Godzilla: Singular Point Part 3 Episodes 9-13

The Catastrophe has begun.  Godzilla evolves into his ultimate form, turning Tokyo into a red dust covered Hell Scape.  With his AI installed into Jet Jaguar, Yun and the rest of the Otaki Factory team ride out to try and stop his rampage.  But the real hope for stopping the chaos lies in the hands of Mei Kamina, who discovers the source of the Singular Point and its connection to the past and the future.  Against a literal destroyer of worlds, is there any chance of stopping Godzilla?

 
I don’t even know where to begin expressing my disappointment with this one.  I guess I should be a little grateful that in 13 episodes of endless theoretical debates about exotic particles, the space time continuum and predicting the future, we got at least a couple good minutes of solid Godzilla action.  Other than that, Godzilla: Singular Point pretty much settles on what it’s been since the beginning and refuses to budge even a little on it.  Even when we do get to some truly epic moments thanks to quality animation, its barely the main focus.  No, this Anime has been about one thing: The Lecture.  This is almost the reverse of the Planet of the Monsters Trilogy, just with more likeable characters and a less nihilistic tone…but ultimately a major disappointment nonetheless.
 
The worst part of it all is that even though I knew we would never be done with someone talking about using math and Singluar Points to predict the future and find an energy source, the potential for a truly solid Godzilla Anime did poke its head out throughout the finale.  The red dust is a perfect element for showcasing the hellish landscape Tokyo has become and to see it swirling around Godzilla when he becomes True Godzilla, it’s terrifying.  True Godzilla himself is as awesome looking as promised.  I’d say he looks about as tall as his Monsterverse counterpart (from the US Godzilla movies).  We do get to see Big G do what he does best too, unleashing atomic fire on the city while also taking down a massive Rodan and Manda too.  Seeing this happen with the classic Godzilla theme playing in the background, especially after True Godzilla emerges, ready to go…THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING SEVERAL EPISODES AGO!!!!
 
But again, all of that plus a last minute showdown between a Kaiju sized Jet Jaguar and Godzilla (cause why not), barely takes up a lot of runtime for the five episode finale.  Once again, most of the screentime is taken up between endless debates, endless theories, endless conversations about life, the universe and everything…and none of it is interesting, little of it makes sense unless youre a total genius and NONE OF IT IS WHAT ANYONE COMES TO A FREAKING GODZILLA ANIME TO LISTEN TO!!!  I wanna like Mei but she’s barely done anything besides jet from one country to another with her head buried in an endless supply of books looking for impossible answers.  Yun’s borderline emotionless reactions to anything beyond Jet Jaguar’s safety got boring really quickly, even if he is right in the middle of the action.  How can you look so bored at the end of the freaking world Yun?  Add in insane ramblings from an increasingly unhinged looking BB, the double cross of the crew he was working for and a last second post credits sequence and it all amounts to…absolutely nothing.  I don’t get Singular Points or why they matter and I probably wont understand them no matter how hard this freaking story tries.  At one point, Goro aka Jet Jaguar Fan #1 tells a soldier who is totally as lost as I am, “There’s no point in overthinking it.  You’re either onboard or not.  We’re all on board so why not you?”  Honestly that felt like the last slap to the face and at that point I was done with Singular Point.  This isn’t a Godzilla Anime, it’s an hyper advance college science course I wouldn’t have ever signed up for and if I was lured in by the promise of Godzilla only to learn he was barely part of it, I’dve dropped the class within the first week.
 
I will say, of this entire Anime I did care about one character and their final fate…and it wasn’t a human character.  It was Pelo 2, the AI Mei inherited from Yun’s website.  Between the cute digital puppy design and a friendly voice, Pelo 2 is the only character who could spout any of the same nonsense as her human costars and I didn’t feel condescended listening to them.  Their interactions and unique personality made them stand out from the far more emotionless Yungu aka Yun’s AI who eventually became assimilated with Jet Jaguar.  Pelo 2 reminded me a lot of a Tachikoma AI from Ghost in the Shell and I wont lie, if I had to choose an AI companion, I wouldn’t mind it being Pelo 2.  Also I could watch their fun digital adventures steering a wrecked sea ship into the unknown…its that kind of adorableness that gave me peace when the rest of this Anime really wanted to piss me off.
 
What more is there to say?  Godzilla: Singular Point botched it and botched it hard.  The characters were fine but were too caught up in their own long lecture like discussions over every little thing to be more than mouth pieces for the writers continuous stream of acting like he’s the smartest person on the entire planet.  The animation and creature designs were top notch.  Godzilla, Angirus and Rodan definitely got the better end of the animation department and looked better than ever for a new age.  It’s a shame an Anime featuring them didn’t want anything to do with them as opposed to a deep existential debate over time travel and harnessing the power of the future or something like that.  When this Anime wanted to be a Godzilla Anime, it showed a ton of potential and I wanted to see more.  I just wish the writer wanted to see the same.  Godzilla stories aren’t meant to be complex and if they are, they should have the action to offset the uninteresting Human element.  The action was there and impressive but it was also barely the focus more than half the shows runtime.  In the end, only the animation and updated creature designs keep this from being on par with the horendeous Planet of the Monsters Trilogy…but not by much.
 
Final score for Godzilla: Singular Point is 3.5/10.  PS they tease a sequel in the post credits sequence featuring Mechagodzilla and a very much alive and crazed looking Ashihara…I hope we never get a sequel, at least not with this writing staff.  Just…please don’t, they had their chance and they blew it.
 
Anyway, Next Monday we’re back to proper Godzilla with Mothra vs. Godzilla right here at the Gundam Anime Corner, see ya then.