I'm beginning to appreciate the work of Masaaki Tezuka. I'm not sure he's qualified to direct anything outside of Godzilla films but he has the idea of what drives Godzilla down cold. Tezuka understands that most of the good Godzilla movies have worked because of a love of the genre no matter how absurd the whole thing can get. Working from a script by Wataru Mimura -author of the surreal 1993 Godzilla/Mechagodzilla match up- Tezuka plunges into Godzilla movies with both a fan's sense of enjoyment and lack of restraint. It's this sense of unchecked amusement that propels Godzilla x Mechagodzilla.

Godzilla's main human co-star in GxMG is Mechagodzilla pilot Akane Yashiro, who's played with as much cute girl seriousness as she can muster by Yumiko Shaku. Yashiro is first seen driving a laser tank into battle against Godzilla. More movies need to introduce their heroines in this manner. After a Godzilla related accident that kills a couple members of her squad -heavy ordinance and Godzilla don't mix very well- Yashiro is demoted to the lowest position she can possibly be given short of being thrown in the public stockade; she's sent to work in a library. After three years of being in the untouchable class she gets a second chance to prove herself when she's assigned to the new Mechagodzilla unit. Working her way through a montage of training clips Yashiro proves herself worthy of piloting Mechagodzilla, or, as it has been re-dubbed, Kiryu. Not only will Yashiro have to face down the jealousy of the other members of her team, Lt. Hayama [Yusuke Tomoi] is the brother of one of the men killed in the accident. Oh, and she has to defeat Godzilla with a remote controlled robot without destroying too much of Japan in the process. Yashiro has quite a bit on her "to do" list.

GxMG has all it's bases covered by including both the obligatory scientist Tokumitsu Yuhara [Shin Takuma] and the mandatory moppet, his daughter Sara [Kana Onodera]. They don't add a whole lot to the proceedings other than to pad out the non-monster parts or to stand around and watch a view screen of the fights but that's a complaint that can be leveled at any number of actors in previous flicks. Only Godzilla movies could make a tradition out of having characters watch the movie along with the audience. Pro baseball slugger Hideki Matsui even shows up as himself. I don't recall any other Godzilla movie that features the same level of stunt casting but there's not a lot of minor celebrities walking around with the nickname "Godzilla" either. The actors do their best but I'm sure they know that no matter what they do the main stars of the movie are the guys inside the rubber monster outfits.

Godzilla himself looks good this time out and is angry as usual. Once again played by Tsutomu Kitagawa, Godzilla waddles about with authority and thanks to slightly better puppetry he actually manages to have a few facial expressions instead of the vacant stare he was stuck with in Godzilla 2000. Kiryu is played by Hirofumi Ishigaki in an appropriately robotic manner. The idea of building a robotic version of Godzilla is an odd idea but it's popular enough that Kiryu is the third version of Mechagodzilla to roll off the Toho assembly line. He's a great looking robot too, all covered with shiny metal and lots of sharp, pointy edges. In the more is better variety of thinking, Kiryu comes equipped with so many extra weapons that it has to lug a backpack full of artillery into battle. Why Kiryu doesn't just concentrate on hitting Godzilla with it's primary weapon [some sort of freeze ray] instead of shooting everything from lasers to clusters of Robotech/Macross style mini-missiles at Godzilla is never fully explained but it makes for entertaining fight scenes. Kiryu's only real design flaw is that it runs through fuel faster than your average SUV and putters out after a plot convenient 20 minutes. Considering how over-equipped Kiryu is it's surprising nobody thought to let it lug along a few extra batteries when it went into battle.

Since a giant rocket and laser spewing robot isn't dangerous enough someone got the bright idea of building it out of DNA that was recovered from the remains of the Godzilla that attacked back in the original 1954 movie. So not only is Kiryu a robot clone of the first Godzilla [where the current Godzilla came from is never discussed] but it has a tendency to remember it's heritage and go berserk. Japanese voters must be a remarkably tolerant bunch. Not only did an out of control robot destroy a city at one point in GxMG but their tax dollars were used to build the damn thing. Instead of being driven out of office in disgrace the Prime Minister and others responsible for giving the okay to build Kiryu shrug the whole matter off as if it were a bit of bad public relations. Maybe Japan has become so desensitized to monster attacks a slip up like leveling a city doesn't seem like that big a deal.

