Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (1995) Series Review

Frank Laudato
Feb 26
6 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

“Oh boy…” That’s exactly what I thought when I started setting up the page for this review. Ultraman: Towards The Future was the Australian Ultraman production, and later the United States followed with their own version, The Ultimate Hero. While Towards The Future also known as Ultraman Great wasn't exactly the greatest Ultraman series, there was still some enjoyment to be had, it was watchable, and I came away pretty satisfied, as I mentioned in my previous review of it.

Ultraman Powered Poster Art by Noriyoshi Ohrai

So, when I started watching Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, also known as Ultraman Powered, I thought, “It can’t be that bad if the previous one was pretty alright.” Oh boy… was I wrong....so very wrong. There is just so much going on with this series that is terrible from the start poor acting, bad writing, a boring Ultra host who feels completely non-essential to the cast, non-functional kaiju suits, poor repetitive musical score and kaiju hugging sessions they call kaiju battles, this series a mess.

The Cast...The "WINRs"

Let’s start with the cast first. As with most Ultra series, there is a special agency, defense force, or science team that serves as the main cast. For this series, it is the Worldwide Investigation Network Response (WINR).

The team is led by Captain Russel Edlund, my personal favorite of the group. Out of all the characters and actors, I feel he plays his part the best as the leader. He really fits the role and stands out compared to the rest of the cast.

The next team member is Theresa Beck, the science and information wiz of the team. She is often the one analyzing the situation and formulating plans on how to handle the kaiju of the week, the brains of the operation.

Next up is Julie Young, our VTOL ace pilot and often the one sent out into the field first to do air reconnaissance of the situation. Usually tagging along with Julie is Rick Sanders, the marksman of the team and her co-pilot/gunner. Rick often plays the “comic relief” of the team. He has a very similar attitude to Bill Murray’s Dr. Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters, minus the playboy flirtatiousness.

And last but probably least is Kenichi Kai, the Ultraman host of this series. Mostly referred to as Kai, he is supposedly a jack-of-all-trades for the WINR team. He assists in information gathering, can fly sometimes, and helps where needed, but he doesn’t really specialize in anything...he just kind of dabbles. Throughout the series, I found myself asking, what exactly does Kai do? I guess it really is true that a jack of all trades is a master of none.

Like Ultraman Towards the Future this shows Ultra host just seems so insignificant to the team, but Kai is massively worse than Jack Shindo. Kai’s input when situations arise is often redundant, and his dialogue feels useless. Most of the other WINR members get the lines that actually pertain to the story, while Kai’s dialogue usually amounts to him finding an excuse to run off or get “lost” somewhere during the final moments before Ultraman appears to fight the kaiju.

Even how Kai got chosen to be the Ultraman host was lame. He was just the guy who happened to be standing in the crater where Ultraman landed at the right time. If Rick had tagged along with Julie like he normally does in that first episode, he might have been the host or possibly even Julie if she had been a few steps ahead of Kai. He was literally chosen just because he was there first.

Often times, a host is chosen because, in a moment of chaos and danger, they make a heroic sacrifice risking their life for the better of others. Even Jack from Ultraman Towards the Future, on the moon and trapped under a rock, told his crewmate to escape while he still could, willing to die so his crewmate could live another day. Kai was just the guy who got there first he had not done anything to prove himself a hero or even earn the title of a hero.

The Kaiju Problem

One of the most frustrating things about this series is that, even though it revisits so many memorable kaiju from throughout Ultraman, giving them updated looks and in some cases really cool upgraded designs the suits themselves are barely functional.

Take the first episode, for example. The longtime fan favorite (and one of my favorites), Alien Baltan, gets a fresh new design, with its pincers bigger and more exaggerated than ever. It looked amazing probably perfect and modern for the ’90s era it was made for. But when we finally see it “in action,” it can’t move. It’s basically a glorified statue.

And when Baltan takes flight and Ultraman starts fighting it, you’re basically watching him push a mannequin hung from the ceiling like a playground swing. There are no arm movements from Baltan, just a stiff alien planking midair. It just had no life or energy.

Overall, a lot of the kaiju that appear throughout this series had great updated looks, many appearing much more vicious and scarier than their classic counterparts. Some of my favorites were Powered Red Kings- yes, Kings! Not one, but two male and female versions, Powered Chandlar which was a total revamp that looked amazing, Pigmon, Gomora and many others. They all looked fantastic in their Powered versions… but like I said, if they’re not functional, what was the point of all that work to create these incredible-looking monsters?

As for the design changes I didn’t like, Dada, Dorako, and my least favorite Jamila. Dada was essentially reimagined as a living computer virus. Dorako had this strange body shape, with arms that almost resembled the sleeves of a kimono. And Jamila kept the same general body shape as the classic version, but its back and body were covered in metallic pieces that looked like capacitors. It was completely faceless, with what looked like a radio speaker where its face should have been.

My thoughts on the Kaiju designs are my opinion others may think differently about how they looked but the one thing that we can all agree on at the end of all this is that the fight choreography was non-existent as the suits couldn't function and

My Final Thoughts Facing the Music

Ultraman VS> Telesdon — Ultraman Powered VS. Telesdon Powered

So, before we get into my final thoughts it's time to face the music literally... or lack thereof. This series had maybe two different possibly three background tracks in its entire catalog. Super basic, almost march like music, borderline elevator music that plays through the entire episode regardless of the situation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a tense moment, a monster attack, or what’s supposed to be a climactic battle. The same music just keeps rolling.

The score adds nothing to the “hugging sessions” they call fights, and if anything, it makes them even more boring due to the complete lack of appropriate dramatic build-up. There’s no rising tension, no heroic swell, no sense of danger. Just generic background noise filling the silence. That is the final nail in the coffin for this series.

This is the first time I’ve ever experienced- no, endured an Ultra series that I could not wait to end. I honestly thought about just stopping halfway through, but with only 13 episodes, I figured, why not sacrifice almost six hours of my life and just finish it?

If you were locked in a room and were forced to pick one episode of this series to watch, I’d say go with Episode 3, “A Quartet of Creatures.” It pays tribute to Episode 8 of Ultraman, “The Monster Lawless Zone,” featuring the two Red Kings and Chandlar and of course, the friendly Pigmon makes an appearance.

The change this time around is that instead of scientists stranded on a mysterious island, it’s a documentary film crew traveling to South America to explore a mysterious valley. And the good thing about this version? Our pal Pigmon survives! If there was a positive takeaway from this series, it is this episode's story. While the Kaiju fights were still absolute trash this was the peak of the series.

It should go without saying that this will be the first Ultra series on my list that I have absolutely zero intention of ever revisiting. Will I pick up the physical media release when it drops later this year? Absolutely. As a collector and completionist, I have no self-control. So, you’re damn right this abomination of an Ultra series will still find its way onto my DVD/Blu-ray shelf.

This series really did try to pay tribute to the original Ultraman, and that’s something I can at least give it credit for. But in the end, it was still an absolute abomination.

I’m happy to have checked it off my watch list and move on. Next up is Ultraman Tiga, a series I haven’t watched since the old Fox Kids Saturday morning days. Getting to revisit Ultraman Tiga in its original subtitled form is going to be a massive treat after this.