#Yokkaichi Industrial Complex

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[namesisfortombstones]

My article in the most recent G-Fan about how the Showa Godzilla was never such a bad guy was cut up quite a bit for... reasons, I guess. Here’s what I originally turned in for posterity. I think it works better, honestly. Have you ever had somebody talk about you behind your back? Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do? Have you ever had to suffer to consequences of something somebody else did? Chances are at least one, if not all of these, have happened to you at some point in your lives. Unfortunately, Godzilla is no different.            G-Fans (at least on this side of the Pacific) tend to demand that every time out Godzilla the character and the movie he's in be exactly just like the original movie. The problem is, that's just not the case and never has been. As a result, anything after Mothra vs. Godzilla usually gets derided in some manner or twisted around to fit a point of view rather than be taken at its face value. So, it's way past time that we take a look at what exactly it is that Godzilla has done and possibly re-evaluate who he really is as a character, rather than what you'd have him be.            In 1954, the original Godzilla was fueled by anger towards mankind for what they'd done to him with atomic weapons. When he came onto land, nothing stood in his way. Electrical wires with 300,000 volts managed to give him pause until he figured out he could take down the towers (note that Godzilla steps over the wires once they're down). From that point, he begins to actively annihilate Tokyo in such a manner only comparable to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The raid manages to slake Godzilla's fury so much that when the Japanese air force appears on the scene, he doesn't even bother to assault them. He avoids and ducks their missiles, but never once does he try attacking them (in fact, at one point, Godzilla even stops entirely, studies what's going on, and then continues on his merry way back into Tokyo Bay).            After what he probably presumed was getting even with mankind, would Godzilla have caused such a holocaust of destruction again? Emiko, Ogata, and Steve Martin were certainly terrified that he would. Alas, there is no decisive answer to that question because Godzilla is killed in Tokyo Bay by Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer shortly afterward. And the reason I even put it to question is that while Godzilla is under the sea with Ogata and Serizawa, never once does he show any malice towards them. Not once does it look as if he will attack them. All Godzilla shows is some passing curiosity at what the two men are up to in his home. This Godzilla was certainly capable of death-dealing and utter obliteration, but would he do it again? Did he get it out of his system, so to speak? We have no true way to know because that character's journey ends there.            In 1955, the second Godzilla (henceforth referred to as "the Showa Godzilla") appeared. He was discovered by two pilots on a small island fighting a new monster, Angilas. How long had the Showa Godzilla been active? Had he just awakened or had he been awakened by the same bomb that activated the original Godzilla? We have no way to truly know but what we do know is that his existence was completely unknown to that point.            The Japanese are understandably terrified at this development, but they base their actions and responses upon what the original Godzilla did. This Godzilla had done nothing. The problem that they have is they want Godzilla gone. They absolutely refuse to acknowledge a.) his existence is mankind's doing and b.) that he has the right to exist just as much as they do and would continue with this mindset for years to come.            The Showa Godzilla eventually does wander onshore for the first time ever in Osaka. At this point, he—who, I reitterate had done nothing to mankind—is greeted with an all-out assault by the self defense forces. It's worth pointing out that not once does Godzilla attack his assaulters other than finally blasting a jet out of the sky (likely in understandable annoyance). Not once does he cause any intentional destruction (destruction caused by Godzillas should be demarcated into two kinds: intentional and unintentional brought about by the monster's giant size).            Soon afterward, Angilas comes ashore in the same place and he and Godzilla begin their battle anew, absolutely ignoring the blasts from the defense force. In the ensuing battle, Osaka is trampled to the ground and finally, Godzilla is victorious. What does he do then? Does he hang around and destroy what's left of Osaka? No, he almost immediately heads back out to sea.            