Byrd, Matt and Trev celebrate the legacy of Japanese action star Sonny Chiba, who recently passed away at the age of 82. We talk about Chiba's humble beginnings as a star of low budget tokusatsu productions, becoming a global martial arts icon, and his impact on the Japanese film industry. We also review four classic Chiba-starring tokusatsu films- the early superhero films Invasion of the Neptune Men and The Golden Bat, the 1975 disaster thriller The Bullet Train, and the samurai vs. soldiers s...
Sep 13, 2021•2 hr 52 min•Ep. 257
Byrd and Matt are joined by Chris Marti (Cosmic Monster) and Jared Foust (Xenofauna) to discuss the rich history of kaiju fan films! We discuss their recent short Ultraman Sorta vs. Godzilla (which Jared directed and Chris did sound design for) and then we get into the history of kaiju fan films, going way back to the 50s and forward all the way into the present. Future trail blazers such as Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi, John Carpenter, Steve Wang, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Tom Woodruff, and others got...
Sep 06, 2021•2 hr 29 min•Ep. 256
Byrd and Matt are joined by Maser Patrol's Kevin Derendorf and Josh Greilich to discuss the four-film retelling of Neon Genesis Evangelion. With the long awaited fourth film, Thrice Upon a Time now out on Amazon Prime, we finally get a chance to unpack this reintroduction into the world of Evangelion that was 14 years in the making. Along the way, we debunk some common myths around topics like Anno being a troll and Mari being a stand in for his wife. We discuss the long, complicated production ...
Aug 30, 2021•3 hr 12 min•Ep. 255
Byrd, Matt and Tom discuss Jun Fukuda's obscure sci-fi comedy, Konto 55: Grand Outer Space Adventure. The film stars the comedy duo Konto 55, as they and their mutual love interest are abducted by aliens in order to study earthlings' knack for violence. An alien Bluebeard, Marilyn Monroe, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Yang Gufei, and Ono no Komachi also appear. It is as insane as it sounds. So how does this daffy obscurity fare? Listen and find out!
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 254
SciFi Japan's Bob Johnson returns to discuss the return of Godzillafest, the largest Godzilla film festival in the country. We also talk about Bob's commentary track on Arrow's Gamera the Brave blu-ray, the complicated nature of the Godzilla series' home video rights in the United States, how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted movie screenings over the last year, starting the Planet 8 Podcast, the passing of iconic American anime producer Fred Ladd, and more! Relax and enjoy the conversation! Th...
Aug 13, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 253
Get ready for a real "two plus two cooperation" as we are joined by Joseph Schafer and Ian Cory (of the Evangelion podcast, the Human Instrumentality Podcast) to take a deep dive into Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's radical, yet beloved Godzilla reboot. Now with five years since the film's release, we thought there would be nobody better to join us for this retrospective look back. We discuss how Anno and Higuchi's previous work has been informed by the kaiju genre, the film's production histo...
Aug 01, 2021•2 hr 32 min•Ep. 252
Byrd and Matt are joined by guest hosts Tom and Kevin to discuss the divisive new Godzilla anime series on Netflix. This co-production between Toho, Bones, and Studio Orange was a bold and different take on a Godzilla story, incorporating physics, trans-temporal theory, and wild new takes on classic characters. We talk about the show's production history, kaiju concepts, and the split reaction from G-Fans, as well as give our own thoughts. We also discuss how the series should impact the future ...
Jul 28, 2021•2 hr 56 min•Ep. 251
Byrd and Matt are joined by the prolific voice actress, Tiffany Grant! Tiffany is one of the most prolific voice actresses in the dubbing world, having worked on titles such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Gamera trilogy, Vampire Hunter D, Super Atragon, Blue Seed and TONS more. We discuss her beginnings doing dubs at ADV Films, her work dubbing Dr. Nagamine in the Gamera trilogy, her iconic performance as Asuka in Evangelion, her work adapting English scripts for dubbing, having to use studio m...
Jul 23, 2021•51 min•Ep. 250
Author, script consultant and film historian Ray Morton stops by the podcast to discuss all things King Kong! Ray wrote History of a Movie Icon, the definitive book on the Kong franchise. We discuss a wide range of Kong-centric topics including Ray's book, his audio commentary on the recent Kong '76 blu ray, the history of the Kong series, varying interpretations of the original film, common falsehoods about the "spider-pit" scene, the character's complicated legal rights, Kong's impact on pop c...
Jul 17, 2021•2 hr 3 min•Ep. 249
Byrd and Matt discuss the rare Toei disaster drama, The Final War. The film takes inspiration from the same story as Toho's more often seen The Last War from the following year and tells the stories of several groups of average Japanese citizens as the Cold War escalates into a nuclear apocalypse. In addition to the film, we also talk about how it competed with The Last War and how they compare, Japan's Cold War anxiety, and more! But first, we have a brief news roundup and discuss the recent Go...
