Godzilla has had many iterations over the years with various origins. Sometimes, he’s a lizard that was exposed to radiation from nuclear testing. Other times, he was a deep sea creature that fed off atomic waste. And other times, he’s an iguana who was exposed to nuclear fallout. Many Godzilla origin stories involve atomic waste in one way or another, but what if it didn’t? What if instead of being created by the hubris of man, Godzilla, and all the other monsters were from another dimension? If only there were a piece of Godzilla media that expanded this idea into a 13-episode anime series streaming on Netflix. Oh, wait, Godzilla Singular Point does just that. This new take on the Godzilla mythos takes the monsters that fans love and presents them in a fresh and exciting new way. But does this sci-fi mystery live up to the standards set by its predecessors? Continuing Godzilla Week, let me tell you why Godzilla Singular Point is a fun ride, if a bit confusing.
Taking place in 2030, Godzilla Singular Point follows two young geniuses, Yun Arikawa (Johnny Yong Bosch) and Mei Kamino (Erika Harlacher). After discovering a strange song emanating from an abandoned house, monsters begin to appear across the world, as well as mysterious red dust. Faced with a potentially catastrophic event, Yun and Mei work together worldwide to save everyone from this new threat. But there’s something even more sinister behind the scenes and even more mysteries that will shape the world’s future forever. Throw in some conspiracy theories, government espionage, and mysteries that will leave you scratching your head, and you have Godzilla Singular Point.
I enjoyed this new take on the Godzilla story; it was a breath of fresh air. I recently went on a bit of a Godzilla-watching spree, and while I enjoyed most of them, the set-ups were starting to blend together a little (again, I’m not saying they’re bad). So I was pleasantly surprised when Singular Point went in a completely different direction than anything that came before. I enjoyed the mystery around what the monsters are, how they got here, and what mysterious song had to do with all of it. The story’s pacing was also good, and I never felt like things were being dragged out or rushed. The only thing that left me a tad confused was all the science jargon they throw at you in the second half of the season. So many words and phrases just get thrown at you, and I needed to read the wiki to fully understand what happened. But that didn’t stop me from being engaged with the story and the characters, who were top-notch.
When you have a franchise involving giant monsters fighting each other to the death, the human characters risk being relegated to the sidelines. That isn’t the case here, as the show spends most of its time with humans, and I loved every second of it. Don’t get me wrong, I like a giant monster fight as much as the next guy, but the characters in Singular Point are interesting, engaging, and hilarious. Yun and Mei lead the charge here as characters I want to see more of. Yun is the calm and collected engineer who decides it’s smart to wear flip-flops to a fight with Godzilla. Watching him interact with the other characters was fun, and how they reacted to him was a good time.
Then there is Mei, one of my favourite characters from the show. She’s a grad student who stumbles into the interdimensional mystery when a professor asks Mei to go in his place. Lucky for everyone else in the series, Mei is a bonafide genius, and most of the story doesn’t progress without her. She’s also really funny, which is always a plus. Yun and Mei working together through text messages for most of the series was a little jarring initially, but I enjoyed it a lot by the end.
Yun and Mei aren’t the only good characters in the series; the supporting cast is just as fun and engaging to watch. There’s the Otaki Factory crew, which consists of Yun, Haberu Kato (Stephen Fu), Goro Otaki (Keith Silverstein), and Satomi Kanahara (Brittany Cox). This rag-tag team is one big family, with the robot Jet Jaguar as their baby. Their antics were some of the best throughout the season, and seeing them somehow become humanity’s last hope to stop the monsters was hilarious. Speaking of hilarious, the AI Pelops II (Cassandra Lee Morris) was my favourite character in the show. This AI dog was a consistent source of laughs, and I always hoped they would get more screen time. I also really enjoyed the late Billy Kametz’s (Rest in Peace) performance as Shunya Sato, who looks like he just needs a nap after all the monster craziness.
You can’t have a new Godzilla entry without new designs for Godzilla and his pals, and these ones are undoubtedly unique. The first monster introduced in the series is Rodan, and if you’re like me and only know this monster from the Legendary films, he looks completely different. Instead of the giant fire dinosaur, they are a pack of smaller (but still large) dinosaurs that aren’t on fire. They’re essentially the grunts of the interdimensional monster squad. But then there’s the new version of Godzilla called Godzilla Ultima. This version reminded me a lot of Shin Godzilla, with how it goes through multiple stages of evolution before becoming the familiar Giant Lizard. He also has one of the coolest atomic breath attacks I’ve seen, with glowing rings and everything. The only downside with this new Godzilla is that he’s barely in the show. It takes until Episode 10 for him to be fully grown and Episode 11 to see him do stuff. The stuff he does still looks cool, but I would’ve liked a tiny bit more from this version of the Giant Lizard.
Godzilla Singular Point was animated by animation studios Bones (My Hero Academia) and Orange (Trigun Stampede), so you know the quality will be high. Both studios brought their animation prowess to this series, and it shows. Everything is clean, crisp, and vibrant, with lots of colours and exciting action set pieces. I also liked how the monsters were 3D animation while everything else was 2D animation. It helped with the feeling that these monsters are not from this world, as they stand out so much to both the characters in the show and the audience. The only gripe I have with how the series looks is the red dust covering some of the monsters. It’s a plot point that is explained, but it also obstructs Godzilla for a lot of the time he’s on screen. I just wanted to see the cool lizard shoot the laser, but this red dust covered the entire screen instead. Still looked very pretty, though.
Also, the opening song, “in case…” by BiSH, is a banger.
Godzilla Singular Point was a fun 13 episodes. The fresh take on the Godzilla franchise was exciting, and the sci-fi mystery hooked me. The characters were engaging, and the entire series looked amazing. While I have a few nitpicks here and there with some confusion with the plot and too much red dust, I would still recommend giving this series a shot if you’re a fan of the Giant Lizard. The series is currently streaming on Netflix in sub and dub. Keep it locked to Couch Soup for even more Godzilla content as Godzilla Week continues.
Have you seen Godzilla Singular Point? What did you think? Did you agree that Pelops II is the best character? Let us know in the comments where we can talk about our favourite versions of Godzilla.
