This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
This is Going Ultra.
I'm talking about Ultraman Z Episode 22, which originally aired
November 28th,
2020, directed by Koichi Sakamoto. The screenplay was by, or is by, Sotaro Hayashi.
And this is an interesting episode because it happens in the aftermath of...
Oh my gosh, Yoko's outfit makes so much more sense now. Sorry.
It takes place in the aftermath of the disbanding of storage. They're all on their own. They're all going towards their
individual tomorrows, hence the name of the episode, individual tomorrows. And
yeah, sorry. Koichi Sakamoto, if you don't know, is known for
enjoying the form of a woman, particularly in the lake region.
Not that Yoko didn't dress sort of like this last time, but I was a little surprised by how she was dressed this time,
especially the way the camera panned up from her like knee socks to, well, to her face.
So yeah, I guess that makes sense. Anyway, moving on from there, that uncomfortable topic,
this is an interesting episode because it
looks at these people who their whole life has been wrapped up in being members of storage, being
comrades who work together, being people who are relied upon to
defend the earth from kaiju in a way that they
seemingly felt was ethical and good and noble, and now they've been disbanded because the
Global Allied Forces Division of Japan, which is
the company they work for and their bosses ultimately, have decided that they will use a weapon that
these people are uncomfortable with and they are
they're willing to do whatever it takes to defeat kaiju and
you might say that's a good thing, but then again if it leads to
destruction and
and ruin, then you know, obviously that would not be a good thing. And it looks kind of like that might be the direction that it's going.
So that's not great.
So we have this interesting interaction between
Yoko and Haruki where they arm wrestle again for him to have a taste of her boba tea,
which it's strange that she wanted to be on trend and have boba tea, and I'm shocked that boba tea is a trend.
Although I have seen more boba plates popping up even here in the United States, but I like boba, man. I don't like boba.
I don't even like tapioca pudding.
So sorry for that tangent, but yeah, so that's uh, that's kind of a funny interesting moment.
But the better part of that is that she hints at the fact that she's interested in arm wrestling him
because of a secret reason and we don't find out what that is till later.
So I won't spoil it and it's a lot of fun and I really appreciate it. So anyway, we'll talk more about that later.
You know as they parted ways in the previous episode, they asked Hibikura what he was gonna do and he said you'll see and
it's actually a little more complicated than what you might expect because he doesn't just do something noble to fight, you know,
Gaff J.
Whatever. Sorry, it's such a clumsy thing to say. He doesn't just do something noble to like oppose them.
He does sneak into their base and he finds out about Ultroid Zero, but he also
ends up provoking
and manipulating the fight that happens, the big fight that happens in the episode, in order to give
Gaff J the information that they need. By the way, tell me if I'm an idiot for saying it like that.
I'll hold off on doing it in the future.
Anyway, he gives Gaff J what they need in order to complete Ultroid Zero by, well, you'll see, by, you know,
basically giving them the data they need. That's all that matters right now.
So that's pretty interesting to me because once again, you think you know what Juggler is doing.
You think you know what Hibikura is doing, what his goals might be, and he goes and does something that completely surprises you and
that's, I don't know, super interesting because again, it's something that will be dealt with later in the show,
you know, in the end game of it.
But for now, it's interesting just how well of a job they're doing or how good of a job
they're doing at keeping you guessing as to his true motives.
And I find that impressive and I'm kind of proud of them for that even
even though I do find it frustrating in some ways. So that's pretty cool.
Alien Burosa number three showing up and talking with his human vocal cords. I will pick this nit once again!
Alien Burosa originally said, I am too advanced to have vocal cords like you lower beings,
which is why I'm talking through this girl or this guy or whatever. I can't remember who it was at the time.
I think it was Yoko. And now Alien Burosas are talking all over the place! What's going on? That's not fair!
You can't just change the rules like that. I thought this was hard science fiction, not children's tokusatsu.
Anyway, but I like him coming back. I love everybody fighting against him in the little restaurant or whatever they are,
where they are. That's super cool. His like barbarians club is super neat too.
The little moment we get of, well, yeah, the little moment we get of, you know,
Z fighting is good. And I like that he's fighting in the small form. I think that's a lot of fun.
It's weird that that doesn't seem to sap his energy though. And then like, you know, heavy, yeah,
Juggler shows up there and he always shows up there for no good reason, which is a little disappointing because it seemed odd.