It is at this point that mankind begins to do something they would continue to do for years to come: harass the Showa Godzilla while he's minding his own business. Our heroic pilot Tsukioka spots Godzilla swimming in the sea and reports his location to the military. Godzilla wanders ashore again on snowy Kamiko Island. While wandering about the uninhabited island, he is continually buzzed by pilot Kobayashi until the defense forces can arrive. Kobayashi presses his luck one time too many and Godzilla responds the same way any of us would to a fly buzzing around our heads: he swats him (granted, Godzilla's swats come in the form of thermonuclear death rays).            The defense forces then decide to bury Godzilla in the snow from the island's mountaintops. Only at this point does Godzilla begin to fight back, but in an offhand, perfunctory manner. Godzilla never even attempts to leave. He just loiters around, lets jets zoom around him (though he does manage to catch one and toss it to the ground), and for his lack of action is buried in the snow. Some counterattack (the movie is known in Japan as Godzilla's Counterattack)... let's not even mention the fact he didn't even raid again. What did the Showa Godzilla do to deserve any of this? He existed, that's what.            By 1962, a piece of Kamiko Island had apparently broken off and begun to float southward. Godzilla reawakened but was still trapped inside the frozen-solid mass of ice. The U.N. submarine Seahawk crashing into this iceberg probably helped Godzilla to break free (Godzilla does attack and presumably destroys the Seahawk, but he most likely had no idea what it was and was irritated at being trapped inside a gigantic chunk of ice. Have you ever hit/slapped someone inadvertently when they surprise you while you're asleep? I bet you have). Godzilla immediately begins swimming his way south, but manages to come too close to an arctic military base. The base attacks Godzilla with everything they can muster... while he is out at sea not bothering anyone. Godzilla responds by turning his attention towards the base and destroying it in retaliation. Afterwards, he once more slips into the sea and continues on his way.            The Japanese are once again up in arms about Godzilla's resurrection for no truly good reason other than he's big and could come ashore again. The spectre of the actions of the original Godzilla still haunts Japan and the Showa Godzilla is paying for them through no fault of his own. The U.N. even gets involved and declares that "allowing Godzilla to live would mean the end of the world as we know it." That's a little dramatic.            Eventually, Godzilla does come ashore in the northernmost portion of Honshu. He does destroy the Tsugaru Express train, but it's more of an "it's in my way" stomping rather than a calculated attack. Even though Fumiko is terrified Godzilla is coming after her, Godzilla never once seems interested in her or any of the other fleeing passengers trying to get away. Godzilla just goes on his way, leaving everyone alone.            From this point on, the Japanese begin their assault tactics against Godzilla, who has been wandering around in the Japanese countryside where nobody lives. For his trouble not attacking their cities, Godzilla is dumped into a hole with poison gas and explosives. Unsurprisingly, all it does is manage to annoy Godzilla. At this point, does Godzilla decide to head to Tokyo for a destructive fit or is he trying to get at that giant ape he encountered back at Chuzenji Lake in Nikko? We may never know because when he encounters the military's electrical blockade. Godzilla takes one swipe at it and being shocked by its one million volts of electricity, he decides he wants nothing to do with it. Not being as angry or violent as the original Godzilla, he doesn't have the desire to destroy Tokyo and hussles himself over to Mt. Fuji... where nobody lives.            Godzilla presumably stays there all night as the military sights he's at Fuji in the middle of the night during their dealings with King Kong. The Japanese get the bright idea to bring Kong and Godzilla together again in hopes they will kill each other in the resultant fight. While it takes all night and into the early morning to haul King Kong from the Diet Building in Tokyo to the Fuji area, Godzilla is eventually discovered near the top of the inactive volcano, tooling around and not bothering anybody.            