‘Ultraman’ Announces New Anime Coming in 2019

Ultraman is one of the most popular tokusatsu series in Japan and worldwide, and now it’s venturing into the world of anime!

Announced in the January 2018 issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Hero magazine, an anime adaptation of Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shiguchi’s ULTRAMAN manga is coming in 2019 and will be produced by Production I.G. and Sola Digital Arts.

Kenji Kamiyama of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Shinji Aramaki of Appleseed Alpha will direct the series as it follows the adventures of Shin Hayata, the son of the original Ultraman. Production I.G. has produced many popular anime series such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood: The Last Vampire, Patlabor, xxHolic, and The End of Evangelion.

Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shiguchi’s ULTRAMAN manga is a sequel to the 1966 Ultraman television series and began running in Shogakukan’s Monthly Hero magazine November 2011, and has been collected into ten volumes as of 2017. The manga has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release in 2015 and is rated fifth in the “Best New Manga for Kids/Teens.

The series follows Shinjiro Hayata, son of the original Ultraman. Shin Hayata of the Scientific Special Search Party saved the Earth from an invasion of Kaju decades earlier, so the world has been at peace. But as a new dark force appears, the world needs a new hero, a new Ultraman. Shinjiro learns that his father passed on the “Ultraman Factor” to him, and that he possesses incredible powers, and now must face the incoming threat.

For those unfamiliar with Ultraman, it is a tokusatsu series created by Eiji Tsuburaya. 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. Eiji Tsubuyara is also credited with being one of the co-creators of one of the most popular tokusatsu series of all time, Godzilla.