Toho is making their own Godzilla movies again!

[drt]

I could have sworn it was the other way around. The Americans were calling him Godzilla, then the scientist used the closest approximation of something originating from his native island. If it has been the usual way, it wouldn't have stood out at all to me.

 

[Nomad]

As I think more about it, I'm inclined to agree with you. Funimation extended the movie's run, and I plan to see it again this Saturday. I'll pay more attention to that section of the film this time.

 

[Christopher]

Hmm... It's showing Saturday at noon at a theater I can get to, so maybe I can see it after all. Do you think I'd need to buy a ticket in advance, or would it be unlikely to sell out ahead of time?

 

[Nomad]

Judging from what I've read on various forums, getting tickets shouldn't be a problem. There were only a dozen or so people at the 7:30 showing I attended. It wouldn't hurt to check ahead, however. The movie is usually shown in the smallest theater in the cineplex.

 

[Mike Farley]

My showing has a decent crowd, but not sold out.

 

[Christopher]

I could have sworn it was the other way around. The Americans were calling him Godzilla, then the scientist used the closest approximation of something originating from his native island. If it has been the usual way, it wouldn't have stood out at all to me.

Okay, I saw it today, and it turns out it was a mix of both. The Americans coined that name based on Goro Maki's coinage of "Gojira" in his notes, which was the Ohdo Island word for "wrath of God" or something like that. So a variation of "Gojira" informed by "God." The dialogue mentioned the Godzilla form first, but it was derived from the Gojira form, like the Wikizilla summary said.

It is a bit odd that they'd need to go to such convoluted lengths, but I guess it's necessary to explain how the "Godzilla" spelling could come about in this day and age, when the old romanization scheme that produced it in the first place has fallen out of use.

 

[Nomad]

I saw Shin Godzilla again today, since this was probably the last showing in my area, and the DVD release is likely not until next year. The subtitles seemed much slower this time, and I had far less trouble keeping up. That also meant that the movie dragged for me a little on this viewing, but it still kept my attention.

Before seeing the movie today, I read a theory online that suggested that Goro Maki (the missing professor) was somehow absorbed into Godzilla, thus fueling the monster's attack on Japan, which Goro blamed in part for his wife's death. There's no real evidence for this in the movie, but the final shot seems to tell us that Godzilla is made up of numerous life forms. If there is a sequel, I hope they follow up on this.

 

[Christopher]

^It was very unclear just what Maki did.

Spoiler

Did he discover and unleash Godzilla, create Godzilla from scratch, or even somehow become Godzilla?

 

[Kai "the spy"]

"Shin Godzilla" has won three Mainichi Film Awards, one of which was for Best Japanese Film of 2016.

Crunchyroll|Mainichi Film Awards Picks "Shin Godzilla" as Best Japanese Film of 2016

At the other big Japanese Film Awards, the Japan Academy Prize, the movie received ten nominations:

- Best Picture
- Director of the Year (Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi)
- Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Hiroki Hasegawa)
- Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Satomi Ishihara and Mikako Ichikawa)
- Outstanding Achievement in Music (Shiro Sagisu)
- Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography (Kōsuke Yamada)
- Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction (Takayuki Kawabe)
- Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction (Yuji Hayashida, Eri Sakushima)
- Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording (Jun Nakamura, Haru Yamada)
- Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing (Hideaki Anno, Atsuki Sato)

Wikipedia| 40the Japan Academy Prize

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Netflix got the global streaming rights for the Godzilla anime movie.

So, regardless which country you live in, if it has Netflix, it'll be on there.

 

[Christopher]

Netflix got the global streaming rights for the Godzilla anime movie.

So, regardless which country you live in, if it has Netflix, it'll be on there.

Good news. It means I don't have to drive to a faraway theater to see it.

 

[JD]

Yeah, this makes me happy too.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

The anime has the title "Godzilla: Monster Planet", or "Godzilla: Kaiju Wakusei" in the original Japanese. There's also a first synopsis:

The last summer of the 20th Century. That day, the human beings learn that they are not the only ruler of the planet Earth.

