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40 Years of Ultraman
jonerik writes "The Japan Times has four articles covering the events surrounding this year's 40th anniversary celebration of the Japanese superhero Ultraman — along with Astro Boy probably the most iconic Japanese hero of the post-war era. The Ultraman...Forever article follows the history and development of the series over the last 40 years, and its appeal not only to the original generation of fans, but to the current generation, who are now the children or even grandchildren of the series' original audience. The Ultrabonding article explores this in further depth, crediting the series for strengthening the bonds between fathers and sons, both of whom grew up — or are growing up — watching the series. The Ultracollecting article looks at the toy collector side of things, and Ultrasuccess in Print interviews Tatsuya Miyanishi, the author of a series of Ultraman books — including 1996's 'Daddy is Ultraman' — which have proven popular with both young and old fans alike."
I agree, Ultraman is ridiculously huge and in Japan you would see Ultraman everywhere especially when he is fighting those radioactive plants/worms/politicians(oops).
When I lived on a military base as a kid, the one DoD channel that we got in English had Ultraman every Saturday morning, between Voltron and Captain Power.
I liked Voltron a lot better, because after putting up with the lame story line acted out by the annoying Voltron team, you would finally get to see Voltron FORM BLAZING SWORD and cut villianbots into a flash of white light. I'm guessing blinding flashes of light are cheaper than cutting objects in half, from a production standpoint.
I used to get up early Saturday morning to watch it on TV when I was a kid. It was my favorite show and where I learned about lousy dubbing. We only had a black and white TV then so it wasn't until years later that I learned that Ultraman was greenish rather than the silver I had imagined.
Mind you, this was on Canadian TV - but the question wasn't addressed at Americans per se...
I remember a show about another superhero named Ultraman played by Quinn from Sliders (or "the fat kid" from Stand By Me.) I remember it being a fun show, but I think that was because I was so young and his powers were so silly.
He floated.
He couldn't actually propel himself forward. He had to used some sort of spray cans for propulsion. Spray cans.
Growing up in the 70s, Ultraman was an icon on a par with Godzilla and the Planet of the Apes movies.
I'm not one for nostalgia, so I can't vouch for current fandom -- but Ultraman was the real thing.
(Though I'm a Canuck who watched the series on pre-cable American border stations: Channel 20 Detroit).
When I was a red-blooded bicentennial kid in 1976 I used to love watching Ultraman, Godzilla, and the awesome Creature Feature with Dr. Paul Bearer on WTOG channel 44.
+0 Meh
>I am seriously dating myself, but I enjoyed watching Ultraman and Astroboy on Channel 39
:)
Don't worry, most of the guys on slashdot are seriously dating themselves, too.
Apparently a lot of stations around that period would run Ultraman during most of the year, go to Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot for the summer, then back to Ultraman for the rest of the year. That's how it was scheduled when I was living on Kansas City around that time. Other stations would air them back to back. Either way, I suspect that they were both marketed to stations as a single package since they both tended to be on the same stations.
I liked Johnny Sokko better, but that might be because I'd seen that first. Ultraman definitely had waaaaayyyy better special effects, though. Johnny Sokko's still cool to see, though, if only to watch ten-year-old kids shooting guns and killing people.