| “ | This creature, according to the folklore of Odo Island, is called Godzilla. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Kyohei Yamane revealing Godzilla during a conference at the National Diet Building. |
Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira) is the titular main antagonist of the 1954 epic kaiju film of the same name and the franchise's ToraGoji Timeline, as well as the overarching protagonist of many of its other films, most notably Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. He's a large prehistoric reptilian kaiju who awakens after being mutated by the American Castle Bravo H-bomb test, causing him to be drawn to the surface and unleash his rageful vengeance upon humanity by wreaking havoc across Japan.
With his immensely vindictive nature and the destructive calamity he brings, this Godzilla symbolizes the horrors of nuclear warfare and mass destruction. This is apparent, as he emerged less than 10 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 7 months after the Lucky Dragon 5 nuclear incident, sparking international controversy on this Godzilla.
He was portrayed by the late Haruo Nakajima via suitmation (who also portrayed Gaira in The War of the Gargantuas), who would go on to portray the Showa Godzilla incarnation in eleven more films.
Appearance[]
The ShodaiGoji design is the designation for the 1954 kaiju's design. This suit featured a heavy lower body, small arms and a large, round head. The face had pronounced brows while the eyes were completely round with tiny pupils, a feature unique to this costume.
For close-up shots, a hand-held puppet and the prototype suit were used. As a result, when the camera focuses on Godzilla's head in such close-ups, such as when he is firing his atomic breath, Godzilla appears to have larger, more glossy-looking eyes.
The suit also included several features particular to itself and to the 1955 incarnation, the GyakushuGoji: fangs, four toes, a rough underside for the tail and pointed tail tip, and staggered rows of dorsal plates. These features would reappear with the Heisei and Millennium series of Godzilla films from 1984 to 1999. The dorsal plates for both the ShodaiGoji and the GyakushuGoji were dynamic in design and unique to the two costumes. During filming, a separate pair of Godzilla legs were used for close-up shots of Godzilla's feet.
The ShodaiGoji was recreated through computer generated imagery and a large puppet for new flashback scenes in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla in 2002, namely where the original Godzilla is shown being reduced to a skeleton by the Oxygen Destroyer rather than completely disintegrated as in the original film.
Biography[]
Following the mysterious (yet obvious) sinkings of the fishing trawler Eiko Maru, and the rescue ship and its attempted savior Bingo-Maru, a ragtag team of Japanese journalists gathered on Odo Island, where survivors washed ashore from the shipwreck. Their accounts of the boiling ocean caused an island elder to believe that Godzilla, a legendary sea creature from their folklore, was responsible for the aquatic massacre. One night, as a powerful storm struck on Odo Island, several houses were crushed by a tremendously giant force (who is obviously Godzilla), with one witness (Shinkichi Yamane) reporting he saw the monster stomping his home and killing his mother and brother. The Japanese government sent a research party led by paleontologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane to investigate the disaster.
Upon arriving on Odo Island, the party came upon a huge depression in which they realized was highly radioactive. Inside it, Dr. Yamane found a perfectly-intact Trilobite, and concluded that the hole was a footprint of a giant creature (who is obviously Godzilla). Before long, the village alarm was set off and the research party rushed up the Hachiman Hill where they came face-to-face with Godzilla himself. As he slowly started to awaken, the monster roared at the fleeing onlookers before retreating back into the ocean. During a special conference at the National Diet Building, Dr. Yamane set forth his theoretical details that Godzilla had been living in a deep underwater cavern, and proposed he was an amphibious reptile that potentially lived since the Jurassic period. While this explained the Trilobite found in his footprint, the massive amount of Strontium-90 in the sediment from the impression suggested that Godzilla has been roused from his peaceful existence and his colony being destroyed by recent H-bomb testing in the area. The participants debated whether to make the revelation public, though eventually warnings were issued should Godzilla arrive the Japanese archipelago. While the government opted to find options to destroy Godzilla, Dr. Yamane protested, as he believed that his impressive survival to an H-bomb radiation exposure meant he should be preserved and studied.
The Japanese Navy had dropped depth charges into the ocean where Godzilla was believed to be located, but before the monster could be declared dead, he briefly surfaced near a pleasure boat at Tokyo Bay completely unharmed, before descending back into the ocean, causing nationwide panic across Japan. Later on, Godzilla surfaced once again in Tokyo Bay and came ashore to rampage Tokyo’s Shinagawa ward. He steamrolls through the port area, terrorizing most of the fleeing civilians, and dismantling a train before retreating back into the sea. Desperate countermeasures were enacted for his inevitable return. As many of the citizens within proximity to Tokyo were evacuated, the JSDF started a blockade to ward Godzilla off: a barrier with 30-meter-high electric towers alongside power lines carrying 50,000 volts around the coast of Tokyo, which will electrocute him to prevent him from reaching the heart of the metropolitan city.
When night settled in, Godzilla surfaced once more in Tokyo Bay while the JSDF hurriedly enacted its preparations. As Godzilla slowly came ashore at the Shibaura ward, the JSDF activated the deadly electricity to halt the monster. The plan however ended in failure, as Godzilla effortlessly broke through the large fence and tore most of the towers. While the JSDF continuously opened fire on the monster to no avail, he fired a superheated radioactive vapor beam from his mouth at the towers and were instantly melted. Godzilla roared as he continued his progress towards Tokyo. He made his way to the metropolitan heart, terrorized most of the fleeing civilians, and unleashed his power to set the entirety of Tokyo ablaze several times, as well as tearing through popular landmarks with his remarkable bulk. Even when the JSDF opened fire with artillery shells in their tanks, none of them inflicted further damage on Godzilla. The monster’s rampage continued until he upturned the Kachidoki Bridge and slowly re-entered Tokyo Bay to retreat, all while a squadron of F-86 Sabre jets shot missiles at Godzilla and failed to phase or aim directly onto the monster.
