1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJMunoz.com. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Engine Inspection presents Going Ultra. I'm wrapping up Ultraman Z. This is episode 24, the penultimate episode. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:21,000 It was originally aired on December 12th, 2020. It's called The Game to Extinction. 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:28,000 The director is Kiyotaka Takuchi, and the writer is credited posthumously as Koto Fukihara. 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:34,000 And I like this episode a lot. We get some interesting revelations about what exactly is going on. 6 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Celebro finally shows up, really speaks his mind, lets us know what he's doing, where he's going, what his plans are. 7 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:50,000 And basically his deal is that he goes from planet to planet like locusts, using up their resources. 8 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,000 Oh no no, sorry, wrong, wrong, wrong story. 9 00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:03,000 He goes from planet to planet manipulating things and manipulating the sentients there so that they become so overwhelmed with fear. 10 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:08,000 Fear of the unknown, fear of destruction, fear of monsters of unknown origin really. 11 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:16,000 That they will produce weapons that are too much for them to handle, that they lack the maturity to handle. 12 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:25,000 And then I guess at the end he uses that weapon, the weapon or weapon systems that they've created that are too much for them, 13 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:32,000 and he seizes them for himself and then destroys all life on that planet. 14 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:37,000 And yeah, he calls it the extinction game or something like that, which is pretty, pretty bad. 15 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:44,000 So that's kind of crazy. It all makes sense now what he's been doing and what's been going on. 16 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000 And at the same time, it just makes it a little bit weirder. 17 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:57,000 And while I like the sentiment of it, I still have a little bit of an issue with what exactly that means. 18 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:04,000 And like the fact that there's this amazing monster form, Destrudos, who comes out of Ultroid Zero, I guess. 19 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:09,000 Or that Ultroid Zero transforms into after absorbing essence of a bunch of kaiju. 20 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:17,000 That's kind of weird to me. And then he does use the D4 Ray at the end through the thumbnail picture. 21 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,000 At the end he does fire off the D4 Ray and say something like, 22 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,000 oh now I'm going to use the weapon that you and your people made to destroy you. 23 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,000 So I guess that makes a lot of sense and I get that. 24 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:35,000 But it's just weird. To me it's a very out of left field type of thing. 25 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000 I kind of like it better than world domination, this world destruction, and this serial thing. 26 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:46,000 Kind of like another bad guy from Comrade Build who I won't talk about. 27 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:53,000 But at the same time, I don't know. It kind of doesn't make sense. 28 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,000 He's a parasite basically, Celebro. And what do parasites do? They destroy their hosts. 29 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,000 So it's very much in keeping with the design of that kaiju and stuff. 30 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,000 But I don't know, it's interesting. I really like the actress who plays Yoko. 31 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,000 Her performances being unhinged here are fabulous. 32 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,000 The guy who plays, watch him up, he's a wizard. 33 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,000 The guy who plays the director here, Kirk Kiriyama I believe. 34 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,000 His performances are great. I love both of them hamming it up. 35 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:28,000 She seems like, he seems like a, I don't know, like a sick dude who's gross and enjoying being bad. 36 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,000 And she seems like an unhinged killer. 37 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,000 So it's like two different flavors of crazy. 38 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:39,000 And I appreciate that. And just both their performances were cool. 39 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:43,000 So that was neat. It was such a gut punch. Oops. 40 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:48,000 It was such a gut punch when Ultroid Zero started going after Red King. 41 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,000 And then tried to get Red King's egg. 42 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000 And then Zet came in there and saved little baby Red King and stuff. 43 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Yoko, or sorry, Yuka talking about how the planet is an organism. 44 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,000 And the Kaiju are like part of that organism, the super organism. 45 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,000 Okay, that's interesting. But this, that hadn't been shown throughout the show. 46 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Showed? Showed. That hadn't been shown throughout the show. 47 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000 So, I don't know, I kind of don't buy it. It kind of falls flat for me. 48 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:19,000 And like, Hedekura made like a, oh, is this because of global warming comment earlier? 49 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 And Yoko was like, no, it's not because of global warming. 50 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,000 And I don't know what that was about. 51 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,000 I think the planet can, well, anyway. 52 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,000 I think we're going to be okay. 53 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,000 Although I do want more people doing regenerative agriculture 54 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000 and growing their own food in a smaller, more sustainable, decentralized way. 55 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000 So, anyway, I don't know, that makes me crazy. 56 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,000 But yeah, I think there's definitely a better way we can do things. 57 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,000 And I'm all for stewardship of the Earth. 58 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:52,000 And anyway, but like, I don't know, like, so the show seemed to dismiss global warming 59 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000 through the person of Yuka, who then is now saying, oh yeah, these kaiju are, you know, 60 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,000 intimately tied in with the ecosystem of the planet, 61 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:05,000 and they can't handle Ultroid Zero because of his power and the D4 ray and all that stuff. 62 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:10,000 And so, therefore, we need to take this thing offline because it's detrimental to the overall health of the planet. 63 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,000 So, I don't know, like, that's kind of a contradictory message. 