1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,400 This is MJ Munoz, you are listening to Story Over Everything, the chronicles of an author, 2 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:10,120 artist and analyzer. 3 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:17,320 The date is September 30th, 2022. 4 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:23,640 I'm going to talk about a little, well, here's a tease for a little story idea I'm going 5 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:31,520 to be working on live with you here and now, and this is how it goes: 6 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:37,040 What if there were guardian angels in the form of magical talking bugs sent out from 7 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:39,560 Heaven to help kids? 8 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:45,440 Alright, so my first segment is going to be work in progress, and I want to talk to you 9 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:50,800 about what is the status of my current projects: progress made, length of time on the back 10 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,160 burner, that sort of thing. 11 00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:58,060 So it's a very personal, or it's a very busy time for me in my personal life, so I have 12 00:00:58,060 --> 00:01:03,040 not actively worked on most of my projects that I have going. 13 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:07,720 I have, on the back burner an artist who's supposed to be working on my breastfeeding 14 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:08,720 book. 15 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:19,160 It's a informative, educational, sweet, cute, pretty, breastfeeding book to help older siblings, 16 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:23,280 I guess first borns or otherwise, who are going to be having a nursling in the house 17 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:30,480 soon, to understand why their baby sibling is going to be drinking milk from their mother 18 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,660 and what all the benefits of breastfeeding are and why a mother might choose to breastfeed 19 00:01:34,660 --> 00:01:38,640 her child because of all the good things about it. 20 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,800 There's good, there's bad, there's funny, there's silly, there's a whole gamut of things, 21 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:48,760 but it is framed in a very positive way to make it normal, to encourage it, to make it 22 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,400 a, to show it to be a beautiful thing. 23 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:54,520 You know, beautiful but also silly and fun at some times. 24 00:01:54,520 --> 00:02:00,040 So my artist who I have contracted to work on that, not contracted per se, but who is 25 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,480 set to work on that, hasn't done anything on it, and that's mostly my fault. 26 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,320 I'm supposed to give thumbnail sketches for that. 27 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaking of which, the idea I brought up about these guardian angel bugs is actually something 28 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:20,440 that I have scripts on, and I'm kind of cheating with this segment I'm going to do at the end, 29 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,920 which is where I live write things. 30 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:28,400 I actually have five books planned, and I guess I'll talk about that more when I get 31 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:33,140 to it, but the first one, I'm supposed to also be getting thumbnails and descriptions 32 00:02:33,140 --> 00:02:37,960 to an artist because I have the first two scripts for those books finished actually, 33 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,640 so I need to work on that. 34 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:46,000 And as far as stuff on the back burner, the superhero pulp novels are all on the back 35 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,000 burner. 36 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:53,360 I do have a rough outline of 12 books for one character. 37 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,280 I don't know that I want to do 12 books for every character if I just want to do 12 books 38 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:01,360 for the flagship character in each era, or if I need to plan them out and then execute 39 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:06,320 based on how well they're received, so I'm not 100% sure about that, but that's an idea. 40 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:11,760 And then I actually have another children's picture book series, so the breastfeeding 41 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,320 one is a single book, one and done. 42 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:23,200 The other one, which is the bugs, the guardian angel bugs, that's a series of five books 43 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:24,440 that I have planned. 44 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:30,920 And then the other one, it's a fantasy story with a dragon, and I have plans to do maybe 45 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:32,320 four books for that, or I could do more. 46 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:36,000 I could start with four and then have that be like kind of wave one, and then I don't 47 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,440 know if the stories will grow up with the kids or just be geared towards different kids 48 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,520 after that or whatever, but that's something on the back burner as well. 49 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:50,580 So there's also kind of a tie-in fun anthology style superhero book, all of the good night 50 00:03:50,580 --> 00:03:53,560 Darth Vader type thing where you get to see all these different characters from the Star 51 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:54,560 Wars universe. 52 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:59,000 Of course, I'd be doing a book about superhero characters that I've invented and that I've 53 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:04,520 created, so children wouldn't know them, but I figure if it's constructed cleverly enough, 54 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,920 it should work. 55 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:13,160 I'm trying to think of a world where you're introduced to many characters from many different 56 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,400 worlds, so to speak, at one time. 57 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,160 The Incredibles comes to mind, maybe stuff from... 58 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,400 Oh dear, what's that one called? 59 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:24,840 Wreck-It Ralph, where you have all those other video game characters, although there's a 60 00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:31,600 lot of nostalgic characters, there's also the use of some brand new characters of franchises 61 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:32,600 in that world. 62 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:36,280 Also, it's odd, my kids have been watching Toy Story recently, and Buzz Lightyear and 63 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:43,560 Woody are new, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, the Etch A Sketch, those are egg-stamped toys. 64 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:47,560 I don't know about Slinky Dog or Piggy Bank is just a kind of generic thing and a dinosaur 65 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:48,560 toy. 66 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:49,560 So I don't know. 67 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:53,560 I figure as long as the cast is charming and the material is handled cleverly, you can 68 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:58,600 kind of make a thing or an ensemble out of anything. 69 00:04:58,600 --> 00:04:59,960 Do I dare to do that myself? 70 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:01,280 Yes, I do dare. 71 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:05,640 I do dare and I hope that with my daring do, that I will be successful. 72 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:08,840 So anyway, that's it for the work in progress. 73 00:05:08,840 --> 00:05:09,840 What about completed works? 74 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:15,960 Well, I'm an author, an artist, and an analyzer, and I've accomplished three analyses this 75 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:17,720 week. 76 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:24,280 They were for two Tokusatsu shows directly and a Tokusatsu-inspired anime Tokusatsu's 77 00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:27,280 live action Japanese special effects shows. 78 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:34,960 The word Tokusatsu literally means special effects in Japanese and mostly it's men in 79 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:39,720 rubber costumes fighting other men in rubber costumes and that's what it's about. 80 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:42,640 Power Rangers comes from Super Sentai. 81 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,760 Power Rangers comes from, or Super Sentai comes from Kamen Rider. 82 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:49,360 Kamen Rider comes from Ultraman, so to speak, in a way. 83 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:52,440 And Ultraman comes from Godzilla. 84 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:56,880 And really, I guess you could say the Tokusatsu genre comes from stuff like Godzilla. 85 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:01,880 I don't think Godzilla was absolutely the first, but it's one of the biggest, most impactful, 86 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:02,880 and I guess one of the best. 87 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:04,960 It's a Tokusatsu exemplar. 