Trivia / Ultraman 80

• Anime First: In May 1980, Noboru Sakaoka published a manga of Ultraman 80 in the Shogaku Ninensei magazine.
• Bad Export for You: The show is getting a physical release on September 14th along with The☆Ultraman in the west...on standard DVD. The reason for this is because Tsuburaya as of yet has not given these shows an HD remastering so Mill Creek Entertainment found no reason to given them a Blu-ray release.
• Big Budget Beef-Up: First Ultra series to use front projection camera for fight scenes, and probably the most large-scale miniature work for the franchise until Ultraman Tiga, as well as filming the UGM mecha in outdoor sets usually.
• Blooper: A pretty glaring error happens throughout episodes 45 with Baltan VI having one of his claws upside down. This is not one shot, this is the majority of the alien screen time.
• End of an Age: The final Ultraman series of the Showa period. While there would be some minor projects for the next while, no official Japanese-produced Ultra series would be made for the next 15 years.
• Executive Meddling: The school angle was a recommendation from the network heads at Tokyo Broadcasting System, but due to the writers finding it difficult to work with, they ultimately did away with it.
• Franchise Killer: The series suffered from abysmal ratings, which ended up putting the Ultra Series full-length TV shows on a fifteen-year hiatus until Ultraman Tiga breathed new life in 1996.
• Hey, It's That Sound!:
  • Salamandoras' roar is recycled from Toho's obscure walrus kaiju Maguma from Gorath.
  • Hoe, Zuckal's giant form, Jihibikiran, and Delusion Ultraseven all used the same roar — a modified version of Seagorath's.
  • Mecha-Gillas' roar is that of Gigan.
  • Zatan Silver reuses screeches from Sabotendar.
  • Cathy uses Gabara's roars.
• Old Shame: For producer/series conceptualizer Noboru Tsuburaya, the second half of the show that did away with the school angle largely was seen as not living up to his vision. Thus when Ultraman Mebius had a tribute episode to 80, it was precisely the school angle that was focused on.
• Prop Recycling: As per Ultra Series tradition, many of the monster suits are modified from one another.
  • The unidentified Warrior of Light who defeated Tabra in a flashback sequence is actually a spare Ultraman Eighty suit covered in reflective tape. This ends up ruining the old suit because of residual damage from the adhesive tape.
  • Noiseler was made into Zarudon.
  • Zatan Silver and Gomora II was made from the same suit.
  • Medan was created from Gikogillar.
  • Salamandoras became Raburas and then Argon.
  • Myu was made into Gera. Incidentally, Myu's infant form was also used for Gera's juvenile form, though for the latter it's smaller incarnation have less screentime.
  • Zakira was a modified Tabra.
  • Kyasshi was made from Crescent, and later remade into Red King III.
  • Delusion Ultraseven was actually modified from an Ultraman Taro suit, and would later be reused for many stage shows to represent Seven himself.
• Recycled Script: A few scripts from Ultraman Ace were recycled for this show.
  • Zruzular the elephant monster and Baktari the tapir choju have quite a few similarities. Both of them used to be peaceful zoo animals who ends up going on a rampage after turning into a monster, and the episode ends with the Ultramen of their respective series cleansing them of Yapool's curse / Minus Energy instead of killing them.
  • The Baseball Episode, "The Evil Glove is Laughing at You!" contains quite a bit of similarities to "Life-Sucking Sound", where the episode revolves around a child who's sucking badly at his hobby (baseball for 80, violin in Ace) and angrily getting rid of his baseball glove / violin after an argument with his mother. The child's residual anger subsequently leads to Minus Energy / Yapool infecting the object in question, turning it to the baseball glove monster Glovusk / violin monster Geegon. Both episodes ends with the Ultra reverting the monsters back into objects, as well as An Aesop to try, try again and never give up.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Believe it or not, William Winckler of Winckler Productions proposed making an English-language adaptation of the series in 1987 in the vein of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers or Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956), that would have starred Adam West!
  • While Ultraman 80, being a Fad Super, had touched on various problems associated with teenagers at the time of the show's release, there was a scripted episode which deals with suicide. Said episode was canned because it's too dark, which is probably a good thing.
• You Look Familiar: Non and Yuriko have the same actress. Lampshaded by Takeshi when Yuriko first appears, remarking that she looks just like Non.
  • Eri Ishida played Emi Johno and Gynoid (called Android here) Emi Johno.

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