“ | Because there is light, there will be Darkness. If there is darkness, there will also again be light. | „ |
~ Father of Ultra to Alien Empera. |
Father of Ultra, whose real name is Ultraman Ken is a major protagonist in the Ultraman franchise, serving as one of the overarching protagonists of the Showa era (alongside Ultraman King).
He is the supreme commander of the Inter Galactic Defense Force and is considered one of the strongest Ultra warriors in the Land of Light. Additionally, he is also the husband of Mother of Ultra, the father of both Ultraman Taro and Ultraman Ace, and the grandfather of Ultraman Taiga.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Good?[]
Pre-Ultimate Wars[]
- Using the training techniques he received from his father, he managed to defeat Juda by using his horns to seal the distortions that were being formed.
- Around the time when Seven was a young boy, he used the Ultra Key to destroy the planet Demos, preventing it from colliding into the Land of light.
Ultimate Wars[]
- During one of the battles against Alien Empera’s army, he willingly spared a Knackle alien and Babaru alien whom were surrendering and whom had also been forced by Empera into participating in the war. Additionally, he briefly scolded Belial when he remorselessly decided kill them anyway, bringing up how they had lost will to fight.
- During Alien Empera’s last attack on the land of light, he went to check to see if Marrie was okay after she was attacked by Empera. Afterward, he later used the Ultimate Blade given to him by Marrie in order to fight against Empera in a sword battle, leading to him slashing Empera on his side (albeit at the cost of receiving a slash wound himself) and ultimately forcing him into retreating, thus foiling Empera’s attempt at conquering the land of light while also ending the Ultimate wars as a whole.
Post Ultimate Wars[]
- Following the end of the Ultimate wars, with the help of the residents of the land of light, he founded the Inter Galactic Defense Force, a team devoted to protecting the universe from threats such as Giant monsters or aliens. Because of this, many of the Ultra brothers would go on to defend the Earth from exactly those threats, with Ultraman in particular going on to become the first Ultra to do it.
- When Belial was fighting aggressively during one of their training session, he tried to stop him by reminding him that it was only training. However, when he accidentally punched Belial really hard in self-defense, he apologized for it and even tried helping him up, even if Belial rejected him in the end due to his jealousy of his promotion as commander of the IGDF.
- While he and the other Ultra warriors did exile Belial for touching the Plasma spark, it was for a good reason as he was trying to steal the plasma spark, which would have killed the planet. Additionally, since the plasma spark was so vital in keeping the planet alive, touching it was essentially a safety violation.
- During Belial’s raid on the Land of light following his fusion with Alien Rayblood, he attempted to reason with him by bringing up that the land of light was his home.
- At some point either before or after Belial’s 1st attack on the land of light, him and Mary adopted Ace as their son after his biological parents were killed in battle.
Ultraman Story[]
- When his son Taro told him that he wanted to beat up all the monsters when he grew up out of a believe that they were all bad guys, him and Marie clarified to him that this was false and that there actually existed good monsters as well. After this, him and Marie later brought Taro into space in order to teach him the goals of Ultra warrior such maintaining the peace through the universe and defending it from evil. Additionally, he also highlighted the core values of an Ultra such as wisdom, courage, and love.
- From Taro’s childhood all the way to his adulthood, he helped train his son into becoming the Ultra brother he ultimately went on to be today, often by having him study battles from the other Ultra brothers. During this phase, he was pretty strict with him and initially prohibited him from joining the Ultra brothers and while this may seem unfair at first, he actually had a justified reason for it as Taro was still too inexperienced at the time and was way too overconfident in his abilities. Additionally, while he also put him through harsh training and did occasionally scold him at times, he was rarely ever extremely harsh about it like Seven was with Leo years later.
- During the last bits of Taro’s training, he let Taro absorb his energy into his horns in order to help him eventually defeat Juda, even if this ultimately led to him becoming weaker in the process and later getting overwhelmed by Alien Hipporito during their fight in episode 27 of Ultraman Ace.
