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I had a really hard time coming up with a way

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to talk about Ultraman Omega 4 because I don't

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want to trash it because it actually, the more

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I thought about it, the better it got. And yet,

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I found it very frustrating. And I find that

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interesting because this is like a kid's show.

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It's like a preschool show, right? This is what

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I'm hearing from people from Japan. And I just,

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I don't get it. It's operating on a certain level

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where it's sophisticated, but also it's operating

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on a level where it's unsophisticated. The core

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issue I have is that Kosei flips out when Saruto

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wants to go out on his own to meet with Ayumu,

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because he's been studying the train system,

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and he knows how they work, and he knows how

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to get from point A to point B, which is great.

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Good for him. Yay. But Kosei acts like a child.

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He throws a tantrum when Saruto wants to go out

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without him, and he had previously been excited

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to go fishing, and that's the whole reason Saruto

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said, oh, I'll go by myself. You want to do something

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else. You want to be somewhere else. This is

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my thing, the kaiju stuff. So, like, you go do

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what you want to do, dude, and we'll be fine.

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But Kosei, I don't know if it was the performance.

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I don't know if that was the actor. I don't know

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if it was the director telling him to do that.

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But he's doing all this crazy stuff with his

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eyebrows. Well, then I'm going to go. Fine, you

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go. You go help Ayumu fight kaiju or whatever.

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And it's just like, I just seem like a tremendous

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amount of overreacting. He seemed to be so insanely

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upset by this idea, and I just don't get it.

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On the other hand, his boss, Oya, Kosei's boss,

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Oya, is there, and he says, like, let's not go

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fishing. Let's go play shoji. I think that's

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what it's called, shoji, with the little tiles,

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and you move them across the board. It might

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be like Chinese checkers, Japanese checkers,

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I don't know. Anyway, and there's this, like,

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The goal is, I guess, to get the Golden General

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to be able to kill the king of the other side,

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something like that. I don't know. I've never

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played, never tried to play it, never watched

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any anime about it. Oh, Hikaru no Go. So, yeah,

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I don't know much about Shoji. I know that there's

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a Golden General and a king or whatever, and

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pawns. And Oya, as they're playing the game,

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listening to the radio, like you do, Oya explains

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to him what the issue is with the... He explains

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to him the importance of pawns, and he explains

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to him that everybody is needed in Shoji to accomplish

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the goal, that the Golden General wouldn't be

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able to do what he does without his pawns helping

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him, and that the pawns can be important. And

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he's giving him some much -needed context and

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understanding of the importance of his role in

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Soruto's life, I guess. But Oya's not supposed

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to know that Soruto is Omega. like he has no

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way of knowing at this point uh there's zero

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context and yet he's telling Kosei that he's

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important in Soroto his cousin's life because

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he can support him and help him to do the things

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that he needs to do in life and that's a very

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good message it's a very sophisticated message

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it's kind of ruined for me in how petty and petulant

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and childish Kosei was being and what caused

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the conflict in the first place. And the contrast

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between them, one thing being so childish and

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one thing being, I think, fairly sophisticated

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is troubling to me. It's odd to me because I

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don't know if that kind of explanation is going

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to go over kids' heads or if they're going to

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understand it, get it, appreciate it, if it'll

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even work for them. I find it very confusing.

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Maybe it's enough that they see conflict between

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these guys and then cooperation. Because when

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Kosei shows up, he calls out to Omega, who's

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struggling. And Omega turns around and he's like

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on his knees and he nods to him after Kosei encourages

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him to get up. And then Reckonus is able to do

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something new. They had been testing out Reckonus'

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abilities in the beginning of the episode. And

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he's able to do something new and it unlocks

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this armor. This Reckonus armor is what I'm going

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to call it for now. And Omega is able to use

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it to defeat this... Really cool bird kaiju.

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Um, dinosaur bird. There is this, there is, I

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don't know. There is a source. It's got finger

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claws, like banana, banana, like finger claws.

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It's really cool. Cool design. Um, and then he's

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able to defeat him and everything's great. And

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like, they kind of, they make up and that's good.

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Like showing conflict between characters, um,

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and showing them resolve that conflict is a good

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thing. And like, these are good things to teach

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to kids. But the way it was gone about, I don't

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really understand if it would have worked or

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not. And it really took me thinking about it

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a long time. And this is my second time watching

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the episode to really get what was going on.

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And like during the show, do you think, oh, that's

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what they're saying. And then the more I thought

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about it, the more I thought, okay, yeah, I guess

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this does work. But it just wasn't obvious to

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me that it works. And again, I feel it's interesting

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this weird tension between these are stories

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for children and then also they're kind of being

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told at a level like above kids maybe. I'm not

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sure. And it's very interesting. It's very interesting.

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Anyway, I keep talking about Ultraman Omega as

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well as other things. You can find links to everything

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I do pinned in the first comment. And if you

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have comments about this, if you thought this

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episode was great or horrible or you are kind

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of on the same page with me or you have a different

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perspective, I'd love to hear that. I'd love

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to... understand this better and think about

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it in a more intelligent way because i care about

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how stories are told and what they mean uh even

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if they're about you know men in rubber suits

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fighting monsters in foam suits other rubber

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suits i don't know whatever anyway until next

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time this is mj with engine inspection signing

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out