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.
I don't know. I don't know what to say about
it. It's really weird. It's very interesting.
I brought this up earlier, but I'll say it now
and I can expand upon it a little bit now. There
was very little tokusatsu stuff in here. When
actual tokusatsu effects were used, they were
used in a very profound way. Visual effects were
done for the face, which I still consider to
be, you know. Special effects, even though I
think special effects are more in -camera things
that are happening. There was definitely some
forced perspective shots. There were definitely...
What else was there? There was forced perspective,
I would think, for Yuma and Appleman, whatever
the man in the white mask, to be on top of the
pillar. The pillar was a practical effect. I
don't know about its face cracking and all that
stuff, because I know for like... Degelios or
Delios or whatever, the two horn guy, when he
cracked, they made a 3d model of it, like an
elite scan. And then they had that thing shatter,
um, from like the first episode, I believe it
was. Um, so I don't really know if that was done
practically or not. There were, there were a
lot of things that were done practically humor,
reaching out to the, where the preschool or where
the art school used to be for kids and touching
it. There was a visual effect, a visual effect,
a digital CGI, whatever, of ripples or whatever.
There was the sound though, bloop, of the water
dripping. And then when his hand, when he pulled
his hand back, as you see it, like he's reaching
for it and then he comes back and he looks at
his hand, his palm is covered with chalk, like
he talked about before. The dialogue with Rin
is what made it believable or like is what made
us understand. The dialogue and just the conversation
between them made us understand that. he was
touching this invisible thing or this thing that
was there that he didn't know was there or whatever
he couldn't see, perhaps. Honestly, it reminds
me of The Shadow from, like, 1994, 1993. There's
this big hotel, grand hotel, whatever, that's,
uh... What's the guy's name? The Golden Emperor?
Whatever his name is. The Golden Master. He's
such a powerful psychic that he makes even The
Shadow, who's a powerful psychic, forget the
existence of this. hotel and he has all hypnotized
so that they think it's not even there they think
it's a vacant lot and it's all caged off and
nobody touches it nobody goes near to it because
hey it's not there because he's tricked them
there's kind of something going on here um and
there's another visual effect not you know or
special effect or sorry visual effect you cdr
whatever where when yuma gets back to being arc
he uh the cube the art cube or whatever, has
the drawings fly into it and they become part
of it. They become integrated into it. That's
another visual effect. But really, I guess you
could argue that the filter or the colorization,
I guess that probably would have been an after
effect as well. It's very weird because like,
I don't know, in an interesting way, episode
21, the last episode. I, it's a hard recommend
for me. I said, it's amazing. It's transcendent
tokusatsu. I feel like I should be saying the
same thing about this episode, but I'm not, and
I'm not exactly sure why it was creepy. It was,
uh, like very interesting. It kind of had me
like in suspense the whole time. Um, but like
not a lot happened. It was very interestingly
made because it's like character driven and it's
almost more of like a thematic episode. And I
think. I hope I'm not doing this episode an injustice
by skipping straight to the thematic stuff and
going over the more technical things, which I'm
going to read all the trivia on here from the
wiki, excuse me, because it just makes sense
to do that. After the thematic stuff, the man
in the white mask found a relic that he was able
to use at the cost of giving up his name, at
the cost of giving up his face, I believe. Name
represents identity. Face represents identity.
From the back, we all kind of look the same or
people generally look the same, which is why
you get that moment in the movies where someone
grabs somebody from behind and spins them around.
The guy is, oh, who are you? And then they just
walk away like, who's that jerk? Anyway, because
that's how it is. From the back, you know, without
the face, we're harder to distinguish. And this
man gave up his identity. He gave up his face.
