Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Just got back from G-Fest 25. Another really good year

I posted a bunch of stuff on my tumblr all weekend long as it was happening, but here's links to the good stuff so you don't have to wade through all the inside jokes

Keizo Murase was an absolute treasure and worth the trip for him alone. He had two panels, the first went in to a lot of detail about his suit building techniques and stories, the second was for the project he is currently working on. Unfortunately I think a lot of people ended up missing the first panel since it was on Friday and all the Murase directed questions asked on Saturday had already been answered the previous day. Fortunately the moderators caught on after the 4th repeat and got the Q&A back on track. I took about 5 pages of notes on the little hotel notepad, but it looked like it was recorded, so maybe that will be uploaded but the highlights:
-Varan's skin was textured with peanut shells
-His main focus was cutting weight on the Godzilla suit when he started
-Working with a flying turtle is difficult
- Gamera's flames were a problem. He had add more velocity to the fuel to keep the face from melting, which meant the flames typically shot 4-5 meters.
-The flying scenes often resulted in needing to repair the suit as the pyrotechnics burned down and
-The reason they used hose for Varan's spikes was they need something that could pop back up after he rolled (didn't want something snapping off)
- King ghidorah was envisioned as a man in suit with wire work, but was too heavy.
-KG required 15-16 puppeteers. Each head required two wires for positioning and acting, but the mouths were remotely driven motors
- In his early days they shot around suit damage, as production got cheaper they were able to make replacement parts
- one time flying gamera melted his piano wire and crashed into the set burning down the miniature forest
- Mothra's eye was built from the inside out, they wanted something solemn/sad (?translation)



Also Keizo Murase dressed up in a full body Mighty Peking Man suit and attacked the audience. it was wonderful and unexpected. (Short video: http://klen7.tumblr.com/post/175889740895#notes)

Keizo Murasse also brought full size reproductions using the same techniques he did at the time for Showa ghidorah and mothra. And he brought the head and skin of Varan that he built for the Varan DVD bonus feature. There were other things like Godzilla skin, photos, concept art etc - but being that close to Mothra's eye, or looking into the hose spikes of Varan felt like meeting two additional guests that I long admired. I hope this kind of thing becomes a staple for future G-Fests because it really was worth the trip for that experience. (http://klen7.tumblr.com/post/1758590408 ... se-exhibit)

Satsuma was great, he was so incredibly animated and a fun story teller... unfortunately in an hour long panel it took 50 minutes to get to Hedorah, so Heisei Godzilla wasn't even a blip. Much like last year with Higuchi, I wished they had given him another hour. But the story was fun and brought up rough points in the industry when he was offered roles in "pink films" but opted not to.


Megumi Odaka seemed like she was having more fun the longer the panel and it was nice panel, I believe the entire panel is up on YouTube already. She was very sweet and talked a little bit more than most when autographing


Otherwise, I always enjoy Kevin Derendorf's (of Maser Patrol blog) panels and his giant robot panel did not disappoint. I also bought his new book which I hadn't known he published, so after I get a chance to read through it I may recommend it on here. It certainly looks to address a wide variety of lesser known kaiju films. Similarly John LeMay who has been putting out some interesting books (or essay collections?) had a fairly good panel as well.

I attended the film restoration panel, Shigeru Mizuki's panel (with heavy technical difficulties likely caused by the yokai) and Stan Hyde/David Dopko's photography panel which all stood out as interesting panels.


There were also some ridiculously good costumes this year.


All in all a very solid G-Fest which with the headliner canceling a month before the show (for health reasons) could have easily gone another direction - I do think the G-Fest community is the best part and much like last year I felt like it was great time to hang out with the people i talk with online. I can't wait for next year

^ Fantastic write-up! I'd been checking up on your's and a couple of other Tumblr accounts to see what was going on. That Pigmon is amazing!

Should really save my pennies, 'cause I know if I go sometime I won't be able to resist those stylized vinyls!

Thanks for sharing that info and all of those photos, klen7. Keizo Murase seems like a delight.

Great write up, I didn't get to spend a lot of time on site this year but was as good as always. I think it may finally be time for them to start looking at larger venues. JD has stated many times that they have no desire to go larger to keep the intimate feeling, but the PAX has reached 3000 people, and there were a few sessions that you literally could not get into because of space.

Guess its a good problem to have, the fandom is in a good place.

Awesome, thanks for sharing. It’s been a decade since I last went to a G-fest. Glad to see it’s still going strong and continues to get better.

Could you give some more info on the Godzilla 1985 panel you posted an image of? Who was presenting and what did they talk about? I have the Red Menace reconstruction, was it about that or something different?

^Yes, it was about the reconstruction of that and other genre films

So no word or hope for an official Blu Ray or home media release of any kind?

When RoG was released they tried but found it was a legal quagmire not worth the investment

I believe these guys just do fan reconstructions of US versions of these films that are in danger of becoming lost; using the best possible sources, if necessary recreating title cards as close to the original as possible and whatnot. As far as I know they don't make their own discs and sell them. It's a fan project, a really neat and interesting one!

^ Janus/Criterion definitely now has the North American streaming rights to every Showa Godzilla movie except for King Kong vs. Godzilla. We don't know if they've also secured the home video rights yet but, in response to fan inquiry emails, they have said "we hope to release them on Blu-ray and DVD at some point." That's all that's official at this time.

Streaming rights and physical media home video rights are generally two different things.

But yeah, I’ve not seen anything to indicate for certain that Criterion has acquired any sort of rights for the three titles Kraken released on Blu-ray. As far as I know, Smog Monster, Gigan, and Sea Monster aren’t available to stream on filmstruck are they?

We’ve decided to head up to G-fest this year. It will be our first time taking the kids. I know there’s something for younger fans called Minya’s Place but I don’t know anything about it. Is anyone familiar with what is available for kids? They’re 3 and 5. I’ve been taking them to comic conventions and similar things since they were infants so I know they’ll have a great time regardless, but I would like to know more about the things at g fest that are specifically aimed at kids since I never paid any attention to that the two times I’ve been.

I'll be on my way to my first-ever G-Fest this year.

Assuming of course, JD gets his jank-ass site working and I can actually register. Got a hotel, flight, tickets to Kaiju Crescendo...just not registered for G-Fest itself.

Here’s the pricing:

G-FEST Registration Pricing

Weekend Admission
Regular rate after February 28, 2019

Adult: $50.00
Youth (under 16): $25.00
Child (under 6): FREE!

Daily Admission

Adult: $30.00 per day [Sunday only: $20.00]
Youth (under 16): $20.00 per day [Sunday only: $10.00]
Child (under 6): FREE!


Now, on a really important note, I am super torn about what to do on Saturday night. We’re only going to the con on Saturday because we want to take the kids to some other stuff around the Windy City too. We do plan on seeing at least one or two movies at the Pickwick on Thursday after we get there. But regarding Saturday, the clear and obvious choice is the kaiju crescendo concert. However, running approximately 9-11pm, it is way too late for my youngsters. My wife has very kindly offered to stay with them while I go to the concert alone (sounds kinda lonesome). BUT, the costume parade is at 8pm at the hotel and while it would be a late night for the kids, it wouldn’t be TOO late (we could have them bathed and in their pjs before it starts so they could go straight to bed afterward). And I know they would just love that parade...

So what to do? Go to the awesome concert alone or spend the evening with my family watching the parade? The concert venue is 30mins away so doing both is pretty much impossible.