1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,200 Engine Inspection presents Going Ultra! This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:09,000 Joining me as I talk about Ultra and Blaze are Episode 21, which was called... 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,500 Insurance Hero! Yes, it is Insurance Hero. 4 00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:17,700 And it was a really interesting episode. I liked it a lot, I had a lot of fun with it. 5 00:00:17,700 --> 00:00:21,700 I have very few notes on it because there's not much for me to stay on it, 6 00:00:21,700 --> 00:00:25,700 other than the fact that I liked it. And basically what I have to say is I hope 7 00:00:25,700 --> 00:00:32,200 that this breather, I guess is what it was before the finale, is a recalibration 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:37,200 of the show and of the series and of the story, and it's not a blip. 9 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:43,700 A momentary dramatic shift away from big, meaty, juicy story details 10 00:00:43,700 --> 00:00:48,700 into something kind of mundane and meaningless, perhaps. That's one way to look at it. 11 00:00:48,700 --> 00:00:52,700 And that that's the calm before the storm before we get into this big... 12 00:00:52,700 --> 00:00:58,700 whatever the end game is going to be. So I really liked this story because 13 00:00:58,700 --> 00:01:03,700 it was a meaningful story. It was about people. It was a nice human story 14 00:01:03,700 --> 00:01:10,700 about Tetsuo, this insurance kaiju disaster and salesman, and Michiko, 15 00:01:10,700 --> 00:01:16,700 this old lady, who she seemed to be well off, or at least the home that she 16 00:01:16,700 --> 00:01:19,700 and her husband lived in together before he died. It was a nice home, 17 00:01:19,700 --> 00:01:23,700 and maybe he did well for himself. I don't know if it's a family state or how 18 00:01:23,700 --> 00:01:28,700 inheritance type of stuff works in Japan, but it was a nice home, nice big home, 19 00:01:28,700 --> 00:01:31,700 and he ends up doing all this cleaning for her, and he works really hard. 20 00:01:31,700 --> 00:01:36,700 I think the story is that he's in this awful job that he hates. He doesn't really 21 00:01:36,700 --> 00:01:39,700 want to be an insurance. He wants to be doing something else, something more 22 00:01:39,700 --> 00:01:42,700 meaningful to him, and he just doesn't know what that is. It seems like he was 23 00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:46,700 in music school, perhaps, because he says that lots of his other friends have gone 24 00:01:46,700 --> 00:01:51,700 to music or become rock star kind of deal, and they're pursuing their dreams, 25 00:01:51,700 --> 00:01:55,700 and he doesn't really have a dream. He just wants to live a life or whatever. 26 00:01:55,700 --> 00:01:58,700 I think there are things that he wants. He's just lying to himself or hiding 27 00:01:58,700 --> 00:02:02,700 from them, or he's not willing to acknowledge the things that he wants, 28 00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:06,700 because if you admit that you have a dream and it's a big dream, then you can 29 00:02:06,700 --> 00:02:10,700 fail. It's easier sometimes not to admit that you have a dream. Anyway, this is 30 00:02:10,700 --> 00:02:13,700 Guy Grant Cardone, who's an entrepreneur, business-y type guy, and he has this 31 00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:16,700 book out called 10X, which I never read, but I've heard lots of people talk about 32 00:02:16,700 --> 00:02:19,700 it. They talk about whatever you say your goals are, you should say you want 10 33 00:02:19,700 --> 00:02:24,700 times that goal, because saying that is going to put you in the mindset to get 34 00:02:24,700 --> 00:02:28,700 it, and it's going to help you to achieve that dream or that goal of yours. 