Ultraman

[freebfrost]

Thus began the landslide that is the Ultraman dynasty. There have been continous Ultraman shows on and off of Japanese TV since 1966. There is a whole extended Ultraman Family, not unlike the Superman Family. Ultraman, the show, is an eclectic mix of giant rubber-suit monsters, Thunderbirds-like superheroes and Lensman-like fantasy. It's good goofy fun, really, with sometimes really more adult fare in some stories than you might think (sometimes owing to standards differences between cultures). There have been no fewer the 550-600 episodes of Ultraman produced over the years, with literally a few dozen different ultra-characters introduced...and that's not counting the movies. Here, take a look for yourself.

Exactly.

Now, the most recent tv series (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000C7PS9/qid=1106765701/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/002-0536396-4203239?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846">Ultraman Tiga</a>) is available as a 4 volume-DVD set pretty much everywhere. They did a good job with this one, and even had a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000648XL/qid=1106765701/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-0536396-4203239?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846">crossover movie</a> with the previous series (Ultraman Dyna).

The current Japanese series (Ultraman Nexxus) is not available as far as I can tell, even in a Japanese version.

It's nice to see all the Ultraman fans!

 

[Fiery James]

Ooh, this sounds cool. I used to race home from grammar school to get home in time to watch "Ultraman" on M-W-F. On T-Th, it was "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot."

Johnathan

I have about 16 Johnny Sokko episodes on VHS -- they came out about 5 years ago, and I HAD to own them, reliving the fond memories of my childhood. I also have a Giant Robot keychain.

I still have vivid memories of the episode where the bad guys take control of Giant Robot, but a tearful Johnny manages to re-establish his relationship through his communicator watch.

They worked for Unicorn!

- James

 

[Ranger REG]

It's nice to see all the Ultraman fans!

I'm more of an Ultra Seven fan. He was my first exposure to the Ultraman family.

 

[Richards]

Originally posted by Henry:

And the guys who dissolved into rice rudding when they died!!

Yeah, those would be the "Lugomen."

I am constantly amazed my my brain's ability to spew up trivia like this after all of these years. I haven't seen an episode of "Space Giants" in close to three decades!

Johnathan

 

[Stone Angel]

Hell Yeah SpectraMan I loved this movie when I was really young I would have my mom rent it everytime we went to the video store.

But back to Ultraman. I loved the cartoon movie with about three different battles. One was a crocidile thing that came in an iceberg and a boy that kept one baby as a pet, the next was a Hurricane thingy, and there was another dinosaur thingy maybe.

The preview in the link looked pretty good I will look for that one.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[JoeGKushner]

Man, now I feel old. In Chicago, we used to watch all of those on channell 44 long before it was a Spanish station. That and those old cartons of Spider Man, Avengers, Thor and the rest of them. "When Captain America throws his mighty shield" and "Dr. Bruce Banner changed by gamma rays!"

Didn't they have a really bad movie back in the early 80's called something like Infra Man? Ugh, my brain, it's on fire!

And the scary thing is, this is really where all that Power Rangers stuff originates from. Well, that and Voltron...

 

[WizarDru]

Ahem!

That's "Doc Bruce Banner, Belted by gamma rays..turns into the Hulk!"
Loved that old Marvel anthology show. And I loved the original Fantastic Four TV show from the late 60s.

Inframan wasn't a movie, it was a TV series, just like Spectreman...but a common gig back in the early 80s was to splice together several episodes and call them movies for the purposes of getting them into video stores.

Now Sentai shows like Power Rangers are a different animal entirely.....

 

[Klaus]

Power Rangers originate from the Super Sentai style of TV series (colorful masked hero team). Here in Brazil TV aired Changemen, Flashmen, Cybercops and many more.

Ultraman and Spectraman are early examples of the Armored Hero style of TV series, where the hero changes into an armored-type persona to battle the villain(s). Others from this style were Jaspion, Jiraya, Masked Rider.

 

[Ranger REG]

Power Rangers originate from the Super Sentai style of TV series (colorful masked hero team). Here in Brazil TV aired Changemen, Flashmen, Cybercops and many more.

Ultraman and Spectraman are early examples of the Armored Hero style of TV series, where the hero changes into an armored-type persona to battle the villain(s). Others from this style were Jaspion, Jiraya, Masked Rider.

Japanese animation are called anime.

Japanese live-action adventures program are called tokusatsu (literally means "special effects"). That also include The Five Rangers series (Now called Power Rangers in US), Kamen Rider, and Kikaida/Kikaider series. Godzilla and Ultraman are tokusatsu versions of kaiju (as there are kaiju anime).