The history of Godzilla’s Western fandom on the internet sphere may have begun with places such as “Barry’s Temple of Godzilla” and “Toho Kingdom”, but the advent of digital video creation on platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo changed the game forever. James Rolfe, a pioneer in the YouTube field, cemented this by creating his Godzillathon-themed year for Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness, all the way back in 2008. An entire generation of fans around the ages of 20-35 were influenced by these reviews, paving the way for them to join this community of giant monster fanatics. Recently, Kaiju United got the chance to catch up with James to chat about being a Godzilla fan, some of the other kaiju media he’s interested in, and what he truly enjoys about the genre itself.
For more information, please visit the Cinemassacre website and watch Cinemassacre officially on YouTube.
Interview
JL – Jacob Lyngle (KU)
JR – James Rolfe
JL: Hello, KU! I’m here with James Rolfe. A lot of you know who he is, he is the Angry Video Game Nerd and a gigantic Godzilla fan, too. But, for those who do not know who you are, James, would you like to go ahead and introduce yourself?
JR: Oh hey, I am James Rolfe. I’m best known as the Angry Video Game Nerd. I made a series called Monster Madness that was a bunch of movie reviews. And we did a Godzilla marathon in that series; that was back in 2008. And I think since then, I’ve been sort of like one of the “Godzilla guys” online. So, whenever the subject comes up, a lot of times I get asked about it, so I’m very happy about that. Thanks for having me on; I’d like to expand more on my casual knowledge beyond Godzilla.
JL: Your first Godzilla movie was Monster Zero. Aside from that, what was your introduction to Godzilla?
JR: There was this series of orange books by Ian Thorne, which I think was a pseudonym. I don’t even think that was a real person. The name of the books were the Crestwood House series. And they did all the classic monsters — Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, all that. You’d find these in your library, and my personal copy still has all the library stickers on it and everything. I think I was just kind of curious. I was like, Oh, well, what’s Godzilla? I read through this, and even though it was full of lots of misinformation, such as the different endings of King Kong Vs. Godzilla, that is now commonly known as a myth. I mean, aside from the roar sound effects, there were no two winners, as this book says. Another example, a lot of the monster’s names were incorrect. One I recall is “Anzilla”; the spiky Anzilla. It’s kind of hilarious looking back, but this was my introduction and seeing all those awesome black & white pictures is still a sight to see, even to this day. As a kid, I was like, man, I got to see some of these movies, but how can you find them? So, it became like a hunt at all the video stores. And then I think Monster Zero was the first one that I that I rented that I saw.
JL: What moment in Monster Zero led you on the hunt for more films?
JR: Having that film be my first does make me wonder how it would be different if I watched any of the others first. Like, say I watched the original first — that would have been a totally different experience. When I saw it, it was just like everything else, like the original King Kong, the Universal Monsters, and all that classic monster stuff. Honestly, it probably didn’t matter which one was first, I was gonna want to see them all. I believe the next few that I saw were Son of Godzilla and the original 1954 Godzilla.
JL: I’m 25, so I didn’t grow up in this time when we had those books and stuff. I just barely missed the 90’s Godzilla boom! it’s really interesting to hear about these early books with questionable info, since we can now just go on Wikizilla and look stuff up whenever we want now.
JR: Yeah, I wish I had that back then.
JL: You’ve discussed Gamera quite frequently on Cinemassacre. One notable appearance was on that older “Top Ten Giant Monsters” video, in which The Giant Claw was marked as #1.
JR: Oh yeah, classic Cinemassacre right there. That’s old school!
JL: Where did you find Gamera? Was it around the same time you discovered Godzilla?
JR: I think I found Gamera a little while later. I saw one of the films on Mystery Science Theater 3000. But I didn’t understand what I was watching. I was flipping through channels, and I found that.I was like, what is this? Why are there people talking over the movie? What are the shadows of these robots? I had no idea what was going on. I was kind of more interested in the movie part of it, and kept questioning why these characters were talking; I just wanted to watch! The film ended up being Gamera Vs. Guiron.
JL: That’s one hell of a way to start.
