Shin Ultraman

Shin Ultraman (シン・ウルトラマン, Shin Urutoraman) is a 2022 Japanese superhero film directed by Shinji Higuchi and written, co-produced, and co-edited by Hideaki Anno. A reimagining of the 1966 television series Ultraman, the film is a co-production between Toho Studios and Cine Bazar, and presented by Tsuburaya Productions, Toho Co., Ltd., and Khara, Inc. It is the 37th film in the Ultraman franchise, and Anno and Higuchi's second reimagining of a tokusatsu series, following Shin Godzilla (2016) and preceding Shin Kamen Rider (2023). The film stars Takumi Saitoh, Masami Nagasawa, Daiki Arioka, Akari Hayami, Tetsushi Tanaka, and Hidetoshi Nishijima, with Anno and Bin Furuya as Ultraman. In the film, an extraterrestrial accidentally kills a man while battling a kaiju and takes on his appearance and place at the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol to protect Earth from further threats.

In the summer of 2017, Anno was tasked with writing a proposal for a trilogy of Ultraman productions by Takayuki Tsukagoshi, the future chairman of Tsuburaya Productions. A year after completing the plan for the trilogy on January 17, 2018, Anno wrote the first draft of Shin Ultraman's screenplay on February 5, 2019. However, his participation in the film had to be deferred until the completion of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021). Tsuburaya officially announced the film had begun production on August 1, 2019. Principal photography took place during late 2019 in Ibaraki Prefecture, Hiratsuka and Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kōfu and Minobu in Yamanashi Prefecture, and Ichihara in Chiba Prefecture, and wrapped in November. Post-production was decelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in editing taking roughly two-and-a-half years.

After being delayed from an early summer 2021 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shin Ultraman was distributed in Japan on May 13, 2022. The film grossed $34.4 million worldwide and was the sixth highest-grossing Japanese film of 2022, making it the most commercially successful Ultraman film in the franchise. It was theatrically released in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland in January 2023. The film received mostly critical acclaim, with praise for its ambition, direction, characters, editing, cinematography, visual effects, musical score, and action sequences, but some criticism towards its screenplay due to its structure and perceived lack of themes. It received eight nominations at the 46th Japan Academy Film Prize, including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year and won three.