Godzilla 69th Birthday image. ©Toho Co., Ltd
Happy Godzilla Day! For those of you in the fandom, this is a celebratory day of mega proportions. Not only is it the anniversary date of the original 1954 classic that we all cherish, it is a day that Toho has dedicated to showing us new figure announcements, fan gatherings, and to the joy of many, new CG and practical tokusatsu short films to celebrate monster anniversaries. Starting in 2021, we received a brand-new live action short film featuring Hedorah, with two short films following up the next year to feature Gigan. Godzilla Vs. Gigan Rex was met with love from the fanbase, with many noticing the slight potential continuity it shares with the Heisei series of films from the 1990s. This year, however, we were blessed with even more. Read on to find out what went on during the GodzillaFest livestream and event!
Godzilla 70th Anniversary Announcement
That’s right! We began our stream with the unveiling of next year’s logo that Toho will utilize to celebrate the milestone 70-year anniversary of the Godzilla series! Put together with a nice animated video highlighting Godzilla’s various friends and foes over the years, it culminated with this logo, alongside it being featured on usual merchandise — hats, shirts, etc. You will be seeing this logo more frequently next year!
Godzilla Vs. Megalon Short Film
The first of this year’s two short films, Gemstone’s Godzilla Vs. Megalon, premiered early on into the festivities. Another action-packed CG animated short, this pitted Godzilla against his iconic beetle foe, taking place almost immediately after its predecessor, Godzilla Vs. Gigan Rex. What surprised many of us here at KU though, was the addition of live action segments within this animated short! What a cool addition!
After the screening, the Gemstone team arrived on stage to discuss the Megalon short, providing us with some interesting conceptual art pieces that shaped Megalon’s design in this film.
©Toho Co., Ltd
©Toho Co., Ltd
Toys, Toys, Toys!
We can’t talk about the awesome things occuring during Godzilla day without featuring some of the incredible figures that collectors can get their hands on. Coming fresh off of the INSANE announcement that Bandai would be adding Bagan of all kaiju (Yes, the one from the Super Nintendo Godzilla game) to its Movie Monster Series line of figures, we have received more announcements! Not only will we be getting a brand-new figure of Godzilla 1964, his incarnation in the classic Mothra Vs. Godzilla, but also some new figures of Minya, the son of Godzilla, as well as special fire and ice colorations of the previously revealed Godzilla & Anguirus figures from their appearance in Godzilla Raids Again.
Of course, being the anniversary, we also got a nice look at an S.H. MonsterArts Jet Jaguar! I hope we can get one for Megalon, too!
Promo photos of figures. ©Bandai Namco and Toho Co., Ltd
Punch! Punch! Punch! The Mighty Return of Jet Jaguar!
The most hyped up short film of the evening was of course, Operation: Jet Jaguar. As mentioned in our article celebrating Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973)’s fiftieth anniversary, this would be the first we would see of classic Jet Jaguar in over half a century. Of course, we saw Jet return in Godzilla: Singular Point, albeit radically redesigned, but this would be his grand return. Later on, it was announced that veteran tokusatsu effects builder, Shinichi Wakasa, would be reconstructing a Jet Jaguar suit for a short film! That’s when things got exciting— the man behind most of the Millennium series creature suits working on Jet Jaguar! Epic! Wakasa-San also built the Gigan suit from last year, which turned out incredible. It is clear that they look at the blueprints of the classic suits, and attempt to replicate them as best as possible.
Brought on stage by suit builder Wakasa, he went on to discuss the production behind making such an intricate suit, replicating everything from the original design. After that, Jet Jaguar joined Godzilla for some fun fan meet-and-greets, allowing individuals to pass by and give the monster and robot high fives! If you’ve ever wanted to take a picture with Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, Godzilla Day was your chance!
