Ultraman arc had an amazing emotional climax
and I ended the series on a high Was that all
an illusion was arcs final trick making me believe
the entire series was actually good when it wasn't
I Want to know what you think about Ultraman
arc the finale and the series as a whole and
I'm gonna tell you what I think about the whole
series now, so Let's see I think the series had
a strong start and an impressive finale, but
it was inconsistent in the middle. How do you
define the middle? It kind of depends. It's kind
of all over the place. I'll go through a quick
rundown of the episodes and get specific about
how I feel about it. I almost considered stopping
watching at one point due to a quality decline
and I don't remember what had me sticking around.
I mean, I wanted to know the rest of the story.
I wanted to know what was going on. So I guess
my curiosity kept me coming back. And that must
mean that the show did a good enough job of hooking
me at the beginning of it, that I stuck through
the difficult parts. And the quality dramatically
improved after the Blazar crossover, which the
Blazar crossover in and of itself, it kind of
feels disconnected from Ark. And it feels, I
mean, it was integrated and it's part of the
show, but it's just, it's kind of a cheat to
say like, that's Ark, in my opinion. Because...
I feel like it kind of heavily depends on Ultraman
Blazar, and I really like Ultraman Blazar. It's
definitely one of my favorite shows. The first,
no that's not true, the first Ultraman DVD, Blu
-ray, whatever I bought was the original Ultraman.
I bought it twice. I bought the old Mill Creek
one, which like, aren't we supposed to not like
Mill Creek? But now I guess they're okay with
Super Eye. Anyway. I don't do what we're supposed
to do, so that's fine with me. Anyway. Then I
bought the original Ultraman on Blu -ray, and
I didn't really buy much else I don't think at
all I bought the movie because as the dub on
it still never watched the Shin Ultraman movie,
but I will someday soon I went I was fortunate
to be able to go see Shin Kamen Rider and sit
in theaters But anyway, it's I don't want to
get distracted on that um what so but however
as soon as blazar came out on on Blu -ray I bought
it Haven't watched the whole thing yet. I got
it recently not you know too long ago or Was
it as soon as it came out? It was pretty close.
Anyway, but I'm excited about the movie because
that's... I'm just excited to see what happens
with the rest of the show. So naturally my inclination
and my affection for Blazar, when Blazar stuff
started happening in Ark, that piqued my interest
and I was really into that, and I was shocked
that it was four episodes. The series is only
25 episodes long. Four episodes is not quite
a quarter. It's a sixth. So from 25 % to, what
is it, 18%, something like that. I think 18 times
6. Yeah, about a little less than that. But still,
that's a lot of the show is basically another
show. And that feels off. And it feels to me
like if you just told somebody that, that that
would be a bad sign. Kind of like I wasn't a
huge fan of the Book of Oba Fett. I liked the
beginnings of it. But when Mandalorian came in
and it like took over the show, that was frustrating
to me. And it's kind of something similar here,
except for I as much as I liked Mandalorian at
the time. Intruding into you know Book of Boba
Fett was odd And then here I feel like blazor
intruding into arc is odd as well That was episodes
16 17 18 19. That's four episodes and then we
had 21 22 23 24 25 so five more at the end so
We have like this five episode stretch That was
really strong for the end especially 24 25. They're
like a two -parter episode that means 23 22 and
21 are all Different I guess 20 as well. You
got to take that into account which I will like
it's not a lot of space to do stuff and one of
the episodes was really weird and really out
there and thought he had nothing to do with the
finale at all, but I think if we look at it more
closely we can see that they are related and
they do all matter so It's interesting some of
the best episodes of Ultraman ever I've seen
or that I've ever seen and I've heard other people
say kind of similar, were in this show. However,
just because they're isolated really great episodes
or standalone great episodes doesn't mean that
the overall show is great. And just because the
finale was great doesn't mean that the whole
package is really wonderful. And that's what
I want to examine. So I gave you my thoughts
on the overall structure and quality of the show,
kind of all over the place. And then now I want
to talk about some plot structure issues and
then... We'll move on to the next thing. So some
episodes felt disconnected from the main storyline
as I was hinting to earlier And that's just in
general all over the show. There's like every
couple episodes There's something that's like
kind of out of left field doesn't really make
sense kind of took me out of it in some ways
Kind of felt like what does this have to do with
this overarching story which? from the beginning
the overarching story seems to be there's something
going on with space kaiju it's really bad which
we had something similar in blazar so i thought
that's a little irritating frustrating that they
would be going back to this idea of the space
kaiju being a problem um and then we had also
this uzi uh you know this uzi thing which is
a parasite um and it's an alien so i'm thinking
okay it's an alien parasite we had uh that in
ultraman zet And it's a space kaiju specifically
I believe and we had the space kaiju being a
big bad problem in Tremend blazar so arc is just
doing like a Redux of those two things that doesn't
really seem to make sense to me You know, why
are we doing that? and then that never came back
not once and That's kind of interesting to me
and I don't I don't understand why and then I
don't know if that's like a Wasted opportunity
or if that's just something that makes sense
because Ark is taking this approach of like Kaiju
or actual animals or you know living creatures
They have their own biology that like Yuma's
a student of and an expert in and things like
that But I feel like he isn't the one to identify
the Uzi I I feel like Ishida was which is weird,
but then again, he's the space guy So it would
make more sense that he would have that He would
have that ability and that familiarity to recognize
that, but still it just kind of seems like a
funny thing. Next, Swede is this big bad character.
