History of Ultraman: Revival
Jan. 10th, 2018 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameThe 90s were an interesting time in tokusatsu. Kamen Rider had ended its television run in 1989, airing only three movies through the decade, followed by the death of creator Shotaro Ishinomori. Super Sentai was on fire with Toshiki Inoue's 1991 series, Choujin Sentai Jetman, but it cooled down following the Aum Shinrikyo cult's sarin attack on the Tokyo subway and the Kobe Earthquake, necessitating changes to the plot of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger. In America, Saban acquired Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and adapted it as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, inviting a flood of adaptations of other Toei tokusatsu properties, including Metal Heroes and Kamen Rider. And while one of Tsuburaya's properties, Gridman: The Hyper Agent, was partially adapted for Saban's VR Troopers, (update: I was wrong. It was actually DiC's Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad) Ultraman quietly remained dormant.
That all changed in 1996, with the premiere of Ultraman Tiga. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the franchise, Tiga began a revival era that created changes that persisted over the next few years. While Tiga himself had originally come from "another nebula," 30 million years ago, he and his fellow "titans of light" were the protectors of an advanced human civilization, safeguarding them against an alien race called the Kiliel—and forgive me if I misspell this; I am working off of the 4Kids/Funimation subs, and they weren't exactly consistent. The civilization eventually fell on its own, but some of the people survived, their descendents living into the 21st century, around 2007-2010. Among them is Captain Megumi Iruma, the leader of the Global Unlimited Task Squad and the first female captain of an Ultra patrol—and yes, she does get shit for it in-universe, at least in episode three. She proceeds to kick ass in response. GUTS is under the direction of the TPC, the Terrestrial Peaceable Consortium (or The Peace on earth Coalition, according to the 4Kids sub), and they mostly act as a search and rescue squad until the day a time capsule from the ancient civilization appears and reveals a holographic warning from a woman named Yuzare—who, unknown to them at the time, is Iruma's ancestor. Yuzare warns that monsters from the past will attack and that they must awaken Ultraman Tiga, but the exact directions are cut off, known only to the chosen one himself—"Daigo will become light." Enter Daigo Madoka, a young officer in GUTS, who finds himself compelled to believe the warning to be true and urges the team to visit the Tiga pyramid and discovers statues of three ancient titans. But the monsters attack, destroying two of them and nearly destroying Tiga's statue, if not for Daigo's body suddenly converting into light and fusing with the statue, Tiga becoming reborn. As it turns out, Daigo is a descendant of the ancient civilization and of the Ultras—a hybrid between the two, and that's what gives him the ability to take up the Spark Lens and fight as humanity's protector.
You may notice that I've switched to using the characters' given names for the Heisei era, and that's just because of an overall shift in toku culture. For whatever reason, Showa heroes are generally referred to by their surnames—such as Hongo of Kamen Rider or Hayata of Ultraman—while the Heisei and later (presumably) later heroes are referred to by their given names in most instances.
Tiga introduced several concepts that made a lasting impact on the franchise as a whole. First and foremost was the use of mode changes—Tiga's default form was a red and blue (though they say purple in the series) balanced fighter called Multi Type, with the strength-focused red Power Type and the speed-focused blue Sky Type (hence why referring to him as "purple" is weird); mode changes would become a mainstay of Ultraman for decades, much like they would for Kamen Rider following Kuuga. The idea of Daigo as a human who directly transformed into an Ultra inspired later heroes like Gaia, while his Ultra heritage set a precedent for Shinjiro Hayata of the Ultraman manga and Riku Asakura of Geed. It began a new universe that proved that Ultraman didn't have to limit itself to one continuity, thereby allowing for further expansion of the multiverse and generally not worrying about how to make everything fit down the line, instead focusing on good stories and character development. And furthermore, it started off the Ultra careers of two well-known writers. Keiichi Hasegawa would write for the franchise in the subsequent Dyna, Gaia, Cosmos, Nexus, Mebius, Ultraseven X, Ultra Galaxy, and Ginga, as well as Kamen Riders W, Fourze, Drive, and Ghost. And it also introduced the franchise to a man named Chiaki J. Konaka—yes, THAT Chiaki Konaka—as a prominent writer on the series before he headed up his own season (although, note that IMDB lists him as writing story for the two previous international productions as well).
To best describe this to Kamen Rider fans, Tiga was the Kuuga of its franchise—a new hero who began a new legend that created lasting effects on a series that hadn't seen airtime in years. It may even have had an influence on Kuuga itself, with the Kiliel and Ultras' competing influence on humanity similar to the ideological war between the Grongi and the Linto. It brought a whole new generation into the franchise and remains highly respected and revered to this day, to the point that its anniversary is celebrated alongside Ultraman's, which is hard to say for most series.
