{"id":53139,"date":"2024-06-12T22:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2054757"},"modified":"2024-06-12T22:29:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:29:41","slug":"ultraman-rising-directors-on-bringing-the-iconic-japanese-character-to-a-wider-audience","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/ultraman-rising-directors-on-bringing-the-iconic-japanese-character-to-a-wider-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultraman: Rising directors on bringing the iconic Japanese character to a wider audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Japan’s most iconic creations is about to find a whole new viewership on Netflix this week. <\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 12 June 2024 at 20:00 PM<\/p>

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Ultraman is one of the most iconic fictional characters ever created in Japan \u2013 but until now the kaiju-fighting superhero was never hugely known to Western audiences.<\/p>\n

But with the release of new animated film Ultraman: Rising on Netflix this week, director Shannon Tindle and co-director John Aoshima are hopeful that that\u2019s about to change.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the new film\u2019s launch, the pair \u2013\u00a0whose previous credits include working on Kubo and the Two Strings \u2013 spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> about making a film that would work both for long-term fans of the franchise and those having their first exposure to the character.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019re talking about a character with a multi-generational legacy,\u201d Aoshima explained. \u201cAnd we\u2019re big fans too. But we also knew that it would take a lot to kind of establish that world, like, to the point where it\u2019s going to serve all the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that wasn\u2019t the goal of this film: the goal was to tell the beautiful story that Shannon had written and to support it and to\u2026 well, basically, we wanted people to come in not having to know anything about Ultraman<\/span>, just the way we discovered Ultraman<\/span> as kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ultraman\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Ultraman: Rising.<\/span><\/figcaption> Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Tindle added: \u201cYeah, when you\u2019re a kid, you don\u2019t start at episode 1. You just turn it on and it can be episode 8, episode 10, episode 12 \u2013 I don\u2019t have an origin story for this\u00a0but it doesn\u2019t matter, because I\u2019m engaged by the imagery and I get to know the character.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we wanted to echo that experience, too \u2013 that joy before you get so obsessed about [it]. The rulemaking in fandom is so toxic, and it\u2019s become more so over the years. \u2018It has to be this way, oh it\u2019s not my Star Wars, that\u2019s not my Ultraman,<\/span> etc.\u2019 And the thing is, you can tell all kinds of stories in those worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we did pay tribute to a lot of it. We have a science team in our film, but we subverted it and made them the bad guys. They didn\u2019t start that way. There\u2019s a history there. And we work back and forth with Tsuburaya on that stuff and they were really amazing collaborating with us. But it really was\u2026 if it supports the story we\u2019re telling, it gets to stay in. If it\u2019s distracting people from it, it\u2019s out.\u201d<\/p>

Interestingly the new film didn\u2019t begin its life as an Ultraman project. Tindle started writing it as a separate script that was simply inspired by the superhero, because he thought it was unlikely that he\u2019d get the rights to place his film within such a long-running franchise, which began back in 1966 and encompasses TV shows, films, books and a host of other media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018There\u2019s no way I could get Ultraman\u2019,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t even know at the time that I came up with the idea, the legal issues that surrounded it and why\u2026 there\u2019s this dead period where there weren\u2019t really any shows made and there was a huge lawsuit. And they didn\u2019t come out of the lawsuit until just as I was leaving Sony with what was called Made in Japan at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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