Is Ultraman: Rising, the Netflix Exclusive, Worth Your Attention?

Ultraman: Rising tells a unique story about an iconic Japanese hero. Ultraman’s greatest nemesis doesn’t wear a cowl, and Ultraman must look beyond himself to save the day. The show is currently one of the most popular movies on Netflix, for good reason. But why should you give it a watch?

Jump into the Ultraman Franchise Here

1966. That was the year Ultra Q hit TV screens across Japan and kicked off the 58-year-old franchise. Ultra Q didn’t feature our hero but set the scene for Ultraman, which aired the same year. Ultraman wasn’t a sequel either (confused yet?). Since then, Ultraman has become as iconic a hero to the Japanese as Spider-Man or Superman is in the West. Fighting kaiju, rocking silver and red skin-tight suits, and blasting beams before his Color Timer turned red (uh oh!). That’s Ultraman’s thing.

Ultraman’s long history makes the multimedia juggernaut an intimidating franchise to get into. Intimidating as, say, tackling Mobile Suit Gundam’s vast lore. I remember seeing Ultraman toys in Japan and not getting it. Why, I wondered, do people love the funny man in the ridiculous suit?

But if anything, I love a good story. Ultraman: Rising sold me on that ridiculous suit and the character of Ultraman without any need for understanding a Wikipedia article’s worth of lore. It did that by telling a human story. And the best hero stories are always human ones.

A Different Story

Ken Sato isn’t a loser who discovers superhero powers and then goes on to save the world. He’s a powerful hero and a baseball megastar. But he’s not perfect and will soon learn that he can’t do it all without a little help from some friends. His ego is his greatest enemy.

And that’s why I loved Ultraman: Rising. I respect Japanese humility and its sense of community. American movies, by contrast, invariably focus on self-absorbed ego-sponges. That’s a recipe for loneliness. Ultraman: Rising’s moral is this: get over yourself, accept responsibility, and grow up. That’s a message many men need to hear.

Ultraman: Rising is a very Japanese story in other ways. The Yomiuri Giants are a real Japanese baseball team, and so are the Hanshin Tigers. Tokyu Hands and many (if not all) of the businesses you’ll see in the movie are authentic Japanese companies. If you love anime and Japanese culture, you’ll appreciate Ultraman: Rising as an authentic Japanese experience about one of the most iconic Japanese heroes ever created. And it has kaiju!

A Question of Subtitles

My Japanese skills are limited, but some subtitle choices seemed odd. Particularly, it’s an American habit to say, “Oh my god.” That phrase gets too much airtime in the subtitles and dub. This cultural relic stands out to me because my Japanese friends don’t translate the phrase; they use it word for word. I don’t expect subtitles to translate sentences verbatim, but the essence of the character’s dialog is important. The subtitles robbed the movie of some of its Japanese beauty to make Ultraman: Rising more palatable to a Western audience but not an international audience.

Watch Ultraman: Rising on Netflix

Ultraman: Rising streams on Netflix. The 44th entry in the franchise is co-produced between American Netflix Animation and Japanese Tsuburaya Productions, with animation by US Industrial Light & Magic. The movie has a 117-minute runtime. Christopher Sean (English) and Yuki Yamada (Japanese) play the title character of Ultraman and his not-so-mild-mannered alter ego, Ken Sato. The movie, currently as of this writing, has a 92% audience score on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes. I give it five chibi Godzillas out of five.

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Have you watched Ultraman: Rising? Are you an Ultraman fan? If so, which was your first? And which kaiju gets your vote for “greatest of all time?” Tell us in the comments.

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