An article that made the Ultraman family clear.
On the afternoon of September 24, Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku Video, B Station and CCTV and other platforms successively removed the feature work "Diga Ultraman", and the topic of "Diga Ultraman removal" triggered a hot discussion on the whole platform.
In response to the issue of removal, the responses given by each platform include "content adjustment and optimization" and "affected by copyright and cooperation period". Some netizens speculate that this removal may be related to the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission.
It is reported that the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission released the "Investigation Report on Violations of Minors in the Animation Field" in April, which lists 21 animations and points out that there are pictures and plots that infringe on the growth of minors, including "Diga Ultraman". In the face of this speculation, the official release clarified that the removal of the whole network may be the independent behavior of the relevant platforms and has nothing to do with the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission.
Ultraman, first broadcast in 1966, has been a childhood memory for generations. As of press time, other Ultraman series animations such as "Ultraman", "Zeta Ultraman", and "Ultraman Ged" can still be played normally.
In previous articles, Poison Eye has sorted out the history and worldview structure of the Ultraman series of works, explored the positioning and core of Ultraman's works, and attached the Easter egg of "Otter Brothers Strength Ranking".
Here's a reissue of an old article —
On Friday, the domestic animation "Ultraman Rise of the Steel Dragon" produced by Guangzhou Blue Arc Animation Media Co., Ltd. was released, and it achieved a total of 14 million box office in the first three days. While the box office performance was mediocre, the film also continued the sluggish reputation of the previous work "Steel Dragon Goodbye Ultraman" (Douban 2.5 points), as of now, the film still does not show the Douban score due to insufficient number of reviews, and almost all of the hot reviews are 1 star.
Ultraman Rise of the Steel Wyvern
In addition to the criticism of the quality of the film itself, many fans in the comments accused Blue Arc of "piracy" and "infringement" - just before the release of the film, Ultraman's copyright holder, Japan's Round Valley Company, issued a statement saying that blue arc group had tampered with Ultraman's image without round valley legal authorization and carried out related business as infringement. Subsequently, the Blue Arc also issued a statement saying that Round Valley's behavior was defamatory and would be prosecuted.
Hearing this string of news, do you also have countless question marks floating in your mind: how did the famous Japanese IP "Ultraman" turn into the protagonist of a low-scoring domestic animation? Why did Blue Arc in turn sue Round Valley? What is the connection between this muscular Ultraman in the animation and the Ace Ultraman and Diga Ultraman that we watched on TV when we were children? And why are there so many Ultramans?
The LOGO that appears when it is broadcast on TV
Although the "Ultraman Series" is an important memory of many post-90s and post-00s children, due to the chaotic copyright introduction and scheduling mode in the early years, many viewers do not have a clear understanding of Ultraman's worldview structure and the connection between various works, and they have no way of knowing a series of entanglements involved in the development of Round Valley.
In response to this series of questions and confusions, Poison Eye used the Chinese version of "Ultraman" to sort out the history and worldview structure of the Ultraman series of works, and used a 10,000-word article to tell you about Ultraman.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="155" > 55 years of history, and was forced to stop shooting three times</h1>
To answer a series of questions about Ultraman, you first have to introduce a concept - close-up.
In an era when special effects technology was not yet developed, Japanese film and television creators often used special shooting methods such as equal scale models, prop suits (leather cases) and optical photography in order to perform special effects scenes such as explosions and wars. Over time, a series of "close-up films" including "Godzilla" were born using "close-up" techniques.
Actors performing in "Ultraman and The Little Monsters" holsters
In 1963, Japanese director Eiji Marutani, who was later known as the "God of Close-up Films", founded his own special-up production team, Marutani Productions Co., Ltd., and began to create close-up films. In 1964, Marutani filmed the Science Fiction feature film Otter Q, a work of monsters and bizarre events that became a huge hit after it aired in 1966, achieving an average rating of 32.4% in Japan.
"Otter Q"
The success of "Otter Q" has brought the "monster fever" set off by "Godzilla" to its peak in Japan. In order to take advantage of the chase, Round Valley, after consulting with TBS TV, decided to develop a new series of works with the "Monster Battle" route, and introduced a new righteous cosmic hero "Ultraman" (transliteration of Ultraman, meaning Superman).
