We Call It Godzilla

 

Since 1954, Godzilla has been a pop culture giant as big as his image on the silver screen. The character’s film series has entertained viewers across the globe, maintained continued relevance, and surged to new heights of popularity even at the ripe old age of seventy. Yet a closer look at the series reveals it to be an unusual phenomenon when compared to similar longstanding pop culture titans. How is it that a non-speaking giant movie monster evolved into a character capable of sustaining decades’ worth of media, and acquired enough depth to move between wildly different narrative roles - from villain to hero and every shade in between?

I’ve been a Godzilla fan since I was four years old. Allow me to be your tour guide as I take you through the Godzilla series through the years, from the character’s origin as a metaphor for the effects of the atomic bomb on Japan through the growth that enabled him to become an enduring icon around the world. And perhaps on the way, we’ll figure out just what it means to tell a Godzilla story. We Call It Godzilla is my story, too - the story of how Godzilla influenced my life and expanded my understanding of the world.

This series is intended to be accessible for any reader, whether you’re a longtime fan or someone who couldn’t tell Godzilla from King Kong. Here’s a handy guide to get you started. The main entries, focusing on the feature film series, are formatted like this:

Basic Info
I list the film’s release year, production crew, and - for those of us nerds who liked checking movie runtimes when we were kids - how long the original Japanese cut is. For extra fun, I also include any relevant or especially notable international titles for the film, relying on the possibly dubious services of Google Translate for the ones not in English or Japanese.

What’s it About?
I describe the film’s plot. Whether or not the series’ often bizarre plotlines make a lick of sense isn’t up to me. I’m just the messenger.

Monster Appearances
I run down which city-stomping monsters feature in the film, and give a brief description so that the reader can tell - for example - which one is the giant moth goddess worshiped by two tiny twin fairies versus which one is the giant lizard with flying squirrel wings living under a lake. These are important distinctions, obviously.

Atomic Blast Count
As a child, I was very interested in how many times Godzilla fired his trademark atomic breath in each film. So this last trivia portion is here to make young me happy. Do note that this is based on my own count, and so it’s possible I may have erred here or there.

First Impressions
I do my best to recount my childhood or teenage first impressions of the film when I originally encountered it, and the life circumstances in which I did. Expect much strangeness from my childhood self trying to make sense of the eccentric spectacles on display. (This is also the first section where spoilers are likely to appear, in case one wishes to see the given film before reading).

Analysis
Finally, this is the meat of an entry. Here I dive into the film’s place in the wider Godzilla series as well as its development of both the character and the series’ themes. These won’t be reviews; though my personal opinion will certainly influence my take on a given film, I’m here to consider the wider context in which it exists.

Not all entries follow the above template, though you can expect most of them to hew to it. Notable exceptions to the template include entries covering non-film media or multiple subjects at a time.

Three additional notes before we begin:

• Though Godzilla is largely a family friendly series, these posts are intended for mature readers and may address adult topics or contain coarse language. It is recommended that any younger readers first ask a trusted parent or guardian to look over a post and check if it is age-appropriate or not.
• This project refers to Japanese names in the traditional Japanese order, with the surname first and the personal name second. For example, if I were to discuss the work of Hayao Miyazaki, I would refer to him as Miyazaki Hayo. I make exceptions for when individuals or their families prefer the name order in western style, or when there’s enough uncertainty for me to go with the western style as default (such as if an individual is a dual citizen of Japan and another country).
• Though Godzilla is largely a male-coded character, at least in the west, no definitive gender is ever assigned to Godzilla in the original Japanese films. Indeed, the Japanese language lacks gendered pronouns outright in most cases. Out of a lifelong habit, I will be using “he/him/his” to refer to Godzilla, but the reader should feel free to mentally substitute whatever pronouns they wish for the character.

With our handy guide complete, let’s dive under the waves and see what giant monsters we find there.

October 31, 2024: Starting Point

November 1, 2024: Before Godzilla: Willis O'Brien, Dinosaurs, and The Lost World (1925)
November 1, 2024: Before Godzilla: King Kong (1933)
November 2, 2024: Before Godzilla: Son of Kong
November 2, 2024: Before Godzilla: Mighty Joe Young, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Them!
November 3, 2024: "The Story of the Century": Gojira/Godzilla (1954)
January 4, 2025: Godzilla Raids Again