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This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work

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at mjmunoz.com. Welcome to Going Ultra. This episode I am discussing, reviewing,

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analyzing, talking about Ultraman Zet episode 18, man. Yeah! So this is the

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Ultraman, the second time I'm watching Ultraman Z, because originally I watched

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the rerun, re-release on YouTube of the subtitled version of it, and now there's

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a dubbed version of it, which I love. It's a great dub, it's really elevating

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tokusatsu in my mind because it's making it more accessible to people who are

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lazy and don't want to read. You can show it to your kids even though there's a

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hell every now and then. There's a, please kill me! It's raising accessibility and

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yeah, it's really interesting. So I'm gonna get right into it. I liked this

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episode a lot. It made me weirdly nostalgic and I've never seen any of

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Ultra Q and I only watched the one episode the one time last year. I think

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it was just one time, you know, except for grabbing images or whatever, but I felt

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oddly nostalgic watching it. Maybe because Haruki and Kaori were having

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nostalgic feelings about the Ferris wheel and riding on it in their

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childhood and such. It really struck a chord with me. I think something about

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her costume design though was very, I don't know, like evocative or sympathetic,

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like almost... Maybe I've seen that character archetype, although if that's...

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Was that how she originally looked in that episode from 54 or 56, whatever, 57

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years ago now? In Ultra Q, I don't know if that's how the character looked or if

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that's just... if she's like a throwback to then and it's a new actress, new

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character who blends into that story, who can be woven into that story. Maybe

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that's what it is. I don't know. But regardless, she looked like she was from

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the past and it was somewhere between a timeless look and a dated look because I

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thought I could see, you know, I could expect to see a woman dressing like that.

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Maybe the hats a little much, but the whole ensemble... I don't know, it was red

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and it was, you know, I think it had primary colors. It was red and blue for sure.

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Like she had blue leggings with red shoes and a red umbrella, red hat, but then her

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dress, I think it was red, blue, and yellow. So maybe the fact that it was all

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primary colors like made her feel more natural, accepted in my mind. I've heard

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this thing about color theory in designing characters, like a mascot

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character, you want to have red, blue, and yellow on them in order to make them more

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appealing and more... well, more appealing. People are more drawn to them and I

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wonder if that's why. I don't know. It was very weird and like I... it was funny.

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Somebody wasn't patient enough with me because I guess they're checking out my

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coverage of Ultraman Zet and they went and found my episode last from, you

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know, the Z-Days. They found my episode 18 review and I took a look at it and

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it was funny. Some of the stuff that I thought while I was watching the episode

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to do screen grabs of, I did back then. So her being like weirdly transparently

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naked sort of was weird to me then and it's weird to me now and it just seems

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like an odd choice. Like you didn't have to go that far. She could have been in a

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black turtleneck. She could have been in a white turtleneck. Like just, you know, I

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kind of get what they're going for, but the idea that her soul or whatever is,

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you know, it looks like that first of all and that it appears in the limited way

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that it does, like that doesn't really make sense. Her... the way they had her like

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clawing her way out of the Kaiju, the... I can't remember what it was called.

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Keurig? The way she was pulling out of that Keurig, that was interesting. But

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anyway, it was a neat episode but it was just... it was weird. Like it had like a

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nostalgic feeling even though it's not really nostalgic to me. It had a... like a

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quieter vibe. The music seemed different. I wonder if they were using either all

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Ultra Q music or just some cues that were from Ultra Q or what, but it

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definitely felt like it was of a different time and had a very horror, very

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supernatural vibe. The room that they're in where she attacks Yoko that has all

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those like tube TVs in it that are turned on to like staticky stations or like

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blank screens or whatever that have that weird thing that when you try to take a

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picture of like a cheap monitor today or like a TV back in the day how it would

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have those like lines going up and down it the camera would capture but your eye

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wouldn't capture. Like there's all sorts of weird little things in the episode

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like that and even like the shot that they did of her when she was between... of

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Kaori between herself and being controlled by the alien. It felt like

