This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Engine Inspection presents Going Ultra.
Thank you for joining me for this review of Ultraman Blazar Episode 2.
I'm going to try to keep it tight, light, and fun.
So here we are today. I just came up with that on the spot.
And I feel really silly about it now.
So I'm going to talk about my general thoughts on it.
What are the most visually striking elements were?
And then I was going to talk about the most dramatic stuff, but it wasn't really dramatic.
It was funny. So I'll talk about the funniest thing in the episode,
or the funniest couple elements in the episode.
And then we will go from there.
So first off, I want to talk about the episode title and stuff real quick.
It's called The Man Who Created Skard.
It was written by Kiyotaka... I'm sorry, directed by Kiyotaka Taguchi.
Written by Keigo Koyanagi, who is the same gentleman who did the first episode writing,
or the first episode script.
And he was the military advisor for Ultraman Z and other shows.
Or Billy Ultraman Z for sure. I don't know about the rest.
So I won't say that. And originally aired July 15, 2023.
So without further ado, I'll go ahead and give you my general thoughts.
My general thoughts are I think this show is interesting so far.
I was surprised by how comedic it has been.
There are some elements in it that also made me wonder if the comedy is just a part of the tapestry of the show.
And then later we're going to get some really dramatic turns and some unexpected things happening.
Which I think is good and I'm looking forward to.
And I guess I'm just surprised by the fact that Haruno is bringing...
He assembled the team for Gento to be the leader of.
And he did it without his permission.
He tells him something weird which is you can say that you put the team together.
And Gento responds, well I would have preferred that sir, but okay.
And I don't think he proceeds to lie or to roll with that suggested truth, or whatever you want to call it, that Haruno gave him.
He just kind of doesn't say anything to his team.
As he assembles them, he just talks to them and deals with them on a one by one basis and kind of does the best he can.
But he doesn't really talk about how they were selected or anything like that.
And it seems like they know that Haruno pulled them together.
And I don't know if Haruno would have said, oh yeah, it was me who put the team together.
Or if he would have said, oh Gento put this team together and I'm just letting you know about it before he comes and sees you or whatever.
So that's kind of interesting.
I'll just jump to the end real quick.
I find it interesting that, I think his name is Bondo, Gabuno, Yasuno, whatever.
The guy who made EarthGaron.
He was working for SCARD for weeks at the behest of the chief, Haruno.
And he had already been putting the other EarthGaron on and he did all this stuff like getting the weapons ready.
And now this thing is weird.
So I mean, there's funny, silly moments in this, but it seems to also be written very seriously or with a very realistic edge as far as the military weapons and procedures and tactics and things like that are concerned.
But then you have odd stuff that seems out of character.
Like I believe it's so, man, Onri.
Onri is the gearhead lady.
She goes off to buy supplies.
And by the time she comes back, the SCARD MOP, mobile operational something or mobile operations platform, is that what they call it?
It's already ready to go because somehow while he was working on EarthGaron and other things, Bondo, which I believe it's Bondo, man, that sucks that I don't remember.
He went ahead and got the truck ready.
He got it all.
It is Bondo.
I just double checked.
He tricked it out, filled it in, installed everything without anybody noticing.
And that seems weirdly unrealistic.
And I don't really get that.
So I think we're going to see like a range in tone of the show.
Like it will be very serious, but then there will be these odd, silly moments and these different jokes that get played for laughs, obviously, because the jokes throughout the show.
And that's just something that we're going to have to be OK with, I think.
And the first episode started off so serious, but then we have the lighter tone here.
So there was a bunch of stuff that I laughed about, like as Gento was going around assembling the team and talking to them and interacting with them, they each had a funny moment.
And I guess you could even say Bondo had a funny moment with them where he just like kind of introduces himself awkwardly.
And his was definitely the least comedic, but it was, you know, it's awkward, at least.
It was kind of interesting. And there was the humorous exchange between his boss or his former employee or former colleague at his place of work.
And I mean, that was kind of, I don't know if they were like testing jets or why the machinery was so loud or what they were doing, but it was super loud there.
And that created a comedic scene. And it was more funny between him and...
Emmy? Gosh, Abbie? What's her name?
Yeah, Emmy. Emmy Alabe. So I created a comedic scene between Gento and Emmy.
And she's kind of like, you know, a very solid comedic foil or, you know, comedic partner for him so far.
So that's kind of funny. But again, I was not expecting all this humor to be in the show.
But I don't want to belabor that point because I already said that a couple of times.
So I will move on from there and talk about the most visually striking element in this show.
And I have to say, it's kind of a couple things, so I'll just talk about them all together.
So Blazor's fighting style does feel very feral and very animalistic and very wild.
And I like it. There's lots of elbow action. There's some knee action as well.
He's using his fists less than you think he might, which is interesting.
And I just really liked his attitude and his fighting style.
And it just played really well for me in this episode.
Not that it didn't play well in the first episode, but it just... I feel like we get to see a lot more.
