1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,200 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJMunoz.com. 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:12,200 Join me for a discussion of Ultraman Z, Episode 15 featuring Mean Eyes facing Darkness and a Void Blade. 3 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:24,300 This episode had a great kaiju and team-up, but one thing felt off to me, and after I talk about it, 4 00:00:24,300 --> 00:00:28,800 and the rest of it, I'd like to know what your thoughts are on all of it. 5 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:35,400 This is my review of Z15. Again, it's called Ultra Void. 6 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:42,600 And yeah, I'm about to jump right into the topics that caught my attention and share my thoughts with you. 7 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:49,400 So, we had Geed coming back, or Jeed. Is it Jeed? I think they call it Jeed. 8 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:58,200 Anyway, so, Jeed is back, Rico's back, sort of. He's back in a weird way because we don't get to see the actor actually talk at all. 9 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:06,400 He's shown on screen. I'm pretty sure he's actually recorded. It's not like a still image, but then he's doing voiceover over it. 10 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:13,800 I believe this hit in a weird place with COVID when it first started, so I think they were banished to cautious. 11 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:21,600 There was the Kanagon episode where they made the, you know, social distancing joke, and... 12 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:32,200 Yeah, so, I mean, definitely there's evidence that COVID was involved with altering things a little bit on how Z went originally, 13 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:36,600 and obviously it affects this because it's just a dub. It's still the same show. 14 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:42,800 Just, you can hear it in your own English, in your own English language, if that's what you speak. 15 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:51,400 And yeah, so, anyway, it was kind of weird how he was dealt with, but I like the idea of him and Haruki having this 16 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:57,000 psychic connection and being able to communicate to each other. It seemed like it was through the Zetriser, 17 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:03,000 but I wasn't 100% sure if that's exactly what the show was saying, but it sure seemed like it, and whatever, that's fine. 18 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:10,200 Again, since I frequently talk about Guyver, especially when I'm talking about Gede, 19 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:18,400 he has a Guyver vibe, and the Guyvers are able to communicate telepathically with each other through these things on their backs. 20 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:27,000 So, it works for me. But yeah, what was really nice was his noble and heroic sacrifice, 21 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:36,800 how he was willing to dive into the void of Giza, or Brisa, rather, and potentially not come out so that he could help Haruki. 22 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:44,400 And it was cool to see Gede put so much trust in Haruki, where he was willing to give up his medal to him, 23 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:53,000 and basically he said, hey, I'm going to hold off this guy, hold off the destruction, until you can make it work, or you can find a solution. 24 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:54,400 And I thought that was really neat. 25 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:02,600 Giza himself, itself, whatever, this weird void monster, and it seems like it's appeared before, 26 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:07,000 and something about the shape of its face, its head, seems really familiar to me. 27 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:17,400 Like, almost that upside-down teardrop and having those kind of slanted lines going from the outside to the center line of the face. 28 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:21,200 Like I said, something about it feels really familiar to me. 29 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:26,000 I don't know if I'm just remembering the design from last time, because I think it's a really cool design. 30 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:36,200 All that black and yellow, or that amber, the black body with those amber accents on it, they're more yellow than amber, but you know what I'm saying. 31 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,400 Very cool, very weird. 32 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:45,200 It's funny, it still has a very human form, not like the Bolton, which was the previous Kaiju, 33 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:57,200 but it feels more inhuman in the way it moves its body, in the fact that it apparently has no weight or mass or energy or whatever that you can read. 34 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:01,000 And of course, that's, you know, somebody says that, you don't see that visually. 35 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:08,600 But definitely all those weird effects of it blending and almost like bullet time, right? 36 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:13,000 Like, or how like Agent Smith would move really fast, but not quite bullet time. 37 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Anyway, something about that effect combined with its fairly inhuman like face, like it has no face, right? 38 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:27,000 Even though it has a humanoid body as the shape, it just felt very weird. 