One odd twist that has shown up in both of Tezuka's Godzilla films is the presence of strong female characters. In GxMG it was Kiriko Tsujimori [Misato Tanaka] and this time out it's Yashiro. Not only do the movies center around the women, they are the ones responsible for moving events forward. Not content to wait and nervously wring their hands while the male lead is solving problems they are instead out driving heavy military vehicles, fighting Godzilla, and doing large amounts of collateral damage to the surrounding landscape. Even the initial Prime Minister [Kumi Mizuno] in GxMG is female. The more common gender roles have been so flipped that the main male characters in the films are now spectators on the sideline while the women are out getting it done. I don't know if this change reflects some sort of shift in Japanese culture, the personal belief system of the people involved in the movie or some sort of management decision came down that declared audiences were interested in seeing women in uniform but it is a noticeable switch from movies such as Godzilla vs. Megalon where they couldn't get a single woman to appear in the movie.

Many things have changed in Godzilla movies over the years but what has always remained the same is the lacking budgets and the belief that Godzilla has to stand for something. Since the original 1954 Godzilla used the post-war angst of Japan as it's launching pad it has been assumed that Godzilla is a city stomping allegory. Several films over the years have made Godzilla stand for issues even bigger than he is with varying results. More often than not, however, Godzilla has simply been Godzilla. Whether he's blowing up a landmark or gleefully burying a large ape, Godzilla is usually in a movie for the sheer joy of having a giant monster running loose. GxMG does all the previous attempts at symbolism one better by having Godzilla represent other Godzilla movies. But instead of being a collection of winking tributes to earlier, better movies as is usually the case when a movie series starts to reference itself, GxMG takes every idea that has shown up in a Godzilla movie -and pretty much every other story that has ever existed- and shoves it all together into one super condensed ball of weird.

Perhaps this idea can best be seen in how the movie handles Yashiro. In most Godzilla movies the lives of the main characters are almost always positively affected by their run-in with Godzilla. Chaos may reign for most of the movie's running time but more often than not the main characters still come out ahead. It may only be that them and the female lead share a clinch as they look out to the ocean or wherever it is Godzilla is but at least they're doing better than those poor slobs who have to drive tanks into battle against the giant monsters. With Yashiro, however, things get a bit strange. Even before the incident with the laser tank Yashiro was still something of a loner. In what has to be one of the most pathetic and depressing similarities I've seen characters bond over Yashiro admits to Sara that when she was her age she also had a potted plant she would tote around in lieu of having friends, family or any other form of human companionship. Sara shows remarkable restraint by not screaming hysterically at the thought that her life is starting to parallel Yashiro's.

GxMG may be asking the audience to swallow a bigger improbabilty than giant monsters with the idea that someone who looks like Yumiko Shaku could be lacking in people interested in her but that bit of craziness is nothing compared to how she resolves her conflicts. The people Yashiro interacts with don't provide much in the way of comfort. Her military companions spend most of the movie shunning her or accusing her of murder. The widower Yuhara tries to some awkward flirting with her but it's obvious the poor guy has been out of the dating pool a bit too long. Even little Sara is barely more interesting than her plant. The only thing Yashiro feels any sort of connection with is Kiryu. The cyber-organism's plight at being a slave forced into fighting what is essentially himself reminded Yashiro of her own shackled existence. What unites her and the robot is their quest to work for their oppressors.

The old, odd theme of life being made better by coming into contact is Godzilla is preserved in GxMG with Yashiro coming to some sense of peace with her life after she successfully throws Godzilla off of Japan and back into the ocean -something that is another tradition in Godzilla lore. But instead of falling in love or having the satisfaction of knowing that the Earth is safe from extraterrestrial invasion, the only thing that is improved in Yashiro's life is that she accepts her lot in it. She and Kiryu may be nothing more than cogs in the machine but she's determined to be the best cog she can be. For accepting the position given to her by a society that both needs and ostracizes her, Yashiro achieves a bizzare sense of grace. I don't know whether that conclusion is supposed to be uplifting, depressing, funny, or just not fully thought out but it's an incredible ending. GxMG manages to both be true to the continuing spirit of Godzilla while managing to carve out it's own crazed path.

Questions, comments and pics of Yumiko Shaku can be sent to gleep9@hotmail.com. If you're done here head on back to either the Godzilla Movie or Main page.