Dr. Gori - 宇宙猿人ゴリさんのイラストまとめ

More pre-viz shots from Nebulaman, an eco-horror-themed Japanese tokusatsu kyodai hero film I'm producing. A giant monster whale attacks a whaling ship. Reposting a few other pre-viz shots as well, including a freeway pile-up inspired by Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974).

Anyone else notice a similarity/connection between the anime anthology movie Robot Carnival and Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Karn Evil 9?

Farewell Rabaul (1954), directed by Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya (SFX)
Warning From Space (1956), directed by Koji Shima, Toru Matoba (SFX)
The Human Vapor (1960), directed by Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya (SFX)
The Whale God (1962), directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, Toru Matoba (SFX)2/6

My all time favorite tokusatsu show is overall Spectreman. It had edgy anti-pollution themes months before Godzilla vs. Hedorah did and inventive special effects work on a shoestring budget. Its Planet of the Apes inspired villain Dr. Gori is among toku’s most compelling.

Kamen Rider X’s evil organization being called “GOD” makes the English subtitles consistently hilarious with lines like “Our battle against GOD begins tomorrow” and “GOD has stolen my research”.

My hottest take from knowing more about Anno’s world view is that Shin Godzilla is nihilistic, not nationalistic. It’s fatalistic, not jingoistic, a Strangelove-style satire about humanity dealing with an “extinction-level” event. Not a parable about how Japan should be rearmed.

In Japanese film and TV industry culture, the longtime rivalry between Tsuburaya Pro and Toei in the creation and production of superhero media very much parallels Marvel and DC in terms of its history and influence.

My favorite Eiji Tsuburaya quote goes like this. Told to a visiting Sadamasa Arikawa in 1947. Arikawa had narrowly avoided being sent out as a kamikaze.

“We Japanese may never fly zeroes again but some day again we will fly.”

Makes me think of Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises.

One underrappreciated tokusatsu production I really adore is Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968). It’s a very nihilistic sci-fi/horror hybrid that combines J-Horror grotesqueries with tokusatsu theatrics. Shinsuke Kojima of P-Productions handled the effects unit.

David Bowie’s 1970s discography is like Kurosawa or Kubrick’s filmography. There’s barely a single bad one. Albums like Ziggy are so cinematic, I could easily imagine Bowie having a been a director instead of a rockstar, incidentally a career path his son chose.