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astoundingbeyondbelief · 1 year ago

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Kaiju Week in Review (January 14-20, 2024)

Ultraman Blazar's finale aired on Friday. It was a solid capper to what's easily the best entry in the Ultra Series since I was an undergrad, full of heart and pyrotechnics. There were a few major loose ends—Captain Gento is better at keeping secrets than most hosts—which I'm hoping the movie, due in late February, will address. If you're looking for a place to start with the long-running franchise, it would be one of my first recommendations. Great effects, great cast, tons of new kaiju, and a blend of novelty (lots of focus on the tensions between the defense team and the larger monster-fighting organization; a host who's in charge of said defense team) and returning to form (Blazar yowls plenty but is an Ultra of few words; the power-ups and goofy weapons are kept to a minimum). And even if you don't want to commit to a whole show, episode 22, focusing on a hapless salesman of kaiju insurance, is a must-see for any fan of the genre. There seem to be no worlds left to conquer at Tsuburaya for lead director Kiyotaka Taguchi, so as I've been saying since around 2015: Toho, are you paying attention?

Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, the regraded black and white version of Godzilla Minus One, is coming to North American theaters for one week starting January 26. Toho's yanking both versions from theaters after February 1—puzzling considering that the film is likely going to be nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar tomorrow. Takashi Yamazaki led a Godzilla delegation to the Academy's visual effects "bakeoff", in which voters watch highlights from the ten shortlisted films and their VFX teams explain their work. IndieWire reports that Yamazaki's presentation drew the most applause, describing Minus One as the "potential frontrunner." The Hollywood Reporter likes its chances too. Nominations will be announced starting at 8:30 AM EST. The Creator seems to be its biggest competition.

Godzilla Minus One also recently cleared $50 million at the U.S. box office, in the process passing the first Demon Slayer as the highest-grossing Japanese-language film ever released in the U.S. Some outlets are reporting that it's the highest-grossing Japanese film ever released here, which isn't accurate; the English-dubbed Pokémon: The First Movie made almost $86 million back in 1999. (And I think it's plausible that something like Rodan or Godzilla vs. Megalon would be the champ if you figured out how much they grossed and adjusted for inflation.)

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #4 brought Godzilla and Tiamat to Atlantis, forcing Aquaman to release the Kraken to defend his city. Incredibly, this is the third Kraken associated with the Monsterverse, after Na Kika (called Kraken when it was introduced in the King of the Monsters novelization) and the main antagonist of the Skull Island cartoon. I'm guessing it's going to have a shorter lifespan than either of them though.

In other Godzilla comic news, IDW will be putting out another intriguing one-shot in May, titled Godzilla: Mechagodzilla 50th Anniversary. Past comics from the publisher have included multiple Mechagodzilla models, but this one seems to be going above and beyond. Rich Douek is writing; Andrew Lee Griffith is illustrating. The logline:

For 50 years, the King of the Monsters, Godzilla, has gone toe to toe with its robotic doppelgänger, Mechagodzilla! As an intrepid reporter profiles the history of Mechagodzilla and its creator before the launch of the newest model, he finds himself entangled in a much deeper conspiracy. A decades-spanning adventure celebrating the mechanical monster's milestone!

One of master kaiju illustrator Shinji Nishikawa's books will receive an English translation courtesy of Titan Books. Awkwardly titled Godzilla: The Encyclopedia of Godzilla, the Japanese edition included over 100 full-bodied illustrations of various Godzilla series kaiju and analyses of their designs (alongside plenty of Nishikawa's trademark chibis). I'm sold, suffice to say.

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Ryo Momota, director of the short tokusatsu film Revive! Smile Rock Giant God, has put the whole thing on YouTube with English subtitles for your amusement. It posits that a real rock formation outside of Tamano City will come to life to help its citizens in their hour of need. Very low-budget.

Kaiju Brooklyn is a one-day con that began filling a longtime void for East Coast kaiju fans last year. Here's the first major piece of news about their June 1 event: they'll be screening The Return of Godzilla outdoors at day's end. Consider me highly tempted.

Kaiju United has a new, wide-ranging interview with Barry Goldberg, webmaster of the legendary Barry's Temple of Godzilla. That fan site was my first window into the wider world of Godzilla in the early 2000s, and it's only been updated a few times since, so I was pretty interested to read how its creator was doing. Don't get your hopes up for a revival: he's still a Godzilla fan (loved Minus One, Shin not so much), but has moved on to other things. Great insights from a Big Name Fan who stayed humble.

#kaiju week in review #ultraman blazar #godzilla minus one #barry's temple of godzilla #shinji nishikawa #revive smile rock giant god #kraken #kaiju #godzilla

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mobius-prime · 5 years ago

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118. Sonic Super Special #8

Zone Wars: Prelude

Writer: Dan Slott Pencils: James Fry Colors: Josh D. Ray

So this story is kind of infamously hilarious, but it also introduces a rather important concept. Sonic is racing around the hills, avoiding blasts of magic from a bizarre being that basically just looks like someone put boobs, pigtails and fishnets on Robotnik and who is apparently known as Ivana Robotina. A figure that appears to be standing sideways, called Zonic, gets a report of this happening from another zone and heads out to investigate. Before Zonic can get there, however, a few more people arrive on the scene - Sally Moon and Chibi Rose, who look like exactly what their names imply, that is to say Sailor Moon characters. Then Robotina is knocked out by a rather flimsy blow from a rose, and another unexpected figure makes his entrance - Tuxedo Knux!

Don't worry, Sonic, we're all just as baffled as you are.

At this point Zonic arrives through a portal and ushers everyone back through it, back to their home zone called the Luna Zone. He explains to Sonic that he's a Zone Cop, coming from a parallel dimension that runs 90 degrees through all other dimensions, allowing them to effectively police any attempts to travel to alternate zones. Sonic challenges him, saying he's been to plenty of other zones, but Zonic informs him that he deliberately sent Sonic there from his home zone, Mobius Prime (eyy, blog title drop!) to help restore order.

Oh c'mon Sonic, we're only like a third of the way into this comic. You have plenty of time to win Sally Prime over! (Well, technically, he already has, but don't tell him that!)

Running on Empty

Writers: Roger Brown and Nelson Rebeiro Pencils: Nelson Ribeiro Colors: Frank Gagliardo

Sonic and Amy are hanging out on a hill overlooking Knothole, admiring the view, and when Amy gets cold, Sonic races down to the buildings and back in a fraction of a second to retrieve her coat. When she compliments his speed, he decides to tell her about a time it almost got him killed. One day a few months ago (at least that's what I'm assuming, since Sally wears her trademark blue vest throughout it, and she didn't always have that near the beginning of the comic) Sonic thought he heard Sally calling for help, so he rushed to the gazebo where she appeared to be standing. However, his hand went right through her like she was a hologram, and then Snively, hiding behind the structure, activated his trap, zapping Sonic.

Ooh, dramatic. Sonic rushed back towards Knothole and encountered Rosie roaming the woods looking for an apple grove. Sonic rushed to lead her to it, trying to catch one of the apples before it fell from the tree, but suddenly found himself unable to stop running and smashed into the tree, dropping a whole heap of apples onto his head. At least this helped Rosie collect the apples she wanted, but on the way back Sonic noticed a Robotnik surveillance drone above the trees and decided to run back to Knothole to warn his friends. However, again, he was unable to stop running in time, and what's more, his sheer speed created some kind of vacuum behind him, sucking up tons of junk and depositing it directly on top of his hapless friends.

Rotor offered to run some tests to figure out what was causing Sonic to suddenly be able to run so fast that it was causing him problems, and had him run on a treadmill, which of course quickly overloaded and exploded. The data Rotor collected before it was ruined informed him that whatever had zapped Sonic had given him super-super speed, but along with it, every time he used it he aged further, causing him to quickly turn into a feeble old man. Everyone (except a fearful Antoine) teamed up to infiltrate Robotropolis and find the machine Snively used to cause this effect, hoping to get it to run in reverse and turn Sonic back into his former fifteen-year-old self. Once they got inside the city, Rotor discovered that although he was able to alter the machine to run in reverse, they needed a security code to actually activate it. However, as you might expect, at this point Robotnik and Snively, along with a host of swatbots, entered and sprung an ambush. Sonic was determined to save the lives of his friends, so despite his decrepit state, he used his speed one last time to destroy all the bots and kick Robotnik out of the room.