88 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,800 So it doesn't always have to be giant monsters, but it is definitely, you know, if you think 89 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:13,560 about Godzilla rampaging through a city, he's knocking things, you know, first of all, they 90 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:17,320 had to make him look giant, so they built sets in such a way to use force perspective 91 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:19,760 and they had to create the monster suit to look a certain way. 92 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:21,440 So that's where the rubber suit stuff comes in. 93 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:26,180 And then when he's knocking over electrical wires and, you know, smashing tanks and things 94 00:06:26,180 --> 00:06:31,320 like that, and, you know, they had to have miniature-sized tanks scaled to this, you 95 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:36,760 know, this gentleman who was in the suit in order to make it look like real ships flying, 96 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:41,320 you know, flying planes with guns on them were attacking him and real tanks on the ground 97 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:42,320 were attacking him. 98 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,120 And then, you know, for his counterattack, they had to show all those things. 99 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:51,480 So they did that by, you know, creating miniature sets and using different types of props and 100 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:55,160 having them destroyed with explosions or getting knocked or flipped over, different things 101 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:56,160 like that. 102 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:01,760 So anyway, that's the, like I said, the best example of tokusatsu. 103 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:07,200 And even if you're not, even if your tastes aren't as eccentric as mine, you could say, 104 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:09,280 you've probably seen Godzilla and know what that is. 105 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:13,220 And, you know, at minimum, you're aware of the modern Godzilla movies or like the King 106 00:07:13,220 --> 00:07:17,800 Kong movies, which I'm not going to say, I'm not going to accuse them of being like inspired 107 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:18,800 by Godzilla. 108 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,760 In fact, Godzilla might have been inspired to some extent by King Kong. 109 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:25,640 I don't know the history there and I haven't looked it up and I'm not going to right now 110 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:26,640 because it's not relevant. 111 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,520 But anyway, that's the stuff I'm into. 112 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:34,920 And all three shows that I watched and analyzed this week are in that realm. 113 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,400 So all three of them do come from Japan. 114 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:39,760 Two of them were actually all three of them are subtitled. 115 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:43,400 Unfortunately, the anime did not get a dub, which disappoints me because I'm a fan of 116 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:44,400 dubs. 117 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:46,520 But anyway, I did analysis of those three shows. 118 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:52,080 One of them is 30 out of 50 or so episodes in the other one is four out of 50 or so episodes 119 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:58,240 in and the anime is nine out of I think 12 episodes in. 120 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,040 So in three more weeks, I'll be done with that. 121 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:05,400 But then a new Tokusatsu show will be starting up, which is actually inspired by one of my 122 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:08,120 favorite entries in the Common Writer series. 123 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:10,040 It's called Common Writer Black Sun. 124 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:11,680 It's based off of Common Writer Black. 125 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:17,600 But anyway, I analyzed those and you know, why am I wasting my time doing that? 126 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:20,640 Maybe you might want to ask if I'm a writer and I'm supposed to be writing these other 127 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:21,640 things. 128 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:26,760 But the things that I'm writing are very much steeped in and based on Tokusatsu, very inspired 129 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:27,760 by Tokusatsu. 130 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,120 So I'm keeping current with Tokusatsu. 131 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:34,760 I do plan for my stories to be timeless. 132 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:39,640 And I do think the theme of that Godzilla movie, the original Godzilla is timeless, 133 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:45,640 which is why I'm using it as the basis for the first children's picture book in the Tokusatsu 134 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,400 series, you could say. 135 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:53,600 And that's the one with the magical talking bugs, which there's a magical talking bug 136 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:54,880 in one of the Common Writer movies. 137 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:56,720 So you know, it all ties together. 138 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:03,040 But regardless, you know, I'm watching them because I honestly find that the Common Writer 139 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:06,840 and Super Sentai series and the anime as well, because it is based off of Common Writer, 140 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,440 has compelling writing, there are things to learn in them. 141 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:17,800 And I think that's something I want to talk about real quick. 142 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:26,000 So yeah, I have a segment called Lessons Learned, and it's where I tell you what lessons I learned 143 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,040 from the world of story this week. 144 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:34,400 And you know, like I said, the world of story that I've been involved with is these three 145 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:35,400 shows. 146 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:41,720 So one of them, I'll start with the Futopi, which is the anime, it's a sequel to the completed 147 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,800 live action series of Common Writer Double. 148 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:52,800 Futopi Episode 9 is the end of a three episode arc that has a, it's a bottle episode murder 149 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:57,960 mystery where basically these two heroes are stuck at a cabin in the mountains because 150 00:09:57,960 --> 00:09:58,960 there's a blizzard. 151 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:03,880 And the reason there's a murder mystery aspect to it is because these four women who are 152 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:11,040 contestants in a competition to marry a wealthy man whose family seems to have ties to crime, 153 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:15,440 whether that be Yakuza or some other criminal enterprise, they are dying. 154 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:23,560 So over the course of three episodes, I believe two of the women die and I think a third individual 155 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:27,520 dies related to it, but it's not one of the women contestants because at the end there 156 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:30,760 are two female contestants who are left. 157 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:32,000 I believe that's correct. 158 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,720 Not that you care and not that it really matters because I'm just kind of giving you the rough 159 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:36,720 context. 160 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:43,760 It's a detective story, the two gentlemen who are stuck up in the mountains and who 161 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:48,920 stumble into this murder mystery are detectives who also happen to be a superhero called Common 162 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:55,200 Writer Double and they're actually able to transform by both of them. 163 00:10:55,200 --> 00:11:00,280 One of them, his mind goes into the body of the other one and the two brains in one body 164 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:06,280 that has two halves that they each control fight together and they, you know, come up 165 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:10,720 with clever ways to do things because they're both, you know, they both have good intuition 166 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:15,000 and intelligence because they're a detective and basically a genius who has access to a 167 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:18,880 wide variety of information. 168 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:25,680 I honestly, that this ninth episode was a downgrade from the others recently. 