From the Land of Light for the sake of the Earth, here they come, our expied Ultramen! Clockwise from top left
The Ultra Series is one of the oldest and most influential Toku franchises of all time, being the creator of the Kyodai Hero subgenre (with "Kyodai" literally meaning "giant" in Japanese). As First Installment Wins, the original series has become very iconic and commonly homaged in pop culture, as has the titular Ultraman himself.
As a result, there have been no shortage of many Ultraman-like heroes both from Tsuburaya Productions themselves (the producers of the Ultra Series) and other studios, mainly in the 1970's thanks to the popularity of the Ultra Series leading to multiple shows with a similar formula in an attempt to capitalize on its success, later on after the initial craze of the series died, homages began to take the place of these competitors.
To identify them, there's a collective of characteristics that are iconic to Ultraman and a dead-ringer for a deliberate homage that the character should have:
- Is an alien capable of possessing and bonding with other living beings, who may or may not originate from a "nebula".
- Has the ability to change size.
- Performs a "Rise" sequence after transforming where they appear to fly towards the camera.
- Has a predominantly red and silver/white color scheme (pairing silver with blue or both red and blue is also acceptable).
- General physical characteristics may include large, glowing eyes and a mohawk-like head fin, with a face/mouth that doesn't change expression or move when speaking (in live-action this is usually due to practical limitations, though other mediums may homage this too).
- Can only maintain their powers for short periods of time, with a Color Timer-like object on their chest which starts blinking red when their energy runs dangerously low.
- Fights giant monsters, robots or aliens, often assisted by a "monster-buster" taskforce with a funny acronym for a name.
- Uses a Transformation Trinket; the most common design is a baton-like object similar to the Beta Capsule
, but rings, bracelets and other assorted devices also show up with considerable frequency.
- Has attacks modelled on some of the Ultras' more distinctive Finishing Moves, such as the Spacium Beam/Specium Ray (firing a beam from their crossed arms), Ultra Slash (throwing a razor-sharp chakram composed of energy), or Eye Slugger (detaching their head fin and wielding it as an axe or Battle Boomerang).
Not all these criteria have to be met at once - even within the Ultra Series itself, there are some divergences from the pattern.
Sub-Trope to Fountain of Expies and Stock Parodies. See also Mech vs. Beast, with which this trope sometimes overlaps. Compare Mons, an archetype influenced by the Capsule Kaiju of Ultraseven.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Garmin's 2007 Super Bowl commercial featured a man using his Garmin GPS to transform into an unnamed Ultraman clone to fight the evil Mapasaurus, accompanied by an absolutely kicking heavy metal song. GRAB YOUR GARMIN, TAKE ON THE WORLD!
Anime & Manga
- Kinnikuman:
- The series started off as an Affectionate Parody of Ultraman, with the protagonist being an alien Super Hero with a head fin and the power to grow to giant size by eating garlic. Though it's better known for its subsequent Genre Shift to a semi-serious pastiche of Professional Wrestling.
- In the original one-shots, were a case of Expy Coexistence with Kinnikuman being an eighth Ultra Brother.
- Ultraman even made some unlicensed cameos but was later renamed to "Uldraman" ("Uttraman" in the anime) for copyright reasons.
- Manatsu Tomosato of Kaiju Girl Caramelise is a Spoiled Sweet girl who uses her money to fund her obsession with Kaiju and other Tokusatsu media. One way this manifests is that she makes all her family's male servants sport buzz-cut mohawks and sunglasses that give them a strong resemblance to Ultraman.
- Birdy the Mighty: The basic story is very similar to Ultraman, with an intergalactic police officer accidentally mortally wounding a human and merging with him, and the two now fighting against evil aliens that arrive on Earth. Birdy even has red and white bicoloured hair and the last part of the remake manga's sequel series Evolution even sees Birdy in a pink and white outfit.
- Dragon Ball: As a child, most of Chi-Chi's fighting ability comes from her Ultraman-styled helmet - incorporating both a mohawk (which can be thrown as a Slugger) and a small forehead crystal resembling the Beam Lamp (which can fire an attack similar to Ultra Beam). It disappears after her return post-Time Skip.
