The other day I watched Godzilla vs Megalon, a truly classic Godzilla movie. I watched it as the next in the series of reviews I’ve been writing up as I’ve been watching the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
In this installment, citizens of Seatopia (who I don’t believe are originally from Earth), raise their protector, Megalon, from sleep to crush their enemies, all of humanity. I think they do this because of the nuclear testing that’s going on around their submerged island hideaway, but I don’t quite remember. Anyway, the Seatopians send agents to capture a scientist who is creating a robot. They don’t really explain this either. The scientist escapes, but his friend and a little boy (who I think is the friend’s son) are kidnapped. The Seatopians take control of the robot, named Jet Jaguar, but the scientist regains control by speaking into his neclace. They were using Jet Jaguar to lead Megalon on a path of destruction through Japan. When the scientist takes control of Jet Jaguar, he sends him to fetch Godzilla. Jet Jaguar sign-languages to Godzilla about what’s going on, then they both head back to Japan. Jet Jaguar reprograms himself (the scientist said he programed Jet so he could do this) to grow large, so all of a sudden Jet Jaguar is a gigantic robot. But it’s not enough, as Megalon whoops up on him. Enter Godzilla, who takes no crap from no one. They gang up on Megalon, and Godzilla does this double flying front kick that will absolutely crack you up. Except he does it twice, and it isn’t as funny the second time. Anyway, it’s a classic Godzilla move you really shouldn’t miss.
I rate this movie three empty seats, one for each giant monster or robot appearing in the film.
The best Giant Robot show ever had to be Megas XLR. This past weekend I managed to find the entire series online (it’s not available commercially). Although technically not anime, I put this in with it because it makes fun of all giant robot shows.