The War of the Gargantuas - It's Sanda's Turn on the Xbox

I grew up with siblings. I've lived through it all, someone taking too long to use the bathroom, someone stealing my toys because they knew Michelangelo is the best Ninja Turtle, someone having to stand up for me because I needed to learn when not to talk smack. What I never experienced however was a WAR between me and my siblings. So, if you don't know this next movie, this introduction may seem strange. And I get it. "Dude, what the hell does having siblings have to do with the movie?" Well, if you don't know the movie War of the Gargantuas, then of course this metaphor just won't make sense. But if you've seen the movie, then you know why.

A new giant monster is on the rise, named Gaira! A terror across the land and sea, he terrorizes cities and is known to eat its human inhabitants. Soon after, another monster named Sanda appears. Gaira's brother, Sanda wants to protect Gaira and hopefully change him. But with the two having different ideas of how to interact with humans, the two soon begin a fight to the death as we witness the greatest battle between monster siblings that ever has been!






Right off the bat, we gotta talk about easily the greatest strength of the movie: Sanda and Gaira. What this movie presents is a new dynamic we haven't seen very often for kaiju films: a sibling dynamic. We'll see another one later, But as of right now, this is the first notable one. What we see with both monsters is a similar design, but both very different in execution. Of course we have Gaira and his much more murky green look compared to Sanda's brownish orange. The story explanation depending on the version you watch of the film, either Gaira's cells chipped off and grew into a new monster out at sea, or Frankenstein's cells did the exact same thing. Oh yeah, fun fact! This is actually a sequel to Frankenstein vs. Baragon! Not every version keeps the references to the movie, but it is still a sequel to the movie, taking place after the events of the film. So, back to Gaira. Because he was born at sea and lived his life at very least near the water, if not fully under it, he looks almost like seaweed and can't stand the sunlight very well, almost like a vampire. Gaira however who originally spawned from Frankenstein cells, was found by a team of scientists very similar to the team in Frankenstein vs. Baragon that raised Frankenstein. With Sanda being raised by human beings and treated with kindness until he left, he grew to love and be very kind of humans, defending them as he got older. Gaira however, does not. Being raised in the wild, he essentially sees humans as a bit of a light snack, killing basically any human he finds and eating them. He is a menace, eating a crew of a fishing ship early on in the film and even attempting to eat the team of scientists that raised his brother, he needs to be stopped. But of course when the army invents a weapon that can actually kill him, Sanda comes to his aid. He then keeps him safe in nature trying to nurse him back to health while also trying to keep people away. From this comes my favorite scene in the entire movie, and one of my favorites in this series of films. With Gaira lying on the ground exhausted, Sanda comes back trying to help his brother only to find ripped clothes from human victims on the ground around him. Angry at his brother and seeing that he is too far gone and wild, he rips a tree out of the ground and just whacks his brother as their battle begins. Of course with them being monsters and all, the can't speak. This scene works so well because every bit of it was done through the eyes and sounds their heavy breaths and basic animalistic sounds they make. It works incredibly well. The late Haruo Nakajima, oft remembered for being the man who was in the suit of Godzilla for the entire Showa era, actually most fondly remembered his work on War of the Gargantuas as his favorite. With the two monsters being so close to human, he was actually able to some acting and not just some wrestling moves while inside of the monster suit.

The effects on the movie overall are just fantastic. Of course Sanda and Gaira steal the show, but they are both only one effect each. But in basically every other department, the effects are great. On the left is a picture of the maser cannon, a weapon that you will see return a lot in other movies. It debuted in this movie as the first weapon that can actually put visible damage up on the kaijus, especially Sanda and Gaira, being much smaller than the average kaiju and much more human in build. It looks great, the design of it looking very new and honestly almost shiny, and it even looks great firing its maser, a big blue bolt of what looks like lightning just cutting mowing down trees around it and visibly putting the hurt on Gaira as he runs away. It's just one effect or two effects, but they look really great. What also look great are the miniatures in the movie. Of course, these sets always look really fantastic, but these ones really stand out. I think part of it has to do with the fact the monsters are much smaller, and so they knew they had to go through more detail to make them look more real. Now, I'm not gonna lie and say they look like an actual human city or anything, but they look fantastic. My favorite set piece of the entire movie is pictured above, Gaira at the airport. It provides a great shot of Gaira looking at the humans running away from him that will be used later in the series, despite it being remarkably off-scale given his size. From the above shot, we see the detail put into it. From the slightly different paint on all the planes and all the little details in the background to make appear like an actual airport runway. This movie had a lot of love, care and attention put in to its effects, and it really is fantastic stuff to look at.


Normally, I like to dive into the human cast, but I do honestly find them to be a little average for the movie. Although I'll definitely say I did enjoy Kumi Mizuno. She takes on a role very similar to her character from Frankenstein vs. Baragon, although she oddly has a new name. It's so odd, because they're basically the same characters, but they changed the name for some odd reason. But honestly, they don't really matter that much. This is one of very few kaiju films where the misconception of it being ALL about the monsters is actually more true. Because, yes, the humans are in it and the humans have a story, but the story is of the Gargantuas, their battle, their sibling dynamic, and their tragic misalignment of views that leads them to their mutual defeats. Its main performances and most notable performer were already talked about above. Which is a good thing, because their being sibling should, and DOES carry the whole movie.

Overall, I really enjoy War of the Gargantuas. It has a lot going for it. Two fantastically simple monsters (who really deserve a return, seriously Legendary, put these guys in the MonsterVerse) who have an awesome long and dynamic battle who actually get a chance for their performers to be ACTORS this time around, sets with a lot of detail and attention put into them make this one a standout among some of the other films we have watched and ultimately will watch later. This entire review series is all going to culminate in a top 10 of my favorite Godzilla movies, and unfortunately I won't be able to include this one because of my rules and stipulations I put in place. But if I'm being more flexible, I'd definitely confirm I think this one deserves mentioning up there with some of Toho's other early Showa classics. When I try and sing this movie's praise, well, the words get stuck in my throat.

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Alrighty, this one was almost late, but, we're still fully on schedule. Tomorrow's gonna be an easy write, because we'll be slowing down and reviewing one of the honestly lesser Godzilla movies. So, join me tomorrow as we crack into a bit of a stinker with Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, also known by its Japanese title: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.