Godzilla - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Godzilla

First appearance:	Godzilla Godzilla (1954 film) is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura. The film tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation, who ravages Japan, bringing back the... (1954)
Latest appearance:	Godzilla: Final Wars Godzilla: Final Wars is a 2004 Japanese science fiction-kaiju film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, written by Wataru Mimura and Isao Kiriyama and produced by Shogo Tomiyama. It is the twenty-eighth film in the Godzilla film series, and the sixth in terms of the series' Millennium era... (2004)
Created by:	Tomoyuki Tanaka Tomoyuki Tanaka ----Tomoyuki Tanaka was a Japanese film producer, most famous for creating the Godzilla series. He was born in Kashiwara, Osaka, Japan on April 26, 1910, and died in Tokyo on April 2, 1997. He died of a stroke at the age of 86....
Height:	50–100 meters (164–328 feet)
Weight:	20,000–60,000 tons
Portrayed by:	Shōwa Series: Haruo Nakajima Haruo Nakajima is a famous Japanese actor. He is best known for playing Godzilla and is considered by many to be the best suit actor in the long history of the franchise... Katsumi Tezuka Katsumi Tezuka is a Japanese actor. He is best known for playing monsters in several Toho science fiction and horror films directed by Ishirō Honda.-Films:* 1954 - Godzilla * 1955 - Godzilla Raids Again * 1956 - Rodan... Yū Sekida Ryosaku Takasugi Seiji Onaka Shinji Takagi Isao Zushi Toru Kawai Toru Kawai is a Japanese stunt man and actor best known for playing Godzilla in Terror of Mechagodzilla and in episodes of Zone Fighter, a tokusatsu show. He is the only known actor to have played both Godzilla and Gamera... Heisei Series: Kenpachiro Satsuma Kenpachiro Satsuma is a Japanese actor. He is probably best known for playing Godzilla in the Heisei series of Godzilla films , but played other giant monsters as well.-Films:... Millennium Series: Tsutomu Kitagawa Tsutomu Kitagawa is a Japanese actor and Stuntman.He is mostly known for playing Godzilla for the Millennium series.He also played King Ghidorah for Rebirth of Mothra III... Mizuho Yoshida Mizuho Yoshida (actor) is a Japanese actor. Yoshida is probably best known for playing Godzilla in the 2001 Millennium film GMK.-Films:* 1991 - Zeiram as Zeiram* 1994 - Zeiram 2 as Zeiram* 1995 - Gakko no Kaidan...

is a daikaijū

Kaiju

is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....

, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda

Ishiro Honda

Ishirō Honda , sometimes miscredited in foreign releases as "Inoshiro Honda", was a Japanese film director...

's 1954 film Godzilla

Godzilla (1954 film)

is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura. The film tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation, who ravages Japan, bringing back the...

. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd.

Toho

is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...

The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games

Godzilla video games

This is a list featuring all the Godzilla games made through the years.These are the many video games on various consoles that are based on the Godzilla films and related kaiju eiga:-1980s:* Godzilla * Godzilla vs...

, novels, comic books

Godzilla (comics)

Godzilla has appeared in a range of comic books that have been published in Japan and the United States.-Japanese Godzilla comics:In his native Japan, Godzilla has been featured in various comic books since his inception in 1954. These comics for the most part were black and white publications...

, television series, and an American remake

Godzilla (1998 film)

Godzilla is a 1998 science fiction monster disaster film film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich. It is a loose remake of the 1954 giant monster classic Godzilla. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The film relates a tale of a nuclear incident...

. A second American version is currently being developed by Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures is an American film production company, whose parent company, Legendary Entertainment, is based in Burbank, California and was founded by Thomas Tull in 2004...

.

With the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

and the Daigo Fukuryū Maru

Daigo Fukuryu Maru

was a Japanese tuna fishing boat, which was exposed to and contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear device test on Bikini Atoll, on 1 March 1954....

incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a monster created by nuclear detonations and a metaphor for nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

s in general. As the film series expanded, some stories took on less serious undertones portraying Godzilla as a hero while other plots still portrayed him as a destructive beast.

