Ultraman Ginga (character)

"The future can be changed. It can be either for the better or for the worse. The ones who will decide that is all of you."

- Ultraman Ginga's departing words, Your Future

Ultraman Ginga (ウルトラマンギンガ) is an Ultraman from an unknown future who was once one entity with Dark Lugiel, whom the latter separated from prior to the Dark Spark War. After the war, he was trapped in Spark Doll form. The doll and the Ginga Spark made their way to Earth and into the hands of Hikaru Raido, who uses these two items to transform into Ultraman Ginga and battle users of Dark Spark Dolls. When he returned to space, he left his spark in Hikaru's possession so he could come to the aid of Earth, even if he was far away in a galaxy.

Two years later, he returned to Earth to fight against the threat of Alien Chibu Exceller, who plotted to use the stolen Victorium to revive his other half Lugiel and was joined by the Earth born Ultra Warrior Ultraman Victory. Their encounter with Etelgar and Ultraman Zero eventually led to the fusion Ultraman Ginga Victory.

Etymology
The Japanese word "Ginga" (銀河) means Galaxy in English.

New Ultraman Retsuden Episode 79
"Both: Because of how limited a life is, everyone is afraid of the end, suffering, pains and mistakes are born. Lugiel: Time (life) and happiness must be stopped in order to prevent more sadness and mistakes. Ginga: Overcoming sadness and mistake is eternal so that future generations can inherit a better future. (Lugiel parted and embraced darkness) Ginga: This is where we parted ways."

- Lugiel and Ginga, New Ultraman Retsuden episode 79.

Both Ultraman Ginga and Dark Lugiel originated from space which was set somewhere in the future. The two were originally one entity. However, both Ginga and Lugiel had different mindsets of peace. Lugiel stated that to create an "ultimate paradise", all lifeforms must be paused but Ginga objected, saying that all lifeforms bring prosperity. The two eventually split up with Ginga bearing the light and Lugiel bearing the darkness.

Ultraman Ginga
Dark Lugiel orchestrated the Dark Spark War which raged between the side of good and the side of evil, as represented by the participants, the Ultramen, monsters and evil aliens from across the universe. It is known that Ginga, with the Ginga Spark, previously fought the owner of the Dark Spark, but like possibly every Ultra and monster in the war had been sealed by the Dark Spark into the form of an action figure called a Spark Doll. It is now known that this was caused by the clash between the Ginga Spark and Dark Spark, which sealed both combatants. Afterwards the event that came to be known as the Dark Spark War, due to its ending, these dolls later fell to Earth in a meteorite shower with the Ginga Spark and the Ginga Doll hidden within it. The Ginga Spark was later kept inside the Ginga Shrine by Hotsuma Raido.

"Jean-Killer has been restored to Jean-Nine once more. His strong feelings had brought forth a miracle. But one only possible because of your own conviction."

- Ultraman Ginga's first speech in the series, The Dream Battle

Sometime later, a young man named Hikaru Raido discovered the Ginga Spark, which let him combine with the action figures and possess the abilities of the being in the action figure through a process called UltraLive. Unlike other Spark Dolls, Hikaru's Mark of Courage must shine in order for Ginga's Spark Doll to be called from within. Ginga was first summoned by Hikaru to fight Thunder Darambia, and finished the monster off by using the Ginga Thunderbolt before claiming its Spark Doll. This helped him in many later battles against humans and even some of his own friends that DarkLived into Kaiju and Seijin (Thunder Darambia, Kemur Man, King Pandon, Ragon, etc) via Spark Dolls and Dark Dummy Sparks which were distributed by Lugiel's agents; Alien Valky, Alien Icarus, and Alien Nackle Gray. At the same time, this allowed Hikaru to receive the Spark Dolls of the monsters he defeated. While gaining a new ally in the form of Tomoya Ichijouji/Jean-Nine, Ginga remarked that every time a monster was brought back (DarkLived) into the world, the forces of darkness were growing stronger and that 'his' return was nearing.

