This 6-part anime series finds the titanic tusked turtle battling most of its nemeses from the original Showa-era movies in an attempt to save us all from an existential threat. The animation is basic but serviceable and the characters serve to move the story along (although a lot of time is spent on child-hood issues and angst). The reimagined kaiju are OK although there is some inexplicable lengthening of tails, tongues, tentacles, etc and the monster-fights are as entertaining as always. There is some over-the-top 'America bashing' in the first episode and whatever point was being made would have benefitted from a bit more subtlety. An abrupt, and surprising, character shift in the 5th episode livens up a story that was falling into the repetitive 'monster-of-the-week' formula. Fans of Daiei Studio's answer to Toho's money-making 'Godzilla' franchise should get some eye-rolling pleasure out of watching the shelled saviour face off against old foes although, like me, they may miss the silly charm of the original series' bargain-basement suit-mation (and the memorably chipper theme music). Considering this is a show about a giant flying turtle repeatedly saving the lives of four children, there is a surprising amount of course language (possibly Netflix's attempt to make the series more 'edgy'). Much more entertaining than the pretentious anime Godzilla series that Netflix ran a few years back.
