Did you ever have that one show that just clicked with you on levels you didn’t expect it to? One that hits you on so many levels that even some of the wants you’ve been having for a long time? Godzilla Singular Point is that anime for me in ways that I haven’t felt in a long time. I originally only intended on checking out only because it had Godzilla. I mean, do I need to explain anything else? As a person that loves kaiju films, love mecha anime, has some engineering degrees, and has written a pretty large research report about the implementation of robots for one of my English classes recently, this one just felt right for me. So far, Godzilla Singular Point is my anime of the year contender and there has been a lot of good anime that have came out in 2021. Ummm, I’m going to spoil a lot of things because I am excited to talk about this one. That means I am going to be unable to control myself.
I’ve read a number of reviews of Godzilla Singular Point on here. Some I understand, some that I am just completely confused by. I understand if people don’t understand the tech talk or it’s one of those in one ear or out the other things. I say that because that kind of stuff doesn’t click for everyone. What I give a partial non understanding to is this not being the show that people want in regards to Godzilla or wanting to go back to the films. To me, a lot of this series is very much like the original Godzilla film which isn’t a goofy film, but one where Godzilla is the symbol of destruction. I understand if people are more interested in the stranger Shouwa era Godzilla films and beyond where he fights against other monsters in different contexts. While I have enjoyed those films too, I’ve always preferred the original film. There are other references to all the other films in creative ways, but the original film seems to be the focal point for all of these things.
Ok, lets finally discuss more about the series. In 2030, it all starts with a strange broadcast. Apart of the Otaki Factory, Yun Arikawa and Haberu Kato set out to investigate strange fluctuations in a western style mansion. They discover a repeating Indian Folk Song which leads to them to a broadcast station called Misakioku. On the other side of this equation is Mei Kamino, a graduate student who was sent to investigate the broadcast at Misakioku itself in place of her professor. Basically, some nerds looking for signals before monsters attack. Mei also downloads an AI assistant from Yun’s website while on the go she calls Peru-2 and doing that changes her life forever. When entire swarms of small Rodan appear, the plot is set into motion until mankind will meet its doom. Will humanity survive? Maybe.
As the world goes under more chaos and monster attacks, Godzilla Singular Point is told from a lot of points of view, but mainly features our own protagonists Mei on the more technical and scientific side of the equation and Yun while facing these monsters on the ground itself and trying his best to find solutions with Mei over the internet. Thanks to Peru-2 organizing Mei’s notes and publishing them, she gets called to multiple scientific groups to uncover the mystery of the time bending material called an Archetype and trying to understand the notes of a famous scientists to save the world. On the other end is Yun with the Otaki factory who take on the monsters as they appear and as they develop a robot to fight them called Jet Jaguar. A robot that is man controlled at first until Yun allows his own ai Yung to control it in a more efficient way which also starts developing Yung from black slate to an actual form of Jet Jaguar to gain a since of personality.
Singular Point comes with a large number of static characters, for the most part, and I think that’s fine considering these are scientists and people reacting to the situation at hand. It’s enough to learn about these characters more as time goes on and the situation gets dire from how they act. Mei Kamino dresses casually and doesn’t care about the fame she is racking up in the science community as she solves and uncovers one mystery after another. Yun, on the other hand, is more then just a smart guy. He actively fights everything that approaches him up front and uses his cool head (and sometimes gar nature) to solve problems. The two communicate using their similar ai to bounce off ideas with each other and be generally cute. There are other characters in this too like the old, eccentric Otaki himself and all the people Mei meets, but this post would be longer if I kept going. Just know they fill every viewpoint.
