Shin Ultra Fight (2022)
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Shin Ultra Fight (シン・ウルトラファイト Shin Urutora Faito) is a Japanese 3D-animated web miniseries funded by Tsuburaya Productions, Toho, and khara and produced by Cine Bazar. A non-canonical spinoff of the 2022 film Shin Ultraman, it was organized by the movie's screenwriter and supervisor Hideaki Anno and supervised and partially directed by its director Shinji Higuchi. Other directors include Shin Ultraman assistant directors Kensei Nakayama, Norichika Oba, Kazuhiro Nakagawa, and Ryotaro Kogushi and post-production supervisor Linto Ueda. As its name implies, Shin Ultra Fight is heavily inspired by the 1970 Tsuburaya series Ultra Fight, with its creators even aiming to emulate the show's low production value by shooting episodes unscripted, leaving in errors during motion capture performances, and using digital environments similar to common shooting sites.[1] The series' first two episodes were published to the Tsuburaya Imagination streaming service on May 14, 2022, with eight more following until July 4. The first three episodes were uploaded with English subtitles on the Ultraman Connection website weekly from January 13 to 27, 2023.[2]
Episodes
"SP" episodes were initially available only to those who purchased a digital ticket to Shin Ultraman, but were later made available to all Tsuburaya Imagination subscribers on June 27, 2022.[3]
| Number | Title | Directed by | Release date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release | Production | Tsuburaya Imagination |
Ultraman Connection | ||
| SP1 | 1 | "Neronga Appears and Disappears" | Shinji Higuchi[a] | 5/14/2022[3] | 1/13/2023[2] |
| SP2 | 2 | "Gabora and the Punch of Death" | 1/20/2023[2] | ||
| TI1 | 3 | "Beware! Mefilas' Trap" | 5/19/2022[4] | 1/27/2023[2] | |
| SP3 | 4 | "Assemble! Duelists of the Canyon" | Kazuhiro Nakagawa | 5/30/2022[3] | N/A |
| TI2 | 5 | "The Flashing Rumble Behind Closed Doors" | Kensei Nakayama | 6/6/2022[4] | |
| TI3 | 6 | "Is the Planet on Fire?" | Linto Ueda | 7/4/2022[4] | |
| TI4 | 7 | "The Six-Dimensional Scoundrel" | Ryotaro Kogushi | ||
| TI5 | 0 | "White Sand and Green Pines: Fi-Fi-Fight" | Norichika Oba | ||
| 8 | "Zetton, Chariot of Fire" | Shinji Higuchi | |||
| 9 | "Requiem of the Roaring Waves" | Norichika Oba | |||
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Planning organized by Hideaki Anno
- Supervisor and sound director Shinji Higuchi
- Directed by Shinji Higuchi, Kazuhiro Nakagawa, Kensei Nakayama, Linto Ueda, Ryotaro Kogushi, Norichika Oba
- Produced by Yoshiki Soejima, Tomoya Nishino, Masaki Kawashima
- Music selected by Shinji Higuchi, Ikki Todoroki
- Edited by Yohei Kurihara (episodes 1-3)
- Visual effects supervisor Linto Ueda
- CG directors Hiroyasu Suzuki, Masashi Osumi; Satoshi Miyake (episode 8)
- Environment directors Soichiro Tamura, Kenji Hasuda
- Background modeling by Misa Kobayashi
- Main title logo designed by Ushio Tarukawa
- Episode title cards designed by Kazuhiro Nakagawa
Company credits
- Funded by Tsuburaya Productions, Toho, khara
- Produced by Cine Bazar
- In association with Swara Pro, SSS Studio, Faith
- Real-time 3DCG produced by Studio Bros, Modeling Bros
- Motion capture studio Sola Digital Arts
- 3DCG in association with Shirogumi, alphaliez
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Stunt Team Gocoo as Ultraman, Kaiju, Extraterrestrials (motion capture)
- Koichi Yamadera as narrator (voice)
Appearances
Extraterrestrials
Kaiju
Production
Shin Ultra Fight was created with the intention of mimicking the original Ultra Fight, which was produced on an extremely tight budget using leftover suits from previous productions. However, because Shin Ultraman did not employ any suits to be reused, the series had to be entirely 3D-animated. The animation was spearheaded by Studio Bros and Modeling Bros in association with Shirogumi and alphaliez,[4] who used the video game engine Unreal Engine.[1] Motion capture was used to portray Ultraman and the other monsters and aliens, with their 3D models being virtually identical to those from Shin Ultraman.[1] Mo-cap actors were culled from the Japanese stunt team Gocoo,[4] and according to director Kensei Nakayama in an interview for Business Insider, at least one of the actors from the fifth episode was a professional wrestler.[1] All of the series' motion capture performances were filmed in a span of two days, working out to about two and a half hours per episode.[1] As part of the creators' attempt to emulate the aesthetic of Ultra Fight, the series was intentionally produced without a script, and all of the performances were captured with the principle that there were no bad takes. As such, the motion capture was completely improvised, and the only retakes were in the case of technical malfunctions with the CG models.[1] All of the series' 3D environments were modeled from scratch, with two used for the majority. The first, which could be filmed at several angles to appear like different locations, consisted of mountainous terrain and a flat clearing that was compared to the rock quarries frequently used in Ultra Fight and other vintage tokusatsu.[1] The other was a seaside scene, also akin to settings which appeared in Ultra Fight.[1]
Gallery
Production
Screenshots
Video releases
Shin Ultra Fight is included as a bonus feature in two editions of TOHO Visual Entertainment's home video releases for Shin Ultraman: the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray set (with the series included on one of the Blu-rays) and the 3-disc Blu-ray set.[5] They were released on April 12, 2023, coinciding with Tsuburaya Productions' 60th anniversary.
Toho Shin Ultraman 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray set
Toho Shin Ultraman 3-disc Blu-ray
Trivia
- Though Shin Ultraman and Shin Ultra Fight were both funded by Tsuburaya Productions, Toho, and khara, the former groups them together as the "Shin Ultraman Film Partners" while the latter does not.
External links
- Shin Ultra Fight section of the Shin Ultraman page on Ultraman Wiki
- All episodes of Shin Ultra Fight on Tsuburaya Imagination (requires subscription)
Notes
- ↑ Episodes 1-3 consist entirely of stock footage from Shin Ultraman, directed by Higuchi.
References
This is a list of references for Shin Ultra Fight. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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