Ultraman (2019) Detailed Anime Review
Director: Shinji Aramaki
Studio: Production I.G.
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Year Built: 2019
Episodes: 13
Anime Rating: 10/7 (See all anime ratings)
Before I go to the content, let me give brief information about what / who is Ultraman; We can compare Ultraman, which is very popular in Japan, to Power Rangers. One or several people in armor are fighting against giant creatures, and Ultraman first appeared in 1966. Subsequently, after dozens of T.V. series, movies, and games, Netflix bought a series that has remained popular until today and presented it to us as anime.
As a story, we focus on Shinjiro Hayata, son of Shin Hayata, who is the original Ultraman in this series. According to the original story, an entity known as the Giant of Light gave Shin Hayata, a normal human, his power, and Shin Hayata, equipped with armor, could transform into a giant as Ultraman and fight against giant alien creatures that threaten the world. Afterward, peace came to the world, and since there was no threat, the Giant of Light went as it came. However, he left a mark as he left because even though Shin Hayata could not turn into a giant anymore, he preserved most of his powers; moreover, he transferred these forces to his son Shinjiro. Years pass, and as the world is once again under threat, he needs Ultraman once again. Shinjiro is now in high school and is aware of his powers but doesn’t know what happened. Until one day, an alien named Bemular came across Shinjiro and said, “I am your first enemy”. Things unfold, and Shinjiro’s father tells him the truth. Even though there is no Ultraman anymore, the effort to protect the world from aliens has continued uninterruptedly, and now that new threats have begun to emerge, an Ultraman is needed again; Ultraman will also be the young Shinjiro — it has to be.
The first season of the Ultraman series (yes, I say the first season because it will continue) is mostly based on introducing characters and creating a chain of events. So it’s like the introduction paragraph of a book. There is no improvement and no results yet. We are told that Shinjiro is an Ultraman, has completely different experiences, realizes that aliens actually live among us, does not want to kill them at first (just arrest them), and other characters contribute to the event. Although I was annoyed by Shinjiro’s actions as a junior Ultraman, I realized that it was actually handled quite correctly in terms of realism. Think of it as a soldier with superhuman powers, who have never taken a gun before, doesn’t know what to do if you put a gun in his hand. However, as I said, I can’t say that it’s like the book’s introduction that it offers nothing more than a few bad fights in terms of story. For example, even the simplest question is up to the next season, what is Belmar’s purpose?
I can say that Ultraman is the best CGI (Computer Generated Images) content anime I have seen. The series consists entirely of computer animations, and I think they did it this time :) For example, Souten no Ken: There is no disaster like Regenesis or clumsy moving characters like Ajin. It is very fluid, and the fights are very enjoyable. For example, there were battles against Alien Agent Adad, which smelled aesthetically pleasing. The music is mostly western style. The anime doesn’t have an opening song, and the music it contains reminds me of the Avengers in a weird way.
Ultraman is not going to be a bad series. Although the first season is not at the top of the story, it seems that something will happen in the following seasons, and it also has the first anime title that I am not bothered with watching CGI. Therefore, I think it would be beneficial to follow this new Ultraman, which Netflix offers us.
