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

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I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com. Join me as I talk about

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Ultraman Blazar, episode 25, the ones who embrace the earth.

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Ah, so this is the final episode of Blazar, it's the finale. What did you think of how they won?

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Are you satisfied with the ending? I'm gonna talk about that and more in my notes.

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So here we go. Objectively there are a lot of issues that need to, or that didn't

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need to be here, that are here due to pacing, or I should say poor pacing. And I

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really do, this is basically following up from last episode, that all this stuff

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was crammed into episode 24. And there's things crammed into episode 25 as well.

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And there's even things that are super unclear that don't quite make sense.

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One of them being, let me see if I made this in my notes earlier. One of them being, is it a fact

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that Earth Geron is made from the scrap of the V-99 ship that was shot down in

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1999, so 23 or 22 years ago, in Blazar's timeline? Is that the truth? Is that what

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actually happened? I'm pretty confused by that. And it was funny, I read something

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on the wiki, because I was trying to figure this out and it's like, yeah this

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full episode, the episode was so long that it was like a movie length and they

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had to cut it down. I don't know what a movie length is in Japan, is that

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35 minutes? Is it 60 minutes? Is it 88 minutes? I don't know. You know, it's very

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common for movies to have been around 80 minutes for like a full length runtime.

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I think that's the feature length runtime. Whatever Snow White is, I'm

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pretty sure is like the minimum required runtime for a film or a movie, whatever.

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So anyway, these pasting issues really made it a mess and it's very

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confusing how it was put together and I don't know if they had so much content that

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they had to cut content and therefore things that would have helped it make

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more sense weren't there and maybe there was just a quick mention of, oh yeah,

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Earth Geron is made either entirely from or maybe just its like supplemental

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weapons, the mod 3, mod 4, mod 2 stuff I guess, are developed from the scrap of

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the alien thing they shot down. It'd be like if Area 51 held alien tech

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that the United States shot down in whatever that was, the 40s and we had a

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super robot that we had created or whatever and then we're pulling stuff.

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It's like, is the super robot made entirely from the alien tech and you're

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just using more and more alien tech to improve it as time goes on or

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only the weapons that you're adding on to it are made from the

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alien tech and the rest of it's stuff that you've developed on your own? I don't know,

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it doesn't really make sense and it kind of seems like even Earthy, you know, this

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advanced AI might be partially made from the alien tech as well but again it's

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very unclear. It's all very confusing and I don't know why they couldn't have

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told us about this like two or three episodes ago. Yeah, I don't know why. I

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don't know why it had to happen like this. Dovashis fears caused all of this

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to happen basically. He shot down the alien craft, he was in command and he

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made the decision to shoot it down and because of that the V-99 thought that

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humans were an enemy and they were like, their planet's dead and they're looking

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for a new home or something like that and they were just exploring and when he

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saw them over Japanese airspace I guess he decided to shoot them down and I mean

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it's kind of interesting an idea that fear is something that separates people

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and it makes conflict and it creates problems and like fear is a path to

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destruction but I think we already covered that in Ultraman Z. It was

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definitely done in a different kind of more aggressive more pronounced way. It's

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more subtle here and I think it's done well here but just we've already seen

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that so I'm not quite sure why we're revisiting that especially with Taguchi

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being the head of the show I don't know why cover that ground again other than

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it's familiar territory it feels good it feels right. Also the message there kind

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of seemed to be something about how violence and fear and aggression or

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aggression based in fear... Aggression and violence based in fear is bad which

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again seems like kind of what Zett was saying but then we had this dramatic

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swing between Earthgeron and Blazar not fighting at all against Varalam and

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then and then we had as soon as the fleet had left the V-99 fleet

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disappeared through their wormhole I guess or their wormhole drives or warp

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drives or whatever it was then they went ahead and they just went crazy they went

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him on him and yeah they totally killed him and and it feels a little bit odd

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because the violence initiated against the V-99 people caused them to send

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these specific space kaiju including Varalam to attack the earth and to

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destroy it or take it over I'm not sure if they wanted to live on earth after

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they killed humans or what we don't even know what they look like it's also

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making me think that the kaiju that they sent are like bio weapons or maybe

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they're no they're basically bio weapons because they're launching them at Earth

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to cause havoc which is a concept I really love but that is like kind of that

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I love that concept on its own kind of divorced from the context here so like

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I don't really know that's kind of funny um it's kind of funny because then they

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just like really go hard to kill Valoran or Varalam and it's like a good thing

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and a cool thing and everybody's happy about it of course he was gonna destroy

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the earth but it's almost it's kind of funny like why wouldn't the V-99 like

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kill Varalam himself they just left the earth to potentially be destroyed by

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Varalam and you would think if like they're sad because their home

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planet got destroyed they wouldn't leave and like they wanted to they left

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because of this concept of future they wanted to leave a future for themselves

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and for the earthlings and instead of helping them secure that future they

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just nope out of there and then they're left to fight the kaiju which is you

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know more exciting to see but I don't know it's kind of strange kind of

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strange so yeah like I said there's a lot here that kind of doesn't make sense

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and and that's unfortunate definitely bringing it down although I kind of like

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it anyway seeing all the like blazar exclusive kaiju plus the demaga mom and

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baby who aren't they're from Ultraman X save the day it was kind of cool like

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there's all these bio bombs that Varalam is somehow able to produce and they

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slide off its tail very nastily but then the kaiju like dug them they dug

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trenches or they dug under the locations of these bombs and then they

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ate the bio bombs and then eating the bio bombs somehow stopped them from

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being able to explode anymore which is cool I mean like it capitalizes on the

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to gangular thing from before and you've got Delta Delta and all is helping as

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well let me see the list of kaiju from this episode you so to gangular was

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helping as part of the earth defense force or the kaiju defense force of

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earth but then there was demaga who again who's not exclusive to the show or

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didn't start in the show there's Zugu gone Delta doll and I guess that's it

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yeah a little bugs playing guy demagus from X and to gangular from last episode

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I feel like there's one more blazar origin kaiju that was helping out but

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whatever so anyway that's that's like a fun thing I like that a lot so we see

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mama and baby demaga again but like we still have no explanation of how that

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golden cocoon thing saved them and where it put them if it dug them under ground

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or what and like still none of that really makes any sense but this reminds

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me again of Ultraman Zet where they the kaiju were like attacking and going

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crazy kind of because they sense the threat that the d4 weapon was on board

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ultra zero and they wanted to stop that threat so in a similar way the kaiju

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here are doing actions to stop this threat from outside and I kind of gets

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done better here even though it's harder to trace and detect because it had more

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buildup and it was more of a slow burn and it was seeded earlier and then we

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got to see you know we get to see how it manifested here so I do like that

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although you know where the demagus go and how does that work is that a power

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he has to tunnel people underground I don't know I guess and then like why is

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going to suddenly not in pain or injured anymore or at least it doesn't seem that

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way is transforming into blazar a threat for him now or not and if it's not then

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how was that resolved and why was that even a thing if you're just gonna wrap

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it up with pretty much no explanation I mean again like I said it kind of adds

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an interesting twist to it that his life is threatened by being Ultraman blazar

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but also his life is threatened by being Ultraman blazar like I said before

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because he's in you know death matches with Kaiju and death matches well because

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well people die when they get hurt or people die when they get killed

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so he's got that to watch out for and that could definitely happen being an

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ultra fight in Kaiju so anyway interesting strange kind of odd so yeah

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I don't know I don't get how that was resolved all that said though I like the

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emotion of it all I like the emotion of all I like the emotional wrap-up all of

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scarred being together looking at the you know being in silhouette against the

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Sun referencing the blazar that they're hoping to be 99 will find a home beyond

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and like this there's like this I know hopeful feeling in this chance for peace

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and like being is very cozy and warm and very open-ended I loved it's funny

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Gento's last line is I'm home and he says that to his wife while holding his son

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and he smiles we get a free stream of him which is a lovely image and just like

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that feeling of him being home and like that's the resolution to everything is

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really nice and I like it but I don't know that it feels earned and like I

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was hoping he would tell his wife that he was blazar that he was fighting all

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this stuff even though I kind of feel like maybe she already knows but it's

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just it's kind of a strange way to wrap things up again it feels cozy I like

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it it's nice but like him lying to her this whole time and to his son and

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everything it's just like I don't know I don't know how I like that they don't

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know how I like that at all and like is this ending open-ended so they can have

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the blazar movie and have it tying directly to the cannon and whatnot I'm

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not really sure haven't seen the blazar movie I think it's gotta be out by now

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but just oh it's gonna have an American release ahead of us hitting you comic

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on back in July 4th or 5th whatever that was or 20 something anyway it doesn't

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matter we're in August now and it's out there but I'm gonna have to watch that

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hopefully they release the dub of it maybe if they do like a blue rail by

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that and watch that and talk about it but yeah I'm just like I'm kind of

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confused and and not satisfied with how things went down in this finale but I

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still like it and I still enjoyed it and it felt cozy I by the way I loved and

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I'm a sucker for callback or throwback stuff like this I love that the ring

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and the bracelet once again they empowered him and he was able to do the

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classic Ultraman beam array attack and that's how he killed Vero on at the end

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and that really was satisfying to me I love that I loved all his red and blue

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streaks lighting up and giving more energy to the thing and super cool I

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definitely like that so like I know that like bit of nostalgia baiting got me but

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like more than that and it did help for sure but more than that it was like the

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satisfying emotional conclusions for everybody that I like to see and I

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don't know Doba she's out Haruno is in probably he's back in no problem

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general Haruno and he's gonna be fine Emmy I imagine like I can see kind of a

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trajectory going forward for all these characters to some extent and I like

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that and I like to live a future but I just I don't like how like slapdash this

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ending was and how sloppily things came together I still like the emotional

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impacts of stuff has on it so I don't know I'm not entirely satisfied what

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about you what do you think blazar overall this thing what do you think about

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the blazar family what you think about blazar overall I would love to hear

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people's thoughts on this and anyway I'm definitely doing better I really hope

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the Ultraman Academy books the old trick yeah the ultimate Academy books are a

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lot better than this those are gonna be geared more towards kids why am I

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bringing that up because I'm writing stuff I'm writing stuff for kids I'm

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writing tokusatsu inspired stuff I'm writing stuff that's like very

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tangentially tokusatsu related with magical bugs battling monsters but I

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have a plan for either one longish book or three shorter books that all tie

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together with a giant hero a camaraderie like lone hero and then a team of heroes

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who transform with this mysterious power and fight something from outer space as

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well but I plan to do a lot better with mine and have it make a lot more sense

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and have things be more clear while still having mystery and having things

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to discover and things like that because I think those are important and those

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are compelling parts of storytelling but it's just just not quite there yet so

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anyway there's a lot to do with Ultraman yet because there are so many things out

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already and there's so many more things coming out I do plan going sticking with

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Ultraman I've got Ultraman Arc that I'm gonna be doing weekly coverage of so for now you can

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find me there doing that I strongly insist that you like and share this to

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help me make more of it but it's more the more popular is the more time and

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energy I'm gonna sink into doing things or invest into doing things I should say

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as far as covering Ultraman is concerned I want to do other stuff but I need to

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build up my subscribership and then I will work from there also please

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subscribe and get me up to the stars the numbers I want to reach so I can keep

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making this stuff and eventually when I'm done with my books I can tell you

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all about them and you can check them out and hopefully enjoy them as much or

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more than you're enjoying these shows that we're talking about because I'm

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trying to make them in the spirit of those shows make them really cool make

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them a lot of fun make them very you know focused on character but also on

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cool action and spectacle and anyway I asked that you help me with that and I

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asked that you leave comments and interact with me on this because I've got a lot

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more Ultraman stuff to talk about a lot more to talk about a lot more general

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stories to talk about which I'm talking about over on my other channel fortress

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fiction which is linked here but again you can always find everything at the

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website mgmo news.com until next time folks take care be well the Ultra I hope

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you enjoyed that subscribe to keep up with me like and share to help me reach

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more people like you and go to MJMunoz.com to find your next favorite thing

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and don't forget to let your voice be heard stories are always better when

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you're part of the conversation until next time be well this is MJ signing out

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this has been a story over everything production