The Kaiju Transmissions Podcast

We are joined by our fellow Kaiju Masterclass convention team members Steve Ryfle, Ed Godziszewski, Patrick Galvan, Erik Homenick, and Amanda Whalen and presenter Kevin Derendorf for a look behind the scenes of this year's virtual convention. This year's show will have a diverse guest roster, including director Kazuki Omori (Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah), dub actress Tiffany Gr...

We're back with more spooky thrills as we look at two horror outings starring the late, great Sonny Chiba.  First we have Toei's campy Japanese/American co-production Terror from Beneath the Sea (1966) about fish people trying to take over the world.  We follow that up with Kinji Fukasaku's 1981's jidaigeki fantasy/horror mashup, Samurai Reincarnation where Chiba plays famous samurai Yagyu Jubei g...

Our October horror-thon continues as Byrd, Matt and Tom discuss Toei and MGM's cult classic The Green Slime, directed by the legendary Kinji Fukasaku.  Starring an all English cast, this Japanese/American co-production tells the story of a space station overrun with tentacled slime monsters.  We'll discuss its origin as an Italian co-production, its rockin theme song, its star studded cast, its al...

For the first horror episode of October, we are joined by our three most frequent guest hosts (for the first time together), Trev, Kevin, and Tom to discuss movies so crazy we needed five people to make sense of them.  We look at a pair of Hong Kong horror films from director Lam Ngai Kai (of Riki-Oh fame) based on books from the Chinese "Wisely" series.  Not only do these films have future Hong K...

We are joined for a look behind the scenes of Hanna Barbera's Godzilla animated series with the show's writer/developer/story editor Duane Poole!  For over 40 years, Duane has written for TV, film and theater and has worked with iconic properties including  Scooby Doo, the Smurfs, Super-Friends, Love Boat, and our favorite King of the Monsters.  We chat with him about his prolific career, Hanna Ba...

Byrd, Matt and Trev celebrate the legacy of Japanese action star Sonny Chiba, who recently passed away at the age of 82.  We talk about Chiba's humble beginnings as a star of low budget tokusatsu productions, becoming a global martial arts icon, and his impact on the Japanese film industry.  We also review four classic Chiba-starring tokusatsu films- the early superhero films Invasion of the Neptu...

Byrd and Matt are joined by Chris Marti (Cosmic Monster) and Jared Foust (Xenofauna) to discuss the rich history of kaiju fan films!  We discuss their recent short Ultraman Sorta vs. Godzilla (which Jared directed and Chris did sound design for) and then we get into the history of kaiju fan films, going way back to the 50s and forward all the way into the present.  Future trail blazers such as Hid...

Byrd and Matt are joined by Maser Patrol's Kevin Derendorf and Josh Greilich to discuss the four-film retelling of Neon Genesis Evangelion.  With the long awaited fourth film, Thrice Upon a Time now out on Amazon Prime, we finally get a chance to unpack this reintroduction into the world of Evangelion that was 14 years in the making.  Along the way, we debunk some common myths around topics like A...

Byrd, Matt and Tom discuss Jun Fukuda's obscure sci-fi comedy, Konto 55: Grand Outer Space Adventure.  The film stars the comedy duo Konto 55, as they and their mutual love interest are abducted by aliens in order to study earthlings' knack for violence.  An alien Bluebeard, Marilyn Monroe, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Yang Gufei, and Ono no Komachi also appear.  It is as insane as it sounds.  So how d...

SciFi Japan's Bob Johnson returns to discuss the return of Godzillafest, the largest Godzilla film festival in the country. We also talk about Bob's commentary track on Arrow's Gamera the Brave blu-ray, the complicated nature of the Godzilla series' home video rights in the United States, how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted movie screenings over the last year, starting the Planet 8 Podcast, the...

Get ready for a real "two plus two cooperation" as we are joined by Joseph Schafer and Ian Cory (of the Evangelion podcast, the Human Instrumentality Podcast) to take a deep dive into Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's radical, yet beloved Godzilla reboot.  Now with five years since the film's release, we thought there would be nobody better to join us for this retrospective look back.  We discuss...

Byrd and Matt are joined by guest hosts Tom and Kevin to discuss the divisive new Godzilla anime series on Netflix.  This co-production between Toho, Bones, and Studio Orange was a bold and different take on a Godzilla story, incorporating physics, trans-temporal theory, and wild new takes on classic characters.  We talk about the show's production history, kaiju concepts, and the split reaction f...

