Ultraman TV and Movie Licensed to Mill Creek for North Ameri

[lhb412]

In less than 3 years I now have a shelf that's [i]only[/i] Ultra series Blu-rays and DVDs.

Incredible.

In addition to that - all the other kaiju/toku home video releases released during the same span of time and my collection of discs has has doubled, and this is coming from someone who's been buying home video releases of this stuff since the year 2001!

[Dai]

For anyone who hasn't been keeping track, we're in the middle of another barrage of major Ultraman releases at the moment. Zearth, Cosmos and Neos all released in the last couple of months, while Max and Nexus/Next are out on 15th November. Considering that most Ultra series are 50 episodes, it absolutely blows my mind how fast Mill Creek have been subtitling and releasing the franchise.

[lhb412]

Max has actually been delayed to January. Release date seems to be holding for Nexus/The Next (probably save that one for Christmas).

[lhb412]

As Mill Creek finishes releasing all the shows from their initial license listings have appeared for first volume and what is apparently a new set of compilation releases spotlighting individual monsters. First up, a disc of episodes featuring Red King!

I wonder if these releases will fill the gap between now and whatever comes next, whether it's new licenses or special edition releases.

[Kailem]

I read back through the thread but couldn't see it mentioned anywhere, and my Google searches have been inconclusive so I figured I'd ask; is there any indication that Mill Creek will be releasing Towards the Future/Great at any point? Or have they already said it's not possible because of its status as a co-production?

Ultraman: Towards the Future is the only Ultraman show I ever saw growing up (though I did recently pick up the original show on Blu-ray so I'll be going through that once I've finished Ultra Q), since I think it's the only one that ever made it over to this side of the world. So needless to say it holds a lot of sentimental value, and it'd be great to be able to actually own a legit physical copy without burned-in English subs like the Japanese Blu-ray has.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ No, unfortunately. Mill Creek can only license what TPC is offering for international licensing, and when Mill Creek struck their big Ultra deal with TPC back in 2019, they weren't offering Towards the Future or any other co-productions like The Ultimate Hero, Ultra Q Dark Fantasy or the Heisei-era UltraSeven specials.

With the release of Ultraman Max back in January, Mill Creek has now released every Ultra series, movie and special that they licensed from TPC back in 2019. Hopefully they'll be able to strike a new deal soon to license more recent shows like Taiga, Z and the Netflix anime, although I doubt TPC will be offering any older titles for licensing that they weren't offering four years ago.

[lhb412]

They might go after some of the non-Ultra shows. Fireman and Mirrorman are essentially Ultras in all bit name! What I want, though, is Operation Mystery. Which was Tsuburaya trying to do the eerie, Ultra Q thing without the obvious kaiju baddies.

[Kailem]

That's a shame about Towards the Future, but not unexpected. I wonder if it's a "they're waiting for the international rights to expire"-type thing, or if they're just straight-up not touching those international co-productions outside of Japan? I'd imagine the latter if Mill Creek didn't licence any of them at all.

And wow, Mill Creek really have released a lot haven't they?! Even with all the sets they've put out over the last few years I guess I just assumed they were only about halfway through, given how many Ultraman shows it always seemed like there were.

[Benjamin Haines]

Keith Aiken posted this on the blu-ray.com forums: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21394805&postcount=4731

"A second Mill Creek/Tsuburaya licensing deal is still very much a possibility. I am strongly recommending that anyone who would like that to happen contact Mill Creek via their website (https://www.millcreekent.com/pages/contact-us) or social and tell them so. The more fans/customers they hear from, the more motivation there will be to make this happen."


My plan is to take a photo of my Ultra collection tomorrow after work (when there's sunlight coming through the window) and then I'll email Mill Creek and ask them to help me add to it!

[lhb412]

I've already fired off an email. Apparently, some folks have said they've received a hopeful sounding reply from Mill Creek?

[Kailem]

Oh man, it's a long shot but if they were able to put out a US release of Towards the Future I would import that thing so quickly.

[Benjamin Haines]

I sent my email to Mill Creek's acquisitions, sales support and customer service email addresses simultaneously. The only reply I've received so far was the immediate auto-reply from the sales support email address: "Thank you for your message. A member of the sales team will review and respond as necessary. If you are interested in being a new partner, please follow the below link to submit your information."

I listed all of the most recent Ultraman titles in my email. Since I included Netflix's Ultraman anime series among my suggestions, and since Mill Creek was the company that previously gave Sony's animated Godzilla: The Series its long-overdue complete series DVD set, I also suggested that they try to license Godzilla: Singular Point and the Godzilla anime film trilogy to finally give them physical media releases too.