Kaiju Profile: Godzilla (GMK)
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The GMK Godzilla kaiju profile is the 79th episode of Wikizilla's Kaiju Profiles video series. It was uploaded on July 29, 2024.
Video
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Transcript
The Millennium Godzilla series nearly ended in 2000. Ticket sales for the first two entries lagged far behind the last five Heisei films; after the TriStar debacle, the public seemed to be burned out on Godzilla. Toho had yet to commit to financing a third Millennium film when "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" stumbled into theaters on December 16. But they had already reached out to a director with a sterling reputation among kaiju fans: Shusuke Kaneko, who helmed Daiei's Heisei Gamera trilogy. Having first asked Toho to direct Godzilla almost a decade ago, he wasn't about to let his chance fade out, impressing them with his vision for an overwhelmingly powerful, malevolent Godzilla with an equally powerful message. Hey kaiju fans, I'm Titanollante, and I'll be presenting the Kaiju Profile on that very fiend, the GMK Godzilla!
Godzilla, God of Destruction
Height: 60 meters
Length: 85 meters (total body)
Width: 38 meters
Weight: 30,000 metric tons
The "GMK" Godzilla stars in "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack," by far the most commonly abbreviated title in the entire franchise. As another reboot that's only in continuity with the 1954 original, the film presents him as the second Gojira to emerge - 50 years after the first. Unlike his predecessor, this Godzilla is possessed by the millions of souls killed during the Pacific War, and seeks revenge against Japan for forgetting and ignoring the past. Opposing the God of Destruction in his quest for retribution are the three Guardian Monsters of Japan, along with the nation's Defense Force. This incarnation has seldom appeared in non-film media since then, likely due to his unique origins and malevolence, although he and his film did have an outsized influence on Toho's latest entry, "Godzilla Minus One."
Origins
Shusuke Kaneko wasn't the first person to envision Godzilla as a literal specter of World War II. Writing about the original "Godzilla" in 1994, film critic Saburo Kawamoto described Godzilla as embodying the souls of Japan's military war dead. "[S]till under the spell of Japan's emperor system," he spares the Imperial Palace in Tokyo while showing the surrounding area, rapidly rebuilt after the war, no mercy. Longtime composer for the series Akira Ifukube agreed with Kawamoto's basic premise, saying in 1995 that this interpretation was common among his generation. A pacifist kaiju enthusiast like Kaneko would have been well aware of it—but he decided to have his Godzilla inhabited by all of the lives lost in the Pacific War, not just Japanese soldiers. As Hirotoshi Isayama explains in the film, these restless souls drive him to attack Japan because its people have forgotten the mass suffering their country was responsible for during the war. Yuri Tachibana theorizes that while the Japanese soldiers amongst these souls don't seek Japan's destruction themselves, they are outnumbered by the souls from other countries, as well as Japanese victims of the atomic bombs.
Design
Kaneko's early ideas for the film that eventually became "GMK" had Godzilla fighting Kamacuras of all things, then a mutated astronaut possibly inspired by Jamilla from the original "Ultraman." The supernatural angle emerged in a screenplay titled "Godzilla [Against] Varan · Baragon [and] Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack," which won producer Shogo Tomiyama's approval. However, Toho chairman Isao Matsuoka infamously asked Kaneko to replace Varan and Anguirus with the more recognizable King Ghidorah and Mothra. Japan's military also fielded Maser Cannons and the Gotengo against Godzilla in this draft, which gave way to more grounded weapons in the final version.
Even before Toho gave him the green light, Kaneko chose Fuyuki Shinada—who had previously sculpted the likes of Biollante, Godzillasaurus, Iris, and Legion—to design Godzilla. Shinada's creation, revealed in maquette form at the press conference announcing "GMK" on March 3, 2001, was a fairly traditional Godzilla in most respects. But it also had a more horizontal stance, with its tail raised off the ground like a real dinosaur, and completely white eyes, the latter intended to make Godzilla more frightening and conspicuously supernatural. Kaneko had in mind a Godzilla who would harken back to the 1954 and 1964 suits, a departure from the colorful and spiky MireGoji design used in the previous two films, and traits of their head designs came forth as Shinada got to work on the new suits and props.
