The is the collective name for all the shows produced by
Tsuburaya Productions featuring
Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad
Ultra Monsters. The Ultra Series is one of the prominent
tokusatsu superhero genre productions from Japan, along with
Toei produced series
Kamen Rider,
Super Sentai, and the
Metal Heroes. The Ultra franchise is also one of the most well known examples of the
daikaiju (大怪獣, "huge monster") genre, which also includes
Toho's
Godzilla series, and
Daiei Film's
Gamera series. However, the Ultra Series also falls into the
kyodai hīro (巨大ヒーロー, "Giant Hero") subgenre of Tokusatsu shows.