sbdcsierra Chapter 49 The Wolf Is Coming? — *Go! Monster Expedition*
Chapter 49 The Wolf Is Coming? — *Go! Monster Expedition*
Chasing Light Studio, in the western suburbs of Jinghai.
As the plot of "Ultraman Tiga" progressed smoothly, the entire production team operated without any major setbacks.
Gone is the somber, tragic, and even terrifying atmosphere of the previous episodes; in its place is the noisy chatter of several children.
"Cut! Stop!"
Gu Nan, holding the megaphone, rubbed his temples with a hint of helplessness.
Before him stood four young actors dressed in shorts, carrying small backpacks, and looking quite professional. They were the "Monster Expedition Team" that Gu Nan had selected from hundreds of interviewees.
"Xiao Gao, that expression just now was off."
Gu Nan walked up to the tall man playing the "troublemaker leader" and patiently explained the scene to him.
"Have you ever read a fairy tale? Once upon a time, there was a little boy who liked to shout 'Wolf!' while herding sheep..."
"Isn't that the boy who cried wolf?"
"Yes, you're in a 'crying wolf' situation right now. You clearly saw the monster, but the adults don't believe you. You need to show 'grievance' and 'urgency' instead of fear. Understand?"
"Director Gu, but that monster... it looks kind of funny."
The tall man pointed to the actor next to him who hadn't put on his costume yet and couldn't help but laugh.
The monster in this episode—the acid monster Litmarus—does indeed look a bit like a melted ice cream.
Moreover, its head is at the bottom, making it look dull and stupid.
"Be serious!"
Gu Nan put on a serious face, but a smile played on his lips. "Although this episode is a light-hearted episodic one, its core themes are profound. 'Trust crisis' and 'environmental pollution' are the two major weapons of this episode."
Episode 24: "Go! Monster Expedition Team".
This is the calm before the storm.
Gu Nan knew very well that the following plot would lead directly to the first season finale.
Before that desperate final battle, he needed to use an episode filled with childlike fun, satire, and warmth to soothe the audience's tense nerves.
At the same time, it is also a lighthearted response to those who have always questioned whether tokusatsu dramas are "too heavy".
……
Friday, 8 PM.
Bilibili's Ultraman Tiga section became lively right on time.
After the previous episodes bombarded viewers with their exploration of humanity, dreams, and environmental protection, they have developed the habit of "watching dramas with their brains."
However, when the title of this episode, "Go! Monster Expedition Team," popped up, everyone was still taken aback for a moment.
[This title has a sudden change in style!]
[An expedition team? Is this going to be a children's program?]
[Don't rush, don't you understand Director Gu's tactics? The more childish it looks, the more ruthless it is.]
The video begins.
There was no familiar TPC command center.
The scene depicts a peaceful rural town.
At the beginning of the video, Daigo and Horii smell a foul odor, like car exhaust, in a tunnel.
In order to investigate this matter, they came to a small town.
the other side.
A group of kids riding bicycles, wearing homemade periscopes and holding "treasure maps," were seriously wandering through the woods.
They call themselves the "Monster Expedition Team," but they're actually the town's notorious troublemakers.
The kids went out as soon as the Victory Team patrol car came into view.
Their clothes had their own symbols and flags, making them look just like a regular army.
Then several firecrackers were thrown onto the patrol car!
Crackle!
"They're firecrackers."
"You little brats!"
Horii was somewhat annoyed.
However, these agile children are not something that Horii, a slightly chubby research-oriented person, can handle!
The camerawork is light and breezy, and the background music is a whimsical orchestral style.
They seem to be just a bunch of unruly kids...
However, as the plot progresses...
"Captain, report! Unidentified gas detected!"
The chubby boy was holding a "detector" made from a Coke bottle and shouting at a cloud of white smoke.
The smoke carried a pungent, sour odor, and wherever it passed, leaves withered and vegetation died.
There was also a strange, loud breathing sound...
Haha, you little rascal!
Wow, isn't that assaulting a police officer?
[This smell...it's pungent even through the screen.]
[Sulfuric acid vapor?]
These kids acted so naturally; it reminded me of the silly things I did when I was a kid.
However, the plot quickly shifted from lighthearted to a satirical take on reality.
When the children ran to tell Daigo and Horii, who were patrolling nearby, they were mistaken for playing a prank.
"Monsters? Where are the monsters?"
Horii looked at the empty woods, then at the group of "habitual offenders" who kept running to the police station, and shook his head helplessly. "Go away, kids, don't cause trouble. We're busy."
Not only the Victory Team, but even the town's police and passing workers scoffed at the children's words.
"These kids, they said they saw aliens last time, but it turned out to be a plastic bag."
"Exactly, if someone keeps crying 'wolf,' who's going to believe them?"
On the screen, children stood by the roadside, covered in dust, watching the busy but indifferent backs of adults.
The tall man who was leading the group clenched his fists tightly, his eyes filled with tears, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall.
"There are clearly monsters... why doesn't anyone believe us?"