She's in the finale. She's in the two -parter,
I guess you could say. Yeah, she is. And besides
that, she's in like two other episodes, so she's
in about four episodes total, I believe. And
yet she should be this big bad, and she's gone.
Like, she's introduced and then she's gone for
like eight episodes approximately, and then she
comes back. And that just seems weird. Don't
really get how that works. So, you know, we have
Swede being gone for a long time We have some
of the episodes feeling desperate we have the
Uzi parasite thing like not really being relevant
towards the end of the story and The you know
some of the standalone episodes like kind of
get looped back in to being meaningful but some
of them are just kind of silly and not silly
but just I don't understand how this contributes
to the overall plot, and that's something that
is part of the weakness of Ark, I would say,
or definitely you throw that in the weakness
column for Ark, if you're saying, you know, these
are the strengths, these are the weaknesses,
and this is what makes it a good show or not.
I want to switch gears and talk about the character
development. Ishido evolved from Yuma's foil
to a brother figure. There's this whole theme
of found family going on here, and it's developed
effectively throughout the series. I really do
think that's true. Yuma has his grandmother,
but his parents are dead. By the end of the show,
he is... I'm gonna go into full spoilers. We
get this beautiful image of Ark doing the hugging
transformation thing that he does, but he's embracing
all of Skip at the same time, and Yuma and Ishto
are hugging at the time, and everybody else is
off to the side. They became brothers, but Rin's
a sister, but I don't know that they're gonna
be hugging, and Bon is, you know... an unclely,
fatherly figure, whatever. But again, I don't
know that they'd be hugging. And Yuppie's a robot,
so I don't know that you hug a robot or not.
An Ultraman, but maybe you do. I would hug Yvonne,
just personally. But anyway. So, yeah, I mean,
that's really good, and it's really well -founded,
and you get to see them go through different
things. Like, you have the whole thing with the
chief and his daughter. That was episode 20.
And like, Yuma gets close to him, and he hears
more about the family dynamic, and learns more
about the family dynamic, which is something
he's ignorant of, because he was raised by his
grandmother. for the last 16 years or you know
off and on raised by her they don't really go
into specific details about it and it's not like
a big thing and she appears in one episode if
not two um and she's not like an essential part
like Ishiro and his connection with uh Shu or
I'm sorry Shu is Ishiro um Ishiro's connection
with Yuma um like is a more important thing and
like Rin feels like a sister and never like a
potential girlfriend or somebody who he'd be
romantically interested in um but like Yeah,
kind of like yeah like a big sister like a not
bratty, but just like you know she's got attitude
sometimes She's not trying to say she's like
a nasty character. She's she's she's great. She's
fun. She's interesting but like Like chiding
you about you know going to the bathroom all
the time or whatever And like being missing and
you know where'd you go? Where'd you get off
to like there is definitely like a sisterly vibe
there, and I think that's good But if you wanted
to I guess you could say Rin is like the mother
and Vaan is like the father and you know she
was like his brother and I don't know, Yuppie's
the dog, right? Yuppie's the dog again for the
second time in this series. So yeah, like I really
felt like all the character dynamics in the relationship
was really sweet and something I was really impressed
by that I didn't... have written down to talk
about is that the skip crew because they're not
a defense force because they're not an attack
force and they're helping they're doing like
research they're doing prevention they're doing
evacuation they're doing things that put them
in the line of harm or in harm's way but they
don't really have weapons except for these sonic
emitter things that are Kind of not that greatest
thing ever. They're not an offensive weapon.
They're a defensive weapon They're meant to drive
the Kaiju away like they're really brave They're
really noble and that's really impressive too
And it's kind of like it's ridiculous that Haruki
went and saved a puppy in the first episode of
Wolfram Z But it's also like it shows heart and
it shows You know how much he cares and it's
like a sweet thing It would make more sense to
see Yuma saving a puppy. It would be more natural,
and it would be more fitting with the overall
context of the show. And we didn't get that.
That's not a complaint, I'm just saying. It's
something true we did not get. But we could have,
and it would have been very reasonable. But more
than that, we get to see there's a kid who's
gonna be crushed by something, and he goes to
save the kid at some point. And just Bon and
Rin, they really... do not have any way to defend
themselves. All they can do is run from a kaiju.
