Hi everyone, Derek here, been a hot minute.

Sorry for the crickets around here.

This episode was actually recorded all the way back almost well, about 6 1/2 months ago in mid-april, and the intention was always to put the two Kiryu episodes out back-to-back.

So I was going to hold on to the first one until we got the second one recorded.

The problem is a lot of real awful shit went down, you know, first with me and then as, as I started to get my shit back together, some, some pretty rough stuff happened to Charlotte as well.

Not that any of us anybody's doing great right now.

I mean, you know, it's this is the bad place.

We, we live in the bad place now.

And it, it's difficult not to lose your mind just from perceiving the state of the world right now.

It's bad, it's bad.

So you you pile, you know, really rough interpersonal conflict on top of that and, you know, the collapsing of important social relationships and, you know, I mean, yeah, yeah.

This, this, this, this episode unfortunately sat for a lot longer than it should have.

We're getting things back up and moving again.

We are working with today's guest to get the second kyu episode recorded, hopefully sooner rather than later and get things moving again.

You know, I, I'm, I apologize and I mean, I, I know that anytime stuff has gone on and I've apologized for there being big gaps between episodes.

You know, people tell me I don't, I don't need to be, I don't need to apologize.

And that's true.

Like I understand that intellectually, I, this is a free show that I intentionally don't monetize.

Nobody's holding me to it.

I have a job, I have a family.

Charlotte has a job.

Charlotte has has obligations like, you know, we will make these when we can, but I recognize that a lot of people were looking forward to these episodes and I'm I'm just sorry that it's taken so long.

I'm getting things back moving again.

I can't say that there will not be anything else that will interrupt Castle Bravo, but I mean, my intention is to keep moving forward Charlotte and I want to keep doing this.

So, you know, sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm rambling a bit, I guess, but I feel like an yet another unplanned 6 plus month gap deserves to be acknowledged.

Anyway, today's episode's a good episode.

I hope everybody's doing OK.

I hope all of you listeners are doing the best that you can to take care of yourself and the people around you because times are not great right now.

And the only thing we can do is take care of each other and and try to be responsible with ourselves and with our communities.

And in the process of being responsible, try to find ways that we can enjoy art and expression and our hobbies in ways that provide us some relief while not sheltering us from, I mean, I don't know how to describe it, the, the rise of fascism in the United States.

I don't know.

Just take care of yourself, folks.

Castle Bravo is sort of back, and hopefully we'll have the next one up for you soon.

Hello everyone, and welcome to Castle Bravo, a Godzilla verse retrospective.

I'm Derek.

And I'm Charlotte.

And we're two siblings here to examine the history of the Godzilla franchise one movie at a time.

We're joined today by journalist in front of the show, Samuel Tolbert.

Sam, how are you, bud?

Hey, I'm doing well.

You know, I'm just really excited and honestly a little in disbelief that this day is finally here.

I mean, Derek, you first reached out to me about this recording for Castle Bravo.

What in 2020?

Yeah, this is this is the running theme.

Is that like, now that we're finally like, the later into the seasons that we get because we lined up so many guests, like before we even started recording?

There's quite a few people who have been waiting a long time to get here.

But the day has come, the first of two days, 'cause you're gonna join us 2 episodes in a row.

Not to spoil things for people watching about movies that were made 20 plus years ago.

Yeah, it's good to have you on, bud.

It it it's needed, it's needed on my end for sure.

This is this sure is a year, which is not unique to my situation by any stretch of the imagination.

But you know, it's, it's nice to talk about big boy lizard.

Yeah, yeah, it's nice to have a little session of Lizard Church and and temporarily tune out the horrors of the outside Charlotte.

Yeah.

How you doing today?

I'm all right.

I'm kind of.

Just all right.

Yeah, well, you know, we've been packing.

I don't know when this is going to go up so I'm going to make it difficult to to know when I'm leaving for OPSEC reasons.

But very soon we will be moving and I saw my mom today and I will likely only see her one more time before we go for like 5 minutes.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

It's an emotionally complicated many of us have have many, many, many people in the audience will understand having strained relationships with parents, especially in current times.

As the Empire crumbles in, Yeah.

Good.

I'm doing OK.

I'm definitely a little stuffed up, which is probably coming through in my voice.

I've got a little bit of a case of like permanent morning voice.

But, you know, the horrors persist, but so do I.

You know, I don't know.

Things are going OK on my end.

Weirdly weirdly calm, weirdly stable.

Weirdly on the upswing.

Yeah.

But I'm just.

I'm just, I'm here for big lizard.

No comments.

Cool, we're going to leave that entire awkward gap in.

I I think it really.

Sells the ground itself, the mood of the moment.

Well, it.

It insists upon itself.

I I was sitting here like, do I do I say the meds doing work or not?

You know, like.

Oh, it's OK, We can talk.

Yeah, I'm on meds.

Meds doing work in in multiple ways.

Meds doing work, yeah, all is well.

It's not like life altering like some people describe going on it.

I'm on I'm on bupropion, Wellbutrin and people describe that as being like life altering, right.

For a lot of people.

And like for me it's it's definitely not been my experience that going on antidepressants was like a a curtain lifting like things are a little bit easier, right?

I'm, I'm catching myself better and, and like when I'm having like a, a, a freak out and I'm like bringing myself down a little easier, but like I still have to do the work.

It's just making it a little easier.

But that's probably how I want things anyway, because I don't, I don't want to, I don't know.

I'd like to not be on medication forever, you know, especially like, if it's something where I can just learn the systems myself to, to manage myself better, you know, which is not to say that that people should feel discouraged from being on medication if that's what their doctor thinks is important.

People call medication a crutch, but like, some people need crutches to walk, you know what I mean?

So that's not a moral failing.

So.

But yeah, no, all all, all is well, all is good.

It it do it do.

Let's talk about big lizard.

I don't know what that energy was, but I did almost peek my microphone.

Let's.

See if it happens again.

It will, don't worry.

So let's talk a little bit about where we are in Godzilla history.

After the infamous 1998 Tristar Godzilla, Toho wanted to come back, you know, much sooner than anticipated.

Go, guys, we got to make some Godzilla movies.

We cannot let this be, you know, the way we go out there is a a market and a thirst for more Godzilla and we cannot rely on, you know, Sony Tristar produced Godzilla sequels to be the thing that carries this license for the time being.

So we got Godzilla 2000, which we thought was a decent time, maybe not super deep on substance, but like a decent time.

We got Godzilla versus Megagiris, weirdly not a sequel to Godzilla 2000, yet another fresh start and that was messier.

Then we got GMK last episode, which was another fresh start, but one we thought was.

While there were things about it that were a mixed bag, it was very unique and very refreshing and something we had not seen out of this franchise in a very long time.

And that played out in the box office because GMK made a fuck load of money.

My understanding is that the rest the the the other three Millennium era movies to come, including this one, basically all got green lit at once off the back of GMK success.

