Ultra Q:
The Complete Series
review by Bobby Blakey
Ever since I was a kid I have loved all things Kaiju. Like most I sat around the TV watching Godzilla and all the other monsters do battle a destroy cities bringing a smile to my face. When I discovered the world of Ultraman this changed everything. I still loved the monsters, but now there was a superhero element to it and could not get enough of it. Throughout the years there were varying Ultraman series including new ones coming still today. Now Mill Creek Entertainment is bringing home the one that started it all Ultra Q: The Complete Series to Blu-ray.
Ultra Q follows Mainichi Shimpo, photojournalist Yuriko Edogawa, Hoshikawa Airlines pilot/SF writer Jun Manjome and his co-pilot Ippei Togawa, who partnered to investigate mysterious events occurring in and around Japan. These phenomena often involved aliens and giant monsters, many of whom would return in future Ultraman shows and movies. As much as I loved all things Ulltraman I can say I had never seen this first outing in the franchise. While the show works and is pretty fun to watch knowing where the future of the series went it made it a bit harder to get into.
For those that have never see it, the show still offers up plenty of fun
monsters with a lot of them recycled from the Toho films complete with a Godzilla suit reused with added teeth and other things to make it a new creature. This comes as little surprise since the Tsuburaya Production company behind the show was special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya who co-created iconic monsters including Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra. This series was the first under his new company and fully captures the essence of those previous movies and characters and at the time was no doubt a ton of fun.
Throughout the 28 episodes fans get their fill of over the top monsters destroying cities making it a must have for fans of the genre. They have a band of people fighting against them, but the lack of Ultraman’s creation at this point left me a bit let down. This is no slight to the show as Tsuburaya hadn’t created him yet, but more of my own want of something big to throw down with these fun titans.
This collection brings together all the black and white glory of this show that paved the way to Tsuburaya Productions first color series Ultraman and is a must have for fans wanting to bring the full history of this show home. Grab your copy of Ultra Q: The Complete Series available now from Mill Creek Entertainment.
In addition to this series they have also already released the complete series of Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Return of Ultraman, Ultraman: Orb, and Ultraman: Geed available now and more to come throughout 2020.