Since 1966, Japan’s Ultraman media franchise has generated billions of dollars in merchandising revenue, proving to be one of the country’s most lucrative properties. Produced by Tsuburaya Productions, the story of a race of giant “Ultras” superheroes who came to Earth to battle kaiju (giant monsters and aliens), struck a chord with Japanese audiences who eagerly consumed Ultraman TV shows, movies, toys, and comic books (manga), giving their hero the same pop culture status as America’s Superman.
The franchise’s success caught the attention of American producers who sought to adapt shows like Ultraman and Ultraseven for U.S. audiences in the early 1970s. Additional series and an animated show also saw U.S. release in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly after the success of Westernized franchises like Power Rangers (itself adapted from Japan’s long-running Super Sentai series).
While Ultraman did develop a fandom in the U.S., simply offering English dubbed versions of the show failed to give it the same traction as other U.S. versions of Japanese series. As a result, Ultraman remained an obscure property in the US for decades.
Recently, however, Jeff Gomez, CEO of transmedia production company Starlight Runner Entertainment, was recruited by Danny Simon, founder of licensing company The Licensing Group, to team with Tsuburaya and bring Ultraman to America using a different marketing strategy. A lifelong fan of the Ultraman series, Gomez employed his understanding of the franchise to help emphasize its unique qualities and translate it into a form more accessible to American audiences.
Then, using both nostalgia marketing and a transmedia storytelling strategy employed with great success by Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and other companies, The Licensing Group and Starlight Runner created a marketing plan for Ultraman to reach existing fans and new audiences through multiple platforms.
Translating Ultraman for U.S. Audiences
As a Japanese franchise that emerged in the 1960s, Ultraman originally reflected many of Japan’s post World War II anxieties, as represented by the giant kaiju creatures that attacked its cities. The Ultras, by contrast, were symbols of Japanese progressiveness—technologically advanced beings who used their enlightened natures and powers to protect and inspire humanity.
In an interview with Den of Geek, Gomez relates how he used this understanding of what Ultraman represents to Japanese audiences in his meeting with Tsuburaya Productions to show he knew what made Ultraman such a unique property. He emphasized that, unlike other heroes, Ultraman often “provides space” for the kaiju he battles to retreat or surrender, and only destroys them as a last resort.
“And that speaks to this notion of the positivity of technology, the aspiration to courage and hope and kindness,” he states. “To be able to share those insights with Tsuburaya Productions allowed for them to realize that we were sensitive to not just Ultraman as a type of superhero, but Ultraman as a symbol that was still relevant and ought to be communicated to the rest of the world.”
To amplify this core value to an international audience, Gomez saw an opportunity to emphasize how kaiju represent modern problems such as rising authoritarianism, climate change, and disinformation, which would resonate with contemporary audiences. He also sought to retain the defining traits of Ultraman—particularly the way most Ultras shared their power with a human host, allowing an ordinary man or woman to become a giant capable of protecting humanity in moments of crisis.
On the flipside, Gomez—a member of various Ultraman fan pages—realized the 50+ years of Ultraman mythology needed to be streamlined for new fans to have jump-on points and come to understand the property. Thus, his team of pop culture experts, writers, and translators mined decades of Ultraman content for its most intriguing aspects and merged them to create a series of “mythology documents” that showed how their versions of the characters and story worlds worked with each other.
These documents can then inform partners, such as toy licensees, comic book publishers, and video game designers, who could study aspects of the mythology and develop self-contained stories that fit into the franchise’s new canon.
Given that Japanese Ultraman storytelling contains a wealth of backstories about the Ultras, their home world, and their ability to leap into different alternate universes (each with their own Ultra heroes), Starlight Runner had plenty of material to draw from, enabling them to describe a narrative multiverse that would encourage existing fans to recognize familiar aspects of the Ultraman story while also creating an epically structured narrative for new fans to explore.
Both of these aspects—nostalgia marketing and transmedia storytelling—would go on to play a huge role in mounting a North American conquest for the property.
Reactivating Existing Fans with Nostalgia Marketing
Realizing the Ultraman franchise already had a small but devoted U.S. fanbase, Starlight Runner and The Licensing Group chose to first reach out to these existing fans through nostalgia marketing. By getting these fans on their side, they realized the Ultraman fanbase would help promote the new story to a broader audience once they realized the mythology was in good hands.
“When Starlight Runner worked on Nickelodeon’s revival of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we knew that a key to reaching kids who might not have been aware of the brand was to connect initially with their parents,” said Gomez. “We held events at big conventions like San Diego Comic Con, and invited older fan influencers to Turtle pizza parties and character and toy unveilings. The contact and dialogue worked, and we got their enthusiastic stamp of approval.
“These Turtles were drawn from the same DNA as the ones you loved as a child, even though they may look a bit different and their story is more contemporary. The message was tremendously amplified on fans sites and in news and social media, and we immediately generated a huge base of kids looking forward to the new series.”
To achieve this same response for Ultraman, a deal was made with Mill Creek Entertainment to release new Blu-ray DVD collections of many of the original Ultraman series. They scored some prime real estate at big box stores such as Wal-Mart, with signage encouraging parents to introduce their kids to the power of Ultraman. Mill Creek’s streaming service, movieSPREE also enabled DVD owners to watch the shows on any device.
More recently, Shout! Factory announced that Ultraman content will be available for streaming on demand across Shout! Factory TV platforms, on ShoutFactoryTV.com; Shout! Factory TV’s Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, and Android apps; and on various Shout! Factory TV branded channels including Tubi, Amazon Prime Channels, and the Roku Channel. As with Mill Creek, many of these series were made available in the US for the first time, generating significant enthusiasm for the franchise among older fans and reactivating the Ultraman fan communities on Facebook, Reddit, and Discord.
