Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Minus One will return to US theaters this November to celebrate the 70th anniversary!

Sure, I would probably have preferred Godzilla '54, but I get that this is capitalizing on the unprecedented success of Minus One.

It's still unreal to see Toho's latest Godzilla movie make such a big impression in the West.

After Toho's first run of the deluxe box set quickly sold out, it's interesting to see that the second run still hasn't sold out now that the retail editions are available.

Amusing interview with Takashi Yamazaki. This is the first time I've seen someone act as interviewer and translator at the same time.

https://youtu.be/MzClpMLL3co?si=NhcXBNBHpA7vgpq-

My preorder of the 2-disc retail edition BRD arrived today. The street date is next Tuesday but Gruv delivered it early. I probably won't have time to check it out until Friday but the back cover lists more comprehensive extras than what was listed on early images:

https://i.imgur.com/mSchkcd.jpeg

^ Just what's on the disc has been quite vague, so this is interesting. I wanna know just what that 3rd disc is with the steelbook!

^ I think that all three retail editions (the 2-disc 4K UHD, the 2-disc BRD, and the 3-disc steelbook) will have the same bonus disc. The steelbook just includes the 4K movie disc and the BRD movie disc together, instead of one or the other.

Although I haven't had a chance to watch any of these extras yet, I took a look at the bonus disc. Here's a list of everything on there and their runtimes:

Behind the Scenes (65:27)

VFX Behind the Scenes (19:26)

Theater Release Commemorative Special Feature: "Behind the Scenes: Godzilla Minus One -No.30-" (22:26)

Event Video Collection
- September 4, 2023: Movie Completion Press Conference (11:37)
- October 18, 2023: World Premiere Red Carpent Event (7:45)
- October 23, 2023: Tokyo International Film Festival Opening Red Carpet (3:05)
- November 1, 2023: Tokyo International Film Festival Closing Stage Greeting (10:30)
- November 3, 2023: Theatrical Release Stage Greeting (16:06)
- November 8-10, 2023: North American Premiere (12:28)
- November 29, 2023: Sapporo Event (6:58)

Takashi Yamazaki Selection Talk Shows
- September 15, 2023: "Takashi Yamazaki Selection: Godzilla Screening Event" #1 (Guest: Shinji Higuchi) (12:56)
- September 29, 2023: "Takashi Yamazaki Selection: Godzilla Screening Event" #2 (Guest: Keizo Murase) (15:45)
- October 13, 2023: "Takashi Yamazaki Selection: Godzilla Screening Event" #3 (Guest: Shusuke Kaneko) (17:03)
- October 27, 2023: "Takashi Yamazaki Selection: Godzilla Screening Event" #4 (Guest: Hideaki Anno) (18:47)

Academy Awards Winner Additional Screening Trailer (0:35)


Toho really came through with this bonus disc! The only things that seem to be missing are, ironically, all of the prerelease trailers and TV spots that were listed on early images of the back cover. Those are nowhere to be found on the bonus disc, while the main feature disc just has the movie and no extras. There's also nothing from the Academy Awards ceremony, which is a shame. The movie includes the original Japanese audio in Dolby Atmos and an English dub in 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, along with English, French and Spanish subtitle options.

Holy mackerel! Those talk shows segments with Yamazaki hosting tokusatsu legends is worth the price of admission alone! I'd buy a disc of just that!

^ Those are definitely highlights! I've had time to watch the movie and all of the extras except the behind-the-scenes documentary.

With a total runtime of four hours, the bonus disc has all of the same extras from the fourth disc of Toho's deluxe collector's set, but with English subtitles! Strangely, while the main feature disc of the 2-disc BRD edition just has the movie and nothing else, users on blu-ray.com have confirmed that the 3-disc steelbook does indeed have the trailers, TV spots and bumpers on both of its main feature discs. The steelbook's discs even have different menu images from the standard 4K and BRD editions, so Toho actually authored different discs for the standard and steelbook editions instead of using the same discs for each of them.

The only thing exclusive to the 4-disc deluxe collector's set at this point is Minus Color. The 3-disc steelbook includes everything else, plus an English dub for the movie and English subtitles for the extras, while the only other things missing from the 2-disc BRD (and presumably the 2-disc 4K) are the trailers, TV spots and bumpers.

That's cool that the features disc includes subs! Kinda makes me feel bad for the people who ordered the deluxe edition expecting it would be the only way they could ever get their hands on the disc full of extras only to now be stuck with the most inferior version of it in pretty much every release. Very weird for Toho to put out that initial release without subs and then have every subsequent version include them.

Those interview segments sound great though! Some of the biggest names in modern tokusatsu getting together for one-on-one chats with Yamazaki sounds like it'll be a great watch!

Missed the preorder for the steelbook. Wondering if I should just wait until it's restocked even if it's after Christmas because it seems to me to be the best option as it's a 4K/Blu-ray combo pack (I'll be getting a 4K player soon, I promise).

[quote]
Kinda makes me feel bad for the people who ordered the deluxe edition expecting it would be the only way they could ever get their hands on the disc full of extras only to now be stuck with the most inferior version of it in pretty much every release.
[/quote]

At least they got Minus Color in its only official physical release on Region 1!

^ The steelbook is also the only retail edition that includes the trailers, TV spots and bumpers.

