Godzilla-Fest II: Tokyo Vanishing (Review)
Happy Godzilla Day, everyone! Another year has come and we have quite a lot happening today! It is Godzilla's 72nd anniversary and we had the anniversary festival in Japan wrapped up, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered has released on all platforms, and, if you are going, there are early screenings of Godzilla Minus Zero today! I am certainly going tonight and will be doing a review on the movie, which I will wait to post next week. This will allow everyone time to see the movie without having to read spoilers. However, we also got this year's short film from Toho Co., Godzilla-Fest II: Tokyo Vanishing. This is a continuance of last year's short film, Godzilla-Fest II: Shinjuku Burning. I will say that I actually enjoyed watching this new short, but there is a glaring issue that needs to be addressed. I will talk about it after giving my thoughts on the short film, as a whole.
In the last one, it ended with a cliff hanger. Shinjuku is in ruins and Godzilla's body has transformed into a burning state that left the JSDF helpless. A mysterious kaiju having arrived and Godzilla was ready to fight. The monster featured in Tokyo Vanishing is Monster X, which actually surprised me. It was not what I was expecting. The silhouette and the sound design had me thinking of maybe Biollante or perhaps a new monster. Monster X was the main villain monster that first debuted in Godzilla: Final Wars. He has a very humanoid body that allowed him to be versatile and nimble while fighting Godzilla, which made him look like an anime character or a character from The Matrix.
For Monster X, he actually got a lot of punches, kicks, and beam attacks on Godzilla in this short. He is very agile able to dodge most of Godzilla's attacks and knocking him down. He even did this cool power-up charge that would allow extra damage when in close range. Once he unleashed that power on Godzilla, the monster was horrified to see that the king of the monsters was unfazed. Godzilla powers-up and blasts Monster X with his heat ray, knocking the alien intruder down. Sitting back up, Monster X looks up to Godzilla begging to be spared. Godzilla lets loose another blast and Monster X explodes letting out a bone chilling scream.
Monster X was never one of my favorite monsters, in the first place. However, seeing how others short films played out his fight choreography and his personality really did fit in with the rest of the opponents Godzilla fought. He was very human in personality and his movements are very much in line with what you see in an anime. He even did the "Naruto" run! It looks so uncanny that I can't help laugh at it! Especially the jumping and the super hero landing, they are all very weird to see what is supposed to be an organic monster! Even his arrival is like that of a Dragon Ball villain slowly floating down presenting himself in a cocky, sort of way. So I really enjoyed watching Monster X in this short.
The fight, itself, is left more to be desired. Godzilla was really just standing there blasting his heat ray the whole time. He didn't use his tail or throw any punches or bite. The fight choreography needed a lot of that close distance that the previous short films had. Even after Monster X evolved into Keizer Ghidorah, the moment was so quick just to allow Godzilla to show off a new power-up form called Blue Flame Godzilla. It is just his burning form, but turned from red to blue. It looks cool and I love the color. Yet, it came so sudden and the fight ended really quick afterwards. So Godzilla was not really the MVP here. I would give that to Monster X for actually putting in the effort to do more than just beam spamming the whole fight.
As with all of the shorts, there is not much story. A wormhole opens unleashing a space monster the JSDF calls Monster X. From the heat signatures, Godzilla is absorbing massive amounts of radiation from the wormhole and needs to be destroyed immediately. As the two monsters duel, a lone JSDF soldier volunteers to climb up to the roof Yoyogi Tower to revert Godzilla's heat ray towards the wormhole.
I have not much to say other than it is simple and straight forward. It explains why Godzilla in his Burning form and how Monster X arrived. So the story did what it needed to do.
I hope next year's short film will change that. This year, there was a contest held for a new monster to appear for next year. Fans voted on eight new monsters: Gigasect, Candyroy, Gilx, Sagius, Xenolhu, Madomuh, Minacias, and Rigedoh.
The contest went through the first round of votes, which concluded on October 4th. The results for the top 4 were: Xenolhu, Sagius, Gilx, and Rigedoh. Last night, we got the results for the second round and Xenolhu won the contest with 16,850 votes. I am very interested to see how Toho Co. will be able to handle creating this monster with the tentacles.
Before I end my review, I do have to talk about the elephant in the room. There is one particular shot that has people questioning whether AI was used. It happens after the lone JSDF soldier fires a rocket at Godzilla. The camera follows the rocket toward his neck, and for about a second, the image looks noticeably different from the rest of the short.
Looking at the shot, I can understand the suspicion. Godzilla's head looks strangely smooth, the skin loses detail, and parts of his body have a blurry, smeared appearance. It looks as though someone took a still frame and ran it through AI. However, looking like AI and being confirmed as AI are two different things. Without an explanation from the filmmakers, I cannot say for certain how this shot was made.
Regardless of the process, I think it looks bad. It stands out for the wrong reasons, and I would rather they had cut it entirely. I don't think the short would have lost anything without it.
What I don't agree with is letting this one second of footage overshadow everything else the filmmakers accomplished. The suit performers, miniature work, and effects still deserve recognition. That awkward shot did not erase the moments I enjoyed or suddenly make the entire production worthless.
That does not mean concerns about AI should be brushed aside. Someone close to me lost his job this year amid AI adoption and outsourcing. When people worry about studios using this technology to replace artists or avoid paying for their work, I understand why. Those concerns deserve more than being told to get used to it.
At the same time, I think we need to be clear about what we actually know. I can point to this shot and explain why it looks unfinished. I cannot point to it and tell you whether an artist lost work, what tools were used, or why the filmmakers included it. Those are questions worth asking, but suspicion alone does not answer them.
For me, the discussion should be about transparency, how artists are treated, and whether the finished effect belongs in the film. If generative AI was used, I would like the filmmakers to explain where and how. I also want studios to respect the artists whose work makes these productions possible. Saving time should not become an excuse to replace people or release an effect that looks worse than the footage around it.
I enjoyed this short, and I still think this particular shot was an eyesore. Both can be true. Criticize the effect, ask questions about its production, and hold the filmmakers accountable for their answers. I just don't think this one moment outweighs all the effort that went into the rest of the film.
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