Part Three - Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II: Strengths and Stupidities

 

By Joe Gibson

 

Hi, and welcome back to Plan9Crunch’s review of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II. In the two previous parts (linked below), we went over an introduction of the context for Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II and a plot runthrough. As we are now discussing and concluding on thematic content, this will make a lot more sense if you have read the previous parts.

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/11/godzilla-vs-mechagodzilla-ii-strengths.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/11/part-two-godzilla-vs-mechagodzilla-ii.html

 

Chapter Three - Moral Befuddlement or The Trolley Problem of Young Baby Godzilla

 

Based on what we just went over, I would summarize the themes of this film as intentionally confused and confusing. Our desired allegiances are unclear, because Mechagodzilla is an iconic villain now reimagined as an extension of human desires, while Godzilla (hero or villain that he can be) is finally acting on the sympathetic moments trickled within this Heisei chronology in order to step up as a slightly redeemed version of this character. Throughout all this is sparse commentary on life vs artificial life and responsibility vs self-interest.

 

Kazuma Aoki is an annoying, irresponsible, flaky, obsessed and pushy idiot with a stupid flying pteranodon robot, and half of the reviews I see of this movie focus on that, but the other half detail how he is a singularly relatable and funny character. Imagine for a moment growing up in the 70s, 80s and pre Jurassic Park 90s being a fan of dinosaurs or Godzilla, when the collective conscious reaction is to dismiss those things as dumb. Aoki’s passions lead him to court an attractive successful woman and be the hero without having to directly kill a monster but fighting both. Many viewers see themselves in him, and I think that is intentional when you contrast him with the well-intentioned but misguided officers and contractors of G Force, best exemplified through returning star Miki Saegusa choosing this film to realize killing Godzilla is not a simple noble thought anymore or the stern G Force commander softening up to Aoki.

 

One of the biggest complaints against this film is that its Mechagodzilla lacks a personality compared to the 70s one, and that is, I think, a benefit to the writing rather than a drawback. Mechagodzilla, in this film, is not a character, but a very glorified tank, with the thicker monochromatic design with sleek curves and bleeding-edge technology supporting this interpretation. Godzilla is the personality to focus on in this story; Mechagodzilla’s role in this story is to oppose and contrast Godzilla. 

 

 

In the hand-drawn poster for this film, Mechagodzilla is this hulking ugly menace over Godzilla and Rodan having inflicted gory injuries on them, and no such scene occurs, but it is representative of the power and morality shift that happens in act 3. A very popular format for stories involves the hero winning against the rival, losing against the villain and then getting the rival’s help to beat the villain, but this is also a very flexible format. Rocky III has Rocky beating Apollo as the intro backstory to spend more time on why Rocky then loses to Clubber Lang and how Apollo will help Rocky win, while Black Panther plays it more straight structurally (T’Challa beats M’Baku, Killmonger beats T’Challa, M’Baku supports T’Challa’s attack on Killmonger). This films holds off on Godzilla being the hero or even losing until the third act, giving Rodan more agency as a character than M’Baku and Apollo due to less screen time with Godzilla, and also assigning this persistent growing sense of dread that we do not know where to assign until Super Mechagodzilla starts acting like Showa Mechagodzilla.

 

Now this also raises a question. Who should we blame for Super Mechagodzilla’s ferocity: the mech itself, the pilots therein or the people giving the orders, and doesn’t that sound awfully familiar for a series originally existing to comment on destructive actions taken to end a war? Most other reviews I have seen for this film would have me believing I am seeing subtext that is not there, but again I return to what I said earlier. Where is the analysis that officially ruled this out and decided it was just a dumb light show? I am by no means the final say here, and, if I am wrong, please show me when and where and by how much. This movie still holds up as a mostly consistent popcorn flick, and Mechagodzilla’s design and purpose can be praised for subjective preference if not thematic content, but I genuinely see an attempt at brilliance here.

 

 

Heisei Rodan is my favorite incarnation of the character, despite the fact that he started the annoying trend of Rodan being smaller and weaker than Godzilla, so there is some degree of bias I hold in approaching this part of the analysis. I appreciate the design erring closer to Pteranodon than a winged guy in suit design, and I really like the three horns (as opposed to the usual two) and face equal parts ferocious and sympathetic depending on the scene. Because Mechagodzilla is a more long range then melee opponent, Rodan’s fight with Godzilla gives us the best tooth and claw action in the film, so I also appreciate that. But I also find his use very interesting in a way that ties into the tag team match of Godzilla x Kong: Godzilla and Kong vs a shadow Godzilla and a shadow Kong, Godzilla and Rodan vs Mechagodzilla and Mecha-Rodan??

 

Garuda is very interesting in this movie, designed mostly to mirror Rodan, as, in the climax, Garuda must join with Mechagodzilla to win, and Rodan must join with Godzilla to win. Aoki is no longer piloting Garuda at that point, just as Rodan sacrifices his mind and body to fuse with Godzilla. Aoki’s agency is often overlooked in this story, but he decided to name his anti-Godzilla weapon after a bird god that is the enemy to all snakes in folklore, and Garuda as a modern cryptid is speculated to be surviving pteranodon same as Mothman, Thunderbird, Batsquatch, etc, so Rodan = Garuda is by no means an absurd talking point. (Also, while Aoki only interacts with Rodan adversarially, he really does not get the option to study Rodan, and arguably does a lot of what he does because of that, as I have already detailed.)  I am not claiming it the richest subtextual layer in any film, but if we are giving this film the fairest shake possible, it deserves mention especially in view of what the film builds to with these ideas. If you doubt that Garuda joining with Mechagodzilla is an intentional thematic element to these characters, then you should recall that Garuda is the mount to Vishnu, inherently tied to a more powerful character.

