Kids, let’s be honest, Godzilla has had a rough couple of uh, decades.
After Godzilla Final Wars, a movie that defies every story convention there is, including some that are yet to be invented, concluded the Millenium Movie series, the Godzilla franchise has lacked a clear direction going forward.
Granted, it’s not like Toho’s most famous property hasn’t enjoyed some degree of success since; Shin Godzilla came out five years ago and it was so good I have yet to shut up about it. But from an American Produced cinematic universe that hasn’t meet anyone’s expectations, to a trilogy of CGI movies literally no one likes to talk about, this movie franchise is not exactly roaring its way to the bank.
Of course, Toho as a company is not a one trick pony, they have produced a number of successful multimedia properties over the years, but when that proverbial Pony is 100 meters tall and has an atomic breath, you would be a fool not to lead your act with it.
Still, if history has taught us anything is that the hardest part of making a Godzilla movie is… making a Godzilla movie, which is probably why Toho tried a bold new approach: making a Godzilla anime.
The first thing that stroke me about Godzilla Singular Point when I started watching it was how much it felt like a mid-2000’s anime movie. I am talking about films like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time or Summer Wars, movies that were very much grounded in reality, but were still built around surreal concepts like time travel or using social networks for anything other than discourse.
That alone makes this show stand out among the crowd of seasonal anime that have titles so long it’s impossible to tell if they are parodies or not. I have nothing against anime (that’s a lie) but it is refreshing to watch a show that tries to do something unique, even if that might not work for everyone.
Truth to be told, I was somewhat hesitant about this project when it first got announced.
Don’t take me wrong, I love Godzilla in all of his forms, up to and including MusukoGoji, but the tone and timing of this anime made it feel like it was merely an attempt to cash in on the popularity of SSSS.Gridman. Luckily, my fears turned out to be unfounded; unlike the SSSS series which completely embrace their Tokusatsu roots, Godzilla Singular Point takes a different approach by taking the science fiction elements that defined the early years of the franchise and bringing them to a whole new level.
I was also pleasantly surprised by how the show mostly avoided relying on easter eggs and not very subtle references to appeal to long standing fans such as myself; asides a couple details like Rodan’s roar and the cheekily named ‘Ortogonal Diagonalizer’, there were very few nods to the long history of the franchise outside of the use of certain Kaiju and an extremely charming ED sequence.
This is, without a doubt, a high-quality production, but definitely not one without problems; you can absolutely tell this is a show that went through a long production cycle, as the series is crammed full of interesting ideas that while good on their own, they don’t feel absolutely necessary to tell this particular story. A little bit of restraint would have helped, is what I am saying.
Luckily this rarely gets in the way of the plot and the central mystery of the show is certainly intriguing. It is very hard not to get hooked on it, but once the story reaches a certain point the plot itself gets bogged down by trying to explain its more advanced theoretical concepts.
It’s not that it becomes boring or anything, this is still some really interesting stuff, but these concepts are perhaps too abstract for general audiences and the show is not particularly good at explaining them. In my case, I am fairly well versed on all the theoretical physics and relative concepts the show is built upon, and yet many a times I had to pause, go back and do a double take just to keep track of what was going on.
That I think is this show’s biggest flaw; the plot is not really that complicated and while it does rely on some abstract scientific principles, it is not impossible to grasp. The problem is that the way the show decided to relay this information to the audience can be so obtuse, if you don’t already know some of this stuff beforehand then you will get lost rather fast.
Of course, even the best plotted story is nothing without the characters that drive it forward, and that may very well be Singular Point’s Ace up its sleeve; the two protagonists, the reckless yet resourceful genius programmer, Arikawa Yun, and scatterbrained but endlessly curious researcher, Kamino Mei, are what holds this entire show together, even if they are not the most complex of characters.
Godzilla Singular Point is not exactly a great character drama; if you’re looking for compelling character writing then this is not the show for you. This, however, never becomes an issue, for some of the show’s most exciting moments come from watching these eccentric but otherwise normal people try to overcome an unsurmountable crisis using nothing more than their creativity and their intelligence.
If there is one issue I think the show has with its characters is that there is a lot of them, almost too many to keep track of. It does make sense considering the scope of the story, but it does leads to situations where you’re never quite sure who’s doing what and why. And that is without mentioning all those characters that have roles so small they could have easily been written off the story.
While this is a real problem, it is not one that usually gets in the way of the enjoyment. From beginning to end this is a two-character show and that is the saving grace that helps balance out the more glaring issues. Granted, some parts of the show can still be a slog to get through, but as whole it was the dynamic of those two that kept me invested in it.
You may have noticed by now that I have mostly avoided talking about the Kaiju in Godzilla Singular point, which believe me, has been harder on me than you can possibly imagine, but with good reason:
I have very strong feelings about Kaiju. My doctor says that’s a bad thing, but I disagree; in a narrative context, Kaiju are meant to represent something, their very existence is supposed to change how we see reality. Everything we knew about the world is no longer valid because they exist.
That is why they can be such powerful narrative tools. And in a way, Godzilla Singular Point actually succeeds in making that uh, point; by definition, Kaiju are creatures that oppose natural order, they shouldn’t be able to exist, yet they do. Their very presence signifies that the impossible is now possible, and in Godzilla SP this is taken to the most literal extreme as Kaiju are beings that defy the very laws of physics.
That is one of the most compelling parts of the show for me. It made Kaiju interesting in a way they usually aren’t; more than mere forces of destruction, they became the anti-thesis to reality itself. Unfortunately, while this approach was super interesting, I don’t think it was ever taken far enough as the show was far more interested in exploring its own science fiction narrative, with everything else, including the Kaiju, coming in second.
Granted, I cannot fault it for what was essentially a creative decision, but I still think this angle was somewhat wasted, especially when it came to Godzilla himself.
Godzilla has been a lot of things to a lot of people, so portraying him in any kind of media is always a challenge. I think the problem with some modern interpretations is that they portray him as an animal that can be understood and eventually killed, but Godzilla always works best when he is a force that cannot be reckoned. He’s not necessarily invincible, but he is inevitable.
Even if the Godzilla subplot, and make no mistake, it is a subplot, is essentially a remix of the basic Godzilla story, he is portrayed as a phenomenon that defies understanding. That in on itself is a brilliant approach, using actual science to portray Godzilla as something beyond science, but the show never really makes good use of him as a concept; while he has some great moments, Godzilla is ultimately a McGuffin, you can replace him with almost anything and the plot hardly changes.
In the end, I can say that Godzilla Singular Point was a positive experience for me. In many ways I do think it’s a brilliant show, but you will only get as much out of it as you can understand. While I do enjoy it, I have to admit the show is in a very weird spot: I don’t think fans of the Kaiju genre are going to be completely satisfied with it, and anime people likely won’t find the appeal to it.
Still, I do think this show has more merit than your average seasonal crap anime. At the very least I can say that it’s a unique and ambitious experience, albeit a flawed one, that offers a blend of high concept science fiction and Kaiju action that you don’t see very often. The story won’t work for everyone, but it does reach a satisfying conclusion even if not every question is answered, and if nothing else Godzilla Singular Point can certainly offer you something you won’t find anywhere else.
Fanboyism Extraordinaire 