Kaiju Profile: Godzilla (Godzilla Minus One)
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The Godzilla Minus One Godzilla kaiju profile is the 80th episode of Wikizilla's Kaiju Profiles video series. It was uploaded on November 3, 2024.
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Transcript
In 2007, the Godzilla fandom was jolted awake by the opening scene of a Japanese slice-of-life drama. "Always: Sunset on Third Street 2" began with Godzilla trashing the characters' Tokyo neighborhood, which was soon revealed to be a scenario penned by the local writer. A dynamic sequence heavily reliant on digital effects, including for the monster himself, it offered a preview of the next era of kaiju moviemaking. Unbeknownst to the fandom, it also impressed Toho so much that they asked director Takashi Yamazaki to helm the next film in the hibernating series. Though a fan of kaiju since childhood, he told them he wasn't ready yet. The scene had been so complicated that it ended up requiring half of his visual effects staff to finish, and he felt making an entire CG kaiju film with his current resources and skill would be a nightmare. In 2019, still riding high from the overwhelming success of "Shin Godzilla," Toho approached him again, and this time he said yes. Given unprecedented creative control as the film's director, screenwriter, and visual effects supervisor, Yamazaki brought to life a vicious, unrelenting Godzilla who would terrify audiences the world over—and deliver an unprecedented award. Hello kaiju fans, I'm Koopa, presenting the kaiju profile for the Godzilla of 2023's "Godzilla Minus One"!
Godzilla
Height: 15 meters (1945), 50.1 meters (1947)
Weight: ~20,000 metric tons (1947)
"Godzilla Minus One" broke series tradition by taking place before 1954, the year in which the original film was released. Spanning 1945 to 1947, its Godzilla is opposed not by vast JSDF divisions, fantastical superweapons, or giant robots armed to the teeth, but terrified repairmen and civilian volunteers cobbling together whatever ships, aircraft, and tanks they can find in their shattered country. The monster seems to haunt Ensign Koichi Shikishima, who was one of only two survivors of his Odo Island raid at the end of the war, and froze up when he had a chance to shoot the monster in the plane he quietly refused to use in a kamikaze attack. Shikishima returns to mainland Japan and builds a new life in the ruins of his family's home—so cue an irradiated, vastly more powerful Godzilla to threaten it all.
Design
It's impossible to talk about this Godzilla without bringing up "Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle", a five-minute flying theater ride that debuted at the Seibuen amusement park in 2021 and was also directed by Takashi Yamazaki. He largely designed the ‘RideGoji' himself through sketches and digital sculpting in ZBrush, with Kosuke Taguchi creating the final, 380-million-polygon model. Yamazaki combined elements from the Heisei and Monsterverse versions of Godzilla for this heroic incarnation. Aware that the film would contain many aerial shots of the monster, he gave him a small head and large thighs. He described it thusly: "It was both cool and frightening, while still embodying the common elements of the Godzilla tradition. We wanted a vertical stance, with very thick and robust legs, giving the overall shape a mountain-like appearance. We focused on making the lower body very massive and the face frightening, yet unmistakably Godzilla." As usual, he worked with the VFX company that gave him his start in the film industry, Shirogumi, and came to view the short as a test run for "Minus One". Shirogumi learned just how frightening the King of the Monsters could be in close-up shots, which informed the approach they would take with the upcoming feature. After some initial design explorations, with iterations including “one with a strong, animalistic quality, one with cells that regenerate but create errors, and one with a wicked expression that reminded [him] of Scarface”, Yamazaki opted to use the RideGoji as a starting point for the "Minus One" Godzilla. Once again, he made a rough model in ZBrush and Taguchi expanded it into something detailed enough for IMAX. In the process, Godzilla became “sharper and more pointy,” especially his dorsal plates. His eyes were almond-shaped, almost human, and relatively small in imitation of Hollywood Godzillas. As in "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah", Godzilla first appears in a pre-irradiated form during World War II. This form was given a stance and proportions closer to that of a real theropod dinosaur; behind the scenes, a muscle simulation was conducted to make it move more convincingly. Such measures were deliberately avoided with the mutated Godzilla, who Yamazaki viewed as “both a monster and a deity”, to keep him from moving too animalistically. Shirogumi also forewent motion capture, in contrast with "Shin Godzilla." A physical model of Godzilla was 3D-printed as a reference, though Yamazaki admitted “it was also kind of a setup because I just wanted a 3D-printed Godzilla from Minus One.”