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Evil Dead. I wonder if I said that a couple years ago when I talked about

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this but it looked like... I mean it felt a little bit like Evil Dead. Not to

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the full extent obviously but that whole possession being controlled by somebody

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else this you know woman unhinged because you know this other thing is

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operating through her body. It all felt very much like that and I thought that

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was super interesting and like it was a very... it was an interesting shift in the

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tone for the episode but you still have our softer hero in Haruki in it which

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makes it I think even almost more interesting because it's not like you

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like you have Takeshi Hongo in there who's gonna slap that woman around and get her

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to relax and you know get the alien out of her. Not that he would do that. Not

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that at the... anyway that's totally out of the blue. I don't know why that

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occurred to me but just like I think a different protagonist would have

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reacted differently to her. Like Shin Hayata I don't think he would have acted

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like that and I'm trying to think there was a lady that he and the guys were

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with talking about this plant monster thing and I can't remember if she got attacked or not but

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just the way that they all dealt with her was interesting. Anyway I don't remember

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but that's okay and I'm talking about from the original Ultraman so anyway

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it's like episode 7 or 8. It's a cool one but yeah just I would think like an

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older like a Showa era hero would have reacted to this woman differently than

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Haruki did although they both would have saved her life and protected her like I

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mean now I'm thinking about for some reason Otelio Kuronei like he might have

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gut punched her and knocked her out to save her life or whatever and then the

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aliens still would have woken up anyway which would have been kind of cool.

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Just because that's a neat concept. Oh I'm gonna save you by doing this. No no I just

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triggered things and I made it worse. So anyway gosh I don't know it was a really

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interesting episode with like I said with the tone shifts because like they're

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being all sweet and nostalgic and talking about the past and all of a

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sudden she's freaking out about aliens and monsters asking to be killed and

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like the terror that that gave Haruki was super interesting and I love him I

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want to say blanching I love him blanching I love him freaking out

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becoming paralyzed by the concept and the you know issue in his face of this

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woman asking for him to kill her and even the way he tells Yoko about it

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again I could have I imagine an older Showa erotoku hero just saying you know

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something was wrong with that woman she asked me to kill her and then the lady

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being shocked by that like Yoko was you know respectably and understandably but

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the way he even couched it was interesting to me so I don't know why

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I'm talking about like the tenor of Haruki as a you know modern I guess

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heisei era hero versus like the show I guess because it the Showa aspect of the

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show is here with an ultra-q reference being you know deeply involved with this

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so that was interesting I also thought it was kind of neat that they decided to

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do this anyway I don't know why I guess because it's called challenge from the

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year 2020 right and this book or the show aired in 2020 originally so that

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makes sense but it's just I mean they didn't have to do it again left alone

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and they didn't and I think it made one of the more interesting episodes and

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then like Haruki's soft heart causing him to hesitate again and Zed having a

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little bit of problem that oh also I love the shot in Zed space when Haruki's

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about to transform and he's I think that he's feeling uncertain already and Zed

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is standing behind him and he like turns around and like Zed starts to turn

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around and I think Haruki turns around and then they're facing each other and

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they're talking and it was like it's such a cool simple shot it's interesting

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though because Zed is taller than or the suit is taller than Haruki's actor so I

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think he is I think he's taller so when he turns around definitely different

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body type that's fine anyway when he turns around like he was hidden it felt

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like an effect even though I don't think it was effect I think it was just

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blocking the way that they maybe he was you know stooping or slightly standing

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down or Haruki was on a box or whatever but the way they did that it was really

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slick and really cool and I thought it was one of the neatest shots in the

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episode and the episode had a bunch of cool shots but then later when Haruki

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doesn't want to hurt Kauri when he's fighting alien Keurig I don't know why

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they think it's so funny I'm so dumb anyway when Belly Rock appears and

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talks to them about hesitating and stuff that seemed like a weird that seemed

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weird it felt weird but I didn't mind it overall it's just he's a funny guy

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because instead of saying hey I bet it would be interesting to see if I could

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cut the two of them apart from each other and save her life for you Haruki

