Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 Review

At first glance an obvious attempt to pander to anime fans by combining cute girls with guns for comedic effect, Stella Women’s Academy aspires to be more than just another cute girls show. Filled with kinetic airsoft gun battles, teen girls being silly, and meditations on self worth, this little anime teaches the lesson that one should never judge something by its cover – including the series itself.



Rather than reviewing anime series episode by episode, tackling them one season at a time will be the new approach on the blog. So please bear with me, since this is something I’ve only attempted once before and the review will be a little rough around the edges.

First off, I need to present a disclaimer.

I really don’t like the cute girls doing nothing subgenre of anime. Aimed at otakus without social lives, the rise of these moe dominated series are my bane along with jiggly T&A ecchi fests. Mindless and irritating, I can’t stand them. This will color my review.



So why am I reviewing a cute girls show, you wonder?

Well, I’m gun owner and enthusiast, so giving the first episode a shot was mandatory, if distasteful. To my astonishment, the show was funny and hinted at hidden depth which made me stick around for the next episode. Before I knew it, the emerging serious themes in the storyline combined with well written characters to hook both me and my senior citizen father.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidora (2001) Review

Giant Monsters All-Out Attack aka Godzilla: GMK

A darker take than usual in the Godzilla series of movies that adds a spiritual aspect to Japan’s battles with the giant lizard. While highly flawed, this is my second favorite Godzilla movie and only eclipsed by the original Gojira. It is the only other Godzilla movie in my collection other than the original and I purchased it from Hong Kong it was unavailable in the US at the time . That has since changed.  It also can be watched online at Crackle.com. UPDATED: April 2012. UPDATED again September 2014 with Blu-ray details and HD screen captures.

Toho Studios gave Shusuke Kaneko, the director of the competing rebooted Gamera trilogy, a shot at reinterpreting Godzilla and this production hit Japanese theaters in late 2001.  Domestically it was the most successful of the Millennium series of Godzilla movies. Yes, there have been so many films of the big ‘G’ that they are actually broken into subsets by era. GMK is a direct sequel to the 1954 movie and ignores all the others.

The movie begins with the most boring of settings, a classroom. This one is filled with Japanese naval officers being lectured by Admiral Tachibana (Ryudo Uzaki) about the only battle fought by the Japanese Self Defense Force.  That battle was in 1954 against the giant monster Godzilla and was a great victory for the JSDF.  Huh?  Wasn’t the radioactive menace killed by the Oxygen Destroyer? Something’s fishy here.

As the lecture goes on, mention of a giant monster attacking New York and possibly being identified as Godzilla occurs. This leads to a humorous slam against the 1998 American Godzilla movie during a discussion by two junior officers. One asks if it really was Godzilla. The other replies: “Experts in America say it was, but Japanese ones disagree.”

Battle of Britain (1969) Review

An all-star cast fills in-between beautiful scenes of aerial combat in this recounting of the famous World War II battle over Great Britain’s skies. While the fictional characters are nothing to write home about, the real drama comes from the unfolding nightmare that really did happen. Glorious cinematography will make you want to see it on a big screen – the bigger the better. UPDATED August 2014 for a full rewrite, Blu-ray details, and HD screen captures.

From August 12 to October of 1940, a fierce bombing campaign by Germany took place in preparation for an eventual amphibious invasion of Great Britain. Badly outnumbered and riven by arguments over strategy, the British very nearly lost this critical battle during the early stages of the Second World War. Any attempt to portray this complicated history was bound to be flawed in one way or another, so it was perhaps too big a story to tell in one movie.

Three main focuses are interweaved throughout: the factual RAF Fighter Command struggle to form an effective strategy (based on book The Narrow Margin), depictions of the air war itself, and drama around fictional fighter pilots.  Most of the focus is on the second and features the best aerial footage I’ve seen in any movie not named The Blue Max. With the noted James Bond film series director Guy Hamilton helming the movie, great action was guaranteed.

