Characters / Godzilla: The Godzillas

"Godzilla. Truly a god incarnate."

— Kayoco Anne Patterson, Shin Godzilla

A character list including Godzilla himself and several closely related characters.

To return to the main character index, go here. For the Tristar Godzilla from the 1998 movie and the cartoon series go here and here. For the Legendary Godzilla from the MonsterVerse, go here. For the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla from The Godzilla Power Hour, go here. For the Marvel Comics Godzilla from the Godzilla: King of the Monsters comic, go here.

Due to Wiki Policy, this page contains numerous unmarked spoilers for each Godzilla involved. You Have Been Warned.

---

General Tropes

A God, for all intents and purposes.

---

• Ambiguous Gender: Believe it or not, Godzilla being male was an idea created solely by the English dub. The original Japanese films always refer to most kaiju with a genderless pronoun akin to "it" to reflect their monstrous natures, and not even Haruo Nakajima himself knew about Godzilla's actual sex. This translation quirk and statement has sparked fierce debate amongst some fans about whether the Big G is a male, female, or hermaphrodite as the creature has never once sexually reproduced on-screen (save for Zilla). Although, this debate has mostly died down thanks to apocryphal writings penned by Godzilla co-creator Tomoyuki Tanaka, which heavily imply that Godzilla is indeed male.
• Allegorical Character: Since the conception of the original film, Godzilla has been traditionally personified as an atomic bomb, a weapon that heavily traumatized the country of Japan since the tail-end of World War II, and the not-so subtle reference to the Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident that sparked Tomoyuki Tanaka into creating a giant monster based off of the incident. Ishir⁠ō Honda went further with the idea by treating Godzilla as both a nuclear weapon as a Hibakusha because even something as big and large as Godzilla would have been a victim of such weapons as Japan did. In a nutshell, Godzilla is the physical manifestation of nuclear weapons and the tragedy it brings, including himself. The Minus One incarnation subverts this allegory, as he is the personification of war itself.
• Animalistic Abomination: Barring Godzilla Earth and Filius, most Godzillas are this, being mutated dinosaurs or, Shin's case, a sea creature. Godzilla is a towering behemoth (typically between 50 and 120 meters tall) that is impervious to mundane weaponry, breathes torrents of radioactive plasma, spreads lethal radiation in his wake, absorbs radiation to sustain himself rather than — or in addition to — eating meat, has a healing factor that lets him recover from severe injuries, is capable of fighting gods and Eldritch Abominations to the death and winning, and in several incarnations is named after and seen as the incarnation of a destructive oceanic storm-god by the inhabitants of Odo Island.
• Anti-Hero: His most common trait whenever he is not a Villain Protagonist.
• Anti-Villain: Whenever he is a Villain Protagonist, Godzilla is usually portrayed as not truly malicious but rather a destructive force of nature.
• Art Evolution: Godzilla's design will often change, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically, from movie to movie, usually without explanation and regardless of it's a reboot or not.
• Atomic Superpower: Godzilla has always had this given his origin of being mutated by a nuclear blast. Atomic Breath, Nuclear Pulse, feeding on radiation, you name it. Fitting given him originally being an allegory for the atomic bomb and its destructive power.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Each Godzilla's size varies. Original and Showa: 50 meters (164 ft), Heisei: 80 meters (262 ft) in his first two appearances, 100 meters (328 ft) from Vs King Ghidorah and onwards; Millennium: Your Size May Vary (but generally in the 50-60m range), Shin: 118 meters (387 ft), PotM: 318 meters (1043 ft), Singular Point: 45m at first, then eventually in excess of 100m. Minus One dials back to 50.1 meters.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: In the Showa and Heisei continuities, whenever Godzilla shows up, people usually respond by freaking out, and the JSDF gets sent out to deal with him, and Godzilla always retaliates out of anger. In the Showa continuity, It took the military four movies to finally not provoke Godzilla, and he becomes a Heroic Neutral after Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. In the Heisei continuity, it took them five films, and the G-Force member Takaaki Aso is still trying to kill him despite living in Birth Island in content.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: So says Shōgo Tomiyama, who denies that Godzilla is an evil being. He likens Godzilla to a Shinto "God of Destruction. He totally destroys everything and then there is a rebirth. Something new and fresh can begin."
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: The "Godzilla March" theme was actually intended for the military as far as 1954. It isn't until 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla that it made its return, but it is used for Godzilla. Each film later on uses the theme whenever Godzilla shows up, up until 2000 and as a remix for Godzilla: Final Wars. Shin Godzilla uses Terror's version (known as "Godzilla appears") and the 1954 version in the credits. The theme is also used for Monsterverse Godzilla, and Minus One even uses it for both Godzilla and the operation against him.
• Breath Weapon: Each Godzilla is able to charge and fire radioactive plasma, originally called "incandescent light" but later renamed Atomic Breath (actually called Heat Ray in the Japanese version), from their mouths. The colors and power varies in each film, although it's usually blue. Whether it's portrayed as a solid beam of light or more of a wispy vapour also varies between films. Later films also introduced a stronger variant known as the Spiral Heat Ray.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Godzilla's origin varies in each film: He has been a prehistoric monster awakened by a nuclear bomb, a dinosaur mutated by a nuclear submarine, a sea creature mutated by dumped nuclear materials, a planimal, or he is just sort of there.
  • His connections to nuclear weapons and how radioactive he is varies between plot to plot. Ishiro Honda has reminded us in his films that Godzilla is and always has been a radioactive monster while non-Honda films glosses this over. Geiger counters in his films reminds us about that when characters are looking for him, whereas other films, they happen to find him through random chance.
  • Godzilla's morality is also highly subject to the whims of the writer. His portrayals have ranged from him being a mindless monster hellbent on causing mass destruction and death, to an apathetic force of nature only concerned with its own well-being that doesn't pay much attention to the tiny humans he shares this world with, to him being an outright hero and guardian of Japan and/or the world at large.
  • Godzilla’s status as some brand of Eldritch Abomination. While most Kaiju in general are powerful and break physics by default, Godzilla is limited to mostly being a big lizard breathing atomic energy, which isn’t too hard to comprehend. However, versions such as Shin Godzilla, Godzilla Earth, and Singular Point ramp up Godzilla’s power and sheer otherworldliness increasingly, to him being in a constant state of mutated evolution to even being a sort of multiversial infection breaking down reality.
• Destructive Savior: If he's the protagonist, expect a major city in ruins. It makes perfect sense as Godzilla is a personification of a God of Destruction.
• Determinator: His defining trait. Over the decades Godzilla has faced other monsters who are stronger, faster, tougher, have a greater Healing Factor, more powers, and generally outclass him across the board. But what sets Godzilla apart is that he never, ever gives up and just keeps coming back for more until his opponent is dead and gone.
• Expy: Godzilla was originally based directly on the title creature of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. This portrayal is consistent with Godzilla after 1954. The original Godzilla was meant to be portrayed like this in the original screenplay and Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again where his tragic portrayal became the exception of the rule.
• Fantastic Diet Requirement: Godzilla's main form of sustenance in multiple continuities seems to be radiation, in spite of his sharp teeth. That being said, in the original film, the first Godzilla is said to have been devouring large schools of fishes at Odo island and occasionally humans (both sacrificed to him by Odo Island natives and hunted in the Tokyo Tower), removed scenes in both this and Godzilla vs. Biollante had him eating meat (a cow and a fish-rat kaiju respectively), and he has sometimes been shown hunting whales. The 14th Edition of Definitive Edition Godzilla Introduction shows the original Godzilla and his colony actively hunting giant squids, fish, and whales. Disregarding the 1998 film, however, Godzilla has never been shown to actually eat real food onscreen (indeed, one of the strictest stipulations given by Toho in regards to Godzilla's character is that he is never to be shown eating people). Notably, in Minus One, his pre-mutated form is seen repeatedly chomping on humans, but only to fling them away with his mouth, not to eat them (although it's mentioned in the film's novelization that Odo Island natives gave Godzilla "gifts", it's never mentioned or even alluded to what he actually eats). This is often the focus of certain films, such as The Return of Godzilla, in which the Heisei Godzilla is basically a lost, confused and hungry animal seeking nuclear power plants to feed on. Naturally, two prominent nuclear countries, the USA and the Soviet Union, aren't happy with this development.
• Four-Fingered Hands: All of his incarnations possess 4 individual fingers in each of his hands. Purely justified design-wise, since his sturdy arms are based on an iguanodon, one of the many species of dinosaur that actually had multiple digits.
• Giant Equals Invincible: It generally takes specialized weaponry or another kaiju to pierce Godzilla's skin, and most conventional weapons don't even faze him. Shin Godzilla was made to bleed from GBU-57A/B Massive Ordinance Penetrator bombs. Ishir⁠ō Honda's vision of Godzilla is that if Godzilla was just a normal dinosaur, a regular cannonball would kill him. But because he is a physical manifestation of the atom bomb, there's nothing anyone could do. Hence this trope.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: If Godzilla ever appears in a movie or commercial doing normal things or showing up at events, it's very telling that those instances are Played for Laughs as he is either portrayed as an actor or good friends with humans. Such as the Snickers commercial promoting the 2014 film.
• Grandfather Clause: Godzilla's general body shape is heavily based on early depictions of bipedal dinosaurs with upright, kangaroo-like postures and bulky builds, specifically that of Iguanodon and Tyrannosaurus. This has long since been proven to be inaccurate, but Godzilla has nonetheless kept his bulky, upright shape. The one attempt at a slimmer, horizontally-positioned was very negatively received and later retconned into a different species of kaiju.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Many incarnations of Godzilla are always angry, whether towards humanity or other monsters. GMK Godzilla however is a sole exception as he acts on pure sadism.
• Having a Blast: Godzilla is occasionally show to have the ability to unleash a short range explosion of nuclear energy referred to as a Nuclear Pulse, which originated in The Return of Godzilla. Generally it's only used to stun other monsters whenever they're on top of him and Godzilla needs to put some space between them. Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) are the main exceptions to this; in the first, he defeats Orga by unleashing a Nuclear Pulse from inside its mouth that blows his torso to smithereens in an explosion that devastates several city blocks, while in the second, he is upgraded in strength to Burning Godzilla by Mothra's energy, and unleashes a series of enhanced Nuclear Pulses so powerful, it levels the city of Boston and almost completely vaporizes King Ghidorah.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Depending on the film you watch, Godzilla's either a good guy or a bad guy, and he sometimes switches sides within the same movie.
• Interpretative Character: Godzilla's moral alignment, level of anthropomorphism, power scaling, what he represents, and physical features have changed widely throughout his adaptations and sequels, from a goofy ally of mankind, a misanthropic Generic Doomsday Villain, an Undead Abomination fuelled by vengeance, a destructive Anti-Hero, and a simple, instinct-driven animal, among other portrayals. The only thing that has remained consistent is that Godzilla is a giant reptilian beast that comes from the sea, with some connection to radiation.
• The Klutz: As terrifyingly powerful as he is, he is oddly clumsy. The Showa Godzilla definitely had these kinds of moments such as tangling his tail on an electric tower, smacking his face on Nagoya Castle, and so forth. Heisei Godzilla can't seem to stroll into a city without stepping into a pothole or just falling into a hole on the ground (probably had something to do with the suit-actor's head being in the neck).
• Meaningful Name: At first, he didn't have one. His name was simply the words "Gorilla" and "Kujira" mixed together. According to Shin Godzilla, "Godzilla" (or rather, his Japanese name, Gojira [ゴジラ]) officially means "God Incarnate" (Kami no keshinai). Considering he is depicted as a Physical God, this makes sense. And yes, this applies to the Legendary version as well, since he was depicted the same way.
• Menacing Stroll: Pretty much all Godzilla incarnations default to walking forward at an evenly slow, ominous pace, emphasizing their immense size and badassery.
• Mighty Glacier: With the primary exception of the '98 incarnation, Godzilla is a very slow fighter, preferring to tank hits head-on, but usually demolishing his foes in only a few blows. This is probably due to the suits needed to portray Godzilla being very heavy, making running and jumping in it out of the question (the '98 film's incarnation being portrayed primarily with CG circumvented this issue).
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The general design of all versions of Godzilla are derived from the general form of a theropod dinosaur. His large arms from an Iguanodon, the body structure of a Tyrannosaurus rex (or at least the old depictions of T. rex with upright postures), and his most prominent feature, his iconic dorsal fins are based off a Stegosaurus, but given a jagged appearance to make them more unique.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As if his name alone isn't enough to make anyone flee in terror, there's also his above meaningful name, God Incarnate (Kami no kenshinai).
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Most incarnations of Godzilla are impervious to conventional weaponry, only being capable of being injured by other kaiju or weapons specifically created to do so.
• Non-Malicious Monster: His most consistent trait until GMK. Even then, incarnations such as Shin are portrayed with sympathy. Keep in mind that when Godzilla enters a major city, he's not even trying to destroy everything in sight. The 1954 (and his GMK incarnation), the anime Gojis, and Minus One Godzilla are huge exceptions, and they attack humans directly.
• Nuclear Mutant: The most common origin of the monster is that radiation is involved in his conception.
• Outside-Context Problem: More often than not, Godzilla is depicted as the first time kaiju have come into conflict with humanity.
• Papa Wolf: Giant nuclear monster or not, he is incredibly protective of his child. Harm even one of them, and he will absolutely end you. Showa, Heisei, TriStar, and anime Godzilla demonstrate this in their respective films.
• Portmanteau: His Japanese name is a blend of the Japanese words gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira) which appropriately fits his aesthetic. Having the intellect and fearsome strength of a gorilla and the aquatic lifestyle of a whale.
• Physical God: In several films — most prominently the original — is worshipped and/or depicted as a god of destruction. Fitting as his name as "God Incarnate''. Each film has a commonality that Godzilla is a god from Odo Island legends.
• Prehistoric Monster: With the main exception of the 1998 incarnation (which has him descended from a contemporary iguana with a coincidentally dinosaurian form), most other Godzillas are stated (or at least implied) to have a prehistoric origin, although the specific origin ranges between continuities. Regardless, it's well-known his primary design draws mostly from various dinosaur species.
• Really 700 Years Old: Each Godzilla has to be at least thousands to million years old when he survives each extinction event. Shin, in kaiju terms, is perhaps the youngest incarnation out of each Godzilla.
• Red Baron: "King of the Monsters", "God Incarnate", "God of Destruction".
• Sea Monster: All versions of Godzilla have retained the fact he comes from the ocean and has excellent swimming abilities, with some incarnations even giving him gills to play up his semi-aquatic nature.
• Spikes of Villainy: Every Godzilla has rigid dorsal plates on their backs. While the original, Showa, and Heisei Godzillas have softer spines, the Millennium series Godzillas have more edge and sharper dorsal spines, including the the more villainous Godzillas such as GMK and Minus One.
• Starring Special Effects: The main character of the Godzilla franchise is the eponymous giant atomic dinosaur, usually portrayed through suits, animatronics, and/or computer-generated effects.
• Superior Successor: The original Godzilla, while powerful, was not a fighter, and most of the destruction was out of vengeance (at least until Godzilla vs. Megagirus, GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, and Godzilla: Final Wars where he received Adaptational Badass treatment). His successors on the other hand are much better fighters, to the point of defeating even bigger monsters.
• Superpower Lottery: Various incarnations of the King of the Monsters courtesy of being an irradiated beast have been granted a plethora of powers, most of which include Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, a Healing Factor, Energy Absorption, a Breath Weapon, reversing electrical surges, delivering physical blows extracted with energy, destructive energy shockwaves etc.
• Unstoppable Rage: The most common trait about each version of Godzilla tends to get unreasonably pissed off. Most of the time their rage against humanity is reasonable, but other times, they need a little incentive to get mad in general.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Because Godzilla as a concept was conceived through real-life tragedies and life-changing events of Japan by its first director, Ishir⁠ō Honda, the films makes use of the metaphor he represents. The original Godzilla was based on the atomic bomb tragedies of World War II and the Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident, the Heisei Godzilla was based on then-current nuclear arms race, and Shin Godzilla was based on the Fukushima disaster.
• Villain Protagonist: If he's the main threat and started the main plot, he is this.
• Wild Card: He is a giant monster after all. Most of the time he treats the location he's in as a territory. Of course, that depends on the Godzilla.

Live Action Incarnations

The original Godzilla

You have your fear which might become reality. And you have Godzilla, which is reality.

First appearance: Gojira (Godzilla) / Godzilla, King of the Monsters, 1954/1956

AKA: Gojira

Portrayed By: Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka (1954), Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla: Final Wars), Mizuho Yoshida (Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack)

The original monster. A giant, prehistoric aquatic reptile who lurked in the darkest depths of the ocean, until the fateful day where a nuclear weapons test destroyed his habitat, causing him to absorb massive amounts of radiation.