As a screenwriter, Yamazaki wanted this Godzilla to "feel like the physical embodiment of a kind of negative energy tied to people's fears, worries, and disillusionment," a "raging spirit" who must be calmed by the populace. Writing the script during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, his frustrations at the Japanese government's early response also bled onto the page. He set the film post-World War II to give the human cast as few resources as possible to oppose Godzilla with, along with his general fondness for the Showa era. He sought to revitalize the original Godzilla's embodiment of "war and our collective anxieties about nuclear arms." As in a scene from "GMK", Godzilla's atomic breath causes nuclear explosions, and as many commenters have noted, the way his dorsal fins rise and fall as he charges his most powerful weapon evokes the control rods in nuclear reactors. This is also the first Godzilla who is actually shown being mutated by a nuclear test on-screen.
For Godzilla's roar, sound designer Natsuko Inoue used the roars played over the opening credits of the original 1954 film as a starting point, then “gradually add[ed] width and deep bass tones.” He initially tried creating original roars through experiments with a contrabass, much as Ichiro Minawa and Akira Ifukube did in 1954, but Yamazaki deemed the results too modern and animal-like.
Much has been made of the astonishing visual effects Shirogumi generated for "Godzilla Minus One" with far less resources than the typical Hollywood blockbuster. With a budget somewhere below $15 million, 35 VFX artists finished 610 shots in eight months. Yamazaki spotlighted the efficiencies of his approach: most directors lack the technical expertise to directly supervise visual effects, but he could quickly make suggestions and sign off on shots just by walking (or scooting) around the Shirogumi office. Yamazaki found himself making a lot of hand gestures to demonstrate how he wanted Godzilla to move. Yamazaki's wife, Shimako Sato, also observed that Godzilla's behavior reminded her of the two cats they got just prior to the start of production. He believes he was subconsciously nudging his animators towards giving the monster more feline tendencies.
Origins
A dinosaur-like monster well known to the people of Odo Island as 呉爾羅, Godzilla slaughtered nearly all of the Japanese mechanics stationed there at the end of World War II. The monster is not known to have crossed paths with humanity again until the summer of 1946, when he was mutated by one of the two American atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll that made up Operation Crossroads. The film's novelization - written by Yamazaki himself - specifies that the test was Baker, the second of the two, and the shot of the test in the film is consistent with footage of the Baker test as well. (You may recognize that footage from "Gigantis the Fire Monster," as well as the 1998 and 2014 American Godzilla films.) The novelization also explains that Godzilla understands humanity is responsible for the blast and the agony it causes him, motivating him to destroy every ship in his path as he swims towards Japan.
History
Godzilla Minus One (2023): During the closing days of World War II in 1945, Godzilla came ashore on Odo Island at night and entered a Japanese military air repair base, provoked by a searchlight. Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima, who had feigned a malfunction to avoid carrying out his deadly mission, climbed into his Zero fighter on the airfield to attack the creature with its guns, the most powerful weapons on the island. Just before he could fire, he froze up as Godzilla stood in front of him. The panicked mechanics nearby opened fire on Godzilla, enraging him and causing him to brutally dispatch them all. By morning, the only survivors were Shikishima and the lead mechanic, Sosaku Tachibana, who blamed Shikishima for failing to act. The incident was covered up by the Japanese government, with the official story being that the men on the island were wiped out by American forces.
In July 1946, Godzilla was caught in one of the American military's Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll, irradiating and mutating him. Now substantially larger and even more enraged, Godzilla began destroying American vessels in his path as he approached the Japanese archipelago. Due to ongoing tensions with the Soviet Union, the American military refused to take action against Godzilla in the Pacific and warned the Japanese to begin preparing for the worst. In 1947, the minesweepers Shinseimaru and Kaishinmaru were ordered to stall Godzilla until the Japanese battle cruiser Takao, returned by the Allies in light of the crisis, could arrive and attack him. Shikishima, now a crew member on the Shinseimaru, saw a destroyed ship and deep-sea fish floating to the surface and immediately recognized that the culprit was the creature he saw on Odo Island. Godzilla soon ambushed the Kaishinmaru and gave chase to the Shinseimaru. Shikishima's crewmates Kenji Noda and Shiro Mizushima detonated a mine against the monster's dorsal fins, to absolutely no effect. They tried again; the second mine became lodged in Godzilla's mouth, but the detonator switch failed to work, and Shikishima exploded it with the machine gun. The blast destroyed a large part of Godzilla's cheek, only for it to instantaneously regenerate before the crew's eyes. As he rose from the water, the Takao arrived and began firing at him. Godzilla turned his rage to the cruiser and grabbed it, tearing it apart viciously with his claws. The ship's guns unloaded on Godzilla again, causing him to fall backward into the sea. However, the creature swam underneath the Takao and obliterated it in an instant with an explosive heat ray. Godzilla then surfaced amid the ashes and smoke, emitted a terrifying roar, and continued towards Japan.
