Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo is a 2012 short film that also marks the first live-action project of Studio Ghibli. The legendary Hayao Miyazaki is the co-founder of Ghibli, which has produced some of the most acclaimed animated films in cinema history. Miyazaki himself has helmed titles like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro, while the studio has also produced the heartbreaking Grave Of The Fireflies and From Up On Poppy Hill.

In 1982, Hayao Miyazaki created the manga series Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind, which takes place centuries after the “Seven Days Of Fire” that destroyed the world. He later directed a 1984 anime adaptation that was produced prior to the founding of Ghibli but is still considered part of its catalog. Nausicaä is yet another classic from the director, but it was famously butchered for its original English language dub. It was retitled Warriors Of The Wind, which chopped out about a half-hour of footage and attempted to make it more of a straight forward action-adventure.

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Needless to say, this cut of Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind has been largely disowned by Studio Ghibli. The anime also received a surprise prequel in 2012 in the form of Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo, which was also marked the first live-action project in the studio’s history. The short was created as part of a museum exhibition and reveals how the titular Kaiji’s set about destroying the world in the “Seven Days Of Fire.”

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Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo is told from the perspective of an unseen, unnamed female narrator, who describes the day before the city is ravaged. She describes how an imposter who looks like her brother arrives at her apartment and warned her what was about to happen and to warn others. He disappears but she doesn’t heed this message, and soon giant, glowing spores appear over the city that mark the arrival of a Giant God Warrior. This Kaiju – who was glimpsed in Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind – wanders the city while bystanders look in awe before a giant laser weapon emerges from its mouth that it uses to completely destroy Tokyo.

Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo ends with dozens of these creatures on the march over the flames of the city. The short was directed by Shin Godzilla’s Shinji Higuchi and written by Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion). While far from the best Ghibli project, it’s a somber apocalyptic tale with some impressive practical effects and visuals.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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