated series following the adventures of Ultraman Joneus of Planet U-40 and his human host, Choichiro Hikari, followed in 1979—the first season taking place in an alternate universe. But he only ever appears again in a movie that is otherwise comprised of stock footage from other seasons.
Ultraman 80 premiered in 1980, featuring 80 living as human Takeshi Yamato, a junior high science teacher in Tokyo who also fought with the Utility Government Members, just in time for monsters to start re-appearing on Earth. This introduced the concept of "minus energy"—negative human emotions that Yamato theorized created the monsters. This concept would appear in later seasons, including the New Generation in the 2010s. 80 was later joined by Yullian, a princess from M-78 and his childhood friend who joined UGM as Ryoko Hoshi, to replace fallen teammate Emi Jouno, but she didn't assume her true form until the penultimate episode, six episodes later. Note that it's never revealed who her parents are, but she isn't related to Ultraman King—he's not an actual king, that's just his name. And while there are some deaths and some occasionally gruesome monster attacks, it is nothing compared to Leo, so it's probably safer for kids.
But 80 would be the last of Japanese Ultra series for a while. 1983 resulted in Andro Melos, but even though it featured Zoffy as the titular character, it was more of a Sentai style series with Ultras wearing super suits. It did, however, introduce the villain Juda, who would return in the 1984 movie Ultraman Story and in the New Generation as Juda Spectre. 1990 would bring the Australian co-production Ultraman: Towards the Future, known in Japan as Ultraman Great. When astronaut Jack Shindo lost his partner and found himself stranded on Mars, Great fused with him to help send him home, thereby avoiding a Matt Damon movie. Shindo joins the Universal Multipurpose Agency to defeat Gudis, the alien threat that caused this whole mess on Mars in the first place. In 1993, America joined the party and helped produce the thirteen episode Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Ultraman Powered in Japan), which starred Sentai alum Kane Kosugi as Kenichi Kai, host to Ultraman Powered, officer of WINR who helped fight off the Alien Baltan threat. And there was even a 1993 teamup between the original Ultraman and the original Kamen Rider; while Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider did not actually feature the heroes fighting, it did provide analysis and contrast of their signature attacks, interviews with the actors for Ultra Seven and Kamen Rider V3, and a short battle where they teamed up against a Shocker monster that merged with a giant monster and required Takeshi Hongo to...somehow grow to Ultra size. You honestly don't need subtitles to watch this one; it's self-explanatory and silly fun.
However, Ultraman's history during that time is marred by a licensing dispute between Tsuburaya and a Thai production company, Chaiyo. For a really good analysis of that dispute, see here. Suffice to say, Tsuburaya has recently won all rights to Ultraman, and none of the Chaiyo movies or characters are in any way canon.