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 beam: Godzilla can breath out atomic heat rays from its mouth to attack targets. While Raban didn't perform this ability, it was implied that he may eventually develops Godzilla's traits and abilities.
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.
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.
Lights: Raban was depicted to emit lights from his eyes on occasions.
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.
Kaijū Raban was remade into Dai-Kaijū, a recurring story of GeGeGe no Kitarō series.
Mizuki also made occasional references to the franchise such as Moth's design, description of Imori, and so on.
Trivia[]
- The relationship between Godzilla and Raban was presumably a reuse of Guraya, a supernatural parasite featured in Rocketman.
- 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.[3] 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.[4]
- Godzilla's voice effect was used for Nozuchi in the 1968 anime along with that of Gamera.
- Perorigon's size was presumably a reference 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.
External Links[]
- Raban on Wikizilla
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
- ↑ 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？
- ↑ Gamera on Wikipedia