Ultra Project N to the 40th anniversary
Jan. 15th, 2018 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameIn 2004, Tsuburaya decided it was once again time to reboot the franchise, so they began the Ultra N Project, embodied in Ultraman Noa, as an example of the new design. Gone were the smooth, sleek bodies—Noa was a sculpted, metallic warrior closer to a Showa era Kamen Rider in design than the traditional Ultraman design. He would be the oldest Ultra, at 350,000 years old—older even than Ultraman King, though not quite as powerful.
Also, fair warning: moreso than any of the other recaps I've given here, this spoils everything. Mostly because it's supposed to be a big surprise that the entire Ultra N Project is about one guy.
Noa debuted in stage shows, where he pursued Dark Zagi, a clone created by an alien race known only as the Visitors, who hoped to use Noa's power to defeat the Space Beasts that had terrorized their home planet, M-80 of cluster Messier 4 in the Scorpius constellation. But Zagi went rogue, and after Noa awakened from his deep sleep, he set off after him, joining with the Ultra Space Garrison of M-78 in order to defeat him, but at the cost of much of his power and his true form.
Noa would then appear in the 2004 movie Ultraman, otherwise known as Ultraman: The Next, named for Noa's form in that movie. While Noa had defeated most of the Space Beasts, one—creatively called "Beast the One"—had made it to Earth and taken a human host, Udo Takafumi, who was horrifically mutated and began to lose his mind. Lt. Shunichi Maki, a fighter pilot who was considering retirement in order to spend more time with his terminally ill son, was sent to investigate Noa's travel sphere when—like Hayata before him—they collided, and Noa fused with Maki to save his life. He had become what the Ultra N Project called a "Deunamist"—the host to an Ultra, gifted with enhanced strength and durability, as well as some degree of psychic ability. Ultraman the Next battled the One, as Udo begged for death before his mind was completely destroyed. After separating from Maki, the Next healed his son, allowing him to live a long life.
But the events of the movie would be forgotten, thanks to the Visitors and the Terrestrial Liberation Trust that they had helped guide on Earth. Ultraman Nexus took place four years later, intended for an adult audience, but initially still aired in the children's timeslot, causing a massive ratings plunge that cut its runtime down to 39 episodes (of which, only 37 aired), despite course correction to a late night timeslot.
The concept for Nexus was to take a real-world approach to the giant aliens and monsters running around Earth. The TLT was shrouded in conspiracy, keeping the Space Beasts a secret to the point of erasing people's memories with the technology granted to them by the Visitors, as well as using a psychic child to communicate with them and then using that child's DNA to engineer genius teenagers with psychic powers, but with a limited life span of only about eighteen years, and experimentation on the Deunamists.
Kazuki Komon is a new recruit to the TLT combat division known as the Night Raiders, and our main character, but not one of the Deunamists himself—not initially. He befriends the Deunamist, Jun Himeya, a former war photographer who lost a young girl he'd adopted during the conflict. He became suicidal enough that as Noa's new form, Ultraman Nexus, he sought to sacrifice himself as penance for failing to protect the girl. However, seeing her spirit and learning the nature of Noa's light, he realized his true duty—although, ironically, this resulted in him sacrificing his life to save others.
The light passed onto Ren Senjyu, a young genius and psychic who had escaped TLT's experimental facility in Dallas and only wanted to find people who would mourn him after he died. He took on the Junis Blue form of Nexus and befriended Komon as well, giving the Night Raiders a reason to rebel against TLT and its unethical experimentations.
Ren eventually gained treatment to extend his life, passing the light on to Nagi Saijyo, the lieutenant of the Night Raiders. Her parents had been killed by Space Beasts, and her boyfriend, Shinya Mizorogi, had been overtaken by the darkness and become Deunamist to the Dark Ultra, Dark Mephisto. After his defeat at Himeya's hands, he regained control over himself and defended Ren from his successor, Dark Mephisto Zwei, dying in Nagi's arms. But Nagi's pain and suffering was all Dark Zagi's doing. He had been the one to kill her parents, apparently on the off chance that she might become a Deunamist. He wanted her to turn to darkness, so that he could absorb Noa's light from her and restore his own power.
