WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:03.220 Tension Inspection presents Going Ultra. This 00:00:03.220 --> 00:00:05.759 is MJ. I'm an author. I'm an artist. I'm an analyzer. 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:08.820 Find all my work at mjmunoz .com. Prepare yourself 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.240 for hard -hitting Ultraman discussion and analysis. 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:18.699 Ultraman Arc Episode 21, The Dream Bird, or Yume 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:21.940 Sake Torii, is... Sorry, I don't know why I did 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:25.239 that. Originally aired December 7, 2024. The 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:28.660 director is Yusuke Akitake, who I believe directed 00:00:28.660 --> 00:00:31.239 the previous episode as well and has no other 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:33.079 credits. So seemingly this is the first time 00:00:33.079 --> 00:00:37.960 I would assume he, being a Yusuke, is directing 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:41.719 an episode of Ultraman or Ultraman Arc at least. 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:43.179 I don't know that for sure. It's speculation. 00:00:43.219 --> 00:00:47.560 And the writer is Takao Nakano, whose name is 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:51.390 very familiar to me. Why is that? I don't know. 00:00:51.429 --> 00:00:52.829 I will get to that at the end of the episode 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:58.450 after I've done my... After I have done... Interesting. 00:00:58.649 --> 00:01:00.429 Okay, one more tidbit. After I've done the full 00:01:00.429 --> 00:01:04.150 review, I'll go back into it. But also, Naoki 00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:08.189 Uchida is the special effects director specifically. 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:13.530 So it's directed by Yusuke Akitake, and special 00:01:13.530 --> 00:01:16.150 effects direction was done by Naoki Uchida, which 00:01:16.150 --> 00:01:18.950 is interesting because... That was the same case 00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:24.150 as last episode, and that's interesting to me. 00:01:24.430 --> 00:01:27.829 But also, there was something very special about 00:01:27.829 --> 00:01:29.590 the special effects direction of this episode, 00:01:29.689 --> 00:01:31.370 which is something I want to talk about in the 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:35.730 full review. Let's get into it. Yeah, wow. Okay. 00:01:36.409 --> 00:01:40.269 So, it's really interesting that this episode 00:01:40.269 --> 00:01:43.829 was so good. I honestly think the... Probably 00:01:43.829 --> 00:01:45.530 the most interesting thing about this episode 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:50.209 is that it transcends Ultraman. This is not a 00:01:50.209 --> 00:01:52.829 good Ultraman episode. It's a fantastic episode 00:01:52.829 --> 00:01:54.790 of Ultraman, but more than that, it's a fantastic 00:01:54.790 --> 00:01:57.709 episode of science fiction TV. It's a fantastic 00:01:57.709 --> 00:02:01.849 episode of, I guess, fantasy or speculative fiction 00:02:01.849 --> 00:02:04.049 or whatever. It's just a fantastic episode, and 00:02:04.049 --> 00:02:07.569 that's it. That's flat. It really does. This 00:02:07.569 --> 00:02:12.080 is probably the best episode of ARK so far. probably 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:14.300 one of the best Ultraman episodes I've ever seen. 00:02:14.620 --> 00:02:18.639 Um, Saijuksar told me to watch from Ultra, what 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:21.199 was it, Ultra 7? Um, like episode 21 or something, 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:23.699 where the guy almost dies, it has the, uh, alien 00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:26.560 Kanan, um, that are taking over the ship, and 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:29.639 the guy's, like, sad because he's... Like, he's 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:31.020 going to die and he's on the phone with his mom 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:33.159 as he's in the ship and his ship is being controlled 00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:34.960 by this robot and he's going to fly directly 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:38.060 into an airplane and kill a bunch of civilians 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:40.460 and kill him. And they're just, like, having 00:02:40.460 --> 00:02:43.280 a casual chat, just a conversation where they're 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:44.680 not acknowledging the fact that he's going to 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:47.219 his death and Ultraman saves him at the end and 00:02:47.219 --> 00:02:49.139 everything's great. But, like, that was a really 00:02:49.139 --> 00:02:51.240 great, really impactful episode. like a very 00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:53.680 beautiful human story. And we have a very beautiful 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.120 human story here as well. And I would say that 00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:58.759 episode of Ultra 7 also transcends Ultraman and 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:00.759 genre and everything else. And it's just like 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:04.259 a fantastic story. It's just a great story. It 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:05.620 doesn't matter that it's Tokusatsu. It could 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:06.879 have been an anime episode. It could have been, 