The Big Picture

• Anna Sawai brings a crucial missing element to MonsterVerse, exploring human responses to Titan destruction in a relatable manner.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters sets the stage for human characters to shine alongside Titans, providing well-written roles and top-tier acting.
• By connecting the Randa family's storyline to Monarch's legacy, the series finally bridges the gap between MonsterVerse eras, enhancing the human side of these epic stories.

Shōgun's Toda Mariko, one of the FX series' standouts, is played by the swiftly rising Anna Sawai. After finishing the finale, you may find yourself wanting more from Sawai, and you're in luck! This isn't the first instance of Sawai being a scene-stealing favorite. In Apple TV+'s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Sawai stood her ground amid Godzilla, the monstrous Titans, and even Kurt Russell. Recently renewed for a second season, Monarch stars Sawai as Cate Randa, a descendant of a long line that tracks back to the earliest days of Monarch's existence.

Elevating the human roles of the MonsterVerse is no easy task. They're almost always the weakest aspects of the franchise, but Sawai's performance is a prime example that there's hope for the human side of these stories. While Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell, depicting the character at different ages) serves as the pragmatic military man wrapped up in an ever-expanding world of monsters, Sawai's Cate Randa enters the narrative as someone whose shoes virtually any viewer could place themselves in.

The Randa Family Bridges the Gaps Between Each MonsterVerse Era

With the announcement of several spin-offs in addition to a second season of Monarch, there's already plenty of speculation as to what stories the MonsterVerse could tell. While the spin-offs have endless room to explore, whether it's fleshing out the plot between the films or diving even deeper into Hollow Earth, Monarch is becoming the pillar that connects the human characters of the MonsterVerse. Sawai's Cate Randa believes her father, Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), is dead after devastation befell San Francisco, and she travels to Japan to settle his affairs. She believed her father's work frequently brought him to Japan, so he had an office overseas. While that was true, it wasn't the whole truth. Hiroshi had a separate family in Japan. In the States, he was married to Cate's mother, Caroline Randa (Tamlyn Tomita). In Japan, he had another wife, Emiko Randa (Qyoko Kudo), with whom he had a son, Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe).

After slowly overcoming the struggle of accepting their father's lies and infidelity, newly realized half-siblings Cate and Kentaro set off to discover exactly why their father was so secretive. Their pursuit of the truth reveals an intricate web connecting key players. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters tells two main stories: the "present day," following Cate and Kentaro as they become entrenched in Monarch's Titan-centric operations, and the past, depicting the initial forming of Monarch itself, to which their father is closely tied. The Randa family tree stretches back to Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), the grandmother of Cate and Kentaro. Keiko married Bill Randa, portrayed at a younger age by Anders Holm and in his later years (and in Kong: Skull Island) by John Goodman.

Anna Sawai Brings a Key Missing Piece to the MonsterVerse

G-Day itself was depicted in 2014's Godzilla, showing the terror and destruction wrought by Godzilla's fight against the MUTOs. When Sam (Carson Bolde), the young son of Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Elle Brody (Elizabeth Olsen), was on a school bus evacuating children out of San Francisco, he narrowly made it out alive after Godzilla smashed through the Golden Gate Bridge. Olsen is plenty relatable as she deals with the chaos of surviving while separated from her husband and son. However, once everyone is reunited, the story ends, and we never revisit those characters. The sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, delved a bit deeper, focusing on survivors of G-Day, Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), and their daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). Tragically, their son did not survive, but aside from some brief moments, their grief solely serves to fuel the plot and get to the action. Emma falls toward madness and aligns with a group of eco-terrorists bent on releasing all the Titans of the world to "restore balance." This isn't exactly a complaint — it did give us Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah in a glorious 2v2 brawl — but there's not much to connect to outside enjoying kaiju spectacle.

The first episode of Monarch adds a piece that's been missing in the MonsterVerse, and it's through Anna Sawai's undeniable talent. Sawai's Cate Randa was a school teacher in San Francisco, and she was on the same bridge as Ford and Elle's son, attempting to evacuate the city. As we know, many did not survive the bridge collapse, and that included a large group of children who were trapped on a school bus after Godzilla smashed through the bridge. Cate had to watch helplessly as many fell to their deaths, despite her best efforts, and the mental and emotional toll is long-lasting. When Cate travels to Japan and meets with Emiko and Kentaro, they find themselves amid an emergency drill, alerting the public of an incoming Titan threat and calling them to seek shelter underground.

Flashbacks surge in Cate's mind, and the ordeal quickly becomes physically overwhelming. The post-traumatic stress that would be an inevitable reality for anyone who's survived the destruction of the Titans hasn't been explored in the MonsterVerse until now, despite it being such a relatable human response to the outlandish circumstances of the franchise. As we follow Cate on her journey, we glean more about her psyche as a young adult dealing with feelings of abandonment, distrust, and helplessness. Sawai's has already far beyond proven her formidability as an actor, but to be so captivating while sharing the screen with Godzilla himself is not a feat to be glanced over.

'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Finally Gets the MonsterVerse's Human Characters Right

Each timeline depicted in Monarch features stellar moments with various Titans, but what shines brightest in this series are the stories of its human characters. Alongside Sawai, Kiersey Clemons' performance as May is another best of the series. The unlikely pair form one of the most believable connections in the series, and Sawai and Clemons have more than a few scenes together that display some top-tier acting. While the MonsterVerse hasn't been lacking excellent actors, Monarch gives us skilled performers who also have the opportunity to play well-written roles.

For once, the journey of the humans is just as engaging as the clashes between the Titans. It's great to get Easter eggs and tidbits of connection, like Monarch's Michelle Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) being the sister of Godzilla's Sandra Brody, for example, but little nods here and there are not enough. If anything, Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody should not have died so early in the first film; he should've been our core human anchor throughout the first leg of this new cinematic universe. While recurring characters like Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), Jia (Kaylee Hottle), and Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) add some form of stability to the franchise, the emergence of the Randa family, the legacy of Monarch's roster, and the inclusion of the Russells' Lee Shaw finally give us a grounded group of people to connect with.

Assuming the success of Monarch's second season (which, at this point, there's no reason to doubt), Anna Sawai could easily become one of the MonsterVerse's main figureheads, potentially crossing over into the movies and leading what's shaping up to be one of the biggest franchises. It's a shame we lost Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Dr. Graham (Sally Hawkins) after only two films, but now, thanks to Sawai's Cate Randa and the rest of Monarch's lineup, we finally have a set of characters that feel like they deserve to take some screen time from Godzilla and the Titans.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is streaming on Apple TV+.

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