"This is what they expected."
The Man In The Suit is an ongoing Analog Horror series based on the Godzilla franchise by Unknowingly.
The series, comprising Found Footage and audio recordings, follows an unknown Toho cameraman recording for the Godzilla films as he documents the disturbing on-set happenings surrounding the Godzilla suit actor who becomes the titular "Man in the Suit". As the series progresses, it reveals a tale of horror, tragedy, and man's desire for revenge.
The series began on July 28, 2023, and can be watched on Unknowingly's channel here.
The Man in the Suit includes the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Are we in an Alternate History or is this the "true story" that Toho suppressed from the public?
- With the exception of Shoichi Hirose, none of the other big names of the Godzilla franchise are named as being involved with the events of the series. Hirose himself is claimed to have been killed by The Man in the Suit despite having lived until The '90s in real life.
- It's also unknown if Haruo Nakajima is The Man in the Suit or if it's another actor who played Gojira in this version of events. Nakajima also played other Kaiju in later Godzilla films as did Katsumi Tezuka, who played Anguirus in Godzilla Raids Again, particularly the larvae form of Mothra, a role both shared in the same movie. This obviously wouldn't be possible if Nakajima and Tezuka, assuming they are still the actors, were merged with their respective suits. And the series claims that an unnamed actress played Mothra's larvae form.
- And I Must Scream: The general situation for all those who were forcibly merged with their suits. The Man in the Angurius Suit is revealed to be in constant agonizing pain as Toho keeps him around for more movies. This paints a bleak picture as to what future victims might be going through.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: A non-video game example. In Mailed Message, the cameraman gets a mysterious tape in the mail that's not from Toho. After watching it, he (and us, the viewers) realize it's from The Man in The Suit himself as he explains the reasons of his actions in the tape.
- Antagonist Title: The titular The Man in The Suit. This refers to the actor inside the original Godzilla suit.
- Arc Words: "This is what they expected" and "This is what they found".
- Berserk Button: For The Man in The Suit, it's the Americans or anything related to the United States. The translated description of Godzilla Encounter shows his absolute hatred for them, calling out "the traitors" for working with the Americans to make King Kong vs. Godzilla and even getting violent with the actor in the King Kong suit for portraying an American monster.
- Body Horror: Whatever The Man in The Suit did to irradiate himself caused his body to explode and reshape itself within the Godzilla suit before fusing with it. The results of which aren't pretty. What's worse is that according to "Elise", The Man in The Suit's body is constantly changing, becoming more animalistic than human to the point where he can move the fake tail of the Godzilla suit as if it was his own. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rare Newspaper reveals that he's getting bigger, big enough to tower over people's houses. It's as if The Man in The Suit is becoming a real-life Godzilla.
- Central Theme: Grief and vengeance. Goji's desire to kill all Americans is from his grief, which turned to revenge for the death of his family after Japan got nuked. Said vengeance became blind, as most of the people Goji killed or transformed into "kaiju" were fellow Japanese people who went through the same grief he was going through. Take The Man in The Anguiris Suit, for example. It's implied the actor also lost his family to the nukes, but unlike Goji, he tried to move on from the pain. Goji's shock at how Japan is not preparing for revenge parallels how the real world handled the horrors of after the war, not in world-ending vengeance or genocide, but in peace and learning, while also not forgetting humanity's mistake.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Man in the Suit attacked and possibly murdered Shoichi Hirose during the final scene of King Kong vs. Godzilla solely because he was portraying an American monster, even though Hirose was just doing his job.
- Evil, Inc.: The Toho Company. Toho is painted in a more villainous light in this story, as they're willing to keep The Man in The Suit alive and imprisoned to make more Godzilla movies, as well as the other suit-hybrid actors, even though they should be getting them help for their conditions. What's worse is that they treat them more as animals than people, as they've been trying to use tasers to get The Man in The Anguirus suit to act for them even though he clearly doesn't want to be there and wants the pain to stop.
- Greater-Scope Villain: You can argue that the Toho Company (in this universe) is the true villain of the story as they insist on keeping the actors inside the monster suits locked up and treating them more like animals instead of getting them help for the sake of making more movies and money.
- I've Come Too Far: The unnamed cameraman muses how he should've dropped his investigations into Toho and The Man in the Suit when he had the chance and left Japan, but realizes he's too far down the rabbit hole to stop. If he tried to leave the country now, he'd get arrested at the airport due to what he knows.
- The Mole: After Toho fires the cameraman for thinking he was trying to expose the incidents happening on-set (he was), he manages to befriend someone to be his spy and keep him updated.
- Mythology Gag: The Man in the Suit has several similarities to Shin Godzilla, as a take on the King of Monsters that's based heavily on Body Horror and follows the movie's implied origin for Godzilla as a Tragic Villain who merged with the monster's body.
- No Name Given: Aside from the actor in the King Kong suit, Shoichi Hirose, none of the characters have been named. The cameraman is doing this to protect himself, his family, and his friends and associates, such as calling a friend of his "Elise" instead of revealing her real name.
- Point of No Return: A non-video game example. The cameraman lampshades how he's gone too far down the rabbit hole to stop. He thought about abandoning his investigations and leaving Japan but realized he'd be arrested at the airport if he did.
- The Protagonist: The unnamed cameraman is one of the main central characters in this story as he wants to expose what's happening behind Toho's walls and The Man in The Suit's actions on-set. The other is the titular character, The Man in The Suit, though he falls under Villain Protagonist territory.
- Sole Survivor: The Man in the Suit lost his wife and kids when the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His family lived in the former city, but he survived because he was on a business trip.
- The Stool Pigeon: The unnamed cameraman has been trying to document and reveal the horrors behind Toho's walls. In Dorsal Extraction, Toho gives him the boot when they think he's been telling people what they're doing. They were right.
- Tragic Villain: The Man in the Suit wants to become a real-life Godzilla and exact revenge against the Americans because he, along with many others, lost his family when the United States nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- Viral Transformation: Those in-costume bitten by The Man in the Suit will fuse into their suits as well.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite the actors being mutated and fused with their respective monster suits, Toho isn't doing anything to help them.
- In Anguirus Suit, the spy reveals that Toho has been trying to get The Man in The Anguirus Suit to "cooperate" using force, like tasers, even though "Anguirus" clearly doesn't want to be there and wants to go home.
- In the Mosura Suit Incident, the spy also reveals that The Man in The Suit broke out because Toho was putting him through terrible conditions for their next movie, from forcing him to wear contacts to hide his bloodshot eyes, getting knocked over due to fake high winds, and getting dragged around. The cameraman says they were treating him like a circus animal.
