If you’ve never heard of KAIJU BIG BATTEL then you really are missing out on something truly unique. Imagine a combination of pro wrestling and Godzilla/Ultraman but with the mindset of an Adult Swim cartoon. That is pretty much the best way one can describe it in a single sentence. You get guys in ludicrous costumes with names like Hell Monkey, Kung Fu Chicken Noodle, Dr. Cube, Dusto Bunny, and Silver Potato battling it out inside a wrestling ring littered with cardboard buildings and such to be used as weapons, accompanied by a loud and obnoxious color commentator appropriately named Louden Noxious. It’s every bit as insane as it sounds not to mention extremely entertaining and even borderline surreal at times.

Kaiju Big Battel’s cult following the past few years has been rapidly growing; their live shows draw crowds in the thousands and they’ve appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and even had their own TV special on MTV2. Kaiju Big Battel: Shocking Truth marks their second foray into DVD. The first was a mixed bag that showcased a lot of makes Kaiju Big Battel a blast but also showcased their usually low rent nature with a variety of production problems. I’d still have to rank it higher than The Shocking Truth. I think they made a major mistake with this one because the actual monster wrestling matches are in the bonus section on the disc and most are not even complete matches but edited highlights accompanied by very annoying music and inserted sound effects that drown out the crowd noise and the actual sounds emanating from the match itself. The main feature itself is really three separate features strung together. After about the first 20 minutes of the first featurette I kept waiting for the matches to begin. They didn’t. Big mistake.

The first feature explains the fictionalized backstory behind Kaiju Big Battel. At only about 10 minutes in length it is easily the best part of the disc, probably because it's only 10 minutes long, but also because it’s outrageously funny trying to convince us that how all the monsters are real and the only way to keep them from destroying major metropolitan areas was to create a special wrestling organization all their own.

The second feature is a hit and miss segment designed like a tabloid TV show hosted by Kaiju commentator Louden Noxious as he explores the inner sanctum of the evil Dino Kang Jr's cave. That part is not funny, but fortunately, it’s interrupted by a sporadically amusing, albeit a bit too long (a common complaint with most of their skits on the disc) spoof of Japanese sentai shows involving one Kaiju Big Battel’s superhero characters. Later on, the top hell in the company, Dr. Cube, a disfigured mad scientist that wears a box on his head with a demented smiley face painted on it, shows up and the whole segment turns into a recap of his feud with the heroic Silver Potato, a breakdancing potato man in a silver radiation suit. This is also the only time in any of the main features where any actual wrestling matches from their live shows gets showcased and it's still only in highlight format. A message even comes on the screen during this telling you that the entire match is available in the Bonus section. The Cube/Potato recap is entertaining but again, it goes on way too long and begins to drag towards the end when it reverts back to comedy stuff involving their kidnapping of Louden Noxious. That stuff is easily the lamest skits of the disc.

The third and final segment would have been really funny if it wasn't stretched out to a ridiculous length. So many different things are going on at the same time that it’s almost impossible to describe. Supposedly set in Britain on the very field where Mel Gibson filmed Braveheart, it opens with a monster paternity test that requires a SAT-like written portion and eventually turns into a spoof of one of Braveheart's battle scenes with Dr. Cube leading an army of villainous kaijus to battle the good guys in a grassy field. Again, there are so many bizarre moments it's funny but it also goes on long past the point of being funny and just becomes tedious and repetitive.

And much like the previous Kaiju Big Battel DVD it seemed that the closing credits were stretched out to at least 10 minutes in length for reasons unknown, and after that there are several more minutes of the Louden Noxious hostage scene comedy skit that continues to be unfunny.

My biggest problem with Kaiju Big Battel: The Shocking Truth is that the main reason we fans of Kaiju Big Battel watch Kaiju Big Battel is for the stuff they relegated to the Bonus section. The skits and storyline stuff would be all well and good if it at least lead into the monster wrestling matches but instead the disc consists of one skit after another that just leads into another skit. Not to mention the fact that if you watch the main features first then you have already seen the best parts of those matches (there's only five of them) and know their outcomes. I don't mind the skits and such at all to help establish the various personalities but not as the focus of one of their DVDs. If Kaiju Big Battel had a regular TV show or a wider national touring schedule then it wouldn’t be so bad, but they overlooked the fact that a lot of potential fans like myself do not live in the Northeast where they are based and don’t get to go to their live shows. Fortunately, it seems the folks behind Kaiju Big Battel have realized the miscalculation they made with this DVD and are hurrying another DVD into production, one that will consist almost entirely of monster battles. Good move. I look forward to it.

Kaiju Big Battel website - KAIJU.COM