Ultraman is one of the most iconic fictional characters ever created in Japan – but until now the kaiju-fighting superhero was never hugely known to Western audiences. But with the release of new animated film Ultraman: Rising on Netflix this week, director Shannon Tindle and co-director John Aoshima are hopeful that that's about to change. Ahead of the new film's launch, the pair – whose previous credits include working on Kubo and the Two Strings – spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.
com about making a film that would work both for long-term fans of the franchise and those having their first exposure to the character. "I mean, we're talking about a character with a multi-generational legacy," Aoshima explained. "And we're big fans too.
But we also knew that it would take a lot to kind of establish that world, like, to the point where it's going to serve all the fans. "But that wasn't the goal of this film: the goal was to tell the beautiful story that Shannon had written and to support it and to..
. well, basically, we wanted people to come in not having to know anything about Ultraman, just the way we discovered Ultraman as kids." Tindle added: "Yeah, when you're a kid, you don't start at episode 1.
You just turn it on and it can be episode 8, episode 10, episode 12 – I don't have an origin story for this but it doesn't matter, because I'm engaged by the imagery and I get to know the character. "So we wanted to echo that experience, too – that joy before you get so ob.
