Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar

[Kailem]

Toho have released a teaser for this year's live-action short film, "Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar"; and DAMN does it look good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4degN00Ug

Visually this looks incredible! A notch above even the Gigan short last year, which was already great. They're really going full Ultraman with Jet Jaguar this time too! And it's crazy how well that Final Wars stunt suit has held up. At this rate it might even be able to ride out the 50th anniversaries for the entire Showa era!

I can't wait to watch this! It's insane how good we're getting it right now!

[lhb412]

Looks awesome!

I'm all for these getting more and more ambitious each year. The folks working on the Ultraman shows are getting more and more skilled with the traditional tokusatsu effects so the talent pool of people who can do this stuff is beginning to tick up again. I believe the director of this short has worked on some Ultra episodes?

[Benjamin Haines]

^ According to Wikizilla, Kazuhiro Nakagawa directed two episodes each of Ultraman Z, Decker and Blazar and one episode of the web series Shin Ultra Fight. He has also directed a couple of Godzilla theme park attraction short films for Toho, including Godzilla vs. Evangelion which featured King Ghidorah. He was also an assistant director on Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman and the Attack on Titan films.

This looks so cool! I am all for getting a new live-action short and a new CGI-animated short every year to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of the '70s Godzilla films. Focusing one on Jet Jaguar and the other on Megalon this year is an inspired choice.

[Kailem]

Yeah it's a great move. When they announced the creation of a new Jet Jaguar suit for this year's anniversary short I was disappointed that it seemed like we weren't going to be getting anything with Megalon. But having them split between live action and CG means we get double the fun! Plus it's something they can keep going for the remaining Showa anniversaries too, likely with a live-action Mechagodzilla suit for next year and the year after's shorts, and then CG ones featuring King Caesar and Titanosaurus to go along with them.

Before looking on Wikipedia I would have put money on the director of this having done episode 2 of Ultraman Blazar because that the low-angle running shot of Jet Jaguar is practically identical to a shot in that ep. But apparently not! It seems to did the excellent Nijikagachi two-parter instead, which bodes well for this since those were great eps.

[lhb412]

Delightful! These shorts (and the animated ones) get more ambitious and fully realized each year. The tracking shots through the miniature sets were my favorite feature.

Of course (spoilers!) when you-know-who pops up there at the end and Jet and Godzilla gear-up for a team-up I knew that we'd freeze frame before the fight started because that prop has gotta be pretty delicate by now!

[Kailem]

It continues to be ridiculous that Toho scrubs the entire livestream after it's aired and doesn't post these live-action shorts up outside of that. I had to go to bed before this aired and so had to seek out someone's recording when I got up, but man the audio and visual quality of that stream was awful. Really makes it hard to enjoy these shorts as much as they should be. At least they seem fine with posting the Gemstone shorts, just not these ones for some reason.

Anyway, terrible a/v quality aside, the short itself was a lot of fun! They definitely are getting more and more ambitious each year with these. Even in one of the behind the scenes videos they posted beforehand they were making the point that these live-action shorts are getting closer and closer to the quality of live-action movies, and I'd be 100% down for Toho to release some "smaller" films done in the old tokusatsu style alongside their bigger stuff like Minus One that are done with modern techniques.

I loved the nods to various eras in this, from the Heisei-style titles and opening to lots of Millennium music and of course, all those Megalon nods; and even one to Pacific Rim! It was great seeing Jet Jaguar being a bit more dynamic with his fighting moves as well, and having both him and Godzilla getting thrown against buildings really gave the fight a great sense of physicality.

And of course, that surprise ending! Loved the homage to *that* shot there too.

Another great live-action short marred only by Toho's baffling decision-making and shoddy streaming quality. Still, I'm already hyped for next year's short, "Godzilla Fest 5: Kaiju Daikessen!" I can only imagine how crazy they're going to get with that one!

[Kailem]

Well would you look at that; Toho have actually decided to put it online officially!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D__GbFY08Og

....but only for a week of course! Because Toho still gotta Toho! Still, these things are easy enough to keep around for longer than that....

It's great actually being able to watch this in HD with good audio now! Definitely makes me appreciate all the work that went into this even more.

[lhb412]

Seeing it in proper HD with good audio makes a world of difference! Awesome! And I loved seeing the behind the scenes stuff (seems Shinichi Wakasa loves Cavity Color's horror tshirts!).

Never been a huge fan of the GFW design but, even as it gets more wear and tear, I really got to appreciate it a little more here. I love how the hands/claws recall cats' paws, and I like the red color in the claws and teeth. The way Godzilla was lit reminds me of Return of Godzilla and vs. Biollante.

[Benjamin Haines]

These live-action shorts get better every year! The action in this is great!

The new Jet Jaguar costume looks really good for the most part, aside from the stumpy neck. It's kind of weird seeing his eyes lit up the entire time but that's not a big deal. I've always been a fan of the GFW Godzilla suit, and while I thought it looked better in the Gigan short than the Hedorah short, here it's looking really saggy and worse for wear. I'm glad to see it again but I hope they can refurbish it for next year.

This whole short had me smiling, and then the ending turned it up a notch! It's going to be fun to watch all of these live-action shorts back-to-back when all is said and done.

[Dai]

It's hilarious that they didn't modernise Jet Jaguar's design at all; it's just, "Here he is. Love him or leave him."

Even better was that they turned this into almost an alternate-universe version of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla by using the music from the first G v Kiryu fight along with similar camerawork, miniatures, lighting, and some similar moves.

The highlight for me was the office window punch. Interior shots like that are great.

[Benjamin Haines]

Yeah, some of the music selections are pretty on the nose. They really went for the themes from the most similar scenes in the Millennium Series. It would be cool for next year's short to take more of a Godzilla vs. Gigan approach, reusing classic cues for scenes that are quite different from their sources, finding new ways to make the music fit.