Ultraman is a Seijin from the Land of Light M-78. Many Ultramen are usually red and silver (although several different colored ultra's have been seen in recent years, most of them are blue colored) and have glowing yellow eyes (except for red warriors) and they have many abilities, most of them are to fire energy beams from many positions of crossed hands. The Ultra beings’ main weakness is that they can only stay on Earth in giant form for a small time, usually not longer than three minutes, because of the small amount of energy supply (Earth's atmosphere decreases the solar energy). This is marked by a blue light on the character's body usually called the Color Timer (but Ultraseven, 21, Nexus Anphans, and Next did not have a color timer) or "warning light," which begins to blink red with increase in blinking as his energy supply goes down (and turns from grey to red) but Red warriors like Ultraseven had an orb on his head instead of a Color Timer. During this time the Ultra beings must either find a way to recharge or finish the fight as soon as possible, or forced to turn to human form, or worse, certain death. Sometimes some Ultra Warriors take them back to their home planet or when reflected sun rays by the mirrors on his color timer might charge them up. Some say another reason for Ultraman to recharge is because the Earth is badly polluted by humans, so Ultraman only has three minutes on Earth, but can survive long enough in outer space. The time limit only happens inside the Earth's atmosphere but they have none of those problems in outer space. In this case, Ultramen are almost always merged with a human host or create a human form for themselves in order to survive on Earth, more often than not reviving a recently dead person with their own lifeforce (Hikari did not revive the dead person but he controlled him). Ultra beings' also appear to be nearly immpossible to be permanently killed, as several times an Ultra being has been killed only to be revived by another member of their species. In other cases a large enough amount of energy can be provided to bring them back to life, usually provided by their human allies, even after being completely destroyed, as was the case with Mebius, death at the hands of Empera Seijin, only to be revived shortly thereafter by the life energy of his allies.
The Ultramen always try to avoid battles in a place where there are innocent people near them and try to cause the least amount of destruction as possible, from the side effects of their fights when fighting in the city, when and if they can not; a city like Tokyo would be destroyed.
"Ultra Q" was originally the first Ultra Series but it featured any of the Ultras without monsters and came "Ultraman". It was followed by many other series. Productions after the original series are: Ultraseven (1967, TBS), Return of Ultraman (1971, TBS), Ultraman Ace (1972, TBS), Ultraman Taro (1973, TBS), Ultraman Leo (1974, TBS), Ultraman 80 (1980, TBS), Ultraman Tiga (1996, MBS), Ultraman Dyna (1997, MBS), Ultraman Gaia (1998, MBS), and Ultraman Cosmos (2001, MBS). Recently the studio tried bringing back the stories of the hero through the "Ultra N Project," which involved three heroes: Ultraman Noa (the "mascot" of the Ultra N Project, who appears in stage shows as well as the final episode of Ultraman Nexus) in 2003, Ultraman Nexus (2004, CBC), and ULTRAMAN (2004, Shochiku Productions). This was followed by a return to past-style series in the form of Ultraman Max (2005, CBC). In the course of "Max" series, another new hero known as Ultraman Xenon was also introduced. April 2006 saw the 40th anniversary series, Ultraman Mebius, a rookie who will defeat the emperor of all Ultra Monsters, the Empera Seijin which will create a connection between the Ultra Kyodai. Another hero was also introduced: Ultraman Hikari, formerly known as Hunter Knight Tsurugi. Some series like Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, and Mebius had Gaidens (Side Stories). Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia had only one Gaiden for each but Mebius had 3 Gaidens. First featured during the story of Hikari before and after coming and leaving the earth. The second series featured the story after the final episode of Ultraman Mebius. The third featured about the events that happened before the events of the movie .
The series has also been in the movie theaters, starting with "Ultraman Zearth" and "Ultraman Zearth 2," "," released in 2000, as well as "ULTRAMAN," a movie that opened in December 2004. The direct to video (releasing in market than in theaters) market also saw the release of "Ultraman Neos" in 2000, as well as special features for Ultraman Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia, who have teamed up in theatrical features (Tiga and Dyna once, as well as the three of them all together). The "Ultraman Mebius and Ultra Brothers" movie opened in September 2006.
Foreign productions include the 1987 Hanna-Barbera co-production "Ultraman: The Adventure Begins" (in Japanese, "Ultraman USA"), an animated movie; "Ultraman: Towards The Future" (in Japanese, "Ultraman Great"), an Australian 1991 production and "Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero" (in Japanese, "Ultraman Powered"), produced in the United States in 1993. Ultraman series have also been dubbed into many languages, including English, Spanish (only Ultra Q, the original Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Return of Ultraman, Ultraman Great & Ultraman Tiga were known to be translated into Spanish), Portuguese (Ultraman, Ultraseven, Return of Ultraman and Ultraman Tiga [in Brazil]), Korean, Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese. Also of note is the American English dubbed version of "Ultraman Tiga" by 4Kids Entertainment that aired in 2002. The dubbed version considerably removed the nature of the character and general mood of the series, and possibly as a result it achieved only little success. An episode of the Hoshi no Kirby anime series ("Kirby: Right Back at Ya" in America) contains an Ultraman reference, leading to the possibility that "Tiga" may have only been licensed in order to explain the reference (both shows debuted on the same day).
In 1993, Tsuburaya Productions and Toei Company co-produced "Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider," a connection with the original Ultraman and Toei's Kamen Rider Ichigo. This direct to video feature is co-copyrighted by both Toei (and its members, Toei Video and Ishimori Productions) and Tsuburaya Productions.
At present, Tsuburaya Prod. accepts 36 Ultramen as official (counting Ultraman Legend, the combined form of Ultramen Cosmos and Justice, as a separate Ultra Warrior). This does not connect with Thai produced Ultramen. (The figure is 38 if Next, Noa, and Nexus are counted as separate Ultras- it has been revealed in "Nexus" that all three are a single being with many modes used by different hosts.) In 2001, the "Ultra Series" was added in the Guinness Book of World Records as the record holder for the most number of spin-off shows.
"An asterisk * denotes shows (or movies) that has no Ultramen."
1999 Ultra Seven Series
2001 Heisei Ultraman Side Stories
2002 Ultra Seven Series
In Japan, there have been several box sets that were released which would each contain a particular Ultra series. As of now, there are only four such box sets. The sets were released as part of the Digital Ultra movement where the shows would be re released with digital remastering.
The following are the series which have been released as such:
The "Digital Ultra" re-release order of the series may not match the time order in which they were originally aired in Japan.