He gave up his name. I don't even know if he
remembers what his face looked like or what his
name was, but he did that in order to have the
power to escape anxiety for himself and to destroy
the anxiety induced by Kaiju for people throughout
at least Japan, if not just Hoshimoto City, perhaps
the world. We don't really know. And he was saying
that by... And destroying the memory and the
thought and the notion of kaiju, he could destroy
the very fact of kaiju. He could undo that. He
could unmake that through this kind of complicated
process. Ironically, the wiki says that the pillar
is a kaiju. And it also calls the man in the
white mask a kaiju. I don't think that's really
fair. I think that's just categorization for
the sake of us, you know, pet interests who like
that kind of stuff. But I think thematically,
it's... Like that doesn't really matter. Even
if he was a kaiju or the pillar is a kaiju, like
I said, it doesn't matter. What's more interesting
is that he is willing to like give up on life
and give up on joy and like have this depression
or this, like he's unwilling to deal with anxiety,
the anxiety brought on by kaiju. And in order
to eliminate that, he nullifies himself in order
to nullify kaiju from the world. I don't want
to say that this is like a code for suicide or
something like that, but it feels very thematic.
Rin disappears when, when she's feeling depressed
and so tired, she can't really remember and she
can't really function. She's suboptimal. And
then boom, she's gone. The man in the white mask
appears and then Rin's gone. And then Rin is
kind of reborn or recast in this role working
for the chief for Bon as a, you know, cafe girl.
um and i just mean like a waitress at a cafe
i don't know why i said cafe girl um and also
before that uh ishido was saying that he was
very strong in his will and he was like holding
on to everything but he was lost sort of and
he was distracted he came into confrontation
direct confrontation with the man in the white
mask and then he disappears and then he's recast
as the coffee bean delivery guy at the cafe and
the reason why skip is targeted is because um
Skip is what makes time travel possible. No,
if there's no skip, that means there's no kaiju,
or sort of, in this interesting logical progression
that was set up earlier that I will not repeat
because I'd be belaboring it. Now I'm thinking
of another Michael J. It's also from Back to
the Future. You know, if they don't dance, then
they won't kiss. If they don't kiss, they won't
fall in love. If they don't fall in love, then
I'm history. It's... This weird, like, domino
effect, this, like, reverse domino effect of
logic that's, like, fantastical, where if Skip
is erased and the Skip people, the Skip crew,
is recast in some different role in society,
then that will help to facilitate the erasure
of kaiju from their, like, the memories of the
people of Hoshimoto, Japan, and possibly the
whole world, and then that will eliminate the
fact of the kaiju. It's almost like ascribing
this amazing power to thought and to human perception.
to shape the world, which human perception does
shape the world. Yuma's intense level of imagination
is what enables him to be Ultraman Arc. It's
what makes him immune to the activity of the
pillar or the powers of the pillar. And yet he,
when he's about to die because he can't access
Arc anymore, he kind of falls into this death
-like state where he's... no longer himself,
he's somebody else, and he's like a former showroom,
so I think that the performances, the acting,
the direction in this showed, like, as he's slowly
scrubbing the table, and as he's squatted outside,
slowly working on the chalk drawing, it's like
they're walking dead. It's so interesting, because
it feels like a suicide thing, which, like, I'm
very cagey about suicide being framed in fiction,
um, for several reasons, uh, and Like I usually
don't want to shy away from things like that.
And like, I don't know that I would ever do it.
Although I did, I did write a short story. Um,
I don't know. It's just, it's really fascinating.
It's really thematically deep. And maybe when
I read through the trivia, there will be a revelation
about what exactly they were saying, um, or like
what the point was. Uh, but I find it like, I
feel like this one's going to stick with me.
The icon, the image was iconographic. The image
was iconic, or iconographic, I think either is
an acceptable form of that word. And, like, it
had a very interesting mood. It was, like, almost
a mood of existential dread and, like, this draining
type of thing. And I love at the end, when Ark
is reactivated and he defeats the kaiju with
his, you know, rainbow blast, that all these
color drops fall from the sky, but ultimately
they turn into raindrops. it's interesting because
there's no more rain. There's no more kaiju.
The guy's trying to eliminate all this anxiety.