The plan was foiled, however, when Komon became the fifth Deunamist. He too had suffered tragedy because of Zagi—his girlfriend, Riko Saida, had been killed and revived as Deunamist to another evil Ultra, Dark Faust, and Mizorogi attempted to turn him to darkness as well. However, he retained his own light, and he went to save Nagi to prevent her from also falling to darkness. Because of his friendships with the previous Deunamists, he was easily able to master Nexus's forms, ultimately accessing Noa's form and defeating Dark Zagi. Komon would remain with the Night Raiders and as Noa's Deunamist for as long as their Earth needed him.
As you can imagine, the Ultra N Project was dropped after Nexus's disappointing ratings—which, again, were not its fault. Even so, 2005 went back to a lighter, kid-friendly atmosphere with Ultraman Max. With natural disasters on the rise, the United Defense Federation authorized DASH, the Defense Action Squad Heroes, to take down the monsters connected to them—a correlation, DASH notices, that also seems to be in response to humanity's treatment of the planet. When pilot Mizuki Koishikawa (played by actress Hitomi Hasebe, who would later return to the franchise as Rumina Igaguri in Ultraman Geed) crashlands her jet and is too injured to continue the fight against a pair of monsters threatening a mountain village, aid volunteer Kaito Touma takes over, despite the fact that he failed his DASH entrance exam and nearly crashes the plane again. But Ultraman Max was observing and appreciated Kaito's reckless way of trying to save others from harm, and so he fused with him in order to take action against the monsters on Earth. And with DASH desperately needing new recruits, UDF Chief Kenzo Tomioka (portrayed by Shin Hayata's actor, Susumu Kurobe) waived Kaito's exam results and allowed him to join. Other previous actors make appearances as well, notably with Professor Yoshinaga played by Hayata's love interest, Akiko. And hey, if you're a Kamen Rider Ryuki fan, the actors for both Shiro Kanzaki and Syuichi Kitaoka appear, so keep an eye out for them.
Interestingly, Max doesn't seem to have an organized enemy threat, the way most others in the franchise do; rather, the monsters and aliens are responding to humanity's treatment of the Earth and of our civilization expanding past the boundaries they think we should have. While elements of an environmental message have usually been present in the Ultra franchise, here, they take center stage, as humanity tries to prove that we are worthy to live on this planet and protect it.
2006 was the 40th anniversary of Ultra, and it brought forth Ultraman Mebius, a return to the Showa universe for the first time since Ultraman 80. Ultraman Mebius, a young Ultra warrior assigned to Earth by Father of Ultra, witnesses the heroic sacrifice of young Hiroto Ban, a Martian-born human who gave his life to save the rest of his crew on his first mission to Earth. Though he was unable to save Ban, Mebius took on his appearance as a human disguise, which didn't initially go over well with the young man's father, but eventually, the elder Ban came around and gave Mebius the human name "Mirai Hibino," to remind him to protect the promise of future days. He joins forces with Ryu Aihara of the Guards for Utility Situation, or GUYS, the only survivor of the original Japanese team that had been completely overwhelmed by the first monster attack in 25 years. Ryu is especially disheartened by the death of his commander, Captain Kazuya Serizawa, who had ejected him from his aircraft before sacrificing his life. But it appears that Serizawa may still be alive, the host of a brutal Ultra scientist-turned-warrior calling himself Hunter Knight Tsurugi, following the destruction of the planet Arb at the hands of a Bogal monster. Tsurugi would eventually see the light and be dubbed Ultraman Hikari, eventually forming a temporary host relationship with Ryu. Mebius also could count on the help of Zoffy, who had taken an SSSP pilot, Shingo Sakomizu, as host many years ago. Sakomizu hadn't aged a day, thanks to the faster-than-light experiments he had been participating in, and he had become the captain of Crew GUYS in the meantime. Together, they battle the evil Alien Empera (or Emperor—pronunciation is a little ambiguous), who once waged a devastating war against the Land of Light 30,000 years ago, as related back in Ultraman Taro.
