WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Godzilla Singular Point, now streaming on Netflix.
One of the biggest complaints viewers had about 2014's Godzilla from Gareth Edwards -- the MonsterVerse's first entry -- was that it took way too long to show the title monster. And when it did, it felt like quick-cut cameos only. Edwards' movie only really showed the Titan at full-force at the end to destroy the enemy M.U.T.O.s, and while it was an epic battle, some fans wanted more of Godzilla throughout rather than this Jaws-like approach. Sadly, Season 1 of the Godzilla Singular Point anime suffers from the same flaw.
Godzilla isn't introduced until halfway through the 12-episode Netflix series, with the majority of the first half-dozen episodes being spent discussing wormholes, alternate dimensions and science instead. It spends a lot of time setting up human protagonists like Mei, a genius budding scientist, as well as Yun, an A.I. expert, but there's no Godzilla -- outside of its carcass being found by the Misakioku company and hidden in their base. A lot of screen time also goes to the evil Shiva Consortium, the Otaki factory and Jet Jaguar, as well as other kaiju such as Angurius and the Rodan packs moving across the skies to various countries.
Speaking of the robot, it gets to the point that the series actually feels more like a Jet Jaguar show, with the ample time spent on it compared to Godzilla forecasting that it'll be the deus ex machina in the finale. As for the Godzilla skeleton, unfortunately, we don't even see a glimpse into the past into how it got to Earth, how the sinister scientist Ashihara first worked on it, or why it's generating radio waves to call other kaiju over to the planet.
These kinds of details could have informed the next Godzilla to come, giving it some degree of personality. Instead, the lizard doesn't have much character at all when it finally debuts in Singular Point and begins smashing Tokyo, rising from the seas and evolving over time into its ultimate form. This creates something as bland and forgettable as some of the kaiju from Pacific Rim, which is a shame, as Godzilla is such an iconic, memorable monster.
The series should have taken a cue from the MonsterVerse's other films, which made up for Edwards' movie by showing a lot more of the Titan, as well as explaining how Godzilla became Earth's protector to maintain a balance between man and monster. In that sense, Godzilla was turned into more of a main character than ever. Singular Point, on the other hand, turns it into a plot point -- a crutch for what's come to be known as the Catastrophe. It's essentially what Ashihara was trying to predict in his space-time experiments, but again, there's not much insight provided into Godzilla being a singular point, how and why it first came over, and what motivates it.
Flashbacks and more scenes building up to its arrival would have placed all this into context and made the epic moments in the finale resonate more, such as the atomic blasts. Because it takes so long for us to connect with the beast, all these moments feel rushed and rudimentary, like mandatory boxes are being checked off to fit the lizard's aesthetic.
This results in Godzilla, altogether, falling flat in Singular Point. This is especially true at the very end, as the short time we see it frying Rodan herds quickly ends with Jet Jaguar PP blowing it up, making the creature that's supposed to be the star of the show feel quite underwhelming -- more or less a glorified, extended cameo, and little else.
