How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

For the discussion of Shin Godzilla, Godzilla -1.0, the anime trilogy, Godzilla Singular Point and Toho produced and distributed films after 2015. Includes US movies financed by Toho like Detective Pikachu.
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Desghidorah
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How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Desghidorah »

I honestly think the AniGoji trilogy is the biggest example of untapped potential in the franchise. It had a lot of talent behind it, but the execution has widely been regarded as hit-or-miss. So, what might you do to try and polish it up?

Here would be my own crazy rewrite where I try to change as little as possible.


Planet of Monsters
  • The opening sequence is slightly different. Still show the historic attacks, but show a larva Mothra was in the midst of them and was battling several other monsters when all of them were nuked repeatedly, humanity thinking it was finally over in a conflict that cost much of North America.
  • But this was just the first wave. More kaiju showed up shortly before the respective aliens did. That's when Godzilla appeared. Destruction ensued with Haruo as the sole survivor of an attack by Godzilla that occurred when he was just a baby. Years later, the few remaining humans launched into space, with a near-miss at the airport as we saw in the film. Notably, Godzilla seemed to look directly at a young Haruo.
  • Much of the film proceeds as normal, but one reason Haro is followed is he's one of the very few to survive Godzilla twice.
  • Additionally a reason they land in Japan is the global scans do pick up multiple kaiju and Japan is one of the few zones with very few. They can't detect Filius because it's established Godzilla is near impossible to track.
  • Foreshadowing to the Hotua with one of the scout teams seeing patches of mundane plants with picked fruit, with a human-like footprint.
  • During the scouting surveys, the Aratrum detects a kaiju making rapid movement to their location and it seems it's heading for the ground team (foreshadowing, it's not). But they can't get a signal through the atmosphere.
  • In the midst of the plan to kill Filius, the other kaiju (let's say, Orga) arrives and Filius breaks off to attack it. The plan is adjusted to let them fight it out, then kill Filius while he's weakened. It succeeds, but a point is made when Filius looks at Haruo much like how Godzilla had.
  • Filius is killed, Godzilla gets ticked and begins to attack (and did not proceed to get blocked by Shaq or any Shaq Fu).
City on the Edge of Battle
  • Right off the bat and continuing on, there is much more tension between the survivors and Hotua. For the sake of convenience I'm going to call Miana and Maina, Moll and Lora respectively just so it's easier to tell who's who with writing this. Moll saved Haruo in this one and she saves him from a Servum by pulling some scale dust off herself and throwing it on him. The Servum then ignore Haruo. One noted difference is the Hotua do not use nanometal.
  • While hiding from Servum, Martin finds a fragment of nanometal in a cave.
  • When they get to the Hotua village, several things are immediately obvious. Firstly, the plant life is decidedly 'mundane' and not the horrific forest of knives seen earlier. Secondly, despite no cover, there aren't any servum attacking. And thirdly, there is a gigantic egg or cocoon in the heart of the caverns; clear as day. When wondering aloud what it is, Haruo hears Metphis call it 'Mosura'.
  • The Hotua aren't casting the survivors out, but they are very much not welcoming and are far more unnerving given none of them speak aloud but the survivors can feel their thoughts being probed. All of the Hotua are telepathic and use it extensively.
  • Wondering just how these people live in this world, Haruo gets his answer when he sees from a cliff what appeared to be a sinkhole is actually one of Filius' footprints; showing it had walked right past the village and paid no attention to it. Moll or Lora could also be sighted on a gathering run completely ignored by the Servum, whereas rare mutations and smaller monsters are attacked.
  • Paranoia and distrust sets in further when it's revealed 'Mosura' is actually Mothra and the Hotua are worshiping a "monster" and Lora notes how the elders are quite upset Godzilla is active and Filius, the 'Heir of Destruction' was killed.
  • Unwelcome, the survivors go out to find the source of the Nanometal after Martin shows it to Galugu. They make it to Mechagodzilla city, which is still animate and active; doing operations like shooting down Servum. In eerie foreshadowing, Metphis sees a hotua skeleton being eaten by the nanometal.
  • The initial plan is to just make a ship from the nanometal and bail, but it'll take time.
  • Martin has some lab equipment made for him and runs some tests. First on, some dust from Moll and then on a piece of Orga. In a callback to how he did this in movie 1, it's revealed here the Hotua are indeed part Mothra; but curiously Orga has some DNA that doesn't match up to any Earthly lifeform, contradicting the notion the kaiju are purely mutants of native forms.
  • In a change, Metphis actively supports the Buisaludo getting the city online. There is a debate, with some noting Godzilla is inactive and hasn't moved since they roused it. Opposed to leaving, the Buisaludo pitch to scrap the spaceship, arm the city and rebuild Mechagodzilla to destroy Mothra's egg before it hatches. Both because the egg is 'infecting' humanity and they best destroy it now before they have two active monsters to deal with.
  • The warhawks win the debate and it causes some divides.
  • Some of the themes are more highlighted, with Metphis remarking on the evolving nature of nanometal. It has, it seems, evolved from the Buisaludo's invention into their god in how they devote to it.
  • Some that don't agree with the plan go to warn the Hotua as they're worried about them getting caught in the crossfire. As the railguns and Mechagodzilla are being rebuilt, Moll and Lora are informed and lead a prayer to the egg. Just as Mechagodzilla nears completion, Godzilla comes awake and immediately makes their way towards the city.
  • More or less similar finale with Godzilla bulldozing their way into the city, but the harpoons and vultures are to mostly slow down and damage it while Mechagodzilla is created by cannibalizing the city. We get a proper fight which looks like a stalemate, forcing the nanometal to spread out and cannibalize more and more of the nearby matter to rebuild Mechagodzilla. This actively shows there would be no stopping it should Godzilla lose. The nanometal begins to threaten the Hotua and this spurs Haruo to use the vulture to shoot at the central computer. This gives Godzilla the opening to win.
  • Movie ends with Yuko's death and the survivors being very hesitantly taken back to the Hotua, but are imprisoned.
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LSD Jellyfish
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

