Tension Inspection presents Going Ultra. This
is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
Find all my work at mjmunoz .com. Prepare yourself
for hard -hitting Ultraman discussion and analysis.
Ultraman Arc Episode 20 is called What is Passed
Down. It originally aired November 30th, 2024.
The director is Yusuke Akitake and the writer
is Ukyo Miura. I don't remember if she was the
first lady to do an episode of Ultraman Arc or
not, but the last writing credit I have from
the Ultraman wiki is episode 9 of Ultraman Taiga,
the present for each. And she also worked on
Ultraman Geed in 2017, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 episodes,
some early and some late. And Ultraman Orb, she
did two episodes, and Ultraman X, a single episode.
That's pretty cool. I don't know much about her
except for she worked on those shows, and I'm
going to go ahead and talk about the episode.
So it was an interesting episode. Chief Bon,
Hiroshi Bon, his daughter is doing this career
day thing, and she chose not to go with Skip
as her – nobody applied for Skip as their career
day thing. Nobody wanted to ride along with the
skip crew in any area in order to learn about
that career. And instead, Chief Bond's daughter
decided to, or Chief Hiroshi's daughter, decided
to work with a local news reporter instead. And
he... Kind of feel sad about that. And he talks
about the fact that parents don't really get
to hold on to their kids and they have to let
their kids go their own way. And he has like
a bento box or a lunchbox or whatever from her
that was hers when he was a kid. And he said
stuff like this is the only thing that we parents
get to hold on to. And I thought it was really
interesting. And it's interesting especially
because he was having that conversation with
Yuma who has no parents. His parents are dead.
He doesn't get that side of it. And I think his
grandma's still around, but I don't know what
their deal is currently. She hasn't been in the
show for a little bit. And I liked the melancholy
of this. I like that it's setting up this different
threat, which is that there appears to be a Gomez,
but it's actually not a Gomez. It's this other
alien. I took a screenshot of the name of it,
but I don't have it at my command right now.
And it's some sort of glass kaiju that eats silicate.
So it's going to... It's going to go ahead and
it was going to... Anyway, it went to a certain
place there because there's like a glass factory
and it wanted to eat from there. So they were
expecting it to behave one way based on Yuma's
knowledge of the physiology and the biology and
the natural traits of kaiju, which is something...
emphasized in arc that i don't know has been
emphasized in other ultra series just because
i haven't watched enough of them but it for sure
to me was not emphasized in blazar or in uh z
reset whatever um so that's interesting um and
the other thing i have to say is i like the like
the kind of harder sci -fi aspect of arc where
they're talking about like knowing uh like Yuma
went to school to become an expert in kaiju physiology
and behavior, I would say. It's probably the
best way to put it succinctly because I don't
have the stuff right in front of me, but basically
he went to learn about this. He's treating kaiju
as animals and having natural cycles, and we
hear if Gomas is hungry, it should be going towards,
since it's predatory or carnivorous, it should
be going towards the foot of the mountain where
there would be animals for it to eat, and if
it's already full, which we might... suspect
because it's not going towards uh where there
would be animals for to hunt and kill and eat
um then it should be hibernating because apparently
that's what they do they eat and they sleep and
this gomez is doing neither it's climbing this
mountain but then we hear that it's actually
this oh supico soup specchio specchio specchio
i don't know whatever that's the name of the
the strange creature that it is and it mimics
um it mimics gomez for what reason i do not know
but it is a space kaiju Excuse me. And since
Ishido works for the, you know, space division
of the GDF, he's more familiar with that. And
he guesses that maybe it's a space kaiju when
its behavior is anomalous for what a Gomez should
be doing. And like all that stuff is really interesting.
Like the personal story with the chief and his
daughter is interesting. She gets to see him
like being heroic. And she had said on the news,
I think, that she would love to interview Ultraman
if she could. And then... There's this cool thing
at the end where Hiroshi's there and Ultraman's
behind him and Ultraman's here and the Chief's
here. And then his daughter comes up from behind
and she interviews him and she talks about Skip
and how cool Skip is and how all of us can be
doing something heroic and we all need to find
what we can do to make the world a better place.
