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Anime Frontier Hosts Advanced Screening of Shin Ultraman Film

Staff for the Anime Frontier event announced on Wednesday that this year's event will screen Studio Khara's Shin Ultraman film on December 4 at 1:00 p.m. at the Main Stage in Texas' Fort Worth Convention Center's ahead of Fathom Events' theatrical screening in the U.S. on January 11 and 12. General seating will be first come, first served for attendees. Anime Frontier, Ultraman Connection, and Fathom Events will also offer limited reserved seats.

The convention staff also revealed that Yoko Takahashi (Neon Genesis Evangelion) canceled her previously scheduled performance at the convention on December 4 because of a visa issue. Anime Frontier will issue refunds for all ticket sales.

The film debuted in Japan on May 13 and ranked at #1 in its first weekend. The film has the highest-earning debut weekend for a live-action Japanese film in 2022 so far. Shin Ultraman earned 17% more in its first three days than Shin Godzilla did when it opened in August 2016. Shin Godzilla sold 564,332 tickets to earn 845,675,500 yen in its first three days. The film has sold 2.62 million tickets for 3.9 billion yen (about US$28.92 million) as of June 21.

Tsuburaya Productions describes the film's story:

The continued appearance of giant unidentified life forms known as “S-Class Species (Kaiju)” has become commonplace in Japan.

Conventional weapons have no effect on them. Having exhausted all other options, the Japanese Government issued the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol and formed an enforcement unit, known as the SSSP.

The members chosen for the unit are: captain Kimio Tamura (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima), strategic planner Shinji Kaminaga (played by Takumi Saitōh), unparticle physicist Akihisa Taki (played by Daiki Arioka), and biologist Yumi Funaberi (Akari Hayami).

In the midst of a Kaiju threat, a silver giant appears from beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Analyst Hiroko Asami (played by Masami Nagasawa) is newly appointed to the SSSP to deal with this giant and is partnered with Shinji Kaminaga.

In Hiroko's report, she writes—

“Ultraman (tentative name), identity unknown.”

Shin Godzilla director Shinji Higuchi and his Higuchi-Gumi team helmed the project, and Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno was in charge of planning and scripts. Kenshi Yonezu performs the film's theme song "M87."

The Anime Frontier event will take place from December 2-4 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Rock band FLOW will perform at the convention on December 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fort Worth Convention Center Ballroom.

Sources: Press release, Anime Frontier