Born from the atomic fire and unleashed upon an unsuspecting humanity, Godzilla was a metaphor for the horrors of nuclear destruction. After the death of the monster, his presence haunts the Japanese for the rest of their lives, including his successors that followed.

---

• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • His suit was originally brown. The American poster for King of the Monsters! portray him green (until his actual canon appearance in Vs. Megaguirus where Toho reused the 2000 suit which is green). However subsequent films portray various Godzilla throughout the series as charcoal gray, and so he was given this treatment.
  • His Atomic Breath was actually white instead of blue. The reason is due to the white flashes of nuclear weapons. The breath's change in color was due to Cherenkov radiation being colored blue which every susequent Godzilla film has the atomic breath blue with the exceptions of 2000, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, and Shin Godzilla. His atomic breath's appearance in Vs. Megaguirus is orange, a holdover from Godzilla 2000.
• Adaptational Badass: He was already strong in his debut film, but the sequels in the Millennium series ramps up his combat capabilities.
  • In Vs. Megaguirus, he could leap, uses strategic thinking, and was able to burrow a hole to avoid getting shot by the black hole satelite.
  • In GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, he was given a stronger beam, and can absorb the powers and souls of his opponents.
  • In Final Wars, he can supercharge his atomic breath from blue to red after Ozaki gives him his powers. Even before then, he destroys the meteor Gorath, which is bigger than a continent, before it lands on Earth. Though doing so released Monster X/Kaiser Ghidorah.
• Adaptational Abomination: In Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla is explicitly stated to be a creature unknown to science that's millions of years old and capable of surviving at the bottom of the ocean without issue—and that was before he was mutated.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Because King of the Monsters downplayed his sympathetic qualities, the American version portrays him as a giant monster with a chip on his shoulder similar to the Rhedosaurus. This is apparent since in the original film, Dr. Yamane gives a double eulogy to Serizawa and an Alas, Poor Villain speech for Godzilla. In the American version, he stays quiet while Steven Martin only gives a eulogy to his fallen best friend.
  • In GMK, the resurrected Godzilla is not a tragic monster nor a destructive force of nature. He is a being of pure malevolence who seeks nothing but the utter destruction of Japan and the world. To further illustrate this, he is also a Sadist who torments and toys with his opponents, namely the Guardian Monsters.
  • In Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla intentionally attacks Odo Island to eat their livestock and villagers, and doesn't have the angst as the film version after being hit by an H-Bomb.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • The reactions of both Kyohei Yamane and the audience in regards to his death. To elaborate, you'd think he's a mindless monster after having destroyed Tokyo twice over by killing thousands of people, and dying in a spectacular way. He is not. He's, in Ishiro Honda's way, an innocent creature who was unlucky to be mutated. Like the Japanese 9 years prior, he is suffering because of what he has become. It's that sad.
  • What's more sadder is that in the two page comic by Tomoyuki Tanaka, Godzilla had a family◊ that mostly lived on fish and whales. Then he was shown as the only survivor of the H-Bomb test. It recontextualizes that the entirety of Godzilla (1954) is about a rampaging monster seeking to punish humanity out of rage and grief.
• Allegorical Character: A very well-known and obvious example. The original Godzilla was a living metaphor representing the horrors of nuclear warfare and the tragedy it wrought, a concept which would have been very fresh in the minds of the Japanese back then. Godzilla's rampage reduces Tokyo to smouldering, irradiated ruin, his skin texture was based off the keloid scars of radiation burn victims, and he is just as unstoppable and destructive as an atom bomb. Another way to see it is how Godzilla as a Tragic Monster is also a personification of the tragedies of nuclear warfare that doesn't just affect others, but also himself.
• Anti-Hero: In Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and Godzilla: Final Wars where at best, he's a neutral force going against Megaguirus and the Xillians sending out their monsters to fight him.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: The original Godzilla was created as an embodiment of the atomic bomb.
• Archnemesis Dad: It is implied that he is the father of the Godzilla in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, meaning he's the dad in question and the Godzilla his Antagonistic Offspring. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. all but confirms that this is the case.
• The Assimilator: While regenerating, in GMK, Godzilla has absorbed the souls of all those killed in the Pacific War. Not just military casualties either; he's powered by 36 million poor lost tormented souls. He is full of anger, and seeks to avenge those dead on a Japan that has forgotten its past, and the horrors of war.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Though it would sound unimpressive compared to some of the later Godzilla's, he's still a threat at 50 meters.
• Audience Surrogate: You wouldn't think a highly radioactive monster that destroyed Tokyo would be this, but for all intents and purposes, he is. He is a nuclear survivor, a victim, and has horrible radiation scars. Just like the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he despises what the nuclear bomb did to him. This brings more tragic light than it already does.
• Back from the Dead:
  • The Godzilla seen in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! is the original Godzilla from 1954 reanimated and possessed by the vengeful spirits of the people who died in World War II.
  • In Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla his bones are dredged up and used to construct Kiryu.
• Belly Flop Crushing: In Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, he launches himself to body slam Megaguirus.
• Berserk Button: Godzilla really hates lights, and he had a damn good reason too, especially from a weapon that scarred him for life. Too bad those reporters during his raid didn't get the memo.
  • Hell, just by the sheer amount of destruction he causes, and the fact that he's pretty much in a rage all the time, one could assume that just looking at him pisses him off. This is consistent across all his incarnations.
• Big Bad:
  • Of his debut film. He caused a lot of damage and took lives by the thousands. However, his Tragic Monster portrayal gave him some sympathy points, as the climax illustrates. Posthumously, he casts a very long shadow over the franchise. It's no wonder the Japanese dread this Godzilla more than his successors.
  • And of Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! where he was revived by the victims of World War II, and continues where he left off... By destroying Japan.
• Big Eater: Initially it was planned for Godzilla to have a cow in his mouth when he popped over the cliff on Oto Island, and it's mentioned that his presence was resulting in a fish shortage for the natives, who would sacrifice young girls to appease his hunger.
• Body Horror: It's not super obvious due to being in black and white, but he has what looks like horrible burn marks, implied to be from the bomb. Considering how much agony this must cause him, it's almost hard to blame him for being pissed at the humans. Prior to this, his species canonically had smooth skin similar to Minilla.
• Book Ends: The original film starts with Godzilla holding a grudge against humanity for his mutation from the H-Bomb test. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. and Godzilla: Final Wars ends his decades-long grudge. After 2004, Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One are reboots that his no ties with his debut film.
• Breath Weapon: His Atomic Breath is a stream of nuclear vapor that burns, melts, and irradiates whatever it hits. His Vs. Megaguirus incarnation has a orange solid-gaseous version, while his GMK and Final Wars versions have a solid blue beam.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: To show how ungodly powerful he is, he easily decimates everything in his light of sight, including the JSDF. To call it a "battle" would imply the army even had a chance to fight back.
• Cutting Off the Branches: A movie version. The original film is set in 1954 while Godzilla: King of the Monsters! is stated to be in 1956. The American version of The Return of Godzilla sets the events in 1956, but later American dubs of the films from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah set the film in 1954. Talk about not being able to make up your mind!
• Cyborg: He becomes this as Kiryu in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. However, his memories affects Kiryu's control systems to the point of rampaging. In its sequel, Godzilla as Kiryu does it again, but as a heart-felt farewell to his human pilot rather than destroying everything in sight.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: A giant pissed off prehistoric radioactive monster that goes on a rampage in a major city, attacking innocent people, and then eventually dies as popularized by 1950's monster movies of the time. While he acts like your usual monster out to cause destruction, he has a legitimate reason for it, and his death was treated as a very somber light. In fact his death has such an impact in other series to come.
• Deconstruction: He is the deconstruction of many 1950's Nuclear Mutant monsters. Many of his cotemporaries had either been awaken by an atomic bomb (such as Rhedosaurus) or a nuclear creation (such as the giant ants in ''Them!"). Godzilla is both, but unlike those two examples, he is what happens when a monster his size was horrifically mutated as a result of a nuclear testing, and his radiation scars are anything but subtle. As a consequence, he is full of anger and seeks vengeance that made him that way.
• Deader than Dead: How his death was gruesomely displayed near the end of the film whereafter succumbing to the highly fatal power of the Oxygen Destroyer, he was Stripped to the Bone from total asphyxiation, that even his own skeleton was completely liquified to the point where there's literally nothing left of the nuclear beast. Subverted in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla where only his skeleton still remained and was even used for the components to construct Kiryu as a high chance to defeat the second Godzilla.
• Depending on the Writer: Has gone through many different retcons and returned in many different ways, especially in the Millenium series. Either he didn't die at all and re-surfaced, was resurrected as an undead abomination, or stayed dead and had his bones used to create the cyborg Kiryu to fight his successor.
• Disk-One Final Boss: He was the first, but definitely not the last of his kind.
• Death of Personality: Implied in GMK where if you compare both Godzillas, the original Godzilla may had been like the Showa Godzilla, but as a victim of nuclear weaponry. And then you have the utterly vicious GMK Godzilla where he is far more dangerous than his original self could ever be. GMK portrays GMK Godzilla as the same Godzilla from 1954, and so went through a great amount of tragedy in his life until his death by the Oxygen Destroyer. That Godzilla no longer exists and is now a zombie fueled by the rage and hatred of the Japanese Imperial Army and their victims.
• The Dreaded: And rightfully so. Even posthumously, as Dr. Yamane states that it's possible that Godzilla might not have been the only one of his kind and that another Godzilla could emerge if nuclear weapons continue to be tested and used.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: He has radiation burns and keloid scars, along with being highly radioactive. In a nutshell, he is basically a monster version of a Hibakusha^note a nuclear weapon survivor.
• Dumb Dinos: Averted. Godzilla is intelligent, and his rampage is very intentional.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Of all versions of Godzilla, including Legendary's own, he is the only version of Godzilla who is a Tragic Villain — being portrayed as a radiation burn victim — while Shin is portrayed as a victim via mutation from consuming radioactive waste. Other versions barely treat nuclear testing as an inconvenience and just attack whenever they want.
  • This is the only version of Godzilla that is alluded to eating people, or even meat. It's offhandedly mentioned that the people of Odo Island used to provide Godzilla with virgin sacrifices to sate his hunger, as he would otherwise deplete local coastal fish stocks (only the ToraGoji incarnation following this is shown eating fish and his offspring hunting people). No other instance of Godzilla is ever mentioned to feed on anything besides radiation, and he never considers humans to be food.
• Freudian Excuse: One can't deny that he's a destructive behemoth that reduces the majority of Tokyo into a wasteland, but because he was mutated by an H-bomb in the Pacific that also destroyed his habitat, he has every right to be pissed at mankind. This excuse actually holds water.
• Giant Equals Invincible: This became a problem in the film. It took the Oxygen Destroyer to kill him, but this caused more problems than resolving it.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: Godzilla's ominous footsteps usually precede his appearance.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He is covered in radiation burns from head to tail. These are scars of constant pain and wrath.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Posthumously, he casted a very long shadow over the franchise.
• Heel–Face Turn: At the end of Tokyo S.O.S, he lets go of his hatred of humans, and bids his pilot farewell.
• Humans Are Special: He eventually lets go of his hate of humans as Kiryu, and personally drops his own kind into the ocean and deactivates. But not before saying farewell to Yoshido.
• It Can Think: He knows exactly what he's doing in his debut film. Dumb Dinos he is not.
• It's Personal: Godzilla's entire hatred of humans stems from this; after all, they did blow up his home, horribly mutate him and then try to kill him off when he decided he wanted to state his complaints by wrecking Tokyo up.
• Mighty Glacier: He moves rather slowly in his debut film (this can be attributed to his suit being incredibly heavy). This works well due to his attack being a rolling nuclear explosion.
• Monster from Beyond the Veil: In Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!, he gets resurrected by the spirits of vengeful soldiers killed in World War II.
• Mutants: He was mutated by an H-bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Shrugs off everything the JSDF throws at him.
  • GMK Godzilla demonstrates this best: even after blowing up, he still wasn't fully dead, as his disembodied heart continued to beat at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, slowly regenerating a new body.
  • The comic issue #5 of 'Godzilla in Hell' reveals nothing can stop him. The hell-bats, eldritch abominations in their own right, devour him, tearing him apart. His response? Assimilate them and their bodies against their will to become his new body, which he puts to good use in crushing the hell guardian, and returning to the world of the living.
• Non-Malicious Monster: A very tragic example, despite unleashing his wrath on the populace. Averted in GMK, where the resurrected Godzilla, driven by the vengeful spirits, seeks nothing more than the annihilation of life itself.
• Nuclear Mutant: The original Godzilla has shown that he's is not just a giant monster with a chip on his shoulder. He is a victim of nuclear warfare. His venting his rage on Japan showcases just how angry he really is at his mutation as he razes Tokyo into the ground just to prove a point.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Godzilla in GMK is a being of pure evil who seeks the destruction of everything.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The vengeful ghost of the original Godzilla was going to kill the Heisei Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Ghost Godzilla, the prototype for the film that became Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. While this ultimately didn't occur, Ghost Godzilla has occasionally appeared in merchandise and the idea of the original Godzilla returning as a vengeful undead creature was reused for Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Both literally and figuratively. As for the literal part, his mere presence will give those around him radiation poisoning.
• Pet the Dog: Gets one near the end of the original film where he is found sleeping in the ocean. This quote from this review says it best:
  ''We have it here as its compassion reaches out to embrace even the destructive power at the center of its story. Here, for the first and last time, we catch a strangely touching glimpse of Godzilla at peace, going about the normal life from which forces beyond his control or understanding have so violently wrenched him. Even in the face of all the death and chaos, even as mankind strikes back with a power even more terrible than Godzilla himself, the film takes a moment to remind us that Godzilla, too, is in his way a victim."
• Physical God: The original Godzilla was worshipped as a destructive deity by the natives of Odo Island, even before his mutation. The novelization has an old fisherman explain to Hagiwara that it was believed that when Godzilla awakened he would devour all the fish in the sea, then come up on land to devour the people. The only thing capable of repelling him was the sacrifice of a young maiden or a ritualistic kagura dance, the latter of which is all that remains by the time of the film.
• Posthumous Character: In all 3 series; moreso in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah due to the prominence of the Oxygen Destroyer. In fact, because of his first appearance in 1954, he casts a long shadow all over the 3 series. For the Showa series, it's quite unnerving when he's responsible for the actions he causes and his succesor undergoes Characterization Marches On, while his Heisei and Millennium successors remain the same creature while he either stays alive, or comes back as an undead abomination or a cyborg.
• Power Glows: When charging his Atomic Breath, Godzilla's dorsal spines glow with Cherenkov radiation.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In-universe, the Japanese government names the kaiju "Gojira" after the malicious storm god of Odo Island.
• Rule of Symbolism: His survival of the hydrogen bombing mirrors that of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He is heavily affected by the H-bomb that horrifically scarred him, and is apparently the Sole Survivor of his species (until the sequels). And thus his misery, hatred, and anger was caused by the bomb, and has every right to, which mirrors the hibakusha in Japan as he, by definition, is one.
• Shadow Archetype: Of your typical giant Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever Nuclear Mutant monster. To clarify, when a giant monster is on the loose, it's following its instinct, and only attacks when provoked. Or in rare cases, only attacks just because.Godzilla however can think, knows exactly where his targets are (as explained in Destroy All Monsters), and unlike those monsters, he is actually depicted as a Tragic Monster whose existence was created by humanity's mistakes. The film does not sugarcoat the point of how badly his existence is, and it makes him the most sympathetic interpretations of the monster.
• Sole Survivor: The 14th Edition of Definitive Edition Godzilla Introduction contains a 2-panel comic verifying Dr. Yamane's theory regarding Godzilla's origins; showing a small colony of Godzillas living at the bottom of the ocean until the Castle Bravo nuke wiped all but one — or two, given the existence of the subsequent Showa Godzilla — out.
• The Soulless: Subverted by some 36 million plus souls in Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, where he comes back as an undead white-eyed monster possessed by spirits of the casualties of World War 2's Pacific War. Given his terrifying supernatural aura, it's not clear if this Godzilla had his soul exorcised by the evil spirits, never had one to begin with, fused with them, or is the very incarnation of their anger and hate.
• Spared By Adaptation: In Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and Godzilla Final Wars he wasn't killed by the Oxygen Destroyer.
• Starter Villain: He's the first monster in almost every Continuity Reboot untill 2014 (Legendary) and Shin. His existence also expands the wider Toho universe where there there's just not another Godzilla, but a whole array of monsters, including space ones such as King Ghidorah and Gigan.
• Story-Breaker Power: At the time, his atomic breath is his most powerful weapon. He also point-blank kills people with it. To this reason, he's Too Powerful to Live.
• Stripped to the Bone: How he dies via Oxygen Destroyer, being reduced to a skeleton before his bones were outright disintegrated. In Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla it only stripped him to the bone.
• Sympathetic Murderer: It’s telling that even with all the death and destruction his rampages cause, he still easily counts as this. It wasn't his fault he was awakened and mutated by the H-Bomb. If anything, he has a very justified hatred towards humans.
• The Tokyo Fireball: He completely destroyed Tokyo in his debut film. The main difference between his and his successors of later films' level of destruction is that he was very thorough in his destruction. Whereas others will knock a few buildings or set them on fire, in the original movie, Godzilla is shown methodically destroying everything, using his atomic breath to melt structures, blow up cars, and incinerate people. It gives the disturbing imagery of Hiroshima's destruction.
• Tortured Monster: He was a survivor of a nuclear testing in the Pacific. His wrath towards humans is very understandable.
• Tragic Monster: Oh boy. He was a prehistoric creature living in the deep sea trenches, minding his own business, before getting nuked. The film does not sugarcoat that he is an innocent victim as much as the humans of nuclear warfare. To illustrate this, Serizawa and Ogata come across him napping at the bottom of Tokyo Bay. In a nut shell, he's a monster version of a Hibakusha.
• The Undead: Of the healing and no rotting variety in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!, where he is reanimated by the vengeful spirits of soldiers killed in World War II.
• Villain Protagonist: In his debut film, he levels most of Tokyo, and the implication that he could attack other cities not just in Japan, but around the world, is what spurs Daisuke Serizawa to act.
• Walking Wasteland: Fitting for a walking personification of nuclear weapons, Godzilla’s mere presence leaves an area heavily irradiated, condemning people who were lucky enough to survive his attacks to suffer from extreme illness, or worse, a slow, torturous death from radiation poisoning.
• War Is Hell: His very existence is a byproduct of war. Not just his original self, but also his GMK appearance.
• Was It Really Worth It?: With his and Daisuke Serizawa's death, Dr. Yamane asks this question as a eulogy to both. As later sequels tell you, the answer is "No."
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: This also cannot be understated. His first film depicts him as this: He was a normal dinosaur mutated by the Castle Bravo test in 1954, which gave him powers. This clearly made him stronger and angrier, not to mention in constant pain from his radiation burns. While destructive, he nonetheless is depicted as a Tragic Monster who just wanted to be left alone. After he destroys most of Tokyo, he goes to the ocean to have peace, but the humans won't let him be, and he dies rather in a Tear Jerker manner.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: When he defeats Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah in GMK he absorbs their souls to become more powerful. He himself is composed of millions of vengeful spirits from World War II's Pacific War.

