Ultraman Saga (film)

This article is about the film, for the character see Ultraman Saga (character)

Ultraman Saga (ウルトラマンサーガ) is a Japanese tokusatsu film in the Ultra Series, created to celebrate the franchise's 45th anniversary. It serves as a sequel to Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial. The catchphrase for the movie is "We Still Have Glittering Hope!!" (僕らにはまだ、輝く希望がある!!). The film features Ultraman Zero, Ultraman Dyna, and Ultraman Cosmos facing a new ultimate threat, Hyper Zetton (ハイパーゼットン) created by the evil Alien Bat (バット星人). This film also features a new Ultraman called Ultraman Saga (ウルトラマンサーガ). This movie is set in a new universe, known as the Future Earth Universe, but also features scenes from the Nebula M78 Universe and Ultraman Dyna's universe. It takes place 15 years after the the Ultraman Dyna series and features much of the it's supporting cast returning. A selection of members from the idol group AKB48 portraied the members of Team-U, a special monster attack team part of the Earth Defense Force.

In its first week in theaters, Ultraman Saga opened at the #4 spot in the Japanese box offices, about 166,006 people in 369 screens with a budget of ¥143,747,300.

Plot
The movie begins with a powerful apocalyptic vision of Tokyo, buildings destroyed and the city seemingly devoid of life. We are soon introduced to the Earth Defense Force (EDF), Team U (played by members of the female idol group AKB48). They and a group of young children and the last survivors on planet Earth after the world was invaded by the evil Alien Bat, the rest of the human population having been abducted.

In the alternate universe in which he defeated Ultraman Belial in the previous film, Ultraman Zero receives a distress call and proceeds into the multiverse and finds another universe. And from yet another universe, that from which Shin Asuka/Ultraman Dyna disappeared through black hole 15 years ago, a young defense team pilot named Taiga is trapped in the ship of an invading alien force, who quickly disappear to another dimension.

Taiga soon finds himself in another world, in the apocalyptic version of Tokyo, as Ultraman Zero battles a huge fleet of alien spaceships. As Taiga notices a crashing ship heading straight towards a young boy, he pilots his ship directly into its path in an act of self-sacrifice. Witnessing his brave actions, Ultraman Zero rescues Taiga and joins with him.

Taiga soon encounters Ultraman Cosmos and his human host Musashi, along with Team U and the children. He and Musashi learn that Ultraman Dyna and his human host Asuka had once stayed with the team and protected them, but that was lost in battle with the alien Zetton. It is now up to Taiga and Musashi to protect the survivors. However, Taiga is not so happy to be joined with Ultraman Zero, and has no intention of fighting…

Synopsis
The film begins with a city, which had all the people abducted from it, with the citizens left is the members of the Earth Defense Force (EDF), Team U who tries to take the advantage by doing some grocery shopping and put down a notice (written that they will return back to pay the groceries) at a noticeboard while quickly leave the supermarket. However, an unknown kaiju rises in front of the supermarket and begins to chase four of the TEAM U members until their leader approaches with an exo-suit and hold the monster off while giving the other members a chance to escape. The captain herself bait the kaiju to a landmime though however it was proven useless until Ultraman Dyna comes and easily defeats the kaiju. Dyna gives them a thumb up and leaves as the TEAM U member amazed and acknowledge him as a hero.

Somewhere in space, a being communicates with Ultraman Zero telepathically and seeks his help to come to the Earth as Zero agrees and reverts to Ultimate form and went to Earth after defeating remnants of Darklops. At the Land of Light, Ultraseven realized that his son had traveled through space time much to his and Leo's worries as three more Ultras, Ace, Ultraman (original) and Jack appears thinking that it might have a relation with a mystery disk as some of the dead kaiju from the kaiju graveyard had been taken away.

The scene later moves to Dyna's universe and later the TPC Base at the Mars where Gousuke Hibiki (now promoted to the General rank) delivering speeches to everyone with honoring 15th anniversary of Asuka's sacrifice. While Ryo was talking to Toshiyuki Kohda (now a TPC Dept. General), he was introduced to Nozomu Taiga, a new rookie of the Super GUTS. Taiga later underestimate's Asuka's sacrifice while playing a holographic game. The celebration was cut short as they witness a Sphire duplicates itself and on his way to the TPC Base and attacking it. Taiga quickly pilot the GUTS Eagle Alpha and fires some of the Sphire as Kariya, Ryo and Nakajima witnessing it and realized that his attacks and movements while piloting the jet is similar to Asuka's technique. But however, the same mystery disk traps all of the Sphires and unknowingly caught Taiga along.

