Ultraman Wiki

Hiroshi Maruyama (丸山 浩, Maruyama Hiroshi) is a Japanese illustrator and character designer. He is renowned for being responsible for the design of the majority of Ultras and Kaiju in the Heisei Ultraman Series.

Career[]

Maruyama graduated from Tokyo Designer Academy and joined The Oriental Land Company's product department in the late 1980s. Starting from 1988, he became involved in television program production, serving as a designer.

In 1992, Maruyama joined Tsuburaya Productions, beginning his career in art design for tokusatsu productions. In 1995, he participated in the pilot episode of Ultraman Neos, responsible for the appearance design of the main characters in the series. Subsequently, from 1996 to 2007, he was selected as the principal designer for the Heisei Ultra Series, contributing to the design of nominal Ultras and the majority of Kaiju.

On January 21, 2008, Maruyama resigned from his position at Tsuburaya Productions and began participating in works from other fields. Currently, he works as a freelancer and is active in various creative projects, including design and illustration, through his personal studio, atelier-M.

In 2019, Maruyama collaborated with Tsuburaya Productions to release the ULTRAMAN ARCHIVES CLASSIC ARTS poster series, featuring the theme of "Tiga, Dyna, Gaia".[2] In 2023, at the TSUBURAYA CONVENTION 2023, Maruyama released a mini design booklet titled "Ultraman Gaia Version Up Fight!" The booklet focuses on the version upgrades of Gaia and Agul, along with relevant design sketches for Kaiju designs.[3]

Works[]

Other Works[]

  • Devil Lady (1998) - Character designer
  • Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) - designer
  • Battle Spirits Series (2008) - Spirits designer
  • Kamen Rider Wizard (2012) - Phantom designer

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • On Twitter/X in 2024, Maruyama revealed that, in the early 1990s, he not only worked as a suit technician for Tsuburaya Productions, but was also a suit actor. He was Ultraman for an event with Noboru Tsuburaya at Ultraman World M78 in 1993, Ultraman Great in a commercial, and Ultraman Tiga (Multi Type) in a Tiga making-of video.[4][5][6]

References[]