The Ultraman

The Ultraman is a Japanese animated television series co-produced by Tsuburaya Productions and animated by Nippon Sunrise. It is the eighth entry in the Ultra Series, the first animated work in the franchise and the first series to air in 4 years after the end of Ultraman Leo. The series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System on April 4, 1979 to March 26, 1980, lasting a total of 50 episodes.

Story

In the 21st century, various mysterious events occur on Earth, causing monsters to appear all of a sudden. EGG3 officer Chouichirou Hikari was scouted to join the Science Defense Squad on Earth but while on his way back, he was bonded to Ultraman Joneus, an Ultra-Person of U-40 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 a secret identity from his fellow members.
Midway through the series, both Hikari and Joneus die while fighting the Spirit Parasite. They are taken to the Ultra Planet U-40 to be resurrected, and while there, discover the Ultra People's connection to the Earth in the past. They also help to repel the invading Badel People, and to reclaim the stolen Ultra-mind.
Starting from episode 28, Daisuke Gondo becomes a new captain to the SDS. 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 SDS of the alien invasion of the Heller Empire, a renegade faction of Ultra People that invaded their home world and saw Earth as their next target due to Joneus's involvement. The Heller Empire was led by Heller, who was banished due to his misuse of the Ultra-mind for immortality. The SDS 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 SDS disobeyed the Earth Self Defense Army to go into space, joining forces with the remaining U-40 resistances to form the U Fleet and attacked the Titan Base on Saturn to prevent more invasion forces from coming to Earth. On U-40, the SDS 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 SDS 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 Wiseman being rescued, Heller died in the ensuing explosion as U-40 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 SDS and promised to return when the Earth's safety is threatened once more.

Staff

Written by	Keiichi Abe, Soji Yoshikawa, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama Bunzo Wakatsuki, Yoshihisa Araki, Keisuke Fujikawa Yasushi Hirano, Shiro Azusazawa, Yuki Miyata
Directed by	Masahisa Ishida, Junyasu Furukawa, Takao Shitsuji, Hideyoshi Oshika, Takashi Ano, Katsuyuki Tsuji, Masami Yagioka, Hiromichi Matano, Osamu Sekita
Storyboard	Yuji 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 Literature	Kazuichi Tsurumi
Mechanical Design	Kunio Okakawa, Studio Nue
Art	Mitsuaki Nakamura, Nobuto Sakamoto, Kazuo Miyagawa, Shin Sato, Torio Arai
Director of Animation	Kazuo Nakamura
Animation by	Sunrise Studio, Waap, Green Box, Anime R, Tiger & Nakamura Productions
Monster Concept	Minoru Kujirai, Fumio Ogawa, Yoshio Tsuburaya, Yasumi Asahi, Seiichi Saito, Masahiko Watanabe
Color Designation	Hiroshi Wakao, Atsuko Oikawa, Shinichi Hatori, Kazumi Matsui, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Sachiyo Osawa, Yayoi Suzuki
Ink And Paint	Shaft, Green BOX, Studio Deen, Kuma Productions, Studio Juffs
Backgrounds	Mascot, Production Eye, Big Studios, Artland, Art Take 1, Magic House, Baku Productions, Studio Apple
Special Effects	Michiaki Doi, Masanori Yamazaki, Green Box, Takao Tanaka, Hiroshi Kazao
Rostrum Camera	Asahi Productions and Zenji Furukawa
Editing by	Tomoaki Tsurubuchi, Fumio Otachi, Tsurubuchi Films, Yukio Watanabe, Fumiei Kataishi
Titles	Studio Try
Film Processing	Tokyo Laboratories
Audio Director	Toshimi Toriumi
Mixing	Manji Nanbu
Production Coordinator	Hisayoshi Takahashi
Recorded at	Niisaka Recording
Production Managers	Noboru 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
Desk	Yoshiyuki Yoshina, Noboru Mano
Planning Desk	Naoyuki Eto
In Charge of Production	Yoshikazu Tochihira

English Dubbing Staff

English version Presented by	WWOR TV
Introduced by	Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
Voice Director	William Ross
Produced by	Frontier Enterprises
Sponsored by	Bandai America

