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Ultraman Arc Episode 23, Calamity Thrice, was
a cool episode. I am a little curious about certain
things, and I'm wondering if the way the next
part of the episode... pans out there will be
some revelations made but uh anyway I'll talk
about the episode as it is now then I'll get
into some of my speculation and also I want to
do a callback to before um because I think there's
something interesting to call back to so I will
do that when the time is appropriate but anyway
I honestly really the the main thing I liked
about this episode which I did like a lot was
the like bromance and the not the breakdown of
the relationship but like the tension in the
relationship between Yuma and Ichiro. So, Shu
came to skip as an outsider. It seemed like he
was spying on them, perhaps. I think it was because
he was monitoring the monogalus horn in Hoshimoto
City. I think that was part of what he was doing.
He was looking for the onyx, which I don't know
if we found that out in episode 15 or not, but
this does call back to episode 15, and we will
get to that. But he came as like an outsider.
And he is somebody who is very lonely and who
doesn't have a lot of family. We learn, not in
the show proper, but we learn in his diaries,
which I've been checking out, you know, every
now and then, that, like, he grew up in America.
I think with his mom, I believe there was some
contact with a grandfather in Japan. I think
it was Japanese grandfather, not an American
grandfather. But anyway, yeah, so, like, there's
a little bit, you know, to him. There's a little
bit of... Not so much tragedy, but just like
more you can understand why he's grown up as
like an isolated person. Almost, if I'm remembering
correctly, maybe moved around a lot. And just
hasn't been able to form the connections with
people that he's wanted to. And even you could
say he had prejudices that like held him back
from being able to connect with people. He makes
reference to that in this episode when he's pretty
sure that Yuma is Ark. And he's telling him that
he's not going to demand that Yuma explain to
him what's going on and why he's been hiding
from him that he's been arced this whole time.
And he was saying, you know, I would say that,
you know, in the past I would have said that
we're a team and we shouldn't be holding out
things. We shouldn't be keeping things from each
other. But I've learned to be, oh, is it respectful?
Empathetic. I've learned to be empathetic from
you. You're rubbing off on me. These are the
lines that he says to him. I really appreciate
that, and I really appreciate that the exchange
has gone both ways, because I feel like Yuma
has grown as a person. I think he's gotten a
little grittier, and he's gotten tougher, and
I think he's gotten a little smarter as far as
being willing to question people and be suspicious
of them. I think those are traits that he's picked
up from Ishido, and... We have stuff like with
the mushroom alien guy, whose name I don't remember
at the time, or this time. Like, he and Shu are
allies. Shu was going to shoot that man, shoot
that alien, and just kill him. He was going to
shoot the invader, and he didn't do it because
Yuma protected this guy, and then it's an alien
Krikoro. I know that for sure. Anyway, but...
Then he ended up becoming an ally of him. That's
from Welcome to the Akebono Inn, I believe is
the episode. Anyway, so, and he comes back and
he actually gives useful information to Ishido
and he shares that with Yuma. I don't remember
when that was specifically, but like there is
evidence of his growth there. And then he's specifically,
you know, that's what we're being shown. And
then we're being told here that he's grown. to
be more empathetic, and he's learned that directly
from Yuma, which I guess, really, that was an
expression of his empathy with, um, whatever
the guy's name was, it wasn't Herbie, but I want
to call him Herbie for some reason, anyway, um,
um, anyway, uh, I feel like it's Natsuko, or
something very much like that, um, anyway, but
I'm not going to focus on it anymore, uh, but,
uh, yes, he, He spells out the fact that Yuma
has helped him to grow as a person, and I like
that. I like it because it's not telling to the
audience. It's telling to another character in
the show. It's telling to Yuma, and that creates
an opportunity for them to have an emotional
connection and an emotional moment here, and
it makes the tension in the rest of the episode
higher because we get to see... that Yuma's already
been benched because his hand is shaking and
other things are going on with him, which I guess
is a side effect of having the Onix within him.
