| “ | Ohara, it’s working! I hope you two will be happy.. Farewell.. Farewell.. | „ |
| ~ Dr Serizawa’s last words before emerging himself in Godzilla’s presence to destroy him. |
Dr. Daisuke Serizawa is the overarching protagonist of the Heisei era in the Godzilla franchise, serving as the deuteragonist of the 1954 film, Godzilla and the posthumous overarching protagonist of the rest of the films.
He was portrayed by the late Akihiko Hirata.
Biography[]
Serizawa was a young colleague of paleontologist Kyohei Yamane, and also fought in combat during WWII, where he lost his right eye in battle.
After the war, Dr. Serizawa became a scientist, who studied elements and their effects on other objects and organisms, and eventually discovering a new element that could create a destructive chemical reaction that liquefied molecules by separating their oxygen atoms known as "micro-oxygen". Initially, he was horrified by the destructive potential of his "Oxygen Destroyer". However, he chose to continue researching it, confident that he could take it beyond its raw form and develop it to benefit society. Meanwhile he kept its existence secret from everyone.
Shortly after the first sightings of Godzilla, Dr. Serizawa decided to reveal his secret experiments to Kyohei's daughter Emiko when she visited his home. After shocking her with the horrific effects of the Oxygen Destroyer, he swore her to secrecy, explaining that he knew that the world was not ready to know of such a terrible weapon. He remained in his lab during Godzilla's attacks on Tokyo, continuing his research.
Emiko soon returned to Serizawa's lab with Hideo Ogata in tow, hoping to convince him to use the Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. Serizawa adamantly refused, explaining that his weapon would only begin a new age of terror once the world saw what it could do. He briefly scuffled with Ogata in defense of his decision, but eventually paused when he saw a report about the destruction Godzilla had brought upon Tokyo. Shaken by the utter destruction, Serizawa finally agreed to use his device, but warned Ogata that he would only use it once. Afterwards, he burned all of his micro-oxygen research papers.
When Serizawa and Ogota found Godzilla on the seabed, Serizawa activated the device and watched Ogata return to the surface before cutting his own line and dying with the monster. With the only copy of the Oxygen Destroyer used up, his notes destroyed, and his own life at an end, Dr. Serizawa hoped to ensure that no one would ever discover the same terrible power he had just unleashed.
Trivia[]
- Aligning with the movie's themes, it's possible that Serizawa might be based off the real life scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the atomic bomb. Much like Oppenheimer, Serizawa in the movie was also responsible for the creation of a weapon of mass destruction, and also later felt remorse and regret in having created it.
- In the American version of the movie, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, Serizawa is rewritten to be an old college friend of Steve Martin. While no scenes of the two interacting with eachother were shot, they share a telephone conversation at some point, made of spliced scenes of Serizawa from the original movie.
- Kenji Noda, the former scientist of Imperial Japanese Navy in Godzilla: Minus One, serves as indirect nod to Daisuke Serizawa. Like the latter, he was involved in World War II albeit as Military Naval scientist and even holds an important role in defeating the titular kaiju.
- At the same tims however, Kenji contrasted Serizawa for following reasons:
- He simply befriends Noriko Oishi (Emiko Yamane's equivalent) and roots for her to be with Koichi rather than in potential love triangle drama like between Serizawa, Emiko, and Hideo.
- Kenji survives in the aftermath of the conflict against Godzilla while Daisuke Serizawa didn't.
- He didn't develop Oxygen Destroyer nor similar weapon of mass destruction to kill Godzilla due to his country was too crippled to provide necessary fund and resources thus had to improvise with freon gas and balloons with which he and his allies subjected Godzilla in explosive decompression. Even if he had everything he needed, it's unlikely he would attempt to such a thing given to his disillusionment over Japanese government's mindset (disregard over life) at the time.
- At the same tims however, Kenji contrasted Serizawa for following reasons:
