This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Hension Inspection presents Going Ultra. This is a redux of Ultraman Z.
This is the Ultraman Z dub, which I'm calling, which I'm dubbing, Ultraman Zet.
This is the second episode, so check out my review of Ultraman Zet episode 2, which I am calling,
Ultra Effort, because I think that's kind of the theme, or core, I don't know, idea being discussed in the course of this episode,
and maybe even because there's good writing being done here, that theme and that idea is being expressed and played with
over the course of multiple episodes in a sequential show, which is, you know, good and interesting.
So, I'm going to go ahead and jump straight into the topics now, and they are, well, I'll just go one by one and hit them.
I don't need to tell you what they all are, but here we go.
So, it was interesting to me that Zet won't, or can't, I don't know which it is, it's unclear,
respond to Haruki until he is certain that Haruki is at his limit, and that gets brought up because in,
at one point, Haruki's in Sevenger, and he's just thinking, you know what, I can do better in fighting this thing if I turn into Ultraman Zet.
So, he pulls out the, what is it, Zet Riser, I think that's what it's called, I'm pretty sure that's what it's called.
Anyway, he pulls out his little Henshin device, and he clicks on the button, and Zet does not respond, the device does not respond,
which, actually that's interesting because that leads to a whole other idea or concept that apparently,
I don't know, is Zet inside of him? I'm pretty sure Zet is inside of him, but in some way, he is tied to the Zet Riser,
and will, like, he can, will it not to activate, basically?
I suppose you could say that when Haruki activates the Zet Riser, and Zet is willing to do it, it will function properly,
but if he's not willing to do it, it won't function properly, which then opens us up to the question,
what if for some reason, somehow, some way, Haruki and Zet had a fight or disagreed about something,
could he then try to use the Zet Riser and not be able to do it?
And then, I mean, that opens up a whole other slew of questions that I'm not prepared to get into,
like, what if somebody else grabbed the Zet Riser and they wanted to use it, you know, could they do that?
And if so, does that mean that if something happened to Haruki, that Zet could be passed on to somebody else?
And, huh, well, I'd never really thought about that before, but that's kind of an interesting, I don't know, mechanical question,
and as much as I love the story stuff and I'm obsessed with the character arcs, or, you know, focused on the character arcs,
some of the mechanical questions do interest me, because, I don't know, I guess I enjoy the intricacies,
and that's the stuff that you can nerd out about, and, you know, that's fun from time to time, so, yeah.
I do, I think that's a good thing, it's a valuable lesson kind of being taught there,
which I don't want to be, I don't want to break down Ultraman episodes into,
here are the moral lessons that you should learn from this episode of Ultraman every single time, or anything like that,
but when they're there, when they're blatant, I think it's good to talk about them,
and I really do think there is something here about perseverance, which I'll talk about further,
but it's exemplified by basically Zet saying that something about the way they're bonded,
because it almost felt like he was saying, because we're not as bonded, we're not bonded as closely as we could be,
I need time, I need to be 100% sure before we can, I don't know, we can activate, fuse, whatever they,
whatever the terminology is, before we can become Ultraman, and I think that's good,
because you don't want Haruki becoming lazy and complacent and just relying on his ability to become, you know, Zet,
to, oh, you don't want him doing that, because, well, this is the interesting thing that we see played out throughout the episode,
if you don't try your hardest, you'll never reach your potential, and I guess the power,
I don't know, maybe it's even just a wisdom that Zet has, that he knows that if he lets this guy become complacent like that,
that when things get ultra hard, when they're in ultra peril, that Haruki won't be able to pull through for him,
because he has been allowed to become complacent and he's never truly been tested,
so they don't know the full extent or I guess the quality of his metal, and therefore, you know, it's going to endanger them and others.
That could be the case, that's interesting. I like that you can take it in different ways.
You know, I said there's this idea about the value of perseverance, and I feel like I've talked about that long enough,
that was going to be my next point, well, especially because of what else is on my list to talk about,
so I'll skip it for now and just say I kind of talked about both.
