- Titles: Godzilla S.P
- Genre: Science Fiction, action, mecha, kaaiju
- Episodes: 13
- Studio: Orange and BONES
Wow, the Netflix synopsis fo this series is awful. Let me put it here: This series features an original story, which depicts the young geniuses Mei Kamino, a female researcher, and Yun Arikawa, a male engineer, as they take on an unprecedented threat with their companions. When danger comes up from the depths, only young geniuses Mei, Yun, and their team can face the threat in Godzilla Singular Point!
See what I mean? So dry! Why do they have to point out everyone’s gender? I mean I guess that’s what Godzilla Singular Point is about but also it’s like if you mixed the classic Godzilla story or really any Kaiju story with Steins;Gate. More specifically, if you treated a classic Kaiju narrative like a talkie, technobabble-heavy science fiction story which focuses on the personal adventures of two little guys. And you let a bunch of really talented animators draw it gorgeously!
I wonder if I did a better job than Netflix at describing Godzilla Singular Point. I hope I did. Basically, the Singular Point of the title is just as important as the Godzilla part and I have never quite seen that interpretation before. This is not why I picked it up though. I had no clue about any of this until I watched it. I put it on my watch list because I thought the Gintama-looking guy was kind of cute. He is! Mei is cuter though.
Production
While watching Godzilla Singular Point I kept thinking how pretty the show was. The designs are great, especially the monsters. The colours are just fantastic, they pop out at you and the fact that Netflix has some high-resolution streaming makes them even more vibrant. I think. I’m not entirely sure it works that way…
And the CG… well your mileage will probably vary. There’s a lot of it. Most of the beasties are CG. I thought it works quite well. It sort of visually isolated all the monsters that the narrative was othering, creating this perfect dissonance. And it made the movements so much more menacing. I’m guessing some will find it annoying since it’s not exactly seamless.
For me though, it was a downright impressive production. I just found out it was made by Orange and BONES, two studios I generally praise for technical prowess, so it’s not surprising that I enjoyed this one.
Story & Characters
Like I said, I’m not sure my synopsis did it justice. In many respects, Godzilla Singular Point is a much more character-driven story than pretty much any Kaiju movie or show I’ve seen up until now, with the exception of Colossal (a great movie by the way).
A lot of the narrative beats and tropes of Kaiju movies are here. They’re rather similar to natural disaster movies. You know, there’s the small-time scientist who doesn’t have the resources or means to solve everything but actually knows a lot more about what’s happening than anyone else. There’s a mild environmental message. The events start small and isolated but escalate very quickly and cause huge collateral and structural damage. Ultimately the fate of the world rests in the hands of a rag-tag team and a single action. That sort of thing.
And it presents those tropes with reverence. This isn’t a deconstruction or a satire of the genre. It’s a classic Kaiju story brimming with action and even a few robots, most likely written by fans of the genre. For the record, I’m not one of these fans. I don’t hate the genre by any means but it’s not like I gravitate towards it either.
However, there’s also this more personal story happening. Throughout everything, the narrative takes the time to really study the two leads, Mei and Yun and to develop them in detail. Since Mai and Yun (the Gintama-looking guy…) both happen to be very likeable and layered characters, this adds some depth to the story which Kaiju movies usually don’t have the time for. And it’s kind of charming.
I don’t want to spoil anything so let’s just say that Mei and Yun don’t really meet during the course of the action. But they interact regularly. They form this friendly almost pseudo-professional relationship online and discuss their personal theories on what is happening in the world. And it’s these personal discussions and scientific meanderings that actually frame the action.
It’s a subtle shift at times but it really reinvigorated the genre for me. I ended up looking forward to the next episode every time I finished one. I also really cared about the characters. Not in the disaster movie way we care about the cute little girl with the stuffed bunny who is in the path of a hurricane. I cared about them in a way where I wanted to get to know them better. I was curious about how Mei’s studies were going (as a side note, if I had been born rich I also would have studied nonexistent creatures at post-graduate level as well). I really wanted to know how Yun ended up at Otaki Factory. I actually would have loved a few more filler episodes.
I cared about the cast of Godzilla Singular Point, regardless of both Godzilla and the Singular Point event. That’s saying something.
I realize that I have mentioned science and Singular Point a few times without elaborating. You see, in this iteration of Godzilla, he’s not the actual disaster, just a symptom. That twist has been used before but in Godzilla Singular Point, it quickly becomes obvious that the problem is physics. Honestly, if anime has taught me anything, it’s that physics is nothing but trouble!
A lot of the series is concerned more with dimensions crumbling into each other than it is with giant dinosaur monsters. Not that the monsters aren’t a problem. They are! A pretty big one that we have to run from a whole lot. But the more pressing issue is about getting the math right! Oh man, did I just make Godzilla Singular Point sound as boring as Netflix did? I guess I shouldn’t quit my day job.
You might like this anime if:
You like pretty and striking visuals. You enjoy classic Kaiju stories but wish they had more technobabble. You like romance storylines that don’t happen actually happen during the run of the series.
My favourite character:
Well, I sort of said Mei was awesome, and she is but I think I have to go for Satomi. She’s got style and sass!
Suggested drink:
- Every time anyone mentions Jet Jaguar – cheer!
- Every time Mei takes a picture – take a sip
- Every time we see the Bloodsea mural – admire
- Every time somene mentions freqeuncy or waves – take notes
- Every time Pelops 2 is surprisingly halpful – raise your glass
- Every time anyone says Rodan – take a sip
- Every time Satomi shows up – yay!
