The "Ultraman" live-action science-fiction series has been a rite of passage for Japanese boys (and a few girls) and their families for four decades now, since the first show was aired in 1966.
For many, one day you are the parent of a preschooler whose idea of fun television is "Sesame Street" or "Ponkikki," the next you are living with a junior superhero who makes strange cries and arm movements in addition to more familiar karatelike kicks and chops. Your child is, you notice, not merely knocking imaginary space monsters into the next galaxy, but vaporizing them with his "specium beam" fired from forearms crossed in an "L" position, with the upright arm doing the zapping.
He has also developed an insatiable craving for red-and-silver plastic figures -- members of the "Ultraman" extended alien family with Viking horns and grasshopper eyes thrown into the DNA mix, as well as the monsters they battle.