Next thing is a space shark, Gennigar, apparently is, like, stirring the Kaiju awake,
and that's interesting because Yuka tells Hibikura, I think just him, maybe Yoko's there too, that it seems like, no, Yoko's there too,
that it seems like since Gennigar came to Earth that the other Kaiju that are hibernating have been starting to wake up,
and storage was developed as a, oh, I think they did that in this episode,
storage was developed as an anti-monster, anti-Kaiju task force, which task force might be with a T in storage stands for, anyway,
and the whole point of it is that they want to defend mankind against Kaiju in the event that Kaiju come along,
because, well, maybe Ultraman was here in the past in this show, but for sure he hasn't been around for a while,
and they need something that can combat Kaiju when it's necessary, and Kaiju are, like, a semi-natural or normal part of life,
I don't know if it's just in Japan or if it's everywhere, I would think they would have to be everywhere, not just in Japan,
but we won't get too much into that at the moment because, you know, we'll leave that for later,
but, yeah, so it's interesting that Gennigar is doing this, you know, somehow stirring the Kaiju awake,
and I don't know if that's something that will be explained later on in the show,
but it is something that makes sense for them to throw in, like, even if it's not as logically consistent as it could be,
at least they're throwing it in there, hey, we didn't need Zet before, and there's not Kaiju Roman all over the place,
because Gennigar coming here did something and woke up a bunch of the Kaiju,
and we'll just have to watch out that they might start waking up and making things, you know, giving us more fodder for episodes,
so that's kind of interesting, and it's kind of like, it's kind of weak, but at the same time, I don't know what else you're supposed to do,
and obviously write it differently, but I believe that probably because Ultraman is so set in its ways,
and while I admire the quality of the production, it still relies on certain contrivances, like most things do,
and, like, inertia and, like, tradition for it to function and operate,
and, like, they don't keep making up new Kaiju every single year, I don't know if they make, like, a new Kaiju a year,
but, like, you know, Gennigar, I believe, has been in past things.
I know for a fact that the guy that they face in this episode, which I forgot to put a Kaiju tracker, but you know what, that doesn't really matter.
Mr. IgoInvisible, except sometimes I don't, and I use electricity, or I eat electricity,
he's from, like, the second or third episode of the original Ultraman, and here he is again.
So, you know, why is he there? You know, honestly, the names popping up of the characters of the Kaiju bothers me,
but that's a meta thing, that's, the audience gets to see the names of the Kaiju pop up right away,
and then later on, the, at least so far, Yoko says, oh, we're gonna call this one this name,
and she's not saying, oh, I read this from the screen, it's like there's Kaiju files or something,
which if there was an Ultraman here before, that would make sense, but it's just, I don't know, it's kind of interesting.
Kind of interesting how all that works, like, you gotta not think about it too hard, like, oh yeah, Ultraman,
1962 did happen, but maybe it didn't really, and, you know, where's the SSSP? I don't know, it's just odd.
It's odd, like, fast and loose, playing with the rules and everything, so I just prefer to think of Ultraman in different universes,
and if there's, you know, oh yeah, there was the Ultraman, you know, 60 years ago or whatever, that's fine, or 55 years ago, as the case may be.
That's fine, and we'll just kind of, you know, not think about it too hard, which is okay.
But I do think it's an interesting conceit that Ganagarg is, presence is waking up the Kaiju.
Anyway, and then, Hibikura's line after the intense sparring scene, which was so fun, so cool, is don't rely on your eyes alone.
I think that line is really good, it's really interesting.
How does it tie into the episode title of Ultra Effort, which I think ties into the, you know, that my episode title for this review,
tying to the theme of perseverance?
In this way, I believe, in order to persevere and to keep trying, it's kind of like, what's the definition of faith?
Believing in that which you cannot see, or, I don't know, something like that.
But basically, you gotta keep going, you gotta keep working.
If your goal is far away and difficult to get to, and you just stop there, you are relying on what you can see in front of you.
You're using your short-term thinking as opposed to long-term thinking, and your long-term perspective on things, which can get you there.
You know, literally, don't rely on your eyes, listen with your ears, and use your other senses to interact in the world around you,
especially in a survival situation. Yeah, I would agree with that.
