Ultraman Review: The Son of the Original Hero Inherits a Suit He Did Not Ask For and a World That Still Needs Saving

Quick Take

• The son of the original Ultraman gets a powered suit and fights alien threats in a world that still remembers what his father was
• Shimizu and Shimoguchi take the tokusatsu franchise into serious science fiction manga territory — 17 volumes, complete
• A superhero legacy story that respects its source while building something genuinely new

Who Is This Manga For?

• Readers who grew up with Ultraman and want the manga that takes the legacy seriously
• Fans of superhero legacy narratives done as hard science fiction
• Anyone who wants completed sci-fi action manga with clean action choreography
• Readers who enjoy the Netflix anime adaptation and want the source material

Content Warnings & Age Rating

Age Rating: T (Teen) Content Warnings: Action violence, alien threat sequences, some alien designs with body horror elements

Standard T-rated action manga level.

Yu's Rating

Category	Score
Story Depth	★★★★☆
Art Style	★★★★★
Character Development	★★★★☆
Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers	★★★★★
Reread Value	★★★★☆

Story Overview

Decades after Ultraman merged with Shin Hayata to fight the Kaiju, Shin's son Shinjiro discovers he has inherited something — not his father's memories, but his father's strength. Abnormal physical capability that cannot be explained by normal development.

He is recruited into the Science Patrol — now operating as a secret organization — and given the Ultraman suit: a powered armor that channels and amplifies his inherited ability. He becomes the new Ultraman. Not the giant of the original show — a human-scale warrior in armor, fighting alien threats that operate at street level.

The series follows Shinjiro as he learns to fight, learns what the organization he works for actually is, and learns what legacy means when it is not something you chose.

Characters

Shinjiro Hayata — A teenager forced into heroism not by desire but by circumstance and biology; his specific reluctance and eventual commitment is the series' primary character arc.

Shin Hayata — Shinjiro's father, the original; his fractured memories of his time as Ultraman and his relationship with what his son is becoming is the series' most emotionally complex element.

Dan Moroboshi — A veteran member of the organization, another suit user, whose pragmatism and dark method create ongoing tension with Shinjiro's idealism.

Edo — The alien advisor to the Science Patrol; his specific role in the organization's history is a recurring mystery.

Art Style

Shimoguchi's art is among the finest mechanical and character design work in sci-fi manga — the Ultraman suits are designed with genuine industrial logic, looking like actual powered armor rather than stylized costumes. The action sequences are choreographed with clarity across both the suit combat and the hand-to-hand sections. Character expressions are clean and expressive despite the realistic proportions.

Cultural Context

Ultraman is one of Japan's most foundational pop culture properties — the original 1966 tokusatsu show is as significant to Japanese cultural memory as Superman is to American. The manga takes that weight seriously. Shinjiro's inheritance of the Ultraman name carries the specific cultural gravity of a tokusatsu legacy, and the manga uses it honestly rather than simply as branding.

What I Love About It

The suit design. Most manga about powered armor draws it as a costume with line work suggesting metal. Shimoguchi draws the Ultraman armor as something that weighs what armor weighs — the joints, the plating, the way it sits on a body. Shinjiro's movement in the suit feels like movement in actual armor, which is rare enough in any medium that it's worth calling out.

What English-Speaking Fans Say

Western readers cite the Ultraman manga as the tokusatsu adaptation that proved the genre could sustain serious science fiction treatment. The Netflix anime adaptation brought new readers to the manga, and the consistent finding is that the manga's art quality is exceptional. Dan Moroboshi is cited by many fans as the series' best character.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The confrontation between Shinjiro and an alien who argues that the Science Patrol's methods make them as dangerous as the threats they fight — and what Shinjiro does with that argument rather than simply rejecting it — is the series' best single sequence of moral complication.

Similar Manga

• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin — Sci-fi franchise manga done with serious craft
• No Guns Life — Powered humans in a post-conflict world, identity in modification
• My Hero Academia — Superhero legacy, powers as inheritance
• Biomega — Post-civilization sci-fi action, singular protagonist

Reading Order / Where to Start

Volume 1 — Shinjiro's discovery of his ability and recruitment establishes the series clearly.

Official English Translation Status

VIZ Media published the complete 17-volume series. All volumes available.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 17 volumes, complete
• Suit design and action art are exceptional
• Respects the tokusatsu legacy while building new content
• Accessible to readers without Ultraman background

Cons

• Mid-series organization conspiracy elements require tracking
• Some alien villain arcs are more interesting than others
• The resolution of certain plot threads moves quickly in the final volumes

Format Comparison

Format	Notes
Individual Volumes	VIZ Media; standard
Digital	Available

Where to Buy

Get Ultraman Vol. 1 on Amazon →

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