169 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:31,520 I'll put it this way, the first six episodes of the series were really solid and the seventh 170 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:35,640 was okay, the eighth was not so great and the ninth was probably the worst so far or 171 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:40,560 maybe it was the eighth that was the worst so far but I think the issue for me was that 172 00:11:40,560 --> 00:11:46,720 these ones, this story being told in three parts, which it's an adaptation from a manga 173 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:51,720 so the idea with manga to some extent is it's kind of like the old serialized stories like 174 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,920 Swiss Family Robinson for example, they're meant to keep you coming back. 175 00:11:55,920 --> 00:12:02,400 You just, you read a little bit of it in a circular, in a periodical that's circulated 176 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:06,720 in whatever fashion and they're published weekly or however, you know, whatever rate 177 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:10,720 and then they're collected into a single story but the idea is they want to keep you interested 178 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:16,320 in it forever and they want to keep the mystery running forever so there's a ongoing mystery 179 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:23,480 that the characters, the detectives have stumbled upon and it's sort of getting dragged out. 180 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:30,040 There was some revelations that they had but I think the biggest takeaway for me from Fu 181 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:38,840 to a PI9 is that sometimes you can, you know, it's okay to play fast and loose with your 182 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:43,080 rules because they're very serious about doing like a debriefing after each mystery and each 183 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:47,240 case is closed where they go over the details and show logically how, even though there 184 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:51,200 are fantastical elements in the world, how these things could have all happened in a 185 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:57,720 reasonable logical way and I found that to be distracting and distasteful and I think 186 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:01,760 maybe the lesson to take from that is you need to be careful not to be a slave to your 187 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:07,120 format if you're trying to be a pastiche of another genre because that can be wearing 188 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:08,120 and trying. 189 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,520 Like you want to capture certain elements but maybe you don't need to close with a debrief 190 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:17,320 every three episodes and have all the facts of the case gone over because, you know, maybe 191 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:23,280 your audience is smart enough to know or maybe the rest of the, like the narrative, I guess 192 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,080 velocity or momentum is enough so that people can be entertained by that and not need to 193 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:31,040 go over the facts and as long as you as the author know the facts maybe you don't need 194 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:38,120 to belabor them and go over them sort of needlessly to your audience. 195 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:41,160 Maybe that's something I learned from that. 196 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:46,120 Next I'll talk about Comminator Geed's episode 4. 197 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,920 So I think the most important thing I learned from this and it's basically people are in 198 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:55,800 a game, a survival game where they're all competing to win and whoever wins will have 199 00:13:55,800 --> 00:14:00,040 their desire granted at the end of it or their one wish granted. 200 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:04,400 It's world changing, the stakes are super high but the players, their lives are on the 201 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:10,120 line and they die as, supposedly, they die as the rounds continue and as players are 202 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:13,240 eliminated they're literally killed and I believe the game started off with like 50 203 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,680 people and this is a children's show in Japan. 204 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:20,680 I don't think I'd ever want to craft a show like that with those sorts of stakes or a 205 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:25,720 story with those kinds of stakes for kids because that's just too dark, that's unnecessary. 206 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:31,160 Japan has a different culture and despite the fact that these are aimed at younger kids, 207 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:34,400 it's culturally acceptable to them I guess although I don't know, I haven't heard of 208 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:39,200 any flak that they're catching from having this be the idea of the story but not something 209 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:40,200 I would want to do. 210 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:43,960 So maybe that's one lesson I learned but I also learned you can kind of get away with 211 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:45,760 it but that's not what I mean. 212 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:54,360 I'm not interested in pushing the boundaries of what you can get children to learn. 213 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,720 I'm not interested in pushing boundaries like that. 214 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,920 Anyway, but more importantly what I learned from this episode was that you have the hero 215 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:03,600 of the piece, he goes by Ace. 216 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:10,200 He is, he seems to be stuck in this game and I suspect that he's trying to be a true hero 217 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:16,160 and pull out a victory and kind of destroy the sick game from within by winning enough 218 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,800 times or getting enough power for himself. 219 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:23,320 I'm not sure what but he definitely seems to be upset about this game but you have to 220 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:24,320 play to win. 221 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:28,440 If you don't play to win you die and then if you die you have no opportunity to change 222 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:34,680 anything and to counter that concept or to really bring it into sharp relief there's 223 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:41,360 a character who suffered a tragedy and because of having suffered that tragedy became nihilistic 224 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:46,160 to the point where they want all humans to die and they see this game where they can 225 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:52,000 have any wish granted as an opportunity to wipe out all human life on the planet. 226 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:58,400 Now this character becomes seriously debilitated or injured and their efforts become hampered 227 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:04,160 and instead of fighting to win to the very end they try to sabotage and use subterfuge 228 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:10,200 to bring everybody else down with them and in the end they only accomplish their own 229 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:11,200 death. 230 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:17,000 He accomplishes nothing and then he leaves the game and this world with nasty words for 231 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,040 the other characters that the rest of them are going to die and only one of them will 232 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:23,200 survive and he seems like he feels justified in that. 233 00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:28,680 Now the writer of the show has done very solid character work so one I suspect that it's 234 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:32,520 not actually a real death game like I don't think these people are actually dying I think 235 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:35,640 there's they're being put in suspension somehow and they will never be used for this game 236 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:40,040 again but the other thing is I and partly because I suspect this character will come 237 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:48,800 back and we'll have more to say in the in the end but before well basically the main 238 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:54,040 character who says you have to fight to win and who's been willing to trick people in 239 00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:58,800 order to win and to get an advantage so that he can stay on top even though he's moral 240 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:06,160 he is shown to help people which I won't go into that he has a morality but he also has 241 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:11,940 a desire to win above all else because I guess because the six is why and there's a something 242 00:17:11,940 --> 00:17:15,840 in there about the ends justifying the means but I'm uncomfortable with that idea I think 243 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:21,720 that you have to be moral you have to be upright and what you do and that you can't you know 244 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:27,720 do evil for the sake of good necessarily and that actually well I won't get into that side 245 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:33,280 tangent but he basically gives a speech towards the end and throughout the episode it's kind 246 00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:38,880 of peppered this idea that you have to keep fighting you have to keep trying you can't 247 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,440 give up because if you give up and you're not fully committed to the point where you're 248 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:47,080 willing to sacrifice yourself to see your goals met that your dreams and your wishes 249 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:53,200 can never become reality so that's a corny idea it that could be a corny idea but it's 250 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:57,560 not believe in yourself it's if you want something you have to work for it and I like how the 251 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,840 more was put across because nobody ever felt sanctimonious and I won't go into all the 252 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:12,280 details but I guess there's a clever way that you can write like clear morals that are you 253 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:16,600 know simple I guess you could say that you might find in