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biomic · 8 months

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while he definitely could've worded it better, i think simon bennett actually has a point about power rangers needing to move away from super sentai *dodges tomatoes*

i've lost count of how many times someone's posted the coolest shit i've ever seen from sentai, rider, or ultra, and all people in the comments have to say about it is "oh lol it's like power rangers". power rangers is most people's first impression of tokusatsu, and that's obviously not gonna be indicative of the wider genre unless someone actively chooses to dig a little deeper (which they usually don't)

stuff like godzilla, ultraman, and kamen rider came out of creatives using original, fantastical concepts to say things about the world around them, power rangers came about because an american executive found a cheap way to make half a show and sell toys. that's not to say the latter has never tried to be more than that or that the former is free from capitalism informing/hindering its creative decisions (lol.), but that's why one is an enduring media institution that's jumpstarted countless careers while the other is seen as "that one kid's show from the 90s with the goofy costumes. wait what do you mean it's still going"

a reboot that does something totally new is probably the only way for PR to dig itself out of that reputation with people who aren't hardcore fans. i think about how that voltron cartoon, before that became a shitshow of its own, was a huge hit with an audience who had zero nostalgia for the original show because it was trying to do more than appeal to the people who grew up with the original. similarly, you look at RTD's relaunch of doctor who and most of the things he brought to the series were basically sacrilegious to longtime fans. killing all the time lords, blowing up gallifrey, having the doctor KISS a WOMAN??????? the show's ruined forever now (still going strong 15+ years later)

and most important TO ME is that this is also a definite net positive for sentai too. i don't think it's a coincidence that right around the time toei ended their partnership with power rangers and hasbro we started to get huge shakeups to the series' formula with zenkaiger, donbrothers, and king-ohger, resulting in sentai's first year of being profitable since kyoryuger. they no longer have to consider how concepts will be marketable to an american audience as well as their japanese audience, which means we can do whatever the hell we want now. is that not the ideal scenario? i just don't see how the adaptation process is beneficial to either franchise at this point besides being tradition

#kendrix morgan died for our sins #power rangers for ts #super sentai for ts

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 12 days

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Kaiju Weeks in Review (March 31-April 13, 2024)

It took forever (maybe they were waiting on the returns for Godzilla x Kong), but Apple TV+ has finally greenlit season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. According to its listing on the WGA site, it'll run from 2024 to 2025. Multiple spinoffs are also in development at Apple; no details on those yet.

Speaking of Godzilla x Kong, it continues to do well, staying #1 at the domestic box office in its second weekend and falling to #2 (behind Civil War) in its third. Current totals are $158 million domestic and $437 million worldwide. It'll soon pass the domestic gross of Kong: Skull Island and the total gross of Godzilla vs. Kong.

Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II #1 promises more of everything: more heroes (the White Ranger joins our heroes from the first comic), more villains (including Psycho Ranger Ghidora up there), and more alternate universes. Godzilla gets a bit buried in all the Ranger antics though.

A couple of kaiju series debuted on TV too: Kaiju No. 8 and Season 2 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again. The former followed the manga very closely, and as such didn't really keep my attention; hopefully it innovates a bit more going forward. Chibi Godzilla's as irreverent as ever.

youtube

Tsuburaya Productions has released preliminary information on the next installment of the Ultra Series, Ultraman Arc. The logline:

A town called Hoshimoto City... On Mt. Shishio, there is a gigantic object towering above the city. Named "Monohorn," (モノホーン, Monohōn) it is actually a kaiju’s horn stuck in the ground since an incident 16 years ago. After the incident known as "K-DAY" in which kaiju appeared all over the world at the same time, monster disasters have become commonplace. In Japan, the Global Defense Force (GDF) uses force to deal with them, while SKIP works closely with the community in scientific investigations and evacuation guidance to prevent the occurrence and aggravation of kaiju disasters. SKIP has also been investigating the Monohorn, the horn of the galactic beast Monogelos (モノゲロス, Monogerosu) that appeared on K-DAY. Yuma, then only 7 years old, was camping with his parents in Mt. Shishio when Monogelos attacked. After miraculously surviving unscathed, he decided to pursue research into monster biology. Despite his traumatic past, he has not lost his “power of imagination” to dream. As a rookie investigator, Yuma joined SKIP and was assigned to the Hoshimoto City Branch. Not long after, another large-scale monster disaster occurs in Hoshimoto City. As Yuma sees the desperate people in front of him, a strong will springs into his mind — “I want to protect them!” At the moment when this strong and straightforward desire welled up from the bottom of his heart, Yuma hears the voice of Rution (ルティオン, Rution) a being of light that he once saw as a child: “You and I are one and the same… Unleash your imagination!” When a mysterious light appears in Yuma's hand and envelops his body, the unleashed power of imagination unites light and man and he transforms into Ultraman Arc, the Giant of Light who protects the future! Alongside his precious friends, Yuma, as well as Ultraman Arc, races towards his everlasting dream!

Yuma is played by Yuki Totsuka, while Takanori Tsujimoto is the lead director. He's directed for the series since Ultraman X, but this is his biggest assignment to date.

After beginning to release select Movie Monster Series figures in the States, Bandai America is now fully back in the Godzilla game, with articulated figures, 5-inch vinyls, blind box figures, and transforming eggs all up for preorder at the Godzilla Store and other toy sites. The eggs come from the 2014 Godzilla-E.G. line and the rest is all-new. Not much of a selection so far, but with how big Godzilla is right now, I'm sure there'll be more to come.

SRS Cinema has opened preorders for its War of the Ninja Monsters: Jaron vs. Goura Blu-ray, due in late July or August. Shinpei Hayashiya's latest epic, it'll come with behind-the-scenes footage and maybe a commentary track, which would be nice given how little information is available about his films online.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla #monarch legacy of monsters #war of the ninja monsters jaron vs. goura #toys #ultraman arc #Youtube

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inferno-0 · 13 days

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Warbat x Human Reader /Headcanons/

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There is 0 content at all. I can't ignore it.

Sorry for the English

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* To be honest, I can't accurately guess the nature of this reptile, but considering the movie "Godzilla vs. Kong" , we can say that this Kaiju is quite aggressive.

* It is unlikely that this Titan will make contact. Especially with a person who will be smaller than his tooth. You'll just get eaten.

* But if you still manage to get a liking for this creature, then you should not expect the caress of a kitten that will poke at your back. The only thing these Kaiju will give you is life.

You will be left alive and will not be tossed around like a toy in the air.

* Whether Warbat has a mind or not is not speculative. It is more like a predator that acts strictly according to instincts.

To kill is to kill.

* But if you look at it from the other side, this Titan will protect you from other predators. Perhaps his kind.

* In gratitude for this, you caress his Face. Of course, he denies it, simply because he doesn't understand.