 

Before I summarize my thoughts on Godzilla in this movie, I think it is wise to briefly compare this film to 1967’s Son of Godzilla, since many of the same building blocks exist in both. Godzilla’s redemption arc started sooner than Son of Godzilla in the Showa series, but there was a sort of unease in the mid Showa entries toward Godzilla (the humans willingly dump him and Rodan on Planet X in Godzilla vs Monster Zero, and he is merely the better of two bad options in Ebirah: Horror of the Deep) leading to a film where Godzilla is just on an island fighting villainous mutation monsters to protect a child, and the next time we see him after this, everybody knows he’s a hero. But, in terms of aforementioned similarities, Goro Maki (the Akira Kubo version in SoG, not the Ken Tanaka version from Godzilla 1984) is a campy and comedic journalist who pushes himself into dangerous situations out of genuine interest that annoys the people around him and wins over the girl, while Aoki is all of those things except a journalist. Rodan also slots into the Kamacuras role as a lesser kaiju killed by Godzilla at the beginning that also gets to the fight the villain monster at the end, be it spider Kumonga or Mechagodzilla (let it be said that Kamacuras’ puppetry is far more impressive). And then, of course, the female lead that serves as partial caretaker to the Baby Godzilla is present in both scripts. I have a lot of respect for Son of Godzilla, and it is interesting that Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II seems to share that sentiment.

 

Godzilla, in this film, resembles the Baby, but it is not as exaggerated as in Son of Godzilla (which redesigned Godzilla to look closer to Minya). It is in subtle things, like the positioning of a couple teeth when they both tip their head up to roar the same way, and the more hunched-over stature of Godzilla that organically follows from his previous film to film Heisei redesigns but also matches this new version of Baby Godzilla. Aside from that, I just like the design, and I cannot point to a specific reason that I like this design so much for him except that he gets just shy of 27 minutes of screentime, much of it in daylight, to show off this look. 

 

The most major difference from previous Heisei Godzilla incarnations is that Godzilla’s beam is a lot more precise. Rather than aiming it down to bring it up to an opponent, he will often just land it the first time (except for a few blasts in the climax). I think, based on all of this other befuddlement, that this was done to challenge the audience as much as possible. Godzilla is more dangerous than he has ever been, but we understand him now for the first time. He has the capacity to instantaneously target anything he wants, so when he chooses not to, it also makes you wonder why he did not, and if he ever were to stop, could we leave well enough alone? The viewer ends up stuck between two options rather than being able to fully align with either side.

 

So, what is the answer then: do we dirty our hands to defeat a sympathetic but rampaging creature with G-Force, merely evacuate and hope to rebuild if Godzilla actually does stop attacking this time or throw our hands up and chase down our own special interests in the face of nuclear destruction as Kazuma Aoki does? That drama is where Godzilla, the nuclear allegory, and Heisei Godzilla, the antihero, operate best. Godzilla 1984 also had some version of this where, in the climax, two of our leads are carrying out the plan to dump him in a volcano, the other two are just trying to survive Godzilla’s nuclear destruction, and a homeless man enters the story to decadently feast in the chaos as a third option for what the natural human response to this crisis would be. (The homeless man is actually a decently complex character; I just don’t have time to get into it here.)

Chapter Four - Conclusion or How I learned to stop worrying and rate this film an 8 out of 10

 

I began this review touching upon the history of Godzilla’s reinterpretations and what they mean if you keep one eye trained on the original film. Godzilla is an icon because of nuance and meaning where it was unexpected. Why would anyone expect Godzilla, the villain of the piece, to be a sympathetic character that is as unfairly destroyed as its victims? Why should anyone predict that Dr. Serizawa, the one man with the knowledge to defeat Godzilla, is so deeply disturbed about his miracle weapon he would rather kill himself than see it used again?

 

I am of the opinion, open to hearing contrary ones, that Mechagodzilla should not be some cheap sadistic alien knockoff no matter how cool the 1974 Mechagodzilla was but instead a deeper thematic foil to Godzilla. Ghidorah can have that role, but the more important facet of their rivalry is that they are always on opposing sides no matter what those sides are (Ghidorah as a good guy worked well in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All Out Attack 2001, as did the aforementioned heroic Mecha King Ghidorah). But Mechagodzilla is literally a human or at least humanoid-created Godzilla, and that carries so much subtextual complexity based on what Godzilla is and how humans created him, just less intentionally so. When Godzilla crosses between anti villain and anti hero, it is so much more interesting to have this shadow version do the same. 

 

In Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Mechagodzilla is reimagined to be the original Godzilla unnaturally preserved into a new heroic being, and the normally destructive new Godzilla gets a somewhat sympathetic streak due to the implicit familiarity of his opponent, but, whereas, Kiryu (Mechagodzilla) resists his dark impulses, Godzilla proper falls into them, needing to be stopped. 

In Godzilla: City On The Edge of Battle (though I despise that film and trilogy), Godzilla and Mechagodzilla both took over their sections of Earth through mirrored means, and choosing either one over the other turns out to be just as self destructive in different ways for lead Haruo Sakaki. 

And finally in Godzilla vs Kong, Godzilla seemed to be slipping into a villainous role due to decreased proximity to the goals of humans, while Mechagodzilla emerges as a villain due to increased proximity to humans but really takes off for a rampage when it divorces itself from human input and the remaining humans default to Godzilla’s side, vindicating him.

 

But none of this matters. We are talking about Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II and how it executes the complicated morality of rooting against the monster we built to defeat the monster we accidentally started rooting for. I have argued for its merits, and I spent less time arguing the flaws because I see less evidence of them.

 

It is important that you understand this: when it comes to ranking and reviewing media, there are three distinct areas you are sure to eventually disagree with me. 1. The flaws and merits we notice. 2. Our evaluation of the severity of those flaws and merits. 3. How we compare these flaws and merits to those found in other relevant media. 

