Ultraman – one of the most known Tokusatsu and Superhero characters from Japan known all over the globe. Created by Eiji Tsuburaya after co-creating Godzilla, Ultra Q, and later, the titular Ultraman is a hero from space who protects the Earth from giant space monsters, aka Kaiju. Ultraman was brought over to the United States pretty quickly and became a hit, part of Generation X’s childhood, and one of the earliest Japanese pop culture offerings to influence the American imagination. Ultraman has been pushed over the years with other series dubbed over and aired here, but it never got that boost that Super Sentai did in the ’90s because of the adaptation known as Power Rangers. Honestly, it was just too early. Now, after decades of video games, Anime and Manga have exploded over here along with the success of the MonsterVerse. With Godzilla eating good right now, it might finally be time for Ultraman to get a real stronghold in the West. Netflix’s attempt is the new animated feature Ultraman: Rising, and while this isn’t Netflix’s first project with Ultraman (that goes to the anime series based on the modern manga series), this is one purposely made with more American sensibilities.
In this story, Kenji Sato is a Global Baseball star who’s recently returned from the US to Japan to play for the Giants team in Tokyo, but he’s really coming back to take his father’s place as Ultraman. Even with a strained relationship with his father after his father is injured, he still takes on the role of the hero out of responsibility and the wishes of his missing mother. His world is even thrown more upside down after saving a baby kaiju after the Kaiju Defense Force kills its mother. Then, Ken has to juggle being a kaiju parent and a baseball player and his issues with his father. Like many others, the film’s visual aesthetic owes some to the SpiderVerse films in that it frees up the animators to have fun with the look and tie it to other mediums. Much like SpiderVerse is tied to the Marvel Comics, it all comes from Ultraman while not from Manga and Anime; the film takes many cues from the Shonen Action Genre of Manga, using line tones that you would see on Manga pages throughout to get form and shading on all the characters in the film to the use of shot angles and compositions in the frame. In big action set pieces, the addition of speed lines and changes to the uses of heavy blacks and dope patterns show changes in the mood of Ken in the film. It makes for an enjoyable movie to watch, and in the screening I was in, there were a lot of young people and kids who were into the film and feeling those big emotional parts – just like good shonen anime.
I feel Ultraman: Rising changes the concept, making the hero more like an Asian American and an American Superhero. With Ken’s motivations and the lessons he needs to learn as he’s arrogant and must learn humility along with his childhood issues to really become the hero he needs to be to take over for his father truly and as a person that’s familiar with the Ultra series, something that still airs new shows to this day taking it back and making him, not an alien and a legacy hero feels like it can stick with western – mostly American audiences. Ultraman: Rising is one of the best-animated features I’ve seen on Netflix, and I hope this leads to a couple more films, but that’s up for Netflix users to decide by watching, which I hope you all do.
Score: B+
RIOTUS 