His words proven true when Dark Lugiel emerged from his host, Furuboshi Elementary School principal Kyoko Shirai and siphon Minus Energies he collected prior before defeating Ginga in an instant. Although a revived Taro gained the upper hand, he relinquished his power to revive Ginga, who is the only one able to defeat Lugiel. Ginga and Lugiel fought with their weapons to a standstill until they reached the Moon and fired each others' energy beams at full power. Lugiel was defeated in the end as Ginga gave Hikaru a mission to travel around the world as he departed to space.

At some point of time, Ginga would return in a brief moment to save Ultraman (Chigusa) and Tiga (Kenta) from Alien Magma and his DarkLived Zetton. He spirited the two to Earth while bringing along his former enemies, who sought apprenticeship under his wing.

Ultraman Ginga: Theater Special

 * NOTE: The entire event took place in-between episode 6 and 7 of Ultraman Ginga.

Dark Zagi appeared after Hikaru and Tomoya defeated Tyrant as Ultraman Tiga and Jean-Nine respectively. Hikaru transformed into Ginga to fight Ultraman Noa's arch enemy, Dark Zagi. The two were evenly matched for the most part, until finally in a clash of beams, the Ginga Cross Shoot was able to destroy the dark Ultra. Zagi's Spark Doll was retrieved by Dark Lugiel after the battle as he did not want Hikaru to gain such power.

Ultraman Ginga: Theater Special Ultra Monster ☆ Hero Battle Royal!
Sometime after Lugiel's defeat, Ultraman Ginga was one of the fake Spark Dolls of Tomoya which led into the creation of Livepad. Ginga was chosen by Hikaru and fought against a copy of Chaos Ultraman. With Hikaru and his team are on the losing side, the original Ginga communicated with Hikaru, reminding the boy of their promise and gave the entire team a moral support to finish the virus once and for all.

Ultraman Ginga S
"It's been a while Hikaru. [...] Did you not feel it? His heart was not full of darkness. [...] Think about it Hikaru, think about it."

- Ginga

Two years after his battle with Dark Lugiel ended, Ginga returned and reunited with Hikaru on Earth to save him and UPG members from EX Red King. With Hikaru joining the ranks of UPG, Ginga finds himself in the middle of a conflict between the underworld civilization Victorian and Exceller's faction, who wanted to steal their supply of Victorium to revive Dark Lugiel. Ginga join forces with the Victorian protector Ultraman Victory, whose host Shou made an uneasy alliance with UPG because of his distaste for humans until he grew close with Hikaru while the return of Ultraman Taro allows Ginga to assume Ultraman Ginga Strium.

In the middle of the series, Ginga and Victory ejected their hosts at the last minute before their deaths from Five King. Through UPG and Shepherdon's cooperation, the two giants were revived once more to fight the combined monster that ravaged in Shizukugaoka. It was at this moment that both Ultras show coordination in planning attacks, taking down parts of Five King one-by-one before defeating it for good.

In the series finale, Exceller partially revived Dark Lugiel, combining it with the UPG Live Base (mainly for their Victorium Cannon) and turning him into Vict Lugiel. Ginga Strium and Victory used an attack plan of striking his Victorium Cannon and swapped each others per battle but failed. Through Mana's help (by faking her betrayal no less), she was able to extract and return the Shepherdon Spark Doll from Vict Lugiel to Ultraman Victory. As it seemed that everything goes south for Exceller, he was regressed into Spark Doll by Dark Lugiel's revived consciousness, who proceed to petrify the Ultras with relative ease. When the surviving humans regained their spirit and the Victorians gave Hikaru and Shou their necklace, they managed to revive the two Ultras and resume fighting Vict Lugiel. Through the combination of Mana's hacking and continuous attacks on the Victorium Cannon, a fully weakened Lugiel was destroyed with Cosmo Miracle Especially at the cost of the android's life. With Taro's job on Earth done, he returned to space as Ginga remained on Earth.