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:10.659 you know, whatever. Of course, it has its peculiarities 00:03:10.659 --> 00:03:12.879 that do make it Ultraman. We get a kaiju fight 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:15.139 in this. We get a monster. We get, you know, 00:03:15.139 --> 00:03:19.939 a puppet, a little bird puppet thing. It has 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:22.319 all the trappings of Ultraman, but really, it 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:27.680 transcends. It goes beyond Ultraman and the Ultra 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.360 Series, which technically maybe is not true because 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.520 Ultra Q is supposed to be like this. I've heard 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:35.039 Ultra Q compared to the X -Files or the Twilight 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:37.300 Zone probably more accurately. Definitely more 00:03:37.300 --> 00:03:39.759 of the time. I don't know which of them preceded 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:41.759 the other, but it doesn't really matter. We're 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.240 not going to fight about that. But yeah, wow. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:50.099 I feel like there were multiple themes at work 00:03:50.099 --> 00:03:56.900 here. Just a quick rundown. Rin's friend, Aoi, 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.580 is an author or a writer. She's working for a 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:02.939 magazine. We get to see a glimpse of them when 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:05.580 they're kids. And, I don't know, they're playing, 00:04:05.659 --> 00:04:06.800 they're imagining, they're doing something fun. 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:09.400 Fun and cute, whatever. And then when they're 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:10.759 like high school students or college students. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:15.000 Aoi is telling Rin about how she's going to become 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.019 a writer and Rin's congratulating her on getting 00:04:17.019 --> 00:04:19.480 this magazine job. And she's saying, hey, it's 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:20.699 something in the writing field. That's what you 00:04:20.699 --> 00:04:22.699 want to do for a living, right? I understand 00:04:22.699 --> 00:04:29.860 Aoi's pain. I say Aoi to Aoi's pain. And I, beyond 00:04:29.860 --> 00:04:38.040 that, beyond that, we get to see her trudging 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:42.220 through her life. and trudging through her job 00:04:42.220 --> 00:04:44.639 and not liking it because she works for a very 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:48.220 small publication and the editor or the chief 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:49.579 or whatever tells her that they have to put out 00:04:49.579 --> 00:04:52.680 all this quantity and that's what's important 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:54.879 because they're so small and so small staff they 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:56.540 need to put out a flood of content basically 00:04:56.540 --> 00:04:59.959 in order to just work in the market to survive. 00:05:00.139 --> 00:05:01.800 It's like the YouTube treadmill or whatever people 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:04.100 talk about with different content making things. 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:07.100 You just have to produce. And that's stopping 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:08.500 her from being able to produce the things that 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.279 she wants to produce, to tell the stories that 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:13.680 she wants to tell. And that's great. We could 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:15.279 stop right there and we could just talk about 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:18.500 it as the story of an author who wants to be 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:20.540 an author and who wants to tell her stories and 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:22.639 share what she has with the world, something 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:27.779 I understand and I feel as well. But that's just 00:05:27.779 --> 00:05:32.589 one theme going on here. She finds this red orb, 00:05:32.689 --> 00:05:35.069 and she kind of makes a wish, and we find out 00:05:35.069 --> 00:05:39.370 at the end of the episode that it's this tool, 00:05:39.509 --> 00:05:42.050 I would say, from a very advanced technology, 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:45.250 very advanced society, that enables any wish 00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:47.189 to be granted, and that because of the greed 00:05:47.189 --> 00:05:51.350 of humans, and, well, sentient beings, whatever, 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:54.089 throughout the universe, it's something that 00:05:54.089 --> 00:05:58.550 should never have existed. Rin also tells Aoi 00:05:58.550 --> 00:06:00.709 at some point that... You have to work for your 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:03.569 dreams. You can't just wish for your dreams to 00:06:03.569 --> 00:06:06.069 come true and have them come true. That's not 00:06:06.069 --> 00:06:08.509 how life works. That's not a good way to go through 00:06:08.509 --> 00:06:10.110 life. It's not a good thing to have happen to 00:06:10.110 --> 00:06:14.310 you. And the orb at the end of the episode kind 00:06:14.310 --> 