Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Godziban Episode 11 – 「ジェットジャガーに訊け!」(Ask Jet Jaguar!) #1#2#3(English ver.)【ゴジばん】(Review)

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March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 11 – 「ジェットジャガーに訊け!」(Ask Jet Jaguar!) #1#2#3(English ver.)【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
October 18, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
ENGLISH SUBTITLES?????!!!!!????!!! That’s right, we got English subtitles with Godziban, which means that I’ll soon find out how wrong my descriptions have been. Or I could just ignore them and decide that the subtitles are fake and the fictional reality I created is real. Yeah, that’s the ticket! The subtitles confirm that the three Godzillas are The Three Godzilla Brothers, and thanks to the power of having watched additional episodes in the future I can tell you there is at least one other Godzilla running around, but I’ll save him for his appearance. I’m still going to call him Minya even though he is officially Minilla, because I’m an old school fool. In addition to English subtitles, the repeated episodes of Go! Jet Jaguar with the subs so we can all get caught up with the story. The subtitles came about because the public demanded them, I think Toho was caught unaware of just how popular these videos would be in the west. But now we got the subs, we got the power, we got an episode coming up where they redub an episode into English (which will be a trip!), the future of Godziban is bright.
Godziban ゴジばん
Go! Jet Jaguar
(a rerun) It’s the world’s first AI-minded Robot Emergency Conference! We confirm that the creator is now Dr. Roborobo. Jet Jaguar answers some press questions, mostly about how he has a heart and a robot’s primary function is to be huge. That sounds weird but okay. I’m glad they started the English translations on these. Not only are they the most dialogue-driven, but they are also easy to translate due to the fact it is all stills and just a few subtitles are needed to complete them.

Go! Jet Jaguar
It’s fight time! Megalon is attacking and Godzilla is there, Jet Jaguar grows huge to help in the fight, but freezes because he needs a app to fight, so has to spend time downloading it. Then spend time installing it. Then spend time rebooting. Godzilla getting increasingly upset at each new delay is hilarious.

Go! Jet Jaguar
Jet Jeguar grows big to fight Megalon! Megalon punches Jet Jaguar with his drill fist
this punctures Jet Jaguar and it turns out he’s just a balloon and deflates and flies around the field
Godziban ゴジばん Jet Jaguar
Happy Go! Go! Halloween!
A special Halloween graphic as this came out during Halloween season! We got Hedochi and Hedoji in witch costumes on a broom, Jet Jaguar as a ghost, Godzilla as Dracula, Minya as a pirate, Little as a Jack O’Lantern, Baby Mothra as a devil, other Baby Mothra as an angel, Battra as a Chinese lion, and the Twin Fairies and Disney style fairies. It’s amazing and it’s 100% canon now, people!

Hedoji
(Hedoji is now subtitled Master of Monsters, because he is wise) Also I think there is a typo as it says “Hedchi” instead of “Hedochi”, but they clearly say “Hedochi” in the show. Hedochi asks if it is worth living if he is born of sludge. Hedoji says that his soul is more valuable than the people who made the sludge. The zinger Hedochi has been saying is “Okie hedokie!” Wait, has that been the zinger all this time?????? That makes this show a bajillion times more awesome.

Next time Godziban begins a big story arc!
Godziban ゴジばん halloween
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Godziban Episode 10 – ヘドじい漫遊記#1【ゴジばん】(Review)

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March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 10 – ヘドじい漫遊記#1【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
October 11, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Hedoji Godziban
Hedoji
If you love Hedoji and also love Hedoji and Hedochi, then you will love a bunch of Hedoji shorts put together! It’s all Hedoji all the time, this time! Okay, only this time. Until they do it again. Maybe! Now there is even real world shots of the countryside so they are no longer wandering in desolate wastelands. We all know that Hedoji follows basically the same formate. Wise old sage Hedoji and his grandson Hedochi are wandering the endless wastes of what may or may not be modern Earth. Hedochi stops to ask Hedoji a philosophical question or even a question about the episode of Godziban that just aired. Hedoji then responds with an grand pronouncement. Hedochi then responds with a zinger, which is usually him saying “Okie-Hedochi!” or something similar. The consistency is the key to the humor.
Hedoji Godziban
After a few of the usual jokes, Hedochi falls over instead of joking in one episode, where Hedoji then keeps talking and eventually Hedochi gets back up and says a delayed joke. Eventually Hedojii talks about lots of monsters in his speech, and Hedochi seems excited and we hear monster sounds in what seems to be flashback remembering. This is where the lack of subtitles hits bigger than usually, as it becomes too difficult to figure out the context and I don’t know if we are hearing what happened that made the world a desolate wasteland that the Hedorahs are wandering or if it is just some other unrelated monster stuff. Some of the topics were suggested by fans in the comments of prior videos.

