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Henshin Inspection presents Going Ultra. This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.

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Join me as I talk about Ultraman Blazor episode 15 between Mourn and Dusk.

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So, this is an interesting episode. I'm just gonna read my notes. Hopefully it'll all work.

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I want to get this done quickly, but also, you know, have you have something robust for you.

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So these kids with the Kaiju Gavidon, it's a really cute scenario, really cute setup.

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It's adorable, and it's also so uncomfortable. The whole episode I was kind of edgy, wondering what might happen.

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And, you know, because of the kind of show it is, they're safe. But still, there was that tension there, which was really good.

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And it even got interesting when all those other kids showed up too, and were dealing with Gavidon.

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And I know that was interesting. It was interesting.

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I was gonna ask if there's something wrong with Jun, Gento's son, because he's so selfless and so caring about his parents.

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And I don't know if that's an actual Japanese stereotype or archetype.

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But Kari from Digimon Adventure in 02 is like that.

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And that's like a point, and there's something special to her. So maybe not something wrong, like something special or something significant about Jun.

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He's older than three years old, so he's not part of... I don't think he can reconnect to the V99 slash Laboratory 66 situation.

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But just, I don't know, it almost feels like there's something in there that's a hint.

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And also, like, the other kid was drawing in his secret base and was getting a light radiation, but only Gento's son drawing that Kaiju was affected by it.

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And that's kind of interesting. I like that they're still using Yasunui's pet name for the van, Mopi. That's really cute.

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And they made a point of it the other episode, and then Gento just says it and nobody blinks. Nobody vets an eye.

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It's just, that's what it is, Mopi, which is kind of fun.

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I really like the detail of the missiles bouncing off of Gavidon, and I like how it wasn't pointed out or, like, highlighted.

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Nobody said anything about it. It just happened two or three times.

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And it's funny, though, the girl was mentioning, why is he so soft and fluffy?

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And they said that he smelled like a dryer sheet, which was really funny, or something like that.

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Dryer sheet or something in the dryer. So that was pretty cute.

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And I love how that actually worked against Blazar attacking him. That was a really cool detail.

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Neat idea. And Jun was kind of bothered since it became a real Kaiju that he didn't give it any kinds of weapons or horns or anything like that.

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And the little girl was saying that she liked it, and she thought it was, she liked it that way.

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And it's just interesting because, like, this is a Kaiju, but it wasn't a harmful Kaiju. It wasn't destructive.

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It was just too big to live in this world, which goes back to that quote from H. Super Riot.

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And I think that's interesting. I really love how it ended peacefully and calmly with Blazar just taking it up.

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And, like, he looked like he'd been fighting it for hours or something like that, which I guess they never specify his color timer being a thing that is dependent on the time.

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It's more like the level of injury he's accrued, which is an interesting detail and a little bit of lore to pick up.

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But yeah, him ending the fight by just whisking Gavidon away was really cool.

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And I love that because he's 3D and then he can turn 2D, or he, we've seen, there's a precedent in the episode that he turns back into a 2D item,

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that he turns into a 2D item of this collection of stars coming together into the Gavidon constellation.

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That's really, really cute. And the way the kids reacted to that was really sweet and it's very heartwarming, very nice, very lovely.

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So that was pretty cool. I don't really know what to say about this episode, though, other than I like the world that is in Blazar.

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I like these characters. It feels like there's something special here.

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I've had my criticisms of the show, but overall I have liked it.

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And the more it goes on, the more we get to see these characters.

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And like I said, the more I like them, the more I'd like to see, you know, continuing adventures with them.

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And I don't know, there's like a subdued sweetness and a coziness and a hominess with these characters.

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And with some of the situations that happen, like, you know, seeing Gento in his underwear, he's, you know, buttoned down in boxes for his meeting.

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You know, he's Skyping into Descarde. You know, it's funny, real kind of stuff. It's like very cozy.

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And I don't know. It's interesting. It's a really interesting show and I really like a lot of it.

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I kind of feel like this Gavidon episode is helping to make my point about the problem with Kaiju in the Ultra Series.

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And I find it interesting. Is that a sign of a change in direction for how Ultraman deals with Kaiju?

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Does Ultraman Rising factor into this? Because Emi, I think, is a very popular character, very popular part of Ultraman Rising.

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Kind of reminds me of, you know, Baby Yoda or Grogu in The Mandalorian, like a warrior guy with a baby is a great trope because it satisfies everybody.

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Sort of. Kids like heroes, like just a tangent for a moment. Like there was like a Robocop cartoon.

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There was like Terminator, maybe cartoon, but for sure like toys for little kids.

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You know, when those were made in the late 80s, early 90s. And I remember vaguely watching the Robocop cartoon.

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And I remember feeling so much for Robocop. Like I, you know, I loved Robocop and I like was rooting for him.

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And I wanted him to have his family. I saw he was sad and like, you know, he was a cop. He was a robot.

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He was a sad man. Like all these things made me as a little kid feel so sympathetic towards him.

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And like want to not take care of him, but like want to see him be happy.

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And these kids with this Kaiju, it's kind of a similar thing.

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You know, Emi's a cute design for a Kaiju from Rising. So of course, and then obviously, you know,

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Gavadon's cute as well. Very simplistic, very cute and harmless.

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Emi's more destructive than Gavadon, I would say, in the movie. Maybe. It's debatable.