00:06:18.389 of affirms that idea that when you just work 00:06:18.389 --> 00:06:22.110 through things, or no, when you just get things 00:06:22.110 --> 00:06:26.699 handed to you, it's... It's less good. It's not 00:06:26.699 --> 00:06:28.079 good for you. It's not good for your soul. It's 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:30.480 not good for you as a person to have that happen 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:32.519 versus when you actually have to strive for something 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:34.579 to work for it to accomplish it after putting 00:06:34.579 --> 00:06:38.220 in a bunch of hard work. And there's some quibbles 00:06:38.220 --> 00:06:41.519 I have with that. Actually, in my debut novel, 00:06:41.699 --> 00:06:43.759 Mocker and Mayhem, I have an interaction between 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:45.439 two characters where they have kind of a philosophical 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:48.730 debate of... Is doing hard work good for the 00:06:48.730 --> 00:06:50.610 sake of doing hard work or is doing hard work 00:06:50.610 --> 00:06:52.490 good for the sake of accomplishing the thing? 00:06:52.589 --> 00:06:54.689 And are there good things that you can accomplish 00:06:54.689 --> 00:06:56.709 that don't require hard work? Are there worthwhile 00:06:56.709 --> 00:06:59.069 endeavors that don't require you to do hard work? 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:02.310 Yes or no. And one of the characters who's kind 00:07:02.310 --> 00:07:05.810 of very much into working hard and being diligent 00:07:05.810 --> 00:07:09.089 about things says at first, no, there isn't like. 00:07:09.399 --> 00:07:11.579 Everything good comes through hard work. And 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:13.040 the other character says, well, what about these 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:14.839 things? And they have a conversation about it 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:16.579 and they kind of learn things from each other. 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:20.060 And it's more the one that has the more nuanced 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:21.579 perspective teaching the other one, but it's 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:23.100 still, there's a good exchange between them and 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:27.519 it's really cool. Something I value. Another 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:30.720 dimension, another theme potentially, is possibly 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:33.939 parenthood, selflessness, and balance in life, 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.680 like work -life balance. Allie feels kind of 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:39.319 like a slave at her job. She has to work so hard. 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.459 She has to give up other things. She says that 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:44.480 at one point she laments that she saw her friends 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:47.779 getting married, and I would presume having children 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:49.860 as well. The birth rate is low in Japan right 00:07:49.860 --> 00:07:51.060 now, but we don't need to talk about that, and 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:52.459 I can't talk about that as an insider, so I'm 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:59.920 not going to. But it's not great. There is ample 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.420 evidence, I think, that when a country's birth... 00:08:02.730 --> 00:08:05.870 rates decrease past a certain point or below 00:08:05.870 --> 00:08:07.949 a certain point that it becomes very bad for 00:08:07.949 --> 00:08:11.209 the outcome of the country and They need to fix 00:08:11.209 --> 00:08:14.629 it is a problem so it's almost like highlighting 00:08:14.629 --> 00:08:17.670 a problem of childlessness or maybe of like a 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:21.810 lack of familial connection or maybe it's Like 00:08:21.810 --> 00:08:24.370 it's either like representing her loneliness 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:28.139 She's chosen this career, and that career precludes 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:30.759 her from having a relationship and having a marriage 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:33.100 and having children. And that's something hard 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:36.879 for her because there are ways that Dory, the 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:42.360 dream bird, is framed where he feels like her 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:46.200 child. Somewhere between a pet and a child because 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:48.500 the way he comes up when she's working, you get 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:52.200 to see him pop up. into the scene or into where 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:53.519 she is in the frame where she's working at her 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:56.320 desk and she has to feed him and care for him 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.659 and she ends up defending him um there's this 00:08:59.659 --> 00:09:03.600 i think it's a hilarious scene where um her boss 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.559 and like the photographer or some other person 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:09.080 who works with her um they see dory when he's 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:11.379 grown from