Godzilla Archives | Otaku No Culture

Wanting some Famous Monsters Ack-ives? Get ’em While They’re Hot!

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Very few magazines are considered collectible. To have magazines like Cinefex helped define my love for films. Sadly, those early issues are well-read and falling apart. There’s no denying I wish anthology collections exist so I can keep the originals safely stored and another to read to death.

Thankfully Fantastic Monsters of Filmland’s Ack-Ives is a from-the-archive series which has me smiling broader than Showa era Gojira on America’s love affair with the King of Monsters! The first volume is on all things Godzilla from both sides of the Pacific. It is worth picking up when I do not want to put any further wear to my early magazines. I am not surprised the super early issues are highly sought after by collectors. They tracked what was popular for the time when it was still in publication (1958 to 1983) and later revived ’93. They are some of Forrest J. Ackerman‘s finest work.

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Scaring Up the Monsterverse, Godzilla and Ghidorah

This Monsterverse is better off not bringing in divine figureheads into the fore. Hydras and Cerberus yes, but gods from Babylon or Mesoamerican origins, perhaps not.

Godzilla King of the Monsters Hail the Monsterverse Spoiler Alert

The epic showdown I’ve been craving since Legendary Pictures acquired the license to play with Godzilla is here! In part two of maybe a trilogy, the Monsterverse mankind lives in is filled with hidden agendas and a fear for the future. Our time on Earth may well come to an end. The Titans, monsters capable of mass destruction, will reclaim their territory. Can we live side by side in a symbiotic relationship, as Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) hopes? Or as TOHO Studio’s animated take suggests, will civilization regress to simpler times?

No real continuity exists between these two studio’s works. Legendary’s version is limited. Only a handful of films can be made before the terms of the contract expire. With a bigger budget, fans can see a massively CGI driven apocalyptic take of monsters ravaging each other and the world. Practical effects can only go so far, and motion capture can do a lot more these days. As this sequel takes place five years later, the Monarch organization is ready for the inevitable. In what they know and have uncovered since–humanity better be afraid!

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Afterthoughts on Godzilla: Planet Eater

Famous Monsters By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Available to watch on Netflix

The survivors from Godzilla from City on the Edge of Battle must be facing an existential crisis in the finale of Toho’s animated trilogy. The Planet Eater sees the mighty one dormant for a good half of the film, and the alien Bilusaludo and Exif (who allied with the human race) seem not too concerned. In the final part of Toho’s animated trilogy, the question of who is helping whom is looked at, and not everyone is being cooperative.

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Hidden Kaiju in Godzilla: King of Monsters Trailer?

Just how many extra monsters can you spot in this latest trailer for Godzilla?

Release Date:
May 31, 2019

The trailer for Godzilla: King of Monsters dropped on Monday and the film will no doubt make many lists of most anticipated films to see in 2019! While most of the additional kaiju has been identified–Rodan, Mothra (two forms) and King Ghidorah–could more appear? Most likely not, but after countless rewatches, I swear the tail being swung belongs to Anguirus.

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Breaking Down Gojira, Living at the City of the Edge of Battle

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

For a brief moment, I thought TOHO animation‘s curiously titled Gojira, City on the Edge of Battle (決戦機動増殖都市) will become a Star Trek episode. Knowing Mecha Gojira would appear, I thought about Hasbro’s Transformers and a city transforming into a figure like Trypticon than Metroplex. Thankfully, this movie is nowhere close to realizing that, but I knew Mecha Gojira was making a comeback. I wondered how?

Part two is on Netflix. While it’s tough to beat a theatrical presentation, as it was presented in Japan, anyone with a 72 inches (or more) television will be in for a treat. The surround sound mix is very good, and it requires more oomph to make the windows of my home to rattle. I bought a 7.2 audio receiver so I can have two subwoofers than one and hoped to test it out with the right movie. This film comes close to tearing down the house.

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Wind Up Geek’s Cool Japan: Godzilla Appears at Tokyo Bathhouse

GodzillaBathhouse2 By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Godzilla has appeared at a Japanese bathhouse in southeast Tokyo in a district known as the Ōta ward. The depiction of Godzilla as he appears in the latest film Godzilla Resurgence (シン・ゴジラ, Shin Gojira), can be seen alongside a pagoda from Ikegami Honmon-ji (池上本門寺) temple and Haneda Airport, both symbols of Ōta ward. The five-storey pagoda is a structure that has been classified as “Important Cultural Property” to the people of Japan by the Japanese Government.

Mizuki Tanaka is the artist behind the sento (bathhouse) mural and is the country’s only female bathhouse painter. She apprenticed under sento art master Morio Nakajima for almost a decade. Tanaka’s mural was in collaboration with Ōta officials. Tanaka decided to paint Shin Gojira after discussing it with her family. The mural took 20 hours to paint.

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