Godzilla Island – Story Arc 2

1997

Directed by Shun Mizutani

Godzilla has several TV shows throughout his history. In this year’s March of Godzilla, we will be cataloging one such show, Godzilla Island. Godzilla Island was a series of three minute episodes that ran from October 6, 1997, until September 30, 1998. 256 episodes were created, using a combination of toys and stock footage to bring the characters to life. Throw in some characters acting in front of a blue screen and a basketball-shaped annoying robot, and you got Godzilla Island in a nutshell. One advantage to the toymation approach of monster effects is it allows the appearance of all sorts of kaiju from all over G-history. Multiple Jet Jaguars! All sorts of one-shot characters pop up over the course of the series. But as this was created around 1997, no one from the Millennium series of films is present.

Set in the year 2097, where most kaiju live on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Godzilla Island. I guess, I’m not sure if they give it an actual name, since they speak this Japanese language all the time. Anyway, Godzilla Island soon becomes a center of activity for alien invasions left and right. Aliens being the evil Xilien aliens, as seen in Godzilla vs. Monster Zero. The one individual seen even dresses like them, although she doesn’t follow the contention that all females of the species look identical to Kumi Mizuno. Godzilla Island is governed by the Godzilla-Guard, aka G-Guard, which is staffed by one guy and a robot. The G-Guard Commander is less than capable in dealing with invading monsters and aliens, but luckily he is joined by mysterious young girl Torema, who has a powerful space ship and psychic powers.

According to the credits, the series was directed by Shun Mizutani and written by Takahiko Masuda. With music by The Edge. I guess U2’s The Edge, unless there is another The Edge running around, in which case I must bang my head on the desk. We’ll run through the episodes in order broken up by story arcs. Some stories are only a few episodes long, and some last close to twenty. Each episode ends with “tsuzuku” which basically means “to be continued.” So tsuzuku will be our catchphrase of the series. If you missed this paragraph you’ll probably be very confused, as we will probably type tsuzuku more than Godzilla in these articles.

The action is brought to life with toys. It is toymation at it’s finest, almost a decade before Robot Chicken. This allows for lots of monsters to be in lots of shows, lots of monster fights that we would never see otherwise, and lots of new versions of monsters. Plus the fact they had a deal with Bandai Toys to produce lots of exclusive toys for the show didn’t hurt. Come to think of it this is more of a blatant commercial for toys than the He-Man cartoon! But first let’s meet the human actors who will be appearing in most of the episodes:

G-Guard Commander (Jiro Dan) – G-Guard Commander runs the Godzilla Guard unit on Godzilla Island. He’s all alone except for sassy robot Lucas, so of course he’s bored out of his skull normally. He seems to have been stationed there because it’s a low-priority assignment they could dump someone who can’t work under pressure, because that’s exactly what he is. Luckily Torema shows up to save his pants. I do not know if he has a name but it may be Oji. Torema (Maimi Okuwa) – A mysterious young girl who shows up one day on Godzilla Island right when the dastardly Xiliens begin to attack. She repels the attack, joins the G-Guard, and begins her fight against Zaguresu the Xilien because Xiliens destroyed her home planet (I think that’s what happened – she may have been from future Earth.) Has psychic powers and her own spaceship called the Panatolute. Zaguresu (Naoko Aizawa) – Evil Xilien woman who invades Earth using giant monsters and her giant Independence Day/V rip-off spaceship. Enjoys laughing evilly while contemplating the latest diabolical schemes. Follows the Xilien leader Giant Emperor’s orders, because that’s what they do on Planet X. Sheep! Her spaceship is named the Vabaruda. Lucas (Kenichiro Shimamura) – Annoying robot, Godzilla Island-style! Makes sarcastic remarks, and seems to be even mean at times. An annoying Kenny kid in floating metal sphere form. He must be destroyed! Translates from monster language to Japanese. Narrator – (Yutaka Aoyama) – He’s not a character but the guy who recaps the previous episode in the beginning of the episode. That means thirty seconds of each three minute episode is Narrator recounting events, padding running time beyond levels I want to think about. He’s a typical Japanese male announcer, amazingly excited and epic about even the most mundane things.

