New Blu-Ray Stand Sighting

Looks like Toho has set up another awesome stand, this time utilizing the Kiryu-Goji suit (2002 varriation w/o scar). This is not in Tokyo, but rather Takasaki which is in the Gunma Prefecture. Take a look!

Advertisement like this can only mean one of two things: the Blu-Rays are going good or Toho needs the extra publicity. Or maybe the last two films of the Kiryu saga will be comming soon to blu-ray? (I say last two since they have already released some films which are in the Kiryu Saga continuity - Gojira, Mothra, and Rodan) Either way, this is the third Godzilla-related happening this month, along with the Kirin's advertisements for their new canned coffee, "Fire", and the celebration of Koichi Kawakita's new book and his 20th anniversary becoming the SFX director of the Heisei Godzilla series. And just for comparison, the one in Akihabara:

Godzilla/Kawakita Film Festival This Nov. In Japan

The second half of 2009 belongs to one person: Koichi Kawakita. And I am not surprised. He has his own SFX company, he was and probably is still one of the largest stock holders with Toho, and he is now becoming very active with Godzilla again, which hasn’t happened in such a way since he directed the siutmation footage in the CT-R Godzilla game. Currently, DeAgonstini is publishing a magazine which by this time next year will cover the entire Godzilla series plus some other Toho SFX films. Luckily, Koichi Kawakita is writing some of the text for these magazines, which is something awesome since he has been involved with Godzilla since 1962’s "King Kong vs. Godzilla".

Kawakita is also being honored in a way with the Heisei series - a series 6/7 his (SFX wise) - being released on blu-ray. Not only is it the 10th anniversary of which Kawakita became the next "Tsuburaya" or "Nakano" for Godzilla, but the first two movies he worked on ("Godzilla vs. Biollante" and the award winning "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah") are released this year on blu-ray. While only the 1991 film got a new special feature, it also marks the eternal preservation of the special features which have been passed down from the DVD format which got it from the 3 disc LD sets which were made possible by Kawakita and are rightfully Kawakita’s babies.

All of this good stuff for Kawakita and the Heisei Godzilla series sounds too good to be true. But it is not and there is more. If you are dropping off in Japan in the next month, you would be wise to go by a film festival celebrating Kawakita’s work on the Godzilla series hosted by the Humax Cinema. The films will be the ones Kawakita was the director of special effects for, "Godzilla vs. Biollante", "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah", "Godzilla vs. Mothra", "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla", "Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla", and the dramatic "Godzilla vs. Destroyer". The first image above is actually a scan of the back of the chirashi for the event. Here is a list of dates and times for the event:

11/13(Fri) - 15 (Sun) "Godzilla VS Biollante"
11/14(Sat) - Talk with Koichi Kawakita and actor Koichi Ueda
11/16 (Mon) to 18 (Wednesday) "Godzilla VS King Ghidorah"
11/19 (Thu) to 21 (Sat.) "Godzilla VS Mothra"
11/22 (Sun) to 24 (Tue) "Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla"
11/25 (Wed) - 27 (Fri) "Godzilla VS Space Godzilla"
11/28 (Sat) - 30 (Mon) "Godzilla VS Destoroyah"

The Humax Theatre is located in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan. Ticket price to each day’s event will be around $13 (1,300 yen). Though not said yet, more activities are being planed for the 21st and 28th. More information can be found on the official web site whose link is below:

http://www.humax-cinema.co.jp/cinema/special/gozzira.html

NOTE: THE PARAGRAPHS BEING SO CLOSE TOGEATHER IS BLOGGER'S FAULT, NOT MINE.

Godzilla's Latest Venture in Japan's Economy

Product placement and Godzilla go together like green eggs and ham. Most notably, Godzilla has been used to advertise drinks. He is known in the US to have helped the Dr. Pepper company make some dough in 1985 when the King of the Monsters was featured in accouple of commercials by the Dr. Pepper company and when the US version of "The Return of Godzilla", aptly titled "Godzilla 1985" had most of it’s American scenes having something Dr. Pepper-related in it - from a military smart ass drinking it to the Pentagon having a Dr. Pepper vending machine. But now Godzilla is entering a new age with a new company asking for his pop-culture status as help. Guess who?

It was a company shown in "Gamera: Giant Monster Midair Showdown" and "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion", with the latter being used to more extent. The company is also based on a Yokai-esque entity which was a focal point in the latest remake of "The Great Yokai War". Give up? It’s Japan’s own Kirin beer company. Evidently they have made a new coffee beverage called "fire". But Godzilla is not alone.

Also helping to add star value to the mostly viral advertisement campaign is a person who has been nick-named Godzilla since he came over for a little while to play for the Yankees (and I own the New York Times issue which calls him this; thanks to my grandfather in NY): Hideki Matsui. Many fans know that when he came over here, he was nicknamed "Godzilla" for his Japanese nationality and his skill. Hideki would also gain popularity when he makes a came in the 2002 film, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla". In something most probably more than coincidence, the Godzilla suit used for the campaign is in fact the Kiryu-Goji suit (variation unknown).

