The Kaiju Transmissions Podcast

Byrd and Matt are joined by Tom to review a batch of indie kaiju films that they saw at G-Fest 2019!  The trio review the crowd sourced Great Buddha Arrival, effects veteran Yoshikazu Ishii's Attack of the Giant Teacher, and a highlight reel of Daisuke Sato and Keizo Murase's anticipated short film Howl From Beyond the Fog!  Tom also adds his reviews for the kaiju spoof Notzilla and the micro-budg...

Byrd and Matt are joined for a second interview with King Ghidorah mo-cap actor Alan Maxson, who portrayed the creature’s right head in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. With the movie being out, Alan was able to tell us a lot more about how King Ghidorah was brought to life, how he worked with the other mo-cap actors, and his direction from Michael Dougherty, as well as his approach to suit acting...

Byrd, Matt and guest host Trev (Days of Future Podcast: Examining the X-Men) discuss Monster Island, the newest giant monster film from the prolific b-movie studio, The Asylum.  Created to cash in on the newest Godzilla film, how does this micro-budget creature feature fare?  We'll tell you!  We also have a mini review of HBO's acclaimed mini-series Chernobyl, including how future Godzilla/kaiju f...

Byrd and Matt are joined by guest reviewers Tom and Trev to take a deep dive into Legendary Pictures brand new film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters!  We discuss the highly anticipated blockbuster from top to bottom.  We give our thoughts on the writing, directing, effects, characters, monsters, and the themes of the film.  We also talk about the fandom's reactions to the film and the recent divide...

Byrd and Matt discuss director Gareth Edwards' pre-Godzilla indie hit, Monsters and its sequel, Monsters: Dark Continent.  Monsters was made on a shoestring budget with a crew of less than ten people and was released to critical acclaim.  The largely improvised film put a relationship drama against the backdrop of a world ravaged by an invasion by giant monsters from space.  Its sequel, Dark Conti...

Byrd and Matt discuss the Norwegian giant creature feature Troll Hunter, from director André Øvredal.  This found footage chiller was released in 2010 with a lot of buzz and critical success.  It follows a student film crew as they join a professional troll hunter to take down a variety of gigantic trolls in the Norwegian countryside.  How does this film hold up nearly a decade later?  Listen and...

Byrd and Matt are joined by the Goat (of the Movie Graveyard Podcast) to discuss the 1982 cult classic, Q: The Winged Serpent, directed by b-movie legend Larry Cohen.  With Cohen's recent passing, we felt now would be as good a time as any to revisit his unique entry in the giant monster genre.  Q combined the giant monster, gangster and occult horror genres into this quirky and original flick.  L...

  Byrd and Matt are joined again by Kevin Derendorf (author of Kaiju For Hipsters, Maser Patrol blog) to review Toho’s kaiju/hero series Zone Fighter! With Japanese cinema nearly dead and the rise of Ultraman and Kamen Rider on TV, Toho of course got into tokusatsu hero game in the early 70s. For Zone Fighter, they enlisted some of their top talent, including directors Ishiro Honda and Jun Fukuda...

Byrd and Matt are joined by Trev (Days of Future Podcast: Examining the X-Men) to discuss kaiju in the world of pop music.  We have an eclectic list of songs that we will play samples from and give our thoughts on.  We have popular and obscure tracks from artists in genres such as pop, heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and more!  We have something for everyone with this diverse track list, so relax and...

Byrd and Matt discuss Tsuburaya Productions' kiddie kaiju romp Daigoro vs. Goliath, which was distributed by Toho as part of their theatrical Champion Matsuri package in 1972.  In addition to our review, we debunk some common myths about the film as well as discuss Toho's still ambiguous part in the production, how it was the offspring of the infamous aborted Godzilla vs. Redmoon project, and more...

We are joined again by Kevin Derendorf (Maser Patrol blog, Kaiju For Hipsters) to discuss two futuristic sci-fi spectacles that Toho produced in the 1980s.  The first is Sayonara Jupiter, a futuristic space opera/disaster movie combo.  The second is the 1989 dystopian mech film, Gunhed.  We get into Sayonara Jupiter's long and troubled production history, Gunhed's genesis as a Godzilla script, man...

Byrd, Matt, and Chris discuss Toho's alien invasion films of the 1950s, the Mysterians and Battle In Outer Space.  This pair of films show a huge growth period for Toho's genre films in the early days.  They've gone on to become influential classics of the time period.  How do these films hold up after 50 years?  We will dig into the history, the subtext, the good and the bad of both films.  We'll...