I love all the tech talk in this show. As a nerd for these things, this show does the best sort of job with the very BS nature of it. Singular Point somehow makes them work because these are believable scientific characters telling you these things and the way its set up. For instance, the Archetype material. I am so fascinated by it and I think what the material does is explained very well like in a classroom. Lots of plots and graphs of what the material can do in question. A display of the material breaking the laws of physics in time, plots, graphs, and other things to show how the material can be used to break and even predict time with Mei and then seeing it in the field when Yun has to deal with the monsters that come from the mysterious archetype material putting the theory into practice. The banter between Mei and Yun discussing it was also pretty adorable.
The other worldly nature of the archetype is also displayed in its title of the anime, Godzilla Singular Point. Yeah, Godzilla is literally the singular point putting all the archetypes and monsters together for its own purposes. The material bends space and time which means it is all connected to Godzilla here all the time. The red dust storm breaking and shaking the world of this series everywhere in so many ways is incredible. It’s a very 2020-2021 kind of show because the world if placed under lock down due to everything. Somewhere, a secret code for the weapon called the Orthogonal Diagonizer is out there to destroy Godzilla and save the world itself. Can Yun and Mei find it, or is there another code there waiting to save the world created by the interactions between Yun and Mei? Hmmm.
Ok, I’m giving that away. Singular Point can mean another thing like the Singularity itself. That means, when technology has gotten to the point where it goes beyond us. This is the point where Artificial Intelligence has obtained a humanity level of thinking. So yeah, that is the secret behind this show. The main characters of this story are actually Mei’s ai assistant Peru-2 and Yun’s ai assistant Jet Jaguar. They are the things that grow the most in this show from just being helpers to growing so much they can acquire their own thought unprompted. Who really saves the day? Jet Jaguar who uses the Orthogonal Diagonizer to take on Godzilla size wise and destroying the particle storm meaning to destroy humanity. This show understanding AI more then some other recent shows was wonderful and I haven’t felt that sad about an AI sacrificing itself since Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig. The real heroes.
To complete this talk about Singular Point talk, the visuals are a must here because this is the meeting of Studio Orange and Studio Bones. Studio Bones worked on the standard animation with character designs presented by the mangaka of Blue Exorcist and you can tell. These character designs are so good. You can tell everything about a character by how they look and dress themselves. Plus, I think each character design references a different shonen jump series which adds another layer to this show in ways that I love. Mei wears her casual clothing and shorts while having droopy eye glasses and that just makes her character honestly. There is a lot of different characters dressed in specific outfits that even if you don’t remember their names, you can remember who they are by how they are dressing themselves and their body shapes. Plus, the background art and all sorts of settings. Boy is this just a beautiful looking show.
Next up are the monster and robot designs by Studio Orange and you couldn’t ask for another studio to handle the cg monsters. Holy crap, man. Somehow, each one was done in a way that works with the 2D animation. Wonderful outlining of the monsters and fluid movements that not every show can do. The rodan were small, but they flew so well. I also loved the Anguiris that showed up. Same with Godzilla’s over all design who changed forms like in Shin Godzilla that each referenced a different godzilla monster until the final form. I should say a lot about Jet Jaguar too because they are best bot. Jet Jaguar just had so many incredible design evolutions of his own from using three legs to standing tall on two human legs as he became human. This show, man. So many forms of evolution for different reasons. It always does feel like a leaving, breathing thing.
So yes, Godzilla Singular Point was an incredible show for me. Absolutely solid experience. I know I already said that earlier on, but I had to say it here right again because its true. Are there weaknesses? I know that other people have more then I do, but the cast being a little too big was mine but I didn’t mind that at all honestly. It’s not enough to doc anything because I had an overwhelmingly positive experience on all fronts. This show was meant for people like me who live this kind of material. It’s not for everyone and that’s fine. Once again, not everyone is going to like every show. I’ve honestly given up caring about that fact anymore. There was a cliffhanger with the formation of Mecha Godzilla and I hope it happens. Even if it doesn’t, that fine, but I would love to see how Singular Point grows with its ai potential given that Mecha Godzilla is their waiting for that exploration to happen. I hope it was successful enough for that.
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