Skip to content

Tag: films

Episode 46: Daniel DiManna vs. ‘Gamera: Super Monster’

Published August 11, 2021

Hello…kaiju…lovers…. The only reason this episode is long as it is because Nate’s guest, Daniel DiManna (creator/author of the Godzilla Novelization Project) is the most talkative introvert ever of all time. But even if “Danny Boy” was Superman with a Beta Capsule, he couldn’t save this week’s Year of Gamera movie, the infamous Gamera: Super Monster. This 1980 cash-grab from a barely-alive Daiei Film is easily the Guardian of the Universe’s lowest point. On paper, Nate should love this movie because it has three of his favorite things—spaceships, superheroes, and kaiju—but he doesn’t. From public access channel special effects to a nonsensical plot with everything but the kitchen sink to the truckloads of stock footage—this must’ve been a plot by the Board of Directors to break Nate. Meanwhile, Danny keeps MIFV’s intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, quiet by getting him to bet his Pteranodon-bot that he can’t interrupt them during the broadcast. The Toku Topic, fittingly, is the rise and fall of Daiei Film, the studio that introduced the world to Akira Kurosawa and Gamera but dug itself into a financial hole it couldn’t escape. It’s a crazy story, to say the least.

Before the broadcast, Nate and Jimmy are visited by the Board’s executive assistant, Ms. Perkins. She tells Nate that she made arrangements for him to interview Spacewoman Kilara from Gamera: Super Monster on MIFV, much to his chagrin, and then fangirls over her. But the more Nate asks Ms. Perkins questions about her past, the stranger she acts.

Listen to Nate and Travis’s spinoff podcast, The Henshin Men Podcast, on Redcircle.

This episode’s epilogue, “Interviewing a Superheroine,” was written by Nathan Marchand. 

Guest stars:

Additional music:

Sound effects, including some by InspectorJ and klankbeeld, sourced from Freesound.org.

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); Danny DiManna (author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project); Eli Harris (elizilla13); Chris Cooke (host of One Cross Radio); Bex from Redeemed Otaku; Damon Noyes, The Cel Cast, and TofuFury! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Buy official MIFV merch on TeePublic!

This episode is approved by the Monster Island Board of Directors.

Timestamps:

  • Prologue: 0:00-7:47
  • Intro: 7:47-19:26
  • Entertaining Info Dump: 19:26-26:43
  • Toku Talk: 26:43-1:37:52
  • Henshin Men Promo: 1:37:52-1:41:08
  • Toku Topic: 1:41:08-2:13:12
  • Listener Feedback, Housekeeping & Outro: 2:13:12-end

Podcast Social Media:

www.MonsterIslandFilmVault.com

#JimmyFromNASALives       #MonsterIslandFilmVault       #GameravsZigra          #YearofGamera

© 2021 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

Bibliography/Further Reading:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Comments closed

Episode 7: ‘Half Human’ (Mini-Analysis)

Published December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas, kaiju lovers!

As part of Nathan’s continuing series on films covered in his absence on Kaijuvision Radio, this mini-sode examines Ishiro Honda’s 1955 film Half Human, which is infamous for being banned by Toho. Heck, it was stashed so far back in the Island’s film vault, it took Goji-kun and Bro Kong (the podcast mascots and possibly Godzilla and Kong’s “little” brothers) a long time to find it for Nathan to watch. Strange as it may sound, it’s serendipitous that this episode was released on Christmas Day because the film takes place partly on New Year’s Day. It follows a group of scientists and students investigating the appearance of the Abominable Snowman in the Japanese Alps, where they encounter a savage tribe who worships the Snowman. Nathan’s analysis focuses on the natives, their parallels to the Ainu (Japan’s indigenous people), and how this portrayal got the film banned. He argues that, despite possible insensitivities, Half Human is unfairly censored and deserves to be viewed by a wider audience.

All this plus our first listener feedback letters and the Monster Island Christmas party—wherein Nathan learns that kaiju can sing Christmas carols (or so his intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, tells him even though he hasn’t fixed the ORCA yet).

Here’s the Kaijuvision Radio episode on the film: Episode 38: Half Human (1955) (Genetic Origin of the Ainu People).

Here’s the blog with the rules for the Destroyer novella giveaway.

This episode featured “We Three Kings” by Jay Man (OurMusicBox on YouTube).

See you in 2020, listeners!

#JimmyFromNASALives

© 2019 Nathan Marchand & Moonlighting Ninjas Media

Bibliography/Further Reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Comments closed

Episode 0 – Promo Trailer

Published July 12, 2019
Artwork by Tyler Sowles.

A podcast seeking entertainment and enlightenment through tokusatsu.

Join host/curator Nathan Marchand and his intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA (who miraculously survived the infamous War in Space), as they and a rotating roster of Monster Island’s best and brightest Tourists dive deep into the films starring the Island’s most famous kaiju residents!

This is a film appreciation podcast that chronologically and critically examines films from the kaiju and tokusatsu genres. Episodes rotate between round table discussions that feature the film’s production info and an explanation of its historical and cultural contexts; and “mini-sodes” that will include interviews, comedy sketches, and audio essays, among other things. Episodes will drop the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, starting in September 2019. Listeners have a fun and fascinating journey ahead of them.

First up: The Eighth Wonder of the World!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Comments closed