The Bobo (1967) Review

Famous comedian Peter Sellers anchors an excellent cast in this inconsequential yet highly enjoyable comedy about a penniless bullfighter tasked with seducing a beautiful gold digger. Gently charming humor, well written characters, and note perfect performances highlight this little known gem from the great comedian’s career. It also illustrates just why one should never trust a singing matador.

Ah, the 1960s. Though there was much going on in that decade, one defining characteristic of the era is all but forgotten today. That would be the airy and sometimes witty comedies from Europe that graced the silver screen like effervescent bubbles floating through the air. Often they were international productions filmed in Italy or England and featured actors from all over. These films were whimsically entertaining in a way that simply isn’t seen in today’s more vicious and crude culture.

Being old enough to have grown up with reruns of the genre on television, I grew rather fond of them during my childhood. But even then they were fading away so recountings of certain movies were told to me by my late mother and half brothers. One they kept regaling me about was The Bobo which turned out to be very obscure. In fact, I didn’t get to see it until the late 1990s on a cable movie channel.

Fortunately for me, the film was just as funny as they claimed.

Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003) Review

A muddled mess of a Godzilla film that is a direct sequel to 2002’s much better Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla this is probably the worst of the Millennium series. A weak script that links back to the original Mothra makes it more of little kids movie ala the 1970s entries. UPDATED with “HD” screen captures and Blu-ray details.

When I was a kid growing up, often there would be showings of Godzilla films on broadcast TV, usually Saturday night at 10:30 or in the afternoon. It dawned on me it might be fun to review some of the monster destroying cities films for the blog. So I chose Godzilla: Tokyo SOS as a guinea pig for this project.  I now regret that as I had to sit through the film twice like I do for every review.  Yes, you’ve been warned. Be afraid.

The movie starts out promisingly enough, with a sequence of code showing Mechagodzilla’s DNA based computers being tested segueing to Godzilla’s eye opening in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Moments later a US Air Force base picks up a UFO flying at high Mach speeds towards Japan and notify the local authorities.  Two F-15J Eagles are scrambled to intercept the UFO which has slowed to Mach 2 and is disturbing the cloud layer in a fairly decent CGI sequence.  Warning shots are fired ahead of the object without it reacting.  However, the lead pilot hears singing women and ground control doesn’t believe him.

The giant moth called… well, Mothra, emerges and the two jet fighters engage her with missiles.  Suddenly, the supersonic insect emits a golden cloud of glitter which fools the missiles into missing.  Who knew the beloved Japanese monster had chaff dispensers?

Gamera the Giant Monster (1965) Review

Only one giant monster series managed to compete with Godzilla -- and it took a flying turtle to do the job. Done on the cheap amid a great deal of internal doubt about the project, Gamera spawned a franchise that lasted for years to the delight of many children. The American edits are the ones most have seen, but the original Japanese version turns out to be a slightly more serious film with Cold War themes. It also portrays the life of one very disturbed little boy. UPDATED with HD screen captures and Blu-ray details.

When Toho’s Godzilla series suffered a false start in the ‘50s, many a movie studio tried to horn in on the big monster action including Toho themselves with Rodan and Mothra. But it was not until the head of Daiei Studios saw a turtle shaped cloud while flying across the Pacific Ocean that the only true rival emerged. With none of the accomplished directors at the studio wanting to make the movie, it fell on struggling young Noriaki Yuasa to make the mad idea work. Equipped with a quiet agenda of his own, he led a production crew into uncharted waters for Daiei had never made a movie like this. Did he succeed? Oh, yeah he did -- and then some.

Thanks to Shout Factory, we finally can see what the Japanese audiences originally saw in a completely restored and remastered version. Please join me for a slightly less snarky review than that of the NTA version, Gammera the Invincible. If you want to see what professional mockery can do with the Sandy Frank version, check out my Gamera: MST3K review.

