Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima’s Ultraman: Rising told the story of Ken Sato, the son of Emiko Sato, and Ultraman, Professor Sato (also known as Ultradad). Due to Sato’s duties as Ultraman, protecting the city from Kaiju attacks, he couldn’t really focus on his family life, thereby leading to a rift between him, his wife, and his son. While Sato remained in Japan, Emiko and Ken moved to the United States to focus on his education and baseball skills. Sato grew old and retired as Ultraman. So, Emiko urged Ken to take on the mantle and continue his baseball career in Japan. Ken was hesitant about it, but when Emiko disappeared one day, he returned to Japan to look for her. Yes, he claimed that he came back home to bring his brand of baseball to his country of origin and to be Ultraman. But the truth of the matter was that he was searching for Emiko with the help of his A.I. assistant, Mina. He blamed Sato for not even caring about why Emiko had disappeared, only to realize that he had spent a major chunk of his life trying to track her down. When neither of them found anything, they just assumed that Emiko had perished due to some mysterious reason. Now, most of the Netflix film was centered around Ken becoming a dad to Emi, the adorable Kaiju baby, and taking her to Kaiju Island. However, during Ultraman: Rising‘s mid-credits scene, it was revealed that Emiko was alive and that she was in Nebula M78. What’s that all about?
Spoiler Alert
What is Nebula M78?
I’m going to be honest, Ultraman: Rising was my first tryst with Ultraman, and since the movie didn’t really go into the history of the character and just name-dropped Nebula M78, I was confused. So, I dove deep and found the YouTube channel Ultraman Explained to learn something about what that mid-credits scene could mean. Here’s what I found. Nebula M78 (not to be confused with the real reflection nebula in the Orion constellation) is home to the Land of Light, or Planet Ultra, which is where all Ultramen come from. I’m assuming that’s where Professor Sato is from, while Ken has inherited his powers, which makes him part Ultra and part human. It’s not clear why Sato came to Earth in the first place, but as per the Showa-era history of the character, Ultraman was chasing a monster called Bemular. That was when he collided with an SSSP (Science Special Search Party) officer named Shin Hayata. He felt so guilty for accidentally killing him that he merged his body with that of Hayata and began working with the SSSP to defend Earth. I’m guessing that some version of these events must have happened in the Netflix film.
Coming back to the Land of Light, this planet has emerald cities and an artificial sun called the Plasma Spark, which is apparently the source of the power of the Ultramen. The light of this Plasma Spark is harmful for those who are not Ultramen, i.e., human beings. Hence, there’s some kind of force field (much like the ones that we see created by Ultraman and Ultradad in the movie) to prevent any outsiders from coming into direct contact with the light of the Plasma Spark. That said, if this Plasma Spark is removed, the Land of Light will plunge into an Ice Age-like situation, thereby freezing all the Ultramen. In that situation, the Ultramen will go into a state of hibernation, but I don’t think that they’ll die. But it’s best not to meddle with it. Apart from that, the Land of Light’s artificial moon is actually a prison, with an obvious title, Space Prison, which was created by Ultraman King to lock the criminals and lawbreakers of the Land of Light. In addition to the Plasma Spark Tower and the Space Prison, some of the most important locations on the Land of Light are the Space Garrison Headquarters, the Ultra Colosseum, the Ultra Space Port, the Ultra Elementary School, the Ultra Tower, the Crystal Town, the Temple of Light, the Fountain of Light, the Ultra Clinic 78, and the Monument of Mystery.
What Is Emiko Doing in the Nebula M78?
We’ll be here all year if we go too deep into the lore of Ultraman. Now that we’ve got a basic understanding of the universe that Ultraman: Rising exists in, let’s speculate on what’s going on with Emiko and why she is in Nebula M78. To be clear, the movie doesn’t give any hints regarding the circumstances under which Emiko disappeared. Based on her message that we see during the mid-credits scene, she seems to have established some form of voice-messaging system that’s allowing her to communicate from a different part of the galaxy to Earth. But how did she get there? Well, maybe she has been abducted. The Ultramen of the Land of Light want to know what Ultradad is up to. Since he has retired and a human has taken on the mantle, Ultraman King or one of his subordinates probably want to know how or why that has been done without their permission. Maybe Emiko is the first member of the Sato family that they saw, and that’s why they abducted her. However, they have realized by now that Emiko’s knowledge about the Ultramen is limited, and that’s why they are using her to get Ken (and maybe Ultradad) to get to the Land of Light and tell them about their work on Earth.
The other theory that I have is that the aforementioned Plasma Spark in the Land of Light is dying. So, the Ultramen want to fix it before it extinguishes, thereby plunging Planet Ultra into its Ice Age. Maybe some of the Ultramen came to Earth; they didn’t find Ken or Sato, and that’s why they took Emiko with them, in the hopes that she was going to help them out. And they’ve come to the realization that Emiko is only related to the two Ultramen from Earth, but she isn’t an Ultraman herself. That’s why they have given Emiko a communication device to get Ultraman and Ultradad to come to the Land of Light and save all the Ultramen from extinction or an early retirement. I had another theory, but maybe it’s a little too far-fetched. Well, I think that Emiko is secretly a superhero, and she wants to save Earth, which is a dying planet and it’s dependent on a dying star. She knows where Ultradad is from, and she is probably aware of the fact that the Land of Light has a massive source of energy, i.e., the Plasma Spark. So, maybe she has devised a way to reach Nebula M78 and she wants to steal the Plasma Spark, bring it back to Earth, and save the planet as well as the rest of the solar system. Maybe she has been discovered by the Ultramen, and she needs Ken’s help to get back to Earth in one piece. Anyway, those are just my thoughts and theories on the mid-credits of Ultraman: Rising and we’ll have to wait until the sequel arrives to actually know what’s going on with Emiko. Feel free to share what you think of the film and its mid-credits in the comments section.
