The Ultraman


The Ultraman is a Japanese animated television series co-produced by Tsuburaya Production and Tokyo Broadcasting System. The series aired on TBS Television affiliates on the Wednesday 7:00 PM time slot from April 4, 1979 to March 26, 1980, lasting a total of 50 episodes. It was the eighth installment in the Ultra Series and began airing four years after the end of Ultraman Leo.
The show was the first animated incarnation of Tsuburaya's iconic superhero Ultraman, as well as one of the earliest works of anime studio Nippon Sunrise, who also worked on their now-iconic mecha series Mobile Suit Gundam during the same year.

Story

In the 21st century, various mysterious events occur on Earth, causing monsters to appear all of a sudden. EGG3 officer Chōichirō Hikari was scouted to join the Science Guard on Earth but while on his way back, he was bonded to Ultraman Joneus, an Ultra Person of U40 who was sent by his brethren to fight against the monster threats and alien invasions. This allows the youth to become an Ultraman against countless enemies while keeping his identity a secret from his fellow members. Almost in the middle of the series, both Hikari and Joneus lost their lives from fighting the Spirit Parasite. They were spirited to the Ultra Planet U40 by Elek, and discovered the Ultra People's connection to the Earth in the past. Hikari and Joneus were revived in said planet and helped foiled the invaders Badel Tribe to reclaim the stolen Ultra Mind.
Starting from episode 28, Daisuke Gondō becomes a new captain to the Science Guard. Despite their rocky start, the team learn to accept him due to his great intuition and brotherly instinct. Amia would return to Earth to warn Hikari and the Science Guard of the invasion of Heller Empire, a renegade faction of Ultra People that invaded their home world and saw Earth as their next target due to Joneus' involvement. The Heller Empire was led by Heller, who was banished due to his misuse of the Ultra Mind for immortality. The Science Guard were given the Ultria, an ancient battleship made by the Ultra People to counter invasion attempts made by the Heller Army. In the four final episodes, Heller sent a full-scale invasion on Earth to wipe humanity after fearing that they would cooperate with the remaining Ultra People. The Science Guard disobeyed the Earth Self Defense Army to go into space, joining forces with the remaining U40 resistances to form the U Fleet and attacked the Titan Base on Saturn to prevent more invasion forces from coming to Earth. On U40, the Science Guard made a risky attempt to sneak into the Heller City to weaken its defense as the U Fleet attacked Heller's forces in the planet's outer atmosphere. When the Science Guard were about to be killed by Mac Datar, Hikari's secret was exposed to save his comrades before joining the remaining seven Ultras in foiling Heller's attempts to escape. With Amia and the Great Sage being rescued, Heller died in the ensuing explosion as U40 celebrated their victory. Joneus finally separated from Hikari and spent several months to observe Earth with his sister Amia. Once assuring that peace had returned, they bid farewell to the Science Guard and promised to return when the Earth's safety is threatened once more.

Staff

Written byKeiichi Abe, Soji Yoshikawa, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
Bunzo Wakatsuki, Yoshihisa Araki, Keisuke Fujikawa
Yasushi Hirano, Shiro Azusazawa, Yuki Miyata
Directed byMasahisa Ishida, Junyasu Furukawa, Takao Shitsuji, Hideyoshi Oshika, Takashi Ano, Katsuyuki Tsuji, Masami Yagioka, Hiromichi Matano, Osamu Sekita
StoryboardYuji Nunokawa, Kazuo Terada, Asahi Yahiro
Seiji Okuda, Soji Yoshikawa, Motosuke Takahashi
Kohei Matsuura, Noboru Ishiguro, Toru Sakata
Mitsuru Hikita, Takeshi Shirato, Tsutomu Yamaguchi
Kazuho Mitsuda, Masaoka Fujioka, Toru Yoshida
Kazuo Yamazaki, Ryosuke Takahashi, Yoshiyuki Tomino
In Charge of LiteratureKazuichi Tsurumi
Mechanical DesignKunio Okakawa, Studio Nue
ArtMitsuaki Nakamura, Nobuto Sakamoto, Kazuo Miyagawa, Shin Sato, Torio Arai
Director of AnimationKazuo Nakamura
Animation bySunrise Studio, Waap, Green Box, Anime R, Tiger & Nakamura Productions
Monster ConceptMinoru Kujirai, Fumio Ogawa, Yoshio Tsuburaya, Yasumi Asahi, Seiichi Saito, Masahiko Watanabe
Color DesignationHiroshi Wakao, Atsuko Oikawa, Shinichi Hatori, Kazumi Matsui, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Sachiyo Osawa, Yayoi Suzuki
Ink And PaintShaft, Green BOX, Studio Deen, Kuma Productions, Studio Juffs
BackgroundsMascot, Production Eye, Big Studios, Artland, Art Take 1, Magic House, Baku Productions, Studio Apple
Special EffectsMichiaki Doi, Masanori Yamazaki, Green Box, Takao Tanaka, Hiroshi Kazao
Rostrum CameraAsahi Productions and Zenji Furukawa
Editing byTomoaki Tsurubuchi, Fumio Otachi, Tsurubuchi Films, Yukio Watanabe, Fumiei Kataishi
TitlesStudio Try
Film ProcessingTokyo Laboratories
Audio DirectorToshimi Toriumi
MixingManji Nanbu
Production CoordinatorHisayoshi Takahashi
Recorded atNiisaka Recording
Production ManagersNoboru Mano, Keiichi Kobayashi, Akira Machida, Yoshihide Fujita, Eiichi Endo, Hideo Hayashi, Masahiko Matsuo, Eizo Takahashi, Masami Yagioka, Mashiro Ueda, Tadayoshi Kusari, Setsuo Fukada, Katsushi Kaniyama
DeskYoshiyuki Yoshina, Noboru Mano
Planning DeskNaoyuki Eto
In Charge of ProductionYoshikazu Tochihira

