1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,500 Henshin Inspection presents Going Ultra. This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. 2 00:00:04,500 --> 00:00:08,500 Join me as I talk about Ultraman Blazar Episode 5, The Mountain Roars. 3 00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:12,500 This episode is an honorary focused episode. She goes to her hometown. I don't remember the name of it. 4 00:00:12,500 --> 00:00:17,000 We see one of her childhood friends, Mizuho? 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:22,000 Mizuho, yes. And they get to talking about things. 6 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:29,000 And basically, Mizuho can somehow hear the voice of animals and birds and insects and maybe, 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,000 and this kaiju as well, this kaiju's name is Dorgo. 8 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:39,000 And when they were kids, they would go and pray at the shrine that is on the property of Mizuho's family, 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:44,000 like her ancestral property basically. And there was a shrine there to Dorgo. 10 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,000 And they would go and pray there and stuff, which is a little interesting. 11 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000 But it's another culture and I just, you know, I accept it. I'm watching a Japanese show. 12 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,000 I have to accept things from Japanese culture, even though it seems kind of interesting or funny to me. 13 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000 And Dorgo is supposed to be this guardian deity, yeah, guardian deity of that area. 14 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000 And he makes their water really good, makes their soil good. 15 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:08,000 And I don't know why he does that stuff, but that's what he's there for. 16 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,000 And I can't remember the lore of it, but for some reason, about a thousand years ago, 17 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:18,000 he fell asleep and turned into a mountain or collapsed himself into a mountain and then has been sleeping there. 18 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,000 And he's been watching over the place ever since then. 19 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:27,000 That makes me think, what was he watching over the place for? What dangers or what threats did he do away with? 20 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000 Or is it just that he makes their soil and their water clean or good for growing food and clean 21 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,000 so that it's very nourishing to the people who live there? I don't know. 22 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:42,000 And is that just because he gets their prayers or what's up with that? 23 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:47,000 It's not explained, but that is kind of some interesting world building or lore stuff I would like to know about. 24 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,000 But I guess that's for a different time or maybe a different Ultraman show. 25 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,000 I'm going to go ahead and say, well, I'm going to say my whole list of things 26 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,000 then I've got a bunch of stuff to say at the end there. 27 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,000 So that was interesting. 28 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,000 Dorgo wakes up and then he like runs past. 29 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000 I can't remember what happened to Earthgoron, but Earthgoron was like busted and he just shut down. 30 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000 And Doron or Dorgo, sorry, Dorgo runs past Earthgoron, him, 31 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,000 and drinks some water and promptly falls asleep. 32 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,000 By the way, Dorgo's got a fantastic design. 33 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,000 He's got like a beard made of moss or plants or whatever, and it gets all wet in the water. 34 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,000 And that's really cool. He's got this horn and this like stairway arch thing 35 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:32,000 that ends up going up at some point when he's firing off his electric shot power from his nose or whatever. 36 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Super cool. Anyway, and then they say that he's asleep for one hour. 37 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,000 It's going to take about one hour or he's asleep for an indeterminate amount of time. 38 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:46,000 He's adjusting to being awake now, which is why he was up and then collapsed almost immediately. 39 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,000 But in about an hour, Earthgoron is going to be ready. 40 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000 So they're hoping that they can get this fixed. 41 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,000 Mizuho wants them to put this idol or shrine item thing, 42 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,000 a little statue of like a Buddha type figure, back in the shrine. 43 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000 And she thinks that will subdue Dorgo and put him back to sleep so that this won't be an issue 44 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:05,000 and they won't have to destroy him. 45 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,000 They want to destroy him, but she's saying no. 46 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 And she's kind of been fighting with the people there who are doing the tests. 47 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:14,000 And they said, oh, we did soil samples and we tested the Earth and we're sure there's nothing here. 48 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000 And then lo and behold, Dorgo ends up being there. 49 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,000 And she was telling them about that. 50 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000 So the people in the area think that Dorgo is just a fairy tale. 51 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Mizuho doesn't believe that. 52 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,000 Her family has an ancient scroll that she pulls out and she shows. 53 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000 And it's, you know, old style Japanese art like the ink. 54 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:32,000 It's not okia. That's woodblock prints. 55 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,000 This is on a scroll and it's, you know, painted on there or whatever. 56 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,000 And it looks really cool. 57 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,000 But anyway, she shows that to them and she's talking about it. 58 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:46,000 And they use that to gather clues for what they're going to be doing with Dorgo, how they're going to subdue him. 59 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:54,000 And Scarred finds a way to do it nonlethally, which is that she's going to go off and she's going to put the idol, the relic, 60 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000 I don't know what to call it exactly, the statue back in place where it was. 61 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000 And that should subdue him. 62 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:07,000 Something really interesting that happened was that when he awoke, there was chaos. 