Raijin God - Sazer X EP 25 "A Recreated History" Japan 3/25/2006
Super Fleet Sazer-X (2005-2006) was a Toho production aping the Super Sentai and Metal Hero genres, though with a bigger emphasis on giant robot action whenever possible, likely due to Koichi Kawakita as the show's special effects director.
Raijin God (雷神ゴード) was the guardian deity of the descendants of the ancient Lighting Clan and was summoned by Lightning Shogun Thundera, the last living modern member of said clan (the cute alien gal in the tight blue pants), from the bottom of a lake.
The robotic giant was a fierce combatant, holding its own in a four-way battle with three other mecha opponents, until Thundera saw reason and sends God Raijin back into the lake, never to be seen again in the series, unfortunately.
As you can tell by God Raijin's appearance, choice of weaponry (The Divine Sword Godius [ 神剣ゴーディウス ]), and overall iconography (the parting of the waves), he is a direct homage to Daimajin and his 1966 trilogy of fantasy films. If you're a fan of Daimajin, be happy to know God Raijin represents the demonic status of divine retribution quite well as, again, he was a real bruiser in the fight and could have won without a scratch had he not been returned to his aquatic sleep.
The character was played by television suit actor Shinya Iwasaki who mostly does work in the 2000s Ultraman franchise based on what I could find.
Here's some intriguing kaiju and other giant monster-related videos to for me to share and for you all to enjoy. I will be keeping up this feature as-often-as-possible for the remainder of 2021.
Direct from MONSTROSITIES Tokusatsu Vlog:
The story of how a tokusatsu technique created for the original MOTHRA (1961) was passed on to the original Kamen Rider and continues to be practiced to this very day.
In Japan Hero's latest video, they take a closer look at the history of the Robot Detective TV series ( ロボット刑事 ) including a brief look at some abandoned giant robot concepts.
Linkara's History of Power Rangers returns with a relatively (relatively) short and coherent recap of POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS, the first of the Hasbro-era of the franchise but produced with creative talents from the previous vanguard. The whole of Beast Morphers is available on Netflix and I might give it a watch as it's a far better alternative to the one-episode-every-rare-blue-moon-year scheduling Nickelodeon was and still is infamous for.
Ronin Warriors, known in Japan as Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers (鎧伝サムライトルーパー, Yoroiden Samurai Torūpā), is a Japanese anime series created by Hajime Yatate and animated by Sunrise somewhat riding the popularity of Saint Seiya. Ronin Warriors first aired on American television during the summer of 1995 and subsequently appeared through syndication, as well as the USA Network and later on Cartoon Network as part of Toonami. Besides being known as Ronin Warriors, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers and Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers in some parts of the world it was known as Samurai Warriors.
After almost a decade of waiting, the 25-year-old journey finally comes to an end. Here's Yoko Higuchi's review of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time in anticipation for its international streaming release on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.
Sometimes the fossil record preserves some truly extraordinary glimpses into the past life on our planet, including traces of prehistoric animal behavior. In this video we're exploring 5 examples of such remarkable fossil finds - moments forever frozen in time.
Here's some intriguing kaiju and other giant monster-related videos to for me to share and for you all to enjoy. I will be keeping up this feature as-often-as-possible for the remainder of 2021.
Direct from Matt Draper:
A comprehensive look at The Millennium Era of Toho Godzilla, including a look at the history of Roland Emmerich's Godzilla '98, how Toho returned Godzilla ahead of schedule with Godzilla 2000, and the many reboots and evolutions found within The Millennium Era, covering 6 films made from 1999 through 2004. This is Part 3 of an ongoing Godzilla series.
In his latest video essay "How Toei Changed Sunday Mornings", MercuryFalcon takes an extensive look at The Toei Fushigi Comedy Series: a loosely connected franchise of lighthearted fantasy adventures and mystery comedies that had major influences on the creation of SAILOR MOON and how it all came to an unlikely but satisfyingly end in a kaiju-filled crossover with the one and only ULTRAMAN.
