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Hey there, MJ with Henshin Inspection and Going Ultra and all sorts of other things.

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Wishing you a happy Ultraman Day, Ultramaniacs!

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I wouldn't say I get to be called an Ultramaniac because, you know, I like the stories but

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I'm not quoting things about Ultraman, except for I love Jeed's, you know, well I can't

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even quote it so I'm not going to.

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Anyway, but just yeah, it's cool.

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It's July 10th, 424, it's Ultraman Day, Ultraman...

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Arc?

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Just started, watched that first episode, talked about that.

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Ultraman Rising, watched that probably three to four and a half times now, the half-ish

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times are because I was kind of on in the background and kids were being distracted

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or whatever, but that's a good movie.

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The, not the first day it came out, but pretty soon, within the first week it came out, I

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went ahead and watched it with my kids and all of them sat down with me and we were all

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stuck there for two hours and it was fantastic.

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There were tears, there were laughs, it was great.

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So that's a great movie.

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And it's interesting in watching Ultraman Arc after watching Ultraman Rising, there

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are some interesting similarities and I don't fully understand the production process of

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it, I don't know.

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I feel like Ultraman Rising was mentioned two years ago, in 2022, and we knew that they

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wanted to do it and I feel kind of like it was almost in direct response to Spider-Verse

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coming out, the first one.

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So maybe not two years ago is when it was announced because we had that image of the

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really skinny Ultraman doing his thing and I think we had that, it was an abstract image

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of him and you could tell he was lanky and that the animation style was going to be different,

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more unique and more stylistic and less realistic, which is good, wonderful.

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And anyway, it was a really good movie, but it also got me thinking about Suvaraya's imagination

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thing and the promo that they put out, I don't know, a month or two ago and it's one of the

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first things on their official English YouTube channel, which I'm watching ARKON now.

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I hope they migrate like Blazar and Z and all the other English stuff, the Ina Regulus,

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all the different things that they have dubbed into English over there, that would be great

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for it to just build up this whole big channel, that would be super cool.

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A lot easier to put the kids over there because my kids will watch Z and when they want to

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watch that I have to kind of sift through and try to find out, they'll watch either

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the Japanese or the English but I figure if they're going to watch it they should understand

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the story so they should watch the English version of it.

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So it'll be easier if it's on the English only channel.

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And then, but yeah, they're definitely not averse to it.

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They've watched J.E.D. all the way through at least once, obviously in Japanese, on Shout

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TV, I think is where they watched it.

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So but I would like, I'd love if they gave J.E.D. a dub because dubs are a lot easier

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for you to watch a lot faster.

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And I'd like to get to experience that show.

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But anyway, what's my point?

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Oh, this like imagination theme that Tsuburaya is focusing on and it's directly referenced

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in ARK, you know, you might unleash your imagination.

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It's really interesting and it's really impressive and I have to say it's a little funny that

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imagination is their thing because I like Ultramen.

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I want to make that clear.

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The designs for the Ultramen are very similar and they don't show a lot of uniqueness and

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like the flash that we gotten of Yuma's armor for his different forms, I guess, from unleashing

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his imagination.

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They remind me a little bit of Ultramen X or maybe Ultramen Orb's, I think it's X more,

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who gets like Kaiju part armor type stuff.

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They remind me a little bit more of that, those form changes.

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And I guess my roundabout way of saying this is I find that the imagination in, hmm, this

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is interesting.

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If you just look at them side by side, the brands, I would say Kamen Rider and maybe

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even Super Sentai have a lot more, there's a wider spectrum of visual elements that are

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used for their shows than Ultramen.

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Ultramen have a much more cohesive look, I'll say that, whereas Super Sentai and Ultramen

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Riders look a lot different from each other.

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And one could say superficially that that means that the imagination that goes into

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Super Sentai and Kamen Rider is superior.

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However, I kind of think there's a...

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I would say that my imagination has been captured more by Ultramen stories, the few Ultramen

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stories that I've enjoyed, and like it's a more thoughtful property.

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There's still monster fighting, which is great, but it's a more thoughtful property and it

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animates the imagination more.

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It's less of a spectacle, it's less of like a poppy candy type thing, and it's more of

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something that has like a staying power and there's like a resonance of truth or something

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in Ultramen.

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And I would say...

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I would say that's good, that's definitely a compliment.

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But I would also say that I think that's where they're going, or that's where they're coming

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from when they talk about imagination being like a core thing to Ultramen.

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And again, going back, you could superficially say that it's less imaginative because there's

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not a praying mantis Ultramen.

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There's not a baby shark Ultramen, there's not a flag Ultramen, there's not a stop sign

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Ultramen, whereas you would have all those different types of comment writers eventually,

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right?

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And I think it's really interesting, and I think it's...

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I think it's interesting how much deeper the stories of Ultramen are.

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And I want to talk about Ultramen Rising separately on its own at some point, just like I've talked

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about Ark.

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And in rewatching Rising so much, and why am I rewatching it?

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Because of the spectacular special effects?

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Not really.

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It looks great.

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The stylistic...

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My daughter is like, I don't really like the style, but it was still cool.

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And I kind of feel the same way about it.

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Like, it's very angular, some of the necks are very long.

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But still, I'd rather see that than...

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I'd rather see the uniqueness than the homogeneity.

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I don't want everything to look all the same.

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I can watch Jokersatsu, you know, real Jokersatsu.

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I can look out my window and see houses that all look the same, people that all look the

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same.

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So in the animation, I really like them taking it and putting it in a different direction.

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But it was interesting in rewatching and watching and watching and watching Ultra Man Rising,

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the way that movie is structured is really interesting because it does spark the imagination

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in another way.

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Well, it hooks you emotionally, definitely for sure.

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The beginning hooks you emotionally, all throughout there's little things that just pull you emotionally

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closer to the story.

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And it makes the story stick more in my mind.

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It makes me think about different things, different possibilities.

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Let's go for the characters and more for the world building, honestly.

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So the world building aspects of it are sparking a lot of imagination to me.

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And honestly, with ARK 2, this is a different universe.

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There's never been an Ultra Man before.

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It's been 16 years since K-Day.

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There were seven Kaiju that appeared at first.

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Seven?

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There were seven Kaiju that appeared at first.

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What are all these things?

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All these unstated questions that are invisible questions, I think is what they call them

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in writing, that make the audience think like, oh, we'll think about the story and say, hmm,

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I wonder what this is.

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And in turn, that gets you thinking about the story itself and then it gets you thinking

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more deeply and more deeply attached to the property in a way.

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And I just really think it's interesting.

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So what did I say?

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I said Ultra Man's high quality.

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I said that it's sticking in my mind and I said that I can't stop thinking about the

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world building aspects of Rising and to some extent ARK as well.

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And that's all good stuff.

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So anyway, I have that to say.

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I hope that I'll talk about Ultra Man Rising either very soon or today on Ultra Man Day.

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And I know that's all I have to say.

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So take care.

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Make it an Ultra Day.

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Be your Ultra Best Self.

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I hope you enjoyed that.

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Subscribe to keep up with me.

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Like and share to help me reach more people like you.

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And go to MJMunoz.com to find your next favorite thing.

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And don't forget to let your voice be heard.

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Stories are always better when you're part of the conversation.

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Until next time, be well.

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This is MJ signing out.

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This has been a Story Over Everything production.