And now we are at what will be yet another sort of reboot .1 of the things that the suits knew after GMK blew up as suits often.

No, in their infinite wisdom, GMK was not successful because it was good or different, you know, or well directed or interestingly written, or had like an interesting idea and take on Godzilla.

GMK was successful because Motha and King Ghidorah were in it.

So clearly the next step is what if we brought back fucking everyone who made Godzilla versus Mega Gear as and we had them revive another super popular Godzilla monster, in this case Mechagodzilla.

I I will say I that could have been a recipe for disaster, right?

Yeah, it could have.

Because I mean, if you look down the list here of our behind the scenes crew, Masaki Tezeka returning to direct from Godzilla versus Megagiris, Marimura doing the script from Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla 2, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla versus Megagiris.

And then new in the special effects direction chair is Yuichi Kikuchi, who is the SFXAD for the last two Godzilla movies.

So there's at least one change around that might make something of a difference.

And then for our main composer, we have Michiru Oshima, who composed for Godzilla versus Mega Gears.

In fairness, we thought the score was great in that movie, so that's not the problem.

It's more of a writing and direction thing we're worried about.

But, yeah, so they were like, what if we just got this crew that's done, that's ready and and we throw them on another Godzilla movie and we we have them do Mechagodzilla because clearly the thing that was holding us back was that nobody knew who the last couple of opponents were.

Let's just reuse famous names.

Whether or not that pays off and why we will get to Charlotte.

Yeah.

Why don't you tell?

Us what happens in Godzilla against Mechagodzilla.

OK, I will.

Good.

That's.

What we're kind of here for, it's why I'm here.

What if you just went no?

No.

Don't feel like it.

And we shut the recording off right here.

Anyway, some soldiers are loading up and driving off while this typhoon starts hitting Tatiyama.

And The thing is, it's not just a storm.

It's also Godzilla.

It's a Godzilla storm.

I do.

Like the shot where like the the reporter or whatever is in front of the seawall and you see the wave coming and at first you're like, Oh my God, is that Godzilla?

And it's just a wave.

And then Godzilla does come up the second time.

Pretty good comedic beat.

Yeah, there was this.

A part right after that and I made a note of this even though it's not important, but for some reason I thought this guy was going to be plot relevant because he was showing up so early.

But this dude just like drops his stuff, just totally fumbles everything he's holding outside of a convenience store.

Hey, you want to?

Know why that guy stuck out to you?

Why?

Because that's the main actor from Godzilla 2000.

It would be like fucking, I don't know, I, I don't have like, a good comparison point, but it would be like Chris Evans randomly showing up for one scene as a dude collecting trash cans.

He'd be like, well, that's a, that guy's important.

That guy's not the Japanese Chris Evans by any means.

I just needed to think of an actor that people be like, yeah, that guy.

Yeah, well, while he's outside fumbling all of his goods, the the Anti Megalosaurus Force, or AMF, formed in 1966, by the way, like it shows all these things on the screen.

They're like formed in 1966.

It has this many soldiers, they're scrambling their tanks and their maser cannons and they're going to go intercept Godzilla.

Now, if we know anything about Godzilla, Godzilla doesn't care.

I didn't catch.

The 1966, can I put a pin in that?

Yeah, you can.

Because I just.

Looked something up and I want to I want to circle back to this at a later moment.

Continue.

Sure.

OK.

Well, they, they, they March off to fight Godzilla.

But as Godzilla's won't to do, Godzilla doesn't care about weapons.

And they also say that the US military is moving in.

And I noted this because we would not do this today.

No.

So yeah, the US military and the, the AMF are moving in to fight Godzilla.

All the, the mazer cannons and tanks and everything are up on, on a hill, you know, like formed a line to try to stop Godzilla there.

And Akane, who is our, our main character for this, she's a soldier and she is attempting to fire the mazer cannon.

And Godzilla doesn't care about the mazer cannon either.

Godzilla approaches and she tries to to back out like get away and she backs into another vehicle.

That vehicle falls off the Cliff and then Godzilla just steps on it.

Yeah, I remember like that, that that truck, I think it's like trying to get past her and she's like turning and it like hits it and and diverts it off.

But like that truck just rolls and rolls and rolls like a comedic amount.

And I'm like, oh, those dudes are probably dead.

And then Godzilla stomps on it and it explodes.

I.

Was like.

Those dudes are definitely dead.

I was a little surprised because it's still, it's still kind of a new trend for people to be dying on screen at all.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know.

Like.

Explicitly and called attention to, much less want to point out.

This is pretty unambiguous.

Like our main character fucked up and got several of her like partners killed in a very dumb way.

Yeah, so those they're dead.

Godzilla smacks the Mazer Cannon with its tail roars and then it drops the title card and it's Godzilla against Mega Godzilla.

But the title card Just say Godzilla X Mechagodzilla.

Yeah, they were.

Doing XS a lot in the Japanese titles at this time because like Godzilla versus Mega Gears was Godzilla X Megagiras and the international titles have adjusted since.

So yeah.

There's very 2000s of them, Yeah.

Then they go into the new timeline, right?

When does this movie take place?

Well, this is a new Godzilla.

The the prime minister's talking to the Minister of Technology about what to do.

And they they're just talking about all this.

And the first Godzilla in this timeline did die to the Oxygen Destroyer.

And this is just the second Godzilla after that one.

But since then, since the original Godzilla died, Mothra has showed up in 1961, and so did Gyra.

So like.

Yeah, so.

So that's why we have an existing like anti monster unit is this is a world where to some extent like other giant monster shit has happened.

Just no Godzilla right?

This is where I want to throw that pin.

The Anti Megalosaurus unit formed in 1966.

War of the Gargantuas was was released in 1966.

Oh yeah, so it's.

Timing it to specifically like Gyra attacking that military base.

It's.

Also just an interesting choice, right, That like because so much of A defining factor of the Millennium Series films has been OK, each one is only connected to the original and then we're resetting for whatever story we're doing here.

And so I don't know, I just think it's an interesting choice that they specifically wanted to make.

Yeah, those two, and granted you're talking about two very popular movies of the era that didn't have Godzilla in them, so you can kind of make it work.

But.

And and I mean, just to jump to like a thing that's behind the scenes.

But according to some of the documentation on the movie, Rodan and Veron the Unbelievable are also things that have had like, as of the time of this release, those movies had also happened prior to it.

So, yeah, OK.

So like.

Yeah, basically a lot of these Showa era movies that did not feature Godzilla are assumed to have happened.

OK, Yeah.

The the note I made was like OK so I guess Realistica is a real place then.

Oh fuck.

It must be.

Yeah, because Mothra happened.

You are sitting.

Here thinking about like the geopolitical consequences of movies existing in a way none of the rest of us are on that shit.

Yeah, I don't know, because I think that they were involved with the creation of the Maser Cannon, right?

So yeah.

Yeah, 'cause to fight them off, yeah.

