Noriko Oishi

Noriko Oishi Species Human Nationality Japanese Gender Female Occupation Office worker Related to Deceased parents Akiko (adopted daughter) Koichi Shikishima (boyfriend) First appearance Godzilla Minus One Played by Minami Hamabe

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Noriko Oishi (大石 典子,   Ōishi Noriko) is the secondary protagonist of the 2023 Toho Godzilla film Godzilla Minus One.

Description

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A strong woman living alone in a burnt-out post-war Japan. She meets Shikishima on his return from the war. (焼け野原の戦後日本を単身で強く生きる女性。戦争帰りの敷島と出会う。)

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History

• Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Reiwa era

Godzilla Minus One

In the winter of 1945, Noriko Oishi, carrying a baby in hand, was chased through a Tokyo market for stealing blankets. Running into newly-returned kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima, she handed him the infant, named Akiko, before continuing to flee. Oishi later returned to collect Akiko from Shikishima, who begrudgingly led her to his house and cooked she and Akiko a meal, but insisted she leave afterward. When Shikishima inquired about her husband, Oishi explained that she wasn't married; in fact, Akiko was not even her child, but was adopted from a dying mother. Against his wishes, Oishi spent the night in Shikishima's house.

Years later, by May 1947, Oishi and Shikishima had moved in together and began raising Akiko, now a toddler. In order to put food on the table, Shikishima took a job disposing of naval mines aboard the minesweeper Shinseimaru. One night, while having dinner with Shikishima's coworkers Kenji Noda, Seiji Akitsu, and Shiro Mizushima, he and Oishi dispelled assumptions that they were a couple, informing the group that they were unmarried and only living together for Akiko's sake. Oishi eventually took an office job in Ginza, feeling that Shikishima's commitment to providing for her and Akiko was holding him back from finding a wife, though he protested the decision. While riding the train home from work one day, it suddenly halted, and from the window Oishi could see Godzilla fast approaching. The beast picked up a segment of the train in his mouth, including the car Oishi was riding in, leaving her dangling perilously. Though she managed to escape by jumping into water below, she was swept up in a fleeing crowd and became paralyzed with fear. Suddenly, she was grabbed by Shikishima, who helped her to safety. However, Godzilla soon unleashed his atomic breath on Ginza, enveloping it in a mushroom cloud. In the nick of time, Oishi pushed Shikishima behind a building to avoid the oncoming shockwave, but was herself blown away. When the dust settled, Shikishima found Oishi gone, presuming her dead.

Regretful that he was unable to tell Oishi of his true feelings for her, Shikishima vowed to avenge her and participated in the anti-Godzilla operation Wada Tsumi, piloting the experimental plane Shinden with a Polaroid of Oishi hanging in the cockpit. Meanwhile, Shikishima's neighbor Sumiko Ota, who he'd left to take care of Akiko, received a telegram for him. After Shikishima successfully defeated Godzilla by ejecting from his plane, fitted with a bomb, and sending it into the monster's mouth, Ota met him to pass along the telegram: Oishi had survived and was in hospice. Shikishima rushed to visit her, and they tearfully reunited. Unnoticed, a black spot on her neck began to spread.

Books

• Novel Version: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Gallery

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Trivia

• Oishi is the second of two roles Minami Hamabe played in a 2023 reboot of a tokusatsu franchise, after Ruriko Midorikawa from Hideaki Anno's Shin Kamen Rider.
• Minami Hamabe's appearance in Godzilla Minus One upholds a decades-long tradition of an actress discovered by the Toho Cinderella Audition starring in a Godzilla film.

References

This is a list of references for Noriko Oishi. 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]

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