Ancient Inspection presents Going Ultra. This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Join me as I talk about Ultraman Blazar episode 23, which is titled something something.
Let me find it. Oh, visitor 99. That's what it's called.
The kaiju featured in this episode are Togannular, Deltendal, Fidrin, and Varawan, who we'll learn more about later.
But anyway, let me talk about the episode. Overall, I liked this episode a lot.
I was kind of debating. My initial thoughts were more Deltendal, why are we getting at least repeat kaiju?
And then when we saw more Togannular, I thought, okay, why are we getting at least Togannular?
It's really irritating. But the way the episode went, the way it unfolded, it really bought, it got buy-in for me.
I totally believe, well, the Deltendal I'm not sure about, the Togannular, I totally understand what's going on with them.
And I find this premise really interesting. So I made a thing of it, so I'm going to go through them one by one.
And I'm going to start with the thing I like least, which is I thought Haruno had already been dismissed or suspended or whatever.
What's going on? I read through the wiki and he was dismissed in, I can't remember which episode, but it was a few episodes ago.
He took full responsibility for whatever Scar did that was against orders, which it was good they went against orders.
But I'm trying to figure out, like, is there conspiracy at the very top with certain people who are, like, keeping the V-99 thing secret
and they want the aliens to come or have some of the V-99, like, I don't know.
I'm confused. So you've got V-99, you've got the third wave. Those seem like separate issues, you've got Lab 66.
Lab 66 is where Feirdun came from. It seems like it's possible Lab 66 was used to open up a wormhole to pull Blazar through
and maybe Feirdun and other things in order to fight the coming... the V-lon... V-lono or whoever.
The guy's name is the Kaiju that came in through the distortion in space. So, like, I don't really get what's going on.
They're keeping it all very mysterious and it's a little frustrating because the lack of clarity is making things seem dumb,
making things seem inconsistent, making things seem confusing. And I find that really to be frustrating.
I do like where we're going, that we're seeing that... So, and that goes all back to, like, who suspended Harnow?
Because Harnow was getting secret phone calls from people talking to him about the third wave or whatever.
So, like, he knows what's coming, sort of, and he's trying to prepare for that.
And that's probably why EarthGurren was designed the way it was. They didn't know they could count on Ultraman
or maybe they were expecting to get an Ultra or something like it three years ago and it seems to have failed
when the whole Lab 66 thing blew up. And, like, the old man whose name I will look up real quick was being protected...
Let me answer Harnow...
Next to Genular, GGF, Moon Waran, Dobashi. Dobashi. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, Dobashi... The old man that was being protected is Dobashi.
Dobashi was being protected by, among other people, Gento Hiruma.
Hiruma maybe possibly sort of died there, but that's where he made contact with Blazer.
They reached out and grabbed each other's hands, right?
I think that was related to the Lab 66. Not that the Lab 66 wormhole machine or whatever was at the location of that building,
but maybe it could have been. Maybe it's portable enough. I don't know. I don't remember when Emmy's father went missing.
So, it's interesting. This is behind the other all these plot threads, but it's like, they're a little too desperate.
It's a little too much. I think I'm struggling with it as an adult who analyzes stories, not as a living,
but as a vocation, as a hobby, as a joy in my life.
And I'm having a hard time piecing it together, and I think kids would have you having a harder time piecing it together.
I don't know if watching the little specials that appear in between episodes would help to keep things straighter,
but it's really frustrating because it seemed like Hara Nob was gone, and he was out of there.
I didn't realize he'd just been suspended, and when was he reinstated? When was his suspension lifted? I don't know.
But he appears at the end of this episode, episode 23, to talk to one of the big guys in the show, or in the military,
the GGF, and I don't know what that means. It's very strange. It's very kind of confusing.
So yeah, it's strange that he's not there anymore.
I already talked about Blazar killing Gento slowly, killing him softly with his noises, with his trills,
so we won't go back over that. But I'm wondering about Tegenular being part of Earth's Kaiju Defense Force.
See what I did there? KDF? Ultraman Rising? No? You don't? Okay, nevermind.
So Tegenular apparently is a good guy. And also it's cool, there are like class 60 meter, class 30 meter, class 20 meter Tegenulars,
so there's Tegenular of different size, which totally makes sense. They should grow at different rates,
but I like that they have been classed by their height, basically, which is pretty cool.
Pretty cool little detail I picked up on watching the episode.
But my main point is, it's interesting that Tegenular is apparently part of the Earth's Kaiju Defense Force.
They mentioned that there's some part of the ecology of Kaiju on Earth that they can sense or detect Kaiju coming from outer space,
and they can help combat those Kaiju. So earlier when Tegenular were going for those Simpy Cups full of energy,
when they were going for the Inutron, they were doing it so they could power themselves up to shoot a beam.
So they're like the artillery basically of the Kaiju Defense Force of Earth, which is like a wonderful, amazing...
Now I'm thinking about a Super Sentai team made of Kaiju. Anyway...
Now I'm thinking about a Super Sentai team made of Kaiju.
It is well my own mind. Anyway, I guess that's what Zords are, right? Mega Zords or whatever?
Anyway, so that's really interesting. So like what other Earth Kaiju in this series have been doing things to help combat the threat of this Valoran
who's, you know, that's Varuan. That's a spoiler, I guess. It's like the guy who landed on the moon because of distortion got messed up.
And like... Where is this all coming from? So these people, some sort of intelligent race came and visited humans some time ago,
maybe three years ago. No, no, in 1999. That's when it was. When your girl Emi was born, I guess. Yeah.
Tell me when they were actually visited, 1999? I guess. Anyway, so they visited at a time and like warned humans that this guy was coming to destroy,
so like did he ravage their planet? And he's like going from planet to planet sucking up resources. They're like locusts.
