It’s hard to imagine Japanese pop culture without Ultraman. This week, Tsuburaya Productions and NTT DoCoMo started a digital streaming service dedicated to all things Ultraman.
The service, called TSUBURAYA IMAGINATION, was created to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the pioneering tokusatsu franchise. It will feature the classic Ultra Series TV shows and movies: Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Orb, Ultraman Geed, Ultraman Z, etc. and also include new and original recent Ultra series, such as Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy (2020).
Sevengar Fight, a robot spin-off of Ultraman Z, is only available exclusively on TSUBURAYA IMAGINATION.
In addition to the video content, the service will also include novels, articles, and comics, such as the Japanese version of Marvel’s The Rise of Ultraman.
The service will also include online events, limited product sales, and advance ticket sales for certain events. Some of these things will only be available to premium subscribers.
There will be three levels of service: standard for 500 yen a month, premium for 19800 yen annually, and a free trial with limited access. Among other things, the premium level will include episodes of series not available at the standard level, including Mighty Jack, and Mirrorman.
Although the franchise has evolved over the years, it all started in 1966 with a black-and-white TV kaiju show called …. Ultra Q. (I’ll bet you were expecting something else, right?) Although the show didn’t feature a giant alien superhero named Ultraman, it’s still considered part of the Ultra Series. The original Ultraman actually began a couple of weeks after Ultra Q.
The TSUBARAYA IMAGINATION service began on Wednesday at imagination.m-78.jp.