Tsuburaya has been through hell in its lifetime through bad business decisions, terrible timing, moments of near bankruptcy, and goddamn Chaiyo, all the while creating some quality programming over 5 decades. If there’s any Tokusatsu company that has earned the right to succeed in the west, it’s them. Side note: I feel like a little kid in awe of his older brother by just watching your work. I am seriously proud of you, Mike! If the rest of your videos match this level of quality, I’ll follow you and this channel to the ends of the earth.
Top notch production, my friend. You covered this history in a way that anyone, both old and new fans can understand and relate too. I look forward to a future where maybe we can work together on something eventually.
Fun fact: In the original "Ready player one" book it was revealed that Ultraman was the one fighting mechagodzilla, and the film had plans to implement this, but due to the ongoing legal battle tsuburaya had, Ultraman was unfortunately replaced with the Iron giant instead...
I saw the cover art for the book after researching about the movie and was disappointed Ultra didn't make it to RPO. Could've been a great way to bring Ultraman to the mainstream spotlight.
@@anotherbig976 What bullet? The movie? RPO is decent, not that bad. I was just complaining about how they didn't put Ultraman in the movie, not even a cameo. But the movie itself isn't that bad.
I don't remember Ultraman the Adventure Begins in theaters, but I do remember it on TV. It was broadcast only once on a Saturday Afternoon in 1988 in the San Francisco Bay Area. I talked to a few other friends later in other markets that happened to see it as well. Some saw it on a Saturday, others on Sunday. I had a TV recording of it until the US Renditions VHS came out, which I still have
Yeah, the theatrical run is something that I later discovered to be not entirely accurate and based on mixed accounts. Really hoping that the recent Blu-ray edition finds its way stateside!
I'm shocked that Hanna-Barbera was involved in anything 'Ultraman' related. The animation looks on par with 'Pirates Of Dark Water', or 'Swat Kats'. Had this movie caught on in the west, 'The Adventure Begins' could've aired on Toonami as an extension to TNT's airings of 'Ultra 7'
I remember i was around 9 years old. I had stayed up all night while my family all slept. Something i did often growing up. It must've been about 5 in the morning. Flipping through the channels i just happened along an Ultraman episode and it changed my life. I never forgot that morning and have always been a fan of Godzilla movies and old 1970's shows like Ultraman or the adventures of Giant Robot and Johnny Sakko. I will still watch them to this day. Drove my daughter nuts growing up. She could never understand why i loved these series and movies so much but she loves that i am still that same old kid all those years ago.
Watching ultraman with a chinese dub, are the only memories I have of my grandmother that passed away when I was 5. I used to drag her to the couch when the show started and then hide behind her back when it got too scary. Grandma had humor though, I always asked her to tell me when the scary part is over so I can watch again and somedays I guess she's bored and just wants to cause me some childhood trauma by telling me it's safe to watch right before a close up of the monsters face... then she'd laugh XD. Miss you grandma.
This is honestly the channel I wish I'd had for years. Huge congratulations on such an incredibly high calibre of work that you've put into every one of these videos. I've watched them each several times and can't wait for whatever you do next. Would love to see a video specifically about the Chaiyo collaborations, outside of the lawsuit. Really curious about what those sets were like. All the best!
We'll get to it someday! It's currently the highest goal in our Patreon due to the extensive translation work that'll be needed and the time required to make it high-quality stuff.
I can't speak for other parts of the country. But in NYC (New York City,) Ultraman: The Adventure Begins was never in movie theaters. It was shown on TV on Columbus Day, 1987. Since everyone was off from school, you know, kids and teenagers under the age of 18. They were trying to get maximum exposure. Trying to get as much young people to see it as possible. And it was only shown once, I had never seen it on TV ever again. As you mentioned in the video, It was a pilot for an up and coming Ultraman animation TV series for the US market.
Yeah, shortly after doing the episode, it turned out that I had based that segment on what was discovered to be a false account. Not exactly my finest hour unfortunately.
The essay in general was nothing short of great, but I was also mindblown by the way everything was edited. The use of the themes, the cuts...I think I'm in love with this channel, I finally found time to sit down and watch through this and I think I'll follow you for a very long time! Kudos to you!
Excellent video man. I'm a big Ultraman fan and fan of Toku in general. My Dad was actually the one who first exposed me to Ultraman. Looking forward to your future videos.
As a Power Rangers fan, it hurts me knowing that played a part in Ultraman Towards The Future not being as successful as it should have been. After being reminded that us Ulttaman fans have come a long way with more releases, I'm still hoping Guyver will make a comeback. Well done man.
I'm too late to find this video,your video is clearly show me how Ultra series's history in western. But with the huge success of ULTRAMAN Z in last year and Ultra galaxy fight,I believe Ultraman will get its recognition soon.
Dude finding your channel has made me feel nostalgia so hard. Everything video on your channel I've seen and I got to think my mother and father for getting me in to this. But aside from my rambling you got a new subscriber.
Speaking of bootlegs I just recently found my bootleg dvd collection of Zone Fighter. No labels on the dvd's and no english subs. Ah the memories of young me having no idea what was happening
I'd say a much bigger problem with the audio in BCI's boxsets was the fact that..... well.....it wasn't entirely there. Yeah, occasionally there would be episodes where the English audio track is suddenly in Japanese for several minutes, forcing you to rewind a few seconds and turn on the English subtitles. I'm guessing the audio in those portions was basically unusable, but there were better ways they could've handled this, such as having Fake Shemps rerecord the dialogue, or have a separate set of subtitles that plays automatically for stuff that isn't dubbed (which is what almost all English dubs of anime do).