Ichido has a, I think he does have a gun, like
it's a more special kind of gun from the space
kaiju division of the GDF, and I don't remember
too much about his weapon, but it's more, I believe
it is obviously more powerful than the GDF, or
sorry, than the skip weapons that they have,
so. That's interesting. And again, it just makes
them more noble and it makes them cooler because
they're putting themselves more at risk than
Ishido, and they're putting themselves more at
risk than Yuma, because Yuma can just transform
into Ultraman, you know, run away and abandon
everybody, which of course he wouldn't do. But
it is still cool that he has the possibility
for doing that. That's what kind of makes things
exciting, is that tension. Let me see. I'm trying
to look up right now if we can see... the make
model whatever the information about the gun
that Ichido has but I'm not seeing it in a real
quick look so I'm not gonna waste a lot of time
on that just if I found it I found it and if
not and not then it's okay. I love the Ghostbusters
thing at the end though that was very cool. Anyway
so going back into main pod elements so the central
threat comes from another galaxy not from space
kaiju as I've already kind of talked about I
didn't Well, anyway, the alien civilization is
trying to redirect energy from their dying son,
which they call Solana. Ark's from there, so
is Swede, so is his pal Bjornó, who pops up very
late at the end of the show. And they plan to
dump energy through all these wormholes, or one
wormhole, I'm not sure how many there are, and
one of them happens to be on Earth, and it's
going to destroy everything. And 16 years ago,
Ark closed the Zessou Gate and... After the mono
gallows had come through which he killed But
he couldn't save Yuma's family and he barely
saved human he to give up he had to give up almost
all of his life energy I think I personally think
that Yuma was like crushed to death and somehow
routine was able to go inside of him and Use
all of his you know almost all of his energy
to Condense himself within the boy and heal his
body But I think Yuma was in a coma for some
amount of time before he woke up. So like it
didn't work real great and then Yeah, and then
he woke up and then later on he is able to come
Ultraman they can they have like very limited
communication through reflective objects and
through dreams and different things and it's
really interesting But then Yuma and Ark ultimately
travel to Ark's galaxy to find oh, this is like
Speculation and like very end of the episode
spoilers. They it seems like they fix Solana
somehow with the power of imagination imagination
And that's pretty cool, but like yeah, that's
that's it like Skip as a crew on earth. There's
this whole thing with Katie 16 years ago, which
also to me. I think it's a little messy I Wouldn't
think that you should assume that every Ultraman
series there have always been Kaiju on earth
forever Because that doesn't really make sense
to me because how are people surviving Kaiju
without an ultra there if there was like stories
that there was always Ultras throughout the generations
Doing stuff that would be cool. That would make
sense. I would get that but that's not how it
seems and even with Ultraman rising we have you
know, 30 years ago four years ago, whatever an
Ultraman came to earth or whatever cuz he yeah
This is mention of m78 and I personally think
the dad is an alien who like took a human form
because yeah if you can turn into a human if
you can turn into a giant and you can indent
yourself down i figure you can probably transform
your body to look like human which is something
i want to use in a story an ultra man -like story
that i want to tell but we'll talk about that
at another date um anyway so i think he's an
alien and especially as he says that his wife
like taught him to be human or what it means
to be human um which you can take that a lot
of ways and you can say my wife taught me to
be human too and i'm not an alien or am i Anyway,
so, yeah, it's an interesting idea. Like, well,
what happened before? What happened before 40
years ago in the world of Ultraman Rising when,
you know, Ultra Dad wasn't there to help everybody
out, you know, what was happening. And especially
because there's been a Kaiju Island there for
who knows how long. Interesting world building
possibilities and interesting concept of seeing
like an ancient Ultra, which they had like in
Ultraman, the original series, there was, I think
they called them No, Ultraman No in like episode
seven or... 7 or 11? I feel like it's one of
those two episodes. Anyway, it's a cool episode.
They travel to like an Egypt -like place and
there's a desert sand kaiju, which is pretty
cool. Anyway, don't want to get distracted with
that. So yeah, like that's kind of the show.
There are thematic elements that imagination
is a central power and solution to problems.
Human imagination is valued because of advanced
species like... Like Routillon's, I guess, like
Biorno's, like specifically Swede's is the one
who says it. They have the ability to deceive
themselves because they're higher in intellect
and they can't like think outside the box because
then it's like they're faced with reality and
they can't only deal with the reality as it is.
And like they don't have the ability to say,
but what if we just did this instead? Which is
interesting. And Swede, it talks about like,
she's like jealous of that, which is interesting.
there's a idea of the importance of questioning
things rather than using brute force and We can
see that in a couple different ways like new
Mata doesn't get killed because he's uh, you
know he's overstating his visa and he's the mushroom
guy from the mushroom land bird guy from the
mushroom plan, I think is the way to say it and
Yeah, just like not everything can be solved
by killing it and some things are solved in different
ways but I mean he just still arc does kill kaiju
like all the time um so it's not like that but
uh and that's just kind of a weird interesting
struggle or tension that Ultraman has within
it I believe um so that's that's kind of there
um but you know the solution ultimately is killing
but also the zetsugate is reimagined and reshaped
and it's like no amount of force could just stop
the zetsugate from being um the you know black
hole that it is it's going to destroy the the
earth um Probably the whole solar system, but
definitely the earth I wonder what the instantaneous
destruction of a single planet would do to the
rest of the planets. I Know anyway, it doesn't
matter it calls for speculation. We're not gonna
do that right now, but um Yeah, it's interesting
because there's that tension there But anyway,
and then there's kind of themes of dream versus
reality Which would pop up in the final episodes
of the dream bird and maybe even episode 20 2,
I think, which is the Man in the White Mask episode.
