Godziban Episode 17 – 「ミニラの息子」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#8 【ゴジばん】(Review)

March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 17 – 「ミニラの息子」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#8 【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban title English
November 29, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
It’s time! The two parter comes to the conclusion after a month of waiting! What will happen to the egg, Minya, the danger, the cliffhanger? It’s a Godziban miracle that I didn’t go insane waiting for the dramatic conclusion to this episode!

Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
It’s Egg part 2: The Eggening! At night…lightning strikes and the three Dorats appear! Yes, the Dorats who become King Ghidorah in the Heisei series have arrived, and they want the egg! As of now the egg is in Minya’s arms as they sleep through the night. The Dorats fly to Minya and use their Dorat magic to make it start floating away! Minya gives chase and manages to grab it, but the Dorats decide they can just float away the egg while Minya is holding it and he will eventually fall off. There is a lot of floating and MInya holding on for dear life (and dear life of the egg), but Minya is a tough son of a gun and holds on to the egg despite their best efforts to shake him off!

Minya refuses to give up, so the Dorats start blasting him with lightning! Poor Minya! He collapses and the Dorats move toward the egg, but the egg is too small for them to all eat so they instead just decide to leave! They fly back to the top of the cliff they appeared on and disappear!
Godziban ゴジばん
The next morning Minya wakes up, covered in scorch marks, but the egg is still there! He takes it back to the nest, then the egg starts making noise and begins to crack for hatching. It’s baby Rodan! Rodan and Minya watch the sun rise. Godzilla-kun and Little return to check on Minya, and now they can meet the Rodan baby as well!

Hedoji
No more stargazing, back to wandering. This time the wasteland looks more grey than usual, but it might just be a trick of the darker palate they were using. The joke format is the same format as usual. Until…

Suddenly more talking is heard but with a slightly different voice for Hedoji, and Hedochi says “Wow Wow Wow!”
Godziban ゴジばん
The cast is bigger, the Godzibanning is better, we got ourselves a real show! Plus it proved once again that Minya is the best, Minya will go through hell for his friends and just wants to love despite being the spawn of a giant anger monster. If you don’t like Minya, you are just wrong. Sorry, but it is true!


Continue reading

Godziban Episode 16 – 「頑固おやじの一番長い日」かまってゴジラ#5【ゴジばん】(Review)

March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 16 – 「頑固おやじの一番長い日」かまってゴジラ#5【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban title English
November 22, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
We at TarsTarkas.NET know what you are thinking: It’s not 2019 any more, why is March of Godzilla 2019 still continuing? Well, because it isn’t done yet! We haven’t caught up with Godziban! Plus, I put the poll to the people on Twitter on if to continue or just launch March of Godzilla 2020 early, and the people overwhelmingly supported extending 2019! So the people have spoken, 2019 will not end until we are damn ready to have it end! March of Godzilla 2019 will continue until we have caught up with Godziban, and then maybe it will be time to shut it down for the 2020 flavor, or maybe I’ll get around to posting the reviews of the Netflix Godzilla movies! It is a mystery that can never be solved until it happens, it is March of Godzilla 2019!

Godziban‘s weirdest segment has always been the Kamatte Gojira segment, where Kamatte Godzilla from Shin Godzilla shows up to help ladies in need during troubling times. But this time things get even weirder! That’s a good thing, the weirder this show is, the better!

Kamatte Gojira
A father named Tetsugoro works on calligraphy designs on lanterns, but he is upset because his lone daughter is bringing her boyfriend over to meet him. Tetsugoro brought up his daughter himself after his wife died young, and she is all he has. When the boyfriend arrives, Tetsugoro won’t even turn around to look at him!

His daughter pleads with him, but Tetsugoro just gets increasingly agitated despite his daughter’s best efforts. Finally, Tetsugoro turns to look at the boyfriend…AND THE BOYFRIEND IS KAMATTE GODZILLA!!!! As in he is a person wearing a suit but the Kamatte Godzilla head is his head! And it makes the weird sucking noises that Kamatte Godzilla makes in these shorts! This is bonkers but totally awesome! Is the dad losing it, or is the daughter actually dating Kamatte Godzilla? Is it because Kamatte Godzilla helped her out and she wants to marry him in response, or is Kamatte Godzilla appearing as the boyfriend to help the father deal with his crisis? Or is dad just imagining the whole thing?