We still need a VHS release of _Space Warriors 2000!!!_ I knew about Ultraman prior to that, but seeing SW2k on television was like some half-imagined fever-dream.
wow this really took me back. buying bootlegs at fleamarkets and comic cons was pretty much the only way i could see new stuff in the 80s and 90s although usually my friends and i would liberate them instead of paying for them. i can remember seeing that ultraman cartoon on laserdisc along with spectraman too. finding an old tokusatsu vhs for a buck at some video store was the greatest thing ever for me back then. i can remember getting brain 17 on vhs and wondering what the hell it was and finding out much later it was daitetsujin17 and then realizing there were more episodes. great channel i subbed and cant wait to see what else you do.
Great video, but I'd like to point out something you missed. When BCI Eclipse went out of business, all of the properties they had home media rights to went to Mill Creek Entertainment. This included Ultraman, which they released in a Complete Series box set. There were fours discs, each with 10 episodes, that were held in cheap plastic slip cases. Aside from that, Mill Creek's dvd was the same as the dvds BCI released. Funny how they would end up being the company that Tsuburaya Productions licensed the official U.S. distribution rights of the Ultra Series to.
I had an interesting experience with Ultraman: Towards The Future, my first experience with it or anything tokusatsu related was when I looked up the cinema attractions page on the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper, which at the time showed black and white prints of film posters, one of them was Ultraman Towards The Future as a film compilation of the series was released in Arabic speaking markets at the time though the poster was hard make out apart from the title the ink quality used in newspapers at the time did not help the poster especially in black and white. Several years later, I got watch and record the film compilation when it was broadcast on one of the Arabic channels on the satellite dish, after recording it I've watched the film a couple of times. It was among my introduction to Tokusatsu along with the Hong Kong film Inframan and the eventual popularity of Power Rangers. Around that time, there was also an Arabic dub of one of the Ultraman Kids anime productions, which I watched in its entirety as it aired. So I had quite a connection to Ultraman before I watched the main franchise proper thanks to rise of the internet when one of the now defunct streaming sites uploaded episodes of the English dub of the 1966 series.
It’s very bizarre in hindsight that he managed to get volumes 1 and 3 of the Ultraman Tiga Funimation DVDs, given that now those are by far the rarer and more expensive ones. Volume 3 in particular is almost impossible to find for under 100 dollars, bizarrely more rare than the other sets. Maybe because it has the Akio Jissoji directed episodes? I don’t know. These DVDs are also the only American release that has Take Me Higher on it so that’s great.
It was honestly just dumb luck from back in the day.. As for why they’re asking for ridiculous prices now, your guess is as good as mine. The same thing happened with the last volume of Aura Battler Dunbine.
@@VintageHenshinSince you responded just want to throw out there that I love the channel. Always super informative, and it's a great resource for showing how wild and interesting the world of Toku really is.
I won’t lie, I have a soft spot for the DVD set at 16:49. It was the first time classic Ultraman was on DVD and I begged my Dad to buy it when we were at Frye’s Electronics. I never thought about how bad the sounds were, but it felt classic to me. I still both my Shout Factory DVDs of Ultra Q and Ultraseven with my booklet signed by August Ragone who wrote it. I love Ultraman Towards The Future. I grew up with that show and it introduced me to Ultraman as a kid. I still have all my toys. That show and Ultraman Ultimate Hero need there own videos. Top Notch video my friend!!!
i thought ultraman was only an anime because of The Ultraman II, thats the only media of it i saw living in california. I think i had a figure too, but i never saw live action ultraman till i was older.
Mike, you really do your homework for these videos. I'm impressed with the detail you go into. I just found your channel and subscribed after 3 videos. Keep up the good work. Side bar: The TDG series wasn't exactly a waste. It was entertaining and kept the legacy on life support. Also, I've been catching up on the older Ultra series on Amazon Prime(Thank you Shout Factory) and have been pleased.
I grew up with Ultraman Jonias (anime). My dad bought 2 cassettes of Ultraman, the ones mentioned in this video. I always wondered if there were more episodes. I always thought the first 4 episodes was the first one came out, and the second one was when Ultraman visited his home planet. Then a few years ago I found a japanese youtuber who uploaded all of the episodes of Ultraman jonias. I saw atleast 50(!) episodes. Tsuburaya made a bad decision to 'fix' the episodes in a 'film' and stopped with 4 episodes in their second run. They should have released the original subbed or dubbed.
NOTE ON THE BCI "ULTRAMAN" RELEASE: The English audio for was provided to BCI by the former honchos of Expressions In Animation. They also penned the liner notes (their names were not attached as they didn't want to incriminate themselves with Tsuburaya). NOTE ON THE EIA "ULTRAMAN" RELEASE: They had originally planned to do the entire series. This deal was brokered through Ultracom, Inc., Tsuburaya's LA operation at the time. According to a former Tsuburaya employee, long story short, one of the members of EIA kept breaking protocol with Tsuburaya's head office, which is why there's only one volume. NOTE ON "ULTRAMAN: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS": The movie was never released to US theaters - it was a one-and-done broadcast on Fox affiliate stations. It was intended as a pilot for a full-blown TV series, which never materialized (obviously).
I wanted to add something regarding the Tiga US airing: the only reason 4Kids got the series to air in the first place was because of one thing: there was a Ultraman reference in their other licensed show, Kirby: Right back at ya, and 4Kids only licensed the show just to explain that reference. That was the weird way to bring it over just for that one reference.
One thing that should be noted is that in the 90s there was 2 Ultraman shows Jack and Ace that were dubbed into English and released on VHS in Malaysia by Speedy Video. Yes I know this is covering American Home Video but it should be noted
I still own the first four episodes of the Jack dub on VHS and the first four of Taro’s English dub. I knew they were Malaysian English dubs but I never knew which company was behind them until now.
@@KKAkuoku pretty much all the voices from each dub have been on many other Speedy dubs such as their DBZ stuff. Also can you please upload those Ultraman Jack English dub episodes.
