Anime / The☆Ultraman

Following

The Ultra Series' first foray into animation.

The☆Ultraman (ザ☆ウルトラマン Za☆Urutoraman) is the eighth official entry of the Ultra Series. A joint collaboration between Tsuburaya Productions and Sunrise animation studio, it is notable for being the very first anime to be based on the Ultra Series, making it also the first animated entry of the franchise

Compared to the live-action works that made up the rest of the Showa Ultra Series, The☆Ultraman was set in an entirely separate universe. In this world, 21st-century Earth finds itself troubled by attacks from various kaiju, and facing off against them is the show's resident defense team, the Science Guard Party. Fortunately for humankind, the wise and benevolent Ultra People of the distant Ultra Planet U40 have taken notice of their plight and sent their greatest warrior to help fight off the rampaging monsters. As this new Ultra hero, known as Ultraman Joneus, head for Earth, he encounters Choichiro Hikari (voice of Kei Tomiyama ), a young astronaut who has just been hired as the Science Guard Party's newest officer. Recognizing Hikari as a brave and just individual, Joneus chooses to merge with him.

From there, The☆Ultraman follows the classic Ultra Series formula. Under the leadership of Captain Tetsuo Akiyama (Kinya Morikawa), Hikari and his teammates Big Guy/Comic Relief Kei Marume (Shingo Kanemoto), Smart Guy Hiroaki Tobe (Masanari Nihei), and Action Girl Mutsumi Hoshikawa (Sumi Shimamoto) battle various Monsters of the Week (including a few creatures returning from the live-action shows). But when the going gets tough, Hikari takes out the Beam Flasher and becomes Ultraman Joneus to save the day. Also on the Science Guard Party are Robot Buddy Pig (Junpei Takiguchi) and Team Pet Monki (Shigeru Chiba).

The show does make a few changes to its premise as things go on however. In Episode 20, additional Ultras in the form of Elek, Loto, and Amia, who come to assist Joneus in times of need against alien invaders, and from Episode 28 onwards, a new captain named Daisuke Gondo (Hidekatsu Shibata) replaces Tetsuo Akiyama as team leader. Most significantly though, Episode 37 introduces a Big Bad in the form of Heller (Tamio Oki) and his Heller Empire, an organization of rogue Ultra People and their monster soldiers. Successfully taking over U40, Heller then sets his sights on Earth, with the Science Guard Party and Joneus joining up with the surviving Ultra People to form La Résistance to fight back and reclaim U40.

Airing on Tokyo Broadcasting System from April 4, 1979 to March 26, 1980 for a total of 50 episodes, The☆Ultraman was the first new entry of the Ultra Series to air on TV following the conclusion of Ultraman Leo back in 1975. No longer fettered by the constraints of a live-action medium, The Ultraman took full advantage of its animation, from monster designs that no longer needed the considerations of People in Rubber Suits to the Space Opera elements that defined its final arc. It certainly helped the show to also have the studio behind Mobile Suit Gundam working on it (in fact, its airing coincided with that of Gundam and Yoshiyuki Tomino even directed the last four episodes of the series). With its fresh and groundbreaking take on classic Ultra Series tropes, The☆Ultraman proved enough of a success for Tsuburaya Productions that they would soon begin production on Ultraman 80, the first live-action Ultra show in five years.

An English dub for the series was produced in the form of two feature-length Compilation Movies titled The Adventures of Ultraman, and Ultraman II: The Further Adventures of Ultraman, released in 1981 and 1983 respectively. Both were made by Tsuburaya Productions specifically for international release, and despite the names, they had little in relation to each asides being adaptations of the same material.

Not to be confused with The Ultraman, a similarly named 1975 manga drawn by Mamoru Uchiyama (with the exception of the star icon as a separation), although the latter was adapted for the Japan Animator Expo. However, the 1979 anime did admittedly take its name from the aforementioned manga, although it isn't a full-blown adaptation.

