is a fictional character from the Ultra Series. He first appeared in the movie Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy before starring in his own film Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial and its 2012 sequel Ultraman Saga.
Introduced as an energetic, boastful, and stubborn warrior, Zero was sent into banishment by Ultraseven after his failed attempt to steal the Plasma Spark. Zero was trained under Ultraman Leo and was forced to wear the Tector Gear. When Ultraman Belial returned to the Land of Light and steal the Plasma Spark, Zero redeemed himself by defeating Belial and retrieving the Plasma Spark, at the same time learned of his origin as the . Although he retained his hotheaded traits, Zero slowly went through character development and matured as his roles in the Ultra Series progressed.
Ultraman Zero is voiced by . In the English dub movies, he is voiced by Daniel Van Thomas.
Character conception Movie producer Junya Okabe stated that Zero's involvement in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy was to invoke the elements of a parent-child relationship. Ultraman Zero's title as "the son of Seven" laid a huge impact on the audience. The setting of Zero as Leo's pupil was made under suggestion of director Koichi Sakamoto incorporating elements of his favorite Kung fu films. His youthful and hot-blooded outlook is based on Joe Yabuki from Ashita no Joe while his fighting skills revolves around the combination of Ultraseven and Leo.
In Ultraman Saga, a comical plot was suggested to the character as a new element and Zero's 5 meter-transformation is based on proposal made by VFX producer as part of an Ultra Warrior's relationship with humanity.
Series main writer Otsuichi was dubious of Zero's involvement as part of the cast of Ultraman Geed, believing that he is a poor character but director Sakamoto managed to expand him by forming a senior-junior pair with the titular Ultra. Realizing that he is a powerful character, the director decided to include the destruction of Ultimate Bracelet as a handicap to Zero, which makes him all the more similar to Dan Moroboshi's situation in Ultraman Leo. His transformation style from Leito Igaguri was consciously modeled after Ultraseven's use of Ultra Eye.
Design
Ultraman Zero was designed by Masayuki Gotoh under the initial draft name . The original design was based on a modernized variation of Ultraseven, being all-red in color and lacked a Color Timer. Due to how common the red color is among Ultra Warriors, blue was added as well to make him more attractive to new viewers. His mouth design is similar to Seven, but the whole face is composed of diagonal lines, and it has become possible to show different expressions according to the angle.
Zero's suit was simultaneously made with Ultraman Belial, based on wetsuits with the materials shaped in a three-dimensional appearance. It was originally structured to fit the suit actor tightly in hopes of preventing wrinkles but was loosen a bit to increase mobility in Zero's actions.
Although the mask was originally molded integrally with the head, Zero and Belial were structured out of plane. Because of the finalized design of Zero's head turned out to be different, his Zero Sluggers were forced to be redesigned after the first filming of Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy, thus making it bigger than the intended size. The LED emitters were placed at the center of his eyes, appearing in a similar manner to pupil.
According to Ultra's Common Sense - Ultraseven, Ultraman Zero ver., the appearance of Zero's younger self is "suggested" to be identical to from episode 29 of Ultraman Leo.
Designs of other forms were as follows: Tector Gear Zero: Originally dubbed as . Because of the difficulty in designing Zero, Tector Gear Zero was made first to hide his original appearance. It was initially planned to have a sharp design but producer Junya Okabe proposed a daring appearance. Its suit is a separate molding from the original Zero while the orange tubes were portrayed to be able to expand and contracting itself. Ultimate Zero: The Final Ultimate Zero configuration was taken from the original plan of having the Zero Sluggers into a bow instead of the Zero Twin Sword. In the beginning, this form is meant to be an armament than a mode change. The armor is designed after a pair of wings and its breastplate was meant to be worn on the left arm. Its relation to Ultraman Noa is a tribute to episode 7 of Ultraman, doing so in hopes of invoking the relationship of the Stone of Baraj to Noa. Mode Change: Strong-Corona Zero and Luna-Miracle Zero, the two forms that appeared in Ultra Zero Fight were incorporated with elements from Ultramen Dyna and Cosmos. Ultraman Zero Beyond: Masayuki Gotoh designs Zero completely different from any of his previous forms, this one only inheriting his face. The entire body was designed so as to not resemble Zero or even the components of the Ultra Capsule's Ultras themselves (Ginga, Victory, X, and Orb). Masayuki even decided to drop the idea of Quattro Sluggers, believing that said design is unfavorable but changes his mind after persuasion from Koichi Sakamoto.
Naming Yuji Kobayashi revealed that the reason he named the character as "Zero" is to symbolize the "restart of Ultraman story from scratch".
History Galaxy Crisis Era Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Long ago, Zero was a young and powerful warrior, similar to Belial, and like him attempted to steal energy from the Plasma Spark. However, Zero was caught red handed by Ultraseven and the Ultra Brothers and was exiled, sent to be trained under the Leo Brothers in Planet K76. His training took place during Belial's second and successful attempted theft of Plasma Spark. Survivors of Belial's attack, Shin Hayata (Ultraman) and Mirai Hibino (Ultraman Mebius), considered recruiting Zero but Dan Moroboshi (Ultraseven) was against it, believing he wasn't ready. During his time training under Ultraman Leo, Zero was forced to wear the Tector Gear armor that limited his movements and strength and befriended a Pigmon.
