Why Godzilla plays so differently in America and Japan
Godzilla Minus One and Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters demonstrate the clearly distinct approaches to the storied character
Film Features Godzilla
Some of the best moments of the new Apple TV+ series Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters happen when Godzilla shows up, even when it’s just a reminder that he exists somewhere in that world, the same one depicted in the MonsterVerse movies produced by Legendary. It’s similar to the thrill when one of the Avengers stops by for a cameo on a Marvel show, making the whole thing seem bigger and more exciting thanks to its association with a character from the movies. In the case of Monarch, though, that character just happens to be Godzilla, rather than James Rhodes or whoever.
While Godzilla has always been an icon in his home country of Japan—where he’s seen as a sort of city-smashing, radiation-blasting Mickey Mouse—the two most recent Godzilla movies from Japan (2016’s Shin Godzilla and the brand new Godzilla Minus One) have taken a somewhat different approach to their depiction of him. For one thing: He’s a monster.
Monarch and the recent American movies (the 2014 Godzilla, 2019’s Godzilla: King Of Monsters, and 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong) are largely about the awe-inspiring majesty of Godzilla, with humanity just politely stepping out of the way so he can battle whatever other big monster he needs to battle—to the point where it’s almost a novelty that a character in Monarch suffers from Godzilla PTSD. Everyone else has just more or less accepted that mankind shares the planet with these “Titans” (as they’re called in that canon), and they do their best to live their lives with that knowledge.
In Japan, though, Godzilla has always had more metaphorical depth, for one wholly unsurprising reason. The original 1954 Godzilla movie famously presents the monster as both a retribution for mankind’s use of the atomic bomb (since he was created by radioactive energy) and a physical embodiment of the destruction caused by the bombs.
Shin Godzilla, written and co-directed by Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno (a man who is no stranger to metaphors upon metaphors), adds another chilling wrinkle to the nuclear war imagery by introducing Godzilla as a natural disaster akin to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident. In the film, Godzilla first makes landfall as a (relatively) small lizard creature, scuttling through the water and carrying discarded boats and chunks of bridges like debris in a tidal wave, all while the government hems and haws about how to respond with meetings upon meetings upon meetings (and the United States refuses to help).
Some of Toho’s Godzilla movies have made the main guy cute or funny, and he’s just kind of a badass in the MonsterVerse movies (where he’s a metaphor for “monsters are cool”), but Shin Godzilla’s monster is horrific. This isn’t a fun, misunderstood guy that Millie Bobby Brown would sympathize with (like in King Of The Monsters), this is a disgusting, mutated beast that exists only to kill—a physical embodiment of death and destruction, like a natural disaster, or the radioactive fallout from a power plant that got hit by a natural disaster. In short, if there were a Monarch-style TV show set in the world of Shin Godzilla, where regular people go about their lives in a world where Godzilla exists, it would not be fun when he shows up. It would be terrifying.
The same goes for Godzilla Minus One, a period piece pointedly set in post-World War II Japan where the big guy is once again awoken/created by American nuclear bomb tests. Visually, he’s not quite the unnerving creature of Shin Godzilla, which looks like the twisted result of mankind’s hubristic devastation of the environment, but he’s also not the huggable, friend-shaped lizard that everyone wanted Kong to kiss in the last American movie. (Don’t deny that you’d want to give Current American Godzilla a hug if your arms were big enough.)
Minus One, notably, is also the first Godzilla movie to come out in the wake of another disaster, this one the global COVID-19 pandemic. Shin Godzilla poked a lot of fun at government bureaucracy (there’s one sequence where a meeting is interrupted by the need for a second meeting about the first meeting, and then everyone goes back and continues the first meeting), but people all over the world now have seen what happens in real life when under-prepared governments are unable or unwilling to react to a massive threat. COVID doesn’t look like Godzilla just like radiation doesn’t look like Godzilla, but that’s part of the lasting power of the character in Japan: There are a lot of unfathomably large things to be scared of in the world, and it helps to put a big face and tail and dorsal plates on it.
