Godzilla, Mothra, MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
Produced and Released by: Toho Co. Ltd.
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
By DrKain

Introduction

Toho has been releasing a new Godzilla movie every year since 1999, but none of them have been sequels to the one before it. In 2002, Toho released Godzilla x MechaGodzilla, which left off with Godzilla defeated, while MechaGodzilla was only damaged. What did this mean? It meant that in 2003, Tezuka would make a sequel called Godzilla x Mothra x MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., taking place one year later. The movie reintroduces Mothra, who has not been seen in Japan since the events which took place in 1961, and brings back a scared Godzilla, and a repaired MechaGodzilla.

The Story

Kiryu (the nick name for MechaGodzilla) has been under repairs since his assault on Godzilla one year ago. The “Absolute Zero Cannon” and right arm were destroyed in the battle with Godzilla, who fled afterwards and has not been seen since.

Meanwhile, around Hawaii, an air force base has spotted something flying around in the sky, and they do not know what it is. Two planes are sent to track and stop what it is, but the pilots are unsuccessful. They started to shoot at it when they heard singing and the object disappeared. Using satellite images, the officials discovered a giant wing.

Here we meet Yoshito Chûjô (Noboru Kaneko), an engineer for Kiryu, and his cousin Shun. Yoshito just finished putting together a model of an airplane for Shun when they are hit with a slight earthquake. Shun goes to see his grandfather Dr. Shin'ichi Chûjô (Hiroshi Koizumi) in the next room when they are greeted by two small girls. Yoshito walks into the room, and also sees the two girls (Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Ôtsuka) when they say hello to Shin'ichi. Shin'ichi is the same guy who helped them return to Mothra back in 1961, and they have come for help once again. They tell Chûjôs that the bones of Godzilla must be returned to the Ocean to save mankind; otherwise Mothra will turn against them to save the world. Yoshito does not believe them, and the two girls point to the window where they can see Mothra. When Shin'ichi turns around, the two girls are gone, but there is a small stone with Mothra’s symbol on it.

A press conference takes place that talks about the repairs being done on Kiryu, which shows that the Godzilla bones were used to build MechaGodzilla, and had the robotic stuff placed over the skeleton. Due to the Kiryu’s right arm being destroyed, the bones were lost, so it is going to be a robotic arm. Yoshito and his comrades are talking about his love for mecha when the Kiryu pilots walk past, and Yoshito has his eye on the new girl.

Back at the Chûjô house, Shin'ichi is looking at photos of the events with Mothra in 1961, and tells them to Shun when he walks in. He also tells Shun about the marking on the little stone the girls left behind.

There is a party back at the military base to celebrate for the previous year’s Kiryu pilots, Akane Yoshiro (Yumiko Shaku), Kenji Sekine, and Susumu Hayama. Yoshito talks to the girl he saw earlier, named Azusa Kisaragi (Miho Yoshioka), who turns out to be someone he met four years ago and became friends. Akane walks into MechaGodzilla’s holding bay and runs into Yoshito there, thinking about the two girls’ words. Yoshito looks at her when she tells him Kiryu is alive and is happy to be in repair so it can rest instead of fight.

The next day Shin'ichi is talking to the Prime Minister Hayato Igarashi (Akira Nakao) about Mothra, telling him they must get rid of Kiryu. Igarashi tells him he has thought about it before, but if he did, there would be no way of protecting Japan against Godzilla.

A dead body of some turtle has washed up from the ocean on a beach. They call him Kameba, which was a name given to the species many years ago when these turtles were discovered. There are claw and bite mark on the creature’s neck, and there is only one explanation, Godzilla is alive. While this is going on, a nuclear sub is attacked by Godzilla and carried away.

Back at the military base, a new weapon for MechaGodzilla is needed because they do not have the right materials to make a new “Absolute Zero Cannon.” Yoshito is questioned by the Ministry of Defense about the threat of Mothra since the Chûjôs are the only ones that have said they have seen him/her/it. They also ask him if Mothra would be willing to fight against Godzilla, then they can get rid of Kiryu since there are a lot of people against the use of the bones.

The J.X.S.D.F. spots Godzilla in the ocean and begins to attack him with missiles, which prove to be useless. Godzilla is heading towards land, and will begin another rampage. In the meantime, Kiryu’s new weapon made to replace the “Absolute Zero Cannon’ is announced, and named the “Triple Hyper Maser.” It is suppose to be more powerful than the previous weapon.

Shun’s mother can not find Shun, and asked Shin'ichi if he saw him, but he did not. Shin'ichi looks in his drawer and finds the Mothra stone missing, so he sets out to find Shun before Godzilla attacks.

It is discovered that Godzilla has a giant scar on his chest, most likely from the previous battle with Kiryu. The tanks attacking Godzilla are told to aim for his scar because it is probably his weakest spot. It is discovered that Godzilla is headed for the base, so Igarashi realizes Godzilla must be coming there because of the bones in Kiryu.