Showa Godzilla

Top to bottom: Godzilla Raids Again, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Terror of Mechagodzilla

First appearance: Godzilla Raids Again, 1955

AKA: Gojira, The King of the Monsters, Gigantis, Monster Zero-One, God of Destruction, The Big G

Portrayed by: Haruo Nakajima (1955-1972; Water scene only in Son of Godzilla), Katsumi Tezuka (King Kong vs. Godzilla; water scene only), Hiroshi Sekita and Seiji Onaka (Son of Godzilla), Shinji Takagi (Godzilla vs. Megalon), Isao Zushi (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla), and Toru Kawai (Terror of Mechagodzilla)

"I cannot believe Godzilla is the last member of its species. But if we continue to conduct nuclear tests, another Godzilla may appear somewhere in the world again."

— Kyohei Yamane, Godzilla (1954)

The Legacy Character to the original Godzilla. Godzilla began as a neutral being, a living force of nature, but through the years he's also been a protector of the Earth, a monstrous engine of vengeance, and even a caring parent. One thing is constant, though: Godzilla is unstoppable and will face all challengers with his size, power, ferocity, and devastating atomic ray.

---

• Abusive Parents: Godzilla isn't too thrilled about parenthood the moment Minilla imprints on him after saving his life. He threatens to hit Minilla and stomps on his tail to get him to use Atomic Breath. Somewhat justified, since Minilla needs some way to defend himself on an island full of Big Creepy-Crawlies trying to eat him. That being said, the moment Minilla proves himself after helping Godzilla beat Kumonga is when he truly earns respect from his adoptive father.
• Achilles' Heel: Played with. He was originally the only incarnation with a clearly defined weakness as the Showa Godzilla showed varying levels of aversion to electric/lightning-based barriers or attacks of a high enough voltage. At least up until 1966, when he is shown to have adapted to electricity, being woken up by lightning strikes channeled through a sword and cable. In 1974, he is shown to have used it to heal wounds suffered at the hands of Mechagodzilla, and further used it to turn himself into a living super electromagnet.
• Adaptation Name Change: The English dub of Godzilla Raids Again renames him as "Gigantis" in order to disconnect the film from Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) when producer Paul Schreibman tried to explain the second film was called "Anguirus" (anyone who knows Japanese would have known "Gojira no Gyakushu" does not mean Anguirus). As the title character, his film's name became Gigantis, The Fire Monster.
• Adaptational Heroism: This version of Godzilla is definitely the most heroic one yet. While he starts off villainous, he dials back on his destructive tendencies, staying out of human cities and only leaving his territory to defend Earth from extraterrestrial threats.
• Adaptational Villainy: In Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, he tries to eat Tsukioka and Kobayashi when they landed on Iwato Island. He doesn't display such behavior in his debut film as he was busy fighting Angurius.
• All Webbed Up: How he is defeated by Mothra's children in Mothra vs. Godzilla. Kumonga did this to him once as well.
• Anti-Hero: Showa Godzilla is a Byronic hero who starts off wholly antagonistic but develops into a destructive savior for mankind.
• Anthropomorphic Shift: During the Showa Era, Godzilla went from a fairly animalistic monster that fought using his teeth and claws (along with his thermonuclear breath) to something of an anthro-animal superhero who would fight using kung fu moves. This is up to and including an Ali-Shuffle in Monster Zero. And there's that time he put on gigantic sneakers to go one-on-one with Charles Barkley...
• Art Evolution: Showa Godzilla went from being more or less identical to the original Godzilla in Godzilla Raids Again to having a frog-like head with bulbous eyes.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's called the King of Monsters for a reason.
• Bash Brothers: With Anguirus and Rodan, depending on the film. Also counts with Gorosaurus, Manda, Kumonga, Varan, Baragon and Mothra, if Destroy All Monsters is accounted for.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Adapts to this during his Anthropomorphic Shift. Therefore he's far better in hand-to-hand while in close-quarters and can even do Judo flips as well.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: In a kaiju way. He went from a radioactive abomination with a mean looking face as an antagonist to a perhaps Ugly Cute superhero sort of way.
• Beam Spam: During the earlier 60s films of the Showa era, he would often rely on firing his Atomic Ray to fend off targets in case they didn't get the memo to back off. It became even more frequent when he fought Mothra for the first time by using his Breath Weapon many times to attack her, although she proved to be highly nimble in the air for it be effective until he managed to kill her by using it at point-blank. After facing certain kaiju that were outright capable of withstanding the power of his Atomic Ray, such as Rodan and King Ghidorah, this certain aspect of Godzilla would dwindle down over the years, since he merely resorts to overpowering other kaiju with melee combat maneuvers along with his staggering brawn. It's only when he makes use of his Atomic Ray as a way to finish off his opponents properly.
• Blood Knight: Godzilla enjoys a good fight. This is the reason Anguirus had any problem with him in their debut film as while Anguirus is a peaceful carnivore, Godzilla is prone to violence, which is why they had beef with each other. Since Godzilla becomes a lot nicer in the mid-60's all the way into the 1990's, Anguirus becomes his willing ally.
• Breath Weapon: Godzilla's Atomic Breath is a stream of nuclear vapor that makes facing him in combat "like fighting a flamethrower".
• Boisterous Bruiser: After Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Godzilla becomes a lot more energetic, vigorous, and incredibly pumped up in the fight scenes, almost as if he enjoys squaring off against his opponents. In Godzilla vs. Megalon and Zone Fighter he's like this constantly.
• Bully Hunter: In Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla is finally convinced to fight as he sees the caterpillar form of Mothra forced to head out to fight the 3-headed dragon King Ghidorah — despite Godzilla's destructive ways up until this point. When he sees Ghidorah beating on the smaller, weaker larva Mothra, he and Rodan confront Ghidorah and join Mothra in fending off the space beast. He also helps humanity/Earth defenders Jet Jaguar and, in the eponymous series, Zone Fighter, when alien kaiju gang up on them.
• Byronic Hero: Godzilla's Freudian Excuse establishes him as having, initially, a grudge against mankind, with good reason, but he nevertheless helps defend the planet against far worse monsters.
• Character Development: If one watches the Showa movies from first to last, one notices Godzilla progressing from destructive and then sometimes cranky and apathetic with a mild, if distant, respect for those he initially was at odds with, the humans, to then leaving his home at Monster Island to help them and Earth out when a monster rampages in a city. Son Of Godzilla is the start of showing Godzilla's more compassionate side by having him not only adopt Minya as his son, but also hugging him to keep him warm as the island they are both on freezes over.
• Characterization Marches On: From Godzilla Raids Again to Terror of Mechagodzilla (or chronologically, Destroy All Monsters), his character ranged from an animalistic creature who is destructive as hell to a superhero with anthropomorphic tendencies.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He started as a grouchy villain when compared to his predecessor - who was a Tragic Monster - but once humans began to realize that they were attacking him unprovoked, and thus a few of their cities and villages destroyed due to Poor Communication Kills, Character Development kicks in, and he became a protector of Earth. Unlike the previous Godzilla, he isn't heavily traumatized by nuclear weapons, and he eventually lets go of his hatred of humans.
• Denser and Wackier: As the Showa series progressed and itself became less serious, Godzilla became increasingly comedic, performing victory dances and even talking to Anguirus.
• Destructive Savior: Depending on the film he appears in. In the Showa series prior to his Heel–Face Turn, he has a tendency to destroy nearby man-made structures.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Like the original, Showa Godzilla is a 164 foot tall "intermediary animal" between land-dwelling theropod dinosaurs and sea-dwelling marine reptiles, which breaths radioactive fire and is immune to conventional weaponry. Admittedly, he's a mutant dinosaur.
• The Dreaded: When Godzilla shows up in the earlier films, it's a good idea to run.
• Dub Name Change: When the American version of Godzilla Raids Again was drastically edited, Godzilla was renamed Gigantis to give the impression he was a completely new monster.
• Dumb Dinos: While the English version of King Kong vs. Godzilla describes him as having a brain the size of a marble, this is actually averted — Godzilla is able to cooperate effectively with other monsters, tailors his fighting style to suit different opponents and abandons tactics that don't work, and cares for his adopted son Minya, teaching him to use his powers.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In his debut film, he retained most of his predecessor's design, which includes three rows of spines on his back, small ears, a snout, and four toes on each foot. Starting from King Kong vs. Godzilla, the ears and fourth toe were removed, a single row of spines, and he was given a less dinosaurian mouth. These traits would carry on until his last appearance in Terror of Mechagodzilla.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After decades of fighting, Godzilla finally gets to live in peace at the end of Destroy All Monsters.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster, Godzilla finally decides to intervene when he sees King Ghidorah attacking the weaker Mothra Larva. It was this moment when Showa Godzilla turned from villainous brawler monster to an Anti-Hero.
• Eviler than Thou: What ultimately spurs Godzilla's Heel–Face Turn. He stops being top dog when King Ghidorah enters the scene. Ghidorah at that point may outclass Godzilla in sheer power and villainy, that he simply cannot compete, and realizes he needs to ally with Rodan and Mothra in order to stop him and save the Earth.
• Eye Scream:
  • A webbed dart from Kumonga's mandibles jabbed his right eye in Son of Godzilla.
  • In Godzilla vs. Hedorah a splotch of Hedorah's acid burns Godzilla's eye in their third battle and it stays like that for the rest of the film.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Rodan and Mothra in Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. Godzilla appears to have continued this friendship with every generation of Mothra in the Showa Era, and it showed few signs of being rocky.
• Flight: Godzilla has shown at least once (during the film Godzilla vs. Hedorah) that he is capable of using his thermonuclear breath to propel himself through the air. Of course, it's never been shown or mentioned since in the films, but was used in the 11th issue of one of the Godzilla IDW comics to propel himself upwards like a rocket out of a ravine he gets trapped in during his fight with Hedorah.
• Freudian Excuse: Has one in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. He says the reason why he once hated humans is because they always attack him, contrary to his actions from Godzilla Raids Again to Mothra vs. Godzilla where he vented destruction towards humans on his own. The reasoning could also be because the military usually resorts to trying to pump Godzilla full of lead, missiles and artillery fire before trying out any non-violent method of dealing with him. When the military stops attacking him, he really begins his Heel–Face Turn.
• Gaia's Vengeance: "History shows again and again how Nature points out the folly of man!"
• Godzilla Threshold: The trope namer himself, with Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster being a clear example. When Godzilla shows up, at least one city is going to start turning to rubble in collateral battle damage, depending on how far he travels. Quite often, the threshold is crossed.
• Groin Attack: Happens twice (painfully) in Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster. Rodan drops Godzilla from sky level, landing crotch-first onto a power line. The second time (although it's more or less comedic but still agonizing for him) is when one of King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams zapped him below the belt. He even tries to cover up his already damaged groin afterwards.
• Happy Dance: After chasing Ghidorah off in Invasion of Astro-Monster, Godzilla does a victory dance as a Shout-Out to Osomatsu-kun.
• Harmless Freezing: He's buried by a avalanche at the end of Godzilla Raids Again and winds up in an iceberg, which he breaks out of at the beginning of King Kong vs. Godzilla. He and Minilla also survive being frozen alive at the end of Son of Godzilla.
• Healing Factor: Quite possibly the very first incarnation to use this power. During his third and last battle with Hedorah, some of the thrown acidic gunks has outright melted his left eye completely, leaving it horrifically burnt. When he jabs his entire fist into one of the the polluted monster's eyes, there's no traces of flesh afterwards. In some of the later shots of the movie, his hand is slowly being restored but only by a small amount. For the very the next film, Godzilla vs. Gigan, his left eye has been fully regenerated and the same can be said for his right hand as well.
  • He receives a gruesome slice to the shoulder from Gigan's buzzsaw and later had his forehead gashed from his hooked claws with a noticeable bloodstain oozing down his face minutes before the final battle. After him and Anguirus succeeded of driving off both King Ghidorah and Gigan, right as he turns around to bid farewell to the human protagonists, the blood that used to be there is nowhere else to be seen.
• The Hero: His saga revolves around him from a grouchy villain until Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster where he has his Heel–Face Turn. Even at that point, he was an Anti-Hero in that he happened to keep to himself until outside forces force him to take care of the current problem. In the 70's films, outside of Destroy All Monsters, he actively leaves his Monster Island home and fights other monsters sent by alien invaders on Earth, becoming a heroic icon towards the Kid Hero protagonists.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He's a 50 metered radioactive monster that causes damages in major cities after all. However, once he Took a Level in Kindness towards humans, he stops treating them with contempt, and the humans becoming willing to fight on his side.
• Heel–Face Turn: He goes from being an arguably malevolent creature venting destruction with a strong grudge against humans to a full-on defender of the planet, teaming up with former enemies like Anguirus, Rodan, and Mothra to save the earth.
• I Know Kung-Faux: In later Showa films he developed a proficiency for kaiju-style martial arts.
• Irony: Electricity (man-made) was his biggest weakness in the early 60's movies but in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster lightning was the opposite it actually energized and revived him. Justified as that film was originally meant to a King Kong movie.
  • In an infamous scene in King Kong vs. Godzilla Kong uproots a tree and lodged it into Godzilla's throat, whereas in Godzilla vs. Megalon Godzilla uproots a tree and forcefully jabs at Megalon's face pinning him to the ground.
  • In Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla lightning once again was used that not only rejuvenated him but gave him a new power that allowed him to draw MechaGodzilla in like a magnet.
• Improvised Weapon: Starting with Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, he's gained the idea to use numerous boulders as throwing weapons against King Ghidorah to prevent him from attacking Rodan, although most of them could barely even harm the space dragon other than slowing him down slightly. After being freed from the Xiliens' mind control in Invasion of Astro-Monster, he notices King Ghidorah, who's still being dazed from the severed mind control and kicks a boulder onto his body just to wake him up so that he and Rodan can finish the fight. He even uses a boulder in the ocean as a bludgeoning weapon as he smashed Ebirah's face with it when he was fighting him underwater. Guess he must've learned quite a few things during his fight with Kong.
  • Trees are something that he's also gotten his hands on in Godzilla vs. Megalon, whereafter he's beaten Gigan, he (hilariously) beats Megalon thoroughly by using a nearby tree and roughly jabs right it into Megalon's face, pinning him to the ground.
• It Can Think: Despite being described as having a brain the size of a marble, Godzilla is surprisingly intelligent... possibly due to the secondary brain in his hindquarters. He showed a level of intelligence closer to human than animal, not only being able to strategize well and lead other monsters into battle but also teaching his son how to use his atomic breath and using boulders as weapons in a fight. He also started fighting using martial arts in the 70's, not to mention he even waves goodbye to the human protagonists at the end of films like Godzilla vs Gigan and Godzilla vs Hedorah.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He, along with his Heisei and Millennium counterparts (2000 specifically) are the most iconic incarnations of Godzilla.
• Jerkass:
  • In early appearances, he'd sometimes rub an opposing monster's misfortune in. Examples below...
  • You might say he has a particularly bad attitude in King Kong vs. Godzilla. Towards the end of the fight Godzilla trips Kong with his tail. When Kong regains his balance Goji hits him again and laughs his head off!
  • When Mothra sprays Rodan with silk in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla laughs so hard he doubles over.
  • The fact that he also taunts Ebirah with his own detached claw in Ebirah, Horror of The Deep is considered an example. Though he was more or less minding his own business until the hostile giant crustacean challenged him...
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be viewed as this on average, given the course of the Showa series. He fits the bill of this trope in Son of Godzilla, showing despite initial apathy that he loves his adopted son. He maintains a bit of an ominous presence even while being heroic, but is perfectly capable of bonding with fellow kaiju like Anguirus, Rodan, and Jet Jaguar to save Earth and its people from more destructive beings.
• Knight of Cerebus: When he's the villain, the movies he appears in treats him in a serious light. Even his less antagonistic but jerkish behavior about midway in the series has vibes of this.
• Legacy Character: He is a second mutated member of the original Godzilla's species, functionally identical to his predecessor.
• Lightning Bruiser: As the films become more about him fighting monsters, he becomes deceptively agile. He's able to leap into the air during his Happy Dance.
• Magnetism Manipulation: A significantly new power that he utilizes in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. He acquires this power right after he was defeated by MechaGodzilla where he was repeatedly struck by lightning bolts during a thunderstorm on his island and begins surging the electricity within himself. By the time he confronts his mechanical foe in the climax, he begins to test out this ability by drawing forth power lines when he fully activates his magnetic power and eventually brings MechaGodzilla closer by the second as he's literally pulling him to the ground. This is essentially the only time he ever uses this ability in the series and it has never been used again.
• Man Bites Man: He violently defeats Anguirus this way in Godzilla Raids Again after having a long drawn-out duel with him. He has held in his clutches by forcefully having his jaws around his throat with his teeth digging right into his neck... he then scorches him with his Atomic Ray. After having Ebirah clearly on the ropes a second time in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, he has his mouth clenched on one of his pincer claws, jerks his head backwards, and effortlessly yanks it off. He also tears off his other claw with his arms, which forces him to swim away as Godzilla taunts the shrimp by teasingly using his already torn off claw in a humorous manner to goad him.
• Monster in the Ice: At the end of Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla is buried in a snowy avalanche, and this partly carries over into the next film, King Kong vs. Godzilla, which is set several years later and begins with Godzilla accidentally being released from inside an iceberg.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Proficiency in martial arts, flight, and magnetism are all abilities Godzilla has spontaneously used once or twice with no foreshadowing.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Godzilla shrugs off mundane weapons with no effect, and has only been wounded enough to bleed a handful of times.
• Nominal Hero: In some of the 60's movies, he saves the world not for an outright admirable reason, but because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was, by default, saving his own skin. He is not given much of a chance to see people in trouble and prove the trope truly right, mind... Eventually, he starts leaving his turf to stop attacks on humanity and save the world out of his own volition.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Depending how you look at it, he has been around since the Mesozoic era, 66 million years before the events of the original Godzilla (1954) while King Ghidorah has been destroying planets for 5000 years.
• Pain to the Ass: If painfully enduring two outcomes of getting his genitals damaged wasn't enough in Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster he also gets his rear zapped by one of King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams, as he's actually covering his bruised buttocks while Ghidorah just outright laughs at him, literally adding insult to injury.
• Papa Wolf: Godzilla adopts Minilla and is very protective of him.
• Power Glows: When he charges his Atomic Breath, his dorsal fins glow blue with Cherenkov radiation.
• Power Trio: Godzilla forms one with Rodan and Mothra in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster.
• Progressively Prettier: While he doesn't really become something one would describe as "pretty," his features do soften up over time as he becomes progressively more heroic.
• Redemption Promotion: Godzilla becomes more badass once he undergoes his Heel–Face Turn, going on to win fights against even tougher enemies, showing quicker movement and more thinking strategies. If he does lose, then he always comes back for another round with a new trick or creative solution up his sleeve ready to win the day.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: While he has loosened up and change his overall personality, just because he's the savior of Japan (as well as the world in general) doesn't mean he's not forced to resort to violence when facing enemy monsters that're in his territory. Not to mention that he's still an animal after all, so he'll fight back regardless.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Breaks out of his iceberg imprisonment (from the end of Godzilla Raids Again) during the events of King Kong vs. Godzilla to the surprise of a wary American nuclear submarine crew.
• Signature Roar: Fans have typed it as "SKREEEEEEEONNNNNK!", which goes from being a rumbling bass bellow in Godzilla Raids Again to a shrill shriek in King Kong vs. Godzilla and subsequent films.
• Slide Attack: He infamously slides on his tail to drop-kick Megalon.
• Sociopathic Hero: In his first few movies, one would expect his apathy towards the human casualties, either directly or indirectly from his actions. Fans also note that he rips off Ebirah's claws and taunts him with them (as for who attacked first in that fight, the giant crustacean started calling out to G somewhat aggressively before G started the physical attacks), and at the end, he (perhaps) kills Titanosaurus in what appears to be cold blood (though he had little indication despite personal experience with it, that Titanosaurus was mind-controlled into attacking life around him), and really seems to enjoy fighting in general. But since he is not going out of his way to harm others for no reason as the series goes on, the trope gets quite subverted.
• Story-Breaker Power: While it also doubles as New Powers as the Plot Demands, he apparently gain magnetism from being struck by lightning.
• Stripped to the Bone: While it doesn't kill him like the Oxygen Destroyer did to his predecessor, when he literally tears Hedorah apart, his hands starts melting. They do recover in the next film suggesting he has a powerful Healing Factor.
• Suddenly Voiced: He, SOMEHOW, develops the uncanny ability to speak with human speech for the English Dub of Godzilla vs. Gigan after him and Anguirus were listening to the whirring signals from the M Space Hunter Nebula aliens' tapes. Upon sensing a suspicion, he commands Anguirus to Japan's mainlands to see if anything dangerous is happening. The mere notion of Godzilla talking is roughly just as infamous as using his Atomic Ray to lift off the ground as a method of flying or using his tail to perform a sliding dropkick.

