Overview: There’s never a dull day on Japan’s newly established SSSP Kaiju defense taskforce, led by Kimio Tamura, played by DRIVE MY CAR’s Hidetoshi Nishijima.

After a particularly challenging encounter, a silver giant descends from the sky to rescue the planet. Dubbed Ultraman, this giant’s identity and purpose are a mystery.

SHIN ULTRAMAN is a delightful reimagining of one of Japan’s classic superheroes, full of cosmic twists, charismatic villains, and giant Kaiju.

Blu-ray Verdict: Spring boarding off of their success with Shin Godzilla (2016), director/writers Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno return for this film, Shin Ultraman (2022). I personally have not seen any of their other work, other than these two films, but from what I have seen, they do pretty good work.

In an attempt to capture the MCU’s magic seen in America by making their own shared-universe across some of Japan’s biggest intellectual properties, the Shin Universe has met the same obstacles that were seen in America. The typical legal woes about copyrights, trademarks and who gets the profits, has made the idea of a shared-universe pretty much in name only for now.

But keep in mind that this may lead someday to Ultraman finally meeting the real Godzilla, but for now, the Shin title, is all they really share. Oh, and for FYI purposes, there also is a Shin Kamen Rider coming to Japanese theaters next!

Being a huge fan of Ultraman, that made this such a memorable film for me for it honestly did really capture the magic that the original had, together with that 21st century perfection. They hit upon all the major points made famous in the original series and have now expertly strung them all together with new ideas about Ultraman’s first appearance, his relationship with the SSSP (the Earth’s defense force in this incarnation) and what the world would be like if this happened in the real world, so to speak.

Indeed, it was actually the same approach they went with in Shin Godzilla (2016), but which I thought deviated away too much from the Toho Studios’ Godzilla of old, and that I was used to seeing.

In conclusion, the film here is beautifully polished, compared to some of the older attempts, and is nicely put together and totally keeps the spirit of the classic series veined throughout.

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