Godziban (2019-)
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Godziban (ゴジばん is a multi-segmented Gojiban)Japanese puppet web series co-produced by Toho, AlphaBoat, and Studio Koganemushi which premiered on the Godzilla Channel YouTube channel on August 9, 2019. The series is the result of a Godzilla-based audition campaign held by the collaborative project GEMSTONE and reuses puppets from Koganemushi's 2004 puppet show, Gekigoji.
Plot
Godziban episodes are divided into a number of unique segments, typically anywhere from two to four. The most prominent of these are Go! Go! Godzilla-kun[note 1] (Go!Go!ゴジラくん, in which Go Go Gojira-kun)Godzilla-kun teaches his brothers Minilla and Little various Godzilla skills, such as breathing atomic breath or tail sliding, and Attention! Godzilla (かまった!ゴジラ, Kamatte Gojira)[note 2] in which Kamatte-kun appears to comfort people in times of need. Each episode ends with an unnamed entry of Master of Monsters: Hedoji (ヘドじい, where a conversation occurs between the titular Hedojī, lit. Old Man Hedo)Hedoji and his grandson Hedochi as they trek through a seemingly endless wasteland. In episode 6, which included all three of the aforementioned segments, a bonus second installment of Hedoji was included entitled Master of Monsters: Hedoji Extra (ヘドじい番外. Episode 8 introduced the animated segment Go! Jet Jaguar Hedojī Bangai, lit. Old Man Hedo Extra) (ジェットジャガーに訊け!, Jetto Jagā ni Kike, lit. Ask Jet Jaguar!)[note 3] in which Jet Jaguar is an inflatable robot created by Dr. Roborobo who springs into action as a guardian mecha to help and defend the people of Earth. Moshi Mosu (もしモス) appeared in episode 9, following two Mothra larvae on their journeys through life. In episode 10, a spinoff of Hedoji was introduced entitled Hedoji Adventures (ヘドじい漫遊記, comprised of a montage of smaller segments in which Hedoji and Hedochi visit an area of Hedojī Manyūki)Japan while discussing viewer-suggested topics.
Episodes
Episode no. | Title | Segment | Air date | |
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Overall | Segment | |||
1 | 1 | "We Are the Three Godzilla Brothers!" | Go! Go! Godzilla-kun | 2019/08/09 |
2 | 1 | "Parting Lovers" | Attention! Godzilla | 2019/08/16 |
3 | 2 | "Smack It! Three Godzilla Brothers" | Go! Go! Godzilla-kun | 2019/08/23 |
4 | 2 | "The Sad Ballerina" | Attention! Godzilla | 2019/08/30 |
5 | 3 | "The Secret Training Dojo" | Go! Go! Godzilla-kun | 2019/09/06 |
6 | 4 | "Secret! Dropkick" | 2019/09/13 | |
3 | "Office Lady Yuko's Depression" | Attention! Godzilla | ||
7 | 5 | "Run Past! Three Brothers" | Go! Go! Godzilla-kun | 2019/09/20 |
8 | 6 | "Godziban Tales: The Tortoise and the Hare" | 2019/09/27 | |
1 | "First in History!! The Robot Press Conference" | Go! Jet Jaguar | ||
4 | "The Sorrowful Warrior Girls" | Attention! Godzilla | ||
9 | 1 | "Moshu Moshu Transmission" | Moshi Mosu | 2019/10/05 |
2 | "Jet Jaguar Activates!!" | Go! Jet Jaguar | ||
10 | 1 | "Aso, Kumamoto, Hinokuni" | Hedoji Adventures | 2019/10/11 |
11 | 1 | "First in History!! The Robot Press Conference" | Go! Jet Jaguar | 2019/10/18 |
2 | "Jet Jaguar Activates!!" | |||
3 | Untitled episode | |||
12 | 7 | "Fly at That Cliff!" | Go! Go! Godzilla-kun | 2019/10/25 |
13 | 2 | "Smack It! Three Godzilla Brothers" | 2019/11/01 | |
14 | Godzilla Fest 2019 digest movie | N/A | 2019/11/08 | |
15 | 4 | "Red Balloon" | Go! Jet Jaguar | 2019/11/15 |
16 | 5 | "A Stubborn Father's Longest Day" | Attention! Godzilla | 2019/11/22 |
17 | 8 | "Son of Minilla" | Go! Go! Godzilla-kun | 2019/11/29 |
18 | 9 | "He's from Space" | 2019/12/09 | |
19 | 10 | "G vs. G / I Am Godzilla-kun!" | 2019/12/13 | |
20 | 11 | "MerryGoji: The Godzilla Who Came on Christmas Eve!" | 2019/12/24 | |
21 | 12 | "Fly! Toward the Future" | 2019/12/31 |
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi, Jun Shimazaki (pilot)
- Written by Hideyuki Kobayashi
- Produced by Koji Azuma, Takanori Higuchi
- Executive Producers Keiji Ota, Taichi Ueda, Akihiro Yamauchi
- Music by Hideyuki Kobayashi, Nana Morohoshi
- Cinematography by Koichi Inokuchi, Jun Shimazaki
- Edited by Hideyuki Kobayashi
- Puppets Created by Hideyuki Kobayashi, Mile Paxton
- Puppet Operators Hiroto Nakayama, Megumi Kawano, Emi Takita
- Title Logo(s) by Yukihide Toyoda
- Illustrators Junko Kubota, Marunana, Onigiri, Shiu Yoshijima
- "Godzidan" song and dance performed by Luna; Marie Katsura, Rino Shimomura (episode 19); Yae, Kento, Nina (episode 20)
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Yumiko Takahashi as Godzilla-kun (voice)
- Rino Shimomura as Rino, office lady
- Masahiro Omura as Rino's boyfriend
- Clair as Mia, ballerina
- Marie Katsura as Ballet master / Marika, warrior girl / Miyoko, Tetsugoro's wife (photograph)
- Yuko Amami as Yuko, office lady
- Aiko Yuhara as Aira, warrior girl
- Holly Kaneko as Tetsugoro Kuroiwa, widower
- Natsumi Tezuka as Tetsugoro's daughter
- Kota Iijima as Kenji Mizubota, bridegroom
- Fumihiko Nemoto as Kenji's father
- Junko Kubota as Kenji's mother
- Megumi Kawano as MC of wedding (voice)
- Angus, Luka, Norinori as Children awaiting Christmas presents
Appearances
Monsters
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Weapons, Vehicles, and Races
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Gallery
Awards
A pilot for Godziban was submitted in March of 2019 to the first GEMSTONE Creators Audition, which had the theme of "Godzilla." It was awarded the grand prize of 300,000 yen, along with G vs. G, Fiction, Gifu Godzilla, DRESS, and Godzilla Trailer.[1] The prize-winning creators were thus given the opportunity to work with producers at Toho, with Godziban becoming a full series aired on the official Godzilla Channel months later.
Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
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GEMSTONE Creators Audition Vol.1 | Godzilla | Godziban | Won[1] |
Manga adaptation
A 4-panel comic strip-style manga adaptation of Godziban, entitled Godziman (ゴジ漫, began being serialized by the Japanese anime news site Animage Plus beginning on September 12, 2019. Gojiman)[2] New issues are released every Thursday.
Live performances
Live performances of Godziban were held at Godzilla Fest on November 3, 2019, featuring appearances from Godzilla-kun, Minilla, Little, Mothra, Hedoji and Hedochi, all voiced by their actors from the series. The Three Godzilla Brothers meet an elder Godzilla bearing the ShodaiGoji design, named ShoGoji (初ゴ爺 or ショゴじい, who grows giant to face off against the mutated Shogojī)Dorat monster, King Ghidorah. Several displays were also set up around the venue, featuring the first appearances of the Rodan, Gezora, and Gorosaurus puppets. A "digest movie" of the event and performance was posted to the Godzilla Channel on November 8 as episode 14 of Godziban.
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Videos
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Trivia
- Godziban marks the first Godzilla-related series to be produced since 1999's Godzilla TV. It is also the first ever web-exclusive Godzilla series.
- A number of episodes of the Go! Go! Godzilla-kun segment feature references to previous Godzilla and kaiju films.
- In episode 1, Godzilla-kun stepping on Minilla's tail to make him fire stronger smoke rings is a reference to the film Son of Godzilla, in which Godzilla stepping on Minilla's tail causes him to fire atomic breath, rather than smoke rings.
- Anguirus communicates with Godzilla-kun through roars and speech bubbles at the request of Japanese YouTube user Uchi no Angirasu (うちのアンギラス). This is in reference to the Japanese theatrical version of Godzilla vs. Gigan, which featured Godzilla and Anguirus' dialogue being represented with speech bubbles. Anguirus' recurring line "OK!" is even taken directly from the film.
- The "Godzilla Kick" move that Godzilla-kun teaches to Minilla and Little in episode 4 is a reference to an identical move performed by Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Megalon. This too was a fan request, by user Yoshio-kun (ヨシオくん).
- Anguirus' rolling in a ball after falling from the cliff in episode 7 is a reference to Godzilla: Final Wars, in which Anguirus has the ability to tuck into a ball as a means of quicker transportation. This was requested by Takkī (タッキー).
- Rodan's hatching in episode 8 is reminiscent of a similar scene from the character's debut film. The episode's title, "Son of Minilla," is also a reference to Son of Godzilla.
- In episode 12, Godzilla-kun daydreams about flying through the air using his atomic breath, referencing Godzilla flying in Godzilla vs. Hedorah. The episode's final gathering of monsters against King Ghidorah is also a clear homage to Destroy All Monsters.
- The ending to episode 6 of Go! Go! Godzilla-kun may be seen as a reference to Gamera. Minilla and Little, dressed as turtles, spin around and lift off into the air, similar to the manner in which Gamera flies.
- As with Go! Go! Godzilla-kun, fan suggestions have been taken for Master of Monsters: Hedoji beginning with episode 8, culled from responses to a Tweet by the official GEMSTONE Twitter.[3] Episode 8's premise was suggested by Yasutaka (泰貴), episode 9's by Kuroneko vs. Godzilla (黒猫vsゴジラ, episode 15's by Kuroneko tai Gojira)Hiropon (ヒロぽん), episode 16's by Kai Hodora (ホドラ.改, episode 17's by Hodora Kai)Kamatama (かまたま), and episode 19's by Panda Kopanda.
Notes
- ↑ Translated on title cards as Go!Go! Godzillakun and in subtitles for the English dub of "Smack It! Three Godzilla Brothers" as Go! Go! Mr.Godzilla.
- ↑ Though the exclamation point is present on the segment's title card, it is sometimes absent, such as in the titles of episode uploads.
- ↑ While the segment's Japanese title card lacks an exclamation point, it is present in the titles and descriptions of episode uploads, as well as other sources. Additionally, the English title Go! Jet Jaguar is written in Japanese as ゆけ!ジェットジャガー (Yuke Jetto Jagā) on title cards beginning with episode 11 of Godziban, and as ゴー!ジェットジャガー (Gō Jetto Jagā) at the beginning of episode 15.
References
This is a list of references for Godziban. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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