Godzilla Island – Story Arc 4

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. 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. Destoroyah – He killed Godzilla and all he gets is a villain slot on a kids TV show. And beat up on said show. That will learn him! Try as I might I will never like him. 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. Godzilla Junior – Godzilla’s lamest son is here also. Looks likes some sort of lizard squirrel or something. Give me Minya! I’ll even take nephew Godzooky! 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. 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 (Moth) – The Classic Moth form of Mothra. Eventually dies, as all Mothras do, but this is the first one killed by a volcano. Her son is 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.

Godzilla has a son. Actually, he has two sons: Minya and Godzilla Junior. Only one of them is ever seen at a time. My guess is Godzilla keeps shipping them off to military school overseas. Or he kills them and buries them in his basement. Either way, we’re stuck with Godzilla Junior for this series, the lesser son. He’s so lame they had to bring Minya back for the last movie. But Godzilla Junior will be all over the Godzilla Island series, so we can’t get rid of him. He’s the dog that follows you home from school and won’t leave your backyard. Then your mom yells at you for bringing home strays and he growls at your sister and spreads the trash all over your yard and you have to clean it up. So I’m calling Animal Control on Godzilla Junior before he bites someone and has to be destroyed. But first, Story Arc 4 of Godzilla Island…

Episode 21 – Son of Godzilla
Another boring day on Godzilla Island, until Torema discovers Godzilla Junior is running around! You remember Godzilla Junior, the son of Godzilla from the Heisei series of films in the 1990’s? He eventually became the new Godzilla. He’s also a pale imitation of Minya, the one, true son of Godzilla. Needless to say, we don’t like Godzilla Junior. Godzooky is a better son of Godzilla and he’s only Godzilla’s nephew! Torema goes to meet Godzilla Junior face to face. Tsuzuku.

Episode 22 – Torema and Junior
Torema and Junior hang out a bit until daddy calls him back, while Zaguresu sends Megalon onto the island to spy. Megalon spots Junior and Zaguresu plans to kidnap him! Because she’s evil. And the next episode is titled “Kidnapping Junior” so she has to do it anyway. Aren’t self-fulfilling prophecies annoying? Tsuzuku.

Episode 23 – Kidnapping Junior
Junior is kidnapped by Megalon and a very big net. Where in the world would you buy a net this big, with net holes so big? Probably the same place you’d buy Godzilla-sized handcuffs! The holes in the net are so big they can’t be what Japan uses to hunt whales for their whale sashimi. Zaguresu teleports into G-Guard Commander’s office to inform him of the kidnapping, because no one could figure out the lady who keeps attacking Godzilla Island could possibly be responsible when someone on the island is kidnapped. Godzilla starts stomping around all angry, because he just bought a new swing set for the kid and that’s just wasted money if he doesn’t show up. Tsuzuku.

Episode 24 – Junior Rescue Operation
Junior is hidden on Matango island (!!!) and the good guys plan a rescue attempt. Hopefully no one is turned into mushroom people! They use knockout gas on Junior and Megalon, then Torema prepares to carry Junior’s cage with Junior in it off the island with her spaceship, except the cage proves to be very heavy and her ship is straining. Lose some weigh, Junior! Next time skip the Super-sizing. Tsuzuku.

Episode 25 – Return Junior!
Torema is flying home with Junior, all looks well, they don’t even have the heavy cage drama anymore (I guess they forgot), until Battra flies in, snaps the cord holding the cage, knocks Torema’s ship out of the sky, and grabs Junior’s cage and flies him back to Matango Island! Battra is efficient like that. But Godzilla heads towards Matango Island as we Tsuzuku.

Episode 26 – Impenetrable Fortress
Zaguresu shows off the giant radar dish gun (called a Maser) that is now guarding Junior along with Megalon, while Torema tried to repair her ship. I don’t see how a Maser would protect them from knockout gas, but I guess a giant gas mask would just look ridiculous. Godzilla stomps up to the Maser and it fires. Tsuzuku.

Episode 27 – A Regrettable White Flag
Godzilla gets blown up again and again by the Maser, and would be dead if Rodan hadn’t flown in and pulled him out. G-Guard Commander realizes the new weapon is powerful and surrenders to prevent the monsters getting killed. He does so by flying a white flag, hence the episode title. I guess massing all the good monsters to attack so the Maser can’t possibly hit everyone at once is out of the question. So we surrender, all over the lesser son of Godzilla. Great. Tsuzuku.

Wait, hold the tsuzuku, why the heck hasn’t Zaguresu used this super-powerful Maser before? All she needed to do was blast Godzilla Island a few times with it and she’d win! Stupid aliens. I bet her alien computers are Mac compatible as well. Does anyone on this show have any brains besides Torema?

Episode 28 – Mothra’s Rush!
Mothra in Moth form arrives to help while Zaguresu drinks wine to celebrate her victory. Zaguresu spits out the wine as Mothra attacks, but the big Maser is aimed right at Mothra as we Tsuzuku. What’s with people drinking wine on a kiddie show? Way to go, Japan! Will Zaguresu commit Seppuku if she fails next? I might actually like that, though…

Episode 29 – Heaven and Earth
Ooh, baby, do you know what that’s worth? Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth! Got my required Belinda Carlisle reference I try to throw in every ten reviews or so because it annoys people. Back to the show: Mothra attacks with her magic dust attack that causes the Maser to go all haywire and hit Zaguresu’s ship instead. (Maybe her Maser was Mac compatible…) Rodan and Battra fight and Battra is zapped by the Maser. Then Godzilla shows up and blows up the Maser, and Moguera pops out of the ground to smack down Megalon! Junior is rescued, the day is saved! Or is it? After Zaguresu has her temper tantrum, she notices a new monster coming in…Destoroyah! Yes, that Destoroyah, the one who killed Godzilla. Tsuzuku.

Let’s rescue Junior because it’s easier than filling out paperwork!
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Episode 30 – Raise the Victorious Flag
Destoroyah smacks Junior over like a bowling pin. He blasts Godzilla and ignores Moguera’s attacks to toss around Junior some more. Throw that useless Junior around, Destoroyah, we only support Minya here at TarsTarkas.NET! Godzilla and Moguera regroup as Rodan attacks, only to get tossed into the mountainside. Destoroyah then attacks Godzilla and Moguera (where we now see Torema is piloting Moguera this time! Way to tell us, TV show.) Godzilla tosses Destoroyah in front of the ruined Maser, which fires on last time exploding Destoroyah! G-Guard Commander raises the G-Guard flag, and Torema and Junior have another conversation by the sunset. Tsuzuku.

What in the world does Torema and Godzilla Junior talk about by the sunset? I can’t understand Japanese nor Godzilla Junior’s shrieks, so I can only imagine it’s a bunch of Japanese dreamy, fruity crap. Oh, well, too bad no Minya. Maybe he’ll soon show up. Until then, we march on into Story Arc 5 as March of Godzilla Island continues!

New monster match-ups – Moguera vs. Megalon, Rodan vs. Battra, Moguera vs. Destoroyah, Rodan vs. Destoroyah

Rated 7/10 (Gorosaurus, King Caesar, Godzilla Junior, Matango Island, Battra with cage, bad hair day, zapping Big G)

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