63 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000 And Gento ended up getting thrown off of a cliff or whatever. 64 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:17,000 And as he's falling, it's really cool we get this POV shot from him where you see his hand go up and he's spinning around. 65 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,000 And you see his hand with the brace on it. 66 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 And then he gets out the blazar stone, puts it in there and transforms. 67 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:27,000 And that's cool. That's always fun when a hero is falling and their transformation is able to save them somehow. 68 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000 I really like that stuff that was done in the original Ultraman series at least once, if not a couple times. 69 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000 And it's always good. It works really well. 70 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:44,000 So anyway, Earthkaran, when he wakes up and he's fighting Dorgo, he does this cartwheel. 71 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:51,000 And while he's cartwheeling, he's arcing through the air and he's shooting off his handguns or whatever, guns from his hands, 72 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:57,000 he's shooting at Dorgo and it was just crazy because he goes... and he's shooting the whole time. 73 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,000 And it reminded me of a John Woo thing or I'm not even sure what. 74 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,000 And it was just really fun. It was really fun. 75 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,000 And then one of the coolest things is that Dorgo has the cannons on the mountain that is him. 76 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,000 And they're on two of the protrusions that come out of him. 77 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:16,000 And somehow he's able to tap into those cannons because he's this powerful kaiju. 78 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:17,000 And he's able to actually shoot them. 79 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:23,000 So he's shooting the cannons at Earthkaran and then when Blazar shows up, he's shooting at him as well. 80 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:30,000 And even Blazar jumps at one point and Dorgo blasts him and he falls to the ground. 81 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:31,000 And there's something I like. 82 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:36,000 So I pointed out that I feel Blazar is a little bit silly in the way he does things or some of the things that he does, 83 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:38,000 some of the noises he makes, things like that. 84 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,000 But I don't dislike him. It almost makes me sympathetic towards him. 85 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:47,000 And like definitely, so there's characters who I like seeing get beat up in shows or movies or whatever, 86 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,000 but just because I just like them. 87 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,000 And then there's characters who get beat up and I like to watch it a little bit because, 88 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:58,000 or something about it especially tickles me because I like them and I like how they deal with it. 89 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,000 Blazar is the latter category. He falls in the latter category. 90 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:07,000 So like seeing him get knocked down by the mega shot and things like that is fun. 91 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:11,000 And I enjoyed it and I wanted to see him get back up and defeat Dorgo somehow peacefully, 92 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,000 you know, without killing him. And we got to see that and that was really fun. 93 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:19,000 You know, Henri goes and she like psychs herself out and does martial arts type stuff and then implants the thing. 94 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:26,000 And then Dorgo falls asleep and Blazar gets him back in his spot where he belongs so he can continue being the guardian deity of that area. 95 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:29,000 And that's cool. I appreciate that. It was really cool to see him not kill him. 96 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:35,000 But it was really cool to see Dorgo operating his own Kaiju cannon there. That was pretty fun. 97 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:41,000 I noticed something though that Misuho has a Minnesota type accent, like a middle Midwestern, 98 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:45,000 middle Western of the United States type accent. And they're in the country. 99 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:51,000 So I was thinking, oh, is this kind of like a Kansai accent that the actress would have had or used in the performance? 100 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:55,000 And are they reflecting that in the dub by giving her a little bit of a Midwestern accent? 101 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:02,000 And even Henri does it. And she says something to her like, such like, it's really dangerous here, don't you know? 102 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 And Misuho responds, you sound like your father. And she's like, no, let's go. 103 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:14,000 And then later on at the end of the episode, it's highlighted by Gento repeating it, but she tells Misuho as she's leaving Henri, 104 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:21,000 they're parting ways, she's like, you betcha. And then she goes and gets a hand with Gento and he's like, yeah, it won't be a problem. 105 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,000 You betcha. And it was a lot of fun. I really liked that. 106 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,000 I like the idea of adapting the accent in that way with the Midwestern accent. 107 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:37,000 And I happened to move recently to the Midwest, the Middle West, and I have jokingly said Minnesota. 108 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:43,000 But I heard one other guy say it, but he's not from Minnesota and he's not from this state either. 109 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:49,000 But he knows about it. And I, anyway, it's just kind of a joke with my family about a little bit about that Midwestern accent. 110 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,000 But it's cool. It's cool. I like giving it that different feel. 111 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,000 And like Misuho had like this, like she's got like the way she's dressed. 