Ultraman Motion Comic

A promotional motion comic brought to life the opening chapter of Ultraman, an ongoing manga sequel to the original Ultraman television series. Written by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi, the pair behind Line Barrel of Iron, and published in Heroes monthly magazine, the manga is a shonen series aimed at readers in their late teens and twenties, giving it room for darker and more complex characters and situations than its source material.

The story is set roughly forty years after the events of the original series. Ultraman has become little more than legend to a population that has known only peace since his departure, and the Science Special Search-Party (SSSP) has, as far as the public knows, disbanded along with the alien threats it once fought. The manga’s lead, Shinjiro Hayata, is the son of the original series’ Shin Hayata. Beyond possessing abnormal strength and endurance, Shinjiro discovers that the SSSP never actually disbanded, that alien threats to Earth persist, and that he has inherited his father’s legacy as Ultraman. Wearing armor modeled on the original Giant of Light and powered by Specium energy, he takes up that legacy to protect the world from a renewed wave of alien threats.

The manga had been running since 2011 at the time, with its third bound volume set for release in Japan on September 5. The motion comic was produced to mark that release, adapting the scene in which Shinjiro first dons the Ultra-armor to fight the kaiju Bemular. Unlike Kamen Rider Hybrid Insector, a modern continuation of the Showa-era Kamen Rider franchise that Toei cancelled despite strong reception, the Ultraman manga had direct involvement from Tsuburaya Productions, giving it a more stable footing to continue.