“ | Godzilla... truly a god incarnate. | „ |
~ Kayoco Anne Patterson on Godzilla. |
Godzilla, often nicknamed Shin Godzilla (in Japanese: シン・ゴジラ, Shin Gojira) to tell it apart from his original counterpart, is the titular main protagonist of Hideaki Anno's 2016 horror disaster kaiju film Shin Godzilla and the secondary antagonist in the crossover event 4-D short Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D.
Shin Godzilla is a bizarrely hyper-evolved lifeform, mutated by feeding on nuclear waste dumped on the seafloor in the 1950s. Now capable of spontaneously adapting to different situations, the Giant Unidentified Lifeform came ashore in Tokyo in 2016 and immediately wreaked havoc, with all of the Japanese Self Defense Forces' weapons having no effect on him. He was finally defeated by a complex plan orchestrated by government official Rando Yaguchi, but still could not be killed and remained a potential threat as he stood frozen in the ruins of Tokyo.
Unlike many past incarnations of Godzilla before him (who were either villains, anti-heroes or heroes), Shin Godzilla was neither, but instead was driven by his instinct for survival and adaptation. He was at first indifferent, if not merely unaware of humans, until they hurt him, which with these factors puts him at odds with humanity. Compared to his past incarnations, Shin Godzilla is also significantly more grotesque, monstrous, and biologically bizarre due to his capacity for evolve itself at near-constant state through self-mutation.
Biography[]
Origin[]
While Godzilla is still portrayed as a colossal prehistoric reptilian-esque kaiju as before, this version of Godzilla is depicted with both a near-vastly different backstory and a more advanced physiology than his predecessors before. This Godzilla originated as a prehistoric marine animal of some kind, proposed by Professor Goro Maki to be a relative of Paleozoic marine reptiles, which managed to survive into the 20th century. When the United States dumped barrels of nuclear waste into Tokyo Bay in the 1950s, the creature began feeding on this waste, causing him to mutate. In 2016, the creature had grown into gigantic size and was dwelling in the waters of Tokyo Bay.
Shin Godzilla[]
Arrival[]
Godzilla first appeared as a huge tail in his first form. When government tried to convince civilians that the monster's inability to move on land, Godzilla suddenly developed legs and crawled out of Tokyo Bay in his second form. As Kamata-kun, Godzilla destroyed several buildings and streets, killing tens or even thousands of civilians. As the government tried to organize attack on the monster, Godzilla evolved into his third form. However, the attack was cancelled when the Prime Minister noticed evacuating civilians. This allowed the beast to escape and prepare for another attack.
Waiting in hide[]
The government did their best to find out where Godzilla hides, but the monster was nowhere to be seen in the ocean. Meanwhile, Godzilla constantly evolved, increasing his size, developing extremely durable skin and a cooling system to become invulnerable to both heat and humanity's attacks.
The Return[]
After over two weeks, Godzilla got out of Tokyo Bay in his fourth form. Due to suddenness of attack, the government was unprepared. Godzilla was already walking across Japan, killing civilians and exposing them to radiation that he emits. The government was trying to evacuate survivors and kill the beast. Unfortunately, Godzilla's skin was far too durable to be penetrated by weaponry. Godzilla was unstoppable and walked towards Tokyo.
First Atomic Breath use[]
Desperately trying to stop Godzilla, the Prime Minister allowed the United States to bombard Godzilla. The several bombings on Godzilla's back made him bleed. However, the creature was barely injured and instantly regenerated damage. In order to prevent future injures, Godzilla quickly developed an offensive abilities. After a while, Godzilla's body started to emit a very intensive purple glow and the monster's jaw began to tore up in half. Suddenly, Godzilla start splitting up a black cloud that, in seconds, covered the entire city. Then, Godzilla covered his eyes in silver membrane and quickly ignited the cloud into thermal flames that completely burned Tokyo in minutes. The fire Godzilla was shooting condensed into a purple beam that penetrated the remaining buildings and helicopters, on the occasion, killing the Prime Minister.