Byrd and Matt are joined by the prolific voice actress, Tiffany Grant!  Tiffany is one of the most prolific voice actresses in the dubbing world, having worked on titles such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Gamera trilogy, Vampire Hunter D, Super Atragon, Blue Seed and TONS more.   We discuss her beginnings doing dubs at ADV Films, her work dubbing Dr. Nagamine in the Gamera trilogy, her iconic pe...

Author, script consultant and film historian Ray Morton stops by the podcast to discuss all things King Kong!  Ray wrote History of a Movie Icon, the definitive book on the Kong franchise.  We discuss a wide range of Kong-centric topics including Ray's book, his audio commentary on the recent Kong '76 blu ray, the history of the Kong series, varying interpretations of the original film, common fal...

Byrd and Matt discuss the rare Toei disaster drama, The Final War.  The film takes inspiration from the same story as Toho's more often seen The Last War from the following year and tells the stories of several groups of average Japanese citizens as the Cold War escalates into a nuclear apocalypse.  In addition to the film, we also talk about how it competed with The Last War and how they compare,...

Byrd and Matt are joined by guest host Trev (Days of Future Podcast/Failure to Franchise) to discuss the Asylum's recent b-movie blockbuster, Ape vs. Monster.  Created to cash in on this year's anticipated crossover, Godzilla vs. Kong, the film focuses on a giant ape and a giant lizard who come into contact with a space virus and grow huge.  In addition to our review, we discuss Eric Roberts, the...

Byrd is joined by Kevin Derendorf (Maser Patrol) and Justin Mullis (Man Creates Dinosaurs blog) to interview prolific author Greg Keyes!  Greg has had an extensive career as a novelist, but is most known to kaiju fans as the author of the graphic novel Godzilla: Dominion, the Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs Kong novelizations, and the Pacific Rim: Ascension novel.  He's also written...

Byrd, Matt and Kevin discuss the low budget South Korean kaiju oddity, War of the God Monsters!  This obscure film uses stock footage from various Tsuburaya kaiju tv shows to string together a story about global warming awakening angry dinosaurs and the perpetually angry scientist who warns the masses.  The film was virtually lost until the recent blu-ray release from SRS Cinema.  In addition to o...

Byrd and Matt are joined by director Daniel Lusko to discuss his new film Ape vs. Monster from the Asylum!  We discuss how he got started in the business, the Asylum's production model, working with extremely limited time and money, how he chooses projects, the "mockbuster" formula, Eric Roberts, taking pride in making low budget movies, and more!

Byrd, Matt and Kevin discuss Netflix's recent Pacific Rim anime series, which was released in early March of 2021.  This co-production between Legendary and Polygon Pictures takes place after the events of Pacific Rim: Uprising and follows two young siblings who encounter gangsters, kaiju, and more on a quest to find their missing parents.  How does the season stack up and why is it so difficult t...

Byrd and Matt are joined by frequent guest host Trev (Days of Future Podcast and Failure to Franchise), as well as independent game developer Alex Rushdy (13AM Games) to unpack the recent film, Monster Hunter directed by Paul WS Anderson.  This Sony/Toho/Tencent/Constantin Films co-production (yes, there's that many studios involved) based on Capcom's hit video game series landed exclusively in th...

Byrd and Matt are joined by frequent guests Tom and Trev to unpack the recent cross over film, Godzilla vs. Kong.  We give our review, as well as discuss the film's long road to completion, director Adam Wingard, cut subplots, and the future of the MonsterVerse.  So how did the rematch nearly 60 years in the making fare?  Listen and find out!

Byrd and Matt conduct a taste test experiment with their children and significant others to review recent Godzilla vs. Kong tie in food.  Byrd is joined by Kim and Julia, and Matt is joined by Sara and Landon to review FYE's exclusive Ultimate Showdown Titan 1lb Milk Chocolate bar, the Kong Banana Crunch milk chocolate bar, the Godzilla Fiery Chipotle dark chocolate bar, and the Godzilla heat ray...

In the lead up to Godzilla vs. Kong, Byrd, Matt, and Tom are joined by author John LeMay (The Lost Films, Kong Unmade, Jaws Unmade) to talk about the original classic showdown!  On this audio commentary, we talk about the surprisingly tragic way the film came about, the sad life of Willis O'Brien, the battle for Kong's rights, the rise of commercialism in post-war Japan, the aborted sequels to thi...

Byrd, Matt and Maser Patrol's Kevin Derendorf scrape the bottom of the barrel for more King Kong rip offs and come back with tales to tell!  This time, we discuss the Italian-Canadian film Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century (1977), the Asylum's King of the Lost World (2005) and Bigfoot (2012), the uber obscure The Abominable (aka Ice Kong, 2006), and the recent micro budget reboot, Konga TNT (2020)! ...