Godziban Episode 15 – 「赤い風船」ジェットジャガーに訊け！#4【ゴジばん】(Review)

December 30, 2019ByTars Tarkas

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!

InMovie Reviews

Godziban Episode 14 – 『ゴジラ・フェス2019』ゴジばん生上演ダイジェストムービー【ゴジばん】(Review)

December 27, 2019ByTars Tarkas

Godziban Episode 14 – 『ゴジラ・フェス2019』ゴジばん生上演ダイジェストムービー【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん

November 8, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi

There was a Godzilla Fest for the 65th birthday of Godzilla on November 3, 2019 and as part of the celebration there was a Godziban production play. This show is behind the scenes clips and portions of the final production. I can’t tell if it was a new play or if it was using the prior play architecture from the previous puppet shows they did 15-ish years ago.

The play answers one big question…THERE IS An OLD MAN GODZILLA! With a CANE!!!! A cane with a snowglobe or crystal ball on the top of it!!! This is insane and awesome! The old Godzilla is ShoGoji, the first generation Godzilla from the Showa-era 1954 original movie (hence the ShoGoji nickname you may have heard of!)

There is some subplot involving a medal coin/medallion/similar object, I am not exactly sure what was going on with it but it seemed meaningful even though it wasn’t directly involved in the egg drama. The main plot has been partially adapted already for the youtube show (though already modified to where they are different adventures!) but does involve the Big Egg on the side of a sheer cliff that we just saw in the show. This time the egg is clearly a Mothra egg, copying the coloros from the Mothra movies exactly.

The three Godzilla brothers attempt to climb the cliff as we’ve seen, except this time they fail and fall down the cliff in exaggerated play format. Eventually Godzilla-kun gets the idea to just slam his tail into the side of the cliff, which is enough to dislodge the egg so Minya an Little catch it. At this point this seems more disruptive than the skit in the series where they just go to investigate the egg and it falls out of the next via earthquake. I’m glad to that change at least.

The triplet Dorat monsters (that made King Ghidorah in the Heisei-era films!) fly by to be rude and demand the egg for themselves. Godzilla-kun fights them as Little and Minya take the egg to safety. The three Dorats are more than a match for Godzilla-kun, but then ShoGoji appears and drives them away. Not for long, as they then transform into King Ghidorah and return. The King Ghidorah puppet is truly monstrous, huge and dangerous looking. It smashes poor ShoGoji as Little and Minya scream in horror! But all is not lost, for ShoGoji then transforms himself into a gigantic Showa-era Godzilla (and is himself another massive puppet) and gives King Ghidorah a thorough thrashing.

King Ghidorah is beaten, ShoGoji transforms back to normal size and the Godzilla Brothers thank him. The egg hatches and it is the Baby Mothra we all know and love, who proceeds to say “Moshi Mosu!” again and again.

It’s bye-bye time!!!

There is also a tiny clip of Hedoji and Hedochi puppets at the end!

The play was fun as it is cool to see the origins of the show and what potential future puppets could show up. A grandpa level ShoGoji complete with fancy cane who wanders around defeating giant threats while serving as an inspiration to our heroes is a great concept. Thumbnail previews already show the Dorats will be appearing very soon on Godziban and the celebration had displays with other kaiju that should potentially appear later. Basically I need to get around to setting up the cast page, lol!

There is full version of the play someone recorded and put online. It is not a full episode of Godziban but it is related enough that you might find it interesting! It is basically the same except with all the scene transitions and the Hedoji/Hedochi jokes in the beginning of the show. It is a good way to see how the real play was set up (even if the backgrounds are just sheets instead of the more lush backgrounds the plays seemed to have from photos of the time).

InMovie Reviews

Godziban Episode 13 – 英語版「 Smack it! Three Godzilla Brothers」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#2【ゴジばん】(Review)

December 25, 2019ByTars Tarkas

Godziban Episode 13 – 英語版「 Smack it! Three Godzilla Brothers」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#2【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん

November 1, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi

Go! Go! Godzilla-kun
English Godziban? It’s true! This is the rock hitting episode except dubbed into English. The English voices are very similar to the Japanese voices but it is fun hearing it in English. It also means I don’t have to write too much of a summary as I already did last time, I’ll only point out corrections! Unfortunately that means things are going to be a bit light this installment, but never fear, the future is bright! I still don’t know why one English translation of this title says “Smack It” while a different one uses “SHUT UP!” for some reason, which doesn’t even make sense in context so it’s probably just complete Google translate wrong.

One of the funnest things is Godzilla-kun saying “Disaster!” when Minya fails to hit the rock. Baby Mothra’s name seems to be Moshi Mothra.

Hedoji
Hedochi asks Hedoji if he knows where they roam. Hedoji says when they arrive they will gain understanding to why they headed there in the first place. Hedochi says “Okie Hedochi!” That’s all you can say to wise words that seem less wise the more you think about it…

InMovie Reviews

Godziban Episode 12 – 「あの崖に向かって飛べ!の巻」 Go!Go!ゴジラくん#7【ゴジばん】(Review)

December 23, 2019ByTars Tarkas

Godziban Episode 12 – 「あの崖に向かって飛べ!の巻」 Go!Go!ゴジラくん#7【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん

October 25, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi

No English subtitles in this one…but don’t worry, they will return! Until then, you got to put up with me describing the plot again. This is the bread and butter of why people read TarsTarkas.NET. Or they just come to look at all the cool pictures and ignore the text. Either way, it’s all good here! And there are a bit of English subtitles in a way, so not all is lost…

Go Go Godzilla-kun
The three Godzilla brothers are going to do more practice in monster skills. They are interrupted when suddenly Anguirus runs up to declare he found a mysterious egg! (at this point the speech bubbles he and Godzilla-kun use to communicate are now in English!) Also Anguirus now has a Japanese speaking voice! It’s actually pretty charming! The three brothers decide to go see the egg and have Anguirus guide them. In addition, the three brothers announce their adventure as an “Adventure of the three Godzilla brothers” before they depart. And Anguirus adds “and Anguirus!” to the end right before they leave. This is already awesome beyond belief and we haven’t even gotten to the actual adventure yet.

