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「日本『怪獣』史 後篇」 (Nippon ‘Kaijū’ Shi Go Hen)
“Japanese ‘Kaijuu’ History Latter Part”
Those of you who noticed that Emi was taking the shape of this lady, good job! The conspiracy runs a lot deeper than I had given it credit for, especially since Emi seems aligned with Jiro’s foster father, who seems to fall on the ‘mad’ side of scientist and gets increasingly shady by the episode. Is he really aligned with the Bureau, or does he have his own nefarious purposes?
In fact, how many sides are there to this story—parties involved—anyway? There’s the Americans who repurposing alien monsters to fight communists (because nothing bad can come out of that); there’s the Japanese government and the Superhuman Bureau who were using kaijuu as scapegoats for their superhuman PR campaign; there’s a marketer hired to frame kaijuu as good guys and superhumans as bad guys; there’s the guy who hired her who has a cobra motif cane, which means you can’t trust him (the moral of Disney’s Aladdin, if I recall); there’s the student protests of the 60s who have somehow been co-opted into the kaijuu movement, there’s the kid who thinks he’s looking out for his big little bro but is actually just a tool, and there’s some crazy guy (how did he even survive?). I, er, lost count. The point is, there’s a lot of players here, each with their own views on this issue. Sure, some may be more noble than others—or, at least, believe that they are more noble than others, but just like in real life it’s just a lot of competing vested interested muddling with each other.
It’s natural that each of these interests reflect a different interpretation of what kaijuu are and how we should treat them, perhaps reflecting the kind of fiction that Concrete Revolutio has mashed together to construct itself. What the kaijuu—and monsters as a whole—are always a reflection of the zeitgeist. If the current generation is worried about the dangers of nuclear power, then Godzilla is a radioactive mutant. Or maybe it bears an ecological message. Or maybe it’s here to make humanity insecure about its place as the apex predator. Or some just don’t care, and for them Godzilla is just a big star they can spin into something profitable. Perhaps it’s because kaijuu never feel the urge to monologue about their motives—they just do their kaijuu thing and destroy Tokyo no matter what made them—but makers of monster movies have always felt comfortable overlaying whatever social fear of the time is onto their monsters. In the same way we use zombies, I suppose. It’s interesting that Concrete Revolutio recognises all of them, but refuses to definitively weigh in on the side of any of them. The entire issue is kept very grey.
And that’s the thing with Jiro; he doesn’t deal well with grey morality. It’s all bright lines between black and white; it doesn’t matter what the story behind a kaijuu is, if it’s rampaging and causing suffering, put it down. It’s a laudable philosophy, to be sure, but hard to make work in practice. He’s been kept unaware of all the ethically questionable practices of the Superhuman Bureau so far (just this episode, a premeditated (and perhaps precognited) plot to hijack a train to stage an accident to remove a troublesome public figure), but from the flash-fowards we’ve been shown, it’s likely he eventually gets a wakeup call. Interestingly, Kikko (who has about as many faces as Emi), Jiro’s junior, is starting to be the less naïve one since she’s let into all the dirty secrets; less naïve, but seemingly no less idealistic. Contrast this with Fuurouta, who just kinda broke down in episode 02. The avenues for character growth are alrady laid out fairly clearly. All that’s left is to see how they’re walked.
Full-length images: 16.
Preview
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For those who is still not clear about the story plot
Updated Timeline:
Note: Shinka Calendar seems to correspond to the Showa Calendar. Year 1 = 1925, final year = 1989, year 19 = 1944, or World War 2.
October 14 – Jiro’s father meets GaGon in the Pacific Isles, loses “Maria”, a native shapeshifter? A month after World War 2 broke out. Episode 4.
August 17 – GaGon faces off against American Superhumans in the Pacific Ocean. 9 months after Pearl Harbor.
Year 19 – A war of some sort (World War 2’s equivalent). Referenced in episode 3.
November 29 – Invisible Kaiju appears, Emi chooses to appear as an adult, Jiro’s father finds him naked and unconscious. Episode 4.
January 34 – Flashback sequence. Giganto Gon breaks Jiro out of the laboratory where he’s held. Jiro wants Giganto Gon to destroy everything. Episode 5.
robot-GiGantor defeated, baby GaGon meets his adoptive brother. Episode 4.
January 41 – 6 months before Kikko joins. Grosse Augen first appears as a Kaiju vanquisher. Call for “more magic” instead of science within the Bureau is made. Episode 4.
July 41 – Kikko joins the organization, Jirou goes against orders and saves Grosse Augen. Episode 1.
Between July and August 41 – A month after Kikko joins, just before Fuurota joins. More Kaijus appear, various superhumans fight them off. We meet Earth-Chan and Kaiju-using robbers. Grosse-Augen “replacement” takes up the burden. Episode 4.
August 41 – Fuurota joins the organization, kills the bug species. Kikko with the organization for one month. Episode 2.
November 41 – 3 months after Fuurota joins, humans confirmed as creating Kaijus. Mini-GaGon and Kaiju-lovers introduced as Fuurota’s friends. Episode 4.
February 42 – Bombing incident with android detective. Episode 3.
June/July 42 – Master Ultima returns from Mars, Bureau leaders revealed non-humans, expose their own Kaiju-creating ring. Jiro unleashes his arm. Episode 4.
July 42 – USA throw away a Space Kaiju’s remains near Okinawa. Kaiju-sympathizers grab remains and begin agitating against the establishment and the Superhuman Bureau. Episode 5.
August 42 – Protests by students begin, Jiro forced to become a Kaiju, faces off against Mega GaGon. Mega GaGon killed. Episode 5.
~Year 44 – Kaiju wave of attacks dies down. Episode 5 reference.
April 46 – Jiro is an enemy, ex-Grosse Augen helps him, Kikko declares love. Episode 1.
February 47 – Male android returns. Android detective now fugitive. Episode 3.
August 48 – Bug lady comes back for Fuurota, he learns what he’s done, gets saved and comforted by Jirou. Episode 2.
Credit to Geekorner for constructing the timeline for us to understand.
for more update on the timeline
Show Spoiler ▼
Ooh, this is nice. Thanks for posting it. I was going to compile something like this too, but once again, the internet saves me from having to do something myself. Huzzah.
I like what the show is trying to do, and probably re watching some of the previous episodes should help understand the show, but I am still perplexed of what the story is going for.
Kikko may not have a kaiju in her, but I thinks she would like a little kaiju in her, if you know what I mean