| “ | When Godzilla appeared 30 years ago, it was regarded by the Odo Islanders as a legendary monster come to life. When the world is in chaos, monsters appear. Legends like this are all over the world. The return of Godzilla means the world is going to be in turmoil. I just want to send it home. | „ |
| ~ Professor Hayashida, The Return of Godzilla. |
Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira) is the main protagonist of Heisei era of Godzilla franchise.
One of the last living members of prehistoric species of dinosaurs called Godzillasaurus that used to inhabit Lagos Island, Godzilla was exposed to a massive dose of radiation through being teleported to Bering Sea by humans from year 2204 and subsequent crash of Soviet nuclear submarine in 1970s, mutating him into a ginormous atomic beast single-mindedly set on completely destroying Japan and locating other living members of his kind.
Appearance[]
In his original form, Godzillasaurus resembled early 20th Century reconstructions of carnivore dinosaurs, having upright posture, proportionally small head with double set of sharp teeth, grey eyes, long neck, greyish-beige scaly skin texture, small arms with three clawed digits per hand, three toes with characteristic ankle claw on each foot, as well as long tail that drags behind the dinosaur. He stood at 12 metres (39.3 ft) and weighted 60 metric tons (66.14 US tons).
Godzilla's first stage of mutation possessed rather massive head with small pointy ears and large eyes with brown iris, thick lips with sharp needle-like teeth underneath, massive frame with dark-grey scaly skin, proportionally larger bent arms with three clawed fingers and thumb, four clawed toes without ankle claw, and much longer tail. In addition to that, Godzilla has developed bone-white, leaf-shaped dorsal plates on his back. He stands at 80 metres (262.4 ft) tall, 180 metres (590.55 ft) long, and has mass of 50,000 metric tons (55,116 US tons). Strangely, he lacks double set of teeth.
After spending five years in a volcano, Godzilla's head became smaller and more feline-like in appearance, having nostrils close to each other and irises taking almost entirety of eye sockets. He has double set of teeth instead of fangs, his neck is longer and body more muscular, especially around the chest and thigh area. The size of his dorsal plates was also increased, making lateral row almost the size of center row. In an aftermath of absorbing Soviet nuclear submarine, Godzilla stood at full 100 metres (328.08 ft) in height, 200 metres (656.16 ft) in length, and weighted 60,000 metric tons (66,139 US tons), gaining even more muscular appearance and vicious face.
When entering critical mass state, Godzilla became more massive in build and developed radiating orange-yellow spots all over his body, particularly on his torso, belly, thighs and shoulders, which have vein-like patterns coming off of them. His eyeballs are red and pulsating, with golden irises, whereas dorsal plates change color from white to reddish-orange. His size remains unchanged.
Personality[]
Godzilla is animalistic, aggressive and easily irritable, attacking humanity mostly due to his need to regularly absorb nuclear energy, but also due to his grudge against Japan during World War II, when he was left for death after risking his life. He attacks military with little to no provocation due to trauma of his injuries, and showed an ability to remember human faces for decades. While he faces against and kills other giant monsters, it is implied that he does so by defending his territory, and likewise would immediately become the main threat to Japan after killing his rivals.
Despite these tendencies, Godzilla actually seeks out other members of his kind due to feeling lonely in strange, modern world and also due to his need for successor. For that reason, he decided to abandon his goal of destroying Japan and halted his attacks, preferring to live a quiet life on Baas Island with his adopted son, Godzilla Junior. After the island exploded due to unstable uranium deposits, Godzilla went back to destroying cities due to being in immense and constant agony of his burning form. However, he appeared to have accepted his incoming death after Destoroyah killed Junior.
In combat, Godzilla is an adaptable opportunist, capable of forming new techniques on fly and finding weak spots on both machines' and monsters' bodies. He cannot be defeated the same way twice, implying that Godzilla actively learns from his defeats at the hands of humanity. While he was initially portrayed as an animal who would easily fall into traps, such as Mount Mihara, Godzilla overtime developed human-like sapience, being able to figure out that cockpit was Mecha-King Ghidorah's weak spot and that SpaceGodzilla relies on Fukuoka Tower to power himself. He also did not stray away from barbarian brutality on his enemies, as demonstrated when he bit out Battra's throat and fired atomic breath into an open wound.
Trivia[]
- This incarnation of Godzilla was originally intended to be mutated Tyrannosaurus rex, however concept artist Shinji Nishikawa could not accept the idea that Godzilla was mutated from real-life species.
- This version of Godzilla shares several traits similar to Hulk from Marvel Comics, such as destructive nature, radiation-based powers, desire to be left alone, starting out as villains and gradually changing into anti-heroes, ability to resist telepathy, spawning mutants based on their DNA, extremely powerful form that would eventually destroy the world (World Breaker Hulk/Burning Godzilla), and having potential future where they severely cripple humanity (Maestro/Futurian Japan).
- This incarnation of Godzilla was the first to introduce the concept of Godzilla-based mutants into movies, starting out with Biollante. However, this concept was predated by Raban from 1958 manga Monster Raban, who also possessed Godzilla's DNA.
- At the time, this version of Godzilla was the tallest and heaviest movie incarnation until it was surpassed by Legendary Pictures' version of Godzilla. However, he was tied with GTS incarnation for heaviest version and GFW incarnation for the tallest movie Godzilla.
- However, he was never the tallest Godzilla ever, as Hanna Barbera Godzilla stood at 121.92 metres (400 feet) and Marvel Comics Godzilla stood at 184 metres (603.67 feet).
Gallery[]