Finally Godzilla-kun pops up to complain that he wasn’t in this episode! Poor Godzilla-kun, maybe next week, buddy!
Hedoji Godziban
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Godziban Episode 09 -「モシュモシュ以心伝心の巻」もしモス#1／「ジェットジャガーに訊け!」#2【ゴジばん】 (Review)

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March of Godzilla 2019

「モシュモシュ以心伝心の巻」もしモス#1／「ジェットジャガーに訊け!」#2【ゴジばん】

aka Godziban
Godziban ゴジばん
October 5, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
Godziban ramps up yet another skit series, and by now has every skit that was featured in the pilot as an ongoing segment. Will there be eventual future segments? Probably. But the vast number already means we are having episodes of Godziban where Godzilla will barely appear. As long as it is still entertaining, that’s probably a good thing. Let this series breath and become its destiny, don’t keep it in a box and limit its potential.

Moshi-Mosu
The continuing adventure of two Baby Mothras talking via telephone, now with an animated opening featuring cartoon version of the twin fairies. This was a skit from the GEMSTONE pilot and now they are back. With an even longer telephone device (still cups with a string in between them!) and they say “Moshi Mosu” to each other over and over. I didn’t notice before, but one of the two Baby Mothra puppets has eyes that are the same color as the greenscreen they are using, so they become transparent in these clips (the other one has red eyes which behave normally!) It looks like they tried to correct it a bit in some of the shots but it isn’t perfect if I’m noticing it, lol. The Baby Mothras continue to speak back and forth, then one gets the idea to talk and then race to the other side of the phone before her voice gets there. Then the other talks and they both race to the second side to hear. It’s all fun and games for the Baby Mothra’s and their previously seen super speed. Until….

Until…

Until a new voice starts saying “Batsu” on the phone! Suddenly this got really freaking interesting, lol! It’s Baby Battra! The Baby Mothras are freaking out, and eventually they run off and don’t answer the phone. Baby Battra gets sad when there is no more responses on the phone. But then the Baby Mothras appear and have come by to talk to Baby Battra, and they all are happy and celebrate and dance!
Godziban ゴジばん
Go! Jet Jaguar
Continuing the story of Jet Jaguar going ot help Godzilla fight Megalon. Jet Jaguar is still unable to do anything due to not having the proper instructions installed. By the end of the episode he even shrinks back down to human size, confusing Godzilla and also Megalon who has just been standing around waiting this whole time. No one said Megalon was smart. Jet Jaguar’s programmer Dr. Roborobo (instead of the two bachelors with their own son) is the guy who gets all the blame here.
Godziban ゴジばん
Hedojii
Would you believe that Hedojii is still in the same format of Hedoji and Hedochi wandering the wastelands, Hedochi asking a question, Hedoji giving a big pronouncement, and Hedochi responding with a zinger? Because it is!
Godziban ゴジばん
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Godziban Episode 08 – Go! Go! Godzilla: Episode 6/ Kamatte Godzilla # 4/”Ask Jetjaguar!” # 1 (Review)

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March of Godzilla 2019

Go! Go! Godzilla: Episode 6/ Kamatte Godzilla # 4/”Ask Jetjaguar!” # 1

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
September 27, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
Godziban returns for another week with not only a modern day fable for us all, but the beginning of a new series of skits featuring the Jet Jaguar skit from the pilot! We got Godzilla-kun, we got Minya, we got Little, we got Jet Jaguar, we got turtles, we got bunnies, we got everything you need to get your Godzi on!

Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
It’s the Tortoise and the Hare….Godzilla-style! Godzilla-kun-style? Gojira-style! We got Godzilla-kun wearing bunny ears and I repeat my assertion about this series that this is canon now, people. Godzilla wears bunny ears. He does. 100% canon, it’s official!