JR: Unfortunately, it was the edited version. Recently, I recommended it to somebody to watch and they didn’t see any of the parts where the monster is slicing Gyaos like he’s a piece of sausage or something. And that scene, I guess, was cut out because they thought it was too violent. But it’s in the Mystery Science Theater version. So, you got to watch it. You got to find the right version for all that good monster gore that would terrify you as a kid.
JL: The cultural difference of “for kids” is pretty wild in Showa era Japan. You had films that premiered at the Toho Champion Film Festival for kids, including films where Godzilla is bleeding all over the place. It’s nuts!
You mentioned leading up to this talk that you wanted to learn more about Ultraman. Have you seen any of those shows yet?
JR: Oh, yeah, I have! Mostly the early ones. I know I’ve seen a lot of Ultraseven, but that was a long time ago. That was like in the 90’s when they would play him on TV. I saw the original Ulraman, too. Was the black & white one Ultra Q? The one where there’s no Ultraman?
JL: Yes, it was!
JR: It’s kind of like a Twilight Zone anthology, really cool. I remember one with like a giant spider in like a haunted house or something. I have a few reference books too. It just shows tons and tons of pictures of these incredibly bizarre Ultraman creatures, but a lot of the kaiju from the newer ones look insane. I definitely need to see more of these.
JL: For monster madness and subsequent new films, you always review what’s recently been in theaters. Have you ever looked back at those and been like, you know, I didn’t really like the movie back then. But I kind of like it more now. Any examples of that?
JR:
Oh, probably, especially in terms of general cinema and not limiting myself to kaiju flicks. I’m thinking back to film school. Like sometimes you get shown a movie when it’s just not the right time or space or you get over exposed to it. But Citizen Kane, we analyzed that so much, that I think the analysis got in the way of actually seeing it as a movie. After returning to it a while back, probably a few years ago, I was like, wow, this is really good! I was watching it academically, so it didn’t resonate in the same way.
JL: Personally, that’s me and David Lynch. I watched Eraserhead when I was in high school. I was like, What is going on? What is this? I’ve been told to watch movies like Mulholland Drive to get a better understanding of his filmography. I haven’t seen it yet. But I’ve been told, go back to that one, Jacob.
JR: I totally agree. I feel the same way about David Lynch. I never got into his work, but I hear about him all the time. I watched Eraserhead around the same age you did, like high school or college. After that, I saw Blue Velvet back then, and hated it. I watched it again recently, just to see if I would still hate it, and surprisingly, I liked it better this time. But I still don’t see why it’s such a big deal.
JL: Has that happened in the world of kaiju? Is there a Godzilla movie that you’re like, you know, maybe All Monsters Attack isn’t that bad? Obviously, that’s kind of an extreme example.
JR: I mean, even that one has some merits. It’s from a kid’s point of view. It could almost have been sort of like a serious drama about a kid going through some hard times. And then the monster fantasy part’s kind of secondary. But yeah, no, that’s a bizarre one for sure, though, the way it was put together, and all that stock footage. What is an example for me… you know, to tell you the truth? I think Godzilla 98. Like, at the time, it was just like, Oh, come on. This is not Godzilla. And I still I still stand by that. But I think it’s better of a movie than a lot of us gave it credit for.
JL: There’s definitely been a community movement of looking back and going, hey, actually, this movie’s kind of fun. Everyone loves Independence Day, but hates this movie. I also like that it spawned an entire new generation of Godzilla fans, including myself!
JR: Yeah, for sure.
JL: There’s obviously there’s been two new Godzilla films past like three months span, which is absolutely freaking crazy. I never thought that would happen. How are you feeling as a fan?
JR: I mean, I’d like to see more like Minus One. Like, I would be okay if there were no more MonsterVerse, and just went into like Japanese Toho Godzilla territory closer to Minus One. But I mean, I’ll take whatever.
JL: I was very happy when Godzilla: Minus One won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
JR: Yeah, absolutely. Feels like it could have easily won something else too. I don’t keep track of what all the awards are, but maybe like best script or something. I know they have a foreign film category, too. There’s probably a lot of things that it [Godzilla: Minus One] could have been nominated for, instead of every damn thing going to Oppenheimer. That was ridiculous.
JL: The director of Minus One [Takashi Yamazaki] came out and said he’d like to do a response film to Oppenheimer.
