The future of Toho done righto

First Comment, But I like the idea, unfortunately I think Toho wants to continue with Shin Godzilla. 

JonahLee-France,
Toho wants to look forward.

Although it would be cool for Toho to bring back old story lines and continuities like Tsuburaya has done for Ultraman, they don't seem to have any interest in that.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. flopped in Japan and was the second least attended film of the Millennium series. Toho was already considering shutting the series down after Godzilla x Megaguirus flopped, but the fact Tokyo S.O.S. did worse makes the prospect of them picking up a story line from that film unlikely.

GMK was the most successful Godzilla film of the Millennium series and I'd love to see a sequel, but the film is 20 years old. I think our best hope is that Shusuke Kaneko come back someday to direct another film, albeit, in a new continuity. As of 2007 he was still open to returning.

SarcasticGoji,
The current producer of the Toho Godzilla series, Keiji Ota, stated in 2018 that they will not make a sequel to Shin Godzilla, even though it was incredibly successful. Instead they have an idea for a cinematic universe of their own. Whether or not this will materialize is yet to be seen or officially announced in any capacity.

I was just thinking of making a fanfiction where space colonizing humans created an army of mechakaiju

@Gman

He said they planned to make a Cinematic universe, that included Shin Godzilla. I know that the movie was cancelled but the Universe has not been reported to. But thank you for the note anyway

First Comment

SarcasticGoji,
You're mistaken. Keiji Ota specifically said that Shin Godzilla was not a conducive movie to build a cinematic universe around. Here's his exact quote from 2018:

"'Shin Godzilla' was a huge hit, but instead of thinking of doing the obvious idea of making a 'Shin Godzilla 2', instead think about a world that can be used for a long time, I'd rather make a World of Godzilla." [Source 1, Source 2]

Shin Godzilla 2 was not cancelled, because there were never any plans to make it, nor was there an official announcement. English news outlets mistranslated much of the information and misconstrued what Mr. Ota was explaining.

That makes sense, but nothing is confirmed, and saying that the Godzila Universe by Toho will not include Shin Godzilla is not confirmed either.

SarcasticGoji,
Granted, but that was not the dispute. The dispute was the claim that they had, "planned to make a Cinematic universe, that included Shin Godzilla," which is the opposite of what Ota said and is conjecture otherwise.

Plus, given the producer intentions, and the fact that Anno and Higuchi are involved with a Shin Ultraman movie that Tsuburaya is trying to push as a trilogy, a Shin Godzilla sequel doesn't seem very likely. Unless, of course, something significantly changes with the Godzilla Strategy Council's intentions.

One Question: Godzilla Council? 
Honestly I am not trying to argue, I obviously misread information.

first comment

SarcasticGoji,
The Godzilla Strategy Council, sometimes called Goji-Kon, was established by Toho in October of 2014 and announced by Yukan News. The goal of the Council was announced, "to decide the direction of the Godzilla Franchise for the near future." [Source 1, Source 2]

Essentially everything you've seen Toho do on a marketing scale from apparel, to official English Instagrams, Twitter and websites, more prominent showings at cons, the influx of figures, the Criterion Collection release, etc, were all, in part, pushed by the Council in an attempt to secure the franchise's longevity and popularity around the world. This includes investing in movies/series made by other studios including Legendary, Polygon, Bones and Orange.

Essentially everything you've seen come out of the franchise since 2014 has been pushed by Goji-Kon.

I really want to see some old and forgotten Kaiju get the spotlight again. Similarly to Star Wars, I also would like to see Toho be more experimental and try tapping into different Genre's.

Give us a new Space Amoeba or War of the Gargantuas movie, a King Ceasar Origin story movie in ancient Japan, a Destoroyah Horror/Thriller movie, a King Ghidorah solo movie taking place on Venus, ETC.

@Gman
I had no idea that was a thing, thank you for telling me.

Thanks Gman

Back on to the topic,
But if I were to take over for the next Toho Godzilla I'd make a back-to-basics tokusatsu production with a massive budget and plenty of time--Enough that it pushes the boundaries of the practical aspect further than we've seen since Gamera 3.  I'd put the budget towards a crew involving Kiyotaka Taguchi and hire Takashi Yamazaki to write and direct it. Shirogumi would lend a hand on digital touch-ups/shots. Hiroyuki Sawano does the score.

The only way this loses is if Toho makes some silly mandates.

Tokusatsu is fun, but more expensive than CGI, and not as good looking.

SarcasticGoji,
The more expensive aspect is debatable, depending on the project, but I disagree with the "not as good looking." It depends on what kind of "look" you're going for. Just because something is not realistic, does not mean it looks inferior.

CG has become a fast-food conglomerate of everything looking the same and hollow. I'd prefer Godzilla return to the roots of the special effects style it birthed instead of copying and pasting stuff we see all the time.

