Ultraman Mebius Volume 8 DVD
As always, picture quality for the episodes on this DVD is very crisp, crystal clear. I could buy the DVD just for that reason alone.
Spoilers and my opinions/rants/behind the scene screencaps are under the cuts.
I credit episode 29 as the episode that finally made me totally fall in love with this series. (Ironically, I hadn't been keeping up with Mebius for a few episodes before watching this episode for the first time. The upside was I didn't have to suffer through a cliffhanger because I already had episode 30.) This is one episode I'll never get tired of watching. (Sad as it is, there have been quite a few episodes later on that I would rather forget are part of this wonderful series.)
It's cool that the movie song was played when Ultraman Taro fought Imperizer.
Seriously, Mirai is so very naive sometimes. He was lost before he even began to fight because his heart was so totally not in it. It was rather foolish and suicidal to insist on fighting anyway when he was too sad to be leaving his teammates/friends to do the job properly. I'm really afraid to contemplate what might happen to him if Ultraman Taro hadn't come along in time.
And poor Ryuu, his throat must have hurt from all the screaming/shouting he did. (I wonder if Masaki Nishina's voice was dubbed in afterward, so he wouldn't have to scream every time they had to do yet another take for those scenes.)
Episode 30 is not as great, but it is a set with episode 29, so I always watch it right afterward.
I find it totally endearing that Mirai/Mebius seems to do whatever Ryuu tells him to. Ryuu told Mirai to go fight Imperizer, checked. Ryuu told Mebius to use Mebium Shoot, checked. And Ryuu painted the fire on Mirai's communicator. He hadn't done that for anyone else in the team. I can't draw any other conclusion from that gesture except that to Ryuu, Mirai is special.
Ultraman Taro flew away so fast. What was the rush?
I loved the way other Crew GUYS members waited for Mirai at the end. (Incidentally, it was not the first time they had done so, but before they didn't know he was Mebius.)
Episode 31 is a good conclusion to this three-parter. It bugs me that as many times as I've watched that sequence of Mirai falling into a faint, I still can't be 100% certain that Shunji Igarashi did that fall himself. (And I so waited for the behind-the-scene on this, but it wasn't included, much to my disappointment.)
Loved that there was something that outed Mirai as different yet again. Toriyama didn't know how right he was when he wondered if Mirai was an alien. I (like the rest of the team) totally blame Ryuu for Mirai's misunderstanding, however. (Yet another instance where Mirai obeyed Ryuu to a letter.)
The captain was surprised with the birthday party? After revelations later in the series concerning him, I'm not surprised that he claimed not to remember his own birthday.
As a continuation from ep 30, Mirai/Mebius needed the support of his fellow GUYS teammates to transform into burning brave mode.
And Konomi-chan? Can you, like, not practically announce Mebius' identity to all who can hear you?
Episode 32 is one of those episodes that is very heavy on talks, so I didn't appreciate it much a few times I watched it raw. Ever since I had seen it with subtitles, I found it to be a very, very good episode.
I loved that the captain always had the coolest lines. Teppei was saying something along the line that he would be afraid of aliens/ someone who looked different from humans because he (humans) couldn't tell by the alien's outward appearance if the alien was good or bad and Sakomizu replied for that reason people should have the courage to talk/communicate to the alien (presumably before comdemning it as bad).
I think, for the most part, Mirai seems to prefer to follow rules than to break them. This is especially true when he told the Mets Alien Bio that he wouldn't do anything if Bio kept the promise of not waking up the monster. Later on, Bio felt betrayed and sent off the pod containing the monster to destroy the town. As the monster wasn't yet woken, Mirai was undecided as to what to do. He felt it was not his place to step in because this was a matter between Bio and humans. Yet, when Ryuu (indirectly) ordered him to go fight the flying pod, he did. (Again, Mirai listened to Ryuu. :)
The fight in this episode seemed to be there simply to show Bio's rage. In the end Mebius killed the monster just by a simple ray.
Perhaps I'm a little cynical, because I can't quite believe that the preschool kids would all grow up to be great adults their teacher seemed to imply. If, by chance, they all do become adults who would make the world a better place, they are still a small minority to make too much difference. I do like the kids and the trusting way they treated Bio, however.
As for the extras, there was an interview with Yutaka Maido, Maru's actor. Not sure what was said in the interview itself, but some of the behind-the-scene footages (from the birthday party set in episode 31) included throughout were very cool. Here are two I capped:
(I know, I know. They are essentially the same pic, but I really love seeing these two guys goofing around together. (I have two more similar screencaps of them in the gallery too.) Sorry that these are not the best quality. Otherwise, feel free to take, make icons, signatures, whatnots.)
Then there was "Catch the Mebius" part 8. This time, they seemed to interview the guy responsible for setting up the various scenes. The last behind-the-scenes segment focused on episode 32. They showed how to make the rain fall down (and some other stuff that frankly I wasn't very interested in).
Anyway, despite somewhat lackluster extras, this DVD is still well worth the money for me. And I really want to try to make icons out of Mirai & Ryuu on the DVD cover (not likely to happen until I get my scanner fixed, however).
