1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,000 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:05,500 You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com. 3 00:00:05,500 --> 00:00:08,000 Engine Inspection presents Going Ultra. 4 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Thank you for joining me for this review of Ultraman Blazar Episode 2. 5 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,500 I'm going to try to keep it tight, light, and fun. 6 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:18,000 So here we are today. I just came up with that on the spot. 7 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,000 And I feel really silly about it now. 8 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,000 So I'm going to talk about my general thoughts on it. 9 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000 What are the most visually striking elements were? 10 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,500 And then I was going to talk about the most dramatic stuff, but it wasn't really dramatic. 11 00:00:28,500 --> 00:00:31,000 It was funny. So I'll talk about the funniest thing in the episode, 12 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,000 or the funniest couple elements in the episode. 13 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000 And then we will go from there. 14 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,000 So first off, I want to talk about the episode title and stuff real quick. 15 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,500 It's called The Man Who Created Skard. 16 00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:45,500 It was written by Kiyotaka... I'm sorry, directed by Kiyotaka Taguchi. 17 00:00:45,500 --> 00:00:52,000 Written by Keigo Koyanagi, who is the same gentleman who did the first episode writing, 18 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:53,500 or the first episode script. 19 00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:58,000 And he was the military advisor for Ultraman Z and other shows. 20 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,000 Or Billy Ultraman Z for sure. I don't know about the rest. 21 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000 So I won't say that. And originally aired July 15, 2023. 22 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000 So without further ado, I'll go ahead and give you my general thoughts. 23 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,000 My general thoughts are I think this show is interesting so far. 24 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,000 I was surprised by how comedic it has been. 25 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:27,000 There are some elements in it that also made me wonder if the comedy is just a part of the tapestry of the show. 26 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000 And then later we're going to get some really dramatic turns and some unexpected things happening. 27 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000 Which I think is good and I'm looking forward to. 28 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:44,000 And I guess I'm just surprised by the fact that Haruno is bringing... 29 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:51,000 He assembled the team for Gento to be the leader of. 30 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,000 And he did it without his permission. 31 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,000 He tells him something weird which is you can say that you put the team together. 32 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,000 And Gento responds, well I would have preferred that sir, but okay. 33 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:14,000 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. 34 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:20,000 He just kind of doesn't say anything to his team. 35 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:26,000 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. 36 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:32,000 But he doesn't really talk about how they were selected or anything like that. 37 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000 And it seems like they know that Haruno pulled them together. 38 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:40,000 And I don't know if Haruno would have said, oh yeah, it was me who put the team together. 39 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:48,000 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. 40 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:49,000 So that's kind of interesting. 41 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:50,000 I'll just jump to the end real quick. 42 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:56,000 I find it interesting that, I think his name is Bondo, Gabuno, Yasuno, whatever. 43 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:57,000 The guy who made EarthGaron. 44 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:06,000 He was working for SCARD for weeks at the behest of the chief, Haruno. 45 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:14,000 And he had already been putting the other EarthGaron on and he did all this stuff like getting the weapons ready. 46 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000 And now this thing is weird. 47 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:29,000 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. 48 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 But then you have odd stuff that seems out of character. 49 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Like I believe it's so, man, Onri. 50 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Onri is the gearhead lady. 51 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:43,000 She goes off to buy supplies. 52 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:51,000 And by the time she comes back, the SCARD MOP, mobile operational something or mobile operations platform, is that what they call it? 53 00:03:51,000 --> 00:04:02,000 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. 54 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:09,000 He went ahead and got the truck ready. 55 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:10,000 He got it all. 56 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:11,000 It is Bondo. 57 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:12,000 I just double checked. 58 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,000 He tricked it out, filled it in, installed everything without anybody noticing. 59 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000 And that seems weirdly unrealistic. 60 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 And I don't really get that. 61 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 So I think we're going to see like a range in tone of the show. 62 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:33,000 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. 63 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000 And that's just something that we're going to have to be OK with, I think. 64 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 And the first episode started off so serious, but then we have the lighter tone here. 65 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:51,000 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. 66 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:57,000 And I guess you could even say Bondo had a funny moment with them where he just like kind of introduces himself awkwardly. 67 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000 And his was definitely the least comedic, but it was, you know, it's awkward, at least. 68 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:12,000 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. 69 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:20,000 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. 70 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,000 And that created a comedic scene. And it was more funny between him and... 71 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Emmy? Gosh, Abbie? What's her name? 72 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Yeah, Emmy. Emmy Alabe. So I created a comedic scene between Gento and Emmy. 73 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:39,000 And she's kind of like, you know, a very solid comedic foil or, you know, comedic partner for him so far. 74 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,000 So that's kind of funny. But again, I was not expecting all this humor to be in the show. 75 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:46,000 But I don't want to belabor that point because I already said that a couple of times. 