In toys and merchandise, Classic Ultraman products have been on a fairly regular release schedule from companies such licensees as Mezco Toyz, Mego, Yesterday’s and Fansets. Executives from nearly all of these firms cite themselves as fans of the original Ultraman characters, and targeting them was a key strategy of Danny Simon and The Licensing Group.
But Ultraman is not Betty Boop, Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe. He is poised for a true comeback and nostalgia has only been phase one of a unique overall strategy.
Engaging the Fanbase with Transmedia Storytelling
While the original Ultraman series gained popularity primarily on TV, today’s audiences learn about franchises through more varied channels, including digital series, video games, comic books, and social media.
Thus, Starlight Runner supervised the production of multiple entry points into the new Ultraman multiverse, using a digital marketing technique known as transmedia storytelling. By telling individual, self-contained stories through multiple platforms that formed a massive sprawling universe, Ultraman was able to reach and engage with thousands of new fans, building a vast US audience.
A key entry point for fans old and new has been the Netflix Anime ULTRAMAN series. Based on a popular recent Japanese manga, the series surpassed such popular shows as One Punch Man and Neon Genesis Evangelion to become the most watched anime on Netflix in 2019. A second season is in production.
But a key factor in terms of entertainment industry perceptions of Ultraman lay in Simon and Gomez’s efforts to get Marvel Comics to acquire the license. Gomez knew that Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski was a Japanese pop culture enthusiast with more than a passing familiarity with the character. Eager to acquire licensed properties that had international interest, the Ultraman deal was a no-brainer for Cebulski, and Marvel’s The Rise of Ultraman miniseries has been a late 2020 hit.
A sequel series, The Trials of Ultraman (scheduled for Spring 2021 release), was recently announced. Filled with Easter eggs and homages to Classic Ultraman, the books are said to be set in a canonical dimension of the Ultraman universe, and has been the subject of fan videos, including a series produced by Starlight Runner. Both new and longtime fans are expressing enthusiasm for the books and are sharing their love across social media.
On the interactive front, fans can even catch Ultraman in the Override 2: Super Mech League Ultraman Deluxe Edition video game which features multiple characters from the franchise—Ultraman, Bemular, Dan Moroboshi, and Black King.
“Audiences are more fragmented than ever, and respond best to content on their preferred platform,” observes Gomez. “Gamers, anime fans, comics fans, they find your story world in their space, and then might be drawn to its other iterations in different media. This is one of the primary benefits of transmedia storytelling. Sure, Anime ULTRAMAN on Netflix has been the strongest driver of North American fans simply because it’s on the biggest platform—but it’s the ubiquity of the property, and its affiliation with strong partners like Marvel that raise the value of the property in the eyes of the entertainment and consumer product spaces. Our partners are helping us tell Ultraman’s story, so costs are actually relatively modest, and all of this is helping the franchise gain momentum.”
Ultraman also now has an official YouTube channel that showcases dubbed and subtitled episodes of the franchise’s Japanese programs, as well as the Ultraman Galaxy website that helps inform new fans about the new Ultraman mythology. The Ultraman Z, series, which just finished its run on YouTube, was dubbed one of The Best TV Shows of 2020 by Nerdist, with a single spectacular nighttime kaiju battle earning its own article on Gizmodo’s io9.
Tsuburaya Productions shows no sign of slowing with Ultraman in 2021. With the franchise set to reach its 55th anniversary in Japan, fans can look forward to an upcoming Shin Ultraman feature film, by celebrated director Shinji Higuchi, to make its way to the States. More English subtitled and dubbed original content is being prepared directly for the YouTube channel, such as the latest installment of the Ultra Galaxy Fight series, dubbed The Absolute Conspiracy.
“What’s really special about Ultra Galaxy Fight is that the series pulls Ultraman characters from across the story world, from the Classic to the New Generation Heroes characters,” said Gomez. “The stories are major universe-wide, multi-dimensional epics that are serving to drive the franchise forward both in terms of innovative and highly accessible format, and as an enthralling, action-packed saga.”
Indeed, all of this diverse content ties together into a greater tapestry, one that is almost certain to lead to realizing Tsuburaya Productions’ goal of having a major Ultraman motion picture produced on this side of the Pacific.
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This is the second installment in a transmedia storytelling series being written in tandem with Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner Entertainment, one of the industry’s foremost transmedia producers. Starlight Runner consults with multiple companies from Disney to Sony to Coca-Cola to help establish their story worlds and produces transmedia content including graphic novels, videos, books, animated series, and web sites. Learn how your company can use them to produce your own full transmedia story world through narrative design, content production, licensing, merchandising, and fan cultivation. And be sure to follow this blog to receive additional articles in this series directly to your email.
The Transmedia Storytelling Series:
#1: How Disney+ Uses Star Wars to Dominate Digital Entertainment
#2: Ultraman: Translating a Multi-Billion Dollar Japanese Superhero Franchise for American Media
#3: Disney Marvel vs Warner Bros. DC: How Do Shared Universes Succeed or Fail?
Michael
Michael Jung is a freelance writer for hire with a keen interest in pop culture, education, nonprofit organizations, and unusual side hustles. His work has been featured in Screen Rant, ASU Now, and Free Arts. When not writing, you can find him entertaining kids as Spider-Man and encouraging them to embrace their inner superhero. Please contact him for his freelance writing services.