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 am discussing, reviewing,
analyzing, talking about Ultraman Zet episode 18, man. Yeah! So this is the
Ultraman, the second time I'm watching Ultraman Z, because originally I watched
the rerun, re-release on YouTube of the subtitled version of it, and now there's
a dubbed version of it, which I love. It's a great dub, it's really elevating
tokusatsu in my mind because it's making it more accessible to people who are
lazy and don't want to read. You can show it to your kids even though there's a
hell every now and then. There's a, please kill me! It's raising accessibility and
yeah, it's really interesting. So I'm gonna get right into it. I liked this
episode a lot. It made me weirdly nostalgic and I've never seen any of
Ultra Q and I only watched the one episode the one time last year. I think
it was just one time, you know, except for grabbing images or whatever, but I felt
oddly nostalgic watching it. Maybe because Haruki and Kaori were having
nostalgic feelings about the Ferris wheel and riding on it in their
childhood and such. It really struck a chord with me. I think something about
her costume design though was very, I don't know, like evocative or sympathetic,
like almost... Maybe I've seen that character archetype, although if that's...
Was that how she originally looked in that episode from 54 or 56, whatever, 57
years ago now? In Ultra Q, I don't know if that's how the character looked or if
that's just... if she's like a throwback to then and it's a new actress, new
character who blends into that story, who can be woven into that story. Maybe
that's what it is. I don't know. But regardless, she looked like she was from
the past and it was somewhere between a timeless look and a dated look because I
thought I could see, you know, I could expect to see a woman dressing like that.
Maybe the hats a little much, but the whole ensemble... I don't know, it was red
and it was, you know, I think it had primary colors. It was red and blue for sure.
Like she had blue leggings with red shoes and a red umbrella, red hat, but then her
dress, I think it was red, blue, and yellow. So maybe the fact that it was all
primary colors like made her feel more natural, accepted in my mind. I've heard
this thing about color theory in designing characters, like a mascot
character, you want to have red, blue, and yellow on them in order to make them more
appealing and more... well, more appealing. People are more drawn to them and I
wonder if that's why. I don't know. It was very weird and like I... it was funny.
Somebody wasn't patient enough with me because I guess they're checking out my
coverage of Ultraman Zet and they went and found my episode last from, you
know, the Z-Days. They found my episode 18 review and I took a look at it and
it was funny. Some of the stuff that I thought while I was watching the episode
to do screen grabs of, I did back then. So her being like weirdly transparently
naked sort of was weird to me then and it's weird to me now and it just seems
like an odd choice. Like you didn't have to go that far. She could have been in a
black turtleneck. She could have been in a white turtleneck. Like just, you know, I
kind of get what they're going for, but the idea that her soul or whatever is,
you know, it looks like that first of all and that it appears in the limited way
that it does, like that doesn't really make sense. Her... the way they had her like
clawing her way out of the Kaiju, the... I can't remember what it was called.
Keurig? The way she was pulling out of that Keurig, that was interesting. But
anyway, it was a neat episode but it was just... it was weird. Like it had like a
nostalgic feeling even though it's not really nostalgic to me. It had a... like a
quieter vibe. The music seemed different. I wonder if they were using either all
Ultra Q music or just some cues that were from Ultra Q or what, but it
definitely felt like it was of a different time and had a very horror, very
supernatural vibe. The room that they're in where she attacks Yoko that has all
those like tube TVs in it that are turned on to like staticky stations or like
blank screens or whatever that have that weird thing that when you try to take a
picture of like a cheap monitor today or like a TV back in the day how it would
have those like lines going up and down it the camera would capture but your eye
wouldn't capture. Like there's all sorts of weird little things in the episode
like that and even like the shot that they did of her when she was between... of
Kaori between herself and being controlled by the alien. It felt like
Evil Dead. I wonder if I said that a couple years ago when I talked about
this but it looked like... I mean it felt a little bit like Evil Dead. Not to
the full extent obviously but that whole possession being controlled by somebody
else this you know woman unhinged because you know this other thing is
operating through her body. It all felt very much like that and I thought that
was super interesting and like it was a very... it was an interesting shift in the
tone for the episode but you still have our softer hero in Haruki in it which
makes it I think even almost more interesting because it's not like you
like you have Takeshi Hongo in there who's gonna slap that woman around and get her
to relax and you know get the alien out of her. Not that he would do that. Not
that at the... anyway that's totally out of the blue. I don't know why that
occurred to me but just like I think a different protagonist would have
reacted differently to her. Like Shin Hayata I don't think he would have acted
like that and I'm trying to think there was a lady that he and the guys were
with talking about this plant monster thing and I can't remember if she got attacked or not but
just the way that they all dealt with her was interesting. Anyway I don't remember
but that's okay and I'm talking about from the original Ultraman so anyway
it's like episode 7 or 8. It's a cool one but yeah just I would think like an
older like a Showa era hero would have reacted to this woman differently than
Haruki did although they both would have saved her life and protected her like I
mean now I'm thinking about for some reason Otelio Kuronei like he might have
gut punched her and knocked her out to save her life or whatever and then the
aliens still would have woken up anyway which would have been kind of cool.
