This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyst. You can find all my work at
MJMunozs.com. Henshin Inspection presents Going Ultra. This time I'm talking about Ultraman
Blazar Episode 3. The name is Earth Garonne. I struggle to remember that title for a second
there. Okay, anyway. So we see the team coming together. We see them training together. We
see people get to be impressed by Henri and her physical prowess. She's a fierce little
lady who is good at fighting and doesn't like bugs. So we have this Antiglir Kaiju. That's
probably not the name, but it's trying. It's not triangular. That's this. This is triangular.
Anyway, anyway. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the Kaiju's name is, but he's a
big beetle guy and he sucks energy juice out of these canisters of this like renewable
clean energy source that's been found derived from water, which is interesting little sci-fi
concept. But more than that, getting to some story elements, I was, I got to say I was
totally wrong, I guess about the origins of Blazar because somebody mentioned in the first
episode there was this incident three months ago where something crazy happened and Gento
did, you know, great heroics. And the guy kind of expresses like a, I don't know what
happened, but it was crazy. He did this. But I, it's unclear whether or not he became Blazar
at that time. He could have, it is inconclusive. What did happen is that while he was helping
clear this building during a Kaiju attack, a wormhole opened up and Blazar was reaching
out towards him and then Gento, because he's like, Oh, like his reaction was, Oh, I think
this is somebody I need to go save. So he goes and runs after the guy and reaches out
to him and he's saying something like, Hey, whatever. He's calling out to him, this silhouette
of a person in white that he sees. And it turns out that that's, that's how he got through
the wormhole or whatever. And, and got connected with Blazar, which is pretty interesting from
a story perspective, or like just like giving you insight into the character. Cause the
way it's being done, the way Blazar is being done, it's like very real world. It's very
subtle. I mean, there's a giant, you know, Mecha Godzilla robot that helps them fight
Kaiju or whatever, but, and yet, and yet it is still very like subtle and very like subdued
in the way it's doing things. It's not, I asked that you chant my name. It's not doing
that at all. It's doing something a little bit different and that's probably good because
it's the same guy who's headlining the show, right? Anyway. So it's pivoting in this different
direction, this more realistic, more grounded direction. And I find that to be interesting.
I find it enjoyable and I don't actually find it frustrating. It's just, it's interesting
how, uh, how it's being expressed. And the idea though, that I was getting to the idea
that, you know, why was Gento chosen? Maybe Gento was chosen because he is willing to
sacrifice himself. He's willing to put himself on the line for somebody he doesn't even know.
And in this case, the way that it appeared, um, he wasn't even like, the person looked
like they were bathed in white light or like, you know, glowing white light. And still he
thought I should go rescue this person. And that's some, that's somewhere that attitude,
that immediate reaction is something between, uh, dumb and brave. Uh, it's somewhere between
self-destructive and selfless. And maybe that's what the ultra was looking for. Maybe that's
why he was able to connect with Gento. Maybe that's why the wormhole appeared before him.
I don't know. I just think it's something kind of interesting to speculate about, but
I don't want to spend too much time on it. Um, there's lots of other stuff that happened
in the episode. Um, like the mystery behind the Kaiju wasn't a big deal to me. Um, it
was pretty tatangular. Is that what it was? Tatangular? Anyway, um, it was, uh, you know,
it wasn't supposed to be a mystery, I don't think. Um, and the lady who does, is it Emmy
who does the, uh, Intel, she went and infiltrated this, uh, energy plant that has this particular
type of energy tank or vat or whatever, uh, where they're, they're pulling this stuff
and her actions with the, uh, the lead scientist guy there were kind of funny cause he's like,
like he doesn't get it. Uh, he's very much like a head in the head and not hidden in
the clouds, but like he's like focused on the science and all the other stuff like falls
away from him. He just like wants to focus on his facility and on using the technology
for good purposes and things like that and everything else. He's kind of like clueless,
which is funny. Um, so I did like that. That was a good comedic bit. Uh, earth girl on
is really cool. I liked that they are all training to be like, they're all training
to pilot it. And the guy who's on the cons for whatever reason, um, is like a, you know,
airplane pilot, I don't know if it's a VTOL or what it is. I think it's just like a regular
airplane. Um, like a fighter jet. He, uh, says to on your or any pre-shoot them anyway,
he says to one of them, like, yeah, I'm a pilot, but piloting earth grown is going to
be something entirely different. And the guy who, uh, put together earth grown and a bunch
of their other technology, he, uh, he knows all about the technical aspects of it. And
he knows all the emergency stuff to do with the, with earth grown, like if something goes
bad on it, which it's a little cute, you know, it's a kid show. So I get it. Like the one
thing they talked about going bad and how to fix it. Uh, that's what they ended up fixing.