In 1966, the first installment of the Ultraman series, Ultraman (also known as The First Ultraman), officially began to be broadcast on television.
The Original Ultraman (Image: Ultraman Guild)
After the work was broadcast, it once again caused a huge sensation, and its influence far exceeded that of "Ott Q", and the rating of a single episode even reached 42%. However, when Round Valley wanted to go further, the company's new work "Seven Ultraman" launched in 1967 was cold due to plot problems, and the ratings plummeted to about 15%. Disheartened, Eiji Marutani stopped developing Ultraman after Ultraman and threw himself into the production of other close-up films. Although film versions such as "Ultraman Severn" will also be released during this period, their influence is not as great as that of the TV version of Ultraman.
Ultraman Severn
Three years later, Eiji Marutani died of illness. Another year later, in honor of Eiji Marutani, Marutani launched a new work, "The Return of Ultraman" (the protagonist setting is similar to the original Ultraman, and it was not named "Jack" until 20 years later). Originally, the company only had the intention of shooting this commemorative work, but the later response of "The Return of Ultraman" was very enthusiastic, and the rating was close to 30%, so Round Valley simply officially restarted the Ultraman series, shooting "Ace Ultraman", "Tyro Ultraman", "Leo Ultraman".
In the creative stage, "Leo Ultraman" was influenced by works such as "The Sinking of Japan", and the overall style was more tragic, which was in stark contrast to the previous work, the light-hearted and humorous "Tyro Ultraman". Therefore, the early ratings of "Leo Ultraman" were not ideal (the minimum was 6.6%), and the company encountered financial problems in the later period, so after the end of the series, the Ultraman series ushered in the second suspension. It was not until five years later, in 1980, that Round Valley rebooted Ultraman again and filmed a more relaxed and warm "Eddie Ultraman".
Leo Ultraman
However, in this process, the environment of the Japanese film and television industry has also undergone tremendous changes, and there are countless special films and special effects films of all kinds, and it is difficult to reproduce the situation of a single series of thousands of people. At the end of "Eddie Ultraman" (average ratings of 10%) in 1981, round valley suspended the shooting of the Ultraman TV version for the third time, considering that the ratings of the Ultraman series were difficult to compare with before. In the following fifteen years, in addition to licensing Australia and the United States to produce "Grey Ultraman" and "Parva de Ultraman", Round Valley only produced a few Ultraman theatrical versions.
It was not until the "30th Anniversary of Ultraman" in 1996 that Marutani once again moved the idea of restarting the Ultraman TV version. But Ultraman, who has long been "in the river", has received almost no attention, and no company is willing to play it. In the end, it was at the insistence and lobbying of the then president, Kazuo Marutani, that MBS TV agreed to broadcast the new work.
At that time, the TV station that did not look at the new version of Ultraman may not have thought that relying on technological innovation, the "Diga Ultraman" launched in 1996 has made a qualitative leap in picture quality and other aspects. Although the ratings of the series are difficult to regain the glory of that year (an average of 7.3%), it has received high praise among fans and has also brought the Ultraman series back to the public's vision. It is worth mentioning that "Diga Ultraman" was introduced to China and is one of the most screened Ultraman in China.
After the success of Diga Ultraman, the Ultraman series officially became the signature and "regular project" of Round Valley. In the following two decades, Round Valley has successively launched 14 Ultraman TV works such as "Dana Ultraman", "Gaia Ultraman", "Gauss Ultraman", "Monbius Ultraman" and so on, and until last year, it also launched a new work "Rob Ultraman".
Rob Ultraman
At the same time, the influence of Ultraman films has gradually expanded, although the box office of a single film is generally only tens of millions of yuan, but its status has gradually developed from a supplement to the initial supplement to an important platform for the expansion of the entire Ultraman world view system and the derivation of characters. For example, in "Cosmic Heroes of the Super Galactic Legend", the most popular Ultraman Cyro was "born".
Ultraman Cerro
So far, Round Valley has participated in the production of 25 TV versions of Ultraman works (including an animation) and dozens of theatrical versions and special editions, involving nearly 50 Ultramans.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="177" > how did Ultraman develop into nearly 50? </h1>
Although tortuous, in the process of stumbling development, Round Valley has also developed nearly 50 Ultramans with different images. With so many Ultramans, what is their connection to each other?