Like he didn't have to show up there. And then later he just transforms from his human form to, you know, five king or whatever it is.
And that's kind of an odd choice. So I wonder if it was like an obligatory, obligatory Juggler appearance or something,
because that is a cool suit design and they could just have him show up more often. He could transform.
He could hold up the dark Zetriser in my opinion as Juggler. And then when he goes inside, it could still be heavy Kura access granted
to show the face actor doing all that transformation stuff inside. Whatever. Doesn't matter.
But yeah, the, I mean, it's getting, getting to see everybody shine. Even Bako got to do a Bruce Lee thing.
I don't know if I think he said it in the Japanese, but he definitely says it in the original.
Don't think, feel and everyone's wowed by this cool old man. And again, once again, it's just something he picked up along the way.
So that's a lot of fun. I love that. I love the gags. I love the simple. It's funny.
Bako is simultaneously like a simple, all of them are like simple characters who have like catchphrases and like simple traits that they use.
But at the same time, they are also able to be nuanced, interesting characters who do stuff that you might not expect.
So I really love that blend of character building, character creation, character crafting. And I think it's something I want to use in my writing.
It's something I'm doing with my girl bugs right now. I've given each of them like one emotional thing and like that's their lens and their perspective.
That's how they see everything in the world. It's not that their personality is falling down and having big eyes.
It's sorry. It's an anime joke. It's a it's a harem anime joke.
Doesn't belong here in this pure clean Ultraman show. So I'll stop.
But anyway, I think that's an interesting way to construct your characters. And it makes sense because I'm married.
My wife and I say the same things to each other over and over again. And we think it's funny.
When we were first together, she would do this thing that she doesn't do anymore because it doesn't work anymore on me.
And same thing with me. You know, there's different plays or moves or tactics or little things that you do and they work.
And sometimes they don't need to change it up to keep it fresh. But for characters in a show that's only 25 episodes long, you can definitely do that for characters that appear in a book.
I think you can do that, too. And maybe even depending on how the narrative is focused and how many.
Anyway, I'm getting too distracted talking about books, so I will stop doing that and I will go ahead and continue talking about talking about the episode.
So I thought it was funny that Belly Rock once again. So first of all, this this alien brocify is awesome.
The fact that Belly Rock abandons, abandons Hurricane Zep because they fought a giant, they fought one of these guys before is hilarious.
I love that even though they've been disbanded and Sevenger has been in mothballs basically in the museum or display, whatever, he's still been properly maintained.
And Yoko can get into that mech and pilot them. And I love that Yuka gets into the like the breast tank or whatever of King Joe and pilots that.
That's what she does, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what she does. That's awesome.
And that's super cool because she gets like the opening of the show where she shows her running and shows one of the mecha there.
It makes it feel like she's going to be a mech pilot, too, or she has the potential to be.
And that's something I've touched on before. And here we see, yes, she in fact does have the capability to be a mech pilot because she understands how these machines work and I guess has enough experience with them to get in there.
Kind of like Rain, Mikimura, right? Anyway, like Rain from G Gundam where we see her working on the Gundam and she's not only a physician, she's a mechanic as well and other things.
But she can work on it and pilot it, too, when the need calls for it. So that's a lot of fun.
But I love seeing all of them working together. Like, you know, Vako has kept the machine, has kept Sevenger ready in order.
Yoko is able to pilot it. Haruki does some fighting, but then he becomes Ultraman unbeknownst to them.
And then, you know, Yoko does her thing in the mecha, in Sevenger, and she even convinces Ballyarok.
She tricks him into working for her, but she uses reverse psychology basically on him and gets him to fight for her and does an awesome thing to, well, does an awesome attack.
And that coordinates and brings all these different things together to defeat this alien Barossa. And that's really cool.
So I really enjoy that. It's pretty awesome. And the show just has a lot going for it.
It's almost like, too, you know, everybody's earned this moment. Everything's been built up over the course of the episode.
Everything has come together in this culmination. Maybe that's why Heavy Kuro appeared as Juggler in order to do that.
And, man, him, Juggler, or not Juggler, but Five King or whatever, going ahead and making it so that they could complete Ultroid Zero was super interesting.
Again, it's just it's fascinating how he manipulated the situation to have King Joe get blasted by the Zestium Ray.
Zestium beam, sorry. It doesn't really matter, but it matters to me so that he can see Ultroid Zero completed. It was really interesting.
