With the tagline, "We're going to take back this planet, Earth", the official Twitter account of the animated Godzilla, shared the second teaser poster for the upcoming feature film from Polygon Pictures and Toho Animation, entitled GODZILLA: MONSTER PLANET (official English title TBA). The posting also stated a description of the image, which gives a release date of November 2017 (be forewarned there are major spoilers below):
A figure of a young man, Haruo, wearing a "skinsuit" approaches, while above him multiple spacecraft descend, and on the ground there's a bipedal robot, and armed hover bikes at the ready. The planet on which they've landed upon is...
It shows the moment when mankind returns to their homeworld after a long interstellar journey, the tagline expressing the ultimate fate of mankind and the monster. In a first for the long-running movie series, what kind of war will the humans and Godzilla engage in on the stage of an vastly changed Earth in the future? In the coming months, the "evolution" of this new, unexpected Godzilla movie, will capture the imagination of fans around the world.
The official website godzilla-anime.com features a story synopsis:
The last summer of the 20th Century. The day, that human beings learned that they were not the only rulers of the Earth. Giant living creatures, "Kaiju", appeared, as well as the ultimate entity which destroys all monsters: Godzilla. After a half a century of war against these monsters, the defeated human race planned to escape Earth. In 2048, only those selected by the central government's A.I., boarded the interstellar migration ship "Aratrum" for Tau Ceti e, a planet 11.9 light-years distant. Twenty years later, however, they discover that their destination is inhospitable to human survival.
Aboard the Aratrum is Haruno, who saw both of his parents killed by Godzilla when he was four years old. For twenty years, he harbored one thought, return to Earth and defeat Godzilla. With life support deteriorating, and plans for migration crushed, he leads a faction of "Earth Returnists" to majority rule, determined to return through dangerous hyperspace navigation. However, in traveling faster-than-light, the planet they return to is an unknown world, 20,000 years older, where Godzilla reigns atop the ecosystem. Can mankind retake the Earth? And what will be the fate of Haruo?
GODZILLA: MONSTER PLANET is written by Gen Urobuchi (Gargantia) based on an outline by Urobuchi and Sadayuki Murai (Space Battleship Yamato: 2199), co-directed by Kobun Shizuno (Knights of Sidonia) and Hiroyuki Seshita (Ajin: The Demi-Human). Assistant director Hiroyuki Morita (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya), production design by Naoya Tanaka (Ponyo) and Ferdinando Patulli (Ajin), character designs by Yusuke Kozaki (Pokémon GO), CG character designs by Yuki Moriyama (Ajin), art direction by Yukihiro Shibutani (The Lost Village), and supervised by Tadahiro "Tady" Yoshihira (Blame!).
Following the premiere of GODZILLA: MONSTER PLANET in Japanese cinemas this November, the film will bow globally via the Netflix streaming service. Read my March 13th entry for more info. Stay tuned to this blog for further details as they develop!
