The Ultraman Omega Episode 1 dub is here, and
I was very happy to watch it. Gosh, I have a
lot to say about dubs, but I'll try to focus
on this episode for the first few minutes at
least. So, I really liked it. It was really good.
It was very enjoyable. I think the performances
of everybody were good. One of the things I liked
most, so, I guess at a baseline, the performances
were good and I enjoyed the episode. Which means,
to some extent, that the story was very good,
and I really enjoyed it. I love the mystery,
I love the setup, but this is my second time
going through these first six episodes or so.
Obviously this is just the first of the six.
Well, there's more than six, but I think you
know what I'm saying. So, there's seeds being
planted, and there's mystery that's being set
up, and there's some... I don't know. The hook's
being set, and yeah, I'm enjoying it. I'm hooked.
I definitely see an ongoing mystery going on
here, and I want to know more about the story.
I want to know about Omega, where he came from,
why he was doing what he was doing, what he was
doing on that bug planet in the beginning, which,
by the way, that fight in the beginning, it's
funny. I'm so happy that this is the dub, and
I realized that the first two minutes of the
episode are absolutely, well, first of all, they're
absolute cinema, and second of all, there's no
dialogue at all. There's no dialogue. There's
no dubbing featured. It's just, you know, as
Omega is fighting. And yet it was compelling.
There was a story being told. It was a visual
story. It was a story of struggle and strife
and combat and fighting to the death. But it
was compelling. That sounds like a pretty compelling
story if you ask me. What I'm saying is I was
very excited for the dub. I was very disappointed
how long the dub took to come out. And I was
relieved when it finally came out. And I think
that they're doing great things with it. But
I talked about that in a short previously, so
I'm not going to bring it up here. But more than
that is I was excited for the dub. And yet it
didn't need a dub to tell this interesting story
in two minutes. And that's a powerful thing.
I think it's a real compliment to the creative
crew who is working on this. And really, whether
the show has, you know. you're understanding
it through subtitles through your native language
or through it being dubbed so your native language
but you know not quite um you know after the
fact um the fact that the first two minutes of
it are done without dialogue and it's a compelling
story is great it's a huge compliment to the
creative team and i really liked it again um
and i brought this up in my original review uh
the effects are incredible i can't tell where
the CGI body double is being used and where it's
a guy in a suit and the compositing is all fantastic.
There's a couple little areas where it looks
a little weird, but it was funny. I recently
played Spider -Man 1 in the background while
I was working and I, you know, looked over at
the screen a few times and there's times where
you can definitely tell it's CGI, but honestly
looking at this big fight on the bug planet,
stop the flaws. It made me think about the train
fight. from Spider -Man 2 and how beautiful,
how gorgeous that is. And I thought that's pretty
good that for a TV budget, they were able to
achieve this quality of special effects. And
again, I know that there's definitely suit going
on and then there's CGI. And there's, well, I
sense, I know that there's definitely real suit
going on there. And I'm pretty sure there's some
body doubling happening. I don't know what it
is, but I won't belabor this because I talked
about this in my original review. Anyway, going
beyond that, I was really stricken by how emotionally
resonant it all seemed, how getting to hear in
English Omega say, I could have sworn I could
fly and things like that. And, you know, I think
I can grow bigger and I think I can fight it.
And just a lot of these like very simple lines,
just the way they were delivered and hearing
them in my own language was very satisfying and
very. Emotional? Very charming? Like... Previously,
I felt there was a lot of charm to Omega, and
he feels toddlerish, and like, oh, what's this,
and what's this, and what's that called, and
who are you? Seeing him piece things together
and try to figure out, you know, working through
his amnesia to understand what these foreign
concepts are to him, whether it be tissue boxes,
or clipboards, or... You know, people being afraid
in a situation, acting desperately and selfishly
because they're scared for themselves and for
people that they love. So selfishly is a relative
turn there. Seeing him struggle through those
things the first time, reading the subtitles,
landed one way, it hit one way. Hearing him speak,
and Sorato has a very different voice from Kosei,
for example. And a lot of the other voices are
very animated. Anime. They have that quality
to them where they're larger than life, especially
the duo on the radio, which was a lot of fun.
