WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.299 This episode of Ultraman Omega isn't really about 00:00:02.299 --> 00:00:04.879 Ultraman, or even about a big kaiju. It's about 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.339 love. About the kind of love that gives life, 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:09.699 the kind that takes life, and the pain of doing 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:11.980 the right thing when it hurts everyone involved. 00:00:12.519 --> 00:00:14.820 And I wasn't expecting a story about a teenage 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:17.480 girl and a metal snake puppet to hit me this 00:00:17.480 --> 00:00:25.339 hard. What makes life worth living? Love might 00:00:25.339 --> 00:00:33.909 be the answer. Love hurts us. Love gives us strength 00:00:33.909 --> 00:00:38.950 love fuels us It lets us do what we need to do 00:00:38.950 --> 00:00:45.170 And sometimes it lets us do what we want to do 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:51.689 and it makes the smallest things The most mundane 00:00:51.689 --> 00:00:59.460 things special and important and I can't believe 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:06.120 that I'm talking about this in response to Ultraman 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:10.219 Omega Episode 5, Miko and Mikoto, which is about 00:01:10.219 --> 00:01:14.900 a metallic snake puppet kaiju and a teenage girl 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:24.659 who share a connection and a bond that's killing 00:01:24.659 --> 00:01:33.579 them both. It's a very mythic episode. It's a 00:01:33.579 --> 00:01:38.840 very mythic story. It's based on a myth spoken 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:41.319 of, mentioned in the episode. Whether the myth 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:43.739 is true or not, it doesn't matter. Well, whether 00:01:43.739 --> 00:01:45.879 it's an actual genuine Japanese myth or not, 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.959 it doesn't matter. What matters is that it works 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:52.200 for the story and it operates on a mythic level. 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:56.540 And it tells a story that has so much depth and 00:01:56.540 --> 00:02:00.340 layers to it, even though it's simple, that... 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:04.620 I don't quite know what to say about it, but 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:07.180 I loved this episode. The first time I saw it, 00:02:07.219 --> 00:02:09.219 I said it was probably the best. It was definitely 00:02:09.219 --> 00:02:12.560 the best episode of Omega so far, in spite of 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:14.680 the fact that there was barely a fight. The city 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:18.300 wasn't in danger. It was a little town. Why does 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:20.699 that matter? A city is full of people. It's full 00:02:20.699 --> 00:02:24.419 of infrastructure. The countryside town is full 00:02:24.419 --> 00:02:30.360 of nature, less homes, less buildings, farms, 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.919 small farms. a much lower population. And yet 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:36.819 the stakes are the same. Whether a city gets 00:02:36.819 --> 00:02:41.340 destroyed or a small town gets destroyed, people's 00:02:41.340 --> 00:02:47.759 lives are getting destroyed. And like the scale 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:50.719 of the destruction doesn't matter because the 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:53.000 loss matters to each individual person who loses 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:59.659 something, who loses someone. And they are hurt 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:02.140 by the loss because they have a connection. to 00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:06.960 the thing or the people around them and they 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:12.180 have that connection for multiple reasons love 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:17.500 being one of them and the pain hurts more the 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.080 destruction hurts more the loss of a you know 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.659 farmhouse or a stable or a shed or whatever hurts 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:25.360 more because you have a connection to it than 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.199 if you don't have a connection to it it's like 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.180 how they say if one person dies it's a tragedy 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:30.680 and if a million people die it's a statistic 00:03:33.449 --> 00:03:36.330 I don't know that they were consciously trying 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:40.590 to make a parallel there or speak to that idea. 00:03:44.289 --> 00:03:46.310 But I know something special was happening here. 00:03:46.710 --> 00:03:51.610 The episode was directed by Tomonobu Koshi and 00:03:51.610 --> 00:03:58.370 the writer was Masaya Honda. And I don't remember 00:03:58.370 --> 00:04:01.469 specifically other things that they've worked 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:05.939 on that I've connected to. And the direction 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:07.599 matters less, even though the direction played 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:09.240 a very important part here, the direction matters 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:12.000 less to me than the writing of the episode because 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:13.939 in the direction we got to see, well, but it 00:04:13.939 --> 00:04:16.980 is still important because the way the shots 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:21.420 were framed, especially with Mikoto, the way 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:24.439 that the puppet, the kaiju puppet was shot and 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:27.560 framed, you could feel his emotion. At one point 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.100 he does cry. He lifts his head in a posture of 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:36.829 wailing, calling out mourning because he's, Like 00:04:36.829 --> 00:04:41.509 he knows that he's harmful to Miko and his solution 00:04:41.509 --> 00:04:45.110 is to become a monster, act like a monster and 00:04:45.110 --> 00:04:49.610 have threatened the whole town so that Omega 00:04:49.610 --> 00:04:52.550 would kill him so that her life could be spared. 