Godzilla Island – Story Arc 16

1997

Directed by Shun Mizutani

One thing about Godzilla Island, it has totally re-written the character of Gigan. Normally just a villain whose look inspires a small fan base, now he is completely rewritten as a Zen Warrior who follows the way of the samurai. He isn’t evil, he just wants to be the best. This characterization is not mentioned before, nor referred to again. But while we are in the middle of Godzilla Island, we are in the middle of Gigan being a samurai. It does mean I won’t be able to look at Gigan the same way again, now I will just see him as wasted potential. And that’s before he shows up with chainsaws for hands or some other lame thing. And I never liked Gigan before. Dang it, Godzilla Island. You have finally made a mark on the Godzilla Universe for me, despite your entire appearance of complete fluff. Those of you who are stumbling across this on search engines, Godzilla Island Story Arc 1 is where this all starts.

For those of you wanting Gigan rematch action, read on as March of Godzilla Island continues!

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. 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. Misato (Kaori Aso) – The new monster doctor who is dedicated to her craft. Works hard, argues with G-Guard Commander, and flies Medical Jet Jaguar around all the time. Landes (Kaoru Ukawa) – The new Xilien assigned by Giant Dark Emperor to take over Godzilla Island. She has crazy eyes. Always using a pink fluffy fan. Her ship is another Vabaruda. Nao (Sho Sawamura) – The latest cast addition to Godzilla Island, and the most mysterious because she came out of nowhere and seems obsessed with food. Who is she? Why does G-Guard Commander seem to know her and get annoyed at her constant talk of food? Will we ever get answers? I sure hope so, because otherwise you have to put up with this explanation for the remainder of the series. I translated Sho Sawamura’s name myself so hopefully it is right. Camero (???) – Landes’s floating robot, sounds bored when he talks. Just what we needed, another annoying Lucas. Hopefully he can be the entertaining Meowth to the lame Pikachu. Looks suspiciously like MST3K’s Cambot (Last design)! 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. Giant Dark Emperor (???) – Giant flaming head who commands the Xiliens and Planet X. Do not look behind the curtain. The great and powerful Giant Emperor commands you, and can hear your sarcastic backtalk! Still, being a flaming head in space has got to be pretty boring.

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 Dororin 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 –

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. Dororin – Shape changing monster given as a gift to Landes by Giant Dark Emperor, Can take other kaiju’s forms but always retains his eye colors. Made out of dirt, so if you blow him up he can just reform. He was known as Kumasogami in his one film appearance in Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (aka Yamato Takeru), so of course this makes him an ideal candidate to be on Godzilla Island over kaiju such as Manda, Varan, or Minya. Fireman Jet Jaguar – The third form of Jet Jaguar seen on the show, this one puts out forest fires, distributes Smokey the Bear comics, and gets beat up by Megalon and Destoroyah. Only you can prevent forest fires, but only Fireman Jet Jaguar can up them out while looking so cool. That name suits him. Gigan – Former servant of the space cockroaches, now is suddenly all about being a samurai. This was before his stupid chainsaw upgrade, thank goodness. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Episode 169 – Gigan in the Midst of Training
Misato goes on a scouting expedition to Matango Island in her ship the Tart-Coupe. There, she narrowly avoids a flying rock. The rock is thrown by Gigan, who is hard at work training by throwing rocks up in the air and slicing them in two. Misato says hello to Gigan, but he just flies off. She reports back what she saw to the monsters on Godzilla Island. G-Guard Commander realizes that Gigan and Godzilla have unfinished business, and it is almost rematch time. He starts talking all excited and seemingly romantic to the idea of a battle of honor that harkens to the samurai days of ancient Japan. Tsuzuku.

Episode 170 – A Historic and Unprecedented Reputation Match
G-Guard Commander gives the flashback of Gigan’s last two duels with Godzilla to Misato, then Nao arrives to annoy G-Guard Commander. The flashbacks of the previous fights seem to dispute this episode’s insistance that this reputation match is historic and unprecedented. Landes plots as well as we tsuzuku.

Episode 171 – The Present from the Giant Emperor
Landes sends Camero to tell Gigan they can help him cheat, but Gigan is uninterested and flies off. Giant Dark Emperor appears in space to yell at Landes, but she cries and he gives her a new monster to send to Godzilla Island to make trouble. Who is this monster? Tsuzuku for the answer (or just look at the monster cast list up above!)

