In countries that did get Take Me Higher as the opening theme (for example, Malaysia), it's a cover version by Tatsuya Maeda instead of the original V6 version. Again, this is due to the meddling of Johnny's, whose stance at the time was that they do not export their music out of Japan. This loophole was only possible because the rights to the song was held by Avex and not Johnny's, so Tsuburaya could just get another artist to get the song Covered Up.
Trope Trivia
Acclaimed Flop: Played with. Despite its love from fans and critics the series actually underperformed in terms of ratings. Luckily it did amazingly well in terms of merchandising which helped the Ultra Series continue past Tiga.
Acting for Two: Hiroshi Nagano plays both Daigo and an errand boy/intern named Nagano in episode 49.
Contest Winner Cameo: Taraban was the winner of a Create Your Own Monster contest held by Tsuburaya Productions.
Denial of Digital Distribution: Tiga (and the last two episodes of it's successor, Ultraman Dyna- which had a Crossover with Tiga in the series finale) is consistently missing from streaming services due to Johnny & Associates, the talent agency representing Hiroshi Nagano, being extremely protective of their clients' images and likenesses to the point of having draconian rules on digital distribution of imagery of them.
Surprisingly in 2022 Shout Factory, under its Tokushoutsu label was able to show the series with Daigo intact with only the opening being changed. Funny enough, the ad that was shown on YouTube does not include Daigo even though Dyna and Gaia host were shown indicating Shout Factory were walking a tightrope on what they're allowed to show.
Development Gag: The two Ultras that appeared next to Tiga as statues in the first episode were reused from rejected designs for Tiga.
He Also Did: Since Hiroshi Nagano is one of the members of V6, the fact that he has a part on the song "TAKE ME HIGHER" is no surprise. Not to mention, V6 also did Inuyasha's first opening song, "CHANGE THE WORLD".
In Western territories, the series was released subbed in DVD in the United States, but due to 4Kids Entertainment's closure and Funimation moving on to other projects, the DVDs are no longer made, with Volume 3 in particular being almost impossible to find.
The same can be said of the Latin American Dub which has seen no home media release, but luckily the whole series can be found online dubbed.
In 2021, the show would be rereleases by Mill Creek Entertainment but omitted the original opening theme "Take Me Higher", so the older releases are still the only way to experience the show with the original opening.
According to 4Kids writer Mike Pecoriello, the second half of the show was dubbed in full, however it only aired on POGO TV in India. Only a few clips of it have surfaced online.
Late Export for You: it took the show 3 years to finally make it to Malaysia, where it was only finally shown on NTV7 in 1999. A large part of the delay is due to the Malaysian dubbing house not wanting to record their own theme song and insisted on the Japanese theme song as part of the package, but Johnny's is blocking the export of the song because of their xenophobic mindset, and Tsuburaya had to consider their legal options before finally locating a loophole and getting a Covered Up version of the song for export.
Milestone Celebration: Of Ultraman's 30th anniversary. Episode 49 "The Ultra Star" even has Daigo travel back to 1965 and stumble into Eiji Tsuburaya beginning the production of Ultraman, as well as Tiga teaming up with the original Ultraman to battle the kaiju Yanakargi.
Hiroshi Nagano, the actor of Daigo Madoka mentioned that his favorite Ultraman is Ultraman Ace. He also watched Ultraman 80 in his childhood, which the succeeding series' actor Takeshi Tsuruno (Shin Asuka) is a fan of.
Norman J. Grossfeld, producer of the 4Kids dub, was a fan of the original Ultraman.
Silvergon was created from Sealizar, with added parts from Gagi.
Goldras was remade into Yanakagi.
Litomalus was later remodified into Gijera.
Real Song Theme Tune: Take Me Higher, the theme song of the series, was originally written by Dave Rodgersnote an Eurobeat songwriter and performer whose name would be very familiar to Initial D fans independent of the series, but had his input in being adopted to the theme song of the series and translated into Japanese. The song would eventually also appear in English in the anime Initial D Battle Stage 3.
Recycled Script: Akio Jissoji based episode 40 "Dream" off an unused Ultra Q script he wrote 30 years ago. The main difference is that the Monster of the Week would have been more like the mythological baku rather than the bizarre chimera that is Bakugon.
