On May 13th, 2022, Shin Ultraman was released in Japanese theatres to a positive reception. The film, directed by Shinji Higuchi and produced by Hideaki Anno, is a modern reimagining of the iconic 1966 Ultraman TV series. One year later, however, the film saw a two-day release in the US and UK, with day two being the English dub of the film, and I was lucky enough to see the film in theatres. So without further ado, lets get into the review, spoilers ahead.
“Have you become so fond of humans, Ultraman?”
The Cast and Characters
This films cast was nothing but amazing. Each character felt believable and fit the film perfectly. The film starred the following actors:
Takumi Saitoh as Shinji Kaminaga
Hidetoshi Nishijima as Kimio Tamura
Masami Nagasawa as Hiroko Asami
Daiki Arioka as Akihisa Taki
Akari Hayami as Yumi Funaberi
Koji Yamamoto as Mefilas
Issey Takahashi as Ultraman (Voice)
Kenjiro Tsuda as Zarab (Voice)
Koichi Yamadera as Zōffy
Each role was well performed by each member of the cast, adding to the charm of the film, and the SSSP in the film had a dynamic that reminded me so much of the original team. The antagonists with speaking lines also left an impact but I’m only going to talk about my three favourite performances of the film, starting with:
Saitoh as Kaminaga (well, Ultraman impersonating Kaminaga) was well done, as Lipiah (who the humans give the name Ultraman) is a fish out of water, wanting to learn more about humans after witnessing the real Kaminaga’s act of courage, when he saved a child during his arrival. We only get to see how the real Kaminaga was prior to Ultraman’s arrival.
Nagasawa as Asami was the secondary protagonist and “buddy” of Kaminaga. The character seemed lively and energetic but knew when to get serious (such as when she helped free Kaminaga when he was kidnapped by Zarab). She was also the one who asked Kaminaga/Ultraman if he was an alien or a human.
Yamamoto as Mefilas, one of the most memorable performances in the film. Koji Yamamoto’s performance was quite chilling, with how calm and collected Mefilas was, especially during his conversation with Kaminaga/Ultraman, which is one of the best scenes in the film in my humble opinion, and the fact that he has been nominated for an award for the role, I say, it’s an award well deserved.
Now, moving on to:
The Music
A lot of the music in this film is pulled from the soundtrack of the original 1966 series that was composed by Kunio Miyauchi, with some new tracks made by Evangalion composer and long-time Anno collaborator, Shiro Sagisu. Due to the majority of the tracks being composed by Miyauchi, he is credited as the films primary composer with Sagisu as secondary.
The films theme song, “M87” was performed by Kenshi Yonezu, who is best known for the songs Lemon, Peace Sign and more recently, Kick Back. Now I will admit, I had never listened to any of his music prior to this song so this was my first time listening to one, and suffice to say, I was blown away. The song had an operatic and heroic sound to it and some of the lyrics reference Ultraman himself, examples include:
“If you so wish, he’ll come to your aide with everything he has”
“Though you may no longer see me, I’ll watch over you from afar”
A genuinely beautiful song. Even if you’re not an Ultraman fan, but you like Kenshi Yonezu, I highly recommend listening to this song.
Next up is:
The Visuals
Moving along to the films visuals, Ultraman, Zarab, Mefilas and some Kaiju were depicted via Mocap (Motion Capture) and CGI models. While Hideaki Anno did some of the Mocap for Ultraman, original Ultraman suit actor Satoshi “Bin” Furuya returned to provide mocap for this new take on the character he played.
The texturing on several characters made them feel like suits, with the way the camera and lighting was done made them feel like suits/models. For example, when Ultraman was flying, he would stay static, just like the flying prop from the original series.
The monsters Pagos, Neronga and Gabora share numerous parts between eachother, a nod to the fact that the 3 were all made from the same suit, Baragon from the Godzilla series, the sets for the models look realistic and well put together as well.
The camera angles, which were quite reminiscent of Evangelion, especially the sequence with Kaminaga/Ultraman and Mefilas, which to me was the best scene in the whole movie.
Now we have Zetton, here reinterpreted as a superweapon created by the Ultra’s as a “Celestial Suppression Unit”. When Zetton was assembling itself, it was a very interesting sequence, and when it was done, I got genuine chills hearing the iconic “Zetton….” sound echo in the cinema screening room.
Now moving on to the last part of my review, which is:
Final Thoughts
What are my final thoughts? My final thoughts are that I absolutely love Shin Ultraman. It’s one of the best tokusatsu movies I have seen in a long time and has taken its place as my favourite movie. The music, visuals, the cast and characters were all perfect.
I may write another article following on from this, as there is one subject I did not write about here, the toys. But that’s a topic for another day…
What do you all think? Did you manage to see Shin Ultraman? If you did, please tell me what you thought, I’d love to hear your opinions. But if you haven’t seen this movie, then I highly recommend giving it a watch, it’s worth it.