ugly little baby bird to like this 00:09:11.379 --> 00:09:13.700 huge, like man size, like, you know, five, six 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:15.740 foot, probably closer, like six foot tall, um, 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:19.019 guy with wings and red eyes and stuff. And he, 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:21.100 uh, terrifies them and they're scared. And it 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:23.240 almost made me feel, and it's, it's cute. Cause 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:24.580 he's being innocuous and innocent. He's just 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:28.220 trying to get somebody to eat. Um, that scene 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:30.159 in Men in Black for Will Smith or Jay, whatever 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:32.440 is like, you know, like you. How did you feel 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:33.799 if I came up and, you know, bust a cap on you 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:34.919 while you're on the treadmill? Like, this guy's 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:37.000 just working out over here. Like, all these aliens, 00:09:37.139 --> 00:09:38.299 you know, there's nothing wrong with them. They're 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:39.860 just living their lives. And this little girl 00:09:39.860 --> 00:09:41.740 with these textbooks, you know, advanced quantum 00:09:41.740 --> 00:09:42.940 physics, like, how's she going to understand 00:09:42.940 --> 00:09:45.539 that? You know, whatever. It kind of reminded 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:46.980 me of that. Like, he's just doing his thing. 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:48.480 He's just eating these sweetbreads or whatever 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:51.519 that Aoi bought for him because she's, you know, 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:52.960 tending to him and acting as this guardian or 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:56.580 parent to him. And these guys are freaking out 00:09:56.580 --> 00:09:58.659 and they don't like what they're seeing. And 00:09:58.659 --> 00:10:00.320 honestly, when you have kids, sometimes they're 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.080 like little monsters and people are uncomfortable 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:04.659 around them or don't want to be around them or 00:10:04.659 --> 00:10:06.720 like are repelled by them. And that's just, you 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:09.080 know, that's how it is. There's only so much 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:11.440 control you can exert over another person if 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:13.799 you're going to be good about it, you know? So 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:17.539 it reminded me of that as well. And there's like 00:10:17.539 --> 00:10:20.179 a lot of dimensions here. That's at least three 00:10:20.179 --> 00:10:21.700 themes. I don't know that I want to expand anymore. 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:26.200 I think... By way of review, or instead of doing 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.379 an actual full -on review, I want to highlight 00:10:28.379 --> 00:10:32.860 these three kind of disparate themes that were 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:36.340 presented to me in the episode. I'll go one more, 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:38.879 just to talk about the depth and the profundity 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:42.000 of what's here, and to back up my argument of 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.419 why I think this transcends Ultraman as a series, 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:47.720 why this transcends Tokusatsu, because I really 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:49.039 feel it does. Oh, and then I've got to talk about 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:53.200 Givas, my man Givas, my main robot! Anyway, so... 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:56.240 The other thing is when Aoi is unable to keep 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:59.139 Dory hidden, because he's so large, they're out 00:10:59.139 --> 00:11:01.440 in the park, whatever, the GDF comes and shoots 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:02.840 him, and there's this crowd of people, they're 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:04.500 all crowding around, she's saying, no, stay away, 00:11:04.820 --> 00:11:06.740 don't take pictures of him, he just wants to 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:08.480 be whatever, and she's trying to protect him. 00:11:09.179 --> 00:11:10.700 Oh gosh, there's a fifth thing I want to talk 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:11.980 about today, or a sixth thing, really, because 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:15.820 it gave us number five. After he's been shot, 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.820 and I don't know if he's... I guess he's dead, 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:21.620 or he's dying. I think he reverts to the little... 00:11:22.409 --> 00:11:26.730 baby bird form, she freaks out. And in her anger 00:11:26.730 --> 00:11:31.149 and her rage and her grief, she says, I'm fed 00:11:31.149 --> 00:11:34.350 up. I try so hard at my job. I work so hard. 00:11:34.409 --> 00:11:39.019 I never get anywhere. And I had this one thing 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:40.639 that was special to me, and you took it from 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:42.320 me, and I don't care about this world anymore. 