Ultraman

Ultraman (ウルトラマン) is the generic name for the television series, movies, animations and other such things concerning a 40+ m, several-thousand-ton giant usually from the Nebula M78 fighting monsters that harm the Earth (and saving the occasional innocent monster). This series is one of the prominent tokusatsu productions from Japan, along with Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Metal Heroes.

The giant is usually red-and-silver (although several colour variations have been seen in recent years), has glowing yellow almond-shape dome eyes and has various abilities, most notably to fire energy beams from various positions of crossed hands. The Ultras' main weakness is that each being can only stay on Earth in his giant form for three minutes owing to a limited supply of energy. This is marked by a light on the character's body usually called the Colortimer, which eventually begins to blink with increasing frequency as his energy supply dwindles (and turn from blue to red). At this stage, the Ultra must either find a way to recharge or finish the fight as soon as possible, or risk certain death.

UltraSeven (background)and the Mother of Ultra (foreground), taken during the Ultraman Millennium liveshow in Bangkok

Ultraman's creator was Eiji Tsuburaya from Tsuburaya Productions , a pioneer in special effects who designed Godzilla in 1954. The show's predecessor was a series called Ultra-Q, a black and white 28-episode series very much like today's The X-Files or The Twilight Zone. The gist of the first series goes like this; Science Patrol (Kagaku Tokusou Tai) member Hayata Shin was flying his plane when a red sphere of light crashes into his VTOL. The sphere turns out to be a giant red-and-silver being called Ultraman, and feeling remorse for killing the human, he merges his essence with Hayata to revive him. In return, Hayata serves as the human form for this being, and when danger threatens, he raises the Beta Capsule and transforms to Ultraman to save the day.

Ultraman ran from July 1966-April 1967 and was followed by many other series. Some of the more famous ones include Ultra Seven (1967), Return of Ultraman (1971), Ultraman Ace (1972), Ultraman Taro (1973), Ultraman Leo (1974), Ultraman 80 (1980), Ultraman Tiga (1996), Ultraman Dyna (1997), Ultraman Gaia (1998) and Ultraman Cosmos (2001). Recently the studio has started reinventing the hero through the "Ultra N Project," the first results of which were the unveiling of Ultraman Noa (the "mascot" of the Ultra N Project - this one does not star in a movie or show) in late 2003, the current Ultra Series Ultraman Nexus (2004) and Ultraman The Next , a movie that opened in December 2004. Foreign productions include the 1987 Hanna-Barbera co-production Ultraman: The Adventure Begins, an animated movie; Ultraman: Towards The Future, an Australian 1990 production and Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, produced in the United States in 1994. Ultraman series have also been dubbed into various languages, including English (mostly Malaysian English), Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese. Also of note is the American English dub of Ultraman Tiga by 4Kids Entertainment that aired in 2002. The dub distorted the characterisation and general mood of the series, and achieved limited success.

At present, Tsuburaya Prod. accepts 34 Ultras as official. This figure does not account for Thai-produced Ultras.

Licensing rights dispute

Ultraman's licensing rights outside of Japan were recently the subject of a prolonged legal dispute between Tsuburaya Productions and Chaiyo Productions (also called Tsuburaya Chaiyo Co Ltd ) based in Thailand. Sompote Saengduenchai , founder/president of Chaiyo Productions, claims that the late Noboru Tsuburaya (who passed away in 1995), Eiji's son, gave him and his company a rights contract in exchange for a monetary loan. Japanese and Thai courts accepted this contract as real and bonding, but Tsuburaya Productions protested the issue.

After an 8 year battle in the courts of both countries, Sompote Saengduenchai won the trial for the third time on April 27th 2004, despite some factual inaccuracies including the faulty international titles of the series in the document, such as "Ultra Seven" being called "Ultraman Seven.". The ruling gives him merchandising rights for the first six Ultraman series (Ultra Q through Ultraman Taro) and Jumborg Ace outside Japan, and broadcasting rights of said shows within Thailand. At the present time, Tsuburaya Production is appealling against Chaiyo Productions for the overseas merchandising rights. If Chaiyo loses, Sompote and his son Pirasith (who also runs Chaiyo) could face up to 5 years in prison.

During the time of the legal battle, Chaiyo came up with three of their own Ultras: Millennium, Dark and Elite. They have not been used for purposes other than stage shows and merchandise.

External links

http://www.ultrafaq.info - The Ultra[man] FAQ

http://www.ultramanlah.com - UltramanLah - A Singapore-based Ultraman fansite