Ультра Кью: Жапон телесериалының тарихы

Japanese television series

Ultra Q (ウルトラQ) is a 1966 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju television series created by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced by Tsuburaya Productions, it is the first entry in the long running Ultraman franchise (despite not featuring Ultraman) and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) from January 2 to July 3, 1966 (the final episode was preempted until December 14, 1967), with a total of 28 episodes. This series was followed two weeks later by the more popular Ultraman (1966), the second entry in the franchise. Ultra Q can be described as a half hour Toho kaiju series. Executive producer Eiji Tsuburaya intended this series to be more like the American television series The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, featuring a variety of strange and unusual stories. After a survey, the TBS network convinced Tsuburaya Productions to add more giant monsters, as children were intensely interested in them, since Godzilla (Gojira) and Gamera were all the rage at the time (the first "Kaiju Boom" took off after Ultra Q became an enormous hit). Much like The X Files, the series features continuing characters who investigate strange supernatural phenomena, including giant monsters, aliens, ghosts, and various other threats. The originally planned title of this project was Unbalance, and was subsequently renamed Ultra Q mostly due to the word "Ultra" gaining popularity due to the Japanese gymnast Gold Medal recipient in the 1964 Summer Olympics using a technique named "Ultra C". The "Q" stands for "Question" and is also tied with another hit TBS series, Obake no Q tarō, an animated series based on the manga by Fujiko Fujio.

In the years following the show's original run, a live action film called Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars was released in 1990. In 2004, a new series called Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy was produced, while another series called Neo Ultra Q began airing in early 2013.

The original concept of the show (when it was going to be called Unbalance) was ultimately used for a 13 episode horror anthology series entitled Horror Theater Unbalance that was produced by Tsuburaya Productions in 1973. In 2018, Tsuburaya released four episodes in individual Blu ray and DVD sets with newly produced special features, as part of their Ultraman Archives project. In November 2019, Tsuburaya released a 4K restoration of the series on Ultra HD Blu ray.

In August 2013, Shout! Factory released the series on DVD. In July 2019, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that it had acquired most of the Ultra series library from Tsuburaya Productions through Indigo Entertainment, including 1,100 TV episodes and 20 films. Mill Creek released the series on Blu ray and digital on October 15, 2019, in standard and steelbook sets. In July 2020, Shout! Factory announced to have struck a multi year deal with Alliance Entertainment and Mill Creek, with the blessings of Tsuburaya and Indigo, that granted them the exclusive SVOD and AVOD digital rights to the Ultra series and films (1,100 TV episodes and 20 films) acquired by Mill Creek the previous year. Ultra Q, amongst other titles, will stream in the United States and Canada through Shout! Factory TV and Tokushoutsu.