And it's kind of like a, I would say, I would
assume, like a very Japanese, like, not pluralistic,
but like... We all have to perform our roles
in society. We need to figure out what those
roles are and then fill them or fulfill them,
I should say. And I think that's neat. I think
it's cool. I like the message overall. And she's
saying, like, I have to find out what is best
for me to do. And, like, maybe being a reporter
isn't the best thing for me to do. But she was
able to report very well in that moment. I think
it's because she was more familiar with, like,
her father and the kaiju thing. She grew up kind
of with skip being a thing. And I think as a
little girl, she talked about joining him at
Skip, but that didn't happen or hasn't happened
yet. She was interested in this other stuff instead.
And in the news reporting or whatever. It's funny,
Yuppie has a moment where he talks about how
kids want to either be famous or be influencers
or have like, they don't want to be influencers
and survive off their fame or they want to have
jobs that are like super high paying. And Skip
is neither of those. So that was like a real
funny moment. And they're like, hey, you're being
kind of rude. I'm just being honest. Then they
all like part ways awkwardly. So that was a real
fun moment with UP, like possibly using his personality
that's been put into him and possibly using the
fact that he's a robot. And he's like, look,
this is the data folks. This is the data. And
this is how it is. This is how kids are reacting
to things these days. And I thought that was
a lot of fun. So yeah, I really liked that. There
was a very cool. thing with the arc eye sword
which i called the sunglass slasher in my last
review because i couldn't remember the name of
it um which it does really look like i need to
compare them but i'm not gonna do that right
now um but i really liked how they carried that
out that effect and i noticed in this episode
there haven't been a lot of um or like i don't
think last episode 19 or this episode 20 there
was much in the way of those like arc trick shots
that we got early on in the series where like
the first five or six episodes like arc was doing
something very imaginative very creative we were
like seeing through his eyes we saw through a
kaiju's eyes we got a lot of different perspectives
and a lot of different interesting things happening
here i really like the direction there was like
some awkward framing of gomez in these different
positions and like he was being like there was
like some hand camera um or like handheld camera
like people running towards the kaiju as people
are running away from the kaiju so you have that
contrast and then he he's like There's an overpass,
and there's a lamppost or whatever, and you can
see him behind that, and he's in front of electrical
wires or whatever. So you get to see him with
this stuff in the background of him, and then
there's stuff covering him. So it feels like
very real shots or documentary -style shots,
and I really enjoy those. There was great miniature
work done. They were going to shoot the citronella
acid at Gomez to... to uh because it's super
effective against gomez is um but they were unable
to and or it didn't work it had no effect um
or it was not very effective and that kind of
tipped them off like hey something's going on
with this kaiju it must not be normal gomez so
there's kind of like a lot of little things going
on here and like everything that was done in
it was done really well and it was really interesting
it was a lot of fun And I liked the core story.
Again, I don't know what they're doing here.
And then the preview for the next episode, I've
watched that episode already. Most of it, my
boys were watching and I was kind of there seeing
it with them while I was doing something else.
And it's a pretty cool episode. I'm excited about
it. And it's a great standalone episode, but
I don't know what it's doing for the overall
plot. And I don't know what this episode is doing
for the overall plot either. And I feel like
there are things to be taken care of with this
whole Annihilation of Earth thing that... to
me, is still a threat. I do not believe that
hole or whatever has been collapsed entirely,
and I believe it is going to be a problem. So,
anyway, in the last couple minutes, I'm just
going to read some interesting stuff from the
wiki. There's a bunch of trivia stuff that I'll
just read directly from. Again, this is from
ultra .fandom .com. wiki for this episode. So
this episode is the first since episode 15 of
Ultraman X, A Soldier's Back, to revisit the
theme of a leader and his daughter. Notably,
both episodes feature Gomez as part of the storyline.
Interesting. This is also Gomez's first appearance
in an episode centered on a leader storyline
since episode 17 of Decker, titled Investigation
from the Past. This episode includes several
Easter eggs and references to the Godzilla series.
Since Gomez is based on Godzilla, there is a
direct connection between the two. One, the footsteps
of Gomez, I don't know SP, why that's there,
and the power line scene recall a classic shot
from the 1954 Godzilla. Okay. Supako exhibits
traits of Space Godzilla by mimicking the appearance
of Gomez and displaying characteristics such
as flying using anti -gravity beams. Okay, I
don't know about Space Godzilla. Sorry. Given
Gomez's... imposter role, some plot elements
seem inspired by Mechagodzilla and its fake Godzilla
disguise. For instance, Gomez's skin reveals
Supecio's interior, exposing its true nature
as a mimic monster. Additionally, Gomez's use
of a reflective shield and beam attacks in its
battle with Ark mirrors Mechagodzilla's abilities
in the 1974 Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. I had
no idea. Shoesline. Is it a robot made to look
like Gomez? That felt like a reference. It is
a clear nod to Mechagodzilla. Okay, I was wondering
what that was a reference to, and I'm glad I
read through this so I could see, because that
100 % felt like a reference, and I was thinking,
what's it a reference to? I wonder. The silhouette
of Gomez standing on a mountaintop, walking through
the city, and its resistance to GDF artillery
are reminiscent of Godzilla's portrayal in the
2016 film Shin Godzilla. After Gomez's defeat,
it transforms into its true form. specchio resembling
certain scenes from the conclusion of the 2021
anime series godzilla singular point in response
to a question from a viewer on twitter asking
why does arc destroy the kaiju's barrier with
just one attack using the arc eye sword special
effects director naoki uchida explained by reflecting
the beam i was uh It was able to amplify the
energy, which is why the sword glows red when
you look closely. Okay. I noticed the sword glowing
red and I thought it was going to, I actually
said like, oh, I think it's going to break while
I was watching it. And I was surprised that it
didn't. And he was able to get the attack. So
I, I think I intuited that the glowing red meant
that it was like. you know, whatever, absorbing
power, just becoming too much. And then when
he sliced through, I thought, oh, okay, so that's
how he saw me. It's not going to break inside.
He's going to be able to utilize that power for
himself, which I thought was a pretty cool way
to go about it. So yeah, this was a very cool
episode and there's the trivia for it from the
Ultraman Wiki, the fandom Ultraman Wiki or Ultraman
fandom Wiki, whatever you want to call that.
And yeah, it was a lot of fun and that's it for
now. I would encourage you to check out the show
notes so you can find out more information, see
other stuff that's going on. And also, huh, it
looks like the actress for Tsugumi Ban is a hafu.
She's Christina Asaf Costello, or Costello. Costello
is what it should be. Interesting. Who knew?
Anyway, not that it matters. Oh, no, that's the
English dub, the voice actress. Jerk. Okay. Yeah.
Whoops. Sorry about that. Let me see. In the
main cast for the Japanese side, it doesn't name
her. Oh, wait, guess I choose. Okay. Rina Miura.
Okay. All right. So she's not, uh, not who I
thought she was. It was false information right
there. Gosh. Anyway. So. Check out my show notes,
which will lead you to the show notes for the
show, so you can get your own information from
the Ultraman Wiki instead of relying on my unreliable
information from time to time. And I'm going
to encourage you to go ahead and check out GrowBugs
.com. I have a book finished. It's called Mockwing
Mayhem. Generally speaking, there are magical
bugs who battle monsters, and specifically for
this book, Mockwing Mayhem, there are... because
it's a whole world, whole series worth of books.
It's going to be awesome. You're going to love
it. There is a mockwing, which is this mist -like
bird that hunts children in... feeds on them
in a certain way and there's a magical bug who
goes and fights this thing and protects it and
it thinks he thinks he killed it but he didn't
kill the monster and so the monster follows him
home and then eventually it leads all its friends
to attack his home and savagely destroy him and
all his family members who are essentially all
brothers and sisters who are all magical bugs
that battle monsters and it's up to two at the
end two of like teenage type of magical bugs
who are untrained and untested unready -to -be
fighters to see if they can survive, help save
an older, more powerful grow bug who's outnumbered
and outmatched, and then even if they survive
that, how will they survive the rest of the flock
attacking them and trying to kill them? It's
going to be a great story. Again, magical bugs
battling monsters. There's a lot of tokusatsu
-y things in the book, and a lot of tokusatsu
ideas went into it, and these monsters, or these
creatures of mine, these magical creatures, literally
protect children, which is something that...
Ultraman and Kamen Rider and Super Sentai do
a lot. So there's a lot of that tokusatsu heart
in there. And I think you'll enjoy it if you
enjoy this show and enjoyed hearing me talk about
it. So until next time, folks, take care. Be
well.