I was delayed in getting episodes out this month, and here’s why:

To celebrate the 50th episode of the show, Kaijuvision merchandise is now available on Redbubble!

http://www.redbubble.com/shop/kaijuvision?search_type=search_box

Show off your affinity for the most visionary kaiju and tokusatsu podcast around!

40 different products in all ranges of colors and sizes. Fashion, home decor, phone cases, laptop sleeves, art prints, clocks – virtually every product that Redbubble offers!

The premium T-shirts (ethically-sourced and made-to-last) still catch my eye the most. They come with their own wash bag and look very comfortable to wear. The acrylic blocks, travel mugs, and metal prints look incredible too.

The images on each individual item are derived from vectored artwork, ensuring that the artwork is printed at the highest quality possible.

The art for the show looks really good, and I wanted listeners to be able to experience this art personally.

The KVR sphere is Kaijuvision Radio’s official logo:

The Torii Gate Banner is the official banner art of Kaijuvision Radio:

The story about the banner art is really interesting:

The high-resolution digitally-created Torii Gate Banner is just as unique as Kaijuvision Radio is in the podcasting world. Torii are gates at Shinto shrines. They represent the entrance into a sacred space. These gates can also be thought of as gates between the normal and the supernatural/unknown.

Thus, the unnamed and mysterious kaiju is on the other side of the gate. Since Kaijuvision has an emphasis on Japanese topics, having a Torii Gate (a well-recognized feature associated with Japan) in the banner art is most appropriate.

The clock is modeled after the famous Doomsday Clock, introduced in 1947. The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor for the threats of unchecked scientific and technological advances to humanity’s existence. The clock is at 5 minutes to midnight, while the time on the real Doomsday Clock changes.

The Doomsday Clock connects to kaiju movies because it represents many of the same things Godzilla and some other kaiju represent. Godzilla is a manifestation of these unchecked scientific advances. The Doomsday Clock connects to Kaijuvision Radio because of the array of real-world topics that are covered on the show.

Brian Scherschel worked with a Japanese Patreon donor to create the design concept, and American artist Kevin C. Geary created the art.

by Brian Scherschel

Since the beginning, Kaijuvision Radio has had a unique mission. Hence the emphasis on culture, history, and global issues.

This mission carries over into social media. There are plenty of sources on Godzilla-related news already. Why devote time to duplicating what’s already out there? Everyone’s seen the latest “King of the Monsters screenshot”. Not everyone knows about what’s going on in the South China Sea.

That’s why I post about Japanese history, current events in East Asia, and Japan-related stories of local interest. Just because something isn’t directly related to Godzilla, it has to do with the show’s mission.

Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500 in 2017. He’s the first Japanese man (and thee first Asian man) to do this. He made history. Kaijuvision is produced in Fort Wayne. So, I decided there should be an article about this historical event. It’s a story of local interest.

After all, there are two connections to the Indianapolis 500 in Godzilla movies. In All Monsters Attack (1969), Ichiro’s bully wears an Indianapolis 500 shirt. In the episode on that film, I said how that’s maybe a reference to the give-and-take relationship that the US and Japan have on some issues. The second connection is in Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973). Hiroshi drives a car that has an Indianapolis 500 sticker on the window. See the original blog post about Takuma Sato here.

Similarly, sports figure Hideki Matsui is nicknamed Godzilla. Matsui had his own cameo in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002).

It turns out there’s much more of a connection to Godzilla than previously known. A visitor to Kaijuvision.com sent these pictures via a comment on the original Takuma Sato blog post: