An ancient bird returns from the past and a monster from space arrives.

John and Eugene discuss “I Saw a Bird” and “Garadama”

I Saw a Bird – Synopsis

It is nighttime at the zoo, and something is disturbing the animals.  It’s disturbing a zookeeper, too, as he cringes in terror.

The next morning, guards at the zoo discover that all of the animals have busted out of their cages from inside, and the discover the zookeeper, all he can say before he collapses is “I saw a bird.”  In his hand, he grasps feathers.

In a fishing village, everyone is distracted by a mysterious viking long boat that has drifted into harbor.  A mischievous young boy uses the distraction to steal a boat and head out to an island.

Jun, Yuri and Ippei have come to see the boat, which is abandoned.  As they retrieve the ship’s log, written in a foreign language, a small finch lands on Yuri’s finger, and the ship melts and sinks.  They just escape in time.  The bird first follows Yuri, but then flies off and accompanies the boy.

On the island, the boy forms a friendship with the bird, which he names Kuro.

Jun and the gang consult professor Ichninotani, who just happens to know how to read the language of the ship’s log.  It is from 998 years, and the final entry in the log is “I saw a bird.”

Impossible that the ship has been adrift of 998 years, Jun postulates that it came through a time portal into the present.  Yuri relates the story of the bird and Ichinotani has her locate a picture of it in his books.  She finds it, but it is an extinct bird known as Larugeus.  Was it 43 meters across?  No.  Probably not Larugeus then.  However, the last known appearance of Larugeus was about 1000 years ago, so…. Time portal anyone?

That night on the island a storm is brewing and Kuro flies away.  In the village, something terrifies and, as we see in the morning, kills all the animals.  The boy, Saburo, is nearly caught by the people from whom he stole the boat, but Kuro comes to his rescue, driving the three adult humans off with his finch-like powers of flight, pecking and chirping.

Saburo, now knowing that everyone is terrified of Kuro, boldly goes into town to get some water.  Ichinotani is notified and sends the police, who capture the bird and put him in a cage, inside a jail.  This distresses Saburo.

Kuro, in the cage, rapidly grows into a 43 meter wingspan monster, destroying the jail and flying out to see, passing his old friend Saburo one last time before he flies off into the sunset.

Garadama – Synopsis

In the mountains, a boy has found a meteorite.  When he takes it to school, they know something is weird, it’;s not normal meteoric iron, it’s a special kind of iron that’s very lightweight.

Meanwhile, something is interfering with radio waves.

The meteor is taken to professor Ichinotani, and he and his team analyze it.  It is a special alloy made by aliens called Tilsonite, and it is periodically transmitting ready signals.  He asks to go see the sight of the meteor impact.  Jun and Ippei fly him to the mountains, near a lake formed by a dam.

Two woman are sightseeing at the dam.  Once there was a village which has been covered by the lake.  One of the two women even lived there when she was young.  The go out on a boat so they can look down on the underwater village.

With everyone on or near the lake, a new, larger meteorite crashes into the water, stranding the boat high on the mountain and splashing all the water out of the lake.

First Jun called Yuri and sends her to contact Ichinotani’s team at the lab, then he and Ippei go to rescue the women on the boat.  

The meteorite cracks like an egg and out pops the monster Garamon, which proceeds to hop around crushing the now-no-longer-underwater village.

Independently of one another, Ichinotani and Yuri surmise that the meteor in the lab is somehow connected with the monster.  They place the meteor in a radio-frequency proof cage and the monster dies, but not before it wrecks the dam.