Shortly after the turn of the century, Toho Music was on and off releasing CD soundtracks. From scores around director Akira Kurosawa to the expansive Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect line, a plethora of titles were issued. That is until 2013, when news and future releases stopped. A two disc set for The Last War (1961) would mark one of their final releases… but the torch would be passed. (more…)

Released in 2022 by Jade City Foods, Varan the Unbelievable hot sauce is yet another addition to the growing collection of Godzilla-themed sauces. Advertised as a mango habanero hot sauce, it offers a distinct flavor and heat profile that sets it apart. Given the expanding line of sauces, I expected the flavors to start blending together, but fortunately, that hasn’t been the case. In this review, we’ll explore Varan’s hot sauce, from its heat level to its overall flavor and ingredients. (more…)

This review comes with the disclaimer that I am not particularly interested in exploitation cinema, nor the pinku genre to which this film belongs. While Toho has occasionally been involved with movies in this category, primarily through distribution rather than production such as with the subject matter here, in general they never embraced it in the way other studios did. Anyway, I’m the wrong target audience for this movie, and if you like these genres keep that in mind. That also said, if you are curious on the perspective of someone without much interest in these genres and how they might view a film that falls within them, then read on as we dive into the 1973 exploitation film Rica: Juvenile’s Lullaby. (more…)

I continue to review these hot sauces not just out of order, but now in a quite tardy fashion. Case in point this hot sauce based around everyone’s favorite subterranean kaiju (sorry Megalon): Baragon. What I’m reviewing is the “Carolina Reaper version” of the Baragon God of the Earth hot sauce. I stress the version because Jade City Foods seems to have gone down the path of reusing the names for their hot sauces for totally different flavors. In fact, the new Baragon hot sauce is a banana habanero sauce. In addition, rather than being a 10/10 on the heat level like this one, the new one is a 5/10.

A little confusing… but anyway, let’s dive in and review how the original Baragon hot sauce stacks up on the criteria of heat and flavor. (more…)

This article is a news roundup of the video game Godzilla Voxel Wars, published by Toho and developed by Nukenin. The game originally hit PC, with a Nintendo Switch version on the way. (more…)

Toho continues to make moves toward strengthening their position in global markets. We’ve already seen them release Godzilla Minus One (2023) and My Hero Academia: You’re Next (2024) directly in North American theaters, with the latter coming out just last weekend. In addition, late in 2023 Toho also invested heavily in the production and distribution company Fifth Season.

The latest move, and one that will likely resonate with fans of Japanese cinema, is Toho’s acquisition of GKIDS. (more…)

I’m mostly trying these hot sauces out of order, as I’m up to my ninth review and that brings us to the Supersonic Waves hot sauce. Modeled after Titanosaurus, this hot sauce is a sriracha based entry. That means a little sweetness mixed in with a savory heat. Read on to see how it measures up, both from the hot side of things as well as the taste.

As a side note, Jade City Foods’ has two versions of this hot sauce. They later released a “Smoked Jalapeno Mezcal Sauce” version that also features Titanosaurus and goes by the same name, Supersonic Waves.  A slightly confusing turn of events, as even the URL for the hot sauce mentions sriracha even though it’s a different hot sauce. Anyway, this review is for the original sriracha based one.

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Rumored way back in early May of this year, it’s finally been confirmed that a new series is coming based around The Human Vapour (1960). As mentioned by AV Watch, the program will be a joint venture between Toho, WOW POINT and Netflix, where the program will eventually become available for streaming.

Directed by Shinzo Katayama, the upcoming Human Vapor series will be written by Yeon Sang-ho and Ryu Yong-jae. Yeon Sang-ho, who will also act as an executive producer on the show, says it was Toho who approached him about the idea of remaking the 1960 film as a new series. (more…)

As reported by Nikkei, Toho has announced their intention to acquire anime studio Science SARU (株式会社サイエンスSARU). This move will see Toho purchase all shares of Science SARU, making them a Toho subsidiary in the process. The stated goal of the buyout is to strengthen Toho’s animation business. For the purpose stated on record, this was cited as improving the quality of animation from Toho and also their growth in this sector.
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Godzilla is no stranger to collabs for video game titles. While GigaBash | Godzilla is probably the most remembered, Toho’s kaiju have also crossed paths via Evony: The King’s Return, Puzzles & Survival, The Ants: Underground Kingdom and more. Well another collab joins the list, as Godzilla is set to cross paths with Dave the Diver. (more…)

“The whole thing gets more suspicious every minute. Perfect peace, my eye!”

