Ultraman Mebius

Ultraman Mebius (ウルトラマンメビウス, Urutoraman Mebiusu) is a Japanese television series produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting. It is the 17th TV series and 40th anniversary production in the Ultra Series, which first began in 1966. It premiered on the Tokyo Broadcasting System on April 8, 2006. Unlike the two prior entries, Ultraman Nexus (2004) and Ultraman Max (2005), Mebius was moved from Saturday mornings to Saturday evenings at 05:30 and the show going to air in Korea in April 2012 ,. On October 22, 2014 Crunchyroll announced that the entire series would be available that day on their streaming service for the US, Canada, Latin America, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

The series opens with the introduction of the rookie Ultraman Mebius, who is sent to Earth by the Father of Ultra. The series is set 40 years after the shows of Ultraman (1966), and makes many references from Ultra Q (1966) through to Ultraman 80 (1980). "Mebius" is the Japanese approximation of Möbius; the Möbius strip is a recurring motif in the series.

Ultraman

Ultraman (ウルトラマン, Urutoraman) is a Japanese Tokusatsu television series that first aired in 1966. Ultraman is a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q, though not technically a sequel or spin-off. The show was produced by the Tsuburaya Productions, and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) from July 17, 1966 to April 9, 1967, with a total of 39 episodes (40, counting the pre-premiere special that aired on July 10, 1966).

Although Ultraman is the first series to feature an Ultra-Crusader, it is actually the second show in the Ultra Series. Ultra Q was the first. In fact, Ultraman opens with the Ultra Q logo exploding into the Ultraman logo. Ultraman became a major pop culture phenomenon in Japan, spawning dozens of sequels, spin-offs, imitators, parodies and remakes.

Series background

Ultraman's central characters were created by Eiji Tsuburaya from Tsuburaya Productions, a pioneer in special effects who was responsible for bringing Godzilla to life in 1954. The show's predecessor was a series called Ultra Q, a black-and-white 28-episode series very much like the original Outer Limits.