“They are so wrong. Godzilla should not be destroyed. He should be studied!”
★★★ Your Local Boogeyman proudly endorses Godzilla, King of the Monsters for President! ★★★
Support the presidential campaign of this incredible, unstoppable titan of terror with a monstrous t-shirt!
Fresh off the launch of the TokuSHOUTsu channel, the U.S. premiere of Kamen Rider Kuuga is here! Plus, all 49 episodes are available to watch on demand on Shout! Factory TV.
A spectacle on a scale unfathomable to the human mind, the monsters of Toho rise. Mondo is proud to announce the first in a series of officially licensed offerings with the legendary film company Toho Co., Ltd.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters original motion picture soundtrack! Featuring music by Emmy® and BAFTA Award winning composer Bear McCreary, in two special deluxe triple LP vinyl configurations.
“Why do you wanna fight?” Comet TV, Charge! and Attack from Planet B can’t sing or dance, so we are gonna give one randomly chosen person the strength to win Space 1999, Godzilla and Rocky merchandise instead. “You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and you’re gonna crap thunder!”
Two Japanese inspired sci-fi tees from Gojira are available for pre-order now – for 24 hours only!
“We need an exterminator, one that would drive away King Ghidorah.” Comet TV and Attack from Planet B want everyone to enjoy their summer, catch some rays and protect themselves from an atomic-breathing beast, by giving one randomly chosen person the firepower to win Monster Summer merchandise. “Are you serious?”
Once I heard the news that the new Japanese Godzilla film was going to be playing in my city, I was overjoyed. Ever since I was a child, I have always loved Godzilla. I went into Shin Godzilla very excited to see how my favorite giant monster was going to be reimagined.
Shin Godzilla (also Godzilla Resurgence) is the latest installment and 31st film in the Godzilla franchise. Produced by Toho, this film is a reboot in which Godzilla’s origin story is retold in modern Japan. The film was written and directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi.
“As I watched the World Trade towers collapse on September 11, I felt guilty. The scene looked similar to those that had entertained me in many Godzilla films. But it wasn’t a fantasy, the people were real, and their fear and suffering were heartbreaking.”
Over the years Godzilla has changed roles significantly from once being the ultimate threat to Japan, to now being Japan’s protector. One could believe that this change was made to make the monster appeal to a broader audience resulting in much larger profits for the studio or perhaps it is the result of the fears Japan once had post-war becoming less and less significant?
How can we understand Japan’s mindset after World War II? How did they really feel after the atomic bombings and their subsequent defeat? Was any blame placed upon a particular nation, including their own, for how the war ended?
Every culture has it’s fears… Godzilla itself is a creation born from the fears of another future nuclear disaster. Modern technology of the time created nuclear weapons and from these nuclear weapons came Godzilla! Tom Miller believes however that through the film’s inherent symbolism Godzilla represents more than just the atomic bombing of Japan. In his article “Struggling With Godzilla: Unraveling the Symbolism in Toho’s Sci/Fi Films” Tom states: “In the movie they made, Godzilla represents more than the A-Bomb; Godzilla is the United States itself”, but didn’t the United States have a motive for the atomic bombings? Godzilla needed no motive… Just the animalistic desire to survive.
William Tsutsui is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kansas, an author of many books on Japanese history and a life-long fan of the mutant lizard having authored “Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters” (First published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2004).
Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Godzilla “Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters” discusses how it grew into a global phenomenon thus exploring the monster’s lasting cultural impact on Japan, the United States and the rest of the world whilst a video entitled “Godzilla and Post-War Japan” uploaded onto the web for UCTV (University of California Television) presented Professor William Tsutsui arguing that the evolution of Godzilla, throughout it’s many films, reflects the social and political changes of post-war Japan and Godzilla’s lasting cultural impact on the world.
After World War II Japan’s economy made one of the most remarkable recoveries in the history of the modern world.
Arguably one of their most vital post war recoveries was that of their film industry and by 1953, the industry had entered its Golden Age.
This study of Japanese culture looks at the fascination Japanese audiences have for the symbolism found in these science fiction Kaiju movies. Are they just presented as brainless entertainment or are they born from an ingrained fear that their could perhaps be another disaster like the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the future?
