Entertainment: You're asked to make a graduation project, but you're asked to film Ultrama

The day after the airing of episode 32 of "Ultraman Mebius", the homepages of major video websites across the internet were almost completely flooded with fan-made content related to the same work.

The shock caused by yesterday's decisive battle, which took place in torrential rain, has not diminished with the passage of time.

Instead, through repeated readings by countless tokusatsu enthusiasts, it has stirred up unprecedented thoughts and waves.

At exactly 12 o'clock, Lao Tang, a top-tier content creator in the Bilibili tokusatsu (special effects) section, updated his personal space on time.

The ultra-long, detailed video is updated on time.

From Blind Xenophobia to Holding Arms Against Oneself! How Did Gu Nan Break Through Historical Barriers Across Fifty Years of Trials and Tribulations?

Less than a minute after the video was uploaded, the number of views skyrocketed exponentially, and the comment section was instantly flooded with colorful text.

【First!】

To be honest, this episode was truly stunning.

I binged it all yesterday, and after the first three episodes were so good I thought it would be a lighthearted slice-of-life story with monster battles, but episode 32 just threw me in for a punch!

[Jack's sequel to his masterpiece is still a masterpiece; is this a masterpiece-making machine? We respect Gu Laozei!]

Is this episode really a masterpiece? I felt incredibly depressed while watching it...

[This section is a hodgepodge of issues including left-behind children, school bullying, indifference and discrimination, and industrial environmental pollution.]

[After all, it's a work posing a question to us; as for the answer, everyone has their own answer.]

The video has no unnecessary intro; Lao Tang's slightly hoarse yet steady and powerful voice, accompanied by a low and sorrowful cello accompaniment, immediately comes into play:

"Hello everyone, this is Lao Tang."

"After calming down all night, let's have a good talk about the 32nd episode that just aired today—'The Legacy of the Monster Messenger'."

"Before the main episodes aired, many friends told me in the comments section that they had just finished watching Burning Warrior Awakening last week and thought that this show was going to fully enter the shonen action and shonen upgrade phase."

"But in the thirty-second episode, director Gu Nan unexpectedly served up a bitter, pungent, yet lingering strong liquor to the entire online audience."

The scene quickly cuts to the dry and desolate Tatara River beach that appeared at the beginning of episode 32.

Young Sakuma Ryo wielded his shovel alone, turning over the dark soil shovel by shovel.

"To fully understand the brilliance of this episode, we must turn our attention back fifty years and revisit that monumental work of thought that stands in the entire history of tokusatsu—episode 33 of Ultraman Returns, 'The Monster Messenger and the Boy'."

Old Tang's voice lowered, and the screen switched to black-and-white clips of past documents.

"The story from fifty years ago is the most stark and painful scar in the entire history of Showa tokusatsu."

"Mr. Jinshan, a weather surveyor from Planet Metz, came to Earth and sealed the monster, but due to severe environmental pollution, his organs failed and he was unable to summon his spaceship again, so he had to stay on Earth."

"However, he did not do nothing during his time on Earth; he took in a destitute human boy named Sakuma Ryo."

"However, after discovering the abnormality of the human boy, the surrounding residents did not show tolerance and acceptance, but rather fear stemming from the unknown and prejudice."

"This fear, fueled by the blind obedience of the group, quickly escalated into group violence against a dying old man and an innocent teenager."

"Ultimately, the innocent investigator fell into a pool of blood the moment the police officer maintaining order pulled the trigger."

"As the seal was broken, the monster Murucci burst out of the ground, and Hideki Go, who witnessed the entire atrocity in the heavy rain, almost had his faith collapse at that moment."

The power of willpower at 80, a simple life is so classic.

That is the true banality of evil—committing evil while treating the victims like monsters.

They strike hard against honest, law-abiding outsiders with no intention of aggression. But against powerful monsters with murderous intent, they run faster than anyone else!

[The scene of Hideki Go standing in the rain watching the monster wreak havoc was truly moving.]

Old Tang, you're right. There were no winners in that episode; only a tragic mess.

[Xunzi, you are right that indifference and even malice between people truly exist and are rampant!]

Old Tang's voice continued, his tone filled with sincere admiration:

"When Gu Nan announced at the pre-production meeting that episode 32 would be a sequel to this story, to be honest, I was on edge."

"Director Gu told us about the background of the original work."

"Jack's 'Fantastic Beasts and the Boy' touches on the issue of racial discrimination in Japanese society."

