Ultraman: Rising Plot Summary
Based on the Japanese Kaiju (Japanese giant monsters) IP, the Ultra Series, Ultraman: Rising is Netflix’s latest venture into the sci-fi franchise. The animated movie was released in June 2024 and is helmed by Shannon Tindle who is known for animated projects like Coraline, The Croods and Kubo.
Ultraman: Rising follows baseball star Kenji Sato who also moonlights as the vigilante, Ultraman thanks to his superhero genes. While Japan has its Kaiju Defence Force who are hellbent on eradicating all Kaiju, Sato’s dad, the estranged Professor Sato believes in protecting the Kaiju. It doesn’t help that when Kenji destroys a Gigantron, her infant ends up imprinting with him and believes he is her father.
Of course, Emi, the baby Kaiju is special, she can echo-locate Kaiju Island, home to all Kaiju. This puts a target on her head as KDF’s chief, Onda hopes to use her to destroy all Kaiju once and for all. And in between all this, Kenji just wants to focus on his baseball but is forced to play a superhero and a dad at the same time.
What happened to Kenji’s mother?
At the beginning of the movie, Kenji’s mother, Emiko is a very active and present mom who loves her son. She ends up moving to USA with Kenji while Professor Sato chooses to stay back and fight Kaiju. But as Kenji grows older, he is focused on his career while she goes back to researching Kaiju alone.
Over time, her messages to him get sparse. In her last message, she tells him she misses him and will see him soon. She goes missing after that and is presumed dead. Professor Sato looks everywhere for her but never finds her. But in the post-credits scene, Kenji gets a call from her. She says she is alive and she needs his help coming home. Her location is Nebula M78, the home planet of Ultra species.
How is Kenji separated from Emi?
The KDF find Kenji, Sato and Emi at the Satos’ country home and attack. While our heroes regroup in the city, the KDF are successful with Project Surrogate. They partially resurrect Gigantron and make her a cyborg puppet. Having tracked Emi to Kenji’s home, Gigantron calls out to Emi. Once the baby Kaiju rushes towards her, the KDF bombs Kenji’s place to stop him from rescuing her.
How is Onda stopped?
The KDF has the mech-Gigantron using Emi to find Kaiju Island. However, Kenji tracks her and tries to stop Gigantron. His dad also shows up in his Ultraman avatar and both Satos take on the mech-Kaiju together. Emi is distraught from seeing her mother attack Kenji and she uses sonic sound to call out to her. Gigantron comes back to her senses and overrides the KDF’s protocols.
With KDF chief, Onda seeing that he is fighting a losing battle, he tells his men to escape. He shows up in a mech suit and tries to take on our heroes but he is outnumbered. His shield breaks and his mech suit is damaged. He initiates self-destruction to take out everyone. Turns out, he also has a grudge against Sato since he was on duty when Onda’s family was killed by Kaiju.
But Kenji reaches Onda in time. He puts a shield over him and Onda when the mech suit explodes, killing the KDF chief. Kenji survives albeit with a broken arm. In a montage, we see him getting back on his game, and taking a trip to Kaiju Island with his dad, Emi and Gigantron.
Read More: Ultraman: Rising Movie Review