Due to its nature as a pseudo-prequel to both Ultraman Leo and Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy, all spoilers for the two may have been left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Ultraman Regulos is a 2023 spin-off micro series created by Tsuburaya Productions and part of the Ultra Series.
The plot focuses on Ultraman Regulos, the “New Guy” from Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad, explaining his Superhero Origin and acting as a prequel to his appearance in that series.
A sequel known as Ultraman Regulos: First Mission was announced before release.
Tropes featured in Ultraman Regulos include:
- Actor Allusion: Alien Magma Volcan is voiced by Takaya Kuroda, who previously voiced Alien Magma Maguma in Ultraman Taiga.
- In a similar vein, Yurub is voiced by Koichi Toshima, who previously portrayed the Alien Magma in Ultraman Ginga.
- Amnesiac Hero: Regulos remembers nothing of his past, other than his own name.
- Big Good: Master Alude, Grandmaster of the Cosmo Beast Style.
- Breaking Old Trends: Plenty towards the previous web-exclusive installments.
- This is the first not to be an "Ultra Fight" or an "Ultra Galaxy Fight".
- This is the first not to feature a Serial Escalation of the number of Ultras featured with the only ones aside from the title character shown being Ultraman Leo and Astra.
- This is the first installment since Ultra Fight Orb not to bring back any long-forgotten forms or Ultras.
- It's also the first miniseries to be a prequel; relative to the franchise's timeline, it's set concurrently with the events of Ultraman Leo, putting it somewhere in 1974 instead of the present.
- Brother–Sister Team: Yurub and Lava are an evil example.
- Career-Ending Injury: Episode 2 sees Master Alude get crippled taking a Magma Poison Palm Strike from Volcan, robbing him of the ability to fight with the same proficiency.
- Cast as a Mask: Neither of Dias’ voice actors in Japanese or English voice Absolute Diavolo.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted. Spicah is among the nicest of Regulos’ fellow students, while Instructor Phoros is a Reasonable Authority Figure.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Episode 3 shows Astra chained up by the Alien Magma and used as their punching bag to vent their frustrations.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Regulos' Japanese voice actor, Shugo Nakamura, sang both the opening and ending theme songs. He also is the one who wrote the lyrics and did the song composition.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The Magma Aliens were pointed towards D-60 in search of the Cosmo Beast Style by Dias, actually Absolute Diavolo
- Dramatic Irony: The first episode ends with Regulos despairing over the apparent deaths of his rivals, the Leo Brothers. Anyone familiar with the characters knows that they survived (Though not unharmed, in Astra’s case).
- Evil All Along: For all that he annoyed the instructors until they gave in and made him their pupil, and in spite of his fascination with Alude's Juggernaut Charging Buffalo Fist as the most powerful Cosmo Beast Fist style, Dias seems to be a Nice Guy, and supportive of Regulos. He's actually Absolute Diavolo, gone back through time to forcibly take the Cosmo Buffalo for himself for The Kingdom.
- The Faceless: While Astra can be recognized through his body armor and the chain on his leg, his face is not shown to avoid confusing viewers unaware that his current appearance is the result of mutilation he suffered at the hands of the Alien Magma.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: The final episode's credits occurs six minutes in, shortly after Volcan's defeat, Regulos and Spica vow to continue teaching their legendary arts to the rest of the galaxy, and everything seems well. And then Dias reveals himself as the mastermind, everything goes to hell afterwards, and the post-credits scene lasts for almost ten minutes.
- Fighting Fingerprint: Phoros recognises that Regulos has been training with his brother after the Ultra uses the Red Dragon stance.
- Foregone Conclusion: The Destined Crossroad makes it fairly clear that the rest of the Cosmo Beast Fighters are not going to make it through this intact.
- Gratuitous English: Even in the Japanese audio track, Alude and Phoros’s titles of “Master” and “Instructor” are said in English.
- Hand Wave: How does Volcan have a Baraba to sic on Regulos? He made a bargain with the Yapool for it.
- Hero Killer: Volcan wipes out Pharood, Albeo, Instructor Phoros and Tubahn, in addition to having destroyed Planet L-77 offscreen.
- Killed Offscreen: Sadly, Regulos and Spicah are Late to the Tragedy and find Master Alude and Dias have been killed.
- The Man Behind the Man: The Magma Aliens were pushed in the direction of D-60 by Absolute Diavolo, so that he could claim the power of the Cosmo Beast Style.
- Mutual Kill: Master Alude attempted this with Diavolo, but the latter was able to revive due to his Absolute Hearts.
- Mythology Gag: Volcan’s armour is explicitly modelled on Alien Empera’s.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Master Alude allows anyone to train in the Cosmo Beast-Style, regardless of their intent.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: Tubahn states that the Guebasser Regulos scares off was going to be his dinner.
- Retcon:
- Leo is shown here, just prior to his own series, to be such an expert martial artist that Regulos has never defeated him. In his own series, Leo is such an awful combatant that he routinely lost against his foes until Dan trained him in how to defeat it.
- In Ultraman Leo, Planet L-77’s destruction was attributed to a sole Alien Magma and his pet monsters, the Gilas Brothers. Here, L-77 was destroyed by a battle fleet of Alien Magmas rampaging across the universe.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: The serious, white tiger themed Phoros has a strong rivalry with his laidback, red dragon themed brother Tubahn.
- Sudden Downer Ending: Things seem set for a Bittersweet Ending, with the Magma invaders successfully repelled, but Regulos and Spicah are all that’s left to rebuild the Cosmo Beast Style. But then Absolute Diavolo shows up and kills Spicah, before taking Regulos back to the Kingdom along with Absolute Tartarus.
- Training from Hell: After finding out that the former has been training with his brother, Instructor Phoros has Regulos and Dias hold up a larger boulder than usual and commands them to hold it up until sunset. Doubles as Disproportionate Retribution.
- The Unreveal: Volcan seems like he recognizes what planet Regulos hails from, but dies before he gets the chance to name it
Tropes featured in Ultraman Regulos: First Mission include:
- The Bus Came Back: While Alien Zarab has made several appearances in modern installments, this is the first appearance of his Imit-Ultraman form since Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- When Regulos is overwhelmed by the quartet of kaiju that Reiblood summoned, Great, Powered and the Ultra Force come to his rescue.
- Ribut appears to save Sora from Zarab.
- Came Back Wrong: Reiblood’s revived monsters are nothing but their negative impulses, leaving them unable to be reasoned with.
- Cliffhanger: Volume 1 ends with Regulos being confronted with Zarab’s recreated Ultraman Shadow.
- Demonic Possession: After departing from Belial’s body, Alien Reiblood takes over the recreated body of Reibatos.
- Joker Immunity: Even after taking a combined beam attack from 8 Ultras, Reiblood's spirit persists, and moves on.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Reiblood wouldn't have returned if Ultraman Geed hadn't expelled the alien's spirit from Belial's body back in his series.
- Sizeshifter: Reiblood turns out to have this ability, at least in Reibatos’ body. He uses it to make Darii giant sized to battle Great.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Zarab has this pattern of speech in the dub.
- The Stinger: Alien Reiblood's spirit laughing at the camera.
- Tragic Monster: Beth and Chuck hold a minor moment of sadness for Star-Bem Gyeron noting that not only was its home destroyed, but now its spirit as well.