Name

is a combination of two Japanese words: , and , which is fitting because in one planning stage, Godzilla was described as "a cross between a gorilla and a whale", alluding to his size, power and aquatic origin. A popular story is that "Gojira" was actually the nickname of a hulking stagehand at Toho Studio. The story has not been verified, however, because in the fifty years since the film's original release, no one claiming to be the rumored employee has ever stepped forward and no photographs have ever surfaced. Kimi Honda (the widow of Ishiro Honda

Ishiro Honda

Ishirō Honda , sometimes miscredited in foreign releases as "Inoshiro Honda", was a Japanese film director...

) always suspected that the man never existed as she mentioned in a 1998 interview that "the backstage boys at Toho loved to joke around with tall stories".

Godzilla's name was written in man'yōgana as , where the kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

are used for phonetic value and not for meaning. Many Japanese books on Godzilla have referenced this curious fact, including B Media Books Special: Gojira Gahô, published by Take-Shobo in three different editions (1993, 1998, and 1999).

The Japanese pronunciation of the name is ɡodʑiɽa; the Anglicized form is ɡɒdˈzɪlə, with the first syllable pronounced like the word "god", and the rest rhyming with "gorilla". When Godzilla was created (and Japanese-to-English transliteration was less familiar), it is likely that the kana

Kana

Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...

representing the second syllable was misinterpreted as [dzi]; in the Hepburn romanization

Hepburn romanization

The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...

system, Godzilla's name would have been rendered as "Gojira", whereas in the Kunrei romanization system it would have been rendered as "Gozira".

Attributes

Godzilla's appearance has changed over the years, but many of his characteristics have remained constant. His roar has remained the same, only changing in pitch. Godzilla's approximate appearance, regardless of the design of the suit utilized for the creature, remains the same general shape, which is instantly recognizable: a giant, mutant dinosaur with rough, bumpy charcoal-grey scales

Scale (zoology)

In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration...

, a long powerful tail, and jagged, bone-colored dorsal fins. Godzilla's iconic character design is a blended chimera inspired by various prehistoric reptiles, gleaned from children's dinosaur books and illustrations from an issue of Life magazine: Godzilla has the head and lower body of a Tyrannosaurus

Tyrannosaurus

Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...

, a triple row of dorsal plates reminiscent of a Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...

, the neck and forearms of Iguanodon

Iguanodon

Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...

and the tail and skin texture of a crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

. Godzilla's dorsal plates have themselves altered in size and appearance over the years.

Godzilla's body and facial structure changed often from film to film. The first films depicted the creature with a more feral head and facial structure, to indicate his status as a feared threat. As the character became more of a heroic figure—particularly to children, who became a large part of Godzilla's target audience from 1965 until 1978 in the Showa era—the creature's shown as having human or near-human intelligence in most films. Godzilla was originally believed by many to be green when the original black and white film was produced, and promotional artwork in America and other English speaking countries depicted him as such. The creature was also depicted as being green in the Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

cartoon and a number of toys in the United States prior to the Trendmasters toy line, which depicted Godzilla in his actual coloration. Godzilla actually has a greenish hue in Godzilla 2000

Godzilla 2000

is a 1999 Japanese science fiction kaiju film directed by Takao Okawara and written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Wataru Mimura. It was the twenty-third film released in the Godzilla series. It is the only film to feature Orga. The film was released on December 11, 1999...

and again in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, released in Japan as is a 2000 science fiction kaiju film directed by Masaaki Tezuka and written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Wataru Mimura...

, but returns to his classic charcoal gray in subsequent films in the Millennium series starting with Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

is a 2001 science fiction kaiju film co-written and directed by Shūsuke Kaneko with a very catchy name. It was the twenty-fifth film to be released in the Godzilla film series. This is the eleventh film to feature Mothra, sixth to feature King Ghidorah, and third to feature Baragon. It is part of...

.

Although his origins vary somewhat from film to film, he is always described as a prehistoric creature, who first appeared and attacked Japan at the beginning of the Atomic Age

Atomic Age

The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is a phrase typically used to delineate the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb Trinity on July 16, 1945...

