This is MJ. I'm an author. I'm an artist. I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Welcome to going ultra
This time out. I'm talking about Ultraman Zet episode 23. This is the dub from 2023 that I am recording or you know
Making this reaction to whatever and it was originally aired December 5th, 2020. The director is Kouichi Sakamoto. The screenplay is attributed
posthumously to Koto Fukuhara, which I assume that means that these were his ideas, but I don't know for sure and
That's about it. Yeah, so this is a terrible set of incidents happens in this episode and
We learned a little bit more about it in the next episode so I won't go too much into it
I'll just kind of talk about
What's happening as opposed to why it's happening and I think that we should be good to go from there. So
We get to see the official launch of Ultroid Zero
Apparently it's been five days since it was initially utilized and we are seeing five days later that
there is a big bad negative reaction that
Kaiju are having and again, we'll discuss that later. What we do get to see here is
before then a final interaction between Haruki and
Yoko, which is pretty interesting because the two of them are
Interested in each other and
It's
Well, yeah, they definitely seem more and more it seems like they're romantically interested in each other and
We're not sure exactly what's gonna happen. We get this big revelation about her arm wrestling thing
her fixation on the arm wrestling is so that she
can fulfill her father's will or
desire not to have his daughter marry some weakling, which I totally understand sir. I respect that Mr. Nakashima and
You know, I think that's great
It is interesting that you know Haruki says oh if I beat you does that mean I have to marry you and you know
She you know gets a little bugged. She said have to come on. You should be so lucky and
You know, that's a cute fun interaction and I appreciate it
But it is a little weird to hear him say that especially because
Like in the Kanagan episode the clip show he was pretty sure she was going on a date and he didn't seem
He seemed less than thrilled that she was going out on a date which if you're interested in a woman
That would make sense then again, they could just be playing the the friend angle that he's
So much her friend that he would just be you know
Thinking about that or concerned about that or whatever which whatever I'm not gonna argue with that
You know, it's a kids show. But then again, you've got hard ass in this kids show. So I don't know
you've got the you know, partially naked lady from
the past from you know, the
The challenge of 2020 or whatever it's called and you know, whatever I'm not gonna fight. I'm not gonna quibble
There's just kind of some interesting stuff. So like it just strikes me as funny that you could show, you know
One thing which you can't show another thing. So
odd very odd
But I think that's more of a a culture clash between me and
The Japanese audience who this was originally intended for so I'm not gonna fight about it. But
again, I'm
beginning to
Come around to this
beginning to come around to this idea of ultra zero
being this big threat and this this abnormal thing that
Makes it so that it's not okay. It makes it so it's justified that the kaiju are
Freaking out and having a big issue with them
I think my biggest problem is as much as again as much as I love this show. I think there is a
There's telling going on and not showing going on so
Like for example or to be more clear in this episode specifically we get neither
Telling nor shown we don't really know why all these monsters are freaking out
I guess we are shown that yes, they did start flipping out five days ago during the activation of ultra zero
Basically at the activation of ultra zero the initial activation which
You know, that's good that they're they're laying out the evidence
But as far as how it is that you know, these kaiju are just like sleeping peacefully and they don't need to be worried about
We've only ever really seen one instance of that and that was with the one that
Got transported away during the episode where they were trying to impress the like the international suits of
Jfg and you know the the hay fever upset basically where the one woke up and and
hierarchy in Windom
got to fight it off and show that
Their machine is capable and I think it's there's the debut of beta smash maybe anyway
So I think that
That's
You know not good that there's a little there's a little bit of a lack of of
showing exactly what the issue is and showing that these
Storage people are trying to live peaceably with kaiju because it's basically been
You know kaiju shows up you kill it and that's that's the end of it. So I don't really see
Where the sympathy is coming for kaiju and like you'll go
You'll go or no, you could rather makes a comment like oh you just care about the
People the you know, you just care about humans being harmed
You don't care about kaiju kaiju live on this planet, too
so I mean there's a
You know a statement there's a bit of dialogue asserting that kaiju, you know
Who lives matter that kaiju belong on this planet as well?
But I just don't think and like I want that to be true that makes sense to me
Why wouldn't organism be here? But you know, maybe because of my beliefs my core beliefs
Why would something be here if it's not supposed to be here?