Hibernation[]
After burning Tokyo, an extremely drained Godzilla entered the hibernation state. In this state, Godzilla's body was emitting a very little to no radiation and monster himself was not moving. Still, Godzilla's body was acting like a natural jammer, disrupting drones that get too close to him. But this doesn't work on humans, what allowed research team to get a sample of Godzilla's flesh. The government and scientists concluded that even small parts of Godzilla's body can regenerate and create newer clones of Godzilla. They also concluded that Godzilla's body can convert air or water into radioactive isotopes. The United States gave Japan two weeks to evacuate or defeat Godzilla, otherwise they will drop a hydrogen bomb into the monster.
Operation: Yashiori[]
Eventually, after fifteen days, Godzilla woke up. Immediately the government send trains laden with explosives to enrage Godzilla. Almost immediately after awakening Godzilla, drones are sent to distract him to deplete his atomic energy. Godzilla responds with dorsal plate beams, destroying buildings in the process of destroying the drones. The energy from his dorsal plates depletes and he is hit by multiple missiles. In response, Godzilla shoots his mouth beam and another beam fired from the spare head on his tail (due to the mouth on the spare head opening during Godzilla's dormancy). Godzilla's energy depletes, leaving him helpless as he walks towards into a line of skyscrapers with explosives in them. The government detonates the explosives and Godzilla is buried in the rubble.
The first team of pump trucks are sent and begin to force feed Godzilla the coagulant. Godzilla immediately recovers and shoots his heat ray at the first team, killing them. Godzilla gets back up, roaring angrily before trying to walk away. However, larger force of driverless trains are sent in masses towards Godzilla. The explosion causes him to fall down again, giving the second team the chance to force feed him the coagulant again. Godzilla gets back up, however, and destroys the second group, seemingly unfazed. However, he begins slowing, letting out one more roar before freezing in the middle of Tokyo. With Operation: Yashiori a success, the Americans' countdown has been paused, but the Americans warn if Godzilla were to be unfrozen, they will nuke him.
Godzilla unfreezing takes twenty days, giving Japan the time to recover from the attack. However, they have no choice but to live together with Godzilla. As Godzilla stood frozen, humanoid creatures with Godzilla's dorsal plates begin sprouting out of his tail, frozen in their seeming escape.
Appearance and Forms[]
While Godzilla was still portrayed as a colossal prehistoric reptilian kaiju as with previous iterations, this version of the character possessed much more advanced physiology than his predecessors' due to possessing eight times the genetic information of human beings in spite of originally the member of an unspecified prehistoric sea creature whose species closely related to prehistoric marine reptiles that first emerged in the Paleozoic Era (which explained this Godzilla's course of evolution where he took more and more reptilian appearance). As result Godzilla had five forms:
First Form[]
The first form is never physically seen in the film aside from its tail and part of its back, however, concept art of Shin Godzilla shows that the first form was a tadpole-like creature that had two legs which were very primitive in looks and the head looking like the head of a frog but had very large gills coming out from the side, it is seen to have the same yellowish skin as seen in the second form that made landfall. Although the Dorsal-plates are barely formed, they are seen to be visible. The most active part was the long tail that was easily over 14 to 20 meters long. It remains unknown if the first form had any powers/abilities at all.
Second Form[]
Soon after made his presence known, Godzilla makes his way for Tokyo where he now has a pair of fully-functional digitigrade legs that suit for better locomotion on land. Because the legs were newly developed for land movement at that time, Godzilla was only able to stand horizontally, with his body held parallel to the ground. He now began to grow arms that developed at a slower rate compared to his legs as they were just in the form of small, developing stubs. He also has a pair of huge eyes with small black pupils. His skin is a beige color and he has large pulsating gills on the sides of his neck, which leak a red, blood-like fluid as he moves. He also sports several rows of small tan dorsal plates on his back.