Tetsugoro looks back away. He is shook, as one would be, but eventually decides to put on his glasses and look at the boyfriend again (by this point we find out the boyfriend is named Kenji) But Kenji still has the Kamatte Godzilla head! His daughter even mentions kaiju when talking with her dad! What in the world is going on! Then it gets even more exciting, as suddenly Tetsugoro begins hearing fast-beat saxophone music and then rises to attack the Kamatte Godzilla-headed boyfriend! But Kenji now has a normal human face!
Godziban ゴジばん
Tetsugoro’s daughter is distraught while he is confused, but he ends up giving his blessing so the pair can get married. At the marriage ceremony, Tetsugoro begins to see the Kamatte Godzilla head on Kenji’s head again! We’ve gon full Twilight Zone here and then kept going to new Zones that don’t have names yet. The Kamatte Zone? I hope the stories continue to get more and more out there as they try to top themselves with the weirdness!
Godziban ゴジばん
Hedoji
Hedoji and Hedochi are taking time off from wandering to look at the stars (and they see a falling star) Beyond that, they follow the same format, but as there are no subtitles this time I don’t know what they were talking about.


Continue reading

Godziban Episode 15 – 「赤い風船」ジェットジャガーに訊け!#4【ゴジばん】(Review)

March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 15 – 「赤い風船」ジェットジャガーに訊け!#4【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban title English
November 15, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
Godziban brings us another entry in the canon of Godziban mania. That’s what shows do, bring new episodes week after week! This time we got a brand new fight combination between kaiju that has never been seen before, something Godziban will continue to do as the series adds more characters. Breaking new ground, something Godzilla Island also was able to do thanks to the power of being lower budget thus able to toss in more kaiju!

This week’s episode is in English, but the Three Godzilla Brothers can’t speak English! Thanks to the magic of subtitles we can still understand them, and their declaration that they will now study English in a hurry. Their ABC book has a prominent “G” on the back cover lol They recite the alphabet and get extra excited when they hit G and there is a big graphic and fireworks.

Go! Jet Jaguar – Red Balloon
A red balloon is stuck in a tree, causing a young girl to cry. Until Jet Jaguar arrives!! He grows big and gets her the balloon then flies away. Little and Minya witness the action (this is the two brothers in cartoon drawing form, so they make their cartoon drawing debuts despite being main characters on the show) and want to be cool like Jet Jaguar is.
Godziban ゴジばん
Before they figure out how to be as cool, Megalon attacks! Yes, Megalon is fighting Little and Minya, this is the first time Minya has ever fought him in any official media that I know of, and Little did have a brief run-in with Megalon back on Godzilla Island, though it was largely getting grabbed by a net.

Little and Minya call for help, and Jet Jaguar arrives! But thanks to him deflating as he flies, he’s tiny again! Jet Jaguar pulls out a bicycle pump, and Little pumps him up big! Super big, so huge Megalon runs for it! Little and Minya ride Jet Jaguar away. We got new team ups in addition to new monster fighting combinations! They continue to fly, but as Jet Jaguar is deflating again as he flies he soon shrinks and they land back to earth. But it’s all good as they congratulate each other. Jet Jaguar refuses to reveal how he grows big because it’s a secret. So keep the fact he is a balloon a secret, despite the fact it was obvious here and was a punchline in the last Jet Jaguar story.
Godziban ゴジばん
Hedoji
Hedochi asks why there is a clumsy part in people’s minds. Hedoji says people who know themselves know they are clumsy, the ones who don’t are betrayed by their own heart, both are clumsy. Hedochi says “Okie Hedokie!” Take that, Clumsy Smurf!