Godzilla: Hey Anguirus!
Anguirus: What do you want?
Godzilla: Something funny's going on! You'd better check!
Anguirus: OK!
Godzilla: Hurry up!

• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Godzilla has gills in the form of small holes at the base of his neck,^note An in-universe explanation for the suit actor's air-holes. which let him stay underwater indefinitely without going up to breathe. It's explained in the first film that Godzilla belongs to a family of transitional marine-dwelling dinosaurs. Godzilla's Revenge retroactively established that Godzilla is also able to breathe underwater, though he is apparently not an amphibian. It may be part of the mutations that gave him powers.
• Super-Speed: Yes. He shockingly exhibits this staggering feat of being able to move at tremendous speeds in the Tokusatsu series Zone Fighter, which was best shown in the 21st episode, where Godzilla outright dashes across a vast field to rescue his partner, Zone Fighter, from getting killed by Jellar.
• Super-Strength: He's on strong side for his size, having lifted Mechagodzilla and other similarly-sized kaiju who outweigh him onto his shoulder, as well as tossing them, such as King Ghidorah, a decent length over a cliff without much trouble.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Ghidorah: The Three-head Monster was his turn from being inherently dangerous. Son of Godzilla was when he started showcasing his more compassionate side.
• Unskilled, but Strong: When it came to clashing with other monsters like himself, he started off as a major sluggish brute with fearsome physical power to go with his size, which was something that was infamously mentioned in the English Dub of King Kong vs. Godzilla where he's been stated be "sheer brute force" in comparison to Kong's broader intelligence and craftiness. Other monsters that confronted him seemed to be more resourceful than him as well. However, this characteristic gets highly subverted in later films in the series where the King of the Monsters started to display increased levels of intelligence, (almost to that of human sapience in that regard) and has even improved his fighting capabilities such as performing dozens of human-like martial arts, judo, and even boxing.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Temperamental and at first a misanthropic brawler who could at worst be a Jerkass, but he saves the planet from time to time.
• Villain Protagonist: Of Godzilla Raids Again, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and Mothra vs. Godzilla, where he is an antagonistic force. It's only in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster that he became an Anti-Hero.
• Vocal Evolution: Had the original Godzilla's deep and menacing roar in Godzilla Raids Again, but from King Kong vs. Godzilla onward the roar was changed to a higher pitch, most likely to make him sound expressive.
• The Worf Effect: The mark of a serious monster in this franchise is that it's managed to defeat Godzilla at least once. Nearly all monsters lose the rematch, though.

Heisei Godzilla

First appearance: The Return of Godzilla, 1984

AKA: Gojira, The King of the Monsters, Big G

Portrayed by: Kenpachiro Satsuma

"Godzilla is like a hurricane, or a tidal wave. We must approach him as we would a force of nature. We must understand him, deal with him, perhaps even try to communicate with him."

—- Steve Martin, Godzilla 1985.

In a separate continuity from the Showa series, Godzilla was once a mere theropod dinosaur living on Lagos Island, where it was caught in the crossfire between American and Japanese soldiers during World War II. The dinosaur chased away the American soldiers, but was mortally wounded in the process. A group of time travellers called the Futurians, seeking to prevent the creation of the original Godzilla, abducted the dinosaur and left it to die at the bottom of the Bering Sea, where it was mutated by a Soviet nuclear submarine. This Godzilla attacked Tokyo in 1984, fighting a number of foes before eventually absorbing more radiation than his body could handle and undergoing a nuclear meltdown.