In 1966, when Marutani first started making "The First Ultraman", he did not plan to make Ultraman into a series, so he did not invest much energy in the background of the story and the construction of the world view. Except for the original Ultraman, only Zofi Ultraman has a brief appearance in the story.
Later, when filming "Seven Ultraman", Round Valley made it as a brand new series, without continuing the setting of "The Original Ultraman", and even adjusted the story style and Ultraman's mechanics. It is precisely because of some adjustments in style that the ratings of the series have plummeted, so when the follow-up production of "The Return of Ultraman", Round Valley returned to the style of "The Original Ultraman".
The first half of "The Return of Ultraman" follows the worldview of "The First Ultraman", and the story is set many years after the original Ultraman left the earth. In the middle of the story, He added Seven Ultraman as a cameo, which opened up the worldview of the first three Ultramans. And in the final episode of "The Return of Ultraman", the concept of "Otter Brothers" was first proposed.
The Otter brothers
By the time of the sequel Ace Ultraman, the concept of "Otter Brothers" was formalized, and the original "Otter Five" were Zoffy, The First Generation, Severn, Jack, and Ace. With the continuous increase of new works, the camp of the Otter brothers is also expanding, and Tyro, Leo, Astra, and Eddie have joined several Ultramans, and ultramans are no longer lone heroes who fight alone.
The Ultraman worldview of this period was later merged and revised into the M78 orthodox worldview or main worldview, which is the most important worldview system in the Ultraman universe. Under this worldview, with the exception of the Leo brothers, most ultramans are from the Land of Light (built on the Otter Star of the M78 Nebula), and were originally close-looking "giants" who loved peace and science.
The Otter Star of the M78 Nebula and the Land of Light
Later, the sun exploded in the M78 nebula, and scientists in the Land of Light developed plasma spark towers to provide light to the Land of Light. However, the evil Baltan starmen tampered with the plasma spark tower data for their own benefit, causing the inhabitants of the Land of Light to change, and Ultraman was born. During the plasma spark tower mutation, other planets in the M78 nebula were also affected, resulting in a large number of monsters. In order to defend the peace of the universe, Ultraman began to fight monsters all over the universe, and the Otter brothers were among the best.
Since the Otter brothers' series were all born in the Showa (1926-1989) era in Japan, they are collectively known as the "Showa Ultraman". In addition to the Otter brothers, the Showa clan also includes the father of Otter, the mother of Otter, the king of Otter, etc., a total of 14 Ultraman.
The Showa series ended with "Eddie Ultraman", and by the time "Gray Ultraman" was screened 10 years later, it was already in the Heisei era (1989-2018), so the Ultraman that appeared in "Rob Ultraman" since then was called "Heisei Ultraman".
During the Heisei Ultraman period, the Ultraman worldview began to diverge greatly: Diga Ultraman was a giant who appeared on Earth in the ultra-ancient period, and Dana Ultraman shared a worldview structure with him; Gaia Ultraman and Aguru Ultraman were "human Ultraman" born as earthlings; Ultraman Mömbius returned to the Showa worldview... The original worldview structure of "Seven Ultraman" was not completely abandoned, and some new works were derived from it.
Some of the origins of Ultraman's name
In various special editions and theatrical versions, Round Valley has introduced some new independent worldview structures, and each Ultraman has also shuttled through different worldviews. For example, in the theatrical version of Armageddon! In Ultra Ultra 8 Brothers, five Showa Ultramans and three Heisei Ultraman enter a new worldview and work together to defeat the monster.
In the Heisei period, Round Valley filmed and licensed 17 Ultraman TV versions, each involving 1-3 new Ultraman characters; in the theatrical version of the same period, there were constantly some new characters appearing; coupled with comics and setting sets, ultraman history was also enriched, so there are currently about 50 famous and surnamed Ultraman involved.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="193" > Ultraman so hot, why is Round Valley so miserable? </h1>
Although Ultraman looks like a super IP, if you look at it from the perspective of operation and industrialization alone, Round Valley is actually not successful, in addition to the series repeatedly encountered suspension crises, derivative development initially did not have much brilliance, so that the company has been in bankruptcy many times in history.