Episodes

The Hero is Born
The Secret of the Shining Pendant
Sound of the Flute in the Setting Sun
The Mystery of the Red Cloud
The Adventure of the Passenger
Escape From the Deepest Sea
Problems for Pig
The Secret of Hikari
The Horror in the Old Castle
Strategy of the Monster Mirage見えたぞ! まぼろしの怪獣が...
Old Friendship Revived in the Himalayas
The Sad Roar Goes On and On
The Resurrection of the Legend
The Devil Star Has Come!
Ultraman and Hikari
The Rebirth of the Kingmore, the Prehistoric Bird
Betamy Has Disappeared!
The Mysterious Monster Island
This is the Planet Where Ultraman was Born - Part 1
This is the Planet Where Ultraman was Born - Part 2
This is the Planet Where Ultraman was Born - Part 3
The Mysterious Space in the South Sea
Supersonic War Breaks Out
Twin Sister of Mutsumi
The Devil Flower
Earth's Greatest Crisis
The Island of the Monsters
A New Captain Takes Command
The UFO With the Devil-Heart Attacks!
The Moving Skeleton動きだした巨大化石
The Woman Fighter From Ultra
Object "X"
Duel With Ultraman
Break-Out at Prison Planet! Part 1: The Monsters are Loose
Break-Out at Prison Planet! Part 2: A Planet is Hijacked
The Snow-Queen From Outer Space
Danger on U-40
The Great Ultra War
The Hell Cat Appears
The Boy From the Green Planet
The Day Ultraman Fought Against Ultraman
A Plan to Capture Ultramanウルトラマン生けどり作戦
Monchi Became a Monster
The Twin Craft of Ultria and the Monster "Spader"
Pig Becomes a Walking Bomb
The Remote-Control Monster
To the Planet of Ultra - Part 1: Advice of the Female Warrior
To the Planet of Ultra - Part 2: Assault on the Titan Base
To the Planet of Ultra - Part 3: The Great Battle of U-40
To the Planet of Ultra - Part 4: Victory for Peace
Songs

Theme Songs

Opening theme: "The Ultraman"
*Song: Aku
*Composition and Arrangement: Miyauchi Kunio
*Song: Isao Sasaki and Columbia Yurikakai
Ending theme: "Brave Men of Love"
*Lyrics: Aku
*Composition and Arrangement: Kunio Miyauchi
*Songs: Isao Sasaki

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.

Insert Songs

"Ultraman Hymn"
*Lyrics: Kazuho Mitsuda
*Composition and Arrangement: Toru Fuyuki
*Song: Isao Sasaki

Sasaki, who was in charge of the song, made it the most difficult song he had ever sung.

"Star of Ultra"
*Lyrics: Tani Noboru
*Composition and Arrangement: Toru Fuyuki
*Song: Columbia Torigokai
"Song of Mutsumi"
*Lyrics-Kazuho Mitsuda
*Composition: Noboru Tani
*Arrangement: Hiroshi Takada
*Song: Mitsuko Horie
"Super Murdoch"
*Lyrics and Composition: Tani Noboru
*Arrangement: Hirotaka Takada
*Song: Isao Sasaki
"Our Science Garrison"
*Lyrics: Kazuho Mitsuda
*Composition: Noboru Tani
*Arrangement: Hirotaka Takada
*Songs: Isao Sasaki
"Robot Pig's Song"
*Lyrics: Noboru Tani
*Composition: Toru Fuoki
*Arrangement: Masahito Maruyama
*Song: Junpei Takiguchi
"Tomorrow..."
*Lyrics and Composition: Noboru Tani
*Arrangement: Hiroshi Takada
*Song: Takashi Toyama

It was used in Episode 18, and in Episode 23, the instrument was used.

"Monster Requiem"
*Lyrics: Kazuho Mitsuda
*Composition and Arrangement: Toru Fuyuki
*Songs: Isao Sasaki

In the 15th episode of the next series, 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" digest version had been featured. It is also used as an ending.

English versions

In the United States, there have been two feature-length movie compilations: The Adventures of Ultraman, and Ultraman II: The Further Adventures of Ultraman. The Adventures of Ultraman was a feature-length film produced by Tsuburaya Productions specifically for the English-language market. The film is composed of edited footage from several episodes of the series. The storyline was rewritten for this adaptation with a new script by Jeff Segal and music composed by Mark McKinniss. Ultraman II was a dub of the first four episodes co-produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Associates Entertainment International. Despite the title, it has no continuity with the previous English dub of the series. Although the translation is closer to the original Japanese scripts than the first movie, the characters' names were still changed. The order of the third and fourth episodes were also switched.
On April 5, 1980, episode 14 of The Ultraman aired on U.S. national television when New York superstation WOR-TV Channel 9 aired it as the first part of "Japan Tonight!", a special seven-hour block of programming from TBS, hosted by actor Telly Savalas. Japanese actress/author/talk show host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi introduced the episode surrounded by assorted Ultraman toys and merchandise while explaining to the American audience just who Ultraman is, "It's very, very popular in Japan - He's like your Superman". The episode was dubbed into English by William Ross in Japan and was sponsored by Bandai America.

Home media

In 2018, the series was released on the streaming service Toku.
In July 2020, Shout! Factory announced to have struck a multi-year deal with Alliance Entertainment and Mill Creek, with the blessings of Tsuburaya and Indigo, that granted them the exclusive SVOD and AVOD digital rights to the Ultra series and films acquired by Mill Creek the previous year. The Ultraman, amongst other titles, will stream in the United States and Canada through Shout! Factory TV and Tokushoutsu.
It was released in the United States on DVD September 14, 2021 by Mill Creek Entertainment.