. In particular, mutation due to atomic radiation is presented as an explanation for his size and powers. The most notable of Godzilla's resulting abilities is his atomic breath: a powerful heat ray of fire from his mouth. Godzilla is also depicted as being resistant to damage thanks to a tough hide and an advanced healing factor

Healing factor

A healing factor is a term used to describe the ability of some characters in fiction to recover from bodily injuries or disease at a superhuman rate...

, which itself became a focal point in Godzilla vs. Biollante

Godzilla vs. Biollante

is a 1989 science fiction kaiju film written and directed by Kazuki Ōmori. It was the seventeenth film to be released in the Godzilla franchise and the second in terms of the franchise's Heisei period...

and Godzilla 2000

Godzilla 2000

. He is portrayed as being strong and dexterous, sometimes utilizing martial arts techniques in combat. Described as a transitional form between aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates in the original film, Godzilla is able to survive in the ocean for indefinite periods of time and is as adept a fighter underwater as he is on land.

These particular abilities are portrayed consistently among Godzilla's many incarnations, though he also possesses skills, often employed as weapons of last resort that are only seen on rare occasions to beat certain enemies.

Showa series

The Showa-era

Showa period

The , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 through January 7, 1989.The Shōwa period was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor...

Godzilla film series began with the release of Godzilla in 1954 and lasted until 1975, spanning fifteen films. As of 2011, this amounts to over half the Godzilla movies in existence.

In the original film, Godzilla is portrayed as a terrible and destructive monster born from nuclear materials. Following the first movie's success, Toho quickly followed up with the sequel Godzilla Raids Again

Godzilla Raids Again

, also known in the United States as Gigantis, the Fire Monster, is a 1955 Japanese black-and-white kaiju film directed by Motoyoshi Oda, written by Shigeru Koyama, Shigeaki Hidaka and Takeo Murata, and produced by Toho....

. In this film, Godzilla battles the monster Anguirus

Anguirus

is the second Kaiju to appear in the Toho franchise. Anguirus appeared only a year after Godzilla in the 1955 Toho film Godzilla Raids Again...

beginning the trend where Godzilla would fight other giant creatures. In the fifth film, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, released in Japan as and originally released in the US as Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster, is a 1964 science fiction kaiju film, and is the 5th film in Toho's Godzilla series...

, Godzilla takes the role of a hero – a role he plays until the end of the Showa series. As the protagonist, Godzilla is frequently charged with protecting Japan against other monsters, aliens, and other evil characters.

The Showa-era movies played on the fears and interests of audiences during the period in which they were made. For instance, Godzilla was designed to warn people about the negative side effects of nuclear weapons. Likewise, Godzilla vs. Hedorah

Godzilla vs. Hedorah

, also known as Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, is a 1971 science fiction kaiju film. The eleventh film in Toho Co. Ltd.'s Godzilla series , it was directed by Yoshimitsu Banno with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. It was the first film to feature Hedorah. The score was composed by Riichiro Manabe...

carried a message about the dangers of pollution. As space exploration and the Space Age

Space Age

The Space Age is a time period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with Sputnik...

were popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many of Godzillas films featured fights with alien monsters or an alien invasion. For instance, in the movie Destroy All Monsters

Destroy All Monsters

Destroy All Monsters, released in Japan as , is a 1968 Japanese horror Science fiction Kaiju film. The ninth in Toho Studios' Godzilla series, it was directed by Ishirō Honda with special effects by Sadamasa Arikawa This is the fifth film to feature Mothra, third to feature King Ghidorah, fourth...

, an alien race takes control of Earth's monsters only to later lose control and be destroyed by their captives.

Heisei series

The Heisei-era Godzilla film series lasted from 1984 to 1995 totaling seven films for the second series.

The Heisei-era films differed drastically from the Showa-era films in a variety of ways. The most prominent difference was that Toho did away with portraying Godzilla as a hero. While occasionally Godzilla would take the role of an antihero, he was still hazardous to humanity. The Godzilla suit was updated to look more realistic and much more intimidating than previous outfits. Another significant difference is the series was given an overall plotline with story arcs. Each movie happened in some sort of sequence, and referenced previous movies to further the plot of the series.

As in the Showa era, the first movie of the Heisei era, The Return of Godzilla

The Return of Godzilla

The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla (released as in Japan and as Godzilla 1985 in North America, is a 1984 Science Fiction Kaiju film. The sixteenth film in Toho's Godzilla series, it was produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and directed by Koji Hashimoto with special...