00:11:42.440 --> 00:11:45.080 And for all I care, this world can burn. And 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:47.620 then he becomes King of Mons. And also, we get 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:50.100 this great flash to these little post -it notes 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:52.440 that have stuff scrawled on them. They're kind 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:53.899 of scattered all over the place. The camera keeps 00:11:53.899 --> 00:11:55.340 shifting like they're in different places around 00:11:55.340 --> 00:11:57.460 her office or home or whatever. And it's all 00:11:57.460 --> 00:11:59.480 these little ideas that she's gotten, and they 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:01.139 all combine, and he becomes King of Mons, which 00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:03.259 I don't know if King of Mons is an established 00:12:03.259 --> 00:12:07.139 kaiju. I kind of feel like it is, probably. Let's 00:12:07.139 --> 00:12:09.440 see. The suit actor for it is Shun Takahashi, 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:12.879 but that doesn't tell me if King of Mons is like 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.480 a standard Ultraman monster or what. And this 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:21.899 wiki, hold on. It looks like King of Mons is 00:12:21.899 --> 00:12:24.679 from Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman Gaia, 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:26.320 The Decisive Battle, and Hyperzor. So is it a 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:28.399 movie specifically? Okay, let me just read about 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:30.639 this, this history of it. King of Mons was a 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:32.440 kaiju created by the evil thoughts of Hiroshi, 00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:36.220 Kashimata, and Ultra... kaiju fanatic who wanted 00:12:36.220 --> 00:12:38.820 to make the strongest monster to defeat Ultraman 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:42.139 Gaia using the Red Sphere that brought Gaia in... 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:45.720 What in the world? That brought Gaia into their 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:47.679 world and making his kaiju out of modeling clay 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:54.480 as a demonstration of what it would be of... 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:56.879 Sorry, as a demonstration of what it would look 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:59.299 like, Hiroshi's creation came to life as he made 00:12:59.299 --> 00:13:01.580 his wish to the Red Sphere, and King Amon's was 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:03.700 born. Whoa, so this is like very deep layers 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:07.200 of connections here, I can see. And as I'm scanning 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:11.179 through this, it says there's a King Amon Sparkdoll, 00:13:11.220 --> 00:13:14.720 an Ultraman Ginga, an Ultraman Orb. Juggler's 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:17.700 Juggler talks about the five king cards, Red 00:13:17.700 --> 00:13:21.559 King, Yellow King, King... King of Bonds and 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:25.120 King Joe. Um, let me see. And then this Taiga 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:28.200 Daina ultra, uh, Gaia novel, apparently. Okay. 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:29.799 Well, it's referenced in the novelty of that. 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:31.320 I didn't know there was, did not know there was 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:36.100 a novel. Um, wow. Interesting. Very interesting. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:39.620 So pretty, uh, pretty interesting, pretty interesting 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:41.539 thing. And I don't, I keep saying it's interesting. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.539 So I'm going to stop now and talk about the rest 00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:46.639 of the episode. Um, so yeah, I, I liked that. 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:48.799 That was a reference. That's cool that I, um, 00:13:49.540 --> 00:13:51.159 It's interesting how deep the reference goes, 00:13:51.299 --> 00:13:53.279 and I'm kind of surprised by that, and I think 00:13:53.279 --> 00:14:00.340 that's a pretty fun thing. The wiki has more 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:01.759 trivia, so if you wanted to go look at that, 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:03.580 you can. I'm not going to read it to you. I did 00:14:03.580 --> 00:14:04.860 that last episode. I don't want to do that too 00:14:04.860 --> 00:14:10.980 much. I just want to keep going. However, there's 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:12.700 an Ultra 7 reference here as well. Let me just 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:16.759 find that. And then I'll stop. The publishing 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:18.820 company where Aoi works is located in Kitagawa 00:14:18.820 --> 00:14:20.659 Town, a place that serves as the backdrop for 00:14:20.659 --> 00:14:23.539 Episode 8 of Ultra 7. Bringing in Ultra 7 again. 00:14:23.559 --> 00:14:25.580 Interesting. Anyway, I've got to wrap this up. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:28.840 It's getting a little bit too long. I thought 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:30.779 that stuff was really interesting. I loved seeing 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:35.519 Givas come back. Aoi wishes that somebody else 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:37.080 would come back, or that somebody would come 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:39.039 and help Ultraman, and Givas comes from the friggin' 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:41.779 moon and helps Ultraman, and that's fabulous. 00:14:43.210 --> 00:14:45.649 I really liked that. I wanted to see Givas come 00:14:45.649 --> 00:14:47.850 back. I wondered how he would. I thought he might 00:14:47.850 --> 00:14:50.850 come back in the very end, you know, when presumably 00:14:50.850 --> 00:14:54.590 Yuma and Ark will be fighting some super big 00:14:54.590 --> 00:14:56.190 bad that's very difficult to defeat, and then 00:14:56.190 --> 00:14:59.690 Givas, his friend, would come back. Anyway, I 00:14:59.690 --> 00:15:01.190 expected that, but it didn't happen that way. 00:15:01.190 --> 00:15:02.490 It happened this way instead, and it was amazing 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:04.830 because it created such a good moment. Givas 00:15:04.830 --> 00:15:08.190 has such a simple design, but it's really interesting. 00:15:08.330 --> 00:15:11.360 I love his claw. I love how he... uses the Batclaw 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:16.179 to hold King of Mons still so that Yuma can hit 00:15:16.179 --> 00:15:18.080 him with his final attack with the, whatever, 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.120 the Galaxy Slasher, Galaxy, Galaxy Slasher, whatever 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:25.019 it's called. That was really cool and really 00:15:25.019 --> 00:15:26.740 fun. So like, you know, there's the standard 00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:28.279 Tokusatsu stuff. It was just, you know, neat 00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:31.080 giant monster fighting with a giant robot and 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.480 an Ultra. Like that's, that's cool stuff. But 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:35.889 wow. Yeah. I really like that. Another element 00:15:35.889 --> 00:15:37.769 I wanted to talk about, so like the depression 00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:41.250 and the rage that Aoi felt was good stuff. And 00:15:41.250 --> 00:15:42.850 then at the end when she like wishes for it to 00:15:42.850 --> 00:15:45.929 go away and she says that, like it starts speaking 00:15:45.929 --> 00:15:48.549 with her voice and it's like, hey, no one ever 00:15:48.549 --> 00:15:50.330 asked me what my wishes are. Like I was created 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:53.629 to grant everybody else's wishes, but nobody 00:15:53.629 --> 00:15:56.519 ever asked me what I want. she has that moment 00:15:56.519 --> 00:15:58.360 of connection with it. And she also says something 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:00.379 about how the fact that it was her all along, 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:01.620 like she thought it was this great friend for 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:03.179 her, but it was just like a reflection of her. 00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:06.679 And we can see that manifested, I think, in the 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:09.519 fact that the dream bird, Dory, like gives her 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:11.759 an idea for a story and she thanks him and says, 00:16:11.820 --> 00:16:13.700 oh, this is wonderful. And that story gets accepted 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:15.779 with the twist that's included. But like, those 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:17.500 were her ideas already. And it was just like 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:19.860 reflecting them back at her sort of, which is 00:16:19.860 --> 00:16:21.440 kind of an interesting thing that could be delved 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:23.299 more deeply into, but I'm not going to do that 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:26.960 now. be an interesting thing to have a conversation 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:28.759 with somebody about but again i'm not gonna do 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:32.080 that now i just think it's a really fascinating 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:34.440 idea and then her letting it go and like letting 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.200 her dream go and then striving to be happy and 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:38.759 work towards this stuff is good and then at the 00:16:38.759 --> 00:16:40.679 end there's this weird thing i think they call 00:16:40.679 --> 00:16:43.399 it a coda um i don't know what that means but 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:44.539 i've heard people say that when talking about 00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:47.519 stuff at the very end she gets she hears she's 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:48.940 walking up the stairs again she's trudging along 00:16:48.940 --> 00:16:51.120 carrying bags and stuff and she hears the kitty 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:54.399 kitty or whatever That's actually the Spanish 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:56.059 onomatopoeia for what a rooster says. They don't 00:16:56.059 --> 00:16:57.279 say cock -a -doodle -doo. In Spanish, they say, 00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:02.299 kikiriki. Anyway, and the dream bird, Dory, sounds 00:17:02.299 --> 00:17:04.599 kind of