What happens next? The Japanese figuratively drop the great ape onto Godzilla's head. The ensuing brawl between the two behemoths takes them up into the crater of Mt. Fuji, down the side of Mt. Fuji and an unbelievably long stretch across Japan (that we're apparently not privvy to) to Atami Castle. Godzilla and Kong tumble into the sea where at which some point, Godzilla is knocked unconscious (G-fans, deal with it)—possibly by the electricity stored in Kong's body—and Kong heads back to his home in the south seas. Whatever the case was, the Showa Godzilla remains inactive until 1964 where he is washed ashore by a massive typhoon that also hits Infant Island. Both Mothra's egg and Godzilla are washed onto Japanese shores (Mothra's egg out at sea and Godzilla buried in Kuratahata near Yokkaichi). Eventually, Godzilla reawakens and manages to dislodge himself from inside the earth. He wanders through the Yokkaichi industrial complex and does fire his ray at a structure, but only after being jolted by his tail accidentally whacking into another building. He then heads over to Nagoya where he... casually strolls down the streets, not destroying a thing. The city is filled with terrified fleeing citizens, but nobody seems to notice (or care) that Godzilla's isn't actually attacking them. Making his way to Nagoya Tower, the monster tries to figure out which way to go next and inadvertently gets his tail caught in the tower's girding. While trying to dislodge his tail, he manages to bring the entire tower over. Only when the tower hits him from behind does Godzilla begin to actively destroy it in a fit of rage.            From there, Godzilla marches on to Nagoya Castle. When his foot clumsily slips, he crashes into the landmark and in yet another fit of brief rage, he brings the castle down. Finally having made it to the outskirts of the city, Godzilla presses on to the shoreline to, presumably, head back out to sea away from man. There, he is met by the American navy and their new souped-up "Frontier Missile." The yanks begin an assault on Godzilla accomplishing little more than knocking sand dunes from under his feet causing him to fall over. Instead of wiping them out like his reputation would have you believe, Godzilla just turns around and heads back into mainland Japan. Gee, thanks America.  Godzilla once again stays out in the countryside not bothering anyone and is once more harassed by the self defense forces. He finally makes his way to the beach but becomes distracted by Mothra's gigantic egg. He breaks open the incubator around it and then just stares at it. Did Godzilla wish to destroy it? Did he wish to eat it? Was he going to stand there and wait for the thing to hatch (and if so, was he just trying to free the egg from man's contraption)? Who knows? The adult Mothra appears and attacks Godzilla out of nowhere. She manages to drag Godzilla far away from her egg, but is eventually killed by the monster king. While Mothra wings her way back over to the beachside egg to die, Godzilla has apparently forgotten where he was going or what he was doing beforehand and heads back into mainland Japan. Gee, thanks Mothra.            The self defense forces then assault Godzilla with electrical voltage for no good reason. Godzilla manages to survive their attack and the defense forces finally decide to leave Godzilla alone and just get people out of his way. Godzilla finally makes his way back to the sea and wanders out to Iwa Island. Some schoolchildren and their teacher are on the island, but Godzilla never once actively goes after them or even seems to know of their existence. But judgy man presumes that Godzilla is going out there to murder every one of them.            Mothra's egg finally hatches and her twin progeny head after Godzilla... for revenge? Godzilla has put up with plenty already and once he spies them coming for him, he roars in warning. When they keep coming he gives them a blast of his ray in warning. Note: Godzilla does not actually blast at the Mothra larva, just the ground around them. As far as giant monsters go, this is saint-like patience. At any rate, the Mothra larva manage to non-violently spin a cocoon around Godzilla and he falls into the sea... which was likely his goal to begin with.            In January of 1965 (or possibly before then), Godzilla has become active again. When he surfaces in the Pacific Ocean chasing a pod of whales, his first action is to blast a passing cruise ship from the face of the earth with his thermonuclear ray. I admit, I have no defense for this. Godzilla has no discernable reason to do this (barring him still being cheesed with humanity from the last film) and there's no telling how many people he killed. But even so, this is nothing compared to what man has branded him with by this point.            