Henshin Inspection presents Going Ultra. This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
Join me as I talk about Ultraman Blazor episode 15 between Mourn and Dusk.
So, this is an interesting episode. I'm just gonna read my notes. Hopefully it'll all work.
I want to get this done quickly, but also, you know, have you have something robust for you.
So these kids with the Kaiju Gavidon, it's a really cute scenario, really cute setup.
It's adorable, and it's also so uncomfortable. The whole episode I was kind of edgy, wondering what might happen.
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.
And it even got interesting when all those other kids showed up too, and were dealing with Gavidon.
And I know that was interesting. It was interesting.
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.
And I don't know if that's an actual Japanese stereotype or archetype.
But Kari from Digimon Adventure in 02 is like that.
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.
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.
But just, I don't know, it almost feels like there's something in there that's a hint.
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.
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.
And they made a point of it the other episode, and then Gento just says it and nobody blinks. Nobody vets an eye.
It's just, that's what it is, Mopi, which is kind of fun.
I really like the detail of the missiles bouncing off of Gavidon, and I like how it wasn't pointed out or, like, highlighted.
Nobody said anything about it. It just happened two or three times.
And it's funny, though, the girl was mentioning, why is he so soft and fluffy?
And they said that he smelled like a dryer sheet, which was really funny, or something like that.
Dryer sheet or something in the dryer. So that was pretty cute.
And I love how that actually worked against Blazar attacking him. That was a really cool detail.
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.
And the little girl was saying that she liked it, and she thought it was, she liked it that way.
And it's just interesting because, like, this is a Kaiju, but it wasn't a harmful Kaiju. It wasn't destructive.
It was just too big to live in this world, which goes back to that quote from H. Super Riot.
And I think that's interesting. I really love how it ended peacefully and calmly with Blazar just taking it up.
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.
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.
But yeah, him ending the fight by just whisking Gavidon away was really cool.
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,
that he turns into a 2D item of this collection of stars coming together into the Gavidon constellation.
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.
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.
I like these characters. It feels like there's something special here.
I've had my criticisms of the show, but overall I have liked it.
And the more it goes on, the more we get to see these characters.
And like I said, the more I like them, the more I'd like to see, you know, continuing adventures with them.
And I don't know, there's like a subdued sweetness and a coziness and a hominess with these characters.
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.
You know, he's Skyping into Descarde. You know, it's funny, real kind of stuff. It's like very cozy.
And I don't know. It's interesting. It's a really interesting show and I really like a lot of it.
I kind of feel like this Gavidon episode is helping to make my point about the problem with Kaiju in the Ultra Series.
And I find it interesting. Is that a sign of a change in direction for how Ultraman deals with Kaiju?
Does Ultraman Rising factor into this? Because Emi, I think, is a very popular character, very popular part of Ultraman Rising.
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.
Sort of. Kids like heroes, like just a tangent for a moment. Like there was like a Robocop cartoon.
There was like Terminator, maybe cartoon, but for sure like toys for little kids.
You know, when those were made in the late 80s, early 90s. And I remember vaguely watching the Robocop cartoon.
And I remember feeling so much for Robocop. Like I, you know, I loved Robocop and I like was rooting for him.
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.
He was a sad man. Like all these things made me as a little kid feel so sympathetic towards him.
And like want to not take care of him, but like want to see him be happy.
And these kids with this Kaiju, it's kind of a similar thing.
You know, Emi's a cute design for a Kaiju from Rising. So of course, and then obviously, you know,
Gavadon's cute as well. Very simplistic, very cute and harmless.
Emi's more destructive than Gavadon, I would say, in the movie. Maybe. It's debatable.
But anyway, it's, I don't know. It's just really interesting. And like, I feel like something needs to happen.
Something needs to change. I think there's a lot of interesting things that can be done with Kaiju
and Ultraman stories. And there's lots of interesting things that can be done to keep them threatening
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.
So this is an addendum. Thanks to Cedric Czar, I went ahead and watched the episode 15 of the original Ultraman.
And yeah, the similarities. I mean, it's an homage episode.
Blazar 15 is an homage episode. The similarities are striking. I definitely like what they did in Blazar differently.
The things that they did differently, I liked a lot. The things they did the same, I loved.
Like I talked about before, it is a very cute Kaiju. Something quite adorable about it.
There's something, yeah, the dusk shots and Ultraman pulling him by the tail and Gavadon that is pulling Gavadon by the tail.