Mebius has probably the best organized defense team of any season. GUYS is the newest team to protect the Earth, and they have certainly learned from their forebears. Crew GUYS is the strike team, with an office in every country. GUYS Spacy is the offworld team protecting the planet from space-born threats, GUYS Ocean protects the seas and GUYS Antarctica protects...well, the obvious. They keep documents on all of the Showa universe defense teams to keep track of the monsters and even replicate technology from them; for example, Ultra Seven's Capsule Monsters are replicated as artificial Marquette Monsters, allowing Crew GUYS to use monsters in battle for a minute at a time. And it's not just the humans kicking ass. All of the other Showa Ultras return, along with their hosts, including Yuko Minami, who may not transform into Ultraman Ace anymore, but she still lends her strength to Seiji Hokuto when he must fight her archenemy on the moon.
As far as story goes, Mebius deals a lot with various events throughout time—the Great Ultra War against Empera; an alien invasion from somewhere beyond Pluto taking place somewhere between Leo and 80, during which time the SSSP was running faster-than-light experiments; the destruction of Planet Arb; and the more recent events leading into the series. Mirai even reveals a new tidbit about M-78's history: that the Ultras once were very similar to humans, before the death of their sun and the creation of the Plasma Spark. Sakomizu/Zoffy's backstory events are explained in the series, but Hikari's history is explained through a three-part sidestory, The Hikari Saga. Two other Mebius Gaiden films would continue the story, with the third—taking place after Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Never Ending Odyssey—expanding on the Monster Graveyard and introducing a weapon called the Giga Battlenizer, whose fate is unknown, for now...
To some degree, Ultraman Mebius is similar to the Toei anniversary shows Kamen Rider Decade and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, except without the transforming into past heroes gimmick. I have to say, it seems to have set the stage for what to expect from the subsequent shows, though.
But following this, Tsuburaya would do something a little different. Ultra Seven X, a sequel to the original Ultra Seven but set in an alternate universe, would follow, written exclusively for adults. Kids wouldn't be locked out of the franchise for long, but to say that they came back to a new Ultraman series is wrong. 2007 brought entirely new changes, but it also was the prelude to a whole new generation with Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy.
Also, fair warning: moreso than any of the other recaps I've given here, this spoils everything. Mostly because it's supposed to be a big surprise that the entire Ultra N Project is about one guy.
Noa debuted in stage shows, where he pursued Dark Zagi, a clone created by an alien race known only as the Visitors, who hoped to use Noa's power to defeat the Space Beasts that had terrorized their home planet, M-80 of cluster Messier 4 in the Scorpius constellation. But Zagi went rogue, and after Noa awakened from his deep sleep, he set off after him, joining with the Ultra Space Garrison of M-78 in order to defeat him, but at the cost of much of his power and his true form.
Noa would then appear in the 2004 movie Ultraman, otherwise known as Ultraman: The Next, named for Noa's form in that movie. While Noa had defeated most of the Space Beasts, one—creatively called "Beast the One"—had made it to Earth and taken a human host, Udo Takafumi, who was horrifically mutated and began to lose his mind. Lt. Shunichi Maki, a fighter pilot who was considering retirement in order to spend more time with his terminally ill son, was sent to investigate Noa's travel sphere when—like Hayata before him—they collided, and Noa fused with Maki to save his life. He had become what the Ultra N Project called a "Deunamist"—the host to an Ultra, gifted with enhanced strength and durability, as well as some degree of psychic ability. Ultraman the Next battled the One, as Udo begged for death before his mind was completely destroyed. After separating from Maki, the Next healed his son, allowing him to live a long life.
But the events of the movie would be forgotten, thanks to the Visitors and the Terrestrial Liberation Trust that they had helped guide on Earth. Ultraman Nexus took place four years later, intended for an adult audience, but initially still aired in the children's timeslot, causing a massive ratings plunge that cut its runtime down to 39 episodes (of which, only 37 aired), despite course correction to a late night timeslot.