With no viable countermeasures available to stop the monster, the Japanese government declined to reveal his existence to the public out of fear of inciting a panic. Eventually, Godzilla passed through a mine blockade and entered Tokyo Bay before coming ashore in Ginza. Godzilla tore through the district, eventually grabbing a train in his mouth. Noriko Oishi, Shikishima's girlfriend, narrowly escaped the train before Godzilla dropped it into the water below. Shikishima arrived to rescue her as Godzilla approached, just before a group of tanks fired at him. Godzilla paused as his dorsal fins began to protrude from his back and emit a blue glow one-by-one. As they slammed back into place, he fired a blue atomic heat ray from his mouth that struck the tanks and produced a nuclear explosion that flattened most of the surrounding area. Noriko was swept away in the shockwave after pushing Shikishima to safety, leaving him screaming in grief amidst the ruins of Ginza. In the aftermath of Godzilla's raid, an estimated 30,000 civilians were killed or injured.
Noda, a former naval weapons designer, drafted a plan to destroy Godzilla with a team of civilians and former naval personnel given the government's paralysis. He proposed luring Godzilla above the deepest part of Sagami Bay and tying canisters of Freon gas to him, which when ruptured would lower the water's buoyancy and forcibly sink Godzilla to a depth of 1,500 meters, crushing him with the sudden pressure change. Should that fail, balloons would be inflated under him to rapidly bring him to the surface and destroy him via explosive decompression. Skeptical that the plan would succeed, Shikishima believed that Godzilla must be vulnerable from the inside and could be destroyed if a plane laden with explosives was flown into his mouth. He recruited the reluctant Tachibana to modify a prototype Shinden fighter for his plan.
With Godzilla approaching Tokyo once more, Noda's plan began. He threw one of the acoustic minesweepers luring him with a recording of his roar ashore, making landfall ahead of schedule. Shikishima used his nimble fighter to draw the monster to the trap point in Sagami Bay, barely dodging several strikes. Noda tricked Godzilla into firing his atomic breath at two unmanned destroyers, leaving him unable to use it again while he regenerated. Two more destroyers encircled Godzilla and tied a cable attached to Freon canisters around him. As he prepared to fire his heat ray again, the canisters were ruptured and he was forcibly pulled underwater. Upon surpassing the target depth, Godzilla immediately froze in place. Noda inflated the balloons under the monster, rapidly drawing him to the surface. The plan seemed hopeless when Godzilla tore through the balloons, until a fleet of tugboats, rallied by Mizushima, arrived to help the ships pull him the rest of the way. Upon surfacing, Godzilla's flesh began to freeze and rupture, but he hadn't sustained enough damage for the plan to succeed. Noda and the others accepted their inevitable demise as Godzilla coursed with power and prepared to unleash his atomic breath. Just then, Shikishima flew his plane into the monster's mouth, ejecting before it crashed and exploded. After the smoke cleared, the top of Godzilla's head had been destroyed, after which the accumulated atomic energy overloaded and destroyed the rest of his body. With the operation an apparent success, the people of Japan celebrated and breathed a sigh of relief.
In the aftermath of the battle, Shikishima received word that Oishi had survived Godzilla's attack; he and their adopted daughter Akiko reunited with her at a hospital. As they embraced, a veiny pattern resembling Godzilla's dorsal fins appeared on her neck. Meanwhile, a surviving fragment of Godzilla's flesh left by Shikishima's attack began to regenerate as it sank into the depths.