Operation: Jet Jaguar Short Film
Kazuhiro Nakagawa returns as director for Operation: Jet Jaguar after helming the previous two live action short films, in which Godzilla faced foes Hedorah and Gigan. Nakagawa is no stranger to kaiju media — some films on his resume include directing the 2014 short film The Day of the Kaiju, being a 2nd unit assistant director on Toho’s Shin Godzilla, and even directing select episodes of the Ultra franchise, including the newest series, Ultraman Blazaar. (These episodes would be Episode 7 – Rainbow Appears: Part One and Episode 8 – Rainbow Appears: Part Two).
This time, Godzilla’s the bad guy! He’s on a rampage with no kaiju to stop him, so mankind sends their only hope — our smiling, Jack Nicholson-esque robot of thumbs up and fun, Jet Jaguar, to stop the rampaging king of the monsters. Full of amazing tokusatsu filming techniques, it’s clear that Toho recognized the absolute pinnacle innovation that the Ultra series has been bringing us to live action tokusatsu fare in the modern age. Full of agility and life, Jet Jaguar dodges attacks, does a flying kick to Godzilla’s face, and uses buildings for cover. Filmed with sweeping wide pans, you see the entire miniature set, taking us on a clear city-wide journey for us, but perhaps a few feet of movement for these monsters. There’s a surprise at the end of this short that we won’t spoil, but we’re just seething with anticipation for next year’s short, since we left on an undisclosed cliffhanger for this one!
The MonsterVerse and Gojiban
With Monarch: Legacy of Monsters coming out in the immediate few weeks, Japanese fans were treated with an exclusive new trailer. Introduced by writer Matt Fraction, who greeted the audience via virtual message, we got a recut trailer of the one seen already, with some new looks at some of the original creatures inhabiting the MonsterVerse. According to The Kaiju Kingdom Podcast, who was in physical attendance of this event, “The Japanese fans, especially the kids, seemed hyped for more Monsterverse action”. This directly counteracts the notion that Japanese fans look down on the MonsterVerse as mindless CGI American grossness, and in a way, legitimizes the MonsterVerse as something that should be seen alongside the Toho legacy.
Audience members and stream viewers were also gifted with updates on the ongoing puppet series, Gojiban (Godziban). If you have not seen it already, Gojiban is a wild practical puppet series that features Godzilla and his two brothers, Little and Minya, in their whacky and fun adventures across Monster Island and beyond. The show has carved its own way within the Godzilla mythos, even adding new characters, like Grandpa Hedorah, the fan favorite sister of Gigan, and even brought us our first true appearance of the aforementioned Bagan monster in any kind of official capacity since Super Godzilla.
Godzilla: Minus One
Of course, we cannot have a Godzilla celebration without any kind of presence of the highly anticipated Godzilla: Minus One. Capping off the evening, director Takashi Yamazaki came on stage to introduce a brand-new trailer for everyone across the world to see. Fresh off of its debut at the Tokyo International Film Festival, fans in Japan could now see the movie. Yamazaki-San talked about the film and his relationship with Godzilla during the presentation; even going the extra mile in leading the audience with a performance of singing happy birthday to our treasured giant monster! What a way to close the night.
Check out the official trailer 2 (US Version) below!
To completely and utterly recap every single drop of news and event happenings during Godzilla Day in Japan within one compact article would be next to impossible. In fact, there were two livestreams to watch– one for this stuff titled “Godzilla Fest 2023”, and another one for the Godzilla store and new merchandise within. Perhaps we can recap some of the cool new merchandise that got revealed on the other stream in a different article! Watching from my comfy couch in Utah, it seems like Godzilla Fest was a dream. Filled with fan gatherings, special screenings, and general fun amongst professional and casual fans alike, it’s something that every fan should aspire going to one day. Just watching the social media accounts of people there, it looks like everyone had a great time. From filmmakers such as Shin Godzilla‘s Shinji Higuchi, to artist Shinji Nishikawa, to even just the casual fan, we were all UNITED there to celebrate Godzilla and his importance to us all.
Here’s to 69 years of Godzilla, and to many, many more!
