Engine 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 episode 18 of Ultraman Blazar, oops, and excuse me while I move the camera around,
which is entitled, The Towering Terror.
Anyway, so, yeah, the first thing I want to say is, I did like this episode, I thought it was interesting.
I have some minor notes, but just overall it was an interesting episode.
By the end of it I kind of thought, you know, what really happened here?
But the answer is, we have some character moments for Gento, or some contextualizing of his character, you could say.
And we have a little bit of a tease of what's going on with Emi, and more of the mystery of her father.
And we also have the third wave plot, or this waves of alien invasion plot, or space kaiju, become more clear.
But we also have it a little bit more muddy, because I think Emi mentions, you know, we've had other space kaiju,
what is so significant about Kabalga, and Ygru, and Pzonga?
What's so significant about them that sets them apart from other space kaiju that have attacked?
And I think that's a great question.
I think that's a great question. In Ark, we have this specific distinction that aliens and kaiju are different matter, matters from each other.
We don't know if aliens were around before K-Day, or after K-Day, or coinciding with K-Day, but aliens are seen as a different thing.
And there's a space division of the GDF, I think they go on that one, or is that the GGF? I don't know. It's too many. It's too many.
Anyway, so that's kind of interesting. But getting back on focus here, you know, there's a lot of questions left, but I like it overall.
I'm going to go ahead and touch on my notes now, and talk about some of the things I have there.
So my first note is why lie? It's a bullet point, really.
Gento is lying to his wife, who he's been married to for several years. Their son Jun is eight, so I'm going to assume they've been married for eight or nine years.
And this whole time, he's been part of the GDF, and he's been like a special forces operator.
And I find it hard to believe that he would be a special forces operator, and that it would have been clear,
or that he would have been able to hide from his wife that he was an active military type operator.
So I find that a little odd, first of all, but perhaps, I don't know how the GDF works.
And I would assume that the GDF would function sort of similarly. So in the GDF, I don't know if it's possible to, I guess, really conceal what you do for the military.
But more importantly is why is he lying to his wife? And the only thing I can think is maybe, since this incident happened three years ago,
and there was a little bit of confusion, like maybe he was seriously injured, maybe it looked like he died, maybe she knew he was an operator.
And then at some point, well, after that incident, he told her, I'm not going to do this anymore, because she was so concerned about him,
and what if you leave your son orphaned, and what if you leave me a widow? And he told her that he would switch to the engineering department or whatever.
That's the only thing I can think. It seems very peculiar, and it seems like that should be more something that we understand what's going on there.
And it doesn't make me uncomfortable with him. Well, it doesn't really make me uncomfortable with him, but it is interesting.
It's a peculiar thing for sure that he would just be lying to his wife about this. This is a big deal.
And there are plenty of American service members, at least, even people who are special forces or work in intelligence who have wives or husbands,
and their spouse knows that they are doing this, and they know they can't talk about certain stuff,
and they don't have clearance to share everything that they know about with them. And it's just kind of part of the deal.
Like, yeah, I can't talk about this because it's classified, and we're just going to have to talk about other things.
I can't talk about my job. But I don't know. Why is that happening here? And it just seems peculiar to me.
And let me know if it seems weird to you, because it's a strange thing to have.
I know the Ultraman typically, from the beginning, Hayato didn't reveal to his fellow science patrol members that he was an Ultraman,
but it seems a little different. It seems a little different. He doesn't share a life with them, I'll put it that way.
So I'll move on from that. We've got 69 and 99 showing up again. So again, the V-99 project versus laboratory 66.
And I said 66 and 99, right? I hope so. Anyway, that's what I meant. And that's what's in the show.
And it seems to me like, oh yeah, this is more of like, it's supposed to be a hint.
And I wonder if you, in Japanese, are the numbers represented by Kanji? Do they use actual numbers, or Roman numbers?
The numbers I grew up with. Do they use those numbers, or do they use their numbers? I think that's a more fair way to say it.
And is it easy to connect that? Because I could see in a different way, you know, se sent a se, y se no vente, no, whatever.