According to the concept of many close-up filmmakers at present, close-up film shooting is actually a very cost-effective thing. There have been media reports that a domestic close-up producer, shooting a 40-episode close-up film, the cost can basically be controlled between 4 million and 6 million, but relying on related toy sales, the company's annual revenue can be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan.
Therefore, in theory, Ultraman, which once attracted more than one-third of the national attention in Japan and has a high popularity in the world, can create more revenue space. Hiroaki Yoshida, president of Japan's TYO Group, has also said that Marutani actually "does nothing but rely on copyright income to maintain business." However, in the development of close-up films, Round Valley chose a completely different path.
First of all, Round Valley's investment in Ultraman production is much higher than that of ordinary close-up films.
Beginning in the Eiji Marutani period, in order to be able to show the scenes of giant supermen and giant monsters fighting, Round Valley had to make a large number of large and very elaborate models in each episode, which led to ultraman's production costs being high from the beginning, almost three times the cost of another Japanese national feature film, Kamen Rider in the 1980s and 1990s. It is said that when "Diga Ultraman" was filmed in 1996, the total cost was close to 100 million yuan.
Ultraman filming scene
Because the early derivatives market and industry were not perfect, Ultraman's revenue that year was more dependent on copyright fees. Coupled with the fact that Ultraman is a production and broadcast mode while shooting, once the episode ratings are not good, Round Valley can easily fall into passivity. The most typical case is that during the production of Leo Ultraman, because the ratings of the series were relatively sluggish, Round Valley directly arranged for almost all the main characters except Leo Ultraman to die in the later stages due to monster invasion in order to save costs (mainly remuneration).
But even so, as long as Round Valley can maintain stability in Ultraman content production, it can still guarantee the problem of revenue. However, several generations of Round Valley people are reluctant to follow the steps, and like to do some exploration and experimentation in content, such as adding horror film elements to some episodes, or putting in some deep topics of discussion and style change. These explorations also tend to cause the loss of some children's audiences in the short term, which in turn leads to fluctuations in ratings, and makes Round Valley in a long-term fiscal deficit in the last century.
Horror film elements such as "Leo Ultraman" episode 16, the woman who disappeared in the middle of the night
In 2004, relying on the success of "Diga Ultraman" and "Gauss Ultraman", Round Valley had a warming trend in operation. However, the company began to "die", in order to explore a new Ultraman image, launched a story-oriented, weakly combat ultraman series "Nexus Ultraman". The Douban score of the film is as high as 9.3, which is a god work in the hearts of many people. But obviously, this does not satisfy the children who are the main force of the ratings, so the film has an average daily rating of only 3%, and finally has no choice but to be cut off.
For those who love Ultraman, this is both a proud history and an endless source of bitterness.
In addition, although Round Valley insists on the quality of content, it has to be admitted that many Round Valley people are not excellent operators and managers. And because round valley was a family-owned enterprise in the early days, it brought a lot of trouble to the company's operation. For example, former president Kazuo Marutani has invested in a large number of unprofitable projects based on personal preferences, which has further aggravated the deterioration of the company's financial situation and made derivatives development slow to be done.
The seventh president, Kazuo Marutani, whose representative works are "Diga Ultraman", "Dana Ultraman", "Gaia Ultraman"
These situations continued until around 2007, when The inability to operate Round Valley finally sold into the large group TYO and received capital injection from the Japanese toy giant Bandai, and the operating situation gradually improved. In 2008, Ultraman Derivatives, which was represented by Bandai alone, sold more than 300 million yuan in Japan.
However, the change of ownership of the company also brought new troubles to Round Valley. According to the business ideas of the new shareholders, Ultraman obviously still has to take the road of "episode promotion + toys to make money" of feature film revenue. Therefore, many company executives, including the former president Oka, admitted that now that Round Valley is planning ultraman dramas, he will consider what kind of goods are better to sell, and make adjustments in combination with toy sales in filming.
In Ooka's words, this is now more beneficial to Round Valley than the original business model. But this has also made many Ultraman works in recent years be questioned by fans as toy advertising films, and even some early creators have come forward to criticize. The emergence of these variables has made many people have a certain negative attitude towards the future development of Ultraman's IP.