 

Perhaps you are the kind of person that cannot fathom wasting money on one giant mech when you could make a Super X armada and will not listen to any symbolic justifications (Mechagodzilla as shadow Godzilla) or vague implicit ones (the head and shock anchors of Mecha Ghidorah are the stimulus tech, how in the hell would they put those into Super Xs?). In that case, the poorly fleshed out but ever more reasonable single gauntlet of Project Powerhouse in Godzilla x Kong will make more sense to you. 

 

As I see it, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II is a darn fine entry encompassing some of the best ideas of the Heisei series. Execution is where it falls a little short. While I primarily argue in favor of Aoki as the lead, more relevance given to his pteranodon enthusiasm could only have improved the script. If Godzilla Minus One is a 10 out of 10 for instance, how much lower would it be if Shikishima’s kamikaze background did not play into the final confrontation? Omae, as a very unscientific and quickly irrelevant Professor, also is a bit of a dud in this series of great scientist characters (Doctors Yamane, Serizawa, Mafune, and Shirigami to name a few).

 

We here at Plan9Crunch have a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and TikTok page. If you enjoyed this analysis, feel free to check out any of our other content, and Happy (now belated) Godzilla Day.

 

Links to Godzilla focused Plan9Crunch articles and videos below:

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-godzilla-versus-kong-2021-remake.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2014/03/godzilla-is-on-this-authors-mind.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2021/12/godzilla-2000-review.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2010/02/godzilla-versus-monster-zero.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-nuanced-deconstruction-of-godzilla-x.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/part-two-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-three-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

 

https://youtu.be/yV6i2xX0pf4?si=Nu9RWsP5k6CbT68H

https://youtu.be/1HMV1hMPgzs?si=1Iip-2qfPxDe6G_B

https://youtu.be/pSosxtg51oM?si=CoDIwTko6C5N5DCY

 

https://youtu.be/AI_FMxtTlIk?si=EA51lODIQp2LUVr1

 

Part Two - Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II: Strengths and Stupidities

 

By Joe Gibson

 

To celebrate Godzilla Day 2024, I started a review of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, but it turned out to be too long for a reasonable single post. You can read the first part here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/11/godzilla-vs-mechagodzilla-ii-strengths.html

 

In that first part, I discussed a broad view of the history leading up and extending beyond Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, because the context is very important for a film at one point intended to be a finale and regardless, this film did shift the trajectory of the Heisei series by making the moments of sympathy for Godzilla in the previous films amount to a greater payoff. Then, I began to work my way through the film’s plot, doing my best to analyze each plot point. We left off on Godzilla beginning a rampage while the main characters were gathered around the newly birthed (via pteranodon nest) Baby Godzilla.

 

Chapter 2 (Plot Run-through) Continued

 

Mechagodzilla is launched to intercept Godzilla, and if this seems too early for the title fight at only 30 minutes in, it is, I was serious about the 27 minutes of Godzilla screen time. Not only do we get a Godzilla vs Rodan warm up match but Godzilla and Mechagodzilla get at least two rounds too. The G Force Commander refers to Aoki as a jackass for not showing up, so they get a backup pilot. At this point, Mechagodzilla is in the hero role. Godzilla is an established menace, and Mechagodzilla is the weapon of the virtuous organization to defeat him, representing no threat to the innocent (just as Godzilla seems to be of no benefit to the innocent). The film even casts Mechagodzilla in a bright light just to make sure we are on the same page that it is definitely the good guy.

 

This fight plays out mostly as a weapons display for Mechagodzilla, with the rainbow megabuster mouth beam and plasma grenade belly button port that actually knocks Godzilla down from absorbing and redirecting his energy (reminder, this only works because of the aforementioned diamond plating). Mechagodzilla fires paralyzing missiles into Godzilla and another shot of the plasma grenade to prep the shock anchor, essentially a really big taser.

 

It seems as if Mechagodzilla has Godzilla dead to rights, but, if you’ve been paying attention to the Heisei series, you know that Godzilla does his best fighting to get back up off his back and even exactly how he will get back up. Whenever Godzilla’s mouth starts foaming, he is liable to release a nuclear pulse or else redirect energy, and giving him a literal direct line to overcharge you is never a good idea. Godzilla knocks over Mechagodzilla, and we learn where his rampage will take him: Kyoto, where the Baby is. Whenever I think of Heisei Godzilla rampage and evacuation scenes, I think of the montage as Godzilla finds his way to Kyoto.

 

The four main humans and Baby Godzilla go to a deeper secure level of the building they are in, and the characters conclude Baby Godzilla has been calling Godzilla to him and that Godzilla also went to the island in the first place solely for the Baby. Godzilla is a little bit too destructive trying to get into the building, scaring Baby Godzilla, and this causes Godzilla to leave, very suddenly and dejected, even avoiding other buildings on the way out, which is very interesting (it would be more understandable if Godzilla reacted to disappointment by destroying those buildings, but it seems the rampage is over from the moment Baby does not want to leave with him). 

 

Aoki, when chastised by the G Force commander for not being there when Godzilla attacks, tells him he used up some vacation time he had coming for him. It is very important that you understand that Aoki is a lackadaisical anarchistic free spirit that would rather crack a joke in the face of authority than honestly explain the major contribution he has made to their Godzilla research by being the only reason Baby Godzilla was born, because it is not a contrivance but a consistent character trait. Aoki only cares about pteranodons, and, as the only organic one in this film is presently dead, he will try to resurrect his robotic ones going forward. The commander is uncharacteristically peaceful during this exchange, and it turns out that is because he is reassigning him to parking lot duty.

 

While this is all happening, Azusa has become more comfortable with her role as the young Godzillasaur (affectionately called Baby)’s caretaker, as he begs her for a hamburger (the camera does not focus on burger as she does something to it before giving it to him, making it possible she removed the meat patty) on the way to their new enclosure within G Force. The G Force officials overseeing this refer to Baby only as a very important animal, and we learn why a few minutes later. Baby contains a nerve cluster/second brain near his back, and they intend to target that point on Godzilla (once more the juxtaposition of this innocent creature in captivity being Godzilla but also the key to his downfall.

