‘Ultraman: Rising’ Makes Heroic Strides

By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

As the father of a teenager, I can bear first-hand witness to how the current under-20 generation is absolutely rabid for Japanese manga and anime. I was perusing the shelves inside the Barnes & Noble store at The Grove last weekend, and was amazed at the enormous selection of manga titles available – all but a few translated into English.

This enthusiasm for Japanese pop culture is an obvious, fertile seeding ground for a new chapter for one of that country’s biggest (literally) heroes – Ultraman.

Actually, I guess perhaps to say Ultramen or Ultrafolks would be more accurate. Since the first iteration in 1966, there have been dozens of characters to wear the “Ultra” moniker. In a nutshell, they’re a race of alien beings who, for various reasons, had to scram from their home planet and scatter its denizens across the galaxies.

Usually, some mere mortal is infused with the power to transform into the giant, armor-clad hero to protect the hapless citizenry – usually in or near Tokyo – from an ever-menacing series of kaiju, or giant monsters.

Riding the wave of kaiju movies in the Godzilla franchise, Tsuburaya Productions, originally a Japanese visual effects company, created a television program to bring the monstrous mayhem into homes on a weekly basis.

“Ultra Q” was an immediate hit, and soon featured a brillant twist. Rather than rely on toy planes and model tanks to battle the enormous monsters, why not have a hero available so the kaiju could pick on someone their own size? The Ultraman character became hugely popular, with the inevitable toys and other merchandise flying off the shelves as fast as they could be produced.

It wasn’t long before an English-dubbed import showed up on TV screens in the U.S., and for many in my generation, that was our first exposure to this quintessentially Japanese pop art form.

Countless “Ultra” TV shows and movies followed – in fact, the franchise has spanned three emperor eras in Japan – with suffixed titles like “Ace,” “Taiga” and “Galaxy Mega Monster Battle.” Man, that sounds pretty serious.

My kid was an early convert. Over the last dozen years or so, my house has been filled with hundreds of the ubiquitous five-inch vinyl Ultraman figures, while the title song and tranformational shout of “shuwatch!” rang from our living room almost daily.

So when I learned a couple of years ago that a new “Ultraman” was coming, I must admit I held more than a passing interest.

“Ultraman: Rising,” the new animated feature premiering Friday on Netflix, has the added sheen of a cast filled with Japanese American voice talent, as well as a JA co-director, John Aoshima.

On Wednesday, fellow journalist Gil Asakawa and I took part in a discussion with stars Tamlyn Tomita, Gedde Watanabe, Keone Young, Christopher Sean and Julia Harriman.
“My uncles, my aunts, they all grew up with Ultraman, so when I was able to finally share with them what I was doing, everybody was very, very excited,” said Harriman, who has appeared on Broadway in “Hamilton” and wasn’t born until nearly three decades after the character’s first appearance. “They were telling me everything they knew about Ultraman. Their excitement got me very excited.”

Harriman added that she’s thrilled to be able to bring the legacy to a new generation of fans, saying she’s surprised it took as long as it did to bring an Ultraman title geared toward the mainstream outside of Japan.

Sean, whose credits include “Days of Our Lives” and “Star Wars: Resistance,” speculated that ownership and distribution rights might have kept the franchise from going global sooner.

“When [the producers] had the script, they went to Tsuburaya and pitched the story, and they said that was the story they were looking for to take it worldwide, and we are the lucky ones to be part of that cast.”

In “Ultraman: Rising,” Sean plays Ken, a famous baseball player in the States who just happens to be infused with the powers of Ultraman. When Japan becomes overrun with giant monsters bent on destruction, Ken decides it’s time to return to his homeland and wage battle.

The story takes an entirely unexpected twist, however, after UM defeats his arch-nemesis kaiju, Gigantron. The vanquishing of the monster has left our hero suddenly in the care of her now-orphaned three-story, fire-breathing baby kaiju.

Our tale soon finds the self-centered Ken and his Ultra alter-ego struggling to balance saving the world with his daddy responsibilities.

Much of Wednesday’s conversation revolved round how refreshing it is to have a major feature released that has allowed Asian Americans to tell a story close to them in their own voices.

Young, whose love of Japanese comics goes all the way back to the original “Astro Boy,” said now is a prime time for Japanese anime on a worldwide stage.

“This is one of the first times that a Japanese product, developed by the Japanese, is being done by an American company, working with Asian artists and voiced by an all-Asian American cast,” he said. “I think we need to celebrate that finally, people are recognizing that we are a voice, as Japanese Americans. We’re not just doing heroic voices or monsters, we’re voicing specifically Japanese character and Japanese culture. That’s really important.”

Young’s career goes all the way back to the 1960s, and includes roles on some of TV’s most iconic shows, such as “Taxi,” “Hill Street Blues” and the original “Magnum, P.I.”

“I feel that Netflix is leading the way,” said Watanabe, whose celebrated career also includes a part as highly caricaturized exchange student in the 1984 teen comedy “Sixteen Candles.” That role has become one of many examples of how Asian actors have struggled to find work outside of racial stereotypes.

“I appreciate all the diverse stories that are happening on Netfilx, and I wish that the other venues would follow, because it’s fun to see things that might surprise you from around the corner.

“For me, Netflix has led the way,” Watanabe added.