It's not really explained. Maybe it's a side
effect of that. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a
side effect of being connected with Ruchiyan
for too long. I don't know. It's unclear, and
they're not going to clear it up for a while.
I mean, who knows when they'll clear it up, but
it is unclear for now based on what we have in
this episode. I went back and listened to my
reviews of episode 15 and 16, and it was not
clear to me then, and I mean, I guess I don't
know if I figured it out after the fact or how
this happened, but the Onyx is what turned into
the Galaxer, somehow. I guess through the power
of imagination and the fact that this Onyx, or
whatever it's really called, I can't remember
the name that they used for it, has, like, very
a robust Capability set I was gonna say skill
set but it's an object. I don't know that an
object can have skill set So I'm gonna say it
is a very wide range of applications that it
can be used for with the proper input from the
user and Somehow through the power of imagination
and whatnot our crew Tian was able to reform
this thing into a power for himself However,
it has been residing in Yuma the whole time and
again, I wasn't clear that it was I didn't know
that it was clear at that time that it had been
reformed into the Galaxer. I think a couple episodes
later he said, oh, I guess that's where the Onix
went, huh? But, like, that's weird that he's
just using it for power, but that's kind of cool.
But I didn't predict that we would see that hole
in the sky open up again, and I didn't predict
that we would see Sweet again, but now based
on what we're seeing here, I think Sweet's definitely
coming back, just because it would make sense.
and I've been wanting the threat of the, you
know, annihilation of the Earth to come back
and play an important part in this show. I felt
like it should be the endgame, and then we weren't
addressing it at all for a few episodes. That
seemed odd to me, but apparently that was the
intention, and for whatever reason, we just wanted
to spend time, the showrunners wanted to spend
time doing other things and getting into other
concepts, which I appreciate the last few episodes,
or the last two episodes specifically before
this, but it just felt kind of, odd. We had the
big art crossover, which doesn't really seem
to have anything to do with it. It's kind of
a distraction. Almost reminds me of, like, you
know, The Mandalorian showing up in the Book
of Boba Fett, that kind of thing. So yeah, just
kind of strange. I don't really understand why
we took this detour. It's interesting to look
back on those episodes and see that, like, the
roots are, you know, none of this is coming out
of nowhere. It's all definitely in... with where
it should be, or rather, what's happening here
is definitely what was set up previously. We
just didn't know it, and the way it's being played
out, or the way it's being executed is... I mean,
overall, it's good. It's just interesting that
we took that detour, and now we're getting back
on track. So, again, I like the episode. I'm
curious about the shaking. I wonder how that's
going to be addressed in the next episode. I
really like the appearance. of this mysterious,
it makes me think of the concept of Zoffy showing
up in the original Ultraman with this other guy,
uh, like, Piorno, um, I think that's his name,
Piorno, uh, just, like, showing up, and you,
he has a silhouette of an Ultra that you can
see shining through, uh, Yuppie as he's talking
to him, and somehow he was able to, like, hack
Yuppie's electronic brain through the phone,
which, like, I don't know why that's a thing,
other than the fact that there used to be people
who used to be able to hack. into phone systems
by picking up, like, a payphone and whistling
or playing a certain tune over them, uh, which
is a cool, you know, fact that you may not have
known about. You can look into that. There's,
I think there's, like, a documentary or movie
about it, um, but I don't, I have no idea what
it's called, but anyway, you can hack the phone
system through sound at one point, uh, in the
history of America, at least, if not the world.
And to think that Bjorno is hacking, basically,
Yuppie and taking control of him is really cool.
And then another thing, they used just like a
fun, interesting, simple, you know, tokusatsu
in -camera effect of they turn the lights off
in the room and put a spotlight on Yuppie and
had him, or I guess, I think, I'm pretty sure
it was a visual effect there, or, sorry, like
in -camera effect that was being done there.
