Thanks to Kazuhiro Nakagawa, Godzilla has had a few busy years, fighting Hedorah, Gigan and Jet Jaguar in a series of short films. The last short ended on a cliffhanger, as Jet Jaguar and Godzilla made up just in time to face off against King Ghidorah.

This is everything you ever wanted when it comes to kaiju fights, as it even has the JSDF dropping Gigan claws for Jet Jaguar to use in the fight against the three-headed dragon. When all seems lost and Godzilla is being lifted into the air by Gravity Beam, those claws return, being thrown right into King Ghidorah’s heart.

Made at Toho Studios 9th Street where the Godzilla films are filmed, this celebrates the 70th anniversary of Godzilla. For the first time in these shorts, human actors appear but luckily we don’t get into of their drama. This is about giant monsters and a heroic robot beating the stuffing out of each other.

I had the best day just watching these one after the other. It reminds me of being in my parent’s TV room, a place that had brown vinyl couches and so many blankets, just lying on the floor and watching monster movies all day. It makes me sad a little, as I’ll never have that time again, but happy that I did at one point.

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In the first two shorts by Kazuhiro Nakagawa, Godzilla has battled Hedorah and Gigan, destroying most of Tokyo. To save the human race, a robot named Jet Jaguar is sent to stop Godzilla.

I love the fighting style they gave Jet Jaguar here as he uses Superman punches and acrobatic kicks as well as parkour as he jumps and flips over buildings, using his speed to avoid Godzilla’s attacks.

There’s a fantastic scene where Godzilla dodges a punch and we get a point of view shot of Jaguar’s fist entering the building. He looks upset at the destruction that he’s created and loses Godzilla long enough to get hit with Atomic Breath.

Just as Godzilla is about to deliver the fatal blow, he’s blasted by Gravity Beam, which can only come from Ghidorah. The most evil of all kaiju descends from space, destroying the city, wrecking everything as Jet Jaguar helps Godzilla to his feet and in a reprise of their friendship in Godzilla vs. Megalon, released fifty years before this short, they shake hands.

Five year old Sam loved Jet Jaguar and Godzilla teaming up. Fifty two year old Sam feels exactly the same way, even if my body hurts when I jump up and down.

This leaves only one thing: to be continued. I can’t wait to watch Godzilla Fest 5: Battle of the Monsters.

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A year after he made Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Kazuhiro Nakagawa with this short, which starts with a news report of Hedorah being defeated by Godzilla, then moves to Gigan attacking.

While the last short felt like it was in the Godzilla: Final Wars continuity, this short has a Showa era-Gigan. While Godzilla is the Godzilla: Final Wars suit, Gigan was crowd funded with those fans names in the credits. The “Gigan Suit Launch Project” project was an official Toho campaign.

Gigan slashes Godzilla’s face in this, just like he did when they first fought in Godzilla vs. Gigan. You can also see the scar in the sequel to this, Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar, which again has a crowd funded suit for Jet Jaguar and a new origin.

While this is mainly just a battle between the two monsters, it’s a great battle. Godzilla seems down and out before blasting Gigan right in the face with his atomic breath, which made me jump up out of my seat.

I had no idea that all of these official shorts existed, which makes this year’s Kaiju Day so much more interesting!

You can watch this movie here.

Fifty years after they fought in Godzilla vs. Hedorah, director Kazuhiro Nakagawa brings Godzilla (Naoya Matsumoto) and Hedorah (Hikaru Yoshida) together one more time for a huge fight, using the suits from Godzilla: Final Wars.

This has Godzilla getting his eye injured, just like their first fight, but unlike that one, he makes short work of the kaiju we called the Smog Monster when we were kids. I love that the end of this looks just as psychedelic as the one I watched so often as a child.

In my life, I have learned that anyone who I don’t want to be friends with makes fun of Godzilla vs. Hedorah and talks about how dumb it is. It was one of the first shocks of my young life to learn that people treated that movie like a joke instead of a horrifying indictment of pollution.