After Sam Riami's 'Spider-Man 4' never happened the character was rebooted with 'The Amazing Spider-Man'. There were ambitious plans for a whole slew of movies set in that universe. Drew Goddard was at one point time attached to write and direct a 'Sinister Six' movie for Sony, as part of 'The Amazing Spider-man' and when that fell apart he would be offered a potential 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' reboot (Which later became Spider-Man: Homecoming). Here's the story of why complete with dinosaurs and giant monsters attacking New York.
The teaser trailer for SHIN ULTRAMAN dropped earlier today: a co-production between Tsuburaya Productions, Toho Company and Khara inc. stated as a movie adaptation of the original Ultraman series as well as an indirect follow-up to Shin Godzilla on Toho, Shinji Higuchi, and Hideaki Anno's parts (Good!, Never make a Shin Godzilla II and fly free like the bearded angels that you are).
While its intriguing, the CGI is a little simple to state it lightly even if, apparently, that's the filmmakers' intent to echo the original Ultraman's unrealistic effects and fantastical fairy tale nature.
SHIN ULTRAMAN also has a way a better chance of widespread exposure here in American than more recent Ultraman content, hopefully with a similar theatrical roll out that Shin Godzilla received back in 2016.
Listen, I'm happy for the success Tsuburaya Productions have found through online streaming and the Mill Creek box sets but it's all still relatively quint by mainstream American standards.
There also the Marvel Comics' ULTRAMAN series but... That series is purely American in many regards and isn't really advertising its Japanese origins very well: the sheer number of major news outlets assuming that Ultraman is an original 2020 Marvel creation proves that. Plus, the Marvel Comics' story is rather lame (seriously? 5 issues to barely battle Bemular? Pointless even by slow burn story logic).
Today, we're looking at the titular winged menaces from the second episode segment of "The New Adventures of Superman", "The Prehistoric Pterodactyls" (Filmation, September 17th 1966).
Playfully nicknamed by Superman as Terry #1 and Terry #2, they're a pair of gigantic pterodactyls awakened from suspended animation deep within some arctic icebergs.
Soon after awakening, the flying beasts began a brief reign of mayhem by attacking jet bombers, naval ships, and threatening Louis Lane (of course) in San Francisco before Superman battled and ultimately subdues the winged giants.
Captured and tied up in nets made of electric cables, Terry #1 and Terry #2 were then flown into space by Superman and safely exiled to an alien world where they can live peacefully.
It's likely pure coincidence but the script and its titular pterodactyls share some similarities with the more famous titular monsters of "Rodan" (1956) who were also jumbo-sized pteranodons awakened from a long slumber though in their case it was eggs buried deep underground and revived with super-heated volcanic water.
Despite being one of the earliest superheroes known for his incredible strengths and feats, I prefer Superman stories were a giant monster (or monsters) is either a worthy challenge to or equal force against The Last Son of Krypton. This balance of power works great for more energetic adventure stories but way less so for character-driven (talking head) tales. Hence why we see a lot of Superman vs. giant monster entries in older comic books and animated shows while modern media limit said giants to one-hit cameo defeats.
One-hit cameo defeats are highly impressive for Superman's abilities but also exceptionally of lame for us giant monster and action fans.
The Two Terrys are definitely among the simpler fair (fare?) coming from a Filmation produced children's cartoon but I honestly don't mind these slim-down Saturday morning shows of the sixties even if Hanna-Barbera were making superior versions of the same material with the likes of "The Herculoids" and "Space Ghost and Dino Boy".
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF THE PREHISTORIC PTERODACTYLS:
FINALLY! I've been vindicated! Kind of. YouTube producer and reviewer TitanGoji (an extremely nice fellow in person) does a great service towards an ungrateful tokusatus fandom, huh, I mean "humanity" and shares his extremely negative (rightfully so) review of the truly terrible live action film adaptation of demonic superhero manga DEVILMAN (2004).