, had Godzilla as the only monster to make an appearance. All succeeding Heisei-era movies would have Godzilla fight other monsters. In this series' final movie, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

, alternatively titled Godzilla vs. Destroyer, is a 1995 science fiction kaiju film directed by Takao Okawara and written by Kazuki Omori. It was released in Japan on December 9, 1995. It is the 22nd installment in the Godzilla series of films and the seventh and last of the Heisei series...

, Godzilla dies after undergoing a nuclear meltdown.

In the same way the Showa era spoke to audiences of its time, the Heisei-era Godzilla films took on popular themes of the 1980s and 1990s. In Godzilla vs. Biollante

Godzilla vs. Biollante

, the movie explores advancing technology and the negative effects of genetic engineering. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

, alternatively spelled Godzilla vs. King Ghidora, is the 18th installment in the Godzilla series of films. This is the fifth film to feature King Ghidorah and the first film to feature Mecha-King Ghidorah, . The movie was released theatrically in Japan on December 14, 1991...

touched on US-Japanese relations following World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and introduced a time-travel plot. Other themes included hazardous materials research and concern for the environment.

Millennium series

The Millennium series of Godzilla films consists of six films released from 1999 through 2004.

The Millennium series attempts to restore some Showa-era trends, such as Godzilla being an anti-hero. Godzilla is still depicted as a hazard and a destructive force in the Millennium series.

American films

In 1998, TriStar Pictures

TriStar Pictures

TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...

produced a remake that was released between the Heisei and Millennium series. Directed by Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer.His films, most of which are Hollywood productions filmed in English, have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, more than those of any other European director...

, director of Independence Day

Independence Day (film)

Independence Day is a 1996 science fiction film about an alien invasion of Earth, focusing on a disparate group of individuals and families as they converge in the Nevada desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4 – the same...

, and starring Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...

, the film – Godzilla

Godzilla (1998 film)

– takes place in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

and has no continuity to any of Toho's productions. Godzilla is a mutated marine iguana

Marine iguana

The Marine Iguana is an iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to live and forage in the sea, making it a marine reptile. The Iguana can dive over 30 ft into the water. It has spread to all the islands in the archipelago, and is...

in this movie. Despite negative to mixed reviews from film critics and negative reception from fans of the original Japanese Godzilla, the film was a financial success, taking in nearly $380 million worldwide, and spawned an animated television series called Godzilla: The Series

Godzilla: The Series

Godzilla: The Series is an American/Japanese animated television series which originally aired on Fox in the United States. The show premiered on September 12, 1998, and is a direct sequel to the American Godzilla remake.-Plot:...

, which drew much better reception all-around. Toho would later reclassify the Godzilla in this movie as Zilla

Zilla

, also known as the American Godzilla, is a movie monster that first appeared as the title character in the 1998 Roland Emmerich film Godzilla. The design by Patrick Tatopoulos is that of a hunched bent-over marine iguana...

, and feature it briefly in their film, Godzilla: Final Wars

Godzilla: Final Wars

is a 2004 Japanese science fiction-kaiju film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, written by Wataru Mimura and Isao Kiriyama and produced by Shogo Tomiyama. It is the twenty-eighth film in the Godzilla film series, and the sixth in terms of the series' Millennium era...

. Production members of Final Wars stated in this American incarnation did not merit having "God" in the name.

For Select on release in 2012 or 2013 and 2014 Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures is an American film production company, whose parent company, Legendary Entertainment, is based in Burbank, California and was founded by Thomas Tull in 2004...

acquired the rights to the character with plans to produce a new American Godzilla movie. Producers of the new film will be Dan Lin

Dan Lin

Dan Lin is an American film producer and CEO of Lin Pictures, a filmed entertainment production company that he formed in January 2008. In September 2008, he was honoured as one of Variety's "10 producers to watch."-Early Life:...

, Roy Lee

Roy Lee

Roy Lee is an American film producer who regularly takes well known Asian films and remakes them for American audiences. Examples include The Ring, The Grudge and The Departed...

