http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_series This thread is for everything Ultra, from "Ultra Q" to the latest "Ultraman Zero - The Movie: Super Deciding Fight! The Belial Galactic Empire". I got into Ultraman through being a Godzilla fan and hearing about this superhero show Eiji Tsuburaya created. My very first DVD was the first volume of "Ultraman Mebius", and since then I'm hooked on the giant hero vs. giant monster concept.
Some of my earliest memories are of watching the original Ultraman at a school mates house when I was in either kindergarten or first grade. One of the monsters in the show is a re-use of the Godzilla suit with some added attachments......which Ultraman rips off in bloody fashion, just leaving the Godzilla suit. I remember watching that ep as a kid and my friends and I all thought Utraman was fighting Godzilla. Even years later, there were still images that stuck with me, even though I wouldn't be able to tell you which ep they came from. However we all remembered the Beta Capsule (easy enough to find a sub for in those "pre-merchandise the shit out of everything days".) and would cross hands making his ray. But for whatever reason, Ultraman wasn't something that aired here outside of those early 70's broadcasts, as far as I know. So it was always this dim memory of something really cool. Thankfully, the internet made it easy to look into Ultraman and I was shocked to find that there were so many spin-off's! Then the DVD's came out, I've only picked up volume 1, but it was amazing how so much of it came back in the moment upon viewing. The fucking awesome outfits the Science Patrol wore, those cool pre-next gen symbol communicators, the vtol jet with the flames, the opening credits. I remember sitting there going "I REMEMBER THAT!! How did I forget that?" I'd love to see that movie you've got a pic of, I would've thought it'd been available here by now. I'm guessing the original Ultraman is fourth from the right?
He is, and that movie "Great Decisive Battle! Super 8 Ultra Brothers" was actually the sequel to "Ultraman Mebius & Ultraman Brothers" (the english titles vary, as there was never an official english language release). While I'm not sure about the second movie, the first one got fansubbed by "Fushigi-chan", as well as the whole Ultraman Mebius TV series (though titled "Ultraman Moebius") and the accompanying three-episode "Hikari Saga".
I have the DVD set where they also have the original voices with subtitles rather than overdubs. After almost 35 years, I had never heard the original voices of the actors. But I had to switch it back to the overdubs because I had gotten too used to them.
That way I'm lucky Ultraman was never aired in Germany. I could enjoy these DVDs without thinking about other people's voices. Nice avatar, by the way.
I used to watch it as an Air Force brat living in Japan (not that I could understand Japanese) and had an action figure.
Ultraman was pretty cool. I never saw a lot of it, but what I saw of it I liked. The SNES game suuuucked.
Yeah, got some of those, too. Got two figures of Ultraman - The Next, the 2004 movie, as well as the alien Baltan (who are basically to Ultraman what the Daleks are to the Doctor).
^^ That's the international title, basically a translation of the original Japanese title. Japanese titles often tend to be this uber-sensational. A.e. movies like "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah - Giant monsters all-out attack", "Great decisive Battle! The Super 8 Ultra Brothers", "Gezora, Ganime, Kamoeba: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas" or "Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Super-Shocker".