I’ve said this before for these reviews, but it’s a bit mind blowing sometimes that we can have a hot sauce released outside of Japan based on more obscure characters from Toho’s science fiction films. Case in point, this hot sauce for Manda from Atragon (1963), as the cover even depicts the creature battling the Gotengo. Now in terms of this review, I actually had high hopes for this particular sauce. I wasn’t expecting a great flavor, but I was expecting a nice heat to it. As someone who loves very hot things, the 10/10 rating and the warning that this would be painful had my interest. Unfortunately, this sauce doesn’t quite rise from the depths to meet those expectations. While it has a few redeeming qualities, its heat in contrast to the warning label and overall flavor leave something to be desired.

As a side note, not sure if it’s just mine, but the label was a normal label with a sticker of the Manda versus Gotengo design placed on top of it. I didn’t have the courage to rip it off, maybe as I finish and I will update this review. Anyway, it comes off as a bit cheap, but guessing there was a production or legal reason that they changed the label and had to do this workaround approach. Anyway, if you squint in the image below, you can see the “double labels” on the bottle toward the top (easiest to see on the left where it’s dark in the image). (more…)

Theater chain Alamo Drafthouse recently had a birthday celebration for the King of the Monsters which included showings of The Return of Godzilla (1984) across their many locations on Godzilla Day proper, but a day earlier something extraordinary transpired in Santa Clara, CA. The Alamo Drafthouse location in the Westfield Valley Fair mall ran an epic mystery marathon of Godzilla classics. An epic marathon alone is enough to delight, but the venue and the people involved in organizing the event helped elevate the experience to be something (more…)

Several years ago, I had the chance to visit the nostalgia-drenched Seibuen Amusement Park and try out Godzilla Minus One (2023) director Takashi Yamazaki’s spectacular Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle, which featured a pre-Minus One Godzilla, a snake-like King Ghidorah, and a brief appearance by a new version of Rodan—all designed by Yamazaki. At that time, my review of the ride was overall very positive—while I found the shaking effects sometimes a bit too extreme, the water spray mixed poorly with the cold weather at the time of my visit, and the mechanics of the ride broke the chain on my wallet, I loved the exciting action, the nostalgic 1960s setting, the staff and their excitement, and the totally awesome climactic take-down. The bigger issue I had with the amusement park was that outside of the Godzilla ride and the neat Showa street recreation, there weren’t a lot of interesting attractions—almost every other ride was an old-fashioned or just bog-standard plain jane kind-of-thing you might find in any small-to-mid-sized amusement park, without even a decent roller coaster to carry interest. Seibuen is a curious and perplexing amusement park filled with contradictions, and even though I heartily recommended the Godzilla ride itself, I found myself raising concerns about the park because of the weak ride selection, a manipulative and unwieldly park-exclusive money system, and outdated discrimination against individuals with tattoos. (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…)

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…)

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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With a new Godzilla film, new snacks from FYE (@OfficialFYE on social media) are here! How are they? Read below!

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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…)