 

Dr Asimov is the obligatory English speaker (though the actor is Italian) in a Heisei Godzilla movie, overseeing the Mechagodzilla project, and Aoki traps him in the parking garage in order to convince him to reinstate Garuda as an official part of the Mechagodzilla project to “increase Mechagodzilla’s maneuverability.” A computer simulation shows us a mockup of Garuda’s functionality, and Asimov agrees they can make it so that Garuda can attach to Mechagodzilla when needed in combat.

 

Baby is mischievous in captivity, and Aoki visits to hit on a more receptive Azusa by showing off his small personal flight vehicle the Pteranodon. This scene is subject to many memes and much ire as he wins her over by flying around stupidly and irresponsibly on a pteranodon robot for little to no reason other than that he (or at least someone on the creative team) wanted it to be so. In my analysis, this is yet another example of how much he enforces his will on the plot by liking pteranodons and yet being unable to have any substantive interaction with a physical one. People complain that he does not interact with Rodan more, and, yes, that is weird, but these same people get annoyed by and ignore when his pteranodon passion trait still influences his key scenes. Another point of interest is when he, in this same scene, refers to his promotion as being back to flying again, a way he can be like the pteranodon just like on his dumb two seater robot.

 

How Baby Godzilla feels about anything at any given moment is a little unclear because the suit is not as clearly defined as the Heisei Godzilla suits and animatronics. He expresses some fear in situations involving Godzilla and Rodan but usually only when directly in danger. He is perfectly docile when a robot that somewhat resembles Rodan flies overhead, and when he shows agitation following the psychic children singing the plant song and incidentally reviving Rodan, it is not fear and is instead because the song gives Baby power too. Actually, while we are here, I am not entirely sure why this time the song was sung, it revived Rodan into Fire Rodan, but it did not the previous time. The only variable difference is between that of a recording and a live production of people very high in psychic energy. Gun to my head, I think that is what the film is going for, but they should have better expressed that unless I missed something.

 

G-Force’s plan is to use the Baby to lure Godzilla to the Ogasawara Islands and have Miki on Mechagodzilla to psychically locate the second brain for their G-Crusher attack, and, this is where the dubious morality of G-Force fully comes into play. Beyond just using the military pieces against the giant monster, G-Force is now using Baby and Miki, two peaceful innocents, as chess pieces in this game. Azusa pleads to a UNGCC higher-up that Baby is an intelligent being that deserves his own life, but the retort is that G-Force’s most important task is defeating Godzilla no matter the cost. Now, the obvious wrinkle here is that if G-Force knows Godzilla will follow the baby, that means they can figure out his only attacks this year have corresponded to the baby, so using the baby under any circumstances assures Godzilla’s activity, and they really should not have him anywhere near their main base of operations.

 

Miki being present at the meeting of higher up G-Force members might screw with my interpretation of her and Aoki both being outsiders and sitting together consequently, but she is still the odd one out, and her input in not only the planning of but participation in a G-Force mission is meant to be an escalation in story, so I do not think it damages the earlier plot point. After the meeting, Miki, Aoki and Azusa all compare notes, pondering that Baby Godzilla was born 65 million years too late to have a good life…or maybe too early if dinosaurs might come back as Azusa contemplates.

 

Baby is loaded into a van in chains and a collar, and his eyes light up in fear just so that it is clear this is an inhuman animal rights violation and not just putting a dog in a temporary moving kennel (again the design is good, but it is very difficult to tell its emotions without the eyeball lights flashing, something by no means true of Heisei Godzilla, who by this point has scowled, done a double take and even cried very visibly and clearly in previous films). Azusa decides to go with him, and Fire Rodan goes after the container. Rodan’s devotion to protecting his adoptive baby brother is the most interesting thing that has been done with this character since the debut film (where he was devoted to his spouse even to the point of dying together rather than living alone), and I think it speaks to my earlier point equating the Shin movement with the original Heisei philosophy. This was not just a different take on Rodan; this was the true and new Rodan after things got a little out of hand with the superhero with the droopy beak. Omae has been out of the movie for a little bit, but here he gets to jump to the conclusion that Baby and Rodan are communicating, despite there being little to suggest that from his perspective (obviously he is right, but he strains credulity after a certain amount of omniscient rants unless he too is supposed to be psychic, which we can just call the Trapper Beasley Effect, see my Godzilla x Kong review for more information: https://youtu.be/AI_FMxtTlIk?si=EA51lODIQp2LUVr1).

 

Miki hesitates to put on her special helmet, once again driving home that the Heisei series’ main character and otherwise moral center is not fully in this fight. Aoki is all in but for different reasons, as he informs the G-Force commander that he built Garuda and has to see it through (but we must also remember Azusa was literally just kidnapped by Rodan, so that is an additional two incentives for him to fly out to meet them).

 

Rodan circles and finds a place to land. His red Fire Rodan coloring stands out against the night backdrop. (Whether or not Rodan standing out against a dark backdrop is intentional, it is still interesting that back when this conflict was clearer, Mechagodzilla was the shining hero with a gleaming background, but this fight will take no such opportunity to make Mechagodzilla look so good. Mechagodzilla will even lose an eye to Rodan and consequently look somewhat sinister and at least less human). Rodan opens the container, and Baby screeches (or yawns, his eyes aren’t red). Mechagodzilla and Rodan finally square off, and Rodan immediately fires a purple heat beam (this was the Heisei era after all). Mechagodzilla preps the plasma grenade, but the commander places his trust in Aoki to distract Rodan first. I would have liked more scenes between them to justify this turn, but it is still cathartic to see Aoki finally taken seriously after he has stepped up to help out.