like a ASAP table or something 254 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:23,360 like that you can write these clear very upright morals into something that has like a moral 255 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:28,200 greatness to it or has characters who are acting in less than wonderful ways and I think 256 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:35,000 that's interesting really what that inspires me to do though is to think of how can I frame 257 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:39,760 and shape the narrative or the message or the themes in my stories in order to give 258 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:46,000 positive healthy uplifting messages without coming out and doing a you know a look right 259 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:52,960 at the camera so to speak speech that's you know cheesy and supposedly inspiring but perhaps 260 00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:58,640 uninspiring instead because that's something I would like to avoid as a writer and then 261 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:06,760 last last is a T at the end of that word last the super sent I entry was Don Brothers 30 262 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:13,520 and I don't know the writer of it is a prolific writer in the genre he's been hired again 263 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:19,560 and again and again by the same company over the course of I think 30 years and there may 264 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,920 be some nepotism in it because his father actually wrote for the original common writer 265 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:28,120 which I said earlier common writer gave birth to super sent I or the success of common writer 266 00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:32,040 led to the development of super sent I and he started working on super sent I believe 267 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:36,840 in the mid 80s and he's worked on and off of it for a long time and then he actually 268 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,120 I was wondering a while back where he went because I hadn't seen him being active but 269 00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:45,680 he seems to be here he came back for the super sent I he was also writing a manga adaptation 270 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:51,800 which is a Japanese comic book adaptation of the comeback series of common writer from 271 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:56,640 the year 2000 so apparently he's been busy with that apparently it's been ongoing for 272 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:03,120 like six years I think is what it is and that's pretty impressive to me but anyway regardless 273 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:09,960 he is a talented writer I really like one of his other shows I think I've seen two of 274 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:13,880 his shows besides this one that I'm currently watching and there's something about his writing 275 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:22,080 that I just feel is I don't know utterly competent very charming he creates characters who you 276 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:28,480 shouldn't like and then you like them and he has his characters doing things that you 277 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:37,720 might find reprehensible and yet there is they're charming enough that you don't mind 278 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:43,360 it's very odd he's a very skilled writer he does certain weird things and he almost seems 279 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:50,840 to like purposely antagonize the audience or maybe the bosses around him by some of 280 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:56,480 the things that he does and yet he continues to have success as a writer and I don't know 281 00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:01,240 I don't quite know what it is there's something about him like flaunting and bending rules 282 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:06,360 or conventions maybe kind of to be subversive but in a very I don't know in a very pleasing 283 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:12,160 way where it feels fresh and exciting and not like a betrayal of the very thing that 284 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:19,520 it is like none of his stuff in this super sent I show feels not like super sent I or 285 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:24,480 like it goes against the spirit of super sent I but it definitely feels offbeat and weird 286 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:29,760 and like I said fresh and bold so I don't know really how to define that other than 287 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:35,760 once you've become a skilled enough writer you can really play in your genre of choice 288 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:45,240 and be successful by like you know subverting things or handling things in a very interesting 289 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:53,280 unexpected way and I'm not sure what else to say but his name is Toshiki Inoue and like 290 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:58,120 I said I think he's one of the best writers that I've ever encountered even though I've 291 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:06,800 only well these shows are 50 episodes long so I've seen for sure one show to completion 292 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,560 and then 30 episodes of this show which he's written almost all of them but I'm confident 293 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:16,400 that I've seen at least one other of his shows all the way through so I'm not quite sure 294 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:20,960 but anyway that's that's pretty interesting to me so that's my lessons learned and then 295 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:27,000 this last segment segment like I teased earlier Fabula Ex Machina is what I'm calling it I 296 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:34,880 am going to be sort of brainstorming and drafting out loud how I can make this insect guardian 297 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:40,920 angel or bug because it's it's not just insects particularly if we'll let's be pedantic about 298 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:47,000 for a moment an insect is a six-legged creature arachnids like spiders and scorpions don't 299 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:53,960 fit into that I don't know that class that phylum that kingdom or whatever they're similar 300 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:59,680 so I'm gonna generically call them bugs so that will be your instinct insects of various 301 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:05,160 designs like a beetle for example a worm whether that be a grub or like an earthworm which 302 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:11,040 your grubs typically turn into insects if I don't know if a worm is not a bug or not 303 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,840 if it's or I don't know if a worm is not an insect or or what by the scientific classification 304 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:23,120 but that's what I mean when I say bug so I've got a spider guardian angel bug I have I think 305 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:27,760 a moth I'm gonna use moth spider beetle and I can't remember the others at the moment 306 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:33,440 off my head but that's not really important right now what's important is that I'm I'm 307 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,080 letting you know and I'm cheating a little bit this is my own thing so I can do whatever 308 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:42,520 I want however I want but basically the idea that I'm gonna be working on for five to ten 309 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:48,280 minutes because I don't want to be too I don't want to bore you too much by getting into 310 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:52,760 the nitty-gritty details of something that I don't quite I don't quite have hammered 311 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:57,080 down so it could be uninteresting to hear me stumble and fumble although it could be 312 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:02,880 entertaining I don't know but basically I'm gonna be jumping into this and saying all 313 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:12,760 right so here's my idea angel bug or bug guardian angels inspired by Godzilla and other Japanese 314 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:17,840 tokusatsu type stuff like the things I've been describing to you how will that work how can 315 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:23,320 I make that a children's picture book series and how will I make all of that fit into a 316 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:28,000 single world so again if you want to leave because I'm gonna be going off in crazy directions 317 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,760 that's fine I understand but if you want to stick around for the ride then I welcome you 318 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:38,880 to do so all right so you may not you may not know this but I did step away from the 319 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:44,400 recording I ended up making some notes this is supposed to be a very light duty type of 320 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:48,680 show even though I noticed it's already almost a half an hour long which I did not expect 321 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:54,120 that to be something like 10 minutes but we'll see if following weeks I have a lot less to 322 00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:57,720 say or there's a lot less to talk about or maybe I'll just get better at it and become 323 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:02,500 more succinct and I can kill my darlings and cut those cut cut cut those words away until 324 00:25:02,500 --> 00:25:06,760 there's just left what you want to hear and what you need to hear and what I need to say 325 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:17,000 so anyway moving on from that I wanted to share that I have I'm not gonna re-explain 326 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,400 