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Hoppy800 wrote:

Oh great another legal snarl on the level of Macross and Candy Candy (well at least the latter case had a silver lining but only for Latin America).

Harmony Gold didn't make monster movies with animal cruelty in them, Chaiyo did, 1978's Crocodile anyone? I unironically thought the American cut version was 10/10, then on Wikipedia I read they decapitated a live crocodile on camera in the original cut so I found myself thinking "Naw" then found the original cut and about an hour in.... Chaiyo is one of the very few companies I'm okay with stating should consume a bag of man meat. Thieves, liars, and torturers of the rage inducing variety. Fortunately legally they can't release any extras on their home markets and only Tsubaraya has master prints that can be used for blu-rays!

For those that want to read up on the legal mess click here: http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007/07/01/legal-victories-for-tsuburaya-productions/

Now you know how I've felt for 9 years on my favorite tokusatsu franchise! As begrudgingly as I can get with Crunchyroll, I have to mumbly thank them for licensing Ultraman stuff, partially because if it has enough success through streams Tsubarayas can use more money for the court cases.

Vaisaga wrote:

When are we gonna get a Super Human Samurai Cyber Squad reboot instead? Laughing

Lol, this is what I thought of first as well. It was made by the same company, so the similarities make sense.

I don't know if I'd want a reboot though. Although, there was a great short amongst the studio khara exhibition.

Still have the toys packed away somewhere Smile

So, what you are saying is, we will never see the Godzilla/Ultraman/Gamera three way throw-down the world demands?

PurpleWarrior13 wrote:

I doubt any Hollywood studio would be interested. The only person I know in real life that grew up with Ultraman was my Chemistry teacher. And she's from the Philippines!

I grew up on Ultraman. It was shown regularly on our local UHF station in Sacramento. Got to see a lot of Japanese Sci-Fi movies dubbed in English there. Along with some Italian Sci-Fi movies.

BadNewsBlues wrote:

Not simply a mess a hot mess. Of course everyone had to mention the bitter ongoing dogfight with Macross's rights. Razz

There is no bitter ongoing dogfight with Macross’s rights. There is just a cold war, with no one talking. Though we should take some hope that the Macross issue is not as bad as Ultraman’s situation.

The legal situation is a mess, but the important thing to remember is that it only pertains to the distribution of the series through 1974. Tsubaraya still owns the characters and of course any new properties since then. While Mr. Saengduenchai has announced several projects, none of them have shown any kind of progress.

While it is true that Ultraman has not been very well known in the US, it has enjoyed popularity across Asia and especially in China. With major studios like Disney and Paramount catering their films for a Chinese audience, and Chinese-owned production companies like Legendary finding success internationally with kaiju-focused movies like Godzilla and Pacific Rim, I don't think it's quite so improbable that we could see a big-budget Ultraman movie.

Also worth noting that Nobuhiro Tsubarya did try to get a Hollywood Ultraman movie made in the early 1980's, following the success of Richard Donner's Superman. (the screenplay was written by Lawrence Kasdan, who also wrote Empire Strikes Back)

Shenl742 wrote:

Am I the only guy who remembers that Australian-based Ultraman show from the early 90s? The SNES fighting game was based on it?

I remember seeing it once or twice (Ultraman: Toward the Future, was it?), where the Ultra's normal alter-ego was the token Japanese character on an Australian monster-busting team.

And suffice to say, there is a distinct difference between a Japanese show and an Australian one.

I would like to point out that my country has a history with Ultraman(Ultra Q,the original Ultraman,Ultra Seven,Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Tiga were all dubbed and broadcasted in my country.In the case of the original Ultraman,it got a re-dub when it was re-run in the 90's since the original audio was lost. )and a couple of years ago,most of the crossover Ultraman movies done in the 2000's and 2010's were dubbed and released on DVD(they even managed to get some of the original VAs who dubbed some of these characters in the 70's back to reprise them!that was awesome! ) here,and they are also on Netflix(Netflix here also has Ultra Seven X,dubbed even.),so I wonder if they were brought over through a license from Tsuburaya or these Thai guys...

EricJ2 wrote:

Shenl742 wrote:

Am I the only guy who remembers that Australian-based Ultraman show from the early 90s? The SNES fighting game was based on it?

I remember seeing it once or twice (Ultraman: Toward the Future, was it?), where the Ultra's normal alter-ego was the token Japanese character on an Australian monster-busting team.

And suffice to say, there is a distinct difference between a Japanese show and an Australian one.

I watched that show as a kid. I rewatched a few episodes on Hulu a few years ago, but it's no longer available there.

On the legal availability, as Japanese copyright ends 50 years after the creator dies, that means the original Ultraman is free from it's copyright there in 2021. So, at that point, you might be able to stream on USA sites. However, a Japanese corporation has 2 active trademarks under that name with the USPTO.

Levitz9 wrote:

When it comes to adaptation of toku shows on TV, it's Power Rangers or bust; even the fairly solid Kamen Rider Dragon Knight didn't seem to do much.