- Patlabor: The TV Series has a dream episode where Noa homages Ultraman and transforms into a giant hero with a similar color scheme, to fight a Zetton-like monster as a recreation of the famous final episode of the original series.
- From Doki Doki! PreCure, Aguri Madoka is a downplayed example, mixing elements of Ultraman and Big One. While not a giant, she transforms from her 9-year-old human form to the 16-year-old Cure Ace, and is more powerful than the rest of the team but can only stay transformed for a short time (complete with the jewel on her chest flashing like a Color Timer). She's also not from Earth, has a red-and-white colour scheme, and transforms using a Transformation Trinket.
- Dokkoida?! revolves around an Ordinary College Student who gains the ability to transform into a superhero that looks like a cartoonish Ultraman wearing a diaper after taking a job with an alien toy company (and his misadventures after unwittingly moving into an apartment building with his disguised rivals and enemies). The Episode Title Card of the anime is an exaggerated version of Dokkoida doing the Ultraman Rise sequence.
- Although not a full blown member of this trope, Angol Mois of Sgt. Frog follows the example of Ultraseven (the succeeding series of Ultraman), being portrayed as an alien who took on a human form based on a human that caught her interest.
- The 2005 fanservice anime Ultimate Girls feature Silk Koharu becoming an Ultraman-like giant hero, actually her as a costumed giant. The Critical Annoyance played here that instead of a Color Timer-like lamp, her costume slowly torn to reveal bits of her skin, hence the necessity to finish the fight quickly.
- Urusei Yatsura:
- In a manga chapter, Sakura has a dream where Ataru has superpowers, can use Deflector Shields like Ultraman and shoots his punches while screaming "Rocketto Paunchi!".
- In an Imagine Spot in the manga where Ataru is trying to describe to Shinobu how terrible life with Mendou would be, Mendou's mother looks like Ultraman.
- Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou: The first episode has the Superhuman Bureau hunting down a man named Akira Shirota, who fused with a dying alien named Grosse Augen and gained the ability to transform into his form to fight giant monsters. In a twist, it turns out that their ability to fuse together was actually Akira's power rather than Augen's. With Jiro's help, Akira fakes his death by expelling Grosse Augen and switching to a comatose S Planeterian (an alien expy of Kyrieloid) as his new host, which has the side effect of giving it a new red/silver colour scheme similar to Ultraman.
- Gekikō Kamen: Nebula Buddi is a giant fictional superhero who exists as the star of an in-universe superhero show from 1966. With the exception of his origins (originally being a sentient gaseous entity before gaining a humanoid form), Buddi's general appearance, abilities and rogues gallery all reference the original Ultraman, making him and his show the manga universe's counterpart of the first Ultraman show. This extends to his show's successors, with Buddi Torou and Zero being portrayed as expies of Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Zero respectively.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Eva units are a particularly warped example. Initially they're presented as Humongous Mecha which the taskforce NERV (and their backers SEELE) built to fight alien Kaiju, and which have a limited operational time due to running on batteries. In truth they're actually lobotomised alien giants which NERV created through cloning, and controls by fusing them with the souls of their pilots' mothers. They're also strangely lean and athletic in design, with Word of God saying they were intentionally animated to resemble the movements of Ultramen. Even the show's famous Christian Faux Symbolism has been suggested to be a reference to the Ultra Series — Eiji Tsuburaya was a devout Catholic and often included similar imagery in his productions.
- Pokémon the Series: The depiction of Staryu (a starfish-like Pokémon) homages Ultraman, giving it similar grunts and making its core flash red when it's low on energy. There are in-universe theories that Staryu and its evolution Starmie are alien in origin and/or can communicate with space.
- SSSS.GRIDMɅN: As a reboot of the original show, this series' Gridman and other heroes like Gridknight take on similar traits to the Ultras design-wise and power-wise, moreso in the finale when Gridman recovers his original form.
- In Symphogear AXZ, Hibiki Tachibana becomes a vessel for the "Power of God" into an incomplete rampaging giant of light due to possessing Gungnir the God Killer. This form, called Destructor God Hibiki, resembles an Ultraman and even has a blinking Color Timer-like organ on her chest.