 

 

Aoki flies around and attacks Rodan, siccing the pteranodon on himself. Rodan’s air superiority knocks him out of the sky, and the commander is actually displeased to see this happen to Aoki. The plasma grenade knocks Fire Rodan into a tall building, and Mechagodzilla slowly approaches him to finish the job, more of a slasher villain than good guy in presentation. Rodan does the aforementioned eye pecking but gets blasted and starts to bleed out and foam at the mouth. Mechagodzilla approaches again, even more sinister looking than before. I forgot Omae was here for the climax, but he arrives to try and get Azusa out of the container just as Godzilla pulls up. 

 

A UNGCC official comments that Godzilla is there at last, and here is a point of hypocrisy on their part. This fight is not happening on the uninhabited Ogasawara Islands, per the plan, and Mechagodzilla has already caused considerable collateral damage by blasting Rodan into the tallest building there. Continuing the plan to exterminate Rodan and Godzilla here rather than move the now unguarded container to the aforementioned islands represents a rather huge moral compromise that G-Force and the UNGCC made unflinchingly. If you think I am reading too deep into this, then explain why the G-Force commander hesitates before launching into this attack. However, there is still a great deal of complexity here as Mechagodzilla is still the underdog for having lost the previous fight, and Godzilla immediately shows off his strength by lifting Mechagodzilla and throwing him. Similarly to earlier, Godzilla’s focus is not the buildings, but he is just so physically impressive that he is a constant threat.

 

Aoki leaps back into action to attack Godzilla to buy the Mechagodzilla crew time to right themselves, and the commander and Aoki have genuinely nice banter as Garuda joins up with Mechagodzilla to share weapons and energy systems to become Super Mechagodzilla. Super Mechagodzilla has all of the weapons of both mechs and releases them as a barrage on Godzilla. This is something the Showa Mechagodzilla as a villain did in his two movies, and Super Mechagodzilla hides behind buildings to evade Godzilla’s beams. The two opponents roar quite a bit at the start of this scene, so I want to highlight that Mechagodzilla has a roar, which is quite strange taken any way other than symbolically. Its roar is uncanny, an artificial imitation of Godzilla’s, an easy way to communicate it is unnatural. Super Mechagodzilla finally prepares the G-Crusher, and the UNGCC brass pressure Miki into targeting Godzilla’s second brain, something she clearly does not want to do.

 

The G-Crusher discharges electric pulses to Godzilla’s second brain, paralyzing him. Whether or not we should consider this a death for the character is unclear. Previous drafts had Godzilla die here, and, if we compare Godzilla to Rodan, Rodan died a couple days ago but was able to revive and is currently bleeding out. My point is that these are death scenarios that are not permanent, thereby meant to leverage our sympathy more so than denote the end of a character.

 

With Godzilla defeated, Aoki ditches Super Mechagodzilla to go help Azusa. The commander looks very solemn during this, and Aoki clearly cares more about Azusa, so at this point, Super Mechagodzilla the entity is no longer on our side as the audience. Super Mechagodzilla continues to pelt Godzilla with every attack it has, and Baby cries in sadness at Godzilla’s impending death. This inspires Rodan to circle back, and Super  Mechagodzilla shoots him out of the sky. But Rodan lands on Godzilla and sacrifices his life and essence to give Godzilla the radiation he needs to heal his second brain. Rodan was once again so devoted to his family that he sacrificed himself, and this moment is one of my favorites in the entire Heisei series.

 

 

Because of the new energy, Godzilla is able to melt that diamond plating we had all film building up to, so Godzilla unleashes his new Red Spiral heat Ray to destroy Super Mechagodzilla. As I compared the diamond plating to the BEAST Glove, here is the ultimate third-act payoff. After it has worked thus far across the film and is based on past technology, it ultimately fails as a cathartic moment, which I find to be an apt comparison to the BEAST Glove, which had some setup but no relevance until it worked flawlessly even when it should not have (see the third part of my Godzilla x Kong review for more information).

 

Godzilla’s Red Spiral Ray overpowers Super Mechagodzilla in a beam clash and knocks over the mech. Red flames akin to hellfire engulf Super Mechagodzilla, and the robotic operating system of Mechagodzilla claims there are no survivors when really there were no casualties. I did not highlight it yet, but there has been a minor theme in this film about how unreliable technology is compared to organic. Mechagodzilla breaks down and only has a finite amount of energy even when Garuda joins with, but the familial power Baby Godzilla and Rodan share is enough to fuel Godzilla when he breaks down. The pteranodon robot also breaks down abruptly, and Rodan can easily beat Garuda in a fair fight. Artificial life truly is lesser than organic throughout this entire film.

 

After a tearful goodbye, Azusa bids Baby go with Godzilla, and Godzilla tries to convince the kid to leave him with him, but Baby is scared suddenly, and Azusa asks Miki to ask Godzilla to take the Baby with his telepathy. This is stupid, because Godzilla clearly is on that same page, and it is Baby Godzilla that stands in the way of this. Miki realizes this, and the film’s editing shows us that she alleviates Baby Godzilla’s fear rather than communicate with Godzilla (honestly, this was probably a mistake of the dub, but also, speaking practically Godzilla probably knows that Miki is the one that just killed him, so negotiating with him is unwise). 

 

As Godzilla and Baby walk off into the ocean together, the commander and Mechagodzilla team pontificate about the differences between life and artificial life. This is a common criticism of the movie, but I have already argued it portrays this. My only issue is that the commander was not present for all or even necessarily most of the showings of the tenacity of natural life. Yet more controversial is Aoki and Azusa speculating that a dinosaur age awaits. I have heard a lot of complaints about how the film does not really justify or earn this dialogue with any profundity, but that is really not the point. This is how Aoki and Azusa as they have been written thus far would reflect on these events, so it is an example of good writing, and if your analysis does not even allow for character consistency as an option for a creative choice you do not understand, then I do not think you are putting enough thought into your analysis. I am not perfect in this, but I always try to approach a film with its due respect and meet it within what it aims to say and how. I guess I just want to ask how we ruled out that the film is just merely keeping consistent with established character traits rather than rushing a plot development we did not see.