Gamera the Giant Monster starts with Soviet bombers flying over the Artic ice and a Japanese scientific expedition arriving at an Eskimo village. I may have missed it, but the reason to be there never seems to be fully explained. It is more important that our three main characters just happen to be there to witness events. They are Dr. Hidaka (Eiji Funakoshi), his assistant Kyoke Yamamoto (Harumi Kiritachi), and news photographer Aoyogi (Junichiro Yamashiko).

Buzzed by the Soviet bombers which look suspiciously like British V-bombers (specifically the Victor), Hidaka makes a comment about the Cold War going on. The fears and tensions of the not so hot clash between East and West forms the backdrop for the film, unlike Gojira where it was the simple reaction to the atomic bomb drops that ended World War II. Eleven years had gone by with new concerns replacing the old which is perfectly understandable given Japan’s geographic location. They were smack dab between the two superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

Godzilla 2000 (1999) Review

Radioactive Rage Month continues with the movie that started the Millennium series of Godzilla films. After the disappointing American attempt at Japan’s iconic monster, Toho Studios decided to bring the big galoot back years ahead of schedule. The hastily put together result was a messy mash up of ideas from previous decades, special effects experimentation, and the occasional spectacular scene.

Toho originally planned to make a new Godzilla movie for the 50th anniversary of the character in 2004, leaving the franchise temporarily in Hollywood’s hands. Though profitable, 1998’s Godzilla was a large disappointment. Consequently,ideas for a trilogy were scrapped. A mere year after that turkey posing as a kaiju skittered onto the silver screen, the real Godzilla returned to fight another monster on Japanese soil.

This review covers the American edited and dubbed release, one of the very rare ones to hit theaters in the States. It only made $10 million in North America, so it was here and gone again in the blink of an eye. There were some good reasons for this…

Godzilla (1998) Review

Radioactive Rage Month continues with the most controversial incarnation of Godzilla. When popcorn movie makers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin got their hands on the first American attempt at the world’s most famous giant lizard, a disaster of epic proportions unfolded much to the horror of onlookers. By that, I mean the audience, not the characters in the story.

DISCLAIMER: Due to repeated viewings of the subject matter, the author of this review may have suffered permanent brain damage and cannot be held accountable for any ranting, denials of reality, or other acts of insanity that follow.

The horror… the horror…

With the winding up of the Heisei era series of Godzilla films, Toho Studios licensed out the big green ‘G’ to star in a big budget Hollywood version. Multiple directors bailed on the project due to the constraint of keeping the budget to $100,000,000. Eventually Roland Emmerich (Universal Soldier, Independence Day, Stargate) agreed to make the movie for that amount as long as he was allowed to do whatever he wanted. Tristar agreed to the terms and production began.

This is what is commonly referred to as “a mistake.”

Heavily hyped to the public, high expectations were generated after the smash hit Jurassic Park proved that large lizards could be made to look both realistic and terrifying thanks to advances in computer generated (CG) effects. I remember it well, for speculation on message boards was rampant thanks to the rise of the Internet. Secrecy was maintained well during production and what little info leaked slowly began to worry long time Godzilla buffs.

We weren’t alarmed enough, it turned out. Time to gird my loins, abandon my sanity, and write this review.

The horror… the horror…

Gojira (1984) Review

aka The Return of Godzilla aka Godzilla 1985

Radioactive Rampage Month continues with Godzilla’s come back film from the 1980s. Ditching the continuity of all the previous films except the original 1954 classic, this movie featured much ballyhooed new technology and a more serious take marked a new beginning for the franchise. Introducing a bigger, badder, and more feral incarnation of giant lizard, it was a marked departure from the kids films of the 1970s.

When 1975’s Terror of MechaGodzilla performed badly at the box office, it marked the end of two decades of Godzilla flicks. Toho Studios shelved the franchise and years went by until a resurgence in domestic interest in the radioactive kaiju prompted them to develop a new film. Oh there had been proposals and treatments created in the interim, but being in the business of making money the execs wanted to make sure there would be an audience.