Little and Minya are wearing shells on their backs because they are the tortoises. They are definitely not baby Gameras, or even baby Kamoebas. We all know the story, the hare raced the tortoise, got so far ahead he took and nap and overslept finishing the race. So here we go! They race….Godzilla-kun bounces up and down (hops???) and sings while doing so, meanwhile Little and Minya crawl on the ground slowly as Godzilla-kun gets far away. This is canon, remember this.

Godzilla-kun gets so far ahead it is nap time. Literally curling up into a ball and covering his eyes with his tail while he sleeps (because the puppets don’t have eyelids, though they CGed eyelids in, so someone was able to fix it in post!)

The two tortoises keep going, saying “nana nana” as they go. Because that’s what tortoises do! Godzilla-kun wakes up and beats himself up for oversleeping and thus losing the race. At least until he sees that Little and Minya are still crawling along far behind him. Dun dun DUN! Did M. Knight Shyamalan write this twist???

Minya and Little then spin around like a certain other famous giant turtle monster and spin off into the sky while Godzilla-kun freaks out.
Godziban ゴジばん
Go! Jet Jaguar
Next up is Jet Jaguar, back again in cartoon form and answering questions, this section is silent with lots of reading but it’s all Japanese so good luck with this translation, lol! Thankfully something happens that we don’t need to translate a bunch of words, but a bunch of deeds!

Luckily Megalon shows up and Godzilla is there too, Jet Jaguar grows big to go help his friend beat up a space cockroach! But a message appears in his eyes as he doesn’t seem to be doing anything. They forgot to update his programming to fight monsters! Jet Jaguar!!!

Kamatte Godzilla
In an apocalyptic wasteland (maybe where Hedojii is wandering around???) two warrior women fight with swords. They are dressed as a mix of gladiators and steampunk
but just as their swords are clashing, Kamatte Gojira is there making noise!

At first they ignore it.

Then suddenly one lady swings her sword at him…but it’s just putting it into the dirt so she can pick him up and cuddle! It’s cuddle time! But the other lady also wants to cuddle! Soon the two are fighting over Kamatte Gojira and it has become a tug of war pulling on poor Kamatte Godzilla. He solved one problem but created another. Kamatte Godzilla!!!
Godziban ゴジばん
Hedojii
Hedojii continues the same joke format, we don’t even see the two ladies in the background still fighting over Kamatte Godzilla like we could have. A missed opportunity for an episode that is very full of jokes and ridiculous enough I’m granting it top score regardless.

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Godziban Episode 07 – “Run! Three Brothers’ Chapter” Go! Go! Godzilla-kun # 5 (Review)

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March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 07 – “Run! Three Brothers’ Chapter” Go! Go! Godzilla-kun # 5

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
September 20, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
With the seventh episode of Godziban we are forced to ask the big question. Where is Gabara? Certainly he has to show up soon to bully Minya so the Godzilla brothers can train him to beat him up, right? I know the puppet exists, there are photos of him from the original stage show! Maybe after the monster training storyline concludes. (Future Tars here: Nope, we have a different story yet and several new characters, but no Gabara yet!) Until then, we got more Go! Go! Godzilla-kun! There is a new kaiju who shows up this week, so maybe the cast will continue to expand like a star reaching the end of its life cycle! Wait, maybe I should find a better analogy than that. No time, gotta hit post!

Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
Godzilla-kun is training the boys how to run like real monsters. Suddenly Anguirus and Baragon pop up and want to join in on the running fun. Yes, Baragon is here now! Hooray for Baragon, everyone loves him!
In puppet form! Also even Baby Mothra comes by, it’s a regular Monster Island reunion going on here!
Godziban ゴジばん
Godzilla and Anguirus race first. Baragon and Little also race, Baragon is much faster and jumps ahead. Minya and Baby Mothra then get ready to race, and just like last time in the GEMSTONE pilot, Baby Mothra makes Minya eat her dust by blasting away so fast. Godzilla-kun and Anguirus converse via speech bubbles agian, this time animated instead of on signs. Baby Mothra passes by Little and Baragon (Little has regained much of the lost distance) and then Godzilla-kun and Anguirus, each time making everyone she passes spin around out of control by how fast she is passing them. Baby Mothra then turns and heads back to the start, passing everyone again. The others make it back to the starting line, Little hitching a ride on Baragon’s back. Everyone then faints as Minya says a joke

Now it is time for the big race between all monsters, everyone will race at the same time, reach a far away flag, and then return. Per usual, Baby Mothra shoots off super fast and returns before anyone knows what is going on. I also enjoy thejoke that Minya keeps getting knocked down by her speed and just lies there at the starting line until Mothra returns. Mothra has Minya ride on her back as she races out again, passing by the other 4 and making them eat her dust. Minya and Mothra win, Minya having learned the valuable lesson to have fast friends. Community and solidarity is the key to be a good monster.