Unfortunately, I'll have to end this part here (at least we finished the film this time). Throughout this review, I've highlighted some key concepts whenever they appeared in this film, and, next time, I will bring this all together for some commentary on the thematic content I see in this film and what conclusions I draw based on these scenes. Stay tuned for the final part soon.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II: Strengths and Stupidities Part One

 

By Joe Gibson

 

Hi, and welcome back to Plan9Crunch where we’re all about cult films and hope you are too. I’m Joe Gibson, and today to coincide with Godzilla Day 2024, I would like to talk to you all about our Lizord and Savior Godzilla. This is mostly about 1993’s Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, but it’ll take a little bit to get there. This review got pretty long (9 thousand words, so you can expect a similar format to my Godzilla x Kong Review of multiple parts and then a video, links at the bottom of this article).

Chapter One - Shin Godzilla Raided Again the first time in 1984

The larger genre of kaiju eiga, best exemplified by Godzilla, fits within several era categories. Kaiju films made before 1989 fit into the Showa era (these era names are titled mostly after the Emperor’s reigns, so Heisei is the era of 1989 onwards, and Reiwa is the most recent), and Godzilla’s Showa series lasted between 1954 and 1975, Godzilla 1984 being the start of the Heisei series that ended in 1995, with the Millennium series lasting from 1999 to 2004, and the concurrent Legendary and Toho Reiwa revivals occurring in the last decade. While the Millenium series was focused on rabid reinterpretation (which you can see with Godzilla finally being green and having a red beam rather than blue, King Ghidorah being a good guy, Mechagodzilla being the revived original Godzilla), much of the Reiwa era has been focused on returning to the roots of the character for a truer incarnation. 

 

Shin Godzilla (2016) is perhaps the most important monster film of the past few decades, for reinterpreting Godzilla as a nuclear tragedy the way he was originally, in ways that have been mimicked with Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider that return to the aesthetic and tone of their respective original series. (Gamera is unfortunately the odd man out with no dedicated Shin installment, but I think 2023’s Gamera Rebirth is a very good example of the general trend in how it remains focused on Gamera’s bond with children from the Showa era with Showa monsters while still acknowledging the aspects of Heisei Gamera that are now inextricable from the IP.) And then of course Godzilla Minus One might be the best example in this entire series of hearkening back to the original and encapsulating something Godzilla Can Be that feels right.

 

However, this history is somewhat revisionist. The Millennium series, as an example, was not meant to be unlike Godzilla but condemn the 1998 American film; noticeably Godzilla 2000 (1999) designs its villain monster Orga after the 1998 creature, with the added implication that Orga is trying to assimilate Godzilla but will always fail.  Even this new green, spiky Godzilla that breathes red flame is more of a Godzilla than the Tristar abomination was. The New Millennium must have a New Godzilla, and Toho could not allow the 1998 Zilla or (G.I.N.O. Godzilla In Name Only) to lead the series into this milestone. We have to remember that every Godzilla series was made film to film, not experiment to experiment.

 

More to the point of why we are here today, the Heisei series was not designed to be one out of three additional series to experiment each in a separate direction; it was the relaunch of Godzilla to return to his roots. Regardless of your opinion of Godzilla’s sillier Showa outings, one can chart the general trend from serious to satire to superhero in Godzilla’s Showa filmography. While the beast in Godzilla 1954 was equal parts allegory, monster and victim, there was nothing in that original film to suggest that Godzilla would wind up sliding on his tail fighting alien invaders to save little boys in tight pants. But the series reached that point anyway. Rebooting Godzilla was an opportunity in and of itself, and there are a lot of scrapped concepts you can find online to see where Toho thought Godzilla should go upon his return. What we got was The Return of Godzilla also known as Godzilla 1984 also known as Godzilla 1985, a film set amidst and about Cold War tensions, where Godzilla represents the real threat of nuclear annihilation, but he also has a character outside of that. This new Godzilla was going to hearken back to the original in that way. Superhero was a bit too far, but sympathetic…that could work. At the end of Godzilla 1954, following damage control from Godzilla invading the humans’ homes and destroying them, the humans enter Godzilla's home to destroy him. Not only that, but in that film about victims of nuclear technology, he is the first victim of it. 

 

Godzilla 1984 carries this sympathetic streak through effectively. During a couple key moments, Godzilla responds to bird calls, following them because, due to similar anatomy, he understands them and either thinks they are the same or wants them to be. That is how the ending functions; the humans lure Godzilla to a volcano with the bird calls, and there is a moment where he pauses, almost as if he knows he shouldn’t but proceeds anyway to fall to his doom.

 

I cannot speak to the intent of these scenes any better than anyone else can. Insofar as Godzilla 1984 was technically the first Shin Godzilla, but history won’t see it that way, I cannot speak to the deliberate intent of certain other key decisions film to film. The flabbergasted look on Godzilla’s face after he escapes his volcano and treks to find his clone Biollante, finally laying eyes on that abomination can communicate aggression or that same loneliness. In the third Heisei Godzilla film, time travel shenanigans reveal a connection with a particular human, and the tear in his eye as he kills Shindo elucidates that aggression and loneliness may very well be tied together in this character. As far as character moments for the Big G, Godzilla vs Mothra (1992) is pretty much a wash, so that brings us to Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (1993), the topic of discussion. 

 

My argument here is that Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, whether intentionally or incidentally, ties these possibly disparate moments together into a satisfying character arc for Godzilla, as essentially the linchpin of this era's storytelling. The basic premise of Godzilla’s role in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II is that he wants to find and retrieve the Baby Godzilla, with audience sympathy for him emphasized throughout the film to the degree of those earlier moments. Godzilla attacks a lot, looking for the child, the devastation taking on a more heroic quality but still remaining threatening. Structurally, Godzilla is still the most clear threat, and the Heisei series keep this as an overarching trend (except for the next film Godzilla Vs Spacegodzilla, but Spacegodzilla is still a Godzilla and even the consequence of earlier Godzilla rampages) because even in the finale Godzilla vs Destoroyah, a film about the ramifications of the oxygen Destroyer made manifest into devil incarnate, the more pressing stakes relate to Godzilla's impending nuclear explosion. It is a tricky line to navigate rooting for the only thing that makes sense to root against, so we will have to go much deeper into how the film navigates itself through this story.

