It's A Good Time To Be A Kaiju Fan!

Welcome to the very first edition of the Life With Kaiju blog!

In preparation for the launch of this website, I had been constantly mulling over just what to write for my very first blog post. It was a tough decision. Should I start things off with a review of one of my favorite kaiju movies? Should I talk about the inspriation behind the Life With Kaiju series? Should I talk about my kaiju figure collection?

Maybe at some point down the line I'll cover all those topics, but today I just wanted to cover one very simple topic.

These days it is a good time to be a kaiju fan!

We are currently in the midst of something of a kaiju renaissance. It all started, in my mind, in 2013 with Guillermo del Toro's love letter to Japanese monster films and mecha anime, Pacific Rim! From there the snowball just seemed to start rolling.

Since then, in America, we've seen Legendary Pictures reintroduce the King of the Monsters to the states with 2014's Godzilla. We're also looking forward to an impending sequal of Gareth Edwards' movie, which is said to feature Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah. While on the topic of Legendary Pictures, a squeal to Pacific Rim is being heavily pushed by director, del Toro. The new King Kong prequeal, Kong: Skull Island, is in the works, as well as the recently announced and long, long awaited rematch between Godzilla and King Kong, which is slated for a 2020 release. Not to mention the comic book publishing company, IDW, has released a plethora of various Godzilla comics over the past couple years.

Meanwhile, in the kaiju genre's point of origin (Japan) the anime, Attack on Titan has gone to become an extremely popular series, which even spawned live action film adaptations that amazingly mix practical effects with CGI. Recently, the highly anticipated rebirth of the Gamera franchise was revealed, showing an all-CG Gamera and Gyaos. And of course, not to be outdone by the US, Toho has revived Godzilla in his home country with next year's Shin Gojira (to be called "Godzilla: Resurgence" in America) combining the talents of the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the effects director of the Attack on Titan live action films and the Hesei Gamera trilogy.

Kaiju films are on the rise. Despite a possible waning interesting in the genre in Japan, it seems giant monsters in film aren't going away any time soon. In fact, with the recent anniversaries of both Godzilla and Gamera, it seems to me that business is about to pick up. As long as fans continue to like senseless destruction and enormous mutations doing battle with one another, the kaiju genre will continue on through the years!

Yes, sir; it's a good time to be a kaiju fan!

Until next time, Kaiju-Lifers!