MARK YOUR CALENDARS, MONSTER KIDS! ON THE WEEKEND OF JULY 11 & 12, THE MONSTERS ARE IN REVOLT AS KAIJU CON-LINE TAKES OVER THE INTERNET!
WHAT IS KAIJU CON-LINE? WITH THE CANCELATION OF THE ANNUAL GATHERING OF KAIJU FANS, A FEW MOTIVATED MONSTER MANIACS ARE REPLICATING A SMALL PORTION OF THE FUN WITH THEIR FELLOW FANS ON THAT SAME WEEKEND, LIKE A VIRTUAL CONVENTION.
OVER THE WEEKEND, A MYRIAD OF ONLINE ACTIVITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR KAIJU FANS AROUND THE GLOBE TO ENJOY – ALL FOR FREE.
YES, KAIJU CON-LINE IS A FREE EVENT! WE ARE DOING WHAT WE CAN TO MAKE THIS SHOW AS AWESOME AS POSSIBLE AND REACHING OUT TO MEMBERS OF OUR KAIJU COMMUNITY TO HELP IN A NUMBER OF WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE. WE HOPE YOU HAVE A MONSTROUS TIME AT KAIJU CON-LINE FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME!
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Join Nathan Marchand and Danny DiManna (author and creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project) for their panel, “The Original MCU: Connecting Showa Era Continuity” Sunday at 2pm EST. They will connect the dots in the often loose continuity of Toho’s Showa era tokusatsu films.
This is all only some of the great programming being offered this weekend! Check it out!
The “Summer of Mothra” continues with Rebirth of Mothra II—the valley between two short mountains in the ‘90s Mothra trilogy. Once again Nathan is joined by Bex from the Redeemed Otaku podcast, and they try their hardest to do a deep dive on a shallow movie. While the first movie had an obvious environmental theme, this one barely gives 20 seconds of screen time to anything substantial. Even Belvera and Elias aren’t as exciting this time around. Then there’s Ghogo/Gogo/Go-Go (aka “Japanese Furby”), the “token cute thing” whose plushy Bex has no interest in buying because, well, magic urine. Yeah….
But nothing can prepare you for the Shyamalan twist at the end of this episode. Nathan and his intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, never saw it coming.
Also, Jimmy introduces his new garage assistant, who’s either popular or infamous, depending on who you talk to.
We’d like to give a shout-out to our Patreon patrons Travis Alexander (host of Kaiju Weekly), Danny DiManna, elizilla13, and Joejira! Thanks for your support! (Sorry we didn’t mention you on the air, Joejira. You signed up after the initial broadcast).
Except today’s episode isn’t about giant monsters. Heck, it’s barely about tokusatsu. Nathan is analyzing the criminally underseen 1961 antiwar drama The Last War. While most of the creative team behind the camera aren’t the ones usually followed by kaiju/toku fans, there are several familiar faces in front of the camera: Frankie Sakai (Mothra), Yuriko Hoshi (Mothra vs. Godzilla, etc.), and Akira Takarada (too many to list). This film depicts a middle class Japanese family navigating everyday life interspersed with Japanese government officials and foreign soldiers trying to avoid World War III. It is a perfect snapshot of the Japanese national spirit at that moment in time and, Nathan argues, is the precursor to 1984’s The Return of Godzilla. As part of his analysis, Nathan reads the Bible passage quoted in the film (plus the following two verses that would’ve offered some hope) and a John Bradley poem that would’ve been perfect for the end of the film.
All this plus Nathan opens the mailbag to answer some listener feedback!
Now that I’ve recovered from my embarrassment of flirting with a happily married woman, I’ve collected my notes and Nathan’s assigned research mini-projects for our latest episode. Let’s get into it.
Yell at you, Nathan, for mispronouncing a tiny robot dragon’s name? Nah.
It’s “Enter the Fist,” not, “Legend of the Fist,” Bex. (Even writing that sentence makes my eye twitch!)
The name of this film’s director is Okihiro Yoneda.
I should’ve reminded you it was a bulldozer, Nathan. Oops.
You want me to rant on Twitter about you boring me with your many theories about everything on the Island? Nah. I have better things to do with my Twitter. Like retweet stuff for Space Force.
It’s Yakushima, not Yukushima, Bex.
What? If Mothra’s powder can be an artificial sweetener, why can’t her webbing be used to season popcorn? It only makes sense. That’s what Dr. Chujo told me.
The Godzilla film with a silhouette against the sun is Godzilla vs. Hedorah. Nathan neglected to mention for some reason.
