At the very start of this trip, we noticed a poster advertising this:
It’s an Ultraman live show. Specifically an Ultraman Blazar – the current series – show featuring the actors from the TV series. I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned it on this blog but I’m a big fan of Ultraman so it was absolutely essential we attended.
What followed was a frenzy of translating and web searching and then use of a ‘Loppi’ machine (yes, what our cat was named after) to successfully buy tickets. Those tickets were kept very safe for two weeks until today, the day of the show!
It was at the Prism hall at Tokyo dome, right next to where we saw the wrestling show. The entire place was dressed with Ultraman posters and line management was in full effect when we arrived. Notably, we were far from the only people in line without children: it was very obvious that Ultra-fandom has no age limits!
There was a small ‘expo’ inside before we sat, including large dioramas showing various kaiju that presumably appeared in the series (I haven’t watched Blazar yet). People of all ages were very excited and I even saw a bunch of school/college girls taking photos in front of standees doing classic Ultraman poses.
There was a massive statue of this guy that will presumably appear in the upcoming Netflix film.
And a nice display of all the Ultraman model kits available so far (almost all of which I have).
We had great seats! The stage was set up with two extensions that went into the audience so virtually all seats were good, but ours were in the front row of one of the side stages! Photos were forbidden during the show, so I don’t have any photos of the main action itself but I can assure you it was amazing.
One nice feature was the optional ‘colour timer’ which is a staple of all Ultramen and shows their power level. Sold for an additional ¥2500 (a pittance for an Ultra-fan), these could be worn and responsed to the action on the stage! Usually blue, they flashed red when Ultraman was low on power and orange when he powered up. It was clever technology and very cool.
The show opened with a tribute to the original Ultraman, with him on stage defeating a kaiju with his Spacium Beam. This was quite moving to an old guy like me that has developed a strong affinity with the Showa-era series and there may have even been a salty twinkle in my eye. Then we switched to Hesei-era Ultras, and right in front of us Ultraman Zero defeated Ultraman Belial while other pairs fought at other locations on the wide stage.
The main story was about Ultraman Blazar defeating a threat from Alien Barossa and very heavily featured the original actors from the show playing their characters. I found this fascinating: imagine going to see a Star Wars show and seeing Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford, or a Marvel show and seeing Chris Hemsworth!?! Kudos to Tsuburaya for making Ultraman so accessible to the fans!
Kristin was particularly intrigued by the actor who plays the role of Ultraman Blazar’s host. That’s him pictured above, and not only was he extremely handsome but he had a powerful speaking voice and commanding stage presence! He’s a lot older than the Ultra hosts of recent years, and I look forward to how that will contribute to the series.
The bulk of the show was the action, and the fights between Blazar and the many villains were very entertaining. The kaiju were large and impressive; one of them was absolutely enormous and at first I thought there were two people in the suit. Beam and special attacks were represented via lighting and smoke and effects on a massive screen behind the actors. There was a lot of interaction with our colour timers and the music and comments from the actors kept the audience enthused throughout.
I loved it! I was mesmerized and could have sat there and watched for hours. But the best was yet to come, and didn’t occur until after ‘The End’ was on the screen.
This was when 18 Ultramen appeared on stage (see the above pic). They did a fantastic routine where they fought various villains, then they walked around and we were allowed to take photos. That’s Victory, Z, Blu, Grigio and a few others in the above pick, and as you can see Victory was directly in front of us!
Even better, before the Ultras left the hall, they left the stage and walked among the audience so the children (and not so children) could see them up close and get a fist bump. We were visited by Victory and Blu. It was pretty great 🙂
The above is the gigantic ‘towel’ I bought in the gift shop afterwards, a lovely memento of the experience.
It’s been a dream of mine for many years to be able to see a live Ultraman show and I’m so happy that not only was I able to realize it today, but that it exceeded my expectations. This is a memory that will last me for ever 🙂
