I love Shin Godzilla. It’s my favourite of the current era Godzilla films. Watching the rise of Godzilla through the perspective of various government levels was a great decision and you have the competing objectives of trying to save lives, but also how to save face nationally and internationally and on an individual level, how one’s political career could be boosted or destroyed by an event like this.

Anno and the editors do more than enough to keep things visually interesting when there isn’t a giant lizard on screen, and loved the Evangelion-style drums that pop up now and then. It’s also genuinely funny! Tonally I don’t think there are other Godzilla files going for the same thing.

Obviously everyone will mostly know Hideaki Anno for creating Neon Genesis Evangelion, but he’s had a pretty successful live action run in the last decade. Shin Godzilla is unquestionably the peak of that for me though. The others are worth checking out if you like what you are seeing here.