I think visual effect is what you're supposed
to call CGI stuff. specifically, so I want to
make sure I'm using those terms correctly. Anyway,
but yeah, it was cool how they did that shot
and how they froze time for Yuppie and had it
going for Yuma, I guess. And I like Ark showing
up in a reflection to give Yuma the head nod
to know that, yeah, this guy's okay, you can
listen to him. I thought that stuff was really
fun. A nice little character interaction for
Rujian and Yuma. And yeah, I mean, I like this
episode overall. I think it's definitely, you
know, we're getting good stuff, and I like that
we're getting back into the main plot and setting
things up for, you know, where they're going
to go next. And we do end on a cliffhanger after
this big battle with Trigelos, not Monoglos or
Gelos, or was it Duglos? I think it was Duglos.
Anyway, so, but this is Trigelos, which is funny
because Rin, I think, said it's a three -horned,
you know, Digolos. Oh, it was Digolos. That's
what it was. And, uh, Bond corrects her, like,
no, it's Trigolos, girl. Come on. We gotta, you
know, let's do this right. Name these kaiju properly.
Um, like, that was a funny little, you know,
I don't know. This is a funny little moment.
Um, but yeah, I definitely liked this episode.
Uh, it's just why it was held off for so long
is interesting, I guess. Maybe if you're gonna
get into the endgame, uh, you can't be distracted
by other things going on, but I don't know. I
would just, I would I would have thought there
would have been a different way to do this and
a different way to handle this. But, I mean,
this is what they chose to do, and I'm not mad.
I'm just curious. And I really do like the spotlighting
of the relationship between Yuma and Ishido that
we get to see. And, like, seeing how they're
both affected by the reality that Yuma is, you
know... To some extent facing his death. Like
he's definitely putting his line on the line.
His line. His life on the line as Ark. And that's
become even more apparent. Ishido has always
been a fan of Ark. And he's grown to become a
fan of Yuma. So now that he knows that Yuma and
Ark are in the same person. And that when Yuma's
life is in danger. Or Ark's life is in danger.
Yuma's life is in danger. Excuse me. I think
that kind of adds stakes to it. And I like that
without him having to tell him. He knows now
that he is Ark. I think it's fun that he's going
to have an ally who he can depend upon who knows
who he is. I kind of wish this happened earlier,
honestly, so that he could cover for him more,
but it's very well executed. The emotionality
of it is great. The Japanese actor is doing a
great performance. I really feel like he cares
deeply for Yuma, and he's so distressed about
him potentially dying now that he knows, again,
who he is, as I said. And, yeah, I just like
it. I think it's really good. I think it's really
fun. uh and i think they have a great thing going
here and the chemistry between the crew is really
great um i really like at the end uh i went back
and looked at episode three is where it happened
And episode 3 is where he fought the Daigelos
or Daigelos, whatever. And he defeats it. And
when he does, it explodes into like a bunch of
rubble. And you don't get to see all the rubble
everywhere. There are two Daigelos horns left
over. And at the very end, he zaps them with
his, you know, whatever his beam attack is. And
they're destroyed. So they're gone. There's not
going to be like a Monogelos horn or Daigelos
horn, a pair of them, in the city. Because, you
know, Ark destroyed them. Which, I know that
was really necessary other than to keep things
clean for the... you know, staging crew. I mean,
from the meta perspective from the show, they
don't have to include that anymore in the effect
shot. And, anyway, he exploded into rubble, and
similarly, Monogalos, or this Trigalos, looks
like he exploded into rubble as well, but then
also Ark is missing, which sets up the big thing
for the next episode, which is, well, what the
heck happened to Ark? And for Ishido, I'm sure
it's going to be, well, what the heck happened
to Yuma? And it'll be interesting to see how
much we get to see from his perspective, Yuma
slash Ark's perspective, and how much we can
see from the team's perspective, and if Ichido
might share with them, or if he'll keep it in
confidence. We'll have to see exactly what he
does. But anyway, fantastic episode, really enjoyed
it, and I'm looking forward to the next one and
to the rest of Ark. I'd love to hear your thoughts
on the show, and I would love for you to check
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stuff. So until next time, folks, take care,
be well.