---

• Affably Evil: Downplayed. Godzilla isn't openly friendly nor can he be called "evil", yet he demonstrates signs of kindness. He rarely attacks unless attacked first, and is quite a loving father to Junior. By the end of the series, he's content to leave humanity alone and simply live in peace.
• Alien Blood: Strangely bleeds green blood in The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante. His blood color was changed to red afterwards.
• Alternate Self: The Heisei version of Godzilla exists in a separate continuity from the Showa films that disregards all of the previous films except for the first one.
• Ambiguous Situation: When Godzilla defeats Biollante and SpaceGodzilla both monsters would emit sparkles upon death (or in Biollante's case, turning into energy and travel to space). When he dies, the same thing happens. None of the three movies involving their deaths/defeat has any elaboration on why this is possible.
• And I Must Scream: At the end of Return of Godzilla, he's trapped inside a volcano and buried beneath its magma. He stays there for five years before being broken out.
• Anti-Hero: Unlike the Showa Godzilla, the Heisei Godzilla does not deliberately protect mankind, making him a Nominal Hero at best. There are actually a few times where humans are in his direct line of sight and he does not attack, however. Humankind's survival relies on him fending off threats such as King Ghidorah, Spacegodzilla and Destoroyah but being Too Dumb to Live they're always scheming to destroy Godzilla at every opportunity and provoke his wrath.
• Anti-Villain: He's one of the most sympathetic incarnations of Godzilla, albeit while still being an antagonistic force. He doesn't start off as aggressive towards mankind and is simply curious about his newfound man-made surroundings, only causing destruction by accident or in self-defense. He also rarely attacks other kaiju first, instead waiting to see if they're aggressive.
• Art Evolution: Heisei Godzilla's design changed over the course of the series, though not as significantly as the Showa Godzilla's, with his face becoming almost feline in appearance.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: A Godzilla manga focused on a story where after fulfilling the conditions of being the destroyer of worlds, he becomes a literal god. His God form is basically him with King Ghidorah's wings, and absolutely humongous.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's called the King of Monsters for a reason.
• Attack Reflector: In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II Mechagodzilla launches its shock anchors into Godzilla's flesh surging him with electrical shocks. But Godzilla manages to redirect the surge back to its source, which in turn ruptures his mechanical foe's circuits, crippling it.
• Big Bad: Is the main antagonist of the first four Heisei films, albeit often sharing the role with either another kaiju, a human antagonist or both after the events of Godzilla Returns. From Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II for the rest of the Heisei era he takes a backseat of the antagonist role and becomes more of an Anti-Hero.
• The Big Guy: He starts out 80 meters tall, and due to time traveling shenanigans getting him mutated with more powerful modern nuclear energy, he becomes 100 meters tall, and he's definitely a heavy hitter.
• Body Horror: His Burning Godzilla form may seem to be a powered up state, but in actuality, the heightened radiation that he's accidentally absorbed from the aftermath of Birth Island is constantly heating up his body from the inside and out. He's essentially the equivalent of a gigantic nuclear furnace, as he has glowing red-orange cracks around his flesh that take up most of his body in a Volcanic Veins sort of way, and it's no question that he's in nothing but in an ungodly amount of pain from the overwhelmingly intense heat, as well as being on the verge of either imploding the entire Earth or melting into a radioactive puddle. The latter happened anyway but had to be cooled down.
• Breath Weapon: Godzilla's Atomic Breath is a beam of plasma that can burn through almost anything. In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, he absorbs Fire Rodan, which supercharges his Atomic Breath into the even more powerful Red Spiral Ray.
• Character Development: It's subtle, but Godzilla changes over the course of the series. He starts off as a lost and curious animal confused by his man made surroundings and is docile unless attacked, causing destruction mostly by accident. It isn't until he's trapped inside a volcano by humanity for three years that he becomes actively aggressive. After adopting Junior, he develops into more of a neutral figure who is content to coexist with humanity so long as he isn't bothered.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to his predecessors, he acts more like a territorial animal that will attack anything on sight. His predecessors are capable of thinking and knew where their enemies are. He on the other hand is a No-Nonsense Nemesis when it comes to fighting opponents, and acts on primal rage towards humanity because they try to kill him. He eventually lets go of his anger once he adopts Junior, and would rather live in peace with his son. And speaking of Junior, Showa Godzilla was initially dismissive when Minilla was born until his own parental insticts kick in. Heisei Godzilla was treated as not only lost, but alone until he discovered a Godzilla egg, and went out of his way to recover the egg, but relents after the egg hatched, and leaves. After defeating Super Mechagodzilla, he tries to be gentle to Baby Godzilla, and it took some convincing from Miki for the Godzilla youngling to accept him as his father, and leave together in Birth Island.
• Deadly Upgrade: His condition in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah proves to be this by the climax of the film. The huge and incessant increase in his body temperature (caused by his own internal "nuclear reactor") would eventually cause him to melt down and die. But as his temperature rises he becomes more dangerous than ever, because his body heat becomes high enough to melt anything and everything in his vicinity, and he becomes able to fire his Spiral Atomic Breath in rapid succession.
• Destructive Savior: Godzilla does not deliberately protect mankind, but is instinctively drawn to the Tokyo region and is extremely territorial. He does inadvertently save the day against genuinely malevolent monsters.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The first incarnation of Godzilla to specifically be stated to be a dinosaur, being a mutated Godzillasaurus.
• Dumb Dinos: When compared to his immediate predecessor, this trope can seem apparent. Heisei Godzilla shows little-to-none of the sentience displayed by the Showa Godzilla and is essentially a territorial predator. However, in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, he is revealed to be able to communicate with psychics and is a caring parent to his adoptive son Godzilla Jr. He's also smart enough to figure out and exploit Spacegodzilla's weaknesses.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, he witnesses Destoroyah's murder of his son, and even in the final stages of fatal meltdown he keeps fighting to bring down his final opponent. In the original script it was in fact planned that he die right after beating Destoroyah to death. His meltdown even manages to undo Junior's demise and turn him into a full-grown Godzilla.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: If he dies by meltdown, he will either cause Earth to explode or, if unlucky enough, the entire universe.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: The Burning Godzilla form used in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah hasn't been seen before or since, at least until Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Justified in that it was explained as the result of being overclocked on radioactive power at levels even he couldn't absorb all at once and ended up killing him.
• Eye Awaken: Both him and Mecha King Ghidorah plummet into the sea after the former destroys the metallic wings with his Atomic Breath. While Emi herself survived and escaped, the scene shows Godzilla's body, lying motionless on the ocean floor next to the downed Mecha King Ghidorah... the camera then shows a close-up of his eye that quickly opens up with a brightening bluish glow, showing that he's not one to go down so easily.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah suggests that the reason Godzilla rampages through Japan is due to Japanese soldiers leaving him for dead despite saving them from American forces, which later leads to his mutation.
  • At the start of the film series, he's not aggressive and simply a lost and confused animal, only attacking in self-defense and causing destruction through clumsiness and his curiosity about the city. It isn't until he's trapped inside a volcano for five years that he becomes actively violent towards humanity.
• Godzilla Threshold: The trope namer himself. When Godzilla shows up, at least one city is going to be reduced to rubble, depending on how far he travels - but at the same time, he is the only one with the ability to take down something all the more menacing. Quite often, the threshold is crossed.
• Going Critical: If Godzilla absorbs too much radiation it becomes too intense for his body to internally control, and he finally succumbs to a total nuclear meltdown.
• Good Parents: For a giant city-destroying monster, he sure is a loving and protective father towards his adopted son Godzilla Jr., going berserk when Spacegodzilla kidnaps him and when Destoroyah kills him.
• Good Thing You Can Heal:
  • It was the Heisei series that cranked Godzilla's healing powers up, with him recovering from grievous wounds like being impaled through his hands by Biollante.
  • In the Marc Cerasini novel series (which are based off the Heisei Godzilla series, for the most part), a group of scientists studying Godzilla during a military attack are only able to observe Godzilla's regenerative capabilities with high-speed cameras, the regeneration happening so fast that it looks like missiles and bullets do absolutely nothing to him in real time.
• Having a Blast: The Big G is able to generate a destructive atomic shockwave known as the Nuclear Pulse. At first the ability was actually an unfinished Atomic Ray after being strangled by one of Biollante's tentacles. It happens again when King Ghidorah started to asphyxiate him which resulted in him unleashing it on the dragon. After that he can seemingly do it at will in Godzilla vs. Mothra.
  • It becomes even stronger in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah during his meltdown Stuff Blowing Up ensues with widespread explosions surrounding the area.
• Heel–Face Turn: Much like his Showa predecessor, Heisei Godzilla goes from what can be called a villain if not a tragic force of destruction to Anti-Villain, to finally Anti-Hero over the course of the 90's movies.
• The Hero Dies: He dies as a result of his Super-Power Meltdown in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: The Futurians attempted to erase him from history in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah by moving the Godzillasaurus from Lagos Island to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, preventing it from being mutated by the Bikini Atoll nuclear test. The Godzillasaurus was mutated by a Russian submarine in the 1970's and became Godzilla anyway.
• I'm Melting!: How he ultimately meets his end. After absorbing so much radiation, Godzilla's body begins to go into meltdown, heating up uncontrollably until his flesh oozes off his bones.
• Impaled Palm: To show how vicious Biollante is in her stronger Plant Beast form, she briefly gained the upper hand on Godzilla in the climax by extending one of her tendrils and punctures through his left hand. He then quickly yanks the tendril out of his palm almost nonchalantly, as if he wasn't even phased.
• Implacable Man: Godzilla is a lumbering, unstoppable juggernaut. He cannot be overcome or reasoned with, only avoided for as long as possible. Only another powerful monster can give him a challenge.
• It Can Think: Heisei-era Godzilla also had telepathic abilities that connects him to a psychic human girl named Miki Saegusa. He's also the one who figures out Spacegodzilla's weaknesses and exploits them.
• It's Personal: With Destoroyah (who killed his son). The latter is made quite explicit in one of the novelizations.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: By the time Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla rolls around in the Heisei continuity, Godzilla could be summed as this. He may still fire off destruction at his surroundings, but less wantonly and has a form of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with his human allies at best.
• The Juggernaut: If he's the villain then the plot of the films tends to be about finding a way to stop him - which half the time fails to kill him or flat out doesn't even work.
• Kryptonite Factor: Cadmium is extremely poisonous to him, and the Anti-Nuclear Bacteria proves highly effective, severely weakening him.
• Legacy Character: The Heisei Godzilla is initially assumed to be the same Godzilla that attacked Tokyo in 1954, but is revealed to be a separate individual.
• Lightning Bruiser: Depends on the film. Sometimes he moves so slowly you can easily count the steps he takes, other times he run incredibly quickly and even leap around easily. In either case, beyond his Breath Weapon, he's portrayed as being very physically strong (not just because he's big), able to easily toss around other monsters, even they're bigger than he is.
• Living Battery: The King of Monsters absorbs radiation and stores it away, ever-growing in mass and power... unless/until he has a Superpower Meltdown.
• Living Weapon: The de Bont script had its Godzilla be a living weapon crafted from dinosaur DNA to fend off the Gryphon and its probes.
• Manly Tears: Godzilla, The King of the Monsters, wept for his son, dead at the claws of Destoroyah.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Godzilla has ravaged Japan, alone or in a brawl with other monsters, in 28 films across at least three continuities.
• Mercy Kill: In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah he finds and, not in typical angered fashion, annihilates Yasuaki Shindo, who blames himself for Godzilla's painful mutation and continued miserable existence. Godzilla stares long at the saluting man before respecting Shindo's wishes and ending the man's life, letting out a mournful roar afterward. This scene has also been interpreted as Godzilla being tormented by the memories rather than cherishing them.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: When given the opportunity, Godzilla tends to grab an enemy kaiju by their tail and repeatedly slams them up and down.
• Mighty Glacier: Of the Godzilla incarnations, he is among the slowest, and for years he was the largest.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Heisei Godzilla sports twin rows of fangs in most of his designs.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: He's nearly indestructible. His tough scaly hide is almost impenetrable and even such attacks as do harm him are quickly negated by his fast-acting regenerative abilities. The only thing that kills him is a massive overdose of radiation.
• Noble Demon: Godzilla isn't evil in so much as he's foraging for food, as his transformation left him only able to feed off of radiation. He tends not to be actively malicious towards humanity if not provoked, and rarely hurts humans or kaiju if he hasn’t been provoked.
• Non-Malicious Monster: In the early Heisei films, Godzilla isn't particularly malicious. He never goes out of his way to cause destruction, with most of it being the result of his size, and he only attacks in self-defense. He eventually becomes intentionally destructive after enough attempts on his life by humanity.
• Papa Wolf: Only a complete moron would try to harm Godzilla's adopted offspring. Godzilla is many things but despite the fact that Godzilla Jr. isn't his biological offspring (we think), he is devoted to the care of his child and screwing with him is a pretty effective way of committing suicide, as Spacegodzilla and Destoroyah found out.
• Phlebotinum Overdose: In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla absorbs too much radiation and begins to meltdown.
• Power Glows: His dorsal spines glow blue with Cherenkov radiation when he charges his Atomic Breath, and red when he uses his Crimson Spiral Ray. In his burning form, his body is covered in glowing orange-red molten patches, signifying his Super-Power Meltdown.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His design from Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth — in which he kills Battra — has dark red sclera, made more apparent in its Super-Deformed depiction in Godzilla Kaiju Collection.
  • His eyes also briefly flashed a glaring red light after reversing the electrical shocks from Mechagodzilla's Shock Anchor harpoons, which isn't too dissimilar to how Baby Godzilla's eyes would flicker red in anguish or fear, although from Godzilla's case, it's likely more being enraged.
  • He has brightened scarlet colored eyes, along with the rest of his glowing molten magma-like flesh in his Burning state in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, where he's in nothing but in constant pain, as well as anger from the amount of radioactivity he's absorbed. He also gives Destoroyah himself a run for his money when he finally reaches his critical state, which forces the former an attempt to escape. It didn't work well for him.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: Justified as a nuke detonated atmosphere brings him back from a losing fight with the Super-X in The Return of Godzilla.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He's trapped in a volcano at the end of The Return of Godzilla. The experience hardens him from a Non-Malicious Monster to actively aggressive.
• Serial Escalation:
  • His breath weapon was kicked up a notch after Rodan's heroic sacrifice in Mechagodzilla II, becoming the Crimson Spiral Ray.
  • Destoroyah started off with Godzilla's breath attack ALREADY being red, then kicked up to near nuke levels when his power level rises to near-critical near Destoroyah's end, in conjunction with Godzilla's rage.
• Shown Their Work: Since this Godzilla is specifically identified as a dinosaur this time around, his relationship with birds is acknowledged in The Return of Godzilla.
• Signature Roar: The fan-given "SKREEEEEEEONNNNNK!", with a deep undertone accentuating the shrill roar.
• Stable Time Loop: As explained by this article, the series implies this is how he was created: what happened in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah was that instead of erasing the original Godzilla, the time travel adventure ended-up creating the Godzilla seen from The Return of Godzilla to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in the first place. There is evidence in both the sequels (Vs. SpaceGodzilla mentioned Biollante as a possible cause for the SpaceGodzilla's origins, and Colonel Gondo from Vs. Biollante is mentioned as still being dead and two characters having known him, one of whom being his sister; and in Vs. Destoroyah, with the Oxygen Destroyer that killed the original Godzilla being a major plot point); in Vs. King Ghidorah itself (everyone remembering Godzilla; Miki sensing Godzilla but not the Godzillasaurus; the Godzillasaurus being placed in a spot that'd later served as the site of a nuclear sub crash; and lastly, the Godzillasaurus already being Godzilla when the JSDF sent a sub to the area to mutate the dinosaur).
• Story-Breaker Power: He has two:
  • The Nuclear Pulse. A power that allows him to generate powerful shockwaves to shock opponents if they get too close to him.
  • The Spiral Atomic Breath, which is possibly the most powerful version of the original Atomic Breath. Godzilla was able to use this when he really wants his enemies dead. By the time of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, the humans had to make a stronger Super X to even stand a chance while Destoroyah could barely survive several hits.
• Super-Power Meltdown: His Burning form from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is due to him absorbing too much radiation.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Godzilla can survive underwater for prolonged periods of time, disappearing from radar.
• Super-Strength: He's easily enough picked up tossed other monsters that are supposedly much heavier than himself. The biggest example of his physical might is when he simply deadlifted Mechagodzilla off the ground and casually threw the machine over a considerable distance from where he was standing. To make this feat of strength even more shocking is that the Heisei incarnation of Mechagodzilla prominently weighs 150,000 tons,^note In retrospect, the mecha itself is even heavier than Keizer Ghidorah, while he's technically larger than it, he only weighs 100,000 tons. probably the heaviest kaiju he's ever lifted by far.
• Taking the Bullet: In his initial fight with Space Godzilla, Space Godzilla starts taking shots Godzilla Jr after Godzilla scored a lucky hit on him. Godzilla stops fighting and takes the hits, which costs him the fight.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Godzilla rarely has any allies to help him defeat whatever monster threatens his home or the entire planet. The humans are the closest he has to actual allies despite attacking their cities and his problems with them.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Starting with the Heisei series, Godzilla started to REALLY make sure his enemies wouldn't get back up. Notable cases are with Heisei series Mechagodzilla, who he repeatedly blasted till it was barely even a flaming wreck, even though he already damaged it to the point he crew had to abandon it (granted he had no way of way knowing that).
  • Jan de Bont's unmade version of the character was to finish off his opponent, the Gryphon, by decapitating it, destroying its body with a explosion and then piking its head on one of the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • He doesn't start out as actively aggressive towards humanity, and in his first appearance the destruction he causes is mostly accidental and caused by his sheer size. It isn't until he's trapped inside a volcano at the end of the film - and remains there for three years - that he starts holding a grudge.
  • He's much more straightforwardly villainous than usual in The Battle For Earth, where he tries to destroy Mothra's egg for no reason.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, he adopts Baby Godzilla as his own son. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, he's very aware that humans have landed on Birth Island, but is more content in living in peace with them on the island as long as they don't cause him trouble. Yuki and SpaceGodzilla didn't get the memo, especially the latter.
• Tragic Monster: The guy is just as much a victim of humanity as humanity is a victim of him.
• Unstoppable Rage: Combined with Serial Escalation in Destoroyah. He's royally pissed when Destoroyah mortally wounds Jr. and then somehow that is topped off when Godzilla fails to save him. Easily the crowning moment of pissed-off for Godzilla.
• Villain Protagonist: From The Return of Godzilla to Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth where he's the antagonistic force. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II transitions him as an Anti-Villain and the final two movies afterwards made him an Anti-Hero.
• Vocal Evolution: He started out having a deep, guttural roar at times like the original Godzilla, but, starting with Godzilla vs Mothra, was given once again a more shrill screech akin to that of the Showa Godzilla. That being said, he was also given a new set of rumbles and groans which would be reused for the Millenium Godzillas.
• Wolverine Publicity: This Godzilla often appears in video games, including Godzilla/Godzilla Vs, toys, and promotions. If not him, then Godzilla 2000 is the other one.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Heisei Godzilla undergoes a literal Superpower Meltdown, to the point it actually kills him. Every major human pities him.
• The Worf Effect: In Godzilla vs. Biollante he easily 'kills' her rose form, but when she comes back in a more monstrous form she turns the tables and nearly eats him. Overall, when another monster gets the upper hand one-on-one for any time being, this trope applies due to his sheer toughness.

Godzillasaurus

First appearance: Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, 1991

Portrayed by: Wataru Fukuda

The dinosaur that would become the greatest kaiju the world has ever known, theorized by Dr. Kyohei Yamane to be an amphibious species intermediary between land-dwelling theropods and sea-dwelling marine reptiles.

In 1954, a fateful event would mutate one of the species and killing his family, setting off the events of Godzilla (1954).

During World War II, another Godzillasaurus lived on a small Pacific island that was then captured by the Japanese. American forces soon attacked the island and cornered the Japanese forces, until the Godzillasaurus appeared, chasing the Americans to the beach (and killing many of them with its feet and by knocking trees onto them). Gravely wounded by warship shelling, Godzillasaurus retreated into the jungle, having inadvertently saved the Japanese troops. A few years later the comatose dinosaur was caught in the blast of an H-bomb test and mutated into the second Godzilla, which attacked Japan in Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla vs Biollante. However, in 1992 the Futurians traveled back in time and teleported the injured Godzillasaurus to the Bering Strait, where he lay until the 1970's when the radiation of a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine revived and mutated him, and later a modern Japanese nuclear submarine stumbled upon him and was destroyed, the stronger present-day nuclear sources birthing a much larger, stronger, and angrier second Godzilla.

An incarnation would appear in the Reiwa film, Godzilla Minus One, and unlike his Heisei counterpart, his actions sets the serious tone of the entire film.