Adult me loved that this starts with Hedorah basically smoking a factory like a bong. I always knew that kaiju was high.

There are two sequels to this, Godzilla 3: Gigan Attack and Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar.

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Directed by Takuya Uenishi, who also made the short G vs. G, which led to 2022’s official short Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, this celebrates the 50th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Megalon, making me feel very old.

“All bound for Mu My Land,” or at least Mu or Seatopia, as one of their priestesses has used the dead body of Gigan Rex to bring Megalon back to life. Godzilla still stalks Tokyo, destroying all of the still alive Gigan that escaped, as well as ones that humans foolishly kept to experiment on. As a streaming tries to break into a government lab, the priestess appears and attacks JSDF soldiers, bringing Megalon up through the ground.

I love that Heisei Godzilla continues in these movies and wow, I’ve never seen a kaiju battle that had this much destruction before. Megalon is so much more frightening than he ever was before, more of an armored and caped cockroach than his skinny first form. Godzilla also shows off some new powers here, like being able to direct atomic energy to his fists and also use it to power him into a dropkick, a move that he famously used back in the first version of this movie.

The only thing that this movie is missing is Jet Jaguar. Once that happens, this will be perfect. They can keep making these as long as they can, because they’re amazing.

You can watch this on YouTube.

This short film was directed by Takuya Uenishi and is an official Toho-produced sequel to Uenishi’s fan-made short film G vs. G. That movie was entered into the 2019 Godzilla contest and he was given the opportunity to develop a sequel project with Toho as his winning prize.

In the future, a place nearly twenty-five years since the last appearance of kaiju. he human race is fresh meat for several Gigan until one of the monster’s dead bodies is thrown at them. In the foggy distance, Godzilla appears and fights off three of the Gigan and their buzzsaws before they give their energy to the Gigan Rex and the battle rages.

According to TV Tropes, the Godzilla in this movie is a grown-up Godzilla Jr., with the first shot being similar to his resurrection Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. His lullabye theme plays as well. He uses the Heisei era Nuclear Pulse and also has a Super Mode like Burning Godzilla. This also has narration from Megumi Odaka and has similar words to a speech in Godzilla vs. Destroyah.

Takuya Uenishi also worked on visual effects for Godzilla Minus One and created another short last year, Godzilla vs. Megalon.

I loved this! Toho has been awesome about how their trying to expand the Godzilla brand more creatively with their contests. This is just another example of the great things that come out of that!

You can watch this on YouTube.

As I have grown older, I have become less concerned about things like continuity and making sense. I’m happy that this show can exist, a Godzilla world where three brothers — Godzilla-kun, Minilla and Little — are training to be great monsters. For example, in the first episode, they try to learn how to control their atomic breath and just end up making fireworks.

This series is adapted from a puppet fan film of the same name that was created by puppeteer Hideyuki Kobayashi for the 2019 Godzilla Contest. There are so many kaiju on Godzi Godzi Island, including Grandpa Hedo and Hedochi the smog monsters, who often close out each episode with a koan or introspective riddle. There’s also Rodan, Baragon, Battra, Jet Jaguar, Gigan, Young Caesar, Destroyah, twin Mothra Moshu-Moshu and Moshuu-Moshuu, Mecha Godzilla and so many more.

There are also live action scenes called “Attention! Godzilla” where women are struggling in their lives before meeting and adopting a Kamatte Gojira, the second stage of Godzilla from Shin Godzilla, who ends up acting a lot like my chihuahua Cubby, snarling and biting everything. Plus, “Go! Jet Jaguar” has the robot getting ready to fight Megalon.