At the link below, you can easily navigate through the main Kirin beer website to find good of all sorts. There is a commercial, a making of the commercial, and a message from Hideki himself. Also of interest are some exclusive screen savers, which the picture at the top shows what it looks like on my laptop. Better save them onto your hard drive before they are gone!

http://www.beverage.co.jp/fire/index.html

Special Thanks Goes To James Ballard for notifying me that "Fire" is an energy drink...

Blu-Ray 3rd Line and HMV Tie-ins

I mentioned on the Atari 8 days ago that there was a rumor on many Japanese sites about the third wave of blu-ray releases. Thanks to GVAMP with Atari and Tohokingdom, the rumor was true. The new wave is the rest of the Heisei series plus "War of the Gargantuas". Each of the Godzilla releases are the same as the original DVD releases except for the enhanced audio and picture quality. What is a good thing though is that "War of the Gargantuas" has a more "gargantuan" sized repertoire of special features, including what could be roughly translated as "watch the snap shooting scene" (・X・i・b・v・ﾅ・ﾏ・・・B・e・ｻ・・・ﾌ・・・i) and "Synthetic Steel Collection" (a steel book perhaps? ・・・ｬ・X・`・[・・・R・・・N・V・・・・). If anyone has better translations, please post at the bottom of this blog entry.

In other news, HMV is doing what they do best: capitalizing on new releases. Kind of in the way they gave us accouple more variations of the 8" Kiryu-Goji 2004 version, they are giving us some more. Order now and you will receive a replica dorsal fin off of the Heisei suit, a film canister with some kaiju related goodies, and I think a book filled with text and images with the cover being the same of a G2K booklet released some 10 years ago. And if you order later, you get a free wallpaper for your computer. Not many details could be made out. Here are some links for your considering.

HVM Link:

http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/909040117/#item1

Toho's Site:
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/


Again, special thanks goes to GVAMP.

Toho's Blu-Ray DVD Promotion and Other Stuff...

I wonder about how many of you actually check the official site for Toho’s blu-rays. If so, the news part of the site (accessible at the toolbar at the top right corner of the screen) has been bustling with all sorts of information. The newest piece of news would be on the advertising of the discs, which blows what Kadokawa is doing (by having a good looking Finaro-Goji suit in the store display instead of re-using a promotional suit from 1995). A picture from Toho’s official site is below. Notice the display shows DVD cases for both announced lines of the blu-ray releases.

Reguarding the display itself, it is in Akihabara and a rough translation of the site seems to say that the suit is the actual shooting suit from "Godzilla: Final Wars". And notice in the background the Gamera display).

Toho’s official site also seems to be showing stills of their "Gojira" release’s menus and a look at some of their special features. Take a look! (images in form of links due to their large size).

Scene Selection:
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/img/news/chapter.jpg

Special Features
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/img/news/tokuten.jpg

Special Feature: Story Board Comparison
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/img/news/ekonte.jpg

Blu-Ray Exclusive Feature
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/img/news/mybookmark.jpg

Just a reminder, here is the rundown of Toho's Special Features for their "Gojira" BD release (translation by James Ballard):

1. Theatrical Trailer (HD quality)

2. Akira Ifukube Interview (SD quality)

3. View Storyboards with Picture-In-Picture [NEW FEATURE!]

4. New Version of Godzilla's Theme (HD quality) [NEW FEATURE!]

5. See Original Filming Locations With Snapshots (tentative) (HD quality) [NEW FEATURE!]

6. Oxygen Destroyer (HD quality) [NEW FEATURE!]

7. Audio Commentary (Akira Takarada)

Wondering who is in charge of the people who are graciously making the blu-ray variations of our beloved Toho-owned kaiju eiga? Their names are…

Production Manager Haruyasu Yamazaki

Masaaki Murai

Taono (rest of name does not translate)

Blu-Ray Disc Advisor Enami Masanori

Blu-Ray Disc Advisor Kazuki Yokota

For the past two months, they have been doing "Roundtables" (as of date, there are only two), in which they post comments concerning their work on the official Toho concerning the blu-ray discs. Sadly, the translated version of the two pages is so unruly that it cannot be deciphered. If you want to take a gander, highlight the text from this link: http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/news.html and drag it to WordPad. Copy and past the text from word pad onto translate.google.com and then go for it.

2nd Line of Toho Blu-Rays!

Visit Links for Pictures!
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/godzilla1984.html
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/vskingghidorah.html
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/daikaizyuu.html
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/rengoukantai.html
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/japan.html

New Line Up:
Godzilla 1984
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
GMK
Japan Sinks (1973 version)
and more!

