The Kaiju Transmissions Podcast

Monster Attack Team with Ed Holland!

Matt and Byrd are joined by special guest, Ed Holland of Monster Attack Team magazine! We interview Ed about the creation of the magazine, its hiatus, and its resurgence over the last few years! Just how does one get a high quality magazine made in 2017? Ed also tells us about being on the sets of Ultraman Powered and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. But first, we discuss Ed's relationship with the late Haruo Nakajima, who passed away shortly before this recording. Ed did a lot of stateside events with Mr. Nakajima and shared some great stories and insights! Kick back and enjoy!

KT Live At G-Fest 2017: Gamera vs. Gyaos 50th Anniversary Discussion

For our very first LIVE episode, we present our 50th anniversary panel discussion on 1967's GAMERA vs. GYAOS. Byrd and Matt are joined by Nicolas Poling (of the Monster Report on YouTube) to take a deep dive through how it was made, how it originated, the SPFX, how it changed the Gamera franchise, the social climate of the time that is reflected throughout the film, differences in the rare manga adaptation, audience Q & A, and more! DISCLAIMER: The audio on this one isn't perfect since the convention couldn't support some of our hardware, but we cleaned it up the best we could!

G-FEST 2017- Guest Interview Recaps + Fan Mail

Due to some MAJOR technical difficulties at G-Fest, the audio from our interviews with composer Michiru Oshima, director/SPFX Director Kiyotaka Taguchi and assistant director Kazuhiro Nakagawa were all unusable. To make up for it, we've transcribed the interviews for us to discuss them on the podcast, where we can talk about their answers and give our thoughts on what they had to say. Oshima discusses working on the Godzilla films, working with Seijun Suzuki, and composing for anime and video games. Taguchi discusses working on Godzilla films, the Ultraman shows, his short films, and his thoughts on CGI. Nakagawa discusses his film Day of the Kaiju, working on Attack on Titan and Shin Godzilla, and his thoughts on the Monsterverse. So listen up and hear our reflections on getting the amazing opportunity to interview these incredible people. But first, we have some fan mail! Also, check out the text transcripts of the interviews at maserpatrol.wordpress.com!

Akira Ifukube Spotlight with Erik Homenick and John DeSentis

Byrd and Matt dig into the life and career of famed monster music composer Akira Ifukube! To do this, they interview Ifukube's official biographer Erik Homenick (who runs AkiraIfukube.org) and film music buff John DeSentis (conductor & co-organizer of the Ifukube 100 and Symphonic Fury kaiju music concerts). As an added bonus, they've brought some SUPER rare Ifukube music cues (reconstructed and recorded by John from Ifukube's manuscripts). This is UNHEARD Ifukube music you will only hear on this podcast! We discuss how the composer got involved in film music, his preferred instrumentation, why he didn't get along with Akira Kurosawa, his political views, his relationship with Ishiro Honda, how he felt about his kaiju scores, the creation of Godzilla's roar and more! Then we take a dive into how he got involved with the original Godzilla film, and debunk some common myths about the score. This is a packed episode, so listen up!

Tribute to Haruo Nakajima (1929-2017)

Byrd and Matt are joined by guest Chris (of the Other Sounds Podcast and Cosmic Monster) to discuss the work and life of Haruo Nakajima, who passed away on August 7, 2017. Nakajima is best known for playing Godzilla from 1954-1972, as well as playing Rodan, Mothra, Baragon, the Green Gargantua, Varan, various Ultraman kaiju, and many others. Nakajima was the most prolific suit actor of the Showa era and endured plenty of dangerous situations by playing monsters underwater, being flung through the air on wires, having explosives go off near his flesh, being buried alive, and more, all in the name of entertainment. We discuss Nakajima's start as a stuntman, working with Akira Kurosawa, his filmography, and our favorite Nakajima roles, as well as who he was to us and his legion of fans worldwide.

Korea Double Feature: The Host (2006) & Okja (2017)

Byrd and Matt discuss two creature features from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho. First we discuss 2006's The Host and dissect the film's themes and the real life incidents that influenced the film. Then we discuss the recent film Okja, which just dropped as a Netflix Original. We go deep into the themes of each film, and discuss the hot topic of what the original content created by Netflix and other streaming services means for theatrical films and big studios.

Michael Bay's Transformers Series

Byrd, Matt, and guest Trev (of If It Bleeds We Can Kill It and Days of Future Podcast) take KT's first dive into the Giant Robot genre by discussing what is arguably the biggest giant robot franchise in the world. We discuss all five of Michael Bay's Transformers movies, as well as the Japanese roots of Transformers (which many seem to forget), our memories of the original animated series, and why Bay's blockbusters seem to grab audiences more than the recent kaiju films have. The "Bayformers" series was one of KT's biggest viewing challenges yet, and for Byrd, these movies proved to be his cinematic kryptonite. How did the crew fare this time? Listen and find out! But first, Trev reports back from San Diego Comic-Con and discusses the presence of kaiju properties there, including the recent Pacific Rim: Uprising teaser video!

G-Fest 2017 Recap

Byrd and Matt are back home from G-Fest XXIV and they're ready to talk all about it! We discuss interview recordings gone horribly wrong, meeting KT listeners, highlights and new information learned from various panels including those from Shinji Higuchi, Kiyotaka Taguchi, and Yuji Kaida, seeing Kong: Skull Island in 70mm, meeting director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (and what we learned from his Q and A), being a kid again at the Field Museum's Jurassic World exhibit, and more!

Godzilla Speaks! Interview with Suit Actor Tsutomu "Tom" Kitagawa

On a very special episode, Matt and Nick Poling (of The Monster Report) sat down with suit actor and stuntman Tom Kitagawa! Kitagawa is best known for playing Godzilla in five of the six Millennium series films, playing King Ghidorah in Mothra 3, and playing many of the heroes in Toei's Sentai series. Recorded at the Days of the Dead convention in Indiana, Matt and Nick chat with Mr. Kitagawa about his start in Battle Fever J, stunt work on the Sentai shows, the challenges of playing Godzilla, working in TV vs film, winding down after a long shoot, recovering from his recent surgery, and more! Special thanks to Cory Hannigan for translating during the interview.

Japan Sinks!

Byrd and Matt take a look at Toho's disaster epic, SUBMERSION OF JAPAN. What happens when Toho decides to make destruction spectacle without giant monsters? We take a look at Shiro Moritani's SUBMERSION OF JAPAN (1973), Shinji Higuchi's SINKING OF JAPAN (2006), and Minoru Kawasaki's parody film THE WORLD SINKS EXCEPT JAPAN (2006). We compare and contrast the films by talking about their political themes, effects, and how each version is a product of their times.