G-Fest Day Three: Kaiju on Parade

We assembled at 7:00 p.m. for two events that get at the heart of G-fandom: the G-Pardy final and the Costume Parade. G-Pardy is literally Godzilla Jeopardy, with J.D. Lees in the Alex Trebek role, and the arcane knowledge evidenced here was jaw-dropping. Among my peers I am considered a Godzilla "expert"--yet I freely admit that it would take months of intense study for me to even come close to being competitive with the likes of these contestants (one of whom, Skip Peel by name, is responsible for the bulk of the fan fiction that has appeared in G-Fan). Sue, Andy and I were all captivated by this impressive showing.

Then came the Costume Parade! The anticipation in the air was palpable, and from the first moments, when a group of young suitmation actors reenacted the hatching of Minya (from Son of Godzilla), my son was totally into it (and in the spirit of full disclosure, so were we!) There were Godzilla suits, a lifelike (!) Ultraman and a charming Jet Jaguar. Two junior entries cornered the market on cute: a teeny Godzooky and a walking G-Fan issue! I marveled at the beauty of the Mothra costume worn by another young entrant, and yet another succeeded in "creeping out" my son by appearing as the two-headed "Manster," in trenchcoat and all.

The most raucous cheers were reserved for Sanda and Gaila from War of the Gargantuas. We all wanted to see them rumble, and they happily obliged. One can only imagine how much time and effort went into the preparation of these costumes--the Costume Session ballroom display helps the layman gain a better appreciation of the craftsmanship involved (and also serves as a museum of absolutely incredible entries from past parades).

Rounding off the festivities were the amateur videos--the standout here was the continuing adventures of Ultraman Sorta. One of the episodes had been filmed at a past G-Fest, which won the viewers over instantly.

I am tempted to try making a Big Statement here about a "creative response to Godzilla" being a kind of "common denominator" tying together an otherwise "disparate group" of people--but I will resist that impulse, and instead simply say that Saturday night at G-Fest was a blast!

One more significant decision was made--to stay home from the Pickwick, for reasons having to do with a severely sleep-deprived six-year-old. Thanks to Channel 19 (ah, Channel 19) this was a fairly easy conclusion to reach. I had great intentions of staying up to watch Gamera 3: Revenge of Iyrs (which I have yet to see), but a day of monster chasing caught up with me. I cannot confirm this, but I believe I fell asleep with a big, toothy, Gamera grin on my face.