I will write down my honest impressions and findings immediately after watching “Shin Ultraman” here. Shin Ultraman” is called “this film”, and the TV series “Ultraman” is called “the origin”. The TV series “Ultraman” is called “Origin”.
This article contains spoilers, so those who have not seen the film are advised to back out. I recommend that you see this film through your own eyes in a movie theater.
Ultra Q and Ultraman, Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman.
I was very excited by the title. The title of the original film was Ultra Q (hereinafter referred to as “Q”) with the logo of Ultraman appearing in a swirling pattern, and the title of Ultraman appeared as if breaking through the logo. I thought that Ultra Q would also appear in this film, but then Shin Godzilla appeared.
Although there is a connection between Q and the origin in the settings and documents, and the characters share a common understanding of the monsters that appeared in Q in the main story, they are never directly mentioned. The title of the film only indicates that it is a prequel. The ambiguity of the film, however, is a good thing, as it can be taken as either a completely identical worldview or a slightly different, similar, and connected worldview.
In other words, at this point, I was hoping that there might be something in the film (possibly something that hinted at Shin Godzilla).
Shin Ultra Q
As I was thinking this, suddenly the familiar theme song of Ultra Q is played, and the Q monsters, or rather, “disastrous beasts,” are shown on the screen. The first one, Gomez, in particular, was originally made by remodeling Godzilla’s costume. Did you see Gomez on the screen for a moment? It looked like “a monster made by modifying Shin Godzilla”. The eerie eyes, uneven teeth, and long tail were all Shin-Godzilla. I had a chuckle here.
Next is Juran, the mammoth flower. Here, Tokyo Station is shown. This ensures that this is not a direct sequel to Shin Godzilla.
Pégila was very brilliant. As a Pegira lover, I was thrilled that both the battle in Antarctica and the Tokyo Ice Age were staged. Although the proper name “Pegimin H” did not appear, it was said to have been repelled by the efforts of a female biologist. I wonder if she was referring to Ms. Funafari of the “Disaster Specialists”.
After Ralgelius and Kaigel (Gorga’s initial name), we come to Pagos. From the trailer, we knew that Neronga and Gabora would appear. Tsuburaya’s specialty is to remake stuffed toys, and the monsters are always changing into different ones, but in the order of Pagos, Neronga, and Gabora, the stuffed toys are actually used over and over again. In particular, Pagos and Gabora are nuclear-derived monsters, so they have a lot in common. I never thought that I would interpret the similarity as a result of the fact that they are shared as “biological weapons” in this work.
Neronga outfoxed Bemmler and got a big promotion.
The first match against Ultraman was Neronga. It is a great promotion to be chosen as an opponent to explain his abilities and awesomeness.
When I heard the words “dielectric constant,” “reflectivity,” and “transmittance,” I thought, “It has begun. At this point, I was back to the atmosphere of the movie that I had experienced with Godzilla.
Ultraman descent
He appeared in the familiar red sphere. However, the landing was quite a noisy one. It was like the descent of Gaia. As expected, the child and the hero are caught up in it.
It is said that the air was plasmaized when a specium ray was emitted. I remember reading about this kind of topic in a fantasy science book, but I wonder if they are aware of it.
Above all, I couldn’t hide my surprise at the lack of that characteristic red line on the body color……. I thought, “They have cheated again with the trailer…” … When the specium ray was shot, the part of the body that was originally a red line emitted a white light due to the charge, and the expression was even divine.
And his face was reminiscent of Type A. (In the original Ultraman, there were three types of Ultraman’s design during the broadcast, and the most well-known face design that often appeared in later years was the final version, Type C.)
Ray Effects
Ultraman’s ray effects are all hand-drawn. This is true even for recent Ultraman films. There is a famous optical synthesizer named Sadao Iizuka, and his ray effects are very beautiful. The specium ray and the ray of Zetton in this work are drawn intentionally close to the origin. I was especially pleased to see the unique touch of the letter “Z” in Zetton.
I had thought that the work had been traced from Iizuka’s work or that it had been processed by computer graphics, but when I looked at the end credits, I saw that it said “Sadao Iizuka, ray drawing,” which made a great deal of sense to me.
Musical connections to past works
The song played when Masami Nagasawa goes to work for the first time is the song “Early morning from Tokyo (short)/Press 1” from the scene in Shin Godzilla depicting the diligent Japanese who commute to work the next day as if nothing had happened after the threat of Kamata-kun has passed. The song was “Early morning from Tokyo (short)/Press Release 1“. Again, the Japanese people are portrayed as somewhat unaware of the importance of the appearance of the disastrous beast and the mysterious silver giant. I don’t think there were many comments from ordinary people about Ultraman in this film, except for this one. I imagine that the Japanese people were commuting to work and living normally as if it had nothing to do with them when Zarab, Mephilus, and Zetton appeared later.
I have the impression that a lot of BGM from Ultra Q and the original Ultraman were used for the music. Especially until the battle against Zarab, the BGM of that time was used in the battle scenes as it was, and I almost cried. I listened to “Katsutsukutai Dasshushinsho” many times after the movie.
On the other hand, after the battle of Mephilus, the atmosphere of “Anno’s movie” was suddenly created. The music with Sagisu’s verses played, and the sense of urgency was seared into my mind.
Ultraman’s body color change and color timer
After becoming one with Kaminaga, Ultraman took on the familiar silver color with red lines that we know so well. It was known before the release of this film that the original design by Toru Narita, who is famous for designing Ultraman and his monsters, was respected in this new design, and I was thrilled to see that even an alternative to the color timer was expressed here. Mr. Narita, who was opposed to the idea of a color timer, proposed an alternative proposal, such as “turning the lighting blue when the player’s energy level decreases. This time, the red line changed to green in a flash.
Ultraman flight attitude and landing
In the original Ultraman, when flying, the figure did not hang a stuffed animal, but a miniature doll in a flying posture. The arms were strangely extended in this posture, and it looked like a stick. When landing, the aircraft would land on the ground in this posture, which I found quite funny even as a child… This time, even that posture was perfectly reproduced. Some of you may have thought, “What’s so funny about Ultraman’s landing? That’s fine. That’s the original Ultraman. And then the spinning move. There is a traditional art in the Ultraman series that “spinning is good enough”, so please check it out.
