| “ | My war isn't over. | „ |
| ~ Koichi Shikishima before embarking on Operation Wada Tsumi to kill Godzilla. |
Ensign Koichi Shikishima (敷島康一, Shikishima Kōichi) is the main protagonist of the 2023 kaiju drama film Godzilla Minus One. He is a former Japanese Kamikaze Pilot who was one of the sole survivors of Godzilla's attack on an Odo Island, an event that left him traumatized, combined with the guilt of not having sacrificed himself to his country.
After the monster returns to attack Japan 3 years later, Shikishima decides to join a paramilitary task force known as Operation Wada Tsumi, in order to finally kill the kaiju for good before it makes more victims, in hopes of making ends meet.
He's portrayed by Ryunosuke Kamiki, who also portrayed Koichi Hirose in the live action adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Taki Tachibana in Your Name, Bôh in Spirited Away and Kenji Koiso in Summer Wars.
Personality[]
Shikishima is a deeply troubled individual who's constantly afflicted by his traumatic experiences in the war, most notably his encounter with Godzilla on Odo Island. He notably always carrying an immense guilt for having deserted at last minute from performing a Kamikaze strike, which steams from his traditionalist beliefs on honor and sacrifice, originating from Imperial Japan's propaganda.
Although Shikishima is shown to be kind and altruistic, his trauma and survivor's guilt over fleeing his duty is what causes him to distance himself from people as he does not deem himself worthy of happiness, often wishing that he had died during the war. Most notably, he has a distant relationship with even his own found family, including his adopted daughter Akiko, who he's unwilling to see as his daughter due to his lack of self-worth.
Regardless of his trauma, Shikishima is shown to be extremely brave and heroic as he's willing to do anything in order to save his country and the people he loves, even if it could cost his life. Despite this, thoughout the movie, Shikishima slowly learns to accept to preserve his own life, mainly for the sake of Akiko, who he comes to accept as his own daughter.
History[]
Shikishima was a Kamikaze air force pilot for the Imperial Japanese Army who fought in World War II. During the final days of the conflict in 1945, Shikishima landed his plane into a japanese repair base on Odo Island, claiming that he could not perform his assigned suicidal attack due to a malfunction on his plane. Upon checking Shikishima's vehicle, however, Sosaku Tachibana, an aerial mechanic and old friend of his, finds no issues at all, meaning that Shikishima lied about it and had abandoned his duty as a kamikaze pilot in order to save his life. While Shikishima is wallowing in his own regret, a mechanic comes up to to him in support of his decision, saying that he wished there were more soldiers like Shikishima as he knew Japan's loss in the war was certain. While talking to him, Shikishima witnesses several dead deep sea fish floating near the island's shore.
Shikishima witnessing the bodies of his comrades after Godzilla's rampage on the Odo Island base
During that night, an air raid siren is heard on the island, which alerts everyone on the base. While initially thought of as an attack of American forces, it's then revealed to be signifying the arrival of a monster known by the residents of the island as "Godzilla". The monster attacks the base, comprised mostly of mechanics. Shikishima, being the only gunner there, is tasked by Tachibana to shoot the creature using his planes 20 mm gun before. Fearing that this could anger the monster even more, Shikishima hesitates to pull the trigger, causing the mechanics to shoot him instead, alerting Godzilla of their hiding spot. The resulting chaos leads to Godzilla rampaging through the base, leaving no survivors except for Tachibana and Shikishima, who was knocked unconscious after the monster threw and exploded his plane next to him.
Upon waking up, Shikishima witnesses Tachibana organizing the corpses of his fellow mechanics. The mechanic then furiously scolds Shikishima for his cowardice, blaming the deaths of his comrades on him. During his trip back to his homeland following the end of the war and Japan's surrender, Tachibana meets Shikishima once again on their troopship, handing him the photos he found on the bodies of his deceased men.
Shikishima returning to Tokyo, finding his home in ruins
In December 1945, Shikishima returns to his home, in Tokyo, which was devastated by the american bombings. Among the ruins, he meets with his neighbour, Sumiko Ota, who also berates Shikishima for having the nerve to abandon his post as a Kamikaze pilot. Shikishima then asks her about what happened to his parents, only to find out that they were among the casualties of the airstrike, alongside Sumiko's own children. Shikishima then reflects on a letter they had sent to him, which told him to "come back alive".
While the city reconstructs itself from the ruins, Shikishima builds a rudimentary shelter from the remains of his former home. At a food black market, Shikishima crosses paths with a woman carrying a baby who was running from several men for having stolen their blankets. He initially tries to stop her in her tracks, but the girl suddenly hands him over the baby and runs away. Now with the baby on his arms, Shikishima initially considers abandoning it, but ultimately decides not to, leading to him finding the woman again, who had been hiding nearby.
The woman, impressed by his empathy, decides to follow him home where she cooks him a meal. The woman introduces herself as Noriko Oishi and the baby as Akiko, stating that she had been taking care of the child after her mother died during the air raids. Shikishima then begrudgingly decides to let the two live with him in his shelter and help Noriko raise the little girl, with his neighbor Sumiko accepting to offer occasional assistance to them.