One of the (many) reasons I'm not a fan of the Monsterverse is because it just looks like any other Hollywood blockbuster. Everything we've seen in King of the Monsters, for example, we've seen in movies like Lord of the Rings, Pacific Rim, Rampage, Clash of the Titans--The list goes on.

Tokusatsu dares to be different and look different. It doesn't try to be realistic, it tries to look fantastical. To quote David Kalat:

”American audiences conditioned to expect realism conclude anything short of that goal must be a mistake. By contrast, Japanese art often values beauty, poetry, and fantasy above realism."

Therefore I consider tokusatsu art, and Hollywood CG just mainstream Happy Meals.

@Gman

I honestly prefer CGI even though I love tokusatsu. My dream would be to combine the two, but Hollywood wouldn’t really do that. But as much as I respect tokusatsu, it is very limited compared to CGI. 

I don’t think I have said this before, but my favorite Godzilla films are the original and Shin, (I won’t say more, because that would be too long.) I get what you say about cgi, but I disagree. Yes Hollywood uses CGI extensively, but when handled right, it can be used very well. CGI is 3D animation, simulation of light, and interaction with the environment. I personally love anything that involves drawing or sculpting whether virtual or not. 

Shin Godzilla is a prime example CGI and puppetry used right. It reminds me of the original Godzilla, while being completely different. The movement is familiar, but it feels unnatural, kind of like how shin is portrayed. I also love that they used motion capture, it isn’t perfect, but it is a step to combining CGI with tokusatsu.

And I can see why you get tired of Monsterverse, and like you said, the truth is that in order to be taken seriously, Monsterverse has to appeal to the masses, therefore giving up its artistic feel to it. Many movies these days forget that film is an art form and just get sucked into the visual aspects.

Audiences are having limited attention spans these days, so they might not want to watch a meaningful film anymore. 

I slightly disagree with your saying that CGI isn’t art. Art is subjective, not everything appeals to everyone. Being a creative person doesn’t mean you draw or sculpt, being a mathematician has to be creative to solve hard equations. In My personal opinion, I think that CGI can be used to create art. As much as I love Monsterverse and all these new movies, they focus more on keeping the audience’s attention than creating art. In this the creator makes a mockery of his status as an artist, by using his creation for commercial purposes. All this world cares about now is efficiency and entertainment.

I know I just explained your thoughts but it was an interesting topic that you brought up.

@SarcasticGoji

I agree, for the most part. My top favs of the franchise are the original Godzilla and Godzilla 2014

Indeed and an ongoing conversation. But I also don't find tokusatsu limited. Tokusatsu does exactly what it is meant to do. It's the value of look and feel over realism.

I've explained this before, but representational art demands that special effects must recreate our reality and trick the audience into believing it's real. It represents how something might be seen in our world.

Presentational art creates its own reality where the visual world is vastly different from our own. It presents its own reality that does not value realism, but visualizes a world of miniatures sufficient unto itself, not unlike a stage show. And that's the world that Tsuburaya created with Tokusatsu. And this world allows stories that typically wouldn't work with representational art.

With tokusatsu Godzilla is literally "King" of an entire effects style. The techniques, effects and visual look that Godzilla popularized made so many other franchises possible: Ultraman, Gamera, Super Sentai, Metal Heroes, Kamen Rider, Daimajin, etc.

But in Hollywood Godzilla is a pauper--He bows to the techniques done before him and popularized by Jurassic Park and Terminator 2.

And back then, perhaps CG was a very artistic thing to implement. But today producers force filmmakers to use it because it's quick and "dependable". And since most CG artists aren't unionized, studios take advantage of the situation. For example, J.J. Abrams wanted to build a puppet for Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens, but Disney and time were getting worried it wouldn't be finished on time and unreliable. So they stepped in to make her CG. The Thing remake was initially all practical effects, but the studio stepped in to redo most of the effects as CG, because they felt it would sell better.

CG has become fast food in the film industry and, quite frankly, I find it boring to watch.

I'll take the latest Ultraman series any day.

It's really sad that Hollywood has seem to have gotten an addiction when it comes to CGI. I really miss the times where CGI was only used because it was either impossible at the time or to make something look better in the edit. CGI is meant to enhance a practical effect, not replace it.

Probable the best example of this is Mad Max: Fury Road. Yes, there was CGI used, but 95% of what your seeing in the movie was REAL. If it could be done IRL, they did it with them only using CGI because it put the actors in serious danger.

The same goes for Godzilla. Though a fully CGI Godzilla loses some of the magic the original had, it seems like the techniques used back in the 50's has slowly evolved in what we know as Motion Capture. It's debatable if Motion capture should count as CGI or enhanced practical effects, but the general idea of a person in a suit performing the actions IRL does sort of live on.

I hope I haven't just repeated what somebody else has already said, but it's just something I've been thinking about for a while.