While Towards the Future didn’t get itself a second season, it was successful enough for Tsuburaya to consider a second foreign show. Impressed by the special effects of films such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Tsuburaya teamed up with Major Havoc Studios to produce Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, a sort of remake of the original 1966 classic, featuring a new Ultraman named Powered, as well as redesigns of several classic monsters. Unfortunately, the production itself was a nightmare and if you want to read more in-depth with what went wrong in regards to it, I highly recommend Ultra Blog DX’s exhaustive article about just how horrible the production was for the show, and how it the killed chances for numerous Tsuburaya projects in the 90’s such as a Hong Kong Ultraman show and Gridman Sigma, as well as the series of interviews of the cast and crew by Vantage Point Interviews, which has a load of fantastic, first-hand accounts by those who were making the show. One monster related mishap for Ultimate Hero was the fact that due to the fragility of the suits and United States TV censorship laws, the fights are shoving matches between Powered and the kaiju! It’s a failure of a show alright, but of all the failures, it is an interesting one.
BALTAN
Here, the reason Powered flies to Earth is because the Baltans are plotting to invade. One of the things I liked about Ultimate Hero is that they did attempt to try and make the Baltans a proper arch-nemesis to Powered, albeit they only really show up in the premiere episode and the finale which is a shame. But they’re just as spooky as ever and the scene with WINR, this season’s defense team encountering one in a darkened warehouse is genuinely eerie.
Baltan was designed here by Masahiro Maeda, a very prolific anime and tokusatsu character designer with so many big-name credits, it’d be nearly impossible to list them all here. Maeda has stated that Baltan is his favorite kaiju and he wanted to give it a good update by taking inspiration from a Baltan-like character Narita designed called Meba, as well as playing up the more insectoid features of the beast and there were even plans to give the creature a cocoon that never made it into the finished episode. The US effects team used iridescent paint to give it a hard shell look. Hideaki Tsuburaya, the grandson of Eiji Tsuburaya himself, found this new version of Baltan not as good as the original and compared it derisively to a water strider. While it’s not as iconic as the original, I can at least respect this Baltan as a faithful update to the original.
KEMULAR
Most of the kaiju we see in Ultimate Hero are the iconic kaiju from the original show, but there’s a few odd choices and Kemular is one of them. Odd choice aside, it’s a decent update with Maeda making Kemular a hybrid of reptiles and insects, specifically the swallowtail butterfly whose wing spots are now on the inside of Kemular’s shell. Maeda chose that as inspiration due to how the larva of the swallowtail emit an unpleasant odor to deter predators.
CHANDLER
Chandler makes his second (and so far only) reappearance in the franchise here in Ultimate Hero, though at first glance, it seems like a brand new character. Maeda gave Chandler a complete overhaul, dropping the Peguila connections and giving him a new look based off of prehistoric birds (albeit he was supposed to have Peguila’s original colors until they decided to make him green). I’m a tad torn on this since on one hand, I think giving him a complete makeover helps the character a bit more of his own identity, but on the other hand, Chandler is basically a throwaway monster and his Peguila connections help make him more interesting. In addition, the design also feels more akin to a Hydra redesign if anything.
Chandler went through numerous redesigns before they settled on the final one. I do like this one here, especially with that toucan beak of his.
PIGMON
Much like the original episode, Pigmon is here too and god, did he get hit with the ugly stick. Unlike the original Pigmon who manages to be ugly cute, the Pigmon update here is just truly hideous, almost akin to a horribly mutated Chuckie Finster. I don’t want to bash Maeda because he’s a talented artist, but man, this one was a miss.
Maeda took inspiration for this version of Pigmon from deep sea life, incorporating features of coral, crabs and shrimp for the body texture, hands and chest. Maeda also wanted this Pigmon update to be truly ugly and yeah, you did it Maeda, but was it worth it?
I do wanna point out this version of Pigmon survives the events of this story, albeit due to censorship laws in the US, but I gotta say, I kinda wish this guy got crushed by rocks…
RED KINGS
Yeah, that’s right, we get two Red Kings this season, and one of them is actually red! Here to spice things up, we get a male and female Red King (Red King and Red Queen?) who tag-team Powered in the climax of this episode. It’s a fun idea, and I like how they added that to at least make this version of the episode a bit different, even if the execution is a little lacking.
The female Red King, funnily enough, is colored just like the original, which I think is a fun in-joke. And while the two aren’t as belligerent as the 1966 incarnation, it is kinda funny when they try to throw Powered off of a cliff, only for Mrs. Red King to go tumbling down and leaving her mate a grieving mess. Awwww….
The redesign by Maeda here is a really solid one, remaining recognizable, but still maintaining it’s own identity. I do really like how Maeda made their heads more skull-like, as Red King’s title is “Skull Monster”, it fits wonderfully. Hideaki Tsuburaya, unlike myself personally, wasn’t a fan of these redesigns, finding that they made Red King look too tough, diminishing the original’s ferociousness. Whatever dude.
