Over the past couple of months, I was hard focused on Gamerathon and with that being over with there were a couple of announcements that had the community sort of excited. The first announcement is the new trailer for Godzilla Minus One which is coming on Monday, September 4th. The second announcement has to do with Godzilla vs Gamera event on a mobile app called Godzilla Battle Line, which acts as a promotional for the upcoming Netflix anime Gamera: Rebirth.
Godzilla Minus One Trailer Coming Soon:
As I have mentioned, there is a trailer coming tomorrow, September 4th. There is a teaser that is shown for the trailer, which just shows some photo clippings of battle damaged warships and submarines suggesting Godzilla has been on the attack. There even seems to be a quick shot of what looks to be a letter to the Prime Minister of Japan that was written on February 10th, 1947 warning of a large scale organism swimming to Japan in high speeds.
There is even a new teaser image that went along with this announcement that shows civilians running away from Godzilla's feet. This has given rise to speculation that what we are seeing is a much smaller Godzilla this time around. We could speculate that this version is perhaps at 50 meters (150 feet) tall just like the original Godzilla.
Based on the teaser, it does sort of give off that same vibe from the opening credits of Godzilla (2014) or GODZILLA (98) with all of those clippings. Do note that this movie is supposed to take place right after World War II. So this movie is going to act as a sort of period piece, as well. Other than the letter to the Prime Minister that was briefly seen, I don't think all of these photos are going to represent a Godzilla attack. I think it is supposed to give a feel of when this movie takes place, in general. Which means we could see some Japanese nationalism grounded in this movie. After the war, America had occupied Japan and the people were not happy with the Americans occupying their home land and taking away their military. In other words, it may not be just Japan and their defense forces fighting Godzilla this time. Rather, it may take some team work between nations to take down this monster.
I will cover this trailer as soon as I find time on Monday. Unfortunately, I will be working that morning, but I should be home late afternoon. So I should be able to cover the trailer that evening. I recommend staying tuned for that. However, you can view the trailer tomorrow morning. According to the teaser, the trailer drops on September 4th at 2:45 PM JST, which is 1:45 AM EST/12:45 AM CST/September 3rd at 11:45 PM MST/10:45 PM PST.
Godzilla vs Gamera Event in Godzilla Battle Line Mobile App:
With Gamera: Rebirth premiering on Netflix in less than a week away, a collaboration between Kadokawa and Toho Co. has been made to officially bring Godzilla and Gamera together in a special event for the Godzilla Battle Line mobile app. This was first revealed in a livestream on the Japanese Godzilla Channel on YouTube.
During the livestream, they showcased Gamera and Gyaos with all of their stats. Gamera will first appear in the game on September 9th and Gyaos on September 15th. The hosts of the livestream showed some game play of Gamera and Gyaos. Gamera looks to be a tank. It can dish out heavy hits while also taking massive amounts of damage. As for Gyaos, they are like Kamakuras or Kamakuras swarm. You get a handful of them and are very weak. The event lasts from 9/7 - 10/6. If anyone is still playing you may want to look into this event.
The ad for the mobile app has Godzilla Earth from the Polygon trilogy and "Rebirth" Gamera from the upcoming anime. The reason why they chose Godzilla Earth is because director Hiroyuki Seshita did do both the Godzilla Polygon trilogy movies and Gamera: Rebirth and both monsters have similar styles in design and animation. So seeing these two specific monsters coming together sort of makes sense. For many fans, it is believed to be a step in the right direction to possibly seeing more collabs like this in the future, which could eventually lead into an official "Godzilla vs Gamera" movie.
My take on the situation is this. I am looking at this collaboration much like the "Shin Japan Heroes" universe as this is nothing more than a marketing thing. "Shin Japan Heroes" universe is a cross over between Toho Co., Tsubaraya Productions, Khara Inc., Toei Company, Ltd. that brings all of the characters from Hideyaki Anno's "Shin" movie series (Shin Godzilla, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shin Ultra Man, and Shin Kamen Rider) together for a marketing campaign for toys, merchandise, games, etc. They really don't have a movie that has all of them sharing the same screen together. For the "Godzilla vs Gamera" event, this is how I see it. I find it nothing more than a cross collaboration to get people to download the app and for Gamera to get some recognition.
I do get it though. Fans have been begging Toho Co. for years to collab with Daiei/Kadokawa to make a "Godzilla vs Gamera" film. Daiei Co. even approached Toho Co. proposing to do a "Godzilla vs Gamera" movie and both times Toho Co. didn't show any interest. To give you an idea, I remember back in July when I went to the Godzilla panel at Anime Matsuri one of the people in the audience asked Shinji Nishikawa if there was a movie he wished got made. The answer he gave was "Godzilla vs Gamera," but he also said that deep down he felt as though this is never going to happen. The last time time Daiei and Toho did a "Godzilla vs Gamera" collaboration was for a 1972 stage show, which not a lot of people took photos and video were at the event.
I really do wish that we do something even more official than a mobile app. I would love to see a cross over movie eventually. If Toho Co. is really testing the waters, this is not the way to go about it, in my opinion. I would go a little bigger than a mobile app. Maybe like a video game tournament fighter like Gigabash or Toho and Kadokawa could make their own kaiju fighting video game that has both Godzilla and Gamera. We need to see them doing more collaborations together in order for me to consider the possibility that a "Godzilla vs Gamera" film could actually happen. Until I see that, I am going to remain skeptical.
What are your thoughts on the announcements of a new Minus One trailer and the "Godzilla vs Gamera" cross collab? What do you hope to see in the new trailer? Do you think this cross collaboration is a step in the right direction to getting that dream cross over movie or is it just plain marketing for Gamera: Rebirth? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on this and more in the comments section. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.