Netflix's 'Ultraman' Anime Shares New Stills, Cast Additions

Tsuburaya Productions has been expanding their tokusatsu properties into new mediums, and after [...]

By Nick Valdez

Tsuburaya Productions has been expanding their tokusatsu properties into new mediums, and after finding initial success with translating their Gridman series into SSSS.Gridman, they are making another anime attempt with an even bigger name.

A new anime based on Ultraman will be premiering on Netflix worldwide this Spring, and now fans know a little bit more behind the production with a new set of images and cast additions.

Joining the already confirmed initial cast of Ryohei Kimura as Shinjiro Hayata, Takuya Eguchi as Dan Moroboshi, Megumi Han as Seiji Hokuto, and Hideyuki Tanaka as Shin Hayata are Sumire Morohoshi as Rena Sayama, Ken Uo as Mitsuhiro Ide, Shigeru Ushiyama as Edo, Ryota Takeuchi as Jack, Eiji Hanawa as Yosuke Endo, Hirokazu Sekido as Kurata, Kenjiro Tsuda as Adad, Minoru Shiraishi as Shiraishi, and Kaiji Soze as Bemlar.

The cooler part of the latest cast additions will be the fact that the anime series will be capturing the original tokusatsu spirit of the series and will feature motion actors for many of the heroes such as Katsuyuki Yamazaki as Shinjiro Hayata, Shinji Kasahara as Dan Moroboshi, Haruka Shibai as Rena Sayama and Seiji Hokuto, Teruaki Ogawa as Shin Hayata and Edo, and Kaiji Soze as Mitsuhiro Ide and Bemlar.

Debuting worldwide on Netflix's streaming service on April 1, Ultraman will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Shinji Aramaki of Appleseed Alpha for Production I.G and SOLA Digital Arts. Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi will compose the music for the series.

Netflix officially describes Ultraman as such, "Several years have passed since the events of Ultraman, with the legendary "Giant of Light" now a memory, as it is believed he returned home after fighting the many giant aliens that invaded the Earth. Shin Hayata's son Shinjiro seems to possess a strange ability, and it is this ability, along with his father's revelation that he was Ultraman, that leads Shinjiro to battle the new aliens invading the Earth as the new Ultraman."

For those unfamiliar with Ultraman, it's a tokusatsu series created by Eiji Tsuburaya and produced by Tsuburaya Productions. Running for a total of 39 episodes, the series aired from July 1966 to April 1967. The second series of the Ultra Q franchise, it has since led to many sequels and spin-offs, inspiring a whole host of new series featuring giant heroes.

The new Netflix anime series is based off of Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shiguchi's ULTRAMAN manga, which is a sequel to the original 1966 Ultraman television series and began running in Shogakukan's Monthly Hero magazine on November 2011. The manga has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release, and is currently rated fifth in the "Best New Manga for Kids/Teens" category.

via Anime News Network

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