Seriously, it's nice to see someone relatively popular among the current tokusatsu fandom lay into this film because this crummy mess has TOO MANY DAMN defenders online! Perhaps loyal Devilman fans who's never seen this film what-so-ever but will defend the franchise regardless and at all costs? Or an anime fan who doesn't like it when their genre-of-choice is being criticized even if said criticism is limited to one minor aspect that really does suck regardless? Even I know that's a stupidly blind thing to do! Fandom loyalty isn't worth dying on a poorly rendered hill of CGI demon bodies for! Seriously though, this film is terrible and makes most other anime-to-live-action-adaptations look like honorable B+ efforts by comparison - something that TitanGoji goes into further detail towards the end of this accursed film and the sordid production history behind it.
With the recent loss of www.cyberkids1954.com, an old Japanese site dedicated various fantasy film productions that were never made (including some extreme obscurities that would cause your common Godzilla fan's brains to melt and pour out from their ear-holes), I've decided to use Enshohma's Corner as a archival back-up for any and all giant monster obscurities that I may stumble upon... Even if some of my own knowledge on the featured materials are as limited as your typical Godzilla fan, I must sadly admit. I'm no August Ragone but I freaking doing my best, okay?!?! *Ahem* Nothing major for this first attempt, just a little show and tell, showcasing an awesome illustration from the Japanese children's book "Original Reprint Edition: Ultra Q" (rough translation). This illustration features a 'what if' scenario where the creatures Gorgos, Cicada Human, and M1 in mortal combat with each other.
What makes the artwork even more intriguing is the fact that both Cicada Human and M1 were small human-sized characters in the original "Ultra Q" series and have never achieved giant monster status even in their later return appearances. So it's honestly cool to find this image and see both of them pumped up to Gorgos' level even if M1 (the ape-like fellow in the lower right corner) is still relatively puny, looking like he's barely 16-feet in height when compared to the fleeing humans on the opposite end. As for the 'Giant Cicada Human'; I honestly have no idea what's up with that yellow scarf wrapped so stylishly around his neck. At first, I thought it was a direct reference to another insect-theme character from Japanese fiction, the iconic Kamen Rider, but that notion seemed doubtful as that grasshopper-inspired superhero was still five years away from "Ultra Q" original broadcast.
However, the book's title of "Original Reprint Edition: Ultra Q" may suggest that the yellow-colored sight gag was both timely to Kamen Rider's 1971 debut and, as such, most deliberate.
I still cannot stand this bloody holiday known as Ex-Mess but if it offers some festive giant monsters then I'll take it!
Robin: Gargantuan killer toys whose bright colors highlight them from the otherwise pitch black background? I don't see any, Batman!
Here's a trio of giant toy soldiers from the fun but ultimately passable CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOKER, the second episode of BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES (November 13, 1992) which also marked that show's first appearance of the titular Clown Prince of Crime. Despite the series' attempts to avoid the more fanciable clichés of children's adventure cartoons of the 1980s and early 1990s, the producers and writers would still dip their toes into such nonsense occasionally, as with their rendition of The Joker being surprisingly efficient at building murderous robots as either attack drones, booby traps (Hazel), or fully functioning henchmen (Captain Clown). Despite their great size and stomping square-shaped feet, The Toy Soldier Robots were among The Joker's weaker creations as their heads were easily torn or knocked off by the defending Batman and Robin, destroying the holiday giants instantly. I really have nothing much other to say about these three automatons other than that their Joker-like smiles were a nice design touch.
Criss-Mass still blows. Give us the time off but keep everything else I hate about this time of year. Happy Arbor Day, suckers!
ARTICLE UPDATE: Here's a new Kickstarter video by The Aquabats! discussing their now newly rebooted campaign.
So... Yeah, this happened as burning testament to why I prefer not to cover current events: The Aquabats have wisely decided to reboot their Kickstarter campaign to more realistic stretch goals and limit their AQUABATS! SUPER SHOW! as an easier to produced web-series based on the success they've been having with the previously shared online mini-series.
On one hand, I'm happy for them to lower their ambitions to something more manageable and easier to attain but, on the other hand, I'm reminded why I shouldn't touch current news and related reviews and leave that work to the in-the-know professionals.
