Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by Shenanigans »

It really is surreal to see a full suit-sized Bagan on display.

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And look, he moves!

https://twitter.com/yahhee081/status/15 ... 4343777281


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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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Something I noticed is that this design is not a 100% complete translation of others. Bagan has 4 fingered claws here, rather than 3. And the chest and head horns are a bit different. Nice to see someone take their own ques on something that technically hasn't existed before.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by GigaBowserG »

StardustGenius wrote: Fri Nov 04, 2022 9:31 am Something I noticed is that this design is not a 100% complete translation of others. Bagan has 4 fingered claws here, rather than 3. And the chest and head horns are a bit different. Nice to see someone take their own ques on something that technically hasn't existed before.
It's about a 90% direct translation of his "Godzilla Movie Studio Tour" design, 4 fingers and all. Some small changes to the base design here and there, such as the upper part of the legs, but they're still really similar.

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Biggest changes are the color of the bone armor (browner scheme inspired by "Super Godzilla"), and the orbs being yellow instead of purple.
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by Shenanigans »

GigaBowserG wrote: Fri Nov 04, 2022 2:41 pm
StardustGenius wrote: Fri Nov 04, 2022 9:31 am Something I noticed is that this design is not a 100% complete translation of others. Bagan has 4 fingered claws here, rather than 3. And the chest and head horns are a bit different. Nice to see someone take their own ques on something that technically hasn't existed before.
It's about a 90% direct translation of his "Godzilla Movie Studio Tour" design, 4 fingers and all. Some small changes to the base design here and there, such as the upper part of the legs, but they're still really similar.

Image

Biggest changes are the color of the bone armor (browner scheme inspired by "Super Godzilla"), and the orbs being yellow instead of purple.
They struck a fantastic balance with this design, IMO; they could've just made it completely identical to that model but I really appreciate the altered elements, like giving him those big-ass horns. Seeing all the pics from Godzilla Fest made me realize this is my favorite look for Bagan.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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Godziban will have a screening of the 4 specials at Cinema Neko on December 16th to December 29th: https://twitter.com/AtelierGodziban/sta ... 1933093889

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Last edited by GigaBowserG on Sat Nov 19, 2022 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by kaijukurt »

Nice to see the series getting a push!

That poster of all the adult monsters in the series is really neat too.
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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I had often wondered if Bagan's awesome online popularity was merely a result of the online English-speaking fanbase but not necessarily reflective of Japan; like a lot of the actual stories of characters being more popular here than there, it feels sufficiently jossed by now. It's crazy to see Bagan making an appearance in any kind of actual Toho production in this day and era, it truly is. I hope this inspires Toho to mine their deeper library further.
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

I have this on blu-ray now, and the Bagan Keychain! Unfortunately it’s a gift for my wife for Xmas, so I’m not allowed to watch till the 25th… :(
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by StardustGenius »

OH DANG! Also its very sweet of your wife to give you that :).

It'll make Christmas all that much sweeter.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by GigaBowserG »

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There's a theatrical showing of the specials currently going on, and several Godziban puppets and props decorate the entrance. This one made my day. (sourced)

Got the DVD earlier in the week, with the Blu-ray on the way for higher-quality viewing. The main feature is the Destroy All Monsters-esque episode, which is nearly an hour long, though this one felt more like 2 or 3 interconnected episodes (the Godzilla parents vs. Gigan parents segment is part of this, for example). The Mothra vs. Bagan: Prologue episode is about 20 minutes, the Son of Minilla Director's Cut is 30 minutes, and the Christmas special is about 10 minutes.
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by StardustGenius »

HOLY COW! That art is cute! By any chance do you know the artist?

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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StardustGenius wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:29 am HOLY COW! That art is cute! By any chance do you know the artist?
Miki Yuasa, they share their art every once in a while online: https://twitter.com/miki_y317
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

I saw all the shorts, and they’re interesting and funny, but not anything major. I’ll write up the plots to each (if no one beats me to the punch later).

Long and short of it is that the main “short” the DAM parody, is the best and has some actual action and plot. It feels like the “Godziban movie” if that makes sense.

The Christmas special was charming but really simple.

Son of Minya was fine, a cute story about Minya finding a Rodan egg and becoming a surrogate father to it.