Taking advantage of the fading memories of the last film meant they could now move in a new direction with a starting point from the first film. What they came up with was a direct sequel to the 1954 movie and far more serious than the aliens invading using large monsters storyline rut of the ‘70s. However, elements of the prior silliness are still present in this overly verbose story filled with Cold War paranoia.

This review is of the original Japanese version. I’ve never seen the American cut with Raymond Burr and am forced to wonder whether or not his pipe co-starred with him again like in Godzilla, King of the Monsters.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963) Review

Radioactive Rage month begins with the one and only clash between cinemas two biggest stars. When bad driving releases Godzilla from an icy tomb, the only weapon that can stop him is the mighty King Kong! But can Japan survive the clash of two titanic monsters? More importantly, who will win the fight in this wildly uneven movie?

The 1960s had arrived and both King Kong and Godzilla were unemployed after a mere two feature films each. Neither had appeared in a widescreen or color movie thanks to disappointing and rushed sequels to smash hit debuts. In what is an eternity for a film franchise, the last appearance for each had been 1933 and 1955, respectively.

So when an American producer shopped an idea around for a new King Kong movie where he fights another giant, he was met by the sound of crickets chirping. However, Toho Studios decided to take on the project and work in Godzilla as the substitute villain for the piece. Returning to helm the film was Gojira director Ishiro Honda who had not been involved in the lackluster Godzilla Raids Again.

The end result was a monster romp of the likes that hadn’t been seen since the days of Universal’s teaming up of the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Dracula. Aimed squarely at being an action comedy rather than a horror film, it was nothing like its predecessors. However, a few moments of the old chills appear making it a transitory Godzilla film from serious horror science fiction to kids films.

Unfortunately, the original Japanese version is not available so this will be a review of the heavily edited American version just released on Blu-ray for the first time.

Love and Honor (2006) Review

Veteran director Yoji Yamada’s final entry into his loose trilogy of films about the decline of the samurai way of life may have the least action, but is the best of the lot. A simple story of a young samurai tragically blinded and how it effects his marriage makes for a deeply emotional movie told with great sensitivity and beauty. Faced with adversity, he has to to choose between love and honor.

The mid to late 1800s in Japan was marked by the waning of the old feudal systems along with the associated samurai culture. Being a period of great turmoil affecting every level of society, the Bakumatsu transition to the Meiji Restoration is a fascinating time period in Japanese history and great fodder for movies. Domestic conflicts caused trouble within and interventions by foreign powers starting with Americans, then the English, French, and Dutch made it a time of violence and intrigue.

When Yamada decided to set his films Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, and Love and Honor during this upheaval, he made the unusual choice of going small in scale rather than large. Adapted from novels by Shuhei Fujisawa, the stories featured intimate portraits of dissatisfied samurais breaking with tradition, or at least bending it nearly to that point, for the women they loved. It was a brilliant move that produced three incredible movies that rank with the best to ever come out of Japan.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) Review

A dark and brooding look at the sinful desires that corrupt people is not what you would expect out of Disney as a theater goer in the early Eighties. Yet that is exactly what this movie is. When a strange carnival named Dark's Pandemonium arrives at a small town, harrowing encounters with Dark and his minions follow. Soon the lives of the townsfolk are on the line, if not their very souls.  Filled with horror, regrets, and menace the movie is ultimately about fathers and sons. UPDATED January 2014 with better screen captures and completely rewritten text.

The late Seventies had not been kind to the Walt Disney company at the box office. In an attempt to regain lost audiences the studio had been moving more toward the serious side in their films; starting in 1979 with The Black Hole and the dollowing year with The Watcher in the Woods. 1982 was supposed to be the year of big change with the experimental TRON and this gothic movie hitting theaters to revitalize the company’s box office success.

Alas, that plan fell apart due to a disastrous test screening that led to reshoots a year later designed to make the movie more acceptable to a family audience. However, those changes did not change the movie enough and the end result was still a dark and terrifying movie that was guaranteed to give small kids nightmares.

