Kaiju no Kami Reviews - Ultraman Towards the Future (1990)

[Dr Kain]

Tsuburaya Productions teamed up with the South Australian Film Corporation to created an English based Ultraman series titled Ultraman Towards the Future. Known as Ultraman Great in Japan, this series featured a man named Jack Shindo as its lead protagonist who would take on the form of Ultraman when the needed arose. Is this show worthy of being called Ultraman Great in Japan? Or is it really not that great? Watch to find out.

[RichCo]

I kind of like this series. It was better than I remember it from the original 90s viewings (NYC area on FOX) but it's merely "OK" overall.

[O.Supreme]

Overall, it is pretty dated & cheesy, but I really like it. It came at a fundamental time in my life. I was 14 and had just moved, starting high school, no friends yet etc...Of course, the original Ultraman, had been off the air for nearly a decade, and all I had was a couple of sci-fi books magazine articles, and my fading memories of episodes. I had the faintest of knowledge about *other* Ultraman Series. Then, that fall I went with a friend from my old neighborhood into a toy/model shop in Chinatown San Francisco, and they were playing scenes from the new series (Towards the Future). I demanded to know how I could get episodes. The shop owner literally did the shifty eyes treatment. He said if I came back with 4 Blank VHS tapes, he would have them for me the next day....

I didn't fully understand, but I guess 2 blank tapes were *payment*, and he gave me the other 2 blank tapes back that contained the first 6 episodes (3 on each). I was surprised to see they were in english, and that this was made in Australia was even more puzzling. But for almost 2 years I watched those 6 episodes many times. In that time Bandai (DreamWorks) * Not the film company started b Spielberg, but a toy company subsidiary of Bandai) had acquired license for the product in the US. They released a line of toys, a Video Game for the SNES (which I was disappointed wasn't the original Ultraman game from the SFC as was initially advertised in Nintendo Power Magazine), and of course the TV show to air in syndication. It aired locally for me on Sunday Mornings Beginning in January 1992, at 7am on Channel 31 Sacramento. They went through the 13 episode cycle ONCE and that was it, where as in other markets (like the Bay Area), they showed it in perpetual rerun for nearly 2 years, admittedly though at the ungodly time of like 5am on Sundays. Of course that's how I caught a couple episodes I missed. because I had the original unedited first 6, I noticed the omission of the *Bull-S*&t* line from episode 5, and other scenes that had to be edited unfortunately for time. Years later of course I saw the unedited latter part of the series online. I'd love to get the Tsuburaya Blu Ray, but I cant justify spending that much. I'm happy with having them on my hard drive until a reasonably priced version is released, if ever.

[H-Man]

That's a great ad, never seen it before. If you didn't know the toys were for a television series (which is likely) this would have looked like one of the most extravagant toy commercials ever.

[Dr Kain]

[O.Supreme]

While Ultraman Towards the Future may have been the first series produced for an English speaking audience, it wasn't the first overall original English production . That would go to the Hanna-Barbara/Tsuburaya co-produced Animated film Ultraman: The Adventure Begins aka "Ultraman USA" in Japan. This was to be a pilot film for a regular series that never happened.

The main reason I point this out is because the musical themes from this film were actually used as the basis for Music in Ultraman TTF, which actually I liked. I believe it's one of the few times an Ultraman series was actually scored with a full orchestra. This film only aired once on a Saturday Afternoon in 1989 where I was living, and another friend of mine said he caught it on a Sunday Morning in another nearby market. I only saw the latter half of it initially, but US Renditions released it on VHS in the late 90's, which I still have, and of course Tsuburaya has released it since in a variety of formats, in Japan only. It's also been uploaded on Youtube several times. Below is the Japanese version, which is exactly the same as the english release, just with different ending credits. You'll notice the ending theme is the same as Ultraman: Towards The Future's.

[mbozzo]

I haven't seen the whole series, yet. I only saw the final 2 episodes at a Comic Con, years ago.

[Jinzo Ningen]

A fun, if somewhat silly (but doesn't pretty much fit the description of ALL of the Ultrashows??) oddball in the Ultra canon. Jack Shindo was cool and it was neat to see something other than assembly line product from Japan. It didn't all work, but it was a grand attempt. And FWIW, I just LOVED the body graphics on UM Great. (Not too crazy about those huge round ears, though. )