, and Brian Rogers while Yoshimitsu Banno

Yoshimitsu Banno

is a Japanese director, best known for the cult-classic Godzilla vs. Hedorah, which he directed and co-wrote. Banno was a special guest at G-Fest XII in 2005. He is currently co-producing a new Godzilla film with Legendary Pictures.-Directing Credits:...

, director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Kenji Okuhira, and Doug Davison will be executive producers. Very little is known about the project so far other than the film will feature a computer generated Godzilla. At the 2010 San Diego Comic Con, Legendary Pictures representatives were on hand to pass out t-shirts depicting a new Godzilla design. On January 4, 2011, Gareth Edwards

Gareth Edwards (director)

Gareth Edwards is a British film director. He is best known for directing the 2010 independent film Monsters, his first feature film. He also wrote, filmed, and did the visual effects for the film. He is currently attached to direct the upcoming Godzilla reboot from Legendary Pictures.- Biography...

, director of Monsters

Monsters (2010 film)

Monsters is a 2010 British science fiction film, written, shot and directed by Gareth Edwards. Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy star in the lead roles.-Plot:...

, was announced as director. Screenwriter David S. Goyer

David S. Goyer

David Samuel Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director and comic book writer.-Early life:Goyer was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Hebrew school and has described himself as "half Jewish"...

was attached to write the script in the summer of 2011, but was replaced by Max Borenstein

Max Borenstein

Max Borenstein is an American film writer and director.-Career:Borenstein wrote, edited, and directed the 2003 film Swordswallowers and Thin Men while a senior at Yale University. The film starred Peter Cellini, Zoe Kazan, Fran Kranz and Graham Norris, and featured Army Wives star Sally Pressman...

the following November. David Callaham

David Callaham

David Callaham is an American film writer.-Personal life:Callaham was born in Fresno, California on October 24, 1977. He is married to Bree Tichy. They were married in 2009.-Criticism:...

submitted an initial first draft in October 2010, but was subsequently rejected by Legendary Pictures.

Men in the suit

In the Toho movies, Godzilla was portrayed by a man in a latex rubber suit.

Haruo Nakajima portrayed Godzilla 12 times from Godzilla (1954) to Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972).
- Nakajima only played Godzilla in the water scenes for Son of Godzilla (1967). Yu Sekida was the primary suit actor in the film. Seiji Onaka, the first actor tapped to play Godzilla in this film, broke his hand after filming only a few scenes.
Katsumi Tezuka portrayed Godzilla in various scenes in Godzilla (1954), and possibly up to Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964).
Shinji Takagi portrayed Godzilla once in Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973).
Isao Zushi portrayed Godzilla once in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974).
Toru Kawai portrayed Godzilla once in Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975).
- Zushi and Kawai both played Godzilla in Toho's 1973 television series, Zone Fighter.
Kenpachiro Satsuma portrayed Godzilla 7 times from The Return of Godzilla (1984) to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995).
Tsutomu Kitagawa portrayed Godzilla 5 times from Godzilla 2000 (1999) to Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), and also from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) to Godzilla Final Wars (2004).
Mizuho Yoshida portrayed Godzilla once in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001).

In the 1998 American remake

Godzilla (1998 film)

, Godzilla was brought to life by animatronic mock-ups and CGI. Frank Welker

Frank Welker

Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...

provided the sound effects for the Baby Godzillas.

Television and printed media

In Japan, Godzilla was a frequent guest star on the tokusatsu series Zone Fighter

Zone Fighter

Zone Fighter, known in Japan as , is a tokusatsu science fiction superhero television series. Produced by Toho Company Ltd., the show aired on Nippon Television from April 2 to September 24, 1973, with a total of 26 episodes, it was cancelled due to the oil crisis of 1973...

. In it, Godzilla occasionally fought alongside the protagonist against other monsters, including Gigan

Gigan

is a kaiju from the Godzilla series, introduced in the 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan. Gigan is a cybernetic monster sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region and large metallic hooks for hands. Gigan is considered Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponent, alongside Destroyah,...

and King Ghidorah

King Ghidorah

is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...

, two monsters who had previously appeared in Godzilla films.

