Sung's childhood favorite show = Ultraman

I'm running out of stories about Sung lately. So, let me pull up a story from my old archive.

If you are also a big fan of Sung's, you probably know that Sung likes Ultraman. He says so in his MySpace profile page. So, I grab a small Ultraman Taro figure before I went to see him in person last December. The first picture is the one I took before I gave this to Sung.

I did not know the old episodes of Ultraman show that was popular in Japan in 70s' was shown on American TV. So, when I saw Sung list "Ultraman" as his favorite show, I thought he is talking about the new ones recently imported to the states. There are so many different Ultraman shows in Japan. In fact, they are still making new shows and I have no idea how many Ultramen exits by now.

So, when I met Sung, I asked him how he knew about Ultraman and which one he watched. I was surprised when Sung said he used to watch the show every morning when he was in elementray school. It was broadcasted in Georgia every morning. That must be late 70s's or early 80s'. I did not know that Japanese TV show had been introduced in the states since then.

Sung said he did not know it was from Japan because they all spoke in English. But the show was popular among all kids (boys, I suppose) in his school. And the fact that Ultraman is from Asia (well, that is not exactly true because Ultraman is from the space. But the guy who help Ultraman to stay on the earth in the figure of a normal human on the earth and his friends are all Asians.) helped him feel better in the school.

I think the big one appears in the background of many other Ultramen in the 3rd picture is what Sung used to watch. That guy is the first one appeared on TV, I believe. When I was in elementary school, Taro (the 4th one from the left) was shown as the main character. I forgot which appeared first, but I also remember Leo (the 2nd one from the right) was my most favorite Ultraman. I used to have a big figure of this guy and I played with it alot. Because I grow up with two brothers - older and younger one each with close age with me, I used to watch the shows for boys rather than ones for girls. So, I remember a bit more detail about Ultraman and Mask Rider sereies, which helped me having a fun conversation with Sung.

But Sung seemed to know a lot more than I do. He asked me about the theme park in Japan featuring Ultramen, but I did not know about that. He also asked me if I remember the last episode of Ultraman and how he ended up. I did not remember very clearly. But I did remember a little bit, which Sung did not agree.

Anyway, it was too bad that Sung did not recognize Ultraman Taro I gave him. I picked the wrong one. I should buy the right one for him next time. (Hope next time comes soon...)