The Ultraman provides the following trope examples:

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Subverted. The Ultras of U40 are originally humans, and their Ultra forms are their combat forms, but as stated by Amia, both are equally their true forms. They only choose to appear as humans during peace time and when communicating with mankind.
• Alternate Universe: The series is set in a different universe and features its own different race of Ultra Warriors from a different planet altogether. This is the first time that an Ultra Series made a separate universe entry, predating even the popularly received Ultraman Tiga by 17 years.
• Back from the Dead:
  • After being killed by the Spirit Parasite in Bedoran's body, Hikari and Joneus are spirited to U40 to be resurrected and recuperate for two episodes.
  • In episode 27, Alien Baladon grave-robs six past Ultra Series monsters from the Monster Graveyard. They include Red King, Aboras, Banila, Arstron, Ghostron and Gokinezula.
  • The bone monster Skelldon in episode 30 is an interesting case, in that while it is revived, it is only in the form of its old skeleton and not in the flesh.
• Been There, Shaped History: The people of U40 are largely responsible for the modernization of mankind after coming in contact with the Neanderthals in the distant past. Because of this, mankind itself is implied to be descended from the people of U40.
• Big Bad: The series initially lacks its own main villain at the start, but from episode 37 onwards, Heller takes this position as the leader of his army and the major factor behind the monster attacks. Defeating him in the final episode marks the end of the anime.
• Big Brother Mentor: Although loud and boisterous, the new Science Guard Party Captain Daisuke Gondo has a big brother-like relationship with his team members while still maintaining his authority as a leader. The team members likewise accept him as their leader after an episode-long initial rocky start.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Goglan and Badan are examples of giant insects taken to realistically giant proportions as opposed to the People in Rubber Suits tactics in past Ultra Series.
• Big Good: The Great Sage in Planet U40 is the leader of the Ultras from said planet, as well as the one who instruct Joneus to go to Earth.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Hikari makes no announcement before transforming into Joneus, but he develops one starting from episode 21, shouting "Ultra Change"!
• Captain Ersatz: The Science Guard Party's team members Marume and Tobe are blatant copies in appearance and roles to the original 1966 Ultraman characters Arashi and Ide. In Tobe's case, he is voiced by Masanari Nihei, Ide's original actor.
• Chick Magnet: The series initially starts with Ship Tease between Hikari and Mutsumi, but as it progresses, the former also garners a lot of attention from other female characters like the waitress Yuriko, Joneus' little sister Amia, and even an alien princess who assumes Mutsumi's form.
• The Chosen One: Joneus says that he specifically chose Hikari as his host. The reason is that he has been in Earth's atmosphere for a while, witnessing Hikari's exploits in his space station after selflessly killing a space insect munching through the wires. This act of bravery is witnessed by Joneus alone, coupled with Hikari putting the safety of the station above his own importance (he was low on oxygen at that time) and keeping this as a secret to himself instead of being a Glory Hound about it.
• Colossal Croc: Wanigodon is a crocodile-based kaiju introduced rampaging across the city before it's put down by the Science Guard. Its offsprings, however, are the size of iguanas, where a baby Wanigodon was adopted by a boy, only for the monster to rapidly grow in size and escape, becoming large enough to face Ultraman Joneus in the prerequisite Behemoth Battle for every episode.
• Cool Plane: The giant ship Super Mardock is a massive plane designed by Tobe, allowing the team to go on air, under water, and even into outer space to combat monster attacks.
• Cool Starship:
  • Normally, the invading alien forces are known to have these, including Heller Army's own fleet of starships.
  • The battleship Ultria was designed by the ancestors of the Ultras as a contingency and left buried on Earth. Amia activates it and gives the ship to the Science Guard Party in order to combat Heller's armies, while at the same time replacing the wrecked Super Mardock in the previous episode.