And also, it's not really, I said it like this
when I talked about it in the finale, like Yuma
learning to live with the pain. It's not about
learning to live with the pain. Yuma's been living
with the pain. He's had to live with the pain
for so long of his parents being gone. But it's
more like, like in Sonic 3, not letting the pain
change you into somebody else. And Yuma doesn't
do that. He's optimistic and he's bright and
he has, like he wants to to um move towards the
future as an Ultraman and um yeah like it's not
a played out theme it's a cool idea and it's
a lot of fun and uh yeah I don't know I don't
know it's really interesting um it's really interesting
as an aside I think I just found the gun As an
adult, Shu entered into the prestigious American
University, Space Science University, at a young
age and graduated with top honors. He then continued
his studies in Europe. Inspired by his grandfather's
involvement in establishing the GDF, Science
Division, Shu decided to join the organization
specializing in alien space kaiju research. He's
equipped with the Elema Gun, an anti -kaiju weapon
for combating kaiju emergencies. There you go,
Elema Gun. Great. I got it. Just decided to look
that up. Anyway, so yeah standard episodes are
episode 21 the dream bird definitely connects
thematically to the finale I think episode 22
it does as well. Like I said earlier 23 through
25 form an effective finale sequence 16 through
19 are the blazar episodes which like I know
I really like those and I feel stupid a little
bit for liking I feel like I've been duped a
little bit because you know Why should I like
these just because they're blazar and featuring
like a little bit of blazar and you know Not
even the whole scarred crew feels a little bit
weird but um yeah i want to talk about the well
yeah so in the whole scenario at the end like
we get this whole you know mind bend i'll say
it like that uh you know end of evangelion um
or maybe death and rebirth i don't know anyway
we get this kind of crazy story going on where
you know Ishido is in a dream, and it doesn't
last very long, but he's in this dream and it's
this beautiful dream of his parents being alive,
and he has to see through the deception, he has
to see through the dream, and he has to embrace
the pain and the suffering in order to... like
have an actually happy life and not just live
in a fantasy that he knows is a fantasy and In
that dream bird episode like I feel like that
stuff is kind of reflected in different places
So for sure in the dream bird episode, you know
Rin specifically tells Ali She can't just live
in a dream and like having your all your wishes
granted everything given to you It's like no
way to live like you won't value it. It's not
gonna be beneficial to you and It's not gonna
be very great. So that's an interesting idea
and an interesting parallel to to things you
know to that whole dream that Gil Baku gives
to to Yuma at the end so like Aoi has to reject
that she has to live with the pain and She's
ultimately happy after deciding to embrace the
pain and not just you know kill everybody in
herself God forbid and I think the man of the
white mask is similar because he erases his face
he erases his identity like he forgets his own
name and he does that all for the sake of having
a world drained of color a world drained of texture
a world drained of difference and He does it
to ultimately destroy kaiju so that they don't
harass the world anymore But he says by erasing
the concept of kaiju from all of our minds here
on earth I will erase the kaiju somehow which
doesn't actually make sense. It almost seems
like he's saying you can just turn your blind
eye and like delude yourself into believing that
none of this is real and it doesn't matter and
it honestly it felt to me like a like a code
for suicide which I was uncomfortable with a
little bit but like it didn't say it and it wasn't
spelled out specifically enough for me to have
an actual problem with it but it did feel a little
bit like that and Honestly, Yuma in the last
episodes, if he embraced the dream of his parents,
he would have been destroyed on Earth. So it
would have been like he would have lain down
and fall asleep and let himself be killed, which
I don't know how different that is from suicide.
So the Man in the White Mask episode being an
illustration or a way to look at, examine the
idea of suicide or like the process of depression
leading you to suicide is interesting, especially
because like... They kind of determine in that
episode that when people became depressed like
Rin was saying she was so tired. She just couldn't
think straight like those are those are symptoms
of depression, and then she just disappeared
and then for some reason Then she goes to work
at the the coffee shop um Bonds coffee shop,
and then Ishido gets pulled in the same way,
but I don't know that he was actually feeling
tired and Sad and like unable to form thoughts
like he kind of got distracted, but I think he
got distracted He saw the man in the white mask
so it's like almost like if you don't keep that
focus And you don't keep moving forward you will
move backwards. That's a concept I almost wonder
if that's kind of what was going on there. I
don't really know it's really interesting like
how the the imagery and the like the theme I
Don't know more like the imagery and the symbology
being used in that episode coupled with the stuff
from the dream bird is like paralleling and giving
you like a proto finale and Representing that
challenge to you before you actually see it unfold
in the finale of the show with the fighting and
everything and that's really cool And like that's
really interesting, but I just I'm sure that
was purposeful. I know it was purposeful It's
just interesting like I don't know what to do
with that really I don't know what it means But
it is interesting and I think that's that's the
kind of stuff. That's like really high quality
storytelling, and it makes a lot of sense and
I don't know it's it's just like It's interesting
what it does and that's the kind of thing it
makes me want to say well No, the series was
good the whole time, but that's episode 21 and
22 specifically they Set up that conflict for
you, or they help form they help those two episodes
if you pay attention to them, if you think about
them, they make the ending that much richer and
deeper and more beautiful. And like episode three
goes back to episode 25, or they connect to each
other and apparently they were filmed at the
same time. And like, I mean, if you just like
kind of, and that's where we learn his backstory
about his parents dying and saving him and everything.