JR: Oh, that is interesting. Yeah, I can see the correlation.
JL: I was listening to the Toho Kingdom podcast back when you were on in 2016. You told a story about going to Chiller Theatre and meeting some of the suit actors that played Godzilla, like Mr. Nakajima and Mr. Satsuma. Was that the only time you met anyone from the films?
JR: There’s two times, but that was the only time in which I met them one on one. The other time, I was just in a Q&A room watching them. In fact, that that time, I think it was just Nakajima, but the previous time when I met them, it was the three Godzilla suit actors. That was a great experience. It was so cool to see them and how they respond to the fans. They were just really happy. They seem like they were very proud of it. very humbled. And it was great.
JL: That’s nice. Are those the only three you’ve met? I know that some of the other guys do conventions regularly, like Hurricane Ryu, the suit actor for the 90’s King Ghidorah.
JR: That was the only time. Do they go to G-FEST a lot?
JL: Some of them do! Speaking of G-FEST, a lot of fans are saying that you should come. Have you ever considered that possibility?
JR: Oh, yeah. Definitely! I’ve even heard about it since the 90s when I was getting into Godzilla. I don’t know what stopped me from going; it just never comes up on my like agenda. I always end up a lot of times going to Comic Con. There’s so many summer conventions that come around distract me from it, but one of these years, I want to be like look, I’m not doing anything else until I do G-FEST. One of these years I’m gonna have to do it.
JL: Would you rather go just as James, or would you rather be a special guest there?
JR: Oh, well, that is a good question. Really, I would do either.
JL: You’d be a hit there!
Earlier, we brushed upon some films we may have come back around on. Is there a film in the Godzilla franchise you feel deserves a little more attention and recognition?
JR: Sure! Just going through the list in my head. Do you remember how well they’re all received in the Millennium Series. Maybe Final Wars. I think some people might think there is too much going on in it. but that that one’s definitely worth the rewatch. I think because it’s so much fun. Final Wars is crazy. Sometimes I even recommend that to somebody if they’re a certain type of person who I know would appreciate it. An individual who just wants something really crazy that never has a dull moment. Just a really get them in. Like, if you’re gonna get in, you’re gonna go all in on Final Wars, man.
JL: You’re jumping in the deep end now!
JR: Yeah, right? I’ll ask — are there any that that were received pretty poorly besides Godzilla’s Revenge?
JL: I mean, when I first joined the online discourse around 2011, there was a lot of negativity surrounding Godzilla Vs. Megalon and Godzilla Vs. Hedorah, they were the two punching bags. I love both of them.
JR: Yeah, yeah. I like them, too! They all have their own appeal. Every one of those movies was different. Megalon, I mean, it’s all about Jet Jaguar. That final battle scene! I know, people who actually say that’s their favorite Godzilla film. Because they’re like, Oh, I just love it because it’s so silly, and he does the flying drop kick and all that. And that song at the end — he’s got the kid up on his back. I mean, that’s good stuff right there! Smog Monster is fascinating, that one’s like a mixed media movie. You have the animated segments and almost like a PSA quality to it with all the pollution. Oh, and that scene in the dance club with all those weird psychedelic effects… and then all the sludge starts coming in. That movie is crazy!
JL: Oh my god. I love it, though. I think it’s a psychedelic masterpiece. I think I read somewhere that Yoshimitsu Banno was actually a documentarian before doing that film. So that’s funny, how you bring up the PSA thing, because it just checks right out. That nonfiction style of filmmaking. Personally, I think Ebirah: Horror of the Deep is a little underrated!
JR: You know what? I might have to revise something I said earlier. I think that one was actually the second one I saw after Monster Zero. And then Son of Godzilla & the original. Yeah, that one’s a good one, too! I mean, I knew it as Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster, which was on the tape but yeah, it’s got more of an island adventure sort of feel to it. You know, it’s different. It’s its own place. It’s got that tropical, you know, kind of summer feel to it.
JL: I’m a huge fan of the surf rock sound that composer Masaru Sato brought to it.