TRON: Legacy (2010) Review

A surprisingly beautiful and layered movie that vastly improves upon the original film in every possible way. While the action is spectacular, the real story is both a social commentary and variation on the prodigal son. Filled with extraordinary imagery, kinetic action, and good acting, it may not have been the smash success Disney envisioned it succeeded in being thought provoking and very, very entertaining. UPDATED December 2011 for Blu-ray review and HD screen captures, January 2013 for technical details.

I’m old enough to have seen the original TRON in a movie theater and always had a soft spot in my heart for it.  Disney’s experiment wasn’t a great movie, but was a passable B movie with an A level budget.   Still, it was great fun and interesting to look at with an equally interesting soundtrack.  28 years later, the sequel arrived in 3D during a disappointing winter box office.  So did it live up to the hype?

TRON: Legacy starts with a lasers forming the outline of the Walt Disney Pictures Enchanted Castle which is a nice touch. This was in 3D at the theater; the screen captures in the review come from the Blu-ray so I may be a bit fuzzy about where 2D and 3D transitioned. Lines of blue light follow, tracing circuit patterns that become city streets while Jeff Bridges voice is heard talking about “The Grid.” It is a very pretty sequence indicative of things to come.

The year is 1989 and widower Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is telling his seven year old son, Sam, about getting into The Grid in the first movie. TRON and CLU are mentioned as helping him build The Grid and a promise is made to take Sam there one day. But something big has happened, a “miracle” and for the moment the boy has to stay put. Another promise is made and Flynn leaves to work on his project.

TRON (1982) Review

A tale about a human crossing over into a virtual world hidden inside video games, this movie predicted much about a rising technology using an amazing combination of live action, animation, and pioneering computer generated special effects. Featuring a simple story that’s owes much to Spartacus, the sheer spectacle of the unusual imagery made this a cult classic.

Turn on a TV set or go to a theater and you’ll immediately be bombarded by brilliant and unreal visions of people or things doing physically impossible actions in defiance of the laws of physics or existence. In a world filled with computer generated (CG) graphics it all seems humdrum today.

Rendered by artists using computers instead of airbrushes and paint, CG is used in everything from commercials to sports broadcasts (virtual 1st down lines, anyone?) with no way to escape it. Let me take you back to a far gone period where this wasn’t the case and computers themselves were still mysterious rather than ubiquitous.

The early 1980s to be precise.

Desperate to regain a declining youth audience in the late ‘70s, Walt Disney’s movie division was willing to try new things. While conventional animation was considered dead or at least comatose, a slew of live action movies breaking the child friendly G rating were commissioned. Among them were The Watcher in the Woods, The Black Hole, and the radically experimental TRON.

The Invisible Boy (1957) Review

When a true sequel to Forbidden Planet fell apart during the planning stages, MGM decided that Robby the Robot would still get a vehicle written around him for the next year. Instead of a hard science fiction story, a simpler story aimed straight at young boys was chosen. Though nowhere near the quality of the earlier film, moments of intelligence shine through this kiddie flick about a not very intelligent brat.

This review is actually an extension of my Forbidden Planet one, since this movie is an extra in both the DVD and Blu-ray releases. Little did I know when I started watching this flick that I’d encounter a boy so annoying that he rivaled Kenny (aka Toshio) from the first Gamera movie! Is that considered a spoiler? If so, consider yourself nearly as spoiled as Timmie.

Yes, that’s a Timmie with an “ie”, not a “y”.

Looking every bit like a B-movie, but sporting a slightly better budget, The Invisible Boy starts off in promising fashion with a motorcade arriving at the Stoneman Institute of Mathematics. A front for an underground computer laboratory and research center, it is run by Dr. Tom Merrinoe (Richard Eyer), the main programmer for “the Computer” at its core. Holding the collective knowledge of all of humanity, it is being used for things such as checking rocket launch calculations.