Really insightful stuff, Justin. Thanks for answering my question. This was really educational. Very Happy

In the English-speaking world (with a few exceptions like the Philippines and India), toku is so thoroughly associated with Power Rangers that any other toku show airing on TV nowadays will likely be called a Power Rangers ripoff.

There were many that tried back in the day though. Definitely Ultraman was one of them. Remember VR Troopers? But it was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers that emerged the winner. I don't really know why, or why anything else is seen as a ripoff as if nobody remembered any of the other shows competing with Power Rangers during its time. But more on that later in my post.

Paiprince wrote:

I feel like these incidents are like custody battles over two separated parents. Imagine a kid Ultraman being pulled from both arms.

Only it's been going on for decades with seemingly no end in sight. Both sides are throwing everything they have into this.

Guile wrote:

Power Rangers succeeded where others failed more than likely because of closemindedness. People are very quick to call things ripoffs, so there's never room for more than one show in the American market. Even if the idea calling Kamen Rider a Super Sentai ripoff is ridiculous given it predates Sentai in Japan. But all people care about is Power Rangers as it was the first one they saw so every other Toku is now a rip off of it and will be shunned. Just like all monster shows after Pokemon, or card game shows after Yu Gi Oh, despite the fact all of the shows live in harmony in Japan, they were failures in America. There's only room for one franchise per genre in America it looks like

Not quite. Digimon continued to be relevant for a long while, at least until the end of the third season. There hasn't been much besides Yu-Gi-Oh! because there were no serious attempts until recently (with Cardfight!! Vanguard and Buddyfight! having niche followings).

If American television viewers only feel there should be one of each particular thing, then there wouldn't be such a thing as genres. The Flintstones wouldn't have lasted as everyone would've called it a Honeymooners ripoff, airwaves wouldn't be clogged up with cooking shows until the mid-90's, and CSI would not have paved way for a wave of successful police procedural shows like NCIS, Criminal Minds, and to a lesser extent 24. We're seeing it today with all the superhero TV shows to accompany the superhero movies, and animated semi-serial dramedies like Gravity Falls and Steven Universe.

Rather, I think American audiences are quite sensitive to whether or not something is genuinely trying to be something versus something just going through the motions. The kids knew Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island was a blatant SpongeBob SquarePants ripoff, but they will sit down to watch Pickle & Peanut. The funny pages readers are letting Argyle Sweater sink into obscurity for aping The Far Side so much, but they will heap praise on Jeff Mallet for Frazz and call it a spiritual successor to Calvin and Hobbes instead.

DuelGundam2099 wrote:

Thieves, liars, and torturers of the rage inducing variety. Fortunately legally they can't release any extras on their home markets and only Tsubaraya has master prints that can be used for blu-rays!

I can say as someone who has traveled to Thailand several times that in that country, just because something is illegal to produce does not mean you won't find it in every mall and marketplace.

Shenl742 wrote:

Am I the only guy who remembers that Australian-based Ultraman show from the early 90s? The SNES fighting game was based on it?

Man from what I remember of that game I enjoyed playing the heck out of that one

Although "Ultraman" hasn't had a lot of exposure here in America,I hope there will be an American version of this someday. Personally,I'd love to see it. For me,the "Power Rangers" franchise here has been hit or miss with me. A lot of times,it's been pretty good. I thought the more recent series was mediocre. They were good,but could have been better. In fact,the only bad version of the series I remember was "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy." It seemed that the Japanese version of the series was on Earth while the American version of the show decided to go off to another galaxy. Needless to say,I didn't like it very much.
To me,I like to see a lot more American tokusatsu. I think it would do well if handled well,but hey. That's just me. On a further note,I'll be doing a post on "Power Rangers" in the Community section sometime in the near future so subscribers,keep your eyes open for it.

Kamen Rider Amazons will be showing on Amazon Prime this September. Watched an episode on Japanese TV. My first thought was spoiler[blood sucking] Power Rangers. While it is not Ultraman or a Sentai team like the Power Rangers, it is probably the closest you are going to get.

So much for 2018's action/comedy of the year.

Snomaster1 wrote:

To me,I like to see a lot more American tokusatsu. I think it would do well if handled well,but hey.

American Tokusatsu probably never became a thing due to budget reasons, along with the shift towards CGI. Power Rangers has a terribly small budget. Even when they're using already shot footage from the Japanese show they still moved production to New Zealand for lower labor costs. For completely original shows like Tattooed Teenagers From Beverly Hills, without stock footage to use, the budget was even smaller which is why their outfits were literally Halloween costumes from a store.

Given how movies also seem to use CGI instead of costumes and practical effects these days it might be impossible for them to actually create good outfits and monster costumes since there's no industry for it anymore. It's a shame because there's certain American ideas that could make a decent tokusatsu, like Ninja Turtles or similar 90s mutant team heroes like Street Sharks. The closest we ever got was Next Mutation.

-Stuart Smith

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