Ultraman Nexus (character)
Ultraman Nexus is the titular character of the 2004-2005 Ultra Series Ultraman Nexus. His true form is the legendary warrior Ultraman Noa, he chased his twisted doppelgänger Dark Zagi and managed to defeat the villain but the battle cost him his true form, causing him revert first into Ultraman The Next where he chased the Space Beast, Beast the One to Earth and bonded with an Air Force pilot named Shunichi Maki. Five years later in 2009, he evolved into Ultraman Nexus and bonded with several hosts, called Dunamists to fight against a wave of Space Beasts and the dark giants. When Dark Zagi rose to prominence once more, Nexus bonded with Kazuki Komon and regained his true form, Noa, defeated the evil warrior and finally killed him for good.
Nexus has become the main Ultra Warrior in the ULTRA N PROJECT media of the Ultra Series and continues to appear in later installments in this form despite his true and strongest form being Noa, although the latter did have several appearances. A distinction of Nexus from the other Ultra Warriors is his Energy Core, which he retained in all of his forms, which is used as the main logo of the ULTRA N PROJECT. As Noa, he is acknowledged by the franchise to be the oldest Ultra in existence at the age of 350,000 years old, surpassing Ultraman King from Ultraman Leo whose age is 300,000 years old.
Ultraman Nexus' grunts were provided by Yasunori Masutani, who did Noa's grunts as well. As Ultraman The Next, he was voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka, the current voice actor of Zoffy in the Heisei Era of Ultra Series. In the series, Ultraman Nexus was played by suit actors Daisuke Terai, who was also Ultraman Noa's suit actor and sometimes by Hideyoshi Iwata, the suit actor of dark giants Dark Faust, Dark Mephisto and Dark Zagi. For Ultraman The Next, his suit actor was Keiji Hasegawa.
Character Conception
All of Nexus' forms, were designed by Hiroshi Maruyama. His original design was meant to be neutral but was soon enhanced with Japanese clothing. Nexus's head resembled the kabuto helmet and his entire body is based on hakama. The black lining on his body was themed after calligraphy. When he transforms into Junis, the suit would feature another resemblance to kamishimo. Hiroshi Maruyama had also proposed three design variations for Junis Modes for Ultraman Nexus.Ultraman Nexus, alongside the series itself, was originally meant to be named Ultraman Cross. Reminiscing on his younger days in Chigasaki, Kanagawa, producer Hiroyasu Shibuya remembered the Hakone Ekiden, which is a popular relay marathon races held between Tokyo and Hakone in Japan on 2 and 3 January, around the New Year and decided to use the sport as the plann for Dunamists, Nexus' Ultra Hosts that passed the baton of Ultraman to each other in a similar way to said participants. It also refers to Kazuki Komon, the series' main character, who has made multiple connections with every Dunamists he came across and eventually envisioned the series as a "mystery relay race". When still in the Ultraman Cross stages, the protagonist was never meant to be a member of an attack team and said team was originally meant to be a bunch of drop-outs, who eventually ranked up into a first-class team, fitting with the series' main theme, "to connect the bonds". According to Yuichi Abe, the production team also thought of the "Meta-Field" concept, which involves fighting in an alternate dimension, becoming one of the plot points of the story, considering that not many characters in the story had any awareness of either Ultraman or the monsters.
Ultraman The Next's design was combined from Ultraman Nexus and the original Ultraman's Type A and Type B suits. The Next's Anphans mode was particularly based on Ultra Type A, due to their similar "wrinkled" appearances. Before his suit was made, a clay model of the Next was sculpted. Maruyama stressed the difficulty of reinventing the Ultraman design, stating, "Ultraman is a very simple design. This, unfortunately, removed some of the simplicity which is a big part of the design's charm. But it really can't be helped. If you tried to remove anything form that design what would you have? It would look like Pepsi Man!" Maruyama originally wanted to give Ultraman "transparent skin" with "glowing streams of red energy" but stated that the executives found the idea "a bit too shocking". Keeping director Konaka's concept of "mutant Ultraman" in mind, Maruyama also emphasizes the image of lava instead of muscles and blood vessels, with Anphans being based on solidified cold lava whereas Junis is burning red.
Ultraman Noa's design was proposed to be a break away from conventional designs of Ultra Warriors. His original design lacked the Noa Aegis on his back. Another break from the tradition was his energy core, which was located in the same place where an Ultra Warriors' Color Timer was supposed to be. The suit also has silver plating in addition to the color paint, but because the paint took time to dry, Noa's first photo session had his suit with visible fingerprints and scratches.