In general, Round Valley's persistence in Ultraman production is worth learning from many practitioners. However, from a business point of view, in addition to having "ingenuity", it is also necessary to have a proper way of operation, and if you want to maintain long-term benign development, you must not be too arbitrary and willful.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="211" > the copyright dispute behind Ultraman Rise of the Steel Wyvern</h1>
The mismanagement of Many Of the Presidents of Round Valley during his reign has not only caused Round Valley to fall into bankruptcy crisis many times, but also brought a series of troubles to Round Valley, and the dispute mentioned at the beginning of the article is one of them - in fact, the relevant litigation and mutual statements have been issued more than once, and when "Goodbye Ultraman of the Steel Dragon" was released in 2017, Round Valley issued a statement to protest. Behind this is a decades-long controversy.
According to the statement previously published by Blue Arc, the producer of "Ultraman Rise of the Steel Dragon", the Ultraman copyright in the hands of the company was legally obtained through a series of copyright transfers.
Blue Arc Culture's statement released on January 18, 2019
After the death of Eiji Marutani in 1970, Marutani's business deteriorated. Under financial pressure, the successor president, Takashi Marutani, signed the "1976 Contract" with his friend Simpot, the owner of thai CHAIYO, in 1976, transferring the copyright of seven Showa Ultraman works. However, it is worth mentioning that the rest of the executives and shareholders of Round Valley are not aware of this.
When Marutani died in 1995, Kazuo Marutani, unaware of the 1976 Contract, succeeded him as president and began to lay out Ultraman's overseas authorization. The move was strongly complained about by Simbert, who sent a lawyer's letter to Round Valley informing him of the existence of the contract. Immediately, Kazuo Marutani issued a letter of apology in which he acknowledged the existence of the 1976 Contract.
In 2008, CHAIYO transferred the exclusive right of use to UM Corporation of Japan, and UM subsequently authorized Hong Kong's TIGA to act as an agent for Ultraman's copyright business. Blue Arc obtained the authorization of Ultraman from TIGA, and then obtained the right to produce related works and derivatives, so Blue Arc believes that the company is not infringing.
However, for the interpretation of the blue arc, Round Valley does not approve.
The key to the Round Valley protests lies in the authenticity of the 1976 Contract. Shortly after Kazuo Marutani's apology letter was sent, Marutani received a copy of the contract sent by Simpot, but after identification, it was found that the contract was actually forged. Round Valley immediately filed a lawsuit with the courts of Japan and Thailand, demanding that Simpot be found to be infringing. Simbot, on the other hand, based on an apology letter, insisted that the contract did exist.
As a result, Round Valley and Simpot were embroiled in a protracted copyright lawsuit. Later, because of the transfer of copyright, companies such as Blue Arc were also involved in related disputes and lawsuits. Up to now, the parties have fought many lawsuits on copyright, the authenticity of the 1976 Contract, and other issues. In several judgments in Japan and China, the 1976 Contract was found to be true and valid; in Thailand, Marutani was once ruled in favor. Therefore, the parties concerned do not accept the judgment against themselves, and so far the Ultraman copyright dispute is still inconclusive.
On September 30, 2010, Japan's Supreme Court again ruled that the contract was valid, and Marutani lost the case
According to the final judgment of the Supreme People's Court of China in 2013, the Ultraman copyright held by Blue Arc is legal and not infringing.
It is worth mentioning that because of copyright disputes, many of Ultraman's subsequent derivative developments have also been subject to many restrictions. In the movie "Ready Player One" released in 2018, Spielberg originally had the idea of joining Ultraman, but because the overseas copyright ownership was not clear, he finally had to give up.
In addition, at the end of the last century, affected by the warming of Sino-Japanese relations, Round Valley once had the idea of producing a Chinese version of Ultraman, and "Neos Ultraman" was originally designed for the plan. However, due to the death of the president of the plan, Marutani Gao, coupled with the copyright dispute between Marutani and CHAIYO, it was finally resolved. This incident has also become a major regret in the hearts of many Chinese Ultraman fans.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="225" > is it childish to look at Ultraman? </h1>
Blue Arc Ultraman is not recognized by many Ultraman fans, in addition to the copyright issues, there is another important reason: many fans believe that the series violates Ultraman's creative philosophy and makes Ultraman too young.