Like is that what's going on? I don't really know. It's a lone Kaiju. I don't see how he's part of a bigger group, but he could be.
He could have like a second connection with other Kaiju and they all swarm the planet and suck it dry and then leave its husk and go to the next one.
I don't know. I don't know how that works. But anyway, it's interesting to me to think about what other Kaiju are working for this Kaiju Defense Force
and like Taganular's artillery, like what other rules do they play and which other Kaiju could it be?
Because I'm trying to think of all the new Kaiju for the show, for Blazor. I would think it would be the new, the Blazor exclusive or Blazor
first appearance Kaiju would be the ones, but I don't know who they are and I'm not going to go into that right now.
Maybe somebody could help me in the comments with that if they knew off the top of their head.
Also, like why is it Earth Kaiju versus Space Kaiju? Or is it, you know, because it's not really Space Kaiju, right?
It's Kaiju from one planet to another planet. So they mentioned that it's like this is the home territory of the Taganular and other Earth Kaiju.
So they would want to defend against Space Kaiju, but like why wouldn't Kaiju just get along?
And that implies that there's other planetoids or planets that have a similar living conditions as Earth
and think that Kaiju could travel from one to the other is kind of interesting.
Kind of, I don't know what to make of that. Anyway, and then let me see.
Like does that make sense that like Earth Kaiju and Space Kaiju would be fighting each other? I'm not really sure.
And then I want to know like if this is an Earth Kaiju versus Space Kaiju battle, is this like a sequel?
Did not literally a sequel. Did this happen before where Earth Kaiju and Space Kaiju fought each other
and or like this particular Space Kaiju perhaps fought each other or one of its species
and like the Earth Kaiju know that it's coming and they know to protect against it.
I'm really curious about that. I do like the fact that though this concept of an Earth Kaiju, like planetary Kaiju being guardians of the planet
makes sense and it like justifies the existence of Kaiju within the world of Ultraman Blazar,
which is not explicitly tied to any other Ultraman universe or Ultra Series,
except for crossovers when they hand wave away stuff just to have them do a full, you know, tying together.
But I do like that. I really do appreciate that. That's something that I've been wanting to do in my stories is
if I'm going to have Kaiju, I want Kaiju to make sense in the context of the world and have a reason for existing in the world
because I don't think things are random. I think everything has a purpose and there's an order and there's a design to it.
So that makes sense to me and having to like navigate a world of world building and thinking about stories where things just don't make sense.
There's no logic to it. There's Kaiju because there's Kaiju and that's all we want to say that there's Kaiju.
But like giving them a reason to exist, like each planet has a certain amount or certain set of Kaiju
and they are supposed to exist in harmony with the Earth, which would make sense because all animals exist in harmony with the Earth.
Humans are the exception that we don't always exist in harmony with Earth, but that's because we have this volition
and we can choose life and we can choose right and we can choose to live in harmony with the Earth.
But that's something we have to do. It's a debate for another time.
But I think that's somewhat at the core of some of the storytelling in Ultraman.
Anyway, I just think it's a really interesting prospect. I do like this episode. I do like where we're going.
And I'm curious to see what exactly happens in the next couple episodes and the idea that being...
like being Blazar is already putting Gento's life at risk, but being Blazar, a Blazar who wins all the time
and who defeats all the Kaiju and him still potentially dying from that, like that's a really interesting stake
and that's a really interesting consequence because he's being a hero by putting his life on the line
and then secondary to that, being a hero, putting his life on the line, is putting his life on the line.
So that's really interesting. I'm wondering where they're going to go with that.
And that's kind of a very interesting angle for them to throw on this.
So to sum up, I like this episode a lot and except for that weird thing about Haruno.
And it presents a lot of questions and I like that. It's engaging me. It's drawing me into the story.
And we've had a couple episodes for this thing to finish out and for us to see where it goes.
So anyway, I hope it has a strong finish. Until next time, folks, take care. Be well. Be Ultra.
One more thing I forgot to mention. I want to grow this channel and my other channel,
Fortress Fiction, to 10,000 followers, at least. And that's my goal.
And I don't know by when, let's say within a year, easily, I want them to have 10,000.
So I want you to help me with that goal. The more subscribers I have, the more people like you
who are enjoying and following along with my work, the more I'll be able to do
and the more we'll all be able to enjoy together and we can have great, ultimate conversations.
We have great other jokes, thoughts, or conversations. And there's a lot more I can do.
But the more people I have following, the more people checking out what I'm doing
and enjoying it to whatever degree and having a back and forth conversation,
commenting and liking and sharing it with people, the more fun we're going to have.
And as far as fiction and inspection is concerned, it'll keep going at a certain pace.
I've got to figure that out. I'm doing a lot right now and I'm trying to find a better schedule
so I can keep writing and keep working on stuff over for Fortress Fiction.
And aside from Fortress Fiction, where I'm analyzing books, and right now I'm starting a new phase
in that where I'm doing chapter by chapter reactions to books. And then at the end of the book,
I'm going to do a review on it. Right now I'm working on J.M. Berry's Peter Pan from 1904, I think.
It's a really good book. It's super cool. There's a lot to love in there.
If you've only seen any of the film adaptations, you're missing a lot. It's such an interesting work.
It's still... yeah, it's fascinating and it's like tangentially related to tokusatsu.
If you enjoy children's television shows like Ultraman, you'll enjoy a lot of what Peter Pan has to offer.
And anyway, I want to grow that channel as well because I'm interested in writing.
So I'm trying to balance work, family, life, writing, and running that channel where I'm talking about stories,
and running this channel where I'm talking about tokusatsu stories specifically.
So anyway, I really appreciate you helping me out with that. It means a lot to me. Thank you.
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Until next time, be well. This is MJ signing out.
This has been a Story Over Everything production.