• Critical Annoyance: Like the Land of Light Ultras, Joneus' Star Symbol (his equivalent of Color Timer) measures his time limit on Earth for only four minutes. Its original color is green, and when it is low on energy, it briefly changes to yellow before blinking red.
  • What sets these Ultras apart further from their Land of Light counterparts is that the Star Symbol is a medal of honor given to any of the chosen great eight warriors, instead of surgically-implanted devices. These items are what enlarge U40 Ultras to their gargantuan proportions, as they are normally human-sized.
• Evil Counterpart: Two cases at that.
  • During the Badel Tribe's invasion, they send a Spirit Parasite to Earth. This spiritual creature has the ability to merge with any reptile and turn them into monsters. What makes it a counterpart is that it was born from the Ultra Mind, the same energy source that created the Ultras in the first place, only this time, the Badel abuse it for their own purpose. Like other Ultras, the spirit parasite assimilates with the reptiles, the same way that Joneus merges with Hikari.
  • Heller and his 3,000 followers are invoked examples, as they are U40 people who were banished for deciding to use the Ultra Mind to gain immortality. Although they lost the ability to become Ultras, they compensate for this through battleships and monsters.
• The Dragon: Roygar is Heller's right hand man, and while Heller commands from Planet U40, Roygar oversees the invasion on Earth by setting up a base on Saturn's ring.
• Dub Name Change: Four of The Ultraman episodes were dubbed in English in an attempt to promote the Ultra Series in the United States, and most of the cast members were given English names to boot despite being Japanese themselves.
  • This also applied to the vehicles, with the Super Mardock being changed to the Super Star.
• A Father to His Men: Captain Akiyama is this to his team members as a whole. His replacement, Gondo, also qualifies, but his boisterous personality makes him more of a big brother figure than a parental figure.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Amia tended to Hikari's injuries after his death on Earth. This, combined with the two fighting against the Bader group together, causes her to become smitten with him. It gets to the point where she sneaks away to Earth and merges with an human just for the sake of reuniting with Hikari.
• Fusion Dance: Fundus and Choirus are capable of fusing into Dabaran, two Alien Jadans are required to form the two headed Kaiju Jagon and a pair of Dostony robots merge molecularly into a stronger Dostony.
  • Monki once accidentally fused with a Dostony unit into a towering monster.
• The Hero Dies: Choichiro Hikari and Joneus are both killed by the Spirit Parasite in episode 19, forcing Elek to go to Earth personally to retrieve their bodies and revive them on Planet U40.
• Human Aliens:
  • The U40 Ultras are originally this, and they are even implied to be mankind's ancestors due to their established contact with Neanderthals in the distant past. Although obtaining the ability to transform into Ultras, their human forms are still their true forms.
  • This is also the case with Heller and his followers. After abandoning their Ultra forms, they became a full-fledged human alien villains in the series. His soldiers of similar species are forced to wear combat armor to compensate for the loss of their Ultra forms.
• Identical Stranger: Amia's human form has an identical doppelganger on Earth, an ill girl at that. She fuses with said girl in order to reunite with Hikari.
  • Before that, Mutsumi has one who is the princess of Alpha Centauri.
• Kill and Replace: A squad of androids pose as a team of soldiers scheduled to arrive at the Science Guard Party's base after killing the original team in order to destroy it under Heller's orders.
• La Résistance: The remaining U40 Ultras band together to form a resistance team when their home world is taken over by Heller's army. The Science Guard Party join them in order to put Heller's invasion of Earth to a definitive end.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After being healed on Planet U40 and helping to thwart the Badel army, Hikari is returned to Earth with his memories of Joneus' home planet erased. This is done completely to ensure that U40's existence remains a secret from mankind. It doesn't last long due to Amia's presence on Earth, as well as the Heller Army's invasion forcing Hikari and the Science Guard Party to give their full participation in assisting the U40's La Résistance team.