Articles on pre-existing obscure and lesser-known giant monsters coming up in September, you know, the EASY stuff!
The Aquabats! From left-to-right: EagleBones Falconhawk (Ian Fowles), Crash McLarson (Chad Larson), The MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs), Jimmy the Robot (James R. Briggs, Jr.), and Ricky Fitness (Richard Falomir)
Living in Los Angeles back in the early 1990's, a local Orange County station would aired a late, late, late night music video show entitled ARE-OH-VEE which played alternate and punk rock music videos too obscure or offbeat for 120 MINUTES. It was on this program that me and my two younger brothers were introduced to the humorous group known as THE AQUABATS through their host segments for Are-Oh-Vee and through their music video SUPER RAD:
Taking their name from some fairly obscure Hanna-Barbera monsters (from MIGHTY MYTOR AND MOBY DICK THE SUPER WHALE), The Aquabats were equally influenced by the campy superhero shows on yesteryear, particularly the 1960's BATMAN and numerous Japanese-based productions like ULTRAMAN and JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT. You can clearly see the influence in the following videos featuring their 1999 demo pilot for a planned Aquabats television series and a tongue-in-cheek recounting of the band's history with such failed pilots before finally finding success on The Hub cable network:
Even though The Hub eventually went under after a relatively short time in existence, THE AQUABATS SUPER SHOW lasted for an impressive 21 episodes: the following video gives one a taste of the series' bizarre style and hyper-kinetic energy:
If you want to delve even deeper into the Aquabats' rabbit hole, all their second season episodes are (at the time of this writing) accessible for free on their official YouTube channel. Here's four such episodes that also happen to be my personal favorites: RETURN OF THE AQUABATS:https://youtu.be/KlPqCW24B90 THE ANTIBATS:https://youtu.be/rCMtjswEd6Q SHARK FIGHTER:https://youtu.be/aLk-hMC3al0 KITTY LITTER:https://youtu.be/3yBbs7zzqmo By this point in the article, you're either fully on board with this particular flavor of madness or have grabbed your computer with both arms and threw it out the window, cursing both me (Enshohma) and The Aquabats in tandem. If you're among the former then congratulations because I'm about to discuss the band's highly ambitious (some may even say foolish) Kickstarter that is coming to a close this very week. At the time of this writing (where have a read those words before?) the campaign only has five days left and is just half-way to its end goal so any support at this point would be welcomed. KICKSTARTER PAGE CAN BE FOUND HERE! The Aquabats have also uploaded a related mini-series that continues from their series with this first episode explaining the campaign in full... After the parade of celebrity guests of course.
The here's the rest of the mini-series complete with recaps from the band's channel re-posted here for a narrative sake: After The MC Bat Commander visits The Wizard of Hollywood, he's on a mission to gather a LEGION OF RIGHTEOUS COMRADES to help make MORE MUSIC & MORE TV. But first... The Bat Commander must find his best homies - THE OTHER AQUABATS!
The MC Bat Commander continues his mission to gather a Legion of Righteous Comrades and find all of his fellow Aquabats. This time, he's off to find Jimmy the Robot at his cool job in the arcade... until things don't go exactly as planned.
It's Episode 4 of The Bat Commander's quest to gather The Legion of Righteous Comrades and his fellow Aquabats. Are the Commander's dance moves rad enough to save his friend? Did Jimmy the Robot survive the belly of the mechanical beast?
After a desert scrapper dance off, The MC Bat Commander and Jimmy the Robot go to find Eaglebones Falconhawk. But can they overcome his job security? Will Eaglebones' boss tolerate The MC Bat Commander's inability to use an inside voice?
A lactose-laden terror revealed itself at Eaglebones' place of work, and now it's up to our heroes to deal with the milky madness so that they can continue to find their friends and gather a Legion of Righteous Comrades! Can The Aquabats survive the flaky furor of POWDERED MILK MAN?
After a narrow escape from the dreaded Powdered Milk Man, our heroes continue their quest to find all of The Aquabats. As the guys find Ricky, a beef with some beach bum bullies may end up becoming the least of their worries!