"The original screenwriter, Shozo Uehara, being from Okinawa, has a deep understanding of this. The persecution of people with Korean surnames in the drama can be seen in connection with the rumors that the Great Kanto Earthquake was caused by Koreans and the persecution of people of Korean descent."

"And it was precisely because Uehara Masazo stabbed too hard in this episode that he was subsequently sidelined."

"It is essentially a work addressing real problems, posing questions about the problems of Japanese society as a whole."

"These kinds of topics, which directly confront the ugliness of human nature and the problems left over from history, are very difficult to write about in subsequent creative works."

"If it is handled too heavily, it will plunge the whole work into a dark and nihilistic quagmire, which goes against the warm and sunny tone that Ultraman Mebius has always maintained."

"But if we force a happy ending to cater to popular tastes, we will fall into the 'muddling through' trope most common in Japanese works—using a few empty words of love and tolerance to forcibly smooth over the bloody historical wounds."

"However, Gu Nan's answer not only maintained the intellectual sharpness of his predecessor, but also, with an almost brutal clarity, completed a textbook-level dialogue of civilizations!"

The video suddenly changed, switching to the opening of episode 32, showing the Metz alien Bio landing on Earth in a giant cargo ship.

"Please look at the logic behind the character of Bio."

"In the first half of the film, Bio displays unparalleled oppression and hostility: he infiltrates the defense network, forces his way into the airspace with the modified monster Zoa Murucci, specifically requests to land in the city, and even issues a harsh ultimatum demanding 20% ​​of the continent's land as war reparations."

"In the eyes of many viewers watching the show for the first time, this is the image of a hegemon who uses the banner of revenge but actually carries out aggression."

"But the first major plot twist that Gu Nan planted in the script lies in Bio's true situation!"

Old Tang pulled up a close-up shot of Bio roaring in the rain in the video.

The alien youth in the picture has a distorted face, and tears mixed with rain are flowing freely.

"Pay attention to Bio's monologue in the rain—he was the only person on this spaceship from beginning to end!"

"He was not an official delegation representing a vast empire at all, and the so-called territorial reparations were nothing more than a pretext he fabricated to inflict pain on humanity."

"In the eyes of the local leaders on Metz, my father, who launched an investigation without authorization fifty years ago and ultimately died a violent death, has long been a scandal that politicians avoid like the plague."

"In order to maintain the so-called dignity of interstellar diplomacy, the Metz Star government chose to completely erase the father's sacrifice."

"On Earth, in order to cover up the heinous acts of civilians and police shooting investigators, this history has also been listed as a top-level forbidden document."

As Old Tang spoke, a chilling undertone crept into his voice:

"Please think deeply about the deeper meaning behind this."

"The leaders of both sides, the rulers of both civilizations, adopted a strikingly consistent attitude when faced with this historical tragedy—to forget and whitewash it!"

"Bio even carried a death sentence from his home planet and traveled alone across the stars to Earth."

"Everything he did was not to plunder resources or seize land, but to etch this tragedy, forgotten by both planets, deeply into the minds of everyone in the most drastic way!"

"He is a vengeful ghost, abandoned by both his era and civilization!"

"This incident was not the collective will of Planet Metz, but rather Bio's personal loss of control—no, his lone struggle. All of this stemmed from his excessive love for his deceased father..."

Holy crap... Bio is so pitiful!

Indeed, no one at the time imagined that the Metz alien Jinshan died indirectly due to Earth's pollution. So how could the Metz aliens really invade Earth for its land?

[So, it seems Ultraman is the same way. They only have three minutes of activity time on Earth, yet they fall so deeply in love with humans...]

[Bio is considered a disgrace by his own home planet and a taboo by the murderer's planet. I'd go crazy too!]

This is not simply a case of bad guys beating good guys; it's a tragic story of individuals crushed by the wheels of history.

Prejudice in people's hearts is a mountain.

Gu Nan's lines were so powerful: "I will engrave tragedy and fear deep into the very marrow of each and every one of you." That line sent chills down my spine. The actor's performance was incredibly powerful...

Both sides are evading history, while only the victims' families are still bleeding—it's all too real.

Old Tang coughed lightly in the video, took a sip of water, and then cut to the second key character of this episode—Aihara Ryu.

"Now that we've talked about Bio, we must focus on the amazing transformation of the character Aihara Ryu."

"If Bio represents the obsession with hatred, then Aihara Ryu in this episode completes a leap in humanity, from a 'soldier who blindly obeys' to a 'guardian bearing the weight of history'!"

