Godzilla Island – Story Arc 3

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 –

Battra – Evil sister of Mothra who now works for Zaguresu. I guess it’s hard to make a decent living when you are an evil monster, as there are only a few employment opportunities. Fake Godzilla – This fake Godzilla framed Big G about attacking Tokyo. But was all metal underneath. So he might have been the original Mechagodzilla (seen in the series as Black Mechagodzilla), but he got blown up too quickly to tell. 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. Mechagodzilla – This is the second Mechagodzilla, which was created by humans to fight Godzilla. Now stationed on Godzilla Island as one of its defenders. Usually automated, but can be piloted at times (and has been by G-Guard Commander.) Usually paired with Moguera. Megalon – Drills for hands, the former guardian of Seatopia now works for Zaguresu because he hasn’t been beat up by Godzilla or Jet Jaguar enough yet. Moguera – The Mobile Operation Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aero-Type, or MOGUERA, was also built to fight Godzilla, and is also stationed on Godzilla Island to defend it now. In one episode we see Torema pilots Moguera, but other episodes it is unclear who is in control. Moguera can separate into Star Falcon and Land Moguera pieces in the movies, but doesn’t here. 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.

Story number three is five whole episodes long. But it gives us a nice array of monsters, and even cranks out the whole evil twin story. Long time Godzilla fans will instantly suspect the nature of the Godzilla who attacks Tokyo. Not so long time Godzilla fans will also instantly suspect the nature of the Godzilla who attacks Tokyo. Seriously, it’s so easy to figure out babies talk about the Fake Godzilla before the doctor snips their cord. Stupid babies, they need to shut up with their Bruce Willis voices!

Episode 16 – Godzilla’s Alibi
Torema continues having her memories/dreams of blasting the Weird Godzilla with a rocket launcher, meanwhile non-Weird Godzilla is attacking Tokyo. Pay no attention to the fact that Tokyo 2097 looks identical to Tokyo 1985, what with the reuse of stock footage from Godzilla 1985. G-Guard Commander calls up the Super X to fight Godzilla, but Torema will find out the truth as she doesn’t believe Godzilla would attack the city unprovoked. Tsuzuku. Good thing the Super X is still around in 2097, but we never see it. It’s just a throwout name. They didn’t even glue fins to a jet model and try to pass that off as a new Super X, they show nothing!

Episode 17 – I’m Innocent!
Godzilla is in handcuffs (yes, giant-size handcuffs! It’s so cute it’s ridiculous) and is interrogated by G-Guard Commander and Torema. Godzilla is locked away in monster jail (all while claiming he’s innocent of smashing the city) and then Battra and Megalon (I KNEW Megalon would show up!) fly towards the island as we tsuzuku. I had forgotten about Battra as being evil because Mothra’s enemies are usually so lame I forget who they are. Just wait until I have to review the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. I might take Mothra’s cue and die, but then my son would have to go on and continue the mission of watching those films. And no father can ask something so horrible of his children.

Episode 18 – Godzilla Escapes!
Rodan, Mothra, Mechagodzilla, and Moguera are sent to fight Battra and Megalon (where is Jet Jaguar???) Rodan vs Megalon!!!! Moguera and Mechagodzilla eye-laser Battra! These are monster fights you never see in the feature length films! It’s so exciting your forget they are only toys being waved around by interns.

Hot monster action!
[FLOWPLAYER=http://tarstarkas.net/movies/godzillaislandstory3_clip1.flv,480,360]

Torema joins the fight in her spaceship. Zaguresu orders the evil monsters to retreat, because they are losing as they are losers. Torema returns to base, but Godzilla has busted out of jail! Is Godzilla evil again? Did he pull an Andy Dufresne and hide a tunnel behind a poster of Mrs. Godzilla in a bathing suit? No, he just busted out through the bars. Tsuzuku for the hope he’s chained to Sidney Poitier!

Episode 19 – Godzilla Obliteration Plan
Torema has more Weird G-killing flashbacks, because blowing up Weird Godzillas is the Vietnam of space girls of the year 2097. Godzilla attacks Tokyo again. I bet he’s totally the real Godzilla and not an evil duplicate. No way, Jose! Torema flies off (in a cool nighttime shot) to try to get to the truth so Godzilla isn’t destroyed. Tsuzuku.

Episode 20 – The Revealed Plot
Torema arrives at Tokyo where Godzilla is blowing stuff up. He doesn’t talk to her and shoots her ship down with his atomic breath. She doesn’t crash, as the real Godzilla catches her ship, as he’s showed up to give this Fake Godzilla what for. Godzilla blasts Fake Godzilla in the chest, exposing the robot core (and everyone who had seen the original Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla knew what was going on.) This Fake Godzilla can’t hurt the real one, and Godzilla blows his pale imitator up real good. Godzilla and Torema head back to Godzilla Island. Zaguresu is like “Whatever, I got nine million more evil plans headed your way! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” “MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Tsuzu-“MuHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” She laughs a lot. Tsuzuku.

Tune in next time for the continuing adventures of Godzilla Island! Story Arc Four is decidedly longer, and features a few monsters not yet seen! It’s an actually good story arc! March of Godzilla Island continues…Tsuzuku!

New match-ups – Rodan vs Megalon, Moguera and Mechagodzilla vs Battra

Rated 6/10 (Hey I’m innocent, Evil Spaceship, Escape!, twilight, tsuzuku, alien city)

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