Listening to the Kaiju No 8 theme song, Me: Man, this song is pretty catchy. Their english accent isn't bad either. I wonder who's singing it-

Wait...THE GUYS THAT WROTE "I LIVED" AND "COUNTING STARS?!"

Kaiju Week in Review (December 11-17, 2022)

After the success of last year's Pacific Rim Ultimate Omnibus, Legendary Comics has launched a Kickstarter for a MonsterVerse Omnibus collecting Godzilla: Awakening, Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, Godzilla: Aftershock, Godzilla Dominion, and Kingdom Kong. It blasted past its funding goal on the first day. The Omnibus will eventually make it to retail, but naturally the Kickstarter rewards include some exclusives, like a slipcase and a different cover, as well as higher-tier bonuses like enamel pins and the ability to get drawn into the comics.

The biggest draw if you've already bought the five comics above is the debut of "Call to Action", written by Brian Buccellato and illustrated by Zid. Logline: "[S]et during the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, a Naval fighter pilot with a personal attachment to Godzilla is put to the test when his squadron is called upon to intercept the King of the Monsters." Well, I'm a sucker for mining drama out of incredibly minor characters, and Zid's the best artist these MonsterVerse comics have seen. If access to that story's all you care about, consider the $15 tier, which nets you a PDF of the Omnibus. K-D-M, who's proven to be a reliable source, is also saying that a number of the minor Titans (Na Kika, Amhuluk, Tiamat, and perhaps others) will receive Monarch bios as well. Those have been delightful sources of lore in the past.

Speaking of comics, @mekagojira3k published the first issue of his self-adaptation of All Your Ruins on WebToon. Read it immediately, it's gnarly as shit! There's a kaiju with crosses on its back taunting a mysterious masked figure and what I'm choosing to interpret as a nod to the Age of Giant Condor!

I couldn't wait for the Week in Review to post about this, but it merits repeating: The Asylum is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a Destroy All Monsters-style epic called 2025 Armageddon. (Insert scare quotes around "epic" if you wish.) Most exciting to me is the return of Mega Shark, whose series inexplicably ended in 2015 just as it and the Kaiju Renaissance were finding their stride. It's also playing in five fairly random theaters across the country until the 22nd (sorry, should've gotten this post out faster). The rest of us will have to hold off until the VOD release on the 23rd.

After it placed second in the last two Movie Monster Series fan polls, Bandai has thrown up its hands and given Super Mechagodzilla a vinyl, just in time for the 30th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II next year. January 31st is the release date for that one. They also announced a third poll, this time allowing fan submissions to determine the 10 nominees instead of making the shortlist in a smoke-filled room themselves. Yes, that means Zilla, Bagan, and the Giant Condor are theoretically on the table (but no Godzilla incarnations allowed). All's you need is a Godzilla Store account to nominate a kaiju and eventually vote.

Finally, for you Dagahra fans out there, his first figure in ages is coming soon from the Kaiju Out of the Laws line. Shame those are so expensive.

Here's the teaser for the Kaiju No. 8 anime—and yes, it's going to be part of the Toho kaiju canon. I got caught up with the manga earlier this year and found it pretty enjoyable. An older protagonist is unusual for this type of story, and I like how he's constantly drawing on his experience cleaning up kajiu corpses after taking on the more glamorous work of fighting them. You also gotta admire the boldness of calling a metamorphosing character Kafka.

SciFi Japan has a first look at a film due next year called Kaiju: Island of Fire. The production company is based in Japan, but there's a lot of Hollywood talent in this one, including writer/director Andrew L. Phillips, who has a background in stunt acting. Inspired by 3Y Films, they've also brought back some veteran kaiju actors: Kent Gilbert (the swishy ship commander in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah), Chuck Wilson (the Futurian Wilson in same), Inge Murata (every Japanese kaiju movie that's needed a German since Monster X Strikes Back), and Tomoko Ai (Katsura Mafune in Terror of Mechagodzilla). No story details yet, although you can probably guess the setting. I like the suit design of what is presumably the anti-kaiju team too, at least from the back.

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