Godzilla Fandom does not Exist
On February 18, 2023, it came to light that Mark Jaramillo was involved with a Child P*rn Ring and did time in prison for his crimes. He is now out on parole and has made tentative attempts to reassert an online presence. Jaramillo initially entered the community spotlight by being a co-creator of Kaiju Gaiden; an ambitious documentary project highlighting independent tokusatsu projects native to Japan and centred on the Wolfman vs. Godzilla fan-film worked on piecemeal throughout the early to mid-eighties. It was something of a unicorn piece of lost media, being only seen in a few still frames and without any more specific information than being a fan film. It was the creation of Shizuo Nakajima, a former Production Assistant of Toho’s that worked on Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla.
The interest was immediately high. The Kaiju Eiga canon is known pretty much back to front and for the first time in decades that canon was about to get expanded in a fairly substantial and interesting way. A Kickstarter went live and raised $30,591; almost $6,000 over campaign goal. Jaramillo and his co-creator David Hall effectively pitched, in the fine print anyways, something that would be ambitious for seasoned documentarians and an absolute fool’s errand for two people with no prior filmmaking experience whatsoever.
This did not dissuade the fan community in the slightest. Two people even pledged $1,000. Two more pledged $2,000. It would all be for not. Nothing more than a shoddy trailer was produced. David Hall disappeared and so did Mark. The assumption was that Mark stepped away from the internet to wait until things blew over, getting away with his cut of the loot in the process. However, as of this writing it is clear now what the actual reason was for his absence from online life.
This is a quick, handwaved summary of the Kaiju Gaiden debacle. It is largely not the point. Independent fan projects fail all the time. Kickstarter campaigns rip people off all the time. The point is that the Kickstarter campaign was inadvertently a collective vetting by the western fan community of two con-men operating from either malice, stupidity, or some combination of the two - one of whom is now a convicted paedophile, to fly to Japan and involve themselves in the lives and artistic works of innocent people. Shizuo Nakajima started this process thinking he was going to be able to show his long languishing project to an eager and receptive audience by way of his association with David Hall and Mark Jaramillo. He ends this process photographed holding a sign unwittingly expressing his support for a sex offender and his dead documentary.
This should be the height of absolute shame and humiliation and everyone should be asking serious questions about how exactly we arrived at this state of affairs; but community luminaries have been largely mum on the topic. Empty expressions of being “Shocked and appalled.”, delivered in the cheeky use of singular GIF responses in some cases have been the order of the day. The overwhelming sense lurking through comment sections by those who bothered to try and signal boost the revelations about Jaramillos crimes have been performative and flat. The reactions are stunningly understated considering the amount of life or death energy that gets spent on discourse about blackface in King Kong vs Godzilla or the validity of GODZILLA ‘98 in the official canon.
I’m going to try and do a bit of a brief anthropological dissection of how exactly the specific Godzilla fandom operates to set the stage for a broader point. First, it’s important to highlight three things about Godzilla fans that I find are unique to this community as opposed to other niche fanbases.
- Godzilla fans were deeply self-conscious about the perceived institutional legitimacy of their fixation - in this case, the institution to which they seek validation is Cinema itself. In response to snide remarks or just casual indifference to the genre, they will preach from on high the legacy of Ishiro Honda and the powerful messaging of the original 1954 GODZILLA as if it were a new book of the biblical canon, divinely inspired. They will overcompensate to the point of absurdity to beat the charges of cheap, junk B-movies. This inadvertently does a disservice to the very thing they so dearly and deeply love, by misrepresenting to overcome a feeling of inadequacy.
- Godzilla fans are obsessive over informational accuracy. For many decades, the western press was rife with snark and in some cases pure fabrication. If you ever want to see a Godzilla fan get spooled up, ask them about the alternate ending to the original King Kong vs. Godzilla. Insist you remember seeing it. Dismiss their explanations with a quick remark and move on. You will be shocked at the display that follows shortly after. This informational inaccuracy was perceived as a sign not of just innocent ignorance, but an active affront to respect the genre was entitled to.
- Godzilla fans have never successfully bridged the divide East & West. Not even a casual social mingling between native Japanese fans and outsider Westerners on the early internet frontier. There’s probably a variety of factors that play into this, some of which are not the fault of those on this side of the ocean specifically. However, I do remember in those formative years wondering why Super Sentai fandom was able to get subtitled episodes of new shows that were released seemingly only a few weeks behind Japanese broadcast dates, while nobody could figure out how to get subtitles for singular Godzilla or Kaiju movies that were almost thirty years old at the time.