Continue reading

Godziban Episode 14 – 『ゴジラ・フェス2019』ゴジばん生上演ダイジェストムービー【ゴジばん】(Review)

March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 14 – 『ゴジラ・フェス2019』ゴジばん生上演ダイジェストムービー【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
November 8, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziaban ゴジばん
There was a Godzilla Fest for the 65th birthday of Godzilla on November 3, 2019 and as part of the celebration there was a Godziban production play. This show is behind the scenes clips and portions of the final production. I can’t tell if it was a new play or if it was using the prior play architecture from the previous puppet shows they did 15-ish years ago.

The play answers one big question…THERE IS An OLD MAN GODZILLA! With a CANE!!!! A cane with a snowglobe or crystal ball on the top of it!!! This is insane and awesome! The old Godzilla is ShoGoji, the first generation Godzilla from the Showa-era 1954 original movie (hence the ShoGoji nickname you may have heard of!)
Godziaban ゴジばん
There is some subplot involving a medal coin/medallion/similar object, I am not exactly sure what was going on with it but it seemed meaningful even though it wasn’t directly involved in the egg drama. The main plot has been partially adapted already for the youtube show (though already modified to where they are different adventures!) but does involve the Big Egg on the side of a sheer cliff that we just saw in the show. This time the egg is clearly a Mothra egg, copying the coloros from the Mothra movies exactly.

The three Godzilla brothers attempt to climb the cliff as we’ve seen, except this time they fail and fall down the cliff in exaggerated play format. Eventually Godzilla-kun gets the idea to just slam his tail into the side of the cliff, which is enough to dislodge the egg so Minya an Little catch it. At this point this seems more disruptive than the skit in the series where they just go to investigate the egg and it falls out of the next via earthquake. I’m glad to that change at least.

The triplet Dorat monsters (that made King Ghidorah in the Heisei-era films!) fly by to be rude and demand the egg for themselves. Godzilla-kun fights them as Little and Minya take the egg to safety. The three Dorats are more than a match for Godzilla-kun, but then ShoGoji appears and drives them away. Not for long, as they then transform into King Ghidorah and return. The King Ghidorah puppet is truly monstrous, huge and dangerous looking. It smashes poor ShoGoji as Little and Minya scream in horror! But all is not lost, for ShoGoji then transforms himself into a gigantic Showa-era Godzilla (and is himself another massive puppet) and gives King Ghidorah a thorough thrashing.
Godziaban ゴジばん
King Ghidorah is beaten, ShoGoji transforms back to normal size and the Godzilla Brothers thank him. The egg hatches and it is the Baby Mothra we all know and love, who proceeds to say “Moshi Mosu!” again and again.

It’s bye-bye time!!!

There is also a tiny clip of Hedoji and Hedochi puppets at the end!

The play was fun as it is cool to see the origins of the show and what potential future puppets could show up. A grandpa level ShoGoji complete with fancy cane who wanders around defeating giant threats while serving as an inspiration to our heroes is a great concept. Thumbnail previews already show the Dorats will be appearing very soon on Godziban and the celebration had displays with other kaiju that should potentially appear later. Basically I need to get around to setting up the cast page, lol!

There is full version of the play someone recorded and put online. It is not a full episode of Godziban but it is related enough that you might find it interesting! It is basically the same except with all the scene transitions and the Hedoji/Hedochi jokes in the beginning of the show. It is a good way to see how the real play was set up (even if the backgrounds are just sheets instead of the more lush backgrounds the plays seemed to have from photos of the time).
Godziaban ゴジばん
Continue reading

Godziban Episode 13 – 英語版 「 Smack it! Three Godzilla Brothers」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#2【ゴジばん】(Review)

March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 13 – 英語版 「 Smack it! Three Godzilla Brothers」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#2【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
November 1, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ばん
Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
English Godziban? It’s true! This is the rock hitting episode except dubbed into English. The English voices are very similar to the Japanese voices but it is fun hearing it in English. It also means I don’t have to write too much of a summary as I already did last time, I’ll only point out corrections! Unfortunately that means things are going to be a bit light this installment, but never fear, the future is bright! I still don’t know why one English translation of this title says “Smack It” while a different one uses “SHUT UP!” for some reason, which doesn’t even make sense in context so it’s probably just complete Google translate wrong.