like that. She hears that somehow, even 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:07.480 though she's let Dory destroy himself and get 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:09.720 rid of this red sphere, red orb, whatever. And 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:12.259 it will never exist again, whatever. It's supposed 00:17:12.259 --> 00:17:15.039 to be a lost memory. She's supposed to forget 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:19.759 about it. And it tells her, treat this as a dream, 00:17:19.859 --> 00:17:23.660 as a lost memory. And yet... she hears this echo 00:17:23.660 --> 00:17:25.640 as she's trudging up these stairs, and then she 00:17:25.640 --> 00:17:28.779 kind of looks and she listens and kind of maybe 00:17:28.779 --> 00:17:31.339 has, like, fond remembrance of that time with 00:17:31.339 --> 00:17:33.519 Dory, and then she happily watches up the stairs 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:35.559 and, like, goes on to, like, pursue her dreams 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:37.380 and do her work. And I just thought it was a 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:39.980 really beautiful episode. It had a great ending. 00:17:40.039 --> 00:17:41.700 There was a lot of, like, paralleling going on. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:43.319 We get to see her go up those stairs, like, three 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:46.500 or four times. She's got it in a soft... SSC, 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:48.839 a soft -structured carrier for a baby. Like... 00:17:49.689 --> 00:17:52.210 It's just really interesting because like she 00:17:52.210 --> 00:17:54.349 wants to tell stories that will make kids happy 00:17:54.349 --> 00:17:57.950 and help people like be inspired. And then she 00:17:57.950 --> 00:18:00.450 wants to destroy the world when her dream comes 00:18:00.450 --> 00:18:03.690 to an end because she had this false dream that 00:18:03.690 --> 00:18:06.150 was broken by these people interfering. So it's 00:18:06.150 --> 00:18:07.630 just it's like a really interesting, really complex 00:18:07.630 --> 00:18:09.589 episode. And I've gone on about it for far too 00:18:09.589 --> 00:18:12.009 long. I'm going to keep talking about it right 00:18:12.009 --> 00:18:14.380 now. The writer. of this episode whose name I 00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:17.660 recognized, uh, he wrote episode 15 of Blazar 00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:19.819 along with a lot of other Ultraman stuff from 00:18:19.819 --> 00:18:22.559 2014 on, basically, uh, which is, uh, episode 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:25.359 15 is Betwixt Morn and Dusk, which is an important 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:27.819 episode. It references an older episode of, I 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:30.039 don't know, Ultraman 7 or something like that. 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:35.680 Um, I'll check in a moment or two. Um, But yeah, 00:18:35.779 --> 00:18:38.160 he's doing good stuff. Check out Nakano. And 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:41.259 he wrote, let's see, Betwixt Morning and Dusk. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:45.119 Let me go down to the trivia to see. It references 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:47.519 a tribute to Terrifying Cosmic Rays, the 15th 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:50.859 episode of the original Ultraman with Gavidon. 00:18:50.859 --> 00:18:55.920 And Gavidon is in episode 15 as well. of, um, 00:18:56.099 --> 00:18:58.200 Blazar, so that's a pretty cute little parallel 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:00.000 that they did, that's a double parallel there, 00:19:00.140 --> 00:19:02.960 and, uh, yeah, so then he made this episode as 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:04.980 well, which has references to older Ultraman 00:19:04.980 --> 00:19:08.920 shows, and, um, had a lot of heart, and was able 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:10.500 to touch on so many different things, and I found 00:19:10.500 --> 00:19:12.259 that very, very interesting. The other thing 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:13.900 I wanted to talk about, which is like the seventh 00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:17.400 or eighth thing now, total, is, uh, um, Naoki 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:21.410 Uchida did the special effects fight. stuff directing 00:19:21.410 --> 00:19:24.170 and i thought this episode was absolutely excellent 00:19:24.170 --> 00:19:27.029 he did a fantastic job he was the assistant special 00:19:27.029 --> 00:19:30.089 effects director for all of blazar um as well 00:19:30.089 --> 00:19:33.309 as uh decker finale journey to the beyond uh 00:19:33.309 --> 00:19:36.470 and he's also credited uh as directing one episode 00:19:36.470 --> 00:19:41.250 in decker which is episode 13 um and new gender 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:44.710 uh trigger episode 13 as well over there interesting 00:19:44.710 --> 00:19:47.289 and then for arc he directed goodbye rin which 00:19:47.289 --> 00:19:49.450 is a fantastic episode as episode 9 as well as 00:19:49.450 --> 00:19:52.450 episode 10 which is to my distant friend um which 00:19:52.450 --> 00:19:54.849 is the first oh no that's the one with the guy 00:19:54.849 --> 00:19:56.410 talking to the alien girl on another planet and 00:19:56.410 --> 00:19:58.690 then she dies because her planet dies and then 00:19:58.690 --> 00:20:02.369 episodes 28 21 the last two or this one the one 00:20:02.369 --> 00:20:05.170 before it um he did those as well which were 00:20:05.170 --> 00:20:09.339 all