I bet most of us can identify this monster.
Pretty universal right?
It’s the main attraction in the oldest running film franchise in the world.
Battling robots and space monsters and King Kong, it’s our most recognizable Japanese
kaijū, or “strange beast.”
With Godzilla’s rise come a bunch more of these “strange beasts”: Mothra, Biollante,
King Ghidorah, Gigan, and Rodan.
And we see these monsters on the big screen in film after film but these giant creatures’
stories have a strong literary and social history too.
So let’s talk about the two who get my vote for king and queen of the kaijū—Godzilla
and Mothra.
Why did these two emerge in Japan when they did and what was their global attraction?
Movies made kaijū world famous.
We can’t even begin to talk about them without looking at the film that started the ‘daikaiju
eiga’ or ‘giant monster film’ genre—the 1954 black and white classic Gojira.
The movie directed by Ishirō Honda shows the modern discovery of a 50-meters-tall dinosaur
with atomic breath just living its best life in the depths of the ocean.
At least until an atomic bomb test destroys its natural habitat —and the monster rises
to terrorize Japan.
Many people took Godzilla as an obvious metaphor for the continuing horrors of the nuclear
attacks used against Japan by the U.S. during World War II.
Honda saw first-hand the destruction of war serving as a soldier in China.
The 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki loomed in the minds of the Japanese
people.
The film itself is a social commentary.
So much so that a main character of the film asks out right “Isn’t Godzilla a product
of the atomic bomb that still haunts many of us Japanese?".
I mean is it even a metaphor at this point?
Godzilla is radioactive from the testing and during its rampage thousands of people die
on the street, hit with Godzilla’s radioactive breath.
Entire neighborhoods are set aflame with a bright flash.
Given the United State’s role in World War II it’s not surprising to me that when the
film was introduced in North America in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
—it had been heavily edited.
Thirty minutes of explicit references to the atomic bombings and nuclear testing were removed
from the movie and replaced with two pretty terrible additions— the actor Raymond Burr,
who was very awkwardly spliced into the American version, and famously bad English dubbing.
However, key scenes were kept that show the Japanese as both heroic individuals and sympathetic
victims.
Culturally, the best thing to come out of this Westernized version of Gojira was the
introduction of Godzilla and the Japanese kaijū to a global audience.
The film’s international success launched dozens of movie sequels and we start to see
the monsters appearing in manga, a distinct comic style unique to Japan.
. A manga comic featuring Godzilla was released
the same year as the original film.
Reprinted and translated from the original 1985’s The Return of Godzilla, the first
English-translated Godzilla manga wasn’t released until 1988.
In this comic Godzilla is woken from slumber on the ocean floor by a massive volcanic eruption,
not as a result of nuclear testing.
Still it must feed on radioactive substances, making submarines and nuclear power plants
prime targets for its destruction.
The negative portrayal of nuclear weapons remains.The series ends with an emotional
message about humanity’s willingness to destroy the natural balance of the world and
reminds the reader that some natural force may rise up to challenge the arrogance of
mankind.
Other comic versions of Godzilla aren’t so serious, and some are even downright ridiculous.
Godzilla: Rage Across Time shows Godzilla killing the majority of the Greek gods until
Zeus defeats him.
One of the most recent literary versions of Godzilla was published as a prequel to the
2014 American film rebooting the franchise, hitting shelves less than two weeks before
the movie’s premiere.
Godzilla: Awakening explains that Godzilla is an ancient apex predator lured to the surface
by the radiation left after Hiroshima.
This is only implied in the film itself.
The 2014 Godzilla film marked the beginning of Legendary’s MonsterVerse.
Which obviously, means more Godzilla.
But we know from the new trailers that more kaijū will return to the big screen, most
importantly—Mothra!
I love Mothra.
Yes, really, I love Mothra.
I would pick her over Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, even Space Godzilla (although I do love those
crystal shoulder pads) Mothra is beautiful!
She’s a brightly colored winged protectress who, understandably, is worshipped as a goddess.
She shoots a rainbow laser out of her head.
She’s awesome.
Unlike Godzilla, Mothra first appeared in literature, in the 1961 serialized novel The
Luminous Fairies and Mothra.
The story follows a group of humans who discover Mothra on a South Pacific island where she
is worshipped by fairies.
Two of the female fairies are stolen, and Mothra goes to Japan to save them.
Which she obviously does.
Because again, Mothra is just that kind of amazing lady.
Mothra’s first standalone film hit theaters the same year.
In the movie, Mothra hatches from an egg in the South Pacific and as a caterpillar swims
to the Japanese shore.
This journey from her island to Japan parallels that of the real-world influx of goods produced
in and inspired by the South Pacific.
Bananas, mangos, and Hawaiian print fabrics made popular by Elvis in Blue Hawaii were
all popular commodities in Japan in the 1960s.
The fact that both the flying kaijū and her tiny priestesses are female does also suggest
some complicated representations of commodifying women.
Nevertheless, I appreciate Mothra because she is one of the few female monsters who
is not hideous, not typically sexualized, and has powers and strength to rival any of
her male counterparts.
So yeah, Mothra is queen.
And I am not the only one who feels this way.
A 2017 poll of 10,000 Godzilla franchise fans by Japan’s Asahi television network named
Mothra their number one favorite Godzilla monster.
She really is “The Queen of Monsters.”
Even when the kaijū are adopted and adapted by non-Japanese cultures, there is still no
denying that the monsters are influenced by their predecessors in Japanese cinema and
literature.
All kaijū demonstrate the tension between technology and nature.
They suggest that although humanity seeks progress, innovation and science, there are
serious, potentially cataclysmic side effects.
So I’ll end with the words of Dr. Serizawa from the 2014 Godzilla movie, quote “The
arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in their control, and not the other way around.”
Let me know in the comments!
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