All of that is part of the lens, but ultimately, what the brand seems to be about is revisiting classic franchises, rebooting them effectively from the ground up, and distilling what worked about their original incarnations with an infusion of modern realism. There are surface-level aspects, such as Hideaki Anno’s dense, jargon-filled dialogue, rapid editing and Akio Jissoji-inspired unconventional camera angles, pop cultural Easter eggs for otaku in the audience, and a soundtrack comprised of vintage film scores and banging new pieces from Shiro Sagisu. As such, it’s neat to look at how it codifies just what the “shin” prefix represents. Shin Ultraman is, after the Rebuild of Evangelion and Shin Godzilla, the third entry in the Shin Japan Heroes franchise, but it’s also significant in that it’s the first made consciously with the “Shin” brand at the forefront.