64 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:19,000 Like, either don't mention climate change or global warming at all, 65 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:26,000 or that way you're not, like, muddling things when you come to this man-made, so to speak, weapon. 66 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:31,000 It's, you know, stolen the Opul technology instead, but regardless. 67 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,000 You're, like, kind of running up against the same concept that, like, 68 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:42,000 something about the progression of humanity's technology is causing deleterious effects that cannot be, 69 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:49,000 well, that can only be counteracted by abstinence or cessation of certain practices versus, like, 70 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:54,000 creating new, better technology or systems that will help make that work. 71 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,000 Like, if the D4 ray were the engine, if the D4 thing, like, 72 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,000 like, I know this Ultroid Zero doesn't seem to have any battery packs or whatever. 73 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,000 Is that because the D4 ray? I don't know. They don't explain that. 74 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:13,000 And I believe, yeah, they never show it, as far as I know, having any sort of cabling on it. 75 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:20,000 And that's interesting because they don't talk about the S2 engine or anything like that in it. 76 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:22,000 That's a big deal in the conference. 77 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:27,000 So I don't know what's going on. It does get the belly-oil and trowel-shoes metal thrown into it, 78 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,000 and that seems to maybe be the thing that powers it when the director takes it, 79 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,000 but I'm not 100% sure about that. So that's kind of odd. 80 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,000 Like, it's funny. Like, I really liked it. It was a lot of fun. It was very exciting. 81 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000 I love, like, the revelation of Hebecura being, you know, a jugglerless juggler, 82 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,000 and how he apparently cut down a gigantic tree to stop a war. 83 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,000 What the...what the Ultra is that about? I don't know. 84 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:57,000 But it makes me compelled to, like, see this guy show, and this is going to be a weird comment, 85 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:02,000 but that man looks fabulous in his juggler suit with the helmet off. 86 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 Like, I don't know if they did his hair differently, or, like, if his skin was looking extra good that day, or what, 87 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,000 but he looked so fabulous in that, and I thought, like, man, this guy's awesome! This guy's so cool! 88 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,000 I want to be just like him when I grow up. Oh, never mind. I already did that. 89 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,000 But, like, I don't know. Like, I want to hang out with that guy. 90 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:23,000 Hebecura sometimes he looks funny or like a goofy guy, but, like, there he looked super cool. 91 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:29,000 So I don't know if it was just because he was being bad, or, like, he shifted out of his Hebecura persona 92 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:33,000 into his juggler persona, or what, but I was like, I want to be on that guy's team. 93 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:39,000 I want to be on that guy's side. I like him. Oh, wait, he's a complicated possible villain. 94 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:45,000 So he's a possible villain. You know, Hebecura apparently, or juggler, has been working towards this whole time 95 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:49,000 finding out what's going on and taking the opportunity where he can. 96 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:55,000 It wasn't that he planned on stealing an ultimate weapon from humans on Earth, and that's why he joins. 97 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,000 Well, maybe that was why he joins, George. Hey, humans are making these great weapons. 98 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,000 If I can get my hands on one of these, then I can prove to whoever he's talking about from a previous show 99 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:07,000 that, you know, we, whoever we are, what kind of class of people we are, we can do this. 100 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,000 I have no idea what he's talking about, but I find it very compelling. 101 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:16,000 And now that I'm thinking about it again, it does make sense that when he was trying to do the whole time, 102 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:23,000 work with storage so he can steal an ultimate weapon or a super powerful weapon for, you know, his own ends. 103 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:34,000 And when, like now, it makes sense that he had Ultraman hit the King Joe or whatever that was previously 104 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:41,000 with the Zestium Beam so that the data could be collected so that Ultroid Zero could be completed 105 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:48,000 and the D4 weapon system could be used successfully and safely by Ultroid Zero so it could be powered 106 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:52,000 so that it would become the ultimate weapon so that he could then take it, which is super interesting. 107 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Again, super complicated, very fun. Another couple random fun things. 108 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:03,000 I love Ultroid Zero crawling up out of the fourth gate, like up the fourth gate shaft and bursting out of there. 109 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:10,000 That was super cool. And then the fact that he's rampaging all over the world to take stuff is pretty fabulous. 110 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:16,000 So I really liked that. Yeah, I got really strong Evangelion vibes. Like that was one of them. 111 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:20,000 And I don't know what else to say. I don't know what else to say. 112 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:27,000 This episode was, again, a lot of fun. I love the peak drama. I love the fact that Yoko is trapped in there, 113 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:32,000 that Haruki is like desperate to rescue her, but he can't. And all the drama that that's creating. 114 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,000 I've already mentioned G Gundam once. I'll mention it again. 115 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:40,000 I get a little bit of a G Gundam vibe too with the girl being trapped inside of this great monster. 116 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:45,000 Now our hero's got to defeat in order to save her, which I know is basically the princess in the castle 117 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:51,000 held by the dragon or the Black Knight or whatever. But it also happens in an interesting way. 118 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:59,000 And it feels slightly like that here as well, which I think is good and fun because I like G Gundam a lot. 119 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,000 And I like everything that's going on here. So I'm sure I missed some big points. 120 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:07,000 Why don't you tell me what I missed and things I should have talked about that I didn't in the comments. 121 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:34,000 And yeah, until next time, folks, take care. This is MJ signing out. 122 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:39,000 Thanks for watching.