So yeah, I thought that was cool.

Yeah.

But you know, now there's a new Godzilla and they're talking about this and like Japan needs a new weapon to fight Godzilla because the maser cannons aren't working.

Like they don't have anything else.

So we cut to Akane.

She's being court martialed because she got people killed because.

Because they're dead.

So she's getting, she's getting demoted.

Now elsewhere, some scientists are looking at this trilobyte.

But it's not just a trilobyte.

It's like a Cyborg trilobyte that Professor Uhara made using, like, DNA computers, which is what they kept calling it.

They just kept calling it DNA computers.

I'm guessing it's.

Sure, I'm guessing it's just like they they wrote like machines to rewrite something based on its DNA or something using if I remember.

Right.

The idea is with the DNA computers and this, and I thought it was, I don't remember if it was explained in this movie or explained elsewhere, but the idea is because the computer is based on DNA, it is, it thinks in base 4 instead of like, instead of it being binary, it's it's quaternary.

That's correct.

Right.

So it's it's a CGT instead of 01, which will allow it to therefore be more complex computing, which is bullshit, but it's the kind of sci-fi bullshit that I'm here for.

So yeah.

Yeah, I'll allow.

Yeah.

And Professor Uhara, he he's he's a funny guy.

They were all standing.

Look at this, looking at this trilobite, and he's sitting there like giving a speech, facing away from them all dramatically, and they're just not listening to him at all.

He was like, they didn't listen to me, Yeah.

So he and, and some other scientists are gathering together because they have to, to get their, their top minds on making a weapon to fight Godzilla.

And these scientists are shown the bones of the original Godzilla.

And they're like, listen, you Hara, you need to extract a spinal cell from this skeleton.

And he's like, oh, what are you going to make a clone of Godzilla?

And they're like, no.

Well, maybe, but no.

I I.

Love, love, love, love this shot.

I love this scene, I love this reveal.

I love how nonchalant he is about it.

Just like, hey, I need you to take a look at something for me and then, you know, you see.

Godzilla, skeleton and all the divers.

Around world's biggest fish.

Tank.

It it's fantastic.

So they they want to make a bio robot the same basically the same thing he did as a trilobite, but you know, more so the the bill for the weapons development on this passes in the diet, which I thought was interesting that they included because I don't think that's typically included in these movies.

And Ikane is is back at back at work just at a desk.

Now she has to do desk work.

Yeah.

She's.

In like a storage room or something, right?

Like, yeah, it's a real, it's a real very job, basically.

Yeah, Yuhara is hanging out with his daughter Sarah, and he would rather be a dad than make a bioweapon.

And you know what?

Good for him, honestly.

But like, he, he's talking to her and he's like, you have many problems, OK, you need me.

Which is an interesting thing to say to your daughter.

It's very this early in the movie feels very like I'm trying to think of the, like, it's uncalled for, right?

But like, we will eventually learn some stuff about their family where it's like, OK, yeah, maybe you should be a good dad to this kid.

Maybe she does have problems, yeah.

Maybe she does have some trauma, yeah.

But she's like, well, what about what about that time they let this baseball player's kid go into the dugout with the baseball player?

So he would play baseball and he's just like, huh, that's a weirdly specific thing to say.

And then some suits come in and they're like, hey, so you know, when that baseball player had their child going to the dugout, we want to do that for you, so you'll come work for us.

And so he's like, well, all right, and, and things, things are going well, you know, but his daughter's like, why can't they bring my mom back instead of Godzilla?

And I was like, oh, so Ikane is going back to training.

Like, she's not in the field, but she's still training just in case, you know, she's she's still, she yearns for the battlefield.

And the, the minister of technology becomes the Prime Minister just to to change the direction of things.

And basically all up until this point, this is just kind of setting the scene for everything that's about to happen.

That's why it's so scattered.

So the year is now 2003.

And the leader of Squadron Kiryu, his name's Togashi, tells Akane what's going on.

Like, we need pilots.

We need good pilots.

We want you.

This dude's got.

A voice of like a villain.

Yeah, this dude sounds like he should be playing like like a towering like #2 right hand thug to like a gang boss in something.

Yeah, yeah, I was looking at him and I was like why is like why is a gona guy character?

Straight up it's a gona guy character.

He's even got the fucking face.

Right get.

A robo ass motherfucker, Yeah.

He's like, we want you.

And she's like, well, OK.

So they they start operational training and some people not so happy that Ikane is part of the squad because of what happened.

You know, like the the brother of one of the soldiers that got killed is there and basically just harasses Ikane about it forever.

But they run drills together and Professor Yuhara shows up and he like he tries to hit up Ikane before the the other soldier comes up and starts harassing her again.

And Yohara's like, listen, you seem kind of isolated.

But like she really starts hitting it off with his daughter because Sarah's also kind of isolated.

So they kind of connect on that.

I thought it was, it was interesting because, you know, Yohara's like you seem really isolated.

I'm into that, you know, like do chill.

Doesn't he at 1:00?

Point literally just say so have you ever thought about having some kids?

And it's like, whoa, buddy.

Dial it.

Back 90% or something, right?

Yuhara is like, listen, I'm going to buy you dinner if Kiriyu wins or if Kiriyu loses, and this is very important, this will come back up.

But I mean, he did.

He does this because he seems kind of desperate, to be honest.

So MSM FS3 Kiriu is revealed to the world.

And I, I like serial numbers and it's cool because it's like it's remote controlled from the white Heron Jets, which I remember from the fighting game because it's controlled by The Jets in the fighting game too that we played on the way.

Yeah.

And so they're, they're discussing this.

Well, Godzilla is detected on approach.

And so Kiriu is launched and Kiriu has like Evangelion battery rules basically.

Like it has a battery that can run out.

And if it runs out, you have to go to a base and get recharged.

And they talk about the absolute 0 cannon which instantly freezes things with 0 Kelvin degree light particles.

Once it comes the sci-fi bullshit, I'm here for.

Bitch, we got ice lasers.

Yeah, so Godzilla is heading towards Tokyo Bay and everybody evacuates and there's a scene where like, Patsui of the Giants just hits a home run real quick before evacuating.

I don't know why so.

I actually can answer this.

I came for it because because one of my friends is a huge baseball nerd and he subjects me to it.

I I love you dude, it's OK.

But this is because his nickname in Japan was Godzilla.

That's like his fan name because he was such a heavy hitter back in the day.

I'm dead serious, OK?

Yeah, he'd.

Been he'd been nicknamed Godzilla for a very long time, so.

OK no I didn't know that.

I was like who is this guy and why?

But cool.

OK so Kiryu gets dropped off to begin combat and fires like everything, Rockets, missiles, mouth, mazer cannon, which makes Godzilla back up a little bit.

Like, OK, wait a minute.

But somehow Godzilla, Godzilla like, roars.

And somehow this awakens the original Godzilla's mind inside of Kiriyu.

And Godzilla notices the hesitation and uses this opportunity to escape back into Tokyo Bay.

So they're like, all right, we need to pick up Kiriyu.

So they start flying in.

Kiriyu starts firing at the herons trying to transport it back, and then they have to back up.

So Kiriyu just starts blasting everything and the squad tries to to lure cure you away but Heron 3 gets shot down.

Which is the the brother of the guy who died again?

Yeah.

And.

Ikane runs in to save the pilot.

And because it's that guy, he's like, why did you even bother saving me?

You know?

He's just like.

Shut the fuck up.

Dude, Jesus.

Get off.

Get over yourself bud.

So there's an hour left before Kiri, who's exhausted.

So they just kind of have to wait it out.

Like they they can't get Kiriu.

They don't have anything stronger than Kiriu to stop.

I do.

Love this moment because they're like, what can we do?

And it's like, we, we don't have any way to stop this thing at this point.

So yeah, we just got to wait for it to run out of energy.

How long is that?

And there's this pause as, as she says, an hour.

And like, everybody like glumly looks at this countdown and it's like you get this feeling like this real feeling of dread of like this is the best option we have.

Oh, yeah.

It's like a shocking.

It's aided.

It's aided.

By the fact it's a beautiful shot as as Kiryu makes his makes its way, makes his way over through the wreckage of some of the city and like slowly starts powering down.

Oh my.

God, Kiryu's fucking walking directly through that one skyscraper.

And then, yeah, like powering down in the sunset with the dust, like fall.

I was like, OK, you guys were kind of fucking cooking with this shot.

Yeah.

Can I, can I say something now that we're kind of at the end of like, hear you powering down and we've had this bit.

I think Kiryu is wonderfully suit acted and directed and shot around right.

I think the way he moves fits this great blend between being robotic and like a little too fluid to just be a robot in a way that maybe is accidental but feels intentional given the previous Mechagodzilla intentionally felt very stiff and robotic.

Both previous ones did you know, and they they they put a lot of care into these shots that frame like cure you in these like action moments and in these quiet moments.

Absolutely.

By absolutely and just.

Go ahead, go ahead.

I was.

I was going to say, by comparison, something's fucking up with the way they're shooting Godzilla in this movie, right?

Godzilla's doing an awful lot of tea, posing just he's.

Just standing there menacingly.

It's like, like it's the joke.

But in all seriousness, it it's very strange.

And I wonder if it has something to do with the way they were refitting the Millennium suit and making alterations to it.

Because this is a new.

Suit design, although clearly inspired by the the 2000 and versus Megagera suit design.

But like it's it's weird because first it was like, OK, he's just going to sit there while the military pummels him in that first fight.

Maybe it's because he doesn't even feel it.

But then Kiryu is sitting here just like launching off attacks and Godzilla's sitting there like a Sprite in Pokémon waiting till the attack is over to do a react animation.

Like it.

It's so weird.

And you know what makes it?

I don't know if maybe this is a problem that we also had in Godzilla 2000 and versus Mega Gear as and didn't notice as much.

But coming off of GMK where Godzilla and GMK is so animated and expressive, right, Even when that Godzilla is standing still, you know, he's he's fucking Street Fighter three idol animationing, right, Like he is like flexing his fingers and kind of like adjusting his shoulders and like, you know, shifting his stance like that is that is a very living, moving Godzilla.

And then this one feels often times like a prop so far, you know, it's not doing a lot.

And and yeah, I think, Sam, I'm wondering if you're right, if it's got to do with the suit design just not being very well suited for that kind of motion in the way that Kiryu is.

Yeah, it.

It I don't know if something's off, but you're definitely correct.

And I'm curious because I mean not to get too ahead of ourselves but spoiler alert this is a 2 parter so I'm very curious how things are going to be in the next film and if it'll be the same problem or not because I have not rewatched that one yet.

Yeah, well, Kiryu has powered down and things are terrible right now.

The Prime Minister has to take responsibility for it.

He he doesn't really want to resign yet, but he's like, I have to take responsibility for this somehow.

You know, Yahara figures out that that it was the roar that caused Kiryu to malfunction.

You know, like, there's a soul in this machine, right?

And Akane believes only Kiryu can kill Godzilla.

And Yuhara is like, all right, You're you're right.

And I'm going to do my best for you.

Don't you worry, Akane.

I got you.

Like, personally, he's so weird.

Yeah, he's he's.

Simping a little bit, and I don't mean that to be mean.

I mean look, I'm I'm a huge simp myself.

I'm professionally, but but you got to tone it down a little bit.

So Squadron Kiru finally, like welcomes her to the team finally.

And it's like chastising the guy who's been harassing her this whole time because I mean, she she did save some people this time.

And so she's doing a little bit better.

Meanwhile, Sarah's sitting with Kiru thinking like Kiru's pitiable.

You know, it's a pity that we've rest we we've resurrected this lizard, covered it in armor and they're forcing we're forcing it to fight someone who would probably otherwise be its friend.

You know, another Godzilla.

I don't actually know that that's true, but the friend part it is the.

Way that a child would think of things.

Right, She tells her father in Akane.

You know, humans are responsible for for waking up Godzilla with the with the H bomb to start with.

And now we're tampering with the remains of the other Godzilla.

And it's like, you know, she she says adults day life is important, but they don't believe it.

But she feels kind of hard and it's kind of true.

Yeah.

You know, Yeah.

Go off.

Kid.

Yeah, and, you know, obviously they're, they're not immediately supporting what she's saying.

So she storms off, she leaves.

And Yuhara then explains to Akane that when when she was 4, her her mom became I'll when she was pregnant.

And the doctor said they could only save one of them.

We can save your wife or we can save your child.

And Yuhara was like, OK, save my wife.

And meanwhile, you know, the wife wanted to save the baby and Sarah wanted them both to live.

Ultimately they both died.

And so Sarah has pretty bad trauma about all of us.

And she's, she's really attached to like life and the concept of death and all that.

Yeah, I think your.

Your mom dying along with your newborn sibling will will kind of give you a complex and it gets fair, yeah.

Yeah, So Akane goes to talk to her and she's like, I, I feel like my life is pretty worthless, which is like, why would you say that to her?

But so, you know, Sarah gets mad about that, and it's like, no life can be worthless, including yours.

Like, what are you talking about?

And that gives Kanye something to talk about.

So she's going to Mull that over.

Godzilla starts circling back to Tokyo and is discovered by a ship.

Sonar and the military tries to fight off.

Godzilla loses.

As always, Godzilla just does not care about this.

Like, this just does not work.

I'm surprised they're still trying.

Yeah.

I.

I don't.

I don't know what they expected, given that none of their military actions so far against Godzilla in this movie have even slowed him down.

Yeah, I honestly think in terms of like if we were going to be like power scaler people, I think this Godzilla is like one of the strongest ones just because it just doesn't care about anything the military is throwing at it at all.