While the red color of the male Red King may seem like just them coloring him red for the sake of it, Maeda took inspiration for how he’d blush when he was trying to get dates when he was younger and that the male of the species turns red during mating season. In addition, according to US special effects artist Bruce Fuller, the effects team wanted to give the male Red King a coral snake pattern on his back to inject a little realism into the character, but that was sadly shot down by Tsuburaya Productions
Red King is also responsible for one of the funniest behind the scenes stories from the production, where the staff needed to quickly take the Red King suit to the shooting location, so they shoved it in the back of a Honda Civic.
TELESDON AND THE SUN PEOPLE
The Ultimate Hero reboot of Telesdon is a fairly faithful one. Maeda implemented only a few changes, such as larger, mole-like hands as well as giving the monster metallic skin akin to a digging machine. All in all, he ain’t a bad reboot. Interestingly, while this iteration of Telesdon is known as Powered Telesdon by toys and reference books, during development, the character was originally going to have Telesdon Γ (Gamma) as his name.
Rather than having the eyeless Underground People from his first appearance, Ultimate Hero instead gives us the Sun People, a race of humanoids who were driven underground when a meteorite hit.
In addition, in this story, it was an Ultraman (Noa?) who saved these beings and told them to emerge when the light returned. While the Ultra meant the sun, the Sun People interpreted it as waiting for the Ultraman to return, which is why the kidnap Powered’s host, Kenichi Kai.
The Sun People aren’t as eerie as the original Underground People, but they’re really fun in a 90’s b-movie sort of way, and I think it was clever to combine the aspects of the Antlar story into the Telesdon one. The Sun People weren’t given a physical description in the script, but Bruce Fuller states in his interview with Vantage Point that the effects artists had the inspired idea of making them grotesque troll-like characters.
GABORA
Gabora’s another one of those monster choices that I just find odd for the show. I mean, I like Gabora, there’s nothing wrong with Gabora, but I wouldn’t really call him one of the most iconic monsters from the original show, so he’s a bit of a baffling choice to me. He at least looks nice though, albeit his Baragon features are pretty much absent here.
He’s all in all, a simple, effective redesign. There really isn’t anything else to him, aside from the fact of just why they chose him out of everyone else is strange to me.
JAMILA
On the subject of baffling choices, while the original Jamila episode is a classic episode of the original show and one of it’s finest, I’m not sure it was a wise one to pick for an adaptation, since it’ll inevitably pale in comparison, especially when comparing Ultimate Hero to it’s source material.
But, this version of Jamila is a good design all things considered, albeit I feel like there’s enough differences with this version of Jamila that he could’ve been a brand new, original character, but I digress. It’s a cool, futuristic, astronaut monster design, but if I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t buy this guy as Jamila.
This version of Jamila is a monstrous form of astronaut Jamira Miller (harhar) who encounters a mysterious blue light while up in space and who finds himself occasionally transforming into his monstrous state, particularly when his daughter is in danger. The US government is also after Jamila, intending to use his DNA to create an army of super-soldiers. It’s typical b-movie stuff and again, feels like it would’ve worked better with a new character since it lacks that tragic oompf of the original, even with Jamila letting Powered kill him.
The design by Maeda is a pretty neat looking astronaut monster. Maeda took inspiration from the works of H.R. Giger to update Jamila. In order to symbolize the loss of Jamila’s humanity, he gave the monster a mask-like face with his glowing eyes peering out.
The original design drawing by Maeda incorporated the cracks from the original Jamila on the body, as well as giving him a half-mechanical look. While Maeda is proud of his version of this character, he felt like he didn’t understand the intent behind the original ’66 Jamila, something that became apparent to him after Akio Jissoji, the director of the original episode, voiced his distaste for this version.
Hilariously enough, this was one of the first Ultra monsters I became acquainted with as a child, as many Godzilla fansites would photoshop the creature to represent the similarly mutated astronaut M from the unmade 2001 film Godzilla vs. M.
ZAMBOLAR
Zambolar is another one of those baffling monster choices as I find the original character from the ’66 show to be really generic, but I’m kinda glad he did get adapted since I find the version seen here to have a really cool fiery iguana design. Like, we really didn’t need an updated Zambolar, but I’m glad we got one.
Much like Telesdon, this iteration of Zambolar goes by Powered Zambolar on merchandise, but was originally going to be named Zambolar Gaia early on.
DADA
Dada may at first seem like a fairly faithful update to the character, but the show throws a bit of a curveball at us. See, while the original Dada is an alien, this Dada is instead some sort of living, malignant computer program that sucks people inside the computer world, leaving behind piles of silicon sand as it uses the carbon found in the humans to construct a physical body. It’s such an odd reworking for the character, and the concept feels a bit more at home in Tsuburaya’s Gridman than it does here. I do have the headcanon that this is actually a computer program sent by the real Dadas.
