Apparently this began as an indulgent project (of Boston? art school students, I think) and made its way onto the web (www.kaiju.com). The website explains the concept like this-

"Kaiju Big Battel is a modern conflict of epic proportions. Scattered throughout the galaxy is a monstrous mob of Kaiju - maniacal villains, ominous alien beasts, and gigantic, city-crushing monsters who are fighting for control of the globe, their volatile tempers periodically detonating into bouts of intergalactic sparring and senseless acts of violence."

There are heroes like Atomic Trooper Robo, Silver Potato, Dusto Bunny, and American Beetle. And of course, the bad guys like Kung Fu Chicken Noodle, Sky Deviler, Uchu Chu, Gomi-man, and the most infamous of all, Dr. Cube. It is like something out of a childhood fever dream- men in rubber monster suits having wrestling matches. What a perfect combination.

Terebi Sento is their first DVD release. Now, like and self-respecting geek with a penchant for quirky things Asian (or in this case Asian-influenced), I had run across across their webstite. Now going beyond the confines of the website and watching the DVD, it doesn't quite live up to my minds eye view. It is cheap, akin to a public access show, but that I expected. While entertaining and imaginative enough, it just doesn't fill out its potential hilarity and fun like I expected.

The show is hosted by the Big Battel universes resident humans, host Louden Noxious and Referee Jinji, both of whom also provide the color commentary for the battles. Franky, I didn't really find them very funny and any witty remarks they made were done with an overall leaden forced enthusiasm that kind of hurt the whole program. They just did not come across as very quick-witted or as energetic as a wresting show host should be. Thankfully, between matches there are commercials parodying more Japanese cultural oddness. They provide a good giggle, like a seemingly invincible t-shirt or packaged meat from a deceased Big Battel monster.

The wrestling wasn't quite up to par. As cool as the idea of rubber monster wrestling is, you cannot escape the fact that wearing a large suit and a mask presents serious problems when it comes to athletics. To help things out they throw in some decent noise and crude digital fx, but I doubt anyone will be very impressed with the quality of the wrestling. The 60 min shows final battle between Uchu Chu and Dr. Cube was very entertaining, from the use of a ladder, to Dr. Cube's unmasking, and culminates with the hilarious appearance of Silver Potato and his music video featuring the lyrics "Bells of love chime in a dream. Piercing the darkness of the night. C'mon peel me now." If the entire show were done with this kind of quirkiness and really pushed more cheesy fx, it would overcome the problems of less than colorful commentary, a cramped space where it was staged (often you can see disinterested audience members blankly staring on), and the encumbered wrestling. The extras do show clips from other battles with more elaborate stagings, ones involving steel cage matches, big goofy weapons, audeinces being doused with creature goo, and even the Lucky Charms leprechaun kicking some butt.

The DVD: Redline

Picture: Full-screen Standard. As the camera closes in on the public accessish set, a desk filled with monster figures and a backdrop that looks ready to fall (and portions do in the end credit outtakes), you know you aren't about to watch a Jerry Bruckheimer production. The matches are strictly video, pretty rough, no real slickness at all. Still, the presentation does a good job. It is a 5 star transfer of b or c-grade material.

Sound: Once again, like the picture it is a very modest affair. You wont find a DTS mix, and there really isn't a tremendous need for one. Just the basics, simple recorded audio with some post sound fx thrown in here and there. Despite the lack of well-recorded audio punch or even a mezmerizing stereo mix, they at least get by just by being audible, which is all a low budget production hopes to accomplish anyway.

Extras: Chapters and individual battle access--- Commercials— Trailers— Kaiju Personality Profiles.

Conclusion: Now, I completely respect what they are doing and the effort they put into it. I just see potential for the concept to be better and places where its execution falters. The DVD is decent enough, a worthy addition to their growing enterprise of merchandise from posters, to handbags, to t-shirts, and even an MTV2 special that aired in December. It may not be all it could be, but it is goofy enough if you are into it. If it sounds like your sort of thing and you salivate at the mention of names like Jet Jaguar, check out the website and grab the DVD.

Oh, after I wrote this review, I did catch that MTV2 special which was basically a 22 min commercial for this DVD. In the special there was more exuberance, cheesy fx, and general comedic goodness, so they can smooth out what I saw as sore spots.