Spoilers and my opinions/rants/behind the scene screencaps are under the cuts.
I credit episode 29 as the episode that finally made me totally fall in love with this series. (Ironically, I hadn't been keeping up with Mebius for a few episodes before watching this episode for the first time. The upside was I didn't have to suffer through a cliffhanger because I already had episode 30.) This is one episode I'll never get tired of watching. (Sad as it is, there have been quite a few episodes later on that I would rather forget are part of this wonderful series.)
It's cool that the movie song was played when Ultraman Taro fought Imperizer.
Seriously, Mirai is so very naive sometimes. He was lost before he even began to fight because his heart was so totally not in it. It was rather foolish and suicidal to insist on fighting anyway when he was too sad to be leaving his teammates/friends to do the job properly. I'm really afraid to contemplate what might happen to him if Ultraman Taro hadn't come along in time.
And poor Ryuu, his throat must have hurt from all the screaming/shouting he did. (I wonder if Masaki Nishina's voice was dubbed in afterward, so he wouldn't have to scream every time they had to do yet another take for those scenes.)
Episode 30 is not as great, but it is a set with episode 29, so I always watch it right afterward.
I find it totally endearing that Mirai/Mebius seems to do whatever Ryuu tells him to. Ryuu told Mirai to go fight Imperizer, checked. Ryuu told Mebius to use Mebium Shoot, checked. And Ryuu painted the fire on Mirai's communicator. He hadn't done that for anyone else in the team. I can't draw any other conclusion from that gesture except that to Ryuu, Mirai is special.
Ultraman Taro flew away so fast. What was the rush?
I loved the way other Crew GUYS members waited for Mirai at the end. (Incidentally, it was not the first time they had done so, but before they didn't know he was Mebius.)
Episode 31 is a good conclusion to this three-parter. It bugs me that as many times as I've watched that sequence of Mirai falling into a faint, I still can't be 100% certain that Shunji Igarashi did that fall himself. (And I so waited for the behind-the-scene on this, but it wasn't included, much to my disappointment.)
Loved that there was something that outed Mirai as different yet again. Toriyama didn't know how right he was when he wondered if Mirai was an alien. I (like the rest of the team) totally blame Ryuu for Mirai's misunderstanding, however. (Yet another instance where Mirai obeyed Ryuu to a letter.)
The captain was surprised with the birthday party? After revelations later in the series concerning him, I'm not surprised that he claimed not to remember his own birthday.
As a continuation from ep 30, Mirai/Mebius needed the support of his fellow GUYS teammates to transform into burning brave mode.
And Konomi-chan? Can you, like, not practically announce Mebius' identity to all who can hear you?
Episode 32 is one of those episodes that is very heavy on talks, so I didn't appreciate it much a few times I watched it raw. Ever since I had seen it with subtitles, I found it to be a very, very good episode.
I loved that the captain always had the coolest lines. Teppei was saying something along the line that he would be afraid of aliens/ someone who looked different from humans because he (humans) couldn't tell by the alien's outward appearance if the alien was good or bad and Sakomizu replied for that reason people should have the courage to talk/communicate to the alien (presumably before comdemning it as bad).
I think, for the most part, Mirai seems to prefer to follow rules than to break them. This is especially true when he told the Mets Alien Bio that he wouldn't do anything if Bio kept the promise of not waking up the monster. Later on, Bio felt betrayed and sent off the pod containing the monster to destroy the town. As the monster wasn't yet woken, Mirai was undecided as to what to do. He felt it was not his place to step in because this was a matter between Bio and humans. Yet, when Ryuu (indirectly) ordered him to go fight the flying pod, he did. (Again, Mirai listened to Ryuu. :)
The fight in this episode seemed to be there simply to show Bio's rage. In the end Mebius killed the monster just by a simple ray.
Perhaps I'm a little cynical, because I can't quite believe that the preschool kids would all grow up to be great adults their teacher seemed to imply. If, by chance, they all do become adults who would make the world a better place, they are still a small minority to make too much difference. I do like the kids and the trusting way they treated Bio, however.
As for the extras, there was an interview with Yutaka Maido, Maru's actor. Not sure what was said in the interview itself, but some of the behind-the-scene footages (from the birthday party set in episode 31) included throughout were very cool. Here are two I capped:
(I know, I know. They are essentially the same pic, but I really love seeing these two guys goofing around together. (I have two more similar screencaps of them in the gallery too.) Sorry that these are not the best quality. Otherwise, feel free to take, make icons, signatures, whatnots.)
Then there was "Catch the Mebius" part 8. This time, they seemed to interview the guy responsible for setting up the various scenes. The last behind-the-scenes segment focused on episode 32. They showed how to make the rain fall down (and some other stuff that frankly I wasn't very interested in).
Anyway, despite somewhat lackluster extras, this DVD is still well worth the money for me. And I really want to try to make icons out of Mirai & Ryuu on the DVD cover (not likely to happen until I get my scanner fixed, however).