Godzilla made his American series debut in the 1978 Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

Saturday morning show Godzilla. In this series, Godzilla had a nephew, Godzooky. In addition to his trademark atomic breath, which simply changed to fire in the cartoon, he was given the power to shoot laser beams out of his eyes. Godzilla could be summoned by his human friends, sea-explorers on the ship USS Calico, with a signaling device or by the cry of Godzooky. The series ran until 1981. Several monsters were created for this show, including The Firebird, not the same as the one in Destroy All Monsters. That one was really an alien spacecraft that crashed through buildings and set them on fire.

A second series, based on the American Godzilla, aired on Fox Kids

Fox Kids

Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...

. The series featured the surviving baby Godzilla from the end of the live action film, which now had grown to full size. Godzilla traveled around the world with a team called HEAT, including scientist Nick Tatopoulos, battling monsters. Godzilla had the abilities and physical forms of his parent, but the creators of the show gave him more powers and an attitude more resembling the original Japanese Godzilla.

In Japan, Godzilla (along with a plethora of other Kaiju) appeared in an animated toy show called Godzilla Island

Godzilla Island

was a television show spinoff of the Godzilla franchise. It premiered on October 6, 1997, and ran for a total of 256 three-minute episodes, finishing on September 30, 1998.Set in 2097, most monsters live on an island out in the Pacific Ocean...

that ran from 1997–1998.

Godzilla has been featured in comic books, most often in American productions (from Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

in the late-1970s, and from Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

in the 1980s and 1990s). Japanese Godzilla manga comics are also available.

The Marvel series told original stories and attempted to fit into the official Toho continuity, while avoiding direct references to it. It integrated Godzilla into the Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...

. It was published from 1977 to 1979, fitting between the Showa Period

Showa period

movies and the Heisei Era. This series described the adventures and confrontations of Godzilla in the United States.

Between 1996 and 1998 Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

published four books by Marc Cerasini

Godzilla (Marc Cerasini series)

Godzilla is a novel series written by author Marc Cerasini based on the film characters. Each novel has its own unique plot and storyline, with Toho's kaiju featured as the stars.-Godzilla Returns:...

featuring Godzilla and other kaiju of the Toho franchise: Godzilla Returns, Godzilla 2000 (unrelated to the film of the same name

Godzilla 2000

), Godzilla at World's End, and Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters. The release of a fifth book, Godzilla and the Lost Continent was planned but was canceled when Random House's license for Godzilla expired.

On September 23, 2004 Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters by William M. Tsutsui was released by Palgrave Macmillan. The book was released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Godzilla and looks into some of the ways Godzilla has become a simple part of everyday life for fans.

In 2010, IDW Publishing announced that they gained the rights for the license to Godzilla, and will release a new series titled Godzilla: Monster World (since renamed Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters) in March 2011. They have promised appearances by Mothra, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and other popular monsters from the Toho shared universe as well as fresh new monsters. Eric Powell

Eric Powell (comics)

Eric Powell is a comic book writer and self-taught artist living in Lebanon, Tennessee who is best known as the creator of The Goon.-Biography:...

and Tracy Marsh co-wrote Kingdom of Monsters with Phil Hester supplying the art. Artist Matt Frank will also supply variant covers for multiple issues, each focused on a specific monster, such as Anguirus, Mothra, Rodan or King Ghidorah.
The first issue was released in March 2011 and focused on introducing Godzilla, who destroys Japan, and the Japanese Prime Minister even orders for nuclear weapons to be dropped on him, causing his trademark atomic ray. The first issue sold out within its first day. Godzilla, Anguirus

Anguirus

is the second Kaiju to appear in the Toho franchise. Anguirus appeared only a year after Godzilla in the 1955 Toho film Godzilla Raids Again...

, Rodan

Rodan

is a fictional Japanese mutated pterosaur introduced in Rodan, a 1956 release from Toho Studios, the company responsible for the Godzilla series. Like Godzilla and Anguirus, he is designed after a type of prehistoric reptile...

, Mothra

Mothra

is a kaiju, a type of fictional monster who first appeared in the serialized novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga, Shinichiro Nakamura, and Yoshie Hotta...

, King Ghidorah

King Ghidorah

is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...

, Kumonga

Kumonga

is a giant spider daikaiju that appeared in the Toho produced Godzilla series. In the monster's first two appearances, it was called Spiega or Spiga. Spiga/Kumonga is the main antagonist in Son of Godzilla.-Abilities:...