- During the Taro and the 5 Ultra brothers battle against Juda’s monster Grand King, he advised the 5 of them to fuse their energy into Taro’s horns, ultimately turning the battle in their favor and allowing Taro to defeat Grand King using the Cosmos Miracle beam, leading to Juda retreating.
- Following Grand King’s defeat, he finally allowed Ultraman Taro to become a member of the Ultra brothers, leading to events of the latter’s series.
Ultraman Ace[]
- In episode 27, he traveled to Earth in order to save the Ultra brothers after they were turned into bronze by Alien Hipporito. After unbronzinging Ace first, he went on to fight Alien Hipporito for a brief period of time. However, when the fatigue of his journey to Earth started affecting him, he sacrificed himself by ripping off his color timer in order to replenish Ace’s energy, allowing him to ultimately defeat Alien Hipporito and foil his plan to conquer Earth. Additionally, by doing so, he helped Ace revive/unbronzed his brothers afterwards.
- In episode 38, after being revived by Marie, he returned to Earth on Christmas Eve while disguised as Santa Claus in order to wish a bunch of children merry Christmas. During this, Seiji Hokuto initially misjudge him as a threat due to the students teacher having been blinded earlier. However, he easily forgave Hokuto for this after he realized that he didn’t mean no harm and even encouraged him to do his best before he went to face Namahage’s choju Snowgiran.
- Later on in the episode, when Ace started to get overwhelmed, he grew giant sized (intentionally revealing himself as Father of Ultra in the process) and helped restore his energy so that he could continue fighting before eventually confronting Nahamage directly and quickly defeating him. After this, he later brought in Yuko Minami so that she could fix the eyesight of the people who were blinded Snowgiran.
Ultraman Taro[]
- In episode 39, he interrupted the fight between Taro and Mochiron and allowed the former and Yuko Minami to make more Mochi using Moichron as a butter churn after he had stolen and eaten them. After this, him and Yuko brought him into space so that the people of Japan could celebrate “Mochi-Day” in peace.
- Near the end of episode 51, he saved Kotaro/Taro, Nanbara, and Nanbara’s mom from getting crushed by the monster Rindon. After this, he used the Ultra Feather to defeat Rindon and later used the Ultra Crown to revive Nanbara’s fiancé Tama who went on to marry.
Ultraman 80[]
- In episode 38, he helped Takeshi Yamato/Ultraman 80 gain the motivation to fight against Ghostdon.
Ultraman Mebius[]
- In beginning of episode 1, he granted him the Mebius Brace and sent him to the Earth as their new protector.
- Additionally, during his lecture to Mebius in the beginning of the episode 1, he revealed that by sending him to Earth, he believed that he would gain something invaluable from the humans. His believe would later be proven correct as the defense force team GUYS soon became his emotional support and ultimately helped him overcome numerous obstacles throughout his time on Earth.
- During the events of episodes 29 and 30, he initially refused to let him on stay Earth any longer out of fear that he would be unable to defeat the upcoming Imperializer robot that was heading towards Earth. However, after witnessing Mebius actually defeat it, him and Taro ultimately allowed him to continue staying on Earth.
- In episode 37, he prevented Jasyuline from destroying Mebius’s color timer and later revived him from his petrified state after he was turned to gold by the former. Afterwards, he the then assisted Mebius into taking down Jasyuline by using the Ultra Array to briefly blind and disorient them.
- Following Jasyuline’s defeat, he then went on to reassure Mebius that he didn’t lose when he got turned into a golden statue, bringing up how his color timer didn’t get affected by it which meant meant that Mebius didn’t yield and therefore wasn’t defeated. After this, he then encouraged Mebius to continue giving humanity hope as it would make him even stronger.
- During the series finale, he contacted the already loosing Alien Empera to tell him that he and the other Ultras wouldn’t allow him to cover the sun in Darkness.
- Additionally, when Empera (who had fully embraced darkness at that point) started questioning him on why he and the other Ultras would even bother doing this and why they would want to save humanity, he responded to him by saying that as long as darkness existed, light would also exist as well.