The design by Maeda is very faithful to the original Narita design, except given a larger head in order to disguise the shoulders and make the creature feel more alien. The suit itself was given sequin patterns on the body to give it a pixelated look. The Dada costume was also one of the more difficult ones to be in, as the feet were too tight, cutting off blood circulation to the poor suit actor, and I’ve even heard rumors that due to being hard to move in, most of Dada’s movements here were done on a swivel and if that’s the case, that does explain why Dada has been given telekinetic powers.
While the episode ends with the implication that Dada might still be out there, John states in his interview with Vantage Point that the original ending had the supercomputer Dada was spawned from being taken by a company that would’ve repurposed it for parts for new computers, with the implication being that they were shipped off to schools across the country. The other writer of the script, Kazunori Ito, would reuse the idea for humans being transformed into silicon dust by monsters in his 1996 film Gamera 2: Advent of Legion.
Much like several of his brethren here, this incarnation of Dada had a few different names that were left on the cutting room floor including Dada Plus and Dada 2185.
ABORAS AND BANILA
The two rivals are back for another rematch in Ultimate Hero and both are looking better than ever. Banila himself has gotten a really nice update, one that looks quite better than his original 1966 look, which is ironic since Maeda has stated that he didn’t change Banilla too much since he wasn’t a fan of the character.
Aboras on the other hand, has gotten a pretty big overhaul, one that I think is one of the best in this show so far. Gone are the days of being a new head on a Red King body, Aboras is a new man! Maeda gives Aboras a cool, prehistoric overhaul, drawing inspiration from the current image of the tyrannosaurus rex in terms of design and body posture, as well as the prehistoric fish titanichtyhs to create an imposing monster. Aboras has always been one of my favorites, and with this redesign, I still stand by that.
PESTAR
Pestar’s one of those strange monster choices again, albeit I can kinda see the logic since it’s still a striking design. Maeda eschews the bat elements by basing this new Pestar’s face off of crustaceans. And, like a few of his fellow monsters, this version of Pestar was originally going to be named Pestar β early on. There’s really not much I can say about this guy, dude’s still Pestar.
GOMORA
Sadly, despite his looks, this incarnation of Gomora is one of the show’s more pitiable monsters. Originally a swamp dwelling dinosaur, the supposedly dead body of Gomora is revived by a rainstorm and he marches off in search of water. The poor thing doesn’t even rampage as he’s slowly dying of dehydration and poor Gomora’s final fate is to have his carcass stuffed and put on display in a museum. Yeah, it’s a downgrade for the Monster Prince.
The design by Maeda is a good one, albeit it doesn’t feel too different from the original, both somewhat a blessing, and a curse. Maeda wanted to incorporate a cow skull sort of look here for Gomora, but lamented that it didn’t really come across here.
DORAKO
Dorako’s another somewhat baffling choice for Ultimate Hero, especially with the role they give him here. Rather than being a just a throwaway space monster, here, Dorako is the bioweapon of the Baltans, and a strong one at that, killing off Red King, and having a strong exoskeleton that can even shrug off Powered’s attacks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great monster design, and I like how dangerous of an opponent he is, but man, it really feels like a different character compared to the Dorako we used to know. Like, this is one of those redesigns I feel like could easily serve as a new character.
Maeda did a great job upgrading Dorako to boss monster status and drew upon various influences such as spiders and keikogi, a Japanese martial arts training uniform to make Dorako a harbinger of death. There were plans to give this iteration of Dorako names like Dorako Version 2 or Red Dorako early on in the conceptual phase.
ZETTON AND PSYCHO BALTAN
Fittingly for the finale, Zetton is brought back to be the final opponent. Implementing the data from Powered’s fight with Dorako into Zetton, the monster is able to absorb all of Powered’s abilities. And while Powered is able to actually vanquish Zetton unlike his predecessor, it brings him to the brink, forcing his people to take him back to M78.
Zetton is a bit clunkier here compared to the original Narita design, but I can’t deny that he still comes across as intimidating. Maeda implemented more insectoid elements into the monster to make him seem similar to the Baltans, as well as more mechanical features to help sell the living weapon aspect.
We also get to see Psycho Baltan, the leader of the Baltans here in Ultimate Hero. He doesn’t get to do much, but I at least like how they have him a more enlarged head to show off his abnormal brain, but in the end, there’s not really much to say about him.
Psycho Baltan was originally going to be named Neo Baltan early on and is a simple modification of the Baltan suit seen in episode 1. The toys of the character give him large wings, something Psycho Baltan never had in the show.
Easter's Kaiju Kompendium 