If you saw Ultraman: Rising on Netflix last weekend — and if you didn’t, what are you doing HERE, go WATCH it — you were introduced to Emi, the adorable lil’ baby Kaiju that imprints on and is subsequently raised by Ken Sato, AKA Ultraman. While Ken is rightfully lauded for being The Dad That Stepped Up, we’d like to make clear that taking care of a baby Kaiju is not that strange a phenomenon to the endlessly kind Ultras and their various hopes. We talked a few weeks back about Hiroyuki Kudo of Ultraman Taiga and his childhood friend, the baby Guesra Chibisuke, but this week we’d like to go much further back in time. All the way back, in fact, to the 80s!
Well, 80.
When you check out Ultraman 80, you get introduced to Takeshi Yamato, schoolteacher, operative of the defense team UGM, and human alter-ego of the mighty Ultraman 80! Yamato’s belief in the dangers of “Minus Energy” and its ability to make monsters more dangerous and even create new threats compelled him to try a more proactively educational and humanistic approach to his time on Earth — even when it came to the Kaiju!
When the Kaiju Zandrias came to Earth within a meteorite, it was regarded as a threat, and chased around by UGM and Yamato. A winged monster with a loud cry and a tough hide, the creature seemed to be something the forces of humanity were simply unprepared to deal with.
And then its mother showed up!
Just like Gigantron and Emi, the Zandrias we had been following had family — a mother, in fact, as Gigantron was to everyone’s favorite pink cutie-pie. Admittedly, the mother Zandrias seemed to be a less… patient parent with her child than the pair we saw in Rising, with the aggressive mother knocking around her child in the process of trying to teach it to fly!
Just like in Rising, it was up to Ultraman to reconnect those bonds of family between the two Kaiju — only, 80 did it by getting double-teamed and knocked around! Once 80 was on his back, the sense of accomplishment helped reconnect the monster family, and the two of them flew back into space, together.
Sure, Zandrias wasn’t quite the friendly fellow that Emi was, but its existence is a piece of the legendary tapestry of the Ultraman Series that led to the smash-hit movie!
Are there any other Ultraman characters that you think of when you watch Rising? Contact us on our Twitter and tell us about it! And for more Rising and general Ultraman Series information, stay close to Ultraman Connection!