, Hedorah

Hedorah

, also known as the Smog Monster, is a fictional character in the 1971 film Godzilla vs. Hedorah. The monster was named for , the Japanese word for sludge, vomit, slime or chemical ooze. He is the main antagonist of the film.-Description:...

, Gigan

Gigan

, Titanosaurus

Titanosaurus (Godzilla)

is a fictional kaiju featured in the 1975 Showa film Terror of Mechagodzilla, the fifteenth Godzilla film to be produced by Toho.-Abilities:...

Battra

is a fictional kaiju appearing in the Heisei Godzilla film Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth. He is the main antagonist of the film. Like Mothra, Battra has both larval and adult forms.-Biography:...

, SpaceGodzilla

SpaceGodzilla

, is a modified clone of Godzilla featured in the Heisei Godzilla film Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla . SpaceGodzilla is the main antagonist of the film. It was originally planned for use in the Showa era of films but dropped, and its physical appearance is nearly identical to Super Godzilla, a variant...

, Destoroyah

Destoroyah

, alternatively Destroyah, or Destroyer, is a fictional Japanese monster from the Godzilla Franchise appearing only in the 1995 film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and in some of the Godzilla video games. He originated as a colony of Precambrian crustaceans that had been awakened and mutated when the...

, and Mechagodzilla

Mechagodzilla

is a fictional character from various films in the Godzilla series, introduced in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla . He is Godzilla's mechanical doppelgänger and one of the most popular Toho kaiju...

are expected to make appearances in the comic.

Cultural impact

Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju

Kaiju

is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....

subset of the tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

genre. He has been considered a filmographic metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

for the United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla films, especially the original

Godzilla (1954 film)

, portrayed Godzilla as a frightening, nuclear monster. Godzilla represented the fears that many Japanese held about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima

Hiroshima

is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

and Nagasaki, and the possibility of recurrence.

As the series progressed, so did Godzilla, changing into a less destructive and more heroic character as the films became geared towards children. Since then, the character has fallen somewhere in the middle, sometimes portrayed as a protector of the world from external threats and other times as a bringer of destruction. Godzilla remains one of the greatest fictional heroes in the history of film, and is also the second of only three fictional characters to have won the MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

Lifetime Achievement Award

Award

An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...

, which was awarded in 1996.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has named its newly acquired, fast interceptor vessel Gojira in deference to the Godzilla character and as an ironic comment on the Japanese whalers' activities. Its purpose is to target and harass Japanese whalers in defence of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Awards

1955 Japan Academy Award – Special Effects (Godzilla)
2007 Saturn Awards – Best DVD Classic Film Release (Godzilla)
1965 Japan Academy Award – Best Score (Mothra vs. Godzilla)
1966 Japan Academy Award – Special Effects (Invasion of Astro Monster)
1986 Japan Academy Award – Special Effects and Newcomer of the Year (The Return of Godzilla)
1986 Razzie Awards – Worst Supporting Actor and Worst New Star (The Return of Godzilla)
1992 Japan Academy Award – Special Effects (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah)
1993 Tokyo Sports Movie Awards – Best Leading Actor (Godzilla vs. Mothra)
1993 Best Grossing Films Award – Golden Award and Money-Making Star Award (Godzilla vs. Mothra)
1993 Japan Academy Award – Best Score (Godzilla vs. Mothra)
1994 Japan Academy Award – Best Score (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II)
1995 Best Grossing Films Award – Silver Award (Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla)
1996 Best Grossing Films Award – Golden Award (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah)
1996 Japan Academy Award – Special Effects (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah)
1996 MTV Movie Awards – Lifetime Achievement
1998 Golden Raspberry Awards – Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Remake or Sequel (Godzilla 1998)
1999 Saturn Awards – Best Special Effects (Godzilla 1998)
2001 Saturn Awards – Best Home Video Release (Godzilla 2000)
2002 Best Grossing Films Award – Silver Award (Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack)
2004 Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

External links

Official Website of Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...

(Japanese)
Godzilla Official Website (Japanese)
http://archive.tm5150.com/godzilla/

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.