Thoughts on Gen Urobuchi's Godzilla Anime Trilogy

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Mxylv
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Thoughts on Gen Urobuchi's Godzilla Anime Trilogy

Post by Mxylv »

Well, this was interesting. I know a lot of viewers weren't fans of this, but especially with the Singular Point series coming up I'm curious how opinions here stood on Urobuchi's trilogy (spoilers ahead):

There's a lot in the first movie that I don't entirely remember, but it's safe to say a good reason for that is that most of the movie doesn't matter beyond trilogy setup. It's mostly slow and straightforward, and the near-end point appears to state how the rest of the trilogy will play out--just as it wants its viewers to think. The first movie serves to do two things: to set up the story and to introduce mainstream audiences to screenwriter Gen Urobuchi, whose preferred writing style seems to be hand-feeding viewers the story until he flips the table into their stomachs to set up the actual story. The second film is probably my favorite in the trilogy, mostly because boy, don't I love a good dilemma. Setting revenge at the cost of one's will and humanity is a very strong story element, both as narrative and as symbolism, and it's pulled off pretty much perfectly here. The third installment has some extremely powerful moments and concludes at least one character arc very impressively (and a Lovecraftian kaiju will almost always be fun), though I do have a quibble on how long the first act spends talking about how weird things are. Perhaps the finale's most insightful point sets Godzilla as a force of nature to be acknowledged but not destroyed--which has certainly been explored before, but it feels new with the context of a character driven by hatred of the beast and having to move on from it throughout the series.

The trilogy is far from perfect. While I'd disagree with complaints that the relative lack of monster action ruins the experience, a few themes and motifs cut away from what it strives for. The trilogy appears to be about humanity itself--impressive for a trilogy with several kaiju, two alien races and moth people among the cast--and while that's not a bad thing, its humanist approach seems to lose some details; what seems like it should be a balanced and cautionary tale turns to a limited, almost nihilistic work at times. Both religion and science are rather inexplicably framed as antithetical to humanity, between a Lovecraftian take on a ritualistic monster-summoning and anti-Godzilla technology requiring its users to sacrifice their free will. (Religion gets a liiittle leeway through a certain cameo in perhaps one of the most emotionally powerful scenes of the third film, but to my memory technology is never given a similar way out.) Its racial implications aren't much better: by the end of the trilogy, it's clear that both the dark-skinned aliens and the blond, kinda-Caucasian ones' cultural flaws make them hardly better than villains. (Would that the Lovecraft influence ended with the cool Ghidorah concept as opposed to adding his antireligious/xenophobic attitudes.) For a film series that tries to pick humanity apart and put it together again, one can't help but feel it left a couple of pieces out.

Overall, the trilogy discusses science, religion, their potential for being abused, free will, humanity and hatred while weaving in the suggestion that Godzilla shouldn't be seen as a threat to be beaten. These motifs, executed via Urobuchi's effective-as-ever writing, form a connected trilogy that was almost--almost--a stunning, game-changing entry to a franchise over 60 years old. Its flawed themes undoubtedly subtract from the story's effectiveness, though, especially as the trilogy goes along, so whether I'd actively recommend the trilogy is a difficult question. Perhaps the best I can say is that it's a well-prepared, intricately flavored entrée that could just do with a grain of salt.
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