English Dub Season Review: Ultraman Season One

A (mostly) compelling re-casting of the Ultraman multiverse

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Decades after the original Ultraman’s adventures defending the Earth from alien invaders, his human host, Shin, has become Japan’s defense minister. He cannot recall any of his spectacular exploits from his time bonded with the alien who made him into the legendary hero, however. Shin takes his young son Shinjiro to the Ultraman museum and discovers his friend Ide has continued his work as a defender of Earth. Ide learns that Shin has retained some superhuman powers from his time as Ultraman and has passed them down to his son.

Another decade later, Shin is working in the shadows as Ultraman, and Shinjiro is coming into his own as a superhuman, testing his powers and defending the innocent. One evening, an alien named Bemular attacks Shinjiro and his father comes in to save him. When it becomes apparent that Shin is too old to continue his tenure as Ultraman, Ide gives Shinjiro an armored power suit, enabling him to ward off Bemular. Ide, along with his alien liaison Edo, wants Shinjiro to join the SSSP (Scientific Special Search Party) as an Ultraman agent who would fight crime and protect the people of Earth. While he’s reluctant at first, it’s impossible for Shinjiro to deny his calling.

As Shinjiro begins operating as Ultraman, he’s beset on all sides by adversity. If it wasn’t enough that he’s barely getting the hang of his new powers, his fellow Agent, Moroboshi, is pushing him to kill the aliens that they come up against. Shinjiro’s first failure to do so unveils Ultraman to the public ahead of the SSSPs plans and exposes them to Rena Sayama, a pop star, and friend of Shinjiro’s, who declares herself Ultraman’s biggest fan. Shinjiro struggles to adapt to his double life, spending more and more time as Ultraman while still unsure if he’s even cut out for the job.

After seeing an alien city firsthand, and meeting Jack–another SSSP agent–Shinjiro is embroiled in a chase for a serial killer and stumbles onto Agent Adad, a representative of the Star Cluster Council who is seeking to make a peace treaty with the Earth to welcome them into the larger galactic community. At the same time, Mishimoto is revealed to be another Ultraman agent, and a third Ultraman (actually Shinjiro’s classmate Seiji) appears out of nowhere, completely unaffiliated with the SSSP.

Everything comes to a head when the Star Cluster Council turns out to have been sabotaging the peace talks with Earth to an unknown end, and they send some mercenaries to Earth to kill Seiji. The three Ultramen are forced to work together to dispatch the assassins. They barely manage to do so, but Sheiji is critically injured. The Star Cluster Council sends a warhead as a last ditch effort to eliminate the Ultramen, but Bemular returns in time to save them. He takes the injured Seiji off to be healed, and Shinjiro embraces his destiny as an Ultraman.

Our Take

Legacy heroes are a tricky thing to pull off. Fans have certain expectations attached to their favorite brands and characters, so changing anything is a risky endeavor. This is doubly the case when you change the entire genre that the property originally existed in. While the original Ultraman existed in the super sentai space, this new reboot is more of an espionage thriller/superhero origin story. It’s a hard trick to pull of such a change while keeping the fans satisfied, but luckily Ultraman is such an old property that has been so many things that it would be hard for purists to cry foul at this adaptation in particular.

I’m reminded of a number of things when watching this series. First and foremost is Mystery Incorporated, the Scooby Doo reboot that made the goofy monster of the week mystery show into a dark, serialized slow-burn. Similarly, this Ultraman re-casts many of the original mainstays of the franchise into new roles. Mishimoto (of Ultraseven), Jack (of New Ultraman), and Seiji (of Ultraman Ace) are now an age-appropriate supporting cast for the son of the original Ultraman. Batman is also heavy on my mind. The extended family dynamic is reminiscent of Batman: The Animated Series and the older generation of heroes supporting the younger one on a comm link feels very Batman Beyond. Shinjiro balancing his double life, however, felt as Raimi Spiderman as you can get.

All of these are really good things. It’s a ton of fun to see anime recast into this American superhero tradition. It may seem like blasphemy, but Great Saiyaman is one of my favorite things in all of Dragon Ball. Shinjiro struggling with not only his power but the legacy of Japan’s most legendary hero was a good time all the way through. His supporting cast was very strong, never feeling too much more interesting than him and allowing his journey to stay front and center.

There are a few rough patches, though. The pacing is pretty uneven. Each episode ends in a cliffhanger, but resolutions seemingly come at random. If I didn’t binge the series in two sittings, I think there would have certainly been times where entire episodes felt wholly unsatisfying on their own. Additionally, pretty much all of the Rena stuff didn’t work. I don’t blame Ultraman completely for this; they are using American superhero tropes as a model, and those have had love interest issues for years. I respect what they were going for with the extended Perfect Blue homage in the middle of the season, but it went on too long, and ultimately meant nothing. Lastly, Seiji’s focus in the last part of the season felt rushed, and seeds should have been planted for that earlier.

My biggest issue probably came from the Star Cluster Council, however. After an entire season, their plan is still perfectly opaque. We’re given the Bemular red herring early, but it’s pretty easy to figure out he’s not the real bad guy (he’s got antihero written all over him). Without any inclination of who the Star Cluster Council are or even a look at any of their actual members, it’s very difficult for me to muster up any energy to care about the overarching plot of the series. I definitely want to see Jack in an Ultraman suit, but that isn’t enough to keep me invested.

We also need a better understanding of the aliens. They seem to be very explicitly second class citizens. They live in tent cities, are forced to hide their identities, and they are explicitly able to be executed by their assigned law enforcement (the SSSP). Seiji seems to have some sympathy for them, but he is maybe the most ruthless when it comes to executing those who get out of line. Animation has long allowed the brutal murder of robots and non-humanoids to be shown onscreen, but Ultraman can’t continue to parrot these tropes without some consideration of what they mean.

That said, this does mostly feel like a carefully considered reboot, obsessive even. This was clearly created by fans of the larger Ultraman mythos, and I found myself stopping to google anything that even felt like an Easter egg. A lot of love went into making this Ultraman, and it certainly shows. Not everything comes off perfectly, and there’s an annoying amount they purposely left unanswered for season two, but when it comes around, I’ll probably watch it.