Abilities
Atomic breath: Godzilla's atomic breath has been creeping up in power for decades, but in Godzilla Minus One it finally reached the point of an actual nuclear weapon. Director Takashi Yamazaki has described it as “the strongest weapon on Earth" at the time of the film's 1947 setting; taken literally, this would mean it has an explosive yield exceeding that of the nuclear bomb used in the Trinity test (100 terajoules). Godzilla used it just three times in the film: against the heavy cruiser Takao, four tanks in Ginza, and two uncrewed decoy destroyers, Yukaze and Keyaki, during the opening phase of Operation Wada Tsumi. The heat rays obliterated his targets with ease, and in the latter two cases, also generated shockwaves that killed thousands in Tokyo and assailed the Yukikaze and Hibiki with massive waves. The novelization specifies that his atomic breath was hot enough to sublimate—transform instantly from a solid to a gas—the iron in Takao, as well as the National Diet Building and the surrounding structures. It also states that the shockwave of the blast in Ginza and the vacuum that followed "pulverized" everything within a six kilometer radius.
Physical capabilities: Prior to his mutation, Godzilla barreled through a watchtower on Odo Island, and killed the mechanics who opposed him with a flurry of bites, stomps, and tail whips. As a full-fledged kaiju, he demolished Takao's superstructure with his claws and did the same to the Nippon Theater, with tail whips proving even more effective against other buildings in Ginza. Later, he hurled an acoustic minesweeper a sizable distance to shore.
Intelligence: In addition to being fearsomely strong, the “Minus One” Godzilla is a skillful ambush predator. During his raid on Odo Island, he used the cover of darkness to sneak up to the airbase, launching a devastating assault as soon as a light was shone on him. He later caught the Kaishinmaru completely by surprise with an underwater strike, and destroyed the Takao by firing his atomic breath through the ship from below, out of reach of its cannons.
Amphibiousness: Godzilla has always been amphibious, but he's probably never spent so much of his screentime in the water as he does in Godzilla Minus One. (Behind the scenes, this was the result of compositor Tatsuji Nojima's uncommon skill at simulating water, one of the most difficult elements to animate.) While capable of somehow floating upright in deep water like many Godzillas before him, he also adopts a more crocodilian swimming style while on the hunt. On land, he moves slowly, but is still capable of sudden, violent action.
Regeneration and durability: The Minus One Godzilla's ability to regenerate is a natural trait which has allowed him to "survive from ancient times," as stated by Yamazaki. His novelization also spells out that Godzilla's regeneration allowed him to survive the Baker nuclear test. Godzilla was severely burned from exposure to the blast, and when he attempted to heal the damage to his skin, he underwent a rapid, full-body mutation which resulted in him taking on his familiar appearance. Godzilla first clearly demonstrated his regeneration in the film after Shikishima exploded a mine in his mouth, ripping a hole in his cheek. The kaiju floated motionless for a moment, then regrew both his skin and teeth in a matter of seconds. While stunned and injured by Takao's colossal 20cm naval guns, Godzilla quickly recovered from these attacks as well, even after a point-blank volley. The 75mm guns of the Type 4 Chi-To medium tanks sent against him in Ginza fared even worse, getting his attention but without any visible effect.
The most impressive feat of Godzilla's regenerative powers came after the destruction of his body at the conclusion of Operation Wada Tsumi. Though the vast majority of his body disintegrated into scraps, a single fragment remained alive, and began to grow as it sank into Sagami Bay.
Contamination: Following Godzilla's destruction of Ginza, police officers deployed to the ruins of the district blocked the area off from the rest of Tokyo, both due to high radiation levels and to collect “shards” of Godzilla's body. Through an unknown process, Godzilla's cells can become incorporated into the bodies of other living things, as evidenced by the mysterious dorsal fin-shaped pattern on Noriko's neck. Yamazaki waited until April to confirm the source of the pattern, adding that he made the decision to add it while he was shooting the scene. He reasoned that it would help explain how she survived the shockwave of a nuclear explosion.
Weaknesses: Godzilla's flesh is vulnerable to damage from his own atomic breath. The energy released is so intense that Godzilla's skin on his face and neck are scorched by it. This limited how often he could fire his most powerful weapon and became key to the success of Operation Wada Tsumi. Even in the heat of battle, he waited several minutes to regenerate before charging it up again.
There are several caveats to Godzilla's impressive regeneration. While he's able to repair minor injuries relatively quickly, the amount of time required for him to regenerate increases according to the magnitude of the injury. Apart from the limitations this places on his atomic breath usage, he was unable to begin regenerating from the severe decompression damage to his body before Shikishima landed the final blow with the Shinden. Godzilla's regeneration also isn't perfect, as the mine detonated inside his mouth left behind a visible light brown scar on his cheek.