At long last, Netflix has released the third entry in Toho's Godzilla anime trilogy for worldwide viewing.  After the collapse of Mecha-Godzilla City, the evil Exif aliens use religious manipulation to summon Godzilla's arch-rival, King Ghidorah.  So how does Godzilla: The Planet Eater compare to the previous two entries?  We are joined by our frequent guest host Tom to take a dive into the latest...

Byrd and Matt are once again joined by author/blogger Kevin Derendorf (Maser Patrol, Kaiju for Hipsters) for the second part in our look back at the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime.  This time we dig into the 1997 conclusion film, The End of Evangelion.  When the original series ran out of funding, it forced the show to have an unconventional conclusion that drew the ire of many fans.  This...

Byrd and Matt are joined by author/blogger Kevin Derendorf (Maser Patrol, Kaiju for Hipsters) to take a deep dive into the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime TV series.  Hideaki Anno's colossally popular series was an inversion on classic mecha and tokusatsu, twisting the tropes of these genres into an abstract and existential examination of mental illness.  At this point, the show's reputatio...

On this special Thanksgiving episode of the podcast, Byrd and Matt take a look at the ultimate turkey of giant monster movies, 1957's The Giant Claw!  We'll get into the backstory of the movie and just why the titular creature looks so darn goofy.  But first we have a full review of the Thanksgiving episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow on the CW!  This episode was a full blown homage to kaiju eiga...

Byrd and Matt are joined by special guest Chris Oglio (Genesis 54 Inc.) to discuss the King Kong stage musical, now on Broadway!  While your gracious hosts were unable to attend, Chris is here to review the play for us!  Chris has a love of Broadway theater and went with a group of friends to check out the King of the Apes Broadway debut!  We talk about the history of the production, the cast, cha...

For our Halloween special, Byrd, Matt and Tom discuss four horror films by kaiju-fan favorite director, Shusuke Kaneko.  On the chopping block today are the Toho vampire comedy My Soul Is Slashed (1991), the HP Lovecraft anthology Necronomicon (1993), Toho's sci-fi mutant film Pyrokinesis (2000), and the Kazuo Umezu manga adaptation God's Left Hand, The Devil's Right Hand (2006).  Kaneko is one of...

Byrd, Matt and Tom are back with another October horror special.  This time we will be talking about three horror films from Shochiku Studios; Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell, The Living Skeleton and Genocide.  Normally a studio known for family dramas and art house films, Shochiku made a run of genre films (also including their kaiju opus The X From Outer Space) to try and produce a hit in a time w...

Byrd, Matt and Tom are back with another October horror episode, this time talking about Japanese Invisible Man films!  We've discussed Japanese takes on Frankenstein and Dracula, so its time another classic Western monster gets the Japanese treatment.  We discuss two films from Daiei Studios, The Invisible Man Appears (1949) and Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly (1957).  Then we go to Toho for 1954...

Byrd, Matt and Tom kick off KT's October horror series with a double feature of obscure Japanese body horror short films.  Up first, we have Tsuburaya Production's Gakidama, about an unfortunate man who gives birth to a small gremlin (created by Toho monster maker Shinichi Wakasa).  Then we have the indie short semi-feature Henge (aka Metamorphosis) about a man who slowly transforms into a grotesq...

Byrd and Matt are joined by Kevin Derendorf of Maser Patrol to talk about the 1998 Godzilla animated series!  Serving as a sequel to the 1998 Tristar Godzilla movie, this animated television series upped the monster action and gave us a more familiar Godzilla.  But was it any good?  It seems as though the further we get from the 1998 film, the more this series falls into obscurity.  Is it best lef...

Byrd and Matt take a deep dive (no pun intended) into three submarine-centric Toho science fiction films.  First we tackle two Ishiro Honda classics with the iconic Atragon (1963) and Latitude Zero (1967).  Then we fast forward to Shinji Higuchi's World War II sci-fi epic Lorelei: Witch of the Pacific (2005).  All three of these movies are loaded with subtext and messages that we will get into and...

Byrd and Matt are joined again by author John LeMay to discuss his new book The Terror of the Lost Tokusatsu Films!  John's new book is a sequel of sorts to his last book The Lost Films, once again diving into rare and lost tokusatsu films.  This book revolves around unmade and rare non-daikaiju Japanese genre films.  We talk about unmade projects like Frankenstein vs. the Human Vapor, Invisible M...

Byrd sits in on the Prehistory: A Traveler's Guide Podcast to be part of a panel interview with the best selling author of the Meg novels, Steve Alten!  We asked Steve a variety of questions about topics such as his writing process, scientific accuracy in his work, each entry in the long running Meg series, the Meg movie's long journey to the screen and his thoughts on the final film, what to expe...