Shin Ultraman

Shin Ultraman follows the Japanese government's response to a wave of giant unidentified creatures appearing across the country. Conventional weapons prove useless, so the authorities establish a special unit, the SSSP, whose members include strategist Shinji Kaminaga and analyst Hiroko Asami. When a space monster attacks, a giant silver humanoid arrives and defeats it. The being, given the provisional name Ultraman, appears whenever such threats emerge, and a bond forms between it and Kaminaga, who takes on the role of defending Earth.

Directed by Shinji Higuchi, this 2022 film is his seventh feature and sits between Shin Godzilla and Bullet Train Explosion in his filmography. Hideaki Anno wrote the screenplay, and the production was handled by TOHO Studios, TOHO, khara and Cine Bazar. Takumi Saitoh plays Kaminaga, with Masami Nagasawa as Asami, Hidetoshi Nishijima as unit leader Kimio Tamura, Daiki Arioka as Akihisa Taki, Akari Hayami as Yumi Funaberi and Tetsushi Tanaka as Tatsuhiko Munakata among a credited cast of 21.

Made for about 6 million USD, the film took roughly 34 million USD worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 6.3 out of 10 from around 4,900 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.5 out of 10 from 256 votes. A critics' rating of 7.6 out of 10 from 31 reviews places it above the IMDb audience figure and close to the TMDB score.