English Dubbing Staff

English version Presented byWWOR TV
Introduced byTetsuko Kuroyanagi
Voice DirectorWilliam Ross
Produced byFrontier Enterprises
Sponsored byBandai America

Episodes

  1. The Birth of a New Hero!!
  2. The Secret of the Shining Pendant
  3. When the Weed Whistle Blows in the Evening...
  4. Chase the Mysterious Red Cloud!!
  5. The "Passenger"—Break Through the Underground!!
  6. Challenge to the Burning Deep Sea
  7. Orders to Attack! The Target is PDQ!!
  8. The Secret of Chief Harris Is Stolen!?
  9. Terror of the Awakened Ancient Creature!!
  10. I Can See It!! The Phantom Monster...
  11. Challenge to the Science Garrison!!
  12. The Extraordinary Conversation Just Between PDQ and the Monster
  13. The Sad Legend of the Revived Lake
  14. A Star of Evil Has Come!!
  15. You Are Ultraman
  16. The Living Phantom Bird King Moa
  17. The β-mie Has Disappeared!!
  18. The Mysterious Monster Island
  19. This is the Ultra Star!! Trilogy
  20. The Dubious Space of the South Sea
  21. The Supersonic Battle
  22. The Two Lieutenant Annes
  23. The Flower Garden of Evil
  24. Earth's Ultimate Crisis!!
  25. Monster Island Rises to the Surface!!!
  26. The New Captain Has Arrived!!
  27. The Invasion of the Evil UFO
  28. The Giant Fossil That Started to Move
  29. The Female Ultra Warrior
  30. Object X from Outer Space
  31. GO! Magma Zone of Desperation
  32. The Stolen Monster Asylum Planet Parts 1 & 2
  33. The Snow Woman from Space
  34. Crisis of the Ultra Planet U40!!
  35. Big Ultra War!!
  36. The Targeted Giant Warship Ultoria
  37. The Boy who Brought Along a Monster
  38. Clash!! Ultraman vs. Ultraman
  39. Ultraman Capture Strategy
  40. Monkey Became a Monster!?
  41. The Ultoria Broken in Half!?
  42. The Bomb-Holding PDQ
  43. Come Back to Life, Anne
  44. To the Ultra Star!! Tetralogy

    Songs

Theme Songs

This serves as the first case of an entry in the Ultra Series having an ending sequence. Performed by BGM staff who had previously composed the theme song for "Ultra Seven". Both songs were recorded in Los Angeles, as was the in-play music.

Insertion Songs

Sasaki, who was in charge of the song, made it the most difficult song he had ever sung.
It was used in Episode 18, and in Episode 23, the instrument was used.
In the 15th episode of the next film " Ultraman 80 ", Emi Johno was used in the scene singing a lullaby to the monster Mue and in 44 the instrument was used in the scene where 80 and the Delusion Ultra Seven fight. In addition, the " popular monster large parade " of " 5 Nights Series Super TV " (March 26–30, 1984, "Ultraman Taro", "Mirrorman", "Fireman", "Jumborg Ace" digest version had been featured. It is also used as an ending.

English versions

Home video releases

In the United States, there have been two feature-length movie compilations: