Vocaloid & Godzilla (Johnsonverse)
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Vocaloid & Godzilla is a 2012 American anime-kaiju hybrid film directed by Timothy Hill and produced by Yoshimitsu Banno, based on the Godzilla franchise by Toho and the Vocaloid voice synthesizer by Yamaha Corporation. It stars Tim Johnson, Chloe Johnson, Belle Armstrong, Jenny Smith, Kristen Schaal, Seth Green, Olivia Olson, Kelly Hu, Tara Strong, and Tim Curry. The film follows Len Kagamine and his friends, who must stop the mad scientist Dr. Mustafa from taking over the world with his army of cloned kaiju.
Production began in 2008. The film was released on June 13, 2012, and was widely praised
Plot
Four months have passed since the final Vortaak invasion in June 2012. With the assistance of the humans' alien allies, the Sterlans, civilization quickly recovers.
In an underground lab, Dr. Shinji Mustafa monologues to himself about the failures of the world's governments to provide adequate protection against not only the Vortaak, but also the Mysterians, Xiliens, Kilaaks, Space Hunter Nebula M, Seatopians, Simians, Garogas, and the various aliens Gamera and the Ultramen have had to fight. To that end, he has developed a variety of cloned kaiju, but spurned by the scientific community and governments, he has retreated underground to continue his research in peace, and ultimately, unleash his clone kaiju to take over the world.
In Koga, Kanto, 15-year old Len Kagamine, son of former GDF psychic Miki Saegusa, is preparing for his first day of high school. He has an encounter with his older sister Neru, who constantly bullies him, but is helped up by his twin sister Rin, who loves him dearly. On the way to school, they meet up with fellow kaiju nut Haku Yowane, as well as Miku Hatsune and Kaito Shion, a pair of idiots whom they barely tolerate. After a few minutes, Len's childhood friend Meiko "Mei" Sakine and her sister Luka arrive, while spying Neru walk off with her best friend, Teto Kasane, who they are convinced is a toxic influence on Neru given how misanthropic the latter is.
Arriving at school, the day is relatively uneventful, until lunch comes and Neru and Teto attack Mei, only for Len to defend her. At the principal's office, Neru is handed a suspension by the principal, who responds by picking up his desk and throwing it at Len hard enough to send him through the wall and onto the sidewalk below. Horrified by what she's done, Neru runs away before the police show up.
Len survives, but barely, and spends a month in a full-body cast, being bedridden at home afterward and basically shutting the whole world out. One night, Rin crawls in bed with him and manages to get him to open up, revealing that he feels responsible for Neru becoming such a destructive bully when she wasn't like this before. Rin reassures him that he is not to blame for their father's death.
Two months after the incident, Len finally returns to school, much to Mei's delight. Neru and Teto, meanwhile, have been on the run from the law, finally coming across Dr. Mustafa's lab near the coast. Initially intent on killing the pair, upon hearing their story, Mustafa realizes they're in the same boat as him: cast out by society for not conforming to its strict standards. He recruits the two as his minions, as he had been working alone the whole time.
A few days later, Dr. Mustafa unleashes his first clone kaiju: a clone of the second Alien Godzilla. Making landfall in Tokyo, Clone Godzilla picks up a container ship and throws it at downtown, causing immense death and destruction, before beginning his rampage in earnest. Len and co., on their way to Akihabara to celebrate Len's recovery, soon find themselves split up by debris, with Len, Rin, Miku, and Kaito on one side, and Mei, Luka, and Haku on the other. Reluctant to leave each other, Len promises Mei that he will find her. Suddenly, Clone Godzilla starts pursuing Len and his group, as Neru takes manual control. Cornered at a Howard Johnson's restaurant, Neru is conflicted as to whether she has the will to take her own siblings' lives, before pressure from Teto causes her to charge up Clone Godzilla's Atomic Breath.
Just before Clone Godzilla can fire, another Atomic Breath hits him, signalling the arrival of the real Godzilla from Monster Island. With him are Anguirus and Rodan. As Godzilla signals to Len and co. to get clear, he and his allies start corralling Clone Godzilla towards a nearby Sterlan-made landfill full of debris from the Vortaak's last invasion. Ultimately, Clone Godzilla is cast into a large incinerator and immolated to death.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS
Cast
Voices
- Tim Johnson as Len Kagamine and Fuyuki Hinata
- Chloe Johnson as Rin Kagamine and Natsumi Hinata
- Belle Armstrong as Meiko "Mei" Sakine
- Jenny Smith as Luka Megurine Sakine
- Kristen Schaal as Miku Hatsune
- Seth Green as Kaito Shion
- Olivia Olson Neru Akita Kagamine
- Kelly Hu as Teto Kasane
- Tara Strong as Haku Yowane
- Tim Curry as Dr. Shinji Mustafa
- Megumi Odaka as Miki Saegusa-Kagamine
- Akira Takarada as General Ogata
- Peter Fonda as Moonhopper
- Wendee Lee as Konata Izumi
Suit actors
- Tim Johnson as Godzilla IV
- Chloe Johnson as Anguirus
- Belle Armstrong as Rodan
- Kenpachiro Satsuma as Evil Godzilla
- Tsutomu Kitagawa as Clone Godzilla
- "Hurricane" Ryu as King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah (MKG-4), and Battra
- Kazuhido Yoshida as Gigan
- Naoko Kamio as Megalon
- Makoto Ito as M.O.G.U.E.R.A.
- Minoru Watanabe as Krystalak
- Kurt Carley as Zilla
- Hirofumi Ishigaki as Kiryu
Development
Pre-production and writing
The film began production in 2008 after discussions with Yahama Corporation and
Casting
The voice actors for the Vocaloid characters
Live-action filming
Filmin for the live-action shots took place between
Animation and special effects
The animation was provided by
Soundtrack
Much of the soundtrack is stock music from prior Godzilla films. The ending music was lifted from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and a piece of music from The Transformers (which had since become stock music for Detective Jenny).
- Opening Credits
- Dr. Mustafa's Ambitions
- Clone Godzilla Comes Ashore
- GDF March #1
- Godzilla IV Arrives
- Rumble in the Landfill
- Evil Godzilla Appears
- Shinkansen Attack
- King Ghidorah's Ambush
- Godzilla Intervenes
- The Head of King Ghidorah
- Megalon's Sudden Appearance
- Godzilla vs. Megalon
- Gigan Attacks Fukuoka
- GDF March #2
- Godzilla and M.O.G.U.E.R.A. vs. Gigan
- Dr. Mustafa Remembers
- GDF March #3
- Monster Attack on Tokyo
- Operation: Clone Wars
- Tokyo in Ruins
- MKG-4 Deployed
- MKG-4 vs. Evil Godzilla
- Mechagodzilla Revealed
- Mothra on the Scene
- Len and Rin's Last-Ditch Kamikaze
- Ejection/Sunrise/Reunion/Godzilla and Mothra Depart/End Credits
Release
Reception
The film was widely