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This is MJ with Going Ultra and Henshin Inspection.

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I want to talk about Ultraman Rising real quick on this Ultraman Day, July 10th, 2024.

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And I mentioned earlier when I was talking about it that Ultraman Rising, my kids and

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I were stuck for two hours watching the movie.

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And I mean stuck in the best possible way.

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We were glued to our seats, we didn't want to move, we just kept enjoying the story as

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it evolved and went on and we got to see more and more of what was going on.

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And really understanding what was happening.

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And it's weird because it's a movie all about family even though it's got Kaiju and it's

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got Ultraman in it.

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We've got an Ultra Dad and an Ultra Son.

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I guess, sorry about the spoilers, but there will be some spoilers here.

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You've got basically children and parents is the focus of the movie.

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And even the way it opens, it opens on a family and then it closes on a family?

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No, I don't know.

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I'm not going to say it closes on a family, but for sure it opens on a family.

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And you see them doing very domestic things and all of a sudden there's a Kaiju attack

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and it's very clear that this is Ken Sato and what the deal is with his parents.

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Watching recently, so I just rewatched it again for the purpose of talking about this

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thing because that's a good story.

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And it was interesting, Ken's dad, which I feel embarrassed that I don't remember his

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name, he said that your mother taught me what it means to be human.

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And I mentioned also earlier when I was talking about the imagination focus that Tsuburaya

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has and that they're using in their marketing right now.

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The movie Ultraman Rising has a lot of world building things in it that make me think,

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first of all, I think there should be a trilogy, at least if not just two movies, but there

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needs to be a second one for sure.

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But I think a second where you, again I'm going full spoilers, a second movie where

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he finds his mom and then a third movie where the truth about Ultraman and the truth about

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Kaiju is discovered for this world, for this story, because it's a completely separate

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world and story and it's its own thing.

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It's independent from all the other Ultraman stuff, even if there's references and we get

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to see Gamora and whatever.

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Other things from the Ultraman past, it's its own individual story, but what was my

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point?

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It's about family, world building, hmm.

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Ah, sorry.

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There's just so much to the movie that I'm trying to talk about in a small amount of

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time, but huh.

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Even though I can't remember what I was going to say, my point stands that it's a really

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good movie, it's a really good story, because there's all these things in it that hook you

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or hook me and my kids and we just want to explore more.

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We want to see what Kaiju Island looks like.

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We want to see what's going on there.

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Like if his mom is stuck on Kaiju Island, I wouldn't be surprised.

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If she needs to be rescued from there somehow, that would be really interesting.

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Gosh, what was I going to talk about?

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The true nature of Ultraman and the Kaiju and everything.

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I don't remember, but anyway, the movie was really good.

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It's about parents and their children.

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It's about legacy.

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It's about, I don't know if it's about making a difference in the world necessarily, or

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if it's about the choices that people choose to make and the things that people do make

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them who they are.

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How do I put it?

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He's Kondo, right, he's the guy who loses his wife and kid and he blames Ultraman for

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that and he goes on this quest with the KDF to destroy all Kaiju, no matter what it takes,

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because of how his love for his family affected him.

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He now kind of sees the world through the lens of familial connection.

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He is confident that Gigantron, he can get Gigantron killed by...

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Well, he's certain that he can do everything he can with Gigantron, baby Gigantron, because

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of that familial connection and he is certain that the child will go back to Kaiju Island

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and that he'll be able to destroy all the Kaiju there because of that family connection.

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And it's really interesting how, like that's the lens and that's the prism of this Ultraman

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story specifically, and I wouldn't say family is the connection story for all Ultraman stories.

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Jude is the only one that pops to mind that definitely that's something there, but I haven't

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seen enough of Ultraman to say, oh yeah, they're all about family.

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But the thing about Ultraman is from the meta perspective, it is enjoyed by families.

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My family, we sing the 1966, here he comes from the sky, that Ultraman song that was

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referenced in this movie by Mia and her daughter, and I think it's her mother, so the grandmother,

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singing that song together in the car at some point.

