The Ultraman Vs. Jackal is a short animated film directed by Akitoshi Yokoyama and Hisashi Mori and produced by Hideaki Anno and Tomoyuki Togata, in collaboration with Tsuburaya Productions, for the Japan Animator Expo, based on the Ultra Series. The short retells a story from the first chapter/arc of the 1975-1976 The・Ultraman manga series written and illustrated by Mamoru Ichiyama.
In 1975, a malevolent entity named Jackal, having somehow escaped the afterlife, begins murdering the Ultra Brothers through shapeshifting into their deadliest enemies. Forcing the surviving Ultras into hiding, Jackal and his army invade Earth and attempt to draw the Ultras out by murdering civilians. All of a sudden, a new Ultra hero named Melos arrives on Earth to fight against the invasion? Will Jackal be stopped, or will Melos be added to the demonic space overlord's body count?
After being released in 2015, the short was uploaded to Tsuburaya's Youtube channel
in July 2022 to celebrate the success of Shin Ultraman, in addition to the release of new volumes of the manga. Due to the film's shortness (8 minutes) and its availability, spoilers will be left unmarked.
The Ultraman vs Jackal provides examples of the following tropes:
- The '70s: The narrator explicitly states that the short takes place in Spring 1975, after the events of Ultraman Leo.
- Adaptation Distillation: The short summarizes the manga's entire Jackal arc in roughly 8 minutes, skipping over much of the conflict between the Ultras and the Jackal army.
- Aim for the Horn: Melos uses the Andorang to cut off Jackal's left horn. Given Jackal's anguished screams, sudden surrender and lack of shapeshifting afterwards, it's implied this horn holds the source of said power.
- Aliens Among Us: Zoffy, the Mother of Ultra and at least three unnamed Ultras take on human forms to hide among humanity from Jackal's army.
- Alien Invasion: Without the Ultras around, the Jackal army apparently conquers and enslaves Earth easily.
- Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: Inverted with the heroic Melos, often wearing the Cosmo-Protector, fighting against the armorless Jackal.
- Attack Reflector: Jackal!Zetton uses this to catch Ultraman's Specium Beam, allowing him to kill the hero much as Zetton did in the original show.
- Back from the Dead: Jackal is stated to have escaped from "hell's black hole", having presumably being killed by Ultraman King beforehand. By the end of the short, Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Taro all return from the afterlife to give Jackal a well-deserved ass-kicking.
- Bad Boss: Jackal doesn't hesitate to unleash his Jackal Destruction Ray upon his own troops in an attempt to kill Melos (actually Zoffy in disguise). No wonder his army abandons the war after he's killed.
- Battle Boomerang: Melos's Andorang, as part of the Cosmo-Protector, serves as this, and is pretty effective at bisecting Jackal's mooks.
- Big Bad: Jackal.
- Big Damn Heroes: After the Ultras were all killed or forced into hiding, Melos's counterattack not only forces the Jackal army off of Earth but also encourages the Ultras to fight back.
- Body Double: After Melos is seemingly killed by Jackal, Zoffy dons the Cosmo Protector to spook Jackal into thinking the hero survived the blast unscathed, before taking the villain by surprise with the M87 beam.
- Calling Your Attacks: Melos, Zoffy and Taro all call their special attacks.
- The Cameo: Ultraman Leo makes a brief appearance when watching his brother Astra being murdered by Jackal!Zoffy, and Ultraman King briefly appears in the final shot.
- Creative Closing Credits: The short's credits are animated in a silhouette style paying homage to the openings of the first four Ultra-led series. The song playing during said intro (Tatakae! Ultraman) was also an unused opening song for Return of Ultraman, further recreating the style of older Ultra openings.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Ultraman Ace's corpse is found crucified on an alien planet following an attack by Jackal.
- Curbstomp Battle:
- Ultraman is shown to be defeated quite quickly by Jackal!Zetton.
- Jackal ends up on the receiving ends when the Ultra Brothers are revived and shoot their Ultra beams at him.