Episode 172 – Transformation Monster Dororin
Dororin crashes on Matango Island, and as he can change shape he forms into Godzilla and smashes Gigan over the head with a rock (Gigan was meditating.) Dororin then morphs into Gigan. Misato also arrives on Matango Island because Lucas got an alert, and Gigan tells her Godzilla hit him, and he flies to Godzilla Island for revenge. On Godzilla Island, Godzilla is bonked on the head with a boulder by Dororin-as-Gigan, and G-Guard Commader radios Misato with the news Gigan is there, but she tells him she’s with Gigan! Tsuzuku. Will they ever figure this one out?


Episode 173 – The Duel on the Thunder Planes
Godzilla and Gigan get into a fight, and both are so good at fighting that neither is falling or getting hit by blows that brought them down in previous battles. The battle continues despite Misato getting upset. Dororin then appears near G-Guard HQ and starts blasting it with eye-beams! Lucas calls Misato and tells her that G-Guard Commander is fighting Dororin in Mechagodzilla, and we tsuzuku.

Episode 174 – Somehow it Carries On!
Godzilla refuses to stop fighting to help, and Misato returns to see Mechagodzilla blast Dororin apart, but Dororin just reforms back (but also turns into Gigan and Godzilla for a second while doing so.) G-Guard Commander keeps blasting Dororin but he won’t stop, and sometimes forms behind him and blasts Mechagodzilla. Misato goes to work in the lab to try to find out hwo to stop him. Tsuzuku.

Episode 175 – Call Godzilla!
G-Guard Commander is in trouble and needs help, but Misato is needed in the lab and Lucas can’t fly Moguera for he has no arms. Nao wanders by, and suddenly is drafted into flying Moguera despite her objections. Since when does Moguera need people inside it? It’s been flying on autopilot since its first appearance! Tsuzuku.

Episode 176 – Nao’s Adventure
Nao has no clue what she is doing driving Moguera, and gets shot down by Dororin like two seconds after launch. Lucas instructs her how to operate Moguera, but she spends the entire time whining. We have a winner for most annoying character, it can never get worse than this. She somehow manages to get Moguera between Godzilla and Gigan and scream that Godzilla needs to help G-Guard Commander, and Godzilla decides to go, as his friend is more important than his battle honor. Gigan follows. Misato uses the computer and gets a clue on how to beat Dororin. Tsuzuku.

Episode 177 – A Man’s Romance!?
Godzilla blasts Dororin and takes over the fight, but Dororin gets him from behind. Then Gigan slices Dororin as well. It’s teamwork from these two honorable foes. G-Guard Commander comes into G-Guard HQ injured and wants some ice, and that gives Misato an idea. So she flies out in Fire Fighter Jet Jaguar (and we get to see in the cockpit of this Jet Jaguar unit as well!) with a big tank of liquid on his back. Tsuzuku.

Episode 178 – Fumiya of Gigan
Fire Fighter Jet Jaguar sprays Dororin with water, turing him into a pile of mud. I will refrain from making any pee jokes at this juncture, because you can write your own. The small glowing spark that is the real Dororin flies up and away, but Gigan chases after and slices it into fourths. He then sends a message arrow back to Godzilla Island and disappears. Landes pouts. Misato discusses what Gigan said in the message letter, in Japanese, so I can’t tell you, but it was probably something about honor and stuff. And they left Nao to wander around in Moguera screaming for help because no one likes her. Ha-HA, random girl! Tsuzuku!

Hosing down the monster
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Well, that was interesting, but neat to see Fireman Jet Jaguar finally not get beat down by monsters. Still have no clue who Nao is or why she is there. Not that it matters at this point, as they simply forgot about her as well. Well, will Godzilla and Gigan ever settle their dispute? Why does the next story arc seem to revolve around Anguirus? Find out next time in Story Arc 17 – There Is No Funny Joke About 17.

New Monster Match-ups – Mechagodzilla vs. Dororin, Godzilla vs. Dororin, Gigan and Godzilla vs. Dororin, Fire Fighter Jet Jaguar vs. Dororin

Rated 8/10 (Camero attempts to bribe, Morphing Dororin, G-Guard HQ attacked AGAIN!, Shape-shifting sand, whine whine whine, I’m Fireman Jet Jaguar!, Melty Dororin, Walk like an Egyptian)

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