Olson Week 1

 My Favorite Show I Couldn't Watch

When I was around 4 years old my parents introduced me to this Japanese show called Ultraman. The show takes place in Japan, and every episode a building sized monster shows up. It's up to Ultraman to show up and fight the monster. Since the show came out in the 1960s, it is clear now that the monsters and Ultraman are just people fighting on a stage. Back when I was 4 though, I thought these fights were very realistic. So realistic in fact that I thought the fights were real and that they actually happened. I would say that it was my favorite show growing up. Here’s the funny part, I never even watched a full episode until I was around 8 or 9.

From ages 4 to 8 I would just look up “Ultraman” on YouTube and back then there were only the fight scenes. I would watch the fight scenes and be blown away that beings larger than skyscrapers were clashing in the streets of cities, the dunes of deserts, and the peaks of snow capped mountains. It wasn’t until around my 8th birthday that I received a DvD of the first 13 episodes of the original Ultraman series. I would watch these 13 episodes over and over again.

By the time that all the Ultraman episodes were available everywhere, I had lost interest. My favorite show for about 5 years, and I only ever watched about 20 episodes. I’ll be honest, looking back the original show isn’t the best, however it introduced me to many key aspects of narratives. The suspense of when Ultraman is about to run out of power, the terror of when the monster appears and destroys everything in its path, the resolution of Ultraman defeating the enemy (which he did pretty much every episode). I am very happy that my parents introduced me to Ultraman, and unknowingly introduced me to the Ultra series. Since the 60s new Ultramen would be introduced every few years, all the way up until the present. My favorite is Ultraseven, mostly because he had a cool knife on his head. I suggest you watch this fight scene, because I still think it's awesome. And hey, if it interests you, you can find the episodes of Ultraman and many of the other Ultra series if you look hard enough.