This is MJ with Going Ultra and Henshin Inspection.
I want to talk about Ultraman Rising real quick on this Ultraman Day, July 10th, 2024.
And I mentioned earlier when I was talking about it that Ultraman Rising, my kids and
I were stuck for two hours watching the movie.
And I mean stuck in the best possible way.
We were glued to our seats, we didn't want to move, we just kept enjoying the story as
it evolved and went on and we got to see more and more of what was going on.
And really understanding what was happening.
And it's weird because it's a movie all about family even though it's got Kaiju and it's
got Ultraman in it.
We've got an Ultra Dad and an Ultra Son.
I guess, sorry about the spoilers, but there will be some spoilers here.
You've got basically children and parents is the focus of the movie.
And even the way it opens, it opens on a family and then it closes on a family?
No, I don't know.
I'm not going to say it closes on a family, but for sure it opens on a family.
And you see them doing very domestic things and all of a sudden there's a Kaiju attack
and it's very clear that this is Ken Sato and what the deal is with his parents.
Watching recently, so I just rewatched it again for the purpose of talking about this
thing because that's a good story.
And it was interesting, Ken's dad, which I feel embarrassed that I don't remember his
name, he said that your mother taught me what it means to be human.
And I mentioned also earlier when I was talking about the imagination focus that Tsuburaya
has and that they're using in their marketing right now.
The movie Ultraman Rising has a lot of world building things in it that make me think,
first of all, I think there should be a trilogy, at least if not just two movies, but there
needs to be a second one for sure.
But I think a second where you, again I'm going full spoilers, a second movie where
he finds his mom and then a third movie where the truth about Ultraman and the truth about
Kaiju is discovered for this world, for this story, because it's a completely separate
world and story and it's its own thing.
It's independent from all the other Ultraman stuff, even if there's references and we get
to see Gamora and whatever.
Other things from the Ultraman past, it's its own individual story, but what was my
point?
It's about family, world building, hmm.
Ah, sorry.
There's just so much to the movie that I'm trying to talk about in a small amount of
time, but huh.
Even though I can't remember what I was going to say, my point stands that it's a really
good movie, it's a really good story, because there's all these things in it that hook you
or hook me and my kids and we just want to explore more.
We want to see what Kaiju Island looks like.
We want to see what's going on there.
Like if his mom is stuck on Kaiju Island, I wouldn't be surprised.
If she needs to be rescued from there somehow, that would be really interesting.
Gosh, what was I going to talk about?
The true nature of Ultraman and the Kaiju and everything.
I don't remember, but anyway, the movie was really good.
It's about parents and their children.
It's about legacy.
It's about, I don't know if it's about making a difference in the world necessarily, or
if it's about the choices that people choose to make and the things that people do make
them who they are.
How do I put it?
He's Kondo, right, he's the guy who loses his wife and kid and he blames Ultraman for
that and he goes on this quest with the KDF to destroy all Kaiju, no matter what it takes,
because of how his love for his family affected him.
He now kind of sees the world through the lens of familial connection.
He is confident that Gigantron, he can get Gigantron killed by...
Well, he's certain that he can do everything he can with Gigantron, baby Gigantron, because
of that familial connection and he is certain that the child will go back to Kaiju Island
and that he'll be able to destroy all the Kaiju there because of that family connection.
And it's really interesting how, like that's the lens and that's the prism of this Ultraman
story specifically, and I wouldn't say family is the connection story for all Ultraman stories.
Jude is the only one that pops to mind that definitely that's something there, but I haven't
seen enough of Ultraman to say, oh yeah, they're all about family.
But the thing about Ultraman is from the meta perspective, it is enjoyed by families.
My family, we sing the 1966, here he comes from the sky, that Ultraman song that was
referenced in this movie by Mia and her daughter, and I think it's her mother, so the grandmother,
singing that song together in the car at some point.