Chapter Two  - Let’s Rewatch Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II With This All In Mind 

 

The film opens on the remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah, and I probably should explain what that is. As I opened with, the Heisei series is the second main Godzilla series, and, of 7 movies, this is the fifth. It is said that the Heisei series has the strongest continuity of any Godzilla series. 

Godzilla 1984 leads into Godzilla vs Biollante with not only the increasing innovation of the Super X line of flying tanks but the consequences of trapping Godzilla in a volcano and leaving his mutagenic G cells all over Japan. Then, the method for defeating Godzilla in that movie (a form of anti nuclear energy bacteria) leads directly into his absence for the first chunk of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (and of course the character Goro Gondo in Godzilla vs Biollante has close ties to some in Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla, almost autocorrected to Godzilla vs speakeasy, the 6th Heisei film, and there is a third Super X in Godzilla vs Destoroyah, the 7th and finale). As the most overt film to film connection, we have the remains of Mecha King Ghidorah from the end of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah being salvaged to become the basis for Mechagodzilla (Godzilla vs Mothra between these two films sort of did its own thing but ties directly into Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla).

There are impressive shots to show off the scale of the onlookers at Mecha King Ghidorah before the film takes us into a narrated info dump. I’d be remiss not to be as thorough as possible with the implications and ramifications of this plot point before we proceed, however.

 

I initially got quite puzzled about how Mecha King Ghidorah should still exist, since the English dub for Godzilla vs King Ghidorah is quite explicit that two of the same being cannot exist at the same time and one would magically disappear were that to happen. Oh yeah, sorry, this is important because due to timey-wimey shenanigans, there would be two Ghidorah corpses in 1992 coastal Japanese waters, one with the mechanical augmentations and one without. That said, the start of this movie only shows Mecha King Ghidorah’s mechanical head, so even though technology like Mechagodzilla’s shock anchors originated in that piece of future tech (the electric "Godzilla Capture Devices and Machine Hand" work incredibly similarly, whereas no other tech in previous films comes close to approximating the shock anchors), the whole frame need not still exist (because no matter which Ghidorah disappears, I doubt the relevant one would still be a functional cyborg). GvsKG is a really stupid film, so to already sidestep an issue that one creates with this connective tissue earns respect on this film’s part I think.

 

The narration info dump explains to us the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasure Center organized a think tank for a weapon to destroy Godzilla, rushing us through the backstory and development of not only Mechagodzilla but a previous attempt in Garuda a mech that resembles the maser tanks integrated into a Super X machine. It will be significant that the Garuda is named after a Hindu bird god and not the Super X 3 for reasons I will explain later. The narrator explains that the scientists studied Mecha King Ghidorah’s technology and integrated it, but, again, only the head is focused on as an intact piece in the virtual blueprint plans shown. We next see an artistic depiction of Mechagodzilla being assembled piece to piece with text overlaid alluding to a special diamond coating that will be relevant later. I previously covered Godzilla x Kong The New Empire and its misuse of Kong’s BEAST Glove with similar early subtle mention and later significant plot relevance. We will see how this film handles the diamond coating, but there is an early advantage here with the previous existence of “Fire Mirror” technology on the Super X 2 that briefly reflected Godzilla’s atomic breath.

 

Is a narrated info dump a valid writing technique to use in this kind of story? In my opinion, it depends on the execution. Other Heisei Godzilla movies have more creative uses of exposition such as Godzilla vs Biollante and how it presents the different alert stages corresponding to different levels of Godzilla activity within Mount Mihara. But “we salvaged a time traveling cyborg into a nuclear mecha tank as one of our two weapons” is not nearly as easy to put in diegetic conversation that isn’t As You Know dialogue as one might initially think, so I give this a pass. 

 

After a title card and credits sequence, a scientist explains that Mechagodzilla uses a derivative of heavy hydrogen helium three in pellet form to fuel its reactor, and as the second advantage the synthetic diamond plating has over the BEAST Glove, the scientist thoroughly explains that too.  Yuri Katagiri, a new recruit, asks some followup questions, and this film is noticeably avoiding unrealistic As You Know dialogue (wherein characters break character to exposit solely for audience benefit), as, once the two reach Kazuma Aoki in the Garuda weapon, the exposition that Garuda is state of the art comes from an argument between the scientist and Kazuma, not just because we need to know that. It tells us a lot about Kazuma, the lead of this picture, that he is unable to let go of Garuda, as he worked on the team, and his passion for pteranodons is more important to him than his UNGCC and eventually G Force appointments. It turns out Katagiri is here to replace him, and he has been hired to G Force, a pseudo military branch of the UNGCC. 

 

The G Force commander Sasako is very disapproving of Aoki’s lifestyle and pteranodon hobby and explains he is there to help in the Mechagodzilla project along with three pilots. The conflict between Aoki’s unique personality and the rigid military structure of G Force is a major part of this film, and a montage shows him failing at karate and falling asleep in “class” of studying Godzilla’s attacks. His selective competence and constant irresponsibility are seemingly his least flattering characteristics, but not only will they drive the plot forward, this a comedic scene for us to identify with him, and G Force may not have the best of intentions comparatively. We’ll have to put a pin in that, since the movie is now showing us a research team on Adona island to introduce the inciting incident and key monster players.

