Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira) is a fictional daikaiju. When Ichirō Mizuki transformed into Godzilla, he was nicknamed Raban (ラバン, Raban). Its first appearance in Shigeru Mizuki's works was in the kamishibai episode Man Godzilla, which was a loose remake of Man Whale (the basis of Dai-Kaijū and Gyūki), then the 1958 story Kaijū Raban was redeveloped.
Appearance[]
Ichirō Mizuki as Raban.
In general, Godzilla heavily resembles a theropoda-dinosaurs, but with more upright posture and dorsal plates on its back.
When Ichirō Mizuki transformed into Raban, he had more slender silhouette than the original Godzilla, and had forked tongue like a snake and patterns on his skin, but lacked dorsal plates. Raban often emitted smokes from his nostrils. It is implied that Raban would eventually develop traits of the original Godziila.
Personality[]
In comparison to Dai-Kaijū, the original Godzilla was depicted to be more ferocious in nature; Dai-Kaijū didn't attack the research team until being startled by a pain of blood-taking device while Godzilla actively shot down an airplane and later attacked the research team.
History[]
Kaijū Raban[]
Godzilla was discovered by humanity to inhabit Porogon Mountain in New Guinea, and a team of scientists was formed to take a sample of Godzilla's blood to seek unsolved mysteries of life. When their airplane flew over Porogon Mountain, a mysterious beam was launched from the crater of the volcano, shooting down the airplane. Although all crew survived the incident, they were forced to set up a camp. That night, Godzilla attacked the camp when Ichirō Mizuki and Jirō Igawa were away to obtain waters, and the team was annihilate. The team leader managed to take a blood sample, but was also heavily injured, and entrusting the sample to Mizuki and Igawa, he died, too.
Mizuki was later poisoned with a spear when indigenous locals attacked the pair, and Igawa seized the sample for his hunger for fame and rivalry with Mizuki, and left Mizuki behind. Three months later, both Mizuki and Igawa were rescued, however, Mizuki turned into a zombie-like appearance due to the poison. Concerning that Mizuki would reveal Igawa's deeds, Igawa tried to assassinate Mizuki by injecting Godzilla's blood, pretending as a medication.
Mizuki then transformed into Raban, and headed to Tokyo hoping to see his mother.
USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari[]
Several Toho monsters were summoned along with many other Yōkai and fictional characters including Gamera and Dai-Majin during the events. Godzilla was considered to be summoned as well, but eventually failed because each protagonists argued over which incarnation of the character to be summoned and they couldn't settle the argument as everyone wanted their favorited version, thus Rodan was summoned instead.
Additional summoned Godzilla franchise characters include Mothra, Baragon, Varan, and Kumonga, with several other Toho kaiju were also mentioned.
Powers and Abilities[]
Atomic Heat Ray (
Lights: Raban was depicted to emit lights from his eyes on occasions.
Transmutation Blood: Godzilla's blood will mutate any human who intook it.
Evolution: Raban performed exceptionally acerated evolutions that he would eventually gain physical traits and abilities of the original Godzilla.
Godzilla Physiologically
- Body Temperature: Raban often emitted smokes from his nostrils due to his unusually high body temperature.
- Immense Strength: Godzilla and Raban possess immense physical power and durability due to their sizes, and Raban was able to combat against a giant robot Raban-17. Raban can also swim extremely fast.
Legend[]
Godzilla is a daikaiju created by Toho Co., Ltd. while the character was presumably inspired by The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms[1] and The Arctic Giant.[2]
Mizuki didn't license the character when he published Kaijū Raban, which was remade into Dai-Kaijū, a recurring story of GeGeGe no Kitarō series. The relationship between Godzilla and Raban was presumably a reuse of Guraya, a supernatural parasite featured in Rocketman. Dai-Kaijū's physical stats stated in several books, "50 meters in height and 20,000 tons in weight" is also a reference to Showa incarnations of Godzilla,[3] while this does not specifically corresponds with the descriptions of Kitarō as Dai-Kaijū in the manga and the 1996 movie to be six times larger than whales and physically rivals the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
Mizuki also made occasional references to the franchise such as Moth's design, description of Imori, and so on. Sizes of Perorigon and Bichigon, along with the height and the weight of the Dai-Kaijū within the several publications which may not correspond with the descriptions in the actual manga, were presumably references to Godzilla while the plot of the 2001 film Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack bear remembrances to that of Perorigon. Associations of Nurarihyon and Kurobōzu to Mount Mihara in Saishinban GeGeGe no Kitarō bears minor similarities to the plot of the 1984 film The Return of Godzilla. Nurarihyon's depictions as Shokuyōki are references to classic kaiju medias including Godzilla.