Shin'ichi finds Shun at a school yard using desks to create the Mothra symbol, and Mothra appears shortly after he is done. Mothra turns around and heads towards Godzilla to battle him. The two monsters fight, while the two girls are singing and two larvae Mothras hatch out of the egg on Infant Island because Mothra is using his/her/its final attack with golden powder to paralyze Godzilla. Igarashi decides to send out MechaGodzilla because he does not want to sit there and watch a monster trying to defend Japan die. After the powder disappears, Godzilla shoots his ray at Mothra, and ends up hitting Tokyo Tower. Godzilla fires again, this time hitting Mothra in the wing, and he/she/it crashes into the ground. Just before Godzilla can finish Mothra off, Kiryu comes in and attacks. The two giants battle each other, but Godzilla blows up the side to Kiryu’s face, and it falls to the ground and deactivates. When is about to attack the fallen robot, the larvae appear and battle Godzilla using their cocoon spray attack. Ultimately, the adult Mothra is killed, and the larvae help Kiryu battle Godzilla.

Yoshito goes to repair the machine after he saved Shun and Shin'ichi, and ends up having to go inside it. After getting Kiryu reactivated, he is trapped inside because Godzilla’s last blast welded the door shut, so he is trapped inside. After Kiryu is up and about, Yoshito realizes Kiryu is really alive. Godzilla is trapped in the larvaes’ cocoon, and can not move. Kiryu’s chest opens up and starts to shoot Godzilla with the maser attack, but he stops. The pilots lose control on Kiryu, who flies up to the fallen monster, grabs him, and flies off.

Azusa chases after Kiryu because Yoshito is still inside, and blows the door off. Kiryu flips over, which sends Yoshito through the door and he hangs on until it is ok to jump when the computer reads “Sayonara Yoshito,” and the inside door closes. Yoshito jumps off and is saved by the other pilot in Azusa’s plane, while Kiryu and Godzilla crash into the ocean and sink. Yoshito salutes Kiryu after he is on the life boat and thanks him as the larvae leave Japan.

Review

Wow, that was a lot for such a short movie. The movie is only 91 minutes, and Godzilla does not appear on land until the half hour mark, but once Mothra comes in around forty minutes into the movie, it is just one long battle, and a cool one at that.

The movie itself had a pretty simple story, but finding out the bones were covered with all the robotic technology was really cool. The design for MechaGodzilla stayed close to the previous movie’s look, but he had new weapons and a new chest design, which were really cool. While I am sick of seeing MechaGodzilla and Mothra, it was nice to have one movie that is a sequel to something other than the original movie. In fact, this movie covers many of Toho’s older Kaiju movies (Mothra, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, War of the Gargantuans, The Mysterians), which I think is pretty cool. Also, it was nice to see the military have a weapon that did not get scrapped after it was damaged by Godzilla as the Heisei series had done with MechaGodzilla and Moguera.

Godzilla’s design was similar to the Millennium series’ design, having the large spines on his back. I did like the addition of a scar, since it does make it seem like it is possible to beat Godzilla, at least temporarily. A lot of people have a problem with Godzilla’s head being too small, but I liked it. I did not see anything wrong at all with it.

Finally, Mothra’s design was pretty cool and kind of similar to originals by being very hairy. Fortunately, Mothra was not the yellowish color that makes it look like someone went to the bathroom on his/her/its white fur. The wings were also hairy, and added to the effect of the body. I do miss the stinger Mothra was given in GMK though. My biggest complaint is that nearly every Godzilla movie that has had Mothra fight Godzilla in the adult form, Mothra dies. It was done in 1964’s Mothra against Godzilla, 2001’s GMK, and now this movie. The only movie adult Mothra did not die in was 1992’s Godzilla vs. Mothra, but that was thanks to Battra. The larvae look exactly the same as they do in every other movie, so I am not going to comment on that. I did like how the eyes turned red when the adult Mothra died though.

The special effects kicked ass though. You couldn’t even tell what was CGI, and what was not. There were some parts I only found out were CGI when I watched the making of special on the R2 DVD. There is nothing to complain here. Oh, and Godzilla does not stand around like a cardboard cut out while being pounded with attacks this time.

Michiru Oshima’s soundtrack rocked just as much as it did in both Godzilla x MechaGodzilla and Godzilla x Megaguirus. There are some really awesome tracks coming out of this movie, such as the music at the beginning when the airforce is chasing after Mothra, and the battle music used during the movie. Oshima’s normal Godzilla theme was barely used, which was a good and bad thing. Also, like GxMG, Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla theme is not in the movie at all.

Now, there are quite a few actors in this movie that I knew, and I’m sure others do. First you have Hiroshi Koizumi, who played Shin'ichi Chûjô in the original Mothra movie as well. If that does not take the icing off the cake, then I do not know what does. Next you have Akira Nakao, who was in the last three movies to the Godzilla Heisei saga. Finally, you have GaoRanger’s Noboru Kaneko as Shin'ichi’s nephew. Not to mention the cameos from other Godzilla veterans like Kôichi Ueda from eight of the previous ten movies (Biollante-GxMG), and the pilots from GxMG.

Conclusion

Well, I do not know what else to say. This movie was awesome, and is tied with GxMG for second place as my favorite movie in the Millennium saga. I still think GMK is the best, but this movie was awesome. Having one long fight was certainly different than we are used to, and since the main characters and stuff were introduced in the last movie, I think this was a nice way of having it done so it would not be redundant.

I highly recommend this movie for any Godzilla fan, especially if you loved GxMG. Hopefully Sony will release it for those that are unable to buy the Region 2 DVD (or Region 3, if it ever comes out).

My rating 4.5/5 stars.

DrKain