- Every time the boys from Otaki are somewhere they shouldn’t be – take a sip
- Every time Mei and Yun text – awwww
- Every time there’s a new type of Kaiju – take a sip
- Every time we see the News – take a sip
- Every time anyne talks of the Red Dust – take a sip
- Every time we see a picture of Dr. Ashihara – be suspicious
- Every time we hear about archetypes – take a sip
- Every time My. Ootaki gets injured – oh no!
- Every time Yun gets knocked out – take a sip
- Every time we see the skeletton – You’ll know it when you see it
- Every time someone mentions the orthogonal diagonalizer – o to one of the links on this page
I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.
I am a Godzilla fan. Like for October this year, because I can, I’m watching all 62 Godzilla movies. Needless to say, I jumped on this anime the instant I saw it. And I loved it. Took a minute to get wrapped around it – I mean the kaiju STAR didn’t make an appearance for the first half of the series, but it really hits the spot in so many ways. And yes, if you are a Godzilla movie nut, reference after reference and nods and little things to enjoy. I’ll probably watch it again (and again) just to catch any I missed. Myself, I liked the CGI on the monsters because it gave them some very realistic and therefore menacing movement. Somewhere in being an artist and being an animal lover and caretaker any unnatural looking movements are a little jarring to me – so to have this nice, smooth, and natural movement was a treat. It’s a long way from stop action and a guy in a suit… The character development was nice to have really “done”. It’s been hinted around at before but, as you so wisely pointed out, there isn’t time for a lot of it in a short kaiju movie. Interesting note, the first few Japanese version Godzilla movies do make some effort to give a reasonable scienc-y explanation for things. The localized English verson cut all of that out, which I think has caused that running joke about both the continuity of the series and how Godzilla never really dies. Anyway – science got shoved aside for more monster fighting and city stomping time. It took a full series to have time for the science, as well as character development. All in all, I think this is a nice addition to the Godzilla universe.
Those are awesome October plans! I’m glad you liked it. I wasn’t sure how a Godzilla expert would take it in
I don’t know that I’m an expert. I learned some things from my watch this year! I think probably the best fun of Singularity was seeing “everyone” again. Like they brought back or called back with at least a wink and a nudge to practically every Godzilla movie, so it was fun spotting the references.
Really? That actually sounds great. I’m not enough of a Godzilla expert to appreciate it but I love that type of fanservice
Whhhhaaaa?! That’s amazing!
So which would be your top 3 Godzilla films?
Now that I’ve seen the original Japanese version of Godzilla (the first one) that has to be in my top 3. I also somehow missed that string of Japanese Godzilla films in the 90s (probably just not available where I was at the time) and I quite liked them. Overall I’d say they are my favorites for at least some attempt at scientific veracity. With that said, I’d still probably choose the movies with Gidorah as my 2nd and 3rd favorites because I have a soft spot for the big gold hydra. 😀
I’m sold! Bookmarked.
Hope you like it!
Binged 5 episodes last night. I love it, best of the season so far. Mei is real waifu of the year material.
“I put it on my watch list because I thought the Gintama-looking guy was kind of cute. He is! Mei is cuter though.” Love your discernment processes, Irina! 🤣🤣🤣
What can I say. I’m just classy that way.
Loved this series! Plus one of the Jet Jaguar AI has Klee’s voice actors. I think it was the one that was in Mei’s computer . I really didn’t mind the cgi , I think it looked good for making the Kaiju look otherworldly and strange . I would love a second season . Also did you know a physicist wrote the script ?
I play Genshin in English and watch anime in Japanese so I didn’t notice the VA crossover. Nice trivia!
I couldn’t do the English voices lol but the Japanese voice actors are really solid ! Lots of anime voice actors in the game .
I loved it for all the reasons you listed. And I had so much fun with this version of Jet Jaguar. LOL! 🙂
I cheered every time it was onscreen. Such a likeable scrap!
Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed this one too. Seems like only a certain type of person to enjoy it maybe? I don’t know. I think it’s also very hard to really sell this show to people because of how unusual it is. I loved it too though. It just felt right to me for some reason.
I thought it was great. And I think that if more people watched it, it would be more appreciated. I mean people love S:G and tis isn’t all that far off. Maybe that’s how they should have advertised it?
Ooh, that was one of the most pleasant surprises this year. I, too, loved the characters, and I certainly didn’t expect anime Godzilla to take the SF so seriously. It was a fun romp all the way through. I didn’t really like how the CGI blended with the rest of the animation, but I really do, and it was easy to ignore. Beyond that, it was just such fun to watch. And Mei was great. Loved her.
I wonder how many references I would have gotten, if I’d known more about tokusatsu shows. They said it was filled to the brim, not only the Godzilla franchise. I didn’t even know that Jet Jaguar was a Godzilla character before this show.
Best anime Godzilla show I’ve seen hands down.
I’m sure I missed out on a lot. You can kind of tell but it doesn’t ruin the watching experience in any way. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to enjoy this. I was a bit surprised to see it rated so low.
Fun fact: Studying nonexistent creatures at a post-graduate level lets you put the honorific “DM” in front of your name. It’s like being a doctor but with more dice! Similar amounts of whining though…
huh so like dentist. I should have known
Currently 5 episodes in and loving it so far!
Relatable characters (Mei fidgeting with her whiteboard marker while explaining light/time refraction).
The CG is appropriate and unobtrusive (for my tastes).
Nice Jurassic Park vibes in some scenes (e.g. Rodans vs Bus in ep 3)
Accurate technobabble (e.g explaining MD5)
Great recommendation!
Glad yo like it