Bringing Godzilla to life in "GMK" required a Vi-Shop team led by Shinada to build two primary suits, indistinguishable on the outside. One of them, equipped with a full suite of mechanisms in the head and moveable dorsal fins, was dubbed the "performance suit." Each was modular, with removable dorsal fins and feet, and emphasized flexibility and a consistent shape, with perforated urethane foam used for joints. Standing 220 centimeters tall, or 7'2", they remain the tallest Godzilla suits ever built for a film, allowing him to tower over his kaiju opponents. The raised, elephantine feet helped add some extra centimeters. As a result of the suits' height, "GMK" was the only film in the Millennium series in which 5'3" Tsutomu Kitagawa did not play Godzilla; he was replaced with 5'10" Mizuho Yoshida. Having already inhabited Legion, Desghidorah, and Dagahra, Yoshida was no stranger to hulking monsters. However, the maquette's stance proved impractical for him, and he assumed the typical vertical stance in the film itself. The suits' eyes also deviated slightly from the maquette: they remained white, but gained some gray veins. This was out of fear that pure white eyes wouldn't photograph well and could even be offensive on a homicidal monster, as white eyes are often used as visual shorthand for people with blindness in Japan.
Mizuho Yoshida referenced Haruo Nakajima's performance in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" for the monster battling and Kenpachiro Satsuma's Heisei Godzillas for walking. To make the role his own, he tried to incorporate more hand movements, playing to the costume's strengths, and walked with his arms further away from his body, with his palms held down. Norman England, reporting on the film for Kaneko's website and Fangoria, was highly impressed: "To describe Yoshida as simply a hard worker would be a disservice. He's not only channeling every ounce of effort into his performance but is enjoying the hell out of it. When not playing Godzilla, he's talking to someone about an upcoming shot, or he's off on the sidelines striking Godzilla stances and growling about the stage."
A water suit was also made, and yet another briefly appears in the film, although it was empty and pulled by a crane: a modified MireGoji attraction suit, necessary for the scene where King Ghidorah's Big Spark Ball blasts Godzilla into Tokyo Bay. Other props included a bust animatronic with rings of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) inside the neck, a tail on a handle, what appears to be a standalone arm, a giant foot dating back to Invasion of Astro-Monster, a three-meter tall stretch of skin for the big surfacing scene, two more stretches of skin for the opening credits and the D-03 torpedo drilling through his wound, and even a disembodied bluescreen heart prop. The heart in the finished film is CGI, based on one sculpted by Hiroshi Sagae. The film also used CG for Godzilla swimming underwater, some overhead shots, and his insides.
History
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001): In 1954, the first Godzilla devastated Tokyo. He was ultimately killed by Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer - but the newly-formed Defense Force, fearing they would be disbanded, told the public they had vanquished the monster themselves. Amidst a wave of monster sightings around the globe, kicked off by a Godzilla-like creature who attacked the United States, the second Godzilla first made his presence known when he sank an American nuclear submarine near Guam in 2002 and fed on its reactor. Japan dispatched two small submarines called Satsuma to help locate the vessel; they found it with conspicuous claw marks on the hull. Still lurking nearby, Godzilla menaced the Satsuma, destroying one of them, with the other capturing footage of his dorsal plates. After the surviving pilot delivered his report, Lieutenant General Katsumasa Mikumo expressed confidence that their modern weapons could easily repel the monster - enough time had passed that he and many others in the Defense Force now believed the lie their predecessors devised.