The appearance of the giant living creatures “Kaiju’s” and the ultimate existence that destroys all monsters: Godzilla. Through the battle against kaiju’s that lasted for half a century, human beings have experienced continuous defeat, and finally plan to escape from the Earth. And in 2048, only those who were selected by the A.I. managed under the central government boarded the inter-sidereal emigrant spaceship “Aratrum” to head for “Tau Cetus e”, the planet beyond the distance of 11.9 light-year. However, the environmental condition differences between that of the Earth and Tau e, which they finally arrived after 20 years were far beyond the predicted numbers, and was not an environment considered to be habitable by human beings.

The young man on the emigrant ship: Haruo, who saw his parents killed by Godzilla in front of his eyes when he was 4 years old, had only one thing in his mind for 20 years: to return to the Earth and defeat Godzilla. Shut out from the possibility of emigration, as the living environment in the ship deteriorates, the group of “Earth Returnists” led by Haruo became the majority, and determines to head back to Earth through a dangerous long-distance hyperspace navigation. However, the Earth they have returned has already passed the time of 20,000 years, and has become an unknown world with the ecosystem reigned by Godzilla.

At the end, will human beings win back the Earth? And what will Haruo see beyond his fate?

Flickering Myth| Poster and synopsis for Godzilla: Monster Planet anime feature

 

[Christopher]

That sounds kinda like After Earth, although I never actually saw that movie so I could be wrong.

And if Godzilla isn't discovered until 1999, that makes this a new, standalone continuity -- the 9th Japanese Godzilla continuity overall, and the second one (in a row) that doesn't include the 1954 original in its backstory.

Anyway, it's weird to see a Godzilla poster whose artwork gives no indication that it has anything to do with Godzilla.

 

[Hound of UIster]

This has Urobuchi written all over it.

Spoiler: ....

No doubt the Kaiju were humans all along...

 

[Kai "the spy"]

And the anime is now a trilogy.

Anime News Network| Godzilla Anime Is Film Trilogy Starring Mamoru Miyano

The link also has pictures and descriptions of the main characters.

 

[Nomad]

According to the "United Earth Investigation Report" (handed out at AnimeJapan and also seen on the official website), the backstory for this movie has the first kaiju attack being by Kamacuras in 1999. It was followed by Dogora in 2001, Rodan and Anguirus in 2005, Dagahra in 2017, Orga in 2022, and finally Godzilla in 2030. If this info is accurate, then, as Christopher noted, Godzilla: Monster Planet will have no connection to the 1954 film, or any other installment in the series. Also, it's interesting that Dogora and Dagahra are included, since they have no prior movie history with Godzilla, the former having appeared in its own solo film in 1964, while the latter battled Mothra in Rebirth of Mothra II (1997). (Technically, Dogora is considered part of the Kiryu continuity [Godzilla x Mechagodzilla /Godzilla vs Mothra:Toyko SOS], but the creature doesn't appear in either movie. We only know about it due to info Toho released at the time.)

 

[Christopher]

According to the "United Earth Investigation Report" (handed out at AnimeJapan and also seen on the official website), the backstory for this movie has the first kaiju attack being by Kamacuras in 1999. It was followed by Dogora in 2001, Rodan and Anguirus in 2005, Dagahra in 2017, Orga in 2022, and finally Godzilla in 2030.

Weird. Kamacuras was the giant praying mantis in Son of Godzilla. Kind of an unimpressive debut for daikaiju. Dogora was a monster amoeba from space in a standalone 1964 film that was basically a crime caper about diamond thieves with a monster story going on in the background. Dagahra was a pollution monster in a kid-friendly Mothra movie, created by an Atlantis-like civilization. Orga was a monster from Godzilla 2000 that resulted when an alien kaiju absorbed Godzilla's Organizer G-1 cells (his Wolverine-like healing factor established in that movie) and mutated into a hybrid form.

So most of those are pretty bizarre choices. Rodan and Anguirus make sense, but the rest are quite the mishmash of obscure and lame kaiju.

 

[Nomad]

I read somewhere that Hedorah will be included as well. Biollante is also rumored, but that's mainly fan speculation based on early shots of overgrown plant life. And, yes, it looks like they're bringing back the more obscure kaiju (no mention of King Ghidorah or Mothra).

 

[JD]

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't throw in bigger name Kaiju, even if they didn't go for big guns like King Ghidora and Mothra, you'd think they would have picked some more familiar monsters like Destroyah (Ok he's only been in one movie, but he does seem to be popular choice for things like the video games and comics), or Baragon. Now that we know it's a trilogy, maybe they're saving them for the second and third movies.