- My Hero Academia: Yui Kodai takes inspiration from Ultraman: her quirk, Size, allows her to change the size of non-living objects she touches; her hero costume resembles a red-and-white body suit; her baseball cap is the main clue, though, with markings resembling large eyes and a metal fin in the classic Ultraman style.
- One episode of Gintama features Spacewoman, an alien superhero who is essentially a female Ultra in appearance and abilities, down to the exact same height and weight as the original Ultraman. Personality-wise, she's portrayed as a depressed salarywoman who regrets having put off her personal life in favor of defending the universe.
- Food Wars!: In the Fall Classic arc, during one of the Foodgasm-induced Imagine Spots, Senzaemon Nakiri transforms into a golden Ultraman-lookalike, and fights Hisako Arato (who's portrayed as a turtle kaiju).
- Yo-kai Watch Jam - Yo-kai Academy Y: Close Encounters of the N Kind: In the Final Battle, a large number of heroes fuse together to become the "legendary giant of light" Earthman, who appears as a mohawked silver humanoid with crimson and sky-blue patterns on its body.
Asian Animation
- Riseman is a Chinese-Korean Alternate Company Equivalent of Ultraman - its hero using a winged baton to transform into a red/blue/silver giant with a head fin, who fires beams at Kaiju by crossing his arms. If the resemblance wasn't obvious enough, "Rise" is also the Ultra franchise's official name for an Ultraman's Transformation Sequence.
Comic Books
- While Giant-Man was not directly based on Ultraman, his similarities to the character (being a red hero with Sizeshifter powers and sometimes a silver helmet) mean that when he appears in Japanese media he's almost always either compared to Ultraman or given traits that make him more similar to Ultraman. This is probably why, for instance, his Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers incarnation risks dying if he stays enlarged for more than a few minutes.
- Kaijumax: The guards of the titular facility are designed after the Ultras. Being giant humanoid aliens who combat Kaiju and bond with other species in Symbiotic Possession, though they are not really heroic in nature.
- In Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance, Ultimon, the leader of Japan's old superhero team, is a notable Ultraman expy, complete with a funky helmet and a jewel on the chest of his costume.
- Ultramega features the titular Ultramegas, giant alien warriors that fuse with humans and use martial arts and energy attacks to defend the Earth from kaiju. Unlike the Ultras, whose biological nature is never portrayed as completely human-like, the Ultramegas are flesh-and-blood titans, a fact they frequently show off in extremely bloody battles.
Films — Live-Action
- Big Man Japan uses his power to turn gigantic and fight kaiju. At the end of the movie he's saved by the Super Justice Team, a family of superheroes who resemble Ultraman.
- Jet Jaguar from Godzilla vs. Megalon is a very notable Ultraman copy, being a silver/red (with some yellow and blue added to make him more distinct) robot hero that can grow to enormous size and fights the Kaiju Megalon and Gigan alongside Godzilla. His design was also partially inspired by Spectreman, another well-known Ultraman copy.
- The titular hero of The Super Inframan is a pastiche between Ultraman and Kamen Rider. He can even super-size himself and launch energy blasts by crossing his hands together; at one point, he enlarges himself to Kaiju size to defeat a similarly supersized monster.
Live-Action TV
- Tsuburaya Productions: As the original producers of the Ultra Series, they've made many Ultraman-like heroes following the success of the original shows. Chief among them stand:
- Gridman: The Hyper Agent: The titular hero is a digital expy of Ultraman, being a red/silver giant that fights against Kaiju and can change his size to match his opponents, other heroes in the franchise follow a similar pattern to him. The series also had a Power Rangers-like adaptation in the West known as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
- Fireman: Like the aforementioned Gridman, Fireman takes a lot after Ultraman, being red/silver colored and fighting Kaiju, as well as being an alien from outer space.
- Mirrorman: The titular hero was a downplayed example at first, lacking a Color Timer and having no red/silver color scheme instead having the red replaced by green. Later on he does gain a Color Timer of his own after the series had a Retool.
- Redman: The titular hero is also a big Ultraman homage, but lacks a color timer, doesn't appear to change in size and fights much more aggressively than his inspiration. Supplementary material also states that Redman was born when an alien who was the Last of His Kind merged with a human officer to combat Kaiju. Redman's name is also reused from a Working Title for Ultraman.