Shikishima joining the Shinseimaru crew
A year later, Shikishima is still living together with Noriko and Akiko. He manages to find a job as government naval minesweeper which pays well due to its risky nature. Noriko is initially concerned that the job might be way too dangerous for him, especially considering he had just gotten out of the war, but Shikishima assures her that it's perfectly safe and that she it's the best way to provide for Akiko and to keep them from starving. Shikishima joins the crew of the Shinseimaru, a small wooden boat utilized for minesweeping, which consists of the former naval scientist Kenji Noda, the captain Seiji Akitsu and the rookie Shiro Mizushima. Shikishima takes the job of the crew's sharpshooter who fires on the floating naval mines from a distance in order to detonate them. The crew very quickly warms up to him due to his marksmanship skills.
Shiro, especially takes interest in his past as a pilot, saying that he'd wished the war lasted longer so he could have enlisted, to which Shikishima angrily tells him off. That night Shikishima has a nightmare of the Godzilla massacre at Odo Island and wakes up in cold sweat. As Noriko tries to comfort him, Shikishima begins to have a panic attack, desperately asking Noriko whether or not he had actually died in the Godzilla attack and everything since them has been a dream.
As the year goes on and Tokyo gets rebuilt, Shikishima manages to provide more and more for Noriko and Akiko with his job and make several renovations for their home. One night, the crew of the Shinseimaru come over to Shikishima's house for dinner. There, they notice the strangely distant relationship between Shikishima and Noriko, as they both don't seem to consider themselves husband and wife despite living in the same roof and raising a child together. Most notably, they take issue in how Shikishima is also unable to fully embrace the role of Akiko's father, with him even telling the child that he isn't her father after she calls him "daddy". The crew tries to encourage him to accept the fact they are a family, to which Shikishima vehemently denies.
A year later, in 1947, Noriko manages to find a job as an office worker in Ginza. Shikishima is initially aprehensive about her decision, as he'd rather have her stay at home to take care of Akiko, but Noriko assures him that Sumiko would look after her while they're both away. Unbeknownst to Shikishima, the Japanese government had detected a large sea creature rapidly approaching the archipelago. The United States army refuses to give any military assistance in order to not get the attention of the Soviet Union and, due to this, the crew of the Shinseimaru is sent there in order to find the creature. They come across a destroyed US warship near the Ogasawara Islands, thinking it might be the doing of the monster.
Shikishima quickly identifies the creature as Godzilla, noticing the dead deep sea fishes washing up on the surface near the boat, similarly to what he saw on the shore of Odo Island before the attack, concluding that Godzilla had probably grown much larger ever since (a mutation caused by the radiation of the Bikini Atoll nuclear testings). In the same conversation, the crew also finds out that Shikishima was a deserted Kamikaze Pilot. Knowing that the small ship didn't stand a chance against the giant kaiju, Noda concludes that their job there is, in reality, to simply stall the creature before the singaporean cruiser Takao arrives to kill the beast.
Shikishima firing at Godzilla
Upon collecting two naval mines and while waiting for Godzilla to arrive, Noda notices Shikishima's visible distress and tells him that he also has a lot of trauma from the war which causes him to lose sleep every night. While the two are talking, Shikishima notices more and more dead fish popping up on the surface and starts desperately warning the crew that the monster was getting close. Suddenly, Godzilla emerges from the water and starts viciously chasing the boat.
As they run away from the creature, Shikishima and Noda drop a naval mine on the creature which does not do any damage and instead angers it more. Shikishima then tries to shoot it with his gun, but to, once again, no avail. Seeing that the monster's mouth was exposed, the crew tries to throw a mine inside it, but the detonation switch fails to work. Shikishima then takes it upon himself to use his sharpshooting skills to detonate the mine.
The blast destroys a portion of Godzilla's head, but the joy of the crew is short lived, as the monster begins to regenerate. Fortunately, the Takao soon arrives and begins bombing Godzilla, who then retaliates by swimming towards the cruiser and destroying it after a brief brawl with the ship.
After the attack, Shikishima wakes up in the hospital surrounded by his fellow minesweepeers who explain that Godzilla had escaped. Upon learning that the government did not warn the population to evacuate, Shikishima begins worrying about Godzilla's inevitable attack on Tokyo. After coming home, Shikishima talks to Noriko and comes clean about his past as a desertor to her, telling her about Godzilla as well as showing her the pictures he got from the victims of the Odo Island incident.
He tells her about how he feels like he wasn't supposed to have survived, to which Noriko tries to comfort him, by telling him everyone who came back from the war is meant to live. In desperation, he once again begins wondering if he's actually dead and has been dreaming the entire time and Noriko tries to assure him that they are all real. In the next morning, Shikishima wakes up to Noriko and Akiko having breakfast. Upon glazing at his parents' altar, he gets motivated to finally get over his trauma and allow himself to be happy once in for all.
