I would just like to add that even in Japanese shows for kids the level of violence can seem excessive by Western standards.
Godzilla, Kong, Gamera & Co.: The Kaiju Mega-Thread
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
- Start date
I've been watching Japanese entertainment for decades, and I'm quite familiar with their levels of violence. The kids' shows may allow more acknowledgment of death than an American kids' show would, but they still tend to tone things down quite a bit -- humans rarely die onscreen, dead characters tend to get resurrected, and any blood is comparatively mild. This is a lot more graphic, with civilians getting dismembered and eaten on-camera and lots of blood. They're obviously competing with the Heisei Gamera trilogy's level of horror and violence, which is why it's such an incongruous blend with the attempts to emulate the more kid-friendly Showa era and The Brave.
There's also the odd choice to use explicit profanity in the English subtitles, even though the Japanese interjections being translated are far milder. (E.g. chikushou gets translated with the S-word or F-word even though it literally means "animal.") It's a TV-14-rated show, so it's obviously not aimed at younger kids.
In the final analysis, I feel the whole thing is like too much modern franchise media, in that it's driven more by remixing and homaging the franchise's own past than adding something new. It's decent, aside from the stiff and jerky animation, but it's not meaningful in the way the Heisei productions were. It doesn't feel like it's really about anything except homage to Gamera's history, and a lot of that homage is superficial, emulating the forms without the substance. And it doesn't do a good job of making Gamera himself feel like anything more than a plot device.
He definitely gets bigger and bigger much like each successive Enterprise ship. I guess the designers feel they have to compete against the bear like American Godzilla which has become the prevalent image of Godzilla in pop culture for the past few years. He could do with losing a few tons.
In looking at the images that have surfaced online, I've noticed that this version of Godzilla has only three fingers and opposable thumbs.
I wonder what the reason was behind that slight design change.
I wonder what the reason was behind that slight design change.
I watched Gamera Rebirth over the weekend and found it to be a lot of fun. The kids occasionally got on my nerves, especially in episode five, but overall they were tolerable. The main reason for watching this series is the monster action, and that was well done, I thought. If there's a season two, I'd definitely check it out.
I don't care for the animation style on the kaiju. It's pretty much the same style used in the Godzilla Earth trilogy from the same director, and I didn't like it there either -- though at least Gamera actually moves, unlike Godzilla Earth, who spent most of the third movie literally just standing in one place (then moving to another place where he just stood). The updated designs are fairly effective, but I don't much like the way they're rendered.
And the other reason the action didn't really work for me is that there was no sense of Gamera as a character, no personality to him. I know, that's an elusive thing to convey in a kaiju fight, but it can be done. For instance, many of Godzilla's most effective battles convey his ruthless cunning and adaptability, his ability to devise clever tactics to retake the advantage after facing a setback. Here, Gamera felt like just a plot device that showed up to go through the motions of a fight. The people who choreographed the action were so focused on the mechanics and the violence of it that it felt soulless.
^ I was debating posting that but now I don't need to worry
New trailer for Legacy of Monsters:
Looks like a few familiar creatures besides Godzilla will show up.
I like that bit at the end where Godzilla rises up out the desert sand.
A nice little homage to 1964's "Mothra vs. Godzilla", where he rises up out the beach.
A nice little homage to 1964's "Mothra vs. Godzilla", where he rises up out the beach.
I like it that the apparent viewpoint character is Japanese-American, played by Anna Sawai. It's based on a Japanese franchise, after all, yet the movies have too consistently centered on white male leads who were the least interesting characters in their respective films (or the most abrasive and unlikeable character in Kyle Chandler's case).
Yeah, that was cool. I was trying to figure out if the eggs were from a familiar monster, but it went so fast I couldn't tell.
This looks like it could be really good, and the fact it's on Apple TV+ has me pretty optimistic, because I've really enjoyed all of their stuff I've watched so far (See, For All Mankind, and Foundation).
Do we know yet where the present day stuff takes place on the timeline?
This looks like it could be really good, and the fact it's on Apple TV+ has me pretty optimistic, because I've really enjoyed all of their stuff I've watched so far (See, For All Mankind, and Foundation).
Do we know yet where the present day stuff takes place on the timeline?
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters looks very good.
My mum likes the Monsterverse films so she will want to see this.
My mum likes the Monsterverse films so she will want to see this.
That explains the old US army ucp uniforms.
OK, that explains why they were talking so much about San Francisco, but didn't mention events of King of The Monsters or GvK, in the trailer.
Yeah, they’re apparently going to show why Godzilla looks slightly different between films. But I think they’re going to ignore the comic version with Muto Prime.