Godziban Episode 20 – Go!Go!ゴジラくん#11「メリゴジ ゴジラが聖夜にやってきた」(Review)
Godziban Episode 20 – Go!Go!ゴジラくん#11「メリゴジ ゴジラが聖夜にやってきた」
aka ゴジばん
December 24, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Have a Merry Godziban Christmas!! (We got to this weeks late, but who cares!) March of Godzilla 2019 in 2020 continues with the special Christmas episode of Godziban, which like all Godziban episodes are strange and awesome!
We got Christmas graphics! We got Kaiju Christmas! We got kaiju in antlers and red noses, we got kaiju in Santa clothes, we got trees, we got presents, we got joy, we got Megalon upset at all this joy. These are done by the artist who does the Jet Jaguar shorts, who I believe is Onigiri though there are some other artists credited on the show (and the graphics we see at the end of the episode are obviously in a different artist’s style!)
Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
The three Godzilla Brothers read about Santa Claus. They discuss it a bit and then realize that someone is leaving presents for kid fans of kaiju, ShoGoji must know something. So they go spy and find ShoGoji loading presents into a sleigh!
ShoGoji admits it and invites the brothers to help pack presents and prepare for the journey to give gifts to children. Baragon and Anguirus are also there, dressed up as reindeer with fake felt antlers and big red noses. The Godzillas all dress up in Santa suits with hats and coats.
This is all canon, people. 100% canon. Godzilla is Santa. It is real! How can it be real? May I remind you of The Santa Clause? When Santa dies, the killer becomes the new Santa. Thus, ShoGoji killed Santa, and became the new Santa! Complete with his magic cane!
ShoGoji then starts to tell a story, it’s about the girl way back in the original GEMSTONE contest pilot! The young girl who wanted a pet and found the Kamatte Godzilla left alone in a box, which she then picked up and loved. It turns out her parents didn’t love it as much as her and banned it from the house, so the girl had to keep the poor pet in an abandoned building nearby with a lot of straw and a dog house. She named it Kamachi and would bring it food, but one day it was very cold, and Kamachi DIED!
Yes, Kamachi is dead! They killed Kamachi! They killed a child’s pet! Losing a pet you love is traumatic, and here it is, in Godziban form. How many shows do you know that feature a beloved child’s pet die? The kid is obviously upset that her beloved pet is dead. There are shots of the girl crying and holding her dead pet as she walks despondantly through town, while children are at their homes having Christmas fun (and there is a big K on the Christmas tree because they are worshippers of Kaiju, not Christ!)
The dichotomy is amazing! Also amazing is there is this entire kaiju-worshipping background religion happening that is just flavor to the story and not the actual story! This is great world-building, of course children growing up in a world with real monsters would love monsters more than usual. Monster rule!
The sleigh rushes to Earth as the child collapses crying in the middle of some sort of walkway late at night. The images of Godzilla-kun, Minya, Little, and ShoGoji dressed in Santa costumes appear before her. They all bow and she thinks she’s freaking out and seeing things. Godzilla-kun introduces everyone, and then ShoGoji uses his magic cane to zap Kamachi’s body. It is brought over to the kaiju and revived and grown bigger!
Kamachi is back alive! The kid can hug Kamachi again! At least for now, Kamachi has to go live with the kaiju. The Godzilla give the kid a gift before they depart.
Next we get a montage of the kaiju appearing in random bedrooms of kids who are kaiju fans and gifting them presents. Even Hedoji and Hedochi get in on the gift giving action! And are dressed as Santa! This is canon, btw. The Smog Monster gives gifts to children. After the monsters have handed out all of their gifts, they wish everyone a Merry Christmas! So you better have had a Merry Kaiju Christmas in 2019! Or whatever holiday you celebrate.
At the end we see the kid and her gift, a Kamachi keychain! Kamachi will be with her always.
The final content is a different graphic toon with the Mothra twin fairies and the Mothra larvae also dressed as Santa, and the evil triplet fairy and Battra wearing purple Santa outfits. Grown up Mothra is in the picture as well despite not making an in-puppet appearance yet, but it counts enough to be added to our character list one I get around to making it!
