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Ultraman Z Episode 18 Rechallenge from the Year 2020 – October 24, 2020
Writer: Jun Tsugita
Director: Takanori Tsujimoto
While investigating the curious case of a vanishing monster. Haruki meets Kaori, a mysterious woman glaring at an old ferris wheel. Meanwhile, people are going missing from the town one after another…
What’s the truth behind the case? And just who exactly is Kaori?
ULTRA-BAD
-Is this a little soon to revisit Haruki’s reticence to fight and kill?
-Kaori being kind of naked felt unnecessary. This sort of thing works way better in animation, or anime specifically. I found it distracting and weird. If they made more of her skin pure white, so as to obscure it that would have made sense. I think the point is to emphasize her humanity and increase Haruki’s anguish, but I have a hard time separating adult nudity from sexuality. I am sure my eldest would be made uncomfortable by those moments. I wonder how it came across for kids in Japan.
ULTRA-COOL
-Kemur’s design is great. The fur, the long fingers, the cracks in the head and how they interplay with the eyes. It is a foreboding, alien look. I even like the unearthly gait of his run.
-When Kemur starts to emerge from Kaori I got strong Deadite vibes. If you have seen Army of Darkness or Evil Dead 2, you know exactly what I mean.
ULTRA-GOOD
-All the night scenes were a lot of fun. Playing with the darkness aloud for some beautiful scenes, like when Z’s face is reflecting in the water as Haruki is unable to commit to killing Kaori trapped in Kemur.
-Yoko going inside of the fairground, I presume, with the shut down carousel looked really good. There was so nice creepy music that made the scene feel tense and it felt like peak X-Files as Haruki was trying to get to her, but was just too late.
ULTRA-DEEP
-We have learned that Kaiju are people too from the Red King incident. Haruki couldn’t go through with killing Kaori to stop the abduction of so many people by the Kemur Rain. Beliarok was so itchy to slice SOMETHING that he resigned to separating Kaori from Kemur, just to get at Kemur. What is the moral calculation here? I am sure Kaori is glad to be alive, but she did ask Haruki to kill her to stop Kemur before. How does all that balance out?
Best case scenario: Kemur stops its evil, lets Kaori and all the others go and returns to his race to enlighten them and it all works out well.
Worst case scenario: Z brutally kills Kemur and Kaori and all the vanished people remain missing. Kemur’s kin eat them or merge with them and they are lost from Earth forever.
Second best: What happened in the episode: the good are saved and the bad is destroyed.
Haruki and Z are de facto heroes because they were able to save all the good and get rid of the bad, but they couldn’t have done it without Beliarok and he did it for a selfish reason. What if Haruki had just shot Kaori and been done with it? Would that have been heroic? What if Kaori had succeeded in killing Kemur by herself? Would that have been heroic?
ULTRA-RANK
3/5Ultraman Z 18 Rechallenge from the Year 2020 has some neat things going for it, but overall I found it lacking. Kemur tells Haruki “You’re like me” when it senses the presence of Z within him. It is a neat moment and an interesting parallel, but I don’t know that it amounts to much. It seems like a soft retread of Red King and Horoboros and it feels too soon to me. The creepiness and atmosphere were fun, but not quite enough to distract me from how these theme of equality and the burden of choosing to kill are being belabored. It doesn’t feel like a foundation is being laid, it feels like we’re running in circles.
#Tokusatsu #Ultraman #UltramanZ #review
Check out my coverage of The Rise of Ultraman and The Trials of Ultraman.
Brand Echs Video Player
Watch the lead-in to Ultraman Z, Ultra Fight Galaxy: The Absolute Conspiracy:
There were some cool references I caught because I watched TAC after realizing Z and TAC connect.
Watch Ultraman Z:
Series Synopsis
Once, shards of evil called “Devil Splinters” were scattered across space, throwing the galaxy into chaos. At that time, Ultraman Z, a new member of the Inter Galactic Defense Force who sought out Ultraman Zero as a mentor, comes down to Earth while chasing the Ferocious Space Shark Genegarg. On Earth, the Anti-Monster Robot Force STORAGE is formed to face down the monsters that appear on a daily basis. In his first battle, Z merges with Haruki Natsukawa, a new pilot of STORAGE. Together, they rise up to protect the peace! However, behind the scenes, the parasitic lifeform Celebro has set a terrifying plot into motion…
#UltramanZ #UltramanGeed #UltramanZero
【Blu-ray release information in North America】
The Ultraman Series is now being released on Blu-ray in North America by Mill Creek Entertainment.
Official Global HP: https://en.tsuburaya-prod.co.jp/
Official North America HP: https://ultramangalaxy.com/
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tsuburayaglobal
Official Twittter: https://twitter.com/tsuburayaglobalUltraman Z Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraman_Z
MJ Muñoz 