...Well, it's revered by everyone except for 4Kids. As I mentioned before, I own two of the DVDs that were distributed by Funimation of what I suspect is probably 4Kids' sub work. And it's actually not a bad sub—I personally like the use of "titan" instead of "giant" to describe the Ultras—but they do lose some points for accuracy—for example, missing the "ru" at the end of "kirieru" for the name of the alien race, so they initially call it "Kilié" instead of "Kiliel," the TPC thing I mentioned, and initially calling the Spark Lens the "Spark Lance." Still, all of these are peanuts compared to the Tiga dub. In 2002, after acquiring the Fox Kids programming block and turning it into the Fox Box, 4Kids decided they would license and dub Tiga. But it was a very shaky product, and the ratings were so bad that only 25 of the 52 episodes aired, the rest unceremoniously released on four volumes of DVDs that are long since out of print from Funimation. According to voice actress Erica Schroeder, the poor quality is because 4Kids couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a straight dub or a parody, so they split it somewhere down the middle. Either way, Ultraman wouldn't continue in America until 2015, when a new wave of fans would come with Ultraman X...but that's much later.
Tiga's popularity was big enough to warrant a sequel the next year, Ultraman Dyna, which took place in 2017. GUTS has become Super GUTS, expanding out into Mars and beyond. Asuka Shin is a lighthearted young man whose father was a pilot with TPC, and was lost investigating a mysterious light source. During his air force entrance exam, Asuka was attacked by the Alien Sphire. Dyna rescued him and fused with him, though Asuka blacked out in the process. He would fight against Sphire, now Gransphire, and become more mature, learning to never give up. But in the end, Asuka would be lost in another dimension, but it wouldn't be the last we'd ever see of him.
1998 brought Ultraman Gaia, headed up by Chiaki J. Konaka, so of course, it has a cosmic horror element. It is 2000 in another universe, and young geniuses all over the world have formed an affiliation called the Alchemy Stars, who have determined that a being that brings "Radical Destruction" will appear soon to devastate the world. To protect the planet from this threat, the Globalcentric Universal Alliance against the Radical Destruction was secretly formed, with XIG, the Expanded Interceptive Guards, deploying in high-tech vehicles to combat it. Gamu Takayama, one of the Alchemy Stars, is experimenting with virtual reality when he connects with the spirit of the earth, Gaia, and merges with its power in order to battle the horrific aliens that invade and the monsters inherent to Earth that are rising up in the wake of the Radical Destruction. He joins XIG in order to aid their battle and advance their weaponry, but he also must contend with former Alchemy Star Hiroya Fujimiya, who created the computer that predicted the Radical Destruction and determined that they would only be able to protect the earth, not humanity. Fujimiya has justified his decision by becoming bitter to humanity, and he fuses with the spirit of the sea, Agul, to protect the planet by any means necessary. Meanwhile, intrepid reporter Reiko Yoshii has become fascinated with Fujimiya and begins to fall for him. Which of the Ultramen truly represents the planet's will? Will Gamu's idealism win out, or is Fujimiya right? And can the Radical Destruction entity be defeated by only one of them, or can they pull themselves together to save the planet and humanity?
If Gaia sounds vaguely like Kamen Rider Ryuki, keep in mind that the head writer of Digimon Tamers created Gaia, and Ryuki is very similar to Tamers as well. In addition, Fujimiya is played by Hassei Takano, who would later go on to play Miyuki Tezuka, Kamen Rider Raia. To some degree, Gaia is a treasure trove of Rider actors, with Neon Ulsland of the final episodes of W portraying operator Georgie Leland and OOO's cakeboss himself as Chief Tsutsumi, captain of XIG's defense forces. Hell, the famous Jounan University is Gamu's alma mater, and he frequently returns to coordinate with his former classmates! Additionally, the news bureau's chief, Tabata, was played by Eiji Tsuburaya's grandson, the late Hiroshi Tsuburaya, who had previously played Dai Sawamura, the titular Space Sheriff Shaider for Toei.
Gaia sees the return of two Ultras in a single season, which remains rare in the franchise. The fact that Gamu and Fujimiya used to be friends and that because of that, Gamu protects Fujimiya's identity causes a rift between Gamu and XIG when Fujimiya's connection to Agul is realized and his past contacts come into question. Gaia also gains new forms by utilizing Agul's power—Gaia Version 2, which becomes his new default, and Supreme Version, which is more of a fusion between them. Both of these elements would return in later seasons, particularly Orb.