- Jumborg Ace: Created for Tsuburaya's 10th anniversary, the titular hero was also an homage to Ultraman as a silver/red hero who fights Kaiju. Though in this case, the hero is a Humongous Mecha rather than a giant alien.
- The Emerald Alien, who gives the human pilot his vehicles, looks like a Color Timer-less green-eyed Ultraman. Something which comes full circle when the Ultra Series proper would homage the Alien Emeralds in the form of Background Ultras starting with Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends.
- Iron King: The hero of the show is a red and silver giant who transforms from a human to fight Kaiju, and has his gems serving as a Critical Annoyance when he's running low on energy.
- Super Sentai
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger: The series features a Show Within a Show of a notable Ultraman expy in Igrec, the Galaxian, whose titular hero is used as the basis for Giganoid #2: Eroica by Voffa in a scheme to trick the children of Japan and drive them to despair to gather that energy. It is always giant sized due to being a Giganoid furthening the parallel.
- Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Unofficial Giant God Prism Ace is an Expy and Corrupted Character Copy of Ultraman, but he also serves as a living Take That! to Chaiyo Productions, a Thai company infamous for trying to steal the rights to the Ultra Series after a collaboration with Tsuburaya Studios.
- Spectreman: The titular character acts and resembles a cross between Ultraman (complete with a shiny pointed helmet and Sizeshifter ability) and Superman, being an interplanetary agent who protects the Earth against evil monsters and alien invaders, while also maintaining a Secret Identity as an ordinary human.
- Thunder Mask: The titular hero is a Human Alien from outer space who transforms into a humanoid figure, mostly green but with silver and red as well, who can then grow in size to fight naturally giant monsters which threaten the Earth, specializing in beam attacks. Whilst in human form, our hero also interacts with a Science Team dedicated to opposing the monsters, much like the Defense Teams of Ultraman.
- Zone Fighter: As one of the more notable Follow the Leader attempts to emulate the Ultra Series' success, the titular hero is very much an Ultraman in everything but name. The series even drives the point more by having Expies of famous Ultra Series Kaiju fight the hero.
Tabletop Games
- Cardfight!! Vanguard has the Enigman archetype, a group of mostly-silver giant aliens who strongly resemble Ultramen.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: There are many homages to the Ultras in various cards, stand-outs are:
- From the GX era there's Elemental Hero Neos◊, a monster resembling a cross between Ultraman (name's the same to Ultraman Neos as well) and Guyver, with a white/red (as well as blue) color scheme, and which coined the "Contact Fusion" mechanic for merging with its allies without the aid of a Spell Card. The rest of the "Neo-Spacian" archetype is similarly inspired by the Ultras.
- From the ARC-V era there's Radian, the Multidimensional Kaiju◊, who is heavily inspired on two famous villains from the series that are also Ultras themselves: Ultraman Belial and Dark Lugiel.
- From the GX era there's Elemental Hero Neos
- Monsterpocalypse: One of the factions, the Shadow Sun Syndicate, is a criminal organization that has developed a procedure that turns selected soldiers into size-shifting bio-mechanical ninja named "Zors" (and although the name recalls the Power Rangers, their model design is significantly Ultraman-esque).
Video Game
- Astro Guy of King of the Monsters is a human(oid) character with a red-and-blue costume, a helmet crest, and yellow goggles that evoke Ultraman's appearance. He even parodies the Specium Ray pose when firing off his charged beam attack. Fitting, as many of the other playable characters that he can fight are expies of famous Kaiju.
- Didarion, one of the Original Generation units from Super Robot Wars DD. Appropriately enough, he can also be purchased as DLC in Super Robot Wars 30, which features the SRW debut of both SSSS.GRIDMɅN and the recent Ultraman anime.
- Tech Romancer: In the Cast of Expies of various Humongous Mecha franchises, Pulsion is the Ultraman stand-in, being a Human Alien who transforms into a red-and-silver giant and can fire Ultraman-style beams and energy disks. Pulsion's moveset also includes weapons and a berserker mode which reference Neon Genesis Evangelion, a series with action scenes heavily styled after Ultraman.