JR: Another interesting thing is how different these movies are when you watch them today, because how many times they’ve been re-edited or changed, like, you know, slight differences, like, the dubbing might be different. And then then you see it with subtitles. And sometimes just, you know, the pan and scan on the tapes were cropped. The quality’s better now. so, nowadays, I’ll rewatch some of these, and I’ll be like, oh, wait a minute, I don’t remember this or be like, hey this is a lot different. And it’s kind of like seeing them for the first time, in a way.
JL: It totally is dude. Like, you’re seeing them as they were meant to be seen now. I’m kind of a subtitles guy. But I totally understand why the dubs are beloved by the fans.
JR: They both have their places.
JL: Personally, I see it as if we’re watching the film, as the director intended us to see it. And that’s, that’s something I just prefer, honestly. Which way do you lean, James? Are you more a dubs guy?
JR: Yeah, it depends. I think I usually prefer subtitles if it’s a movie like this. I mean, unless there’s some kind of humor in the dubbing aspect, like, maybe there’s a really funny dub that you want to watch. But the only drawback is that it takes your eyes off the faces, or that’s how I feel, like sometimes I’ll read it faster than they speak it, just so I can return my eyes back to the face. And then I find them kind of jumping a little bit. Like, rather than reading at the same pace. So um, I think subtitles do take away from some of the expression. So, personally, the ultimate dream would be to like, just turn everything off, turn the subtitles off, and then watch it and actually just try to follow along with a full understanding of the language.
JL: Now that would be a challenge. Personally, I’m learning Japanese, just so I can understand these films and talk to some of these suit guys at conventions and stuff. But I don’t know if I’m at that level yet! (laughs)
JR: Yeah, I’ve been learning the written part, mostly because it’s very rare that I come across somebody who speaks Japanese. Usually, it will be like, I find it in, you know, like a book or a video game manual, or whatever. So, I come across it written a majority of the time. And that way, I can read at my own pace. But when it’s spoken when I watch a movie like that, it comes really fast. Like I can’t keep up. Not yet anyway. I’m not at all fluent with reading either. Like I have a long, long way to go. But I’ve been learning more and more all the time.
JL: And that also, I think, unlocks a lot of stuff that hasn’t been released here with this genre. There’s so many, like you said, there’s just books of all this information. You got your art books from the guy that does concept art for all these movies, Shinji Nishikawa, who is finally getting a book this summer, translated, and put over here, which will be cool. There’s just a lot of missing info there that I feel like, you got to learn the language or you gotta like Google lens it with your phone and translate it.
Recently, two novella adaptations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama got translated by Jeffrey Angles and released here. Are you familiar with those at all?
JR: No.
JL: Okay. So, Shigeru Kayama wrote these two novellas before the original Godzilla movie came out. Think of them as the story outline in pre-production. A professor of Japanese language, Jeffrey Angles, went and translated them. There’s some major differences of interest between these two novellas and what we see in the movies, and I highly recommend you check them out!
JR: Thanks for letting me know!
JL: Do you do collect anything at all? Because I know you have that extensive video game collection that we see in all the videos. But do you buy any merchandise or collectibles? Or you stick to the books mostly?
JR: Yeah. Well, let’s see, like, I mean, I obviously I have like a room full of VHS and DVDs. And then I have a room full of video games, of course. So, I have those. But I’ve kind of like just maxed those out. And then then especially like, with two kids, then you start to just amass all these like, toys and stuff. You have so much stuff that now, I was like trying to go backward and like not collect anything else. Or like, collect very little. But lately I’ve been really interested in collecting leather bound books. So now I got all these books that I’ve been buying.
JL: That’s really cool. Are they just like general fiction books?
JR: A lot of them are like old like, you know, you know, famous pieces of literature. You know, I have the original Dracula. Not the original, you know, like release of it. Like if you were to look that up, like I’ve seen them on eBay for like $20,000 and things like that, that there’s no way. But just anything else that looks cool. That’s not too expensive, you know? But yeah. So like, just old stuff like Washington, Irving, Charles Dickens, like all these old, classic authors.
JL: On a deeper, more philosophical level — what does kaiju/Godzilla mean to you?
JR: Yeah, I think just the escapism, the fantasy, the childhood imagination. It is very nostalgic to me. I could, you know, I guess just feel like a kid when you’re watching those movies. So yeah, that’s pretty much what it all means to me.