Godzilla heads straight for Japan and lands at Yokohama. Even though he ray-blasts another docked ship, once on land he doesn't attack the city but clumsily strolls through it. It is at this point that the recently-revived Rodan flies high over the city and then comes down to perhaps get a better look at Godzilla. For reasons known only to himself, Godzilla doesn't like this, or Rodan for that matter, and follows him out of the city. The two kaiju then head into the Japanese countryside where they spar in battles that go nowhere. The Japanese military (if only briefly) considers using atomic bombs on them... for going out where there are no cities to be found and not destroying anything.    When the truly evil King Ghidorah arrives on earth and begins an actual, factual campaign of destruction across Japan, the surviving Mothra larva from the previous movie comes to Japan to recruit Godzilla and Rodan in service of mankind. Godzilla and Rodan want nothing to do with it and for good reason. It is here that Godzilla says to Mothra that "mankind is always bullying him around," to which Rodan agrees (he doesn't know the half of it) and that he has no interest in helping man. He would rather fight Rodan than Ghidorah (which he shows by hitting Rodan with a sneak blast while the flying monster is distracted by Mothra's chattering). This is the first time ever that we as an audience are let in to Godzilla as a character's inner feelings.            Disgusted with the two male monsters' selfishness, Mothra goes to face down King Ghidorah by herself. What is it that "bad guys" would do in this situation? Would they go on about their own fight selfishly as the world goes up in flames? That is not what Godzilla and Rodan do. The two are shamed into doing the right thing and aiding Mothra. One does not feel shame unless they have at least a shred of decency, which these two obviously have. Working together. Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra are able to expel Ghidorah from the earth, saving it and its inhabitants.            At some point during this battle, Godzilla's hatred for Rodan has disappeared (and it had already left for Mothra). As the two monsters stand on shore in Japan and watch Mothra and the Shobijin swim off over the horizon, there is no indication that Godzilla or Rodan will attack each other or mankind again. In fact, they are now friends, something Godzilla had never actually had before. Godzilla and Rodan apparently stay together without Mothra because by 196X/later 1965, they are discovered hibernating (relatively) right next to each other. How did Rodan manage to bury himself in the side of Washigasawa? Isn't the most likely explanation that his new pal dug the hole and then buried him inside before heading into Lake Myojin for a much-needed rest?            From here, Godzilla and Rodan are airlifted from their sleeping places to distant Planet X where they are revived just in time for King Ghidorah to sail overhead. It is unknown whether they manage to actually send Ghidorah packing or if the Xians made him leave (likely the latter). But from there, the earth monsters are taken under control and forced to attack the earth. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that most of man understood that Godzilla and Rodan were not in their right minds.             However, when our boys Glenn and Fuji successfully win against the Xians and their control is broken, Godzilla and Rodan's immediate reaction is to get back up and make Ghidorah leave. Without Mothra to help them, the two kaiju seem at a loss at how to deal with the three-headed alien (previously, Ghidorah had been defeated by tactics. Without the smarter Mothra to guide them, Godzilla and Rodan are given to utilize ineffective brute force). The battle unceremoniously ends when the three monsters tumble over a cliff and into the sea. Ghidorah decides he's had enough and beats cheeks back into outer space. Sadly, Godzilla and Rodan are missing in action, but the humans involved in the whole affair are convinced they're okay. Subsequently, Godzilla leaves Japan and heads for the human-thin climes of the South Pacific. He somehow manages to bury himself inside the side of a mountain on distant Letchi Island for another well-deserved rest. When castaways discover him on said island, they eventually decide to awaken him to ward off the terrorist organization the Red Bamboo and their pet sea monster, Ebirah. Godzilla does stomp the Red Bamboo's base into the ground, but only in retaliation for attacking him out of nowhere when he was trying to nap (and admire Daiyo) in the mountains. It is true that Godzilla doesn't know he's aiding the earth in doing so, but at the end of the day, destroying that base was a beneficial thing for the earth.            