- Decapitated Army: After Jackal's death, the remaining Jackal army simply gives up without a fight and leaves.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: A franchise staple. When defeated, Jackal's mooks explode into flames. Jackal also suffers from this in the end, though quickly expands first due to the massive amount of energy pumped into his body by 5 simultaneous Ultra beams.
- Downer Beginning: The short starts with the violent death of Ultraman, subsequently followed by the murders of Jack, Taro, Ace and Astra. Within a few minutes, the short establishes one of the darkest premises in the franchise.
- Eye Lights Out: As in the live-action series, Ultras eyes go dark when they die. This is visibly shown with Ultraman, Ace and Astra.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: What happens to the Jackal mooks that get hit with the Andorang.
- Hero Killer: Jackal easily slaughters the protagonists of four Ultra series, and plans to kill Zoffy and any other Ultra in his path for universal conquest. However, he's only strong enough to outmatch them one-on-one, and quickly ends up annihilated when the revived Ultra Brothers join forces.
- I Surrender, Suckers: After having been defeated by Melos, Jackal begs for mercy, only to disarm, cripple and blast the Ultra when his back is turned.
- Kaiju: Another franchise staple. Throughout the short, Jackal takes on the form of Zetton, Black King and Alien Nackle, Birdon and Ace Killer.
- Killed Offscreen: Jack, Taro and Ace all get killed off screen by Jackal (presumably in the forms of Black King, Alien Nackle, Birdon and Ace Killer).
- Ludicrous Gibs: After being struck by five Ultra beams at once, Jackal expands rapidly before exploding into massive fleshy chunks.
- My Name Is Inigo Montoya: How Melos introduces himself: "I am Captain of the Andromeda Nebula Branch of the Space Garrison. The name is Melos!"
- Mooks: Jackal's army consists of similar looking, but much weaker, aliens.
- Mythology Gag:
- Outside of the music playing during the first scene, most of the music in the short is drawn from Return of Ultraman and Ultraman Leo.
- Ultraman's death, from the hero's attacks against Jackal!Zetton to the hero's eyes fading out with his color timer covered by a red crystal after being struck with the Specium beam, pays homage to his death in the final episode of the original series.
- While not directly shown on-screen, Jackal is implied to have killed Jack, Ace and Taro while taking on the forms of Black King & Alien Nackle, Ace Killer and Birdon respectively. These kaiju all killed or nearly killed these heroes in their original shows.
- A subtler example occurs with Ultraseven's revival alongside the explicitly dead Ultra brothers. Instead of showing Jackal killing Seven himself, it's more than likely Seven/Dan Moroboshi had been revived after being killed during Silver Bloome's attack on MAC HQ in Ultraman Leo prior to the events of this short.
- Non-Showa example: The appearance of M78 in the final shot is drawn from Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends.
- As mentioned above, the credits pay homage to the openings of older Ultra shows, especially those of Ultraseven and Ultraman Ace.
- In said credits, the Ultra Key briefly appears, despite having no relevance to the short.
- Named After Their Planet: Planet Jackal, though it isn't mentioned if the species was named after the planet or Jackal named it after himself.
- Narrator: Megumi Hayashibara (who also voices the Mother of Ultra in the short) provides exposition between scenes.
- Pokémon Speak: Jackal!Zetton, as did the original.
- Powered Armor: The Cosmo Protector essentially functions as this by providing its wearer extra defenses and new weapons such as the Andorang and the Andro Laser N75. Additionally, the armor can split off of its wearer to maximize its defense capabilities.
- Shapeshifting: Jackal's deadliest technique is his ability to transform into other kaiju and aliens and replicate their abilities, even taking on Zoffy's form to murder Astra.
- Shoulder Cannon: The Andro Laser N75 canons on the Cosmo Protector's shoulder pads can flip up to shoot electric beams capable of wiping up huge swarms of Jackal's army in a single hit.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Melos's Laser Shot Andro Melos and Zoffy's M87 beam prove effective in wiping out swarms of Jackal's army in a single hit.
