Ultraman, also known as the Ultra Series, is the collective name for all media produced by Tsuburaya Productions has been a mainstay in Japanese culture since the 1960s. 1966 to be exact as to when it was originally introduced. Countless shows took inspiration from it all the way from Kamen Rider to Power Rangers, and even influenced a lot of mecha stories.

One of the core tenets of the show and its creators have been their love and appreciation of Japan and its culture. A recent announcement from Tsuburaya Productions from Yahoo Japan, stated that while they do vow to bring Ultraman to the west and share their vision with a wider audience, they also swear that the show will not be changed to more appeal to a “global audience”.

A lot of shows of this nature have a very small and niche market of extremely loyal viewers, so any changes be it character costumes, set designs, dialogue, music, basically anything that makes the original vision become clouded are met with scorn and disdain.

Most western media sees these issues as an affront to their sensibilities and usually will thumb their noses at any and all critics with an air of condescension mixed with spite. They “know what’s best” and everything else be damned, they’ll show those mean commenters on those websites or videos what for by shitting all over their favorite IP.

Native Japanese creators like Tsubaraya Productions however, take criticism such as grievances regarding changes to core story mechanics as a cue to rethink their tactic to get whatever it is they’re trying to accomplish done and keep every one happy. They understand that doing something like retconning entire franchises just to appeal to other countries’ sensibilities is essentially the kiss of death for a long standing niche Japanese brand like Ultraman.