Operation Jet Jaguar [Short]

HISTORY

Another short directed by Kazuhiro Nakagawa, which celebrates the anniversary of Godzilla (1954) and the 50th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973).

This project continues the story from Nakagawa's previous two shorts. It opens with a text recap that essentially says:

"As Hedorah and Gigan were defeated by Godzilla, it seemed as if a moment of peace had come to Japan. However, with no enemy to defeat, Godzilla turns toward attacking various parts of Japan itself. The damage became severe."

The video then focuses largely on a battle between Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, whose introduction and history seems to be a nod to the introduction of Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993). To bring the monsters to life, Godzilla is shown through using the same suit from Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) while Jet Jaguar features a new suit meant to mimic his look from 1973. This new suit was created by Shinichi Wakasa, who has worked on the Godzilla franchise since 1993. In addition, in a surprise appearance, King Ghidorah also features via his suit from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001).

This short is the longest yet in the series, being about 12 minutes long with two of those for the credits. It was first live streamed as part of Godzilla Fest 2023 on November 3rd, 2023. It was then uploaded as an isolated on-demand video on November 4th, 2023, but only for a limited time, to be taken down November 11th, 2023.

Monsters

Background and Trivia

• The full title for this short is Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar (フェス・ゴジラ4 オペレーション ジェットジャガー). This is in reference to it being the fourth such short created for "Godzilla Day", following Gigan Attacks (2022) which was the third. All four shorts were directed by Kazuhiro Nakagawa.
• Follows the same continuity as Godzilla vs. Hedorah (2021 Short) and Gigan Attacks (2022), with these events being mentioned at the start of the short.
• Suit actors for the short were Naoya Matsumoto as Godzilla and King Ghidorah along with Kenya Saito as Jet Jaguar.
• The music in Operation Jet Jaguar is all from past Godzilla features with selections from four different composers. For the recap at the start, music from Reijiro Koroku's The Return of Godzilla (1984) soundtrack is used. Music from Akira Ifukube's score for Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) is also featured. Michiru Oshima's themes from Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) also appear in the short. Finally, music from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) by Kow Otani is also utilized.
• A trailer for the short was released on October 27th, 2023. It features music from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003):
  
  
• For the upload of the video on November 4th, 2023, English subtitles were included. Excluding the recap, these exact subtitles are as follows, with grammatical errors kept:
  
  "Damages caused by Godzilla continued to expand. Then Japanese government began to develop the anti-G-machine. Finally they completed the giant soldier with AI brain. Its name is... [Operation Jet Jaguar logo appears on screen]
  
  Godzilla approaching! Jet Jaguar, scramble."
• The short concludes with a "to be continued". It also mentions the name of the next video in the series, which is likely to arrive November of next year: "Fest Godzilla 5: Great Monster Decisive Battle" (フェス・ゴジラ5 怪獣大決戦). The subtitles for the video, though, caption this as "Fest Godzilla 5: All Monsters Showdown".