the whole tokusatsu thing because that's Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Power 327 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:24,560 Rangers, I don't know what other stuff off the top of my head but that kind of stuff 328 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:28,360 Kikaiiter if you're from Hawaii and you're like 50 years old you might know Kikaiiter 329 00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:32,000 you could be you can know Kikaiiter if you're a little younger too but that kind of stuff 330 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:38,880 anyway but here's my prompt well yeah so I guess this is what I'm trying to do how can 331 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:43,320 I weave a universe out of these disparate elements and it's all these different things 332 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:51,200 because Toho is just one company owns Godzilla and they make Godzilla Toei which is I don't 333 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:58,080 know why they're both T or start with the T sound but whatever owns Kamen Rider and 334 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:02,960 Super Sentai and Tsuburaya which also starts with the T which is kind of funny or a TS 335 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:07,080 I don't know if it's its own unique character or whatever in Japanese or Chinese that has 336 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:12,240 the TS sound to it and I know it's from Japan but Japan they use like three different writing 337 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:17,720 systems or writing styles or letters so they have like Chinese characters and then they 338 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:22,720 have two different ones that there's like a sound for each letter I think more analogous 339 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:29,000 to the 26 letter alphabet we have in English speaking countries anyway I don't know all 340 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:32,040 the details but there's Katagana, Hiragana and some other thing I think which is the 341 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:36,160 Chinese symbols but that's a weird tangent sorry about that I just I know a little bit 342 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:40,880 about a lot of things and it's hard for me not to share so my point is I've got all these 343 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:45,840 disparate things they all exist in their own universes and even among the franchises themselves 344 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:51,640 it's weird how they all are facing a threat from 10,000 years ago that was sealed away 345 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:55,800 and then one day it was awakened and only this hero so even among themselves there's 346 00:26:55,800 --> 00:27:00,200 a lot of internal inconsistency and they do crossovers and it's just kind of you have 347 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:04,840 to forget you kind of have to forget and you kind of have to throw logic out a little bit 348 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:10,320 when you're enjoying these shows because it's about the feeling it's about the point or 349 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:15,840 the message of the show or story it's about you know watching the hero overcome it's about 350 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:25,880 those things more than it's about being logically consistent but it's also partly that way because 351 00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:32,880 over the years Subaraya, Toho, Toei have allowed many different people to be the creative forces 352 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:40,640 behind the various seasons of the shows or you know installations of the different movies 353 00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,680 because I don't know I don't know there's like I feel like there's around 30 Godzilla 354 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:48,980 movies but I could be wrong and that's just coming out of Japan just despite sorry beside 355 00:27:48,980 --> 00:27:55,880 or aside from how do you say it doesn't matter aside from the late 90s Godzilla and then 356 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:01,880 the 2010s Godzilla movies that we had and then I don't know if like the is it Raymond 357 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:08,160 Burr I don't know if the Raymond Burr dub sort of thing from 1954 and 1955 counts as 358 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:13,840 an American adaptation of it or not but whatever so you know and the same thing Super Sentai 359 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:20,920 Ichinomori was well Ichinomori died in around the year 2000 I believe or maybe it was 99 360 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:26,480 and it's been 22 years since then and they've kept making they've kept making Super Sentai 361 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,240 without him and the same thing with Kamen Rider they've kept making it it was actually 362 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:33,400 on hiatus for a long time and it came back I think a year maybe was two to three years 363 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:38,080 after his death actually he might have died 97 it doesn't matter at this point it's not 364 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:43,360 relevant to this discussion is what I mean but anyway these things have lived beyond 365 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:47,120 their original creators and their original creators you know while they did good work 366 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:51,660 and may have cared about them in certain ways they didn't always necessarily make things 367 00:28:51,660 --> 00:28:57,960 to be ironclad and have like super clear logic so one thing that I want to do and I'm actually 368 00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:03,320 this is I did not expect to say this I've actually been inspired by the Red Panda which 369 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:10,400 Red Panda is something done by Greg Taylor g-r-e-g-g Taylor from Dakota Ring Theater 370 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:18,200 your source for it nevermind anyway he's a Canadian writer and like I don't know play 371 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:22,600 or like theater dude I don't know what else he does sorry he's written a bunch of books 372 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:27,360 that I've liked and bought and listened to and enjoyed and he produced a radio show harkening 373 00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:34,040 back to the shadow and I guess what's the other doctor savage or Doc Savage and a bunch 374 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:40,480 of other things like that from the golden era of radio and he told the story of the 375 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:47,760 Red Panda which is this mystery man you know fedora and domino mask with a trench coat 376 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:53,560 superhero in Canada the guy's a super genius so kind of like a Batman who has no superpowers 377 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:59,600 except for the ability to use hypnosis but anyway he did I think it's about 10 seasons 378 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,920 it's a ton in 20 episodes total of like the main story that goes in chronological order 379 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:10,240 and then he did books as well and comic books also and so there's the audio drama the radio 380 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:16,160 show the books and the comic books and across all of them none of the book like there are 381 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,920 things that are mentioned in them it's a transmedia project I guess you could say but anyway 382 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,680 over the over the course of the 120 episodes there's a progression in the Red Panda audio 383 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:29,080 drama the books take place in between episodes basically and the comic books I think take 384 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:36,320 place in between other episodes of the audio drama the comic books that is take place within 385 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:41,360 the audio drama like in between episodes and have nothing to do with the novels or the 386 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:46,440 pulp novels that Taylor wrote but it's all consistent and it's all planned out and it's 387 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:51,320 all mapped out very well and while the it's called Red Panda and there's an eponymous 388 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:55,880 Red Panda character who is the hero of the show or the story he also has the flying squirrel 389 00:30:55,880 --> 00:31:00,920 who is his I guess I don't know partner or sidekick or whatever you want to say I won't 390 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,400 go into spoilers because you should really check out Red Panda because it's an amazing 391 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:08,560 superhero story it spans decades I'm very inspired by that and I'm very inspired by 392 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:15,880 that accomplishment and I'm really impressed that this man was able to do this and I want 393 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:21,680 to go above and beyond and I want to be even better and I want to take the inspiration 394 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,720 from the feat that he accomplished and see how much farther can I go and I basically 395 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:30,040 I've had ideas for a lot of different stories over the years and recently within the last 396 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:36,040 year to two years really it's come to mind that I should just put them all into the same 397 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:40,320 universe I like the tokusatsu elements I love Kamen Rider oh I cannot tell you how much 398 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:46,440 I love Kamen Rider it's weird like it's almost extreme how much I love Kamen Rider and I'm 399 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:54,120 like