Shin Ultraman
Shin Ultraman is a 2022 Japanese superhero kaiju film directed by Shinji Higuchi and written, co-produced, and co-edited by Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The film is a co-production between Toho Studios and Cine Bazar, presented by Tsuburaya Productions, Toho Co., Ltd., and Khara, Inc. - it is the 37th film in the Ultraman franchise and a reimagining of the original Ultraman (and the second such reboot of a tokusatsu series done by Anno and Higuchi after Shin Godzilla). Shin Ultraman was theatrically released in Japan on May 13, 2022; it premiered in the United States at the 21st New York Asian Film Festival on July 23, 2022, and will be released to theaters nationwide on January 11 and 12, 2023.
Following the invasion of several giant lifeforms known as kaiju, the Japanese government establish the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol to eliminate further threats. As the SSSP addresses the attack of the kaiju Neronga in Hatsukaichi, an extraterrestrial being arrives on Earth, with the explosive impact almost killing a nearby child; SSSP member Shinji Kaminaga gives his life to rescue the child from the explosion. The extraterrestrial opts to take his appearance and place, leaving the real Kaminaga's body in the forest where he died. Dubbed "Ultraman", the giant humanoid alien manifests and holds off the rampaging kaiju, powering through the energy of its electric beams and annihilating the monster with a Spacium Beam. As he "fuses" with Kaminaga and takes on his life, Ultraman tries to bond with recently-hired SSSP analyst Hiroko Asami, who is unaware of the original Kaminaga's fate.
Shin Ultraman was the result of Hideaki being tasked with a proposal for a trilogy of Ultraman productions by Takayuki Tsukagoshi, the future chairman of Tsuburaya Productions, back in 2017. He would complete the plan for the trilogy on January 17, 2018 and write the first draft of the Shin Ultraman screenplay in February 2019; his actual participation in the film had to be deferred until the completion of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. The film's production was announced on August 1, 2019, with principal photography taking place during fall of that same year and wrapping in November; post-production was decelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and editing took roughly two-and-a-half years, with the pandemic causing it to miss the initial release period of early summer 2021 as well.
Shin Ultraman's release was initially met with mixed reviews, but became the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film of 2022 at the time (until the release Kingdom 2: To Distant Lands) and grossed ¥4.38 billion ($31.2 million) at the box office, becoming the most commercially successful film in the Ultraman franchise. The film received generally positive reviews from critics internationally, with praise for its ambition, direction, characters, editing, cinematography, visual effects, musical score, and action sequences, but criticism towards its structure relying too heavily on connections to older Ultraman fare and a lack of the pointed criticism of the Japanese government that defined Shin Godzilla.
Tsuburaya Productions launched Shin Ultra Fight, a spin-off web miniseries featuring stock footage from the film as well as entirely new footage on May 14, 2022.
- Affably Evil: Zarab and later Mefiras tend towards the formal and polite when dealing with the humans they plan to exploit.
- Aliens Speaking Japanese: All the non-Kaiju aliens are not only capable of speaking Japanese, but naturally do so quite fluently.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Beyond the usual Kaiju and Ultraman himself, Asami ends up mind-controlled into getting this treatment via Beta Capsule technology so that Mefiras can show off its capabilities.
- Blue and Orange Morality: Demonstrated by Mefiras and Zōffy, who in their own ways consider humanity to be insignificant on the scale of their own existence as long-lived, powerful cosmic beings.
- Death Equals Redemption: A subversion of this ends up being the overall arc of the film. Ultraman assumes the form of Kaminaga after accidentally killing him upon crash-landing on the planet, and saves humanity from Kaiju as a form of "apology" to the dead man. After nearly giving his own life in order to eliminate the superweapon Zetton before it can destroy humanity, he is saved by one of his superiors and elects to sacrifice his own life in order to revive Kaminaga and give him a second chance at life, becoming a protector of humankind.
- Despair Event Horizon: One of the SSSP officers nearly crosses this at the sheer prospect of having to continue life as normal knowing that a cosmic superweapon is visible in the sky, silently numbering humanity's days with nothing that the species can do to stop it - not when even Ultraman himself was powerless to. Indeed, if Ultraman hadn't passed along his Beta Capsule containing a well-translated schematic of how to harness Beta Box technology and inspired their greatest minds to convene, huamnkind would've been done for.
- Half the Man He Used To Be: Ultraman finishes off the kaiju-sized Zarab with an "Ultra Slash" that bisects him vertically.
- Heroic Sacrifice: This ends up happening three times - once with Kaminaga, then twice with Ultraman. The first time, Kaminaga sacrifices himself to save a child from the impact of a landing alien vessel, and the ship's pilot repays this by taking on the guise of Kaminaga in order to save other humans as "Ultraman". The second time, Ultraman desperately throws everything he can at the superweapon Zetton to try and stop it from evaporating the entire galaxy in a single burst of trillion-degree heat - he unfortunately fails and falls to Earth grievously injured, but the energy Zetton expended in self-defense forces it to take longer recharging, allowing Ultraman and humanity time to develop a more concise counterattack. Said plot consists of another Heroic Sacrifice that requires Ultraman to pull off a literal split-second gambit, activating his Beta Capsule while already transformed in order to create a black hole that engulfs both him and Zetton; this one succeeds, with Ultraman being saved from spaghettification at the last minute by Zōffy.
- Humans Are Flawed: From the middle of the film on, this is the perspective of two major characters, Mefiras and Ultraman's superior Zōffy. Mefiras's plot was to exploit humanity as a resource through giving them access to Beta Box technology that could create more beings like Ultraman, doing so under the guise of benevolence so that he could corner the market on them before they caught the rest of the galaxy's attention. Zōffy meanwhile considers humanity to be insignificant on the cosmic scale and treats Ultraman's concern for them as many of us would a concern for dust mites - but Zōffy also recognizes the dangers of them obtaining such power and considers it urgent to eradicate them before they can become a threat to other life forms. When Ultraman sacrifices himself to stop Zetton from wiping out humanity, and then offers his life again to revive the real Kaminaga in his original body, Zōffy finally begins to understand what Ultraman sees in them.
- Humans Are Special: Towards the end of the film, this is revealed to be the conclusion that Ultraman comes to. Originally intending to understand humanity while in the guise of Kaminaga, Ultraman realized that humans are far too complex to be "solved" this way but knows enough to grasp that humans can accept their short lifespans and the presence of death while still fighting for their collective survival against seemingly impossible odds and making great personal sacrifices in the process. This in turn motivates Ultraman to sacrifice his own life in order to revive Kaminaga, whose life he assumed after his crash-landing on Earth accidentally killed Kaminaga - a sacrifice that Zōffy comes to eventually accept.
- Kaiju: The film explicitly refers to the alien monsters that've terrorized Japan (and specifically Japan, as one Japanese government member laments) by this term.
- Mythology Gag: Naturally, as several legacy monsters and villains feature in the movie.
- The similarities between the first few Kaiju are pointed out by the SSSP; the low budget of the original Ultraman show often necessitated the reuse of multiple costume parts from each Monster of the Week, which gave them a Mix-and-Match Critter sort of feel.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: When his superior Zōffy informs him that sharing his life force with a human is forbidden under the law of his home planet, Ultraman remains defiant and seeks to protect humanity as much as he can.