The credits are new as well for the second week in a row, it is the kids from the Christmas story we saw earlier dressed in Christmas costumes all doing the Godzilla-kun dance! Including the young actress who played Kamachi’s owner and was the original doer of the dance for the closing credits. This show is pretty darn fun, and fully embracing the weirdness makes it amazingly memorable.
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Anguirus, Baragon, Battra, Godziban, Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, March of Godzilla 2019, Megalon, Minya, Mothra, Rodan
Godziban Episode 15 – 「赤い風船」ジェットジャガーに訊け！#4【ゴジばん】(Review)
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
November 15, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
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.
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.
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!
Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Godziban, Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, March of Godzilla 2019, Megalon, Minya
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)
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
October 18, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
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.
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
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!
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Godziban, Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, March of Godzilla 2019, Minya
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)
「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
October 5, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
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!
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.
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!
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Battra, Godziban, Godzilla, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, March of Godzilla 2019, Megalon, Mothra
Godziban Episode 08 – Go! Go! Godzilla: Episode 6/ Kamatte Godzilla # 4/”Ask Jetjaguar!” # 1 (Review)
Go! Go! Godzilla: Episode 6/ Kamatte Godzilla # 4/”Ask Jetjaguar!” # 1
aka ゴジばん
September 27, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi
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.
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!!!
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.
Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Godziban, Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, March of Godzilla 2019, Minya
Godziban – ゴジばん【GEMSTONE ゴジラ 応募作品】 (Review)
Godziban
aka ゴジばん aka Gojiban aka ゴジばん【GEMSTONE ゴジラ 応募作品】
March 20, 2019
Written by Hideyuki Kobayashi
Directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi and Jun Shimazaki
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, 2004 in Tokyo to be precise, there was a Godzilla puppet show called Gekigoji. It was officially licensed by Toho and performed by the Koganemushi Theatrical Company. Koganemushi has produced a bunch of puppet shows featuring a variety of cute monsters and also some Ultraman shows such as this one. The Godzilla show was around 30 minutes long (according to fan lore online) and featured a variety of puppets including Godzilla, Minya, Little Godzilla, a huge King Ghidorah puppet, Gorosaurus, Mothra, Anguirus, Baragon, and Gabara. There does not appear to be an official recording of the play but pictures from the event have shows up online (largely from Koganemushi’s own website, and helped spread to the English speaking side by Monster Island Buddies)
That seemed to be the end of it until 2019 called. One of the Koganemushi people who goes on twitter as g_zanika announced he is bringing the puppets out of retirement to make a 10 minute long film for a contest. The GEMSTONE contest picked the short as the winner, and before you can say “Godzilla” they had announced there would be a new biweekly series featuring the puppets called Godziban (that’s the official English name, before that we called it Gojiban) appearing exclusively online. The series is a bunch of skits, the main one involves Godzilla-kun teaching his two brothers Little and Minya how to be great monsters. There is also a Kamatte Godzilla, where the Kamatte Godzilla from Shin Godzilla appears to women in need. A long-running short gag sequence is Hedojii, which has old man Hedoji (Hedorah as a wizened scribe) and his grandson Hedochi wandering through barren wastelands. Hedochi will ask a question which causes Hedoji to give a long answer explaining the way of things. Then it all ends on Hedochi making a joke. Go! Jet Jaguar is an animated segment where Jet Jaguar answers questions and has adventures. Moshi Mosu features two baby Mothra as they speak to each other through two cups connected by a string. These segments all have precursors in the original 10 minute video, but I am unaware if any of the material comes from the prior stage show. Gojiban has started providing English versions with their latest videos and often incorporates fan comments into the segments. there is even a comic strip version now called Godziman (Gojiman)! It is great having a new, ongoing Godzilla media project that will eventually bring all sorts of new, weird, and wonderful monster canon into the world of Godzilla.
So let’s get started, first up is the original GEMSTONE contest video!
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Anguirus, Baragon, Godziban, Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Gorosaurus, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, King Ghidorah, March of Godzilla 2019, Minya, Mothra