Our kids, we play Ultraman with our kids and they come at us and throw their energy weapons
and tackle, push and dose, most of me, their mom alone, but they mostly attack me as a
Kaiju and the brothers get to be an Ultraman and an evil Ultraman, or two good Ultraman
and they're fighting me, the monster, or whatever.
And it's just interesting how family oriented the movie was and how it pulled in this meta
stuff like this, like Gamora toys, and it looks like there's even a Gachai, like a Super
Sentai combination robot behind Kenta in the, or Ken, is it Kenji?
Kenta or Kenji?
Anyway, whatever, Ken, behind him in his little lair underground.
And obviously like having that familiar connection with the baby, that brings him out, that raises
him up, it elevates him, it makes him go beyond who he is as a person, it makes him into a
better person, and I'm of the opinion that one of the gifts of life, one of the gifts
of above, is that when we have children, which is a natural consequence of things that we
want to do anyway, when we have children, it forces us to be better people, it forces
us to become a little more serious, a little more devoted, a little more invested in the
future and making sure the future is good.
And I think that's kind of what children are for and what they do.
And I think that idea is kind of present in this because through becoming a father type
figure, Ken repairs his relationship with his father and he repairs his relationship
with other people around him and he becomes a better member of his baseball team, becomes
a better member, or he becomes a better Ultraman as well because of the way he goes about fighting
the Kaiju, whereas he didn't want to do that in the beginning.
And it's really interesting how all that takes place.
It's like a really dense movie.
It's kind of simple, but it's also really dense and just the way it plays with the theme
of family and the way it looks at the world, it takes a worldview of family is super important
and then it puts that on Ultraman and kind of directs the watcher through the story based
on that.
It's really interesting and I don't really know what to say.
Like I've been thinking about talking about Ultraman Rising for a while and I just, I
feel like it's the kind of thing that I can keep talking about, especially if I'm going
to talk about it in these short stints like I do, you know, 10 minutes or less.
There's so much to say, but a lot of it is wrapped up in the fact that this is all about
family, this movie, this story of Ultraman Rising and it's a good thing.
It's a good thing, it's a beautiful thing and it's a really great way to connect the
audience to this otherwise foreign thing.
I'm not saying it's foreign because it's Japanese, I'm saying it's foreign because there's giant
monsters and a giant man fighting them and like you don't really understand any of that
and there's no real set up, there's no origin story to Ultraman, it's just you're thrown
into the story and because it's Ken's personal story and we introduced to it, like knowing
what a hero is and learning about how he became a hero became something more than himself,
which really if you look in the roots of it, a hero is somebody who does something extraordinary,
goes beyond the normal and that's definitely what Ultraman is, but that's also like what
a mother is who's up with a sick baby or a mother who just carries a baby and brings
it into this world and then preserves that life and makes sure that it does well and
flourishes, like that's even more powerful, which is interesting because in some ways,
while his dad was important, the mom was, see I don't remember these names 100%, Mina,
right?
No, Mia is the other lady, Emi. Emi is even more of this like heroic figure and she has
this connection with her son that she can use or that she utilizes to help like bring
him up into more than he is, more than he is willing to become right now and it's really
interesting and we're not saying that families are about manipulating people into becoming
who they should be, but families are the context of humans. Family, society, the world is the
context in which we exist so it makes sense that we are influenced by that context and
I don't know what else to say. Go watch Ultraman Rising, it's really good. Watch it a bunch
of times. The more you watch it, the better it gets. The more you watch it, the deeper
it gets and it's a really cool movie and I think it's really beautiful and really important
and I think it's the start of something big for Super Eye and I hope they follow up on
it and I hope they follow up on it soon, but don't rush it.
I hope you enjoyed that. Subscribe to keep up with me. Like and share to help me reach
more people like you and go to MJMunoz.com to find your next favorite thing. And don't
forget to let your voice be heard. Stories are always better when you're part of the
conversation. Until next time, be well. This is MJ signing out. This has been a Story Over
Everything production.