This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Welcome to Going Ultra.
This episode I'm calling Ultra Finger.
I'm reviewing Ultraman Zet episode 17, which features piracy, shifting allegiances, and burning fingers!
This episode was a lot of fun.
Barossa is a riot, at least that's what I think, and I want to know what do you think about it.
So, I've got a few topics to go through to discuss these elements I brought up.
Ultra Tot is here, so if you hear any weird things going on, it's because I'm being interfered with.
Anyway, so, by a two-foot titan? Anyway, here we go.
So, Barossa 2. Alien Barossa we learned at the end of the original Barossa episode, which was, I don't know, nine or something like that.
Maybe it's ten where he gets killed. Anyway, he has millions of siblings, millions of brothers and sisters, you know, who hatched along with him, I guess.
Cuz that's as he knows that they, you know, lay a million eggs at a time or something like that.
And so he comes back, he's deadly, he's funny in a different way, he's like a lot meaner and more menacing, but also more comical.
And he's like, instead of doing slapstick and quieter comedy and being real sinister, he's like a jerk.
And he's real intimidating and he kind of does trash talk, which is kind of fun.
And he says multiple times some iteration of, I'm a pirate, of course I'm going to cheat, you're an idiot if you think I won't.
And that was a lot of fun. So, Belly Rock, and I'm going out of order with this, Belly Rock is interesting.
He's flippant, he's, how do you say, he's choosy about who he works with, which is where the Shifting Allegiance has come in.
He works with Alien Barossa 2, or Barossa 2. He works with Juggler at one point in the episode.
And then he goes back ultimately to Haruki. And the most interesting thing about Haruki, the thing that keeps him hooked to Haruki,
is that Haruki is going to be interesting for him because he doesn't know what he'll end up putting himself up against.
Because Haruki is basically, you know, heroically willing to sacrifice himself.
So Barossa, no Belly Rock rather, sees that as an opportunity to put himself up against something real big, real bad, real scary,
that he can slice through as he's want to do. And that's interesting.
The reason I, I think I said Belly Rock's fame is the topic here, is because according to Juggler,
Belly Rock is a known quantity, a known entity, and I guess he wasn't born in the void of Grizza when Jid went in there with his belly-ell factors,
which confuses me because I thought that's explicitly what they said happened in the episode.
So I guess that was wrong, and I guess he actually is a known quantity.
He's a thing that's been around for some time, and he's this powerful entity that Juggler would want to use.
Because it sure sounds like that's what he said. Now, was there some sort of translational error?
Was that kind of a flub on the writing? Kind of a plot hole, I guess you could say,
because they weren't paying attention to the fact that, you know, Belly Rock was born in the void of Grizza?
I don't quite know, but that struck me as odd.
But it was, you know, regardless of whether or not he's a known quantity that's been around for a long time,
and now Juggler can get his hands on him, or he's something newly forged, but he's still interesting and powerful,
and, you know, he and Juggler basically have the same mindset as far as their allegiances are concerned.
They just want to do what interests and pleases them. That is cool. Either way, just the discrepancy kind of freaked me out.
I love that both Yuko in Windom and Delta Riseclaw Zet do, essentially, the G Gundam finisher, burning finger or god finger, whatever you call it.
And I absolutely loved it. The way, like, just the visual language of everything when Windom did it with Yuko,
it totally read like she was doing, like she was Domo and doing the burning finger.
And I'm a huge G Gundam fan. Ah! I have a G Gundam podcast called King of Hearts, Queen of Sorrows,
and I need to get that officially on a feed like I have, you know, the professional official feed like I have for Writer Tears,
my Kamen Rider show, that's newly, that's new, and, you know, Going Ultra, which goes back a little while.
But it's fabulous. I actually love the show. It's so good. There's so many things to praise about it.
And the visual reference in here was good. And we got it not once, but twice.
Because later when Haruki gets real fed up and he activates Delta Riseclaw, he is holding Barossa by the head.
And yeah, he's going to wail on him with his other hand. But like the visual language of it was almost identical.
And he's got glowing eyes that are spitting lightning and stuff. And it's just super cool.
Oh, yeah, which my next topic was burning finger again. And yeah, so he does it too, essentially.
And it's really great. So I definitely love that. And then I thought it was interesting that Juggler has this dilemma.
He specifically states that he's only interested in doing his own thing, but doing what pleases him.
And he's not trying to be good. He's not trying to save people's lives. He's not trying to fight for justice or anything like that.
But then again, he does pursue Haburagi. And he, I think, pursues him earlier in the episode.
He interferes with Barossa trying to get Veliorok and takes it for himself.
As you can see, that's him totally acting for himself. But then I guess to satisfy his curiosity, totally not to be kind of a good guy or anything like that.
Then he kind of goes after, which maybe he does say something about being bored again.
But I was rewatching an older episode, so it might have been in that one where he goes to Haburagi's workplace.
Anyway, but he follows Haburagi and then he sees Celebro jump from Haburagi into another guy.
And he just watches Haburagi get arrested, even though he's an innocent man, which kind of sucks.
But it's also kind of in character for him. But then, like, he doesn't seem... he's not making any sudden moves.
He's taking it slowly. And I don't know what he's going to do, but he's going to do something about this guy.
But, you know, I don't know what it is. It seems like he...
It seems like there's some sort of quandary or dilemma or like uncertainty within him.
And I find that kind of intriguing, although it's a little frustrating at the same time, but it doesn't really bother me.
And then Celebro's next move, like I said already, Celebro has abandoned Haburagi and he's gone into another guy,
which shocked me because I would think he'd want to keep that actor doing the role the whole time.
But, you know, they're changing things up. They're making it more interesting.
And he's going to have a different host for himself now, which is cool.
And I don't know if he's a higher or lower official in Gafch, the Global Alliance, something Japan...
Global Allied Forces Japan. So, you know, that's interesting to consider. Hold on. Hold on. Here.
Hey, ultra top. Here. No, hold it like this.
Both like that. Yeah. Yep. You got it. You got it. All right.
Anyway, so that's pretty cool. And I do like that.
So I definitely really enjoyed this episode. I feel like the show's, you know, getting back to where I want it to be.
I love the moral question and I love how it kind of did this deconstruction and reconstruction to build up, you know,
Zet and Haruki into this ultra hero. And now that they're done with that, I'm ready for them to move on to the next stage.
And that's what it feels like is happening in this section of the show.
So anyway, thank you very much for your time and attention and check out the show notes for all the good stuff that you will find there.
Until next time, folks, be well. This is MJ signing out.