35 00:02:28,700 --> 00:02:34,700 Honestly, if you fall short of 10 times what you wanted, you still may get very 36 00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:39,700 close to it, which, yes, it's another businessman entrepreneur trading in old 37 00:02:39,700 --> 00:02:44,700 saws. If you shoot for the stars, you'll hit the moon or whatever, and that's 38 00:02:44,700 --> 00:02:49,700 fine. You can be as critical of you as you want of it. From what I know, he seems 39 00:02:49,700 --> 00:02:55,700 like a decent fellow, and I'd hate to kill him, but his book has been helpful, 40 00:02:55,700 --> 00:02:58,700 and his philosophy has been helpful to people who care about helping others, who 41 00:02:58,700 --> 00:03:02,700 care about things that I care about, criminal justice reform, ending the 42 00:03:02,700 --> 00:03:06,700 warfare state and things like that, which we don't need to talk about now, because 43 00:03:06,700 --> 00:03:10,700 I'm an Ultraman, and we're having fun with this insurance salesman. Anyway, 44 00:03:10,700 --> 00:03:15,700 just, you know, your dreams are important, and I don't know why Tetsuo has not 45 00:03:15,700 --> 00:03:19,700 really gone for his dreams, and the story doesn't, the show, the episode, the 46 00:03:19,700 --> 00:03:23,700 story that we get here with him now doesn't explain that, but it does show that 47 00:03:23,700 --> 00:03:27,700 he's a good person with drive and compassion, and he cares about people, and 48 00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:31,700 there's a younger guy who's in his insurance office who is doing all phone 49 00:03:31,700 --> 00:03:35,700 calls, and he mocks Tetsuo for going out. It's not the 80s anymore, going out and 50 00:03:35,700 --> 00:03:41,700 doing cold call, or knocking. He's going knocking, and knocking for sales is a 51 00:03:41,700 --> 00:03:45,700 very hard thing to do. I have some experience with it. I'm not knocking for 52 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:48,700 sales anymore, so that might tell you some of what I think about it, but I 53 00:03:48,700 --> 00:03:52,700 definitely made decent money when I actually made money, just, you know. There 54 00:03:52,700 --> 00:03:56,700 were a lot of nos and very few yeses, but anyway, here we are, and that wasn't my 55 00:03:56,700 --> 00:04:00,700 dream, honestly. My dream is to be a writer and a storyteller, which is 56 00:04:00,700 --> 00:04:04,700 something I'm kind of doing here and kind of doing now. I'm analyzing these 57 00:04:04,700 --> 00:04:07,700 stories, and I'm telling you the way I think things should have gone, and things 58 00:04:07,700 --> 00:04:10,700 I like to have these stories, things I'd like for them to incorporate into my 59 00:04:10,700 --> 00:04:13,700 stories, and I'm also telling you about my stories that I'm working on creating 60 00:04:13,700 --> 00:04:18,700 as well. So anyway, but this younger guy has this philosophy of he's going to 61 00:04:18,700 --> 00:04:21,700 say whatever he needs to say, and he's going to do whatever he needs to do to 62 00:04:21,700 --> 00:04:24,700 get the sale, which is coming in awful and bad, and Tetsuo doesn't have that 63 00:04:24,700 --> 00:04:29,700 philosophy. He wants to be more honest. He wants to be just something about him. 64 00:04:29,700 --> 00:04:32,700 He has a good character, and I don't mean he's a good character in everything to 65 00:04:32,700 --> 00:04:35,700 watch. He has good character. He's a good person at heart, and that makes his 66 00:04:35,700 --> 00:04:40,700 story interesting and engaging, and that leads him to put his life in danger to 67 00:04:40,700 --> 00:04:44,700 save Michiko because she's in her home. She's his first person to sign in who 68 00:04:44,700 --> 00:04:50,700 knows how long, and she ends up signing for him partially because I think 69 00:04:50,700 --> 00:04:54,700 she sees through the salesman thing, and she sees what his true character is 70 00:04:54,700 --> 00:04:57,700 because she burns something, and he ends up going to the store, I think, and then 71 00:04:57,700 --> 00:05:01,700 cooking for her, and he cleans for her, and he does all this stuff. He just goes 72 00:05:01,700 --> 00:05:05,700 above and beyond, but he doesn't really have anything else going, and he just 73 00:05:05,700 --> 00:05:09,700 throws himself into helping this old lady genuinely. I think he gets wrapped up 74 00:05:09,700 --> 00:05:11,700 and caught in it because, well, he's just that kind of person. He's a good person. 