And he is, I repeat, a predator.

* Sometimes you climb on his back. Of course, riding on the Warbat makes you very sick. It's the same feeling as on a ship that is agitated from side to side.

* If he does fall in love with you, then expect to be persecuted by him. Warbat will be everywhere. Close to you. Absolutely always. There's no way you can run away from it... No, if you love him back, I don't see anything wrong with that.

All you have to do is explain to the Titan what is good and what is bad.

* I think that if he likes such a phenomenon as a hug or just touching its smooth scales, he will ask for it. Of course, not always, but it will still happen.

* I'm not talking about how you manage to kiss his pointy muzzle.

* + , This Titan is too irritable. Still, you shouldn't touch him when he's not in the mood.

* It also happens that he starts licking you with his tongue, sniffing. Sometimes it can have a playful side, and sometimes it marks you as his property. (There is a third option.. If you want, I can arrange it)

* His appearance is extremely unexpected. Imagine that you are just walking on the hollow ground in search of your Friend. Suddenly, a huge shadow begins to grow over your body, with sharp ends on the sides, and also the ominous hiss of a snake. However, this didn't always scare you. In the early days, yes, it was terribly scary and you don't know what to expect from this Titan. And now it's like an ordinary meeting of different species.

Though your frightened face gave Kaiju a bit of amusement.

* I don't think you'll go back to your land after contact in Warbat....

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#Godzilla #godzilla x kong the new empire #Godzilla x reader #Monsterverse #Warbat #Warbat x reader #Xreader #godzilla vs kong #Kaiju x reader

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averageartistamber · 5 days

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It's Godzilla-but Space!

Okay, so (tied) second place entry 2-SpaceGodzilla.

So, first of all with these dude, he's one of the cases where I actually did come up with some lore/origins for him. Albeit a kinda dumb one.

So, I really wanted Space to have this "evil overlord/king" kind of feeling to him, so I had the dumb idea that he was originally this alien king who was exiled or usurped off his own planet and now roams the cosmos looks for means to aquire more power and start re-building his galactic empire through conquering other worlds.

Her finds out that Earth has some really powerful crap, and gets the idea to hire Gigan in order to collect a sample of Godzilla's DNA. He then, like a genius, injects himself with the stuff and...you get what's in the picture.

Design wise, as well as the king thing, I wanna visually suggest that this Space is incredibly reliant on his psychic powers, even to move around, the actual suit used in the movie is infamously bulky, so I exaggerated that. Also his whole crystal theme runs to the extent that he's made of something closer to stone than flesh.

But of course, what's an Evil Overlord without minions? Here's a "bonus entry":

Turns out another strange property of SpaceG's crystals is that they can imprison other beings and mutate them into Krystalaks, super tough crystalline minions that SpaceG can order around telepathically. Dude's pretty eager to abuse this feature too. The jerk.

Not quite sure if I'm happy with the Krystalak design, reads as a little "toy like" right now. You might have noticed there's heavy inspiration from the Godzilla Pipeworks Trilogy series of games here. Never got to play them myself (the Monsterverse is how I got into Godzilla), but I think they're really neat and hope they get remakes one day (or a proper successor.)

Kinda rambled a bit there. Anyway, Funny Sad Trauma Tree Godzilla is next.

#godzilla #godzilla au #gojira #toho monsters #kaiju #toho kaiju #spacegodzilla #godzilla battleworld au #Those crystals were kind of a pain in the butt to draw #Hope you dont find this Krystal-lacking #Yeah my Godzilla AU is pretty unserious

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stroebe2 · 4 months

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thank you for tagging me @peachiyyy <3 list of favorites from 2023

albums :

Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), by Yves Tumor

Good Lies, by Overmono

if looks could kill, by Destroy Lonely

PLAY, by RL Grime

A Great Chaos, by Ken Carson

Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, by Lana Del Rey

Quest for Fire, by Skrillex

Suntub, by ML Buch

10,000 gecs, by 100 gecs

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, by Caroline Polachek

Don’t Get Too Close, by Skrillex

TW2052, by KayCyy

Sincèrement, by Hamza

Jam City Presents EFM, by Jam City

Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, by Nia Archives

and plenty more singles/releases

films :

Paris, Texas (1984)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Fallen Angels (1995)

You Were Never Really Here (2017)

Ritual [Shiki-jitsu] (2000)

Irréversible (2002)

Salut les Cubains (1963)

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Infinity Pool (2023)

Excalibur (1985)

The Color of Pomegranates (1969)

Cold in July (2014)

Rocky (1976)

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Stage of Siege (1972)

Mandy (2018)

The Holy Mountain (1973)

Dune (2021)

Spring Breakers (2012)

The Paperboy (2012)

Asteroid City (2023)

Espion, lève-toi (1982)

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Barbie (2023)

The Exorcist (1973)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Oppenheimer (2023)

Lake Mungo (2008)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Witch (2015)

Children of Shatila (2018)

Scream (1996)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Saw II (2005)

A Thousand Billion Dollars (1982)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

books :

Into the Badlands : Travels Through Urban America by John Williams

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

La Crise blanche by Alain Tondeur

House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger

Les chemins de la victoire (La victoria estrategica : Por todos los caminos de la Sierra) by Fidel Castro

and a bunch of paranoid pdfs/books for a project im working on and doesnt really make sense to list on here

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emotionallychargedtowel · 3 months

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For the tokusatsu ask game!

1 and 19 :)

Oh, those are good ones. Thanks, @nieves-de-sugui!

How did you get into toku?

When my kids were three or four (they're twins so they always share the same age), my son saw a toy Godzilla and got obsessed with it. So we started showing my kids Godzilla movies, then branched out into other Toho kaiju like Mothra, King Ghidorah, etc. Just to give you an idea of how deep this got, at one point my kids were both obsessed with Biollante, a monster that was created when scientists fused some of Godzilla's DNA with a rose and the soul of a young girl that looks kind of like the thing from Little Shop of Horrors on steroids. This continued for a while. Then we watched Godzilla vs. Megalon, which features Jet Jaguar, a kaiju-fighting robot who they immediately adored. We were already tracking down toys of the various monsters they liked and they wanted a Jet Jaguar one really bad, but when my partner went looking, there weren't any options out there. (I think since then a JJ figure has been issued, but it wasn't around at the time.)

Then a fateful moment occurred: my spouse saw an Ultraman toy someplace, though it kind of resembled Jet Jaguar, and got it for the kids to see if they'd like it. They were immediately obsessed and wanted to know all about Ultraman, but we barely knew anything about it. I'd seen a little bit of the weirdly dubbed version of Tiga that aired on the WB on Saturday mornings at one point, but that was it. So we started looking things up and checking out shows, which led to more shows and more toys and so on. Our first series was Tiga and we just kept going from there. This was also around the start of the pandemic, so we were in desperate need of an exciting new collective obsession. Actually, I don't know how we would have gotten through that period without Ultraman.