Jul 11, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 248
Byrd and Matt are joined by guest host Trev (Days of Future Podcast/Failure to Franchise) to discuss the Asylum's recent b-movie blockbuster, Ape vs. Monster. Created to cash in on this year's anticipated crossover, Godzilla vs. Kong, the film focuses on a giant ape and a giant lizard who come into contact with a space virus and grow huge. In addition to our review, we discuss Eric Roberts, the film's truly bizarre performances, and how we see the Asylum adapting to the modern age.
Jun 27, 2021•1 hr 17 min
Byrd is joined by Kevin Derendorf (Maser Patrol) and Justin Mullis (Man Creates Dinosaurs blog) to interview prolific author Greg Keyes! Greg has had an extensive career as a novelist, but is most known to kaiju fans as the author of the graphic novel Godzilla: Dominion, the Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs Kong novelizations, and the Pacific Rim: Ascension novel. He's also written books for Star Wars, Interstellar, Planet of the Apes, and more. This extensive interview touches on ...
Jun 13, 2021•2 hr 20 min
Byrd, Matt and Kevin discuss the low budget South Korean kaiju oddity, War of the God Monsters! This obscure film uses stock footage from various Tsuburaya kaiju tv shows to string together a story about global warming awakening angry dinosaurs and the perpetually angry scientist who warns the masses. The film was virtually lost until the recent blu-ray release from SRS Cinema. In addition to our review, we discuss the movie's origin and reputation, the pre-2000s Korean film industry, "cut and p...
May 31, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 247
Byrd and Matt are joined by director Daniel Lusko to discuss his new film Ape vs. Monster from the Asylum! We discuss how he got started in the business, the Asylum's production model, working with extremely limited time and money, how he chooses projects, the "mockbuster" formula, Eric Roberts, taking pride in making low budget movies, and more!
May 17, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 246
Byrd, Matt and Kevin discuss Netflix's recent Pacific Rim anime series, which was released in early March of 2021. This co-production between Legendary and Polygon Pictures takes place after the events of Pacific Rim: Uprising and follows two young siblings who encounter gangsters, kaiju, and more on a quest to find their missing parents. How does the season stack up and why is it so difficult to review? Listen and find out!
May 04, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 245
Byrd and Matt are joined by frequent guest host Trev (Days of Future Podcast and Failure to Franchise), as well as independent game developer Alex Rushdy (13AM Games) to unpack the recent film, Monster Hunter directed by Paul WS Anderson. This Sony/Toho/Tencent/Constantin Films co-production (yes, there's that many studios involved) based on Capcom's hit video game series landed exclusively in theaters with little fanfare at an unfortunate height for the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to our rev...
Apr 15, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 244
Byrd and Matt are joined by frequent guests Tom and Trev to unpack the recent cross over film, Godzilla vs. Kong. We give our review, as well as discuss the film's long road to completion, director Adam Wingard, cut subplots, and the future of the MonsterVerse. So how did the rematch nearly 60 years in the making fare? Listen and find out!
Apr 07, 2021•2 hr 48 min•Ep. 243
Byrd and Matt conduct a taste test experiment with their children and significant others to review recent Godzilla vs. Kong tie in food. Byrd is joined by Kim and Julia, and Matt is joined by Sara and Landon to review FYE's exclusive Ultimate Showdown Titan 1lb Milk Chocolate bar, the Kong Banana Crunch milk chocolate bar, the Godzilla Fiery Chipotle dark chocolate bar, and the Godzilla heat ray hot sauce. How did these snacks fare with our better halves and small children? Did the podcast erupt...
Apr 02, 2021•31 min•Ep. 242
In the lead up to Godzilla vs. Kong, Byrd, Matt, and Tom are joined by author John LeMay (The Lost Films, Kong Unmade, Jaws Unmade) to talk about the original classic showdown! On this audio commentary, we talk about the surprisingly tragic way the film came about, the sad life of Willis O'Brien, the battle for Kong's rights, the rise of commercialism in post-war Japan, the aborted sequels to this film, Toho's attempts to use Kong in the Heisei series, differences between the Japanese and Americ...
Mar 28, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 241
Byrd, Matt and Maser Patrol's Kevin Derendorf scrape the bottom of the barrel for more King Kong rip offs and come back with tales to tell! This time, we discuss the Italian-Canadian film Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century (1977), the Asylum's King of the Lost World (2005) and Bigfoot (2012), the uber obscure The Abominable (aka Ice Kong, 2006), and the recent micro budget reboot, Konga TNT (2020)! As always, we'll give our reviews and a fair bit of trivia. Relax and enjoy!
