It was a wonderful week for fans of Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd.’s vast Ultraman library. Mill Creek Entertainment, which acquired domestic distribution rights to over 50 years of programming back in 2019 — which includes some 1,100 series episodes and 20 feature film — announced not one, but two new Ultraman collections heading home as Blu-ray product offerings on June 15.
The three-disc set titled Ultraman Zero Collection includes two feature films, director Yûichi Abe’s 2010 theatrical release of Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial (grossing $4.3 million in Japanese venues) and director Hideki Oka’s 2012 theatrical release of Ultraman Saga (pulling in over $6 million in box office receipts in Japan).
Of note, William Winckler was also given director’s credit for the English-language adaptations on both of these feature films. He has made something of a career adapting Japanese language films for the English-speaking marketplace … and he has also done his own writing, directing and producing (mainly animated series films), including the 2005 film release of Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove.
Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial is actually a sequel, a follow-up to Mega Monster Battle Ultra Galaxy: The Movie (now that’s a mouthful), which continues the story of an “evil” Ultraman by the name of Belial, who escaped imprisonment and unleashed an army of monsters (“Kaiju”) on the Ultra warriors.
Belial’s (voiced by Hiroyuki Miyasako) target now is the planet Esmeralda and his plans to capture Princess Emerana (Tao Tsuchiya). Coming to her aid is Mirror Knight (voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa), who will join forces with Ultraman Zero and the newly-recruited Run (Yû Koyanagi) and his younger brother, Neo (Tatsuomi Hamada), to take on Belial and his Kaiju swarm.
Ultraman Saga begins with the complete devastation of Tokyo, not a good sign for Earth’s human population, which has been under assault from an alien creature, Zetton, that looks like a giant bat and its space armada.
It gets a bit confusing, because of the multi-universes and the existence of black holes, but Ultraman Zero heads to Tokyo to help the all-girl Team U battle the alien bat creature’s forces. Ultraman Zero recruits a reluctant Taiga (Daigo Naito), also from another dimension, and Ultraman Cosmos (Taiyô Sugiura) and Ultraman Dyna eventually combine to take on Zetton!!
Teamed with these two feature films are a pair of two-part specials, Ultra Galaxy Legend Side Story: Ultraman Zero Vs Darklops Zero (broadcast in 2010) and Ultraman Zero Side Story: Killer the Beatstar (broadcast in 2011).
The Ultraman Zero Collection on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment is presented in Japanese with English subtitles, plus the two feature films, Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial and Ultraman Saga include an English-dubbed viewing option.
Also arriving on June 15 is the five-disc Blu-ray collection titled Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle, which features two complete 13-chapter series, plus the aforementioned theatrical film, Mega Monster Battle Ultra Galaxy: The Movie, which was released in 2009 (pulling in $6.2 million in its Japanese theatrical run).
The two series featured in this fan-pleasing collection are: Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle, broadcast in 2007 and the 13-part sequel, Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle Never Ending Odyssey, which arrived on Japanese television the following year.
Bonus of these Ultraman series are presented in Japanese with English subtitles. The feature film, Mega Monster Battle Ultra Galaxy: The Movie, has two viewing options … the original Japanese-language track with English subtitle, or the English-dubbed version.
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