Although Godzilla is able to survive at a wide range of water pressures, as evidenced by him pulling fish up from the depths when he surfaced, he cannot change depth too quickly, or he will suffer serious barotrauma.
Though his regeneration and general toughness allow him to quickly recover from or outright brush off external conventional attacks, Godzilla's insides are much more vulnerable. Shikishima sought to exploit this vulnerability by flying the Shinden, loaded with a No. 25 and No. 50 bomb, into his mouth. The resulting explosion destroyed the monster's head, with the rest of his body soon crumbling.
Trivia
Minus Color: It's become trendy for critically-praised genre films to be re-released in black-and-white. Witness "Mad Max: Fury Road - Black and Chrome," "Logan Noir," "Parasite: B&W Edition," and "Zack Snyder's Justice League: Justice is Gray." Toho jumped on the trend with "SHIN GODZILLA:ORTHOchromatic," released in October 2023, inspiring Takashi Yamazaki to begin the process of a desaturated "Godzilla Minus One" edition before the color version was even finished. Colorist Masahiro Ishiyama adjusted the saturation shot-by-shot, with a focus on emphasizing characters and making every frame, as Yamazaki requested, look like it was taken with a Leica camera. Released in Japanese theaters on January 12, 2024, and reaching the U.S. just two weeks later, "Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color" became an especially prominent example of the black-and-white edition, available on Netflix and receiving its own individual home video editions in Japan.
Godzilla Attack Truck: Toho's most imaginative stunt to promote "Godzilla Minus One" was undoubtedly the Godzilla Attack Truck, which drove 5,000 kilometers around Japan from October 18 to November 29. (You know, can't Gamera have anything for himself?) After the campaign, the statue took up residence in Nagoya's Hisaya-Odori Park from June to September. SciFi Japan has some making-of pictures, but unfortunately we don't actually know who built the thing—even the short-lived official site offers no answers.
Breaking Battle Line: Two versions of the "Minus One" Godzilla joined Godzilla Battle Line in December 2023… and almost a year later, they remain among the game's elite units. Godzilla 2023 can be summoned underwater deep into enemy territory. He'll then wait there for 25 seconds, and if any enemy units come near in that time, unleash a devastating skyward blast before surfacing. Once he surfaces, he has 15 seconds of regeneration and attacks with tail swings. As a leader, his Heat Ray takes 20% of the enemy Leader's HP and 80% of nearby enemies' HP. Godzilla 2023 (Ginza Ver.) is basically a stationary cannon. You have to summon him in your back row, but he'll proceed to charge up and fire atomic breath all the way across the field at the enemy Leader, with significant AOE. Also in December, this Godzilla appeared in the mobile game "Fleet of Blue Flames," which allows you to pit a full-fledged World War II fighting force against the King of the Monsters. Most of the zillion Godzilla mobile game collaborations are pretty random, but this one pairs well with the film's period setting and naval battles.
Go for the Gold: Takashi Yamazaki toted multiple Godzilla figures at the U.S. premiere of Godzilla Minus One, which so charmed the Americans that he just kept doing it while campaigning for the Best Visual Effects Oscar. Godzilla turned up in his pics with Steven Spielberg, Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy, and even the “class photo” with all the year's nominees. He also brought one to the Japanese Academy Film Prize ceremony, where Minus One prevailed in a series-best eight categories, including Best Picture. Then the entire VFX delegation arrived at the Oscars with Godzillas in tow, with Yamazaki's gold Godzilla even sporting a tiny bow tie, and carried them up to the stage to receive their award in what was widely considered one of the evening's highlights. In the aftermath, Bandai, never one to turn down a chance for a repaint, put out a couple of gold versions of its figures for the movie - and they weren't alone! [SOFVICS]. (No bowtie though. 🙁) The Oscar delegation's footwear, dress shoes with Godzilla claws for heels, also garnered a lot of attention. Made by Ryosuke Matsui of Hazama, they'll run you about as much as a discontinued S.H. MonsterArts figure.
That's all there is for the "Minus One" Godzilla - but we may have to update this video in the future, as mere days ago Toho announced that Yamazaki will be spearheading the next Godzilla movie. A direct sequel to "Minus One" isn't confirmed, but definitely possible. Until then, thank you for watching!
