First Exposure to the Ultra Franchise!

[Mac Daddy MM]

The similar thread for Gamera has been filled with some pretty nice stories. So how did ya'll here eventually make the jump into Ultraman and crew from the Toho side of the ocean.

I'm not 100%, but I believe my first exposure to Ultraman was actually Ultraman Great (Ultraman: Toward the Future). I know I had some of the dreamworks toys as a child, though I don't remember recognizing them as Ultraman monsters. They were usually just fodder for my Godzilla toys as I played. I distinctly remember a scene of a business man walking by a bush and being attacked that I now believe was from an episode of Ultraman Great (Plant Bios' especially). However, I have no memory of actually seeing Ultraman on screen until much later. I know my family also had the SNES Ultraman Great game and I remember watching my father play it and fight the monsters, but once again, no remembrance of actually seeing the series beyond that one scene. As for the TNT dub of Ultraseven, I remember watching an episode or two here and there and not really caring for it, so I didn't really watch it much. And while I knew Ultraman Tiga was also a thing, I never actually checked it out on Fox.

It wasn't until around 1996 or 1997 that my father found a VHS tape containing the first four episodes of Ultraman at a video store in the mall. I remember this tape well because it was red (only red tape I ever had) and there was a sticker on the packaging saying "Adult material. 18+." This threw my dad off who watched it before I could and, yeah. I think it was just mis-stickered. So for about 7 years, this is all the Ultra stuff I had exposure to...

Until 2004, G-Fest. Found a bootleg set of the original series, dubbed. However, upon watching the series when I got home, two of the disks didn't work. Which means I couldn't see like 8 episodes, but I saw plenty I wanted to such as Jirass'. When I say this was a bootleg set, man do I mean this was a bootleg set. Quality looked like early 90s VHS (my red tape VHS episodes 1-4 looked better) and the "artwork" was simply a few images thrown around in MS Paint. By this time, my hunger for Ultraman was in full gear as I regulated sites like Absolute Ultraman, which was a HUGE game changer. I didn't realize just how massive this kaiju franchise was.

Sometime after, I befriended Earth Baragon (James Webster) of old TK fame. He began sending me TONS of Ultraman-related media and guided me through the new series at the time (Ultraman Max and Mebius). I remember him sending me a promo picture of Max with a bunch of small images of supposed returning kaiju. He would send me the episodes via AIM downloader as they were released. He sent me downloads for a TON of series, starting with Ultraman Taro, which was my second "full series" at this point.

Since James' gifting of Ultra to me, I've always been downloading series and Ultra-like series while still supporting the new releases. I did buy the Chaiyo-endorsed set of Ultraman with all the dubbed episodes, but I also got the BR steelbook Millcreek put out. This was the only Chaiyo-linked release I supported because of the inclusion of the dubbed episodes.


I'll also say this. Complain all you want about your connection and WiFi speeds. But you will NEVER have to endure what we did... Sending an entire series through AIM... On dial-up internet. Jesus f'n Christ.

[UltramanGoji]

First exposure to the Ultra Series for me was this issue of G-FAN:



It basically had articles on all three of the big tokusatsu franchises but there was one about an Eiji Tsuburaya 100th Anniversary museum that had tons of Ultra-stuff.

I used to watch tons of videos on YouTube from toy reviews to clips of the more modern Ultraman shows but never actually watched any full episodes.

Then, when my family signed up for Netflix (as in, the old mail away for DVDs version) I rented the BCI Ultraman DVDs which was my first true exposure to the show as a whole:



Saw the whole series in about two months time and the rest is history.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Are we talking first series watched or first exposure in general? Because I've got vastly different stories for both.

[Legion1979]

Mid 80s, early in my Godzilla obsession, discovering various Ultraman Bandai figures at comic and toy shops while looking for Godzilla stuff.

[Mac Daddy MM]

Are we talking first series watched or first exposure in general? Because I've got vastly different stories for both.

Why not both?

[Cryptid_Liker]

Are we talking first series watched or first exposure in general? Because I've got vastly different stories for both.

Why not both?

Alrighty, then.

First exposure: Probably around half a decade ago, I came across a couple videos from Mega Monster Battle. One was of the battle between Rei's Capsule Monsters and Nova, Salamandora, and Lunaticks. The other, which I only remembered the very beginning of, is Gomora fighting Eleking. I don't know the contexy of either because I still haven't watched either MMB or Never-Ending Odyssey. I really should get onto those.



First series: In early 2020, I started watching the Netflix adaptation of the ULTRAMAN manga over the course of around a week. I admit it's not the best start I could've chosen but it's a pretty good show. Will watch season 2.

[Voyager]

It was actually TK. When I was a lurker, of course. Maybe some YouTube videos referencing it, but that’s too foggy to recall.

[Angilasman]

Age 13. Walked into the G-Fest viewing room and watched the last part of the Heisei Ultraseven episode with King Joe. At the dealers room I bought vhs tapes of the original series compilation movie (first episode, Red King/Pigmon, and Gomora two-parter) and Ultraman Zearth.

Of course, I had read a bit about the series in G-Fan and Steve Ryfle's book.

