Hey there, MJ with Henshin Inspection and Going Ultra and all sorts of other things.
Wishing you a happy Ultraman Day, Ultramaniacs!
I wouldn't say I get to be called an Ultramaniac because, you know, I like the stories but
I'm not quoting things about Ultraman, except for I love Jeed's, you know, well I can't
even quote it so I'm not going to.
Anyway, but just yeah, it's cool.
It's July 10th, 424, it's Ultraman Day, Ultraman...
Arc?
Just started, watched that first episode, talked about that.
Ultraman Rising, watched that probably three to four and a half times now, the half-ish
times are because I was kind of on in the background and kids were being distracted
or whatever, but that's a good movie.
The, not the first day it came out, but pretty soon, within the first week it came out, I
went ahead and watched it with my kids and all of them sat down with me and we were all
stuck there for two hours and it was fantastic.
There were tears, there were laughs, it was great.
So that's a great movie.
And it's interesting in watching Ultraman Arc after watching Ultraman Rising, there
are some interesting similarities and I don't fully understand the production process of
it, I don't know.
I feel like Ultraman Rising was mentioned two years ago, in 2022, and we knew that they
wanted to do it and I feel kind of like it was almost in direct response to Spider-Verse
coming out, the first one.
So maybe not two years ago is when it was announced because we had that image of the
really skinny Ultraman doing his thing and I think we had that, it was an abstract image
of him and you could tell he was lanky and that the animation style was going to be different,
more unique and more stylistic and less realistic, which is good, wonderful.
And anyway, it was a really good movie, but it also got me thinking about Suvaraya's imagination
thing and the promo that they put out, I don't know, a month or two ago and it's one of the
first things on their official English YouTube channel, which I'm watching ARKON now.
I hope they migrate like Blazar and Z and all the other English stuff, the Ina Regulus,
all the different things that they have dubbed into English over there, that would be great
for it to just build up this whole big channel, that would be super cool.
A lot easier to put the kids over there because my kids will watch Z and when they want to
watch that I have to kind of sift through and try to find out, they'll watch either
the Japanese or the English but I figure if they're going to watch it they should understand
the story so they should watch the English version of it.
So it'll be easier if it's on the English only channel.
And then, but yeah, they're definitely not averse to it.
They've watched J.E.D. all the way through at least once, obviously in Japanese, on Shout
TV, I think is where they watched it.
So but I would like, I'd love if they gave J.E.D. a dub because dubs are a lot easier
for you to watch a lot faster.
And I'd like to get to experience that show.
But anyway, what's my point?
Oh, this like imagination theme that Tsuburaya is focusing on and it's directly referenced
in ARK, you know, you might unleash your imagination.
It's really interesting and it's really impressive and I have to say it's a little funny that
imagination is their thing because I like Ultramen.
I want to make that clear.
The designs for the Ultramen are very similar and they don't show a lot of uniqueness and
like the flash that we gotten of Yuma's armor for his different forms, I guess, from unleashing
his imagination.
They remind me a little bit of Ultramen X or maybe Ultramen Orb's, I think it's X more,
who gets like Kaiju part armor type stuff.
They remind me a little bit more of that, those form changes.
And I guess my roundabout way of saying this is I find that the imagination in, hmm, this
is interesting.
If you just look at them side by side, the brands, I would say Kamen Rider and maybe
even Super Sentai have a lot more, there's a wider spectrum of visual elements that are
used for their shows than Ultramen.
Ultramen have a much more cohesive look, I'll say that, whereas Super Sentai and Ultramen
Riders look a lot different from each other.
And one could say superficially that that means that the imagination that goes into
Super Sentai and Kamen Rider is superior.
However, I kind of think there's a...
I would say that my imagination has been captured more by Ultramen stories, the few Ultramen
stories that I've enjoyed, and like it's a more thoughtful property.
There's still monster fighting, which is great, but it's a more thoughtful property and it
animates the imagination more.
It's less of a spectacle, it's less of like a poppy candy type thing, and it's more of
something that has like a staying power and there's like a resonance of truth or something
in Ultramen.
And I would say...
I would say that's good, that's definitely a compliment.
But I would also say that I think that's where they're going, or that's where they're coming
from when they talk about imagination being like a core thing to Ultramen.
And again, going back, you could superficially say that it's less imaginative because there's
not a praying mantis Ultramen.
There's not a baby shark Ultramen, there's not a flag Ultramen, there's not a stop sign
Ultramen, whereas you would have all those different types of comment writers eventually,
right?
And I think it's really interesting, and I think it's...
I think it's interesting how much deeper the stories of Ultramen are.
And I want to talk about Ultramen Rising separately on its own at some point, just like I've talked
about Ark.
And in rewatching Rising so much, and why am I rewatching it?
Because of the spectacular special effects?
Not really.
It looks great.
The stylistic...
My daughter is like, I don't really like the style, but it was still cool.
And I kind of feel the same way about it.
Like, it's very angular, some of the necks are very long.
But still, I'd rather see that than...
I'd rather see the uniqueness than the homogeneity.
I don't want everything to look all the same.
I can watch Jokersatsu, you know, real Jokersatsu.
I can look out my window and see houses that all look the same, people that all look the
same.
So in the animation, I really like them taking it and putting it in a different direction.
But it was interesting in rewatching and watching and watching and watching Ultra Man Rising,
the way that movie is structured is really interesting because it does spark the imagination
in another way.
Well, it hooks you emotionally, definitely for sure.
The beginning hooks you emotionally, all throughout there's little things that just pull you emotionally
closer to the story.
And it makes the story stick more in my mind.
It makes me think about different things, different possibilities.
Let's go for the characters and more for the world building, honestly.
So the world building aspects of it are sparking a lot of imagination to me.
And honestly, with ARK 2, this is a different universe.
There's never been an Ultra Man before.
It's been 16 years since K-Day.
There were seven Kaiju that appeared at first.
Seven?
There were seven Kaiju that appeared at first.
What are all these things?
All these unstated questions that are invisible questions, I think is what they call them
in writing, that make the audience think like, oh, we'll think about the story and say, hmm,
I wonder what this is.
And in turn, that gets you thinking about the story itself and then it gets you thinking
more deeply and more deeply attached to the property in a way.
And I just really think it's interesting.
So what did I say?
I said Ultra Man's high quality.
I said that it's sticking in my mind and I said that I can't stop thinking about the
world building aspects of Rising and to some extent ARK as well.
And that's all good stuff.
So anyway, I have that to say.
I hope that I'll talk about Ultra Man Rising either very soon or today on Ultra Man Day.
And I know that's all I have to say.
So take care.
Make it an Ultra Day.
Be your Ultra Best Self.
I hope you enjoyed that.
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Until next time, be well.
This is MJ signing out.
This has been a Story Over Everything production.