Mar 23, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 240
Byrd and Matt are joined by Kevin Derendorf (Maser Patrol/Kaiju For Hipsters) and Justin Mullis (Man Creates Dinosaurs blog) to talk about King Kong's animated forms, with a spotlight on four "unofficial" animated films that were made without the permission of Kong's rights holders. We discuss the animated musical The Mighty Kong (1998), two Kong Animated Series sequels Kong: King of Atlantis and Kong: Return to the Jungle, and the feature length pilot episode of Kong: King of the Apes. But firs...
Mar 14, 2021•2 hr 41 min•Ep. 239
In 2018, Byrd and Tom joined up with the Movie Graveyard Podcast for an audio commentary for 1961's UK classic Gorgo! We talked about the state of the giant monster genre at the time, how it would go on to influence kaiju cinema, its origins as a Japanese/British co-production and more. Listen along and enjoy the discussion!
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 238
Byrd and Matt get together with Kevin and Ultra superfan Connor to discuss the most recent Ultraman show, 2020's Ultraman Z! We talk about its troubled production history, our favorite and least favorite moments, and more! But first we have a huge kaiju news roundup, as we give our thoughts on the latest for Godzilla vs. Kong, Shin Ultraman, Cloverfield 2, Pacific Rim: The Black, and the upcoming Monsterverse King Kong Netflix cartoon, and Byrd reveals why he's Team Kong!
Feb 08, 2021•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 237
Byrd and Matt are joined again by Trev and Tom to discuss the 2020 film Love and Monsters! The film takes place seven years after a giant monster apocalypse, as our protagonist Joel travels across a monster filled terrain to find his high school sweetheart. The film stars Dylan O'Brien, Michael Rooker and Jessica Henwick, and was directed by Michael Matthews and written by Matthew Robbins and Brian Duffield (Underwater, Spontaneous, and the upcoming Monsterverse Kong animated series on Netflix)....
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 236
We're back with something a little different this time as we're joined by Trev and Tom to discuss some Japanese flavored takes on everyone's favorite caped crusader. We talk about the heavily anime and kaiju influenced Batman Unlimited animated film, Mechs vs Mutants, and the completely bonkers anime film Batman Ninja! We're gonna talk giant monsters, giant robots, giant monkeys, giant Batmans and giant... castles! But first, we discuss the announced Prince of Space remake, and Batman's populari...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 235
Byrd, Matt, and Kevin are joined by Jared Foust (Xenofauna on Twitter/Instagram) to discuss modern artist Takashi Murakami's 2013, film debut, Jellyfish Eyes. Mostly known for his artwork and design work (including for artists such as Billie Eilish and Kanye West), Murakami decided to try his hand at making a children's film that would combine his aesthetic with other inspirations from kaiju/tokusatsu and video games to tell a story about kids and their monster pets (called FRIENDS) in a post-Fu...
Dec 12, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 234
Byrd, Matt and Tom discuss the recent indie kaiju spoof, Notzilla. After circling Hollywood and going through different hands for years, director Mitch Teemley decided to make his affectionate kaiju parody independently with a tiny budget in Cincinnati, OH. What happens when kaiju and 50s American b-movie tropes combine with parody? Join us as we review the film and discuss its origins and the state of the spoof genre.
Nov 16, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 233
If you're still not over the end of October, Byrd, Tom and Kevin are here to help with your Halloween hangover by talking about the horror-action mashups of director Ryuhei Kitamura. Before directing Godzilla: Final Wars, Kitamura had humble beginnings making low budget genre films. We discuss his early efforts, including the zombie/yakuza film Versus, the sci-fi/horror manga adaptation Alive, and the samurai/yokai battle Aragami. We also discuss some of his short films as well. But first, we ta...
Nov 08, 2020•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 232
For this October horror episode, we get into some werewolf shenanigans by talking about screen adaptations of manga legend Kazumasa Hirai's strange Wolf Guy franchise. First up, we have Toho's 1973 film, Horror of the Wolf, directed by Masashi Matsumoto and co-written by Godzilla veteran Jun Fukuda. Next up, we discuss Toei's 1975 Wolf Guy, starring Sonny Chiba as an older version of the character. Then we follow it up with JC Staff's six part anime series. The world of Wolf Guy a bonkers one fu...
Oct 28, 2020•2 hr 12 min•Ep. 231
For our first October horror episode of 2020, Byrd, Matt, and Tom are joined by Trev (Failure To Franchise, Days of Future Podcast) to discuss two shockers from exploitation maestro, Teruo Ishii. First, we discuss Toei's controversial mad scientist tale, Horrors of Malformed Men, which was pulled from theaters and languished for decades under a studio imposed ban. Then we discuss the Nikkatsu yakuza/horror/action mashup, Blind Woman's Curse, starring the iconic Meiko Kaji. In addition to our mov...
Oct 19, 2020•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 230