The concept for Nexus was to take a real-world approach to the giant aliens and monsters running around Earth. The TLT was shrouded in conspiracy, keeping the Space Beasts a secret to the point of erasing people's memories with the technology granted to them by the Visitors, as well as using a psychic child to communicate with them and then using that child's DNA to engineer genius teenagers with psychic powers, but with a limited life span of only about eighteen years, and experimentation on the Deunamists.
Kazuki Komon is a new recruit to the TLT combat division known as the Night Raiders, and our main character, but not one of the Deunamists himself—not initially. He befriends the Deunamist, Jun Himeya, a former war photographer who lost a young girl he'd adopted during the conflict. He became suicidal enough that as Noa's new form, Ultraman Nexus, he sought to sacrifice himself as penance for failing to protect the girl. However, seeing her spirit and learning the nature of Noa's light, he realized his true duty—although, ironically, this resulted in him sacrificing his life to save others.
The light passed onto Ren Senjyu, a young genius and psychic who had escaped TLT's experimental facility in Dallas and only wanted to find people who would mourn him after he died. He took on the Junis Blue form of Nexus and befriended Komon as well, giving the Night Raiders a reason to rebel against TLT and its unethical experimentations.
Ren eventually gained treatment to extend his life, passing the light on to Nagi Saijyo, the lieutenant of the Night Raiders. Her parents had been killed by Space Beasts, and her boyfriend, Shinya Mizorogi, had been overtaken by the darkness and become Deunamist to the Dark Ultra, Dark Mephisto. After his defeat at Himeya's hands, he regained control over himself and defended Ren from his successor, Dark Mephisto Zwei, dying in Nagi's arms. But Nagi's pain and suffering was all Dark Zagi's doing. He had been the one to kill her parents, apparently on the off chance that she might become a Deunamist. He wanted her to turn to darkness, so that he could absorb Noa's light from her and restore his own power.
The plan was foiled, however, when Komon became the fifth Deunamist. He too had suffered tragedy because of Zagi—his girlfriend, Riko Saida, had been killed and revived as Deunamist to another evil Ultra, Dark Faust, and Mizorogi attempted to turn him to darkness as well. However, he retained his own light, and he went to save Nagi to prevent her from also falling to darkness. Because of his friendships with the previous Deunamists, he was easily able to master Nexus's forms, ultimately accessing Noa's form and defeating Dark Zagi. Komon would remain with the Night Raiders and as Noa's Deunamist for as long as their Earth needed him.
As you can imagine, the Ultra N Project was dropped after Nexus's disappointing ratings—which, again, were not its fault. Even so, 2005 went back to a lighter, kid-friendly atmosphere with Ultraman Max. With natural disasters on the rise, the United Defense Federation authorized DASH, the Defense Action Squad Heroes, to take down the monsters connected to them—a correlation, DASH notices, that also seems to be in response to humanity's treatment of the planet. When pilot Mizuki Koishikawa (played by actress Hitomi Hasebe, who would later return to the franchise as Rumina Igaguri in Ultraman Geed) crashlands her jet and is too injured to continue the fight against a pair of monsters threatening a mountain village, aid volunteer Kaito Touma takes over, despite the fact that he failed his DASH entrance exam and nearly crashes the plane again. But Ultraman Max was observing and appreciated Kaito's reckless way of trying to save others from harm, and so he fused with him in order to take action against the monsters on Earth. And with DASH desperately needing new recruits, UDF Chief Kenzo Tomioka (portrayed by Shin Hayata's actor, Susumu Kurobe) waived Kaito's exam results and allowed him to join. Other previous actors make appearances as well, notably with Professor Yoshinaga played by Hayata's love interest, Akiko. And hey, if you're a Kamen Rider Ryuki fan, the actors for both Shiro Kanzaki and Syuichi Kitaoka appear, so keep an eye out for them.
