is a fictional superhero from the 1996 Ultra Series, Ultraman Tiga, which ended a 15 year long hiatus of live-action shows produced in Japan after Ultraman 80 ended in 1981. In the series, the titular character's body bonded with Daigo Madoka, a man who was a descendant of Ultra Ancient Civilization to fight against monstrous threats during the series' course. Tiga's case is regarded as a , due to his host Daigo controlling his body instead of Tiga being in control of himself. Following the destruction of the dark ruler Gatanothor, Daigo lost his ability to transform into Tiga, signifying that the ancient warrior's role on Earth was over.
During the run of the series, Tsuburaya Productions celebrated the 30th anniversary of Ultraman Series, by having Ultraman Tiga meet with an alternate version of the original Ultraman. Aside from that, Tiga's appearance laid a huge impact on the Ultra Series, as not only being the first Heisei Era Ultra Warrior, but also introduced the ability for Ultra Warriors to change their forms and appearances. Tiga himself enjoyed a huge popularity among fans and started to appear in succeeding media of the Ultra Series, either as himself (without proper explanation) or as an alternate reality version of the character. His series in fact won the Best Dramatic Presentation of Seiun Award in 1998.
Ultraman Tiga's grunts were provided by during his series, who would later become the narrator of Ultraman Dyna, the succeeding series after Tiga. His grunts were recorded and recycled for Tiga's future appearances. During the movie Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey and Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers, his grunts were provided by Hiroshi Nagano, Daigo Madoka's actor. Meanwhile, his suit actors were in Multi and Power Type and in Multi and Sky Type.
Character conception The design of Ultraman Tiga was meant to be a break from the traditional red colored Ultras. His proposed coloring was red, blue, purple and silver, a trend that would be passed on to succeeding Ultra Warriors of Heisei Era Series. Tiga's first archetypal design was made in a form of a clay statue by Marbling Fine Arts company. Two other prototypes were also submitted by said company, and in the end one of them was chosen as Tiga's default design. The other two statues were however incorporated to the story line as stone bodies of Tiga's past allies, who fought alongside him to protect the ancient civilization but unlike Tiga, their bodies were destroyed by Golza and Melba before Tiga's body merge with Daigo. Also the original setting for the pyramid was supposedly to house five instead of three Ultras, with two statues being destroyed and the other two merged with Tiga to bestow him his Type Change abilities. The crystal on his forehead was meant as a trademark to reflect the sunlight along his crest during lighting effect. One of his NG design was recycled by Maruyama into Evil Tiga, an Ultraman that appeared in episode 44 of his series, who went rogue after a forced merger with his human host, Keigo Masaki. The very first suit to be made was the Multi Type, where it lacks peepholes for the suit actor and photography was taken by the Yomiuri Advertising for the promotional campaign. His Color Timer changes thanks to the built-in diode. His gold/silver striped Protector was crafted through die-cutting and due to the initial one had its color easily wear off, the new one has become part of the suit's fabric since the shooting of episode 5 and 6. In the original planning, Tiga's Protector (as well as the Tiga Slicer attack) was meant to be used as a removable boomerang. Unlike the Showa Era series, Tiga's aerial combat scene was done with combination of Chroma key, doll props and CGI. According to designer Hiroshi Maruyama, the Sparklence (Ultraman Tiga's transformation item) was designed by Bandai and denied any participation in its creation.
Since the suit actors of Ultraman Tiga have different physique, his suit for each Type Change was produced twice and differently for them: Due to being heavily trained in stamina, Koji Nakamura is assigned to portray the muscular and thicker image. Also because of said physique, Nakamura is well suited to portray Power Type and his proficiency in Kenpō gives a sharp movement. There is also a variation of Sky Type suit made for Koji Nakamura, but it was never used in the series and only appear in the show's opening sequence. On the other hand, Shunsuke Gondo has a sleeker body type akin to Bin Furuya, the actor of original Ultraman. He also portray the latter character in episode 49 as part of a crossover with Tiga.
In Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey, the three newer forms that appeared in the movie, Tiga Dark, Tiga Tornado and Tiga Blast supposedly would have had their design separated from Tiga's Type Change forms. But because of time constraints, it was decided to simply have them recolored from original costume designs.
Naming Tiga's name came from the Malaysian and Indonedian for the digit number 3, referring to Tiga's Type Change ability, which revolves around him changing into three forms.
In episode 2 of the series, after Tiga first appeared, GUTS tried to find a suitable name for the giant. With sub-captain Munakata's suggestion being rejected, it was Daigo who gives the giant his actual name, which was accepted by the rest of GUTS' members. The rejected name Mountain Gulliver seems to be based on the 1726 Irish novel Gulliver's Travels.