I’ve confessed a few times already that of late, if I’m in charge of them, April Fools’ day activities are a last minute affair. This year was no different. Realizing no one else on the staff had something in mind, I started to toy with concepts on March 28th for what it might be. My first concept was a retread of the April Fools’ Day 2012 joke, of covering the site with tons of advertisements. However, I actually looked at that post and didn’t realize that this had been done twice already… what can I say, the site is quite old now. Anyway, this kicked off motivation to do something different this year. For that, the concept was to spoof the website for one of the factious brands in one of the Godzilla films. (more…)

When famed director Akira Kurosawa took to the stage in 1989 to accept an Honorary Academy Award, in many ways he did so to correct some of the past wrongs of the academy itself. Being one of the most influential directors of all time, Kurosawa was amazingly only nominated by the academy once over his very long career. So, in 1989, directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were selected to call out his contributions through the honorary category. (more…)

I love a hot sauce that just gives a disclaimer that it’s “extremely hot, painful.” So succinct and hard not to be curious what the heat level is actually like. Well Orga’s Absorbing Horror hot sauce delivers, giving a very hot experience for those who like kicking things up a notch. It lives up to the 10/10 (technically 10/11) heat ranking that Jade City Foods awarded it. To flex the peculiar, the sauce also sports blackberries as a key ingredient. So how is good is the overall hot sauce? Well let’s dive in, although first looking at the heat that the packaging so prominently highlights.

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This is the seventh hot sauce I’ve reviewed from Jade City Foods, getting far deeper into their selection of Godzilla themed sauces than I ever expected. For this entry I’m looking at Hedorah’s, the Dark Gaseous Nebula of the Orion hot sauce. This is a red jalapeno and space chili based entry. So how is the heat and taste for this particular one? Does it live up to being kind of murky like the Smog Monster itself? As it turns out, no… it’s kind of a red, stereotypical hot sauce, both in appearance and also a bit in flavor. (more…)

Part of the third series of Godzilla hot sauces from Jade City Foods comes this entry themed around Megalon. This one is billed as a hot sauce for those enthusiasts looking for something very hot, going as far as to describe the heat level as being “painful”. Is it being sensationalist, or does it merit that warning? Also… a peach hot sauce makes one wonder, will this be overly sweet?

To my surprise I found this to be the most enjoyable of the hot sauces, for my particular heat tolerance, but read on to learn why. (more…)

It’s never an easy task to track names and titles across languages for Toho’s properties. As has been cited many times before, translating in itself is an art. A group of people can each be given the same line of text and translate it several different ways. In the case of Japanese, this becomes even more confusing with the names of fictional characters as one has the choice of either translating it literally or leaving it in Romaji. The matter is further confused by alternate names that have been coined in other markets that movies have been released in. Thankfully, Toho International stepped up to the plate to create their own official English names for their parent company’s properties. Unfortunately, Toho International hasn’t been consistent with their choices, and has reversed their decisions a number times; in the process adding even more names to the “pool.” (more…)

What an age we live in that a hot sauce dedicated solely to Gabara from All Monsters Attack (1969) doesn’t feel that strange. Released as part of Jade City Foods third line of Godzilla hot sauces comes this one based around the antagonist of the 1969 movie. While “deity” might be a bit of a stretch for the warty demon, one can appreciate the company’s continued ingenuity with the concepts matched to the characters. For example, what better vector to represent Gabara’s electrical powers than something with a “jolt” of caffeine from coffee?

Ingenuity aside, how does this hot sauce fair in terms of heat and taste? Well, without giving away too much, the company has certainly produced more appealing hot sauces around Godzilla. (more…)

Another entry from “series 1” of the Godzilla sauces comes the Mothra Queen of the Monsters hot sauce by Jade City Foods. This is the first of the “medium” heat level hot sauces I’ve tried from the brand. I know that heat is subjective, and giving something a heat level on a scale is very hard, but I was going into this expecting something pretty tame since I have tried a sauce just above this and wasn’t particularly impressed. So how hot is Mothra’s hot sauce? Well it surprised me to be honest, but more important for this one is the taste which is nothing short of excellent. (more…)

This was among the first of the Godzilla hot sauces that Jade City Foods released, part of what is now dubbed “series 1”. The Little Godzilla Kawaii Kaiju hot sauce is billed as one of the brand’s tamer, literally called “mild”, hot sauces in terms of heat. So how hot is it and what’s the flavor like? We’ll explore this jalapeno serrano with roasted garlic hot sauce, which will be the third of their hot sauces I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing. (more…)

Godzilla has just entered the world of Evony.

Today, on February 17th, an event has kicked off for the mobile title Evony: The King’s Return. This sees the addition of Burning Godzilla, from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), added to the title as a “divine beast”. Decorations will also be rolled out in the form of Godzilla’s Castle, which comes in Jade and Flame versions. In addition, appearing as bosses, both King Ghidorah and Biollante are featured in the event. (more…)