Mothra Vs Bagan was…underwhelming. Most of the short is about the Godziban versions of the cosmos and belvera playing with Mothra larva and Battra. Then Bagan appears. Bagan is cool, and has a cool roar, but he curbstomps the three larva. Then a Mothra from the future shows up through some space time hole, and drags Bagan back, along with some Futurian looking machine. There’s some connection to the DAM short, or Godzilla vs King Ghidorah 1991, involving Bagan being created from time rips or something. The problem is that while Bagan is cool, he doesn’t really fight an adult Mothra (or Battra), and it’s a little underwhelming. Still it was cool to see Bagan and I have the guidebook that discusses him and his powers.

Added in 1 hour 7 minutes 16 seconds:
A few strange things I noticed:

The title for the short film isn’t called “Mothra vs. Bagan”…it’s called “Mothra vs. Bagan PROLOGUE”. Considering how the short film ends on a weird anti-climax (Mothra returns Bagan to the future), it makes me wonder if they’ll have a full Bagan short, or other stuff with Bagan in the near future. It would seem like a waste.

Next, Bagan according to the guidebook, was made by people from the future, using a mixture of Godzilla and KG cells, similar to his origin in the SNES game.
Last edited by LSD Jellyfish on Sun Dec 25, 2022 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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LSD Jellyfish wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 12:10 am The problem is that while Bagan is cool, he doesn’t really fight an adult Mothra (or Battra), and it’s a little underwhelming.
Oddly enough, the trailer for the special is misleading! There's a shot in it where Bagan has the adult Mothra pinned down with his horn electricity, but nothing like that happens at all in the actual special. There's a really weird cut right after Mothra uses her seal on Bagan that feels like something more was supposed to happen, but could just be me. Mothra literally drops a seal and dips, it doesn't even show her leaving :lol: Pretty clever excuse to bring her back by using the portal, but still feels like a rushed sequence.

The DAM episode really is great, though. The director of Godziban is looking to reintroduce Bagan, King Gigander and Mother Gigarian in future episodes, definitely looking forward to more appearances from those three.
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by StardustGenius »

HAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That is ON BRAND FOR SURE! Like a Heisei Godzilla villain. What a weenie! What a waste of time! Sounds like a case of "That don't work for me, brother." (Google it. I'm sure some of you know what that means.)
Last edited by StardustGenius on Sun Dec 25, 2022 6:36 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

GigaBowserG wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 6:00 am
LSD Jellyfish wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 12:10 am The problem is that while Bagan is cool, he doesn’t really fight an adult Mothra (or Battra), and it’s a little underwhelming.
Oddly enough, the trailer for the special is misleading! There's a shot in it where Bagan has the adult Mothra pinned down with his horn electricity, but nothing like that happens at all in the actual special. There's a really weird cut right after Mothra uses her seal on Bagan that feels like something more was supposed to happen, but could just be me. Mothra literally drops a seal and dips, it doesn't even show her leaving :lol: Pretty clever excuse to bring her back by using the portal, but still feels like a rushed sequence.

The DAM episode really is great, though. The director of Godziban is looking to reintroduce Bagan, King Gigander and Mother Gigarian in future episodes, definitely looking forward to more appearances from those three.
Neat details. Just curious, what led you to choose the romanized names like that? Those names (King Gigander and Mother Gigarian) are much better than what I posted (which was more literal) but I'm curious if that's from somewhere or just a choice.

And yeah, it's bizarre that the trailer was misleading like that. I can't check now, but the shot with Desighidorah firing beams at Mothra feels like that was originally supposed to be Bagan firing beams at it. While I was watching it, I was thinking "OH, Mothra is going to send Bagan into the future, and the two Mothra larva and Battra will prepare for the next fight". It would've been fine as a FIRST ENCOUNTER, but then it was over.

I hate to be cynical like this, but I wonder if they changed plan s midway, and realized they should just do a fuller short and release it on YouTube or something to make Bagan more popular again. I don't have it on me (I'm assuming you have it) but the Godziban book has this interesting interview about the designer of the OG Bagan and it's inclusion in this.
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by StardustGenius »

Maybe the actual title having Prologue in it is intentionally setting up another encounter. Carny as hell bait and switch!

I am very curious about that interview with the designer. Bagan was Tanaka's pet project of sorts dating back to the 80s. That's a LONG time to hold onto a thought.
Last edited by StardustGenius on Sun Dec 25, 2022 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

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LSD Jellyfish wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 5:31 pm Just curious, what led you to choose the romanized names like that? Those names (King Gigander and Mother Gigarian) are much better than what I posted (which was more literal) but I'm curious if that's from somewhere or just a choice.