When Godzilla comes ashore on Sollgel Island, he briefly stomps the United Nations' scientists' base, chiefly because it was in his way while trying to help out the younger Godzilla he had apparently been following the cries of for some time. After saving Minya, the baby Godzilla, from the Kamakiras who wish to devour him, Godzilla mostly just naps at a grotto lair and tools around the island not causing any trouble (he, in fact, tends to end the trouble). Later, when Godzilla is charging ahead to save Minya in distress from the giant spider Spiega, he passes by the scientists' tower spraying silver iodine into the air. His only reaction is to give out a brief hiss rather than bother knocking it over. The scientists successfully make a blizzard fall on the island which causes Godzilla and Minya to go into hibernation. Intrepid reporter Goro Maki tells his new girlfriend Saeko that when they awaken, they will probably live on this island he has dubbed "Monster Island." It is worth noting that during his adventure with his new son, the Showa Godzilla behaves in a very strict, impersonal manner very much like the original Godzilla had. While he admonishes and disapproves of Minya's childlike antics, he never actively hurts Minya (though he does accidentally whap the baby Minya in the head with his tail). In fact, he takes it completely onto himself to defend Minya at all times and at all costs for no other reason than it's the right thing to do. It is at this point that Godzilla's character arc has come to a close. While he was never that bad a guy to begin with, he is invariably a selfless "good guy" by the closing owari of Son of Godzilla.            By 1971, pollution in his Japanese homeland had reached a fever pitch, causing Godzilla to leave his idyllic Pacific island and actively do something about it. While destroying water pollution with his thermonuclear ray, he discovers the alien monster Hedorah, who loves both devouring and causing pollution. He is able to easily manhandle the smaller Hedorah he first encounters, but is overwhelmed when the Smog Monster begins showing other powers such as flight and towering over him (it's also worth noting this is the very first time the Showa Godzilla sets foot in Tokyo). However, with mankind's help, they are able to eventually destroy Hedorah via man drying him out with electricity and Godzilla ripping the monster's body to muddy pieces. With Hedorah dead, Godzilla could have easily attacked mankind once again, but he did not. Instead, he gave them a serious warning; he takes note of the humans watching his battle with Hedorah and gives them a glare that would invariably send Minya shrieking for cover under his hands. But being the good guy that he is, Godzilla just leaves man to think about their misdeeds (it's worth nothing that in real life Japan, they actually managed to clean up their act and severely curtail the serious pollution concerns that inspired Hedorah. Perhaps Godzilla's glare was more effective than we thought?).            After that, Godzilla continued his heroic ways, coming to Japan's aid from far away Sollgel/Monster Island. Make no mistake, G-fans, Godzilla is not doing this to "protect his territory" or other some such manipulative hogwash. He's doing it because he's a hero and that's what heroes do—save the day (besides, wouldn't his "territory" now be Monster Island where he actually lives?). Even Toho's Godzilla March clues you in that he "goes anywhere for the sake of peace" and "runs around this wide world heading for evil monsters." Godzilla is now happy with his station in life and he wants the world to be safe so he can remain safe. He's not begrudgingly swimming hundreds of kilometers to stop some invading attacker because they showed up where he used to live. He's happily doing it to keep peace on the earth (even if he does look mighty angry by the time 1975 rolls around).            Unfortunately, we are not privy to the events of the late 70s when the Monsterland operation began and Godzilla and his friends (or any other monsters man could locate) were relocated from distant Monster Island to the watchful eye of man at the Ogasawara Island chain. Godzilla's demeanor in 1999 is far more stoic and standoffish than it had been before. Did he feel betrayed by mankind for effectively imprisoning him after all he'd done for them? At any rate, no one is really happy with the deal. The monsters—despite being well-fed and looked after—are miserable. And man is constantly fretting about them. Perhaps relocating them so close to Japan when they were on a perfectly fine island elsewhere wasn't the best of ideas.            