Um, when there's an issue with earth grown, although there is a second thing, which is
that emergency, um, I can't remember this, this earth beam comes out of his mouth and
then it's the something tail. I can't remember what it's called. Anyway, he ends up shooting,
uh, he, the technical guy ends up telling Andre how to shoot that at the end when there's
an emergency. Um, I was almost thinking that we wouldn't get to see blaze on this episode
because of one, how cool earth grown looks and how capable it seems to be. And it is
capable. Uh, but there was just, there was just too much going on. Um, this guy, do was
super powerful. It had all this, you know, heat energy that is absorbed. Uh, more, maybe
that wasn't until blaze or sort of fighting. I don't know. Anyway, it just, it was a problem.
It was a problem for them. It was the first time out actually piloting against an actual
Kaiju, but they showed all this like a training montage, which was super cool about them,
like thinking, learning how to think tactically about using earth grown in a city scape against
Kaiju where there are people and buildings that can be damaged, which was super cool.
Um, so they did that in addition to their like, you know, running around training and
fighting each other, uh, with their guns and stuff. And like, it's interesting cause it's
the show is showing them go through the effort of learning how to do everything and learning
how to operate these things so that they have a level of competency that we as an audience
can believe because they are a brand new unit. This isn't, you know, guts has been going
for 80 years. I don't know if that's for any more, for any long amount of time, but that's
was the first thing that popped in my head. So we don't know how that all works, but I
really do like that. I like this, this harder, uh, sci-fi edge to it. I also like how goofy
it can be. Um, the Kaiju gets too hot cause he's, it's like when you're charging your
phone, the charger block is all hot cause the energy is transferring through it. Right.
Um, so the Kaiju is sucking up all this energy and it's getting all this heat and he's literally
too hot for blazer to touch and blazers making all these noises and like pulling his hands
away after touching him and hot, hot, hot. And, uh, like that's almost the actual sound
he makes. Like he's basically saying hot, which is very funny. Um, and, uh, I really
dug that and like at some point he's like laying on the floor with the Kaiju like on
top of him rolling around and he looks pathetic. And, um, it's interesting because we get like
all this cool fighting with him, um, where he's doing all his great Savage stuff. But
then we also get these moments where he's just being like really weird and he's trying
really hard and it looks really dumb or bad, but like it kind of makes sense. It's like,
well, I guess this must be a really difficult Kaiju to fight. Like I've never tried to fight
a Kaiju. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what it feels like. So yeah,
him rolling around the ground with the thing, I guess that makes sense. Um, so I'm not saying
like it's, you know, the realism is pulling me. It's just, it's an interesting take. It's
an interesting way to do the story and, and, and, you know, the whole scenario and, you
know, make it a little bit more interesting if you've watched every Ultraman and none
of them have rolled around pathetically on the floor before defeating the Kaiju. Um,
yeah, I don't know. Interesting, interesting stuff. Uh, something I noticed is, uh, Gento
is with, uh, Henri while she's, um, fighting the Kaiju. And I think it's funny that because
she's a girl, she's like disgusted by the Kaiju being an insect or bug like guy. Um,
so it was kind of funny, but, uh, anyway, at one point he tells her to use earth fire.
That is what's earth fire to take out the Kaiju's arm. So, oh, this is going to be cool.
So she aims for his arm and she knocks one of it off and then it's got little tendrils
hanging out of it. And that was really gross and weird, but it was cool. Cause it's like,
that's something Blazar would have done if he could. And that's something Gento is telling
her to do. So the connection between them, you know, might be stronger than one might
expect it first. Um, but yeah, so, you know, a little team building stuff happened for
the story and, uh, we get to see earth go on and I don't know. It's interesting. It's
just kind of, you know, going forward, setting things up little by little, we'll see how
the story builds up and, uh, I'm liking it so far. I hope you enjoyed that. Subscribe
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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.