Entertainment: You're asked to make a graduation project, but you're asked to film Ultrama

Time flows slowly.

With the official release of the movie "Ultraman Mebius" on overseas platforms.

And when the Yapool trilogy, which followed closely behind, finished airing its main episodes, it also caused a huge uproar in the tokusatsu (special effects) community across the ocean.

These episodes can be considered a formal "tribute episode," with the return of Ultraman warriors from the Showa era and a new invasion by the classic villain Yapool, reminding many older fans of the Ultraman series of their past glory.

On Japan's largest comprehensive tokusatsu forum and various online communities, discussion threads about this feature film almost completely dominated the entire page, with the number of threads increasing at an astonishing rate.

[Unbelievable... After Tsuburaya Productions went bankrupt and stagnated for so many years, I thought the story of the Showa heroes had come to a permanent end. I never imagined that they would rekindle that light across the sea, and with such high quality it's breathtaking!]

[As a Kobe resident, I was truly moved to tears! Director Hayata calmly directing operations at the airport, Dan herding sheep on Mount Rokko, Go timing the racetrack, Hokuto steadily catching a glass in the chef's kitchen… every glimpse into their lives felt so natural. They shed their divine aura and live among us as ordinary humans—this is the best ending for Ultra Warriors!]

[The most touching moment was Saburo Shinoda's cameo! The scene where Kotaro Azuma looks back in the sunset truly brought me to tears; he's still as radiant as ever. Who could have imagined that after decades, we'd see Kotaro return in this way?]

[The movie "Chasing the Light" is entirely made with real, handcrafted miniature models and physical explosions! This level of craftsmanship is hundreds of times better than our current entertainment industry! When will our entertainment industry return to its golden age, instead of being filled with all sorts of bizarre and outlandish things? What does it mean that so many anime characters are starting to smoke?!]

Hayata says, "Ultra Warriors are not gods; no matter how hard they try, there are feelings they can't convey," and Mirai replies, "Because they truly love humans..." I couldn't stop crying at this point. This isn't just sentimentality; they truly understand the core of the Ultra Spirit! This is the highest understanding and tribute to the spirit of the entire Land of Light!

[Seven Ultra Warriors fighting side-by-side to the very last moment—this is truly a classic tokusatsu epic! If Mr. Tsuburaya Productions could see the Ultraman series today, he would be very pleased!]

On major overseas social media platforms, topics about the Ultra Brothers and Mebius have surged to the top of the trending charts in several Asian countries.

Just as the online buzz was at its peak, Light Chaser responded to the strong demand from fans around the world and officially released a full behind-the-scenes documentary, lasting several tens of minutes, on various platforms.

The video had just been uploaded when a dense barrage of comments instantly filled the screen.

[First! Finally, the official behind-the-scenes documentary is here!]

[Bring this out quickly; popcorn and sunflower seeds are already prepared for the front row.]

[I heard it's all real footage, without any post-production editing—the hardcore action of special effects artists!]

[The official team has finally released some behind-the-scenes footage that they'd been keeping under wraps!]

The scene cuts to the film set.

The first scene shown on camera is the initial battle between the Alien Empire and Ultraman Mebius at the dock.

Without post-production color grading and lighting effects, the two suit actors engaged in a brutal, close-quarters fight inside the miniature dock model.

To convey a sense of immense power, every punch and block by the actor was a solid physical collision.

Under the intense spotlights on set, it's easy to imagine that the inside of the suits must have been completely soaked with sweat, but the two actors still maintained a crisp and clean rhythm and a high degree of visual appeal.

The camera then cuts to footage of Ultraman Seven battling Guts Alien.

The actor in Seven's suit delivered a powerful straight punch to the face of the Gatsi alien, the crisp, muffled sound of the suit colliding piercing through the microphones on set.

Attentive viewers immediately noticed a peculiar detail in the footage—a thin, long black line was tightly wrapped with insulating tape on the outside of Seven's suit's left leg.

However, what followed revealed its purpose to everyone.

Wait, what's the purpose of the string tied around Seventh Master's left leg?

[Holy crap! It's blown up!]

[Wow! Those are the fuses for the real-life spark effects! Used to trigger a miniature electric spark mechanism.]

That punch to the face looks painful; it's a real physical blow!

The subsequent showdown between the real and fake Mebius further revealed the arduousness of tokusatsu action scenes.

Before the official filming began, the two actors, dressed in light training clothes, repeatedly practiced their positions and broke down their movements to confirm the angle of impact and the direction of their fall.

However, when the heavy and narrow-viewing visor was actually put on, the accident still happened.

During a difficult aerial kick, the actor playing the fake Mebius landed with his center of gravity shifted, and his ankle twisted heavily on the edge of the hard wooden pedal.

On-site medical staff quickly stepped forward to apply ice and provide emergency immobilization. After a brief treatment, the actor gritted his teeth, put the headgear back on, and persevered to complete the additional filming of the entire action sequence.

What follows is the most stunning long take of consecutive somersaults in the entire film.

That was the Moon War, the opening battle between the four Olympians and Saurus.

After the actor in the suit of Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Jack completed a clean front handspring, the explosives planted behind him detonated with a bang.