And if you kind of like put all those together,
it makes a really good. Story and you could like
almost condense the series down and like here's
the movie and we're gonna you know Just cut all
this other stuff out and put this all together
and like you can get a story from that but having
the rest of it makes more sense especially with
like the fact that I Know that humans fighting
to save his family here on earth and the rest
of the planet by Embracing the pain and by Being
okay with and admitting or Don't know just like
going he like he chooses to leave a world of
Bliss Which I would assume he'd be able to forget
him make himself forget even though he like pretty
quickly figured out that the world wasn't the
real world and that it was just a dream and an
illusion he Seems like and they didn't spell
this out. So maybe that's kind of like why it's
not so great but it's also kind of good that
they didn't spell it out because now you like
kids watching this will have to think about it
and They're not having their hand held through
the hole through the show the whole time, but
If they presented a clear choice like you can
stay here and forget like at the end of persona
3 If you can stay here and you can forget everything
and you will just die along with everybody else
But you won't know you won't remember the suffering
but like you will wants to remember the suffering
Kind of because it's the right thing to do and
it's noble and this is unstated But also if he
forgets everything else and just knows the bliss
of this dream of having his parents He will have
to sacrifice. He'll have to give up Because you're
always giving up one thing for another thing
he'll give up his time with his brother Ichido
and you know Rin and Yuppi and Pan and he doesn't
want to do that either and I think he wants to
save the world but I think some part of the calculation
is he also doesn't want to give up this relationship
with these real relationships with real people
who have become his second family and Abandon
or and abandon all that just for the sake of
a dream the sake of ignorance with this fake
family I Think it's really interesting. I think
it's really compelling before I get into My final
analysis or assessment of the show I think I
just want to run through real quick all the episodes
and See what they are so at this point. I'm curious.
What do you think? What are you already thinking
about the show? and its overall quality and What
do you think about me adding a little more texture
and a little more focus in like does it change
anything for you and That's kind of what I want
to know so We have art to the future, which I'm
not going to recap, but that's where we see the
Shigong which is being manipulated by this Uzi
space parasite and Weird stuff is happening with
it and it's behaving inappropriately like it's
supposed to eat limestone I think it's not like
a carnivore so it should just be eating rocks
but it's like super big for the size it is which
like we get a little more of you know Yuma's
expertise as a like kaiju physiologist or whatever
and that's really cool that's a fun part of the
show but like that doesn't really matter the
overall plot we get to see him I think he talks
to Ark in like a puddle or reflection or whatever,
which is a really cool aesthetic, which I didn't
mention. Like aesthetically the show is beautiful
and they do a lot of great things. Ah, the reason
I started the episode talking about like Ark's
trick, like was was Ark's final trick fooling
me into thinking the whole show was great, was
because in the beginning they started off with
these really great trick shots where like you
get to see through Ark's eyes, you get to see
through Kaidu's eyes, you get like Yuma, you
know, falling into water and like coming out
the other side of it. You get like all these
really interesting shots and all these interesting
visual elements which... It's tokusatsu. It's
important that the visual elements are exciting
and interesting and engaging and the fights are
really cool and you know, gov has been killing
it with its fights and Well last Super Sentai
I watched was Lupat probably and Lupat was like
it showed a marked step up Zyuranger, Zyuranger,
Zyuranger? The one with the animals anyway that
one like the the fight quality kicked up a serious
amount on that and it kept going with With loop
on I haven't watched since I since then so I
can't tell you That it's gotten better or not,
but I think from things. I've been seeing online.
It's amazing So anyway So like this show has
great spectacle and that's never a problem Sometimes
the fights are a little samey like towards the
middle like they dipped in imagination and creativity
and how they would present the fights and I was
less than thrilled by that because I thought
the show is about imagination you have to show
that but thematically it's about imagination
too it's not just in the shots and in the spectacle
but I think it should be both I think you should
like really strive hard to have both things bear
be very imaginative however I will give them
credit for this Givas the robot instantly captured
my heart with his weird simple clunky kind of
cool retro -ish design from another world that
we never get to see. And that was really cool.
So let me try to run through these episodes real
quick. Quick. Real quick. Quack, quack, quack,
quack, quack, quack. Because I'm running out
of time. I've only got three minutes left. That's
not true. I have more than three minutes left,
but I have like ten minutes left at the most.