You can listen for a twig breaking or snapping in the woods so that you know that someone's behind you.
Situational awareness isn't just about having your eyes open or having your eyes closed.
You need to actually be focused and be present in the moment.
And, yeah, it's good. It's good.
And the cool thing is, you know, Haruki was in a lot of pain, and he'd been tossed and flipped and thrown so many times,
and yet he was able to, in a moment of clarity in the midst of all that fighting that he only got to,
by having fought so hard and for so long against Hibikura, was he able to tap into something and sensor,
hear Hibikura coming and then land that hit, which was great.
I think he still flipped him after that, after he landed the hit, which is funny,
because then he pops up over his head and says, you know, never just rely on your eyes, or whatever it was.
So anyway, that was like a really cool line delivery. The shot was really good, too.
And obviously the lesson comes in, you know, it comes into play later because he's fighting a monster that, you know,
it goes invisible. It's the transparent monster, which is fun.
Let's see. What's the last point? Oh, just I have a little note, the second clue.
And if you know, you know, and if you don't, you don't.
And honestly, the first episode should have had a note of the first clue, because there's been two clues so far in these two episodes
about something that's going to happen later on. And if you are paying attention, you're seeing it.
And if you're not, you're not. And it's OK.
I honestly missed it the very first time around in the first episode, but I did catch it in the second episode.
And it was really satisfying to see it here again. So let me see. OK.
So I have kind of an interesting thing and then a funny thing.
So there's a quote that I've heard, and apparently it was said by Stephen McCraney,
The master has failed more times than the beginner has tried.
And since I do think there's a theme of perseverance here going on, it's really cool.
And there's an older guy, Baco, the tech who works on Sevenger, and he
he's a really cool character and I really like him.
And we're going to get to see more from him in the next two episodes, I believe.
And it's it's really interesting. He's a very he's got like a lot of weight in the show.
That reminds me of something not on my notes that I'm going to talk about for just a couple of minutes, because I'm well, hold on.
Actually, that's not true. I believe I'm I am over time for how long I wanted this to be.
So I'll wrap it up pretty quickly.
But basically, I just love that quote. The master's failed more times than the beginners tried.
I like how much we get to see hierarchy try.
I'm well, I guess, you know, as a captain, have occurred, should be a master of something over over hierarchy that and he should have to.
You know, he's a he is at a position or at a level that hierarchy should be striving to reach, which is kind of begs the question.
Why doesn't have a curve going in the mecca at all?
Why do we will we get to see him pilot Sevenger or is that not what he's geared towards?
That's kind of interesting why he wouldn't if he's a superior combatant, although combat prowess on the ground doesn't necessarily equate to combat prowess in the mech.
So even though we know Yoko is better than hierarchy right now in seven year.
So anyway, I just like that quote and I feel like it applies to this.
And if you've never heard that quote before and you picked up on the theme of perseverance in this episode as well, which is called a warrior's pride,
then I just felt like you'd appreciate that.
So there's this weird comedic bit and it's a little uncomfortable.
So I'm glad I have someone else to talk about it about it afterwards.
Yoko is a gerbil. I don't know if this is a Japanese thing.
I think I've heard of Japanese men like in like, you know, this is written for adult audiences, not inappropriate, but just adult audiences that like some Japanese men are referred to as herbivores.
I don't know. It made me think of dinosaurs because I always think about carnivore and herbivore for dinosaurs.
But they're called herbivores and it's like they're these.
Japanese women have a problem with them because they don't want a herbivore.
They don't want a man who's who they can boss around.
I believe is what I read in this article.
And like they're not marrying and they're not having children and they're not doing these things because they're too soft and not.
They don't have the edge that they need to go out and seek certain things.
And instead they well, I won't elaborate, but basically it's not a good thing.
And so, you know, maybe they have more animal terms for people in Japan because I've never heard of a gerbil in this context that a gerbil is a woman specifically who likes older men like, you know, in America.
I don't know. I'm talking about this on the show.
But like there's the idea of, you know, men and women of different ages being interested in each other and the different titles for that depending on who's the older person.