The scene later moves to the same abandoned city on Earth, where Zero wondering what happened to the civilians while standing on the top of a building. Suddenly, the disk appears and summon its familiars to attack Zero. Taiga later gains consciousness and starts to watch Zero fighting the minions. As Zero quickly destroys all of them, one of his blast accidentally about to kill a boy. Taiga realized this and sacrifice himself by piloting the Guts Eagle Alpha and receive the blast itself while Zero quickly spirited the boy away. Zero quickly rescue Taiga's life by merging with him as Taiga waking up without realize anything. Taiga later wonders how did he happened to gain the Ultra Zero Bracelet while the boy approaches Taiga and gives him a bottle of drink as a gift. While Taiga drinks, Zero communicates with Taiga as orders Zero to get out from his body but Zero quickly explains that his fusion with Taiga had made him more of Taiga's life support system. But however their fight was interrupted with a dolphin/narwhal kaiju. Zero later volunteers him to transform but he refuses and rather have himself being chased along with the boy. Ultraman Cosmos appears and rescue Taiga and the boy while taming the kaiju. Cosmos reverts to his human form and introduce himself as Musashi Haruno. Zero revealed to Taiga that he was the one who brought him here from the first place.The EDF later approaches with their exo-suits and revealing the boy's name as Takeru.

They brought Musashi and Taiga to their base and explains that an unknown spaceship had caught the civilians which leaving the city vacant. However, some of the homeless kids had been founded and brought them to the EDF Base as a temporary refugee. While the kids shows Taiga their base, he was introduced to a member of the TEAM-U who realized that Taiga's outlook which similar to her late teammate, Asuka. The EDF member explains to Musashi that the civilians have been kidnapped by a mysterious disc as they were the humans left on Earth. Two kaijus later surfaced and begin to attack the EDF Base. Though Cosmos was powerless to stop them, Taiga realized that Zero's power was needed as he transforms. Though Zero was proud of him, but his proud was short lived as he only grows 5 feet tall and scolds Taiga for his improper transformation. The kids later laughs at him even goes so far by poking him with a mop. As Taiga/Zero joins the fight both of them are badly defeated due to their incompatibility, Cosmos use the Luna Shootless on the two Kaiju but, before they could rejoiced Alien Bat in his spaceship killed the two kaiju.

Later, at night, when everyone were having dinner, Taiga witness a drawing of Ultraman Dyna and recall that he had once witness him as a child. Zero later ask him why did he hates Ultraman as Taiga replies that as a child, his parents died from a monster assault and that Dyna never came in time to rescue them. While at the kids' bedroom, Musashi starts to tell stories of a new planet which is suitable for the monsters to habituate as it was guarded by the Chaos Header as Musashi, Ayano and their son watching it from afar.

The next day, Alien Bat starts his assault by using his spaceship to blast fireballs at the and unleash Zetton (in a stag beetle-like form) EDF Base. Trying to rescue the kids, Taiga was traumatized as this makes him remind back of his parents' death. Tired of Alien Bat's terror, Musashi and Taiga decides to fight him. Before they go, the EDF Team U leader wants them to avenge Asuka's death as he had once returned join the EDF but he had died as Dyna when Zetton in cocoon form absorb his energy. As they transform into their respective Ultraman, they flight to Zetton. While proven powerless to stop it, Takeru arrives at the scene and picking up Dyna's transformation item which had ejected from him during his death. Takeru handed over it to the Team U leader which she rides on an exo-suit and flight it towards Dyna's corpse. Dyna revives and assist Zero to destroy Zetton while reviving Cosmos.

After Zetton's demise, Bat use his spaceship to fuse with the dead Zetton into Hyper Zetton. Hyper Zetton later uses his speed and energy manipulation ability to overpower the Ultramen. Takeru and the others escort the Team-U leader out of the wrecked exosuit only to find out that she died. With the Ultramen proven powerless to stop him,  they revert to their human form and transform again, only to fuse into a greater Ultraman. His energy later revives the leader which she names him as Ultraman Saga and explains that their desire of protecting the Earth had form him. Saga copies Hyper Zetton's ability to fight against him as everyone later watch their fight from afar. Saga throws him to the space and punches Hyper Zetton which also kills Bat. Saga emerge victorious as energies from the destroyed Hyper Zetton returns the civilians. Not long after, Takeru reunites with his mother and the TEAM U members commend the Ultramen for a good job.