Well yes and no. There have been two remixed soundtracks done for Ultraman’s audio. The one we have on the Mill Creek set is from the most recent Japanese Blu-rays which is a heck of a lot better than the Panasonic mix.
When I was a kid we were so broke that our tv for many, many years was black and white, and for owning a toy forget about it and when I found out that Ultraman uniform is red and silver I was surprised!!
Great video! Looking forward to more. Odd that you got volumes 1 and 3 of Tiga, I got 1, 2, and 4 fairly easily but wasn't able to find volume 3 for a long time until I got lucky on ebay (and paid way too much for it).
The prices are decent nowadays but there was a time where Volume 4 was close to 100 bucks thanks to scalpers! We can only hope that Mill Creek gets to it for a blu-ray release!
Ultraman has had a rocky history in the west, which is caused by a mixture of different factors. Power Rangers really wasn't one of them, which is ironic considering Super Sentai is arguably Ultraman's main competition, so had Tiga been localized back in 1997 or so, it would have been the perfect competitor in the west to Power Rangers. But unfortunately, that was also when the Chaiyo lawsuit started and pretty much made it so that Power Rangers was the only Tokusatsu in the west... well, unless you want to count early 2000's superhero movies, which is REALLY stretching things. In fact, Ultraman would have come to the west much sooner had it not been for Chaiyo, because unlike Toei with Kamen Rider (to which you can blame Saban's awful "adaptation" of Black RX for that), Tsubaraya was always open to break out into foreign markets. And it's because of Chaiyo and several of the disastrous attempts to bring Toku to the west that the genre is a LOT more niche in the west than Anime is, probably because the early attempts to bring Anime to the west weren't nearly as disastrous as with Toku, even when you factor 4Kids and the aforementioned Saban into the mix.
i loved this show as a kid..im 57 now and i was pretending to be Ultraman as a kindergardener on the playground .. i watched it and also Johnny Sako and his flying robot ..religously ..i didnt much like cartoons though..
This was a wonderfully composed video essay! My thanks to you good sir! This is channel is a goldmine of materials and I am so glad I found it! I do have a burning question regarding this video though. How come Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Powered) was not mentioned in American Home Video releases? Unless you have plans for a separate video on that of course.
The show never came out in the US ironically despite being made in the US. Luckily the Philippines aired both The Ultimate Hero and Towards The Future. I say this because I was a kid when I saw it there growing up in the Philippines, and yes it was in English.
The only turnoff, at least for me anyway, for the Tsuburaya/Mill Creek Blu-Rays is the fact that they do not contain the English dubs for Ultra Q, Ultraman, and Ultra Seven.
The dub for Ultraman has surfaced across two special releases from MC for Ultraman Day. We still lack a complete release for that, unfortunately. As for the Q and Seven dubs, those are both tied up in their own respective messes.
Thank you for this I remember getting up early one morning turning on the TV and catching an episode of Ultraman towards the future and telling my friends about it they couldn’t wait until the next Saturday we all got up early to watch the show only to find out it wasn’t on three Saturdays later and we gave up then one day I saw the toys at Walmart I picked up ultraman and a monster then told my friend about it and he went and did the same and all we had for reference was what I saw and remembered of the episode If they just changed the time slot too 8am or 9am it could of had a shot
I had the figures from towards the future along with their ship as well as the video game that I DID enjoy! Glad I have the game again via the new Nintendo mini system with multiple games built in
What happened in 2019 regarding Star Fleet / X-Bomber? I’m always surprised to see footage from it unexpectedly pop up, or to find someone else who even knows what it is! Hah.
Nothing in particular, it just saw a bit of resurgence Stateside due to the BD set. Though last year, there was an X-Bomber exhibition and the reveal of a new model kit by Good Smile!
thanks for putting this up -it cleared up some stuff that always bothered me about the part 1 of the ultraman set i happen to have-got it in a bargin bin years ago -im looking forward to more being put out
I remembered those times they released Ultraman stuff as DVDs in thailand (because I live and born there) And I guess it's Chaiyo as well.. I never knew one company tried to look like they CREATED this masterpiece that is Ultraman... (Also a fact: chaiyo means yaa-hoo or a cheer... but it doesn't fit at all, bastards!)
curious as to why Ultraman Powered and the TBS dubbed Ultra Seven weren't covered. I'm guessing no official US video release? Great work as always btw. Love this content.
That’s exactly the reason. Powered never saw the light of day, and the dubbed Ultraseven has been lost to the ages. Though lost tokusatsu dubs may warrant a deeper dive at a later date!
I know everyone wants a video about the ultraman millennium or chaiyo lawsuit, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I’m more interested in the banned or illegal ultraman, I’m talking about the Chinese bastardizing of ultraman: the two dragon force ultraman movies dragon force the rise of ultraman and dragon force goodbye ultraman. Also Hi, I’m an ULTRAMANIAC and have been since seeing ultraman Tiga premiere the very day fox kids became the fox box. I spent a lot of reading time during school either reading Wikipedia articles or encyclopedic sites for Godzilla, Sentai, or ultraman. I am a Toku Otaku so you’re definitely going to be seeing more of me. Welcome to the CZcams favorites, I am now a fan.
Amazing video, glad they are making ultraman stuff in the us Also the towards the future toyline wasn't fully cancelled, some of them were, i actually own the Hummer jet toy with it's box (in great shape btw) and it has a toys r us price sticker on it And the big ultraman with Jack Shindo but the box is all messed up
I should clarify: the Dreamworks line went through, but a supposed expansion with Bandai was what got cancelled. I do regret never getting the Hummer jet as a kid though! Someday I’ll fill that gap in my childhood! along with the original Power Morpher...
I can't seem to find the photos but I do remember there were rumblings of Bandai America releasing toys of Tiga. There's a chance that could be off but I could have sworn I saw photos from a licensing show or a Toy Fair.
