This past August Polygon Pictures announced it was working on a Godzilla animated film for 2017. This will be the 32nd film to feature the King of the Monsters, and the second to come out of Japan in just two years. It follows last year’s successful reboot, Shin Godzilla. On Thursday we received more news on the project. Polygon and Toho revealed the film’s cast and another piece of concept art.
The film (just called “Godzilla“) is the third Godzilla animation and the first made by an anime studio. Previous versions were Hanna-Barbera’s The Godzilla Power Hour from 1978, and Godzilla: The Series, a continuation of the 1998 Roland Emmerich movie. Both of those have their place in pop culture obscurity.
But this newest Godzilla anime seems to have a bit more ambition. Gen Urobuchi, one of the biggest anime names right now, is behind the concept. Urobuchi has his own style which is far darker than a Saturday morning cartoon. An all-star voice cast comes with him.
The Cast
Polygon announced six cast members on Thursday. Each of the six are as huge stars in anime voice acting. These actors have hundreds of roles to their names. If you’re even vaguely interested in anime, you’ve probably heard their voices somewhere.
The cast includes:
- Takahiro Sakurai – Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII media), Suzaku (Code Geass)
- Yuki Kaji – Eren Yager (Attack on Titan), Hope (Final Fantasy XIII)
- Mamoru Miyano – Light Yagami (Death Note), Setsuna F Seiei (Mobile Suit Gundam 00)
- Junichi Suwabe – Archer (Fate/Stay Night), Dandy (Space Dandy)
- Kana Hanazawa – Akane (Psycho Pass), Kanade (Angel Beats!)
- Tomokazu Sugita – Joseph Joestar (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), Gintoki Sakata (Gintama)
Concept Art
We do not yet know who these voice actors will be playing. We also don’t know really anything about the story. Concept art indicates a futuristic SciFi setting instead of Godzilla’s favorite stomping grounds, Tokyo. The art shows massive mechs marching through an alien forest. This looks nothing like any Godzilla media we’ve seen before. Nothing about this seems at all related to Shin Godzilla, a relatively grounded satire of the Japanese government’s response to the Fukushima Reactor explosion. This is also completely unrelated to Legendary’s own Godzilla Shared Universe. So that means we may have three separate Godzilla continuities all running around at the same time.
Though this concept art appears two-dimensional, the final movie will probably not look much like this. Polygon Studios, as their name implies, are a 3D animation company. They have worked on shows like Ajin and Knights of Sidonia (both available on Netflix). The animation in those projects are a bit spotty. Hopefully, Toho is giving the anime Godzilla a larger budget.
How are this production company, this cast, and this writer going to collaborate with the greatest movie monster of all time? That remains a mystery as large as Godzilla himself. More news is coming in March.