So we mainlined Ultraman for months (maybe even a year or more?) before we checked out any other toku stuff. Then we were talking to a friend who's knowledgeable about this stuff and he suggested we try branching out into other tokusatsu franchises. Our first Super Sentai series was Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which we all loved right away. I think our first Kamen Rider series was actually Ex-Aid, so it’s kind of a miracle that we kept going with it, because I really dislike that series--I never even finished watching it. Our second Kamen Rider was Saber, which was a way better fit for us (if not exactly representative of the franchise) and remains one of my favorite Kamen Rider series.

Kamen Rider Ryuki was a kind of milestone because it was the first tokusatsu show that my spouse and I watched without having to have kids present and paying attention all the time. It's a bit on the mature side so they only wanted to watch it intermittently. That's when we figured out that some toku shows filled that niche really well--things that we could watch without worrying about kids feeling left out but that we didn't have to refrain from watching in their presence or censor somehow (at least, most of the time). Which led to even more tokusatsu-watching since things you can watch in that way can be hard to come by.

Incidentally, a big part of the reason I first got into BLs was because of my tokusatsu fandom. Before I saw my first BL, my twin sister had already seen KinnPorsche and told me about it, so maybe she would have continued with BLs and eventually gotten me into them anyway. It's hard to say. But as it happened, I was looking for something short and not too gut-wrenching to watch on Viki one day when I saw the listing for Senpai, This Can't Be Love and got curious about it because the leads were played by Naito Shuichiro from Saber and Seto Toshiki from Ex-Aid. I talk about the tokusatsu to BL pipeline for actors, but I myself traveled down the viewer equivalent of that pipeline.

19. If you could go back and change one show, what would you change?

My first thought was something relatively small. If I could, I’d change the fact that Takano Hassei’s character in Kamen Rider Ryuki was (spoiler!) killed off so quickly. I get that the battle royale premise of the series necessitated some painful character deaths but he was so likable and made the story so much more compelling as soon as he showed up and then suddenly he was gone. They should have let him stick around at least a while longer.

But the main series I’d change is Kamen Rider Kiva. I have such mixed feelings about that series in a number of areas, but the main thing I’d change is its treatment of women characters. It's kind of confusing, though. I keep thinking over how things turn out for the women in Kiva and trying to figure out exactly what my problem is with it and what I think should have been done differently. Basically, the women in Kiva face a lot of sexism in different forms, and the show makes this pretty explicit. Women in Kiva can be incredibly competent and smart, much more than their male counterparts, and they still don't get the same opportunities. Whenever men in the show are interested in a woman romantically and/or sexually, tons of sexism also comes into play, usually in the forms of benevolent sexism and/or objectification. In one arc, for example, two men fight over a woman as if she's a prize to be won and she doesn't have a say in the matter. Otoya often insists on rescuing Yuri from situations that she's arguably better equipped to deal with than he is, with occasionally disastrous effects. These things aren't portrayed as neutral. At times, sexism is called out explicitly. At others, it's shown in a way that seems clearly designed to make it visible.

I'm used to media texts that highlight sexism giving me some kind of catharsis about it. It would be ridiculous for a story to solve the problem of sexism completely, but there's usually some kind of progress that's made, or at least a character removes herself from a sexist situation if it doesn't improve. But Kiva doesn't do that. Not really, anyway. Both of the women who want to be Riders do get to do that, briefly, which was pretty remarkable when the series aired in 2008/2009. Unlike in some Kamen Rider series in which characters always have their own distinct Rider identity, a bunch of the people (basically, all of the human beings) who become Riders in Kiva use the same tool, the Ixa System, and become variations on the same Rider. Both Yuri and Megumi, a mother and daughter shown in different time periods, become Kamen Rider Ixa at some point. But their time as Riders is short-lived, and only happens after they've proven themselves again and again while watching the dopiest men imaginable get to become Ixa first. So that doesn't constitute much progress. (Did I mention that Yuri's deceased mother/Megumi's grandmotherdesigned the Ixa System? And they each still have to fight tooth and nail for a brief chance to use it!)

Watching Kiva actually made me notice the extent to which I expect some kind of catharsis once a piece of media foregrounds sexism somehow. And as soon as I noticed it, I questioned it. Does that kind of catharsis really need to happen? Might it not be better for us to have to sit with that discomfort? Catharsis discharges tension, but maybe it's better not to do that. But I don't think the uniformly shitty outcomes faced by the women on Kiva serve any sort of useful purpose in that way. (I'm including Megumi marrying Nago as a shitty outcome. The show may treat it as cause for celebration but that guy sucks and she's totally settling.)

So what would I change? First, I'd make the sexism the women face more explicit, with more characters labeling it as such more often. Since the show features two timelines, one taking place in 1986 and one in 2008, it would make sense and provide at least a little bit of hope if the 2008 storyline involved a bit less sexism or a bit more progress toward counteracting it. Maybe some individual characters could even learn something from their experiences and become a bit less sexist. At the very least, the leaders of the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization should have learned from their mistakes since they were present for the events of both 1986 and 2008 (the other 2008 characters are too young to have been present then except as small chidren).

When the two Kurenais, Otoya and Wataru, go through a body-swap situation across time and Otoya finds himself in 2008, his attitudes seem even more egregious in the context of 2008. I'd look for other ways to use the differences and similarities between attitudes in the two time periods to make a similar type of point.

I'd definitely give Yuri and Megumi more of a chance to be Ixa. Especially Megumi, since she's in 2008 when people should be at least a little bit less sexist. And for fuck's sake, I wouldn't have Megumi marry a douchey clod like Nago in a million years.

Well, that ended up being longer than I expected! Thanks again for the questions, nieves!

#tokusatsu #tokusatsu ask game #toho kaiju #biollante #jet jaguar #ultraman #ultraman tiga #kaizoku sentai gokaiger #kamen rider saber #kamen rider kiva #senpai this can't be love

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alexin-wonderlust · 20 days

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Day 13 - Japan Blog - 19 February 2024 Last day in Japan *sad face* We still have a few hours in Kyoto before we start the trek of 2 trains and 3 planes home. SO -- Im going to Kiddyland!! Although, I wasnt really happy with the one in Kyoto. The best Kiddylands are definitely Osaka/Umeda and the original one in Harajuku (I dont know if that is the original? Is it? I dunno! Its my original one haha!) We caught a taxi to the trainstation again because I couldnt be bothered walking and taking an extra train -- but this time we had some more time.... and I had a goal to get an EkiBen today and I succeeeeeded! Ben had a Korean Beef one and I had Tonkastu Pork — they were hell goooood! I was craving lollies so I even had one of the Nerunerunerune… or DIY candy kits (but this one is directed at Adults, yep yep!!)

