is a giant monster, or ''kaiju'', that appears as the Title character, titular antagonist of the 2023 film ''Godzilla Minus One'', the 37th entry in the Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' film series. It was adapted and co-designed by Takashi Yamazaki. In ''Godzilla Minus One'', it is depicted as a huge, dinosaurian creature, known only by the people of List of fictional islands#O, Odo Island, who was irradiated by Nuclear weapons testing, nuclear bomb testings during Operation Crossroads in 1946, causing it to enact terrible vengeance on Human, humanity by wreaking havoc across Postwar Japan, post-war Japan. The ensuing calamity and advent of Godzilla brings put Empire of Japan, Japan to a state of "below zero" following the aftermath of World War II. While the character is never referred to as "Godzilla Minus One", or simply "Minus One" in the film, the names were reflected in official merchandise following the release of the film, a similar case with Shin Godzilla (character), Shin Godzilla; the character is referred to by both the katakana "Gojira" and its English translation "Godzilla" interchangeably in the film.

Overview

Design

Yamazaki previously created a similar version of Godzilla for ''Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle'' (2021), a 5-minute flying Theatre, theater Amusement ride, ride that debuted at Seibu-en in 2021. He designed the ''Ride'' incarnation through sketches and digital sculpting in ZBrush, with modeling head Kosuke Taguchi creating the final, 380-million-polygon model. Yamazaki combined elements from the Godzilla (Heisei), Heisei and Godzilla (Monsterverse), Monsterverse iterations for this heroic incarnation. Aware that the theater ride would contain aerial shots of the ''kaiju'', Yamazaki gave it a small head and large thighs. Yamazaki described Godzilla 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, Yamazaki worked with the VFX company that gave him his start of film industry, Shirogumi, and came to view ''Godzilla the Ride'' as a test function for ''Godzilla Minus One''. Shirogumi came to learn just how frightening Godzilla could be in close-ups, which informed the approach they would take to 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 ''Ride'' design as a starting point for the ''Minus One'' design. Once again, Yamazaki made a rough model in ZBrush and Taguchi expanded it into something detailed enough for IMAX theaters. In the process, Godzilla became "sharper and more pointy", especially its dorsal plates. Its eyes were "golden, almond-shaped", almost human, and relatively small in imitation of Hollywood Godzillas. Like ''Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah'' (1991), Godzilla first appears in a pre-irradiated form during World War II. The initial form was given a stance and proportions closer to that of a Theropoda, theropod dinosaur; Behind-the-scenes, behind the scenes, a muscle simulation was conducted to make it move more convincingly. Such measures were deliberately avoided with the irradiated Godzilla, who Yamazaki viewed as "both a monster and a deity", to keep it from moving too animalistically. Shirogumi also forewent Motion-capture acting, performance capture, in contrast with ''Shin Godzilla'' (2016). A Model, physical model of Godzilla was 3D printing, 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''." Yamazaki's wife, Shimako Satō, Shimako Sato, also observed that Godzilla's behavior reminded her of the two cats they got prior to starting production. Yamazaki believed he was subconsciously nudging his animators towards giving the ''kaiju'' more feline tendencies, explaining: "Right before we went into production, [my wife and I] actually got a couple of cats. And I love my cats so much, so perhaps there was a subconscious tendency for me to sign off on [visual effects] shots that looked like them or just looked more cat-like."

Roar

For this Godzilla's roar, sound designer Natsuko Inoue used the roars played over the opening credits of the 1954 film as a starting point, then "gradually add[ed] width and deep bass tones." Inoue 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.