None of this is to say that the MonsterVerse movies are bad, or even a misinterpretation of the character. They serve different audiences and have different goals. Knowing Americans and American audiences, “this monster represents a bad thing that some people pretend doesn’t exist anyway” is a tougher sell than “this monster represents monsters.” It’s a more basic fun, but it is also, arguably, more fun. And, in a very rare instance over Godzilla’s nearly seven-decade history, you can experience both interpretations this weekend with Godzilla Minus One in theaters and a new episode of Monarch on Apple TV+.
65 Comments
As impressive as all of this new technology is, making Godzilla look like a real, honest-to-God creature, nothing beats the magic of when I was a little kid, tuning into Creature Features after school, and watching some guy in a rubber suit trampling all over a model of Tokyo.
And why doesn’t Godzilla dance anymore?
Was literally going to post this!!
Every year for the past few, Toho has put out a Godzilla short or 2 in November to celebrate G’s anniversary. Several of them use suitmation with modern touches and tech and they are glorious. All available on YT – one with Hedorah, one with Megalon, and this year’s with Jet Jaguar.
Yeah, I loved that shit. That would be my insane use of Powerball moneybuild the city and make them film me destorying it in the suit.
there’s one sequence where a meeting is interrupted by the need for a second meeting about the first meeting, and then everyone goes back and continues the first meetingThis is only amusing if you have never been forced to have a “pre-meeting” to discuss what will be discussed at the actual meeting. As I pointed out at the time (unsuccessfully), this is commonly known as an “agenda” and is the literal embodiment of “this meeting should have been an email.”
I like where you’re going with this. We should discuss it further. When are you available to meet?
I’m pretty busy. Friday at 3PM work for you?
It should. Let’s discuss that time at 10:30am tomorrow in Conference Room C?
I’m available to huddle for 10 around 9am to pick a conference room for the 10:30.
I’ll happily await you all raising a flag and opening your kimonos.
My nose is already in the tent.
I’m usually taking my morning shit around 1030am, how does 1130 am sound?
Can’t believe no one is talking about the Post-Meeting Meeting to discuss how the meetings went and to strategize for the next Pre-Meeting.
I despise the “Lessons Learned” meetings the most.
We have pre-meetings to make sure all our “narratives” are on the same page for the report to the customer and a list is made of facts we are absolutley not sharing about ongoing construction. “Ration the list of problems, never too many at once”Some people might call that euphemistic language. They would be correct.
In the remake these meetings will be shown in multiple screens on Zoom.
The Minus One and Legendary Godzillas look very, very similar, with just the size of the dorsal spikes being biggest difference.
I’d say that Minus One Godzilla looks more like Heisei Godzilla than any other one. But I can see the comparison to Monsterverse Godzilla
Question for the people who weren’t paying close attention. Did anyone else think the building in the thumbnail looked like Batman for a brief moment?
Lego Batman, yeah
“It turns out that all the monsters are dudes. Even the big scaly one.”
Tell me you wouldn’t drop everything to watch Batman Vs Godzilla: Dawn Of Monsters.
I would just for the giant Mecha Bat Suit Batman uses to fight Godzilla in the climax.
Batman perched atop Godzilla’s head, steering him around like Ratatouille.
Batatouille?!
Damn, that was right there and I missed it.
Well…
Lol you mean like the one that will appear at some point during the battle with the Justice League in the comic?
It’ll be Marty Scorsese’s masterpiece!
With DeNiro (and his mole) phoning in his performance!
We came very close to getting a Japanese Batman/Godzilla movie in the 60s starring Adam West and Burt Ward.
Godzilla: GRRARRRAWWWRARRROOOO!
Batman: Why did you say that name?!
Ask and you shall receive…
My life is improved for knowing it exists, but that is a terrible cover, unless Wonder Woman becoming twenty feet tall is a plot point.
