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The physical media release of Hideaki Anno’s Shin Ultraman “reboot” film is coming in the spring of 2023. An post on the film’s official account announced that the Blu-ray (BD) and DVD edition of Shin Ultraman will arrive on shelves in Japan on April 12, 2023. The movie first debuted in Japan on May 13, 2022. It premieres in US theaters in January 2023.
The Shin Ultraman BD and DVD release comes in several variants:
- Standard 2-disc set (BD/DVD) – 4,180-5,280 Yen (about $32-$40 USD)
- Blu-ray Special Edition 3-disc set – 7,480 Yen (about $57 USD)
- Blu-ray Special Edition 4K UHD Blu-ray 4-disc set* – 9,680 Yen (about $73 USD)
*The fourth disc is a 4K UHD Blu-ray of the film, but the content is otherwise the same as the 3-disc set.
In all packages, the second Shin Ultraman BD or DVD contains approximately 100 minutes of bonus footage. The footage consists of:
- A 3-part special report
- Promotional clips
- Commercials and trailers
- Mefilas clip collection
- Zarab clip connection
- Zoffy and Zetton clip collection
- Music video of Kenshi Yonezu singing the Shin Ultraman theme song
- Footage from the red carpet premiere
- A special “The Birth of Shin Ultraman” featurette
- Footage from press events and stage presentations
Additionally, all packages come with a serial code redeemable on the Tsuburaya Imagination service. The code unlocks limited access to archived Ultraman episodes featuring kaiju and aliens from the film, like Neronga, Gabora, Zarab, Mefilas, and Zetton.
The 3-disc and 4-disc Shin Ultraman BD sets have a second bonus footage disc containing even more featurettes:
- The Making of the Film ~The Space Between~
- CG modeling feature
- VFX Breakdown
- Shin Ultra Fight (all episodes)
Of particular note is Shin Ultra Fight, as it is a Tsuburaya Imagination-exclusive mini-series. Spinning off from the film, Shin Ultra Fight was organized by the Shin Ultraman staff, including Hideaki Anno. It’s 1970 Tsuburaya series Ultra Fight, which was conceived as a “zero cost” program made to cater to folks who just want to see fight scenes. Similar to modern fan-made “battle edit” videos that pit two characters against each other by mashing up their fight footage, Ultra Fight used edits of existing footage and minimal-budget shoots using existing costumes to create new, low-cost content. Shin Ultra Fight does similar things with the heavy CG used for Shin Ultraman by using uncorrected motion-capture data, placeholder textures, and even recycled digital assets to get that “budget production look” down deliberately.
The Blu-ray and DVD versions of Shin Ultraman arrive in Japan on April 12, 2023. International release plans have not yet been announced.