Ultraman Ginga S The Movie: Showdown! The 10 Ultra Warriors!
Ultraman Ginga was framed by Etelgar, who used his image as the "destroyer" of Planet Zandt to Arena, making her resent the Heisei Ultras and the two went through various time and space to kidnap them. Arriving at their latest destination, Ginga was transformed by Hikaru and assisted by Victory, but their combining powers were no match for Etelgar. As the two Ultras were forced to withdraw, Ultraman Zero dashed in and defeated Etelgar, causing him to retreat.

Soon, with Hikaru and Shou finished their training and provided the Ultra Fusion Brace by Zero, the two human hosts combined their Ultras into Ultraman Ginga Victory and lead the rest of the freed Ultra Warriors in against Etelgar.

Ultra Fight Victory
Having defeated by Victory Killer, Ginga was crucified by Yapool on Satellite Golgotha of Planet Guar as Ultraman Ace failed to save him with his former adversary upgraded into his current form. Victory rescued both Ultras and had Shepherdon heal them to join the battle against Yapool and his Choju army on Guar. The Ginga Victory fusion managed to defeat Yapool but forcefully split through an attack by Super Grand King Spectre. As Victory Knight went to deal with Juda Spectre alone, Ginga stayed with the Space Garrison and finished Grand King. With Juda died, the stolen Victorium Core and Hikaru/Ginga and Shou/Victory returned to Earth, where Hikari congratulated them for their bravery before returning to space.

Ultraman X
In order to trace Ultraman Victory and Arisa in another world, Ginga jumped into another wormhole and defeated the rest of the Guar Army before he joined his partner and the alternate world's Ultra Hero, X.

The three Ultras fought against Mold Spectre before he and his Guar Army remnants retreated and the heroes seal his space distortion. Following a short scuffle with Gina Spectre and Alien Shaplay, the three Ultras transform to defend Xio's supply of Spark Dolls. Ginga and Victory used their merged form as Exceed X cleansed the Dark Thunder Energy from Guar Spectre for both of them to finish him.

After saying their farewells, Victory, along with Ginga and Arisa, went back to his own dimension thanks to Ultraman X's Ultraman Zero Armor.

Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman
In this film, Ginga was summoned by his Cyber Card and battled a Tsurugi Demaaga in Chicago, USA, defeating it with his Ginga Cross Shoot after being empowered by Ultraman Exceed X Beta Spark Armor's Cyber Wings. After saying their thanks to Ultraman, Tiga, and X, Ginga left Earth with the other Cyber Card Ultramen.

Ultraman Orb The Movie: Lend Me The Power of Bonds!
After mysteriously disappearing from his world along with Ultraman Victory, Ultraman Zero headed to Hawaii where Gai Kurenai, Ultraman Orb, was at that time to inform him on the matter after defeating a newly rebuilt Galactron. It was later revealed that both Ginga and Victory had been converted into jewels for Mulnau's collection.

After Deavorick was released, Ultraman Orb and Ultraman X arrived to combat the threat, only for X to also be turned into a jewel while Orb was defeated. However, hearing the resolve of the SSP to not give up allowed the three imprisoned Ultras to give their power to Gai. Later on, Ginga, Victory, and X were able to escape their imprisonment, thanks to Jugglus Juggler destroying the Dark Ring. The three Ultras joined Orb Trinity to fight against Deavorick and the newly released Seijin. After a full day of battle, Orb, Ginga, Victory, X, and a later arrived Ultraseven thanked the SSP and left Earth.

Ultraman R/B
An apparition of Ginga appears alongside the other New Generation Ultras firing their signature beams when Ruebe is activating the New Generation Barrier to counter an enemy attack.

Ultraman Taiga
12 years prior to the series, Ginga was among the New Generation Ultras facing against Tregear near the Land of Light but was defeated easily. When the Tri-Squad arrived, Ginga alongside Victory gave Ultraman Fuma their lights as a gift.

Profile
Ultraman Ginga's host can use Spark Dolls to obtain the powers and techniques of the beings turned into them using the Ginga Spark. Ultraman Ginga is also shown to have an ability similar to mode change. Each of his special moves cause the crystals on his body to shine a different color corresponding to the rainbow. In total Ginga has 8 special moves.