Not only will I watch it, I’ll pay for the cocaine necessary to get the script written.
I would call out of work if that suddenly existed.
Yes, 100% my initial thought.
There’s literally a DC vs. Godzilla/King Kong event going on in DC comics right now. I’ve been waiting for some sort of trade paperback so I can down the ridiculousness in one shot.
Definitely thought that.
Wait till Godzilla gets to Nashville.
Is it just the picture or does downtown Nashville look more fake than New York, New York in Vegas?
“why yes esteemed members of the city building control board, it absolutely IS necessary to install such enormous servomotors, gears, and hydraulic lifts within the structure of this building. and yes, the greeting sculpture does look somewhat like a giant sword protruding from the ground, but nashville’s skyline deserves nothing but our best! we can’t let the future down!”
Absolutely yes
Yes!
Lol for a quick second I had that exact same thought!
I did, and for some reason I didn’t question it.
I think the differences of opinion stem from the original opinion of the nuclear bomb. One nation built it, and learned to love it’s destructive power, while another nation was destroyed by it.
I agree with you and someone pointed that out in Pacific Rim – atom bombs are the problem in Japanese kaiju movies, they are the solution in American kaiju movies
A variation of that theme: I saw a post online once saying that in American fiction radiation creates superheroes and in Japanese fiction it creates monsters, to which someone replied, “It’s almost as if the two countries have very different associations with nuclear radiation.”
Everyone else has just more or less accepted that mankind shares the planet with these “Titans” (as they’re called in that canon), and they do their best to live their lives with that knowledge.
Simpons already did it , as is tradition.
Thankyou for also reminding me of “Battling Seizure Robots”.
What a fucking gag.
You see, Japanese kaiju rampage through a city line this . . . “SKREEK SKRONK SMASH!” But American kaiju, they rampage through a city like this . . . “SKROAR SKRAGE CRUSH!” Am I right!? This guy knows what I’m talking about!
*slapping knee* Damn, this guy’s really telling it like it is!
Just an FYI, the free streaming channel Pluto TV has a 24/7 Godzilla channel and its pretty wonderful.
I can vouch for its wonderfulness!
Amen!
My only complaint is I wish that they had the option for the dubbed version. Granted I love the Subtitled originals, but I grew up with the dubbed ones on TV.
I did too, but Toho wants the subbed versions to be the only ones out there at this point. Thankfully I have all the dubbed versions I grew up with on DVD/VHS and saved on an external hard drive.
Thanks for the tip!!
In Japan especially, Godzilla has always functioned as a political metaphor over what’s contemporarily relevant, be it the bomb, American military bases, fighting off invasive giant moths, etc.I found this article pretty illuminating on how the latest Godzilla movies reflect the political struggle over Japanese remilitarization:
https://markalite.substack.com/p/shin-godzilla-vs-gmk-the-battle-over
That shot in Godzilla vs Kong where Godzilla kicks Kong’s ass and they go to a close-up shot of Godzilla’s face where there’s a slight smile crossing his mug…it kills me every time I catch it on TV. Godzilla feeling satisfaction for a job well done…too cool.
At a very base level it probably has something to do with how we destroyed two cities with nuclear bombs and have never been truly held accountable. They see the horror in it; we see escapist fun.
Cuz one of them got nukes dropped on it by the other, with Godzilla being an artistic response to that and events of the next decade? One that genuienly moved the medium of film foward and long ago justified its place in cinema history?Then they made dozens of (fantastic) silly movies where dudes in suits beat each other up in fake cities.Then America made one atoricious Godzilla, a couple bad Godzilla and one “ok”.While Japan has produced what is (hopefully) the second excellent Godzilla film in under a decade, because they hired people with actual talent to be involved.I’m only half playing, I consume anything Godzilla or Kaiju related, I was obsessed with Showa era movies as a kid.