A mysterious eccentric named Hirotoshi Isayama warned reporter Yuri Tachibana of Godzilla's return - and how he was driven by restless spirits of the Pacific War dead to attack Japan for forgetting about the carnage it once unleashed across Asia and beyond. Godzilla next raided Magonoté in the Bonin Islands, then brought down a plane scanning the island for survivors. He reached the Japanese mainland several days later, rising out of Yaizu Harbor. After seeming to target a survivor from Magonoté who'd been hospitalized, the kaiju fired his atomic breath at a group of fleeing citizens, generating a mushroom cloud. He rampaged his way to Hakone, where he was confronted by Baragon—one of the three ancient Guardian Beasts who had awakened to protect Japan from him.
The God of the Earth made the first move, digging out the ground beneath Godzilla's feet to knock him over and then jumping onto and sinking his teeth into Goji's arm. Godzilla soon hurled the subterranean monster away and subsequently brutalized him. Once Baragon managed to get to higher ground, he attempted another jump attack; this time Godzilla checked him with a tail swing. As Baragon tried to clamber up the cliff once more, the Big G fired his atomic breath into the side of the cliff. With the resulting landslide leaving Baragon vulnerable, the King of the Monsters promptly obliterated his foe and could proceed unimpeded. By nightfall, a squadron of F7-Js were deployed to intercept Godzilla. Their bombs were only effective in annoying him, however; he swiftly shot down the fighter jets and continued his march towards the heart of the capital region.
The Defense Force set up at Yokohama, with Yuri's father, Brigadier General Taizo Tachibana, taking command. Two more Guardian Monsters, Mothra and Ghidorah, emerged in Lake Ikeda and Aokigahara, respectively, and converged on the city. Mothra arrived first, attacking Godzilla with her wings and stingers and evading his atomic breath. Ghidorah emerged from underground as she grappled Godzilla, electrifying him with his bites. Godzilla responded with a bite of his own, batted Mothra out of the way with his tail when she tried to intervene, and hurled Ghidorah into a building. He unleashed his atomic breath against Ghidorah, knocking him unconscious, but Mothra shielded him from a second blast. The Defense Force made its move, targeting Godzilla with D-03 missiles designed to drill through rock, but the weapons failed to penetrate his hide and his retaliatory strikes wiped out 90% of the outfit. He closed in on Tachibana's ship, the battlecruiser Aizu, only to turn and vaporize Mothra when she again tried to intervene. Her life force flowed into Ghidorah, reviving him as the winged King Ghidorah. His energy shield blocked Godzilla's atomic breath before he launched it at the King of the Monsters. The tremendous explosion blasted Godzilla into the bay and opened up a small wound on his shoulder.
King Ghidorah and Godzilla continued their battle underwater. Aizu launched two Satsumas armed with D-03 torpedoes in the hopes of firing them into his wound, with one of the submersibles piloted by Taizo. At the last moment, however, Godzilla moved one of King Ghidorah's necks into the first torpedo's path. He felled the dragon with his atomic breath, then grabbed Taizo's sub, which had yet to fire its weapon. Dangling over the water after a stray blast from Godzilla had struck the bridge she was reporting from, Yuri dropped a piece of a sacred stone left for her by Isayama. It revived King Ghidorah for a second time, allowing him to break the fall of her and novelist Mitsuaki Takeda. Taizo escaped Godzilla's grip as King Ghidorah reengaged him. Glowing with power, King Ghidorah assailed Godzilla with Gravity Beams - but after a few hits, he began to absorb them. Godzilla responded with a gravitational atomic breath which blew Ghidorah to pieces. The spirits of the three Guardian Monsters then manifested and soared into Godzilla, causing him to sink into the bay. Seeing no other prospect for victory, Taizo piloted his sub into Godzilla's mouth and fired the D-03 torpedo at his wound from the inside. Godzilla surfaced to confront Yuri and Takeda, but just then, the torpedo emerged from his shoulder and detonated, leaving a sizable hole. Godzilla attempted to annihilate the two humans, only for his atomic breath to twice shoot out of his shoulder. Wounded, he toppled underwater. Taizo escaped through the hole, and when Godzilla took aim at him with a third ray, the monster exploded.
