Ultraman: Rising

Ultraman: Rising (ウルトラマン: ライジング) is a 2024 animated superhero film based on Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman franchise. A Japanese-American co-production between Netflix Animation and Tsuburaya Productions, with animation by Industrial Light & Magic, it is the 44th film in the franchise. Directed by Shannon Tindle in his feature directorial debut, who co-wrote it with Marc Haimes, the film stars Christopher Sean as Ken Sato/Ultraman along with the voices of Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Keone Young, and Julia Harriman.

Ultraman: Rising was released worldwide on Netflix on June 14, 2024. The film has received positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation, writing, and voice performances, particularly Sean as Sato.

Plot
Professional baseball player Kenji "Ken" Sato returns home to Japan, despite being on the verge of winning a championship in America. Reporter Ami Wakita attributes his sudden departure to rumors of unfinished family business, but in reality it is to fight kaiju as the giant superhero Ultraman, a mantle he reluctantly accepts from his father, Professor Sato. After a battle with the monster Neronga, Ken feels underappreciated after complaints from citizens, and vents that he never wanted to be Ultraman while reminiscing about his mother Emiko, who has recently gone missing.

Dr. Onda, the chief officer of the Kaiju Defense Force (KDF), who harbors a grudge against Ultraman and kaiju, monitors a transport team delivering a secret package. However, they are pursued by the bird-like kaiju Gigantron, and Ken is forced to leave a game to fight it. Gigantron loses consciousness on top of the package, which is revealed to be an egg that soon hatches into an infant Gigantron, forcing Ultraman to take her with him before the KDF kills her.

As the baby imprints on him as her parent, Ken reluctantly raises her with help from his A.I. assistant Mina, naming her Emi after his mother and becoming attached to her over time. Unwilling to accept his father's help due to their estranged relationship, Ken struggles with his career and parental duties. He reaches out to Ami, a parent herself, to ask her how she deals with parenthood, and she tells him that, despite the struggles, it can be rewarding. One night, Ken drops out of an interview with Ami after Emi escapes into Tokyo, and Onda demands that he hand her over. However, he refuses and accidentally injures Emi's shoulder while trying to save her. He takes Emi home and finally contacts his father for help, who heals her and aids him in raising her.

Onda reveals to the KDF's captain his plan to use Emi's echolocation to find the undiscovered kaiju island and destroy all kaiju, which he justifies as a means to an end to protect humanity after his family was killed in a kaiju/Ultraman incident. At a family cabin, Ken and Sato reconcile their relationship now that Ken understands the struggle of being a parent and Ultraman. However, Emi enters a pupal stage as the KDF find and attack them, injuring Sato. At home, Ken places him in a healing tube as Emi hatches from her cocoon, having grown wings. She hears the calls of her birth mother across Tokyo Bay and flies towards her.

Soon after, the KDF attacks Ken's home, destroying Mina and causing Sato's tube to disappear into the sea. Ultraman tracks down Emi to the middle of the Bay, where they encounter a mechanized Gigantron. He attacks it, but stops after noticing flesh beneath the metal and realizing that it is not a machine but the original, transformed into a cyborg. Ultraman exceeds his energy limit and reverts to Ken, but is saved by Sato, who returns in his Ultra form, Ultradad. Emi manages to break the KDF's control over Gigantron as Onda transforms a KDF craft into a giant mecha and battles Ultraman, Ultradad, and the kaiju, blaming Ultradad for the death of his family. Onda is defeated, but triggers a self-destruct sequence that kills him as Ultraman forms a barrier to prevent further damage.

Later, Ami finally interviews Ken, who survived despite his shoulder being injured, and notes that he has matured recently, which he attributes to his family. He shares a voicemail from his mother expressing her hope that he will reconcile with his father and that their decisions as parents came from a place of love to prepare him for life. Later, Ken and Sato manage to find the kaiju island with help from Emi and Gigantron.

In a mid-credits scene, Emiko contacts Ken for help, revealing that she is stuck on Ultraman's home planet in Nebula M78.

Voice cast
Frank Buckley, Artt Butler, Vic Chao, Francois Chau, Brittany Ishibashi, Paul Nakauchi, Bret Marnell, and Jon Ohye provide additional voices.

Production
The film, inspired by the character of the same name, originally began as an original idea developed by director Shannon Tindle. He conceived it while working as a character designer on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends in the mid-to-late 2000s. Tindle further developed the film, writing a script and creating art at Sony Pictures Animation from 2016 to 2018; at the time, the plot would have followed "a billionaire forced to grow up when he takes on the orphaned children of his former foe." After leaving Sony, Tindle moved to Netflix Animation to produce the live-action/animation hybrid series Lost Ollie with fellow Sony Animation director Peter Ramsey, where he had the opportunity to repurpose the plot for his film to fit with the Ultraman IP.

The project was announced as a Netflix exclusive in May 2021, with Tindle to direct and co-write the film with Marc Haimes (Tindle and Haimes previously co-wrote Kubo and the Two Strings), Tom Knott to produce, Lisa Poole to co-produce, John Aoshima to co-direct, and Industrial Light & Magic to animate the film. In July 2022, Netflix released an image teasing the film's animation style and Ultraman design.

Release
In October 2023, Tindle shared via Twitter a first-look image of Ultraman and the film's official title, Ultraman: Rising, teasing an announcement for Geeked Week 2023. In November 2023, the film's voice cast and first trailer were unveiled during Geeked Week 2023, targeting a 2024 release on Netflix. Ultraman: Rising premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 12, 2024. It was followed by its worldwide release on Netflix on June 14, 2024.