Godzilla vs. M

Godzilla VS. M Alternate titles Godzilla VS. Uchuujin Planned 2001 Concept history Godzilla X Varan, Baragon and Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack → Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Godzilla VS. M (ゴジラVS宇宙人,   Gojira Tai Uchuujin, lit. Godzilla VS. The Alien) is an unmade 2001 Godzilla film.

Plot

The story focuses on Takegami, a space shuttle astronaut, who is rescued from a strange accident while orbiting Earth's atmosphere. And during his hospitalization, begins to transform internally. In order to avoid his daughter Yumi to suffer from these turn of events, Takegami flees, and goes into hiding within the forests surrounding Mt. Fuji. Yumi eventually tracks down her missing father, only to discover that the incident has mutated him into a giant monster. But thankfully, the monster has still retained his memories and soul, not to mention existing love, for his daughter Yumi.

And just in time too, for the villainous monster Godzilla has returned to menace Japan once again. Takegami, whose monster form is simply referred to as 'M' in the outline, goes forth to battle Godzilla. Despite briefly getting killed and then resurrected, thanks to Yumi's life-force, the monster suceeds in fighting Godzilla.

The movie ends with M disappearing into the sea with Godzilla's beaten body in tow.

Overview

After his work on the film Pyrokinesis, and the previous success in the Heisei Gamera trilogy, Shusuke Kaneko was granted the chance for making a next Godzilla film. He initially planned a film where Godzilla could face the Kamacuras; however, he discarded the idea due to previously, Godzilla faced an insectoid monster (Megaguirus and the Meganulas in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus); so, he decided for some more original, planning the premise of an astronaut who mutated in an alien monster. In the possible final draft, Kaneko planned to use the full concept of the Millennium era, but set in an alternate timeline where Japan is a state known as Republic of Japan, which accounts with a huge military at its dispossal (this could likely stablish also the idea of Japan being a militaristic state in an alternate timeline). The most interesting thing here is that, unlike the Guardian Monsters from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, the monster actually succeeds against Godzilla, despite briefly getting killed and then resurrected, thanks to Yumi's life-force (although it's unknown wither or not she survives this ordeal). However, Kaneko discarded the idea, due to he felt the concept was too grim for a New Year's season event feature; so, he later planned Godzilla X Varan, Baragon and Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, which'll be revised and released later as Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Trivia

• The idea of the monster M could likely be somewhat similar to Frankenstein vs. Baragon, due to the premise of a misunderstood humanoid creature, despite the appearence of another much worse menace; however, the premise of the bond of the mutated astronaut with his daughter gave the idea a different angle to the concept.
  • However, the idea also had some similarities with the premise of Jamila, a monster from the Ultraman series (which ironically was also the basis for a Toho Kingdom's former version of the character ); this may have also been an additional factor in Shusuke Kaneko abandoning the storyline.

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla vs. M. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]