One of the funnest things is Godzilla-kun saying “Disaster!” when Minya fails to hit the rock. Baby Mothra’s name seems to be Moshi Mothra.
Godziban ばん
Hedoji
Hedochi asks Hedoji if he knows where they roam. Hedoji says when they arrive they will gain understanding to why they headed there in the first place. Hedochi says “Okie Hedochi!” That’s all you can say to wise words that seem less wise the more you think about it…
Godziban ばん
Continue reading

Godziban Episode 12 – 「あの崖に向かって飛べ!の巻」 Go!Go!ゴジラくん#7【ゴジばん】(Review)

March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 12 – 「あの崖に向かって飛べ!の巻」 Go!Go!ゴジラくん#7【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
October 25, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
No English subtitles in this one…but don’t worry, they will return! Until then, you got to put up with me describing the plot again. This is the bread and butter of why people read TarsTarkas.NET. Or they just come to look at all the cool pictures and ignore the text. Either way, it’s all good here! And there are a bit of English subtitles in a way, so not all is lost…

Go Go Godzilla-kun
The three Godzilla brothers are going to do more practice in monster skills. They are interrupted when suddenly Anguirus runs up to declare he found a mysterious egg! (at this point the speech bubbles he and Godzilla-kun use to communicate are now in English!) Also Anguirus now has a Japanese speaking voice! It’s actually pretty charming! The three brothers decide to go see the egg and have Anguirus guide them. In addition, the three brothers announce their adventure as an “Adventure of the three Godzilla brothers” before they depart. And Anguirus adds “and Anguirus!” to the end right before they leave. This is already awesome beyond belief and we haven’t even gotten to the actual adventure yet.

The egg is at the top of a huge sheer cliff. Godzilla-kun tells Anguirus to go reconnaissance. Anguirus climbs…and climbs…and climbs…and climbs! But near the top he falls off! And curls into a ball, rolling down the hill…right towards the Godzilla brothers, who quickly start running away. But they run with Anguirus directly behind them, which sort of quells the critics of this scene in Prometheus but I digress. Anguirus rolls into a tree which bounces him back in front of Godzilla-kun. “I’m back!” he says!
Godziban ゴジばん
Now all four of them will climb! And all four of them will slide down. And keep climbing. And keep sliding. Anguirus falls off again and rolls away, like off into the horizon never to be seen again until next week’s episode away. Goodbye, Anguirus and your handsome new voice! Godzilla-kun gets within grabbing distance of the egg but slides away before he call, all three tumble down. This clearly isn’t working.

It’s idea time! Inspired by Anguirus, they try to launch themselves at the egg using the tree from earlier as a catapult. Little is catapulted right into the nest next to the egg. Minya is catapulted right next to him. They examine the egg, but then the mountain starts to rumble! Minya grabs the egg for safe keeping, but he falls out of the nest! Minya rolls down the side but somehow doesn’t break the egg as he falls to the bottom.

The three brothers then build a nest out of straw for the egg, obviously deciding that catapulting the egg back onto the cliff would probably be a disaster for the egg. Minya think.s it is a kaiju egg. He puts his ear up to it and hears a voice inside the egg. Minya stays behind to keep the egg warm by hugging it as the other two leave.

TO BE CONTINUED! (with King Ghidorah images in the background! Is that a clue? Or a three-headed red herring?)
Godziban ゴジばん
Hedoji
Hedochi asks if the egg is born of what everyone thinks. Hedoji says to be sure with your own eyes. Hedochi says “A so!”

After the end title… What looks like Rodan’s shadow flies over the Hedojis!

A great episode beginning a new story line, monsters on an adventure and Minya proving he is the best kaiju because he’s willing to protect a random egg he doesn’t even know. And of course we got foreshadowing and an possible new kaiju popping out of this egg. The only problem is we have to wait a few weeks for the conclusion, because next week is a prior episode dubbed into English! And then there is a special live performance episode. Eventually we will return to the world of the egg, but be patient.
Godziban ゴジばん

Continue reading