So, here we go, our 30 hour trek home. (I’m not home yet and I’m exhausted and sore and I would kill for a shower and a soda water)

When we got to Haneda (Tokyo Airport) we were super early so we had lots of time. We were actually too early and had to take our bags shopping with us!! There was another Hakuhinkan Toy Store inside the terminal. Which was actually amazing! They had a whole section on aviation toys with models and keyrings and all sorts of nerdy stuff. Ben found a Godzilla for $17AUD and I bought a Licca-Chan doll. We had heaps of time to decide what to eat — we settled with ramen and gyoza. Ben got two lots of gyoza because they were pretty satisfying. The airport was much better this time around -- last time nothing was open and we couldnt eat or get last minute souvenirs. As we were boarding -- the ANA Pikachu jet was next to us!!

The flight home was easy because it was a night flight -- I could just knock myself out and sleep. However there were so many people coughing, it was gross!!

When we landed in Cairns I wanted to go to the Esplanade but apparently it costs $30 one way to drive for 6 minutes (stupid!!) so we just ate the junk at the airport again. I had an Aussie Whopper to “celebrate” being home.🍔 (a whopper with egg, bacon and beetroot) But there we go! I got to see snow, and snow monkeys and eat at a conveyor belt sushi train and go to Legoland!

#japan #japan travel #alexinwonderlust #travel #bennyandthelex #japan february 2024 #travel blog #kyoto #traveling #haneda airport #tokyo #shinkansen #ekiben

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pxrifiedmxniac · 28 days

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Just got back from seeing Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire!

So, won't spoil anything with this post, but long and short of it, it was a blast and I felt like a kid in a candy/toy store all the way through! While Godzilla: Minus One leaned more into the serious, allegorical side of Godzilla, this movie pretty much embraces the wackiness and definitely feels like it harkens back to the more late-Showa era of the franchise.

It definitely does feel like more Kong's movie than Godzilla's, but the scenes we do get with the Big G are still pretty plentiful and are an absolute thrill.

While I will say the human factor is the weakest part of this movie, but I do like that some of them are contributing to the overall narrative rather than just be exposition or show their reaction to the monster action. I'd even say that it is one of the better human parts of the Monsterverse alongside Kong: Skull Island and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

And speaking of monster action, it goes hard and it never lets up. Some may find it exhausting or a little too over-the-top, but I'm perfectly fine with it because I'm okay with OTT kaiju action.

It's not really a movie for everyone, but if you just want some fun, nonsensical monster action with a bit of heart to it, then this is the movie for you.

And to be honest, with the shit month I've been having, this was definitely something that I needed.

#OutOfLifeFibers #mun being a derp

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ultravioart · 1 year

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????

So I'm trying to write out some ideas for Dominion au scenes and I guess I'm questioning what kind of humor fits Dominator? She's definitely comically evil + mean spirited so there is dark humor galore (Plus with kid cosmic using death as a punchline, lmafo it makes for some dark opportunity),

but if.... sighes, If the writers really were trying to go for the "she doesn't belong in the show" anime-op-badass "sexy bully"(<<<gags I hate this approach i hate sexy bully) archetype, I have to wonder if she's conscious of herself in situations or not. In Q&A they say she loves riot grrl but she's also fine with using a guy persona to "mess with people"?? Mess with them how? Make them double take and awkwardly scramble to treat her differently? Or make them not judge her as a (gender) but as a badass foe first and foremost regardless, and being a woman is just the cherry on top? I have to wonder if her love for the riot grrl genre includes the fundamental girl empowerment (proud to be a girl), or the "don't judge me just because I am a girl! I belong here too!" aspect. Is her perspective that she is proud to be a badass woman, or does she feel she's a badass who happens to be woman therefore women must be great? She seems to use whatever tools she has at her disposal, but also has a comedic self care routine of fluffy towels and pink guest bathrooms. So she's all out evil villain, but also has sensitivities and seemingly personal boundaries with "me-time" which doesn't read entirely as the all out off the wall destroyer, but a quirky lethal evil conqueror. It matters because like, would she be a "sexy" bully that has personal boundaries over her body, or is it all in, make the others squirm and yelp? Is she vulgar and unhinged? or does she have some kind of pride that would prevent her from "degrading" her self in her view by flirting with people she sees as losers? We have characters that have a sense of pride or a sense of boundary, which can make for good kind spirited humor too, but if Dominator really doesn't belong, it's hard to discern just how far her actions would go. basically it's one of the two: A) she embodies the "intensely evil little girl" all grown up into a fearsome villainess, playing godzilla with living toys. This is within the same vein to Hater's "spoiled brat emo prince" all grown up into a manchild rockstar tyrant personality. This means she would have some personal boundaries and sense of pride, meaning she would toy with others (flirting, teasing) but not be intensely vulgar. Fits the setting of WoY pretty well, though? Is... being pretty and mean enough to be a sexy bully archetype? Ugh Man, I hate this trope lmao. It feels gross. B) She embodies the "evil no matter what" and just happens to be a woman. she relishes in bullying others and making them squirm, wanting to destroy everything in her path. She's super unhinged and even self-destructive if not careful. No sense of sympathy for others, she just. wants. to. destroy. those puny little faces. (Cute aggression over 9,000!) And it's bleak! Yeah! ...and, lonely. Woops. This means she would be very vulgar, and not care what people think about her or her body because of course she's already perfect, she's HER. This to me reads as more so the sexy bully archetype, but ignores some semblance of her softer sides like her "...friend?" moments with Sylvia or her funny reactions to things like "what? Ew--no." which imply personal boundaries. I'm writing a whole damn essay about this because I don't want to make her too vulgar if it's ooc. But... it's seriously hard to understand what the hell the writers even meant by "sexy bully" because is that just a hot mean girl? Or a get under your skin and twist the knife just "to break your heart and watch you cry" kinda thing??? HOW FAR DOES IT GO, idk idk. Frankly I wish canon Dominator was not fanservice sultry and only sporadically "maniac pixie nightmare girl" like the VA's videos implied, because that stuff was hysterically fitting for WoY. Unhinged and unfitting of the WoY universe, but in a light goofy turning instantly heavy and dark humored way.

