Ultraman Ace is the fifth show in the Ultraman Series, and it contains 52 episodes. It was aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System from April 7, 1972 to March 30, 1973.
The series can be watched on Shout TV, Tubi, Pluto, Roku, and Prime Video.
Synopsis
Yapool, an ancient interdimensional race of beings tries to conquer the Planet Earth with his army of monsters, called Terrible-Monsters. The newest member of the Ultra Brothers, Ultraman Ace, arrives on Earth to aid humanity in the battle against Yapool. Touched by the sacrifices of Seiji Hokuto and Yuko Minami, he revives them and grants them the Ultra Rings, which allows them to transform into Ultraman Ace in times of need.
Production
With the rise of the Tokusatsu boom in Japan, which the Ultraman Series helped introduce, the franchise faced a great deal of competition, both from established franchises and new ones that had risen to try their hand at the invigorated genre. As a result of this competition, Ace was the first series in the franchise to largely drop its mystery angle in favour of more prominent superhero elements. Also, all previous Ultraman like Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack (from Return of Ultraman) and also with Zoffy make more frequent appearances here, whereas they only made guest appearances in the previous show 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, combined with the staff struggling to write plots incorporating both her and Hokuto with equal focus, 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.
Characters
TAC
- Seiji Hokuto
- Yuko Minami
- Noriko Mikawa
- Goro Ryu
- Ichiro Yamanaka
- Tsutomu Konno
- Kozo Yoshimura
- Yoichi Kaji
Umezu Family
Antagonist
Ultras
Kaiju
- Verokron
- Chameleking
- Vakishim
- Garan
- Giron Man
- Aribunta
- Brocken
- Alien Metron Jr.
- Doragory
- Muruchi II
- Gammas
- Zaigon
- Alien Antira
- Unitang
- Sabotendar
- Baraba
- Ace Killer
- Ace Robot
- King Crab
- Cowra
- She-Devil
- Hotarunga
- Black Pigeon
- Android Couple
- King Kappa
- Zemistlar
- Aprasar
- Space Mask
- Black Satan
- Giant Yapool
- Mazaron Man
- Mazarius
- Yojo
- Alien Orion
- Sphinx
- Alien Hipporit
- Lunaticks
- Undergroundmon
- Gitagitanga
- Red Jack
- Baktari
- Coakes
- Bad Baalon
- Kaiteigagan
- Dreamgillas
- Soundgillar
- Machless
- Namahage
- Snowgiran
- Alien Fire
- Firemons
- Alien Steal
- Kaimanda
- Shishigoran
- Iceron
- Woo II
- Fubugirara
- Onidevil
- Gasgegon
- Daidarahoshi
- Hanzagiran
- Verokron II
- Univerlages
- Aquarius
- Alien Revole
- Signalion
- Geegon
- Alien Simon
- Jumbo King
Cast
- Seiji Hokuto : Keiji Takamine
- Yuko Minami : Mitsuko Hoshi (1-29, 39 & 52)
- Noriko Mikawa : Keiko Nishi
- Goro Ryu : Tetsuro Sagawa
- Ichiro Yamanaka : Shunichi Okita
- Tsutomu Konno : Masaaki Yamamoto
- Kozo Yoshimura : Mitsuhiro Sano
- Yoichi Kaji : Katsumi Nakayama (1-3, 5-14, 27, & 31)
- Dan Umezu : Akinori Umezu (29-43)
- Kayoko Umezu : Rie Miyano (29-43)
- Narrator : Shin Kishida
Voice Actors
- Ultraman Ace : Voiced by Goro Naya
- Ultraman : Voiced by Mahito Tsujimura
- Zoffy : Voiced by Osamu Saka (episodes 5 & 35), Goro Naya (episode 5 grunt), Masao Nakasone (episodes 5, 13 and 26 grunt), Osamu Ichikawa (episode 13), Keisuke Yamashita (episode 23)
- Ultraseven : Voiced by Osamu Saka
- Ultraman Jack : Voiced by Keisuke Yamashita (episode 13)
- Father of Ultra : Voiced by Masao Nakasone (low-pitch grunts), Tetsuya Kaji (speaking voice)
- Yapool : Tatsuhiko Takada
Suit Actors
- Ultraman Ace : Tadashi Nakanishi (1-2) & Shoji Takeuchi
- Terrible-Monster : Toru Kawai (1-12, 25-39, 41-47), Isao Zushi (13-24), Tokio Yamaji (48-52), Kinichi Kusumi (41-42)
Music
- Ultraman Ace
- Lyrics: Kyōichi Azuma
- Composition: Masahiko Aoi
- Artist: Honey Knights, Misuzu Children's Choral Group
Home Media
A Malaysian DVD was released in 2014. It contains a Cantonese/Chinese dub, English subtitles, Chinese subtitles and Malay subtitles.
Mill Creek Entertament released the complete series on May 26, 2020, under the Steelbook and Blu-ray releases.
Gallery
Trivia
- Working titles for the series included Ultra V , Ultra Fighter and Ultra Hunter , and eventually they settled on Ultra Ace [1]. Unfortunately, the name was already copyrighted, and so the series was renamed Ultraman Ace. The fact that Ultra A was renamed Ultraman Ace is important, because it established the precedent of all succeeding shows being named Ultraman followed by their respective title, instead of 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 meant that "Ultra" would now be used as a general term to refer to all Residents of the Land of Light, as well as the Ultra Heroes of other planets and continuities later in the franchise.
- Had this been the case, it would have also 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 entailed for Ultraman Jack.
- This is the first series to introduce a being of light that is not part of the Ultra Brothers, that of course being Father of Ultra, the Top Commander of the Inter Galactic Defense Force.
- This the first Ultraman Series which contains a preview of the next episode at the end of the episode.
External Links
References