The Ultra Series (Japanese: ウルトラシリーズ, Hepburn: Urutora Shirīzu), also known as Ultraman, is a Japanese science fiction media franchise owned by Tsuburaya Productions, which began with the television series Ultra Q in 1966 and became an international pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into many television shows, films, comic books, and other media publications, becoming one of the most prominent productions in the Japanese tokusatsu and kaiju genres and pioneering the Kyodai Hero subgenre. The Ultraman series is centered on a fictional alien race of superheroes who often combat kaiju or other aliens.
In Japan, the Ultraman brand generated $7.4 billion US dollars in merchandising revenue from 1966 to 1987.[6][7] This makes it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Ultraman was the world's third top-selling licensed character in the 1980s, largely due to his popularity in Asia.[8] References to Ultraman are abundant in Japanese popular culture, much like references to Superman in Western culture.[6]