39 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:34,000 It felt very not of this world in a really creepy and wonderful way. 40 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,800 So I enjoyed that a lot. 41 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:40,300 And the threat of it having been basically like a living black hole and it's going to destroy the planet. 42 00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:42,800 That's that's pretty good stakes. 43 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:55,500 I like that Juggler both joined in the fight and then after that didn't work, that he went and helped Horki find Celebro in his base, 44 00:04:55,500 --> 00:05:02,600 which it was really funny seeing Juggler in the back seat of a car and like him directing hierarchy driving. 45 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:06,900 That was that was pretty funny. And then, you know, we had this weird instance of like, you know, 46 00:05:06,900 --> 00:05:15,500 I was going to use modern warfare as one of the key phrases for this episode, but it's like this weird, you know, urban infiltration of it's not even a base. 47 00:05:15,500 --> 00:05:18,900 I wouldn't call it a base that Kaburaki has. 48 00:05:18,900 --> 00:05:29,700 It's just where he hangs out and does his thing. And I don't remember how Juggler knew where to find that. 49 00:05:29,700 --> 00:05:35,300 But apparently he did. And that's fine, I guess. 50 00:05:35,300 --> 00:05:40,300 But anyway, it was just kind of a weird instance of like all this gunfighting going on in there. 51 00:05:40,300 --> 00:05:44,400 And that was that was pretty cool, actually, especially the effects they used. 52 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:49,300 Like you get to see through Horki's scope and they had this like he wasn't using Voltaic. 53 00:05:49,300 --> 00:05:52,300 He was using like a lightning blast or whatever, which makes sense. 54 00:05:52,300 --> 00:05:55,900 You don't want to kill the guy. But I just I kind of wonder what Juggler told him about that. 55 00:05:55,900 --> 00:06:03,600 But it made sense that he went to Celebro to get that Belial medal because he knows he has it and or figures he probably has it. 56 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:12,000 And that Celebro doesn't want the world to be destroyed because it will wreck his plans or his plot or his game as. 57 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,600 As Juggler called it and Celebro had a weird reaction to that. 58 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:25,900 He laughed maniacally and questioned it almost like scoffing at the concept that he's playing some sort of game when. 59 00:06:25,900 --> 00:06:31,700 I'm pretty sure at the end of the series, we have Celebro directly say that it is a game that he's playing. 60 00:06:31,700 --> 00:06:37,700 So I don't know what that was about. If that's some sort of misdirection or trying to lead us, you know. 61 00:06:37,700 --> 00:06:43,000 Well, yeah, misdirection. I was going to describe misdirection in more words. 62 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:48,000 So, yeah, that was kind of strange. And. 63 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,900 That's kind of all I have to say about that. But I mean, Juggler doesn't want the planet destroyed. 64 00:06:51,900 --> 00:06:57,900 If he is on the planet while it's stuck into a black hole, he'll die, too, which I'm sure he doesn't want. 65 00:06:57,900 --> 00:07:05,200 So you can see, again, a motivated self-interest, a villainous, you know, if he is a bad guy, 66 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:14,000 a villainous reason for him to fight so hard against the Kaiju, against Grisa and against the black hole in the void. 67 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:19,500 And that's because, like, you know, most others, he wants to continue living and he can't do that if the Earth is destroyed. 68 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:24,500 So, you know, that that's kind of that makes sense. No issue there. 69 00:07:24,500 --> 00:07:28,500 Just it's interesting examining Juggler's motives from multiple perspectives. 70 00:07:28,500 --> 00:07:33,800 And it's still difficult because the way they structure the scenarios in the writing to tell exactly where he's coming from, 71 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:39,800 what his goal is, what he wants to do. So I like that. So. 72 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:47,100 But I do feel overall like he's good, but it's just I don't know. I don't know. 73 00:07:47,100 --> 00:07:56,900 So, yeah, there was this this is an interesting cap off to the whole hierarchy struggle and his, you know, 74 00:07:56,900 --> 00:07:59,200 finding his resolve to do what he has to do. 75 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:05,500 We see him in the beginning of the episode lose the fight to or the arm wrestling match to Yuko. 76 00:08:05,500 --> 00:08:08,600 And he says he's going to get stronger and he goes running and he's, you know, 77 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:12,000 lifting weights and things like that, which does look like tiny weights. 78 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,200 That should be bigger than you think. Anyway, they were going to fast, weren't they? 79 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:20,300 I don't know. I've been in a I've had instruction in a gym before that seems like it's too fast to move weights. 80 00:08:20,300 --> 00:08:24,300 But maybe in Japan, they've got a different ethos about it. I'm not sure. 81 00:08:24,300 --> 00:08:27,000 I know you're just trying to tear your muscles. You can do that with little weights, big weights. 82 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:32,200 It doesn't matter. But anyway, just kind of an odd kind of an odd aspect of the episode. 