Warning: This article WILL contain spoilers and discuss the movie's plot.
If you're in the mood for a feel-good, action/sci-fi superhero movie that delves into complicated family trauma while the main character discovers their true purpose, Ultraman: Rising is the perfect choice. Ultraman: Rising provides a glimpse into Ken Sato's life, played by Christopher Sean, as a famous baseball player who reluctantly returned to his hometown to continue his family tradition of taking on the role becoming the superhero Ultraman. Critics like Polygon expressed that, “Ultraman: Rising offers much more than the average animated kids’ film: It rises to stand as not only one of the best Ultraman stories in recent memory but arguably one of this year’s best-animated movies.”
Ultraman is a Japanese superhero who came from space, and whose mission is to maintain world peace. The Ultraman franchise, created by Eiji Tsuburaya, began in Japan with the release of the TV show series Ultra Q (1990). The highly popular series Ultra Q introduced pilots and reporters who were studying supernatural events and monster attacks that occurred in Japan.
While Ultraman was not shown throughout the series, the show set the stage for the Ultraman universe and introduced the aliens and monsters that Ultraman would encounter throughout the comics. Ultraman originally came to Earth to defeat an alien villain named Bemular, but ended up killing, and bonding with, a well-known civilian in the process of defeating the monster.
Summary
Ken Sato, a famous baseball player, was convinced by his late mother to move back to Japan and to accept the family tradition of becoming Ultraman. As a child, Ken had watched his father's dangerous role as Ultraman tear up his family. His dad, being the current Ultraman, had to fight Kaijus, who were dangerous monsters that wanted to destroy Japan.
This which continuously put their family in danger and made them constant targets. His mom was concerned for Ken's well-being and decided to move them to Los Angeles, while his dad stayed in Japan.
The movie begins with 26-year-old Ken cockily answering questions at a press conference about his baseball stats. He is caught off guard by a reporter named Ami Wakita who asks him if his seemingly rash move to Japan was influenced by the emotional stress and grief surrounding the loss of his mother. He abruptly leaves the press conference when he gets an alert that a monster is attacking people in the streets of Japan. During the battle, he gets injured and fails to defeat the monster, which allows government officials to take over and capture it for him.
Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash
He starts to head home but then remembers that he agreed to meet with the reporter from earlier for a follow-up interview. During the interview, they start to develop a bond as Ken allows himself to confide in someone about some of his life struggles.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Dr. Onda, the bitter Chief Officer of the Japan Defense Organization who lost his family to a Kaiju attack, starts to build a massive robot that will mimic a mother Kaiju. He does this so he can try to lure other baby Kaijus from their island, so he can kill them once and for all.
While recovering from his injury, Ken is reminded of his baseball responsibilities and participates in his opening comeback baseball game in Japan. He scores multiple home runs when his game is interrupted by a Kaiju appearance. Ken finds out that Kaiju is already angry because she was trying to retrieve the baby egg that the government took from her.
The government ends up killing the mother Kaiju, and the baby egg hatches. Ken feels compelled to take care of the baby Kaiju named Emi because he realizes that the government isn't as innocent as it tries to appear.
Photo by Jase Bloor on Unsplash
In the following weeks, Ken faces the toughest challenge of his life: balancing his baseball career with newfound parenthood. Ken almost reaches his breaking point because of all this stress, and he confides in his new friend Ami and asks her for parental advice because, in their previous interview, she mentioned she is a mother to a toddler boy.
Ken starts to get the hang of being a parent and feels comfortable not constantly being around his baby Kaiju all the time. He decides to go meet up with Ami for another interview when he is alerted that his baby Kaiju is injured. He races back home and realizes that he needs to get over his ego for the well-being of Emi, and contact his dad because he would know how to help his baby.
Photo by Tianshu Liu on Unsplash
Ken and his father heal Emi and try to figure out a way to take her back to her home island, so she can be with her people who are of the same species as her. Working together and deciding how to raise Emi allowed Ken and his father Hayao to bond and try to mend their broken relationship. They talk about Ken's childhood, and Hayao apologizes for his role in how their relationship got to where it is today.
The Ending
Dr. Onda sends bombs and drones to attack Ken and to try to kill Emi. Hayao ends up injured and knocked unconscious, while Emi retreats into her shell.
Emi comes out of her shell and sees a figure that looks like her mom in the distance. She goes up to her mom, and Ken realizes that the body of her mom is being controlled by Dr. Onda. Ken gets into his Ultraman suit and fights and kills Dr. Onda with the help of his dad, who woke up from his coma.
Photo by Tom Vining on Unsplash
Ken and Hayao take Emi back to her home island, and Ken continues his successful baseball career. He has a final interview with Ami about his seemingly new shift in personality, and finally opens up about his mother and how his grief impacted and inspired him to be better.
Review
I liked this movie. Like most people, I saw snippets of this movie trending and being edited on TikTok, which piqued my curiosity, and I was not disappointed. This movie has something for everyone, no matter what their tastes are. There are elements of romance, action, family bonding, and the journey of adjusting to parenthood, which make this enjoyable to watch.
I also loved how unpredictable this movie was. Most movies have a similar formula, and you can kind of predict what is going to happen, but this movie was different. I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't expect that Ken would take on the role of becoming Emi's dad. I also enjoyed seeing Ken's character change from being a cocky, hurt person to a superhero who adapted to being a parent.
Photo by I definitely would recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for something cute and action-packed to watch. I loved seeing the bond between Ken and his father start to mend as he stumbled through the early stages of trying to be a father. I would, without a doubt, give this movie a 10 out of 10.
Rated PG. Total time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Available on Netflix.