#dominion au #woy #this is not pg due to the weird archetype mentioned #at the same time it's funny to play with expectations so like? is dominator dedicated to the bit???#would she do completely unhinged things just for a laugh or is there a limit to the meaness?#i can definitely see dom rubbing it in hater's face that peepers is her minion now #but how far would she go to mess with hater?#she's on a vengeance streak so would she dig the knife deep as possible or would she think it beneath her to stick to a bit just to torture #lord hater? Idk this is hard to figure out lmao #i don't want to make a woy character too vulgar if its too ooc #bc even wander making those jokes in the big day did not sit right with me #felt awkward and more like writters placing the joke than wander being in on it #bc wander is pretty smart so his awkward phrasing is on purpose and good humor #but when it gets MUCH too suggestive its just. odd. doesn't feel like it fits his character.#it feels ooc and out of place for woy #but dominator is supposed to be “out of place” for woy so???? augh lmao #help........... sobs

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silvanoir · 5 months

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Drove work friend home today,

and will be doing so on Mondays for the rest of the year. Only 4 more working Mondays after this, maybe in January too, Mondays only. Because last Monday his usual ride didn't pick him up and left him to freeze in the parkinglot for 3 hours, until the security guard took pity and drove him home.

He doesn't have his own car because he can't afford one ... in debt due to identity theft. He used to have a work truck some years ago but it was sold without his permission... used to do light construction but someone stole and sold off most of his tools... guy has the worst luck.

AND he was sick the first 3 hrs of work, kept having to run to the bathroom, but didn't want to go home because he needs every bit of money he can get.

And on the way in I heard him saying to his ride to that "I'm not a bad guy! I don't ask for much..." (I didn't want to butt into that so I kept walking by, though I agree, he's NOT a bad guy and he doesn't ask for much.... he's never asked anything of me, I've freely offered... and he's sheepish in even accepting any help). He's sleeping on a couch, doesn't even have his own room, and another person he lives with who does nothing all day and is on unemployment wants to watch TV until 10pm, which is a problem, since we have to be in work by 3 am. He NEEDS his own bedroom, some space of his own where he can shut the door, work on his craft projects and music, get some SLEEP, but I can't help him with that.

My guest room is occupied by my elderly disabled father who has a caregiver during the day. My bedroom is MY room. So all I have is a livingroom couch.... so same situation PLUS... we're friends but only close friends as of this year and it would be a BAD LOOK to invite a guy from work with no transportation to live with me lol (after he gets out of debt he's going to save up for a used motorcycle, good luck to him). Plus I don't want to be the one to drive him around all the time either.

Bad enough he said on the way out to someone asking where he was going "I'm going home with Charlene" NOOOOO bad way to phrase it! You're not going to my home with me, I'm driving you to YOUR home (as much as it is a home, dwelling may be more accurate). We already thwarted rumors over the summer, I don't want to go through that again! but his mind doesn't work that way, when I told him "That's how rumors get started" he said "Like the Fleetwood Mac album" and then the conversation went off on tangents like it always does with us.

On the way home I stopped for bagels, because I always stop for bagels on Monday, and as I said to him "I used to bring bagels to you, now I'm bringing you to bagels". Bought him a bagel and a coffee, and a bagel and green tea for me, and we sat and talked about vintage toys, old cartoons, and Godzilla. He kept apologizing for not having money or a car to take me out, and I told him don't worry about it. I'm helping because I want to (I hate seeing nice people suffer. He does too).

Plus he is doing little things to help me back. I don't remember if I mentioned, but he fixed both my bicycles. And is currently fixing a broken watch (the clock part is fine, the fastener on the strap is broken and I don't want to replace the strap because it's this pale blue-green cotton I'd never find again, he builds models and is very good and piecing together things so he'll figure it out). And he's going to help me with some small fixes on the house and yardwork.

Despite falling on hard times he IS a good guy... we were talking about Thanksgiving, not a favorite holiday for either of us, especially since he has social anxiety.... he has to go to 4 different relatives' houses and doesn't want to (his family is kinda messed up and they've done more to hurt than help him)... he said he'd rather go volunteer in a soup kitchen or something like that. So I don't mind helping him because I know if he had the ability he'd been the one helping other people, but right now he's the one who needs help.

#work friend #long post

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redfurrycat · 1 year

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🦎🦾🛫🦿Incorrect Quotes/Drabbles Top Gun & Pacific Rim AU - Series🦿🛫🦾🦎

Reuben Payback Fitch is in his private quarters at the Miramar Shatterdome, reading the latest report on the updates added to the Jaeger he’s co-piloting with Mickey Fanboy Garcia. They’re supposed to have another test later before their WagerTrek Jaeger is to officially launch an attack against the Kaiju.

His boyfriend was supposed to be in charge of the snacks for their much-deserved break. It’s been several minutes since he left. The Miramar kitchen isn’t that far from their quarters, so Payback is wondering what Fanboy is up to now.

He’s also feeling a bit nervous. Yesterday he received the engagement ring he asked to be engraved, and he’s wondering when to propose…

He’s thinking about different scenarios, toying with the ring, when the door of his quarters is suddenly opened, and his soon-to-be fiancé –hopefully– comes in with a huge smile!

Fanboy: ‘SUP, BABE?!

Payback, startled and moved frantically to hide the ring in his pillow: Yo, Mickey-boo. Why are you so late?

Fanboy: I was busy putting an end to our sufrimiento. ¡Tu boyfriend es un héroe!

Payback: What did you do? What suffering?

Fanboy: The kind que impieza con una J y una B.

Payback: J and B…Jake and Bradley? What about them? I thought they were currently avoiding each other because of another bullshit reason. Bullshit reason that is in fact an epic failed attempt at flirting that both sides somehow took offence from…

Fanboy: Let me explain what I did. So, do you remember my collection of action figures that nobody –but you– knows about?

[The collection Fanboy is talking about is an action-figures-of-every-Daggers-Jaeger-Pilot-in-their-PPDC-uniform-with-extra-accessories type of collection. It’s all part of the commercial aspect of the Jaeger-Kaiju War. Even though the Apocalypse is coming closer, some try to make a profit out of it, because there are a lot of groupies who like to spend their money to buy figurines of their heroes and the giant Godzilla-like monsters. Fanboy is one of the groupies, although he gets discounts and the Merchandise Team loves him – he gives them so many good ideas, like the Fanboy he is.]

Payback: Yeah. So?

Fanboy: Well, I asked the Merch Team to do me a favour and create two unique action figures.

[The first one is a Bradley Rooster Bradshaw action figure. The Rooster doll wears his Ranger & PPDC-issued uniform with a leather jacket portraying his Kaiju kills; however, he doesn’t have his usual accessories, he gets a Stetson, a wooden comb, and a toothpick box instead. Meanwhile the other action figure is a Jake Hangman Seresin doll wearing a mustache, a colourful Hawaiian-shirt and jorts with extra accessories such as a Bronco and a French bulldog figurine.]

Payback, speechless: For real, man?