But it's.

Also, well, I mean, that's kind of how Godzilla tends to react.

But again, like how much of that is just them not telling Godzilla to react until after the pyrotechnics have blown up, Right?

Sure.

Yeah, I do.

Wonder if we have like a direction problem here, because yeah.

Even.

Even if the suit can't move much, the fact that Godzilla will often just completely ignore all attacks until the round is over and then like whoa, you know it's.

I don't know.

Yeah.

So people are trying to evacuate because Godzilla's here and because the people are in danger, the chief of staff of the of Squadron Kiriu goes and he he goes directly to the Prime Minister is like, we need to launch Kiriu.

And the Prime Minister is like, I don't know.

I don't really want to deal with that again, like the stuff that just happened.

But, you know, he hesitates for a minute and he's walking away and he's like, all right, launch Kiriu.

It's really our only chance at this point.

So Akane and everybody sorties Sarah like shakes Akane's hand trying to support her.

Kiryu gets launched and they head to Tokyo, but Godzilla is is closing in on some evacuating civilians.

Like they're not planning to drop yet, but Akane's like, all right, we got to go now.

So they they drop Kiryu into battle.

And Kiryu launches from the sky like directly into Godzilla.

Like like a missile.

Basic so.

Cool shoulder.

Slam.

It's incredible.

Straight up dynamic entry, yeah.

And you know that that's right as Godzilla was trying to charge up an atomic breath to to kill everyone.

So the the evacuation finishes, so they're clear to fire.

So Godzilla just starts firing everything except for the absolute 0 cannon.

Because I haven't said this prior but it it if it has like 100% energy, the absolute 0 cannon takes about 40% of it.

They can only really fire it once reasonably and do everything else.

So they grapple and despite taking some some missile damage to the sides and like Maser a maser cannon to the front, Godzilla atomic breaths carry you onto the ground.

And Godzilla then starts attacking like the the cannons coming off of Kiriu's backpack because it's got like this backpack with two cannons on it.

And then Kiriu pulls out this like electrified blade.

Kiriu has got some fucking gizmos I really appreciate because yeah, you you've got like the the classic like mouth laser kind of move in the absolute 0 cannon, but also the wrist mounted lasers and the shoulder cannons and missiles out of fucking everywhere.

And and now the, the the electric like knife prod.

It's very reminiscent of, I mean again, like the last two Mechagodzilla's were also just chock full of of Inspector Gadget bullshit.

Absolutely.

But I think there is something different about Kiryu specifically that stands out to me with the way, you know, shoved full of weapons with the other two Mechagodzilla's, especially the very first one of of course, it kind of just felt like, you know, you were watching a firework factory blow up with all this nonsense happening at once.

With Kiryu, it's layers and I appreciate that.

It's almost as if, you know, it was designed in mind of, oh, Godzilla is going to take that weapon off of you or you're going to run out of missiles there, so just drop it.

And so the more Kiryu takes damage superficially, the more it reveals, you know, smaller weapons underneath that, like the knife blade.

Yeah.

I just think it's a very cool design.

Yeah.

Kiryu.

'S got like the backpack full of rockets and shit, but then when Kiryu dumps the backpack, Kiryu has more missiles on its back that it could not fire if the backpack was on right?

Like exactly.

Yeah, they, they anticipated that Kiryu would see some scrap in this, you know?

It also feels very inspired, like in a way that the first two Mechagodzilla's were.

Well, the first Mechagodzilla was just like we made a robot Godzilla that is got crazy shit packed into every square inch of it.

And the 90s Mechagodzilla is very much just a modernization of that.

Kiryu feels very inspired by like Mecca anime in that way, right.

And like spoiler alert.

But there's a lot of Mecca anime influence, specifically Evangelion in this movie anyway, that we're going to talk about.

But but in so many other ways, like Kiryu feels very inspired by stuff like Gundam as well.

You know, I mean, especially that backpack is a very Gundam esque, sort of like add on.

But yeah.

That backpack straight off a gun tank, you know.

So having forced Kiryu onto its back, Godzilla walks up to deliver a beam and one of the herons like, interrupts it so it can't do it do its beam attack.

Kiryu launches it like launches the back unit off of itself, like a rocket, like the whole backpack.

Yeah.

Like ramming itself into Godzilla, forcing it back, and then Kiriu leaps over Godzilla, zaps its face, and then he gets some punches in.

Like the the amount of movement that Kiriu does in this compared to Godzilla is crazy.

It's it's got to it's.

Got to be a suit thing.

It's got to be.

That's all I can think of because Kiriu's out here fucking Shmoven and it's shot.

Well, with Kiriu, so the more I think about it, I don't honestly think it's a direction problem.

Now, maybe it's a little of both, but I mean, still it's yeah, Kiryu is the star of this fucking movie for sure.

Absolutely, yeah.

So Godzilla's like getting bodied, Kiryu does a does a so long a Bowser, you know.

Straight.

Up so Kiryu's energy is at 45% at this point and they're like all right, we have to fire the absolute 0 cannon now.

We're not going to get another chance to do this, but unfortunately Kiryu I wrote is animation locked.

Can't can't get that off yet.

So Godzilla hits it with a breath attack and like it's kyu gets launched away.

It's the the gift that that Sam put in the chat.

Earlier.

Is launched away, is like flipping backwards, accidentally fires the cannon and and destroys several buildings.

He's locked in the T pose in the firing animation, so right, you know.

And so here you having flown away and and crashing into the ground becomes completely uncontrollable.

And economy is like, all right, I have to board Kiriu and pilot it manually at this point.

Sick.

Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick.

Sick sicko, yes.

And so they're like, all right, what we're going to have to do is we're going to drain all the power in the city to revitalize Kiriu.

We have to.

We have to drain all the power from Tokyo 3 to fire and scan.

With the Angel.

You know, so, so the ground units are all just attacking Godzilla just to distract Godzilla long enough so Ikane can get into this cockpit like and and pilot Kiryu and she gets in there and Ikane starts talking to Kiryu and is like, listen, you know me, right?

We're friends.

I need you to stand up.

So Kiryu starts to stand up, but Godzilla blasted immediately in the back, knocks it right back down and Iconne starts to pass out but then remembers basically that everyone's counting on her.

You know, like everybody flashes in her head like she needs to get up.

So she gets up.

Kiryu gets up, Godzilla starts to fire again.

But then his name is Hayama.

I haven't really mentioned his name but the guy who harasses Iconne every 3 minutes dives his hair and into into Godzilla's mouth and he's like you have to fire the absolute 0 cannon right now.

Like don't worry about me, he's clearly ready to die.

He's been complaining about being alive this whole time.

That's cool.

I'm ready.

For him to die so you know.

But instead I caught a like pilot's cure you flies into Godzilla while the absolute 0 cannon charges pulls the Heron out of Godzilla's mouth.

And I thought Heyama had died at this point because there was like a mid air explosion but he doesn't, he ejected.

Off screen.

He did and so like here you just like launches towards Godzilla like basically carries Godzilla over Tokyo Bay and they crash into the Bay.

Akane fires the Absolute 0 cannon while they're underwater and it creates this giant spiral, this giant ice pillar.

Extremely.

Cool.

Very cool.

And then it starts falling apart, like it just crumbles down.

And then there's a silence for a second, but then Godzilla rises from the ice like it has a wound in his chest, but he's alive.

But Godzilla's like, all right, that's a gnarly.

Wound in his chest too.

Yeah, it's it's.

The most beat up we've seen?

Millennium Godzilla again.

Oh.

Absolutely.

It's more beat up than like in terms of like a a single obvious wound.

It's probably one of the most like, egregious ones we've ever seen on Godzilla.

Yeah, probably that's but that's why I'm that's why I'm saying like I feel this one.

I feel like this one's a really beefy Godzilla.

And in terms of just being able to tank stuff because it's hurt, it gets up, it just starts walking away.

It's just like, all right, I get it.

I'm leaving.

I I.

I'm a head out.

I've had enough of this shit.

So Godzilla's retreating into the ocean.

Kiryu, like, rises up behind it.

And honestly, it shot.

Like, you think Kiryu's about to finish him off, right?

But Kiryu's totally mangled, can't continue the fight.

Like, arms busted, everything's broken.

We can't keep going.

So they're like, all right, don't pursue.

You did a great job.

They send a team out to rescue Wakani and the prime minister's like, look, we didn't kill Kiriu or we didn't kill Godzilla with Kiriu, but it did manage to drive Godzilla away.

So we finally have a defence against Godzilla, which is something.

Sarah's crying because the, you know, mostly because there was a battle.

I think just because there was violence is what it seems like.

Yeah.

Iconic gets out on the Kiriu shoulder and there's like a cool shot where she's looking over the ocean.

Right you.

Fucking iconic shot.

Love it.

Yeah.

And then there's credits, but then there's an after credits scene.

And so Akane watches Kuru while while it's getting repaired and Yuhara and Sierra come over to see her.

And Akane is like, thank you for giving me strength and reminding me that I have worth basically.

And Yuhara was like, all right, well, I guess Kuru won.

So I guess I get to take you to dinner and and she's like, wait, no, Kuru didn't win.

It was a draw, so I'm going to take you to dinner.

Oh.

Yeah, fun, fun, yeah.

So you are like high fives his daughter because he finally rizzed the Kane and then the Kane like salutes cure you before leaving and that's the end of the movie.

You know what?

I.

Respect it.

I too only ever managed to riz women up by being a complete loser and somehow winning by accident.

No, he's a massive dork.

I.

Think it's really interesting that the movie so clearly ends basically not because Godzilla was actually defeated, but because Godzilla simply decided it wasn't worth it to keep trying.

Right, 'cause like, I think Godzilla could have finished cure you off pretty easy at this point.

And instead Godzilla just goes like, like Sam said, I'm a head out, I'm done for today.

Dinner's waiting.

Yeah, it's, I mean with that.

Wound, you know, I think even the military could have done something, maybe.

Maybe, maybe.

I think it's interesting, like we're we kind of have argued back and forth about like, again, we're not like power, power scalers, but like this Godzilla, it's hard to tell what's it's hard to tell because like Godzilla's giving us nothing, right?

Go girl, give us nothing in this movie.

We're not getting a lot of like a lot of movement.

We're not getting a lot of history out of out of you know this how you know what, what Godzilla has done and this Godzilla's done in the past.

Godzilla's tough as hell.

But like beyond that, this movie doesn't tell us much about Godzilla.

Godzilla's maybe the least one of the least invested in versions of Godzilla so far.

Which is interesting because that new suit is fucking expensive.

Y'all that new suit that they use for this movie?

Yeah, I think I remember reading it's like one of the most expensive Godzilla suits ever made 'cause there's so many animatronics in the face and head for all the smaller like facial expressions it can make, which only gets shown off a couple times, I feel like.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Like, that's a lot of advancements in technology and, you know, puppeteering and all that for something you don't really use outside of two or three small but important moments.

I mean they made a lot of really intentional adjustments to Godzilla's design, like sticking to that Millennium era design but intentionally going back to the classic dark grey.

The classic like grey to white spines instead of the Rose tinted ones.

The right losing.

Losing that hue going back to, I mean, granted they'd already gone back to blue fire for GMK, but GMK was very different, so I think it's still significant that they chose to stick with the blue here instead of the the eyes.

And the head shape have shifted somewhat.

You know, we went from like the cat like eyes to almost more bird like.

You look kind of like eagle eyes a little bit, yeah.

Still got that cobra hood on the neck though.

Yeah.

Very, very predatory looking.

Yeah, very.

Very Millennium era affectation, the Cobra hood.

Yeah, it's just very interesting 'cause they put so much money into this Godzilla and Kiri, you can't have been cheap either.

Like that's a pretty crazy suit that they built up.

I mean, it's, it's, it's, I got to look at it real quick because like, I do think there are still parts where you can see.

I think Kiryu is a smart design because if you look at it, you can see where it's parts on like a black bodysuit underneath that kind of give the actor on like a little bit more freedom of motion than like the very bulky previous two Mechagodzilla suits that were like, you know, big bulky mechanical parts butted right up against big bulky mechanical parts.

You know which.

Again, you brushed on this earlier, Derek, but that again, just sells the idea that, hey, this isn't, this isn't quite 100% a robot.

There's something else going on here.

This is a little too Smith.

Yeah.

Well, and to our point, right, like we said that Kiryu moves better than Godzilla does, and we see so much more motion and posing out of Kiryu than out of Godzilla.

And like, maybe a big part of that is that Kiriu is just like the suit is better designed for movement at those joints than this big, bulky padded Godzilla suit.

Yeah.

But I think something.

That's really cool.

It's just a small thing, but the fact that Kiriu has like bone teeth.

Yes.

Yes, definitely I missed.

That Kiriu.

'S.

Teeth are the like the OG Godzilla's teeth is what they're supposed to be.

Have you?

Never noticed that.

Yeah, when it when it does, like the Maser cannon attack, I was like, whoa, those are bone teeth.

Like they just built the armor around Godzilla I had.

The exact same reaction.

Holy.

Dick and a half they are.

How have I never noticed that?

Wow yo that's sick.

I love that.

That's a great bit.

Yeah, God.

Damn.

Which kind of leads us to a.

Topic that's sort of been lurking this whole time, which is the Evangelion of it all, yeah.

Look, so here's the deal.

These days it's not weird to like tie Godzilla and Evangelion together.

That's become very normalized.

I think this is, as far as I can figure, the first like official piece of Godzilla media to heavily draw from Evangelion.

Cause Ava is God.

When is Ava on the air?

It's late 90s, mid 90s, nineteen.

6090.