This scene instantly touched the hearts of countless viewers.
[This is so true. I saw a thief when I was little, and when I told my parents, they insisted I was mistaken and said kids shouldn't worry about things they shouldn't. That feeling of not being trusted is worse than being beaten up.]
This is a modern version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Adults always judge children based on their own experience, forgetting that sometimes children's eyes are the clearest.
However, children may not lie intentionally, but they can talk nonsense! We still need to properly educate these kinds of children.
……
The plot continues to unfold.
Although no one believes it, the monster does not cease to exist just because adults ignore it.
The cloud of highly acidic smoke began to spread.
On the highway, car tires were corroded and burst; the GG signs on the roadside hissed in the acid mist, and the paint on them dripped down like tears; high-voltage power lines were also corroded and broke, causing a major power outage in the entire town.
The victorious team finally realized something was wrong.
Ye Rui was analyzing data at the base when his expression changed: "The concentration of acidic substances in that area is beyond the standard! This composition... looks like a high concentration of car exhaust fumes!"
"Car exhaust?" Captain Megumi frowned.
In the long-peaceful era depicted in the drama, people lamented that the public nuisances of the past seemed to have been absent from human sight for a very long time.
Even at the University of Tokyo, this term hasn't been heard for a long time.
After all, the proportion of electric vehicles is gradually surpassing that of gasoline vehicles, and with the environmental management efforts of the University of Tokyo, air pollution has gradually faded from people's view.
Moreover, in the original world, this episode is set in 20th-century Japan.
At that time, the economy developed rapidly, largely thanks to industrial development, but the neon lights also faced serious environmental pollution.
The Xiongmen floods of 1956 and the April 1961 sulfide air pollution incidents, among others, all demonstrate this point.
Beginning in the latter half of the 1970s, with the revision of Japan's air pollution control law, the government successively imposed total emission limits on sulfur oxides. By the 1990s, when Ultraman Tiga was filmed, the actual total emissions of sulfur oxides had just dropped to about 500,000 tons, accounting for one-tenth of the peak in the 1960s.
At the time, this episode was a retrospective of the painful history after sulfur oxides were brought under control.
This episode, set in Xia Country, also evokes memories of the severe air pollution that occurred more than a decade ago.
As soon as this line was uttered, the viewers in the live chat who were still wondering "Is this a boy who cried wolf?" instantly realized what was going on.
[Good grief, another environmental protection bureau propaganda video?]
So, can car exhaust produce such concentrated acid?
【Car exhaust contains sulfides, and sulfur oxides are just sulfuric acid, right?】
[Eating exhaust fumes? This monster is using Earth's lungs!]
It hasn't been confirmed that it's a monster yet!
[666, how could Ultraman Tiga not have monsters? This is definitely confirmed!]
[The irony is off the charts! Humans created pollution, and now that pollution has turned into monsters that eat people!]
Just then, the monster Littlemarus finally revealed its true form.
This is a monster with an extremely "random" appearance.
It's like a lump of sentient mud, its body riddled with holes like lunar craters, flowing with white acid. With every step it takes, it corrodes the ground, creating a large pit.
Two enormous tentacles swung back and forth, splashing out even more acid.
Wang Kai's art team used a special "fluid effect" here.
The monster's skin is not fixed, but flows slowly like lava.
The viscous, disgusting, and corrosive texture was enough to make one's scalp tingle.
A monster appeared on the highway.
It opens its huge mouth, like a vacuum cleaner, greedily sucking in the exhaust fumes from passing vehicles, while the white acidic fumes it exhales corrode the surrounding buildings.
The monster then let out a satisfied burp.
"boom--!"
The monster burped and spewed out a thick stream of acid.
A delivery truck that happened to be passing by was instantly corroded down to its frame!
Holy crap! That's powerful!
[Physical dissolution? That's way too crazy!]
Where are those adults who didn't believe in children? Come out and show yourselves!
……
Daigo finally arrived at the scene in his car and led the group of children away from the monster's rampage, heading towards the tunnel leading to the town.
At headquarters, Horii looked at the rampaging monster in that small town, his eyes filled with guilt.
"If only I had believed those kids sooner..."
Horii gritted his teeth and quickly adjusted the "alkaline neutralizing bomb" in his hand.
But it's too late to regret it now.
The monster is approaching the city.
The adults were running away and screaming.
After settling the children in, Daigo looked at the scene and his eyes instantly hardened.
He hid behind a tree and raised his magic wand.
"Tiga!!"
A burst of light!
Ultraman Tiga makes his appearance.
At the tunnel entrance, the children saw the monster being kicked away by Tiga!
This time, Tiga's appearance wasn't accompanied by the usual divine descent background music, but rather by the children's joyful cheers.
"It's Ultraman Tiga! Ultraman Tiga has come to save us!"
Battle is imminent.
But this acid monster is extremely difficult to deal with.
When Tiga punched it, it felt like he had punched a lump of super glue.