And yeah, it's bizarre that the trailer was misleading like that. I can't check now, but the shot with Desighidorah firing beams at Mothra feels like that was originally supposed to be Bagan firing beams at it. While I was watching it, I was thinking "OH, Mothra is going to send Bagan into the future, and the two Mothra larva and Battra will prepare for the next fight". It would've been fine as a FIRST ENCOUNTER, but then it was over.

I hate to be cynical like this, but I wonder if they changed plan s midway, and realized they should just do a fuller short and release it on YouTube or something to make Bagan more popular again. I don't have it on me (I'm assuming you have it) but the Godziban book has this interesting interview about the designer of the OG Bagan and it's inclusion in this.
The director pimps the specials on his Twitter aplenty, and shared the English translations for the names a couple of times. (Example tweet, with the translated names in hashtags)

Also, the shot with fireballs being shot at Mothra's also in the trailer, though you can hear Desghidorah's roars as he's doing this; the first 5 minutes of the special pulls scenes straight out of episode 40. One of the few things shared early on about the Mothra vs. Bagan special was that it would be a direct continuation following the events of this episode, so it probably assumes you're caught up to the series and are familiar with this event.

And yup! Got the book, super charming with entries for nearly all the monsters (where's Maguma?!) :) Totally wasn't expecting it to cap off with an interview with Minoru Yoshida, and it even had pictures of the original Movie Studio Tour model!! I thought for sure Toho tossed that thing away years ago. Transcribed the interview pretty much immediately...
StardustGenius wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 5:42 pm I am very curious about that interview with the designer. Bagan was Tanaka's pet project of sorts dating back to the 80s. That's a LONG time to hold onto a thought.
Translation tools were used for these, so if any of these translations are off, y'all please feel free to correct! Some condensed beats from the interview:

-Yoshida became involved with monster designing after a Tsuburaya producer saw an article he wrote in Hobby Japan back in the late 80s, and was tasked with creating monster designs for "Ultraman Great". Following this, he caught the eye of Kawakita, who invited him to create designs for Mothra vs. Bagan.

-Originally, "Ultraman Great" was going to bring to life the monsters via puppets, so seeing Toho monsters he designed brought to life this way (Desghidorah, Battra, Bagan) was somewhat surreal, as Yoshida didn't really look at puppets as being used in a serious manner, only comedic. Monsters like LittleGodzilla or the Dorats are easy to imagine in puppet form, but more "realistic" or "serious" monsters like Desghidorah or Bagan, he had a much more difficult time accepting, and was incredibly surprised at how well they turned out, particularly Bagan. He also confirms that the reason Bagan appeared in Super Godzilla and Godzilla Movie Studio Tour was to increase awareness of the character "little by little" before introducing him to the big screen at some point back then.

-When asked about the difficulty in designing Bagan, Yoshida shares a story where towards the end of Godzilla vs. Mothra's production, Kawakita requested that Yoshida present his Bagan designs to Tomoyuki Tanaka in person for review: "Chairman Tanaka is not so particular about details, you know. He looked at 5 or 6 drawings and said, "Toho's villainous monsters should be simple, vicious, and powerful/carry a sense of weight. Please proceed in that direction." Well, I took that to heart."

-Yoshida really wants to see Bagan fly, as the orbs on Bagan's back protrusions are organs where he can unleash his "Wings of Light" for flight. These wings have never officially materialized anywhere yet, but Yoshida believes the director of Godziban can make this happen... one day!

-Other than Bagan, MOGUERA is one of Yoshida's favorite monsters he designed, though mecha monsters are particularly difficult to design and quite time consuming compared to organic monsters.

-Yoshida has a parting message for fans encountering Bagan for the first time: "Regardless of how things have progressed so far, he looks pretty cool, so please enjoy him! It's great that we finally have a new monster introduced. I think it's important to have a lot of new monsters appear down the road. If we don't increase the number of characters, the series won't be able to carry on. So if we don't do it now, we won't have a chance to do it in the future."
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Re: Godziban: Mothra vs Bagan (and others!)

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

Ok so Gigan has an older and younger sister too?

https://twitter.com/godziban_jp/status/ ... jc_Xg&s=19
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