Probably five. Anyway, I gotta go. So anyway,
yeah, so we have that happen, and then we have
this legend in the woods where this kid... Doesn't
believe his foot like this kids. I know getting
communication from a kaiju and like warning his
father with the deforestation He's like no don't
deforest this thing because you're gonna wake
up this mountain kaiju, and he's gonna kill stuff
He's gonna destroy everything and that's interesting
Next we have unleash your imagination where we
get to see the origin we get to see the Daigalos
or we get to the Monogalos fight And he's fighting
a giant of light who is all like prismatic and
stuff which is super cool and then we get to
see a Daigalos fight and That's we see Yuma do
this thing where he like curves his beam his
ray, whatever it's called. I just want to call
it a specium ray For everybody because I'm basically
like that anyway So he curves it and it goes
around the monster shield and it destroys it
and it is a really interesting thing where they
built a CGI model of the 3D scan the suit and
then they built a CGI model and then had that
explode and turn into rubble and stuff which
is kind of an interesting move, but it looked
really cool I was very well integrated very well
compositive and everything. It was a fantastic
effect Visual effect anyway um so let me see
episode four on the Kaiju's tail. This is the
rat episode the Nezutron which is like you know
a Pikachu the evil Pikachu um that was a fun
episode and we got to see like Rin being super
heroic because she was gonna like you know basically
she was risking her life in order to go save
a bunch of people and you get to see that they're
like saving real people and saving a little town
a little market area that she really likes and
that's cool adds texture to her character ocean
on the mountain ridge um bon has this sensei
uh who is this kaiju expert and we learn we see
levi jira who's this um leviathan uh whale uh
it's literally what the name means which is pretty
cool the jira's i can go jira um and uh Like
Yuma used to watch this guy when he was a kid
and this guy was all about like, you know What
can you imagine and like, you know, think outside
the box that kind of thing But he was also bond
teacher and like he failed to think outside of
the box and he rejected One of bonds findings
that like oh this must be an ancient false fossil
for a kaiju and he was like no It can't be and
I know there's just you know, whatever. This
is kind of a whatever texturing of bonds character,
but the skip crew works together really well
there's this flooded area and they're like evacuating
people and they're saying like these people are
going to lose their homes but then they save
their homes and like help them and Ishida has
like a real like positive move towards like being
more part of the unit of skip on more of the
family which happens even more in Welcome to
Acapone Inn there's This alien, Kukuro, who's
Numata, I think is his name, and like, Ichido
wants to kill him because he's an illegal alien,
and humans say no, and they have a whole thing
about it, and ultimately, he doesn't do that,
and they find out that there's another kaiju
there, which is a shogun that's causing issues.
It's a few shoguns, actually, causing issues,
and that's interesting. In the full moon's answer,
we get this weird thing. This is a weird episode.
With this explosive kaiju that it has to die
and blow up in order to give birth to its children
And it has like one kid at a time But it'll like
you know wipe out a whole city and kill billions
You know like kill thousands or tens of thousands
of people in order to do that and like we're
all just supposed to be okay with that and Yuma's
not like oh yeah like in the at the end of the
episode He's like we have to find a way to let
these things known or let people know in the
future how to work around This kaiju so that
it can continue to live and it won't kill you
know a bunch of people so like I mean it is good
it's a good ethic it's a good thing to strive
for but it also seems kind of dumb to say that
as opposed to just like yeah we got to kill these
hunger when they when they come around like let's
find the babies and kill them which obviously
is awful an awful thought but it's like yeah
you like you got to figure something out because
this hunger is throughout time like every couple
hundred years or whatever it just like you know
blows up and has a new baby and then kills a
bunch of people and it's just it's kind of weird
Yeah, I know this is kind of weird like I have
very fun or odd feelings about the internet Kanigan
They totally get Bitcoin wrong But it's funny
because they have this Hoshipei thing and there's
a Kanigan in the internet and they go inside
the internet and it's crazy set design and that's
a lot of fun and It's a great thing for each
show and and and Yuma because they like work
together on this like Livestream I can't remember
they have like um They have little characters
like, it's not called Vocaloid, what's it called?
It's the thing people do with the YouTube thing.
Anyway, whatever. They have little internet personas
that they do stuff with and he's just trying
to raise more money for his coffee fund so he
doesn't run out of coffee, which is a lot of
fun. Goodbye Rin is a cool dramatic episode where
there's this guy who's working with black market
stuff. He used to know Rin. he's in love with
her but he married this other woman because whatever
but like also he was like a professor of hers
and it was kind of creepy because he was older
than her and she was into him he was into her
but he was already engaged and it's kind of weird
but like it was really interesting how like cool
it got it was to like get close to Rin and like
see one of her stories and um Like see her deal
with the heartache and with how difficult this
guy is For her to come to terms with and there's
like there's like spy espionage thing like it
shows her like a really strong character But
also like because she's vulnerable in the episode
too Like it shows her as being very vulnerable
and then overcoming that and just being strong
and like doing what she has to do in order to
do what's right and it's really cool which again
like kind of Touches on what Yuma has to do at
the end of the series, which is good, you know,
it's it's texturing. It's adding it's she's foiling
it's it's everything kind of parallels each other
and works together towards a better end. To my
distant friend, so we have Yuma's classmate Kazuo,
he's talking to this lady, Fio, on the radio
and she's on another planet that's dying and
he has this connection with her. And is it romantic?
Is it sisterly? Is it brother -sister? I don't
know, but he's so connected to her. And he has
to hear her die. His connection with her is causing
a kaiju to come and attack them Because it's
like a weird frequency or whatever and they have
to deal with that and that's just kind of interesting
Next episode message. That's give us. It's two
-parter And I don't give us is just interesting.
