Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Ultraman: The Birth of Ultraman Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 4, 2020

This is the first 'Ultraman' compilation disc from Mill Creek. It includes seven episodes from the original 1966-1967 'Ultraman' series, which was released in its entirety to Blu-ray on October 15, 2019. The episode Blu-ray presentations are identical to the previously issued set with the exception of newly included English dub audio, which has been reviewed below. The disc also contains the original "Birth of Ultraman" program that aired ahead of the mainline series, serving as a bridge between 'UltraQ' and 'Ultraman.' No special features are included but this release does bundle in a small booklet. Note that at time of publication this disc is exclusive to DeepDiscount.com.

Birth of Ultraman (26:00) is the prize in this package. It's a fun little diversion with monsters and music and plenty of audience interaction. It is not to scale, certainly, and it lacks anything resembling the production values from the show it precedes. However, it accomplishes its job of introducing the show with a live performance of the theme song followed by additional music and a crude story that brings monsters, the SSSP, and of course Ultraman onto the stage. Chaos erupts on stage as the Kaiju attack. The SSSP emerges from the audience and Ultraman from backstage in as grand an entrance as the production can muster. It's charming and a fun bit of franchise history that is well worth making part of any Ultraman home video collection.

Please click here for a review of the series from which the included 'Ultraman' episodes originate.

The following Ultraman episodes are included in this collection:

• Ultra Operation No. 1
• Shoot the Invader
• Demons Rise Again
• The Monster Highness Pt. 1
• The Monster Highness Pt. 2
• The Forbidden Words
• A Little Hero

Ultraman: The Birth of Ultraman Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note that all screenshots within this review are sourced form 'Birth of Ultraman.' For screenshots reflective of the quality of the 'Ultraman' episodes contained herein, please click here.

The video content of the seven Ultraman episodes is identical to that found on the 2019 series release despite some variance in average bitrate. Please click here for a full video review.

Birth of Ultraman presents at 480i at a 4x3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio preserving the original broadcast parameters. Compression issues abound, pops and scratches and lingering vertical lines are commonplace, and overall clarity is very poor. The black-and-white spectrum reveals pale blacks and a troubled grayscale. There's no tonal finesse, and the low resolution and a failing source don't help, either. It's certainly watchable but Blu-ray audiences should expect little in terms of overall presentation excellence.

Ultraman: The Birth of Ultraman Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mill Creek brings the original series' seven episodes to Blu-ray with a Japanese language soundtrack which is identical to that found on the original Blu-ray release. The English dub is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless audio. Interestingly, there are some differences beyond language. Most of the effects sound radically different. The English version is much more shallow, the music in particular sounding far more compressed. Listen to the scene in episode one at the three-minute mark when an orb lands in water. There is far more detail and spacial engagement in the Japanese track. The jet that flies through a few moments later and crashes does so with much more expansive feelings for movement in Japanese, whereas the effects are crammed and condensed in English. Listen to the opening theme music. In Japanese, clarity is quite good and spacing is excellent; lyrics and music spread easily to the edges. In English, it's pushed right up the middle, the range is severely limited, and the overall effect is quite poor. Dialogue is intelligible but hardly realistic. The differences in all areas are night and day. These observations hold through sampling both languages (users can easily toggle between them in-episode using the remote's audio button) across all of the included episodes. For a review of the Japanese language audio selection, please click here. The average bitrates between what's here and there differ, but there appear to be no major discernible differences with the ear test.

For Birth of Ultraman, Mill Creek's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack is understandably limited in dynamics and clarity but it plays relatively well all things considered. It's nice and spacious with wide front end stretch. The upside is that music finds good extension; the downside is that lyrics and dialogue sometimes venture out beyond a center imaged position. Often, though, dialogue and lyrics find a fairly grounded place in the middle. Everything is very scratchy and an underlying hiss accompanies. Clarity is severely limited within all components. Crowd ambience, from light chatter to dense applause, does image more towards the middle rather than out to the sides. It's all very uneven but it's certainly serviceable as-is.

Ultraman: The Birth of Ultraman Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Birth of Ultraman Collection contains no supplemental content but it does feature a small, stapled booklet that includes much the same content found in the larger booklet included with the six-disc Ultraman release. There are just one or two changes to existing text and this booklet includes a few additional words on Birth of Ultraman. It carries over much of the introductory content, the hero profile, and episode summaries for those included in this set, reusing both text and accompanying stills. No DVD is included but Mill Creek has bundled in a MovieSpree digital copy voucher. The release also ships with a slipcover. The Blu-ray artwork does include an inner print.

Ultraman: The Birth of Ultraman Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is some good stuff here -- the English dubs for those who might want to enjoy the show outside of its language barriers and the original bridge episode is a delight to have, even if it's only in standard definition -- but there's a unmistakable feeling that the release is fairly superfluous. Mill Creek could have easily included the additional language track and Birth of Ultraman both with the original Ultraman release. That said, compilation and companion releases are nothing new in the home video world -- Star Trek has it down to a science -- so it's not at all an unprecedented practice. Certainly Birth of Ultraman is the highlight; everything else is proverbial icing, and even with the ragged state of its picture and sound quality it's well worth owning as part of any Ultraman home video library. Recommended.