Toho’s Godzilla Minus One has come to America and conquered the wallets and passion of US cinema lovers, as it has the rest of the world, and is in the running for an Oscar nomination for visual effects. It is one of the best, if not the singular most human Godzilla movie to date. Minus One is set in post-WWII Japan, self-examining the wrongs and failures of the island nation’s government in the war, and portraying Godzilla as a force of nature that is punishing Japan for the path it followed. Godzilla is traditionally representative of America’s nuclear attacks and of the folly of nuclear weapons and energy, but in Minus One, the question is asked, why should Godzilla attack Japan.
Minus One director, Takashi Yamazaki told Mono Magazine, “Godzilla is both a monster and a god. Godzilla is the Tatari-gami that appears in Princess Mononoke. After all, if you really think about it, isn’t it strange that the thing awakened by America’s nuclear tests is going to attack Japan? However, if you think of it as the Tatari-gami, it makes sense.”
The attention of Godzilla is inward, toward Japan. Godzilla is blaming Japan for inviting the great atrocity of the nuclear attacks on its own people, for the acts of torture committed by Japan, and for ordering its sons to go commit suicide to pay for the hubris of their elders.
Godzilla Minus One
- Release Date
- December 1, 2023
- Director
- Takashi Yamazaki
- Cast
- Ryûnosuke Kamiki , Takayuki Yamada , Sakura Andou
- Studio
- Robot Communications, Toho Company, Toho Studios
Will There Be a Sequel?
Toho has not produced a Godzilla sequel in 20 years. The last film was Shin Godzilla in 2016, but they never made a direct sequel to it. Minus One has created a strong box office for Toho, drawing $65 million worldwide, and it is expected to be a hit on streaming, reaching broader audiences that will surely be as impressed as cinemagoers and hungry for a sequel. The ending left open the possibility of a sequel.
No one can imagine not making a sequel – except for the director. If Minus Two happens, it may not have Yamazaki in the director’s chair. Yamazaki told GQ Japan, “I’d like to see someone else’s Godzilla, but I want to make a next time as well. I’ve got very complicated feelings.”
Early Rumors of Other Kaiju in Minus One
There were rumors that Minus One would feature other giant sea creatures, but those rumors did not manifest. The final product stars Godzilla as the only kaiju. This allows for the horror of the creature and the destruction to be established before we explore ideas of good gods and evil gods. In August, there was a rumor of a second Godzilla that would appear in Minus One.
The second, good Godzilla was described as having smooth, orca-like skin. The inference is that the Godzilla that we saw in Minus One has been poisoned by American nuclear tests, like the tatari-gami in Princess Mononoke. A second rumor from early November alleged that Godzilla’s first adversary, Anguirus, from the first sequel, Godzilla Raids Again, would appear in Minus One. Again, this rumor did not pan out, but these Minus One rumors may indicate Toho’s plans for a sequel.
Anguirus
For insight on the design of the monsters that may turn up in a sequel, we turn to the art of Simon Lee, aka, Spiderzero, who modeled the 3D concept art for King Ghidorah in Legendary’s King of Monsters and the kaijus in Pacific Rim. Up first, Anguirus, who has not appeared in the Legendary franchise and is most likely to appear in the sequel. The monster is able to walk on four legs and stand on two, and it features a spiked, armored shell like the ankylosaurus, with a deadly spiked tail.
Simon Lee’s design of Anguirus is the direction we want to see taken with the kaiju, making it more of an animal, like the beasts in Pacific Rim, than a man in a suit. Lee’s design enlarges the head and the spikes on its back. The clay sculpt is a rough sketch, but the proportions and action give us a picture of what the shape would be like if fully realized in a possible Minus One sequel.
Gigan
There is room for another kaiju in the potential sequel. Anguirus has been more of an ally or contagonist to Godzilla throughout the franchise, and a more unruly monster, Gigan, could force the two tatari-gami to work together. The cyborg kaiju was brought to Earth by aliens and first appeared in the 12th Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. Gigan. Like Anguirus, Gigan has not appeared in the Legendary franchise films. He is the most unusual-looking of Godzilla’s antagonists, and it makes him an intimidating choice to bring to life in a new movie, which is probably why Legendary has not adapted him.
Simon Lee took on the challenge of redesigning Gigan, and brought to the character his sharper monster style. All of the motifs are present – the cyclopean eye, the beak, the spikes on the sternum, and the curved, insect-like arms. The design is faithful but reimagines the extraterrestrial, invasive kaiju as something more real and more alive. As with Lee’s Anguirus, the Gigan model is not a completed sculpt, but it is our best preview of what Gigan’s design could be.
Simon Lee’s Work on King Ghidorah and Pacific Rim’s Kaijus
Simon Lee designed more than 60 clay sketches of King Ghidorah for Legendary’s Godzilla sequel to explore not only the design of the body and heads but also the movement of the creature, which would be used in the CGI animation. Ghidorah’s three heads, two tails, and wings made for a complex equation in visualizing the creature, and Lee was the perfect artist to explore the expressions of the character in 3D.
Lee previously co-designed and sculpted the kaijus seen in Pacific Rim. The deep-sea monsters of Pacific Rim were inspired by Toho’s titans. The designs in Guillermo Del Toro’s giant robots vs sea monsters popcorn flick are some of the most colorful and realistic kaiju that have ever been created, with a mix of dragon and aquatic aesthetics in most of the designs.
A Faithful Godzilla Design
We cannot speculate about other tatari-gami kaijus without turning back to look at both Toho’s Minus One design and Legendary’s design from the 2014 Godzilla. Some fans prefer the body design of the Legendary Godzilla, but Godzilla’s face is his/her identity, and Minus One’s head design is part of the reason for the success of the movie’s special effects.
Minus One’s head is faithful to the rubber suits of the past, and looks like a modern realization of the Godzilla 1985 design. Legendary’s lizard looks nothing like Godzilla in the face. The 1998 American Godzilla looks like a giant iguana, and the 2014 American Godzilla has a long snout like a giant crocodile-wolf hybrid.
Legendary had a more faithful concept for the 2014 movie, which went unused. The head model (seen above) was displayed at San Diego Comic Con in 2014, before the movie’s release. This head design featured a shorter, rounded snout, and knobby skin. Still, Minus One nails the head design with no apologies. It is the best head design we have seen for Godzilla.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