For whatever reason, Gaia was the last season aired for a few years, followed up by toy commercials in 1999 revolved around Ultraman Nice, who was fused to Ginga Yumeboshi, who fought alongside his family, the GOKAZOKU. Yeah, he exists. Just...go with it.
Ultraman Neos was intended to be a series, but after being shelved, it revived as a 12-episode DTV in 2000. Genki Kagura is a member of the Hi-tech Earth Alert and Rescue Team (and also played by a future Ryuki Rider: Jun Takatsuki—Satoru Tojo/Kamen Rider Tiger) and loses his friends to a meteor strike during a satellite repair. He also would have died if not for Ultraman Neos, a last-minute replacement for Ultra Seven 21, who was supposed to be assigned to protect Earth. The Dark Matter had created a self-aware conqueror, Mensch Heit, who had driven the Alien Zamu from their planet, forcing them to take refuge on Earth. With two races depending on him, Neos had help from his commanders, Ultra Seven 21 and Zoffy, to defeat the Dark Matter and save two worlds.
In 2001, Ultraman Cosmos hit the air, to become the longest-running Ultra series at 65 episodes—a hell of a way to celebrate the 35th anniversary. Ultraman Cosmos has a calm and gentle fighting style, his default form, Luna Mode, capable of calming monsters out of a rampaging state. But when things get tough or a monster is truly evil, he uses Corona Mode to fight or finish them off. Years ago, he came to Earth and befriended a young boy, Musashi Haruno, who saved him from certain destruction. He would fuse with the boy to fight Bascial, the misguided king of the Alien Baltan who sought to take over the planet to give the orphaned children of his destroyed planet a place to live. Cosmos would later return to aid an adult Musashi against the Chaos Header, who infected other beings with his virus to create peace and order through violence. Musashi joined the Elite Young Expert Squad as a pilot, helping in their mission to relocate and rehabilitate the monsters that Cosmos healed.
In later movies, Musashi would become an astronaut and discover the desolated Planet Juran, which he would eventually save and convert into a monster habitat, where he would stay and defend as Cosmos alongside his wife and son. He would also meet Julie, the human disguise of Ultraman Justice, who might be the first and only non-binary Ultraman, with word of god saying that they "transcend gender". Julie had been tasked with resetting life on Earth but reconsidered their duty after learning of Musashi's dream to create a world where monsters could live in peace. As they became more enamored with humanity, they eventually took Cosmos's place as Earth's defender in that universe, so that Musashi could fulfill his dream.
2004 would see a revival of Ultra Q in Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy, followed by Neo Ultra Q in 2010. But more importantly, it would see another darker phase in Ultraman, which would be followed up by a return to the light and the end of the revival generation: the Ultra N Project, Ultraman Nexus.
That all changed in 1996, with the premiere of Ultraman Tiga. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the franchise, Tiga began a revival era that created changes that persisted over the next few years. While Tiga himself had originally come from "another nebula," 30 million years ago, he and his fellow "titans of light" were the protectors of an advanced human civilization, safeguarding them against an alien race called the Kiliel—and forgive me if I misspell this; I am working off of the 4Kids/Funimation subs, and they weren't exactly consistent. The civilization eventually fell on its own, but some of the people survived, their descendents living into the 21st century, around 2007-2010. Among them is Captain Megumi Iruma, the leader of the Global Unlimited Task Squad and the first female captain of an Ultra patrol—and yes, she does get shit for it in-universe, at least in episode three. She proceeds to kick ass in response. GUTS is under the direction of the TPC, the Terrestrial Peaceable Consortium (or The Peace on earth Coalition, according to the 4Kids sub), and they mostly act as a search and rescue squad until the day a time capsule from the ancient civilization appears and reveals a holographic warning from a woman named Yuzare—who, unknown to them at the time, is Iruma's ancestor. Yuzare warns that monsters from the past will attack and that they must awaken Ultraman Tiga, but the exact directions are cut off, known only to the chosen one himself—"Daigo will become light." Enter Daigo Madoka, a young officer in GUTS, who finds himself compelled to believe the warning to be true and urges the team to visit the Tiga pyramid and discovers statues of three ancient titans. But the monsters attack, destroying two of them and nearly destroying Tiga's statue, if not for Daigo's body suddenly converting into light and fusing with the statue, Tiga becoming reborn. As it turns out, Daigo is a descendant of the ancient civilization and of the Ultras—a hybrid between the two, and that's what gives him the ability to take up the Spark Lens and fight as humanity's protector.