Um alien Kroko knows him new Manta comes back
shoe is friends with new Manta now he's like
protecting him and it's showing this like nuanced
approach to aliens and Kaiju or Kaijin whatever
in aliens and I like that Anyway get give us
who's an amazing robot design and a very cool
creature and like he comes from a world where
I can't remember everything but like his pilot
there's a pilot inside of give us is like an
advanced AI and Like he kind of doesn't want
to know that the pilot who he had like a personal
connection with is dead Sort of he's like ignoring
that fact and Yuma climbs up Givas and he opens
up the chassis or like the cockpit or whatever
and he sees like the bones or the dust of like
what used to be a person and I think it all is
it's like a skeleton and it like all crumbles
before him it's like a weird skeleton too and
then there's like a control yoke or a um Like
Martian successor Nadesco where he's got the
thing that he you've like got the thing on the
back of your hand you touch it I think it's like
that, but he also has like a head thing I don't
know he like gets into give us his mind a little
bit and has this connection with him and like
give us seems like he wants to destroy and But
like human doesn't believe that he doesn't feel
that's right. He sees give us save a little girl
so he knows that there must be this like nobility
or this heroic or this positive aspect to give
us he's not just looking for an enemy in his
world the moon phases or whatever change and
friend can mean enemy enemy can mean friend depending
on context or whatever but give us as a friend
and ultimately he does not get destroyed and
he goes to the moon and waits to be called upon
for later and That's kind of it. So it's like
Yuma, because he has the ability to not just
like look at things in a binary, look at them
as black and white, he's got the imagination
to find nuance. He tries to find a way to fix
this whole, give a situation and figure out what's
actually going on and what can be done about
it. And anyway, so like this is all good stuff
and maybe in retrospect I'm seeing more of it
as good than it was in... The action or like
as it was happening. I don't know episode 13
shoes report. Apparently there were no kaiju
I don't really remember what happens. It might
have been like a recap episode. That's what it
is flash of the past is where Zadime shows up
I would say this is where Swede shows up as well,
but she might actually come She's there in the
background, but then she comes out in the next
episode the wandering future and we get to see
this whole thing and we learn why exactly Sweet
is there and what? Routillon is doing there and
what kind of arc is all about this threat from
16 years ago this threat to the earth that's
happening now and That's interesting then we
get a recap episode after that and then we get
The arc episodes, which I'm not gonna talk about
for the sake of time Except they were cool. But
like I don't know how they like contribute to
the overall story other than arc you're getting
a aren't getting a power -up from blazar so that
they don't have to all die from hellneric or
hellneric Which like I just didn't need to be
part of the show. There could have been something
else going on there I don't know. I like the
blazar thing in isolation. Does it contribute
to the overall show? I don't really know that
it does except Yuma and Isshido bond over Zangiel
and His love of coffee and how he hangs out with
them and I really like Zangiel's voice actor
and I really like Zangiel's uh performance um
or like just like his presence there it's really
something i like it's too bad they couldn't get
the face actor back but they have the suit and
they got the same dub actor uh for over here
for the us um and uh yeah that was a lot of fun
um so i have a lot of positive feelings about
that um and then like i mentioned there's the
episode 20 is about the chief's daughter it's
like i don't know whatever um The Dreambird is
great. Man of the White Mask I talked about already.
Then 23 is Calamity Thrice, which was where a
three -horned... or a trigalus shows up. Then
we get another recap, and then the Descending
Dream, and then Time to Run Yuma. So like...
I don't know. I'm not going to touch on those
because I feel like I've already said enough
recently on them. So I'm going to say despite
inconsistency, the thematic arc is ultimately
satisfying. The emphasis on imagination and on
creative problem solving ties together well,
ties the episodes together well too. The character
relationship and emotional elements provide depth
and they also texture each other and like foil
each other, but you kind of have to think about
it too. So either you're just going to be...
taking the show on more like a surface level
and enjoying the episode to episode and maybe
you didn't like something here or there or whatever
and you just roll with it or you would be like
oh I don't like this episode then afterwards
you think you know what actually maybe in retrospect
I do like it and these these are the good things
about it this is why it was so good and this
is how it contributed to the overall episode
this is how it contributed to the other episodes
this is how it contributed to the overall series
and that's why I feel this way about it and then
you can make it like a mature you know reason
decision which is the same as arc is cool and
he has a rainbow attack and he blows up monsters
and he has friends who he helps and cool armor
um which is you know also great um so i don't
know i have written down that um the series finds
its footing in the second half and delivers a
strong conclusion definitely delivers a strong
conclusion does it find its footing in the second
half i don't know my experience watching it was
very interrupted i had to take a long break because
there were family issues going on and i wasn't
watching anything really um and then uh There
was the... Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Like, definitely the Hongar episode upset me.
You could see that here. Um, and then I... I
don't know. I liked the... Give Us episodes,
and then after that there was another... there
was a, you know, shoes report. And then there
was the Sweet episodes, kind of introducing this
threat from another world. I don't know. Maybe
it's just the fact that, like... You get this
great big threat from another world, and then
you do four episodes of... blazar maybe if the
blazar episodes had been first and then you get
this threat from another world and then you have
the break with Ishido's daughter then you have
the dream bird and the man in the white mask
as like you're wondering what exactly happened
because the thing about the Zesugate being turned
into the Galaxer is really interesting and the
fact that it's like basically a ticking time
bomb like a contingency plan that's within Arkanuma
and if they don't know that and nobody does anything
like Zesu could have just done nothing and they
wouldn't have known and then they would have
blown up from the inside and everything would
have been fine. Although I guess, uh, Buono came
along and ruined his plans because he interrupted
and told them about that. But like if you did
that and then you went into, um, Calamity Thrice
and the other, you know, and the Descending Dream
of Time to run, you might, it would have been
really good and like really satisfying and felt
really like, oh, this is what the show's about.