The invading Kilaak women take advantage of man's less-than-intelligent scheme and use mind control on the monsters, making them weapons against mankind once again. At this point, the Showa Godzilla attacks and destroys Tokyo for the very first time... and it's not even of his own accord. Thanks to the efforts of the intrepid Katsuo Manabe and his SY-3 crew, the control is stopped and the monsters are able to regroup and converge on the Kilaaks' underground base at Mt. Fuji with Godzilla as their general. The Kilaaks try to bring in an incredibly feeble King Ghidorah (who hadn't fed on any worlds since he first showed up on earth in early 1965) to counter them. While the space monster does give the earth monsters a brief run for their money, our kaiju gang up on the evil dragon, give him an obscene pummeling, and Minya—one-upping his own dad—manages to finally kill him off with one of his smoke rings (Godzilla bows in appreciation).            Afterwards, the Kilaaks try to attack the world with something they call a "fire dragon", which fumes out to be a U.F.O. Before the SY-3 is able to shoot it down, it does manage to completely destroy mankind's facilities at Monsterland. But with the earth once more saved, our defending monsters return to the Ogasawara Island chain of their own volition. Finally, with mankind's presence erased from Monsterland and the island essentially becoming "Monster Island" once more, the monsters are at peace, happy to live out their days on this island home. Godzilla, himself, does not attack an approaching helicopter that has come to see all the monsters, but instead gives it the slightest of waves in greeting. Or perhaps goodbye... as that is where we finally leave the Showa Godzilla.            When Toho restarted the series in 1984, even though they didn't want any more of superhero Godzilla, they did treat the Heisei Godzilla quite similarly. In the Japanese version of his 1984 adventure, when Godzilla lands in Tokyo, he almost literally seems to be wandering about the city in a touristy fashion. For the most part, he doesn't actively destroy the city. Only when the Super X has infuriated him does Godzilla willfully destroy Tokyo property and then only in efforts to attack the flying warship. After it is destroyed, Godzilla goes back to wandering around the city. It's worth noting that Godzilla 1985 re-edits the film to make it look as if Godzilla is angrier and meaner than he was in the Japanese version.            Both Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah feature a willfully destructive Godzilla. Perhaps Toho felt Godzilla had behaved too softly in his 1984 outing? An unused ending for Biollante featured the plant monster standing over a prone Godzilla, knocked out by the Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria, and via anime-style opticals, "devouring" his anger and hatred for the benefit of mankind, taking it away into space with her. The ending was explicitly unused because Toho didn't want the Heisei Godzilla to adopt his forerunner's heroic ways.            Despite Toho's meddling, by Godzilla vs. Mothra, the monster king has fallen into the early Showa Godzilla's demeanor. He appears in Japan by causing Mt. Fuji to erupt and emerging from the volcano. From there, he makes a straight line to the ocean (unwarrantedly attacked by G-Force—look carefully and you'll see their insignias on the maser helicopters). Though he is certainly causing destruction in Yokohama, it's not a willful, calculated one. He is trying to get back into the sea and he almost does... only to find Mothra and Battra having their own skirmish. Battra attacks Godzilla for no real reason (other than being a jerk) and Godzilla defends himself. Likely if Battra and Mothra had not been there, Godzilla would have peacefully slipped back into the sea. Gee, thanks Mothra and Battra.            In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993), the Heisei Godzilla only comes ashore in Japan to collect the baby Godzilla he had gone after on Adonoa Island. If the island expedition had not hauled the egg back to Japan, would Godzilla have even appeared? Occupied with a new baby Godzilla, I see no reason for him to have [gee, thanks expedition]. Unfortunately, man has whipped up a giant robot in Godzilla's own image with the intent to kill him with it. So instead of just giving the baby to Godzilla and letting him go, a bunch of lives and time is wasted, destruction that probably shouldn't have happened happens, and nobody accomplishes anything.             