JL: I like that. And the answer varies with a lot of people, which I find particularly fascinating. A lot of people say it’s the malleability of art with Godzilla, the character can go from doing a dropkick slide in Megalon to absolutely horrific like Shin Godzilla.
JR: Yeah, yeah, it definitely varies. The series is extremely flexible, so much that it adapts to every type of decade, changes between sentiments and genres… it just keeps going through all these changes.
JL: You’re a horror movie guy, James. Would you like to see Godzilla in a straight horror flick? Like, I Minus One had moments of terror, but it was not like a full-on horror movie. Do you think that could work?
JR: Yeah, like, do you think more of like, showing the destruction? Like the people suffering and everything? Like really go grim on it?
JL: Yeah.
JR: Yeah, I actually think that that might even be long overdue. I mean, it would be a more uncomfortable movie to watch. I mean, that would be a good idea. I think. I think Minus One is closest. Yeah, I mean, like you said, that’s pretty close to that. But yeah, maybe there could be a more like an even more serious angle than that. I guess. It’s pretty serious movie as it is, but. But, ya know, that’s interesting.
JL: There was a comic con trailer for Godzilla 2014 that I recall, it premiered at SDCC back in 2012. It had Oppenheimer’s famous “Destroyer of Worlds” speech as voiceover. It just showed destroyed cities, a train crash with bodies everywhere, all kinds of horrific & destructive imagery. Maybe they’re thinking about that because I remember that trailer very vividly. I was like all right, we’re going back to his roots.
JR: Wow, yeah, I remember that was like the only Comic Con trailer to not be posted and to not leak. I mean, I think not until like maybe even years after. I remember being like, “Where can we see this?”, because like 6000 people in Hall H got to see it, but what about everybody else? Every other trailer it seems like it comes out right away like that the same moment, to the point where there’s no point in even going any more. Why would you wait in that long line to see a trailer that’s going to drop on YouTube like right away? I even remember a time when I was in Hall H, and I texted somebody like oh, I just saw the trailer to something. I don’t remember what it was, but they were like oh yeah, I just watched it on YouTube. I was like, man, why am I even here?
JL: A lot of the community cites Cinemassacre’s “Godzillathon” as their entry point into this community. How does that feel? You mentioned that you were kind of associated with Godzilla on the internet side of the community and fandom. Is that something where you’re like, well, I wish you’d know more about my films, or are you happier about that association? How do you feel about that?
JR: No, I think it’s really cool. I always feel like I wasn’t aware of it so much until like, you know, more recent years. So, like at the time, it was just like another thing. But as the years goes on, lots of people say they remember the Godzillathon, so it always sticks with me now. But, uh, yeah, I look back at those videos, sometimes I’m like, well, if I were to do those today, I could do them better, I could do a better job and go more in depth. But, but then, you know, also, I remember at that time, that idea of doing like an online review and in a video format was very new. So, then, the climate of the time was so different. Just that more short form entertainment; it was more like, this is something you watch, like on your lunch break, you’re clicking through different videos, and you come across this, and here’s like, a two-minute review of Godzilla vs. Megalon or whatever. And now, if I did it, I would probably go more in depth, like each of them will probably be like a 10-minute review or, or more so. So sometimes I got to remember those simpler times. That’s all it was back then. It was just, you know, like, hey, here’s this movie that you might not have heard of. And there you go.
JL: That’s what it’s all about, man. That’s what I love doing. Share the love and recommend something new for others.
Lastly, James. What is coming up for CineMassacre? What can you tell the people to look forward to?
JR: Oh, let’s see. I’m trying to think if I if I want to hype up things yet, because I’m working on more long-term stuff. I hate when I’ll mention something but then it still takes a while before everyone finally see it. I’ll just say I’m working on stuff all the time, every day, and still doing the Nerd episodes and everything else you see on the site, or on the channel, whatever. At the time of this recording [April 12], I’m working on a new nerd episode right now. It’s a really funny one. Each one is different from the last two, and it’s still a bunch of fun.
JL: Thank you James, for hopping on and talking to KU about some kaiju, reminiscing about the films we love, and sharing a little bit about what you enjoy.
JR: Thanks so much.