But utilizing those types of performances, it
colors things so that even without seeing the
characters, like the radio characters, for example,
or hearing off -screen arguments between people,
you don't need to see everything done. Because
you don't need to see close -ups on everybody
when the performances are so larger than life.
They're so big and pronounced. And we got the
advantage of that. And I don't know Japanese,
and I don't understand enough Japanese intonation
and... I'm going to use another tone word, just
like tone, to pick up on all the subtleties from...
watching the subtitled version of it. So watching
the dub, I did get to pick up on those things.
I got to hear the desperation in the parents'
voices. Them talking about the details of, oh,
our son is over here. And, you know, why isn't
he here? Why can't you get him here? And the
desperation of the, like, relief for aid workers
saying, you know, everybody's in trouble. We're
trying. And it's not just your son that we're
worried about. We're worried about everybody's
kids. And those things didn't really hit me as
well when I watched it originally. And if they
did, it's because I paused and I... and I slowed
things down so that I could really absorb everything
that was going on. And this time it was a very
much more casual experience, and yet I got all
the depth that was there in the story and in
the performances from not just Sorato and Kosei,
but from all these side characters as well, these
incidental characters that are just in the scenes,
almost background characters. And another thing
I picked up on was that the morning radio pair
Other than the luxury apartments gag being there,
there's a thing where he kind of talks about
flat earthers and how... I guess you could say
how information is disseminated or how information
is absorbed across people and how even though
we have... hundreds of years of data and research
on the flat Earth, or on the Earth being round.
Rather, there are people who think the Earth
is flat, and the conversation gets cut off, so
we don't get to hear the rest of that. But before
then, I believe his female co -host is saying
something about how everything happens for a
reason, and things are all interconnected, and
nothing's an accident, and something about that
background interaction, or that background exchange,
being in the show. in the background while Kosei
is hunting for Sorata, who's slurping away at
his yakisoba, it feels very meaningful to me.
And it feels like a seed that's being planted
for later development of the story, of the show.
Maybe it has something to do with the theme of
the show. And I'm wondering what that is. And
it feels significant. It feels important because
everything that goes into a production like this
is done by choice. And they could have just chosen
to let the people riff. But I don't think they
did. I think it was on purpose. I think it has
something to do because they were talking about
the building, the luxury apartments, or luxury,
yeah, apartments, I think, being crashed, sinking
into the ground and Grime, this first kaiju,
digs and tunnels and he can do that sort of thing.
He can cause that sort of thing to happen. And
then Sorato fights him in this episode. So there,
that's connected on a minimal level. But thematically,
there's something else going on there. And Serato
is learning what it means to be human. He's learning
what it means to be a good person. He kind of
knows what a good person is as well, though,
already, because he calls Kosei a good person.
And Kosei kind of has to struggle with his nature
and his fear and his doubt and his uncertainty
to do the right thing, to help people. But ultimately,
he's this noble character, and we get to see
that. It's very interesting and it feels like
I'm getting different things from this version
of the story. And I'm really appreciating the
dub and really enjoying being able to sit back
and relax and pick up on things in an easier
way, in a more natural way than I would have
from watching the subtitled version of it. So
I think I'm going to stick with this and watch
the second episode. dubbed and talk about it
do a little review of it as well and maybe try
to talk about it in a different way until i catch
up with episode seven and talk about it in a
you know whatever real way so to speak whatever
real is anyway let me know what you thought about
the dub let me know what you thought about this
episode specifically if you've watched the subtitled
versions and the dub versions let me know if
you're picking up on similar kind of differences
where you're picking up on more nuances from
the dub or uh or what let me know what you think
about the performances i'd like to just have
a discussion of this overall and But yeah, let's
talk about it. Anyway, until next time, folks,
this is MJ with Going Ultra and Engine Inspection.
And by the way, before I really, really go, I'm
gonna let you know, you're probably here because
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