Aside from fans who like Ultraman, many viewers don't seem to understand such reasons. Because in the general perception (especially for many Chinese audiences), although the Ultraman universe is complex, if it is specific to the plot of a single episode, it is nothing more than "Ultraman fights a small monster", and this is indeed a small and childish film and television work suitable for children to watch.
But is that really the case? According to a survey data of a domestic Ultraman fan organization, among the 5,000 fans participating in the survey, the fans in the age group of 35 to 44 years old accounted for the highest proportion, reaching 46.4%. While children are difficult to be included in the survey, at least it shows that many older viewers are also watching Ultraman.
Age distribution of ultraman's audience
In fact, if you look at the audience composition of Ultraman during the broadcast in Japan, it is true that there are more children; but from the perspective of the value that ultraman series works hope to convey and the positioning of the works, most of the early Ultraman works are all-age or even adult-oriented works, including many discussions on values and topics such as human nature, environmental protection, life, and growth.
For example, the 23rd episode of "The First Ultraman", "My Hometown is Earth", tells a story set in the Cold War. In the episode, Jamila, as an astronaut sent into space during the space race, is abandoned by humans due to an accident and eventually turns into a monster and begins to attack Earth. After Jamila was defeated by the first generation, the human beings who learned the truth erected a tombstone for him, and the tombstone was full of praise, but there was no mention of human fault. So there is the classic line: "Do this to the dead, just pick the praise and talk about it." ”
Similar in-depth works include "Messenger of the Nonnmarktes" in "Ultraman Severn" and "Monster Messengers and Teenagers" in "The Return of Ultraman", these two works also involve social issues such as environmental protection, human selfishness, and disputes among the natives of Japan. Because of this, these three episodes received widespread attention and discussion in the future, and were dubbed the "Three Great Problems of Showa".
Monster Messengers and Boys explores human selfishness
In the Heisei period, there were also many plays with profound themes. In "Diga Ultraman", there are a large number of monsters such as Silizan, King Morat, Litmarus, etc., which are produced or resurrected because of human wanton destruction of the environment; and in "Gaia Ultraman", stories such as "The Swamp of Sorrow" show reflections on war; "peace" is an important motif in "Gauss Ultraman"...
The plot of "The Swamp of Sorrow" - Scientists who oppose the use of germ weapons by the military become the object of the military's first human experiments and become monsters. After that, he destroyed all chemical weapons and experimenters and hid in a swamp.
In addition to the thinking of a single episode, many Ultramans themselves have a strong speculative nature. In the original worldview structure of "Seven Ultraman", there is no absolute good and evil between humans and monsters, so Severn often falls into some struggles and contradictions. In order to show the related themes, the series also had much fewer fights, which in turn caused a decline in ratings as mentioned above.
Of course, the value that Ultraman transmits is not only the "dark side" of things. Including "Ace Ultraman", "Tyro Ultraman", "Eddie Ultraman", many Ultraman series are also conveying positive values such as friendship, respect, and independence, and often reflect the theme of "human beings should rely on their own strength to protect the earth".
And it is precisely because of many relatively deep themes and content innovations that Ultraman has a large number of well-known fans around the world. Director Tim Burton has repeatedly said that "the monsters in Ultraman are my family", and his own creations have been deeply influenced by close-up shooting; the creators of world-class anime such as Pokemon, Evangelion, Dragon Ball, and Attack on Titan have said that they have been inspired by Ultraman's works in the creative process; James Gunn, director of "Guardians of the Galaxy", has proposed that Ultraman is his "father of cinema"...
Not long ago, a grassroots team in China filmed a video of "Earthy Diga Ultraman", which caused a huge sensation on Kuaishou. Subsequently, the video was also transmitted to Japan and became a hot topic on Japanese social networks, including Ultraman designer Hiroshi Maruyama and director Shunji Iwai, and many big names liked it.
Earthy "Diga Ultraman"
Some Chinese netizens are curious, why can such a rough video get so much favor?
A netizen who loves Ultraman replied: "Compared with some works made with special effects in order to circle money, such a somewhat 'clumsy' attempt can make people feel the love of the older generation of Round Valley people for close-ups, and it is also more reminiscent of us as fans of what was so much like Ultraman back then." ”
The final episode of Diga Ultraman, "You Can Also Become Light"
Easter Egg: How does the Otter Brothers rank?