Just because that's a neat concept. Oh I'm gonna save you by doing this. No no I just
triggered things and I made it worse. So anyway gosh I don't know it was a really
interesting episode with like I said with the tone shifts because like they're
being all sweet and nostalgic and talking about the past and all of a
sudden she's freaking out about aliens and monsters asking to be killed and
like the terror that that gave Haruki was super interesting and I love him I
want to say blanching I love him blanching I love him freaking out
becoming paralyzed by the concept and the you know issue in his face of this
woman asking for him to kill her and even the way he tells Yoko about it
again I could have I imagine an older Showa erotoku hero just saying you know
something was wrong with that woman she asked me to kill her and then the lady
being shocked by that like Yoko was you know respectably and understandably but
the way he even couched it was interesting to me so I don't know why
I'm talking about like the tenor of Haruki as a you know modern I guess
heisei era hero versus like the show I guess because it the Showa aspect of the
show is here with an ultra-q reference being you know deeply involved with this
so that was interesting I also thought it was kind of neat that they decided to
do this anyway I don't know why I guess because it's called challenge from the
year 2020 right and this book or the show aired in 2020 originally so that
makes sense but it's just I mean they didn't have to do it again left alone
and they didn't and I think it made one of the more interesting episodes and
then like Haruki's soft heart causing him to hesitate again and Zed having a
little bit of problem that oh also I love the shot in Zed space when Haruki's
about to transform and he's I think that he's feeling uncertain already and Zed
is standing behind him and he like turns around and like Zed starts to turn
around and I think Haruki turns around and then they're facing each other and
they're talking and it was like it's such a cool simple shot it's interesting
though because Zed is taller than or the suit is taller than Haruki's actor so I
think he is I think he's taller so when he turns around definitely different
body type that's fine anyway when he turns around like he was hidden it felt
like an effect even though I don't think it was effect I think it was just
blocking the way that they maybe he was you know stooping or slightly standing
down or Haruki was on a box or whatever but the way they did that it was really
slick and really cool and I thought it was one of the neatest shots in the
episode and the episode had a bunch of cool shots but then later when Haruki
doesn't want to hurt Kauri when he's fighting alien Keurig I don't know why
they think it's so funny I'm so dumb anyway when Belly Rock appears and
talks to them about hesitating and stuff that seemed like a weird that seemed
weird it felt weird but I didn't mind it overall it's just he's a funny guy
because instead of saying hey I bet it would be interesting to see if I could
cut the two of them apart from each other and save her life for you Haruki
he was like vague about what he was gonna do and you know said something the
long lines of just point me at them and I'll do something or I'll fix it make it
better I don't know his line delivery no line delivery the line delivery is fine
from the voice actor but the the puppetry is way off but the why even
have his mouth move like that it should just open and close to chomp on stuff it
shouldn't open and close for puppet talking it just doesn't work anyway
that's that's my big complaint about the episode but anyway it was kind of weird
I don't know and I don't have like I like Haruki being soft but the way it's
being handled is sort of weird and it feels a little bit off something feels a
little bit off to me and I don't know what it is and I don't know why because
again I like Haruki I like his struggle I like that deconstruction I guess I just
thought they would have been over it already like why didn't Haruki take the
initiative and say you know Belly Rock I've got a challenge for you
separate calorie from curing and Belly Rock you'd be like hmm interesting I'm
not sure I could do that and then Haruki can you know or Haruki can do it or
is that can jump in like yeah Belly Rock I bet you can't do that I mean you know
you're not that sharp I know you're sharp but you're not that sharp are you
and that you would have to be ultra sharp to do that and then Belly Rock
could say well let's find out and then they do it and it would be cool like if
they dig in that angle that would have been cooler like I get in his civilian
form with his gun when she's trying to jam it in her chest and get his hand off
to pull the trigger with her thumb man that was intense I could see him
freaking out there and him being very cautious about pursuing the alien and
stuff going forward but just I know something about the way he dealt with it
I didn't like it I wish it would have taken a different tactic or a different
approach to it I think it would have been better but anyway I think I'm
probably out of time for how much I want to spend on these episodes going forward
so let me just double check my recording real quick and yeah I'm about there so
thanks for sticking around I'm curious as to what you thought of this episode
let me know if you like if you didn't like it if you agree with some of my
issues that I had or if you think I'm crazy and you think it was all golden or
you like those things and not everything I liked was terrible let me know I want
to have a conversation about this and see what we're thinking about the show I
think we can both agree though at the end of the day that this is a fantastic
show and this was a great episode of a great show so stick that in your pipe
and smoke it I guess anyway that is all I have to say until next time folks take
care be well this is MJ signing out a quick addendum before I let the outro
roll look at the screen if you're watching the video look at the screen if
you're listening to the audio version of this look at the pod player podcast
player that you have and I guess I'll throw it on mgmovies.com so you can see
it too I partly picked this image the thumbnail image for the video version in
the 9 by 16 year yeah 9 by 16 with Belly Rock Z and Harkey all looking towards
the camera with Harkey has kind of a funny look on his face because it seemed
to pair very well because the way I've been doing my square thumbnails now for
the RSS feed for the audio only show if you stack two 16 by 9s on top of
each other they make a square basically oh it's almost a square so there's a
frame anyway you don't matter it doesn't you don't care about the technical
parts of it but I have all these images of Kari where she's like ripping
herself out of the alien and she's kind of naked ish and she's you know holding
the ferris wheel and stuff and I have them looking at her I have the way the
images are stacked it looks like they're looking at her quizzically like what are
you doing Kari and I just thought that was kind of funny and I wanted you to
look at that and I want to remind you that if you're subscribed to the audio
podcast feed you're gonna get those episodes first and I'll have a fun
thumbnail with them as well and they'll quickly link to the episode well the
audio gets it first secretly so if you subscribe to that you'll get it with no
show notes like kind of empty show notes if you wait a couple hours for the
official episode to go up with show notes on the website then you can see it
all there and then later after that the videos go up because they're my lowest
priority in terms of getting things published so now you know a little bit of
my secret sauce to my podcasting Empire and yeah you can check out that stuff so
anyway bye 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
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look around you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well
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