So now that we have Godzilla front and centre in our Godzilla-themed TV show after what seemed like an eternity, the main question now stands thusly: what’s the show going to do with him?
It’s a smart thing to ask because over the last few episodes, the Big G has either taken other forms or has solely been relegated to pre-credits status as the rest of the plot treated him like an enormous roundabout to be avoided. Well, now he’s the star and we get our first episode that treats him like one as he strides into centre stage with those huge, booming footsteps of his. Not only do we get the large bastard in his final form (helpfully dubbed Godzilla Ultima on Wikizilla), but the episode trots out a fair few iconic moments that sees Japan’s longest serving leading man bust out some epically familiar moves.
Godzilla continues his destructive tour of Tokyo, leaking red dust like it’s going out of fashion and repelling every assault the army can throw at him with his funky DNA powers. However, just when you think it can’t get any worse – guess what. Appearing on the scene without any warning is a new type of Rodan who is noticably larger then any other seen thus far and glows with an unearthly black light and it mistakenly thinks it can take the ground-based Kaiju as it hurtles towards it, only to be instantly wiped out from a bright blue blast of energy from Godzilla’s maw.
Hauling ass back to the mansion where it all began, Yun and Haberu deduce that Godzilla himself must be a Singular Point if he can generate the red dust in such amounts. They also work out that the notes that played in that old folk tune that summoned the Rodans in the first place have all showed up in the notes of Professor Ashihara, the mysterious boffin who was trying to figure all this stuff out years ago. Likewise, many of the coded times and dates found within correspond with the many texts and messages that Yun and Mei have been sending each other in order to figure this shit out.
Speaking of Mei, she’s finally arrived in India and is picked up by BB’s daughter, Lina, who drives her to the SHIVA headquarters only to be bang on time to witness Salunga finally escaping from captivity and making it to the surface only to be stopped once again by Diagonalyzer rockets that crystallise the red dust into impaling spikes.
Menwhile, the origin of the giant skeleton is revealed when Sató discovers that it belongs to a Godzilla-like creature that attacked the village he grew up in and even was the one who purchased the Misakioku facility to study the remains.
All the pieces are falling into place, but will that be enough to stop Godzilla ripping Tokyo a flaming, new poop chute?
There was a slight fear that the makers of Singular Point might fumble Godzilla by funneling all of his scenes into pre-credits sequences that would eventually give way to yet more exposition, but I’m immensely relieved to say that Episode 10 delivers precisely the animated Godzilla experience I was hoping for. There’s an argument to be made that virtually everything he does here is merely an exercise in box ticking as everything you’d expect to see from the king of the monsters is covered within the episode’s brief run time. He engages the army, he fights another monster in the form of the new Rodan that arbitrarily shows up for no reason at all, he spectacularly unleashes his radioactive breath that’s stunningly realised and he basically takes control of the entire narrative the way you always hoped he would. There’s other shit, going on, of course with the secondary plot thread of Salunga making it to the surface – only to be halted once again – making sure the other monster stuff doesn’t fall by the wayside, but poor Salunga is now rapidly becoming dead weight as his entire story thus far has basically been that he escapes… but then he doesn’t.
Thankfully – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – the non-Kaiju stuff moves a hell of a lot smoother than it once did because now that some of the pieces have connected, I think I’m actually beginning to understand some of it… maybe. Not to get too ahead of myself, but the revelation that Godzilla himself is a singular point and is a main producer of the red dust that’s on the verge of choking the planet means that a lot of the complicated science just snapped into place. Similarly, the Kaiju bones, the old folk tune and the enigmatic Ashihara all get some much needed connective tissue and the show even manages to explain away the reason for all those irritating text conversations between Yun and Mei that’s bludgeoning us with rapid-fire techno bollocks since episode one. The fact that the times that their many messages were sent show up in the complex code hidden with the folk song weirdly mirrors the show itself with talk about codes being impossible to break until you know how to break them being especially valid in a meta kind of way.
However, it’s all about Gozilka baby and now would probably be a good time to bring up Singular Point’s creature designs and execution as a whole. While I’ve already mentioned elsewhere that the Kaiju designs where overhauled and updated by former Studio Ghibli animator Eiji Yamamori, the look and weight of these much loved beasts have been something of a joy to behold. Blowing the dust from some of Toho’s best-loved supporting monsters cast and giving them long awaited comebacks, some of these guys have been in status since 2004’s Godzilla: Final and others even longer. However, in Godzilla, they really have saved the best till last and while the destructive, iconic bastard is still very much the Kaiju we all know and love, his final “Ultra” form is subtly different enough to differentiate it from the many other versions of the character we’ve seen in the past. More lizard-like than the rocky “Earth Godzilla” seen in the anime movie trilogy and sporting a more classic biology than the famously weird, body horror look of Shin Godzilla, he may be somewhat smaller than some of his peers, but he still radiates the same sense of overwhelming power he always has – well, maybe not so much in the 70’s…
The wait has paid off and our reward is watching Godzilla detonate a sizable chunk of Tokyo with his awesomely cool radioactive breath in a way that invokes the final shot of Godzilla 2000, however, whether the show can maintain this momentum with three episodes yet to go remains to be seen.
Until then, Godzilla still remains a goddamn “thrilla”.
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