Different monster feature in each episode, so we’ll keep track of them in each story arc. The complete Godzilla Island Daikaiju List is located here. We’ll also list any new monster match-ups that weren’t in any film but now exist thanks to this series, such as King Caesar fighting Megalon or something. The R2 Japanese DVD release is unsubtitled, so most of what is going on will be educated guesses thanks to our limited Japanese speaking ability. But here at TarsTarkas.NET we don’t need no stinking subtitles!

Featuring the monsters –

Anguirus – Godzilla’s first foe and now a close friend. His only power is a spiky back but he’s brave on the battlefield. One of the usual residents on Godzilla Island who shows up to watch the action as stories progress. Baragon – Big ears, big horn on the nose, likes to dig underground. One of the usual residents on Godzilla Island who shows up to watch the action. Godzilla – The King of Monsters. Godzilla is pure awesome in giant fire-breathing lizard form. Everyone who comes to Godzilla Island wants a piece of Godzilla. And they all get kicked to the curb. Gorosaurus – Old foe of King Kong who spends most of his days watching whatever happens on Godzilla Island. His special move was to do kangaroo kicks. King Caesar – King Caesar is King of Zen as well. He’s a Samurai Lion who will kick your behind! He is some sort of Taoist/Shinto priest or something in addition to being a giant monster. King Ghidrah – THE foe for Godzilla. No one else even comes close. On the show, regularly gets beat up despite working with the Xiliens. Was involved in the destruction of Torema’s home planet. Mothra (Larva) – Mothra, Goddess of Infant Island, and defender of Earth. Larva Mothra is part of a continual chain of Mothras that go through larva and mature forms, though this one will eventually become Mothra Leo. Rodan – A prehistoric monster awakened in modern day, Rodan is a former foe of Godzilla who has learned to work with him to fight off the evil monsters. Has some hot springs named after him on Godzilla Island. Will eventually become Fire Rodan, because he did so in the Heisei movie series that was still recent, in addition to giving Bandai another toy. Weird Godzilla – An army of these Weird Godzilla’s attacked Torema’s home planet. Torema had to blow them up with rocket launchers, which haunts her to this day. These Weird Godzillas did not have giant spines down the back and it is unknown if they had atomic breath.

After the intro story, now we will see more of the Xilien’s evil plans. Which is basically to attack Earth one monster at a time. Except this time it’s King Ghidrah instead of Space Godzilla. I guess the next story will have Destoroyah, or Megalon, or Gigan, as they are the only villains left. Why does nobody ever get the idea to mass spam evil monsters at the same time to defeat Godzilla? The closest we get is in Godzilla Final War where three monsters fight Godzilla. Let’s see a twenty on one fight, but Godzilla would just win that one as well. Oh, well, let’s get this party started!

Episode 6 – A Sudden Giant Battle

Nice normal boring day until the monsters start randomly fighting each other. Gorosaurus vs King Caesar, Godzilla vs Rodan (brought to life with stock footage from King Ghidrah!), Baragon vs Anguirus. Toymation action! Robot Chicken eat your heart out! Inside G-Guard, they have no clue what is going on. Then Torema storms off after Lucas is mean to her. Stupid robot, why are you annoying the only competent person there? Also Ghidrah heads to Godzilla Island as Zagruresu laughs, because that’s what evil things are happening this story.

Tsuzuku!

Episode 7 – Mothra’s Persuasion

Mothra is sick of all these monsters fighting each other randomly, because Mothra is all about the peace. Pass the bong. Godzilla and Rodan keep fighting, and we see stock footage of the monster conversation scene from King Ghidrah. Lucas translates for G-Guard Commander. But since he’s translating from Monster into Japanese, I still don’t know what happened. Mothra’s peacenik drum circle crap seems to have worked, as the fighting stops just in time for Ghidrah to attack the island! Run for your life! Nothing I like better than seeing hippies get attacked by giant monsters! Tsuzuku!