How charming is this show? There’s Grandpa Zilla is the 1954 Godzilla but old. He has a a wizard staff and works for Santa Claus, delivering gifts to all of the good monster children. Godzilla 2000 is Godzilla-kun’s mother Mirei-san, the classic 70s Godzilla appears to be their father Taigo, Uncle Zilla is Shin Godzilla, Anguirus uses speech balloons just like he did in the original movie, Miyarabi is a human version of King Caesar, Rodan’s little brother Radon appears and the Godzilla brothers wearing turtle shells before worrying that they’ll be sued.

You can watch the series on YouTube.

Director Sietske Tjallingii explains to us something that I have always wondered. What happens when Godzilla goes to other countries? And what if it was the Netherlands, where he could pick up trains and whip them around like nunchakus? Could he arrive in the quiet of the night so that he could throw the Ajax Stadium roof like a frisbee and roast cows before swimming back off into the ocean, happy that there’s no oxygen destroyer in Amsterdam?

Tjallingii made a bunch of movies like this, including The Many Faces of Dracula, The Last Adventure of Superman and Visit from Outer Space.

If you’re wondering, “Does Godzilla use his atomic breath on a windmill?” the answer is yes. Really, this is everything I want from a Godzilla movie. Strange ambient music, no human beings to get in the way and just destruction. Our favorite kaiju should have rolled one up and eat a bunch more of those roasted cows.

You can watch this on YouTube.

This is a kamishibai film, which is similar to the paper theater in Japanese street theater. The kamishibaiya or narrator uses a set of illustrated cards to tell the story. This form of theater is where Ōgon Bat started.

In this short film, instead of a stage that was used to shift the cards, camera moves do pans across the artwork and there is sound design.

Written, produced, painted and narrated by Naoyuki Niiya, this is an examination of the murders of women near Hitokui-Yama, which is the Man-Eater Mountain. A police officer investigating these crimes, Haido, meets and falls in love with a young girl outside the village named Haruko. Yet with a mountain named in this way, you know that things will not be good. “Made to swallow slugs and worms, a yam shoved in my ass,” go just some of the lyrics to the song that is sung in this — an old traditional song from the village! — and once you hear a woman sing that, I mean, you have to realize that you’re probably going to be murdered. I don’t know, I’m not a character in a Japanese folk horror and perhaps I can see things with a bit more perspective.

Spoilers from here on in, but if you walk into a cave that’s shaped like a woman’s anatomy and hear demons laughing the entire way up a mountain, do not be startled when you walk right into a demonic orgy and you get turned out on top of a mountain of skulls by a giant bear while zombies eat feces all around you and get drunk on fermented blood.

Man-Eater Mountain is part of the new Severin box set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume 2.

You can order this set from Severin.

Directed by Damien Ounouri, who wrote the story with Adila Bendimerad (who stars as Nfissa), this is a dark tale of what can happen at the beach. This movie is from Algeria and one of the first I’ve seen from there.

Nfissa is a young mother who is violently sexually harassed before she is drowned by several young men. After all, all she did was swim among them. At the same time, her family is wondering where she is, as no one else seems to care that she is gone.

Many people have died on this beach, enough that the dead who come back are well-known by the locals, and now Nfissa can breath under the water, which means that she will certainly get her revenge on the men who so easily threw her away.

The cops are about as solid as the ones in a giallo, so when one tells Nfissa’s husband, “I’ve never seen a woman become a jellyfish without reason,” you may wonder what he means. A jellyfish is what they call these zombies. Yet to me, the true horror of this is that she must be lured by her husband back to these uncaring police and destroyed all over again, because that’s what happens in this world.

You can watch this and pretend that it’s just a movie or that it’s set in another country but the sad truth is that things like this — look, I know women don’t transform into zombies every day, allow me my soapbox — happen every single day and we’ve become so desensitized to violence against everyone because we have the news looking for fresh meat for their 24/7 endless charnel house and we turn to murder TV for pleasure now, staring as people ask for a break and cry and the cameras just keep rolling.

I don’t know the answer. Maybe we deserve the zombies.

Kindil is part of the new Severin box set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume 2.

You can order this set from Severin.