For summer 2016, the Namja Town amusement park held special Godzilla cross-promotion activities. The park unveiled a new virtual reality game, the food court produced kaiju-inspired food dishes, and a Godzilla foot on display as though it had crashed through the roof of the attached Sunshine City Alpa shopping center.[54] Sports equipment manufacturer Reebok released limited-edition Godzilla sneakers featuring a black reptilian skin pattern and either red or glow-in-the-dark green coloring in Japan.[55]
People evacuate while the Japanese government desperately tries to determine what caused the incident. At first, they insist that it's impossible for it to have been caused by a living thing, much to the chagrin of certain officials, but to their surprise, a news report shows footage of the appearance of an enormous serpentine tail splashing out of the ocean. The Prime Minister proceeds to make a press statement, announcing that it's scientifically improbable for the creature to make landfall, however, mid-speech, it does, much to his surprise.
The fish-like creature that emerges from the bay resembles a hybrid between a moray eel and a frilled shark, but with spiky dorsal plates on its back and a pair of stubby, undeveloped forelimbs. Bleeding from its gills as it struggles to breathe on land, it thrashes about and drags itself down the streets of Kamata in Tokyo, pushing ships and cars in front of it out of the way, crushing everything in its path as well as climbing on buildings, causing them to collapse, and leaves an immense trail of destruction in its wake. Government meetings continue.
Now there is an even bigger incentive to find Godzilla's secrets and stop it. The places in the city where Godzilla's beams touched have severely high nuclear radiation readings, while the radiation plume caused by its breath and fire are drifting out to sea. They study the immobile Godzilla and find that it is slowly producing nuclear energy. Godzilla runs on nuclear power, and it has depleted all of its power in its recent rampage, which is why it's frozen. It's replenishing its energy to continue, a process that will take a few weeks. In addition, they figure out it possesses a "radar-like" system in its body, which is how its dorsal beams were able to destroy each bomb and bomber with pinpoint accuracy.
In Shin Godzilla, Godzilla is mostly referred to as Gojira (åçˆç), a name given to him by zoologist Goro Maki, which in his native Odo Island dialect of Japanese means "Incarnation of God" (çžãåŒèº, Kami no Keshin), and also serves as the monster's subtitle. Maki also gave the monster the English name of "Godzilla," which was adopted by the American Department of Energy to refer to him. Once the Japanese government learns of the creature's name, they change the kanji spelling of its name to katakana (ãããƒ), though it is still pronounced Gojira. Uniquely among all other incarnations of Godzilla, this version of the character is primarily referred to by his Japanese name Gojira in the film's English subtitles and dub rather than by his English name. Prior to learning of the name "Gojira," the Japanese government gives Godzilla the designation of "Giant Unidentified Life Form" (ååäæŽçŸç, Kyodai Fumei Seibutsu). Toho officially classifies this incarnation of Godzilla as Shin Godzilla (ããƒãƒãããƒ, Shin Gojira), which is also the Japanese title of the film in which it appeared.
The government assured the citizens that the creature would not surface, only for a giant monster to crawl out of the bay and into Tokyo. Stumbling around on its hind legs and pushing itself forward with its tail, the monster destroyed buildings and shoved cars and boats out of the way as it began to head inland. All the while, the creature secreted the red liquid from its gills and poured it onto the streets. The Prime Minister deployed a squadron of helicopters to attack the beast, but when they approached the monster suddenly stood up on two legs and sprouted arms. The attack was called off when the Prime Minister learned civilians were still evacuating the area, while the monster simply returned to the ocean.
Godzilla's first and second forms never roar in Shin Godzilla, but the third and fourth forms do. The third form utilizes Godzilla's roars from the original 1954 film, while his fourth form primarily uses Godzilla's roars from King Kong vs. Godzilla through Terror of Mechagodzilla in the Showa series. Just before being frozen at the film's climax, Godzilla's fourth form emits a roar from The Return of Godzilla. The sound effect for Shin Godzilla's heat ray is the same as Destoroyah's Micro-Oxygen beam, while his thermal flame attack utilizes the Showa Godzilla's atomic breath sound effect. Though the filmmakers experimented with new sounds, they found they couldn't surpass the older ones.[11]
That all changed over the decades. As Toho released sequel after sequel, Godzilla began to lose his edge. He became a big cuddly superhero, wrestling with space aliens. Kids across the globe learned to root for Godzilla and jump for joy when he beat up King Ghidorah or Mechagodzilla. This is not a complaint, even the craziest of the Showa-era movies are wacky good fun. But they are a strange direction for a series to take after such an urgent and poignant beginning.
The story lines of Gojira and Shin Godzilla are remarkably similar and remarkably simple. Boats are unaccountably destroyed in the waters off Japan. A giant beast, eventually identified as a prehistoric creature mutated by radiation, emerges from the ocean and makes its way to central Tokyo, leaving a trail of devastation and death. Government leaders dither, military assaults to stop the monster are ineffective, and the common people suffer in quiet resignation. Ultimately, just as all seems lost, scientists step up with an astonishing technological breakthrough, saving Japan and humankind.
For all the undeniably cool scenes of a huge, irate reptile wreaking havoc, young audiences may not be so enamored of this latest installment in the Godzilla series. Shin Godzilla is, like Gojira and unlike Hollywood's most recent offering, a surprisingly talky film. The movie's message may also not resonate so thoroughly with U.S. audiences as with Japanese ones: While Americans are plenty jaded with Washington's political paralysis, the critique of Japan's uniquely ingrown and sclerotic capital culture does not translate perfectly on this side of the Pacific. Moreover, the movie's caricatures of overbearing Pentagon brass and supercilious D.C. functionaries are so crudely drawn that many American viewers are more likely to laugh or take offense than share in Japan's pain.
Two years ago, when Edwards' Godzilla proved a blockbuster at the box office, American movie theaters often erupted in cheers when the monster rescued the world from vicious invaders. I doubt any audiences will end up on their feet, whooping for Godzilla and his beat-down of the Japanese establishment as the credits roll at the end of Shin Godzilla. But it is hard not to be impressed by the work of the Japanese filmmakers who have reimagined the franchise and its relevance in these uncertain times at the start of the 21st century. The exuberant joy of a man in a rubber suit may be gone, and Godzilla may no longer be the heroic figure many of us remember from Saturday matinees, but the unlikely ability of this abiding cinematic monster to tap into society's deepest fears and spark its highest aspirations shines through once again in Shin Godzilla.
It feels so grim hearing this. Shin godzilla was continuously in pain, and wanted to take revenge on japan for making it what monstrosity it is. But in the end, shin was frozen, still roaring after being frozen, indicating hes now in eternal pain.
Finally, the young Yaguchi is given the chance to form an emergency committee full of "nerds" and "outcasts" that will deal with the threat by working in a "flat structure" team. Immediately, a geeky female biologist watches videos of the monster that people have uploaded and starts to identify how it walks. Once they realize the beast runs on nuclear power, the committee devises a plan that could only come from a bunch of scientists thinking way outside the box. The agility and creativity of Yaguchi's team is constantly contrasted with the ever-diminishing old guard of ministers, one of whom is more upset about his noodles getting soggy than the destruction of Tokyo. Yaguchi is eventually joined by Kayoko Ann Patterson (Satomi Ishihara), a Japanese-American who values unconventional thinking just as much as Yaguchi does.
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