a big Star Wars fan I like Kamen Rider is superior to Star Wars which sounds ridiculous 400 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:59,040 if you've seen Kamen Rider at a glance that I could say that but it's true it's absolutely 401 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:04,360 true it's it's undisputable the amount of hours alone of Kamen Rider that's been put 402 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:10,160 out versus Star Wars that's been put out that has been good trumps that and even Taylor 403 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:15,360 has an affection for some of Star Wars to a degree I believe because he has little Easter 404 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,160 eggs in there that sound very much like their references to Star Wars like there's a well 405 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:24,000 there's just like a group of operators doing something in a later season and they call 406 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,640 themselves you know Red 1 Red 2 Red 3 Red 4 Red 5 and things like that so that's really 407 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,400 cool he's from an older generation so I I would bet that he likes the original trilogy 408 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:36,080 more than the sequels but I actually love the sequel or sorry the original trilogy more 409 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:42,560 than the prequels and I love the original trilogy I really like the prequels I get well 410 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:47,720 let's I I love and I think there are better stories overall or better execution of storytelling 411 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:53,280 being done in the original trilogy but I get I'm a more emotionally attached to the prequel 412 00:32:53,280 --> 00:33:00,520 trilogy and I sometimes my daughter is an aspiring author as well and God bless her 413 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:05,760 I wish her every success she's actually written a really good children's book or two I feel 414 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:10,600 like one manuscript is lost but she says it's not but the other one it's it's either 99% 415 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:14,760 or 90% done or it's 100% done and I think she needs to get it published ASAP but regardless 416 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:24,040 that's another thing that I'm not gonna go into but the actual the actual I totally lost 417 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:29,600 my point sorry think about my daughter because she wrote this thing oh I will sometimes help 418 00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:34,080 her with writing issues that she's having because she's still understanding the crafter 419 00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:39,080 writing and I'm not a master by any means but I am working at it and I will use Star 420 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:45,760 Wars as an example and when I talk about the original trilogy I can pull certain examples 421 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:50,120 and I can just think about it because I've seen those movies lots of times and it's just 422 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,800 it's like oh this is the fact this is what Luke, Han and Leia are like these are the 423 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:56,680 dynamics between them this is how they represent different things and they've the theme of 424 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:01,280 Star Wars is you know selfish selflessness versus selfishness like George Lucas says 425 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:07,880 it is then you can look at them and you can say oh Leia is a paragon of selflessness and 426 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,400 both Luke and Han move through an arc of selfishness to selflessness through the movie and you 427 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,280 can see it in these places you can see this is where Han is being selfish is where Luke 428 00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:18,960 is being selfish or self-motivated not really thinking about others but thinking about himself 429 00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:23,400 and then these events happen in the story in the narrative the universe punishes him 430 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:28,760 and causes him to have nothing left over and then ultimately he has his life but he gives 431 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,840 that up for the sake of the rebellion but also giving up his life allows him to tap 432 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:36,000 into the force because he's doing the ultimate act of selflessness which allows him to save 433 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:41,560 the day Han has a more minor arc moving into selflessness but it's integral to Luke's 434 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:46,440 arc because if Han wasn't didn't come back because he moved from a position of selfishness 435 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:49,800 to selflessness he wouldn't have been able to save Luke from Vader and then Luke would 436 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:53,400 have been able to make that shot and save everybody and then the story would be over 437 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:58,020 or whatever I told her all that and it took me a lot longer I truncated down my thoughts 438 00:34:58,020 --> 00:35:02,520 and I went on a bunch of tangents like I do when I talk about story stuff but I was able 439 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,760 to do that without getting emotional like I'm I can feel a little bit of like oh like 440 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,600 that's really cool and it's exciting and it's kind of inspirational but when I talked to 441 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:13,520 her about like the failed arc of Anakin the failed hero's journey that Anakin has I get 442 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:19,560 emotional I get misty I get choked up I start to cry a little bit because I feel so deeply 443 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,160 for Anakin as a person and I don't know if it was watching Clone Wars I don't know if 444 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:31,760 it was just just you know the sequel or the prequel trilogy itself or what but I've always 445 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:36,640 felt a strong attachment to Anakin and felt very sympathetic towards him and maybe it 446 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:40,400 was because I was I was like 11 when I watched the movie the Phantom Menace so he's he was 447 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:45,160 nine so maybe some of that helped me relate to him I love Qui-Gon Jinn Anakin loves Qui-Gon 448 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:52,200 Jinn I don't really know what it is but I get emotional talking about that and again 449 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:56,720 I I'm trying to recover and get back to my original original point I think I was gonna 450 00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:01,240 get to the point that as much as I oh there we go I value Star Wars emotionally like I 451 00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:07,360 valued as a story and I value it as something that emotionally touches me I still think 452 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,600 Kamen Rider is better and I think with the hours and hours and hours of content of Kamen 453 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:17,900 Rider or a TV show that's been on off and on the air for a long time versus Star Wars 454 00:36:17,900 --> 00:36:22,520 alone like it's just Kamen Rider is a better thing it's better done even though it's different 455 00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:27,040 stories told by different authors at different times and it's like they're sort of different 456 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,240 universes but they're not when they need to be in the same universe or crossover they 457 00:36:30,240 --> 00:36:35,840 do it and they just hand wave things away and I don't like that and so like it's interesting 458 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:40,920 Kamen Rider like I love it more I have more affection for it it's it's better it's like 459 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:44,840 more consistently entertaining storytelling and there's more there's more of a bulk of 460 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:49,320 entertaining stories but they're kind of like throwaway where Star Wars is more consistent 461 00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:53,360 with the one author we don't talk about the the Seagull Jolte here the one author of the 462 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:58,600 six film saga plus the Clone Wars and Rebels or not Rebels well maybe Rebels Rebels is 463 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:01,920 a wobbler but definitely Clone Wars you throw that in there and it all works as one cohesive 464 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:08,680 unit but like it's not as good overall even though there was the one sort of vision behind 465 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:14,240 it Greg Taylor's Red Panda has a much better cohesive universe that ties together better 466 00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:21,520 and I do really really really like Red Panda like I've I've enjoyed listening to it at 467 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:25,920 least three times if not four times total and that's 120 episodes it like 20 minutes 468 00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:30,440 of pop that's a lot of time I've spent yeah I'm doing it while I'm doing other things 469 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:35,920 but still that's a lot of time to spend with these stories and these characters and this 470 00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:40,720 one voice of this one author and they're little things little quirks that Taylor has that 471 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:47,280 show up in Red Panda and show up in Blackjack Justice and show up in other things that he 472 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:54,560 writes and produces such as that's tough