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Original Run: April 1, 2021 - June 24, 2021 Number of Episodes: 13 Genre: Action, Mecha, Science Fiction
***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Godzilla Singular Point. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
A strange song begins to play at an abandoned mansion. Elsewhere, an alarm that has never worked suddenly goes off at an old research facility. The world doesn’t know it yet, but a great calamity is on the horizon.
The first to make any sense of the signs are a young scientist, Mei Kamino, and a skilled engineer, Yun Arikawa (voiced respectively by Yume Miyamoto and Shouya Ishige). Together, they use all the knowledge they possess to unravel a decades-old mystery.
As the pieces fall into place, the true scope of what is coming beings to dawn on the pair, and time is running out.
Suddenly, all around the planet, many strange and devastating monsters lay waste to the land. But it is all a prelude to the true harbinger of death. From an old Japanese myth, this titan is known only as Godzilla.
Series Positives
As a lifelong Godzilla fan and prolific anime reviewer, when I learned of a Godzilla anime series, you better believe I was intrigued.
Now, for the record, I am aware of the trilogy of Godzilla anime films – Planet of the Monsters, City on the Edge of Battle, and The Planet Eater. And although I call myself a Godzilla/anime fan, I haven’t seen these movies yet when this review goes live. Therefore, let’s set a challenge:
If Anime Hajime Review: Godzilla Singular Point gets 10 LIKES by July 9th, 2021, Anime Hajime will showcase said Godzilla film trilogy.
As for Godzilla Singular Point (Singular Point), there are two things I can praise with complete confidence.
First, Singular Point was, undoubtedly, a Godzilla story. What I’m getting at is, when watching this show, the creators knew how a Godzilla story should look, sound, and feel. That I can respect.
And I can’t deny, when that classic Godzilla Main Theme started to play, it got me excited; it was like being a kid again. But then, hearing that unmistakable roar, hell yes, the King of the Monster had arrived. It nearly made sitting through the rest of this series worth it.
Whoops, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Second, this incarnation of Godzilla – like, actual Godzilla – was pretty freaking cool. Granted, it is hard to screw up Godzilla’s creature design. Please note that I said “hard,” not “impossible;” the 1998 American version proved that.
Singular Point’s Godzilla was either a complete anime-ification or, at least, heavily inspired by the monster from 2016’s Shin-Godzilla’s (a.k.a., Godzilla Resurgence in the States). And despite not being among my favorite films in the franchise, it is easily one of my favorite Godzilla looks. Our legendary kaiju has hardly ever been so terrifying.
Additionally, Singular Point’s Godzilla was devastating. Although the great monster has destroyed Tokyo many times in the past, the level done in this series was absolute. I’d never thought I would say this, but this version of Godzilla had the power to enact a complete global catastrophe. In contrast, those of yesteryear seem like extremely brutal but inevitably recoverable natural disasters.
In a way, this Godzilla was utterly overpowered. Fortunately, that is precisely the point of Godzilla, and it’s why this is usually enough to make even the worst Godzilla films watchable. Good thing, too, since Singular Point needed all the help it could get.
Series Negatives
Seven episodes. It took Godzilla seven episodes to finally make an appearance. It took SEVEN EPISODES for GODZILLA to make an appearance in this GODZILLA ANIME!
Yes, yes, I know the old argument – Godzilla typically takes a long time to appear on-screen. And then when Godzilla does show up, it’s only sparingly. Thus, once all the pieces fall into place, the result is, debatably, spectacular.
I have used this same argument to defend several Godzilla movies. Except, notice what I said: Godzilla MOVIES. As of July 2021, the longest-running Godzilla film (released by Toho) is 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars at 125 minutes. In Singular Point, Godzilla’s grand appearance came roughly 140 MINUTES in.
We’re not off to a great start. And no, that stupid fish thing earlier in the show doesn’t count.
And aside from Godzilla barely being in this show, Singular Point had a larger, more glaring issue – it was boring. Oh my god, this series was so damn boring.
If you thought I was about to rail into the overly cute computer program dog or the childlike fighting robot, you were mistaken. Although they had their problems – there’s no mystery if an all-knowing computer can answer any question – their existence wasn’t absurd for a Godzilla story. Remember, this franchise existed during the 60s and 70, so it has been silly before.
No, the thing that, frankly, soured this series was all the pseudo-science, look-how-smart-we-sound-speak. Singular Point ran the gambit of science fiction topics, from aliens to artificial intelligence to time travel. This show was an overload of information. To be honest with you, I have no idea what the titular singular points were. To me, it was nothing but big words for the sake of big words.
Again, Godzilla films have done before; what Singular Point did was not unprecedented. The problem, as I said, was that this was a thirteen-episode anime. In the movies, even the most obnoxious brainy talk was never that long; eventually, Godzilla would appear and do what Godzilla does best – break things.
In Singular Point, though, the ratio between scenes with and without Godzilla was insufferable. What was worse, I told you Godzilla first appeared in episode seven. Unfortunately, that was only partially true.
While Godzilla did arrive in episode seven, it was in a lesser form – a.k.a., it looked nothing like Godzilla. Instead, Godzilla Proper didn’t come until episode nine. Therefore, a true Godzilla was missing for nearly 70% of this show.
How is that okay?
It might be true that other kaiju in were this series, but they weren’t anything impressive. I didn’t come wanting to see some armadillo/reptile-looking monster or a Rodan rip-off. I came to see Godzilla.
And you might be thinking, “What of the human characters?” My answer to that is that, what of them?
Human characters are tricky to pull off in a Godzilla story because it is hard to care about them. I mean, how can you when what they are facing can’t be beaten by human hands? They are but ants in the presence of a God; there is no comparison. Consequently, the humans in this show were immaterial, yet they took up most of the runtime.
I firmly believe Godzilla can work in a full-length anime format. But, a series will need to give Godzilla something to fight, something that can go toe-to-toe with a king.
And believe it or not, I am interested in a season two to Singular Point because such an opponent was alluded to at the end of the final episode.
Final Thoughts
If this series is anything to go on, I might come to regret the following statement. I want there to be a season two. That little tease at the end was too enticing to ignore.
However, that does not make up for how disappointing this show was.
While the Godzilla fan in me nerded out during this viewing, this series is not for you if you’re simply looking for an anime to watch.
The story is boring, the human characters are forgettable, and it takes too long for anything to happen. By the time Godzilla appears, the show is nearly over.
Godzilla Singular Point can be skipped.
But these were just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this series? How would you advise Godzilla Singular Point? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
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For Anime Hajime, I’m Odyssey, and I’ll see you next time.
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