5 to 95 to 96 so we're talking towards the end actually, I think the the Godzilla versus Destroyer would already be done right.

So you really only have Godzilla 2000, Godzilla versus Megagiris, GMK leading up to this.

But this is like very much the the Evangelion inspiration's undeniable.

Like Charlotte, you were texting me just like, this is just Ava.

Like they built, they built the robot around the decayed biological remains of the monster and it goes berserk and it needs to run out of power And like, yeah, they and.

They have to drain the cities of power to to use a.

Weapon.

It's in like a giant container and gets carried around by jets with wires and like and and.

The pilot has issues with their self worth.

Even.

Some of the shots of like her climbing up into the suit and and all that it's, it's very, I mean it's not inspired by some of them are near 1 to 1.

And I don't mean that as a no, no, no, I mean.

It's it's clear that that's like a heavy piece of inspiration that this movie drew from.

And like also at this point you will just like you will see there are like official hear you recolors of like the Ava units right as figures.

That's that's just a thing that's been a thing for a while.

And it's like it's always cure you.

Cure you is the thing that gets tied in with Evangelion that and Shin Godzilla for obvious reasons of, of Hideyakiano's involvement later on.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's just super interesting and.

And I do.

The way they airlift you is also like, you know, they airlift the Avas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, under the battlefield.

Several times.

Literally, I mean.

Again, just like jets with cables, you know, Vtols with cables, like dropping it in.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's, it's so clearly heavily inspired by Ava.

And like, it's interesting because now in my mind, I'm going to.

I hadn't seen, I hadn't watched Evangelion when I first watched these movies.

So I'm going to have to like pay attention going forward to, well, let's see.

I don't think there's actually really many.

There's really only two more Japanese Godzilla movies before Shin Godzilla.

And I mean, spoiler alert, one of them is a direct sequel to this one, right?

So yeah, it's it's going to be just an interesting thing to keep my eyes on, but yeah.

And.

Not to good, not to cut to like the Part 2 that's looming even more than we already have.

But like, I do think it's slightly disappointing perhaps that they don't thematically do more with the fact that Kiryu is its own agent, that there's something else going on in there.

But to my recollection, that is going to be rectified hard.

Yeah, the movie in the film that's coming, almost.

Feels, I don't want to say unfinished in its plot, but it feels bare bones, right?

Very.

Firmly a Part 1, which is weird.

I don't know.

So I know they had greenlit 3 more Godzilla movies.

I don't know that they immediately knew they were making a sequel to this movie or not.

I don't go forward to look at like production stuff or trivia on future movies.

I want to hit that when I hit it.

But I mean, I could not find anything that said that this was greenlit as like a 2 parter.

Maybe they'd hoped.

Maybe they had, like, a bunch.

Of ideas left on the cutting.

Room floor that they wanted to come back to but yeah man you know and and like.

Yeah, I don't know, like it's the Evangelion references and stuff like that.

Like that's always going to be something that's going to stick out to me.

I don't.

Did I?

Have I talked about my my time with the Evangelion wiki on this podcast?

No.

Have I told you about it?

No, Derek, I wrote most of the.

Original like.

English Evangelion wiki pages.

You can see my you can see my old you remember my old personas name?

Yeah, yeah, that if you look at the earliest revision.

History.

My name is all OH.

My God.

Incredible.

Just.

Incredible.

No, no, New Charlotte Lord just dropped 10 out of 10.

I wrote it during computer class.

In middle school?

Oh fuck yeah.

Well, what else were we doing in middle school?

Computer.

Class other than playing fucking JavaScript games, yeah Oh shit man, that's some throwback times.

It's also interesting because like, yes.

This movie is very heavily.

Inspired by Evangelion, but like again, I think that this is also a A.

This shows some broader like cultural recognition of Mecca in general and not just Ava.

Again, everything around like the backpack and the armor pieces is very Gundam coated.

You said it kind of reminds you of like the back piece on the gun tank.

I'm heavily reminded of like the the armor parts for the double Zeta, right?

You know, down to even like that they had to make them blue.

You know, the the shape of a lot of the add on parts for Kiryu is very Gundam coded, right, or other like real robot of the time, but all of that's inspired by Gundam.

So and then the the shot in particular towards the end of Akane, like sitting on the shoulder looking out over the ocean on on with Kiryu is very, very classic, like super robot coded, you know, like and there's a goon a guy character in the movie.

I'm.

Sorry, but like you've you've.

You've.

Made that connection and I.

Can't Unsee that this dude is just meant to be like a fucking get a robo guy.

Like his face is just.

People's faces aren't shaped like that normally, you know what I mean?

They had to find this guy.

Yeah, but yeah, I think that this is like a movie.

That that clearly pulls.

While Evangelion like was recent and had really revitalized Mecca and like, rewritten a lot of how people view Mecca at the time.

And Gundam was kind of on a downswing.

Cause 2002 was like Gundam Seed, right?

Like not exactly, Yeah, exactly, literally exactly Gundam Seed.

So yeah, like it makes sense that they're going to pull so heavily from Ava, but it's just interesting.

I'm going to have to pay more attention to this moving forward because it is an an aspect of Godzilla fandom that I have always ignored and written off because I'm not as much of an Ava fan and, and I want to, I want to observe that growth out of this moment.

I think so will not surprise you all is fucking as soon as this movie came out like hey it was pretty successful like it did.

It did not like GM K levels of well, but it did good.

And Kiryu is immediately like the Mecca Godzilla, right?

Kiryu's the one.

Like, unless you're an old head and you really, really have a soft spot for the 70s Mechagodzilla like I do, Kiryu is the one you think of when you think of a Mechagodzilla these days.

He's he's the representative Mechagodzilla in fucking anything.

Yeah, I think for good.

Even even Godzilla save the earth.

Which actually does have.

Another Mechagodzilla and it has the the 90s from Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla to the the the Hysi, which they actually even they mix a lot of the original.

Mechagodzilla in with that one.

It's kind of a hybrid.

It's a very strange hybrid.

Yeah.

Could like like the finger rockets?

And all that.

But even then, Kiryu is rightfully the poster.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I so here's.

Here's kind of my question.

Like, do we think the movie's good?

I think.

So I think it's fun, I think it's enjoyable.

I wish Godzilla was a bit more mobile, a bit more active.

That's going to be addressed in a different later Millennium film that anymore.

But but like, I, I whatever deficiencies there are in Godzilla's action cure you rocks, man.

He he more than makes up for it.

It's such a cool premise.

It's such a cool and idea.

It's such an iconic look.

Yeah, it's it's just a lot of fun.

I think this movie addresses.

Almost every almost every issue I had with Godzilla versus Megagiris, right.

Godzilla versus Megagiris is unevenly paced.

It doesn't make a lot of sense.

A lot of its own sci-fi bullshit does not hold up to like it it.

Their sci-fi bullshit is is nonsensical in a way that I can't hand wave.