The fist sank into the monster's flesh, and when it was pulled out, it was covered in stringy slime, and the acidic substance on it made Tiga's hand sizzle as it corroded it.
"just!"
Tiga shook his hand in pain.
The monster seized the opportunity to retaliate, spewing out a jet of high-pressure acid.
"Sizzle sizzle—"
The acid sprayed onto Tiga's body was so corroded that cracks appeared on his body, from which photon blood flowed out!
Holy crap! This monster's defenses have been breached?!
[Spell penetration? This acidity is ridiculously high!]
【No way, even Ultraman couldn't withstand it?!】
[Tiga, watch out! This stuff will make you skinned alive if you get it on you!]
The situation was extremely critical at one point.
Even the children in the tunnel were cheering, trying to drive away the monster with firecrackers!
Crackling sounds!
The sound attracted the monster's attention!
Tiga switched to his powerful form and tried to throw the monster away with brute force.
In the original work, Tiga switches to his aerial form.
However, Gu Nan felt that against this type of monster, agility was not as useful as strength.
Therefore, Daigo's happy-go-like personality will still be featured.
But the monster was limp and had no foothold.
Instead, it clung to Tiga like a piece of chewing gum, its two whips lashing out fiercely, and its body's orifices secreting acidic fluid frantically.
The red light on Ultraman Tiga's chest began to flash.
Just then, Horii, who had arrived in a plane, shouted, "Tiga! Sorry to keep you waiting!"
A modified, giant launcher was aimed at the monster's body, which was spewing poison gas.
"Taste the flavor of science! Horii's special! Specially formulated high-alkali neutralizing bomb!"
"Bang!"
"Please, unleash your full power!!"
The cannonball struck the monster's body hole with pinpoint accuracy.
Just as Horii hoped, the acid-base neutralization reaction occurred instantly.
The monster's body swelled violently, and a gurgling, boiling sound emanated from within.
The flowing acid gradually solidified.
The monster struggled painfully, its movements becoming stiff.
Ultraman Tiga seized the opportunity.
Since you're sour, I'll heat you up!
Toxic substances must be completely eliminated!
Tiga leaped backward, gathering crimson, high-heat energy in his hands in front of his chest.
Dirashum Light Stream!
"boom--!!!"
The crimson orb struck the already stiffened monster.
With a loud bang, the acid monster melted completely under the combined impact of high temperature and chemical reaction, turning into harmless powder.
There was no flying blood and flesh, only dust like lime powder slowly drifting down.
……
The battle is over.
sunset.
Daigo and Horii stood beside the school bus, watching the group of children who had survived the ordeal.
"I'm sorry."
Horii scratched his head, squatted down, and said sincerely to the chubby boy, "We were wrong. You're not liars, you're the real 'Monster Expedition Team'."
Another, smaller child sniffed, and his previously aggrieved face instantly blossomed into a smile.
He pulled a homemade medal out of his bag—it was made from a pull tab from a soda can.
"Here... this is for you. Now you're an honorary member of our team."
Horii accepted the simple medal, pinned it to his uniform, and saluted: "Yes, Captain!"
However, a basketball hit Horii on the head!
"Hey! You little rascal!"
Then, the perspective zooms out.
It was the gradually clearing sky above the town.
And in the distance, the smoke was dissipating.
Although it was just a transitional episode, everyone could still learn a lesson from it.
Polluted air can be treated, but misunderstood children's hearts need to be repaired with trust.
While children can be naughty at times, adults should guide them correctly.
Sometimes, the world seen through a child's eyes is more real than what we see.
……
The video has finished playing.
The data remains impressive, with tens of millions of views being commonplace.
But the discussion that this episode sparked in the comments section was particularly heartwarming.
User [Kindergarten Boss]: "I showed this episode to my son. He said to me, 'Dad, if I see a monster in the future, please don't spank me, okay?' I burst into tears at that moment."
User [Breaking Bad]: "Actually, this episode is about pollution control, right? Industrial pollution in the last century did create many 'monsters.' But this episode handled it very cleverly, without being overly dramatic, but rather revealing it from a child's perspective. Director Koo's approach is becoming more and more mature."
Chasing Light Studio, in the western suburbs of Jinghai.
"call……"
Gu Nan looked at the comments scrolling across the screen and let out a long breath.
"Brother Nan, this episode is getting a good response!" Chen Bo looked backstage. "Although it wasn't as explosive as the previous episodes, the retention rate is very high. Everyone says this episode is comfortable to watch and stress-relieving."
"That's right."
Episode 24 has ended.
This means that the first major chapter of "Ultraman Tiga" has come to a complete end.
Next, the plot will take a rollercoaster ride, soaring to that breathtaking climax.
"Starting from the next episode, we'll be putting away that veil of tenderness."
He wrote the title of episode 25 on the whiteboard.
That was a name that made Gu Nan's heart race.
25 episodes of the original work.
The Devil's Judgment
"The second generation of the Kirieloids."
"This episode is the finale of the first season of Ultraman Tiga!"