75 00:05:11,700 --> 00:05:17,700 He wants to help people. That's what he does, and that's what heroes do, and then 76 00:05:17,700 --> 00:05:22,700 when he realizes that she's in danger, he goes to her home, and it was really cute. 77 00:05:22,700 --> 00:05:25,700 Part of the sales pitch is that if you get the insurance, we're going to give you 78 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:29,700 this hard hat to make sure that you're safe in the event of a kaiju attack, so he 79 00:05:29,700 --> 00:05:32,700 puts this hat on her, and then he puts it on his back, and he's running around. 80 00:05:32,700 --> 00:05:36,700 They're falling. There's debris. There's all sorts of hijinks going on, but you 81 00:05:36,700 --> 00:05:40,700 really get to see this sweet relationship and dynamic develop between them, and even 82 00:05:40,700 --> 00:05:43,700 when she goes at one point, or when he gets to her, she's like, I've lived long 83 00:05:43,700 --> 00:05:47,700 enough. Maybe it's time for me to see my late husband, and he tells her, no, he 84 00:05:47,700 --> 00:05:53,700 wouldn't want that, and he fights against this lady. Her inclination or her urge 85 00:05:53,700 --> 00:05:56,700 to just give up and die, and he's like, no, you have to live. You have to live for 86 00:05:56,700 --> 00:06:00,700 a while longer, at least. That would make your husband happy. What will make her 87 00:06:00,700 --> 00:06:02,700 husband happy? I don't know, ultimately, but I would think he'd want her to live 88 00:06:02,700 --> 00:06:08,700 a longer, fuller, happier life. Anyway, the thing is, he's not saving her life for 89 00:06:08,700 --> 00:06:11,700 selfish reasons. He's saving her life because he thinks she deserves for her 90 00:06:11,700 --> 00:06:15,700 life to be saved, and that she's kind of throwing her life away. Here's the thing. 91 00:06:15,700 --> 00:06:20,700 She might go on and touch people's lives and help them and do good to them, and 92 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:25,700 be a source of comfort and support for other people who need her, and it's not 93 00:06:25,700 --> 00:06:29,700 worth her giving up. Every life is precious, and every life is valuable, and 94 00:06:29,700 --> 00:06:32,700 that's something that's touched on and talked about in this episode, even though 95 00:06:32,700 --> 00:06:35,700 it's in the context of this old lady who kind of wants to die or who's kind of 96 00:06:35,700 --> 00:06:38,700 resigned to giving up her life, and this insurance salesman who is just going 97 00:06:38,700 --> 00:06:42,700 above and beyond to help her out. You notice I'm not talking a lot about the 98 00:06:42,700 --> 00:06:45,700 Kaiju or Ultraman or anything like that because they didn't really matter. They 99 00:06:45,700 --> 00:06:48,700 were very incidental to the story, and I really like that. The story was strong 100 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:51,700 enough to stand on its own with these characters in the context. Would I like 101 00:06:51,700 --> 00:06:56,700 every episode of Blazo to be like that? No. If it'll help us avoid getting any 102 00:06:56,700 --> 00:07:01,700 more useless or soulless updates, then yeah. Upgrades, forms, whatever. New 103 00:07:01,700 --> 00:07:06,700 toys. Because this story had heart, and it was touching and beautiful, and I 104 00:07:06,700 --> 00:07:12,700 loved it, and it was very nice to see. Yeah, there's not really much else to say. 105 00:07:12,700 --> 00:07:16,700 I thought this was a great episode, and I really had a lot of fun with it. I 106 00:07:16,700 --> 00:07:19,700 already said all the stuff I was going to say, so the characters were fun. It was 107 00:07:19,700 --> 00:07:22,700 a nice human story, and I really hope this isn't a blip, and we go back to 108 00:07:22,700 --> 00:07:29,700 kind of business as usual and have the end of Blazo be kind of heartless and a 109 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:33,700 little cold or something. That