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No CG here! Clever camera trick has Ultraman towering over the buildings of a real Japanese city

Casey Baseel May 13, 2022
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The tokusatsu icon gets a visual boost from a Yokohama landmark.

As the star of one of the original tokusatsu/kaiju series, Ultraman is never far from the popular imagination in Japan. This month, though, he’s really on people’s minds, thanks to the release of the newest film in the franchise, Shin Ultraman, on May 13.

So at first glance, you might think this image, shared by Japanese Twitter user @bxz_td, is a leaked production still from the movie, especially since it shows Ultraman towering over the city of Yokohama exacty as the place looks today. But it turns out this isn’t the work of the Shin Ultraman production team, but a single Ultraman fan, and what’s more, he didn’t use any CG or other digital effects to achieve this cool visual.

知人の娘さんが横浜ランドマークから夜景を撮影した写真みたいなんやけど、後ろに展示されてるウルトラマンが写り込んでいい感じになってる笑 pic.twitter.com/zKtcpLZ0du

— りんこ (@bxz_td) May 10, 2022

So how did the Ultraman fan, who’s a friend of @bxz_td, pull this off? With some good old practical effects, plus a ticket to the observation floor of Landmark Tower, a gigantic skyscraper in Yokohama’s Minato Mirai harbor district.

Landmark’s observatory is on the 69th floor, 273 meters (896 feet) above the street. It offers amazing views of everything from Mt. Fuji to Yokohama Bay and even the skyline of Tokyo, two cities over. On the day he visited, @bxz_td’s friend brought along an Ultraman figure (since any true fan owns at least a few), waited for the sun to go down and the sky to get dark enough for the observation floor’s windows to partially reflect the room’s interior, and snapped the photo.

Of course, Ultraman doesn’t grow to giant size just for fun. He does it to fight against colossal monsters that threaten humanity, and so sharp-eyed observers may also notice the hero’s draconian foe Bemular, who @bxz_td’s friend also brough along for the photo shoot.

暗闇に紛れて不意打ちするベムラーみたいになっててすき pic.twitter.com/7eCfL6p1IN

— かきぴー (@LggJs) May 11, 2022

▼ Bemular

懐かしい思い出の中のテレビ特撮ドラマ

ウルトラマン

交差する、名前はベムラー&レッドマン
試行錯誤で始まった新しい特撮ドラマ…

おはようございます🤓 pic.twitter.com/UU77chbEf8

— 俊彦田中 (@0408kerokero) May 10, 2022

▼ The scene gets even cooler with the addition of Ultraman’s iconic beam.

ついでに光線放ってもらいましたw pic.twitter.com/wBh7x5rPrY

— 垢死亡もみぢ🍁 (@Peter_cyclone) May 10, 2022

The clever trick photo has had commenters expressing their excitement and relief at the idea of Ultraman standing guard in Yokohama, but if a trip up to the top of Landmark isn’t on your schedule, don’t forget that you can find a 1:1-scale Ultraman in Tokyo these days too.

Source: Twitter/@bxz_td
Top image: Twitter/@bxz_td
Insert images: Pakutaso, Twitter/@bxz_td
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