By the way, I mixed up. I thought at the end of the episode, or at the end of the last episode, he said, just see what I do.
But it's at the end of this episode that they all part ways. And we learned that Yoko is a candidate to pilot Ultroid Zero.
And Yoko is going to be working on something or other. Bako is going his own way. And that's what Heavy Kuro ominously says.
You know, you'll see what I'm going to do. So I'm hyped. I'm super interested in seeing what that is.
And, yeah, I mean, again, this show is so good. It's so compelling. It's so interesting.
And like all of the qualms I had last episode are completely gone because I got and this don't take this the wrong way.
I got such good fan service this episode in seeing these characters I know and have good feelings about and that have like a good rapport with each other.
Seeing them interact, seeing them get to say farewell after they've been disbanded and how they've come together now they're splitting apart.
It's all just so satisfying emotionally and like dramatically. And, you know, what's coming up is it's super interesting because the stakes are higher than ever.
With this looming threat of Ultroid Zero, which is supposed to rival the power of Ultraman, which is what, you know, Miyayuki, right? That's her name.
Wants and, you know, is it really going to rival the power of Ultraman?
And if so, does that mean that it is going to fight with Ultraman? And does that mean that that could be defeated by a human made weapon?
That would be super fascinating and super interesting.
And I don't know, like it feels weird to say this, but like, is that what the show has kind of been building towards this whole time?
Is it a discussion of the power that humans have? And, uh, I don't know.
Is it a question of dealing with power and how it should be utilized and what should be done with it?
I don't know, because here's the thing. Like I made the argument for in the previous episode.
Morally, I don't think it's, I don't think it's morally good or morally a moral stance to say I refuse to wield power because people are naturally attracted to power.
And the people who are most attracted to power are the most evil among us.
So therefore, if the good refused to wield great power at all, then you're leaving great power in the hands of only evil,
which I would think logically would lead to the subjugation of at least a small number of innocent people.
Think of a warlord or a band of marauders terrorizing a small group of people or, you know, an oppressive government murdering people across the sea
and setting its people into a meat grinder to kill them for the benefit of money, powers, foreign, foreign interests,
and a military industrial complex that one of our presidents may have warned us against as he was leaving office.
Oh, sorry. I try not to get political, but I just did. Whoops.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this discussion of Ultraman Zet episode 22. I hope you enjoyed 21 and 22, my format of doing them.
I think I may do this format in the future. And if you like it, let me know. If you don't, also let me know,
because I want to do the best job I can do and give you the most entertaining and interesting Tokusatsu commentary out there in a succinct fashion.
You know, less than 30 minutes. Unless you beg for more, then I'll give you lots more. But, you know, I don't know that yet.
So you got to tell me, folks. You got to tell me. Anyway, I hope you're well. I hope you stay well.
And with that, I want to let you know to check out everything over at the website. I've got lots of writing projects going on.
I've got my Tokusatsu Children's books that I'm working on. Sort of feverishly, I've rededicated myself as a writer and an artist.
So I'm making sure I put in a small amount of time every day, but a consistent amount of time every day to do my writing and my drawing.
And that's all for the goal of getting better and finishing my projects more quickly. I'm designing book covers right now when I'm drawing.
And I'm chipping away at my book to finish it so I can get my books out there.
I've got a big book that contains a bunch of side stories from these characters from these other books.
And then I've got the... that ties everything together and tells its own journey and its own adventure of a pair of characters who learn and grow from each other and from their crazy experiences that they go through.
And then I have, aside from that, five individual children's picture books that feature kids in trouble being saved by magical bug guardians who help them in very Tokusatsu-y ways,
whether it's fighting a kaiju-type thing, helping the children to transform into a giant of light, or a bug-themed warrior, or other things.
If you enjoy Tokusatsu, I think you'll enjoy my books. In fact, I basically... I want to be a writer. I'm basically positioning myself to be a Tokusatsu writer.
And if normies want to enjoy the stuff, because I'm trying to write it with enough appeal, broad-based appeal, because it's such high-quality work, that's the hope, that everybody will enjoy it.
But it's definitely playing to the niche and the Tokusatsu fandom. So if you like Tokusatsu and Henshin Heroes, I think I have books that you're going to love.
And yeah, so check those out. And with that, I'm MJ, and I'm signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have.
There you can find all of my analysis, art, and fiction. I cover books, Tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more.
Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a Story Over Everything production.