Recommended
Well, well, well. This is certainly a Godzilla sci-fi flick at best, through one that tries to inject life into the classic franchise by incorporating a rather lengthy (and much too convoluted) sci-fi angle story that at the end of the day, is stilll centered around Toho's now decades-old famous Kaiju IP. Being the latest entry in the slew of Godzilla TV series (and not counting the numerous films that were both hits and misses), the announced show (that is this one: Godzilla: Singular Point) that is exclusively made for Netflix reams around the all-too-familiar big Godzilla Kaiju fights by stacking another sci-fi and technical storyon top of the already co-existing sci-fi Tokusatsu series. I know how much many of you hate the Netflix binging business model of having to release all at one go (as opposed to releasing weekly), but for shows like these that are locked behind the jail that is Netflix Japan, your only choice is to sail the high seas in order to watch this one.
The many mixed-media derivatives of Godzilla vary by tone and themes per its source, and in the case of Singular Point, incorporates complex internal mythology (or a "shared universe" for the easy-going), because its themes forces you to be highly IQ-centric in order to figure out what is truly going on with not just the resurrection of Godzilla by its unique means to Singular Point, but also the various routes and processes that evolve this story plot from just a foreseeable time-travel experiment that had its shares of shortcomings as starting clues, to one that requires you to be very attentive to the information dished out with the tight pacing within these 13 episodes (well, minus the final episode as per the norm for a closure finish), and the icing on the cake: Godzilla itself as the constant threat that everyone knows all too well (this should be the easiest to understand regardless of your IQ). This is in all parts, a contribution to the show's scriptwriting that is handled by Toh EnJoe, being a man that is full of wonders for both science fiction and physics. He helped work episodic scripts for Space Dandy, and also worked together with the late Satoshi Itou at a time when both of their sci-fi novels were getting attention (the former with the highly acclaimed decade-old Genocidal Organ, and the latter with Toh's own "concept album" Self-Reference ENGINE), and earned the latter the highly prestigous Nihon SF Taisho (or the equivalent of the Nebula Award in the West) for the mediocre-to-decent Shisha no Teikoku a.k.a The Empire of Corpses.
To that effect, Godzilla: Singular Point definitely reeks of the immaculate sci-fi handy work of Toh EnJoe, bringing in his literary "allusional" fiction works of mathematical motifs that are sprung throughout the series as modern technology and history combine to outdo a common threat, from the core settings to even the episode titles. In case you weren't paying attention, all Japanese and English episode titles contain EXACTLY eight characters, and when arranged along the edges of a cube in 3D space, the first and last letters of episode titles intersect at the vertices, spelling the word "together". For context, 99% of anime nowadays just lift off episode titles based on their source material's counterparts to match similar terms, leaving original anime to be forced to be creative with their episode titles, and this show certainly knows how to deliver that effect as well. Despite being a veteran sci-fi writer for more than a decade, the Average Joes like you and me won't see that everything else clicks until the final moments, and that's where people will conspicuously feel like they have something missing to the mystery to the make-or-break point of dropping this show when the going gets tough. As a veteran AniManga watcher, I implore you to see through the lines if you're hell-bent on enjoying this show, it'll take some levels of brain power just to understand what's going on while the unique mystery slowly piles up.
So then, what exactly is Godzilla: Singular Point all about? As I've surfaced just a moment ago, it's modern technology at the forefront, while keeping the historical symbolism of Godzilla central, as with the sprinkling of the different Kaiju from Rodan, Anguirus, Jet Jaguar, Manda, to even Godzilla Aqualitus and Salunga, all hailing from the Showa Era of the franchise. What feels standalone to S.P. is the main characters: two geniuses (Mei Kamino and Yun "Gintoki look-alike" Arikawa), both specializing in their different fields (the former is a technological research nut with her Pero 2 machine-cum-A.I. helper, the latter an on-the-ground engineer with the Otaki Company of boss Goro and helpers Haberu Katou and Satomi Kanahara), and from the current issue of a lullaby that springs out classic Godzilla-variant Kaijus, they must work together to prevent a catastrophe from the eventual resulting factor that is Godzilla's destroying rampage. Even when operating at different stages, both Mei and Yun know that answers will be hard to come by depending on their unique circumstances, and Toh EnJoe's allegory of the mathmetical physics structure only confides the reasoning that while the end result is one big picture, the many smaller puzzle pieces are just set-ups to a whizz-level story that only gets better...if you can consummate piece by piece to arrive at the only resultant circumstance. Again, the keyword being "together", both Mei and Yun's allies help shape the foundation of the many workaround theories analyzed and scrutinized with their constant conflicting information to see the big picture and eradicate the Singular Point of the show (which is just more than just Godzilla alone). Now that's a lot of bludgeoning information to swallow, even when the paths are both linear and non-linear. But trust me, when you are able to see the fractured pieces that slowly come together to form the big picture, then this by a long extent, will only be certified as a good show.
Being a Netflix-exclusive show can only mean that production quality will be subpar, but bringing in two of the most prolific studios together for a co-production, this in no doubt, raises expectations from the get-go. You have Orange for the OK-ish tried-and-true 3DCG formula with the Kaiju, while Bones handled basically everything else, and this at least swallows the fact that this show's production values will be considered as the decent-to-good mid-tier echelon of Netflix productions. Still though, always keep your expectations in check when shows only have Netflix as its streaming platform.
The music is somewhat so-so, I'd expected a better showing from BiSH because of their song repertoire standards from Black Clover, and the OP here just sounds very mid, and with the Netflix standard of "Skip Intro", you can click that button as you so desire and go ahead with the episode contents. On the other hand, I adore Polkadot Stingray's music style a lot that's experienced from Radiant's 1st ED, and the same J-Pop style lingers here for the ED, this is a great song, no doubt at all.
It takes a real deal to understand this show, and by all accounts, it is equally taxing on trying to concentrate a lot for this show's between-the-lines commentaries while watching this like the average anime nut. Unless you really don't care for all the sci-fi in-between, this show is still Godzilla at the heart of it all, and depending on your takes of the amount of Kaiju there is to find for caveats, this would be an entangled mess of an experience. Take it or leave it, this show has more Singular Points pertaining to never-ending doubts.
