Like many J-List customers, I can’t remember a time when Japan wasn’t exerting some influence on me. From the age of three, I was already watching those funny cartoons with mouth movements that didn’t quite match up with the English dub, including Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and Kimba the White Lion. I also loved all the classic movie and TV of the era: Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, the flying turtle monster Gamera, but most of all…Godzilla. In fact, Godzilla turned me into an anime blogger. But more on that later…
One subject I think about a lot are the “cultural bridges” that connect Japan to the rest of the world. There are many of them, of course. Anime and manga culture. Groundbreaking games like Final Fantasy and the Persona games. Martial arts. JPOP and idols. Food culture, especially hybrid Japanese/Western foods popularized in Hawaii and Okinawa. Every American who spent time stationed at a military base in Japan. Another surprisingly important cultural bridge between Japan and the world has been Godzilla, the wonky monster destruction genre perfected by Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects master who created the technical effects that made the monster possible, then founded his own studio to create Ultraman (and Gridman) years later.
Godzilla has always been close to my heart, both because of all my fun memories watching the films growing up, but also because Godzilla made me an anime blogger, sort of. I founded J-List back in 1996 with nothing but passion for Japan and a “Dummies” book (really), and spent a few years figuring out “selling stuff on the Internet” in an era when Google hadn’t been founded yet. When the (bad) 1998 American Godzilla film came out in Japan, I watched it then came back home and, at 2 a.m. fired off an email to customers with my thoughts on why it was inferior to the original Japanese films, and why stories about all Japan trying to contain a single monster was more dramatic and meaningful than a monster who lays 20,000 eggs in Madison Square Gardens, turning the film into a bad Jurassic Park sequel. The feedback I got from that email made me realize that J-List’s true mission was to be a bridge between Japan and the world through blogging, in addition to selling bento boxes and Pocky.
(Godzilla 2019 spoiler warning below.)
Naturally, I went to see the new Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and thoroughly loved it. It was a solid addition to the 2014 Godzilla, which continued the story nicely and added in the three most famous monsters from the MonsterVerse (King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra) without getting too deeply involved in Godzilla lore as to lose modern fans. They did many things right, including bringing back the classic Godzilla theme music that’s so important to fans, and I had a blast.
Is it the best Godzilla film? Like debating what the best Gundam series is, that’s going to be a difficult question, and everyone will have their own favorite. The original films are great, as are the “Heisei Godzilla” revival films from the 80s and 90s. Personally, my favorite Godzilla film is Shin Godzilla, the major remake created by Evangelion director Hideki Anno. Not only was it a great film filled with Anno-sensei’s meticulous dialogue and characters, but it’s the closest we’ll ever come to an Evangelion live-action film.
Are you a fan of the new Godzilla series? What were your first influences from Japan? Tell us on Twitter!
J-List has restocked our popular ero products, just in time for the soon-to-be-ending ero toy sale taking place all month. Why not browse and buy some of these great new products, which really take the edge off when you need it.