History Past 30 million years prior to the series, Tiga was one of the ancient giants to be swayed by the darkness and rose to prominence when several of the ancient giants corrupted due to the stresses of the civil war. He was considered to be the strongest of all Dark Giants in existence and had defeated many of the heroic Ultras in the past but after falling in love with a human named Yuzare, Tiga switched sides. He betrayed his own comrades and stole their powers for his own before sealing them as stone statues. The redeemed Tiga join forces with two other unnamed giants to protect the ancient Earth from countless catastrophes and numerous dark forces. With their deed done, the giants left their bodies as stone statues in the , while their essence departed to space.
5,000 before Ultraman Tiga in Revival of the Ancient Giant, the sorcerer Dogramagma threatened the peace of Sakimoria village with a giant dogū statue monster Degouf until Ultraman Tiga saved the village. When Dogramagma threatened the village again and the Tiga Pyramid, a time-displaced Tsubasa Madoka tried to transform into Tiga, but his incompatibility resulted with the half-sized Tiga barely able to kill Jomonoid until Amui used the Sparklemnce on himself, successfully bringing the giant in his full power and destroying both Dogouf and Dogramagma.
Ultraman Tiga
In the present day, two ancient monsters, Golza and Melba, were awakened and attempted to destroy the giant statues in Tiga Pyramid. GUTS members (under guidance by Yuzare's hologram) discovered these statues but during Golza and Melba's attack, Daigo merged with Tiga's statue and reanimated the giant once more, fighting against Golza and Melba. Although Golza managed to escape, Tiga nonetheless killed Melba. Starting from that point, Tiga would return once again to battle against other monsters and alien threats, including a returned Golza and those who responsible for the destruction of the ancient civilization. At one point, Daigo/Tiga was brought into the past and met an alternate incarnation of the original Ultraman, joining forces to destroy the sealed monster Yanakagi. Near the finale, Daigo revealed his identity to Rena and Captain Iruma before facing against the great destroyer Gatanothor. The giant monster was too great for Tiga to handle and in the end, he was petrified into a stone statue. It was then the light of humanity was able to revive Tiga and turn him into Glitter Tiga, giving him the power to defeat Gatanothor and save the Earth. However, Tiga's victory came at a cost: Daigo was no longer able to become Tiga after the Sparklence disintegrated into dust after his final battle.
Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey Two years after Tiga defeated Gatanothor, TPC awakened the dark giants by accident during their trip to R'lyeh. Daigo was haunted by Camearra's dreams, for she was intent on luring him into R'lyeh and transforming into Tiga Dark. Although Daigo was forced to comply to their and thus, breaking Yuzare's protective barrier, Daigo refused to join them and in a similar fashion to the original Tiga, slowly regained his light by absorbing Darramb's strength and Hudra's speed before killing them. Facing Camearra in his partially restored light form, Tiga was on the verge of defeat until Rena appeared and provided assistance. When shielding Rena from Camearra's attack, this fully restored his light form but his actions of saving Rena (which is a sign of genuine love) had made Camearra even outraged and she turned into Demonthor, killing Tiga with relative ease until the remains of ancient giants revived him into Glitter Tiga to finish the monster. Although Daigo had returned to his normal life, Tiga's whereabouts (including his Dark Sparklence) remain ambiguous.
As mentioned above, Tiga's grunt was provided by Hiroshi Nagano in conjunction with Daigo's speaking voice but when the movie was featured in episode 8 of Shin Ultraman Retsuden, Tiga's scene was re-dubbed with Yūji Machi's grunts instead.
Subsequent history Ultraman Dyna (1997–98): Although not appearing, the giant was mentioned and referenced several times in the series. Ultraman Dyna, the series' titular Ultra Warrior is considered by many in-series to be a spiritual successor to Ultraman Tiga, due to sharing the similar ability to Type Change. Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light (1998): In this crossover movie, Tiga was summoned by the hopes of survivors from Queen Monera's attack after Ultraman Dyna was captured and killed by the villain. The giant rescued and revived his successor and they team up and saved the Earth from Queen Monera's reign of terror. After the battle, the two disappeared into glittering lights and Tiga gave Dyna his own light, therefore further cementing the latter as his official successor. In this movie, Tiga Multi Type demonstrated the technique called , combining his Zeperion Ray with Dyna's Empowered Solgent Ray. Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyperspace (1999): Tiga and Dyna are summoned by Tsutomu via the Red Sphere when Ultraman Gaia was brutally defeated by King of Mons and its servants, Basiliss and Sculla. Tiga chased Scylla to the underwater and had a short scuffle before destroying it with Zeperion Ray, further weakening King of Mons and for Gaia to finally ending the destroyer's own life. The trio returned to their home worlds when Tsutomu wished for the Red Sphere's nonexistent. Ultraman Boy no Urukoro (2003): In this series, Tiga is voiced by . Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers (2008): In this film, Ultraman Tiga was transformed by Daigo Madoka (both are alternate reality versions of themselves) and personally fought against Super Alien Hipporito before he was joined by Dyna, Gaia, the alternate Ultra Brothers and Mebius in defeating Giga Khimaira and the dark mastermind himself.