Like we had all these other things going on and
they thought the threat was, you know, space
kaiju or Or technically the thread is from space.
They thought the threat was this, they thought
the threat was that, these interesting things
have been going on, what's going on in this world.
Uh -oh, it turns out that it looked like everything
was great, but it wasn't all great because there
were problems from the past that are finally
here manifesting in the future, and we could
see all that play out together. I kind of think
had the episode order been changed around, it
would have been more satisfying to me, and it
would have made a lot more sense, but it also
just could have been the way I kind of watched
the show broken up. I don't know. What did you
think? What do you think about my... Assessment
of it. What do you think was the show good all
along? Or was it not so great in places and did
it kind of it to be inconsistency ruin it for
you? Yeah, it's like mid or masterful. I'm gonna
say It's somewhere between mid and masterful
like that conclusion is great but the episode
order kind of messes things up for me and Maybe
there's some other complicating factors. I'm
gonna say arc is very good I'm not gonna call
it masterful It's also not just okay. I'm gonna
say it's a very good show. I would give it like
an 8 out of 10 probably there's a lot of things.
I like it. There's a lot of great episodes the
Dreambird is an amazing episode of television
an amazing science fiction episode just in general
and besides that It was a really cool show overall
a lot of cool things in here I love the relationship
between each dough and Yuma and the rest of the
art crew, but like them specifically they get
so much focus and context together It's really
nice. Well, that's all I have to say for now.
If you enjoyed my analysis, if you enjoyed me
talking about this episode, check out the rest
of my Ultraman Ark stuff and the rest of my Ultraman
coverage. I've got all of Blazor, all of Z, I've
covered here. You can find everything in mgwindows
.com, which is my website where I have everything
listed. It's pretty easy. Just type in Ultraman
and you'll find everything that I have on Ultraman.
Podcast setup and everything podcast feeds and
links to the YouTube videos and whatnot. I've
been doing YouTube shorts for all of these I
plan to cover Omega ultimate Omega when that
comes out as well and I've recently I keep evolving
my style and my approach for reviewing and I
think what I'm doing now is like the best form
I have currently. This episode is an aberration
because I'm going so long and talking so much
about so much, but the way I focus in on each
episode individually, I do kind of like a short
punchy review of things and I think that's good
and it's useful and hopefully you'll find it
enjoyable as well. I have fun doing them. And
besides that, I am... Anyway, besides... watching
and analyzing Tokusatsu, Ultraman, and Kamen
Rider, and whatnot. I also am a writer, and I
have been working on a story that is ready for
publishing, pretty much ready for publishing.
It's called Mockwing Mayhem, and in it, magical
bugs battle monsters, and these monsters in the
night, well, in the night and in the day, whenever
they can, really, they go around and they find
children, and they prey upon them. They... Hurt
them by feeding off of them with their emotions
and they cause them distress and all these negative
things so you could say that they They don't
make children smile or you know, they they hurt
them and attack their smiles and as any good
tokusatsu hero would the grow bugs protect the
smiles of these children and they do that by
Fighting with their powers of light. So they
have like an aura of light that they have around
their bodies though, you know their bugs and
they run around and or fly around run around
whatever and wherever a kid is being attacked
they get sent there and they help to fight off
the grimling and save the kid and protect them
from harm and they live in their own little world
within our world which doesn't mean it's like
they're going through a portal it's like they're
in the park they have a nest or a fort where
all of the grow bugs live in this particular
area and they get sent out from there to protect
children and then they go back home and they
eat and they you know have babies to raise and
things like that and there's a whole thing there's
training programs there's um different things
that grow bugs do and they have their own little
lives in their own little world uh you know right
outside your window and then they go and whenever
there's a kid in trouble the grow bugs go and
fight to save them and It's a story about the
Growbugs, about them growing up and facing danger,
and particularly in this book, Mockwing William,
it's about them facing the danger of a Mockwing,
which is a Grimling, something that preys upon
children, has found a whole fort of Growbugs,
and it wants to kill them all while they're all
gathered together in one place, so they're easier
to kill. A kill was a kill box, right? the Mock
Wings attack and the Growbugs have to try to
survive. In particular, two of them fight together
to save their master. And then the problem though
is, even if they can defeat the one Grimling,
the one Mock Wing that's threatening their master,
and they save her life, what are they going to
do about the rest of the flock that's there to
destroy all of the Growbugs that they've ever
known, all the Growbugs that they've grown up
with, their family essentially. How's that going
to work? And in order to find out, you've got
to read the book Mock Wings of Mayhem. You can
find links to it in the show notes. You can send
them to my email list to find out kind of behind
the scenes information about the girlbugs, get
a little short story so you can get a sample
of what it's like as well as like a guide to
the world of the girlbugs in Mach Room Mayhem
and you can learn about these characters and
their world and what's going on there so I'd
appreciate that. Also like, subscribe, share,
do all that good stuff. Until next time folks,
take care.