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he was like vague about what he was gonna do and you know said something the

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long lines of just point me at them and I'll do something or I'll fix it make it

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better I don't know his line delivery no line delivery the line delivery is fine

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from the voice actor but the the puppetry is way off but the why even

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have his mouth move like that it should just open and close to chomp on stuff it

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shouldn't open and close for puppet talking it just doesn't work anyway

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that's that's my big complaint about the episode but anyway it was kind of weird

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I don't know and I don't have like I like Haruki being soft but the way it's

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being handled is sort of weird and it feels a little bit off something feels a

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little bit off to me and I don't know what it is and I don't know why because

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again I like Haruki I like his struggle I like that deconstruction I guess I just

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thought they would have been over it already like why didn't Haruki take the

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initiative and say you know Belly Rock I've got a challenge for you

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separate calorie from curing and Belly Rock you'd be like hmm interesting I'm

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not sure I could do that and then Haruki can you know or Haruki can do it or

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is that can jump in like yeah Belly Rock I bet you can't do that I mean you know

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you're not that sharp I know you're sharp but you're not that sharp are you

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and that you would have to be ultra sharp to do that and then Belly Rock

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could say well let's find out and then they do it and it would be cool like if

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they dig in that angle that would have been cooler like I get in his civilian

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form with his gun when she's trying to jam it in her chest and get his hand off

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to pull the trigger with her thumb man that was intense I could see him

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freaking out there and him being very cautious about pursuing the alien and

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stuff going forward but just I know something about the way he dealt with it

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I didn't like it I wish it would have taken a different tactic or a different

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approach to it I think it would have been better but anyway I think I'm

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probably out of time for how much I want to spend on these episodes going forward

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so let me just double check my recording real quick and yeah I'm about there so

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thanks for sticking around I'm curious as to what you thought of this episode

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let me know if you like if you didn't like it if you agree with some of my

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issues that I had or if you think I'm crazy and you think it was all golden or

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you like those things and not everything I liked was terrible let me know I want

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to have a conversation about this and see what we're thinking about the show I

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think we can both agree though at the end of the day that this is a fantastic

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show and this was a great episode of a great show so stick that in your pipe

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and smoke it I guess anyway that is all I have to say until next time folks take

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care be well this is MJ signing out a quick addendum before I let the outro

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roll look at the screen if you're watching the video look at the screen if

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you're listening to the audio version of this look at the pod player podcast

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player that you have and I guess I'll throw it on mgmovies.com so you can see

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it too I partly picked this image the thumbnail image for the video version in

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the 9 by 16 year yeah 9 by 16 with Belly Rock Z and Harkey all looking towards

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the camera with Harkey has kind of a funny look on his face because it seemed

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to pair very well because the way I've been doing my square thumbnails now for

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the RSS feed for the audio only show if you stack two 16 by 9s on top of

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each other they make a square basically oh it's almost a square so there's a

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frame anyway you don't matter it doesn't you don't care about the technical

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parts of it but I have all these images of Kari where she's like ripping

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herself out of the alien and she's kind of naked ish and she's you know holding

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the ferris wheel and stuff and I have them looking at her I have the way the

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images are stacked it looks like they're looking at her quizzically like what are

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you doing Kari and I just thought that was kind of funny and I wanted you to

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look at that and I want to remind you that if you're subscribed to the audio

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podcast feed you're gonna get those episodes first and I'll have a fun

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thumbnail with them as well and they'll quickly link to the episode well the

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audio gets it first secretly so if you subscribe to that you'll get it with no

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show notes like kind of empty show notes if you wait a couple hours for the

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official episode to go up with show notes on the website then you can see it

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all there and then later after that the videos go up because they're my lowest

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priority in terms of getting things published so now you know a little bit of

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my secret sauce to my podcasting Empire and yeah you can check out that stuff so

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anyway bye I hope you enjoyed that go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions

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comments or other feedback you might have there you can find all of my

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analysis art and fiction I cover books tokusatsu comic books anime and more

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look around you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well

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this has been a story over everything production