Both of you call the Elias “twins” when they aren’t. Heck, Nathan even points out they aren’t twins! Consistency, man!
Nathan’s Leftover Notes – The Film
Mothra…appears right off the bat. Glitter and sparkles!
Title actually appears in English with her glyph as the O.
Within four minutes we see the Elias (fairies). They say, “Goodbye!” together, too.
Sadly, these are dubtitles.
The seal looks like Mothra’s glyph.
Classic wing problem. They don’t flap enough.
The beam attacks (for Fairy and Garugaru) sound like gunshots sometimes.
How’d Belvera tie up the Mom? (Magic. –Jimmy)
How does Belvera stay on Garugaru with how much he crashes? (Glue? Velcro? Static cling? –Jimmy)
They try to use a kite to fly the Elias to Belvera. Definitely child logic.
Did they need the seal to cure Fairy? (The answer is apparently, “Yes.” –Jimmy)
I gotta say: Desghidorah looks great. His emergence from the mountain is particularly good. He sounds like an angry elephant, though.
There was a line that didn’t get subtitled. No dub? Belvera ordering Garugaru.
Mothra has a Canary Cry? (What superpower doesn’t she have at this point? –Jimmy)
Now Mothra is in full-tilt mama bear mode!
Why didn’t you whip out the laser cannon the first time?!
There’s an image you don’t see every day: Mothra carrying the larva in flight.
Check out the OG cell phones. (I think I still have mine…. –Jimmy)
As usual, Mothra’s cocoon looks like a peanut. Selecting a cedar tree is significant because it is connected with Shinto and used as backdrops for No theatre. National identity, traditional values, and conversation.
I’m not sure Taiki’s bee stings and snake bites analogy is applicable here.
Belvera, I don’t think “mutated” is the right word.
What?! Post-credit?! Oh. No. What a tease. (This isn’t a Marvel movie, Nathan. Or a Masaaki Tezuka Godzilla film. –Jimmy)
The child characters have insights into a kind of “magic of nature.” They show the world through their eyes, and it shows the audience what the “post-bubble family life” is like. (Rhodes and McCorkle)
Nathan’s Leftover Notes – Toku Topic: Deforestation in Japan
“The situation started to change around 1570. By then, Japan’s population had increased to ten million people, and villagers’ needs for subsistence forest products had increased correspondingly. Large-scale military conflict during the 1500s required large quantities of timber for the armies. With the advent of the Tokugawa shogunate and peace, followed by rapid growth of cities and monumental construction projects for castles, temples, and shrines, logging increased during 1600s to a scale never before experienced in Japan. Conflict between villagers and rulers over the use of forest lands – subsistence products for the villagers vs. timber for the rulers – became more intense. By 1670 the population had increased to nearly thirty million, and with the exception of Hokkaido, the old growth forests had been completely logged. The supply of timber and other forest products was running out. Soil erosion, floods, landslides, and barren lands (genya) were becoming ever more common. Japan was headed for ecological disaster.” (Marten)
A “positive tip” came in 1670: “the central role of catalytic actions and mutually reinforcing positive feedback loops, local community, outside stimulation and facilitation, letting nature and natural social processes do the work, demonstration effects, social/ecological coadaptation, and using social/ecological diversity and memory as resources. It is difficult to single out the initial tipping point with certainty, but it seems to have derived from the centuries-old tradition of cooperation among villagers for protection against bandits, allotting rice fields and irrigation water, and storing rice. Until then, village cooperation had not extended to forest management, but villages started responding to the forest crisis by refining the management of satoyama secondary forests for subsistence needs (McKean 1982, 1986), and for the first time, planting sugi and hinoki plantations to help satisfy timber demands of the rulers.” (Marten)
Something that helped was the development of silviculture technology, which better managed the tree populations. “Itinerant scholars wrote silviculture manuals, and silviculture “missionaries” traveled around the country, spreading the new technology from village to village. The creation of managed tree plantations stimulated new social institutions for the ruling elite and villagers to cooperate on timber production in a way that provided villagers incentives to produce timber: yamawari (dividing use rights of village forest land among families), nenkiyama (long term leases of forest land to villagers by the government), and buwakibayashi (villagers producing timber on government land and sharing the harvest with the government).” (Marten)
People in the lumber industry called this the “buna massacre.” Artificial forests that once accounted for only 27% of Japan’s total forest land grew to over 44% by 1985. An estimated 17 million buna trees were cut down.
