I will protect the world.
Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers is a tokusatsu film, part of Tsuburaya Productions' Ultra Series, released in 2008. It is the first and so far only feature film directed by Takeshi Yagi, a long-time collaborator of the franchise who has since retired from Tsuburaya Productions, superhero, and kaiju films as of January 2008.
As children, Daigo, Asuka and Gamu were inspired by the television series known as Ultraman to follow their dreams. Daigo aspired to become an astronaut, Asuka to become a baseball player, and Gamu to become a scientist, and design a spacecraft.
30 years later, the three of them live out ordinary lives, their dreams all but abandoned. One day, after being late for work and passing by Hayata's bike shop, Moroboshi's restaurant, Goh's auto shop, and Hokuto's bakery, Daigo (and everyone at work) sees a mirage of a destroyed city in the sky.
Meanwhile, in another universe, a mysterious girl in red shoes, whom Daigo Asuka and Gamu had once met, tells Mirai Hibino that he is needed to awaken a group of heroes in a different universe.
Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass:
- King Guesra not only has a more threatening redesign, but has more potent venom in his body and can combine it with his own electrical attacks, and his scaly skin is shown to be very resistant to many types of damage. Later series have given him even more powers.
- The kaiju Silvergon had impressive brute strength but was hindered by his poor vision, which Tiga and GUTS exploited to defeat him. King Silvergon, in addition to his strength, is capable of unleashing destructive blue fireballs from his mouth which allow him to level entire city blocks in a few seconds and doesn't seem to have the same shortcoming as his original counterpart.
- Adaptational Wimp: The original Goldras was a nigh-unstoppable powerhouse thanks to his ungodly powers that allowed him to warp time and reality to his liking, and was only stopped by a fairly risky plan that ultimately turned out for the best. King Goldras, on the other hand, is still very strong and destructive but seems to completely lack the abilities his original counterpart possessed.
- Alternate Universe: One much like the real world where apparently the Ultras are fictional with their hosts being normal people. As the film progresses it is heavily implied that this isn't actually the case and Ultras are very much real in this Alternate Universe, however.
- Amnesiac Hero: It's heavily implied that all the Ultra hosts seen here (sans Mebius who came from the M78 Universe) were always Ultras and simply lost their memories after living on Earth. With them and their families travelling back to their homeworld, Planet Ultra, in the final scene.
- Ascended Fanboy: An In-Universe example with Daigo, Asuka and Gamu. Having watched Ultraman as children and actually becoming Ultramen during the movie.
- Attack Its Weak Point: King Guesra's back fin. Daigo said this trope almost word-for-word when Mebius is fighting said kaiju.
- Badass in Distress: After Mebius defeats King Guesra and King Pandon, Super Alien Hipporit imprisons him inside a cylinder and turns him into a bronze statue, leaving him out of action for a good chunk of the film. The alternate Showa Ultramen rescue him by pouring some of their energy into his color timer.
- Big Bad: Super Alien Hipporit. In reality the true main antagonists are the collective of Black Silhouettes who created the many King Kaiju and Super Alien Hipporit.
- Big Damn Heroes: The 4 original Ultra Brothers come to the aid of the new 4 during the film's climax to defeat Giga Khimaira and later the Black Silhouettes' giant form.
- Call-Back: There are a lot of these, towards both the Showa shows and Heisei shows.
- There are many call-backs to the 1966 show when King Guesra shows up, which Daigo, Asuka and Gamu watched when they were kids and prove essential in helping Mebius defeat the returning monster.
- Gamu telling Atsuko that "he is going" which is a direct reference to a scene in episode 49 of Ultraman Gaia, in which Atsuko expresses her sadness that Gamu never tells them anything.
- Asuka saying his signature line from his series: "The real fight is just beginning."
- Hideki Goh working as a racecar designer, as he was a racer before he joined MAT in Return of Ultraman.
- The whole sequence before each host finally transforms into their respective Ultras has montages of their heroics from their series.
- The Cameo: Alternate versions of Jun Manjome and Hiroya Fujimiy appear in the film as well in minor roles, reprised by their original actors.
- Eldritch Abomination: Giga Khimaira, a fusion between the King Monsters and Super Alien Hipporit made by the Black Silhouettes. The Black Silhouettes are an even bigger example, being responsible for all the atrocities in the movie and only being seen as a mass of hooded humanoid figures speaking in ghastly voices.
- Fusion Dance: The King monsters and Super Alien Hipporit are merged together by the Black Silhouettes into Giga Khimaira, later on the Silhouettes themselves fuse together in a last-ditch attempt to destroy the Ultra Brothers.
- Henshin Hero: Not only does it feature the original 4 Ultra Brothers (Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Ace), but features the Neo-Frontier Space Trio (Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna and Ultraman Gaia) as well as Ultraman Mebius.
- Kaiju: 4 new versions (known as "King" variants) of classic Kaiju appear here: King Guesra, King Pandon, King Silvergon and King Goldras.
- The Multiverse: Daigo theorizes that parallel worlds exist, in which he, Asuka and Gamu were Ultramen.
- Multiversal Conqueror: The Black Silhoeuttes responsible for the Kaiju plot to do this by summoning endless amounts of monsters to destroy every Ultra in the Multiverse to rule unopposed with fear.
- Mundanization: The Alternate Universe is like this, at first.
- Mythology Gag: When Goh does not recognize Mirai, he begins to refer to him as "New Man" and "Man who Returned", which were the names Ultraman Jack were known as before he was officially given a name.
- No Name Given: The Black Silhouettes appearing throughout the film are never given a name within the film.
- Refugee from TV Land: The universe Mirai comes from is known to be that of a television franchise.
- Taken for Granite: Ultraman Mebius gets turned into a statue made of Bronze by Super Alien Hipporit.
- Transformation Trinket: Daigo and friends use the same transformation devices as their respective television series incarnations.