-edit-

Oh, but the Ultraman-adjacent Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad was a childhood favorite. I had tons of toys, and preferred it over Power Rangers.

[LegendZilla]

My first exposure to Ultraman, like in the OP, was Great. Specifically the complication VHS of the Gudis arc.

[Spuro]

I watched a movie from the mid-2000s back in... early 2012. It was recommended to me by a friend at the time. It was the one that features Ultraman Zero and Belial and a gazillion monsters.

It was meh. I was lost. Not a great introduction to the franchise, so I've been told.

[NSZ]

First exposure was the 4Kids dub of Tiga. Was just a kid watching tv one Saturday morning when suddenly giant monsters! Anyway, that obviously did not last, and Ultraman exited my life until the lawless age of Vimeo.

[MaxRebo320]

When I was around 9, I showed my dad a picture of Jet Jaguar on a website (Might have even been Toho Kingdom), only for him to remark "He looks like Ultraman". And with some quick Googling, I was introduced to the franchise.

The BCI DVD sets were released around that time, and I know I rented a few volumes, but I guess I wasn't super hooked. A few years later, I obtained the last volume of Tiga from Funimation at a comic shop, and definitely wore it out. My relationship with Ultraman was pretty "on and off" I suppose (In-part because so much of it seemed so inaccessible at the time), until about 2012 when Shout! released their Seven set. I first rewatched the original series (via the Mill Creek re-issue), then Seven, and was pretty hooked. But I can certainly say I became the absolute nut I am today through the Malaysian Return of Ultraman set, released mid-2013.

[o.supreme]

My first introduction was in the late 70's/early 80's. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, there was a local TV personality (Bob Wilkins) pulling triple duty. He was a horror host for both the Bay Area and Sacramento TV markets hosting the show "Creature Features". He also did a daytime show for kids in the Bay Area called Captain Cosmic. There was a regular rotation of Ultraman, Spectreman, and Space Giants. Truth be told, I think Spectreman was actually my favorite as a young kid (had the coolest theme song). After Cosmic' ended, I remember Ultraman reruns continuing to air on Channel 2 for a couple of years at least. As a result, Ultraman's memory was the one that endured for the longest during the decade of the 80's when it was all but absent from American Culture, until I could reconnect with it again in the early 90's thanks to bootleg VHS tapes.

I'm pretty sure Ultraman reruns stopped airing by 82/83 on San Francisco channel 2. I've heard in some TV market's it endured into the late 80's, possibly even the early 90's? But that is just here say at this point. Still, I'd like to know which local TV market kept airing reruns of the original Ultraman and which was the last to stop airing them.

[Angilasman]

^ I watch old commercial blocks on YouTube, and once I came across a collection of commercials that apparently aired during an Ultraman episode on some local channel in or around, judging by the context clues in the other commercials, 1992.

Of course, in the early 80s TBS showed Ultraman, Spectreman, and the Space Giants. That had to be the most consistent, nationwide coverage the shows ever got, hampered only by the fact that it was the early days of cable, so they were limited by access. From the older folks around here I've talked to, no one of that age and demographic remembers those shows airing anywhere but TBS.

[o.supreme]

Wow, that's actually the opposite of me. I remember shortly after my family got cable around 83/84 watching shows on Atlanta WTBS, but it was mostly NWA Wrestling, and Grampa Munster's Super Scary Saturday, Ultraman was nowhere to be found, at least by 1984.

Most people I've talked to (Bob Johnson from Sci Fi Japan, and August Ragone who was a protege' of the afore mentioned Bob Wilkins) we all watched in San Francisco. Keith Aiken watched in the Boston area. I've also seen bootleg VHS recorded from Chicago. But I imagine other large markets such as NY, LA, and Dallas got Ultraman as well. If It was on WTBS in the early days of Cable, that is amazing, and is new info for me.

[Angilasman]

^ And TBS apparently aired the 1st episode of The Ultraman dubbed as part of a 'night of Japanese TV' special. I guess it was like a pilot for a full Americanization. And Turner, owners of TBS, had the Hawaiian dub of Ultraseven re-dubbed by Cinar in the mid '80s and apparently let it sit on a shelf for a decade before airing it in the '90s!

Imagine the alternate universe where TBS was airing 3 Ultra shows on American TV in the early-to-mid '80s!

[edgaguirus]

It was Ultraman Great. I'd seen an ad for the show, and then watched the first episode. I taped the rest of the episodes as they came on when I wasn't at home, and then watched them later. It was a fun show.

It was many years later until I saw a box set of the first season of Ultraman and got it.

[misfitsfan83]

The first Ultraman series aired right after school on Channel 39 in Houston. I loved it right away.

[splitz]

My First Exposure To The Ultra Series Was While I'm Are Searching Something To Watch In TV Until I Discovered A Channel That I Don't Remember The Name Was Broadcasting The Original Ultraman In Episode 7 Or 12 And After This I'm Searched On Youtube And I'm Discovered Ultra Q And Ultraseven While Searching

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

My first real exposure was the Ultraman Towards the Future SNES game and action figures.