GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultra Mega Culture Development (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd., the authorized agent in China for the popular Japanese animation character Ultraman, issues the following statement concerning the recent painting incident related to So Long Ultraman, the newest addition to the Ultraman series of animation films: We have been working with Bluearc Animation and Guangzhou Lanqi Cultural Communication to develop the Ultraman franchise and are creating a new Ultraman animation film in cooperation with the two companies. So Long Ultraman will be produced based on the classic heroic image of Ultraman, while the film will be the vehicle through which we respond to the market and expect to share positive energy with large numbers of Ultraman fans.
However, an incident took place at the press conference for the new film, where a fan who had painted himself as the Ultraman character unexpectedly appeared on the stage. Given the circumstances, we decided to proceed with the conference rather than intercepting the fan as they were aware of taking into account his feelings as a fan. Nevertheless, we wish to clarify that the event was not in any way a part of our plan nor has any connection with the new Ultraman film. The Ultraman character depicted in So Long Ultraman has no similarity to the representation as interpreted by the fan. At the same time, we wish to underline that all characters in the 3D animation film So Long Ultraman will be never decorated with paint.
We have strengthened the management and oversight of the copyright and made some other changes following the incident while reporting it to the owner of the Ultraman copyright, in the expectation of avoiding the occurrence of similar incidents in the future. We apologize for any concerns we may have raised among Ultraman's fans. Looking forward, we plan to maintain the heroic image of Ultraman with the support of hundreds of thousands of Ultraman fans and to create more heroic stories related to the classic animation character. We encourage fans to help maintain the integrity of the Ultraman character.