Fanboy, excited: Yup. Then I put the Bradley doll in Jake’s room, and the Jake doll in Bradley’s. It should melt their pissy moods, perhaps they’re too chicken shit to face their feelings, but I’m hoping they’re far too gone on one another to throw the doll away…

Payback: I know you enough to tell there’s another step to that plan…

Fanboy, Aw. You know me too well, babe. There is!

Payback: ‘Kay, Mickey-Mouse, tell you what. I have five attempts to guess your plan. You win, I’m doing your part of the report about the test we’re conducting with WagerTrek. I win, I want my OWN customised doll and shit! ‘Cause this is so cool!

Fanboy: Deal, mi amor!

Payback; with a giant grin: Sweet, baby! Oh, and you’ve forgotten our snacks! ☹

Fanboy: ¡Joder! be right back!

[Fanboy runs to the kitchen to fetch their snacks while Payback put his ring away, a plan finally forming in his head. By the way, Fanboy also has a plan to propose to his boyfriend with an action figure!]

[The sequel of Fanboy’s plan to be set in another post.]

[This third post is in the same timeframe than the first one. And I’ve figured out what Bradley and Natasha’s Jaeger name is going to be. The FeatheredFlame!]

[I got the idea for this post once I saw @babyrooster’s post about Barbie!Rooster. It sparked something in my head! :D]

(Original Ring Picture source: x)

_3_

[Pinned post with other stuff, related and unrelated to this AU.]

[Follow this tag 🦎🦾PR/TG🛫🦿 for more!]

#pacific rim au #pacific rim with top gun characters #mickey fanboy garcia x reuben payback fitch #reuben payback fitch x mickey fanboy garcia #mickey fanboy garcia #reuben payback fitch #hangster #sereshaw #hangaroo #bradley rooster bradshaw x jake hangman seresin #Payback and Fanboy are soon-to-be-work-husbands! The first married couple among the Daggers!#Matchmaker!Fanboy #WagerTrek Jaeger #🦎🦾PR/TG🛫🦿#🐈red🐈furry🐈cat🐈tag🐈

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 9 months

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Kaiju Weeks in Review (July 16-29, 2023)

Legendary announced a pair of Monsterverse comics during a panel at San Diego Comic Con. They've said nothing further since, and no one posted the panel online, so I have less to tell you than I'd like. Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted is the obligatory prequel comic for the film. From the pages they showed off, it looks like Zid has art duties again (well-deserved) and the monsters that Kong is fighting could be the "swamp kitt[ies]" cut from Godzilla vs. Kong. Release date is February 27. Monsterverse Declassified is going to spotlight some of the series' original monsters, with the previews showing Behemoth, Amhuluk, and Tiamat. (Supposedly Scylla, Doug, and the previously-unseen Abaddon will be in it too.)

Toho is finally letting Togen's 4K scans of some of its Godzilla films out of satellite TV jail as tie-ins to Godzilla Minus One. Godzilla (1954) and Mothra vs. Godzilla are coming to 4K Ultra HD on October 25, with Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and Destroy All Monsters on November 22 and Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Godzilla vs. Biollante. Expect them to be as English-unfriendly as Toho's other releases - but a vague promise of "unused special effects footage", combined with some very crisp-looking photos in a recent book, means there's a chance the Frontier Missile sequence from Godzilla vs. The Thing will be included with Mothra vs. Godzilla. That'd be a godsend, considering how elusive an uncropped, uncut, high-quality version of the scene has proven to be.

These releases will easily be the best Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, Astro-Monster, and Biollante have ever looked on home video. But with Togen shutting down, it's unclear when the rest of the pre-Shin films in the series will get upgrades. (It's also unclear when Toho will permit anyone outside Japan to use these versions for streaming or home video.) So this announcement feels bittersweet to me.

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We have a release date for GAMERA -Rebirth- (September 7), a second trailer, and a reveal for the final monster: Viras! As @starestream pointed out, there's a lot of Legion in that design (along with Iris in Zigra). And as Maser Patrol pointed out, this is the same enemy kaiju lineup that Trendmasters chose for its toyline back in 1998. Poor Barugon, no one wants to taste the rainbow (and it probably hurts that he's so visually similar to Jiger too). To be honest, this trailer didn't do much for me; a bit too chaotic. Hopefully it'll be easier to tell what's happening in the show proper.

Bandai, of course, has readied Movie Monster Series figures of Viras, Zigra, and Guiron already. We're also getting a prequel manga set 100,000 years before the show.

Decades after his rampage through the Marvel Universe, Godzilla is barging into the world of DC (where he'll finally meet Batman). Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong is a seven-issue limited series launching October 17, written by Brian Buccellato (who also penned the short "Fight or Flight" comic that will be included in Legends of the Monsterverse: The Omnibus later this year) with art by Christian Duce. The inciting incident is a battle between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom, which tears a hole in reality to let the Monsterverse through.

I'll confess, I was more jazzed for last year's Power Rangers crossover, thanks to the tokusatsu link. This could just be more of Warner Bros. Discovery bashing its toys together. I'm most curious to see if the Legion of Doom makes a bid to conquer the Monsterverse, which with Godzilla and Kong out of the picture is far less prepared for them than the DC universe is for a couple of giant monsters. Superman beats them all, as Ken Yano once said.

Hiya is stepping further out of S.H.Monsterarts' shadow with a figure of the female MUTO, a character long neglected by toymakers. They showed her off at San Diego Comic Con. Playmates meanwhile releases an ad for Titan Tech Rodan - I'm glad they're not giving up on this delightful subline.

Summer Smash concludes IDW's middle-grade Monsters and Protectors storyline, which has spanned the entirety of their second go-round with Godzilla. You can tell it was supposed to be another miniseries; Godzilla, Jet Jaguar, and Mothra send Mecha-King Ghidorah and the Xiliens packing pretty quickly. Art's still great though.

Godzilla Rivals will persist into October with Vs. Mechagodzilla, the magnificent machine being the last of the Toho's Big Five to headline one of these comics. The intriguing logline:

IS YOUR CITY BESIEGED BY KAIJU? DO YOU LIE AWAKE AT NIGHT ANXIOUSLY LISTENING FOR THE MONSTER SIRENS? HAVE YOU HAD ALL YOU CAN TAKE OF GIANT LIZARDS, MOTHS, PTERODACTYLS, AND SHRIMP? THEN CALL TRACER TECH TODAY! OUR STATE-OF-THE-ART ANTI-KAIJU TECHNOLOGY HAS ALLOWED DOZENS OF CITIES AROUND THE WORLD TO FEND OFF THE THREAT OF MONSTER ATTACK. San Palomar, California. It’s a sleepy city with not much going on. That is, until Tracer Tech built their new corporate headquarters there, displacing lifelong citizens and forcing out local businesses. But what is the source of Tracer’s amazing, almost alien technology, and why has it put San Palomar in Godzilla’s sights? And what can a couple of local kids like Alex and Jaz do to protect their city when the King of the Monsters and its robot doppelgänger clash?