Stats

 * Height: Micro ~ Infinity
 * Weight: 0 ~ Infinity
 * Age: Unknown
 * Time Limit: 3 minutes
 * Flight Speed: Faster than a jet fighter (Generally between Mach 2 and 2.5)

Body Features

 * Color Timer: Ginga's operates like any other color timer. Given his Spark Doll Nature, though, going over this limit won't directly affect Hikaru besides leaving him tired, upon going over the limit Ginga will forcibly disappear, leaving Hikaru wherever Ginga was before, potentially putting Hikaru in a dangerous situation.
 * Ultra Armor: Ginga's operates like any other Ultra Armor. At one point it was seen glowing bright white. His armor is fire resistant to the point that he withstood King Pandon's flames.
 * Zenshin Crystals: The crystals on Ginga's forehead, shoulders, forearms, chest and shins. They allows Ginga to manipulate plasma energies (most of which displayed in his attacks) and are the means by which several of his finishers are accessed. Though blue by default, these crystals change color when Ginga uses most of his finishers.
 * Strength: Ginga possesses enough strength to throw a being like Kemur Man out into space with little effort. Ginga was also capable of battling EX Red King in Ultraman Ginga S.

Human Hosts

 * Hikaru Raido: Ultraman Ginga's main host, a 17 year old boy who returned to his hometown (Furuboshi) from United Kingdom. He has the Mark of Courage, and hence is the only one able to summon Ginga from the Ginga Spark. However, Hotsuma Raido, Hikaru's grandfather, also has the same mark, hinting him as another potential user.
 * Misuzu Isurugi: After Hikaru manages to get Misuzu back to his side when she was brainwashed by Alien Nackle Gray, she briefly joined along with Hikaru as Ginga's host and simultaneously replenish Ginga's Color Timer. Both only joined forces to help Ginga destroy Super Grand King.

Super Hero Generations
Hikaru Raido appeared in the crossover game Super Hero Generations as Ultraman Ginga. In this universe, the Ultramen, kaiju and aliens can assume the size of normal humans. This universe is a crossover including Mobile Suit Gundam and Kamen Rider characters.

Ultraman Hit Song History New Generation
In this music album, Ginga alongside the other New Generation Ultras were sealed by Etelgar and held captive on the Moon. However, Ginga was freed from his captive after Ultraman Zero recruited Ultraman Rosso and Ultraman Blu to fight against Etelgar. He and three other Ultras before Geed forms with Zero to become Zero Beyond to strike the finishing blow.