Shikishima screams in anguish and rage at Godzilla after Noriko's apparent death
After Noriko leaves for her work in Ginza, Shikishima stays in the house to recover from his injuries and take care of Akiko. Suddenly he hears a public message on the radio stating that Godzilla had been reached Ginza and was currently wreacking havoc in the city. Shikishima goes to the city in order to save Noriko from the monster. He finds her frozen in fear admist the public as the army tries to gun down Godzilla using its tanks.
Suddenly Godzilla starts charging his atomic breath and fires it, creating a huge nuclear explosion which devastates the entire city. Noriko quickly pushes Shikishima into a nearby alley, saving him from atomic breath's shockwave, before she gets flung away. Shikishima, having survived the impact, stares in terror at the destroyed remains of Ginza and screams at the monster in pain, rage and hopelessness as he leaves the scene, leaving behind a mushroom cloud and black rain falling from the sky.
Devastated over having lost Noriko, Shikishima decides to enlist on a private association of citizens who are formulating an operation to kill Godzilla. He attends the meeting of the group, organized by Noda on which he details his plan to kill Godzilla, dubbed Operation Wada Tsumi, by using canisters of freon gas to sink it into the dephts of the ocean where it would be killed by the rapidly changing pressure. Shikishima is initially skeptical of the plan, but Noda ends up concincing him that the plan would work. After many participants share their concerns over the plan, many of them leave upon given the liberty to quit by the group's organizer, Tatsuo Hotta. However most of them stay in the plan, including Shikishima himself.
While the crew of the Shinseimaru go out for drinks, Noda and Mizushima discuss ways to attract Godzilla into the trap on Sagami Bay. Shikishima then suggests that he could fly a fighter plane to lure Godzilla into the trap. Akitsu angrily scolds Shikishima, asking if he has a death wish and saying that he should have married Noriko when he had the chance. Shikishima then rebukes by saying that he was going to marry her, but "his war" wasn't over.
Noda attends Shikishima's demands and presents him with an abandoned old fighter plane model on a hanger, left virtually unusable. Seeing this, Shikishima decides to contact his former friend and aerial mechanic, Tachibana in order to repair the aircraft. After unsuccessfully trying to find his current address in the post office, Shikishima decides to grab his attention by sending several inflamatory letters to Tachibana's comrades, blaming him for the Odo Island massacre. Upon hearing about Shikishima's words about him, a very drunk Tachibana goes up to his house to beat him up.
Shikishima then explains the reason for the letters, stating that he wanted his help on the mission. Tachibana initially refuses to participate, but quickly relents after Shikishima explains that he was planning to kill Godzilla using a kamikaze stunt by flying directly into its mouth on a plane loded of explosives. Afterwards, Tachibana agrees on helping Operation Wada Tsumi and begins repairing the aircraft.
Following the recommendations of Noda, who told all the volunteers of Wada Tsumi to spend the night before the operation with their families, Shikishima decides to go home to spend some time with Akiko. While talking to her, Akiko hands him a drawing she made of her, Koichi and Noriko and begins to cry, to which Shikishima tries to comfort her. The morning before the operation, Shikishima visits Tachibana in the hangar, who had finished repairing the aircraft. While Tachibana is showcasing all the changes he made to the plane, Shikishima's hand begins to tremble as he tells him that a part of him wanted to live, to which Tachibana reminds him that his comrades on Odo Island wanted to live too. Shikishima then decorates the cockpit of the plane with the photos of the deceased mechanics and the drawing of Akiko, stating that he wanted to protect her future.
Tachibana then starts showing him the location of the bomb switch and then his final and most important alteration of the plane: an ejection seat. Tachibana then grabs Shikishima by the arm and begs him to live, showcasing his change of mind towards him and his promise of a kamikaze attack.
He leaves Akiko in the care of his neighbor Sumiko before Godzilla resurfaces. As Shikishima lures Godzilla to the trap set by two destroyers, Sumiko receives a telegram intended for Shikishima. Godzilla survives the initial plunge and then breaks free before being forced back up, sustaining serious injuries from the resultant decompression-induced barotrauma. With the help of a fleet of tugboats organized by Mizushima, another crewmate from the minesweeper, the ships haul Godzilla to the surface. Enraged, Godzilla prepares to destroy all the vessels with its heat ray, but Shikishima crashes the plane into Godzilla's mouth and destroys its head, causing the energy of the heat ray to tear its body apart. The crew celebrates as Shikishima ejects before the explosion and parachutes to safety, using an ejection seat that Tachibana installed in the Shinden, imploring him to let go of his guilt and continue living.
Upon returning home, Sumiko gives Shikishima the telegram, which leads him to a hospital where he reunites with Noriko, who survived the destruction but has a black bruise creeping up her neck. Meanwhile, a chunk of Godzilla's flesh begins to regenerate as it sinks into the ocean.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the official website for Godzilla Minus One, Shikishima is erroneously referred to as Samejima.
External Links[]
- Koichi Shikishima on the Wikizilla
- Koichi Shikishima on the Godzilla Wiki
- Koichi Shikishima on the Near Pure Good Wiki