Interestingly, Max doesn't seem to have an organized enemy threat, the way most others in the franchise do; rather, the monsters and aliens are responding to humanity's treatment of the Earth and of our civilization expanding past the boundaries they think we should have. While elements of an environmental message have usually been present in the Ultra franchise, here, they take center stage, as humanity tries to prove that we are worthy to live on this planet and protect it.
2006 was the 40th anniversary of Ultra, and it brought forth Ultraman Mebius, a return to the Showa universe for the first time since Ultraman 80. Ultraman Mebius, a young Ultra warrior assigned to Earth by Father of Ultra, witnesses the heroic sacrifice of young Hiroto Ban, a Martian-born human who gave his life to save the rest of his crew on his first mission to Earth. Though he was unable to save Ban, Mebius took on his appearance as a human disguise, which didn't initially go over well with the young man's father, but eventually, the elder Ban came around and gave Mebius the human name "Mirai Hibino," to remind him to protect the promise of future days. He joins forces with Ryu Aihara of the Guards for Utility Situation, or GUYS, the only survivor of the original Japanese team that had been completely overwhelmed by the first monster attack in 25 years. Ryu is especially disheartened by the death of his commander, Captain Kazuya Serizawa, who had ejected him from his aircraft before sacrificing his life. But it appears that Serizawa may still be alive, the host of a brutal Ultra scientist-turned-warrior calling himself Hunter Knight Tsurugi, following the destruction of the planet Arb at the hands of a Bogal monster. Tsurugi would eventually see the light and be dubbed Ultraman Hikari, eventually forming a temporary host relationship with Ryu. Mebius also could count on the help of Zoffy, who had taken an SSSP pilot, Shingo Sakomizu, as host many years ago. Sakomizu hadn't aged a day, thanks to the faster-than-light experiments he had been participating in, and he had become the captain of Crew GUYS in the meantime. Together, they battle the evil Alien Empera (or Emperor—pronunciation is a little ambiguous), who once waged a devastating war against the Land of Light 30,000 years ago, as related back in Ultraman Taro.
Mebius has probably the best organized defense team of any season. GUYS is the newest team to protect the Earth, and they have certainly learned from their forebears. Crew GUYS is the strike team, with an office in every country. GUYS Spacy is the offworld team protecting the planet from space-born threats, GUYS Ocean protects the seas and GUYS Antarctica protects...well, the obvious. They keep documents on all of the Showa universe defense teams to keep track of the monsters and even replicate technology from them; for example, Ultra Seven's Capsule Monsters are replicated as artificial Marquette Monsters, allowing Crew GUYS to use monsters in battle for a minute at a time. And it's not just the humans kicking ass. All of the other Showa Ultras return, along with their hosts, including Yuko Minami, who may not transform into Ultraman Ace anymore, but she still lends her strength to Seiji Hokuto when he must fight her archenemy on the moon.
As far as story goes, Mebius deals a lot with various events throughout time—the Great Ultra War against Empera; an alien invasion from somewhere beyond Pluto taking place somewhere between Leo and 80, during which time the SSSP was running faster-than-light experiments; the destruction of Planet Arb; and the more recent events leading into the series. Mirai even reveals a new tidbit about M-78's history: that the Ultras once were very similar to humans, before the death of their sun and the creation of the Plasma Spark. Sakomizu/Zoffy's backstory events are explained in the series, but Hikari's history is explained through a three-part sidestory, The Hikari Saga. Two other Mebius Gaiden films would continue the story, with the third—taking place after Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Never Ending Odyssey—expanding on the Monster Graveyard and introducing a weapon called the Giga Battlenizer, whose fate is unknown, for now...
To some degree, Ultraman Mebius is similar to the Toei anniversary shows Kamen Rider Decade and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, except without the transforming into past heroes gimmick. I have to say, it seems to have set the stage for what to expect from the subsequent shows, though.
But following this, Tsuburaya would do something a little different. Ultra Seven X, a sequel to the original Ultra Seven but set in an alternate universe, would follow, written exclusively for adults. Kids wouldn't be locked out of the franchise for long, but to say that they came back to a new Ultraman series is wrong. 2007 brought entirely new changes, but it also was the prelude to a whole new generation with Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy.