Engine 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 MJ Munoz comm and crowdbugs comm too
Yes, thank you other me so
I wanted to talk about Ultraman blazar an overview of the series because I
talked a bit about the whole series in episode 20 my episode 25 review of blazar
but since then a lot has happened a lot of time has passed I believe the
Ultraman blazar blu-ray is available from Mill Creek and I think it has the movie on it
Which I find interesting but more than that a couple other things have gotten me thinking about Ultraman blazar
Is that there is the blazar crossover of Ultraman arc and I stopped watching Ultraman arc because of many
Medical family issues that stopped me and I stopped at like the third of four
blazar episodes
The crazy blazar crossover that they did with arc for some reason
And like I like it
It doesn't really make sense this infernal dark shogun that we got to meet or hear about sort of in blazar is threatening
Arc's world which is in a different dimension, so they're not you know
They're in a multiverse
basically and
Like I said, I haven't gotten to finish blazar, but I saw earth garon. I saw the scarred
Outfits on the hoshimoto crew the arc crew
And it made me long for more blazar and it made me start thinking about blazar and honestly I love
Black star I don't remember if there was a second song that ended up taking black stars place
I know I'm pretty sure the ED changed
But I don't know that the opening song changed and this black star is an amazing song
The vocal performance and everything is fantastic, so I just want to give a little bit of
credit real quick while I'm thinking about this and
Yeah, so anyway
So I I want to know so the lyrics according to the Ultraman wiki are done by such ago
Who or what is such go? I don't know sounds like a girl's name
But maybe it's like a group's name, or maybe it's a corporate brand
name, but
It's
Anyway, I'll talk about that. I have a very interesting. Well anyway, I have a very interesting
Relationship with like corporate art because I love a lot of it, and I also disdain a lot of it
So I'll get back into that soon
But the composition arrangement is by Hisashi Kiyama and the artist is
min
Minda Rin Minda Rin Minda Rin anyway, so like her vocal performances are fabulous. It's just it's true
Um the song is such a great energy. I listened to a male cover, which is done by a group who's done
They did blazar they did
Zet they did a couple other ones. I can't remember the name
Maybe I'll post it in the show notes will see if I remember I'll do it if not then I won't that's not a
Big deal you can find him just look up. You know black star cover
male, maybe
Just because I thought well. You know this is already a lady saying let me hear what it dude sounds like singing it and
like the band is decent like something's off in the mix and
Either something's off in the mix, or it's just it's a very difficult mix to make and then even I've been playing with a
Get ready to crucify me
I only say that because you're an Ultraman fan if you're listening to this and you should get the joke on that
But I get ready to crucify me if you don't like what I'm about to say. I'm prepared for it
I willingly take this on I thought let me try like let me see if I can reproduce black star with an AI thing
Suno is the AI music thing
I'm using and I couldn't get anything that came closer at some stuff sounded kind of cool
But there's not enough like granular control over the length of the song
For me to be satisfied and with a free account anyway
And I couldn't really get anything that matched like the awesomeness of you know these look you know real living artists doing the work
Which you might say duh MJ of course you can't because it's all done by machines, man
But you know a lot of things done by machine a lot of things that are done
Corporately a lot of things that are done according to a formula they still work
That's why formulas are formulas because math is a like a discreet
I'm not done that discreet math is like a finite thing like they are only finite possibilities within mathematics
But what about imaginary numbers? Yeah? I I'm not a math nerd, but I do know like there's finite dimensions to reality and
Even if it's ever expanding it's only ever expanding at a certain at a certain pace and that can all be codified and
Understood well I got off the wrong place anyway
so what I'm saying is despite the fact that
You know creativity is this beautiful awesome?
You know unicorn of a thing like you can still catch a unicorn you can still use it a unicorn
It can still stab you with his horn even though it's you know a finite being I I think I totally mixed well
I know I totally mixed my metaphors there, and I think I lost all meaning so sorry about that
But I think I even understand what I'm trying to say there
Which is that you know sometimes corporate stuff is good sometimes things that are paint my numbers turn out to work out really well
And they're still beautiful and meaningful impactful
Which you know if you want to criticize
You know
Well, I'm not defending
I'm not gonna go on a diet I'm defending this because I don't need to because that's not the issue at hand
The issue at hand is that in analyzing the lyrics and reading the lyrics over and over again and listening to what?
my you know what I had Claude AI come up with as
like improved English language lyrics that rhymed with the Japanese
Verbiage that was used the Japanese the transliteration of the Japanese text
I did get something that you know might have rhymed with it
But it didn't have the same spirit and soul and spark and part of the reason
or part of the thing that it did too was it changed some of the meaning and when I went back and looked at the
Meaning of the original of the Japanese you know the translation from Japanese into English of the lyrics for
Black Star there's a lot of stuff about there's
stuff about like a duality about like a protection about like piercing through darkness and piercing the sky and
like breaking through these barriers and also about the future and I found that to be interesting because at the very end of
Ultraman blazar
Which now I'm transitioning into my review of the show at the very end of Ultraman blazar we get this
invasion by the v99 and
They are stopped
They stopped their aggression against humanity who is you know attacking them so you know in my opinion the v99
Are like defending themselves and retaliating only
Well, they're retaliating in measure. I would say
basically and
What happens is
It's the spy girl I can't remember her name at the moment, but she goes and
She ends up saying for the
She ends up saying for them to use whatever alien language
Translation software they have to tell the v99 future we want to be focused on a future and that
Message of the future which is contained in the song in the lyrics of the song Black Star
It's about moving towards the future. It's about not hiding from
The truth it's about not
It's about not hiding from the truth. It's about being open to learning about what's what else is in the world and not just deluding yourself
And it's about moving towards the future into the future
That
It's amazing that that song recognizes that theme and
That turns out to be a big theme of the show and you could say a big theme of Ultraman overall
Like being cowed by fear and being made to
Be evil or to act violently or act
Irrationally and cause greater harm through
Giving into fear and letting fear control you
Definitely seems to be a theme
I've seen in some Ultraman things and I think that's a theme in blazar and it kind of blew me away that this show
Has a theme song that first of all is an absolute banger as they say and it's just so freaking rockin hard
hard that um, it's just it's amazing to listen to and that triumphant black star
You know like it's so great it feels so good but
The black star this black hole this blazar is this thing
That opens you up it opens up Gento Hiruma to
This possibility of this future
He couldn't have seen otherwise this future that he would have been locked up in
Because his life would have ended prematurely and he wouldn't have been able to fulfill this
Destiny as partner to this ultra to this, you know
Great uga buga man from the sky who helps him to fight for the future and to look forward to the future
And it really fascinates me that those themes and messages are contained in the opening song for the show
Which should which should be like an encapsulation of what the show is all about but doesn't always turn out
To be an encapsulation of what the show is all about. Um
I'm thinking now back to the x-files opening. It's
creepy and wonderful as uh
Chris Carter might say and it has an ethereal feel and it feels spooky and it feels haunted and it feels
Mysterious, which is exactly what the show is and what the show is about
It's about exploring the unknown and it's about the tension of what's out there and what's it going to do to me and
like trying to persist and survive through that and uh,
I can't think of any other tv show openings at this time. Um
Ultraman z the chant my name. I don't really know about that. I've never paid too much attention to the lyrics. Um, just it sounds cool
But again like the black star lyrics at least the tv-sized version of it
Before it, you know jumps off into the rest of the song definitely is about
All those themes that I talked about earlier and that's why I'm saying that
all those themes that I talked about earlier and that's what the show ultra and blazar is about and
Thinking back now we have scarred who's formed in the wake of like, okay, so
To go into it, you know humanity the v99 are there and humanity somehow captures
These things like like the firebird thing, right?
So I don't really understand the firebird and it kind of irritates me but whatever so like blazar gets this firebird upgrade
Just big spoilers from blazar blazar gets this big firebird upgrade thing that like apparently
He was the master of this phoenix firebird thing
and somehow
They had the technology to trap it the girl's father the scientist girl's father
Or no the girl the spy girl her scientist father had the ability to transfer
Oh, yeah, she was like a super genius. So I kind of thought she was an alien, but she wasn't she's the kid of a genius
So she's a genius too. Anyway, somehow they their earth technology from 20 some years ago 21 years ago
Or whatever it was had the ability maybe I think she's 23 in the show
So it's like 23 24 years ago had the ability
It's also super suspicious that he she was conceived in and around the time that the v99 visited
So I totally thought she was like, you know human alien hybrid again going back to x-files one of the greatest shows of all time. Anyway, um
But yeah, so we have this
um this
Somehow, you know blazar's pet phoenix bird thing gets
Separated from him and it's held in this facility in the secret place
But more importantly than that like the v99 came and visited and I think they were running from an enemy or something like that
Which is the big bad at the end of the show's laying all the eggs and the kaiju or like a kaiju defense force
um
Which is super cool. Um, but anyway
they
Come to earth and they're running from this world destroying thing or whatever
That becomes the end the enemy at the inlets name starts with the v but I don't remember it. Anyway, um, so
like
humanity's fear of the v99 and what they have
Like the first wave so there's the first episode of it of the of blazar is called first wave. Um
The second wave is bazanga
and
Or is it the second?
I think it's called first wave. Anyway, the first wave was the v99 visiting the second wave is supposed to be
Bazanga and the third wave is this volmitreon or whatever his name is that comes in a taxi lays the eggs
Which have kaiju in them, I think or something. They're like bomb eggs and he blows up planets knocks them off course
Uh to crash into another planet and blows it up its core or whatever and then causes other issues and then kills the planet ultimately
So it's like this crazy destructive force
anyway, um
And then like I think all of the special space kaiju like bazanga and the delta rune
That's not what it's called the delta bird bomber guy
Like those are all like genetically engineered space kaiju or something like that that these v99 folks
Are making in order to help protect themselves from this threat. I think that blazar is ultimately able to
Defeat with I think the help in large part of earth garan. Anyway, and and the kaiju, um
Um, like the bug kaiju who are absorbing all the energy so they can shoot this thing and stop it from coming towards earth
Which is like a really cool like I love the idea of this kaiju defense force
But like the fear of the kaiju like the humans are afraid of the kaiju and they're trying to kill them all
Because they're not understanding they're not seeing the bigger picture and they're not they lack the context to know
That what the kaiju are doing is actually a good thing and they shouldn't be trying to stop them
Yeah, it's messing with your renewable energy source or whatever. But using up that renewable energy source right now
um will enable your planet to not be destroyed so in the
Long term, it's a good thing and in the short term. It's a bad thing and humans have a
Propensity to see things in the short term and not understand the long term
Although you know, it's not like the kaiju were communicating with them so they couldn't tell them so they didn't know
but that's the thing like this song talks about not hiding from the truth and being open to learning and like understanding new things and
Having a not so much a vision of the future
But like having an understanding and being open to seeing things that are off in the horizon that you don't understand right now
So that you are, you know, you're benefited from it
At a different time and like I love that. I think it's a beautiful message
You know, it's a banger of a song and it has this beautiful message to it
And I think that's really cool. I think it's really intense and I think uh, it's excellent. Honestly, um
Anyway, I lost my train of thought there forgive me
But what i'm saying is like I think that's what the themes of the show are and those themes are all encapsulated in this song
and I don't want to keep just going back to the song but really looking at the lyrics of the song made me think like
oh, wow, this thing's deep and it has a
Uh a good understanding of the themes of the show. So i'm assuming it was a kaguchi, right?
Um, he must have known what the theme of the show was going to be and must have known that like the safe word
The word that would save the day would be future telling the aliens future and that they would be able to
Chill out and be okay and know that everything's gonna be all right. Um
Yeah, i'm pretty sure that's how it goes so like he must have known that and he must have given instructions to somebody in
You know ultraman it's you know super ride productions to when they had that corporate
You know mass media song made to have it have this theme in it because just because something's corporate
Just because something's made by committee or made by a corporation doesn't mean that it has to be heartless and soulless
And I think ultraman proves this year after year when they produce a show that
is
awesome and as
something to say
um
and I think
blazar does have something to say now
the contradictions about like not wanting to lie or like being open and honest or like weird because like it's almost like that's gento and
And blazar together like they have to be honest
They have to be honest and open with each other and like the song is almost like about them and their journey together of like
going from not understanding to understanding each other and being able to like see through each other's eyes and to like
want to help and understand each other and like not be afraid and like
Like at one point blazar was like gento was afraid of blazar's power and what he would do and how he would kill all those
like the mama kaiju and her baby kaiju and stuff and um
like he was afraid to use his power and it's almost like the message is like
Of the show is don't be afraid to use your power. Just do your best to use it
positively
Use your power in a way that will move you towards the future
Which it's funny to me because there was an australian subara australian japanese subara co-production made where they made a show in australia
That was called ultraman towards the future and I just that phrase just keep it's first of all. That's a great title
I heard about it like 10 years ago or more listening to hentian justice unlimited either
um mike
Either the swoosh guy swoosh cast guy australian guy who reviewed a bunch of ssh figure words and other toys
Or mike dent mock dent who has been featured doing voices for ultraman
um in their in their new dubs, um
either he brought it up and I remember it all the way from back then or
Or it was either him or the australian guy
but one of them mentioned this ultra band toward the future project and like mark rusatsu talked about it on or
I can't remember the lady's name the lady who does a bunch of cool stuff for him the ultra man stuff and other things anyway, um
They covered it over there on his channel
You know briefly they talked about it and uh, like I think it's just such a great title
And I think it's like a really great title for ultra man like ultra man's about moving towards the future
It feels like to me and like blazar is specifically is about that it pulls on that theme and that's like the theme in the show
That's the theme of the show. Um
Everybody in their relationships with each other. You've got spy lady. You've got martial arts lady. You've got um tech hunk
You've got genta the family man and you've got uh the captain over them. Oh, and then the the farmer vice president guy
um, like each of them in some way their stories are about them being able to move towards the future in their own lives and
uh
The way that the cast worked out in that show is really good too
But I already talked about that in my episode 25 review, so I don't want to
Go over that ground again
but um, yeah, I would say each of them has like something that they're moving towards that's in their future that they want to keep living for and
That's like what you know, that's why they're part of scarred and that's why they are successful in scarred and why they're making
Big things happen and big changes happen and like that's why they're able to accomplish the feats
they are obviously because it's fiction but also because like the purpose or the the
blessing the
Benefit of them doing accomplishing those things in the fiction is that they get to move towards those futures
By you know facing these, you know difficult challenges for themselves and um
Yeah, I think that's what the show is about. I think I think the show is about embracing
the hardship and challenges of life without fear
Or
embracing it despite the fact that you're afraid and overcoming that fear so that you can have a future like
You're nodding back to the rainbow snake episodes and like that doctor
I think he was saying that
Kaiju are almost innocent and humans are the real bad ones and
He used like human past
Stuff like things from humans dark past to justify that stance and ultimately he gives up the fight
when he realizes that these this next generation is going to try to build a better future and you know try to do things differently and
Uh, he can't really stop them. Um
Like you can't fight the future
So you may as well embrace the future and like he does that in maybe a half measure or half step and like gento does that too
He can't stop his death eventually
Um, but he still faces things and he's willing to face death and almost give up his life
in order to do things um to secure a future like for his children or first his son and his wife and you know other people
And uh, yeah, I think that's what blazers is about. I really like blazer. I'm I have a really strong attachment the suit's beautiful
Um, the cast is really cool and I really like gento and I wish there was a little bit more there
I I want to buy them like I really just want to buy the set now so I can get the movie because apparently
The movie's dubbed there as well on the dvd and it would be really cool to get and check out and do an
Additional review and add to my uh, my playlist for all the blazar reviews
Anyway as I move towards my future
Um, and I've faced a lot of darkness
More on the side than directing it facely with some issues that we've been having lately over here
Um, I'm I want to get back into arc and finish that show
It's I mean it's done
So I need just need to catch up and finish reviewing and talking about it
But I thought now's a good time to go ahead and talk about blazar and uh, then I'll move to
And uh, then I'll move toward the future and check out the rest of it
So anyway, check out mgbunyus.com for the show notes to find out more of what I'm doing more of my releases
And check out growbugs.com where you can find out you can sign up to find out about
My book my middle grade book featuring magical bugs battling monsters
um
One of these magical bugs battling monsters
Partners up with the girl
Um to help save someone she cares about and when the girl is brave enough they unite and become a giant of light to destroy
Uh the darkness uh and face fear and stuff and it's very ultra manlike very ultra man inspired in that dimension
But beyond that it's you know, great entertaining
Stories for kids that have stakes and are interesting and i'm working on a a book separate to that or separate from that one
That's just one one little story I have and I have bigger stories
um
That involve kids and involve these magical bugs and the dark creatures that they have to face
And overcome and I think it's really good stuff
And I think if you like ultra man if you like tokusatsu
You're gonna like my stuff as well. So you can find out more about that at growbugs.com
Until next time folks. Take care