83 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:36,500 But maybe it's accurate. Maybe it's just something I'm ignorant of, which is very possible. 84 00:08:36,500 --> 00:08:42,500 Anyway, so I talked about how much I like Riza. 85 00:08:42,500 --> 00:08:46,600 I'll get to the thing I didn't like or the thing that bugged me in a little bit. 86 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:53,100 I want to make sure I address these things. So, yeah, so Jude coming back, you know, he's got those belly yellow eyes. 87 00:08:53,100 --> 00:08:57,300 It was funny that Yuka pointed out that he's the ultimate of the mean eyes. 88 00:08:57,300 --> 00:09:03,700 And that was pretty cool. I thought it was interesting that when he was inside of. 89 00:09:03,700 --> 00:09:11,100 The void, when he was inside of Grizza, he I don't know if did he actually see the belly all eyes, the red glowing belly eyes? 90 00:09:11,100 --> 00:09:19,300 I'm not sure, but. When he was inside, he kind of had like a like it was right as Haruki was getting him out of there. 91 00:09:19,300 --> 00:09:25,800 He had this moment where I don't know, almost like introspection or something like he was. 92 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:30,000 Taken aback by the darkness that was surrounding him of the void. 93 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:38,700 And I don't know that just because it was like being in a black hole, you know, without all the being torn apart and dying that we have theorized would happen. 94 00:09:38,700 --> 00:09:46,200 Or if it was just that he was surrounded by utter darkness and like that reminded him of the corruption of, 95 00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:53,300 you know, Belial, his dad and the darkness that he faces or face that he was altered by that he represents. 96 00:09:53,300 --> 00:10:01,400 And if it almost was like something about the darkness inside of Jid as well, because. 97 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:10,000 You know, he has these Belial factors in him that the Belial metal was made of and that we see this Belial needle was made of as well. 98 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:22,200 And. That's interesting because it almost feels like Haruki like Haruki in a way is facing darkness as well. 99 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,600 And it's being aided by Jid and it's almost like the. 100 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,800 Emotional growth and development is being split between the two of them. 101 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:41,300 Jid inside or heart, you know, heart. Yeah, Riku inside of the void and Haruki outside of the void, like trying to find the strength to face it. 102 00:10:41,300 --> 00:10:48,400 And I don't know, maybe like Jid is trying to find the strength to face the darkness within him while he's in the void. 103 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:54,300 And that parallels the journey of Haruki trying to have the determination to do what he needs to do. 104 00:10:54,300 --> 00:11:04,600 And when they combine the metals, you know, Zet tells him in Zet space that, you know, we need to swallow the darkness together. 105 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:13,700 Like they need to be able to embrace the darkness of Belial and integrate it into themselves in order to utilize one, this form. 106 00:11:13,700 --> 00:11:22,200 And then two, because the Belial needle is, you know, it's got Belial's face on it and it sure looks like his head and stuff. 107 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:25,900 And it came from the Belial factor interacting with something inside of the void. 108 00:11:25,900 --> 00:11:35,900 I don't know if that means the needle was already there and the devil splinter or the Belial factor in Jid shaped it to be like Belial or what? 109 00:11:35,900 --> 00:11:38,700 Like that part kind of bugs me. It doesn't make sense. 110 00:11:38,700 --> 00:11:48,400 But Haruki is embracing the point is Haruki is embracing this darkness, this darker aspect of himself. 111 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:59,900 And like the ferocity that he needs in order to, you know, be an effective fighter and, you know, kill and destroy for the right reasons and for the sake of saving people. 112 00:11:59,900 --> 00:12:02,800 And here you had to save an entire planet by killing one Kaiju. 113 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:04,700 You know, you do the math on that. 114 00:12:04,700 --> 00:12:10,900 It makes sense, especially because the Kaiju was not innocent and it was, you know, causing destruction and harm. 115 00:12:10,900 --> 00:12:16,000 And it was part of the reason that the destruction was coming to the planet or was being threatened. 116 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:19,400 So that all makes sense to me. 117 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:22,500 But it's just an interesting way that they kind of split up the journey between the two of them. 118 00:12:22,500 --> 00:12:28,500 And I like the idea of the Belial needle and it talking and stuff. 119 00:12:28,500 --> 00:12:29,900 That's pretty cool. 120 00:12:29,900 --> 00:12:37,400 But at the same time, it was kind of odd because I don't quite understand what it was doing. 121 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:45,000 I don't quite understand why it has this whole personality and everything except for, you know, the Belial factor interacting with it. 122 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,700 But it's just kind of kind of an odd choice. 123 00:12:47,700 --> 00:12:55,300 And like Haruki having to like mash that button three times in order to do the finishing move with it. 124 00:12:55,300 --> 00:12:56,700 It just felt very toyotic. 125 00:12:56,700 --> 00:13:00,500 And yes, I know this is, you know, glorified toy commercial. 