SRS Cinema has opened preorders for The Whale God, revealing this cover art by Bob Eggleton. Special features aren't anything spectacular (they're vaguely described, but I think a couple of essays are included, plus the obligatory trailers). Should be out by the end of the year.

The disc replacement program for Cleopatra Entertainment's misbegotten Shin Ultraman releases has resulted in an only marginally better product. The opening montage has subtitles now... but like the rest of the movie, they're just copied from the English dub. Dubtitles in 2023... and for a film that already has a perfectly good official English translation, no less. Oh, and they threw in some new visual glitches too. If your local library picks up a copy, I recommend telling them about the disc replacement program (as I've done), but don't give these clowns your money.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla #idw #the whale god #gamera rebirth #dc #capes

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ericmhe · 6 months

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So the dumb premise here is that some parts went to make Mecha King Ghidorah, but what about the rest of him? To make an opposite of sorts to the cyborg, resurrected via necromancy, answered my much younger self. It's ridiculous I know but I dug up my old Godzilla comics that I used to make - starting towards the end of middle school and through most of high school I think. That feels right, but my memory's not great. It doesn't look quite as bad as I feared but I'm sure there are people out there who could actually make this daft idea look ok.

I tried the cheap complementary color thing again here but I think it worked a little better this time. Sadly I had to rush things a bit since I've lost so much time.

It may be too small to see but I highlighted '1996' in the prologue of my old writing there, though I think that's when I made a comic and not the crappy cheap book about my fanfic there. Just giving the world an idea of how long I've been drawing as a hobby and how completely lacking in any talent I always have been. I was kept from doing as much Halloween themed art as I wanted so I might as well scare the world with something.

So you can see there's a normal Gheedrah/Gheederah/Ghidorah there - at the time I was really resistant to use Ghidorah because I'd watched "Gheedrah the Three Headed Monster" first. However I did use Gheederah as a name for another monster and made it a multi-way battle in my silly comics. That way the other look alike monster could become the strange cyborg toy that I had to pretend was just normal 'Gheedrah' and even my strange OC for my comics and I could keep the original monster intact. Sadly I'm pretty sure this only came about because I'd heard about "DesuGhidorah/Death Ghidorah" but hadn't seen any pictures at the time.

I found the original Gheedrah and Gheederah attack earth and fight each other comic too and I actually kind of appreciate the earth monsters grumbling "Great, now there's six of them" but it's a lone moment of actual comedic cleverness in a giant dumpster fire of a production.

#gheedrah #gheederah #ghidorah #kaiju #monster

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karigarihakase · 6 months

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Drive Head and Earth Granner were not flops in Japan

Let me start with a small disclaimer. I’m not writing this because I’m a big Tomica fan and I don’t like seeing their anime slandered. I’m also a big Spider Riders fan and have no problem telling you that it was a flop of epic proportions. I’m also not writing this to slander Shinkalion. I think it’s a great show.

This seems to be an ongoing misconception, mainly outside of Japan though I’ve seen some Japanese fans too that assume this (and usually get shot down right away because this is just not true).

I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is Shinkalion, as it’s often the context for this discussion coming up in the first place. Shinkalion was a smash success in Japan. It was the perfect storm. Trains are huge, so a series devoted to them, packed with accurate train facts and detail, was going to be big. The work was targeted at young children, but attracted an audience of older railfans as well. The series had a ton of popular seiyuu, so it attracted older otaku who watch for seiyuu. The series had Google as a sponsor, so it had big money behind it from the getgo. It had collabs with hugely popular properties, including Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla. So yes, it attracted fans of Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla who weren’t going to watch it for any of the other reasons listed above. So yeah, there’s no denying Shinkalion was a big success in Japan. But there’s no denying Frozen was a big success in the west (and Japan, and all over the place.) An argument that Drive Head and Earth Granner weren’t successful because they never reached Shinkalion’s level of popularity is like saying Tangled or Big Hero 6 were flops because they weren’t as big as Frozen. (And to be honest, I’m not in Disney fandom. Maybe there are people that argue that? But if there are, they’re idiots.)

Let’s start by talking about the origin of Drive Head a bit, because it’s rather important for explaining what happened. Drive Head was the first TV anime made to promote the Tomica brand of die-cast cars. It was neither the first Tomica anime, nor their first TV series. But it still was something of an experiment, given the brand has existed since 1970. Drive Head was billed as a co-production between OLM (a.k.a. the Pokemon studio) and XEBEC. But as anyone who takes the time to look through the credits can tell you, OLM had very little actual involvement in it. And XEBEC was on its last days. Drive Head had a dismally low budget, with constant off-model animation and two recap episodes, which is another reason that western anime fans were not impressed. Ignoring the fact that the series was aimed at children in Japan as a vehicle to sell toys, not sakuga fanatics.

And the reason that the creators just didn’t care? Well, besides the fact that it was experimental in ways, and that it was just made to sell toys to pre-schoolers? Because Drive Head was merely designed as a placeholder for Shinkalion while it was in production. Takara Tomy wanted Shinkalion to be big. Drive Head was a throwaway. Even the toys themselves were just retools from the Hyper Series line in the first wave.

But Drive Head was a big surprise to the Takara Tomy execs. Because it was big with its target audience. Now, the target audience of Drive Head is not on social media. They’re not the type pouring out fanart on Pixiv. Probably, they can’t even draw (some of the fan-submitted art on Drive Head News Channel, the live-action variety show it spawned proves this.) They’re pre-schoolers! That being said, Drive Head does have aspects that can appeal to adults (as long as they care about more than sakuga). Yeah, I did write that essay and a million fanfics about the villain/heroine romance straight out of Megamind that probably wasn’t written with the target audience in mind. Drive Head did somehow manage to trend on Twitter whenever new episodes aired. Heck, the series character designer posts fanart on Twitter that often treads NSFW territory and has an audience for it. But, Takara Tomy also doesn’t care about that audience, nor should they. They care about selling toys to kids.