The kaiju Hedorah's design was influenced by the deformed Trunk Nagai infested by a Vampire Tree in The Vampire Tree and the Neko-Musume.[4][5] On the contrary, there was a well known misconception in Japan that Shigeru Mizuki's Onmoraki might have influenced the design of Toho's Gigan due to one of its designers is named "Mizuki" , however this misconception was later dubunked as the true identity of Gigan's designer was later confirmed.[6][7][8]
Trivia[]
- Raban-17, which was later redeveloped as Iron Dai-Kaijū, largely resembles one of robots appeared in Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy although Tezuka's robot resembles the mechanical man appeared in 1921 Italian film L'Uomo Meccanico.[9] This is consistent to the fact that Mizuki mimicked artstyle and character designs of Tezuka in Kaijū Raban.
- Iron Dai-Kaijū predates other fictional mechanical kaijū characters such as Mechani-Kong and Toho's Mechagodzilla.
- The name "Porogon" also appeared as the name of respective islands in Owarai Team in 1958 and Neko-Mata's Love in 1968.
- Godzilla's first appearance within Kaijū Raban in 1958 bears similarities with that of Gyaos from the 1967 Gamera film Gamera vs. Gyaos; both monsters hiding within volcanic craters shot down aircrafts of research teams that were investigating monsters, and made their first actual appearances later during midnights. Both of Godzilla and Gyaos in Gamera the Brave also possess bloods that causes mutations on normal organisms into kaijū while Zedus, the Gyaos-related mutant, was presumably a reference to Godzilla and Jirahs and other Toho kaiju; Gamera the Brave was produced after Kadokawa's offers for Godzilla vs. Gamera were turned down by Toho.
- Godzilla's voice effects were used for Nozuchi and Keukegen's dinosaurs in the 1968 anime adaptation, and Yamata-no-Orochi in the 1971 anime adaptation, along with that of Gamera.
- Prior to USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari, the popular variety shows VOCABULA and Usoppu Land, which had featured Kitarō Family and Gamera and Dai-Majin and Ultraman and Ultra kaijū both as direct cameos and modified parodies including Shōichirō Akaboshi himself playing Konaki-Jijii, also involved Godzilla and related characters directly and indirectly as parodies; Godzilla joined the "Yōkai Police" by Kitarō Family, and parodies of Mechagodzilla and Gaira from The War of the Gargantuas (1966) were introduced where "Mecha-Konaki-Jijii" was also a reference to either Mechagodzilla or Mechani-Kong.[10][11]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Tabata M., 2005, "Why Does Godzilla Destroy Cities?", Studies in Urban Cultures, p. 17, Vol. 5, pp. 16-29, Urban Culture Research Center, Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences, Osaka City University
- ↑ Riley Black, 2009, Superman vs. the Arctic Giant, Smithsonian Magazine
- ↑ 世界の怪獣大百科 ケイブンシャの大百科 勁文社 昭和57年 初版
- ↑ ヘドラ on Japanese Wikipedia
- ↑ Shira, February 07, 2012, ヘドラと鬼太郎, こんなんみっけ
- ↑ ガイガン水氣氏は今はガイガンのデザイナーとして知られてるが00年代中頃位まで水木しげる先生がガイガンのデザインをしたという話が出回ってた。そのときの理由が「妖怪の陰摩羅鬼を怪獣化した」という話になっててマニアたちもそう聞いて「そういえば似てる」と噂に強度を持ってたのがおかしかった
- ↑ ガイガンのデザイン、｢ミズキ｣違いで水木しげると勘違いされた(実際は水氣隆義氏)というのはわかるのですが、そこから｢陰摩羅鬼｣という具体的な妖怪に結びついていった過程が謎ですね。
- ↑ 第240回 「ガイ願」2024.1
- ↑ マジンガーZ以前に「巨大ロボットに人が乗り込んで操縦する」という漫画があった／それはいつから？
- ↑ タモリのSuperボキャブラ天国
- ↑ ウソップランドシリーズ