00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:56.410 And there's something tragic and rich and deep 00:04:56.410 --> 00:04:58.029 in there. And I don't quite understand what it 00:04:58.029 --> 00:05:02.689 is. She had lost her mother to illness and she's 00:05:02.689 --> 00:05:07.209 obviously in mourning. as she should be. And 00:05:07.209 --> 00:05:09.670 she's living with her aunt, who she's refusing 00:05:09.670 --> 00:05:12.529 to make a connection with. This aunt knows her 00:05:12.529 --> 00:05:15.430 to some extent. It looks like Miko is from the 00:05:15.430 --> 00:05:17.050 city, and her aunt is obviously from the country. 00:05:17.610 --> 00:05:19.970 Her aunt is her mother's sister, though, so you 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:23.350 could imagine that her mother's sister, her aunt, 00:05:23.490 --> 00:05:26.029 so you can imagine that Miko's mother moved away 00:05:26.029 --> 00:05:27.509 from the country, moved to the city for whatever 00:05:27.509 --> 00:05:30.790 reason, job, marriage, whatever. She wanted to 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:38.839 pursue something different. When she died, being 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:40.379 that her father was unavailable, she went to 00:05:40.379 --> 00:05:43.139 live with her aunt in the country. And she was 00:05:43.139 --> 00:05:46.319 still holding on to the loss of her mother, mourning 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:48.819 the loss of her mother, dealing with the loss 00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:51.839 of her mother. And she couldn't connect to her 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:54.779 aunt. Maybe her aunt looks like her mother. Maybe 00:05:54.779 --> 00:05:58.720 she's an old fuddy -duddy. She's a backwards 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.180 farm lady with her thick accent, which I appreciated 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:04.170 very much, the dub, how much of a... country 00:06:04.170 --> 00:06:06.310 accent they gave her. I really do think it's 00:06:06.310 --> 00:06:10.589 a good thing. And I think it added to the contrast 00:06:10.589 --> 00:06:20.709 between the two of them. And my point is that 00:06:20.709 --> 00:06:25.589 I feel like when she started connecting to Mikoto, 00:06:25.589 --> 00:06:32.620 she could connect to him because He wasn't a 00:06:32.620 --> 00:06:34.620 replacement for her mother in that he was another 00:06:34.620 --> 00:06:36.980 mother figure, another parental figure. He was 00:06:36.980 --> 00:06:42.339 a replacement for her mother in that he gave 00:06:42.339 --> 00:06:45.399 her the chance to be a mother, to be on the other 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:47.319 side of that relationship. It was too hard for 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:51.180 her to be a daughter, but it wasn't too hard 00:06:51.180 --> 00:07:09.009 for her to be a mother. I just find that to be 00:07:09.009 --> 00:07:14.709 absolutely gorgeous, absolutely beautiful. And 00:07:14.709 --> 00:07:21.490 I don't really, I don't know how, I don't know 00:07:21.490 --> 00:07:23.209 how to process it or deal with it. It's just, 00:07:23.250 --> 00:07:25.870 it's a very powerful emotional punch going on 00:07:25.870 --> 00:07:27.529 here. And then you have at the same time, her 00:07:27.529 --> 00:07:31.389 aunt, whose name I don't remember, like wanting 00:07:31.389 --> 00:07:33.610 desperately to connect to this girl and to love 00:07:33.610 --> 00:07:36.680 her, you know, her sister's daughter. And she's 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:43.100 being met by the stone wall, which she kind of, 00:07:43.100 --> 00:07:45.939 she tries to respect it because you can't break 00:07:45.939 --> 00:07:50.519 through someone's grief with force and make them 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:58.500 accept your love. And it's interesting. I think 00:07:58.500 --> 00:08:00.259 I subconsciously chose that phrasing because 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:05.019 Mikoto is breaking through the boundary between, 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:07.819 his life force and Miko's life force, his body 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:10.300 and her body. And he's using something. He's 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:14.459 using her love essentially to grow, but it's 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:18.959 killing her. And it reminds me of the idea that 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:22.139 biologically a mother can die giving birth. A 00:08:22.139 --> 00:08:24.120 mother loses life force. She loses life energy 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.899 to her child. Even a nursing mother, she expends 00:08:27.899 --> 00:08:30.959 much more calories each day just nursing the 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:32.620 baby than she does actually growing the baby. 00:08:33.070 --> 00:08:35.049 on a day -to -day basis. I'm not saying cumulatively, 00:08:35.149 --> 00:08:37.629 like one nursing session doesn't equal nine months 00:08:37.629 --> 00:08:40.490 of growth, but a woman needs to eat more after 00:08:40.490 --> 00:08:42.169 she gives birth so that she has the nutrients 00:08:42.169 --> 00:08:46.009 pulled from her food so that the nutrients isn't 00:08:46.009 --> 00:08:47.409 pulled from her body, because that will happen. 00:08:47.490 --> 00:08:50.350 A mother can be depleted by nursing to her child 00:08:50.350 --> 00:08:54.289 without filling herself back up. And we see that 00:08:54.289 --> 00:08:56.750 Miko's willing to do that for Mikoto. And because 00:08:56.750 --> 00:09:00.470 Mikoto is able to perceive that, he doesn't want... 