Last summer, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that they had acquired North American physical and digital distribution rights (from Tsuburaya Productions) for pretty much the entire Ultraman library.

This was huge.

How huge? The deal included more than 1,100 episodes and 20 films spanning 50 years of the Japanese franchise.

Despite those five decades of Ultraman, most Americans have just a passing familiarity with the character – and I’d hazard a guess that most think it’s part of the (overly complex and silly) Power Rangers universe.

Well, all that’s about to change. Mill Creek has begun releasing the entire Ultraman library – in order from the beginning! And the first two releases are out now: 1966’s Ultra Q and the very first Ultraman, which aired for four seasons in 1966 and 67.

(Check out our review of the Ultra Q release here.)

Even though the franchise technically started with Ultra Q, this is where the character of Ultraman really begins. A giant alien from Nebula M78 crashes to Earth while he’s in pursuit of an escaped space monster. That crash landing was bad news to a certain Shin Hayata, pilot for the SSSP (Science Special Search Party).

Ultraman saves Hayata by, um… merging with him and becoming part of his “life force.” A result of this symbiosis is that Hayata gains the power to transform into the 160-some-foot Ultraman and fight all the giant monsters and aliens that keep popping up around Japan.

The good news is that this is VERY handy for Hayata, since the SSSP’s entire raison d’être is to protect Earth from those pesky kaiju. He just became a superhero in his existing career. Convenient.

The bad news is that Ultraman, despite his size and strength, actually has extremely limited powers on Earth. He’s powerful, but he’s not OP (as the kids like to say). He gets his power from the sun, but apparently he can’t get enough energy through Earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, he’s got a flashing light in his chest (his “color timer”) that starts blinking when he’s running low on power. This can happen anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

So those kaiju better have glass jaws, is what I’m saying.

To give you a taste, here’s a 10-minute preview of the first episode:

This first series is a charming look at the birth of a phenomenon. Whereas Ultra Q aired earlier the same year and was in black and white, Ultraman is in color. Which is great since so many of the monsters are incredibly bright and colorful.

The Ultraman suit and the monsters are all very obviously just dudes in rubber suits, but this was 1966 Japan. Don’t go into this expecting 21st century special effects. The show is also clearly meant to be a kids’ show. The actors, the storylines, the danger, and the humor all target a young elementary school demographic.

None of this is meant as criticism. Just temper your expectations. If you watched the recent Ultraman anime on Netflix (based on the 2011 manga written by Eiichi Shimizu), know that this is quite different.

If you’re a fan of the franchise or of the kaiju genre, the original Ultraman is still incredibly entertaining. And it kind of holds up for today’s more discerning kids. I mean, my son enjoys it and happily sits down to watch a couple episodes. For what it’s worth.

The new Mill Creek release comes in two different versions. You’ve got your standard Blu-ray box set and a SteelBook edition. Inside, both are the same, so the only real difference is in the packaging. However, if you don’t really care, I’d highly recommend the standard packaging since Mill Creek is designing the entire Ultraman line to have a mosaic image on the spines when lined up together. Here are the first two releases for a tease at what’s to come.

The set includes all 39 episodes of the show in their original, complete Japanese broadcast edits (fully remastered and restored in HD and with lossless DTS-HD audio). They look and sound great.

Also included is a 28-page booklet that gives a bit of background on the series and the birth of the Ultraman franchise. It also gives brief synopses of each episode, key monster, major character, and important technology.

Finally, the set includes a digital redemption code for movieSPREE, where you can access and download all episodes for digital streaming.