Tsuburaya's Galactic Federation: A Thread on Ultraman Continuity

If you've ever watched Ultraman Ace, you've probably wondered what the hell Ace was talking about here with the Galactic Federation. While it's not as obscure as it used to be, I'm gonna take ya'll on a tangled web of the canon of early Tsuburaya toku

The first three Ultra shows were mainly stand alone. While there were some links between Q and Man, Seven, aside from the mention of M78, would be considered stand alone. But the M78 connection would be picked up on by magazines that would connect Seven and Ultraman

Between Seven and ROU, Tsuburaya would release manga that would later be adapted for tokusatsu shows: Mirrorman and Jumborg X. What's curious about the latter is that X isn't a giant robot, but rather an alien and Seven's brother! The manga would also feature Ultraman in it too

1971's Return of Ultraman would finally bridge the previous Ultra shows into one world, thus establishing the M78 Continuity as we know it....for the most part....

(as a brief aside, ROU's finale would be the episode that coined the term Ultra Brothers, though poor Jumborg X got lumped out of that completely. Sorry pal!)

Anyways, alongside ROU, Tsuburaya would release several other tokusatsu shows in the early 70's such as Mirrorman, Jumborg Ace, Fireman and Triple Fighter. And at one point, all three of these shows were meant to be part of the Ultra continuity. This is the Galactic Federation!

Tsuburaya had originally intended all of their hero shows to coexist within the same world, but never occurred (probably due to all these shows airing on different networks), leaving the Galactic Federation concept just in the theme songs of Ultraman Ace and Triple Fighter

There were light connections though here and there. Ultraman Taro battled a Mirrorman monster in one of his episodes, but most importantly, Capt. Murakami of Mirrorman would become part of the main cast of Jumborg Ace, firmly establishing those two shows in the same continuity.

The concept wouldn't totally be dead though, as Ultraman Mebius, the 40th anniversary show almost linked those shows back to the M78 canon like originally intended, but this was dropped in planning stages. Perhaps for the best to not overcomplicate an anniversary show.

While these 70's heroes wouldn't be part of the Ultraman universe proper, characters based on them would appear with Ultraman Zero as the Ultimate Force Zero, allowing these new iterations to interact with the Ultra canon proper.

While it's a bit sad that these characters will never crossover with Ultra proper, I'm glad they weren't forgotten and inspired new guys that fans love. And who knows, perhaps some future gaiden or show bring them into the fray (Galactic Federation for Ultra Galaxy Fight 3 plz)

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