Okay, that sounds underwhelming, but back in the 1950s this was amazing stuff since virtually nobody had any experience with the brilliant idiots we now tote around everywhere. To the layman, computers were a form of black magic capable of doing almost anything. Every day brought a new advancement in science, much of it on the military end.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Review

A smart, literate script that derived much of its plot form Shakespeare's The Tempest propels this film from what could of been an expensive B-movie into a true top tier movie. Featuring a flying saucer, a robot, a mad scientist, and an alien monster it sounds like kid’s dream. Oh it is that, alright, but good acting and cutting edge effects made this science fiction film a true classic. UPDATED December 2013 with a full rewrite, HD screen captures, and Blu-ray details.

Younger people have frown up in an era dominated by special effect, but this wasn’t the case in the past. Once upon a time, there was no such thing as computer generated effects, or CG. Special effects were done in laborious, painstaking ways, with wires, matte paintings, and miniatures. Of late, there has been a renaissance in using the old methods, combining them with CG. But amazingly, there were genuinely well done special effects in the past (though kids today will laugh at some of them) with certain films being milestones in the art.

MGM’s Forbidden Planet is one such film, but the expensive effects were only part of the reason this bold experiment is considered one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. The introduction of Robby the Robot (who cost an astounding 100,000 1956 dollars) definitely contributed, as did Anne Francis' short dresses (an actual plot point). But the main ingredient stirred into the mix was that the director and actors took the story seriously.

Pacific Rim (2013) Review

A high budget love letter from director Guillermo del Toro to Japanese science fiction cinema, this story of giant monsters and titanic robots failed to light up the domestic box office. Yet it was far from a failure becoming a massive hit worldwide. Aimed squarely at twelve year olds (including inner ones), a simple heroic story told mainly visually also targets the human heart despite being a brutal slugfest. Beautiful to behold, packed with action, and supported by a good cast it is a whole lot of fun.

A last minute decision was made to add this review to my Halloween lineup since it was time for a giant monster movie in the rotation. Featuring kaijus (giant monsters) fighting with mechas (giant robots) rendered with the most modern of effects, it certainly fills the bill. Also, I love this flick and wanted an excuse to do a full review of its Blu-ray release. Thanks to a large amount of extras, it turned into a Herculean endeavor.

But hey, better to go large, right? Speaking of which…

Pacific Rim launches straight into a prologue packed to the gills with action and information narrated by a rueful voice looking back at the events. Set in the near future, a huge amount of exposition both verbal and visual comes at the audience at a furious rate. In summation, giant toxic monsters have emerged from a dimensional rift called the Breach in the ocean floor of the Pacific, towering robots were built in an international effort to stop them, and humanity thought they were winning.

This data overload is presented in the form of news clips, flashes of monsters called the Kaiju (Japanese for giant beasts) trashing cities, and scenes of Jaegers (German for hunter) being built. Not only does it set things up, but the montage gives glimpses of Kaiju and Kaeger designs that didn’t make the final cut. More interesting is that del Toro did not direct this portion of the prologue. Not one to use the “found footage” or pseudo documentary style, he instead assigned it to a trusted friend and was delighted with the results.

It has been awhile since I’ve seen a big budget movie dare to start in the middle of a story and while it might not be what people are now used to, I’ve always felt that it adds to the suspension of disbelief. After all, most of life is about wandering into a situation as it messily unfolds rather than being there from the beginning.

With the setup explained the movie really begins.

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) Review

Known for its revival of the old horror franchises it was odd that only one stab was made at the werewolf subgenre by Hammer Films. Starring a novice actor named Oliver Reed and loosely based on a lurid bestselling novel of the 1930’s, it was something of a gamble. Fortunately for audiences, what they got was a portrayal of the warring sides of the human psyche and what I view as the best werewolf movie ever made.

Director Terence Fisher (Horror of Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein) was unquestionably Hammer’s go to guy when it came to directing reinventions of Universal’s old monster films. Adept at handling action, moody tension, and able to get serious performances out his actors, Fisher once again was called on when it was time to bring back the werewolf to the silver screen.