---

• Accidental Hero: When the Japanese and Americans fought on Lagos Island, the Godzillasaurus was walking through the area and the US forces got trigger-happy with a seeming threat. Thus, he attacks the American G.I.s while otherwise unintentionally saving the Japanese Garrison.
• Adaptational Badass: In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, the Godzillasaurus could take getting shot at by assault rifles and rockets, but gets severely wounded by ship artillery. In Minus One, the Godzillasaurus has a powerful healing factor, and is implied to be Immune to Bullets. And once Operation Crossroads detonates its atomic bomb in the Bikini Atoll, its healing factor goes into overdrive, mutating it into Godzilla.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the Heisei saga, the Godzillasaurus only attacks the American G.I's to defend its territory before it was mortally wounded and transformed into Godzilla by radioactive residue from a nuclear sub. In Godzilla Minus One, it was a very territorial and extremely hostile animal that regularly attacks Odo Island pre-mutation, and is responsible for the deaths of several mechanical engineers right until it mutated into Godzilla, heightening its already aggressive behavior.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Discussed in-universe. It was unknown amongst characters if the Godzillasaurus intentionally saving the Japanese Garrison by its own admission or it simply attacked the G.I.'s for intruding its territory.
• Alternate Self: As the 1954 film is the origin point for the Continuity Reboot until Shin Godzilla, each varying Godzilla and their species are this to each other.
• Blood from the Mouth: Some of the battleship's missiles were fired into the lower sections of his jaw as large droplets of blood begin to leak and spill out of his lip.
• Cerebus Syndrome: In an already serious film, he first shows up in the first 10 minutes in Godzilla Minus One killing and thrashing everything in his way. His appearance and massacre even sets the dreaded mood for the rest of the film.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Even decades before his mutation into the atomic behemoth he is now, he managed to display several attacks that were highly cunning on his part. While walking through the jungle he uses most of the trees as weapons by using his tail to topple them over to kill a number of soldiers in his path. He seemingly "plays dead" after getting painfully shot by battleships just so he could allow most of the soldiers to inspect and examine him, only to get right back up to eliminate them all.
  • In Minus One, it wrecks damn near everything manmade, and starts stepping and biting the engineers unlucky to be near his line of sight. He kills all but Tachibana and Koichi were the only ones who survived the whole ordeal..
• Immune to Bullets:
  • Drastically played with. Getting shot by firearms and rocket launchers practically did nothing at all whenever the US soldiers tried to open fire on him. Getting bombarded by the battleships proved to be extremely fatal against him as one of the missiles even punctured his chest. He momentarily lives through it all just enough to kill the rest of the soldiers but the fatal injuries began to take its toll on the creature and was almost on his way to death's door at that point.
  • It's heavily implied that it would be the case in the novelization of Godzilla Minus One when Koichi hesitates to take a shot.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the Futurians meddling with the time stream, the Godzillasaurus still became Godzilla.
• Mysterious Past:
  • The existence of Godzilla's species had been unknown for a long time until Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Godzilla (1954) thoroughly explained that theoretically, his species is an intermediary dinosaur that can live on sea and land, and at least one of them spent their entire life-cycle in underwater caves. It is unknown if this Godzillasaurus is related or a subspecies to the dinosaur that would become the Godzilla that would eventually strike Japan in 1954, since there were technically two Godzillas in this continuity.
  • Godzilla Minus One shows a version where It's a 15-metered aquatic dinosaur resembling a modern depiction of Tyrannosaurus rex with dorsal spines.
• Non-Malicious Monster:
  • In the Heisei saga, the thing was simply living on its island minding its own business. Its home became the battlefield for the Japanese and the Americans. While the Japanese didn't attack, the Americans did, and it starts to attack in self-defense. Unfortunately, this results in a developing anger Godzilla would possess after being attacked by the Navy.
  • Completely averted in Godzilla Minus One where it was a highly aggressive animal before mutation, and attacked Odo Island at night.
• Playing Possum: Rather debatable if it was highly intentional or not, he was brutally shot by battleships (in the chest no less) and keeled over forcing the US soldiers to walk up close to see if he's truly dead. It seemed to work well for him, as he popped back up to annihilate the rest of them - although he did succumb to his injuries overtime sadly...
• Prehistoric Monster: Somewhat literally; it's a monster-sized prehistoric animal.
• Stable Time Loop: As mentioned under the Heisei Godzilla, this article points out that the Futurians' attempt to rid the world of Godzilla ended up causing the Godzillasaurus to wind up mutated with more powerful modern nuclear energy and change into the Godzilla in the Heisei series in the first place.
• Sole Survivor: According to 14th Edition of Definitive Edition Godzilla Introduction, the Godzillasaurus were social predators that were content in living underwater. But an H-Bomb test kills all but one that would become the Godzilla in the first film.
• Stock Sound Effect: When the US army opened fire his agonized shriek sounds a lot like Gamera, while his default roar is actually Rodan's roar in a lower pitch.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: In Toho's canon, the Godzillasaurus is a species of dinosaur capable of dwelling on both land and in the deep sea.
• Tail Slap: Knocks over a couple of trees with his tail that crushes a couple of the American soldiers.
• T. Rexpy:
  • He was originally intended to be a T. rex but was made into a new, unknown (and fictional) species of amphibious theropod. Nevertheless, Godzillasaurus definitely calls to mind the tripod-stance look of Tyrannosaurus in older films.
  • In Minus One, his appearance looks like a modern depiction of the Tyrannosaurus rex which includes a hunched posture and similar skull structure.
• Took a Level in Badass: Not that he wasn't badass already, but he eventually became one of the most terrifying monsters to ever exist.
• Whateversaurus: A huge, semiaquatic, tyrannosaur-like theropod which Godzilla originated from.^note There's also a real dinosaur known as Gojirasaurus named after Godzilla but it bears little resemblance to this one.
• Worm Sign: In Minus One, school of decompressed fish are forced into the surface with their internal organs popping out to indicate he's nearby.
• You Don't Look Like You:
  • In the 14th Edition of Definitive Edition Godzilla Introduction, fully-grown Godzillasauruses have fully-developed dorsal spines, but in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, the first on-screen Godzillasaurus barely have any noticeable back spines. Either it's an adolescent, or a subspecies.
  • In Godzilla Minus One, he looks very similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex from Jurassic Park (1993), down to the skull structure and posture.

Millennium Godzillas

Clockwise: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Tokyo S.O.S, and Godzilla: Final Wars

Portrayed by: Tsutomu Kitagawa (1999-2004), Mizuho Yoshida (Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack)

First appearance: Godzilla 2000, 1999; Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, 2000; Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! , 2001; Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, 2002; Godzilla: Final Wars, 2004 (respectively)

AKA: Gojira, The King of the Monsters, Big G

---

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus marks the very first time Godzilla is colored green, (in a live-action film) unlike his typical charcoal gray skin tone. His dorsal spines also have a dark purple hue, as well as having a non-spiral ray reddish orange-coloured Breath Weapon.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Unlike other films, where it could merely stun enemies, Godzilla 2000 sees Godzilla use the Nuclear Pulse to kill Orga.
  • Final Wars has quite possibly one of the most powerful versions of the character to date, being the Kaiju equivalent of a One-Man Army.
• Adaptational Slimness: The design for the Final Wars incarnation of Godzilla maintains a major lack of physical bulk in comparison to the far more burly Heisei and heavily stout GMK versions, and trades in said mass in exchange by having a near-humanoid and leaner athletic body. Granted, being less bulky doesn't truly make the King of the Monsters any less powerful beforehand since he's far from being weak as he does possess remnants of having considerable muscularity as he curb-stomped nearly every monster in the film.
• Adaptational Villainy: Depends on the viewpoint. GMK Godzilla is often stated to be the only unambiguously evil incarnation of the character. An argument can be made that he's not really at fault for what he does, as the GMK version is explicitly stated to be possessed by millions upon millions of ghosts from WWII who are driving his actions.
• Alternate Self: Most of the films in the Millennium series are in their own distinct realities and (aside from the two appearances of Kiryu in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Tokyo SOS) are each different interpretations of the creature. This explains why his atomic breath is gold/orange in two films, and blue/silver in the others, as much as it explains why the plots of the films effectively ignore each other, to the point of seeming to contradict everything said about Godzilla and his motivations and powers from one film to another, except for the two Mechagodzilla films.
• Art Evolution: Over the course of the Millennium series, Godzilla's design changes several times:
  • In Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus he has an elongated, pointed snout, enormous purple dorsal spines, green scales, and orange-red Atomic Breath.
  • In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack he has black scales, glowing white eyes, and an appearance reminiscent of Heisei Godzilla.
  • In Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. he has a similar appearance to the Godzilla 2000 design but with dark charcoal-grey scales and smaller, bone-white dorsal spines.
  • In Godzilla: Final Wars he resembles a mixture of the Showa and Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla designs, with a slimmer body, smaller head with larger ears, and smaller dorsal spines.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's called the King of Monsters for a reason. Final Wars emphasizes this by having him Curb-Stomp Battle every monster he faces up to Monster X.
• The Cameo: The 2000 suit appears in the Japanese comedy film All About Our House where a camera crew appears outside his apartment... and awkwardly runs off as people stare at him.
• Catching the Speedster: He quickly starts adapting to Megaguirus' rapid maneuvers and uses her own speed against her. He turns his back against the insect queen to appear "vulnerable" from her perspective, unbeknownst to her is that the minute she approaches Godzilla's backside, her stinger is instantly wrapped around by his Prehensile Tail, and yanks her right out of the sky. He pulls off this strategic tactic a second time where after being tossed around a few times from Megaguirus' ramming into him with her momentum, he slowly regains his footing and intentionally stands still for her to fly closer to his face and prepares to attack him with her stinger. The tip of her stinger just so happens to be blocked by Godzilla's jaws, which he then crunches it into pieces, giving him the opportunity to finish her off with only a single blast of his nuclear breath.
• Composite Character: Final Wars Godzilla's backstory suggests that he's the original Godzilla, but he later shows that he can upgrade his atomic breath to the Red Spiral Ray like Heisei Godzilla.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Depending on the film, he fluctuates between this and being an antagonist.
• Creepy Shadowed Under Eyes: His Final Wars incarnation has a noticeable facial build involving his eyebrows basically "hooding" over his own eyes by mostly obscuring them with nothing but intimidatingly darkened shadows.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Final Wars Godzilla dishes out one to every monster he meets until he faces Monster X.
• Death Glare: All Godzillas have this, but Final Wars in particular seems to have this as his default facial expression.
• Destructive Savior: In Godzilla 2000 he vanquishes an alien entity intending to take over the world, then proceeds to raze Tokyo himself. In Final Wars he lays waste to several cities while chasing the Gotengo.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: In Final Wars, Ozaki supercharges Godzilla with his Kaiser power, enabling him to use his Crimson Spiral Ray to vanquish Kaiser Ghidorah.
• Energy Absorption: During the final battle in GMK, he starts drawing energy from King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams as his dorsal fins are becoming electrified and glowing gold as a result. Godzilla, by then, uses the reserved energy and combines the stored-up power of the Gravity Beams with his own Atomic Breath, as his Breath Weapon is shown to have golden spirals wrapped around the blue-colored beam, as it absolutely destroys Ghidorah with one blast.
  • Right after Keizer Ghidorah delivers a horrific Curb-Stomp Battle against Godzilla in Final Wars, he proceeds to leech and sap his power out of his body. With no other option, Ozaki channels his Keizer powers into the cannon of the Gotengo and surges Godzilla with a fully-concentrated blast of his Keizer energy, as it successfully powers up Godzilla's strength, enabling him a Heroic Second Wind and he begins to turn the tables on Keizer Ghidorah with his newfound boost of energy.
• Evil Is Bigger: The GMK Godzilla is the only version that's actually bigger than his Arch-Enemy Ghidorah (because Ghidorah was originally going to be Varan), and is also one of the most explicitly malicious of his incarnations, while the GMK Ghidorah is also the only completely heroic incarnations of Ghidorah.
• Explosive Overclocking: Godzilla 2000's nuclear pulse creates a massive explosion that levels a large chunk of Tokyo and blows Orga to smithereens.
• Fireball Eyeballs: Happens right when Godzilla is finally freed from his frozen chamber where he was kept in Antartica, in Final Wars a close-up of his eye is shown displaying a fiery inferno, emphasizing his rage.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Godzilla's Showa era friendships with Rodan, Anguirus, and King Ceasar are given a nod in Final Wars, as they are the only monsters he spares in his rampage.
• Gender Flip: In Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, the MireGoji version of Godzilla is referred to with male pronouns. In Godziban, Godziban, the MireGoji version of Godzilla is called "Mirei-san" and is Godzilla-kun's mother.
• Green and Mean: Godzilla's first appearance in the Millennium series in Godzilla 2000 depicts him being colored dark green and just like the 54 and Heisei incarnations before him, he's viewed as a major force of nature that cannot be stopped or dealt with. It becomes a slightly downplayed as he likely has an anti-hero attitude and he does save the earth from getting taken over by the Millennians (as well as Orga) but that doesn't mean he'll be merciful towards anyone who he deems as an enemy.
• Godzilla Threshold: Invoked in Final Wars, where Godzilla is freed from his icy tomb in order to stop the Xilian invasion after humanity's best and brightest fail to do so.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: G2K attributed Godzilla's healing factor to a type of cell called Organizer G1 (or Regenerator G1 in the American dub). It's so potent that Orga, who stole it, was able to regenerate almost a quarter of his own body in seconds.
• Human Popsicle: At the beginning of Final Wars, Godzilla is Buried Alive in a glacier by the Gotengo.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Some of the Millennium movies will likely involve having his own Atomic Breath being used against him from his enemies as means of incapacitating Godzilla.
  • In the final fight of Vs. Megaguirus, he gets downed by a launched Energy Ball variation of his stolen beam that Megaguirus syphoned from him with her stinger. At first, Godzilla seemed to be okay after tanking a direct blast, only for him to quickly tumble to the ground a few seconds later, indicating that it indeed damaged him.
  • For GMK, Ghidorah has gained supernatural power after being powered up with Mothra's spiritual essence, Godzilla retaliates by firing his Atomic Breath at the dragon, except this time, the golden energy that's surrounding Ghidorah shields him from the attack, and he sends it right back at Godzilla with his Atomic Breath being in the form of an enlarged whitish-blue Energy Ball, sending him flying into the ocean, followed by a gigantic explosion, and has injured him with a visible wound seen around his neck.
• Implacable Man: In GMK and Final Wars, Godzilla is a lumbering, unstoppable juggernaut who easily crushes his enemies.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Final Wars Godzilla somehow notices a meteor aimed at him and hits it while its in Earth's upper atmosphere.
• In a Single Bound: In Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla, after getting stung again, plants Megaguirus' tail into the ground beneath her and as an unexpected form of attack, the nuclear saurian suddenly leaped into the air so high, the mere sight alone even made Megaguirus herself express nothing but dumfounded astonishment as he completely bodyslams the insect, which could be seen as an attempt to crush her with all of his weight.
  • This agility feat was shown again in Godzilla: Final Wars where Godzilla engages in a three-on-one fight with Anguirus, Rodan, and King Caesar. Godzilla charges at the quadruped ankylosaur first and stomps on his head to use it as a stepping stool/springboard that launches himself to sky level, as he effortlessly evades both Rodan and King Caesar altogether, which caused both kaiju to accidentally crash into one another as the King of the Monsters skids across the ground upon landing. What makes this impressive in particular is that the Final Wars Godzilla is just as large as the Heisei incarnation and he's indeed the most athletic of the bunch.
• It Can Think:
  • In Godzilla 2000, Godzilla lets himself get swallowed by Orga so he can use his nuclear pulse to blow off Orga's upper body.
  • In Vs. Megaguirus, he pretends to be impaled by Megaguirus' stinger, only to crush it in his jaws and then finish Megaguirus off.
  • The undead Godzilla in GMK is practically diabolical, and gives off the impression that everything is all going Just as Planned when a human tries to help Ghidorah by shooting a missile at him, only for him to grab his three headed enemy and swing him right into the path of the missiles.
  • In Final Wars he shows the ability to strategize when fighting opponents.
• It's Personal:
  • His motive for attacking the UFO in Godzilla 2000: Millennium - he just went after it because he was mad at it for blasting him early in the film. Ditto with Katagiri, who ordered the Full Metal Missile attack on Godzilla.
  • Godzilla steamrolls through his opponents in Final Wars while chasing the Gotengo, intending to finish the fight that left him buried in a glacier. He has them dead-to-rights at the end of the film, but Minya persuades him to let go of his grudge.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At the end of Final Wars, Godzilla has the Gotengo dead to rights and is about to annihilate it and its crew, but stops when Minya intervenes and departs into the ocean.
• The Juggernaut: In Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla fights about a dozen monsters throughout the film and appears invincible up until the fight with Monster X.
• Legacy Character: The Godzilla from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. is presented as being a separate individual from the original Godzilla, with Tezuka & Tomiyama commenting in Godzilla x Mothra x MechaGodzilla: Tokyo SOS Fantastic Collection that it's possible he's the original Godzilla's son. The others are either the same monster or left ambiguous.
• Lean and Mean: Subverted for the Final Wars version of Godzilla, his heavy bulk was toned down considerably and sports more of an athletic and fit physique while still having a brawny build. In the movie, he's portrayed as a violently destructive anti-hero but resolves his destructive habits at the end of the movie by getting over his personal grudge and sparing the rest of humanity.
• Lightning Bruiser: Final Wars Godzilla is the largest of the Millennium era incarnations, ^note and was just behind the Hesei Godzilla for largest Godzilla incarnation until the 2014, Shin Godzilla, and Godzilla Earth started taking the top spot and is also the fastest, easily running and leaping into the air.
• Monster from Beyond the Veil: GMK Godzilla was reanimated by the vengeful spirits of everyone who died as a result of the Japanese in WWII and the country is now trying to forget.
• Monochromatic Eyes: GMK Godzilla has white eyes.
• Monster in the Ice: In the prologue of Final Wars, Godzilla is defeated by the Gotengo trapping him inside an Antarctic glacier. Fifty years later, an Alien Invasion with an army of kaiju threatens the Earth and the humans decide to release Godzilla from his frozen dormancy to fight back.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Godzilla is typically bulky and ripped (with the Heisei and Legendary versions being the prime examples) however, his incarnations from Godzilla 2000 and the Mechagodzilla movies are slightly skinny but have muscular builds that are able to be physically imposing. The Final Wars Godzilla stands out the most in particular design wise. While he does have some visible muscle tone, he's probably the slimmest he's ever been and he can take down even the most strongest of kaiju with no visible effort... That is until Monster X decided to challenge the king to a duel.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Final Wars Godzilla tanks a meteorite impact and isn't even fazed.
• Nominal Hero: In Godzilla 2000, Godzilla is not fighting to protect mankind but to defeat a powerful enemy intruding on his territory. In Final Wars, Godzilla isn't even trying to save the earth, but is chasing the Gotengo in order to finish their last battle.
• Non-Malicious Monster: While the GMK Godzilla is very much an evil entity, some consider his nature as an undead monster to be somewhat sympathetic in this film since it's implied Godzilla's actions aren't of his own free will due to being possessed by some 36 million angry ghosts.
• Obviously Evil: GMK Godzilla is the most intentionally malicious version of the character, and he's designed to look the part from the ground up, with black flesh, soulless white eyes, and large vampiric canine teeth.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The GMK incarnation of Godzilla is the 1954 Godzilla re-animated and driven by the vengeful spirits of the forgotten soldiers who died in WWII to destroy Japan.
• Pet the Dog: Final Wars Godzilla spares Anguirus, Rodan, and King Caesar after their fight, rather than kill them like he did with the other monsters.
• Pointy Ears: The Final Wars Godzilla's ears are noticeably larger and pointier than other versions.
• Power Glows: His dorsal spines glow blue with Cherenkov radiation when he charges his Atomic Breath. Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus give him a reddish-orange glow with incendiary properties.
• Prehensile Tail: Used this ability for the first time in the series in a strategic method, such as when he intentionally turned himself around as Megaguirus attempted to approach the former from behind with her stinger... Only to have his tail to grab ahold of her's and forcefully pulled the dragonfly into the ground.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes and sclera in Final Wars have a deep crimson/orange coloration, along with having a constant Death Glare that gives him a frighteningly wrathful personality, and he's indeed one of the most powerful versions of the King of the Monsters.
• Reused Character Design: Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus both use the same Godzilla suit, despite the two films featuring different versions of the character. The same thing also applies to the Kiryu suit for Godzilla's appearances in Godzilla X Mechagodzilla and Tokyo SOS.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: In Godzilla: Final Wars he is trapped in a glacier by the Gotengo.
• Sins of the Father: Word of God is GMK Godzilla is the wraith owed to Japan for it's downplaying/whitewashing its participation in World War II.
• Spikes of Doom: A majority of his dorsal fins look jagged and serrated for his 2000 design. He actually took advantage of those things and weaponized them in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus as he ran towards the dragonfly and swooped beneath her, right when Megaguirus collided past him as a streak of light gleamed from his fins. In fact, his dorsal fins are so sharp, that one of her pincers were cleanly sliced off.
• Spikes of Villainy: His iconic maple-leaf dorsal fins in 2000 and the two Kiryu films are more lightning bolt shaped and jagged-looking, ending with sharpened edges. Whereas the green incarnation wasn't completely evil per se, he still wrecked cities in his path and ended an Alien Invasion from occurring while the one featured 2002 and 2003 was portrayed more as a full-on antagonist whereas MechaGodzilla/Kiryu had a heroic role. The Final Wars Godzilla has dorsal fins that aren't as spiky looking than his previous versions in comparison, but they've looked extremely pointy as he's portrayed as a vicious, frightening, and unstoppable apocalyptic beast like in GMK but he ended up being more as an Accidental Hero.
• Sucking-In Lines: How his Atomic Breath powers up in GMK, as many blue particles of energy are shown being sucked into his maw before it's released as a radioactive beam. Given that the GMK Godzilla is supernatural, it could be the countless WWII spirits that are drawing in power directly to him.
• Super-Strength: Final Wars Godzilla tosses other kaiju around like ragdolls, and throws Kumonga over the horizon.
  • At times, Godzilla more than likely shows off his devastating might against enemies whenever he's not in the mood to use his Atomic Breath for up-close and personal battles. For the 2000 Godzilla, even if he's nowhere near as gigantic and bulky as the Heisei incarnation, he still manages to dominate Orga in a fight, who's basically a much larger and hulking monstrous 40,000 ton alien/Godzilla hybrid by briefly grappling with him, staggering him backwards with a strike of his fist, toppling him over with a tail sweep, along with two thrashing tail strikes on his face, and causing him to shriek in agony just by viciously biting into his forearm until Orga retaliates. Even before he encountered Orga, during his second battle with the Millennian UFO, he's struck down the extraterrestrial vessel with a single downward slam of his powerful tail, regardless of its enormous size in comparison to Godzilla, making the ship getting scraped and slid across several buildings in the process.
  • For GMK, he has more of a Stout Strength build as he physically overpowers each and every single one of the Guardian Monsters with no issue as he gave Baragon a difficult fight by literally tossing him around as well as stomping and kicking him multiple times. When Baragon attempt to lunge towards Godzilla off a cliff, he lowers down and delivers a fast Tail Slap that was so powerful, the impact sent him sailing into the skies and plummets onto a news chopper on his way back down. After getting briefly bested by Ghidorah, he charges towards the Orochi and begins to grapple with him by chewing and tearing into one of his necks with his crushing jaw strength until blood pours out of said neck while he simultaneously knocks Mothra several meters back with another quick Tail Slap that almost made her fall into a group of soldiers. When one of Ghidorah's head starts electrocuting him again, Godzilla just outright flings him across the city farther enough to crash into a building.
  • The Kiryu Godzilla mostly Beam Spams his Atomic Breath every now and then to destroy everything in sight whether it's tanks, masers, buildings, or JSDF fighter jets. However, he too doesn't shy away to resorting to using all kinds of brute force to take on the likes of Mechagodzilla (AKA Kiryu). He's capable of engaging in a momentary Brawler Lock with his cybernetic counterpart, demolished his last remaining shoulder-mounted back unit missile launchers to pieces with one claw swipe, and in one scene, after blowing apart Kiryu's blade, he also performed a powerful Sparta-like kick onto Kiryu's torso by sending him dozens of feet away from him and made him flew head-first through a building as well as stomping on his chest to keep Kiryu held down by his weight. In Tokyo S.O.S., his tail was also strong enough to swoop beneath Kiryu's legs, putting him off-balance just so he can prepare his Atomic Breath to defeat him by blasting one of his eyes.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Final Wars Godzilla smashes Zilla into the Sydney Opera House, then cuts loose with his Atomic Breath until the building explodes.
  • The Godzilla from Godzilla vs Megaguirus managed to fatally Megaguirus. Even while the bug is already literally going down in flames, he completely incinerates it before it hits the ground.
• Throat Light: A newly added feature to the Millennium incarnations of Godzilla is that the inside of his mouth starts glowing just like his dorsal fins whenever he's charging up his Atomic Ray.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In Final Wars, Godzilla spares the Gotengo and its crew from his wrath when Minya gets between his mouth and them. He also allows Rodan, Anguirus, and King Ceasar to live after defeating them in their fight, likely as a nod to the Showa series where he allied with them (and was more or less Bash Brothers with Anguirus and Rodan).^note A scrapped version of the scene was going to have Godzilla kill them like he did all of the other kaiju.
• Tragic Monster: Even the unrepentantly evil GMK Godzilla is a victim of mankind, being possessed and reanimated by the vengeful spirits of those who died in World War II.
• Villain Protagonist: In GMK Godzilla is indisputably villainous, being an undead monstrosity formed from an amalgamation of evil spirits.