@@VintageHenshin I found an article that 4kkds was planning to work with Hasbro to release the Tiga toys. Hopefully I can find pictures of what your saying though!
I remember when I was like 6 or 7 in the mid 90's a local movie store had a copy of an abridged first half of Toward The Future and the SNES game was pretty ubiquitous in the movie store scene you'd always see a copy on the snes shelves. For years I thought that that's all ultraman was, a movie and a tie in game.
Thankfully, no! Since TPC got the international rights back for Ultraman, the materials that Mill Creek are working with come directly from them. This means that they’re specifically utilizing recent blu-ray masters. That said, those masters also include an updated stereo soundtrack that does have modern sound effects mixed in, but it’s a much better mix than the DVDs that GMG used.
Hold it! You only managed to get volumes one and three of ultraman tiga? I was able to volumes 1, 2, and 4 when I was in 8th grade. I chose not to get volume three because it was making my Amazon Christmas list really expensive and I didn’t want to spend too much of my moms money. Anyway, it wasn’t until my first years of college that I finally was able to get my hands on volume 3 and for a reasonable price of 63 dollars if I remember. Volume 3 is the one that doesn’t show up that much, 1,2 and 4 I remember people selling together in a bundle on eBay. I’m pretty sure that you should be able to complete your collection with having much trouble. eBay should have a ton. Seriously 1,2,4 showed up so much when I was looking for 3.
Funny thing is that after this episode originally came out, somebody actually offered to send me the remaining volumes that I was missing! I now have the full set thankfully, but I do wish I had the box set with the Ill-itting T-shirt!
Yeah the box set is the one that I got in middle school, 8th grade to be exact in the year 2007 if I’m correct. Yes I did wear the shirt to school and will still wear it as it still fits.
I really want to! It's definitely on the list for major long-term projects. To help make it happen sooner, consider supporting this channel's Patreon! - patreon.com/vintagehenshin
I still have the Q, Ultraman and Seven released by BCI and SHOUT! It’s just as good as the Mill Creek and I never upgraded. But Return, Ace, now Taro and Leo is on my list.
I was a fan of Godzilla longer than i was a Power Rangers fan, so when the switch from Fox Kids over to Fox Box (4Kids) they replaced what was "Power Rangers: Wild Force" with Ultraman Tiga. To my surprise it had more similar to Godzilla than Power Rangers.
It’s definitely a weird one! As for the toy prototypes, I recall seeing photos from a Toy Fair article somewhere but they probably could have just been the Japanese toys on display
Tsuburaya has been through hell in its lifetime through bad business decisions, terrible timing, moments of near bankruptcy, and goddamn Chaiyo, all the while creating some quality programming over 5 decades. If there’s any Tokusatsu company that has earned the right to succeed in the west, it’s them.
Side note: I feel like a little kid in awe of his older brother by just watching your work. I am seriously proud of you, Mike! If the rest of your videos match this level of quality, I’ll follow you and this channel to the ends of the earth.
Meant alot to read this, thank you!
How much of Chaiyo do you know?
Top notch production, my friend.
You covered this history in a way that anyone, both old and new fans can understand and relate too.
I look forward to a future where maybe we can work together on something eventually.
Get hired by the Tokusatsu Network right this instant
I'm actually one of the original co-founders!
@@VintageHenshin That solves that mystery.
Fun fact: In the original "Ready player one" book it was revealed that Ultraman was the one fighting mechagodzilla, and the film had plans to implement this, but due to the ongoing legal battle tsuburaya had, Ultraman was unfortunately replaced with the Iron giant instead...
I saw the cover art for the book after researching about the movie and was disappointed Ultra didn't make it to RPO. Could've been a great way to bring Ultraman to the mainstream spotlight.
Dodged a bullet there
@@anotherbig976 What bullet? The movie? RPO is decent, not that bad. I was just complaining about how they didn't put Ultraman in the movie, not even a cameo. But the movie itself isn't that bad.
I thought it was replaced by Gundam. Iron Giant replaced Leopardon.
I don't remember Ultraman the Adventure Begins in theaters, but I do remember it on TV. It was broadcast only once on a Saturday Afternoon in 1988 in the San Francisco Bay Area. I talked to a few other friends later in other markets that happened to see it as well. Some saw it on a Saturday, others on Sunday. I had a TV recording of it until the US Renditions VHS came out, which I still have
Yeah, the theatrical run is something that I later discovered to be not entirely accurate and based on mixed accounts. Really hoping that the recent Blu-ray edition finds its way stateside!
This was never shown in our local theaters, or aired on TV in my area. Which explains why I never knew about it until this video.
I'm shocked that Hanna-Barbera was involved in anything 'Ultraman' related. The animation looks on par with 'Pirates Of Dark Water', or 'Swat Kats'. Had this movie caught on in the west, 'The Adventure Begins' could've aired on Toonami as an extension to TNT's airings of 'Ultra 7'
@Wargamer Lina Like their lesser known 80's cartoon 'Sky Commanders'.
Looking forward to the future of this CZcams channel
Thanks! Hope to live up to those expectations!
I remember i was around 9 years old. I had stayed up all night while my family all slept. Something i did often growing up.
It must've been about 5 in the morning. Flipping through the channels i just happened along an Ultraman episode and it changed my life.
I never forgot that morning and have always been a fan of Godzilla movies and old 1970's shows like Ultraman or the adventures of Giant Robot and Johnny Sakko.
I will still watch them to this day. Drove my daughter nuts growing up. She could never understand why i loved these series and movies so much but she loves that i am still that same old kid all those years ago.