Rain is even anxiety inducing for some people,
but like rain is also necessary to life. So like,
is the point of the episode that anxiety and
stress and pressures are essential to life. And
without those things, we will wither away and
die because if it never rained, we would all
die. We'd all be dead. Uh, so thank God for the
rain. Um, and, uh, yeah, I don't know. I don't
know what else to say. Like, it's just, it was
like a very interesting episode and I. just finished
watching it, I did the short, I recorded the
short, and I got it edited and posted, I got
it, it was in process, it's probably done now
and ready to be watched, and then I decided to
just jump straight into this recording, and I
don't really know what else to say, so I'm going
to go ahead and do some of my, well, I'll just
read the credit -y type stuff, so this was originally
aired December 14, 2024, the director is Tomonobu
Koshi, and the writer is Masaya Honda, so i don't
know who the writer is there's no link to to
their work i'm typing and must say i copied and
pasted and put tokusatsu or ultraman writer and
i'm not seeing it let's go with tokusatsu writer
and see if i find anything here The internet
is ridiculous. There is no information available
about a tokusatsu writer named Masaya Honda.
However, you may be referring to Toshiki Idoe,
a Japanese screenwriter known for his work on
anime and tokusatsu. Toshiki Idoe has written
for many entries in the Kamen Rider series and
is the head writer of Chojin Sentai Jetman and
Avatar Sentai Dawn Brothers. What? Okay, so...
On IMDb, Masaya Honda is credited for... Oh,
wow. No friggin' way. Ultraman Arc, three episodes.
Iki Tosen, four episodes, which that just looks
like an ecchi thing. Is it like the fighting
girls? I don't care. Karas, the Prophecy from
2005. Iki Tosen, 2010. And then 18 episodes of
Baruto, which apparently started in 2017 and
went till 2023. And I've heard Baruto, the Naruto
sequel, is horrible. So I find that to be very
interesting. Let's see if it tells me on IMDb
what the three episodes are. It says The Wandering
Future, Calamity Thrice, which is the next episode.
Okay, that's really interesting. And then this
episode. So yeah, I don't know what to think.
Calamity Thrice looks really cool. The Wandering
Future, I honestly don't remember what that episode
was about. Apparently that's episode 15, which
features, is it 15? Yeah, which features Swede,
I believe. But according to the wiki, that's
not who wrote the episode. So I'm very, very
confused as to what's going on here. And I will
just go back to talking about who the director
is. The director is... Um, also the designer
of the pillar and the man in the white mask.
His name is, uh, Tomonobu Koshi. And, uh, I believe
I'm supposed to be, I think he's like a big deal.
Um, it looks like he's got a decent amount of
episodes, but he directed the full moon dancer,
um, internet Kenyan, which I think was the, the
one with the exploding Kaiju mama that I thought
was interesting or kind of weird internet Kenyan,
which was okay. Um, it was fun, but I had weird.
you know, disagreements with it, Maxie over here,
uh, The Light of Fear, which was cool, Demon
Slicing Meteor Sword I liked, and then Man in
the White Mask I really liked, but just, it's
interesting, and then, uh, you know, Calamity
Thrice, I have yet to see it, so I can't really
say anything about it, so, um, yeah, and then
it looks like, um, he was the assistant director
of Ultraman Z, um, So, yeah, I don't know. I
don't know what else to say. It's just it's a
really interesting episode. And I was hoping
that looking into the production data would help
me a little bit more. I will read through the
trivia, though, for this, and hopefully that'll
offer some assistance to you and to me, because
I'm afraid this is going nowhere. And I'm really
glad I left this till the end of the episode
so I didn't ruin the review. OK, so here we go.
Interesting. I wanted, I do want to mention the
suit actor for the man in the white mask is Satoru
Okabe. And I did really enjoy his performance.