Exhausted from his feat, he collapsed, and his friends still didn't have the code needed to save his life. Sally, thinking fast, grabbed the gloating Snively and put her acting skills to use.

And just like that, the aging process was reversed, and no one ever thought to try to reverse-engineer that to help anyone else suffering from age-related problems ever again! Back in the present, Amy is pleased with the story, and asks for more, which Sonic happily obliges. It's nice to see that despite her obvious crush on him, Sonic is quite friendly with her in this universe, considering that in other canons he's often been shown to be somewhat callous toward her feelings.

Den of Thieves

Writer/Pencils: Frank Strom Colors: Barry Grossman

It's time to see what ol' Monkey Khan has been up to lately. He's been residing in a village called either Lau Kar or Leung Kar (it's called both over the course of the story, for whatever reason), along with two Mobians who… well, I can't tell what animal they're supposed to be by sight, but the wiki tells me they're rabbits, and they're brother and sister, named Liu Fang and Liu Chi Mei respectively. One morning they're distraught to find the Temple of the Golden Lotus being robbed by some bat ninjas of the Yagyu Clan, and call for help, which comes in the form of, you guessed it, Monkey Khan. He beats on the ninjas for a moment, but then they pull the smoke bomb trick and vanish, to his surprise.

Khan, Fang, and Chi Mei head up to the lake, where they're predictably ambushed by several more Yagyu ninjas. They try to get to higher ground, perhaps hoping to imitate their favorite Jedi Master, but find themselves dropped through a trapdoor into an underground room.

Okay, first of all, that does not look like a dragon, that looks like Godzilla with stegosaurus legs. Second of all, it's obviously a robot and not a mythical terror, something which Khan focuses in on right away. The "dragon" attacks him, hoping to steal his headband to become another piece of the Yagyu's stolen treasure collection, but Khan beats it back and then attacks its circuitry, confusing it and causing it to turn on the Yagyu ninjas instead. As it chases the Yagyu away, Khan, Fang and Chi Mei collect all the stolen treasure - fifty years worth of it, in fact - and take it back to their town, triumphant. Good to see Khan's found himself a place in the world, huh?

Ghost Busted

Writer/Pencils: Jay Oliveras Colors: Frank Gagliardo

This story is actually a retelling of an episode by the same name from the SatAM TV show, told from the point of view of Tails. Sometime in the past, he had gone out into the wilderness with Sonic and Antoine for some good old fashioned roughin' it in the wilderness, when Antoine, supposed to be hiding so Tails could practice tracking him, fell screaming down a muddy slope into the water below. He claimed that he had seen a ghost, but Sonic and Tails brushed him off, saying there's no such thing. That night, Sonic kept Tails and Antoine up late by telling ghost stories, including one about the "Headless Gopher" who was cursed by a stolen gold medallion. Antoine irritably (and somewhat nervously) demanded Sonic stop talking so he could sleep, and feeling tired, Sonic and Tails joined him. However, in the middle of the night, Tails found himself awakened from creepy dreams to something even creepier…

Tails was certain that he'd seen the Headless Gopher, and what's more, Antoine was now missing. Sonic decided to humor him and they split up to search the immediate area. However, Tails hadn't gone far when he circled back around and to his horror, saw Sonic standing right next to the fiery ghost, appearing to be working together with it to find him! He tried to fly away to find Sally and get her help, but ran smack into the ghost…

I don't know about you, but I'd love to find a bush like that, 'cause a bush that perpetually glows like it's on fire sounds awesome. The next morning, Tails, emboldened by his scary nighttime experience, asked Sonic for some more ghost stories as they packed up to leave. Sonic offered to tell some more later, but just then, Tails noticed a shimmering gold medallion on the ground near their camp… and thus, the three brave souls ran away screaming their heads off, certain that they really had gotten a visit from the Headless Gopher in the night. And ever since, it's been their little secret that they've never admitted to anyone else. Great job, guys! Truly a tale worthy of the legendary Freedom Fighters!

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sonic super special 8 #writer: dan slott #writer: roger brown #writer: nelson ribeiro #writer: frank strom #writer: jay oliveras #pencils: james fry #pencils: nelson ribeiro #pencils: frank strom #pencils: jay oliveras #colors: joshua d ray #colors: frank gagliardo #colors: barry grossman

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