Watching ultraman with a chinese dub, are the only memories I have of my grandmother that passed away when I was 5. I used to drag her to the couch when the show started and then hide behind her back when it got too scary. Grandma had humor though, I always asked her to tell me when the scary part is over so I can watch again and somedays I guess she's bored and just wants to cause me some childhood trauma by telling me it's safe to watch right before a close up of the monsters face... then she'd laugh XD. Miss you grandma.
This is honestly the channel I wish I'd had for years. Huge congratulations on such an incredibly high calibre of work that you've put into every one of these videos. I've watched them each several times and can't wait for whatever you do next. Would love to see a video specifically about the Chaiyo collaborations, outside of the lawsuit. Really curious about what those sets were like. All the best!
Heh, can’t wait to see your take on the Chaiyo debacle.
We'll get to it someday! It's currently the highest goal in our Patreon due to the extensive translation work that'll be needed and the time required to make it high-quality stuff.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels
Thanks much! Means a lot to hear that!
I can't speak for other parts of the country. But in NYC (New York City,) Ultraman: The Adventure Begins was never in movie theaters. It was shown on TV on Columbus Day, 1987. Since everyone was off from school, you know, kids and teenagers under the age of 18. They were trying to get maximum exposure. Trying to get as much young people to see it as possible. And it was only shown once, I had never seen it on TV ever again. As you mentioned in the video, It was a pilot for an up and coming Ultraman animation TV series for the US market.
Yeah, shortly after doing the episode, it turned out that I had based that segment on what was discovered to be a false account. Not exactly my finest hour unfortunately.
I still wish the last 4 missing 4kids Tiga dub episodes would be uploaded to CZcams.
You can watch the last episode of Ultraman Tiga English Dub.
Good start!
The essay in general was nothing short of great, but I was also mindblown by the way everything was edited. The use of the themes, the cuts...I think I'm in love with this channel, I finally found time to sit down and watch through this and I think I'll follow you for a very long time! Kudos to you!
Excellent video man. I'm a big Ultraman fan and fan of Toku in general. My Dad was actually the one who first exposed me to Ultraman. Looking forward to your future videos.
This did pretty well
As a Power Rangers fan, it hurts me knowing that played a part in Ultraman Towards The Future not being as successful as it should have been.
After being reminded that us Ulttaman fans have come a long way with more releases, I'm still hoping Guyver will make a comeback.
Well done man.
I'm too late to find this video,your video is clearly show me how Ultra series's history in western.
But with the huge success of ULTRAMAN Z in last year and Ultra galaxy fight,I believe Ultraman will get its recognition soon.
Man, I remember Towards the Future! Mike, this is so damn good! I can't wait for more!!!!!
Say what you will about 4kids, but that Ultraman Tiga opening legitimately slaps
I really don't see the hate for 4kids? It was amazing when I was a kid.
I love Tiga dub!
Dude finding your channel has made me feel nostalgia so hard. Everything video on your channel I've seen and I got to think my mother and father for getting me in to this. But aside from my rambling you got a new subscriber.
Speaking of bootlegs I just recently found my bootleg dvd collection of Zone Fighter. No labels on the dvd's and no english subs. Ah the memories of young me having no idea what was happening
Thank you for doing this, ultraman needs more recognition
I'd say a much bigger problem with the audio in BCI's boxsets was the fact that..... well.....it wasn't entirely there.
Yeah, occasionally there would be episodes where the English audio track is suddenly in Japanese for several minutes, forcing you to rewind a few seconds and turn on the English subtitles. I'm guessing the audio in those portions was basically unusable, but there were better ways they could've handled this, such as having Fake Shemps rerecord the dialogue, or have a separate set of subtitles that plays automatically for stuff that isn't dubbed (which is what almost all English dubs of anime do).
We still need a VHS release of _Space Warriors 2000!!!_ I knew about Ultraman prior to that, but seeing SW2k on television was like some half-imagined fever-dream.
This needs more views, great video!
Thanks! Spread the word to everyone!
Fantastic first outing! Looking forward to more!
Fascinating video! I can tell you did a ton of research on this, thanks for the hard work in making this mini-documentary :D
Excellent Work!! As newly minted Ultraman fans, this is really fun and insightful on the history of the character.
wow this really took me back. buying bootlegs at fleamarkets and comic cons was pretty much the only way i could see new stuff in the 80s and 90s although usually my friends and i would liberate them instead of paying for them. i can remember seeing that ultraman cartoon on laserdisc along with spectraman too. finding an old tokusatsu vhs for a buck at some video store was the greatest thing ever for me back then. i can remember getting brain 17 on vhs and wondering what the hell it was and finding out much later it was daitetsujin17 and then realizing there were more episodes. great channel i subbed and cant wait to see what else you do.
man that movie in 87 never even showed in a theater near me and it was impossible to get my parents to take me an hour away to watch a cartoon
I loved this video really interesting history of the home release of Ultraman.
Great stuff! Can't believe I'm only now seeing it
It’s all good! Doesn’t matter when you arrive to the party, just that you have a good time when you get there!
Great video, but I'd like to point out something you missed. When BCI Eclipse went out of business, all of the properties they had home media rights to went to Mill Creek Entertainment. This included Ultraman, which they released in a Complete Series box set. There were fours discs, each with 10 episodes, that were held in cheap plastic slip cases. Aside from that, Mill Creek's dvd was the same as the dvds BCI released. Funny how they would end up being the company that Tsuburaya Productions licensed the official U.S. distribution rights of the Ultra Series to.
I had an interesting experience with Ultraman: Towards The Future, my first experience with it or anything tokusatsu related was when I looked up the cinema attractions page on the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper, which at the time showed black and white prints of film posters, one of them was Ultraman Towards The Future as a film compilation of the series was released in Arabic speaking markets at the time though the poster was hard make out apart from the title the ink quality used in newspapers at the time did not help the poster especially in black and white. Several years later, I got watch and record the film compilation when it was broadcast on one of the Arabic channels on the satellite dish, after recording it I've watched the film a couple of times. It was among my introduction to Tokusatsu along with the Hong Kong film Inframan and the eventual popularity of Power Rangers.
