Film / Ultraman Story

Spoilers for the Land of Light continuity of the Ultra Series preceding this one, including Ultraman 80 may be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Ultraman Story is a 1984 film produced by Tsuburaya Productions as part of their ever-popular Ultra Series. This film is one of the more notable pieces of output for the franchise during the fifteen year hiatus period between Ultraman 80 and Ultraman Tiga in which there were no new Ultraman series being produced for television. It is primarily considered an Ultraman Taro movie, even though that series had already ended a decade ago, although its exact placement in Ultra Series canon is hard to say.

The film centers around Ultraman Taro growing up in the Land of Light in Nebula M78 under the guidance of his parents, the Father and Mother of Ultra. The young Taro dreams of joining the Ultra Brothers (Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, and Ultraman Ace) as one of their members when he grows up^note Although this contradicts events in his own series, in which he is only slightly younger than them as opposed to still a child when they are already adults. But as he gets older, he finds that the Father of Ultra believes he is too inexperienced to enter any battles with the Ultra Brothers and instead put him through a great deal of training.

But at the same time, an old enemy of the Father of Ultra named Juda has returned after a 50 000 year absence and is sending out many of the Ultra Brothers' most infamous enemies to defeat them. Eventually, he unleashes an incredibly powerful robot named Grand King and sends it to the Land of Light to destroy the Ultras on their homeworld. As the Ultra Brothers face one of their most powerful enemies yet, Ultraman Taro will find the opportunity to prove himself worthy of being a member of the Ultra Brothers.

The film used a rather large amount of Stock Footage, primarily for the fighting and training scenes, but a great deal of new footage was shot for the new monsters and scenes involving the Ultras and Nebula M78. It was primarily shown at children's film festivals alongside the Choudenshi Bioman movie. And while the film itself has since faded into one of the more obscure pieces of Ultra Series history, its main villains, Juda and Grand King, have become recurring foes of the Ultra heroes. Juda also appeared as the Big Bad of a spin-off called Andro Melos, which introduced his siblings Mold and Gina, who would subsequently reappear in a three-part story in Ultraman X^note For convenience's sake, Juda and Grand King are primarily described on the Ultraman Taro Character Page, while Gina and Mold are described on that of Ultraman X.

For the series' Character Sheet, visit that of Ultraman Taro.

Ultraman Story contains examples of:

• Adaptational Wimp: The original series' battle between Ultraman and Antlar has the monster being depicted as tough enough to survive a Specium Ray to the chest and continue fighting, necessitating the SSP to use the Blue Stone of Barajj — said to be the only item capable of defeating Antlar — as a missile to assist Ultraman. But thanks to compressing the entire fight into a single minute, it's implied right here that Antlar is felled by the Specium Ray, with Ultraman defeating said monster without needing assistance from the humans.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: In some dubs, Eleking II is stated as being revived by Alien Mefilas II. The original series they were both acting independently without any affiliations.
• All Your Powers Combined: In the final battle against Grand King, the Ultra Brothers transfer their combined powers to Taro, granting him the strength to defeat the kaiju.
• Big Bad: Juda, with his monster Grand King acting as the one the Ultra Brothers have to fight.
• Continuity Snarl: Despite it appearing to be canon with the reappearance Juda and Grand King in later shows, when you stop to think about it continuity doesn't a line right. This is most notably with 80 and Leo's appearance, and showing archival footage of there fights despite it being billed as a prequel to Taro.
• Chekhov's Skill: The final step of Taro's training with Father of Ultra involves learning how to absorb energy through his Ultra Horns. Take a guess as to how he achieves his Super Mode in the final battle.
• Stock Footage: Lots of it.
  • The following fight scenes are recycled from Showa series.
    • From Ultraman: Antlar, Alien Mefilas
    • From Ultraseven: Alien Borg
    • From Return of Ultraman: Gudon and Twin Tail
    • From Ultraman Ace: Zemistar and Alien Hipporito
    • From Ultraman Taro: Enmargo, the second Alien Mefilas, the resurrected Eleking, and Tyrant
    • From Ultraman 80: Alien Baltan (first appearance).
  • Additionally, Ultraman Taro watches several minutes of stock footage as part of some training videos.
    • From Ultraseven: The battle between Miclas and Eleking, and Alien Icarus
    • From Return of Ultraman: Takkong's reappearance and Kingsaurus III
    • From Ultraman Ace: Yapool
    • From Ultraman Leo: Silver Bloome. Also Leo's only appearance in the film.
    • From Ultraman 80: Red King
• Super Mode: Taro gains one called Super Ultraman Taro to defeat Grand King.
• Theme Music Power-Up: When Taro achieves the above-mentioned Super Mode, the theme song from his show begins playing in the background as he defeats Grand King.
• You Are Not Ready: The Father of Ultra's primary reason for why Taro doesn't initially join the other Ultra Brothers, telling him he still has much to learn over the course of his training. This causes no shortage of frustration for the eager and impatient Taro.