While the present era of niche-gone-mainstream media tastes (and readily available and accurate translation software) has largely curbed these idiosyncrasies, they have laid a bedrock that has persisted since at least the nineties. Godzilla fans depended on networks of connected “in the know” individuals, usually credentialed, to provide legitimacy to their interest by running defence in legitimising publications and other mainstream venues. These select few folks also act as intermediaries between the fanbase and genre celebrities; actors, filmmakers, artists etc.
People would treat these intermediary figures with absolute reverence and default to them for guidance and clarification on all matters. By wrangling a celebrity to the convention circuit, you by your act of networking would then become a celebrity for this hyper-niche crowd. By penning some lengthy tome of a film studies book you were fighting against ignorance, and for that you earned not just appreciation for your hard work, you earned a kind of intense loyalty; loyalty that I have personally never observed occurring elsewhere in other communities. Sure, fans deify creators all the time, even fictional characters, but subject matter experts? specialty film journalists?
This select group of people is relatively small. If you’re reading this you very likely know of at least some of them. They invariably are older, working in some professional capacity with the genre, have publications to their name, active in the convention scene, and can afford the occasional flight to Japan. They’re guests on podcasts and are usually pretty eager to keep their name relevant. Or maybe they are truly just dedicated diehard fans operating out of love for the genre. Who knows.
As time has gone by, a lot of the high value genre celebrities have passed on. The evolution of the internet has normalised wiki-style databases, effectively democratising information that was once the purview of people who had connections in Japan or the means to have materials translated; anything they might have had is eventually published for profit, which is than purchased by fans who than provide that information for the broadest possible digital access. Only the most tertiary films of the genre remain unavailable. When you see people complaining about Wikizilla or Gojipedia for accuracy, ask yourself what their relationship to this information is and why they might actually have an issue with these websites. If they find inaccuracies they can simply correct them. Do they? If not, why not?
This brings us back to Mark Jaramillo and David Hall. They didn’t just strike gold with Wolfman vs. Godzilla, they found El Dorado. Red carpets were rolled out not just for Shizuo Nakajima, but David and Mark. In Nakajima’s 2013 G-FEST panel appearance, Nakajima himself can hardly get a word in edgewise. The cycle had begun a new with a new pair of revered micro-legends. I want people to do some quick maths with me here based on what is stated on the Kaiju Gaiden campaign goals.
Quote;
Filming takes place this October, and your contributions will help us to complete the story upon our return.
When donors receive updates, it will be of behind the scenes in Japan, as the funding is still ongoing! The more funding we receive, the more we can expand upon the original idea and make this project even more awesome!
FIrst of all, this makes it appear as if the $30,000 is to assist in the completion of the film upon our return. Meaning, the funds are to be used for post-production, or in layman’s terms, assembling of the final finished product. This is not just a fickle nitpick, this is a completely different budgeting arrangement than using the raised money to fund the actual trip and production. But, moving on…
$35K Monthly 20 min ONLINE SHOWS (Free)- The many segments and films that were not able to be included within the film can be added as bi-weekly webisodes. We have that much content, and that many films to talk about! This would be planned for 2 years, Starting in January 2015. Episodes would feature interviews and clips, and hosted by Mark Jaramillo and/or David Hall. It Would be available on Youtube and for Digital Download.
Let’s think about this very carefully. Biweekly episodes for 2 years is 52 weeks. 20 minutes a week, for 52 weeks comes in at just over 17 hours of substantive, unused material. What? How long were they in Japan? How many people are being interviewed? How many movies are they talking about? The “official roster” of films known to be in Kaiju Gaiden proper is eleven; half of which are merely short films and some of those are barely five minutes or incomplete. How long are these interviews? Who did they track down in addition to the people besides those involved with that initial eleven? Why is this additional content, which again has either already been shot or least planned to be shot, being gatekept behind demands for an additional ten grand above the original campaign goal?
Put more succinctly; what fans gave money for was a singular feature length documentary called Kaiju Gaiden, but in the fine print that was freely available to read was a grandiose scheme to set up a cross-platform media enterprise. What the likely outcome was, whether they explicitly thought of it this way or not, was to ensure that entire catalogues of previously unseen films that have minimal to no studio rights issues would permanently have Mark and Davids greasy paw prints all over them in order to be viewable to a niche market segment eager for new content - but no one bothered to see the forest for the trees.
