why I love Ultraman

written By Ethan

Edited by Kwame Obiri-Addai

 Ultraman (for those who don’t know) is a Japanese special effects ( or tokusatsu) super-hero show

about a race of alien giants of light that patrol the galaxy, protect peace and fight massive monsters

along the way. Each season focuses on a new Ultra that has found their way to earth, just as the

planet’s specialist team starts having a real issue combatting a new wave of colossal creatures. 

the original ultraman

The show’s approach of having the Ultras all be connected but working in different universes is great.

It allows the series to remain  friendly to new viewers while also building a more expansive lore for 

longtime fans. This also means that each new series is forced to find fresh and clever ways of reusing

monsters from past series because while new fans may not have any idea about the iconic monsters

showing up, for veteran fans, this could be the 5th time witnessing Ultraman battle this same foe.

There's only so much the reactions of the new ultra can bring to the experience to keep it fresh but

that's enough with the general background information.

 

For me personally, the moment I went from liking Ultraman to loving it came during the pandemic.

At the very end of 2019, I had been diagnosed with an incurable eye condition that would slowly

worsen my vision, leading to early on in the pandemic, when I was told by doctors that my right eye

had gotten to the point where I needed an operation to stop things getting any worse. Due to the

pandemic (and a number of factors caused by it), it would take a full year before I could finally have

this operation. So with my family and I unsure on whether i'd be able to see 2021 (literally) my spirits

and mental wellbeing hit an all-time low. I didn’t know what to do. 

It was at this point that I heard the news of Tsuburaya productions (creators of Ultraman) deciding

that as part of their grand push outside of Japan, they would upload their latest season, Ultraman Z 

to YouTube for free, fully subbed in English as well as a number of other languages, and would do so

only hours after the episodes aired in Japan. 

This ended up having a huge impact on me. Knowing that if I could make it to the end of the week,

I would be able to join thousands of other Ultra fans and watch the latest adventure of Z

(pronounced Zett) and his human host Haruki not only became one of the things I looked forward

to the most each week, it was also a sign that my eyes had not gotten notably worse.

“I'm doing alright, things haven't gotten that bad yet, i'm still able to watch Z with everyone” is what

I told myself when I was feeling low.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget having to try and contain my excited screams while watching the final episode

to avoid waking the rest of my family up during the moments in the final battle when the villain’s trump

card hits Z and Haruki so hard that they revert back into their basic form, leaving them motionless and

collapsed on top of a building. It’s not until they hear the rest of the cast cheering them on do they get

back up and win the day. Ultraman seasons normally run for 25-ish episodes a year so I knew

I wouldn’t have my weekly Z episode to keep me going. This final note of never giving up and

showing resilience especially when you have people cheering you on, resonated with me deeply It felt 

like Z and Haruki were speaking to me directly, telling me not to give up just because they

were leaving. Surely I'd be able to sort my eye operation out soon.

And about 5 months after Z's final episode aired, I did. 

Finding a show at just the right time for it to really emotionally land with you in a deeper way than

no other show has, isn't something many people get to experience and I'm extremely lucky to have

Z come out when it did, because the bond I have with that season really embodies why I love ultraman.

While it tells grand sci-fi stories about giant aliens battling giant monsters, it always does so with heart

and humanity. 

Ultraman Z asking Haruki to chant his name as part of their transformation

If you’re interested in checking out Ultraman yourself, here is a link to the official YouTube channel. Ultraman Z, Trigger and the currently airing Ultraman Decker are all there too: https://www.youtube.com/@ULTRAMAN_OFFICIAL

an Ethan Classic : "Top 5: Underappreciated YouTube Channels that Deserve Your Time"

written By Ethan

Edited by Kwame Obiri-Addai

Originally written May 18, 2019 for polypoint

So with exams and final coursework deadlines fast approaching, let’s talk about five YouTube channels that are very much worth procrastinating that ever-dwindling time with. These are all channels that have (at time of writing) under one million subscribers and regularly produce high quality content.  

5. Project Mouthwash 

An abridged series, for the uninitiated, is a fan parody that seeks to also tell the same story but in a shorted time re-editing and re-dubbing the original show to do so. Some of these series even set out to improve the original. Out of the five channels to make up this list, Project mouthwash has the slowest upload schedule. This is a common issue with the abridging community because of two very simple reasons:

1. It takes quite a while to make an abridged episode 

 2. Dealing with the Lovecraftian nightmare that is YouTube’s copyright system, which presents itself as a frequent annoyance for abridged channels and slows down their releases. That said, Project Mouthwash consistently are about to get at least one new abridged video at a reasonable rate and frequently update fans on their social media as to the current status of their next episode release.  

Producing content for over 4 years now, there two main series are Bleach (s) Abridged and Fate/Stay Night UBW Abridged, with the latter being the more recent. Both sport fantastic voice acting and sharp witty writing. 

If any of what you have just read made you want to check them out then I strongly recommend their Fate/Stay Night UBW abridged series. Not only did it introduce me to the world of Fate/Stay Night (a franchise now very close to my heart) but as the newer series, it also has less for you to catch up on. Check out my favourite video of theirs by clicking here.

4. ComicPOP

ComicPOP, as the name suggests, is a comic book YouTube channel and is  host to a wide range of comic book discussion series podcasts and other fun superhero things. But ComicPOP’s main show is Back Issues. In this series, Sal or his wife Tiffany, who run the channel, sit down with their friends Ethan & Ben (who know very little about comic books) and explain to them a particular story arc/event. Currently, ComicPOP have been making videos for at least 7 years and have managed to get into a consistent uploading schedule with new videos three times a week. 

If you have an interest in getting into comic books then I strongly recommend ComicPOP’s main show Back Issues. Check out my favourite video of theirs by clicking here. 

3. Jesse Cox

Jesse is many things - a twitch streamer, lets-player with a daily upload schedule, a member of the Scary Game Squad (a series in which Jesse and three friends play scary games), the namesake of Coxcon (a convention he started to interact with his British fans) and a founding member of the Gentleman’s Hentai Club (a series in which he and a friend hilariously review old Hentai), I instead I would like to draw your attention to a video Jesse made a few weeks ago, in which he sits down and explains his plans and intentions for the future of the channel. The main strength of the channel is Jesse himself and hearing him talk earnestly about his plans gives a good impression of him and the channel itself. Check it out by clicking here. 

2. Overly Sarcastic Production

Overly Sarcastic Production is an edutainment channel run by two individuals named Red and Blue who make “Sarcastic, yet informative, summaries of classic and not-so-classic literature and mythology, as well as major historical events”, to quote their channel description. Red takes the literature and mythological and Blue the historical, all of which are amazingly entertaining in their own right. While I would love to gush on about how much I’ve binged their summaries time and time again, their video “How to Do Research”, in which Red explains the proses she uses to research the relevant subjects for a video, also includes a lot of useful tips that can easily applied to essay writing. Check it out by clicking here.

1. Fact Fiend - with Karl Smallwood

And rounding out this top 5 list we have Fact Fiend, run by Karl Smallwood, who makes videos about the various articles he has written. This includes things like That Time Elvis's Crotch Almost Caused a Riot , Superman Almost Had a Beard in Justice League and People Can't Stop Arguing About the Size of Superman's Package. Covering not only all areas of pop culture but history as well, Karl and his camera man/editor Brad are bound to have covered something you are interested in but also something you didn’t know. Check out my favourite video of theirs by clicking here.