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:01.779 to do that to her. He doesn't want to burden 00:09:01.779 --> 00:09:05.320 her anymore. So he chooses to die and he makes 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:07.720 himself into a monster, which in a way he is 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:10.360 a monster already because he's taking life force 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:14.200 from her against her will, but maybe it is according 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:16.519 to her will because she looks so pleased in one 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:19.440 scene, specifically when he's giant and he's 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.539 pulling energy from her. She's happy that he 00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:27.480 has the nourishment from her and she goes with 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:31.820 him willingly, but it's not sustainable. And 00:09:31.820 --> 00:09:34.639 it isn't a healthy relationship. It isn't a healthy 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:37.720 connection. Love can give meaning to life and 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:43.539 it can inspire us to persist and to do the things 00:09:43.539 --> 00:09:45.159 that we need to do, even though they're hard 00:09:45.159 --> 00:09:49.080 for us. But when love is twisted the wrong way, 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:52.639 it can be detrimental, deleterious. It can kill 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:59.299 you from the inside. And that's not okay. That's 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:01.700 not okay. I mean, it's a fact, but it's not something 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:02.940 that should be encouraged. It should be something 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:07.639 that's dealt with properly. I think this episode 00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:11.700 is describing this, like, the mythic arc of love, 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:14.840 the phrase that comes to mind, and how it can 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:19.360 be both life -giving and life -destroying. And... 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:28.519 Sarato, Omega, like, mournfully deals with it. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:34.929 I really think... that when he kills Mikoto and 00:10:34.929 --> 00:10:39.090 the cherry blossoms fall from him, and he's posed 00:10:39.090 --> 00:10:41.809 in a particular way where the slugger and his 00:10:41.809 --> 00:10:44.070 hand are covering his eyes, but then there's 00:10:44.070 --> 00:10:46.070 one cherry blossom that falls. I think it's supposed 00:10:46.070 --> 00:10:48.169 to be representative of a tear. It's symbolic 00:10:48.169 --> 00:10:51.870 of that. And I think it's just a beautiful visual 00:10:51.870 --> 00:10:57.429 and a beautiful way to give us the story in a 00:10:57.429 --> 00:11:01.879 single image. And I guess the story is that sometimes 00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:08.279 we, or sometimes somebody, has to be destructive, 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:17.100 has to make the hard choice, and just because 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:19.759 they do it doesn't mean they want to. Just because 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:21.299 they do it doesn't mean it's easy for them. Just 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:23.340 because they do something that they feel needs 00:11:23.340 --> 00:11:25.399 to be done doesn't mean it doesn't hurt them. 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:26.919 It reminds me of a parent saying, this is going 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:28.730 to hurt me more than it hurts you. I don't know 00:11:28.730 --> 00:11:34.169 that that's true. But definitely there is a burden 00:11:34.169 --> 00:11:36.169 and there is a pain that goes along with being 00:11:36.169 --> 00:11:39.549 a parent, with raising a child into an adult, 00:11:39.710 --> 00:11:43.210 being there for them through their development 00:11:43.210 --> 00:11:45.490 and helping them to become who they should become, 00:11:45.629 --> 00:11:48.049 who they want to become, the best versions of 00:11:48.049 --> 00:11:53.629 themselves. And I don't know. I don't know that 00:11:53.629 --> 00:11:54.789 that's what they were trying to say, but that's 00:11:54.789 --> 00:11:57.519 what I got from it. It's a beautiful episode 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:59.820 of Ultraman. It's a beautiful episode of television 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:01.940 in general. It's a beautiful episode of Tokusatsu. 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:04.379 Tokusatsu is being used to the fullest, I think 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:07.000 here. And it's absolutely gorgeous. And I love 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.279 it. And I'm so thankful that I got to watch this 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:14.720 episode and that it made me emotional. I love 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:18.259 that the kaiju gets to cry too. And then we see 00:12:18.259 --> 00:12:23.720 his pain. And it's interesting because so far, 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.539 The kaiju have been framed very much as animals, 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:29.860 but in this, he gets this additional mythic framing 00:12:29.860 --> 00:12:33.559 and this great humanity given to him, Mikoto. 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:39.039 And I don't quite know what that means. I don't 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:45.460 know if that means that two different perspectives 00:12:45.460 --> 00:12:47.500 on what a kaiju is are being represented in Omega, 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:50.840 or more perhaps, or if it means something else. 00:12:56.539 --> 00:12:58.059 I think it's a question worthwhile answering. 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:01.659 I think it's a topic to discuss. If you'd like 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:02.919 to share your thoughts on this episode with me, 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:04.299 I would love that. I would love to talk to other 00:13:04.299 --> 00:13:05.860 people, geek out about this with other people, 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:07.720 talk about the depth of the myth or maybe other 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:09.740 things I missed talking about this specific topic. 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:13.059 And if you want to hear more of, or if you want 00:13:13.059 --> 00:13:14.299 to hear more from me in general, I'm talking 00:13:14.299 --> 00:13:18.360 about Omega and Zets and other broad henshin 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:20.639 hero, transforming heroes, tokusatsu type of 00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:22.779 stuff. You can find links to everything in the 00:13:22.779 --> 00:13:24.919 pinned comments. For now, I got to go. This is 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:27.240 MJ with... Going Ultra, signing out.