In summary, the question I ask is this; what level of responsibility does a community have for those it reveres and elevates to positions of access and authority? To those who claim “none”, Kaiju Gaiden was never really intended for mass appeal. It was explicitly aimed and pushed within the kaiju fandom. It was made for fans, by fans, who sourced additional production value from working artist-fans and collectively signed off on by fans who voted with their dollar. The amount of donors was only 318. This campaign did not break through into the mainstream and garner viral energy. Its success is solely the consequence of the fanbase who clamoured for it and either did not care or could not tell that the project was far to ambitious for those involved. If the project was a success, everyone would be eating out of the palms of their hands for the next morsel of rubber suited content. They knew this and we would be eager to oblige.
If people are actually serious about some notion of a cohesive Godzilla community (and there are certainly people who make allusions to that) that is not a toxic hellhole riff with backbiting cliques and fosters creative expression, international outreach, and does not tolerate fly-by-night hucksters with more ideas than brain cells to continuously fleece people out of their time and money, it’s one that has to be considered. If a country “gets the politicians it deserves”, as is occasionally said, then a fandom gets the niche eCelebrities it deserves; and the Godzilla eCelebrity class is a gallery of petty elitist dinosaurs who regard the rest of the community outside of their circle as rubes to be shake down and talk down to, if they regard them at all.
Now, the uglier bits.
I have an extremely, and I mean extremely hard time believing that this is the first that certain people have heard of Jaramillo and his CSAM charges. The Godzilla fandom, and I mean the shrinking and ageing Godzilla-is-my-Core-Identity crowd, is very small. You, YOU reading this, are probably only three degrees of separation from some players with serious pull and credentials in this little digital island. We know, definitively, that August Ragone was aware of some well connected Toku enthusiast from Los Angeles who was “fortunately in federal prison right now” (4:50) because he said precisely that on some podcast, hosted by “garagepro7” who, judging by his reaction, also knew about this person in federal prison. This was in 2020.
Maybe Ragone just happens to be connected to multiple Godzilla fans who have ended up in federal prisons and it’s not Jaramillo that’s being referenced here. What a run of bad luck that would be - but until we get further clarity in the off chance that lightning can strike the same place twice, lets keep going safely assuming he is speaking of Mark Jaramillo and not an unknown other person deeply obsessed with independent tokusatsu in federal prison.
So did Ragone not tell anyone? Anyone at all about this? If some D-list podcaster was in the know enough to get what he was referencing, judging by his reaction, is it not probable to the point of certainty that actually relevant folks were given a heads up? What about Matt Frank, who provided art for Kaiju Gaiden? Was Jeff Zornow informed? What about G-Fest organiser Jeff Horne, who is involved with the annual in-person meet up where the wheeling and dealing of goods and contacts occur? This information existed in the social ecosystem of the community for at least three years if not longer and none were the wiser, huh? Not a fucking chance.
So I ask; do people who have influence and the collective ear of an online community have moral and ethical responsibilities to that community? You may say no. I would disagree; however, it is a prerequisite in the internet age and an expectation of young people who grew up with the internet that those who are looked up to will at least do some bare minimum due diligence and alert them if they are aware of dangerous people who may be out and about. If the fandom is to be an attractive place for newer generations, it will by necessity be required to start picking up the slack. Otherwise, it will cease to exist.
Younger people are more cognisant of the social capital that is accrued in online spaces, even if they don’t necessarily articulate it in such specific terms. In exchange for them paying attention to you, treating you as a subject matter authority, buying your books and art, and listening to your interviews, expectations are placed upon you for this privilege - and it is a privilege. Having a set designer from Gunhed in your contacts list or an ability to perfectly capture the essence of every incarnation of Godzilla with a pencil does not entitle you to adoration.
A possible follow-up you might have; what good does alerting people online actually do, if a bunch of random strangers online have no legal resource to take? This is my answer - it establishes a community standard and a precedent that if you are caught and tried in a court of law for crimes of the most heinous sort, your ability to re-integrate online after will be severely curbed and hampered. You will not be welcome. Those who have large social media followings will alert as many people within their reach of who you are and what you did, for the benefit and safety of the community.
