BUT FIRST, A RICH HISTORY
I’m a kaiju fan, I’ll be honest here. I’ve been in love with the Godzilla franchise for a long time. Ironically though, my first Godzilla film was none other than the infamous American Godzilla from 1998′. Back then, I thought that film was the coolest sh#t; big lizard comes out of water and stomps around New York, breathing fire and hatching lil raptor babies to chase around Matthew Broderick.
<
It would take me years later to come across the original Japanese 1954 masterpiece ‘Gojira‘, and that’s when I realized why it had a cult following. Underneath the black and white film grain lies thick layers of deep meaning on history and a critique of society.
It may have been inspired from the 1953 western ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms‘, but it really echoes the tragic nuclear fallout of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Godzilla is literally the embodiment of the victims of the atomic bomb; skin dark and scaly with lesions from radiation damage, and atomic breath to accompany it. It’s really terrifying when you piece it all together. I’ve written a 10-page college essay on Godzilla and I promise I won’t bore you to tears with the history!
GODZILLA AND THE CARTOON/ANIME LANDSCAPE
It’s no secret Godzilla’s influence reaches more than just live films in its 60+ years lifespan. In 1978, the US channel NBC aired “The Godzilla Power Hour”, a cartoon version of the king of the monsters. Also in 2000 “Godzilla”, a spin-off of that infamous 1998 film came out (although I hear its pretty decent). There’s several other media representations but that’s a whole other discussion.
Onto anime, one recent 3-part series aired in 2018, with titles like Godzilla: “Planet of the Monsters”, “City on the edge of Battle”, and “The Planet Eater”. I’ll be honest I haven’t watched this Netflix series, but I’ve heard mixed reviews on it, most complaining about the CGI and how most of the focus is on the human characters. Also, Godzilla is… made of planets? Does Biollante not exist in this universe?
Anyway, *sigh*….
A NEW VERSION EMERGES
In 2021, Netflix aired “Godzilla: Singular Point“, an anime series co-produced by Bones and Orange. I had the opportunity to watch the 13-episode series and I’ll give you my honest thoughts about it below.
*Deep breath*
I really, really… reaaallly wanted to like this series. It has heart. It has soul. It’s beautifully animated. And you can tell the creators had a real interest in the Godzilla franchise. It was made for the fans of the franchise.
But.
There is always a but. For now, I’d like to dedicate this post to all the kaiju that make an appearance!
LET’S TALK KAIJU
This may be a spoiler to some, but I’d like to take a look at the different iconic monsters that show up in Godzilla Singular Point.
JET JAGUAR
The first iconic character you’ll probably recognize is the mech Jet Jaguar, who originally made his first appearance in Godzilla vs Megalon… I think? I watched part of it as a kid. Anyway, in this version he’s less of a giant man in a suit and more of a clunky robot to be piloted by old man Mr. O and his employees.
He/it gets a lot of screen-time, since the main characters work on it, adding upgrades and other updates to make it a kaiju-fighting machine. While it’s fairly small throughout the series, it does absorb something later that makes it the size of an actual kaiju.
RODAN
Rodan is one of my favorite kaiju. The giant volcanic pterodactyl made its first appearance in Rodan (no kidding), and would later cross over to battle Godzilla. Originally birthed out of a volcano, the anime takes… a few liberties involving Rodan that while I think are unique, I can’t quite agree with.
First off, Rodan in this series is small, it can fit in a bus (also looks more like an actual phteryodactl). Second… *heavy sigh*, there’s more than one.
What? Nani??!
Yes, there are hundreds and hundreds of these flying reptiles all across the globe. I think it’s unique that the creator chose to go this route, but I still think Rodan could have easily just been one being.
Third… *breathes once*, *dies*. I’m not even really sure how to explain this one, so I’ll just leave that spoiler without context.
Oh but there is a big Rodan at one point, for like a couple frames… yeah. The plushies are cute though!
ANGUIRUS
My other favorite kaiju makes an appearance in Godzilla Singular Point, which is none other than Anguirus, the spiky boi that made his first debut in the first sequel of Gojira, Godzilla Strikes Again, which is honestly probably my favorite Godzilla film, hence it’s the first time we witness Godzilla fighting another kaiju.
In this version of the anime, the creators must’ve looked at a pic of anguirus and thought “hm, he needs more spikes”, and hence we got a super spiky kaiju that starts out the size of an elephant.
Oh, and he’s bulletproof.
The development was sorta wild, and the anime goes lengths to explain how his spikes move to deflect bullets.
It seems like a meaningless plot point but they use that to explain all the kaiju’s’ rapid evolution.
This is now an anguirus appreciation post!
Look at that good boy. Is that some kind of dog?
He protec.
He attac.
But most importantly…
He fight bac.