Very creepy. Um, what has he done recently? Let
me see. He has been Zongil, Givas, Alien, Kuroko,
uh, Blazar in, um, in this show uh man in the
white mask and then also the swede alien form
interesting which i don't think we're supposed
to know about yet so i shouldn't have said that
um and then let's see zongil and blazar as well
alien canon herbie wait a minute i thought herbie
was the was the washing machine uh anyway so
uh getting back to it um getting back to the
trivia here What do we have for the trivia? Let's
see. So the episode features several references
to the work of Belgian surrealist artist René
Magritte, perhaps. M -A -G -R -I -T -T -E. The
full body image of the man in the white mask
closely resembles the men depicted in the painting
The Meaning of Night in the bowler hat and such,
I guess. Let's see if there's a link to it. The
man in the white mask is appearance behind the
mask that of a man wearing a suit and a bowler
hat. This face obscured by an apple is based
directly on... Magritte's most famous painting
the son of man interesting so that image okay
so yeah they are men in bowler hats and suits
with white faces closed eyes they're on a beach
there's shells around them and then there's weird
hands grabbing other hands kind of in the foreground
in front of them very strange um oddest day at
the beach anybody ever had after um let's see
After the pillar disables Yuma's arc cubes, the
silhouettes of two pigeons filled in with the
imagery of a cloudy sky appear, which is a direct
reference to Magritte's 1966 painting, The Skybird.
The pillar being a giant floating stone object
bears a resemblance to the castle of the Pyrenees,
which those are great livestock guardian dogs,
if you ever need to know. Oh, I can see that.
The Great Pyrenees. And let's see, the nighttime
street scene is inspired by the Empire of Light,
which I think that's where Yuma goes in to get
the umbrella from the shop. And according to
Tomonobu Koshi, the composition of the Empire
of Light was suggested by cinematographer Satoshi
Murakawa. The production team combined practical
effects with the synthesis department's technology
to achieve the final on -screen result, which
let me look at what that is. So I believe that's...
That night scene is talking about when Yuma's
looking for the umbrella and he goes into that
store. That looked like an effect. It looked
like something, you know, not quite real, not
quite there, but it worked and definitely had
a tone and a mood. So I do like that. There's
a couple other ones. Instead of using Yahoo for
a search engine, Rin is using Yapool, which is
funny. It even has a little explanation point
at the end, so it's stylized like it. It says
the filter and color tones used in this episode
are reminiscent of those seen in Ultra Zone and
episodes of Neo Ultra Q, and the photo of the
pet dog Yuppie, the pet dog Yuppie, the chief
pet dog in the alternate universe coffee shop
thing, shown by Hiroshi in the cafe is actually
a picture of director Takanori Tsujimoto's pet
dog. Moo or Mew -chan? Initially, there were
discussions about naming a coffee machine or
a product in the cafe after UP. However, following
the suggestion from Tsujimoto, the name was eventually
given to a dog kept by the station chief, which
is very cute. Very cute indeed. Oh yeah, so it
is that shot with the shop that I was talking
about where he goes to get the umbrella. That
is the shot that is referenced to whatever the
other painting was, the Empire of Light. So yeah,
that's... All I have to say is all the trivia
on the episode. I'd love to hear your thoughts
on it because I don't really know my own thoughts.
Well, I do. And I express them to you. It's just
interesting. And I feel like this is something
to sit with and think about for some time. Anyway,
yeah. So I'd appreciate it if you would go to
the show notes, check out mjmunoz.com, check
out all my work there. You can also check out
grobugs .com to get a... sneak preview. Get
on the email list so you can find out about my
book there, which features magical bugs battling
monsters. It's very much a heroic story. It has
bugs training and learning and growing to be
better, stronger magical bugs so they can protect
children of the earth from being destroyed by
monsters or preyed upon by monsters who are creatures
of darkness and chaos. And I think it's pretty
cool. I think it's pretty cool. And again, you
can find out about that at growbugs .com, G -R
-O -B -U -G -S. And anyway, until next time,
until next time, folks, take care and be well.