112 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:03,000 She feels very country, very hikery and like, you know, way different from these military people who are there trying to execute their operation on behalf of, you know, all of Japan and stuff. 113 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:09,000 And she's representing like this little section of Japan and like the things that are important to it and the way that it is. 114 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:14,000 And she wants to preserve that way of life by protecting Dorgo and not allowing him to be messed with. 115 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:20,000 And the like there's kind of like a balance of nature thing, like if you treat the earth right, it's going to treat you right. 116 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,000 And I find that interesting. But I'm going to complain about a few things. 117 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,000 Oh, also, there's this really cool moment where Blazar. So that's kind of like my story stuff. 118 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:33,000 Now I'm going to get into the last minute or so of this and do some kvetching, some complaining. 119 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:38,000 So Blazar breaks his Blazar staff javelin thing in half. He breaks it over his knee. 120 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:45,000 He goes back and he swings forward and he is the first Ultraman to arc. I don't know if that's true or not. 121 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:50,000 But he like bends back all the way and makes an arch with his back and swings forward. 122 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:56,000 He stabs the things into the ground and then he throws them both at Dorgo to to mess with the mega shot, I believe, is what he's doing. 123 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:03,000 So like he does that. But so like he's the original Ultraman arc. That's my joke for this episode. 124 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:09,000 And that was interesting because he actually he snapped his thing in half, which is what arc did in the first episode with the shield. 125 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:14,000 And then he used it to stab the kaiju and kind of a similar thing is happening here. 126 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:22,000 And then I'm just thinking back, I was thinking back, you can know, I believe in Ultraman Z was from a small town and her grandma had a scroll. 127 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:30,000 And there was a song that helped calm this kaiju. And then in Blazar here, we have honorees from a small town. 128 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:36,000 And there's this scroll that's owned by somebody. And they have these stories about this kaiju and how it was quelled by the people there. 129 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:42,000 And then in arc, arc episode two, I think we have there's a construction thing going on at a place. 130 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:49,000 Somebody who a young person who wants to warn people about disturbing this kaiju and it's a fairy tale and everybody's ignoring them. 131 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:58,000 And I can't help but think how unfortunate it is that while the execution of all this stuff is really interesting, really neat, that there's a little bit of a. 132 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Repetition going on. I mean, a large repetition going on with this nature story. 133 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:15,000 I find that very unfortunate, especially find unfortunate because the Takaguchi is the like producer, director slash producer of Z and. 134 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Well, he was Blazar, so he did both of these nature episodes. I don't know who's running arc, but it's too bad that they're like very closely repeating stories. 135 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000 And I think that's a detriment. It takes away a little bit of my enjoyment. 136 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:38,000 Because they think, oh, here's the nature episode and I like nature. I'm out here in nature right now, but it just doesn't make sense. 137 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:45,000 It's less compelling and it's frankly a little insulting to the audience, even if it's kids who turn over year after year. 138 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,000 And I don't I don't think it's good. I don't think it's a good thing to do. 139 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:52,000 And I think it's unfortunate that they went ahead and did that. But anyway. 140 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:55,000 I don't know what else to say about that. Anyway, I enjoyed the episode overall. 141 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:11,000 It was lots of fun, but in the continent, the larger context of Z, Blazar and Arc, it's too bad that we're seeing that, especially because those are having the Western adaptations, the Western presentation to the Western audience, to the English speaking audience, actually globally. 142 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:17,000 It's too bad they're doing that and they're not being mindful of who their audience is beyond the Japanese audience. 143 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:25,000 And you're going to get critics who are going to say this sucks because it's just recycling the same things over and over again, which is unfortunate and I think a little unfair. 144 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:31,000 So that's all I have to say. Look forward to the next Blazar review and as well as Arc. 145 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:41,000 And if you like what I have to say and you like the way I think about these Kaiju stories and these monster stories that involve kids, I encourage you to go to MJMunius.com. 146 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:47,000 Follow along for the book series that I'm doing. Grow Bug Tales, Grow Bug Chronicles is what it is. 147 00:11:47,000 --> 00:12:01,000 It's the Grow Bug books and in the Grow Bug books, you have magical bugs who battle monsters and they're saving kids and they're saving themselves from these creepy monsters who transform their bodies in different ways sometimes and are just kind of creepy and wonderful. 148 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:16,000 It's very Tokusatsu inspired and I think that people who enjoy this kind of stuff will enjoy my work as well. I'm working on getting my book finished, the first book finished, doing some last edits to it and then I'm going to work on getting it published. 149 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:25,000 I'm going to start doing art for the chapter headings and some like diagrams to show things in the book as well because I am an author, artist, and analyzer. 150 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:36,000 So I'm analyzing here, I'm telling you about my stuff I'm writing and about the stuff I'm going to be drawing for that book. So anyway, if you want to follow along with that, check out MJMunius.com and I don't know, keep being Ultratastic. 151 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:45,000 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. 152 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:58,000 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.