Cast

 * Nozomu Taiga (タイガ・ノゾム): DAIGO
 * Shin Asuka (アスカ・シン): Takeshi Tsuruno (つるの 剛士)
 * Musashi Haruno (春野 ムサシ): Taiyo Sugiura (杉浦 太陽)
 * Team U: AKB48
 * Anna (アンナ): Sayaka Akimoto (秋元 才加)
 * Misato (ミサト): Ayaka Umeda (梅田 彩佳)
 * Sawa (サワ): Sae Miyazawa (宮澤 佐江)
 * Nonko (ノンコ): Yuka Masuda (増田 有華)
 * Lisa (リーサ): Sumire Sato (佐藤 すみれ)
 * Maomi (マオミ): Kana Kobayashi (小林 香菜)
 * Hina (ヒナ): Haruka Shimada (島田 晴香)
 * Takeru (タケル): Ryoma Takamura (高村 竜馬)
 * Saaya (サーヤ): Sayaka Ikeda (池田 沙弥花)
 * Ritsu (リツ): Ritsu Ohashi (大橋 律)
 * Miko (ミコ): Sorami Watanabe (渡邉 空美)
 * Ren (レン): Karen Ueno (上野 楓恋)
 * Ken (ケン): Kengo Ando (安藤 健悟)
 * Hiro (ヒロ): Hiromu Satomura (里村 洋)
 * Kuu (クー): Kurea Mori (森 くれあ)
 * Kanata (カナタ): Kanau Tanaka (田中 奏生)
 * Takeru's Mother (タケルの母): Shion Nakamaru (中丸 シオン)
 * Young Nozomu Taiga (小学生のタイガ・ノゾム): Mitsumasa Sato (佐藤 光将)
 * Toshiyuki Kouda (コウダ・トシユキ): Toshikazu Fukawa (布川 敏和)
 * Ryo Yumimura (ユミムラ・リョウ): Risa Saito (斉藤 りさ)
 * Kouhei Kariya (カリヤ・コウヘイ): Takao Kase (加瀬 尊朗)
 * Tsutomu Nakajima (ナカジマ・ツトム): Joe Onodera (小野寺 丈)
 * Gousuke Hibiki (ヒビキ・ゴウスケ): Ryo Kinomoto (木之元 亮)
 * Ayano Haruno (春野 綾乃): Mayuka Suzuki (鈴木 繭菓)
 * Sora Haruno (春野 ソラ): Ryu Hashizume (橋爪 龍)
 * Ultraman/Shin Hayata (ウルトラマン, Urutoraman/ハヤタ・シン): Susumu Kurobe (黒部 進)
 * Ultraseven/Dan Moroboshi (ウルトラセブン, Urutorasebun/モロボシ・ダン): Kohji Moritsugu (森次 晃嗣)
 * Ultraman Jack/Hideki Go (ウルトラマンジャック, Urutoraman Jakku/郷 秀樹): Jiro Dan (団 時郎)
 * Ultraman Ace/Seiji Hokuto (ウルトラマンエース Urutoraman Esu/北斗 星司): Keiji Takamine (高峰 圭二)
 * Ultraman Leo/Gen Otori (ウルトラマンレオ, Urutoraman Reō/おおとり ゲン): Ryu Manatsu (真夏 竜)
 * Ultraman Zero (ウルトラマンゼロ): Mamoru Miyano (宮野 真守)
 * Ultraman Cosmos (ウルトラマンコスモス): Yūki Satō (佐藤 ゆうき)
 * Alien Bat (バット星人): Hideo Higashikokubaru (東国原 英夫)

Staff

 * Director: Hideki Oka
 * Writer: K. Hasegawa
 * Music: Fumio Hara
 * Executive Producers: Hidetoshi Yamamoto
 * Chief Producer Supervisor: Shiinichi Oka
 * Planning: Hiroshi Shibuya, Hasushi Okazaki
 * Distributor: Shochiku

Ultraman Zero Gaiden
To promote the film, two special DVDs have been released to lead up to the storyline of the film titled Ultraman Zero Gaiden: Killer the Beatstar (ウルトラマンゼロ外伝 キラー ザ ビートスター). Shota Minami, Hiroyuki Konishi, Mitsutoshi Shundo, and Tao Tsuchiya reprise their roles from Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, Never Ending Odyssey, Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy, and Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial in these DVDs. The film also features Jean Killer (ジャンキラー), who turns to good and becomes renamed Jean-nine (ジャンナイン), created based on Jean-bot by the evil Beatstar (ビートスター), the primary antagonist.

Reception
The film topped at #4 in the box Office, though recived mixed reviews from Fans, possibly some negative reviews are the acting of DAIGO as Taiga Nozomu, & AKB48 as Team-U. Jim M. Ballard from SciFi Japan says:"The greatest disappointment for me is that I know the staff are capable of producing something so much better – as they have time and again – and this film just feels like a wasted opportunity.". The film currently holds 3 out of 5 stars in the Japanese Movie rating site goo.ne.jp.

Blu Ray Version
The Blu Ray disc was released on 21-9-2012.

Trivia

 * A scene of Ultraman Saga & the other 5 Ultra Brothers (Ultraman, Seven, Jack, Ace & Leo), fighting with the Monster Weapons created by Alien Bat, was not featured in the movie. But the fight scene was later aired in Ultraman Retsuden, and is included in the director's cut.
 * This movie was later featured in New Ultraman Retsuden Episodes 29-33.
 * This movie also serve as the 'real' ending for Ultraman Dyna series.