I'll just leave it broadly at that. That'll be fine.
But it's it's odd. But like it was very funny how she like lit up when Baka came along and you can tell she might kind of be into him or at least admire him or whatever, which again feels weird.
But like I know Baka is a really cool guy.
So like I would admire him too.
So I can kind of understand where she's coming from, if that's if that's her deal. And then like the whole thing with her being more interested in Ultraman Zet because he's about 5000 years old.
Like that's just weird and kind of hilarious, but like kind of odd, like really, really weird too.
Like, oh, he's 5000 like and like just because he's older, like he's not like better than, you know, a 50 year old. Then why is a 5000 year old better?
Or like if a 40 year old guy is not better in some way materially, I mean, by money, I mean, like he's more of a man.
He's more, you know, who he should be. He has more something more gravitas, let's just say, than a younger man.
Then like, what's the point of liking somebody just because their age? Like, that's that's kind of silly.
But anyway, I'm not here to just to dissect Yoko's psychology and like she had a good dad.
So that's not part of it. I don't think anyway. But moving on from there, something I loved that I didn't really make note of earlier,
because I just spoke on like the story, the story stuff in this is I absolutely adore the.
The crew and the like, you know, hierarchy, Yoko, Yuka, Hibikura, Ultraman or Zet, you know, whatever.
They're like the stars of the show. And in real life, they have this whole support team.
Those actors have all these people around them, stunt people and, you know, food people.
What do they call it? Craft services in America.
They've got all these different people surrounding them to make it happen, not to mention the writer, the director, the, you know, producer, the executive producer, all these different people.
The people at Bandai designing the toys, whatever. So you've got all these people.
But what's cool is in the show, storage is a, you know, paramilitary organization, I'll just call it.
And there's this little storage, the strategic something, something, something, something, something group was developed at this time to fight Kaiju.
And like that narrator was cool showing all the people running around doing stuff for storage was awesome.
Like it has that and I, you know, for lack of a better term, because I'm not like the biggest consumer of Japanese media ever.
And there's certainly not mecha stuff. It is a very Evangelion feel where it's like it's nerve.
It's the people of nerve. It's the text, the mechanics, the simple guys, that one awesome, awesome episode where the power was out and everybody had to work together.
And Shinji, the main character, who has a contentious relationship with his father, Gendo, got to see Gendo, like, being a boss and like making things happen.
And he like had a measure of admiration for him who that, you know, got this very strained relationship because he was like working with them and like getting in there with the guys and doing work.
Like that was so cool. And honestly, I get a vibe of that. Like I it's super weird, but I love the final safety checks off.
You know, seven girl, this much power opening this barrier door, like all that little like chatter of that, like the mecha show, like the mecha show chatter of everybody prepping and making sure that the thing that's going to save the day, hopefully, is ready to go.
Like, it's so exciting. I love that. And like, I'm not a car guy. I'm not like a tinkerer or mechanic type guy like at all.
So I don't know why that would excite me. And like, I'm not even like, oh, we all need to work together. I do believe people should cooperate with each other.
But like, I'm also very into like, I'm going to do my thing. You do your thing. And let's, you know, be friendly and cooperate with each other or like, you know, let's let's work with each other by staying out of each other's way.
If we can. It's kind of more my attitude. But yes, something about like this. And I think it's a uniquely Japanese thing because there was even in Oh, golly, what's it called?
One of the best anime I've ever seen. The Galaxy Railways. OK, so Galaxy Railways. It's a lady Matsumoto joint. I'm just going to call that. It's I love it.
I like it immensely. It's honestly just OK, but there's things in it that I absolutely adore and love.
I'm sure part of its aesthetic and part of it is I don't know what else, but it also has a very like it gives you an opportunity to have like the big hero type guys like working with the salt of the earth,
blue collar grunts who just make the machinery work that everybody relies upon. And it has that very Japanese like we're all going to starve to death if we don't work together in these rice patties to survive.
And like there's a little bit of a you know, interestingly enough, there's this like anyway, there's this Japanese culture based on that idea or it's like a concept of a culture based on that idea that like, yeah, you know what?