I’d honestly keep everything the same, but have more monster action. I think a lot of people would be way more happy with that.
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Desghidorah »

LSD Jellyfish wrote: Wed Apr 28, 2021 7:25 pm I’d honestly keep everything the same, but have more monster action. I think a lot of people would be way more happy with that.
I'd be inclined to agree. The main reason I find the anime trilogy so haphazard, beyond pacing issues, is it frankly risks getting boring in a few spots. My rewrite was initially strictly just "Trilogy + some fights", but I thought shifting some of the pacing and actually answering some of the questions or plot details the series brings up, while trimming a lot of fat (*cough* 'connect life') worked well.
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Dinoskell »

I'd say biggest thing is give Godzilla an actual freaking motive that makes them stand out from all the other assholes in the conflict. Which admittedly requires going back to even the prequel/outline stuff for revision.
Way Godzilla Earth is written they're just another genocidal asshole out to remake the world in their image: which would be great if we were holding up a mirror to the humans and aliens, but not when Godzilla is supposed to be a nature's wrath teaching humility.

Other ideas:
Don't make Godzilla the sole kaiju of the planet: have descendants of the other kaiju smaller and in the background. Put in some pseudoscience about making themselves smaller targets and finding new niches.
Would also mean that taking out Godzilla would probably just leave a power vacuum for new monsters to compete over just like the start of the whole mess, making killing Godzilla pointless.

Base Mechagodzilla city off Godzilla vs Gunhead concept and put in some Showa crazy ideas like electrical towers and such.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Gojira1604 »

Putting Biollante, Maneater & the Servum in Planet of the Monsters, along with the aforementioned inclusion of Mothra Larva in the intro(Put Gororin in there as well haha).
Have Mechagodzilla rise out of it's city structure as a last resort since Godzilla's destroyed the city. Their fight can be left as a cliffhanger for the next film.
Include Spacegodzilla in Planets Eater instead of Ghidorah. Or maybe even both space monsters.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Thatguy4683 »

Put in better action scenes like the mmd
animation

https://youtu.be/G8T6uRovuvs Mechagodzilla

https://youtu.be/28qe6bT8gCo
Ghidorah

The human element can stay garbage but hey at least we got what we came for
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Dinoskell »

I don't think stuffing it full of monsters for the sake of including them would have been a good idea, IDW comics did that and I kinda felt dissatisfied sometimes, kinda empty. The Servum felt...very underwhelming as a design though, so I'd say put them through a few revisions.

...Forgot my other major complaint: you have CGI available, so why make the aliens human looking? That's less imaginative than most of Toho's aliens who at least were living metal, space apes, or spacec roaches in disguise for budget reasons.
Last edited by Dinoskell on Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by LamangoKaijura »

Make it into a series like they originally wanted, show the action from the novels.
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Dinoskell »

I think the novels have a huge part of the problem in that Godzilla fails to be "wrath of nature" and having the same type of arrogance he's supposedly punishing humanity for. I think the message of the story needs to be what's worked out first before talking about the action. As it was, the trilogy's message was a mess.
Honestly the idea of evolution having "goals" or "levels of evolution" that the creators talked about feels trite and a messed up view of the natural world. A more interesting idea would be to examine how being "top dog" is actually the poorer option in the long run. The "alpha males" of the world are often so busy defending their position they have less time to have sex or assist in caring for their young. IIRC And they often aren't leaders but jerks tolerated or used to keep out worse jerks. In that case a better story would be to have the menagerie of monsters taking the role of the servum being not completely descended from Godzilla, but of other kaiju who evolved to be smaller and below notice rather than fight Godzilla. Thus we question Haruo's very premise: why does humanity need to be on top if its a thankless position?

