Ultraman Taro: Introduction

The friend who recommended Taro prepared me for the series by naming it the most fairy tale-like manifestation of the Ultraman universe. Being prepped in this way gave me permission to set aside my cynical adult eye and listen with the heart of a child. 

For thousands of years, humans have treasured and shared folklore, a genre moderns sometimes affiliate with the naivete of earlier civilizations. However, through the exchange of archetypes, signs, and symbols, limitations of the cerebral can be bypassed, allowing meaning to bloom in the deepest nooks of the human soul.

While rationalism and empiricism often presume superiority, mockery of the fantastical is a handicap--a confession that one walks about with a glaring blind spot. Rare and beautiful is the ability to listen to the ancient pulse of story wherever it appears, protecting the spark of human ability to trust that even a vision or a dream might carry us somewhere worthwhile.

"Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven," teaches one of the world's great faith systems. How audacious to suggest that the gauntlet one must complete to reap eternal rewards requires running toward the qualities of youth.

But, too often we lose when we grow instead of gain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the great Western storytellers, C.S. Lewis, wrote: "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." After a season of fierce rationalism, the Oxford don learned that the wisdom of sitting once more like a child before a story.

So, perhaps the first gift we must give ourselves when meeting Taro is permission to watch as the children we once were.

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This is enough for Day One. I'm hoping to set aside 30 minutes every few days to dig in to the following Taro-related topics. (Jotting them down here so I don't forget.)

The Dignity of Whimsy
Mother Mary, Mama Bear, and the Mother of Ultraman
A Woundable Hero
Even the Mighty Need Brotherhood
Standing in Defiant Goodness