This is not “cancellation” or “spectacle” in some narrow political sense where those with supposedly unsavoury views are put on notice. These are divisive incidents that terrorise those who are on the receiving end and sport for those who partake in it. There is no sport in publicly alerting others to a child abuser - it is uncomfortable business that requires tact and maturity. It only becomes spectacle by the degree to which you present it as such. I am not interested in reading the gory details about what people think should be done to those who abuse children and I am not more convinced of your commitment to not abusing children by how much you’re willing to carry on at length about how you want to stuff them into wood chippers.
Jaramillo was posting again online as early as October 2022, by December he was reaching out to people through DMs. As of the writing of this draft, his latest Facebook post was 11 days ago. Jaramillo is not merely lurking around and keeping to himself.
The people who I have specified here, if this comes to them in any way, will very likely deny knowledge of the Jaramillo situation post-Kaiju Gaiden. I do not believe them. I am not demanding action be taken against individuals. The tests of their character have already been marked and graded. There is no justice to be served for their shortcomings.
Matt Frank is a young man who made his career with fanart on DeviantART. He is talented and earned his bones by being amicable and enthusiastic and hardworking; but he has, in the past, used his substantial social media following to alert the fan base to a person whose political opinions he personally finds reprehensible. He was even successful in kneecapping that budding writer’s own efforts. I am not remotely interested in whether you think this was a good thing or a bad thing. The point is that he is not oblivious to the modern mode of signal boosting communal alerts and his justification is some sense of responsibility to the wider Godzilla fandom, no matter how murky and vague it is to himself or others, and a vision for what this fandom “should be”, which is not friendly to people he believes are politically dangerous.
If Matt Frank was aware of Mark Jaramillo’s charges, and there will have to be some fairly serious evidence that Matt Frank was not aware, why did this same sense of responsibility that motivated the cancelling of another creator not kick in? Involving yourself in CSAM is largely a bipartisan issue that people of every political stripe can agree is bad. The “controversy” would be minimal. So where did that sense of urgency go? How easy would it have been to draft a post of similar wording to the one made that put all of this into the public eye in the first place? Frank can wax poetic about the woes and destitute nature of the Gatekeeping-White-Male-Fanboy, but when the moment comes to bring that passion for the good of the community on account of a dangerous pervert, suddenly it’s crickets. Or it’s soul searching. Whatever.
August Ragone is a salty old dog, and like any old dog you can’t teach it new tricks. Ragones concern is singularly and primarily his own status and ability to make a living while indulging his life long passion. Fair enough, my man. If it simply never occurred to him that you could or should alert the broader digital commons to a convicted sex offender, or at the very least the people to whom that sex offender is professionally tied, because he was used to regarding these things as the kind of gossip you bring up over a few beers, I would be inclined to believe him. I suppose in its own way, consistency is a virtue.
Do I have a theory as to why they have failed to operate with anything resembling a backbone? In my estimation, it’s either A) bog standard moral cowardice and emotional immaturity that prevents basic adult responses to issues that are actually important or B) reluctance to risk tampering with the status quo of guest appearances, commissioned works, and convention gigs that serious controversy might bring up.
There is no cohesive Godzilla community that watches out for itself in the most basic universal human ways. There are a bunch of people watching movies being corralled by those with the credentials and authority that were granted to them who treat you all as one fat piggy bank. Nobody will look out for you. If they happen to be aware of dangerous predatory people in the crowds, it is simply not their business to let you know. If they are suspicious of snake oil salesmen peddling things that are too-good-to-be-true, they will say nothing.
On one hand, I do not feel much sympathy for the consequence of the fleecing done by the Kaiju Gaiden kickstarter campaign. You were to busy staring at the baubles and trinkets bounced in your faces to see the red-flags that were apparent in their pitch and personal conduct - to comfortable in the incestuous and parasitic social network that had always followed through with another sweet scoop of overpriced slop from the Land of the Rising Sun. You clowns get what you deserve. Choke on it.
But on the other, the total failure of certain people who command your attention is far to much to not summarise plainly in one place. You may by and large be consumeristic pigs, but you absolutely do not deserve to have a dangerous and predatory pervert lurk so freely in your midst. You do not deserve the feeling of shock and horror of realising who may have spoken to you after the fact (if such a thing did or does occur), you absolutely do not deserve to have your social circles overlap with those of people who barter with parents trying to sell content of their own children.
Keep watching the movies. Show them to your loved ones. They’re delightful and one of a kind pieces of pop cinema. But stop joining message boards. Stop joining fanclubs. Don’t go to conventions. Do something else with your time. Stop identifying as “A Godzilla Fan”; Godzilla fandom does not exist.