During a training session, Zero stops training with Leo to save the Pigmon's life when a boulder was about to crush him. Leo and Ultraman King realized that Zero he had matured and revealed to him his true origins as the son of Ultraseven. The reason Seven stopped Zero from touching the Plasma Spark and banished him was to save Zero from following Belial's fallen path. Seven's Eye Slugger then landed at the training ground, Leo realized that Seven was calling for Zero's help against Belial at the Monster Graveyard, and King removed the locks on Zero's Tector Gear. Redeemed and now freed from his armor, Ultraman Zero took off to the Monster Graveyard to confront Ultraman Belial, with his father's Eye Slugger. However Zero was too late too save his father, and Seven died from the exhaustion and injuries from his battle. Angered by the passing of his father, Zero proceeded to kill the remaining monsters of Belial's army in a mad fury before facing Belial and defeating him, however Belial quickly re-emerged as Belyudra. Zero tapped into the Plasma Spark's power, creating the Zero Twin Sword and decimated Belial with it. In aftermath of the battle, Zero returned the Plasma Spark to its position and reunited with his revived father.
Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial During the events of The Revenge of Belial, an attack from a trio of Darklops prompted Zero to volunteer himself in an inter-dimensional exploration to track the source. He was given the Ultra Zero Bracelet by Ultraseven, which allowed him to transform three times in an alternate dimension and received help from residents of the Land of Light during the travel. Upon arrival, he fought against Legionoid armies on the Planet Anu and bonded with a local police miner named Run in order to save his life. However, Zero discovered that the man's consciousness was in comatose state, leaving the former in control of Run's body and took care of Nao, his younger brother. The two stowed away in the Jean-Bird but was spared by Princess Emerana when they decided to help her search for the Shield of Baraj. Along the way, they met and allied with several factions that guide them towards the Shield of Baraj and helped out holding off Belial Galactic Empire's army.
Upon arrival at Ultraman Noa's statue, Nao tried to install a shard piece he had to the shield but crumbled. With Belial's army approaching and the Planet of Mirrors shattering, Run saved Nao and Emerana at the cost of being captured and had his Ultra Zero Eye separated. The resistances arrived and Mirror Knight saved Run from Belial, allowing him to regain his Ultra Zero Eye and transformed into Zero. Both sworn enemies fought once more but Belial used all of the emeralds he stolen to transform into Arch Belial. Despite the resistant forces helping out as well, Zero died from the depletion of his energy while trying to shield Planet Esmeralda from Arch Belial until the hopes of the resistances of Belial Galactic Empire brought forth the spirit of Ultraman Noa, allowing him to revive Zero and grant him the true form of the Shield of Baraj: the Ultimate Aegis. Zero assumed Ultimate Zero form with it and destroyed Belial with the Final Ultimate Zero technique. In aftermath of the battle, he healed Run's injuries and left to form Ultimate Force Zero with the giant heroes he came across earlier.
Ultraman Saga Zero still continued with his mission to wipe out the remnants of Belial's army and at that time, he was called into another Planet Earth by Shin Asuka/Ultraman Dyna, sensing a new threat in a form of Alien Bat. In that world, he discovered that the Earth's populations had mysteriously vanished and also fused with a dimensional-displaced Super GUTS member named Nozomu Taiga. Taiga himself had a hatred for Ultramen due to his past, which explained his reluctance to use Zero's power. Zero tend to act as the straight man to Taiga's antics and because of their lack of cooperation, Zero was incapable of summoning his full power, only appearing as a 5 m tall version of himself during their first transformation. Upon learning of Taiga's past and the latter deciding to overcome it, the two eventually settled their differences and finally being able to perform a successful transformation, joining forces with Ultraman Cosmos in facing Gigant Hyper Zetton and rescuing Ultraman Dyna.
Although the three Ultra Warriors managed to destroy Gigant Zetton, Alien Bat made his final move by assimilating his ship into Zetton's corpse and form Imago Hyper Zetton. The monster was too much for the Ultra Warriors to handle and the monster quickly defeated them. While Dyna and Cosmos were forced to revert to their human hosts, Zero instead died once more but the three Ultra hosts managed to unite into Ultraman Saga and destroy the monster. In aftermath, Zero separated from Taiga and departed to space.
In Ultraman Saga Super Complete Works magazine, Zero was mentioned to have visited the alternate Earth once more, with Anna of Team U wrote his arrival in her diary. Ultraman Ginga S Super Complete Works acknowledged that Zero's arrival on Team U's Earth is partly under orders from Zoffy due to the increasing negative energy of a Zetton (Hyper Zetton) in that dimension.
Ultra Zero Fight