The form is affectionally nicknamed by Toho as Kamata-kun, after the region of the attack.
Third Form[]
Upon developing into the third form, Godzilla began to change his posture into a more upright one like a traditional depiction of Godzilla thanks to further development of his legs. Aside from his more upright posture, his skin has turned reddish in color, which also glows due to the cooling system for nuclear energy in his body is yet to fully developed for adaptation on land. His tiny arms have also developed further as well, where they now sprout still-developing fingers. Since the course of his evolution now intended to have better physiology for adapting land environments, Godzilla's gills are now closed and reduced in prominence albeit still functions when he needs to go to the ocean to cool off his body until the biological cooling system for nuclear energy in his body was fully developed.
This form's nickname is Shinagawa-kun, once again named after the region of its activity.
Fourth Form[]
After further evolution to the point were his body was now suited for adapting land environment as well as completing the development of his nuclear energy's natural cooling system, Godzilla now no longer needs to retreat to the ocean to cool his body. While his appearance now looks more like the rest of his incarnations (particularly the first design featured in the 1954 film), the result of his evolution for fully adapted on land made him completely hideous and looked like a skeletal, undead being: he had numerous gaps on his hide that results in his muscles over several parts of its body exposed. Godzilla's rib cage protrudes from the rest of his body, coming to a pointed and pronounced sternum, far more pronounced than that of any other Godzilla. This form's referred as Kamakura-san.
This design also appears to possess a longer neck than previous versions. He also possesses countless uneven rows of jagged, shark-like teeth inside his mouth and a pronounced nose with large round nostrils, and his mouth extends partially into his cheeks, some teeth protruding from the skin above and underneath his mouth. Not only that, he also possesses red scales resembling keloid scars to give of impression that he seems the victim of a Hydrogen bomb, where many of them running into structures in his black dorsal plates which are reminiscent of blood vessels. His arms now more developed albeit looked emaciated and still short compared to the rest of his incarnations'.
Godzilla's tail is noticeably longer than his own body, where the tip of it red and bloody, and is covered in twisted, mangled bones. The very end of his tail appears to have a small, mostly skeletal face/skull that had a prominent jaw that later can be opened like actual jaw. Godzilla used this face/skull to fire his second atomic beam to simultaneously beamed his atomic breath to two targets at once.
In spite of drastic changes on his body due to evolution progress, there are still some traits that still remained. First of all, Godzilla still retained his digitigrade-style posture in spite of the extreme development on his legs. Godzilla also retained his gills, though smaller than in his previous forms and may useless due to his current physiology. Even after his eyes shrunk, Godzilla still lacked eyelids, and only had a protective membrane in place of it instead that both protected them from intense light from his atomic breath and bombs, and functioned like typical eyelids that he closed when entering his resting coma-like state.
Whenever Godzilla released the atomic breath, his skull unhinges upwards, while the bone of his lower jaw splits apart to give his mouth cavity more space for his atomic beam.
Fifth Form[]
After Godzilla was forced to freeze himself due to the blood coagulant, the atomic kaiju is revealed to breaking down into smaller progenies which more humanoid and skeletal in appearance starting from the fleshy tip of his tail, but because of the coagulant, Shin forced to be Frozen, by inside, preventing his Evolution, and in this way stopping any type of reaction of his body, even the Evolution One, killing him before arriving at the Fifth form.
Personality[]
In stark contrast of previous iterations, this Godzilla is outright detached from everything in the movie emotionally, so much that he ignores J.S.D.F.'s attempt to injure him as he slowly yet methodically shambles his way through human populates. The reason of this could be either due to him being either a mindless force of destruction or worse, in a constant state of pain, agony and suffering from its mutation and disfigurement, fitting the description that Godzilla "is equally a victim of the atomic bomb".