Hedoji
We are again on the wasteland, but this time the clouds give the setting sun (or moon??? who knows!) an otherworldly look. Perhaps they have wandered so far on Earth they ended up on another desolate planet. Perhaps they are on the Planet of the Apes and may pass by a Statue of Liberty buried in the sand. Or maybe they are in the near future and Mad Max and his friends will soon drive by in cars. We may never know, but we do know that this stinger keeps the same format as the usual Hedoji episodes.
Godziban ゴジばん
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Godziban Episode 06 – “Secret recipe! roll of drop kick” Go! Go! Godzilla-kun #4/ Kamatte-Godzilla # 3 (Review)

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March of Godzilla 2019

Godziban Episode 06 – “Secret recipe! roll of drop kick” Go! Go! Godzilla-kun #4/ Kamatte-Godzilla # 3

aka ゴジばん
Godziban ゴジばん
September 13, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Godziban ゴジばん
The sixth episode of Godziban is packed with skits, not only having the Godzilla brothers do Godzilla things, but there is a Kamatte Godzilla skit thrown in and TWO Hedojiis! Bigger, better, and banging, that the Godzi way!

Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
Godzilla-Kun is still having the monster practice for his two brothers near the Sonic the Hedgehog ramp. This time they are to kick a giant rock off a cliff onto the ramp. Godzilla-kun demonstrates this using the horizontal flying we saw in Godzilla vs Megalon and kicks the rock. Little tries next, he masters the horizontal flight, but when he hits the rock it is far too massive and instead he is the one who goes flying. At least Little manages to land on his feet.

Minya tries next, but he can’t do the horizontal kick straight and keeps somersaulting around until he hits the rock head-first. Needless to say, that does not work. Minya tries again and gets a straight horizontal kick, but the rock is again too big and he bounces on top of it. That’s enough to dislodge the rock, it falls over the edge and begins rolling with Minya grabbing on for dear life. It rolls back to the top of the cliff where Little then tries to grab Minya, but fails and instead is now clinging to the rock as well as it rolls back and forth. It reaches the top of the cliff again and this time Godzilla-kun is now grabbing onto it as well as it heads back down. This is like reverse Sisyphus or something!
Godziban ゴジばん
Baby Mothra comes by and they call for help. Mothra helps…by rolling alongside the rock as it rolls back and forth!!!! This goes on for quite a while, Anguirus spies them rolling around and a big question mark appears above his head.

I appreciate that one of the lessons of this episode showed that doing a horizontal kick is easy, but doing it with enough force to dislodge a rock is what is hard. I would have never guessed. It’s now canon that Little Godzilla and Minya can do horizontal kicks now.

Hedojii
Hedoji and Hedochi have finally reached a new place to wander, instead of a desert wasteland it is now a rocky wasteland. This is progress, but is just exposes the entire show as taking place in an endless runner where the background changes only slightly over time. It’s the same format as usual, but it’s obvious that Hedochi asks about the Godziban show in his question even if this still isn’t subtitled.

Kamatte Godzilla
A lady named Yuko works at a dead end office job where her boss yells at her. By the time she gets home she’s too tired to feed her Kamatte Godzilla pet or even acknowledge it as he makes noise and slides on its glass cage. She’s already passed out on bed.

But not too passed out to remember to love her pet and pick it up for hugs and now things are a-ok! Love conquers all, even love of strange ugly lizards.

Hedojii
Huh, they wandered back to the old wasteland. Beyond that it is still the same format of question/pronouncement/zinger. Hedochi!

The rock encounter with the Godzilla brothers was so awesome I’m just granting this episode a perfect score. Please continue to be silly and dumb fun while continuing to give a nice mix of skits, Godziban!
Godziban ゴジばん
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