After I missed out on Toho's first run of the subtitled deluxe set, I preordered the 2-disc BRD from Gruv at the beginning of September. When Toho announced their second run of the deluxe set at the end of September, I preordered that too but I decided not to cancel the other one. Some Godzilla fans collect toys but I like to collect different home media releases of the movies, to compare their differences firsthand, so I don't mind that I've already got most of the deluxe set's contents on the retail edition. I still haven't watched Minus Color on Netflix, so it'll be cool to check that out for the first time when the deluxe set arrives. Plus, since Toho left the trailers, TV spots and bumpers off of the 2-disc BRD, the deluxe set will fill those gaps in my collection too.

The UK version of the deluxe set is still the only release that has everything (Minus Color, English subtitles and dubbing for the movie, and all of the extras with subtitles).

The Takashi Yamazaki Selection Talk Shows were a series of public Godzilla film screenings that Yamazaki hosted in Tokyo in the run-up to Minus One's release. The lineup was Shinji Higuchi for G'54, Keizo Murase for Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, Shusuke Kaneko for GMK, and Hideaki Anno for the premiere of the black-and-white Shin Godzilla: Orthochromatic. SciFi Japan reported on the screenings when they were announced:
https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/godzilla-minus-one-director-hosts-japanese-theatrical-screenings-of-select-godzilla-films
https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/takashi-yamazaki-selection-godzilla-screenings-update
https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/gmk-and-b-w-shin-godzilla-announced-as-final-takashi-yamazaki-selection-godzilla-screenings

My UK 4-disc Deluxe Edition box set arrived today (well, technically yesterday), three days before the listed release date! I'd been partly thinking about saving it until Christmas, but nah. It was well-packaged too, so I'm definitely glad I ended up ordering it from the distributor instead of Amazon.

I've not had a chance to pop the discs in yet, but the packaging itself is really nice! The booklet looks like a cool mix of interviews, promotional images and a poster gallery and is pretty thick. I'll have to set some time aside to read it properly. I'm due a re-watch of the regular version of Minus One before I finally check out Minus Colour since I've not seen it since the cinema last year, but I'm definitely looking forward to checking everything on this set out!

^ Congrats! You've got the only edition that has everything with English subtitles!

I received my copy of the deluxe set too. I hesitate to call it the American version since it was only available from Toho's website and it only has English subtitles for the movie and optional English disc menus. It does include all of the trailers and other promos on the movie discs, so I'm glad to have those now but their lack of English subtitles (particularly the PR spots with red carpet interview footage) just makes it more annoying that Toho didn't include those promos on the non-steelbook retail edition discs. I really don't feel like ever buying the steelbook solely to get the promos with subtitles.

My UK deluxe edition arrived today too. It's a lovely set. Makes me wish we could get something like this for every Godzilla movie!

The interviews with Yamazaki and the other Godzilla directors are all good and surprisingly funny. Yamazaki tends to be very candid in interviews; not at all like the measured politeness I associate with Japanese filmmakers on the promotion circuit. He seems quite nervous around Anno though, like he's expecting to have his head bitten off!

I notice that the movie has the theatrical subtitles instead of the Netflix ones. They're almost identical, but I seem to recall the Shinden is referred to as an interceptor with a canard on Netflix, while it's called a local fighter with a tail wing in the cinema and on the blu-ray. I'd started to wonder if I'd imagined the difference.

Jesus Christ, Toho. Now they're taking preorders for yet another Godzilla Store-exclusive limited edition of Minus One. This time it's a 2-disc set with the movie on a 4K disc and Minus Color on a blu-ray disc, with the addition of a new audio commentary by Takashi Yamazaki and visual effects artists Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima. Each version of the movie as well as the commentary will include optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish, while each version of the movie will also include the optional English dub.

https://godzilla.com/products/godzilla-minus-one-blu-ray-2-disc-watch-along-edition

They're calling this the "Watch Along Edition" and that page repeatedly refers to the commentary as a "watch along commentary" but the specs list it as an audio track, so that seems to just be an unusual term for audio commentary unless they mean there's some sort of picture-in-picture video of the four of them talking.

Not only is this an alternative way to get Minus Color instead of the 4-disc deluxe set, the inclusion of the English dub as an optional audio track on Minus Color is something that only the UK deluxe set has included before this. Toho really is going the extra mile to make the deluxe set obsolete for American fans. Get the 3-disc steelbook and this upcoming 2-disc set and you'll have everything on disc with subtitles.

We've been wanting Toho to allow more content in their home video releases for decades, now maybe we enter the exact opposite problem, with Toho flooding the market with variant discs with unique features!

For real, this definitely feels like a "monkey's paw" situation!

"I wish Toho would just release Godzilla in the west themselves!"

*finger curls up, Toho releases dozens of versions of the same film and none of them have the same extras*

I hope that anyone who wanted the UK deluxe edition managed to get it, because it's now out of print with no plans for a reissue. The only Anime Limited product to sell out faster than this was the Evangelion ultimate edition.

Wow, that *was* fast! I know they said they didn't have any current plans for more, but I'm still a bit surprised at how quickly it sold out. Just another sign of how popular Godzilla is right now!

Overall I'm very happy with the deluxe edition, though I must say I'm a little disappointed that the subs are audio-descriptive rather than regular subs. For stuff like the interviews it's fine, but for the behind-the-scenes stuff it's a bit irritating constantly having [roaring], [narrator], [crew 3], etc. pop up unnecessarily (especially when people are talking so quickly that the subs are going by so fast, and also switching between the top and bottom of the screen).

Still as I said, overall I'm very happy with this release, and reading that it's already sold out makes me even more glad that I picked it up!