Godzilla's zombie-like demeanor eventually cracked as soon as American B-2 Stealth Bombers dropped Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) that injured his back and blasted off one of his dorsal fins, enraging him that he unleashed his wrath upon his attackers and surroundings alike. The rampage and subsequent Operation: Yashiori also revealed a degree of intelligence during combat situation; in addition of developing ESP ability to protect his dormant form, Godzilla developed his tail beam attack as the alternative to equally destructive yet energy-taxing dorsal beams and even reserved some energy to surprise attack the squadron of Japanese workers who attempt to inject it with a coagulant.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
Physical Adaptation[]
In Shin Godzilla, one of Godzilla's most unique abilities is his capacity to develop new features and powers through controlled self-mutation in order to adapt to any situation in short amount of time, something which made possible thanks to its genetic information which 8 times of humans' own. It explained how Godzilla progressively adjusted his physiology from his original aquatic form to land-based ones as shown in his last three forms as well as developing atomic energy-based combat abilities starting from his atomic breath. Even while immobile from recharging his energy reserves, Godzilla developed a form of ESP ability which described as some sort of phase array radar to dispatch anything that got too close. During Operation Yashiori, to get around the extensive energy consumption of his dorsal beams, Godzilla developed the new ability to project a second atomic breath via. the mouth on the tip of his tail which can be swiped about like a sword to slice and dice multiple targets more effectively at once. Lastly, Godzilla developed the ability to freeze himself solid to prevent a meltdown from blood coagulant-induced overheating true to the prediction of Yaguchi's team.
The last scene of the film shows that on the tip of his tail, several small Godzillas in more humanoid form has sprouted from it, suggested that Godzilla attempted to break himself into multiple smaller progenies of himself to better combat humans.
Physical adaptation is arguably Godzilla's core ability in the film as it was through the said power he can evolve to better form and gained new abilities.
Extrasensory Perception[]
According to an American scientist, the Godzilla in Shin Godzilla possesses a "phased-array radar" which allows him to detect threats without even needing to see them. Godzilla utilized this to sense his enemies' presence either when hibernating or in combat. This explained how he can destroy drones that went too close in observing him when hibernating and direct his dorsal plate beams' direction straight to oncoming foes behind him so he won't waste too much energy just to attack them. The same ability also allowed him to fire small bolts of atomic energy to shot down drones sent to study him within range.
Bio-Atomic Nature[]
Atomic Breath[]
Like his other iterations, Shin Godzilla possesses the ability to fire atomic breath from his mouth with the glow of his dorsal fin acts as the sign of him about to use it. The film showcased both how it developed such ability and subsequently refined it; the breath at first projected in form of a powerful cloud of radioactive black ashes that can quickly spread through the city before being heated up into a thin purple beam that could slice through buildings, igniting the already spread ashes into deadly inferno.
In Crayon Shin-chan vs. Shin Godzilla, Shin Godzilla uses thicker, blue beam. Shin Godzilla showed ability to both energy absorption and projection.
In Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D, Shin Godzilla was able to absorb King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams to restore his energy.
In both Shin Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D, Shin Godzilla proved that his ability to energy projection is far superior than the other incarnations of Godzilla, because he was able to shoot photon rays from his mouth, dorsal plates, and tail.
Dorsal Plate Beams[]
Upon sensing multiple American bomber aircraft began to approach him, Godzilla redirected his charged atomic energy beam onto his dorsal fins, and project it in form of a salvo of atomic beams to dispatch them. He would later use it again in conjunction with his extrasensory perception ability to shot down drones that approach his comatose body and multiple drones that attacked him in Operation Yashiori. While devastating, this ability greatly consumes much of his energy reserves that he developed atomic tail beam as better alternative after using it twice.