“Japan’s switch to imported wood, fossil-fuel energy, and chemical fertilizers for agriculture, in full swing by the 1980s, eliminated the demand for forest products from satoyama secondary forest and greatly reduced the demand for sugi and hinoki.” (Marten)
Other countries have had the same problems planting one or two species of trees: China, Brazil, Pakistan.
“It is using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) to map forestland and determine where to harvest trees, where to preserve landscapes and where to build resilience against landslides and runoff.” (Coca)
“Most of the cultivated pasture land (in Hokkaido) was abandoned and returned to the Japanese government from 1966-1977, as climate conditions in the area were not conducive to good crop yield. The shift from old growth forest to pasture left large areas of reduced soil fertility that trees were unable to recolonize. Due to a lack of a seed bank and competition with dwarf bamboo, human involvement was necessary to reforest the area. From 1978-2005 native trees with high growth rates were planted in plantations. It was mostly conifers that were planted in the area, but it has aided in the recovery of a conifer-broadleaf mixed forest.” (Wikipedia)
Dangit, Nathan, I’m an engineer, not an ecologist! Even as a man of science this was a bit of a slog to get through. No offense to ecologists, though. We have a few here on the Island studying the local plant life, and they’re good people. Although, they do have a weird fascination with Biollante.
Join us next week when Nathan discusses a very different film: The Last War (1961). Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!
Kaiju Quarantine is back, baby! Join your favorite giant monster podcasters as they climb Trash Mountain and riff ten of the most awesomely awful movies in the kaiju genre! But what mystery movie awaits us at the peak of Trash Mountain? Only Evil Rob knows! Spend an epic and hilarious Memorial Day weekend on the Kaiju Quarantine Discord server. Space is limited! Reserve now! Kaiju Quarantine: Come together right now over kaiju!
Today we’re giving you something you perhaps didn’t know you wanted—a deep dive into Rebirth of Mothra, the first of a trilogy produced by Toho after retiring Godzilla (again). Depending on how you feel about this movie, you may love or hate this episode. What you will love, though, is the Tourist joining Nathan this week is none other than Bex from RedeemedOtaku. Since Nathan appeared on her podcast to discuss the Godzilla Anime Trilogy, he’s having her on three episodes as part of the “Summer of Mothra” while we all await the release of Godzilla vs. Kong (yes, much to anime-loving Bex’s chagrin, she’s filler). Their spirited discussion references and compares this film to a multitude of unrelated media, including The Lion King, Power Rangers, The Neverending Story, Sentinels of the Multiverse (a card game), and Panzer Dragoon(a video game). It’s quite meme-tastic with catchphrases like, “lightning and lasers,” and Nathan’s favorite, “Deus ex Mothrica” (he has issues with the movie’s ending). The Toku Topic is deforestation in Japan. While that may not sound exciting, it has deep connections to the movie and the Japanese national spirit. All this plus some Jimmy From NASA antics and more in the latest episode of MIFV!
Here are the Redeemed Otaku episodes Nathan (and his friend Eric Anderson) appeared on to discuss the Godzilla Anime Trilogy:
ANNOUNCEMENT: We now have a Patreon! If you’re able to support the show in these crazy times, please do. There are three levels, each with its own perks. Here’s a link. Shout out to our first Patron, Travis Alexander (co-host of Kaiju Weekly), who pledged at the Day Pass Tourist level! Thanks, man!
You can now support us as a patron. We have three levels, each with cool bonuses. If you’re financially unable to do so, that’s fine. It’ll still be there when you’re ready. 🙂
After spending last week helping Nathan fight a PR war that makes my flame wars look like playground scuffles, I’ve finally finished my Jimmy’s Notes blog. Thankfully, we did have some content last week with a third bonus episode.
As you’d expect, being a former NASA engineer, I had a lot to say about Nathan and Luke’s discussion of Battle in Outer Space. Some of this I wish I’d brought up on the air. (I’ve been slacking off on that lately. This should be remedied). Anyway, that’s because Battle is the middle entry in Toho’s “pseudo-trilogy” (the first being The Mysterians), and is one of my favorite Toho tokusatsu films. Although, some of these bullet points were assignments given to me on the air by Nathan, so I’m contractually obligated to research them (something else I should try to do on the air more).
Ambrose Bierce is the author of the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
The Japanese title for Ebirah, Horror of the Deep actually translates as “Big Duel in the South Sea,” not, “north sea,” Luke.
Okay. Ignore the third entry in the “pseudo-trilogy.” It’s only subtitled “The Jimmy From NASA Story.” 😛
Just to clarify: Nathan wasn’t saying The Mysterians took place in 1965. He was saying Battle in Outer Space took place in 1965. There seemed to be a little confusion.
