Written By: Ken HulseySources: Undead Backbrain / MM9 Official Website / Avery Guerra
If J.J. Abrams, and now Steven Spielberg, have taught us anything is that the best way to promote any new movie, or television series in this case, is to launch some kind of 'viral' promotion. You know the drill, mystery trailers, video clips that turn to static just before the monster pokes his head out from behind a building. Stuff designed, on purpose, to provoke more questions than answers.
Well, now Japanese producer and special effects master, Shinji Higuchi (Heisei Gamera Series), has opted to pursue the same kind of marketing strategy for his giant monster filled late-night television series, "Monster Magnitude 9", by producing a series of 'mystery' video clips that are supposed to give clues to the origins of some of the series titanic terrors. Along with these rather brief images, several Japanese websites have posted sporadic verbal messages that also are designed to get amateur sleuths clicking their mouses to try and piece together tid-bits into tangible information about the show.
What fun!Unfortunately for us English speaking types, all of this stuff is in Japanese, so unless you are fluent in that language, all of this stuff will be rather useless to you.
Sorry for the tease.
Just in case you missed my earlier article about "MM9" over at the "Godzilla 2012" website, here is a recap:
Japanese special effects master, Shinji Higuchi (Heisei Gamera Series), has developed a brand new giant monster television series for late night television called, "MM9" (Monster Magnitude 9).
The series will take place in an alternate universe, where Japan is constantly attacked by monsters. MM9 is a special unit of Japan Meteorological Agency who's job it is to predict the arrival of these monsters in very much the same way that the National Weather Service predicts rain and snow.
When the monsters do show up, and you know that they will in every episode, a team of monster specialists called “Kitokutai” are dispatched to combat them. Only one problem, these specialists are not from the military, so they don't have any weapons. The group will have to rely on their skills, knowledge, and experience to prevent the monsters from reducing Japan to toothpicks.
"MM9" stars Anna Ishibashi as the teams rookie, Sakura Fujisawa, along with Machiko Ono as Sakura's mentor, Mikazuki. Rounding out the cast are Issei Takahashi, Yasuhi Nakamura, Satoru Matsuo, Sarutoki Minagawa, Takako Kato, and Yutaka Matsushige.
"MM9" also has a great list of directors lined up, including Tomoyuki Furumaya, Kiyotaka Taguchi and Ataru Oikawa. So far all of the shows episodes have been written by Kazunori Ito (Patlabor, Gamera).
The first episode of "MM9" is scheduled to air tonight.
Here is the trailer, all of those viral videos I mentioned above (pieced together by Robert Hood of the Undead Backbrain website), some photos from a press event, and a photo of a "MM9" themed iPad that will be featured on the show. From what I gather, these babies are also for sale in Japan as well.
See Also: Shinji Higuchi Bringing Monster Magnitude 9 To Television