Atomic Tail Beam[]
To get around the fact that his dorsal beam attack spent much of his energy reserves, Godzilla redirected some portion of atomic energy to his tail and projected it in form of atomic laser that fired from the mouth on the tip of his tail. This, when used alongside atomic breath, enable him to cut and slice through multiple adversaries from every direction at once. Godzilla used it to conserve his energy better to take down drones that approach him during Operation Yashiori before collapsed and in the helpless state as blood coagulant will be pumped into his mouth.
Superhuman Physical Attributes[]
Shin Godzilla in all forms is very strong, thanks to his massive size. In his first form, Shin easily moved multiple boats like they were nothing. In his second and third form, Shin Godzilla moved multiple cars around, similarly to his earlier form and even poured entire building, while third form throw a train. Fourth form was able to destroy multiple buildings and destroy entire bridge. Shin Godzilla was able to walk entire day without feeding on anything and using its nuclear energy. However, when energy supply was completely used, Shin had to hibernate for 15 days to restore the energy. While in his second and third form, Shin Godzilla was able to run and move extremely quickly for the size. It's unknown if he can do this in his fourth form. Shin Godzilla is extremely durable. Heavily armored fourth form's skin makes him immune to conventional weapon. Godzilla survived even missiles fired to the face without any harm.
Abilities[]
Intelligence[]
This Godzilla's intelligence was not as pronounced as other iterations, yet still evident through his prowess in developing new abilities and other features via. aforementioned physical adaptation each specifically to overcome certain situations. While shedding away his aquatic physiology to better adapt on land, the creature developed durable hide at the same time in order to shrug off JSDF's assaults since he apparently foresaw greater resistance since his first inland rampage; he only developed his offensive abilities once the military finally managed to injure him. The fact that he developed ESP ability to take out drones and other threats which got too close to his dormant form following the destructive demonstration of his newfound atomic breath and dorsal beams indicated the creature being fully aware with the fact that spending too much energy from using them for the first time would render him vulnerable. The same went to his tail beam ability which had better angle and less energy consuming than the more devastating yet less practical dorsal beams as well as the ability to quickly replenish his energy reserve just enough to quickly recover when the military attempted to force-feed him with blood coagulant throughout Operation Yashiori, showcasing his capacity to learn from experience despite still outsmarted in the end.
Weaknesses[]
Godzilla's back is his only weak point on his body, with even conventional weapons being capable of hurting him if dropped in this place. However it is not enough to be fatal to him due to his regeneration and only hurts him temporarily. Shin Godzilla also fixed this weakness by developing dorsal beams. As Shinagawa-kun, Shin Godzilla was vulnerable to overheating, as his mutation produced a large amount of heat. As Kamakura-san, Shin Godzilla fixed this by developing a cooling system. Unlike his predecessors, Shin Godzilla has a limit of power that he can use. He needs 15 days to restore his energy. During Operation Yashiori, he runs out all of his energy, becoming helpless against the operation.
Trivia[]
- Shin Godzilla was at one point both the tallest, heaviest and longest movie incarnation of Godzilla, though he was promptly surpassed in all categories by Godzilla Earth from GODZILLA: Planet of the Monsters in 2017.
- However, Shin Godzilla is still the heaviest and longest live-action incarnation, weighting over ninety-two thousand metric tons (101,412.641 tons) and being over three-hundred and thirty-three meters long with total body, while Legendary's version weights only 99,634 tons and is 297.4 meters long with total body.
- Shin Godzilla is the first Godzilla to be able to evolve reactively throughout a film and currently only incarnation. The other incarnation's that have similar evolutionary capability are Godzilla Earth, Godzilla Filius, and Singular Point Godzilla. However, the Dark Horse comics incarnation of the monster was also able to evolve from aquatic organism.
- Many fans have attempted to debate on Godzilla's tail, which is physically much longer than his body and longer than any other incarnations but also appears to possess a skull and displays facial structures. This is also seen on promotional merchandise, where the tail had an even more stylish mouth and eyes. YouTuber D Man1954 made a video solely debating the hypothesises on Shin Godzilla's tail.
