This past weekend, Godzilla fans were bombarded with various announcements, collaborations, and merchandise drops in celebration of Godzilla Day & the franchise’s 70th anniversary. Keeping up with all the hype is difficult, unless you’re an info sponge, so we thought we’d cobble together everything you may have missed! This list will encapsulate the major highlights of the various happenings that went down in Japan for Godzilla Day, so unfortunately, if you’re wondering about licensed crossovers and merch over in the USA, that’ll have to be another list.
Let’s get started!
Godzilla Vs. Digimon
In a move that baffled everyone, one of the first announcements to come from the festivities was a Godzilla & Digimon collaboration, in which Digimon COLOR would be receiving a Godzilla/War Greymon hybrid! Fans of Digimon were reportedly happy to see that there was activity in the beloved 90’s franchise, with others such as Maser Patrol commenting that perhaps it was twenty-five years too late.
Godzilla: Battle Line
A huge chunk of this year’s festivities were dedicated to mobile game Godzilla: Battle Line. Whilst a popular game in both the US and Japan, it was interesting to see 90 minutes dedicated to it. To make up for this, however, actress Yumiko Shaku was brought out as the special guest for this panel. Playing against the panelist and other attendees, it was nice to see Shaku-san return and showcase fondness over the Godzilla series. But that wasn’t the end of things…
Photo via The Kaiju Kingdom Podcast
…because GAMERA was announced to be returning to Battle Line, and he’s not alone! For the first time ever, Gyaos will be coming to the game. Both kaiju are represented in their 1967 forms, bringing some Showa era flare to the game. Gamera was previously in BL during promotional cycles for Gamera: Rebirth, so it was a wonderful surprise to see everyone’s favorite turtle monster make a return to the game. As of now, this is our best shot at getting a Godzilla Vs. Gamera project!
A New Godzilla Comic
One of the biggest surprises of the evening was the announcement of a serialized Godzilla comic. There is very little information known at this time, aside from the fact that it will be published in Young Champion (Akita Shoten) in 2025. Godzilla will be designed by iconic kaiju artist Shinji Nishikawa, with a brand new space monster foe to be designed by Ultraman artist Hiroshi Maruyama. To keep up with details on this new comic, we definitely recommend visiting their official social media avenues.
Bandai Ballot & Box Set
Oh, yes. Much to our surprise, the results for this year’s Bandai ballot were revealed about halfway through the stream. As you have seen on our KU socials, we threw our poker chips all the way in for the Giant Condor, who ultimately took home the prize. We will preface this by saying it wasn’t for the memes, it was because that particular kaiju has never really had any solid action figures made of it before, so we thought it would be fun to be represented in the Bandai Movie Monster Series! In an age where we’re getting Bagan, Zilla, and Super Godzilla, why not have the Giant Condor?
Do not get your hopes up if your monster pick didn’t make it! Bandai also revealed the “DREAM 5” box set of some runner-ups from last year’s poll! This box includes Ghidorah ’64, Mechagodzilla ’74, Gabara, Anguirus, and Kamacuras all together in one set. Additionally, the Zilla figure we mentioned earlier? That figure was a runner-up in last year’s ballot – within the top 3. Needless to say, your favorite will probably get a new figure soon.
Godzilla Fest Short Film
One of the main events of each GodzillaFest in Japan is the premiere of the live-action short films. For the past 4 years, we’ve had epic Tokusatsu productions celebrating the art form and various monsters’ anniversaries. It’s a tribute to an era that might be gone for the Godzilla series at this point, and something we’re glad is treated with love and gravitas by the crew behind these films. This year saw the culmination film, Godzilla Fest 5: Battle of the Monsters debut, in which Godzilla & Jet Jaguar faced down King Ghidorah.
It’s also worth noting that all of these short films will be collected together on a blu-ray release soon. There is no confirmation that the US will get this release, so you may have to import it until further clarification is had. The set will come with all 5 short films, plus awesome behind-the-scenes content. It’s nice to have a permanent way to see these shorts, as I know there was frustration in the fandom about the accessibility of these movies.
We won’t spoil the film aside from one specific image, because it’s something we had no idea we needed in our lives…
Godzilla TM & ©Toho Co., Ltd.
Takashi Yamazaki
Towards the end of the stream, the acclaimed Academy Award-winning director made his appearance at Godzilla day to discuss Godzilla Minus One. While we didn’t really get any additional news about his upcoming return to the Godzilla series through this panel, Yamazaki-san did reflect on his recent appearance at New York Comic Con. If you look very closely, you can see our very own Nick Crispino in the front row taking pictures of Yamazaki’s introduction during the NYCC panel! It’s wonderful to see that he had so much fun attending this event in New York City, and that Team Godzilla recognizes the power and passion of the fans out in the United States.
To sum it all up, Godzilla Day was another fun stream. Seeing all of the new figures, various news and announcements, and Godzilla ads galore was pretty cool. It brought the community together on a special “holiday” of ours, with fellow KU community members watching together and reflecting on their shared love of Godzilla. Personally, I think the news of Yamazaki’s return may have dropped early, so we didn’t get an announcement at the actual festivities, but I don’t have any confirmation on that. It’s all speculation on my end.
I do think there was one thing missing from this event/stream, and that was the severe void left behind from the lack of anything from Gemstone. For the past few years, the animation studio has been on a streak with epic short films such as Godzilla Vs. Gigan Rex and Godzilla Vs. Megalon captivating fans. Many of us were hoping that they’d be back with a Mechagodzilla short film to celebrate the occasion, but alas, they were not. Here’s hoping that they may return next year!
What was your favorite announcement or part of Godzilla Day this year? Let us know!
