Woah – I didn’t realize that October had gotten away from me so much. I’ve been so focused on watching horror movies and the inktober challenge this month that I kind of spaced putting together an episode for the first half of the month. Well hopefully the content makes up for the tardiness!
This episode is a laid back chat with my Japanese friends Yuji and Michi Nishimura. If you’re unfamiliar with M1 Ichigo toys, Yuji is the man behind the company. The toys produced by M1 are beautiful and I am very happy to have a small assortment of them in my collection. Yuji makes all of the calls for his company – and if that wasn’t enough of a reason to interview him, he’s also like a rock star of a collector too.
The entirety of his collection is mind-boggling, but we won’t be focusing on the toys so much in this episode — although another in the future is almost certainly in order. No, what we focus on in this interview is more about what he’s doing with his collection, how he’s assisting a company called Kodansha and his involvement with the current traveling exhibit in Japan called the Tokusatsu DNA Exhibition. No kidding, if you are going to be anywhere in Japan while this exhibit is on display, make sure you make your way to whatever museum is serving up this awesomeness!
Now, a quick word about the audio of this episode… first, please pardon the length. I used to apologize for long episodes, but this one is definitely on the shorter side of an hour. Also, a word on audio quality – since this was recorded in the dealers’ room at G-Fest XXIV, there’s a LOT of noise and it was difficult to clean up, and someone made a lengthy announcement that I had to cut out (Nunes!!!), so there will be times where it will be difficult to hear us, but I hope you enjoy it!
TUNES FOR THE SHORTER TIMES:
1. Mahara Mosura by Yuji Koseki from Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
2. Southern Island Tale segment by Hachiro Matsui from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
3. Go, Go Godzilla by the Blue Oyster Cult from Spectre (1977)
I don’t exactly know what happened here. What was it about The Last Dinosaur (1977) that compelled a fully packed Kaijucast HQ tonight? Maybe my co-hosts are drawn to the smell of cheese… Anyway, I was joined by Adam, Jeff, Clancy, Sean, Gretchen AND Rachel for this discussion — and it was a doozy! Perhaps your mileage may vary, but we made sure to enjoy ourselves during this one. The Last Dinosaur is such a bizarre entry in the genre and even after saying that, I don’t actually think I’d really classify this as a kaiju film – kind of in the same way I wouldn’t normally consider the American made King Kong movies to be kaiju fare.
In addition to the news, there were a lot of catastrophic events to talk about, so check out all of these tasty show notes below!
MESOZOIC MELODIES:
1. Escape from the Dinosaur by Akira Ifukube from Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
2. The Last Dinosaur (1977) Japanese trailer
3. Main theme by Nancy Wilson, Jules Bass & Bernard Hoffer from The Last Dinosaur (1977)
DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION:
Our next movie will be Shinpei Hayashiya’s kaiju comedy The Deep-Sea Monster Raiga (2009) — his follow up to his 2005 indie film Deep Sea Monster Reigo! Now this is one of the few movies that I put on this list that is not available commercially in the USA, but it was released in Japan. If you have the film and would like to send in your thoughts, questions and reviews for the discussion, please submit your homework before October 21st!
Hirofumi Fukuzawa entertains the crowds during his panel at Japan World Heroes. Photo by Dominic Tuazon.
Last month, I was very lucky and happy to attend JAPAN WORLD HEROES in Pasadena, California. As we’ve mentioned on the podcast recently, this was a fantastic show dedicated to tokusatsu, with many guests from Japan directly involved with a number of tokusatsu properties.
I co-moderated a panel with Jim Cirronella of Celebrity Icons in which we asked stunt and suit actor Hirofumi Fukuzawa about his career. This episode is the audio from that panel. In addition to being the suit actor for Gamera 3: Revenge of Irys (1999), Hirofumi Fukuzawa is primarily a sentai stunt actor and played rangers and heroes from a landslide of programs in Japan.
Seriously, I suggest checking out his resume; it’s pretty impressive!
SENTAI SONGS:
1. Opening Theme by Mochida Yuusuke from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (2011)
2. Ending Credits by Kenichiro ?ishi from Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle (2011)
Kyle is joined by the Tokusatsu Network’s Paula Gaetos to recap the wonder of Japan World Heroes. Photo taken at Monsterpalooza 2017 (Not really pictured: Kaiju Kingdom Podcast’s Chris Eaton).
For this episode I am joined by The Tokusatsu Network’sPaula Gaetos. I thought that it would be a big advantage to have a die-hard fan of the genres represented at the convention help me fill in the gaps (of which there were a LOT!) in describing how cool it actually was to have so many amazing guests at Japan World Heroes. If you haven’t listened to the interview with Scott Zilner, you might not be familiar with the convention that we’re describing but have no fear, Paula is going to school myself and you listeners in the ways of tokusatsu’s superheroes!
MINUTE AMOUNT OF MONSTER MUSIC:
1. Ending theme by Akira Ifukube from Monster Zero (1965)
DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION REMINDER:
If you’re interested in sharing your homework (aka your thoughts questions and reviews) for The Last Dinosaur (1977) please make sure to do so before September 22nd to be part of the upcoming episode!
Sean and Kyle tackle the 1982 compilation film, Attack of the Super Monsters!
Where to begin in this little blurb/writeup for the blog?
I know some of you have been waiting to hear about this one. I actually found out about Attack of the Super Monsters (1982) a long time ago, watched it and then promptly and willfully ignored it for years. It’s not a film that even should be considered in the same way that Godzilla’s films should and are. Attack of the Super Monsters is a compilation film.
What’s a compilation film, you ask?? Well, Sean joined me to talk about that, rittai anime, the Japanese source material and a whole lot more in this episode covering this very strange film. Attack of the Super Monsters might not be your cup of tea, but it definitely deserves a viewing at least once – hopefully with some friends and some laughs. Now, someone point me in the direction of an Izenborg episode online, because I can’t find any to watch!
SUPER SAURIAN SONGS:
1. Mothra vs We Are Scientists by We Are Scientists from Safety, Fun, and Learning (In That Order) (2002)
2. Introduction/Opening Titles by Toshima Toshiaki from Dinosaur War Izenborg (1977)
3. Dinosaur War Aizenborg Theme by Animetal from Animetal Marathon III (1998)
4. Daikaiju Theme by Big Pimp Jones from Valley of the Giants (2017)
CATASTROPHIC EVENTS:
9/8 – 9/10 Rose City Comic Con in Portland, Oregon — come out to our 12pm panel on Saturday!
9/9 -> Kaijucast Listener Party at Killer Burger in downtown Portland, Or
10/20 – 10/20 Grand Rapids Comic Con in Grand Rapids, MI w/Tsutomu “Tom” Kitagawa
10/27 – 10/29 Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ w/Linda Miller (King Kong Escapes, The Green Slime), Linda Haynes (Latitude Zero) and Carl Craig (Gamera vs. Viras)
SHIN GODZILLA GIVEAWAY WINNERS:
Big congratulations to the following entries that correctly answered the trivia question(s). These brilliant people have won themselves some stuff autographed by Shinji Higuchi, one of Shin Godzilla’s directors!
JOHN DIXON, Irvine, CA JOHN DREGALLA, Dayton, OH
MATTHEW KINSEY, Jackson, MO
KEN HUNTLEY, Clermont, FL
RON ALLARD, Central Falls, RI
DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION FOR NEXT MONTH:
September brings us another “off-brand” entry into the kaiju genre and I believe it might be related to this month’s movie – as we mention in the episode. We will be watching The Last Dinosaur (1977), which was a co-production between Rankin Bass and Tsuburaya Productions. The film is definitely available for sale, legally by Warner Bros.
Kaijucast #216 Yuji & Michi Nishimura from M1 Toys [ 41:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
