One of Japan's most enduring pop culture icons is set to return to animation -- worldwide -- via Netflix in 2019.

A new CGI Ultraman anime was announced (via Anime News Network) late last year in the pages of the manga, but now the source material is touting a release worldwide on Netflix, sometime next year.

Production I.G., the studio behind Blood: The Last Vampire, The End of Evangelion, Patlabor, and xxHolic is animating the hotly anticipated series. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex's Kenji Kamiyama and Appleseed Alpha's Shinji Aramaki are directing.

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The new anime is set to serve as a sequel to the classic Ultraman live-action TV series, effectively bringing the manga to life in a new medium.

Here's a description of the new Ultraman manga from U.S. publisher Viz Media:

Decades ago, a being known as the Giant of Light joined Shin Hayata of the Scientific Special Search Party to save Earth from an invasion of terrifying monsters known as Kaiju. Now, many years later, those dark days are fading into memory, and the world is at peace. But in the shadows a new threat is growing, a danger that can only be faced by a new kind of hero - a new kind of Ultraman...

Shinjiro is an ordinary teenager, but his father is the legendary Shin Hayata. When he learns that his father passed on the "Ultraman Factor" to him, and that he possesses incredible powers, nothing will ever be the same again.

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The new Ultraman anime drops on Netflix in 2019.