Shin Godzilla

Fourth form, emerging from Kamakura

^{Second form attacking Kamata district}

^{Third form attacking Shinagawa Ward/City}

First appearance: Shin Godzilla, 2016

Portrayed by: Mansai Nomura (motion capture)

The incarnation of the King of the Monsters seen in Shin Godzilla.

Godzilla is an organism of an unknown species, heavily mutated by nuclear waste in 1956 and gradually evolving as a result. Unlike past incarnations, Godzilla is treated as a walking nuclear death reactor that needed to cool down to contain his radioactive properties.

---

• Adaptational Heroism:
  • In Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D, he only comes ashore at all to intercept King Ghidorah and returns to the sea once Ghidorah is killed and his fight with the EVAs is more of a misunderstanding than anything.
  • The children's web puppet show Godziban casts him as the Three Godzilla Brothers's gigantic Uncle Shin, who scares Gabara away when he tries bullying Minilla. Kamata-kun, branded as his son Kamachi, also finds himself befriending human children.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: In Crayon Shin-chan, his Atomic Breath is traditional blue. In his own movie, it's either red or Ultraviolet purple.
• Adaptation Species Change: He is his own monster with no ties with the original Godzilla. Because he's not a dinosaur. He's a different species of a sea creature going through several stages of metamorphosis: going from a tadpole-like creature to an limbless lizard-like yellow form with gills to a red dinosaur-like monster with stumpy arms, and finally to the form we all know.
• Adaptive Ability: Shin Godzilla's mutations cause it to develop traits perfectly geared to fight a conventional military, including a biological radar system that it uses to shoot down incoming planes. Even after being frozen and disabled, it's clear that Godzilla is still mutating and will eventually adapt to escape its paralysis, and the United Nations is prepared to nuke Tokyo the moment it happens.
• Ambiguous Gender: None of the characters have ever stated anything about its sex, nor use male or female pronouns, usually using "it". Its Tragic Villain song "Who Will Know" has both male and female choir singing, with the first lyrics sung by a female most likely representing his inner struggle as a living being, asking if its own life truly means anything if nobody will remember its existence, while the male chorus is its stronger and defensive urge to retaliate at all costs as it does so by effortlessly laying wasting to the military.
• Animalistic Abomination: Most versions of the Big G fall under this trope, but Shin Godzilla takes it to a whole new level. He originated as a prehistoric marine animal that acclimated to high concentrations of radioactive waste, and began rapidly mutating via Hollywood Evolution. When he uses his Atomic Breath his lower jaw splits open, and he can also fire energy beams from his spines and a mouth on his tail. And then he can reproduce humanoids from his tail. With a blue eye in it.
  • More than that, his tail is covered in jaws and teeth. Meaning that Shin's entire body was further mutating into some bizarre, Tetsuo Shima-esque monstrosity and likely preparing to split off into an innumerable amount of other organisms.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: He is enormous. He is even bigger than the 2014 American incarnation of the monster originally was, standing at a whopping 118 and a half meters compared to Legendary's (initial) approximate 108.2. It was only when Legendary's Godzilla got a small growth in King of the Monsters that he stood just one meter taller than this version. To give a clear frame of reference, he's nearly as tall as Biollante's final form.
• Awesome, but Impractical: His Atomic Breath. It starts out as a fiery smog and can become a purple blade capable of slicing buildings. However, using it too much causes him to tire out. He was in a coma for two weeks because of this.
• Audience Surrogate: Just like the original Godzilla, Shin is meant to invoke a lot of sympathy from the audience. He is a walking tumor mutilated by radiation, reminiscent of the Ant-Walking Alligator people. He doesn't know what it is, why it is , why it is going and where it is going. All he does is to walk directionless like a giant overpowered toddler reacting to everything around him, whose entire existence is just pure agony.
• Beam Spam: He's capable of shooting his Atomic Breath not only from his mouth but the tip of his tail, and can fire several beams from his dorsal fins. All of them are extremely accurate because Godzilla seems to have a sort of biological radar system.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Its tail can shoot beams just like its mouth can.
• Big Bad: Of Shin Godzilla, in the vein of the original Godzilla movie.
• Bizarre Alien Senses: He has (or spontaneously evolves) a biological radar system to detect, lock on to, and shoot down airborne objects that come too close to him. He can use this ability even when he's in a coma, recovering from overuse of his Atomic Breath Beam Spam.
• Blood from the Mouth: One particular deleted scene demonstrated how lethal Shin can be before it even reached its 4th form. In its 3rd form, it opens its mouth and starts pouring a bloody waterfall that splashes onto the streets. The blood itself is so dangerous that it managed to melt tires of multiple cars in the area.
• Body Horror: Unlike his previous incarnations, especially the original Godzilla from 1954, his keloid scars are very visible. This is a creature truly mutilated by radiation, with shriveled arms, a grotesque face, and open wounds all over his body. It doesn't end there, either; at the tip of Godzilla's tail there's a variety of skeletons merged into his flesh. Even worse: When he roars, he unnaturally opens his mouth far wider than any previous Godzilla from 1954 to 2014 would have ever done, as if he's in pain from just existing, and that's when he's roaring. It's how he shoots his Atomic Breath from his mouth, and the lead-up to his atomic breath looks uncomfortably like he's just vomiting uncontrollably, and when he uses his dorsal plates for this, it seems to cause his nerves and muscles to twitch violently. He's a basically an Ant-Walking Alligator monster"^note An Ant-Walking Alligator is a term for a person who is shriveled/disfigured by the blast of a nuclear weapon to the point that they are blind, can't feel anything, and look like shambling zombies. It's more terrifying than it sounds.
• Breaking Old Trends: This Godzilla is notable for being the first incarnation of the monster to be a shapeshifter, something normally seen in other kaiju such as Mothra, Hedorah, and Destroyah.
• Breath Weapon: Godzilla has his Atomic Breath which has two variants: a red flamethrower-like blast that causes a massive firestorm, and a purple beam capable of slicing through skyscrapers.
• Burn Scars, Burning Powers: Godzilla is a gigantic monster who's basically a living nuclear reactor and is able to fire a plasma beam from his mouth and also from his tail and back as well. Despite his immense size and power, however, Godzilla has an extremely sickly and cancerous look, not unlike the burns of people exposed to fire or radiation. He appears to be in constant pain, dripping blood and body parts everywhere, his charred skin covered in open wounds and glowing red keloid scars.
• The Cameo: Has an appearance in Crayon Shin-chan. While deemed a serious threat, he (oddly enough) takes the role of The Comically Serious towards the weird shenanigans of the main character. Yes, ShinGoji, of all incarnations, is a comically serious monster who even Sweat Drops.
• Cerebus Retcon: Most other incarnations generally unleash their Signature Roar as a declaration of rage or triumphant battlecry. This version only ever cries out after something painful happened to it (such as when it's mutating or being struck by bunker busters), indicating this time, the classic "skreeonk" is actually Godzilla screaming in agony.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Every version of Godzilla, including Legendary's, is an ancient prehistoric creature that lived millions of years until a nuclear weapon was used and inadvertently awakened and pissed off the monster. Legendary's own was just sort of there. This Godzilla? He was just a simple sea creature that heavily mutated due to feeding off radioactive materials dumped in the ocean. The worse part was that he mutated to the point of evolving into an 118-metered monstrosity, up to including abominable levels. Most Godzillas are a Tragic Monster in some form. This thing? His mere existence is a tragedy in itself, and his film does not sugarcoat this.
• Deconstruction: Of the entire "giant monster created by radiation" concept. At first glance his fourth form is an homage to the original 1954 design with dark bumpy skin and the red keloid scars. The deconstruction kicks in upon closer inspection. His body is an asymmetrical, cancerous mess. None of his body parts are the right shape to be functional: the arms are too short, the legs oddly jointed and digitigrade, the tail so long it is almost a second creature. The eyes are always staring, his jaw almost tears itself apart just from roaring, and he's quite obviously in constant pain. Building on this, the realistic happens when he uses his atomic breath for the first time; the major concern is how long Tokyo will be irradiated after he tears apart half the city. Even blasting him apart with MOP bombs is shown to not be a perfect solution as pieces of his flesh are similarly radioactive and possibly could grow into new mutated creatures.
• Deity of Human Origin: It was birthed by humans' radioactive waste and is frequently described as a god in story. This comes full circle in the ending where his tail is birthing emaciated humanoid versions of himself. Godzilla's threat to the world is showcased as insurmountable due to his genetic complexity - he will respond to anything we can throw at it. Fight him with an army? He will respond with an army.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The ending of the film implies the humanoid creatures emerging from his tail will not be the last time the Japanese will have to deal with the threat of Godzilla.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Its tail's shape, length, glowing red veins, and beam that fires from it make it astoundingly phallic. The film's final shot implies it to literally be a reproductive organ.
  • On a more terrifying note, Godzilla's scars, shriveled arms and body, and other deformities makes him look like as if he was hit by a nuclear bomb. In Japan, survivors of the nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave a rather sickening description of people that were hit by the bomb with that exact description, called "Ant-Walking Alligator people".
• Evolution Power-Up: Godzilla progressively grows more powerful the more he evolves. The first time this happens, he had no limbs other than two short legs, so he had to waddle through Tokyo like a two-legged crocodile. But then he unexpectedly evolves like a radioactive mutant Pokémon on-screen— his legs become stronger, his skin is tinted red, and he sprouts stubby arms. When he shows up in Kamakura, he's evolved even further, taking on a more recognizable form with his skin charred black and his arms more pronounced (but not by much). The scientists in the film have no idea why his body keeps evolving and worry that he would continue to do so if left to his own devices.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: While everything else about this emaciated incarnation is overall cancerous and horrific, the very tip of its tail not only has a deformed face but it also contains eyes as well, therefore this creature technically has 4 eyes. It could be the reason why the tail itself constantly moves around on its own, as if its scanning everything else behind Godzilla.
• Giant Equals Invincible: Even in his gruesomely charred state, barrages of missiles and mortar-fire do nothing but annoy him. Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, on the other hand...
• Glasgow Grin: While his face was most certainly not cut up this way, it honestly looks like it was considering how grotesquely large and raggedy it is. Combined with the massive amount of teeth he's sporting, and it's like Godzilla's face is locked in a permanent Slasher Smile.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: He bleeds quite visibly from two of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs and presumably several more as well, yet the next time we see him there is no visible damage. He healed in seconds.
• A Head at Each End: Close-up photos of the suit reveal that Godzilla has a grotesquely malformed vestigial head on the tip of his tail, presumably how he can fire his Atomic Breath from it.
• Healing Factor: Godzilla's regenerative ability is so potent that pieces of flesh and blood can regenerate into new bodies, as seen in concept art and a deleted scene.
• Hidden Depths: "Who Will Know (Tragedy)" implies that Shin Godzilla is a Tragic Monster who rages against a deep sense of melancholy, yearning, and despair.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Following the development of his biological radar, Shin Godzilla aggressively destroys any airborne object in his vicinity, even unarmed drones. When Operation Yashiori is launched, this newfound caution is fully turned against him, as the combined American and Japanese forces bombard him with missiles from countless drones as an opening to the operation, prompting Shin Godzilla to burn through his reserves in an effort to shoot them all down, weakening him dramatically and leaving him susceptible to being knocked over.
• Humiliation Conga: In the Crayon Shin-chan crossover, Godzilla is defeated by a giant five-year old boy who not only moons him, but corks his Atomic Breath with his butt, sits on him after he's been shrunk to the size of a lizard, and then pokes at him.
• Humanoid Abomination: At the end of the film, there are several petrified humanoid Godzillas emerging from the tip of his tail.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: He starts out as a moray eel-like, googly-eyed monstrosity with little in common with Godzilla's original appearance besides the dorsal spines, but once he evolves to his upright-standing third form he looks quite a bit more like the Japanese cinematic icon, then once he reaches his fourth form he is officially Gojira.
• It Only Works Once: The moment someone finds something that can hurt or harm Godzilla, he tends to evolve to cope with it. This applies to environmental factors, like managing his own weight on land, and his internal nuclear engine overheating; but it's shown best when the Americans actually manage to wound him with their bombs. Godzilla appears to immediately evolve his own form of radar to detect incoming aircraft and ordinance, and proceeds to blast every airborne object that approaches him right out of the sky from there on out, contrasting heavily with when he completely ignored the JSDF attack helicopters, even when they were blasting him at close range with nearly everything they had.
• The Kingslayer: Kills the Prime Minister of Japan as well as other top government officials when its atomic breath destroys the helicopter transporting them.
• Legacy Character: Averted for the first time. He is his own creature and has no connection with the original Godzilla. He's not a dinosaur either, as he's a sea creature who fed on radioactive materials as early as 1956.
• Legendary Carp: Subtly done, and portrayed horrifically. He started off as an unknown type of marine fish before being painfully mutated into his more familiar draconic form.
• Leitmotif: His is more specific compared to the three previous series that share the same theme. Shin Godzilla's is "Persecution of the Masses" and "Who Will Know (Tragedy)". The latter is much more pronounced.
• Let's You and Him Fight: His title fight with the Evas in Godzilla vs Evangelion is due to a misunderstanding more than anything. Shin only came ashore to intercept King Ghidorah.
• Metamorphosis Monster: This Godzilla was mutated by American nuclear waste into a tadpole-like organism. By the time he first appears, he has metamorphosed into an armless yellow-green lizard-like creature with fish-like eyes, then further transforms into a crimson stump-armed bipedal form before maturing into his jet-black and glowing red fourth form, with characters speculating that he can mutate even further. His fifth form is the army of humanoid offshoots seen spawning from the tip of his tail at the end of the film.