- Gotcha Force: Star Hero and Planet Hero are a pair of Hero Borgs with the ability to enlarge their bodies temporarily and air-dash in a similar way to Ultraman when he flies through the air. Star Hero, in particular, shares much of Ultraman's color scheme, and throws star-shaped energy discs as his ranged attack.
- Breath of Fire III Sunder and Balio's fused form, Stallion, was more or less Ultraman as a humanoid horse. He even had his own Ultra Beam with Utmost Attack. It seems the homage was deemed too close to comfort and the PSP port changed Stallion's color scheme to brown and modified Utmost Attack's animation.
- Eiji Murasame/Aegis Prime in Dawn of the Monsters is a giant superhero highly reminiscent of Ultraman, with a very similar design (basically Ultraman with a different color scheme (though the original red-and-grey can be unlocked) and a little more armor) and a fly-towards-the-camera Transformation Sequence. All he's missing is the head crest and forearm beam.
- Gigaman of GigaBash is a blue spandex-clad giant superhero with a similar outfit and powers as Ultraman, although a bit out of shape. He can even go against both Ultraman himself and Ultraman Tiga.
- Psychonauts: Kochamara is a giant, multi-colored superhero who supposedly protects the city of Lungfishopolis using the powers of flight and shooting a beam similar to Ultraman's Specium Beam. Key emphasis on the word "supposedly" - he's really just a big bully who'll gladly stomp on the city's civilians if they don't throw big enough parades in his honor.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The Giant's Mask, only usable when battling Twinmold, transforms Link into a giant who can only remain in that form as long as his magic meter holds out (assuming he hasn't had the Chateau Romani beforehand). His voice gets deeper and has a prominent echo effect. Even the mask itself resembles the face of an Ultra. The 3DS remake furthers the homage by forcing Link to fight barehanded.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney: The in universe tokusatsu show, The Steel Samurai, is pretty clearly based on Ultraman. He's a humanoid hero with a silver, blue, and red color scheme, and a jewel resembling a color timer on his chest.
Web Original
- Ultramechatron Team Go! is a toku-inspired web series produced by and starring Mike Trapp (of Dropout) fame, with the titular mecha being clearly based on Ultraman, including spherical glowing eyes with a headfin embedded between and a color timer-like mechanism in it's chest as an energy indicator.
Western Animation
- Ben 10:
- The title character received his powers by bonding with the Omnitrix, a Super Wrist-Gadget which contains the DNA of different alien species and can transform him into one of them. All of his transformations have the green Omnitrix symbol somewhere on their bodies, which after a random period of time will begin flashing red and return him to human form.
- One of Ben's strongest alien forms, "Way Big", is a blatant Ultraman stand-in, being a red-and-white giant "born in a cosmic storm" with its Omnitrix symbol on its chest, and a head fin similar to the original Ultraman. Its powers include Flight and firing a "cosmic ray" from its arms similar to Ultraman's signature Specium Ray, while its species "Toku'star" is a blatant corruption of "Tokusatsu". By Word of God this was not part of Way Big's original concept - and indeed in his initial appearance he displays no powers beyond being very big - but something added after writers saw his design and noticed the resemblance (though designer Thomas Perkins says that he watched Ultraman when he was young and might have taken inspiration unconsciously).
- Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Way Big's Ultimate Form has a red-white-blue colour scheme similar to Ultraman Tiga, adds more Ultraman attacks to its arsenal, and even performs a "Rise" to further drive the point.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: Way Big's new voice actor gives him a Japanese accent to further the reference. It also introduces the "Way Bads", violent gray-and-purple bioweapons created from Toku'star DNA, who by Word of God were inspired by the villainous Ultraman Belial. For good measure, one of them has features resembling Eva-01.
- Downplayed with Capital G from Dexter's Laboratory. As a size-changing black hero who is a member of the Justice Friends, he more closely resembles Marvel Comics character Bill Foster/Black Goliath. However, his red/blue/white color scheme and goggles, coupled with him turning giant during the episode "Last But Not Beast" to fight the giant monster Badaxtra during the latter's rampage in Japan, give him a faint resemblance to Ultraman.