Godzilla
| Godzilla | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||
| ゴジラ | |||
| Character Data | |||
| AKA | Gojira
| ||
| Romaji | Gojira
| ||
| Debut | Not Featured Yet | ||
| Collaboration Data | |||
| Classification | Cultural icon
| ||
| Species | Mutated dinosaur
| ||
| Read More | Godzilla
| ||
| Conservation | 
| ||
| Godzilla |
An unofficial Friend based on Godzilla was drawn by Mine Yoshizaki in July of 2016 and posted on his Twitter. She has not appeared in any official Kemono Friends media yet.
Appearance
The Friend's appearance is based on the 2016 feature Shin Godzilla (シン・ゴジラ Shin Gojira, also known as Godzilla: Resurgence).
As in the feature, the monster possesses a black tree bark-like texture, dorsal plates in the shape of maple leaves, and a humongous, powerful, segmented tail. Her entire body has numerous red stripes, and the tip of her tail is red. She wears a tiered skirt with five tiers of tiny pleats. Her top is buried inside her skirt, it has a funnel collar and the sleeves only reach the shoulders. She has a pair of long gloves and knee high boots with laces and belts. She has long hair piled up in a conical shape on the top of the head and slightly backwards pointing, the hair reaches at least the shoulder blades with parts of it cut that reach neck and cheeks level, and a fringe that reaches the eyebrows. Her hair has two braids representing Godzilla's eyebrows, little eyes appear under those. A barbed diadem on her hair resembles the monster's mouth. She is depicted as holding a toy tank and helicopter while stepping over toy buildings.
Series Appearances
| Media | Role | |
|---|---|---|
In the Source Material
Godzilla originates from a series of tokusatsu films of the same name from Japan. The character first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla and become a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in media including 29 films produced by Toho, three Hollywood films, and numerous video games, novels, comic books, television shows. The Friend is based on Shin Godzilla, the 29th Godzilla film produced by Toho, and Toho's third reboot of the franchise.
Specific details of Godzilla's appearance have changed between films over the years, but many defining details have endured. Godzilla's origins vary somewhat from film to film, but he is almost always described as a prehistoric creature, and his first attacks on Japan are linked to the beginning of the Atomic Age. In particular, mutation due to atomic radiation is presented as an explanation for his great size and strange powers. Godzilla's iconic design is often said to be composed of a mixture of traits from various species of dinosaurs. [1]
Godzilla's size constantly changes from film to film and even from scene to scene for the sake of artistic license. In the first movie produced in 1954, Godzilla was scaled to be 50 m. This was done so Godzilla could just peer over the largest buildings in Tokyo at the time. As the series progressed, Toho would rescale the character, eventually making Godzilla as tall as 100 meters. This was so that it would not be dwarfed by the newer bigger buildings in Tokyo's skyline. The producers of Shin Godzilla made the creator the second most tallest Godzilla.
Godzilla's roar is among the most iconic sound effects in films' history. As the legend goes, the team designing the original roar for the first Godzilla film in 1954 tried recording animal sounds, but were unhappy with the results. It wasn’t until the film’s composer, Akira Ifukube, suggested using a musical instrument that they reached their eureka moment: They coated a leather glove with pine tar resin (to create friction) and rubbed the glove down the strings of a double bass, resulting in that classic roar of Godzilla. [2]
Godzilla's most famous ability is his distinctive atomic breath. Godzilla's dorsal plates glow ominously and then he lets loose with a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth. The intensity of Godzilla's atomic heat ray has changed over the course of his film appearances, varying from a stream of superheated vapor to a beam with explosive and kinetic properties. In Shin Godzilla, Godzilla's atomic breath starts out as a thick black smoke that comes from Godzilla's mouth and spreads around the surrounding area. The smoke coming from Godzilla's mouth eventually ignites into a stream of flame, producing a huge destructive fireball that sweeps through the area. The fire condenses further into a thin highly-destructive purple beam capable of slicing through buildings. [1]
Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. Godzilla’s vaguely humanoid appearance and strained, lumbering movements endeared it to Japanese audiences, who could relate to Godzilla as a sympathetic character despite its wrathful nature. Audiences respond positively to the character because it acts out of rage and self-preservation and shows where science and technology can go wrong.
Trivia
- The characteristic blue glow which precedes Godzilla firing his atomic breath can possibly be attributed to the real-world Cherenkov radiation, a blue 'aura' which is given off by the effects of highly active and super-critical radioactive material.
- The original name Gojira, was the nickname of a tough-guy worker at Japan's Toho Studios. A blend of the English word gorilla and the Japanese word kujira (which means whale).
- In early storyboards, the monster was depicted as a giant, mutated octopus. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka went with a dinosaur-like design instead.
References
1. "Godzilla: The secrets behind the roar" by Ray, Amber (May 22, 2014). Entertainment Weekly.
2. "Godzilla". Wikizilla.
3. "25 Fun Facts About Godzilla" by mark mancini ( may 15, 2014). Mental Floss.