When I watched Ultraman as a child, I liked to argue with my friends about which Ultraman was strong. However, because there was not much understanding of Ultraman at that time, and the data and data obtained were limited, the controversy was often only "Guan Gong Zhan Qin Qiong", and there was no more convincing argument. Fortunately, through the Network now, more accurate data can be collected, so Poison Eye is attached here with an Easter egg - what is the strength ranking of the Otter brothers?
(Note: The following data and materials are from Baidu Encyclopedia, due to the fact that the Ultraman worldview has undergone many revisions, so the data may be different; the arguments are mainly based on the early TV version and the main world view, and do not involve other derivative works including the theatrical version; the following only represents the author's personal position, welcome to discuss in the comments.) ）
For this discussion, first of all, the previous set of data -
Because Round Valley did not have a clear plan for the overall architecture of the Ultraman series at the beginning, there were many imperfections in the settings of the early Ultraman. Coupled with the consideration of ratings, the more advanced in theory (including the Heisei system), the stronger Ultraman's comprehensive strength (in weight, flight speed, wrist strength and other data are also reflected). Therefore, as the first generation of Ultraman, who was the founder of the mountain, he regrettably became the weakest of the Ott brothers.
However, as far as the Otter brothers are concerned, there are also some fluctuations under the general trend of "getting stronger in the later period".
First of all, although Severn and Jack are on par in terms of physical fitness, and Jack has such a powerful equipment as the Otter bracelet, Severn's strength should be stronger than Jack based on the following three points-
1. In various rankings, Severn has long ranked in the top three of the Otter brothers' fighting ability, higher than Jack;
2. Severn has a large number of rays, ranking second among the Otter brothers (after Ace);
3. Severn has more small skills, and also has auxiliaries such as capsule monsters, and the comprehensive combat strength is obviously more dominant.
Seven Ultraman's Emmelim Rays
The strength ranking of Ace, Leo, Astra and Eddie should be that Ace is higher than Leo and Astra is higher than Eddie, for the following reasons :
1. Aidi is more versatile, but there is no particularly prominent place, and its record of no defeat has also been affected by the TV version positioning (with love and warmth);
2. Leo is a Showa fighting king, with quite outstanding fighting strength and up to 200,000 tons of arm strength;
3. Leo's younger brother Astra has a much better overall physical fitness than Leo and has an armband bonus, but Leo has the Artifact Otter Cloak and the "Protagonist Aura" bonus, so his overall strength is slightly inferior to that of his brother;
4. "Ace" Ace is the Showa Ray King, with the largest number of powerful light skills, but this does not mean that he is just a ranged mage, in fact, his strong fighting strength is often overlooked, the most hand-torn monsters, his fighting ability is not bad.
Ace Ultraman's Metalim Rays
In addition to the above-mentioned Ultramans, there are two more special Ultramans - Tyro and Zoffy.
Tyro is called "Prince Grandpa" by fans, in addition to because he is the only biological son of Ott's father and Ott's mother, more importantly, his data does have some bugs: while the heaviest weight, the flight speed can still be tied with Ace and other first, and has a strong ray destructive power (the killer Stelim ray is the second strongest single ray of damage) and a powerful plug-in Ott bracelet, Ott heart. Therefore, Tyro is undoubtedly the most powerful of the Otter brothers.
Tyro Ultraman's Slim Ray
As for the invincible Zoffey and the great "Captain Yantou", because there is no personal TV version of the work, and often loses in cameos, many viewers underestimate his strength. But considering that its killer M87 ray is recognized as the strongest ray skill, the panel data is not bad. Out of respect for "the grown-up", we decided to rank him second among the Otter brothers.
Zofi Ultraman
Therefore, the ranking given by Poison Eye is as follows-
1. Tyro Ultraman
2. Zofi Ultraman
3. Ace Ultraman
4. Leo Ultraman
5. Astra Ultraman
6. Eddie Ultraman
7. Seven Ultraman
8. Jack Ultraman
9. The original Ultraman
What is your ranking?
Author | Jiang Yuqi
Edit | Shi Yedong