Episode 8 – Confrontation! Torema vs. Zaguresu

Torema and Zaguresu go all power rangers on each other in the forest, fighting with swords. No, we are still in a Godzilla show, so don’t expect Lord Zedd to march in and laugh crazily. Because that’s Zaguresu’s job! Still, we get a better-choreographed-than-I-expected-but-not-really-stellar bladed weapon fight, where Torema battles with two large daggers. The fight ends with Zaguresu spitting green stuff on Torema, which puts her in a drugged haze. That could be totally gross and erotic at the same time were this green stuff spit all over Torema more adult themed, but I’m glad it’s not. Japanese porn is disturbing enough without green bodily fluids. Zaguresu prepares the final blow to strike down Torema, so – tsuzuku!

Episode 9 – Godzilla Awakens!

Zaguresu is distracted by an exploding tower, (where the hell did the tower come from, much less why is it exploding? Did Osama bin Laden attack Godzilla Island?) this allows Torema to escape and disarm Zaguresu. The exploding tower wakes up monsters and allows them to focus on Ghidrah. Maybe towers should randomly explode more often to get plots moving. Like the US invades the Middle East and destroys its economy plot we seem to be running right now. But will many monsters defeat King Ghidrah, who has been beaten by only a mere two of them before? Tsuzuku. Also, note that the hero monsters have no history of not ganging up on the evil monsters, it’s only the bad monsters who can’t grasp to form a mob before they invade Tokyo.

Episode 10 – Victory Reparation

King Ghidrah is beaten by Godzilla and Rodan thanks to the stock footage of them doing it previously in Monster Zero. So I was right that it only took two of them to save the day. Torema returns to G-Guard HQ injured (and is eventually seen unconscious), while Zaguresu uses the Power Button to reenergize King Ghidrah so he can attack again. Yes, random towers, power buttons, this is not the time to ask “WTF?” but is the time to just say “Sure, whatever you say, show!” Sence is for losers and for change drawers. Tsuzuku.

Episode 11 – King Ghidorah’s Revenge

King Ghidrah is beating down Godzilla by himself, but all the other monsters are off hanging around G-Guard HQ for reasons unknown(Injured? Lost? You make the call!), so I guess Godzilla is going to get a little bit more beat up now. What the heck, you lazy monsters? Are you all still listening to Mothra’s hippy-dippy peace crap? Or are all of you at the infirmary? Monsters are unreliable, which is why I only hire non-monster contractors. Tsuzuku.

Episode 12 – A Miracle Born from Desperate Will-Power

A recovering Torema uses some sort of magic power to disrupt Ghidrah’s power, giving Godzilla the upper hand. Tsuzuku. Yes, the episode is really that simplistic and psychic-filled. Or desperate will-power, if you believe the translation of the episode title. Which I don’t, because I randomly misbelieve things for fun and profit.

Episode 13 – Torema’s Will

Torema is still weak, an gives G Guard Commander a data card and we see a brief flashback of her firing a rocket at an odd-looking Godzilla. Who we have dubbed “Weird Godzilla” because of the odd posture and lack of back fins. Then she faints. Who is this Weird Godzilla? He sure isn’t named Bill. Tsuzuku.

Episode 14 – Zaguresu Won’t Give Up

G-Guard Commander watches the data card, it shows video that the Xiliens used an army of Weird Godzillas and Ghidrah to attack whatever planet Torema is from (either an alien planet or an Earth colony in the future of 2097) and Torema escapes to Earth. Her back story is over, so we tsuzuku. Why didn’t she bring one of those Godzilla-killing rocket launchers with her to Godzilla Island, she could kill the evil monster of the week by the end of episode 1 and then we’d spend the rest of the story arc partying down!

Episode 15 – Torema Eternal…

King Ghidrah is driven off by Godzilla, and Torema wakes up and hits G-Guard Commander with her shoe. Tsuzuku! Maybe in the next story we’ll find out why she hits him with a shoe. Is she Kruschev? We will bury you, G-Guard Commander!

Well, this story arc had a bit of a pointless run-around, with Ghidrah losing, then returning, only to lose again. At least he’s consistant. A consistant loser! You just got served, King Ghidrah! Tune in Next Time to see the next exciting story arc in Godzilla Island, as March of Godzilla Island continues!!!!!!! Will I be able to reference Kruschev and Japanese porn in the same review again? Find out!

New match-ups – Gorosaurus vs King Caesar, Baragon vs Anguirus.

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