76 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:51,000 So I will move on from there and talk about the most visually striking element in this show. 77 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:57,000 And I have to say, it's kind of a couple things, so I'll just talk about them all together. 78 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,000 So Blazor's fighting style does feel very feral and very animalistic and very wild. 79 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:07,000 And I like it. There's lots of elbow action. There's some knee action as well. 80 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:11,000 He's using his fists less than you think he might, which is interesting. 81 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:16,000 And I just really liked his attitude and his fighting style. 82 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000 And it just played really well for me in this episode. 83 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000 Not that it didn't play well in the first episode, but it just... I feel like we get to see a lot more. 84 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,000 I feel like it was faster. It was more dynamic. It was more exciting. 85 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,000 And that's what I'm here for, partly. So that was groovy. 86 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:34,000 And I guess there's not really much else to say about that aspect of it. 87 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:46,000 The use of the spiral braid as a fishing rod, complete with sound effects and everything else that went along with it, 88 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:51,000 was funny and interesting and quirky. And again, it feels like it shows the personality of the show. 89 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:58,000 And it was visually interesting to see. It was cool to see how they had the light bend. 90 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,000 I don't know if they had a prop that had some flex in it or what, 91 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 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, 92 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,000 like a bow of a bow and arrow or like a fishing rod will or what. 93 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:16,000 But I think it was really cool. And I don't know, I think it's a more interesting way to do it. 94 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:24,000 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. 95 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:35,000 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, 96 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:40,000 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. 97 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:49,000 And I think that's pretty interesting. So I do like that. And again, I find it enjoyable to watch. 98 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:55,000 So definitely the overall fighting style, I think, is very engaging and very interesting to watch. 99 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:59,000 So I do like that. And I appreciate what they're doing. 100 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:04,000 I feel like they're going in a little bit of a different direction with the combat. And yeah, it's cool. 101 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:13,000 And the Kyjia action was really cool. Gidos, I believe is the name, was very cool. And they did some interesting stuff with them. 102 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:25,000 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. 103 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:34,000 The humor was kind of interesting because it was varied in that you had kind of some sight gags. 104 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:43,000 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. 105 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:50,000 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. 106 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,000 And she gives him a line delivery of like, yeah, I don't think so, or rather not, and just like walks off. 107 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:01,000 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. 108 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:08,000 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. 109 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:12,000 She wants to put her skills elsewhere. But it was a funny moment. 110 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:22,000 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. 111 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:30,000 Just like a very like meticulous or like pedantic type of food order that she made was kind of funny. 112 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:35,000 And then the fact that she that Gento like wanted to he just didn't say anything, didn't make any faces. 113 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:40,000 He just grabbed his stuff and split. And then she told him who she was like. That was really funny. 114 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:46,000 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. 115 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:52,000 And then I can't remember the vice captain, but the vice captain, like they ran out of ink in the pen. 116 00:09:52,000 --> 00:10:09,000 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. 117 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:15,000 But like, you know, also made for good comedic moments. So that was really interesting. I did not expect that at all. 118 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:21,000 But, uh, yes, that's it. In conclusion, I'm going to say I really, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. 119 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:29,000 There's a lot to praise about it. You know, the kaiju fight was good. The visuals were good of the kaiju rampaging. 120 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:33,000 I like the fact that he eats fish. I eat fish, he eats fish, you know, we're like soulmates practically. 121 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:41,000 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. 122 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:48,000 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. 123 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:57,000 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. 124 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:04,000 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. 125 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:12,000 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. 126 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:19,000 Yeah, sewn because you reap what you sow. Um, so I'm interested to see where those go. 127 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:26,000 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. 128 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:34,000 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. 129 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:42,000 You can check out all my other work, uh, including my children's picture book script, uh, which is a story inspired by Ultraman. 130 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:49,000 And it even includes a transformation sequence, but it's a story for kids. It's about not being afraid at bedtime and nighttime. 131 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:52,000 It's called Ava and the Radiant Rescue. You can check it out. 132 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:59,000 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. 133 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:10,000 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. 134 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:18,000 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. 135 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:26,000 I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have. 136 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:35,000 There you can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. 137 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:39,000 Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. 138 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:49,000 This has been a Story Over Everything production.