Daimajin Returns to Japanese Television
Foywonder
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Everyone knows Godzilla, most everyone knows Gamera, and lately even Guilala has been getting its due, but how many of you are familiar with Daimajin, the giant stone samurai statue that came to life to unleash hell upon evil shoguns in three Daiei films back in the Sixties? The giant stone samurai is roaring back to life this fall on Japanese TV.
The formula of the Daimajin series was a simple one. An evil shogun oppressing villagers. A female villager prays to a giant samurai statue. It comes to life and crushes the forces of evil. Then the villagers have to deal with their giant stone statue problem; Daimajin generally didn’t go quietly.
Talk of a Daimajin revival film have been bandied about for years now with seemingly every popular Japanese cult filmmaker attached to direct and even a version that was set to star Kevin Costner at one point. August Ragone reports on his blog “The Good, the Bad, & Godzilla” that the newest issue of Japanese magazine Newtype features an announcement that Daimajin is officially poised to make its return – just not to the big screen.
A television series to be titled “Daimajin Kannon” (“Dai” means giant, “Majin” means “devil god”, and “Kannon” means “goddess of mercy”) produced by Kadokawa Pictures is slated to debut on Japanese television this fall. Shoguns can breathe easier because the vague announcement promises a contemporary setting over the feudal times of the original films. Don’t expect this to be purely “Ultraman”-ish entertainment; the announcement states the program will be aimed squarely at adult viewers.
No doubt we will be hearing more about this in the near future and you better believe bootlegs and torrents will emerge in a heartbeat once the program premieres. Until more details emerge, head over to August Ragone‘s blog entry for more details of the long process of reviving the Daimajin property.
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