Yuri's boss, Haruki Kadokura, ordered the channel to produce a special on Godzilla, only to find that Isayama had disappeared from Yuri's video of their interview. Atsushi Maruo, another reporter, divulged that he looked Isayama up and learned he went missing during the first Godzilla's attack, leaving Kadokura shaken. At the bottom of Yokohama Bay, Godzilla's disembodied heart continued to beat.
Abilities
Atomic breath: Whereas the two previous Millennium Godzillas spewed a flaming orange heat ray, "GMK" brought back the blue laser-like beam. This iteration's base atomic breath brings to mind the Spiral Heat Rays of the VS series and "Final Wars," in terms of its consistent capability to cripple or outright destroy opponents effortlessly. Point-blank shots of it incinerated Baragon and annihilated Mothra both within seconds, while Ghidorah was K.O.'d by single blasts on two occasions - one of 'em underwater. The thousand-year dragon's one-time energy shield was the only object which resisted a sustained blast. When Godzilla first unleashed the heat ray, it produced a large mushroom cloud, and the accompanying shockwave was felt even from kilometers away. Moreover, this Godzilla's a quick-draw sharpshooter with his heat ray - dispatching all four F7-Js dropping bombs on him in five seconds. His aim only faltered against the more maneuverable Mothra.
Gravitational atomic breath: After channeling the energy from King Ghidorah's gravity beams into his dorsal fins, Godzilla fired a gravitational atomic breath (a stronger variant of the heat ray wrapped in a yellow spiral) against the three-headed monster… triggering a spectacular explosion. Once the flames dispersed, Ghidorah's shredded remains rained down onto the surface of the water. It's unclear if Godzilla could absorb and redirect other energy attacks in this way, or if his fellow supernatural creature's gravity beams had some quality that allowed him to exploit them.
Physical abilities: While he consistently uses atomic breath as a finishing move, the GMK Godzilla is a dangerous tooth-and-claw fighter too. Against Baragon, he deployed forceful stomps and kicks, showcasing surprisingly quick reflexes a couple of times. Mothra was also blindsided by his tail. Against Ghidorah, his bite drew blood from the three-headed monster, and he later threw him, a classic Godzilla move. However, unlike in previous films, this Ghidorah was lighter than him, weighing in at 25,000 tons to his 30,000.
Durability: The GMK Godzilla has the character's usual invulnerability to military weapons; even the fictitious D-03 Missiles, designed to drill through rock, failed to penetrate his hide. Each of the Guardian Monsters was able to topple him at least once, though he never stayed down for long. Only King Ghidorah's Big Spark Ball was able to break his skin, and even that spectacular attack only chipped a small chunk from his shoulder.
Intelligence: Godzilla demonstrated impressive spatial awareness, tail-whipping Baragon into a nearby helicopter and maneuvering one of Ghidorah's necks into the path of a D-03 torpedo. After Mothra exploited a blind spot, he twice unleashed attacks against her when she tried the same trick. His biggest lapse in judgment came at the end of the film, where he tried firing his atomic breath first at Yuri and Takeda, then the unarmed Satsuma, after becoming painfully aware that the injury to his shoulder prevented it from working correctly. Not only did they pose no threat to him, but he easily could have crushed them without needing to use his ray.
Weaknesses: Godzilla couldn't do much more than flail about when Mothra perched on the back of his head; the bug was out of reach of his stubby arms and evidently at too odd an angle to swat at with his tail. He's not the swiftest Goji on land either, although his rather rapid reflexes - coupled with his raw power - largely offset that. Evidently lacking the instantaneous regeneration of certain other Godzillas, the wound left by King Ghidorah's Big Spark Ball was successfully exploited by Brigadier General Tachibana; the D-03 torpedo he fired at the laceration from within the monster's body opened a gaping hole. Thereafter, Godzilla's attempts at firing atomic breath damaged him to the point of self-destruction. Incidentally, in one of Kaneko's later proposals for the film that became "GMK", Godzilla's atomic breath had an even greater vulnerability: he couldn't use it underwater.
Trivia
You're Not You When You're Hungry: Back in the design section, we cautiously qualified the GMKGoji as being the tallest Godzilla suit "used in a film". That's because there's one suit used for a licensed appearance of the King of Monsters which might be taller: the one from the 2014 "Godzilla" Snickers commercial. Sadly we don't have exact specs for the 'SnickersGoji'... but we do know who wore it for the commercial - Douglas Tait - as well as his height: 6'4" (193cm). Factoring that info and looking at the available behind-the-scenes photos… it's very possible it surpasses the SokogekiGoji's billed 7'2" (220cm) height!
Comics: "GMK" received a one-shot manga adaptation in Tele Coro Comic, most notable for cutting Baragon out of the story. It also marked the end of manga adaptations for Toho Godzilla films as a routine matter; the only entry to receive the treatment since has been "Planet of the Monsters." Across the Pacific, the SokogekiGoji design has seldom been used for IDW's comics, and it's easy to see why: their stories typically cast Godzilla as an anti-hero, while the GMK Godzilla is purely a villain. "Godzilla in Hell" #4 represents its only major appearance, one of several forms Godzilla takes on throughout the miniseries. In this issue, Godzilla is trapped in a walled city, endlessly battling King Ghidorah and Destoroyah and finding himself revived each time they kill him. Eventually, he tricks them into blasting a hole in the wall. As they dissolve, he escapes into a void even whiter than his eyes. Art Adams also drew SokogekiGoji for a "Godzilla" #1 cover, and he's one of the Godzillas Rita Repulsa glimpses while trapped between realities at the end of "Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers."
Video games: The 2001 Godzilla and his co-stars were featured in an extremely obscure video game released BEFORE their movie even came out! (Only 1 day before, but that still counts….) "Godzilla: Giant Monsters Typing Attack" is - as you might've guessed - a typing game where the Big G's triumphs rest on correctly typing out Japanese words and phrases in the allotted time. The 2D version of the ancient Java mobile game "Godzilla: Monster Mayhem" put the GMK Godzilla on the title screen, despite the in-game sprite not resembling him. He wouldn't make a more 'proper' video game appearance until "Godzilla: Kaiju Collection" in 2015, followed by "Godzilla Defense Force" in 2019. A SokogekiGoji model in the metaverse… thing "XR World" foreshadowed his arrival in "Godzilla Battle Line" early in 2023. He's an elite unit, with a powerful atomic breath that can hit multiple targets, plus a swirl of shadows that weakens nearby enemies when he's called to the field or dispatched. Yes, the atomic breath shoots out of his neck when KO'd—and his Leader ability more-or-less generates a mushroom cloud. Pretty nice attention to detail for a freemium gacha game.
Third Street influence: The Godzilla glimpsed in Takashi Yamazaki's 2007 film "Always: Sunset on Third Street" 2 looked a lot like the 2001 Godzilla, right down to the white eyes. In fact, the starting point for this design was a SokogekiGoji garage kit by Syunsuke Niwa, which Yamazaki bought and resculpted. Toho gave him another crack at designing Godzilla for the 2021 amusement park attraction "Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle," and with "Godzilla Minus One," his vision for the Big G seems to have reached its final form. "GMK" is one of Yamazaki's favorite "Godzilla" films, and he acknowledged it as an unconscious influence on the "Minus One" screenplay. In both films, Godzilla's atomic breath creates a mushroom cloud, characters extoll the virtues of having never gone to war, the finishing blow against Godzilla is dealt by a single-pilot craft attacking him from the inside as he attempts to fire his atomic breath, and the final shot shows that a small piece of him is still alive.
That wraps things up for the GMK Godzilla. Thank you for watching.