Godzilla only later resurfaces in Chiba coming to the distress calls of Baby Godzilla (which likely began when Rodan attacked the helicopter that was hauling his crate). He is immediately attacked by Mechagodzilla for his troubles. When the monster machine is eventually destroyed, Baby Godzilla's handlers finally realize that the child monster needs to go with Godzilla. When the two are united and Baby decides to go with him, Godzilla immediately heads back into the Pacific. Of course knowing man, had Godzilla obtained Baby during his first appearance, they probably would have just tracked him down to whatever island he went to and attacked him with Mechagodzilla there.             Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla features the Heisei Godzilla at his most heroic. He and his adopted son (now named Little Godzilla) are living at/around Birth Island in the South Pacific minding their own business when the wicked Spacegodzilla arrives from the far reaches of space. After Spacegodzilla imprisons to smaller Godzilla in a crystal energy chamber and flies off, Godzilla immediately heads after him. When he eventually surfaces at Kagoshima in Japan, he heads in a straight line to Fukuoka for Spacegodzilla's location. He is, of course, ineffectively attacked by G-Force (who apparently are deluded enough to believe they can handle the space monster themselves). When Spacegodzilla is eventually killed, Godzilla doesn't hang around; he immediately heads back to the ocean heading home to Birth Island.             In the Heisei Godzilla's last adventure, Godzilla vs. Destroyer, the monster, suffering from an overload of nuclear energy mostly stays in the ocean trying to cool himself down. He is frequently surrounded by battleships and other types of man's vehicles, but never once attacks them. He does surface in Hong Kong and presumably, his raid on the city is a random fit of confused rage (it never seems that Godzilla has any real reason to attack Hong Kong other than that). When he does eventually turn up in Japan, it's only because he wants to try to replace his old nuclear energy with new energy via a nuclear power plant (similar to the Ihama raid we saw in 1984). He is cooled down and successfully stopped by G-Force's Super X-III. When Godzilla reawakens, instead of continuing on to the power plant, he heads further out to sea. He eventually resurfaces in Tokyo Bay and comes ashore, presumably at the distress calls of Godzilla Jr. during his battle with the aggregate Destroyer.            Once on land, Godzilla does cause some destruction at Haneda Airport, but nothing that amounts to a concentrated attack. He only cares about reuniting with his son. For a change, it's not mankind that sins against Godzilla, but the cruel Destroyer himself. Godzilla Jr. is killed by the monster and Godzilla only hangs around in Japan to kill him. Unfortunately, the exertion of the battle causes Godzilla's nuclear energy to meltdown and he is overcome by the very force that gave him life. In the end, only Miki Saegusa knew that the Heisei Godzilla, too, was not that bad a guy (though, by the looks on their faces when Godzilla perishes, the heads of G-Force seem to suspect as such themselves).            Unfortunately, due to the lack of continuity of the Millennium series, the non-possessed Godzillas that appear in those films aren't given to any behavioral patterns worth delving into. Though the Final Wars Godzilla seems heroic enough, we're told that he hates mankind for creating the atomic bomb and holds a grudge against them for it. Presumably, Godzilla lets that go in the end when Minya intervenes. Again, that's the actions of an entity with a shred of decency and not a callous villain.            During this recapping of Godzilla's history, I haven't made anything up. I have only noted to the best of my abilities exactly what we see in the movies themselves (please do go back and carefully watch them once again if you don't believe any of what I've told you). I am not trying to make the case that the Showa Godzilla isn't the antagonist in his early movies or that King Kong or Mothra are "bad guys"; I'm not. But please don't let the Mosugoji's vicious continence fool you. The Japanese talk a good [bad?] game about him, but he's not actually the bad guy that you would have him be (perhaps a perfect example of the old adage, "don't judge a book by its cover"). So the next time someone says a kind word about early Showa Godzilla and you think "that's not in line with his characterization," stop and think a moment—what is it that the Showa Godzilla truly did that you think makes him so bad? And is it entirely possible that he was really a good guy all along... ?

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2017/12/1 Yokkaichi Industrial Complex/Yokkaichi-shi Mie

NIKON D7500 + AF-S DX Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

42mm 8” f/16.0 ISO500

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Bluestones by fotobes on Flickr.

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