Momentum is certainly building in Godzilla: Singular Point thanks to more Kaiju popping up all over the world faster than branches of Costa Coffee, but as the show introduces us fully to not one, not two, but three new species of rampaging beast, there is a pertinent question to be asked: does more Kaiju mean even more momentum killing science chat?
While this influx of rampaging creatures certainly means that we now have quite the bustling monster community, Theorist is still something of a build-up episode with no real payoff as of yet, but the good news is while the dense science speak us still as confounding than ever, it doesn’t manage to overrun the real reason we’re all here – a heaping slice of Kaiju calamity that’s notably growing in scale with every episode.
As this very busy episode hears the starting pistol, it streaks away from the starting blocks by immediately dropping us into an ocean stained red by the crimson dust all these violent, monster life-forms seem to have in common as some fishermen almost fall foul of the huge, snake-like animals kaiju fans will recognise as Manda. As the coast guard risks their lives to weave their rescue copter in and out of their writhing bodies, we switch to join Yun, Haberu and reporter Kai as they try to track a hefty, spiked, tank-like reptile named Anguirus as rampages through the woods and heads for a nearby golf-course. However, as Yun theorises that the horned monster has the ability to predict the future by vibrating it’s spines and therefore can accurately deflect gunfire, yet more issues are arising around the world.
If the appearance of yet more Rodans wasn’t worrying enough, Professor Li’s colleague, BB, is exploring a cavern in India that contains not only a huge lake full of red dust, but it’s the residence of yet another monster named Salunga who not only seems to be able to control the dust, but wants out of the cave in the worst way.
While all these issues are amassing against mankind, Mei and Professor Li still attempt to hash out the why’s and wherefores with brain searing, egghead babble – but among all the graphs and explanations of things retracting light from the past (whatever the hell that means), the two actually hit upon some details that may be useful and that the impossible properties of the mystery element known as archetype are derived from the red sand.
Still, that isn’t particularly useful to Yun and Haberu as they strive to stop hunters getting themselves killed by squaring up to Anguirus with only guns and a harpoon to protect themselves with. Re-entering the fray is determined old coot Gorõ, who has rebuilt his robot, Jet Jaguar, and is ready to go all in on another monster scrap.
Featuring no less than five of Godzilla’s supporting Kaiju cast in a single episode, Theorist certainly isn’t boring and even the much lamented theorizing manages to finally hit paydirt, even though I’m still no closer to understanding what any if it means. However, despite being an impressively stacked monster mash that finally gives us a view of what an animated Godzilla property should be capable of, the episode is still just a big set up before everything kicks off. It’s nicely varied, but also very disparate, with all of the various incidents feeling utterly disconnected from each other which gives the episode something of a randomly scrappy feel when it all should be coming together.
Still, the variety is admittedly kinda cool with the opening scene of a daring ocean rescue occuring as Manda tails rise from the sea and thrash about, spraying sea water dramatically in an impressively cinematic feat of animation. On the other hand, the announcement that yet more Rodan’s have arrived is somewhat downplayed, but as we’ve already experience a full scale attack, this is a totally a smart movie, however, the big news is we’ve got two news redesigns of classic Toho creatures to cast out eyes over and both are noticable but for very different reasons.
First is the unveiling of a long-time fan favourite, Anguirus, who has gone from being a famously put-upon Ankylosaurus (who, I don’t think has ever actually won a fight), to an armour plated scrapper who can actually foresee the iminent future and while it won’t actually allow the Kaiju to cheat at the lottery, it’s still an interesting up grade for a monster who has always been something of a basic bitch in the past.
The other new face is that of Salunga who seems to be a radical branding of Gabara, a Kaiju bully born from a child’s imagination from the controversial All Monsters Attack way back in 1969. Gone from being a stiff-neck jerk with a shock of ginger hair, Salunga, while still keeping the original colour scheme, is a far more lethal being as he seems to be a mixture of a powerful gorilla in a reptilian body. On top of all that, he also has the ability to climb like King Kong and can even (reportedly) control the red sand that’s becoming more plot-important with every episode. As an old-school fan, I would have preferred it if they’d kept the original name (if the likeness was somehow accidental, it’s still uncanny), but this in no way is any kind of a real issue and even though Salunga is currently trapped underground, the importance of his role seems all but confirmed.
However, the big news is that the episode ends with a tease of a rebuilt Jet Jaguar (with gyro-wheels for legs, now) gearing up to lock literal horns with Anguirus and if his earlier bout with a Rodan was any indication, is hopefully will be a cracker.
A noticable shift in a talk-to-action ratio means that this episode is the most incident-filled yet, but instead of reaching heights of episode 3, it feels that this installment is holding back on the really good shit in order to shift its giant pieces into place – here’s hoping the Jet Jaguar/Anguirus bout will be worth waiting for as our titular monster continues to wait in the wings and let some off Toho’s forgotten monsters get some long, overdue screen time.
While the classic Kaiju fan in me is legitimately stoked that Jet Jaguar, Anguirus, Manda and (technically) Gabara are all getting time to play after so long in monster limbo, let’s not leave it too long, eh? The show is called Godzilla: Singular Point, after all.
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