Nathan and Nick (Hayden) talk about gaishan, which seems to be somewhat similar to nimowashi, in episode 6. (I hope I spelled those right).
The Sears Tower is now called the Willis Tower.
Did Luke make a Freudian slip and say, “Nude Japan Wrestling,” and not, “New Japan Wrestling”?! That’d be, well, a whole other promotion. That hopefully is just about getting back to how the Romans wrestled back in the day….
It’s hard to say if gravity and absolute zero are connected. Absolute zero, from what I can gather, is more of a mathematical concept than a scientific one. It’s never been achieved and probably can’t. Some say gravity isn’t affected by temperature while others say gravity would cause some release of energy, which creates heat as a byproduct and prevents absolute zero from being reached. It’s all theory, and this film was based on now outdated science (as Nathan pointed out). You can read more about gravity here.
One day, I will have the P-1 in my garage. It’s second only to the Gohten for me, and I can’t get that one, either. You’d think one of the people who helped build it and now has a huge garage to house it would have enough clout to acquire it. Oh well.
It’s “Takarada” not “Hakarada,” and “Kubo” and not “Kube,” Luke. 😛
Wow, Nathan was way off with Yoshio Tsuchiya’s filmography. He was in 1954’s The Invisible Man (Toho), Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Varan the Unbelievable (1958), and The H-Man (1958). Mind you, he played minor roles, but still, he did have tokusatsu credits between The Mysterians and Battle in Outer Space.
Yes. NASA has the memory of a goldfish when it comes to the Gohten. Or have I fallen into a bizarre parallel universe? 😛
Why don’t I work at JAXA? It’s a long story. I’ll tell it to you over a few drinks. Or after a few drinks. Maybe.
Luke and I had a good time in Malaysia. We stopped at this little “hole in the wall” restaurant in Kuala Lumpur where he tried some teh tarik and nasi lemak. We had to hightail it out of there because of…local trouble. (There are reasons I said during Nathan’s stream Friday that I’m not allowed some countries…).
Nathan’s Leftover Notes
It’s interesting hearing the foreign news reports “dubbed” in Japanese.
The stuff with Dr. Achmed is very X-Files-ish.
We see reps from India, F.R. Germany, Canada, and the Philippines. All dubbed in Japanese. The Canadian was played by actor frequently seen in Toho films. Terrible actors. (Japanese rep is Ryo Ikebe from Varan).
S250 = adamantium?
You know, these aliens blew up a space station, and you’re wondering if they’re peaceful. Just saying.
It’s a Walther PPK!
Give him the gun. Surrender. Then take it back and take a hostage? What?!
Did the ship just fly away after zapping Dr. Achmed? Was he teleported or vaporized? (Teleporters are dicey technology, let me tell you. -Jimmy)
How’d they figure out all this stuff about the Natal between scenes? (They read the script. -Jimmy)
Jimmy built a model of the SPIP as a kid. (Yes, that is true. –Jimmy)
Somehow, the g-forces are more intense than that. Is one guy stretching his face with his hands to simulate it? Their grimacing faces, says Galbraith, were a clichéd prediction that proved groundless. (G-force is something to scoff at, man! I should know. That’s why the Gohten was designed to resist it. -Jimmy)
Cool transition from shot of Earth to the moon.
Iwamura just magically breaks free, huh?
Ifukube’s music helps make these long sequences of exploring the moon go by faster.
The Natal base looks like siren.
The music when the SPIP crew attacks the base would be reused later in Godzilla films and become synonymous with it.
Dude has a rifle that can take out a Natal fighter! (I want this gun. For scientific purposes. -Jimmy)
Like Shiraishi, who served the Mysterians, Iwamura finds redemption in heroic sacrifice.
“Scientists lead the way.”
When the SPIP returns, the characters vanish.
The world comes together to pool its resources to build a combat rocket. Houses in Space Center in Texas. Houston? (That’s a nice place. I liked hanging out there. No problem. 😛 -Jimmy)
There is a little regret expressed over putting humans in rockets built for war. Very Japanese and Honda.
A Natal ship was in the office of the UFO Club president in Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. (That guy is nuts! 😛 -Jimmy)
I could see this getting remade. Perhaps with better character work.
The futuristic space center was actually the recently built Japan National Sports Center.
Tsuburaya reused the Mysterian ship models for the Natal.
His Notes from the Ishiro Honda Biography
This marked Honda’s abrupt transition from a two-track film career to exclusively genre films.