Character's biography

''Godzilla Minus One'' (2023)

In 1945, Godzilla first appeared on Odo Island, resembling a fifteen-meter-tall theropod-like reptile and slaughtered the inhabitants of the military base, leaving Koichi Shikishima and Sosaku Tachibana the only survivors from the attack. He first demolished the watchtower and killed the officer stationed there before searching for his comrades who hid in a nearby trench. Though he was ordered to bombard the creature with his plane's guns, Shikishima was too paralyzed by fear to do so, leading his comrades to snap and open fire on Godzilla themselves. Predictably, their guns only enraged the creature, who then proceeded to massacre the soldiers as soon as they scrambled out of cover. The one-sided battle culminated with Godzilla destroying Shikishima's plane and knocking its pilot out before leaving. A year later, Godzilla was caught up in Operation Crossroads and mutated into a fifty-meter-tall behemoth and proceeded to destroy the American fleet before making its way into Japanese waters. Due to the rising tensions between the USA and USSR, the U.S. could not deploy their forces to intercept with the beast. In 1947, Godzilla destroyed a ship out at the sea which was then found by Shikishima and his colleagues on board of the minesweeper ''Shinsei Maru''. The sight of surrounding dead deep-sea fishes there alarmed Shikishima who finally revealed to his colleagues the culprit of the attack to be the same creature who laid waste upon the outpost at Odo Island back in 1945 as opposed of American forces. Godzilla revealed himself by ambushing the ''Kaishin Maru'', the sister ship of ''Shinsei Maru'' which accompanied them before chasing the group. During the chase, they detonated both sea mines aboard the boat to stop the creature where the last mine burst inside Godzilla's mouth, severely wounding him, but the damage was quickly undone due to Godzilla's enhanced regenerative abilities. It was then intercepted by the Japanese cruiser Takao (1930), heavy cruiser ''Takao'' and proceeded to battle the vessel before it managed to get the drop on it and destroy it with its heat ray, much to Shikishima and his colleague's horror and utter disbelief. Later, Godzilla would make landfall in Tokyo and proceed to destroy Ginza. After being fired upon by the remnants of the Japanese army, Godzilla retaliated by firing its heat ray towards the tanks within Ginza, causing an explosion that destroyed a massive portion of Ginza, after roaring at the mushroom cloud in the sky, and Shikishima screaming in grief, Godzilla returned to the sea. With the Japanese government wanting no part in Godzilla's eradication, the civilians and veterans of WWII had to take matters into their own hands. For that, they formulated Operation Wada Tsumi, a plan to kill Godzilla by using explosive decompression by using canisters of Freon gas and balloons tied around him. Shikishima led Godzilla out into the attack point using a ''Shinden'' fighter plane that Tachibana had modified prior. While the plan to sink Godzilla failed, they opted to kill Godzilla by bringing him up to the surface at a fast rate. While the effort managed to injure him, with the help of additional naval craft, however, this wasn't enough as Godzilla surfaced once more. Now absolutely furious, he prepared to fire another heat ray at the nearby warships. However, at the last second, Shikishima flew his ''Shinden'' into the kaiju's mouth, blowing up the monster's head, after Shikishima had ejected himself from the plane, the explosion caused Godzilla's built-up atomic energies to explode from the inside out. At the end of the film, a portion of Godzilla's corpse had still contained living matter and proceeded to regenerate as it sank deeper to the bottom of the ocean.

Appearances

Films

* ''Godzilla Minus One'' (2023)

Books

* ''Novel Version: Godzilla Minus One'' (2023)

Games

* ''Godzilla Battle Line'' (2021; mod to the game in 2023) - on Android, iOS, and PC * ''Fleet of Blue Flames'' (2017; mod to the game 2023) - on Android, iOS, and PC

Public displays

On July 14, 2023, Prior to the premiering of the film, a statue of Godzilla was installed at the Toho Cinemas in Hibiya. In June 2024, a tall monument of Godzilla's head and neck was built at Hisaya-Odori Park in central Nagoya, Nagoya, Chūbu to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the ''Godzilla'' franchise. In 2025, a statue of Godzilla was constructed at Fukuoka, Kyushu, this statue was made from straw.

Notes

References

{{Godzilla Godzilla characters, Godzilla (Minus One) Kaiju Antagonists Fictional mutants Fictional prehistoric characters Fictional prehistoric animals Fictional dinosaurs Fictional monsters Fictional reptiles Fictional sea monsters Fictional characters with nuclear or radiation abilities Animal supervillains Fictional characters with fire or heat abilities Fictional mass murderers Fictional giants Fictional characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability Fictional aquatic animals Film characters introduced in 2023 Godzilla (character) Fire-breathing monsters