Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo

Shinji Higuchi's 2012 live-action kaiju short, a Nausicaä prequel from Ghibli, Khara and Tokusatsu Lab.

Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo is a 2012 Japanese kaiju short film directed by Shinji Higuchi. A live-action prequel and spin-off of Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, it is a co-production between Studio Ghibli, Special Effects Laboratory Co., Ltd and Khara, Inc., in which a woman from Tokyo recounts how her city was obliterated within hours by giant divine warriors.

Quick Facts

Director: Shinji Higuchi
Producer: Hideaki Anno; Toshio Suzuki
Narrator: Megumi Hayashibara
Cinematography: Keiichi Sakurai; Keizo Suzuki
Editing: Atsuki Sato; Hidemi Ri (theatrical version)
Music: Taisei Iwasaki
Released: 10 July 2012
Runtime: 9 minutes; 10 minutes (theatrical version)

Facts from the source article.

Background

As mysterious orange spores appear over Tokyo, an unnamed resident is visited by her brother, who tells her the city will be destroyed tomorrow; dismissing it as an internet rumor, she warns no one. The following day the orange spores combine over Tokyo to form a Giant God Warrior hovering in the sky, which shrinks to the size of a large building as it descends. It opens its mouth to reveal a weapon that shoots red bullets and a purple laser beam called the proton beam, and the city is destroyed in a direct opposite of the Genesis creation narrative; an army of Giant God Warriors holding spear-like objects then walks through a blazing Tokyo. The warriors go on to launch the Seven Days of Fire, which destroyed most of human civilization and recreated the planet's ecosystem.

The film was Studio Ghibli's only live-action production apart from Takahata's The Story of Yanagawa's Canals, using digital composition and special-effects technology, with miniatures previously stored at Toho Studios, Marbling Fine Arts and Special Effects Laboratory. Miyazaki provided the creature design from his Nausicaä manga. It was released theatrically in Japan on November 17, 2012, preceding Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, with new sound effects and computer-generated wings added for the final scene, and it was also shown at Hideaki Anno's Tokusatsu Museum exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. It received the VFX-JAPAN Award on February 23, 2013.