Christopher Sean, best known for his role as Ken Sato and Ultraman in Ultraman: Rising, served as the MC for the Ultraman event at the American Dream Mall. His charisma and warmth made the experience especially welcoming and memorable, while clearly reflecting his genuine love for the character of Ultraman. In this interview, we discuss Sean’s passion for the franchise, including his favorite Ultraman, favorite Kaiju, his experience working on Ultraman: Rising, and more.
Portions of this interview have been edited for clarity, as there will be major spoilers ahead.
Q: How does it feel to be here at The American Dream Mall for the 60th Anniversary?
A: Incredible. Such a dream coming true. Being here with the entire Ultraman team, Bandai Namco. Yeah, I mean, who could ask for more? We’re in New Jersey, celebrating one of my favorite franchises ever.
Q: Speaking of your favorite franchise, there’s been different iterations, different designs, transformations. Do you have a favorite one in particular that you love?
I love the classic Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Cosmos and then you go to the brothers: Tiga, Dyna, Gaia. There’s so many Ultraman that I love. I love the look and the aesthetic of Ultraman Taro and Ultraman King.
Q: Do you have a favorite Kaiju? Any that you just love so much?
Mr. Sean: Oh man, there’s so many great ones. I like Pigmon, Eleking, Gomora, Bemular, come on, we gotta go right to the OG. There’s so many Kaiju that I love, Jirahs.
Q: What were some of your favorite scenes in the movie – Ultraman: Rising?
Mr. Sean: My absolute favorite moment in that movie was the moment when Ultraman realizes that Dr. Onda’s bomb is going to blow up after the major fight. He hears the beeping and he turns, sees it, and without hesitation runs to put the force field over the explosion and sacrifice himself. I always cry at that moment.
Q: Would you have any advice or things to say for the fans here at the 60th anniversary, like who Ultraman is?
Mr. Sean: I say, live with love and light. Be an Ultra hero yourself. Because with that, your heart, your intuition, your spirit will guide you just like Ultraman would.
Q: When I watched the movie – Ultraman: Rising, I can’t help but relate to the hero because of his dual identities of being a baseball player, hero, and father to Emi the Kaiju. How would you describe the conflicted yet relatable hero?
Mr. Sean: I think the great thing about Ken Sato is that in the beginning of the movie, he’s extremely selfish. But they did such a great job of developing it. Marc Haimes and Shannon Tindle, when they wrote that script, you start off with this very egocentric person who’s an all-star baseball player.
Who then finds himself becoming not only a parent, a hero, but also healing intergenerational trauma. He finds himself becoming selfless as a hero. So going from absolutely focusing only on yourself, to truly becoming a hero is the best character arc that you can have as an actor, in such a great movie as well.
Q: What are some things that you learned or gained from playing Ken Sato and Ultraman?
Mr. Sean: You know, being half Japanese, my whole life I was always looking for community. I didn’t feel white enough and I didn’t feel Asian enough to fit into neither. In reality, your family is what you choose to be, so home is where my heart is. I started to love myself so much more after I saw this movie because I realized this parallels my own life. Becoming a father, being an actor in my own way as a celebrity, like an all-star player, but also being an actor as well as wanting to fit in.
You know, there’s the line that says, “if you ever get made fun of for the way you look, what you eat, you learn real fast they’re going to make fun of you, they’re going to talk about you no matter what. Give you something to talk about”. So that was my life. So to see that, I started to realize we all go through trauma. We all deal with it differently. But when you start to speak about it, see others dealing with it, you realize you’re not alone. I love that.
Luke: I love that. Thank you very much! Growing up as an Asian American in America, I sometimes feel like there’s this sense of identity. You can’t find out who you are. You have all these different cultures too. What I love about Ultraman is that it doesn’t matter who you are, you can just love Ultraman and just be who you want to be.
Mr. Sean: You know, there’s light. Light is all colors of the spectrum. Ultraman is a being of light from Nebula M78, so we all have Ultraman within us. If you live with love and light, you’ll be guided perfectly.
Q: Is there anything that you would love to see in future stories of Ultraman? Classic enemies? More planets?
Mr. Sean: I want to see, oh my goodness, I want to see everything Ultraman. So whatever they come up with, it’s always been amazing, especially the new Ultraman Omega, which drops now on Amazon Prime Video, Tsuburaya Productions Official Youtube Channel (Japanese Dub), and the Ultraman Official English Youtube Channel (with other dubs available). You’re going to have the whole gamut of Ultraman at your fingertips now streaming.
Q: Speaking of the new series, does the audience have to catch up on any past Ultraman show or lore to understand the new one?
Mr. Sean: Every new iteration of Ultraman has lots of easter eggs, but everyone’s a standalone. You can watch it from the beginning of that series, enjoy the whole show, fall in love with your Ultraman, much like any other hero, much like all of the other heroes. Once you see them, you love them, and then that’s your Ultraman. Then you can start picking out your favorites because you can start going through the whole collection from 1966 until today.
Q: Anything that you would love to tell fans tuning in at the event?
Mr. Sean: Thank you all very much. Without you, we wouldn’t have expanded this universe, which is Ultraman. We wouldn’t have all the love and praise, and we wouldn’t have the opportunity to continue telling great stories. Without the fans, Ultraman isn’t everything, isn’t anything. So thank you. Because your energy gives us energy.
Conclusion
What were some of your favorite moments from this interview? What does Ultraman mean to you? Ultraman Omega is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Tsuburaya Productions Official Youtube Channel (Japanese Dub), and the Ultraman Official English Youtube Channel (with other dubs available)
Thank you to Christopher Sean for taking the time to speak with us and for his work as Ken Sato and Ultraman. We look forward to the possibility of seeing him return to the role in a future sequel or cameo appearance.
Images: Ultraman: Rising, Tsuburaya Productions Encyclopedia
© Tsuburaya Productions, Netflix Animation, Industrial Light & Magic
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