Tokusatsu fans know the importance of a transformation sequence as the central hero’s first transformation will set the tone for the rest of the series going forward. It’s an especially important aspect for an anime adaptation of a popular tokusatsu franchise to properly showcase.
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Netflix will soon be debuting a new anime take on Tsuburaya Productions’ Ultraman franchise, and to get fans of the original hyped has shown off the all important transformation sequence for the anime iteration of the famous hero. You can see it above.
This newest clip for the upcoming series features what is most likely the very first transformation in the series. It was the sequence teased in the first few trailers released for the series thus far, and this full look at it features a pretty traditional take on it. Along with the transformation, fans get a taste of Ultraman’s fight with one of the series’ foes Bemlar. It also gives fans a good gauge of how the series’ CG animation depicts its fight scenes.
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.
The cast for the series includes Ryohei Kimura as Shinjiro Hayata, Takuya Eguchi as Dan Moroboshi, Megumi Han as Seiji Hokuto, Hideyuki Tanaka as Shin Hayata, 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.
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. This new Netflix anime series in particular is based off of Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shiguchi’s ULTRAMAN manga, which is a sequel to the original 1966 Ultraman television series