The egg is at the top of a huge sheer cliff. Godzilla-kun tells Anguirus to go reconnaissance. Anguirus climbs…and climbs…and climbs…and climbs! But near the top he falls off! And curls into a ball, rolling down the hill…right towards the Godzilla brothers, who quickly start running away. But they run with Anguirus directly behind them, which sort of quells the critics of this scene in Prometheus but I digress. Anguirus rolls into a tree which bounces him back in front of Godzilla-kun. “I’m back!” he says!

Now all four of them will climb! And all four of them will slide down. And keep climbing. And keep sliding. Anguirus falls off again and rolls away, like off into the horizon never to be seen again until next week’s episode away. Goodbye, Anguirus and your handsome new voice! Godzilla-kun gets within grabbing distance of the egg but slides away before he call, all three tumble down. This clearly isn’t working.

It’s idea time! Inspired by Anguirus, they try to launch themselves at the egg using the tree from earlier as a catapult. Little is catapulted right into the nest next to the egg. Minya is catapulted right next to him. They examine the egg, but then the mountain starts to rumble! Minya grabs the egg for safe keeping, but he falls out of the nest! Minya rolls down the side but somehow doesn’t break the egg as he falls to the bottom.

The three brothers then build a nest out of straw for the egg, obviously deciding that catapulting the egg back onto the cliff would probably be a disaster for the egg. Minya think.s it is a kaiju egg. He puts his ear up to it and hears a voice inside the egg. Minya stays behind to keep the egg warm by hugging it as the other two leave.

TO BE CONTINUED! (with King Ghidorah images in the background! Is that a clue? Or a three-headed red herring?)

Hedoji
Hedochi asks if the egg is born of what everyone thinks. Hedoji says to be sure with your own eyes. Hedochi says “A so!”

After the end title… What looks like Rodan’s shadow flies over the Hedojis!

A great episode beginning a new story line, monsters on an adventure and Minya proving he is the best kaiju because he’s willing to protect a random egg he doesn’t even know. And of course we got foreshadowing and an possible new kaiju popping out of this egg. The only problem is we have to wait a few weeks for the conclusion, because next week is a prior episode dubbed into English! And then there is a special live performance episode. Eventually we will return to the world of the egg, but be patient.

InMovie Reviews

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)

December 20, 2019ByTars Tarkas

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!

InMovie Reviews

Godziban Episode 10 – ヘドじい漫遊記#1【ゴジばん】(Review)

December 18, 2019ByTars Tarkas

Godziban Episode 10 – ヘドじい漫遊記#1【ゴジばん】

aka ゴジばん

October 11, 2019
Written and directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi

Hedoji
If you love Hedoji and also love Hedoji and Hedochi, then you will love a bunch of Hedoji shorts put together! It’s all Hedoji all the time, this time! Okay, only this time. Until they do it again. Maybe! Now there is even real world shots of the countryside so they are no longer wandering in desolate wastelands. We all know that Hedoji follows basically the same formate. Wise old sage Hedoji and his grandson Hedochi are wandering the endless wastes of what may or may not be modern Earth. Hedochi stops to ask Hedoji a philosophical question or even a question about the episode of Godziban that just aired. Hedoji then responds with an grand pronouncement. Hedochi then responds with a zinger, which is usually him saying “Okie-Hedochi!” or something similar. The consistency is the key to the humor.

After a few of the usual jokes, Hedochi falls over instead of joking in one episode, where Hedoji then keeps talking and eventually Hedochi gets back up and says a delayed joke. Eventually Hedojii talks about lots of monsters in his speech, and Hedochi seems excited and we hear monster sounds in what seems to be flashback remembering. This is where the lack of subtitles hits bigger than usually, as it becomes too difficult to figure out the context and I don’t know if we are hearing what happened that made the world a desolate wasteland that the Hedorahs are wandering or if it is just some other unrelated monster stuff. Some of the topics were suggested by fans in the comments of prior videos.

Finally Godzilla-kun pops up to complain that he wasn’t in this episode! Poor Godzilla-kun, maybe next week, buddy!

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Godziban Episode 15 – 「赤い風船」ジェットジャガーに訊け！#4【ゴジばん】

Godziban Episode 14 – 『ゴジラ・フェス2019』ゴジばん生上演ダイジェストムービー【ゴジばん】

Godziban Episode 13 – 英語版 「 Smack it! Three Godzilla Brothers」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#2【ゴジばん】

Godziban Episode 12 – 「あの崖に向かって飛べ!の巻」 Go!Go!ゴジラくん#7【ゴジばん】

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】

Godziban Episode 10 – ヘドじい漫遊記#1【ゴジばん】

Godziban Episode 13 – 英語版「 Smack it! Three Godzilla Brothers」Go!Go!ゴジラくん#2【ゴジばん】