You may notice that I've switched to using the characters' given names for the Heisei era, and that's just because of an overall shift in toku culture. For whatever reason, Showa heroes are generally referred to by their surnames—such as Hongo of Kamen Rider or Hayata of Ultraman—while the Heisei and later (presumably) later heroes are referred to by their given names in most instances.
Tiga introduced several concepts that made a lasting impact on the franchise as a whole. First and foremost was the use of mode changes—Tiga's default form was a red and blue (though they say purple in the series) balanced fighter called Multi Type, with the strength-focused red Power Type and the speed-focused blue Sky Type (hence why referring to him as "purple" is weird); mode changes would become a mainstay of Ultraman for decades, much like they would for Kamen Rider following Kuuga. The idea of Daigo as a human who directly transformed into an Ultra inspired later heroes like Gaia, while his Ultra heritage set a precedent for Shinjiro Hayata of the Ultraman manga and Riku Asakura of Geed. It began a new universe that proved that Ultraman didn't have to limit itself to one continuity, thereby allowing for further expansion of the multiverse and generally not worrying about how to make everything fit down the line, instead focusing on good stories and character development. And furthermore, it started off the Ultra careers of two well-known writers. Keiichi Hasegawa would write for the franchise in the subsequent Dyna, Gaia, Cosmos, Nexus, Mebius, Ultraseven X, Ultra Galaxy, and Ginga, as well as Kamen Riders W, Fourze, Drive, and Ghost. And it also introduced the franchise to a man named Chiaki J. Konaka—yes, THAT Chiaki Konaka—as a prominent writer on the series before he headed up his own season (although, note that IMDB lists him as writing story for the two previous international productions as well).
To best describe this to Kamen Rider fans, Tiga was the Kuuga of its franchise—a new hero who began a new legend that created lasting effects on a series that hadn't seen airtime in years. It may even have had an influence on Kuuga itself, with the Kiliel and Ultras' competing influence on humanity similar to the ideological war between the Grongi and the Linto. It brought a whole new generation into the franchise and remains highly respected and revered to this day, to the point that its anniversary is celebrated alongside Ultraman's, which is hard to say for most series.
...Well, it's revered by everyone except for 4Kids. As I mentioned before, I own two of the DVDs that were distributed by Funimation of what I suspect is probably 4Kids' sub work. And it's actually not a bad sub—I personally like the use of "titan" instead of "giant" to describe the Ultras—but they do lose some points for accuracy—for example, missing the "ru" at the end of "kirieru" for the name of the alien race, so they initially call it "Kilié" instead of "Kiliel," the TPC thing I mentioned, and initially calling the Spark Lens the "Spark Lance." Still, all of these are peanuts compared to the Tiga dub. In 2002, after acquiring the Fox Kids programming block and turning it into the Fox Box, 4Kids decided they would license and dub Tiga. But it was a very shaky product, and the ratings were so bad that only 25 of the 52 episodes aired, the rest unceremoniously released on four volumes of DVDs that are long since out of print from Funimation. According to voice actress Erica Schroeder, the poor quality is because 4Kids couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a straight dub or a parody, so they split it somewhere down the middle. Either way, Ultraman wouldn't continue in America until 2015, when a new wave of fans would come with Ultraman X...but that's much later.
Tiga's popularity was big enough to warrant a sequel the next year, Ultraman Dyna, which took place in 2017. GUTS has become Super GUTS, expanding out into Mars and beyond. Asuka Shin is a lighthearted young man whose father was a pilot with TPC, and was lost investigating a mysterious light source. During his air force entrance exam, Asuka was attacked by the Alien Sphire. Dyna rescued him and fused with him, though Asuka blacked out in the process. He would fight against Sphire, now Gransphire, and become more mature, learning to never give up. But in the end, Asuka would be lost in another dimension, but it wouldn't be the last we'd ever see of him.
1998 brought Ultraman Gaia, headed up by Chiaki J. Konaka, so of course, it has a cosmic horror element. It is 2000 in another universe, and young geniuses all over the world have formed an affiliation called the Alchemy Stars, who have determined that a being that brings "Radical Destruction" will appear soon to devastate the world. To protect the planet from this threat, the Globalcentric Universal Alliance against the Radical Destruction was secretly formed, with XIG, the Expanded Interceptive Guards, deploying in high-tech vehicles to combat it. Gamu Takayama, one of the Alchemy Stars, is experimenting with virtual reality when he connects with the spirit of the earth, Gaia, and merges with its power in order to battle the horrific aliens that invade and the monsters inherent to Earth that are rising up in the wake of the Radical Destruction. He joins XIG in order to aid their battle and advance their weaponry, but he also must contend with former Alchemy Star Hiroya Fujimiya, who created the computer that predicted the Radical Destruction and determined that they would only be able to protect the earth, not humanity. Fujimiya has justified his decision by becoming bitter to humanity, and he fuses with the spirit of the sea, Agul, to protect the planet by any means necessary. Meanwhile, intrepid reporter Reiko Yoshii has become fascinated with Fujimiya and begins to fall for him. Which of the Ultramen truly represents the planet's will? Will Gamu's idealism win out, or is Fujimiya right? And can the Radical Destruction entity be defeated by only one of them, or can they pull themselves together to save the planet and humanity?