Screwed by the Lawyers: Due to legal issues surrounding "Take Me Higher" and the notoriously draconian constraints of Johnny's, the 2021 DVD by Mill Creek replaced the song with a different theme. Bizarrely, episodes 3 and 4 on the first disc on Mill Creek's set did retain the original opening despite the other episodes replacing it. Even more bizzarely, they could've just used the Tatsuya Maeda cover of the song, which was recorded because Johnny's vetoed the export of the V6 cover and some dubbing houses (specifically, the Malaysian and Indonesian dubbing houses) insisted on having the song as part of the package deal instead of writing their own. Heck, they could’ve even just went for the English version by Dave Rodgers himself.
Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey was not included in Mill Creek's DVD set, due to music rights issues related to Johnny's preventing Tsuburaya from licensing it outside of Japan.
Throw It In!: Episode 44 initially didn't have Tiga hugging Guardie in the script, but suit actor Shunsuke Gondo ad-libbed after having watched the episodes of Ultraman starring Jirahs and Jamila and, inspired by the moments of sympathy shown for the monsters by the original Ultraman, thought it would be fitting to give a sympathetic moment between Tiga and the benevolent kaiju. The director of the episode, Hirochika Muraishi, was forgiving to the ad-libbing thanks to Gondo getting it right on the first try and thus allowed it to remain in the final product.
Stunt Casting: The major landmark for this series is being the first Ultra Series to actually casting an active J-Idol, Hiroshi Nagano of V6 as the lead actor Daigo Madoka.
The original idea for Tiga's origin is that he would be born from the Big Bang and was the precursor to the Land of Light Ultras, before finding himself travelling to the present time and blending into society. He was to be known as "Ultraman Tiga, The World's First Ultraman".
Some details of the GUTS members were changed into production and conceptualization: Captain Megumi Iruma was meant at first to be a stern and very strict captain towards the GUTS members, Mukanata would have been a divorced father who had a daughter. Shinjoh's original name was going to be Kuwada (in fact, Shinjoh's name is a tribute to writer Tetsuo Kinjo) and Rena would've been the daughter of a deceased TPC staff member named Manase.
Tiga's Protector was intended to be removable and be used just like the Eye Slugger. It's unknown exactly why this idea was dropped.
Golza was originally going to be named Orgo.
Episode 23 (the one with the Weaponizers) would have originally had a major revelation that many of the monsters fought by Tiga were creations by a scientist from the ancient civilization he protected. While the idea was dropped in the end, the "ancient scientist" idea was recycled for episode 45 (Gijera) with the character of Nook.
The script for episode 27, "I Saw Obiko!",originally ended with Obikoboushi being taken to space by Tiga to give him a new home to live (an ending used in many previous Ultra shows). However, this was changed because episode director Kyota Kawasaki felt it didn't make narrative or thematic sense (firstly, Obiko was not a space monster, but a youkai, and secondly, it seemed cruel to have the monster to be forcibly taken away from its beloved home).
4Kids had initially planned to dub the second half of the show in September of 2003, as evidenced by some of the villain videos containing villains such as Irudo and Evil Tiga, a vehicle video of the GUTS Wing EX-J (referred to as the "GUTS Gemini Cruiser") as well a scene from the final battle with Gatanozoa seen in the video describing his "Biotic Sensor" (Color Timer). However, they went back on that decision in favor of the uncut release.
DiC and Saban showed interest in licensing Ultraman Tiga as well, but Tsuburaya shot them down due to their desire to do an adaptation by splicing the Japanese footage with American actors. Tsuburaya went with 4Kids due to them being the only ones willing to dub the show directly.
Written-In Infirmity: Lead actor Hiroshi Nagano (Daigo Madoka) suffers from a backflip incident that injured his right hand. This resulted in his character Daigo having to be written as injured from an aviation accident with Shinjoh for episodes 15 and 16.
without explanation. A CCP representative states, "TV channels must 'adamantly resist using bad plots,' and should only air 'moral cartoons with healthy content and promote truth, goodness and beauty." However, Tiga is the most popular Ultra show in China with the younger generations, even teaching the same morals that the representative said the banned content did not contain. This banning was just one of aslew of draconian laws that the CCP placed upon entertainment in 2021, with CNN making it clear in their coverage