but fair or that's an interesting point but anyway 473 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,400 little little quirks or things that the characters say over and over again that kind of stick 474 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:01,960 out as like oh that's a signature of Taylor you know which I don't know that's good or 475 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:05,920 bad but it's just a thing but like I want to go beyond that I want to write a consistent 476 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:11,600 universe with many characters where it all is logically consistent and where it all works 477 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:15,400 together and for some reason at least some of the children's picture books that I have 478 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:20,040 planned like this grow bug series that I want to be inspired by tokusatsu which is like 479 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:24,280 the Godzilla Ultraman Super Sentai Kamen Rider, Brown Rangers that kind of stuff I want it 480 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:30,880 to be logically consistent and I want those angelic bug characters the grow bugs to be 481 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:36,960 from the same benevolent divine force that is empowering the superheroes of the world 482 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:41,080 and of the universe of the let's just call it holy heroes that's what I'm calling it 483 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:45,680 for now that's the the code or production name anyway I want them to all be from the 484 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:49,880 same universe and I want to figure out how to make that all work so the first thing I 485 00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:56,200 need to do is figure out how to unite the entire I guess I just gave you my raison d'etre 486 00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:59,760 for my all my writing projects that are going to go forward in this holy heroes universe 487 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:04,320 but whatever I think that was unintended but it happened I guess you're getting me out 488 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,760 of the way I should probably produce an episode zero and release that before I release this 489 00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:12,360 episode just to give you a little bit background and warn you about how crazy this first episode 490 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,880 is going to be anyway I just do things as I figure them out I just figure things out 491 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:21,360 as I'm going along so yeah this is me anyway first of all I need to figure out a way to 492 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:26,600 put Godzilla Kamen Rider Super Sentai Ultraman all in one universe together interestingly 493 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,920 enough this is something I've been thinking about for a while and Hideaki Anno who's a 494 00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:35,180 producer of Neon Genesis or writer director of or and major creative force behind Neon 495 00:39:35,180 --> 00:39:39,160 Genesis Evangelion as well as some other things you might recognize like the Shin Godzilla 496 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:45,480 movie the Shin Ultraman movie and coming up the Shin Kamen Rider movie he's doing something 497 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:48,920 over there and I'm trying to capture that spirit and do something similar with these 498 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:54,520 characters even though I'm starting from ground zero I'm building the universe as I go along 499 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,960 versus having to do it after the fact like all I like a Smash Brothers or like just like 500 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,960 a team up crossover type thing I want it all to be one consistent universe but you know 501 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:05,400 that already so I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make that happen well first of 502 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:11,760 all I have to think about or what the plan is is I've thought a lot about the heart and 503 00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:17,560 spirit of these different franchises Godzilla Ultraman Kamen Rider Super Sentai and one 504 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:23,000 other that I'm keeping a secret for later so I'm trying to figure out what they are 505 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:28,600 and what like the core theme is to at least start my first set of characters who are related 506 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:33,100 to those things onto those and yes I am doing this for children's picture books and yes 507 00:40:33,100 --> 00:40:38,920 you could accuse me of overthinking things but I think if the themes are solid from the 508 00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:44,500 if the themes if these franchises exist it only exists because people keep buying them 509 00:40:44,500 --> 00:40:49,260 I think people only keep buying them because at the core of it at least the original ones 510 00:40:49,260 --> 00:40:54,480 during the 60s 70s during the 60s and 70s let's call it or 50 60 70s were successful 511 00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:59,120 because something at the theme at the core of it at the heart of it was pure and beautiful 512 00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:04,220 and meaningful to people and then they happen to attach like you know rubber suit monster 513 00:41:04,220 --> 00:41:09,200 wrestling battle royale cage match type stuff on top of it and that just made it it gave 514 00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,720 it a cool factor they threw out certain things they might have thrown out the theme and kept 515 00:41:13,720 --> 00:41:18,000 the rule of cool going but it basically made it palatable to people and I want this to 516 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:22,480 be mass market palatable and have a message inside of it and I think you leaning on these 517 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:27,720 things that are so good at selling and selling and selling toys and merchandise and whatever 518 00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:31,480 is a good way to do it because I want to tell meaningful stories and I also want people 519 00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:35,040 to care about them on multiple levels and if they just care about it because it looks 520 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:39,240 cool or it's really it's got a neat gimmick to it that's okay too because I figure if 521 00:41:39,240 --> 00:41:43,320 they like it enough they'll stick around with it long enough that they'll get great meaning 522 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:49,560 out of it and and I'm okay with that I don't well anyway yeah I'm okay with that so I'm 523 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,380 a capitalist and I want to be an effective marketer so or an effective messenger and 524 00:41:53,380 --> 00:41:57,600 marketer and in order to do that I think you got to sell you got to sell the message you 525 00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:01,520 got to sell the message within the package for people to get it because if you don't 526 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:05,080 sell to them then they can't get it and if they don't get it then what's the point of 527 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,320 saying the message you may as well just keep silent and say to yourself which is not what 528 00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:15,200 I want to do anyway yeah so I need to figure out a way to make this all consistent I think 529 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:21,640 it's enough for now to basically have God giving people superpowers in this world but 530 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:28,760 also and having those people be agents of change and agents of good basically like angels 531 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:34,660 themselves who are serving God and causing things to be done in such a way to rescue 532 00:42:34,660 --> 00:42:39,640 people and to see that things are done rightly right but also to have these guardian angel 533 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:48,000 figures and like I'm a believer I study the Bible every day pretty much and that's very 534 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:52,960 much what my life is about so this is the milieu that's that's where I'm coming from 535 00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:57,920 it's like it's superheroes and monsters and toku and and the Bible like that's that's 536 00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:02,080 all me pretty much wrapped up into one package so like that's what I'm presenting that's 537 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:06,400 what I'm offering to the world in this universe that I'm building and in this you know these 538 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,800 you know book series that I'm I'm writing and planning and I think it's it's easy to 539 00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:22,160 justify these guardian angel bugs and basically it's just they're you know a firmer or harder 540 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:25,600 manifestation of angels in the modern world and why aren't they full on angels why are 541 00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:29,560 they little bugs and said that are cute I don't know because because it'll work because 542 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:35,740 I got to sell it because I want these messages to reach kids and they're not like strictly 543 00:43:35,740 --> 00:43:40,520 biblical messages I'm not indoctrinating you through my you know religious you know 544 00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:46,520 zealotry or whatever it's like the theme of Godzilla is if you fear and hate what you 545 00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:51,640 don't understand and you seek to destroy it instead of understand it so you can live with 546 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:58,420 it and figure out a mutually beneficial arrangement between the two of you you will sow the seeds 