And why would something be here if it has no purpose like these things have to have a purpose things have to be logical and reasonable
Because it wouldn't make sense that it would be created otherwise like
You know, God doesn't make mistakes basically. So that's my perspective and that wouldn't really make sense to me
for that to be the case, so I
Don't understand where you could come from where you could just say that you know
the kaiju are a mistake and they should work within the system of the world and it should be done logically and
Not really be a stretch and I feel like it is a little bit of a stretch here. So
That's not good. It's definitely a demerit I would say and
It's interesting because while that's all true
I kind of don't care and I kind of still like the show as
You know as much as I do which is a lot
in spite of that stuff, so
Whoops, I just made a mistake. It's okay
So that's kind of odd to me and
Well, it's not kind of odd. It is odd to me and I don't get it, but I don't necessarily need to get it. It's just
It's just weird. It's weird that these types of decisions would be made and that these
Discrepancies discrepancies rather would be present when it's like so clearly
Like everything in the show seems to be so well put together and
And designed excuse me all my sneeze
All right, well that's enough of me being a downer about that I mean back into things being a little more exciting so
Ultra zero itself is really awesome. It's funny in the comments almost everybody put well
I'm not a fan of the
Guys, which is kind of funny for it's kind of funny on a couple on a couple levels. I won't go into it
So I thought that was you know, I think it's interesting how cool this guy looks and how bad he is
You know, it's a definitely a good thing. I like that contrast. I
Know so again, I thought that was good
And I think that's kind of a good thing
I think that's a good thing. I like that contrast. I know so again, I thought that was good
But like seeing his attacks seeing the old through zero text very cool. Very it's very energetic very dynamic and honestly
You know, I've brought up
Ultraman Guyver
previously and I
have a feeling right I I get a I
Get a vibe of Guyver from Belial's son
Whatever his name is
From D
I get a Guyver vibe from D and I think it's a really cool vibe that I get from him and
I like it a lot, but it's mostly his like, you know
Celestial whatever form that kind of goes away after he gives the medal to Haruki and the medal for him to become
Oh
Man Delta Rise Claw. So after he gets that then we have it looks like
Geed is just this regular one. He's not like Gold Storm or I don't know whatever he's called galaxy blast
I think it's an ice cream. Anyway, he he stopped being that one and he becomes his other one
Or you know the regular deed
Which you know, it's fine. Whatever you know, I like that form
But that guy has Guyver vibes this ultra zero also has Guyver vibes because he's got those forearm weapons that go forward like tone
front almost but also they extend back and they're kind of like blades like
Guyver has and then his final attack with the d4
Is kind of like the mega smasher to me. It definitely feels like that and I
Think that's pretty cool
again, I really like
the Guyver designs and I actually
Sajik Sajik sir pointed out. I'm sorry. I don't know I'm messing with you. I haven't looked at you
It's just name a couple days and I stumbled on it before so I'm gonna stumble on it again, buddy
Sorry anyway, but he pointed out that like, you know blazer has these weird, you know, I think he said cattle tail, which is funny
And you know, I agree that's kind of the design but honestly his foot made me think of the Guyver and I don't know Sajik
Sir, you uh, you familiar with Guyver or not?
Because I love Guyver my grandpa showed it to me when I was a kid and I
Like in middle school got all the VHS's from Suncoast, which is a very old place. It doesn't exist anymore
and
You know linked to my buddies and I love the ultraviolence of it and stuff. It was super cool. But anyway
There's nothing heroic about a zoonoid
That's what I have to say about that
but I
I brought Guyver here before talking about Zet and like Ava and Zet or and Guyver honestly feel like they might be
Influences and even that little bit of Gigan which by the way, I found out that Dōmu and Kasu's Japanese voice actor
played a alien barista too who got the
Shining finger done to him by Windom and Yoko, which was super cool
And that totally makes sense why that happened now, but at least that's what I heard over in a discord
the other day, so anyway, that's pretty cool pretty fun
But anyway, yeah, I definitely feel like a Guyver-ish vibe from this guy too
And he is an out-of-control weapon and he is vastly
Superior to the weapons that you know people here have on earth
But and he was all coordinated by an alien guy, you know to spoil it a little bit for next episode
but um, yeah, that's a you know, that's a problem. That's not good and
You know, he's definitely a bad ombre so
But oh and then his final attack the big d4 ray the way he pulls his arms apart
It definitely feels like the Megasmasher which is a Guyver move. So that's pretty cool to me
I do like that a lot and
Let me see
Yeah, I don't really have much more else to say
Other than like this was an exciting episode. I liked I like how fierce the fighting was from
from Z himself and I liked how
Like the underwater fight was really cool and just you know
Seeing all these kaiju attacking at once was really neat and there's a lot I liked about it
But at the same time, I'm still perplexed a little bit by how some of the
I'm a little bit perplexed as to how some of the stuff got
Like just told to us and it wasn't really shown in a good way that I think
Makes it so that it's I don't know believable is the right way to say it or makes it so that it's like
Understandable that this is why
Everything that's happening is happening because it kind of feels like it's just
Like this is what they wanted to make happen
And if they didn't necessarily do a very good job of planning it out so that it would be the most logical
thing to happen and like, you know, all of a sudden now we really care about kaiju and
Like it we haven't really before and that bothers me and I don't know what to do with that because
Like the premise is good and the idea is nice. It's a very nice sweet like
cool idea
But at the same time, I just don't feel like we've had the necessary set up to really make it
To make it work and to make it feel earned
Yeah so far like this episode specifically didn't make me feel like they'd earned that stuff so I don't know what else to say
And with that I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up i'm very excited all the way through
And with that i'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up. I'm very excited. I'll be releasing soon the next episode
episode 24
Discussion to my thoughts so we'll see how that goes because we're almost at the end of Ultraman
Zet and we'll be starting blazar very soon and that's super exciting to me. So anyway, stay tuned
I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. And uh, if you thought that you know
That they had earned
Everything that's going on here and if they're doing a good enough job
And getting you know, justifying the payoffs that they're saying that they want in this or showing that they want in this episode
anyway with that I
Hope that you are well, which would be well. This is MJ signing out
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