Professional baseball player Kenji "Ken" Sato returns home to Japan, despite being on the verge of winning a championship in America. Reporter Ami Wakita attributes his sudden departure to rumors of unfinished family business, but in reality it is to fight kaiju as the giant superhero Ultraman, a mantle he reluctantly accepts from his father, Professor Sato. After a battle with the monster Neronga, Ken feels underappreciated after complaints from citizens, and vents that he never wanted to be Ultraman while reminiscing about his mother Emiko, who has recently gone missing.