Around that time, there was also an Arabic dub of one of the Ultraman Kids anime productions, which I watched in its entirety as it aired.
So I had quite a connection to Ultraman before I watched the main franchise proper thanks to rise of the internet when one of the now defunct streaming sites uploaded episodes of the English dub of the 1966 series.
It’s very bizarre in hindsight that he managed to get volumes 1 and 3 of the Ultraman Tiga Funimation DVDs, given that now those are by far the rarer and more expensive ones. Volume 3 in particular is almost impossible to find for under 100 dollars, bizarrely more rare than the other sets. Maybe because it has the Akio Jissoji directed episodes? I don’t know.
These DVDs are also the only American release that has Take Me Higher on it so that’s great.
It was honestly just dumb luck from back in the day.. As for why they’re asking for ridiculous prices now, your guess is as good as mine. The same thing happened with the last volume of Aura Battler Dunbine.
@@VintageHenshinSince you responded just want to throw out there that I love the channel. Always super informative, and it's a great resource for showing how wild and interesting the world of Toku really is.
I won’t lie, I have a soft spot for the DVD set at 16:49.
It was the first time classic Ultraman was on DVD and I begged my Dad to buy it when we were at Frye’s Electronics. I never thought about how bad the sounds were, but it felt classic to me.
I still both my Shout Factory DVDs of Ultra Q and Ultraseven with my booklet signed by August Ragone who wrote it.
I love Ultraman Towards The Future. I grew up with that show and it introduced me to Ultraman as a kid. I still have all my toys.
That show and Ultraman Ultimate Hero need there own videos.
Top Notch video my friend!!!
i thought ultraman was only an anime because of The Ultraman II, thats the only media of it i saw living in california. I think i had a figure too, but i never saw live action ultraman till i was older.
Excellent video! Very nicely paced, and as a newer fan I've learned quite a bit i didn't know about. Keep it up!
Thanks! There's plenty more where that came from!
Mike, you really do your homework for these videos. I'm impressed with the detail you go into. I just found your channel and subscribed after 3 videos. Keep up the good work.
Side bar: The TDG series wasn't exactly a waste. It was entertaining and kept the legacy on life support. Also, I've been catching up on the older Ultra series on Amazon Prime(Thank you Shout Factory) and have been pleased.
That live action Ultraman Show was shown here where I live back in the eighties, and it was the dubbed version of it though, back when I was a kid.
Funny how you got Vol 3 of Tiga because that one is the rarest of the set.
I grew up with Ultraman Jonias (anime). My dad bought 2 cassettes of Ultraman, the ones mentioned in this video. I always wondered if there were more episodes. I always thought the first 4 episodes was the first one came out, and the second one was when Ultraman visited his home planet. Then a few years ago I found a japanese youtuber who uploaded all of the episodes of Ultraman jonias. I saw atleast 50(!) episodes. Tsuburaya made a bad decision to 'fix' the episodes in a 'film' and stopped with 4 episodes in their second run. They should have released the original subbed or dubbed.
And yep, the 90's is where Toei is on their prime.
I actually watched Ultraman on tv in the late '70s and early '80s. It was the live action series.
huh damn I'm lucky then I was able to get volume two of tiga as a kid when I saw Amazon had them
Ultraman tiga was my intro into ultraman
NOTE ON THE BCI "ULTRAMAN" RELEASE: The English audio for was provided to BCI by the former honchos of Expressions In Animation. They also penned the liner notes (their names were not attached as they didn't want to incriminate themselves with Tsuburaya). NOTE ON THE EIA "ULTRAMAN" RELEASE: They had originally planned to do the entire series. This deal was brokered through Ultracom, Inc., Tsuburaya's LA operation at the time. According to a former Tsuburaya employee, long story short, one of the members of EIA kept breaking protocol with Tsuburaya's head office, which is why there's only one volume. NOTE ON "ULTRAMAN: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS": The movie was never released to US theaters - it was a one-and-done broadcast on Fox affiliate stations. It was intended as a pilot for a full-blown TV series, which never materialized (obviously).
Very cool. I learned a lot. Great production quality, too.
I wanted to add something regarding the Tiga US airing: the only reason 4Kids got the series to air in the first place was because of one thing: there was a Ultraman reference in their other licensed show, Kirby: Right back at ya, and 4Kids only licensed the show just to explain that reference. That was the weird way to bring it over just for that one reference.
That is the weirdest twist to the whole thing! Thanks for sharing.
@@VintageHenshin no prob! I think I found that somewhere before, not sure if it was TV Tropes or Wikipedia.
Timeline doesn't make since... 4kids announced their Tiga deal way before Kirby in early 01. They got Tiga because of the $$$ potential.
One thing that should be noted is that in the 90s there was 2 Ultraman shows Jack and Ace that were dubbed into English and released on VHS in Malaysia by Speedy Video. Yes I know this is covering American Home Video but it should be noted
It's still a good point to raise all the same though!
I still own the first four episodes of the Jack dub on VHS and the first four of Taro’s English dub.
I knew they were Malaysian English dubs but I never knew which company was behind them until now.
@@KKAkuoku pretty much all the voices from each dub have been on many other Speedy dubs such as their DBZ stuff. Also can you please upload those Ultraman Jack English dub episodes.
Redcomet_ I’d love to, but I don’t know the first thing about VHS ripping
@@KKAkuoku there is some hardware out there that just requires A/V Cords,VCR and a computer program such as Golden Videos VHS to DVD converter
That "newly remixed soundtrack" is sadly the one used in the Millcreek sets as well...
Well yes and no. There have been two remixed soundtracks done for Ultraman’s audio. The one we have on the Mill Creek set is from the most recent Japanese Blu-rays which is a heck of a lot better than the Panasonic mix.
