First came the news that there was going to be a Godzilla livestreaming series, and now this bit of wonderful goodness! Shin Godzilla will return as part of a shared universe super team ala the Avengers! Studios Toho, Khara, Tsuburaya Productions, and Toei have announced plans for the “Shin Japan Heroes Universe” or SJHU, which will feature Godzilla, Ultraman, Evangelion, and Kamen Rider. I’m honestly not all that familiar with the latter two, but who cares! It’s Shin Godzilla!
Said producer Hideaki Anno: “It is difficult to coordinate a project with such a wide variety of copyright sources, and the business benefits are not great. This project is only made possible through the cooperation among the content holders who choose to prioritize fan service over business.” I can’t agree with him, though, about the business prospects being subpar. I think this project is going to be a big hit, thus will bring in lots of the big bucks.
Since this is supposed to be a superhero team akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, can we infer that Shin Godzilla will be playing the face this time? (In wrestling lingo, the “face” is the good guy, the hero. Since pro wrestling is treated seriously in Japan, far more seriously than in the western world, this analogy seems more than appropriate.) Shin Godzilla wasn’t “bad” in his own movie. He was just being an animal. It should be easy enough for the writers to have him do a face turn.