You know, the fight sequences are so much better.

Like directed.

There is a better human element connection.

The requisite child character is somebody that has much like an emotional reason to be connected to these characters in the story instead of just being there because they were like, we got to have a kid in this movie.

Kids might watch it.

They're like a kid.

She does things that make sense.

I just think that this is, I wouldn't call it like one of the strongest Godzilla movies, but I think this team clearly learned from Godzilla versus Mega Gear as and the like production circumstances behind that movie and really adjusted for this one.

And I think it paid off.

I also think having an extra year, right, I don't know that they were working on this for the full 2 years since versus Mega Gears was done.

But they didn't have to turn around.

And as soon as they were finished with one movie, get working on the next movie and then maybe gave him some breathing room to actually line up what they were doing.

So you're curious about you, your thoughts, Charlotte?

I mean, I think.

It's a step forward, I do.

I thought it was a fun movie.

I think that it doesn't hit some of the high highs we've had in the past.

But I mean, I like it.

Yeah.

I I really, I really like Kiryu.

Like, as as a design.

This is the Kiryu movie.

I mean, it's the Kiryu movie.

And I liked the main character's design.

Essentially, so, you know, starring Godzilla as an obstacle that sometimes has.

To get blasted out of the way, like, yeah, yeah.

Like, I don't think this is going into the top five, but.

Or anything but like it's firmly in the middle of the pack.

It's it's far from the worst.

There's a lot to like.

It knows what it is.

This film is tightly pasted and it knows what I think if I was going to ask more from this movie.

And I've only seen the next.

Movie once.

So I don't, I, I am not here to tell you this is what happens, but having watched this movie, I feel like I would want a, a better treatment of Godzilla himself, right?

In terms of Godzilla has got to feel more alive and more of an impact other than just being.

Like a thing that shows up.

And has to be driven away.

And then on the other hand, I would want to dig more into like the, I'm not saying like give me full existential, like philosophical observation of what it means to be alive, but they kind of gesture at that, right?

They're like, they're gesturing in that direction.

And you've got a robot built around the biology and and DNA memory of the original Godzilla.

Like do something a little bit more interesting with Kiryu being, you know, like, like you all said, like it's own being, you know, that straddles this line between live and not.

And maybe the next movie will do something with that.

But you know, I think I think this is a good movie, but it it falls short of greatness.

But it's a good time.

Yep.

And it's got fucking carry you in it.

That's that's enough the fight.

Scenes alone are worth it because carry you fucking that shot where carry you drops and then like Superman flies in.

So good.

Yeah, looks very much like the scenes of Godzilla swimming in earlier movies, but it's cure you in the sky.

Very good shit.

And I mean something.

Like this episode?

It didn't take me that long to to go through the plot.

This is kind of a simple plot, kind of short movie for the movie.

Like, even by Godzilla standards, it's.

Like 85 minutes I think, including credits.

Like.

Yeah.

You know, it's, it's not, it's, it's, there's not a ton.

Of substance, but.

Maybe there's something to that.

The fact that they made something that was trim and pretty good at the thing it was trying to be, right, right.

Godzilla versus Megagiras was trim and also dog ass.

So, you know, like.

You could be.

Worse, you know, normally we would, we would kind of end up talking about like what we think are the interesting thematic elements.

But like, like we kind of just talked about it's kind of obvious what they were going for.

They wanted to gesture towards like questions about life and like the the inherent worth of life and what makes something alive.

They just didn't fully string it together, you know, like.

With with Sarah's.

Plant.

Yeah, You know, they're like, oh, when you touch it, it moves like they're trying to make a point here.

They just didn't make the point.

And like I, I think it's OK to do.

That you know, I don't.

I actually kind of have an issue with the fact that everything seems like it has to be spelled out nowadays, but that's a different, entirely different story.

Sure, some people need that.

Media literacy is at an all time low these days.

There are people that think that Zilla is pro nationalist like.

Speaking of Speaking of which, on that note, like, it's definitely.

I don't want to say lip service that feels demeaning, but like they they don't do much with it.

But I did think it was interesting that when they're debating the budget of how this project is going to be funded, there is some yelling about how the world is going to see this as Japan fully rearming, which is just an interesting thematic.

I mean, it's if nothing else, given the historical.

Context of God.

It's a thing that you have to if.

If you're making a movie and you want to think about the actual political realities of the world of like the current day world at the time you're making this, you know, that's a thing that you have to acknowledge other countries would see and get a little nervous about, right?

And like you said.

They don't do anything with that.

It's.

The briefest of moments, but like, it is at least a recognition that that Memora thought a little deeper than normal.

I mean, this is this is the same writer who did the previous Mechagodzilla movie, right?

Like, look at the difference in thought between the, hey, say, Mechagodzilla movie and this one big towel.

Yeah, it's it's no versus destroyer, right?

It's no GMK, but like somebody was attempting to cook in this kitchen and, you know, steps were definitely made in the right direction.

So yeah, I just wish I.

I'm with you, Charlotte.

I'm glad that they didn't, like, have a Kane spell it out while sitting on Kiryu's shoulder looking out over the ocean.

It is something several kids would fucking do.

But, you know, I wish that they had done slightly more in particular with addressing the question of is cure you alive or not.

And the good news is we have a whole another movie that might retroactively resolve a lot of that for us.

Maybe we'll find out.

This was intentionally a part one of two, setting up a much better grander sequel.

We'll find out eventually.

So I don't know what about this movie's going to stick with you.

What's the what's the thing you're going to think about when somebody brings up Godzilla against Mechagodzilla in the future?

In particular.

Fucking powering down in the sunset with the dust and debris like blowing off of his head in the wind.

Iconic shot and and and you know what as a dark.

Horse shot I'll mention, I think.

Godzilla in the typhoon at the very beginning is very great.

That's great.

It's always, always good when Godzilla's at night.

In a storm, it's it's always good for me.

Never once has that not hit pretty good.

I will grant you that one.

Well then, folks.

That is a wrap.

On this episode, thank you all so much for joining us on our journey so far.

Sam, where could people find you?

And do you have anything to plug?

Yeah, so you can.

Find me over.

On Blue Sky at Samuel Talbert dot bsky dot social.

Pretty easy to find, just search me up.

Follow me.

I'm either posting about stuff I've written or my cat Blue, or about food or painting my enormous backlog of Warhammer figurines.

So if you're interested in any of those topics, please come talk to me.

And As for things to plug, I just wrote, well, you know what, I don't want to date exactly date this, but I will say I am well, OK, you know, I, I think I can say this and it's.

OK, I I.

Recently in the last couple of weeks wrote a review on South of Midnight which is a great game.

I'm really looking forward to playing that.

I went to install it today and realized that I need to.

Wait a couple days before I can do that, so fuck hanging out.

You can follow me on Blue Sky at.

Derek Van Dyke dot B Sky dot Social and you can follow me at Blood.

Dot dole dot church if.

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