Name
Ultraman Nexus was never mentioned by his full name through most of the series, only being called "Ultraman" or the "giant of light". His personal name, Nexus was brought up by Kazuki Komon in the final episode after inheriting the Ultra's light. As the Next, it was a code name by Sara Mizuhara due to him being a countermeasure against Beast the One. As Ultraman Noa, his name was derived from the prophet in the Abrahamic religions, Noah.History
''Ultraman Noa: Battle of Dream''
Known as the legendary giant that protected the galaxy in ancient times, eventually gaining the title Legendary Superman. 20,000 years prior to Ultraman Nexus, Nebula M80 of the globular cluster of Scorpius is at the edge of extinction from the attacks of Space Beasts, carnivorous monsters whose sole purpose in existence was to feed on the fears of other beings. Noa engaged in a fierce fight against these monsters, bonding with various beings called Dunamists, whose desired to protect those closest to them, giving the silver giant the strength he needed to fight. Exhausted from the battle, Noa descended into a long slumber and at that time a group of alien beings attempted to create a protector of their own, known as Ultinoid Zagi. This giant was inspired from Ultraman Noa but once awakened, he developed a twisted consciousness upon discovering his status as a fake Ultraman and began to rampage as Dark Zagi. This leaves his creators with no choice but to destroy their own planet by detonating their sun, in an attempt to destroy their mistake.Dark Zagi, however, survived and entered a portal that was created by said explosion, leading him towards the Universe of the Land of Light in the Nebula M78, facing the Ultra Brothers while leading his own army of monsters. The Land of Light at that time was in an era of crisis and during the confrontation with the Ultra Brothers, Zagi briefly held Zoffy as a hostage. Noa joined forces with the Space Garrison and finally sent both himself and Zagi back to their dimension. While Zagi lost his physical form, Noa sealed the dimensional portal with Noa The Final but the cost was being reverted into Ultraman the Next.
''Ultraman The Next''
Pursuing the Space Beast called The One to Earth in 2004, The Next soon bonded with Air Force pilot Shunichi Maki, a family man whose only wish was to take his son on a flight before his possible death from an incurable disease. When Maki was used as bait to lure The One, he soon transformed into The Next, using his newfound power to defend himself before The One retreated and the Ultra reverted to Maki from his injuries. Although refusing to transform again, Maki used The Next once more to fight Beast the One in a tunnel and rescue a mother-child pair from a falling building, simultaneously evolved into Junis Mode. As this form was bigger than before, The Next engaged in a final battle against The One, receiving support from the Air Force and finally defeated the One with the Evol Ray Schtrom beam attack. In the aftermath, The Next separated from Maki and fully healed him before going into a deep slumber.''Ultraman Nexus''
In 2008, The Next reawakened and evolved into Nexus. He first bonded with former cameraman Jun Himeya. Through this bond, it provided Nexus with the ability to evolve into Junis. Despite his mission to fight against the Space Beasts and save civilians, he was treated as a monster by the Night Raiders except one of them, Komon, who saw him as an ally due to being saved by the Ultraman before and the two became fast friends. Nexus faced several trials and his strength was put to test when facing against Dark Faust and Dark Mephisto. In addition, because of his ties to Nexus, Himeya was caught by the TLT and forced to be used in an experiment in creating a weapon that is capable of taking down the Space Beast.Although he managed to escape, the Illustrator warned him that due to his body condition, one more transformation would kill him. In the Land of the Dead, Nexus fought against Kutuura with Himeya's long time friend who was held captive by Dark Mephisto but his injuries took effect and in the aftermath, he was captured and seemingly died from the depletion of his energy. The Night Raiders entered the land of the dead and managed to defeat Kutuura with the Ultimate Vanisher, a new beam weapon developed from Nexus' energy beam. Through Himeya's renewed spirit, Nexus was partially revived but while still in weakened state, the Night Raiders used the Ultimate Vanisher's last bit of energy to revive Nexus, allowing the Ultra Warrior to turn the tables and defeat Mephisto but seemingly died in the explosion. Before departing, Himeya had a last talk with Komon and reassured him that the light would be passed on to someone else.
The baton of light was soon passed to Ren Senjyu, a child who was born from an experiment who worked in an amusement park. Nexus bonded with the youth and received Junis Blue as a result. In a similar way to Himeya, Ren befriended with Komon, who was also aware of the latter's inheritance to Nexus' light and alongside other Night Raiders, he revolted the TLT's decision to have Ren be a test subject like Himeya was. Junis Blue also fought Mephisto Zwei, a Dark Mephisto clone from a corrupted Memory Police officer. During this battle, Nexus gained assistance from the original Mephisto and the latter sacrificed himself to have the warrior of light kill his clone. However, his final days as a Dunamist nearing close, due to the flaws in his DNA during his creation. In a similar state to his predecessor Himeya, Ren's condition affected his prowess when fighting against Ezmael, a combination of past Space Beasts until Night Raiders provide cover for him long enough to come up with a new attack that could finally defeat the monster. Nexus soon ended their merger and Ren survived due to the cure for his condition.
As the light choose Nagi, the deputy captain of Night Raider, the villain, prior called Unknown Hand, revealed himself, and that he had orchestrated the incidents during the series' course and did so for Nagi to gain the light. With few available TLT forces left, they faced Unknown but an enraged Nagi transformed into Nexus, which lead to her capture and Unknown Hand's resurrection into Dark Zagi. His revival caused simultaneous Space Beast attacks worldwide while he was rampaging in Japan. Komon managed to save Nagi and his actions lead him to inherit of Nexus' light. Transforming into the giant, Komon used all of Nexus' past forms with memories of his predecessors encouraging him to keep on fighting until he evolved into the true form that Nexus had lost long ago, Ultraman Noa. As Noa, Komon easily overpowered Zagi in terms of strength and quickly finished him off when their beams clashed with each other.