If Gaia sounds vaguely like Kamen Rider Ryuki, keep in mind that the head writer of Digimon Tamers created Gaia, and Ryuki is very similar to Tamers as well. In addition, Fujimiya is played by Hassei Takano, who would later go on to play Miyuki Tezuka, Kamen Rider Raia. To some degree, Gaia is a treasure trove of Rider actors, with Neon Ulsland of the final episodes of W portraying operator Georgie Leland and OOO's cakeboss himself as Chief Tsutsumi, captain of XIG's defense forces. Hell, the famous Jounan University is Gamu's alma mater, and he frequently returns to coordinate with his former classmates! Additionally, the news bureau's chief, Tabata, was played by Eiji Tsuburaya's grandson, the late Hiroshi Tsuburaya, who had previously played Dai Sawamura, the titular Space Sheriff Shaider for Toei.
Gaia sees the return of two Ultras in a single season, which remains rare in the franchise. The fact that Gamu and Fujimiya used to be friends and that because of that, Gamu protects Fujimiya's identity causes a rift between Gamu and XIG when Fujimiya's connection to Agul is realized and his past contacts come into question. Gaia also gains new forms by utilizing Agul's power—Gaia Version 2, which becomes his new default, and Supreme Version, which is more of a fusion between them. Both of these elements would return in later seasons, particularly Orb.
For whatever reason, Gaia was the last season aired for a few years, followed up by toy commercials in 1999 revolved around Ultraman Nice, who was fused to Ginga Yumeboshi, who fought alongside his family, the GOKAZOKU. Yeah, he exists. Just...go with it.
Ultraman Neos was intended to be a series, but after being shelved, it revived as a 12-episode DTV in 2000. Genki Kagura is a member of the Hi-tech Earth Alert and Rescue Team (and also played by a future Ryuki Rider: Jun Takatsuki—Satoru Tojo/Kamen Rider Tiger) and loses his friends to a meteor strike during a satellite repair. He also would have died if not for Ultraman Neos, a last-minute replacement for Ultra Seven 21, who was supposed to be assigned to protect Earth. The Dark Matter had created a self-aware conqueror, Mensch Heit, who had driven the Alien Zamu from their planet, forcing them to take refuge on Earth. With two races depending on him, Neos had help from his commanders, Ultra Seven 21 and Zoffy, to defeat the Dark Matter and save two worlds.
In 2001, Ultraman Cosmos hit the air, to become the longest-running Ultra series at 65 episodes—a hell of a way to celebrate the 35th anniversary. Ultraman Cosmos has a calm and gentle fighting style, his default form, Luna Mode, capable of calming monsters out of a rampaging state. But when things get tough or a monster is truly evil, he uses Corona Mode to fight or finish them off. Years ago, he came to Earth and befriended a young boy, Musashi Haruno, who saved him from certain destruction. He would fuse with the boy to fight Bascial, the misguided king of the Alien Baltan who sought to take over the planet to give the orphaned children of his destroyed planet a place to live. Cosmos would later return to aid an adult Musashi against the Chaos Header, who infected other beings with his virus to create peace and order through violence. Musashi joined the Elite Young Expert Squad as a pilot, helping in their mission to relocate and rehabilitate the monsters that Cosmos healed.
In later movies, Musashi would become an astronaut and discover the desolated Planet Juran, which he would eventually save and convert into a monster habitat, where he would stay and defend as Cosmos alongside his wife and son. He would also meet Julie, the human disguise of Ultraman Justice, who might be the first and only non-binary Ultraman, with word of god saying that they "transcend gender". Julie had been tasked with resetting life on Earth but reconsidered their duty after learning of Musashi's dream to create a world where monsters could live in peace. As they became more enamored with humanity, they eventually took Cosmos's place as Earth's defender in that universe, so that Musashi could fulfill his dream.
2004 would see a revival of Ultra Q in Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy, followed by Neo Ultra Q in 2010. But more importantly, it would see another darker phase in Ultraman, which would be followed up by a return to the light and the end of the revival generation: the Ultra N Project, Ultraman Nexus.