547 00:43:58,420 --> 00:44:05,080 of your own destruction and increase pain and suffering on the world and if you've done 548 00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:09,200 that one time you're likely to do that again and again and again until you've destroyed 549 00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:14,460 all of humanity that's the theme that's the message of Godzilla and that message I want 550 00:44:14,460 --> 00:44:18,080 to pack inside of a children's book and I see no issue with that I think it's a beautiful 551 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:24,440 theme I think it's very powerful and having children who throw tantrums and get angry 552 00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:31,680 and who you know love rocks and animals and sticks and hate their siblings and their parents 553 00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:37,760 because they slightly offended them is like the perfect vehicle for showing that at least 554 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:42,760 that's what I think so anyway the idea is like I might have kaiju which are the giant 555 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:47,240 monsters like Godzilla I might not that's something I'll work towards I don't like the 556 00:44:47,240 --> 00:44:53,240 idea of in Godzilla he's this giant he's 40 stories or 30 stories he's 300 feet through 557 00:44:53,240 --> 00:44:58,480 30 you know that's too huge I might do like you know 50 foot animals or 30 foot animals 558 00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:03,880 like you know Godzilla you know mini kaiju I might do that sort of thing but like I'm 559 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:08,920 sort of going to be rectifying a lot of issues that I have like oh you know the downtown 560 00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:12,560 gets destroyed in every episode of power rangers or you know super sentai constantly having 561 00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:16,480 monsters you know blowing up half the world or whatever it doesn't get that severe but 562 00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:20,800 it's close common rater I think common rater is a much better job of like containing the 563 00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:26,240 destruction of the evil organizations or the you know villain race or the monsters or whatever 564 00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:29,720 happen to be the problem that a particular common rater is addressing like it's pretty 565 00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:35,320 tight but like Godzilla and the other kaiju movies like they just don't make sense it's 566 00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:39,160 a planetary scale of destruction almost every single time if not like a city on Ultraman 567 00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,960 2 they're they're knocking down buildings they're destroying things it doesn't really 568 00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:48,640 make sense so I don't need to keep those elements like I was saying earlier in what I've learned 569 00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:52,080 and this was a conclusion I'd come to before because I'm just not comfortable pushing the 570 00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:56,280 universe in that direction is like I'm going to take the core messages messages of these 571 00:45:56,280 --> 00:46:00,520 things I'm going to shrink the size and scale of the monsters I'm going to make more of 572 00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:05,920 the stakes personal for people and like I'm going to edge into this world with these children's 573 00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:10,720 picture books that deal with little with issues that little kids will have to deal with and 574 00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:18,240 do deal with and like I don't know present that in that way and I even have ideas for 575 00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:22,040 you know with these grow bugs so they're they're insects of some sort right well I also have 576 00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:26,440 this idea for either other planets or other dimensions within my universe that will have 577 00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:31,080 different bugs in them and I have these I have I also created something called dread 578 00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:36,640 bugs and dread bugs attach themselves to people and have a parasitic nature and etc etc and 579 00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:44,640 very much a la common writer I have a pair of characters chirp and duster she's chirp 580 00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:49,160 is based off of a cricket kind of like a grasshopper which is what common writer is and duster is 581 00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:55,080 based off of moth which there's a moth common writer who I have a lot of affection for and 582 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:59,760 I really like moths and he's a tiger moth she's a whatever kind of cricket they have 583 00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:05,880 adventures but each of them has is like bonded with a dread bug and the dread bug enables 584 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:08,960 them to tap into this greater power source they're able to transform into these you know 585 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:14,160 costumed suits or forms or alternate bodies or whatever it is I don't I haven't really 586 00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:17,280 worked that out and they're able to fight off the other dread bugs which is very much 587 00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:24,000 like a common writer I just had a brilliant idea as I was working on these on these grow 588 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,760 bug books that the grow bugs and the dread bugs can either be related to each other or 589 00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:33,720 the existence of one justifies and like anchors the existence of the other and it made me 590 00:47:33,720 --> 00:47:39,320 think oh maybe two of the kids from my books should grow up to become chirp and duster 591 00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:42,160 that could be really interesting because I have a mix of boys and girls in there and 592 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:45,600 I think that could be fascinating and that's like a trans media thing where I can and then 593 00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:53,000 the other thing is while writing a draft for one of the other grow bug books grow bug book 594 00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:57,640 three I shared it with my wife and she said this is a children's picture book and I said 595 00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,560 yeah it is but I've always had this idea of what if you had a board book or a small children's 596 00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:06,980 picture book and it told a story but you could have a chapter book a middle grade chapter 597 00:48:06,980 --> 00:48:11,140 book or you could have something bigger beyond that that expands on that the children's picture 598 00:48:11,140 --> 00:48:15,480 book isn't contained all that story is contained in it but it's expanded upon there are more 599 00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:19,000 details you can go into more depth and it actually linked to another character that 600 00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:24,760 I created I think two years ago maybe it was three years ago by now who I want to be part 601 00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:27,920 of my universe so it's like this ever-expanding universe but I want to figure out a way to 602 00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:33,080 manage it all and I think by putting it all under well anyway I'm putting the building 603 00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:37,760 blocks together in a kind of loose way another thing that Inouye taught me is like if you 604 00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,440 don't declare what your rules are and you just play fast and loose with them you can 605 00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:44,000 keep them in the back of your mind or have them written down so you don't violate them 606 00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:48,320 ultimately but if you keep your rules as vague as possible you can do a lot of things and 607 00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:51,820 the audience will go with it because it'll feel right and natural to the story because 608 00:48:51,820 --> 00:48:56,840 you're not blatantly overruling overwriting or overturning any continuity that you've 609 00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:02,040 established so anyway I'm exhausted I'm home I am going to go enjoy the weekend with my 610 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:07,080 family thank Gd I've made it another week and I'm going to go ahead and get this published 611 00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:12,800 and released pretty soon so I'm going to stop there these are this is intended to be a much 612 00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:17,600 smaller show much less in depth but I guess I just had to put all that out there so I 613 00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:22,840 plan on having next week's be very truncated hopefully well I'm not going to put a time 614 00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:26,080 on it but hopefully it'll all be a lot more succinct and everything I have to say because 615 00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:31,920 I'm very much introducing you to all of the stuff that I'm interested to as a creative 616 00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:36,480 person so anyway this is MJ I leave you with peace and blessings I ask that you check out 617 00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:41,440 the next ones come back for the next one and go to mjmunoz.com to see all my work as it 618 00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:45,560 develops and yeah that's it if I didn't say it already I'm going to say it now I leave 619 00:49:45,560 --> 00:49:51,160 you with peace and blessings I hope you enjoyed that if you did you can find more at mjmunoz.com 620 00:49:51,160 --> 00:50:06,800 as well as my entire library of analysis art and fiction.