And then putting him up into the stars and the constellation stuff. All of that is really great.
This almost feels like some, anyway, the visuals were all fantastic. And I love how, despite the fact that it's been
I don't know, 60 years since the original Ultraman, the almost, we're almost there, were 58 years, I think.
That, well, Blazar would have been one less, 57, right? Anyway, despite the fact that we're that distance away,
the way they were able to recreate the Kaiju suit for Gavadon is fantastic.
And, you know, they really captured the feel of the kid thing, because the way the kids were shown in this,
and they've had a couple episodes with kids in the original Ultraman, I haven't just seen, you know, a couple.
I've seen, well, seen like 10 or so, which is about a third or a quarter. Anyway, the way they shot the kids
was really interesting and it felt fun and it felt a little bit different.
And I feel like we got that feeling from Taguchi's portrayal of the kids in this episode as well.
The Blazar 15 episode. And I really liked that. I thought it was really cool. It's like, I don't know,
a real like fun, innocent spirit. And it's weird because the kids, like, they didn't really get the Kaiju
as like a bad thing. They just like it. And in the 66 version, like, they want the Kaiju to be more exciting
and a little more dangerous. And they like redesign it and it turns out like a monster that still just wants to sleep.
And the SSSP attacks it and Ide says something about the fact that like maybe if we don't attack it,
it'll just sleep and it'll be fine. But the captain says no because it's wrecking Japan's economy,
which feels like a Comrade or Black Plot or maybe even something like the Vyrom would have done
from Jetman. So I don't know. It's interesting. It really is interesting. I don't know. It's like,
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
the old episode. It was a lot of fun. It was really interesting and it's impressive how
it's impressive how well Taguchi does in these homage episodes and you can really feel his love
for the original train in this. And according to Sidekick Arts, I think he, Taguchi said,
it's his favorite and I can feel the love and it's interesting. It feels interestingly though,
like despite the fact that he loves it or maybe because he loves it so much, he kind of improved
upon the episode with Blazar because the outcome there was better in a lot of ways and the way
that SCARD acted as opposed to the way SSSP acted was better. It was different, which is good for
variety sake, but it was also better in some ways kind of going in line with this whole conundrum
that I feel over Kaiju in the Ultra Series. And I guess this idea has been there from the beginning.
So I'm not some young punk bringing something new to it. It's something that's always been there.
It's just the way it's there is interesting. I don't know. I need to think more about this.
And I'd love more input on people about how Kaiju are treated in the Ultra Series and how
what are the pros and cons of all that. I'm open for hearing from people having more of a conversation
about this. That's pretty much all I have to say. It's interesting though, as I'm saying this,
the hobnots in my Grow Bug books are absolutely evil. There's, well, there might be one good hobnots,
maybe. Gotta read the books to find out. But for the most part, hobnots are evil. But I also have
the characters who fight the hobnots kind of questioning it and bringing it up to the kid
the Grow Bug Grunts, the mid-level trainees. They're like, yeah, we don't rejoice in killing
these guys. We have to fight them and we have to kill them. We have to destroy them. Kind of like
some of the stuff in Ultraman. But it's not like, yeah, I'm going out there hunting for hobnots.
That's not what we're doing. We're protecting these children and helping them. That's it.
That's what we're doing. We're helping these people who are in this bad situation because of
these hobnots. Well, what about the Maker? Why did the hobnots get created? Why did we get created
to fight them? Why not just not create the hobnots in the first place? Those are kind of cosmological
questions that go into the world building and everything behind the stories that I have.
And there's something definitely there with Kaiju. In Ultraman, you have to have enemies for...
You have to have conflict. The easiest conflict is an enemy. There are other different types of
conflict that you can have. And maybe that's something that should be explored in the Ultra Series.
And that's, I think, definitely something I'm exploring. Although I did catch that recently.
I was like, I've been criticizing Ultra Series a lot for the way it treats Kaiju. And then my
evil characters are just evil all the time. But they're evil for more specific reasons. And I do
have that germ of the idea that I want to play with, but I definitely don't envision having a
heroic monster. Other than if the grow bugs themselves are monsters, which they are of a fashion.
But like my evil monsters, they're going to be evil. But maybe you can use evil in a good way.
Maybe. I don't know. So anyway, that's all I have to say. Until next time, folks, be Ultra.
Signing out. This has been a Story Over Everything production.