Ultraman Mebius Gaiden: Hikari Saga[]
- Prior to the events of episode 35 of Mebius, he initially refused to let Hikari become a member of the Inter Galactic Defense Force and by extension, an Ultra warrior due to believing that his heart was too ill prepared for it. However, after seeing Hikari’s overall determination in wanting to protect the galaxy and getting some encouragement from Zoffy whom genuinely believed that Hikari was worthy, he allowed the former to go so that he could actually prove himself.
- Eventually, once Hikari did prove himself by defeating Alien Babarue on the planet Arb, he ultimately accepted him as a member of the Space Garrison and sent an Ultra sign instructing him to go to Earth in order to help Mebius stop the Babarue alien that had vanished after he had defeated him.
Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends The Movie[]
- Upon receiving a message from Taro that Belial had escaped and fearing that Belial would attempt to go to Plasma Spark Tower, he sent a defense to surround it. However when this plan failed, he went into the tower himself in order to stop Belial from getting the Plasma spark and ultimately managed to hold off for a while until Belial eventually hit him with the Battleneizer in the wound he received from Alien Empera.
- While the land of light and the Ultras were freezing (including him, Marie, and Taro), he helped Marie get up on her feet while also comforting her at the time.
Ultraman Zero: Revenge of Belial[]
- After Zero volunteered to find out why Darkclops Zeroes attacked the land of light, he had all the other Ultras join him in giving their light in order to create a travel sphere for Zero to get to the other dimension where the Darkclops came from.
- During the second battle against Belial’s squadron, he deployed the Ultra brothers in order to go stop them.
Ultraman Ginga[]
- Prior to the events of the series, he participated in the Dark Spark War, a war that involved many different Ultras, monsters, and aliens from many different universes. Eventually, once Dark Lugiel (the instigator of the war) started turning everyone into spark dolls, him, Marie, and the Ultra brothers all jumped in front of Taro in order to protect him, leading to Taro ultimately becoming the only Spark Doll to retain his consciousness.
- During the series finale, when Taro was watching Lugiel destroy Hiakru’s school, him and Marie appeared as visions and helped him bring himself back to life by using the hopes of the students in order to make himself stronger.
Ultraman Geed[]
- In the series finale, he visited Earth in order to battle with Belial while Geed/Riki regrouped with his friends so that they could take the latter down, with him even creating a force field so that Belial wouldn’t escape.
Ultraman Geed The Movie: Connect the Wishes![]
- When Gillvalis started invading Geed’s Earth, he had Zoffy alert Ultimate Forze Zero so that they could help Geed stop him.
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy[]
- In episode 9, he had Taro deploy a rescue squad in order to save 80 and Yullian.
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad[]
- In the prologue of the series, he came up with a three pronged strategy plan with the Ultra-League and the Galaxy Rescue Force to take down the kingdom. Afterwards, he then had Taro and Zoffy go to planet King in order to get assistance from Ultraman King himself (as well as Leo name Astra).
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Good?[]
- He can be pretty cold as shown in a flashback scene in episode 6 of Ultraman Ginga where he at one point scolded a young Taro for simply saying that he wanted to grow up to be like him before coldly walking away without saying a word, while also leaving Taro in tears (the scolding itself was off-screen but Taro’s immediate reactions were on-screen). And while Mother of Ultra later revealed to Taro that the reason he scolded him was because he wanted him to say that he wanted to grow up to be better than him, he still could have been nicer about it without causing him to cry. However, this is a minor prevention as Ken is usually portrayed as nice to Taro otherwise during childhood all the way to his adulthood, with the other scolding he gave to him during his training days being extremely minor at best or not that hurtful at worst unlike how Seven scolded Leo.
Trivia[]
- He is the very first Ultra from the Showa era (and the franchise as a whole) be Near Pure Good, with his son Ultraman Taro coming second.
- Additionally, he’s also the franchise very first Near Pure Good
External Links[]
- Father of Ultra on the Heroes Wiki
- Father of Ultra on the Ultraman Wiki