@@VintageHenshin Sure but I think we'd all prefer the untouched mono originals.
FYI, the entirety of Tiga's 4Kids dub is freely available on CZcams.
Again, there's still at least 4 episodes missing and the back half that was most likely produced as well.
When I was a kid we were so broke that our tv for many, many years was black and white, and for owning a toy forget about it and when I found out that Ultraman uniform is red and silver I was surprised!!
I had that second ultraman anime tape and watched it over and over
Great video! Looking forward to more.
Odd that you got volumes 1 and 3 of Tiga, I got 1, 2, and 4 fairly easily but wasn't able to find volume 3 for a long time until I got lucky on ebay (and paid way too much for it).
The prices are decent nowadays but there was a time where Volume 4 was close to 100 bucks thanks to scalpers! We can only hope that Mill Creek gets to it for a blu-ray release!
@@VintageHenshin we might be getting it sooner than we think, give or take 2 years from now. Mill Creek did say that was going to happen, so yeah!
Love me some Ultraman!!!
I didn't realize the magnitude of Ultramans US history
Great video, keep it up! Looking forwards to seeing more from you.
Thank you for this and all your hard work.
Ultraman has had a rocky history in the west, which is caused by a mixture of different factors. Power Rangers really wasn't one of them, which is ironic considering Super Sentai is arguably Ultraman's main competition, so had Tiga been localized back in 1997 or so, it would have been the perfect competitor in the west to Power Rangers. But unfortunately, that was also when the Chaiyo lawsuit started and pretty much made it so that Power Rangers was the only Tokusatsu in the west... well, unless you want to count early 2000's superhero movies, which is REALLY stretching things.
In fact, Ultraman would have come to the west much sooner had it not been for Chaiyo, because unlike Toei with Kamen Rider (to which you can blame Saban's awful "adaptation" of Black RX for that), Tsubaraya was always open to break out into foreign markets. And it's because of Chaiyo and several of the disastrous attempts to bring Toku to the west that the genre is a LOT more niche in the west than Anime is, probably because the early attempts to bring Anime to the west weren't nearly as disastrous as with Toku, even when you factor 4Kids and the aforementioned Saban into the mix.
i loved this show as a kid..im 57 now and i was pretending to be Ultraman as a kindergardener on the playground .. i watched it and also Johnny Sako and his flying robot ..religously ..i didnt much like cartoons though..
see how ultraman galaxy nowdays...so fun and lively
Thanks Super Beetle! Excellent work!
Plot twist: I'm not actually Super Beetle. Super Beetle was really the friends we made along the way.
@@VintageHenshin AND HERE I THOUGHT I FIGURED OUT WHO HE WAS!
This was a wonderfully composed video essay! My thanks to you good sir! This is channel is a goldmine of materials and I am so glad I found it! I do have a burning question regarding this video though. How come Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Powered) was not mentioned in American Home Video releases? Unless you have plans for a separate video on that of course.
The show never came out in the US ironically despite being made in the US. Luckily the Philippines aired both The Ultimate Hero and Towards The Future. I say this because I was a kid when I saw it there growing up in the Philippines, and yes it was in English.
The only turnoff, at least for me anyway, for the Tsuburaya/Mill Creek Blu-Rays is the fact that they do not contain the English dubs for Ultra Q, Ultraman, and Ultra Seven.
The dub for Ultraman has surfaced across two special releases from MC for Ultraman Day. We still lack a complete release for that, unfortunately. As for the Q and Seven dubs, those are both tied up in their own respective messes.
@@VintageHenshin I know, it’s just that I grew up with Cinar’s Ultra 7 dub, and I wish I had it on home media. 😕
Ultraman Towards the Future was amazing.
Thank you for this I remember getting up early one morning turning on the TV and catching an episode of Ultraman towards the future and telling my friends about it they couldn’t wait until the next Saturday we all got up early to watch the show only to find out it wasn’t on three Saturdays later and we gave up then one day I saw the toys at Walmart I picked up ultraman and a monster then told my friend about it and he went and did the same and all we had for reference was what I saw and remembered of the episode
If they just changed the time slot too 8am or 9am it could of had a shot
I had the figures from towards the future along with their ship as well as the video game that I DID enjoy! Glad I have the game again via the new Nintendo mini system with multiple games built in
What happened in 2019 regarding Star Fleet / X-Bomber? I’m always surprised to see footage from it unexpectedly pop up, or to find someone else who even knows what it is! Hah.
Nothing in particular, it just saw a bit of resurgence Stateside due to the BD set. Though last year, there was an X-Bomber exhibition and the reveal of a new model kit by Good Smile!
thanks for putting this up -it cleared up some stuff that always bothered me about the part 1 of the ultraman set i happen to have-got it in a bargin bin years ago -im looking forward to more being put out
Say what you want about 4KIDS, but, bar the Ultraman one, they came out with some catchy theme songs.
No it’s terrible and only Funimation does it right. 4Kids can go to hell (except for Pokémon)
@@jamesreed2846 and Yugioh
@@jamesreed2846 and kirby and shaman king
Hats off!
I remembered those times they released Ultraman stuff as DVDs in thailand (because I live and born there) And I guess it's Chaiyo as well.. I never knew one company tried to look like they CREATED this masterpiece that is Ultraman...
(Also a fact: chaiyo means yaa-hoo or a cheer... but it doesn't fit at all, bastards!)
What do you mean Tiga's English dub was bad?! It was my first exposure to Ultraman and I loved it!
I loved it too. I wish the 4 missing episodes would be found.
@@calixtomesterhazy3729 Same, along with 4Kids' other unaired stuff like the last few episodes of F-Zero.