I feel like it was faster. It was more dynamic. It was more exciting.
And that's what I'm here for, partly. So that was groovy.
And I guess there's not really much else to say about that aspect of it.
The use of the spiral braid as a fishing rod, complete with sound effects and everything else that went along with it,
was funny and interesting and quirky. And again, it feels like it shows the personality of the show.
And it was visually interesting to see. It was cool to see how they had the light bend.
I don't know if they had a prop that had some flex in it or what,
or if it was just a visual effect that they were saying they used to make the light look like it was bending in his hand,
like a bow of a bow and arrow or like a fishing rod will or what.
But I think it was really cool. And I don't know, I think it's a more interesting way to do it.
I had talked about having the zet riser be, first of all, called the metal riser, but also having it have different weapon mode functions.
And while the spiral braid has acted as a melee weapon or a ranged weapon, I'll just say, yeah, as a ranged weapon in both episodes so far,
I imagine it could act like a sword, but it's a little bit more like a staff, but it's like a variable staff that can do different things.
And I think that's pretty interesting. So I do like that. And again, I find it enjoyable to watch.
So definitely the overall fighting style, I think, is very engaging and very interesting to watch.
So I do like that. And I appreciate what they're doing.
I feel like they're going in a little bit of a different direction with the combat. And yeah, it's cool.
And the Kyjia action was really cool. Gidos, I believe is the name, was very cool. And they did some interesting stuff with them.
Last thing, yeah, Gidos. Last thing is I'm going to talk about the funniest moments, which there were a lot of good funny moments.
The humor was kind of interesting because it was varied in that you had kind of some sight gags.
I think Gidos like turning into a fish himself or acting very much like he's just a regular fish that is being fished by Blazar.
It's funny in and of itself. Then you have like the weird thing with the old fisherman who like wants Emmy to be his apprentice.
And she gives him a line delivery of like, yeah, I don't think so, or rather not, and just like walks off.
Like, that's kind of funny. It doesn't feel like he's supposed to be like a perverted old man or anything like that.
It just feels like he's an old fisherman who's like he wants the next generation to fish. And she has no interest in that.
She wants to put her skills elsewhere. But it was a funny moment.
And yeah, I mean, each of the like the whole thing, you know, when Emmy comes along and she orders like a ton of food, it's not like a ton of food and like weird, like espresso with hot water after the meal.
Just like a very like meticulous or like pedantic type of food order that she made was kind of funny.
And then the fact that she that Gento like wanted to he just didn't say anything, didn't make any faces.
He just grabbed his stuff and split. And then she told him who she was like. That was really funny.
And then, uh, on me, like stabbing in the back on accident with her pen while she was trying to, you know, sign the paperwork.
And then I can't remember the vice captain, but the vice captain, like they ran out of ink in the pen.
And like there was just like these weird, very human, very like, I don't know, like open, honest moments between the characters, like showing their foibles and their flaws and their like weird idiosyncrasies and silliness to each other and to the audience that made them endearing, I believe.
But like, you know, also made for good comedic moments. So that was really interesting. I did not expect that at all.
But, uh, yes, that's it. In conclusion, I'm going to say I really, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode.
There's a lot to praise about it. You know, the kaiju fight was good. The visuals were good of the kaiju rampaging.
I like the fact that he eats fish. I eat fish, he eats fish, you know, we're like soulmates practically.
So that was fun. And, uh, I know it's just like a quirky bunch of characters. Um, but there's this serious edge to it too.
And then like the captain at the end or the commander Haruno saying like, I need you to feed Ultraman or no, beat a kaiju before Ultraman does.
Kind of raising the stakes is interesting. And I kind of didn't look at the kaiju for next episode because I, uh, I don't know, I was working on my thumbnail and stuff.
And, uh, I think it's going to look pretty friggin awesome. And we're going to get to see some really interesting stuff going forward in the show.
So I'm interested. I think there's some seeds of bigger stuff that will develop later on in the show, like already being sewn.
Yeah, sewn because you reap what you sow. Um, so I'm interested to see where those go.
With that, I'm going to go ahead and get out of here. I encourage you to check out my full playlist of going ultra stuff.
I've got, uh, all of Z that I reviewed. I've watched other Ultraman things and talked about them and I'm going to be continuing the blazar.
You can check out all my other work, uh, including my children's picture book script, uh, which is a story inspired by Ultraman.
And it even includes a transformation sequence, but it's a story for kids. It's about not being afraid at bedtime and nighttime.
It's called Ava and the Radiant Rescue. You can check it out.
There should be a link to the show notes and there will be a link in the show notes to the full post with, uh, maybe some images and some other things.
So please check that out and enjoy it. And if you're listening on a podcasting 2.0 app, my plan is to have chapters in here and have images marking off the chapters too, for you to be able to jump to different things and look at them.
And, uh, yes, that's all I have to say. So I hope you enjoyed this until next time, folks be well. This is MJ signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have.
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