Like, if I was told that, or saw that, I wouldn't necessarily think, even though Spanish does use Roman numbers,
but like hearing that pronounced, I wouldn't necessarily think that there's a connection to that.
But just me writing it down and making the notes, I think, actually. And I think they showed some visuals, 66 versus 99.
And it just made me think about it in different ways. So I wonder, like, I don't think the show's taken too long
to fill the listeners or the viewers in on that. I think it's dropping off clues.
And I think it's dumb or it's silly to complain that the protagonists are dumb because they're not putting this together.
Because I think there's probably a language barrier type of thing there.
And I know Japanese will use shorthand, you know, Roman numbers, or whatever, Roman-style numbers.
You know what I'm saying. English letters, or numbers, for like, the roadshow, it'll be eight.
And the symbol, the kanji, I hate the kanji, that means month, or is the abbreviation for month.
It'll be that, and then it'll be another day for, you know, maybe the day of the month.
And you can expect to see the roadshow or the Ultraman Live or whatever on those dates.
So I'm familiar with that. But perhaps that's just a shorthand, and it's like a quick visual thing to put on like a poster,
like when you're talking or when you are writing it out in long form.
You would go ahead and just, you know, write whatever the Japanese character or the kanji are for a number.
I don't know how that works. Anyway, I'm going to move on from that because I'm just speculating.
Old Man Lunging is my next bullet point.
So this guy who supposedly is friends with or knew Emi's dad also, or Professor Abe I should say,
he's very suspicious. I'm getting weird vibes from him.
Now that I think about it, he kind of looks like the actor for Terror, the Terror Dope on the Camerawoman double.
I don't know that he is. He's got better teeth now. Anyway, if it is him.
But yeah, I don't know. It could be him, but like, you know, 15, 20 pounds lighter.
Anyway, he's got leaner and meaner in his old age. But I don't know. It's just like, I like that.
I like seeing him. I like knowing that he's keeping tabs on Emi and what she's doing and how she's learning more about things.
And I just I wonder what is going to be the point of him in the end of the show,
because I feel like he'll be an endgame player like he'll be in the last three episodes in a row and he'll do something serious.
And I just I don't know what that is. And I don't know who he'll be running against.
I don't know what that's going to be. But I'm very intrigued by this character.
It's just I think it's kind of the show exercising. I don't know why. It's just kind of kind of a fun detail.
It's an interesting decision to just say we're only in show this guy exercising.
And if he's like in the end game, it'd be funny if he's like jump roping or the heavy bag or the sweet bag.
Would they come to him in like the last episode? That'd be kind of funny. I don't know. It's just my quirk, I guess.
So I find it interesting. So Genta is lying to his family, but then he's lying to his superiors because he tells
the farmer guy, he could. I forgot his name for the moment. Anyway, the guy who is the second command, the vice captain,
he tells the vice captain to go and ignore commands orders and just go on investigating.
And they're like they kind of question him, why are you doing that? And he says, they'll thank us when, you know,
when they need help and they come to us for help. They'll be glad that we did the research and that we know what's going on.
So that was kind of interesting. And I guess it's true what they the research does help,
except maybe it doesn't because that T's at the end of the Yuru head popping back up from the ground.
And yeah, oh, speaking of which, I want to talk about this. So I talk about all the story stuff. Yuru, the design of the kaiju is super cool.
Or Yurugu? Yurugo. Sorry, Yurugo is what it's called. Sorry. Totally messed that up. Anyway, it's got a super cool design, super simple,
but like very striking. And I love the fact that it's got a head this way and it's got a head that like it's a dual,
it's an army, it's a double sided head, basically. And that's super cool. It's a lot of fun. It's a great interesting design.
The fact that it was being puppeteered kind of reminded me of the little tongue thingies that came out, sorry, tongue thingies that came out of the Gravoids.
And from Tremors, of course, classic movie and classic American tokusatsu right there.
And yeah, it's a fun thing. It's a fun creature. It's a fun effect that they did with it.
In my short, you'll have to hear how pleased I am about them Earth Gurren fighting with it because that's a lot of fun.
And yeah, that's all I have to say. So anyway, until next time, take care. Check out the blog for the share notes.
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And again until next time folks take care, be well, and be Ultra.