Almost simultaneously, Seven's costumed actor performed a backflip, cutting into the shot from the right side of the frame, creating a near-perfect interlaced tumbling trajectory in the center of the frame.

The entire sequence of fluid, multi-person coordination was performed without any wire work, relying entirely on the actors' solid martial arts skills.

The camera then shifts to the set of the final battle—the Ultra Brothers besieging the ultimate super beast Saurus.

The film set without special effects even had a strangely comical feel to it.

This enormous beast possessed seven or eight massive, destructive tentacles.

To ensure that each tentacle could exhibit the ferocious writhing motion of a living organism, the prop team built a complex steel wire pulley control system for each tentacle.

When filming officially began, more than a dozen staff members dressed in all-black matte suits hid in the shadows and pulled on the steel wire in unison with the instructions.

In the breathtaking scene of Saurus rising from the deep sea, it took several strong men on scaffolding pulling with all their might on high-strength ropes to drag the massive model, weighing tens of kilograms, into the air.

[Damn, so the monster taking off was actually a tug-of-war between some strong men!]

[This mechanical transmission structure is incredibly advanced; the craftsmanship of the traditional prop maker is truly admirable.]

[For one minute on stage, a dozen men in black were desperately pulling on the rope below—it's so real.]

[Real footage of the God of War!]

This was followed by a segment showing the Ultra Brothers taking turns being hit and falling.

The original was swept away and smashed the stone pillar, while Ace was flipped over in mid-air and slammed hard to the ground.

In pursuit of the most realistic physical collisions, the suit actors almost always fall solidly onto the set filled with pebbles and wood chips without any cushioning.

In the scene where Ace crashes into the miniature building, the actor leaps down, and the enormous impact shatters the plaster building, with flying plaster fragments nearly injuring a nearby crew member holding a lighting panel.

There's also the classic scene of the Nackle aliens collapsing and cracking open.

To convey the heavy impact of being completely pierced by Mebius's fiery punch, Gu Nan personally took charge on set, giving the suit actor a push from behind the moment he fell backward. Combined with the pneumatic collapse mechanism embedded in the ground, this caused the Nackle alien to sink deep into the ground in a disheveled and realistic manner.

Besides the physical actions, the crew's dedication to explosions is equally admirable.

In the scene where the aliens from the Empire blow up the dock, dozens of miniature oil tanks, cranes, and containers that the staff had spent several days building by hand were instantly detonated by remote-controlled explosives during the actual filming.

Scorching flames and wood chips shot into the sky, and high-speed cameras precisely captured the real fragments of the building disintegrating inch by inch under the physical explosion.

The moment the Guts aliens were destroyed, a deafening roar accompanied the explosion that shattered the entire monster model into pieces, with the flying fragments creating a powerful and violent aesthetic.

In the latter half of the behind-the-scenes footage, the tone gradually shifts from the tense and hardcore on-set management to warmth and emotion.

The camera then cuts to the wrap-up ceremony for the entire feature film.

Inside the filming studio, the five Ultra Warriors—Ultraman, Seven, Jack, Ace, and Mebius—did not remove their suits. Instead, they neatly donned custom-made black tuxedos over their suits.

It's not just these few Ultraman, but also Ultraman Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, and Cosmos, which were filmed by Light Chaser Animation Studios.

There are even remade Ultraman King and Ultraman Father suits!

The Ultraman face paired with an elegant gentleman's suit presents a unique sense of solemnity and contrast.

At this moment, the four elderly men who played the human forms of the older generation—Susumu Kurobe, Koji Moritsugu, Tokiro Dan, and Keiji Takamine—stood side by side in the center of the camera.

The young actor who plays the young soldier in the drama, dressed in a sharp dark suit, slowly walked up to the four veteran actors, holding a bright pink bouquet in his hands.

The young actor stopped and bowed deeply to the four veteran actors before him with utmost solemnity.

The four senior figures looked at the young man before them, and their faces broke into smiles of immense satisfaction and kindness. They all reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

Then, actresses who had played classic leading ladies in older dramas walked into the frame holding flowers.

Hoshiko, who plays Minami Yuko, is wearing an elegant red dress coat and smiles at Takamine Keiji beside her.

Yuriko Hishimi, who plays Julianne, is all smiles as she links arms with Koji Moritsugu.

Hiroko Sakakibara and Romi Sakakibara stood next to Susumu Kurobe and Tokirou Dan, respectively.

The partings and regrets left in stories from decades ago have now crossed the long river of time and achieved the most perfect reunion in front of the lens of reality.

The young actor, holding a bouquet of flowers, stood among the veteran actors and turned to look at the camera directly in front of him.

The boy's eyes were slightly red, and tears glistened gently under the bright spotlights of the photography studio, but he still raised the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile as pure, bright, and full of vitality as the future.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of a camera shutter, all the main creators and actors of the entire production team stood side by side.

The giants of light, dressed in tuxedos, stood majestically in the back row, while the old heroes and classic heroines stood side by side in the front row. The young successor stood in the center, forever capturing this courage and belief that spanned half a century in a softly glowing frame.