great episodes pretty much um and There was 00:20:09.339 --> 00:20:13.599 cool trick shot stuff going on. Oh, I think episode 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:17.480 20 is the one where Ark does the cool thing where 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:21.460 he brings the I -Ark sword in front of his face. 00:20:21.500 --> 00:20:23.500 Yes, he did it, and it was a really cool flourish, 00:20:23.539 --> 00:20:26.559 and there was some really cool framing of the 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.819 shots with Gomez. That was really cool. And in 00:20:29.819 --> 00:20:31.920 this episode, there's this great thing where 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:35.180 when Givas and Ark head off to attack together, 00:20:35.259 --> 00:20:37.839 they like... ring their swords down to a certain 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:39.920 point, and then they go and surge forward, and 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:41.839 when they do, these cars and stuff fly up, and 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:44.079 one of the cars, it goes up, up, up, up, up into 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:45.519 the air, and the car flips around, and then we 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:47.940 see through the car's window, like, as if you're 00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:49.920 in the car looking at the fight going on, and 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.220 there's also great aerial shots looking straight 00:20:52.220 --> 00:20:55.220 down at the fight, like a flat aerial view, which 00:20:55.220 --> 00:20:56.640 is kind of weird, you wouldn't think that would 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:58.519 look great, but it just offered a different perspective, 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:00.259 and it was interesting because the way the effects 00:21:00.259 --> 00:21:01.859 showed off and things like that while they were 00:21:01.859 --> 00:21:03.460 fighting, I really love the effects work in this 00:21:03.460 --> 00:21:06.329 episode. So while I did go on and on about the 00:21:06.329 --> 00:21:08.329 themes and the depth and whatever, the spectacle 00:21:08.329 --> 00:21:10.470 was absolutely fantastic as well in this episode. 00:21:10.589 --> 00:21:12.490 I think the spectacle was less well -present 00:21:12.490 --> 00:21:14.190 in what is passed down, which is episode 20. 00:21:14.349 --> 00:21:18.349 However, I think Uchida really did a great job 00:21:18.349 --> 00:21:23.990 here with this episode, The Dream Bird. So that's 00:21:23.990 --> 00:21:25.349 all I wanted to say, and now I will continue 00:21:25.349 --> 00:21:29.400 and go back into the normal episode. I will stop. 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:30.720 I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Did you 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:32.940 think this was as deep as I did, or do you think 00:21:32.940 --> 00:21:35.359 it's just like nothing? It's just another episode 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:37.579 of Ultraman, just another episode of Ultraman 00:21:37.579 --> 00:21:39.740 Arc, whatever. I'd be really interested in hearing 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:42.339 your thoughts and opinions on that. And I would 00:21:42.339 --> 00:21:45.559 encourage you as well to go to mgwinners .com, 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:47.359 but more importantly, go to growbugs .com where 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:52.460 you can find my book and check it out. Find out 00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:56.460 what's going on with it. Check out... Check out 00:21:56.460 --> 00:21:58.579 the upcoming book, Mockwing Mayhem, that I have 00:21:58.579 --> 00:22:03.299 in which a couple of little bugs, magical bugs, 00:22:03.500 --> 00:22:06.559 with weapons made of light, fight these dark 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:08.200 creatures who are coming to destroy them in their 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:11.150 home. The dark creatures are doing that. so that 00:22:11.150 --> 00:22:13.190 the bugs will not be in their way, so that they 00:22:13.190 --> 00:22:16.269 can be free to hurt more children. And these 00:22:16.269 --> 00:22:17.930 bugs are going to give their all, possibly give 00:22:17.930 --> 00:22:20.190 their lives to protect these children and defend 00:22:20.190 --> 00:22:22.809 their home and the little brothers and sisters 00:22:22.809 --> 00:22:25.670 and whoever else they have living with them in 00:22:25.670 --> 00:22:27.869 their home. And it's a pretty cool story. It's 00:22:27.869 --> 00:22:29.690 called Mocking Mayhem. I'm working on a cover 00:22:29.690 --> 00:22:32.769 for it right now and doing just last minute edits 00:22:32.769 --> 00:22:34.390 to the text to make sure everything's perfect. 00:22:34.569 --> 00:22:36.329 There's no typos or anything like that. And then 00:22:36.329 --> 00:22:39.230 it'll be going to print soonish. And I'll let 00:22:39.230 --> 00:22:40.390 you know when you can find out. If you go to 00:22:40.390 --> 00:22:42.170 grobugs .com, you can find out about it. You 00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:43.450 can get on the mailing list so you can be notified 00:22:43.450 --> 00:22:45.269 when it's going to be released. And you can also 00:22:45.269 --> 00:22:47.470 get the bonus material, which is a guide to the 00:22:47.470 --> 00:22:49.750 world of Mocking Mayhem, the world of the grobugs, 00:22:49.849 --> 00:22:51.509 which are my special magical bugs that battle 00:22:51.509 --> 00:22:53.369 monsters. Anyway, until next time, folks, take 00:22:53.369 --> 00:22:53.930 care and be well.