Ultraman Ace (series)

Ultraman Ace (ウルトラマン) is the 5th show in the Ultra Series, and it contains 52 episodes. It was aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System from April 7, 1972 to March 30, 1973.

Overview
At this time, the Ultra Series was facing direct competition from series such as Kamen Rider. This caused Ace to start shifting from a sci-fi/mystery adventure to full-tilt superhero fantasy fare. Also, all previous Ultraman like Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Ultraman Jack (from The Return of Ultraman) and also with Zoffy make more frequent appearances here, whereas they only made guest appearances in the previous show The Return of Ultraman. In addition to this, the writing became darker, slightly less episodic, and far more intense, as Ace struggles against the forces of Yapool, the first big bad of the entire franchise. Civilian deaths are more frequent, and monsters are often killed in extremely gory ways, although there is not as much death as would come two years later, with the advent of Ultraman Leo.

Ace is also notable because it introduces the first female host to the franchise, Yuko Minami. Unfortunately, gender prejudice of the time caused backlash against Yuko, forcing the producers to have her written out of the show. It also introduced the concept of recurring antagonists, with Yapool being the major villain.

Synopsis
Yapool, an ancient interdimensional creature from ancient times with similarities to Satan and Legion, sought after the planet of Earth and tried to conquer it with a campaign that involved his experiments known as Choju. The first super weapon sent to Earth, Verokron, ravaged a city and took on TAC, a special forces unit created by the Self Defense Force to defend the Earth from kaiju. Two of Verokron's unfortunate victims were Seiji Hokuto and Yuko Minami. Before they were dead long the first five Ultra Brothers, Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultra Seven, Ultraman Jack, and Ultraman Ace, decided to revive the duo for trying to help young children get away from the Choju and to fight off Yapool's forces. Ace decided to be the one to go as he had both of them be his host. Yapool has used not only Choju, but also recruited other aliens, humans that sold their souls to him for Choju possession, and even himself to assassinate Ace and TAC only to be brought down in absolute defeat. After the destruction of one of Yapool's oldest Choju, Lunaticks, Minami revealed she was one of the last natives from the moon and gave her Ultra-Ring to Hokuto as she had to leave, but she would return every once in a long while. Ever since Hokuto has been Ace's host and their efforts were just the same. Yapool became desperate by combining the bodies of a selected few to create Jumbo King only for him to fail and have Ace fly off to his home world of the Land of Light in M78. Ever since Ace has showed up to help later Ultras in their times of need.

TAC (Terrible Monster Attacking Crew)

 * Seiji Hokuto (北斗星司): Keiji Takamine (高峰 圭二): TBA
 * Yuko Minami (南夕子): Mitsuko Hoshi (星光子) (1-29, 39 & 52): TBA
 * Noriko Mikawa (美川 のり子) Keiko Nishi (西恵子): TBA
 * Dan Umezu (梅酢ダン): Umezu Akinori (梅酢秋則): TBA
 * Goro Ryu (竜五 郎): Tetsurō Sagawa (瑳川哲朗): TBA
 * Ichiro Yamanaka (山中一郎): Okita Shunichi (沖田駿一): TBA
 * Tsutomu Konno (今野勉): Masaaki Yamamoto (山本正明): TBA
 * Kozo Yoshimura (吉村公三, Yoshimura Kozo): Koyo Sano (佐野光洋, Sano Koyo): TBA
 * Kaji Yoichi (梶洋一, Yoichi Kaji): {{nihongo|Katsumi Nakaiyama|中山 勝己, Nakaiyama Katsumi) (1-3, 5-14, 27, & 31): TBA
 * {{nihongo|Kayoko Umezu|梅津香代子, Umezu Kayoko}} : {{nihongo|Rie Miyako|宮野リエ|Miyako Rie}} (29-43): TBA

Ultras

 * Ultraman Ace (ウルトラマンエース): Voiced by [[Gorō Naya] |納谷悟朗|Naya Gorō|undefined: TBA
 * Ultraman (ウルトラマン, Urutoraman): TBA
 * Zoffy (ゾフィー): TBA
 * Ultraseven (ウルトラセブン)
 * Returning Ultraman (帰ってきたウルトラマン) (Ultraman Jack (ウルトラマンジャック)): TBA
 * Father of Ultra (ウルトラの父): TBA

Antagonists

 * Yapool (ヤープル, Yapurū voice): Hirofumi Takada (高田裕史): TBA
 * Narrator (ナレーター, Nareta): Shin Kishida (岸田森, Kishida Shin'')

Guest Stars
TBA

Suit Actors

 * Ultraman Ace (ウルトラマンエース) Tadashi Nakanishi (中西正) (1-2) & Shoji Takeuchi (武内正治)
 * Choju (超獣): Toru Kawai (河合 徹) (1-12, 25-39 & 41-47), Isao Zushi (図師勲) (13-24) Tokio Yamaji (矢島登喜男) (48-52), Kin'ichi Kusumi (久須美 欽一) (41-42),

Music

 * "Ultraman Ace" (ウルトラマンエース)
 * Lyrics: Kyōichi Azuma
 * Composition: Masahiko Aoi
 * Artist: Honey Knights, Misuzu Children's Choral Group

Trivia

 * Ace was originally going to be titled Ultra A, but was renamed when Tsuburaya discovered that title was already copyrighted. The fact that Ultra A was renamed Ultraman Ace is important, because it established that Ultraman would be the title of all the heroes to come after, as opposed to just Ultra.
 * Up till this point, Ultra had been the title, not Ultraman, as indicated by the name of Ultraseven. (Ultraman Jack had originally intended to be an updated design of the original Ultraman, and had not been given his name yet.)
 * This would have meant that Ultraman would be the only Ultra with the title of Ultraman, and all the others would be known as Ultra --, like Ultraseven. It is unknown what this would have meant for Ultraman Jack.
 * This is fourth series in English Dub but is the second english dub done by Malaysia.

ウルトラマンA