Oh man, this video was great!! Super informative and entertaining! Can't believe I didn't find your channel sooner. SUBSCRIBED :)
curious as to why Ultraman Powered and the TBS dubbed Ultra Seven weren't covered. I'm guessing no official US video release? Great work as always btw. Love this content.
That’s exactly the reason. Powered never saw the light of day, and the dubbed Ultraseven has been lost to the ages. Though lost tokusatsu dubs may warrant a deeper dive at a later date!
@@VintageHenshin I hope you can do lost tokusatsu videos! Keep up the great work!
I know everyone wants a video about the ultraman millennium or chaiyo lawsuit, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I’m more interested in the banned or illegal ultraman, I’m talking about the Chinese bastardizing of ultraman: the two dragon force ultraman movies dragon force the rise of ultraman and dragon force goodbye ultraman. Also Hi, I’m an ULTRAMANIAC and have been since seeing ultraman Tiga premiere the very day fox kids became the fox box. I spent a lot of reading time during school either reading Wikipedia articles or encyclopedic sites for Godzilla, Sentai, or ultraman. I am a Toku Otaku so you’re definitely going to be seeing more of me. Welcome to the CZcams favorites, I am now a fan.
God I wish Ultraman really took of here in Australia. It's do hard to find a copy of Ultraman towards the future here in Aus
Just found your channel and man it’s some good stuff you got going my dude. As a very new fan to tokusatsu the video is very informative!
Most of these are on CZcams now, subbed and dubbed…
This came out two years ago.
Fantastic production value.
Didn't MARVEL just launch an Ultraman comic recentally
Great video. Enjoyed watching this.
Amazing video, glad they are making ultraman stuff in the us
Also the towards the future toyline wasn't fully cancelled, some of them were, i actually own the Hummer jet toy with it's box (in great shape btw) and it has a toys r us price sticker on it
And the big ultraman with Jack Shindo but the box is all messed up
I should clarify: the Dreamworks line went through, but a supposed expansion with Bandai was what got cancelled. I do regret never getting the Hummer jet as a kid though! Someday I’ll fill that gap in my childhood! along with the original Power Morpher...
Please explain the planned tiga toyline?!!
I can't seem to find the photos but I do remember there were rumblings of Bandai America releasing toys of Tiga. There's a chance that could be off but I could have sworn I saw photos from a licensing show or a Toy Fair.
Vintage Henshin I hope you can find them one day
I hope you can still elaborate on this.
@@VintageHenshin I found an article that 4kkds was planning to work with Hasbro to release the Tiga toys. Hopefully I can find pictures of what your saying though!
Still doing better than Universal Studios releasing Exosquad season two, And that is a serious American mech cartoon.
I remember when I was like 6 or 7 in the mid 90's a local movie store had a copy of an abridged first half of Toward The Future and the SNES game was pretty ubiquitous in the movie store scene you'd always see a copy on the snes shelves. For years I thought that that's all ultraman was, a movie and a tie in game.
I’ve been talking with my arms since 82’!!!!!
Do the most recent Mill Creek Ultraman Blu Rays still have the same remixed stock sound effects as Golden Media Group's previous DVD releases?
Thankfully, no! Since TPC got the international rights back for Ultraman, the materials that Mill Creek are working with come directly from them. This means that they’re specifically utilizing recent blu-ray masters. That said, those masters also include an updated stereo soundtrack that does have modern sound effects mixed in, but it’s a much better mix than the DVDs that GMG used.
Hold it! You only managed to get volumes one and three of ultraman tiga? I was able to volumes 1, 2, and 4 when I was in 8th grade. I chose not to get volume three because it was making my Amazon Christmas list really expensive and I didn’t want to spend too much of my moms money. Anyway, it wasn’t until my first years of college that I finally was able to get my hands on volume 3 and for a reasonable price of 63 dollars if I remember. Volume 3 is the one that doesn’t show up that much, 1,2 and 4 I remember people selling together in a bundle on eBay. I’m pretty sure that you should be able to complete your collection with having much trouble. eBay should have a ton. Seriously 1,2,4 showed up so much when I was looking for 3.
Funny thing is that after this episode originally came out, somebody actually offered to send me the remaining volumes that I was missing! I now have the full set thankfully, but I do wish I had the box set with the Ill-itting T-shirt!
Yeah the box set is the one that I got in middle school, 8th grade to be exact in the year 2007 if I’m correct. Yes I did wear the shirt to school and will still wear it as it still fits.
Please do this lawsuit story soon!
I really want to! It's definitely on the list for major long-term projects. To help make it happen sooner, consider supporting this channel's Patreon! - patreon.com/vintagehenshin
I still have the Q, Ultraman and Seven released by BCI and SHOUT! It’s just as good as the Mill Creek and I never upgraded.
But Return, Ace, now Taro and Leo is on my list.
I was a fan of Godzilla longer than i was a Power Rangers fan, so when the switch from Fox Kids over to Fox Box (4Kids) they replaced what was "Power Rangers: Wild Force" with Ultraman Tiga. To my surprise it had more similar to Godzilla than Power Rangers.
Cant wait for shin ultraman!
How about a video on a rarely seen Inoshiro Honda classic.."Atragon"..released in japan as (I believe). ".Space Battleship GOTENGO.."
Apparently 4kids did release a ultraman tiga Halloween costume merchandise for fall 2002. What is it with US Ultraman releasing Halloween costumes
It’s definitely a weird one! As for the toy prototypes, I recall seeing photos from a Toy Fair article somewhere but they probably could have just been the Japanese toys on display
Seeing Char Aznable at the back, hoping to see a gundam video on the channel. Keep up the great work ma dudeee
We’re more Tokusatsu-focused on this channel so I don’t think I’ll really be covering Gundam anytime soon. Thank you though all the same!
Hayata is still the best Ultraman ! 👍💪😃
And Adam West is still the best Batman !💪🦇