The next morning, Tokyo was turned into a nuclear wasteland as Godzilla left the metropolis in absolute ruins. Around the same time, hospitals were overrun by victims and survivors who were poisoned by the deadly radiation. Upon witnessing the devastation, Dr. Yamane’s daughter Emiko reluctantly chose to break a promise she had made to her childhood friend Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, and she told her fiancé and Southern Seas salvager Hideto Ogata that Dr. Serizawa had been secretly inventing a dangerous, deadly chemical compound known as the Oxygen Destroyer, which dissolved aquatic oxygen molecules, asphyxiating and disintegrating all life caught within the volatile reaction. With both believing the Oxygen Destroyer is the only way to kill Godzilla, Emiko and Ogata visit Dr. Serizawa’s home, and plead with him to let his invention be used against Godzilla. Dr. Serizawa initially refused, fearing that politicians would quickly turn the Oxygen Destroyer into something far worse than nuclear weapons if they knew of its existence, like metaphorically opening Pandora’s box. However, he relented after seeing the devastation caused by Godzilla, as well as a TV-programmed “Prayer for Peace”. Shaken by what he has witnessed, Dr. Serizawa ultimately agreed to use his invention only once against Godzilla, and proceeded to destroy his research, knowing that the Oxygen Destroyer is as dangerous as the monster himself (suggesting that wrecking the device, alongside all the evidence of its existence, will be for the betterment of society).
Emiko, Ogata, Dr. Serizawa, Dr. Yamane, and a host of other reporters and scientists traveled aboard the Shikine to locate Godzilla under the Tokyo Bay seafloor. Dr. Serizawa was determined to activate the Oxygen Destroyer himself, but Ogata, a trained diver, accompanies him due to the former's prior inexperience. The two men slowly descended to the ocean depths where they came upon Godzilla resting and slowly waking up. Both Ogata and Dr. Serizawa carefully approached Godzilla, while the monster slowly navigated throughout the area seemingly unaware of the divers. Dr. Serizawa had Ogata being pulled back to the surface and finally triggered the effects of the Oxygen Destroyer. Before he could be pulled up as well, Dr. Serizawa wished Emiko and Ogata happiness together before bidding farewell and cutting his line, sacrificing himself so that his traumatic knowledge of the Oxygen Destroyer would die with him. Godzilla surfaced before his killers and, all he could do was defiantly roaring at them before descending into the sea. Unable to withstand the Oxygen Destroyer, Godzilla dies as his skin dissolves into a skeleton, then into nothingness. As many of those onboard celebrated Godzilla’s demise, everyone soon collectively saluted Dr. Serizawa’s sacrifice. Dr. Yamane had warned that if nuclear testing continued, another Godzilla would almost certainly awaken someday.
References in later films[]
The original Godzilla has been referenced throughout various films.
- In Godzilla Raids Again, Dr. Yamane's fear of another Godzilla emerging due to ongoing nuclear tests was realized less a year after his death and that the new Godzilla was immediately assumed to be as bitter and malicious. However, in the events of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Shobijin debunked this by confirming that the new Godzilla's seemingly hostile behavior was actually reacting to constantly being attacked by humans all along.
- In The Return of Godzilla, photos of the first Godzilla were shown to help someone who had seen the new Godzilla identify the creature.
- In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, he was mentioned as in the film that the current Godzilla is having a nuclear meltdown and the people say that the only thing that could stop him from destroying Earth is the Oxygen Destroyer.
- In Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla simply returns to the ocean after destroying Tokyo and returns 12 years later, with the humans' efforts to destroy him accidentally summoning the monster Megaguirus to the present day.
- In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla's death via Oxygen Destroyer was mentioned, with the JSDF taking credit to avoid ridiculizing the public. He is succeeded by another member of his species who menaces Japan as vengeance for the country's sins throughout World War II, and was possessed by the souls of those who perished in the Pacific in the same global conflict.
- In the Kiryu Saga, his skeleton is used as a template to construct Kiryu, an anti-Godzilla weapon that eventually becomes possessed by the original Godzilla's remains and goes on a rampage.
- In Godzilla Final Wars, Godzilla goes on to become mankind's greatest nemesis after being awakened in 1954, and is eventually used to fight off the invading Xiliens. Instead of dying from the Oxygen Destroyer, Godzilla was buried beneath the ice in the fight against Gotengo, the same ship that later used to free him when Xiliens unveiled their true colors.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- This Gojira has often been referred to as "the first Godzilla" because of its film in 1954 starting off the Gojira's character and behaviour where it emerges from the ocean to destroy Japan.
- There were two suits constructed for the first Godzilla film because the first one was so heavy and stiff that Haruo Nakajima could hardly move inside it.
- His roar was created by the film’s composer Akira Ifukube when he used a leather glove covered in pine tar to rub on the strings of a contrabass.
- Akira Ifukube was also responsible for composing the main Godzilla theme.
- The first suit that was made was cut in half and the bottom half was used for close-up shots of his feet while the top half was used for upward facing shots.
- An early concept for Godzilla depicted him with a head resembling a nuclear bomb's mushroom cloud, though this was changed in favour of his more reptilian head. The mushroom cloud head has since been referred to by many fans as "Mushroom Cloud Godzilla".
External Links[]
- Godzilla on Wikizilla
- Godzilla on the Godzilla Wiki
