Anime Review: Ultraman (2019)
Decades ago, Shin Hayata, a member of the Science Special Search Party (SSSP), almost died due to a collision with an alien. To save his life, the alien merged with Shin and they became the superhero Ultraman, who protected Earth from monsters and alien invasion. Eventually the alien threat ended, and Ultraman separated from the now healed Shin, who lost all memory of their time together.
Until Shin, now working for the Ministry of Defense, visited the Giant of Light Museum with his young son Shinjiro. Shinjiro survived a long accidental fall without a scratch, and Shin revealed to his old friend Ide that he too had superhuman physiology. Ide in his turn revealed that aliens were once again on Earth, one of whom had apparently caused an airline disaster. Shin’s memories were sparked, and he now remembered at least some of his Ultraman past.
Skip forward ten years; Shinjiro is still in high school, and dealing with the typical teenager problems; getting good grades, having crushes on girls, being dismayed by the strange changes his body is undergoing…that last one not being helped by his increasing superpowers. When the alien attacker known as Bemlar comes after Shinjiro, Shin appears wearing a strange armored costume. It turns out that he’s been secretly operating as Ultraman for the last decade!
Shin is badly injured, and the SSSP suits Shinjiro up as the new Ultraman. Shinjiro fends off Bemlar enough for the alien to call it a day. Then Shinjiro learns that the SSSP is run by Ide in conjunction with Mr. Edo, a member of the Zettom race that once tried to invade Earth. The Star Cluster Collective has made peace with the Earthlings, but the secret alien population has many criminals among them that must be policed, and that’s the job of the Ultramen.
This animated series is based on a manga by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi, which was itself based on the long-running Ultraman TV franchise. For purposes of the story, nothing in the TV canon beyond the original 1966 series took place; instead the later Ultramen appear “now” and in drastically altered details. Notably, one of the key features of the franchise, the ability of most aliens to change into giant forms, is missing.
We primarily follow the viewpoint of the earnest but naive Shinjiro, who is Ultraman mostly because his father was (and is) Ultraman and he inherited some powers. He has personality clashes with the more experienced and ruthless agent Dan Moroboshi (who is effectively Ultraseven from that version of the TV show) and another Ultraman who shows up later. He also winds up pursuing his crush on idol singer Rena Yamada.
Good: The CG animation works well for the armored superhero battles against alien monsters.
The plot is deeper than it first appears and several characters have interesting subplot arcs.
Less good: The CG animation works much less well for the normal human scenes, feeling stiff and artificial, around the level of early 2000s video game cutscenes. The Ultramen often fight with their helmets off so you can see their facial expressions, highlighting the contrast.
Rena has more character depth than in the manga, but this causes a major plot hole that I’ll discuss in the spoiler section below her picture.
Overall: While the plot is rewarding to those that stick around, the stiff animation and relatively weak opening episodes will be offputting to many fans. Primarily recommended for people here for the monster fights. A second season is scheduled for late 2020 or early 2021 on Netflix.
SPOILERS!
In the first episode, it’s mentioned that Shinjiro was born years after Shin’s time as Ultraman (no mention of his mother is ever made, she may or may not have been Akiko Fuji, the only female SSSP character in the original show.)
But Rena, who is approximately the same age as Shinjiro, hates Ultraman because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her when a fight between the original Ultraman and a giant monster damaged the hospital they were in.
This is not a plot hole in the manga, where Rena is simply a huge fan of Ultraman with no traumatic past.