would be really sad and really disappointing. But 110 00:07:33,700 --> 00:07:38,700 anyway, this was a great last showing for this series, and I will say one thing. I 111 00:07:38,700 --> 00:07:42,700 like how Hiruma, or, yeah, Hiruma, Gento, runs over and he sees the villains and 112 00:07:42,700 --> 00:07:46,700 he goes to protect them, and he and Blazo are ready to jump into action and fight 113 00:07:46,700 --> 00:07:52,700 the Kaiju, and that was a lot of fun for me. That's pretty much all I'm going to 114 00:07:52,700 --> 00:07:59,700 say. I think Sataguchi helped introduce the Gigaasps, or Gigaasps, Kaiju, the 115 00:07:59,700 --> 00:08:05,700 snowy, abominable snowman guy, back when Zek got the spear in, I guess, episode 116 00:08:05,700 --> 00:08:10,700 five of Zek, and then we get to see Red King. For some reason it's listed in the 117 00:08:10,700 --> 00:08:13,700 wiki as Red King 2. I don't know what the difference is between a Red King 1 and a 118 00:08:13,700 --> 00:08:19,700 Red King 2. He'll always be King Kornkob to me. Anyway, yeah, we get to see them 119 00:08:19,700 --> 00:08:23,700 fight, and they have a funny little relationship where they're fighting out 120 00:08:23,700 --> 00:08:27,700 in the wilderness somewhere, I guess near Michiko's house, it seems like, but I 121 00:08:27,700 --> 00:08:30,700 thought it was Northern climate or something. I'm not sure. Anyway, they're 122 00:08:30,700 --> 00:08:34,700 fighting, and Red King's going to crush Gigaasps with a rock, and Gigaasps are 123 00:08:34,700 --> 00:08:38,700 like, no, please spare me, spare me, and he becomes his servant, which is kind of 124 00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:42,700 funny, and they have a funny relationship dynamic. All told, just to Kaiju 125 00:08:42,700 --> 00:08:46,700 grunting and suit work, you know, pantomime, and that was really cool to see, 126 00:08:46,700 --> 00:08:50,700 so that was really charming. So, like, it was a good human story, but also had 127 00:08:50,700 --> 00:08:54,700 some great suit acting and great, I mean, that's kind of a human story, too, great 128 00:08:54,700 --> 00:08:58,700 suit acting telling the story of these Kaiju in this little silent story with 129 00:08:58,700 --> 00:09:00,700 them, and that was a lot of fun, so I liked that one a lot. Tell me what you 130 00:09:00,700 --> 00:09:03,700 thought about this episode. Do you think it's one of the best episodes, like I do, 131 00:09:03,700 --> 00:09:07,700 or do you think it's one of the worst? Again, let me know in the comments, and 132 00:09:07,700 --> 00:09:10,700 check out my short on this. I'm sure it's entertaining, whatever it is. I can't 133 00:09:10,700 --> 00:09:14,700 remember it at this moment, and I want you to go ahead and subscribe. By the way, 134 00:09:14,700 --> 00:09:17,700 I said the other day that I wanted a thousand subscribers. I want ten thousand 135 00:09:17,700 --> 00:09:21,700 subscribers on this channel, on Henshin's Fiction, and I want ten thousand 136 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:29,700 subscribers over on Fortress Fiction, where you can discover great stories with 137 00:09:29,700 --> 00:09:33,700 me, and where I'm talking about great stories. Mostly books, but not just books. 138 00:09:33,700 --> 00:09:36,700 I'll talk about other great stories as well. I'm currently working on Peter Pan, 139 00:09:36,700 --> 00:09:39,700 a movie very slowly covering Peter Pan chapter by chapter. It's going to be a lot 140 00:09:39,700 --> 00:09:43,700 of fun. I think it's going to be very exciting, and it's a new plan I have for 141 00:09:43,700 --> 00:09:47,700 maximizing my coverage of books and having a richer experience for myself and 142 00:09:47,700 --> 00:09:51,700 for the audience as well who follows along, reads along, checks out the books, 143 00:09:51,700 --> 00:09:53,700 and hopefully will be convinced to check out books they've never checked out 144 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:56,700 before due to me talking with them. So anyway, until next time, folks, take care, 145 00:09:56,700 --> 00:10:20,700 be well, be ultra.