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But anyway, it's, I don't know. It's just really interesting. And like, I feel like something needs to happen.

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Something needs to change. I think there's a lot of interesting things that can be done with Kaiju

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and Ultraman stories. And there's lots of interesting things that can be done to keep them threatening

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when they need to be. But have a different take on how that all works. And I don't want to believe at the point.

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So this is an addendum. Thanks to Cedric Czar, I went ahead and watched the episode 15 of the original Ultraman.

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And yeah, the similarities. I mean, it's an homage episode.

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Blazar 15 is an homage episode. The similarities are striking. I definitely like what they did in Blazar differently.

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The things that they did differently, I liked a lot. The things they did the same, I loved.

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Like I talked about before, it is a very cute Kaiju. Something quite adorable about it.

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There's something, yeah, the dusk shots and Ultraman pulling him by the tail and Gavadon that is pulling Gavadon by the tail.

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And then putting him up into the stars and the constellation stuff. All of that is really great.

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This almost feels like some, anyway, the visuals were all fantastic. And I love how, despite the fact that it's been

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I don't know, 60 years since the original Ultraman, the almost, we're almost there, were 58 years, I think.

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That, well, Blazar would have been one less, 57, right? Anyway, despite the fact that we're that distance away,

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the way they were able to recreate the Kaiju suit for Gavadon is fantastic.

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And, you know, they really captured the feel of the kid thing, because the way the kids were shown in this,

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and they've had a couple episodes with kids in the original Ultraman, I haven't just seen, you know, a couple.

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I've seen, well, seen like 10 or so, which is about a third or a quarter. Anyway, the way they shot the kids

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was really interesting and it felt fun and it felt a little bit different.

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And I feel like we got that feeling from Taguchi's portrayal of the kids in this episode as well.

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The Blazar 15 episode. And I really liked that. I thought it was really cool. It's like, I don't know,

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a real like fun, innocent spirit. And it's weird because the kids, like, they didn't really get the Kaiju

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as like a bad thing. They just like it. And in the 66 version, like, they want the Kaiju to be more exciting

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and a little more dangerous. And they like redesign it and it turns out like a monster that still just wants to sleep.

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And the SSSP attacks it and Ide says something about the fact that like maybe if we don't attack it,

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it'll just sleep and it'll be fine. But the captain says no because it's wrecking Japan's economy,

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which feels like a Comrade or Black Plot or maybe even something like the Vyrom would have done

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from Jetman. So I don't know. It's interesting. It really is interesting. I don't know. It's like,

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I want to talk a lot more about it, but I'm going to stop here and just say I'm really glad I watched

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the old episode. It was a lot of fun. It was really interesting and it's impressive how

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it's impressive how well Taguchi does in these homage episodes and you can really feel his love

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for the original train in this. And according to Sidekick Arts, I think he, Taguchi said,

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it's his favorite and I can feel the love and it's interesting. It feels interestingly though,

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like despite the fact that he loves it or maybe because he loves it so much, he kind of improved

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upon the episode with Blazar because the outcome there was better in a lot of ways and the way

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that SCARD acted as opposed to the way SSSP acted was better. It was different, which is good for

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variety sake, but it was also better in some ways kind of going in line with this whole conundrum

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that I feel over Kaiju in the Ultra Series. And I guess this idea has been there from the beginning.

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So I'm not some young punk bringing something new to it. It's something that's always been there.

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It's just the way it's there is interesting. I don't know. I need to think more about this.

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And I'd love more input on people about how Kaiju are treated in the Ultra Series and how

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what are the pros and cons of all that. I'm open for hearing from people having more of a conversation

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about this. That's pretty much all I have to say. It's interesting though, as I'm saying this,

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the hobnots in my Grow Bug books are absolutely evil. There's, well, there might be one good hobnots,

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maybe. Gotta read the books to find out. But for the most part, hobnots are evil. But I also have

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the characters who fight the hobnots kind of questioning it and bringing it up to the kid

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the Grow Bug Grunts, the mid-level trainees. They're like, yeah, we don't rejoice in killing

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these guys. We have to fight them and we have to kill them. We have to destroy them. Kind of like

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some of the stuff in Ultraman. But it's not like, yeah, I'm going out there hunting for hobnots.

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That's not what we're doing. We're protecting these children and helping them. That's it.

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That's what we're doing. We're helping these people who are in this bad situation because of

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these hobnots. Well, what about the Maker? Why did the hobnots get created? Why did we get created

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to fight them? Why not just not create the hobnots in the first place? Those are kind of cosmological

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questions that go into the world building and everything behind the stories that I have.

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And there's something definitely there with Kaiju. In Ultraman, you have to have enemies for...

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You have to have conflict. The easiest conflict is an enemy. There are other different types of

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conflict that you can have. And maybe that's something that should be explored in the Ultra Series.

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And that's, I think, definitely something I'm exploring. Although I did catch that recently.

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I was like, I've been criticizing Ultra Series a lot for the way it treats Kaiju. And then my

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evil characters are just evil all the time. But they're evil for more specific reasons. And I do

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have that germ of the idea that I want to play with, but I definitely don't envision having a

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heroic monster. Other than if the grow bugs themselves are monsters, which they are of a fashion.

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But like my evil monsters, they're going to be evil. But maybe you can use evil in a good way.

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Maybe. I don't know. So anyway, that's all I have to say. Until next time, folks, be Ultra.

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Signing out. This has been a Story Over Everything production.