Now, the first wave of Drive Head toys went out of print pretty quickly, when the robots were replaced in-universe by their mid-season upgrades. And the price of Sonic Interceptor, the main character’s first mech spiked up right away. There was still a demand for it. This probably should’ve been the first sign the toyline was doing well. Takara did take notice, and this placeholder show that was originally only planned for 37 episodes (an unusual amount when most kids shows run for 4+ cour) was expanded to have a sequel web series and movie. It has been officially stated from the staff that the series was planned to end at episode 37, and changes did have to be made to expand the plot. It must have been early enough in its run for this to be decided. However, given that the web series was primarily recap episodes (and even the entirely new ones were short episodes) and the movie was about an hour long and didn’t have significantly higher production values than the TV series, they clearly still rushed to get these made. The success of Drive Head was said to be unexpected. Even with the movie, they were still surprised. They had planned for two interactive Drive Gear linked screenings (the Drive Gear being a toy that made certain sounds in response to the show itself). Drive Gears were available for loan at these showings. Not only were these showings sold out so quickly that they set up a few more, but many kids brought their own Drive Gear from home, not needing to borrow one. The movie itself was also shown only in limited theaters, which led to enough complaints that they were forced to expand locations (and it still wasn’t enough). Though the movie wasn’t a box-office topping success and it’s actual revenue remains unknown barring in Korea where it seemed to indeed be a flop, it still proved popular with (once again) its target audience. Two theatres even kept playing it for a couple months after all the rest stopped.

Drive Head has continued to be rebroadcast on satellite networks and various streaming services. It is -still- popular with its target audience. You get posts on Twitter like, ‘my kid loves Drive Head and is asking for the toys, but they’re $200 on Amazon. Help!’ There’s still that much demand for these toys.

Unfortunately for these kids and parents, Drive Head hasn’t seen a single re-issue on the toys since its end, and has barely been acknowledged by Takara Tomy at all. There are a number of reasons for this. One is Shinkalion itself. The show that Drive Head was designed as a placeholder for and that Takara Tomy expected to be successful was so successful that it ended up running for longer than planned as well. It held onto the timeslot on TBS where Drive Head once aired until it was prematurely cancelled itself thanks to TBS wanting that timeslot to promote the ill-fated 2020 Olympics. So while there was talk from reliable sources about a Drive Head season 2 happening, it never got its chance to happen. The next reason is TBS itself. They screwed over all their anime programming, barring late-night fare, and it wasn’t until Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury came out in 2022 that they would even consider daytime anime again. So all of Takara Tomy’s properties jumped ship to TV Tokyo. And Drive Head, unlike Shinkalion, is so intrinsically tied to TBS that the likeness of their headquarters and even some of their staff members are featured in the anime. Though, given that real-Sasagawa no longer works for TBS, and has expressed interest in reprising her role one day, it could be feasible to get her on board if a TV Tokyo sequel ever happened. But for a time, there would definitely be some messy legal hoops involved, and there still could be for all I know. Thirdly, XEBEC. While Drive Head could be given to another studio easily enough (perhaps Studio Mother?), XEBEC is no longer of this world. A sequel under a new studio could lead to a radical staff change which might help or harm it. That and well… time’s passed. The time Shinkalion had the timeslot, Covid screwing with anime production after that… Despite new kids discovering the show through streaming platforms, the original target audience is older now and has moved on. It’s the kind of show that could get a nostalgia sequel 10 years from now but for a direct sequel at this point, that ship has sailed, for better or for worse. Even when Shinkalion got its long-awaited sequel, it was mainly focused on new characters and mecha, with the old cast reduced to cameos. And Takara has been releasing toylines with similar gimmicks and aesthetic, such as the currently-running Jobraver. So for that reason, the coveted re-issue of the Drive Head toys is basically doomed.

But now, Earth Granner. The special anime released to commemorate Tomica’s 50th anniversary. I mentioned above that the Tomica brand was born in 1970, so you do the math. You should see right away why that was an unfortunate year for a big 50th anniversary celebration.

When Earth Granner’s toys first hit the shelves, late April 2020, the biggest of the lockdowns were happening worldwide. While Japan’s lockdowns were not as long lasting or extreme as some countries (barring its extreme embargo on foreign tourism), they did happen, and toy stores were certainly deemed nonessential and were shut down for a brief period. So while yes, you could order the toys online on Amazon or the like, right from the get-go Takara Tomy lost their chance to have kids see the big cool $50 robot toy in the store and beg their parents for one. When it was revealed in a first-quarter sales report that the Earth Granner toys sold less than expected, there was almost gloating from a certain section of Shinkalion fans (-not- the target audience of either show) who were not happy that a new Tomica anime debuted before Shinkalion’s season 2 did. Despite the fact that new Shinkalion toys were still being produced and the brand was still very much alive even without a currently airing anime. This clearly ignoring the global crisis which was quite likely to blame for this new line to not have stellar sales from day one. And note that these low sales were quite temporary. Come December, Earth Granner was -the- hottest toyline for young boys. According to lists of the top Christmas toys, it was outselling both Rider and Sentai. That does not seem like a flop to me.

Earth Granner actually appeared to be a quite ambitious project from Takara. They’d learned from the success Drive Head had and planned all sorts of things for it. This included having tokusatsu-style costumes designed in real life of the two main heroes, who would allegedly appear at events and perform stage shows. But again, this was 2020. There was never one stage show. The costumes were only used for a few special events late into the anime’s run where they had drive-in advance showings of new episodes and Raiga and Kuga would be around to greet the kids though their car windows, assumedly. It’s unknown if there were ever plans to make suits for the remaining three Granners, or exactly what would’ve become of the franchise if it had the chance to be what Takara Tomy clearly wanted from it. But Earth Granner simply ended after its year run without even getting a movie like Drive Head and Shinkalion did, and it’s gimmicky extra-packed Blu-Ray box was canceled, having done poorly on the crowdfunding. Clearly, the show was again not a huge hit with adult fans, perhaps even less-so than Drive Head in Japan which did get a BD release. But the toys were still a top seller that year, despite the circumstances they had to deal with.

Again, Takara Tomy barely acknowledges the franchise anymore, and the toys are out of print. However, it also seems that Takara Tomy is going in a direction of less new anime, given their toys themselves prove to be more successful than the probable cost of the shows that promote them. With Tomica’s current Jobraver line, it’s clearly doing well enough that it’s survived for over a year. Its anime is merely sporadically-released all-CG-animated episodes on Youtube. The other currently airing Takara Tomy works include Go! Go! Vehicle Zoo (2-minute long episodes that air sporadically, and cross-promoting three toylines at once, including Tomica), Bouken Tairiku Ania Kingdom (10-minute episodes, and entirely done in stop-motion), a rebroadcast of Punirines (an all-CG 10-minute-episode anime from last year), Duel Masters (which has been running near-endlessly since 2002), and Beyblade (another long-running franchise which only recently made its return to TV after being relegated to streaming only for a while). Shinkalion may be a special exception due to its massive crossover appeal, but even that has no anime currently, rumors of an upcoming new series aside.

Tldr; Drive Head and Earth Granner did great with their target audience despite being screwed over by outside circumstances. You just don’t hear about them because you don’t chat with too many 4-year-olds in Japan.

#drive head #earth granner #takara tomy #shinkalion #tomica #god this mobile app seems to be destroying my formatting but I’ll have to try and fix that later

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