UC Berkeley Offers Class on Japanese Monster Cinema Author: Bob Johnson It was a cold and rainy night as I made my way to the UC Berkeley Campus to give a talk on Japanese superheroes. Who would have thought that in a place of higher learning, a prestigious California University, that a group of 55 students would be gathering to hear a talk about Ultraman, Kamen Rider or Kidaida? How did it all come to be? How did it all start? Two students at the school, Matthew Horwitz and Dustin Winslow, through a program that allows students to develop and coordinate semester-long courses, got together to offer KAIJU CINEMA: AN INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE GIANT MONSTER MOVIES. What started out to be a humble, 35-student class soon swelled to an amazing 55 students, with another 20 or so turned away for lack of classroom space. Students gather

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Author: Sean Kotz of CreatureScape Sources: •Chevalier, Jean and Alain Gheerbrant. A Dictionary of Symbols. Blackwell Publishers: Cambridge, Mass. (1994). •Cooper, J. C. Dictionary of Symbolic and Mythological Animals. Thorsons: London (1992). •MacKenzie, Donald A. Myths of China and Japan. Gramercy Books: New York (1994). Beginning with 1965’s GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE, American audiences have had a hard time getting over the fact that, obviously, Gamera is a giant turtle. In fact, in the Harris Associates Incorporated/NTA release for American viewers, devotes no less than five minutes of film time to debating this “hallucination.” Every English speaking character who hears the story scoffs and dismisses the premise as silly. In other words, even the Americans in the film can’t believe in a “giant turtle” and initially Gamera’s only defender is a rather eccentric (but genuinely comical) Dr. Contrare. Part of the problem is that Godzilla, Gamera’s more

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  Source: Central Park Media, CoMix Wave Official US Site: Negadon Attacks Official Japanese Site (in English): Wakusei Daikaiju Negadon New press release: For more information and photos for NEGADON: THE MONSTER FROM MARS, please see the earlier coverage here on SciFi Japan.  

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Gamera is back next month… and SciFi Japan is pleased to present an exclusive sneak peek at the fire-breathing turtle’s latest adventure, courtesy of Kadokawa Pictures! Large photo courtesy of Ed Godziszewski. © 2006 Chiisaki Yusha-tachi Gamera/Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. The Giant Flying Turtle Celebrates His 40th Anniversary with a New Film Author: Keith Aiken Translations: Oki Miyano Source: Kadokawa Herald Pictures, Inc., Kadokawa Pictures USA Official Movie Site: Gamera.jp Special Thanks to Ed Godziszewski and Daisuke Ishizuka A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE Over the past four decades, the giant monster Gamera has been called “Invincible”, “The Friend of All Children”, “Super Monster”, and “The Guardian of the Universe”. Now, the popular kaiju returns with a new title; “The Brave”. Six years after Gamera’s last big screen appearance; Kadokawa Pictures announced that they would be bringing the monster back in an all-new motion picture.

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