• Light Is Good: In addition to red, the U40 race also has white in their Ultraman forms. When Joneus gets his own live action suit, the color white is initially replaced with the Land of Light Ultra's silver.
• Light Is Not Good: Compared to his followers, Heller's skin is entirely white, but he is not a benevolent leader at all. This is contrasted by his black-colored uniform when commanding his army.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: Predating even the Land of Light in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, the U40 people are said to have originally been human like, but they received their Ultraman forms from exposure to the Ultra Mind, an artificial energy source created to counter invaders on their home planet. Unlike their Land of Light counterparts, Amia outright proclaims that both their human and Ultra forms are equally their original forms.
• Mythology Gag: The final arc of the series deals with Joneus, the Science Guard Party, and mankind defending themselves against the invasion of Heller Army in a "war between two worlds". This concept was already envisioned but scrapped in Ultraman Leo, replacing it with Alien Babalou's theft of the Ultra Key and Commander Black's army of monster saucers.
• Next Sunday A.D.: The anime was produced in 1979, but the show itself takes place in the 21st century.
• Pest Controller: The grasshopper monster Badan in episode 17 commands a swarm of grasshoppers to terrorize cities in its presence.
• Pet Monstrosity: Episode 2 deals with a monster named Wanigodon, who's capable of shedding into smaller pieces and regrowing into several other versions of itself after its first destruction. One of them is under the care of Takashi, who names it Pero and is distraught to learn that his pet is the very monster in front of his own eyes.
• Put on a Bus: The first Science Guard Party captain Akiyama is transferred to the American branch at the end of episode 26. Two episodes later, he gets replaced by the younger and hot-blooded captain Daisuke Gondo.
• Red Is Heroic: The entire Ultras of U40 are colored red and white, and are also heroic as long as they maintain their Ultraman forms.
• Revenge: The Heller Empire invades U40 as a revenge for being banished into the depths of Dark Nebula for 10,000 years when they discarded their Ultraman forms to gain immortality.
• Robot Me: Joneus' robot doppelganger in episode 41, created by Alien Gilo to accompany Gilos in invading Earth.
• Sinister Stingrays: a Monster of the Week called Zanba is an alien manta ray monster with powerful Razor Wings which it used to destroy planes and buildings, and proves to be one of Ultraman Joneus' tougher opponents due to its Lightning Bruiser abilities.
• Sizeshifter: Averted. Unlike the Land of Light Ultras, the U40 Ultras are normally human-sized, but the Star Symbol used by the eight chosen warriors allows them to grow to giant proportions. As Joneus demonstrates, by absorbing enough sunlight, he can grow to the maximum height of 120 meters.
• Spit Take: The commander of the Jadan mothership does this when informed that two more Ultramen have appeared.
• Stock Sound Effect: Most of the appearing monsters in the series reuse the roars of Baragon.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Averted for the first time in the Ultra Series, as the Science Guard are also seen fighting monsters in the nearby South Pacific, the Himalayas, and Egypt. The last three episodes are even dedicated to fighting entirely in space.
• Transformation of the Possessed: The Spirit Parasite merges with any nearby reptile and transforms them into a reptile monster with the same strength as an Ultra, particularly that of Joneus.
• Transformation Trinket: Hikari, and also the entirety of U40 Ultras, transform via the use of Beam Flasher, a star-like pendant that they place on their foreheads. Some of them can naturally warp themselves in their Ultra forms.
• Underground City: The U40 people reside in a massive and civilized underground city, while the surface appears as an ancient Rome-like landscape.
• Vine Tentacles: Death Balan starts off as a Foul Flower but later assumes the form of a [[Planimal] plant/animal hybrid]] with extendable whip-like vines growing from its neck and front.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The elders of U40 say this, indicating that life and death is a normal cycle when Heller proposes the Ultra Mind's power be used to gain immortality.
• World's Strongest Man: Joneus is the strongest of the Ultra Warriors in U40, besting even the other seven chosen Ultras. This is why he is sent to Earth as its protector, but Joneus himself is not indestructible.