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by shadowgigan »

I would completely abandon the stories and settings they used. I would probably use feudal japan as a setting.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by LegendZilla »

It seems a ton of people around here feel that it was execution alone that ruined this particular trilogy.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Dinoskell »

Eh, I think a bigger part is either lack of a clear idea of what they want their story to say , or their message was just garbage. Godzilla is as unpleasant as their GMK counterpart yet framed as nature's wrath punishing humanity...by doing the exact same thing humanity was doing: KILLING EVERYTHING and remaking the world in their image. And where are all the other kaiju supposed to have fit into this then? What makes them fight for dominance? Nature being all red-tooth-and-claw is an outdated concept. The monsterverse, for all its sins, had a more accurate take with its three Fs.
Also, I think all romantic subplots should have been dropped because they were TERRIBLE. Just...clear basement-dweller-stereotype fantasy. And made Haruo even more unlikeable. NO ONE asked for harem anime soap-opera in Godzilla!
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Major sssspielberg! »

I honestly wouldn't change much. The third film was pretty satisfying, and the first two have potential. I'd fold the first two parts together and have Mechagodzilla actually appear in the climax. Rather than the silly "We killed Godzilla! ...oh wait. That's just a random smaller Godzilla." If they were deadset on a trilogy, the first part should have been the rise of the kaiju and Godzilla emerging as the dominant force, with mankind fleeing the earth. The second part would be the return, culminating in the confrontation with Mechagodzilla. The third could take place a little later on while the survivors wait for a rescue as the Exif summon Ghidorah, leaving Haruo his choice.
Also yeah, the relationship stuff could definitely have stood to be toned down.
Last edited by Major sssspielberg! on Wed May 26, 2021 6:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by CrimsonBloodX »

I wouldn't make it a trilogy. I would make it a series of maybe six films. The first three would focus on the monster apocalypse, but with a lot more things happening that didn't happen in the prequel novels, like showing what happened to Hedorah after it killed Anguirus and Rodan in China and the fate of the other monster species such as Varan, Baragon, Megaguirus, etc. The last three films would be the same, but with an actual battle between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla and the fight with Ghidorah being like what we saw in that fan-made video. I would also make the characters more likeable, such as Haruo being a lot less angry. I don't know how I will do that, but if I was hired by Toho to write the script, I'm sure I would think of something.
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by tbeasley »

I'm simple so if the second and third films had included Mechagodzilla and Ghidorah battles, like the ones linked below, I would've been happy. They're a bit prolonged and over the top, but very satisfying, taking full advantage of the medium. For all the cool ideas, designs and worldbuilding of the anime trilogy, it's a shame sequences like these weren't more obvious to the filmmakers -

Godzilla Earth vs Mechagodzilla
Godzila Earth vs King Ghidorah

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Jermobooka »

tbeasley wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 5:56 pm I'm simple so if the second and third films had included Mechagodzilla and Ghidorah battles, like the ones linked below, I would've been happy. They're a bit prolonged and over the top, but very satisfying, taking full advantage of the medium. For all the cool ideas, designs and worldbuilding of the anime trilogy, it's a shame sequences like these weren't more obvious to the filmmakers -

Godzilla Earth vs Mechagodzilla
Godzila Earth vs King Ghidorah
I like to pretend that these fights were indeed apart of COTEOB and Planet Eater. Makes it all more bearable
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Cryptid_Liker »

tbeasley wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 5:56 pm I'm simple so if the second and third films had included Mechagodzilla and Ghidorah battles, like the ones linked below, I would've been happy. They're a bit prolonged and over the top, but very satisfying, taking full advantage of the medium. For all the cool ideas, designs and worldbuilding of the anime trilogy, it's a shame sequences like these weren't more obvious to the filmmakers -

Godzilla Earth vs Mechagodzilla
Godzila Earth vs King Ghidorah
I agree about MG but I feel Ghidorah's battle in the film is fine as is.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by Lesko »

I think having a prequel detailing the original apocalypse would have been best. Other than that I would just add more monster fights. Perhaps establish that there are multiple Godzilla clones and focus on the servum a bit more. I agree with the OP that this is a perfect example of untapped potential. Contrary to a lot of viewers I actually was satisfied with the "fight" between Godzilla and Ghidorah. I just would have added other fights throughout the trilogy to make it feel more like an action packed Godzilla movie. I especially would focus on the kaiju that are supposedly related to Godzilla like Orga and the Zillas. Having at least one movie strictly serve as the prequel laying the groundwork for the rest of the series instead of just novels would have been much better.

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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by _JNavs_ »

It's like if they started LOTR after everyone won, or starting Star Wars after the story was over.

The story SHOULD'VE been the monster apocalypse. Not three films of Godzilla moving at a snails pace and fighting nothing but energy waves.
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Re: How Might You Rewrite the AniGoji Trilogy

Post by imposterzilla »

Seriously maybe add a few servumized monsters like Baragon .

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