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Our kids, we play Ultraman with our kids and they come at us and throw their energy weapons

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and tackle, push and dose, most of me, their mom alone, but they mostly attack me as a

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Kaiju and the brothers get to be an Ultraman and an evil Ultraman, or two good Ultraman

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and they're fighting me, the monster, or whatever.

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And it's just interesting how family oriented the movie was and how it pulled in this meta

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stuff like this, like Gamora toys, and it looks like there's even a Gachai, like a Super

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Sentai combination robot behind Kenta in the, or Ken, is it Kenji?

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Kenta or Kenji?

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Anyway, whatever, Ken, behind him in his little lair underground.

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And obviously like having that familiar connection with the baby, that brings him out, that raises

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him up, it elevates him, it makes him go beyond who he is as a person, it makes him into a

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better person, and I'm of the opinion that one of the gifts of life, one of the gifts

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of above, is that when we have children, which is a natural consequence of things that we

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want to do anyway, when we have children, it forces us to be better people, it forces

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us to become a little more serious, a little more devoted, a little more invested in the

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future and making sure the future is good.

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And I think that's kind of what children are for and what they do.

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And I think that idea is kind of present in this because through becoming a father type

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figure, Ken repairs his relationship with his father and he repairs his relationship

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with other people around him and he becomes a better member of his baseball team, becomes

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a better member, or he becomes a better Ultraman as well because of the way he goes about fighting

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the Kaiju, whereas he didn't want to do that in the beginning.

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And it's really interesting how all that takes place.

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It's like a really dense movie.

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It's kind of simple, but it's also really dense and just the way it plays with the theme

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of family and the way it looks at the world, it takes a worldview of family is super important

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and then it puts that on Ultraman and kind of directs the watcher through the story based

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on that.

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It's really interesting and I don't really know what to say.

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Like I've been thinking about talking about Ultraman Rising for a while and I just, I

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feel like it's the kind of thing that I can keep talking about, especially if I'm going

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to talk about it in these short stints like I do, you know, 10 minutes or less.

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There's so much to say, but a lot of it is wrapped up in the fact that this is all about

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family, this movie, this story of Ultraman Rising and it's a good thing.

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It's a good thing, it's a beautiful thing and it's a really great way to connect the

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audience to this otherwise foreign thing.

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I'm not saying it's foreign because it's Japanese, I'm saying it's foreign because there's giant

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monsters and a giant man fighting them and like you don't really understand any of that

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and there's no real set up, there's no origin story to Ultraman, it's just you're thrown

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into the story and because it's Ken's personal story and we introduced to it, like knowing

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what a hero is and learning about how he became a hero became something more than himself,

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which really if you look in the roots of it, a hero is somebody who does something extraordinary,

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goes beyond the normal and that's definitely what Ultraman is, but that's also like what

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a mother is who's up with a sick baby or a mother who just carries a baby and brings

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it into this world and then preserves that life and makes sure that it does well and

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flourishes, like that's even more powerful, which is interesting because in some ways,

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while his dad was important, the mom was, see I don't remember these names 100%, Mina,

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right?

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No, Mia is the other lady, Emi. Emi is even more of this like heroic figure and she has

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this connection with her son that she can use or that she utilizes to help like bring

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him up into more than he is, more than he is willing to become right now and it's really

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interesting and we're not saying that families are about manipulating people into becoming

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who they should be, but families are the context of humans. Family, society, the world is the

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context in which we exist so it makes sense that we are influenced by that context and

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I don't know what else to say. Go watch Ultraman Rising, it's really good. Watch it a bunch

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of times. The more you watch it, the better it gets. The more you watch it, the deeper

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it gets and it's a really cool movie and I think it's really beautiful and really important

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and I think it's the start of something big for Super Eye and I hope they follow up on

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it and I hope they follow up on it soon, but don't rush it.

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I hope you enjoyed that. Subscribe to keep up with me. Like and share to help me reach

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more people like you and go to MJMunoz.com to find your next favorite thing. And don't

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forget to let your voice be heard. Stories are always better when you're part of the

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conversation. Until next time, be well. This is MJ signing out. This has been a Story Over

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Everything production.