FULL LIST OF SPECIAL FEATURES (Roughly Translated)

GMK
(1) notice Theater (HD quality)
(2) dispatch (HD Quality Blow-Up)
(3) TV Spot (SD quality)
(4) project the GMK Godzilla fought day and Shusuke Kaneko (SD quality)
(5) Mount the new assistant director Akira Hide Tiharu Murakami ODIO・EKOMENTARI Shusuke Kaneko

Godzilla 1984
(1) notice Theater (HD quality)
(2) dispatch (HD Quality Blow-Up)
(3) "Godzilla 1983" (HD-quality blow-up)
(4) Making of Godzilla 1984 (SD quality)
(5) Audio Commetnary

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
(1) notice Theater (HD quality)
(2) dispatch (HD Quality Blow-Up)
(3) Location Guide Godzilla series (tentatively titled HD quality) (NEW!!!!!)
(4) public dispatch (SD quality) (5) after dispatch dated (SD quality)
(6) Cut and unused special effects (SD quality)
(7) The special effects seen in the multi-angle scenes (SD quality)
(8) Audio Commentary with Shogo Tomiyama and Director Kazuki Omori

Sinking of Japan
(1) notice Theater (HD Quality Blow-Up)
(2) dispatch (HD Quality Blow-Up)
(3) Special Interview: Sakyo Komatsu Takeuti Hitoshi × (SD quality)
(4) Director Kei Nakano Akira Hashimoto Yukiharu specialty Sakyo Komatsu Audio Commentary

Breaking Down The Language Barrier

Godzilla has an official site. Scratch that, official sites. That is something which can be considered public knowledge. But how often does an English-speaking intellectual look upon these pages? Not many. But I did, and I am going to walk you through three main parts of Toho’s own pages on our beloved kaiju icon, Gojira. This is an effort to be like a guide so you can also gain access to these sites and not get lost due to getting lost in translation. So, let’s go shall we?

Now, as far as I can tell, there are three main homepages for Godzilla that Toho is paying for. One of the official site which has been around since 1998 at least and has been changed in design every time a new film gets released. The URL for that is here: http://www.godzilla.co.jp/index.php. To quickly go over that site which almost every fan has been to at least once, there are some polls, there are some nice photographs of some merchandise. Nothing really interesting or worth while. You could find all of that information in MonsterZero’s history, which SciFiJapan is now taking in.

Next is something interesting: internet theme parks. This was not the first time I saw an internet theme park. No, no. Younggu-Art also has one with a webzine. Talk about learning a lot about the film, "D-War". This "internet theme park" is called "Godzilla Graffiti". Link to it is here: http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/graph/index.html#1 . Now, on this site, you go to the bottom and on the clickable links, it just makes a screen above turn into an animated version of one of five kaiju: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mechagodzilla - all of the poplars and what can be called, "Toho’s Big 5". Though click a link at the bottom at what looks like Minilla, Mothra Larvae, and the 1961 Shobijin and you get a resume of the guy (who I do not know his name) who did the art on the page before. Nice if you want to have a computer-generated image of one of "Toho’s Big 5" in .gif format.

Third and last is there main page for Godzilla. Just plain Godzilla. Link to it is here: http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/index.html. Though you will learn that the archive site and the fan club links are invalid. They do not work at all. On with parts of the site which is active, at the top you see a caricature of the Mire/Gira-Goji suit. This is nothing new, since it was used on flyers of G2K in Japan. In fact, I got a link to these photos. The first clickable link via image is a whole page of caricatures for kaiju from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) to Godzilla 2000. Now, this does exclude ones like Battra and the multiple form of Desotroyah, but is ok. Go back to the main page. Then click on the second link which is a picture, mainly of the Mire-Goji suit. You get a slightly flawed listing of the Godzilla suits. First mistake is that it has not been updated since Godzilla 2000, and second, for some reason. Then the listing for the Shodai and Gyankushu-Goji suits have been merged into one, with only the Shodai-Goji getting depicted. The descriptions of the suits, when translated, are nothing special. Just say how one suit is different. A good example is translation the description for the Mire-Goji suit. Just says, "At the end of the century, a revived Godzilla is vicious! He now has a big mouth, characterized by shark-pointed dorsal fins. [Rest could not be translated] Last, but not least, is a picture with two links. One link has pics of all Showa kaiju and the second has all Heisei kaiju plus Orga and the Mire-Goji.

Now, here is a link map for all of the pages…

1. Godzilla Graffiti
MAIN PAGE - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/graph/index.html
RESUME OF ARTIST - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/graph/profile.html

2. Godzilla General
MAIN PAGE - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/index.html
CARICATURES - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/il.html
SUIT HISTORY - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/rekidai.html
SHOWA KAIJU - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/1954.html
HEISEI KAIJU - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/1984.html

And do not forget the official Blu-Ray site:MAIN PAGE - http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/