 

 

The so-called Big Five of Godzilla kaiju are as follows: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, and Rodan. The conceit of this classification is marquee value, but, as far as actual data goes, they are the only monsters to appear in every era of Godzilla, however fleetingly in some cases. Well, that is only mostly true. Some form of a juvenile Godzilla also always appears, so this film is knocking out three of the should-be Big Six: Mechagodzilla, Rodan and Baby Godzilla. Adona Island is setting to an irradiated pteranodon nest, where one egg has hatched into Rodan and another remains undisturbed but present for a team of researchers to steal while Godzilla and Rodan fight. (Specifically, a team was there with Russians for petroleum when they found a Pterosaur skeleton and in fact a nest.)

 

Professor Omae and Azusa Gojo analyze a mysterious fern left on the egg when Rodan perches which causes the egg to glow red. I really like Rodan’s design in this film. Especially compared to how he last looked in the Showa series with the droopy beak, there is a resumed ferocity, but I will talk more about that later. What is relevant for now is that the puppet is unfortunately somewhat stiff, and Omae is very weirdly confident that Rodan must have come from the hatched egg and become irradiated before he is informed the island is even a dumping place for nuclear waste. In a series where scientists are so important (either as methodical role models or tragic figures), having one so quick to state (incidentally true) assumptions registers weird to me, so we will have to keep an eye on his character.

 

Godzilla arrives to fight Rodan (we will learn why later on), and his head pokes up over a rock similar to the imagery of rising over the hill in the original film. Perhaps, I am overthinking this connection, but this was originally intended to be the finale to make time for the then-1994 slated American attempt (being a finale explains the impending recontextualizing of his morality, reinterpretation of the three remaining Godzilla staples and 27 minutes of Godzilla screen time starting with a fight against Rodan within the film’s first 20 minutes).

 

Godzilla and Rodan’s skirmish is the fight most indicative of Heisei battles in my opinion. Heisei Rodan begins the fight dominating with his gimmick (in this case aerial superiority, but other gimmicks have been piercing tentacles or prehensile necks to strangle Godzilla), and Godzilla even winds up on his back, but his durability is too great, so he turns the tide of the fight and eventually lands a fatal beam strike.

 

Aoki learns of the egg’s transport to Kyoto and takes it upon himself, pteranodon enthusiast as he is, to sneak into the lab holding it to take pictures for his own enjoyment, accidentally flashing one of Azusa when she catches him. He is really flippant about her protests that he leave but is paying close enough attention to her to notice she does not want him to go toward the fern samples, at which point he goes toward the fern samples. She sends him out, but it turns out he has pocketed one of the fern samples and hits on her.

 

Omae studies the egg’s color change and concludes it is related to the child’s emotional state (red for stress and agitation); this leads to the realization it has imprinted on Azusa. Meanwhile, Aoki is eating lunch with returning actress Megumi Odaka as Miki Saegusa, a character in each of the Heisei sequels Biollante onward. They would both be outcasts in G-Force so I have little issue with Miki being in the right place at the right time to conclude they have to take the fern sample to the psychic institute for a different kind of analysis.

 

And now is the point of any Heisei Godzilla review where I have to explain how ESP fits into the larger Godzilla series. Godzilla 1984 is a very grounded Cold War-era film exploring Godzilla as an allegory for nuclear annihilation fears, and it is important for that film’s subtext that it be the real world or as close to it as possible. (The 1954 Godzilla, 1984 Godzilla, Shockirus, a louse mutated by Godzilla, and the Super X are the only unrealistic things to add to our world for the story of Godzilla 1984 to function.) But Godzilla vs Biollante introduced a psychic component where Dr. Shirigami was able to put his daughter’s soul into a Godzilla-rosebush, Miki Saegusa of a psychic research institute can attempt to use ESP to stop Godzilla from coming ashore, and Godzilla can reveal he too has psychic energy by resisting Miki. Miki tags along for all subsequent adventures to differing degrees (in too little of Godzilla vs Mothra and too much of Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla), and the institute containing psychic children is seldom brought up again except here. (In other words, I am saying the film containing this plot point is a good thing for the longer form storytelling, and the quality of this film will depend largely on internal execution not the premise itself).

 

In any case, the psychic children conclude that the fern’s energy can be represented through a song, a revitalizing song of psychic energy, and when Aoki shows this to Omae, the egg hatches in front of Azusa. (I conclude that the song is specifically one of revitalizing because it provides the energy required to birth an otherwise mostly dormant dinosaur and also revives Rodan later in the movie.) As I have already spoiled, the egg hatches not another Rodan but a Baby Godzilla, specifically a mildly irradiated Godzillasaur (the fictional family of dinosaur Heisei Godzilla was revealed to be in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. The Godzillasaur in that film was brown, while this child will oscillate between blue and green in the coming films, so the best faith interpretation is slightly different species or at least regional variation). 

 

Omae, Aoki and Miki all burst into the room to observe this new Godzilla, and, already, the film is at work with its thematic juxtaposition. Here is an innocent creature that is also Godzilla, overly cutesy with a tongue to lick Azusa but a creature that also makes Heisei Godzilla-esque hand movements (hand motions were a surprisingly important part of Kenpachiro Satsuma's Godzilla suit acting, God rest his soul). Omae jumps to the conclusion that this creature must be vegetarian, again letting his feelings inform what he proclaims as fact. Aoki’s presence allows him to explain that Baby Godzilla here was a parasite egg laid into the nest of a different bird without “As You Know” dialogue, and Miki senses Godzilla beginning a rampage.

I am sorry to cut things off here right before one of I think the most iconic Godzilla rampages in the Heisei series, but this is getting quite long and repeating history with my Godzilla x Kong series, links here.

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-nuanced-deconstruction-of-godzilla-x.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/part-two-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-three-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

As I mentioned those three parts were combined for an hour-long recording, which you can watch through this link: https://youtu.be/AI_FMxtTlIk?si=EA51lODIQp2LUVr1 Or just search up Plan9Crunch on YouTube 

Happy Godzilla Day, We'll be back soon with more Godzilla content as well as our other favorite cult films and cult figures.