Ultraman is one of the most recognizable superheroes in history — just not in the United States. Since the character’s debut in the eponymous 1966 series, Ultraman has been a pioneer of the “kyodai (or giant) hero” genre and a staple of tokusatsu, the brand of effects-heavy media unique to Japan. For Shannon Tindle (Kubo and the Two Strings, Lost Ollie) this meant that making his dream Ultraman story in the Netflix animated film Ultraman: Rising would require honoring the franchise’s near 60-year-old history just as much as it would require introducing it to people whose only exposure to kaiju is with Godzilla.