Adapted from a novel, Werewolf in Paris, the movie takes huge liberties with the source material and all for the better. The biggest change is in setting, which is moved to late 18th Century Spain. This is made very clear by the bold lettering that was considered so stylish at the time. After seeing how that screen capture turned out, I couldn’t resist using it. In fact, it’s the only reason for it to be in the review.

Time to get more serious and write about the story. But I still am amused by the screenshot.

Whisper of the Heart (1995) Review

An early attempt by Hayao Miyazaki to step back from directing led to this soulful adaptation of a manga about a stubborn middle school student trying to find a direction in life. Filled with trials of school, friendship, family, and even romance, her journey takes her to the most controversial ending in Studio Ghibli history.

Adolescence is a turbulent period in the life due to all the new and confusing situations you encounter. Most of the trouble is in dealing with others while trying to figure out just who you are. This is a tricky balancing act in even the best of circumstances.

In our current culture, that time has extended well past the teens through the twenties to encroach on the thirty something’s. But in 1995 when Whisper of the Heart was released, there was still a desire to mature at an early age though it was fading.

Set in a Japanese city, the film greets us with a montage of urban life after the sun has faded and the lights have just flickered on providing the glow that can make night life possible. It’s that period when responsibilities have mostly ended with the promise of things possible wafting through the summer air. Ironically, the Olivia Newton-John version of the song “Country Roads” is used as a backdrop for the cityscape.

Eventually we follow a girl leaving a market and accompany her home to a small family apartment. Shizuku Tsukishima is enjoying her summer break by burying herself in books about fairy tales. But a mystery arises for the middle school student when a name on the checkout card of a book she’s reading seems vaguely familiar. Sure enough, the same name appears on all the books she’s checked out from the library: Seiji Amasawa.

Varan the Unbelievable (1958) Review

aka Daikaiju Baran

When Toho Studios was approached by an Americans network to make a giant monster TV movie, they turned to the crew who made Gojira and Rodan for the debut of a new kaiju. With a lower budget than the previous monster movies, Varan was meant to combine all the aspects of all the previous kaiju into one monster. That was either going to be biggest success yet or an epic failure. What do you mean you’ve never heard of Varan? He’s unbelievable! That much I’ll agree on…

If you have even heard of Varan, you are probably thinking of the U.S. version that came out four years after the Japanese version. According to what I’ve read, it only has fifteen minutes of footage from this release and is a mess. After watching the origininal three times in a row, I want to say that might be an improvement. Buckle up, this review is going to be a bumpy ride.

See that above? You’ll never see that on another Toho film. That was a one off marketing gimmick before they settled on Tohoscope for their widescreen movies. It was the fact that Varan the Unbelievable was the first kaiju film to take advantage of the new format that made me want to own it.

Whereas Rodan was the first in color, this lower budget film was commissioned to be in B&W by the U.S. network. A good chunk of the movie was filmed in standard 4:3 before the decision was made by Toho changing over to anamorphic widescreen for a theatrical release domestically. They ended up cropping the early footage to match the anamorphic. So if you think some of the shots vary in quality, your eyes aren’t fooling you.

Alright, enough with the background, let’s get to the story!

The best part of the movie occurs at the start, which consists of the main title flashing by in front of a scary looking statue before fading into credits scrolling over a matte painting. What’s so great about that, you wonder? The theme. Composed by Akira Ifukube it combines his typically dark sound with chanting to create a sinister sense of urgency that would have fit in a serious horror movie of the period.

Sadly that ends and the movie really begins. Since this is a story about a giant monster, we get treated to the sight of a rocket blasting off. What does it have to do with the story? Absolutely nothing. It’s there just to look cool and take advantage of the space race hoopla beginning.

Next we meet a scientist, the dramatically coiffed Professor Sugimoto (Koreya Senda), lecturing some of his assistants and the audience directly. This partial breaking of the fourth wall does not happen again, just like the rocket launch. Oh and before I forget, the subject was butterflies, I think.