126 00:13:00,500 --> 00:13:03,700 That's what people like to say about Tokusatsu. 127 00:13:03,700 --> 00:13:07,000 But usually it's a lot better. 128 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:13,500 It's just by making the thing look cool and be cool that the toyotic effect of it works. 129 00:13:13,500 --> 00:13:19,200 And it, you know, makes people interested in it. 130 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:25,600 And I think just seeing this weapon be powerful is enough to sell it to people. 131 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:33,300 And the fact that it, you know, talks and has, you know, Belial sayings and the eyes flush and light up and things like that. 132 00:13:33,300 --> 00:13:34,800 To me, that seems cool enough. 133 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:41,000 And without having to resort to this weird, you know, button mash aspect of the toy. 134 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:45,500 Like, I don't know, like I would have hidden the button mash on it. 135 00:13:45,500 --> 00:13:49,100 And I think it would have been better for that. 136 00:13:49,100 --> 00:13:55,700 And also, it's weird that it does like this like heart throb sound when he's mashing the button. 137 00:13:55,700 --> 00:14:02,000 It just again, it all kind of seems weird and off to me and I don't understand what the point was of it. 138 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,500 Except for, you know, the point is to sell toys. 139 00:14:04,500 --> 00:14:08,300 But I just again, I just don't see that as a very effective aspect of it. 140 00:14:08,300 --> 00:14:19,200 I think it being the needle itself being cool looking and, you know, being an effective, very effective weapon for Haruki and Zet. 141 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:24,500 It's cool enough on its own there that I think that's enough merit for it to sell. 142 00:14:24,500 --> 00:14:29,300 And if it doesn't, then I don't know, I guess you didn't do a good enough job. 143 00:14:29,300 --> 00:14:35,100 But, you know, I certainly didn't buy one. 144 00:14:35,100 --> 00:14:40,900 I'm sure I could if I wanted to and I'm not going to. 145 00:14:40,900 --> 00:14:46,300 Because I think it's kind of, you know, well for multiple reasons, but, you know, I'm not compelled to basically. 146 00:14:46,300 --> 00:14:51,200 So if they were trying to sell it to me, it didn't work. 147 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:52,700 But I don't think I'm the target audience either. 148 00:14:52,700 --> 00:14:54,800 So there is that to consider. 149 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,600 But that's all I have to say about this episode. 150 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:01,600 Do you get my objections to the Belial needle? 151 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:07,800 Do you have any any other comments? 152 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:14,900 You see what I was saying about the parallel journey of like facing darkness between or that was shared between Jude and hierarchy. 153 00:15:14,900 --> 00:15:18,200 Let me know what you think about that or anything else that I said. 154 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,500 You can find everything in the show notes. 155 00:15:21,500 --> 00:15:22,500 There's the video version. 156 00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:23,700 There's the audio version. 157 00:15:23,700 --> 00:15:31,500 If you subscribe to the podcast in a pod feeder or whatever, you will get it before it goes up on the website. 158 00:15:31,500 --> 00:15:33,100 Before the video is published. 159 00:15:33,100 --> 00:15:42,100 So there's an incentive for you to go ahead and go to the show notes and find the links to subscribe to it wherever you listen to stuff. 160 00:15:42,100 --> 00:15:45,100 I'm going to add more. 161 00:15:45,100 --> 00:15:54,300 I need to finish adding the podcast to more places, but it's got a basic distribution going right now that you can find on most things. 162 00:15:54,300 --> 00:15:56,000 So check it out. 163 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,600 You can definitely listen to it through a browser if you have to for now. 164 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,200 But that's pretty much all I want to say. 165 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,200 Oh, Ava and the grow bug is officially up. 166 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:09,200 It is my Ultraman inspired story for kids. 167 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:16,700 And it tells a cool story of a little girl and a magical bug facing the darkness together and overcoming fear. 168 00:16:16,700 --> 00:16:19,900 And there's action and adventure and excitement. 169 00:16:19,900 --> 00:16:23,000 And I think if you like Ultraman that you'll like the story as well. 170 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,800 You can find a link to that in the show notes. 171 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:28,500 Anyway, this is MJ. 172 00:16:28,500 --> 00:16:31,700 I want to let you know that I want you to I hope that you are well. 173 00:16:31,700 --> 00:16:32,800 I hope that you be well. 174 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,300 And until next time, folks, take care. 175 00:16:35,300 --> 00:16:38,000 This is me signing out. 176 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,500 I hope you enjoyed that. 177 00:16:39,500 --> 00:16:46,200 Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments or other feedback you might have. 178 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,100 There you can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. 179 00:16:50,100 --> 00:16:55,300 I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime and more. 180 00:16:55,300 --> 00:16:58,900 Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. 181 00:16:58,900 --> 00:17:25,900 This has been a story over everything production.