- A theory previously mentioned in Nightmare Fuel section of the film's TV Tropes.org page claimed this Godzilla's evolution involved assimilating other creatures who unfortunate to cross his path not unlike Alex Mercer and that the tail was what remained to be a whale. Of course, this theory deemed too dubious because there was no confirmation of Godzilla possesses such power.
- There are several character concepts pertaining Godzilla which eventually scrapped due to too graphic in comparison of final version:
- One of the film's concept arts showcased a disturbing take on Godzilla's ability to reproduce via. fission, depicting him turning into an enormous biomass with about half-dozen of Godzilla's heads (5 of which may very well his still-growing progenies) during the process.
- On a related note, a deleted scene showcased his torn dorsal fin piece melting into a bloody biomass with protruding eyes and teeth on different parts meant to show it already in fission process. Die to too graphic, the final product showed it to be still mostly intact.
- During his landfall at Tokyo Bay as Kamata-kun, Godzilla made a conscious effort in chasing one of fleeing civilians rather than simply wandering about and trampling those who unfortunate in his path in process.
- Unused locomotion ideas:
- Quadrupedal as Kamata-kun
- Sprinting like T-Rex with maximum speed of 300 km/hour as Kamakura-san
- Using the tail to slither about in serpentine fashion while his torso lifted above the ground for quick escape as Kamakura-san
- A scene where Godzilla as Shinagawa-kun vomits crimson substance said to be blood not unlike in his Kamata-kun through the gills which so hot it can melt car tires.
- Godzilla superheats the surrounding buildings and asphalt beneath his feet while developing his atomic breath. This was likely scrapped because such phenomenon was something he evolved against hence his biological cooling system.
- A scene where Godzilla made wanton use of atomic breath upon being disturbed by rigged trains at the beginning of Operation: Yashiori.
- One of the film's concept arts showcased a disturbing take on Godzilla's ability to reproduce via. fission, depicting him turning into an enormous biomass with about half-dozen of Godzilla's heads (5 of which may very well his still-growing progenies) during the process.
- Godzilla's characteristics in the film draws parallel from Hedorah and Destoroyah as both theorized to be a superorganism kaiju, possessing multiple forms, and were empowered by hazardous materials to the point of being capable in using them as weapons (Hedorah harnesses sludge full of pollutants, whereas Destoroyah was mutated and empowered by Oxygen Destroyer in the same way Godzilla attained his nuclear-based abilities through exposure to radioactive materials). This is quite interesting, as Hedorah and Destoroyah are Godzilla's most dangerous adversaries in their films.
- Because of this, Godzilla was referred as mixotroph — an organism that is able use a mix of different forms of energy and carbon — and that majorities of known mixotrophs being unicellular microorganisms, some fans mistook him being the end result of ancient mixotrophic microorganisms combining into a reptilian superorganism with nuclear waste on the sea floor that mutated them as bonding agent. This of course, not to be the case as not only there are some multicellular mixotrophs as well (ex. Oriental hornet and the Venus flytrap) and that astute watchers are fully aware that protagonists who studied the beast has since confirmed it being once an ordinary marine animal, possibly a reptile with prehistoric roots.
- Though only alluded by protagonists during their study on the kaiju, one of concept designs for Godzilla which didn't make it to the final film is the ability to fly in a rocket-like fashion which requires him to develop gill-like gaps along the sides of his tail from which jets of atomic energy with enough force to take off to the air emanate from along with adapting two of his fins on his shoulder blades into wings to steer his flight.
- At one point, an alternate character was developed named Hakaishin Godzilla. Another incarnation of Shin Godzilla had it evolved even more and dominated the entire world.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
External Links[]
- Shin Godzilla (official wiki) on the Shin Godzilla Wiki
- Shin Godzilla on the Godzilla Wiki
- Hakaishin Godzilla on the The LB&SCR E2 Railworld Class Inc. Wiki
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