Ultraman Tiga (ウルトラマンティガ, Urutoraman Tiga) is a fictional superhero from the 1996 Ultra Series, Ultraman Tiga, which ended a 15 year long hiatus of live-action shows produced in Japan after Ultraman 80 ended in 1981. In the series, the titular character's body bonded with Daigo Madoka, a man who was a descendant of Ultra Ancient Civilization to fight against monstrous threats during the series' course. Tiga's case is regarded as a "human Ultraman" (人間ウルトラマン, Ningen Urutoraman), due to his host Daigo controlling his body instead of Tiga being in control of himself. Following the destruction of the dark ruler Gatanothor, Daigo lost his ability to transform into Tiga, signifying that the ancient warrior's role on Earth was over.

During the run of the series, Tsuburaya Productions celebrated the 30th anniversary of Ultraman Series, by having Ultraman Tiga meet with an alternate version of the original Ultraman. Aside from that, Tiga's appearance laid a huge impact on the Ultra Series, as not only being the first Heisei Era Ultra Warrior, but also introduced the ability for Ultra Warriors to change their forms and appearances. Tiga himself enjoyed a huge popularity among fans and started to appear in succeeding media of the Ultra Series, either as himself (without proper explanation) or as an alternate reality version of the character. His series in fact won the Best Dramatic Presentation of Seiun Award in 1998.

Ultraman Tiga's grunts were provided by Yūji Machi (真地 勇志, Machi Yūji) during his series, who would later become the narrator of Ultraman Dyna, the succeeding series after Tiga. His grunts were recorded and recycled for Tiga's future appearances. During the movie Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey and Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers, his grunts were provided by Hiroshi Nagano, Daigo Madoka's actor. Meanwhile, his suit actors were in Koji Nakamura (中村 浩二, Nakamura Kōji) Multi and Power Type and Shunsuke Gondō (権藤 俊輔, Gondō Shunsuke) in Multi and Sky Type.

The design of Ultraman Tiga was meant to be a break from the traditional red colored Ultras. His proposed coloring was red, blue, purple and silver, a trend that would be passed on to succeeding Ultra Warriors of Heisei Era Series. Tiga's first archetypal design was made in a form of a clay statue by Marbling Fine Arts company. Two other prototypes were also submitted by said company, and in the end one of them was chosen as Tiga's default design. The other two statues were however incorporated to the story line as stone bodies of Tiga's past allies, who fought alongside him to protect the ancient civilization but unlike Tiga, their bodies were destroyed by Golza and Melba before Tiga's body merge with Daigo. Also the original setting for the pyramid was supposedly to house five instead of three Ultras, with two statues being destroyed and the other two merged with Tiga to bestow him his Type Change abilities. The crystal on his forehead was meant as a trademark to reflect the sunlight along his crest during lighting effect. One of his NG design was recycled by Maruyama into Evil Tiga, an Ultraman that appeared in episode 44 of his series, who went rogue after a forced merger with his human host, Keigo Masaki. The very first suit to be made was the Multi Type, where it lacks peepholes for the suit actor and photography was taken by the Yomiuri Advertising for the promotional campaign. His Color Timer changes thanks to the built-in diode. His gold/silver striped Protector was crafted through die-cutting and due to the initial one had its color easily wear off, the new one has become part of the suit's fabric since the shooting of episode 5 and 6. In the original planning, Tiga's Protector (as well as the Tiga Slicer attack) was meant to be used as a removable boomerang. Unlike the Showa Era series, Tiga's aerial combat scene was done with combination of Chroma key, doll props and CGI. According to designer Hiroshi Maruyama, the Sparklence (Ultraman Tiga's transformation item) was designed by Bandai and denied any participation in its creation.

Since the suit actors of Ultraman Tiga have different physique, his suit for each Type Change was produced twice and differently for them:

In Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey, the three newer forms that appeared in the movie, Tiga Dark, Tiga Tornado and Tiga Blast supposedly would have had their design separated from Tiga's Type Change forms. But because of time constraints, it was decided to simply have them recolored from original costume designs.

Tiga's name originally from Malaysia/Indonesia for the digit number 3, referring to Tiga's Type Change ability, which revolves around him changing into three forms.

In episode 2 of the series, after Tiga first appeared, GUTS tried to find a suitable name for the giant. With sub-captain Munakata's suggestion Mountain Gulliver (マウンテンガリバー, Maunten Garibā) being rejected, it was Daigo who gives the giant his actual name, which was accepted by the rest of GUTS' members. The rejected name Mountain Gulliver seems to be based on the 1726 Irish novel Gulliver's Travels.