MANDA
Manda is another kaiju that makes an appearance, however brief. It’s that typical Chinese dragon, with 0-2 limbs and a long, slender body. I first watched Manda in Godzilla Final Wars, which was a pretty wild movie with all the kaiju they fit in it. Originally, Manda first appeared in the 1963 Toho film Atragon.
In this anime adaptation, again there are more than one, in fact many, like the rodans. And like the Rodans, they kinda just… die? Something about red dust. I dunno, but the only purpose manda serves here is to show Godzilla’s first form, a giant red sea creature.
BARAGON
Alright this one is really just my judgment, as they don’t actually name this creature in the anime, but it sort-of looks like a reptilian/primate version of the kaiju Baragon. If you compare the two versions, they look verrry similar, or am I the only one seeing the resemblance?
I believe Baragon first appeared in Godzilla Destroy All Monsters… no, not that fantastic GameCube game (please let there be another Godzilla video game!). He looks friendly in the films, but he’s out for blood & destruction in Singular Point. Honestly Baragon probably gets the most screen-time in the anime next to Rodan.
MOTHRA
Mothra has had several of its own movies. The big cutesy bug made its first appearance in 1961 titled Mothra (no way…), followed by like… a bunch of sequels I’ve never seen. I’ve never seen the moth/butterfly depicted as a threat, but I believe she represents balance & order in the world, whereas Godzilla is basically chaos & order, with an extra side of destruction.
Mothra’s appearance in Godzilla Singular Point is no more than an Easter egg and an omen of good fortune. Oh, and she’s just a regular butterfly. Or a bunch of moths/butterflies that show up for a second. Yep… there’s your Mothra appearance.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Before I get to talking about Godzilla’s appearance in Singular Point, there’s a few other kaiju that make a quick appearance…
In the end credits….
It’s a bummer these kaiju couldn’t stomp their way into the confusion of a plot, but it’s still a nice touch nevertheless. The original Jet Jaguar, King Caesar, original Mothra, Mecha-Godzilla, some crab monster, the iconic Godzilla, and probably a few others make a quick show in the ending credits.
It’s an ending to each episode you wouldn’t wanna skip, just so you could see them all again if you’ve seen the movies they star in. Also the song is great and the art is phenomenal.
KING OF THE MONSTERS
What else can I say about Godzilla… he’s best boi. Starting out as a horror icon, then a child-friendly icon, then back to a horror icon, a pop culture icon, and many other forms.
Godzilla makes a rare appearance in Godzilla Singular Point (no kidding…), and when I say ‘rare’, I mean he really lacks screen-time, showing up for maybe a few minutes in each episode past 8. If you’ve seen literally any Godzilla film, you’d know that the giant lizard doesn’t get much screen-time in comparison to the human characters in the rest of the film. And while I can understand that these film studios want to create a sort of suspense and not give away too much of the monster, it can really bog down the enjoyment (in my opinion).
Unusual Horror points out that Godzilla really doesn’t show up for much more than 10-12% of his own movies, especially in the early eras of its film life. And Godzilla Singular Point appeared to follow suit. I guess its just one aspect I didn’t like about the anime series.
And another interesting thing. If you’ve seen Shin Godzilla, which is honestly probably the creepiest version of Godzilla in my opinion (besides 1954′) and the most chilling ending, the film does something very unique and shows a very rapid evolutionary progression Godzilla goes through as an ever evolving defense mechanism against humanity (goes up on land > grows lungs, grows feet, gets bombarded with rockets > develops laser beams, etc).
Godzilla Singular Point decides to follow the same route as Shin Godzilla, although we really only see one transformation take place, which is jarring when we see him fully developed suddenly later on.
Another thing that bothered me is that here, Godzilla feels so foreign to the rest of the film. While several other smaller kaiju start showing up and the humans try to come up with a logical explanation, Godzilla’s appearance feels like a forced placement, because the title says “Godzilla”.
We don’t really get to witness a city evacuating. We don’t really see death or destruction of entire city landscapes. Instead we’re treated to an ever-changing Godzilla that slowly walks around an abandoned city filled with red (because Godzilla creates this dust?). There’s hardly a kaiju battle, a couple swings or a bite and the scene switches back to whatever the humans are trying to accomplish.
I realize I’m sounding harsh here. I like what they were going for! It just… could have been more.
A PLOT?
We’ve gone over the majority of monsters that make up Godzilla Singular Point. I skipped mentioning the crab monsters and that sea creature Godzilla offs in like one-hit, but that pretty much sums up who shows up this time around.
While writing this, I decided I should probably just split it into two parts, the second part discussing the ambiguous plot. There is a plot! However confusing and with most characters that try to sound smart and end up sounding the same. I hope you enjoyed reading this as I enjoyed writing about it! Stay tuned for more!
To sum up the plot in one sentence:
Bonus Meme:
“I heard you talkin’ sh#t, hm?”