The scene shifts to the command center, where Aihara Ryu, upon learning that Bio is controlling monsters using telekinesis, angrily proposes a nighttime assassination plot to Captain Sakami.

"Let's all recall Aihara Ryu's initial reaction."

"Ever since the Bogaru incident, dragons have always carried a deep-rooted stress response and xenophobic instinct when facing extraterrestrial threats."

"In his simple values, all unregistered visitors are enemies, and eliminating invaders is the only duty of the defense force."

"So when he saw the Metz aliens descend with monsters and even demand territory, his first reaction was to annihilate the enemy efficiently and preemptively, and he even proposed an extreme military plan of infiltration and assassination."

"However, Captain Sakakizumi's response at this moment is arguably the most concise and insightful touch in the entire series!"

The video cuts to a close-up shot of Captain Sakami pressing down on Aihara Ryu's shoulder.

In the video, Captain Sakami's voice was gentle yet carried immense weight:

"But you're wrong, Aihara Ryu, this isn't the military."

"I never hoped that you would become a cold-blooded soldier."

Old Tang, in conjunction with the visuals, provided an in-depth analysis:

Please reflect on the weight of this statement.

"GUYS is not a cold-blooded war machine. The duty of the defense force is to protect life and understand the unknown, not to become a weapon that only knows how to kill."

"Captain Sakami did not directly refute Ryu with grand principles, but instead stripped him of his piloting rights and made him and Mirai set foot on the ground to personally investigate and visit the site of the incident fifty years ago."

"This is Captain Sakakizumi's wisdom—to untangle the knot of hatred, one must first see the true picture of history!"

The comments section was filled with expressions of agreement:

Captain Sakakizumi is so kind; this is true leadership!

If the military were to handle this, a single missile strike would completely destroy the situation.

[It seems Captain Sakakizumi must have held off the army, otherwise, with the entire world broadcasting live, the humans wouldn't have taken any offensive measures.]

Sending soldiers to the countryside to investigate the truth was a crucial step, shifting the focus from macro-level confrontation to the micro-level of human nature.

[Aihara Ryu's performance in this episode was truly a complete reimagining.]

Old Tang's voice continued to come:

"In the subsequent field visits, Gu Nan presented the complexity of history to the audience without reservation through two extremely vivid human facets."

"The first profile is of an elderly man who is over seventy years old on the riverbank."

"The old man still vividly remembers the supernatural power displayed by the Metz aliens back then, and the scene of them making the vicious dogs explode on the spot."

Even after fifty years, the fear of being different still lingered on his face.

"The other elderly neighbors, having learned through the Metz aliens' broadcasts that the past crimes were related to them, avoided the defense force uniforms and refused visitors."

What does this tell us?

"This illustrates that group biases and fears of the unknown have a strong inertia and stickiness."

"Even though half a century has passed, the perpetrators of that time, even knowing the evil they committed, still subconsciously evade responsibility and refuse to confront the brutality of the past."

This is what everyday life is like.

[Regarding the inherent weaknesses of human nature.]

[Realistically accurate, Director Gu is really daring to make this film!]

"However, Gu Nan then presented a second profile—the bakery girl, Miss Yangzi, mentioned by the old owner of the ceramics shop."

The scene shifts to a dimly lit ceramics shop, where the old shopkeeper slowly recounts the events of yesteryear.

"When everyone in town treated that orphan like a monster and refused to do business with him, only Miss Yoko would always greet him with a smile and stuff a steaming loaf of bread into the boy's dirty hands."

Old Tang's voice became especially gentle here:

"Look, everyone, this is Gu Nan's profound understanding of human nature."

"Human society has never been a flat, black-and-white existence."

"This land can breed the banality of evil, which leads to blind obedience and violence, but it can also produce pure and warm flowers of kindness in the darkest corners."

"The bewilderment Aihara Ryu felt when he walked out of the ceramics shop was the beginning of the reconstruction of his worldview."

"He began to realize that the planet before him was full of contradictions and divisions, and what he was protecting was humanity that still struggled towards goodness amidst this division!"

Ms. Yoko is so simply kind.

Even if only one person in the whole town is willing to give bread, it's still a ray of light in the darkness.

At this point, Brother Long began to waver, realizing that his previous thinking had been too simplistic and crude.

[This investigative scene is concise and to the point; the two elderly people and their contrasting attitudes effectively convey the weight of history.]