SHIN GODZILLA

Italian Godzilla is a Beautiful Nightmare

Last weekend, I watched Italian Star Wars ripoff/homage Starcrash. As those things go, it’s actually one of the better ones — it has a young David Hasselhoff, a southern robot, and plenty of lasers. It certainly beats director Luigi Cozzi’s other Star Wars-inspired film, The Humanoid. But as strange as those two movies are, neither…

merritt k Mar 30, 2020. 3 minute read

7 Apocalyptic Horror Movies That Aren’t About a Virus

I love horror. That’s a new development for me, and one that can be credited to Fanbyte EIC Danielle Riendeau, who helped me gradually expose myself to a genre I’d detested for most of my life. Why would people intentionally want to scare themselves? Well, why do people skydive or…

Eddie Vargas Feb 20, 2020. 5 minute read

How Hideaki Anno’s Live-Action Films Take On Trauma and Power

Although the 59-year-old Japanese director Hideaki Anno — creator of the iconic Neon Genesis Evangelion — boasts a filmography spanning nearly four decades, much of the discourse surrounding his work largely focuses solely on the Evangelion series as a direct reflection of Anno’s own mental health journey. Filled with giant robots,…

Kara Dennison Jul 8, 2019. 4 minute read

Love Evangelion? Imagine Going to School with Its Creator

It’s 2019, and Neon Genesis Evangelion is hot again. A whole new generation of fans is discovering the philosophical mecha-but-technically-not-mecha anime that inspired some, irked others, and confused basically everyone. It came from the mind of acclaimed anime director Hideaki Anno at the end of a four-year battle with depression,…