You don't matter because if you, you know, want to strike out on your own, all of us here, you're going to die by yourself because you can't survive and all of us are going to be harmed.
So like just shut up, bucko and work with us to make sure that we all can live and not starve to death.
And like that weird group dynamic, like obviously it helped the Japanese people survive for a long time and then they became a very powerful, very intelligent, or very, I guess sophisticated is the better word to say it, a group who were able to do things like wage war on China multiple times and like all these bad things along with all the wonderful things that they were able to do and all the great things that have come from Japan.
And like that, I don't know what that that spirit is called, but like that, like that collective spirit, there's something about that collective, we all need to work on this together spirit that I believe is not if you've not uniquely Japanese, it's very strongly Japanese flavored.
And it comes through in aspects of things like this. And like I said, it was great in Galaxy Royals when we got to see some of that stuff. It was marvelous in Evangelion. And it's fabulous here.
And honestly, being that, you know, Anno is a big Ultraman fan, it makes sense that when he made Evangelion that some of that stuff was in there. But like there wasn't, you know, there's the SSSP or the USSSP, whatever, from the original Ultraman, the Science Patrol, regardless.
And he, you know, incorporated some of those vibes. And I can even see like their outfit designs make sense, like the people at Nerve in the offices or whatever, like I can definitely see where one set of outfits led to the other, which is cool.
And, you know, but because, you know, they weren't waiting for Ultraman. Well, here's what I'm trying to say. The Science Patrol didn't have Mecca in Evangelion, they do. But I have to add a topic here, Evangelion.
And anyway, one group had a Mecca, one group didn't. But still, like you can see the DNA of the Science Patrol in Evangelion. And then you can see the DNA of Evangelion like in here with how they're all working together to get these Mecca up and running and being piloted and all that stuff to defend people from these, you know, monsters or whatever.
So, like, that's really cool. And I don't know. I don't know if I like it because of my enjoyment of Evangelion or if it's just quality stuff that I enjoy or what, because, again, going back to Galaxy Railways, this is the last thing I'm going to say.
Going, I'll wrap it up within two minutes. Going back into Galaxy Railways, they have this thing that they do where they like fire up the train, the space train, which I know that's stupid.
It sounds stupid, but it's marvelous. Where they're firing up the space train and they're doing all that, you know, check one, check two, all that stuff. And like you get to see pistons moving and, you know, dials like turning and, you know, level indicators like going up and down and stuff.
And it's just it's wonderful to behold. It's very strange. I don't know if it's like a little bit from like, you know, I watched a tiny bit of Ultron in the early 90s when I was a kid. And of course, I watched Power Rangers and like the Mecca sequences where they're coming together and stuff.
Like that's always really cool. Again, I don't know why. I don't know if it's a mechanical thing of being a guy or or what, even though I'm not into machines so much as I could be. But like I've watched some stuff with my kids and I know my boys love.
They're enthralled by the Mecca stuff, but I never noticed my girls saying anything about it. Anyway, regardless. Yeah, so I anyway, I like all that stuff. I don't exactly know what it is. I could probably look it up and figure out what it is, but I'm not going to do that right now.
But it's very cool. And, you know, that has it, too. And I just I was delighted by all that stuff. And I wanted to mention that because like I said earlier, as much as I love the story stuff, some of this like just aesthetic stuff is really cool.
And it gives a certain vibe that makes me like the show even more. That's all I have to say. So I'm going to go ahead and get out of here. And I'm going to encourage you to go to MJMuniors.com.
I'm going to leave a link here in the show notes for something called Ava and the Grow Bug. It's a short. It's a children's book that I wrote very much inspired by Ultraman. The version that I have currently done is not the final version.
It's not even its final form. It will change and evolve. And I do plan on publishing it as a children's picture book that you can check out. And I'll let you know when that happens.
It'll be available on MJMunoz.com and you can find it and everything else I do there. So with that, I'm going to stop talking, let you go. Thank you for your time and attention. This is MJ signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments or other feedback you might have. There you can find all of my analysis, art and fiction.
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