“We tried making this film different in several ways. The Mysterians was a bit more fantastic in concept, so rather than filming with attention to realism, we made a lot of bright colors…In [Battle], our big point was to realistically portray how people would respond to an alien invasion. We simulated a real invasion.” –Assistant Director Koji Kajita
Given that The Mysterians was high on plot and this is high on action and thin characters, does this make it a prototype Heisei film? 😛
The film was released three weeks before the controversial Security Treaty (AMPO) was updated. This is reflected with American and Japanese astronaut crews. It’s also seen in this idealized world where the whole anti-Natal project is centered in Tokyo, showing Japan as an international player.
Real world science is in the film. The gravity beam was based on an article in a science journal that said an object’s gravitational pull could be negated at absolute zero. The spacesuits were modeled after cosmonaut suits. The rocket fighters were inspired by X-15’s, which had been unveiled by the U.S. in June 1959 (six months before the film’s release).
Honda and Tsuburaya cut some corners because of budget constraints. The attacks on Venice and the Panama Canal were illustrated unconvincingly instead of being depicted. On the other hand, the flying saucer attack on the moon was a less ambitious scene in the script. I guess they just allocated funds from one thing to another.
Toho’s founder died in 1957, and the studio was controlled more by the massive Hankyu Corporation, which had a stronger focus on the bottom line. This led to tighter budgets (as seen during the filming of Battle in Outer Space), and a greater focus on genre pictures due to their popularity. Honda would leave behind the dramas and light comedies he’d been making.
His Notes from Stuart Galbraith IV’s Book
Astronaut hats look like shower caps.
American editors removed the crowd’s line of “Banzai!” (Probably because of Japanese suicide soldiers).
Says the film exceeds American invasion films in showmanship and visual excitement.
His Leftover Space Race Notes:
“Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition. On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, and not a pleasant one, to most Americans. In the United States, space was seen as the next frontier, a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration, and it was crucial not to lose too much ground to the Soviets. In addition, this demonstration of the overwhelming power of the R-7 missile–seemingly capable of delivering a nuclear warhead into U.S. air space–made gathering intelligence about Soviet military activities particularly urgent.” (History.com)
Japan:
“Japanese space development was started by Tokyo University professor Hideo Itokawa. Many aeronautical engineers lost their jobs after World War II as aircraft development was banned under the US Occupation of Japan. This changed after the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, which once again allowed the development of aviation technology. The seven-year stagnation of Japan’s aerospace industry had seriously harmed Japanese technical abilities.[1][2] To address this, Itokawa established an aviation research group at the Institute of Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo. This institution succeeded in a horizontal launch of the Pencil Rocket on 12 April 1955 in Kokubunji, Tokyo. The dimensions of the rocket were 23 cm (9.1 in) in length by 1.8 cm (0.71 in) in diameter.[3] [4]” (Wikipedia)
“Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)…was formed on 1 October 2003. … Before the merger, ISAS was responsible for space and planetary research, while NAL was focused on aviation research. NASDA, which was founded on 1 October 1969, had developed rockets, satellites, and also built the Japanese Experiment Module. The old NASDA headquarters were located at the current site of the Tanegashima Space Center, on Tanegashima Island, 115 kilometers south of Kyūshū. NASDA also trained the Japanese astronauts who flew with the US Space Shuttles.[6]” (Wikipedia).
This was fun. But then again, I’m a sucker for space movies.
Join us next week when Bex from Redeemed Otaku discusses Rebirth of Mothra with Nathan in the first of a sub-series of episodes we’re calling “The Summer of Mothra.”
After taking a month off to pump out some bonus audio episodes, Nathan returns to Override: Mech City Brawl for some more Monster Island Gaming! He picks up where he left off in his arcade playthrough on hard mode. He remembered how to do a special move for Metageckon that he didn’t do all during part 1–he had to be airborne. Apparently, blue T-Rex mechs can’t jump. After some practice, he confronts the weirdly easy final boss on the Moon. The podcast’s intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, was supposed to join him in the live chat, but technology issues prevented his comments from going through, so he settled for texting Nathan while he played. At least he wasn’t gambling on Nathan losing.
It sounds like I still need to adjust my mic settings. Sorry.
Override: Mech City Brawl is a quirky mech-themed arena fighting game from Modus Games. You take control of one of 15 or so mechs to battle kaiju called Xenotypes or against other mechs. The most interest aspect of the game is that up to four players can control one mech at once. It’s the closest you can get to piloting Voltron.