Trivia

 * Designer: Masayuki Goto.
 * In an original planning, Ultraman Ginga and his entire series were meant to be in the same universe as Ultraman Gaia, celebrating the series' 15 anniversary. His human host Hikaru Raido was meant to be a student of a college that Gamu Takayama/Ultraman Gaia went to, basing on the 2011-2012 Toei Tokusatsu series, Kamen Rider Fourze. This however fell through, although the Fourze element was incorporated instead, such as Hikaru's age being a high school student.
 * In a minor joke, Ultraman Ginga (Hikaru) met their Kamen Rider counterpart Kamen Rider Fourze in the 2014 crossover game Lost Heroes 2 where both are capable of performing a combination attack. Their formation appears to be in a perfect synchronization due to their similar traits and personality.
 * In this game as well, Ginga is the only Ultraman to ever perform a tag-team attack with a Kamen Rider as opposed to other Ultras who perform theirs with a Gundam Mobile Suit.
 * Ginga's landing and the camera spinning around him is a reference to the spinning of a spiral galaxy.
 * So far Ultraman Ginga is the Ultra with the second youngest host, a high school student. Ultraman Nexus also ties for second youngest human host with Ren Senjyu at age 17 and Ultraman Tiga with Tsubasa Madoka. Ultraman Cosmos however met his host, Musashi Haruno, at the youngest age. The youngest Ultra Host was Amui who was the ancient host of Tiga at age eleven.
 * Ginga is...:
 * One of the few Ultras not to have hand movements for when he is about to fly, with the others being Nexus and later Victory.
 * The second Ultra that does not require any maneuver to use acceleration. The first was Ultraman Max.
 * The second Ultra to be associated with a symbol. The first was Ultraman Mebius with the Mobius Strip/Infinity Symbol, while Ginga is associated with the image of a spiral galaxy.
 * The first instance of an Ultra transforming from something other than a human, being that his human host can transform into other Ultras, monsters and aliens.
 * The third Ultra shown to not be in control when transformed, since he is a Spark Doll transformation. The first Ultras who were not in control were Ultramen Gaia and Agul.
 * The first Ultra in history to have his rise interrupted by an enemy, in this case, Dark Lugiel.
 * Ultraman Ginga so far appears to be the only Ultra to partially change his appearance depending on the technique he is using.
 * Ultraman Ginga's Color Timer sound is a modified and high pitched version of Ultraman's.
 * Ultraman Ginga shares his voice actor with his human host, who voices his grunts and battle sounds. However his speaking voice is done by Tomokazu Sugita.
 * Sugita also voices Dark Lugiel, the main antagonist of the series. This is likely because the two are revealed to have once been the same being.
 * A Tomokazu Sugita version of Ginga's grunts can be heard in the final episode of Shin Ultraman Retsuden.
 * Ultraman Ginga's transformations into other Ultras or Monsters is similar to the Toei heroes,, and
 * Ginga does not destroy his enemies, he reverts them back into Spark Dolls. The only other Ultra to not destroy his opponents on a regular basis is Cosmos.
 * Ginga finishes most of his battles before his time limit is up (before his Color Timer turns red).
 * Ginga's head crystal has become a popular design on the back of motorcycle helmets in Malaysia.
 * Ginga Strium is the third Ultra form change that is permanently lost. The first is Mebius's Brave Mode and the second is Hikari's Hunter Knight Tsurugi mode. Out of these three, Ginga could still regain the form if Taro (as well as the Ultra Brother's powers) reunites with him and Mebius when regaining Hikari's Knight Brace.
 * Ginga and Dark Lugiel's origin resembles the Chinese philosophy Yin and Yang, which is used to describe how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. This reflected on how Ginga resembles yang (light) and Dark Lugiel resembles yin (dark).
 * It is unknown if Ginga could use his Ginga Sunshine or his Ginga Especially on his own energy, since when he used his Ginga Sunshine, Misuzu was his temporary co-host when Hikaru, his host, released her from the darkness after Alien Nackle Gray pulled her in, presumably giving him more power, and when he used the Ginga Especially, Taro gave him his energy after Dark Lugiel drained his energy, so he may have gave him some extra energy.
 * This may also explain why his Ginga Spark lance shone brightly throughout the whole battle against Lugiel.
 * In Ultraman Ginga S, he used the Cosmo Miracle Especially, a combination move with Cosmo Miracle Ray and Ginga Especially, all by himself. However, this could be the power given to him by the Strium Brace.
 * However, he did use a one-handed version of Ginga Sunshine with just his own power when fighting against Mold Spectre.
 * Most of the monsters Ginga Strium destroys with his finishing moves are either the same enemy or an enemy of the same species that the six Ultra Brothers (sans Zoffy) have encountered.
 * Ultraman's Specium Ray: Bemular
 * Ultraseven's Wide Shot: King Joe Custom
 * Jack's Ultra Shot: Sadola and Zoa Muruchi.
 * Ace's Metallium Ray: Yapool
 * Taro's Storium Ray: An army of Inpelaizers.
 * Ginga being an Ultraman despite being born from a wholly different source might probably be due to the result of him representing light, as with all Ultramen species being made of light.
 * Ginga Strium was meant to have Ultra Horns, but were scrapped.
 * Hikaru/Ultraman Ginga was chosen by Koichi Sakamoto to be the leader of the New Generation Ultras in Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes. Sakamoto initially considered Gai Kurenai/Ultraman Orb instead, but felt like it wouldn't match his character. Hikaru was then elected because of his similarities to protagonists of other shonen anime.