• Mighty Roar: In his third form, Godzilla has the original 1954 roar. In his fourth form, he has the Showa-era roar.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: He has even more teeth than his Heisei predecessor. A few of them look as if they're growing out of his skin.
• Mythology Gag: A number of which contribute towards either his overall design or backstory.
  • The design of this Godzilla's head has borrowed some aspects from some pieces of concept art◊ for the original 1954 film, with a malformed head and small, beady looking eyes.
  • In one promo image there appears to be a trilobite fossil that got lodged in Godzilla's vestigial toe, much like how the original Godzilla in the 1954 film had happened to bring a trilobite to the surface of Odo Island.
  • The seemingly vestigial head at the tip of his tail may possibly be a darker and more grotesque interpretation of how the Heisei Godzilla happened to have a secondary brain located in between the base of his tail and hip.
  • Godzilla's first and second forms, the "tadpole" and two-legged lizard-like form, have pronounced gills on each side of his neck, which may be a possible reference to the 2014 film, whose Godzilla had gills.
  • The concept of a monster going through multiple forms stronger than the last throughout the film brings to mind Hedorah and Destoroyah, both whom happened to be indirectly created by man. This Godzilla was the result of radioactive waste being dumped into the ocean.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Seemingly averted, as he is possibly the most malevolent version ever since GMK. It's actually played straight in an unusual way. Just like the previous (American) incarnation, the destruction he causes does not appear to be intentional, despite dialogue suggesting otherwise. The reason he destroyed so much is because he was hit by MOP bombs, making him so angry he went full-power with his atomic breath. When the JSDF attacks him, he only knocks a bridge into the air out of self-defense instead of ending the fight like he would have.
• No Power, No Color: Using too much of its Ultra Atomic Fire Ray as well as its dorsal fin atomic beams drained the monster's nuclear energy extremely quickly, evidently causing it to go into a statue-like comatose state. Upon that, the glowing red keloid scales around its body fades away as its grotesque skin becomes a lifeless darkened husk.
• Nuclear Mutant: A horrific version. He's fed on radiation since 1956, and Goro Maki found him feeding off of nuclear waste dumped into the ocean. However, it causes him to mutate out of control which makes him look like a living radiation zombie. And rather than Cherenkov radiation, he emits ultraviolet radiation as a Breath Weapon, and how he shoots it is shown if horrific display.
• Outside-Context Problem: Most of the first act's plot is the Japanese Government trying to deal with the completely unprecedented problem of a giant monster rampage.
  • The plot of Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D happens because NERV thought they were dealing with another Angel, not Godzilla heading off Ghidorah.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: This version of Godzilla is easily the bloodiest in the franchise. Its first form's initial emergence ruptures the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, pouring in hundreds of gallons of blood, its tail emerges in a huge pool of blood, and it leaves a trail of blood in Tokyo Bay before making landfall. Its second form spurts superheated blood from its gills every few steps. Later, after its fourth form is hit by the MOP bombs, it sprays out what seems to be a small tidal wave of blood from his back. Also, a partially unfinished deleted scene showed its third form vomiting up a torrent of blood that would have melted pretty much everything it touched and covered several city blocks' worth of ground.
• Perpetual-Motion Monster: Played with; it only needs to intake air or water to fuel itself with nuclear fission, but its energy isn't infinite. Heavy use of its Atomic Breath causes a Power-Strain Blackout that last for over two weeks.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Just like the original and Showa Godzilla, his mere presence gives off radiation strong enough to give hundreds of people radiation poisoning.
• Poisonous Person: His body is highly radioactive. When he first surfaces, he spills gallons of blood which are as radioactive. And when his spines were blown off his back, his own flesh and that spine are very radioactive. He can emit radiation powerful enough to cause radiation poisoning.
• Power Glows: The scars on his body actually appear to be glowing red, and glow purple when he charges his Atomic Breath.
• Power-Upgrading Deformation: When the monster is fully revealed, its 2nd form (Kamata-kun) only looked slightly terrifying to gaze upon (other than leaking splashes of blood from its gills) as it resembled an eel-like creature with expressionless eyes with nubs for its frontal limbs that waddled awkwardly in a straight direction. By the time it evolved into its 3rd from (Shinagawa-kun), it gradually looks more like a burnt salamander with a bipedal stance that has better locomotion, but due to its own body generating so much heat from nuclear fission, it retreated back into the ocean to cool down. Right as Godzilla resurfaced into its prominent 4th form, it wields destructive and intense power as it highly resembles the traditional design from the original Gojira but with a far more grotesque appearance and is a disgusting freak of nature with subsequent ounces of Body Horror with darkened dried flesh with bloody scaly patches all over its body. Calling this incarnation of Godzilla an Animalistic Abomination doesn't even begin to describe this utterly misshapen beast.
• Purple Is Powerful: Unlike the blue and orange-red Atomic Breaths of previous versions of Godzilla, Shin-Godzilla's is a purple / violet beam capable of carving skyscrapers to pieces.
• The Quiet One: A rare Kaiju version. He only roars a few times, whereas several incarnations tend to roar a lot.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His body is jet black with glowing red wounds, and he is possibly the most evil-looking incarnation of the King of the Monsters ever.
• Shadow Archetype: Unusually, to all versions of the monster, including the original and Legendary's. This Godzilla is birthed by radiation just like the others and had gained building-piercing atomic breath. However, unlike the original Godzilla, he is a freak of nature that spells abomination. Even his film shows how affected he is by radiation and goes to show how he vents on humanity by what he has become.
• Single Specimen Species: Unlike the original Godzilla, radiation actually caused Shin Godzilla's birth of irradiating a sea creature living in the depths. It can make more from his tail, and scraps of flesh can potentially regenerate into new individuals.
• Spiritual Antithesis: The 2014 Godzilla was a force of nature predating humanity, and their only hope against dangerous opponents like the MUTO. Shin Godzilla, on the other hand, is a god of destruction created entirely by man's mistakes.
• Stone Wall: Highly subverted. It can withstand majority of military bombardments like every incarnation, although MOP Bombs actually damaged him more likely the red glowing areas that are seemingly its vulnerable area, while it never does any means of devastation with physical attacks the Atomic Beams however are its trump card.
• Story-Breaker Power: Not only can Godzilla shoot his rays, but he can shoot them from his spines and his tail. The humans have to get around that by making him exhaust his power.
• Sweat Drop: In the Crayon Shin-chan crossover, when Shin moons him and dances with a school bus balanced on his butt, Godzilla reacts to the absurdity with confusion and beads of sweat appear on the back of his head.
• Threatening Shark: His earlier forms have a strong similarity to the frilled shark's appearance (such as the bugged-out eyes, the numerous protruding teeth, brownish colouration, very elongated body, and large brackets of bulging red gills).
• Tragic Monster: Even he's not immune to this. His Villain Song, "Who Will Know? (Tragedy)", shows a long sense of yearning and pity, even if it's a much more bitter and cynical type.
• Trauma Inn: After exerting so much atomic energy on Tokyo it stops moving and stands still, its glowing parts darkening, going into suspended animation for 2 weeks to fully recharge the radiation within.
• Truly Single Parent: While the reproduction of other Godzillas tends to be a mystery, Shin Godzilla is speculated to propagate by budding when a discarded piece of its flesh continues to grow, which is shown in greater detail in a deleted scene. The last shot before the credits shows its fifth form — an army of humanoid Godzillas — emerging from the tip of its tail.
• The Unblinking: Never takes any given moment to blink its eyes in any scene whether its in its second form, third form, and fourth form. This unnerving trait really seems to emanate a creepy aura.
• Villain Protagonist: He starts the entire plot just by simply showing up, and destroyed most of Japan's infrastructure and left millions of people dead.
• Villain Song: The lyrics of "Who Will Know (Tragedy)" are meant to represent Godzilla's own thoughts and plays during the sequence when Godzilla first unleashes his atomic breath and spinal beams on the military.
• The Virus: In the Godzilla vs. Evangelion crossover pachinko machine, Evangelion Unit-01 and Unit-02 are infused with tissue samples harvested from Shin Godzilla, eventually causing them to mutate into Evangelion/Godzilla hybrids called "Eva-01 Godzilla Awakening Form" and "Eva-02 Beast Godzilla Mode".
• Walking Wasteland: Due to his Bizarre Alien Biology, this Godzilla is a 118-meter tall living nuclear reactor. His body expels a particular isotope that is highly radioactive but fortunately has a short half-life and his traditional Atomic Breath has three stages - smoky fallout, atomic fire and a focused laser-like beam (which the beast can also shoot from his fins and tail).
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: For a giant mutant monstrosity, he possesses a similar amount of tragedy to the original Godzilla, with a ton of keloid scars, a mouth range that should not be physically possible, and glowing wounds all demonstrating this is perhaps the most miserable Godzilla to exist. It would not be an entirely inaccurate statement to say that he's essentially a giant cancer.

Godzilla (Minus One)

First appearance: Godzilla Minus One, 2023

The incarnation of Godzilla that appears in Godzilla Minus One.

After the end of World War II, the defeated nation of Japan starts to rebuild; but the large reptilian monster, Godzilla, attacks the mainland two years later, and begins his wrath of destruction on the unprepared populace, dragging the country's social and economic status from zero... to minus.

---

• Achilles' Heel: Its mouth is established to be less armoured than the rest of it, and easier to injure than the outside of his body.
• Adaptational Abomination: Word of God states that this version of Godzilla is more than a very strong mutated dinosaur, and is in fact a "curse god" similar to those in Princess Mononoke.
• Adaptational Badass: Its pre-mutated self, at least. The Godzillasaurus in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1992) was mortally wounded by small arms fire and no less than Ishiro Honda said that if it weren't for Godzilla's nature as a metaphor for the atom bomb then he'd be vulnerable to cannon fire. This Godzilla not only shrugs off the mechanics' rifles but it is also heavily implied that even if Shikishima hadn't choked, his plane's machine guns wouldn't have worked either.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The official trailer establishes the film is set in the wake of World War II, with Japan struggling to recover from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki only to have Godzilla's appearance make everything go from zero to minus.
• Adaptational Villainy: While previous iterations of Godzilla have been malevolent, this one is depicted as far more deliberate in its destruction, behaving like a territorial animal that deals with any perceived intrusion with extreme prejudice. To boot, this Godzilla is shown being hostile toward humans before its mutation by the atom bomb, something not even the 1954 original was shown to have done. The screenplay, novelization, and a line of dialogue make reference to Godzilla preying on the fish and livestock of Odo Island, and having formerly been offered human sacrifices to appease its hunger, but this isn't shown in the film itself. It's very aware of humans and their relation to him, making this one of the less sympathetic incarnations of the character.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. This Godzilla is still the powerhouse he's always been, but it's now significantly easier to injure, to the point that conventional weapons can actually harm it under certain circumstances. Be that getting a chunk of its face blown off by a mine, briefly being knocked out by warship cannon fire, or even being vulnerable to extreme ocean pressure changes caused by rapidly sinking then ascending before its body has time to adjust.
• Animalistic Abomination: Even pre-mutation, Godzilla is an impossibly huge theropod-like monster that is Immune to Bullets, rapidly heals from injuries, and can survive at the bottom of the ocean.
• Allegorical Character: Though Godzilla is traditionally a metaphor for nuclear weapons, this incarnation downplays its nuclear connection in favor of being a representation of war itself. Being already active during the tail end of World War II, Godzilla symbolizes the merciless and trauma-inducing nature of the war Japan could not win with weapons or martyrdom, which culminates into an atomic blast upon an already ruined city. It's not surprising that the Japanese people are only able to defeat Godzilla with demilitarized vessels, scientific expertise, and disavowing martyrdom altogether. It's also fitting then in respect to that when Godzilla is revealed Not Quite Dead in the closing moment of the film as he begins to regenerate to be metaphorical to the idea that war, much like Godzilla itself, will always exist as a threat and there will always need to be an effort made to face their horrors not in pursuit of glory but to protect life itself and continue living.
• Art Evolution: Compared to previous Reiwa Godzilla designs, this one is much more conventional, strongly resembling a more detailed BioGoji design with small modifications. Namely, thinner, spinier dorsal plates, no ears or fangs, elbow spikes, larger feet, and a craggier skin texture.
• Big Bad: For Minus One. In the same vein as the 1954 original, this Godzilla is the film's main antagonist, wreaking havoc upon an economically devastated Japan, following the second World War.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: It possesses two elongated scaly spinous ridges that are visibly jutting out of his elbow joints, which are possibly used for either slicing or stabbing into objects.
• Body Horror: Subtle, especially compared to the previous live-action incarnation in Shin, but it is there when we compare Godzilla's original more realistic theropod appearance in the opening to his mutated classical form after the the Atomic testing at the Bikini Atoll that Godzilla appearance has taken a startlingly shift between the appearances, especially in their movements as the mutated Godzilla later in the film moves in a more stilted and laborous manner compared to the more animated and aggressive version shown at the start of the film that implies Godzilla is not in its own natural shape anymore and is in severe pain just by existing, which is presumably heightening its already Hair-Trigger Temper to a Rage Breaking Point when it re-emerges years later.
• Breath Weapon: This incarnation of Godzilla retains its Atomic Breath—referred to in the film as a Heat Ray, which is bright blue and starts charging from the base of its tail like his MonsterVerse incarnation. However, the way Godzilla uses it is similar to a loaded gun by having its dorsal spines acting like the hammer being pulled out, and then they push back in to release it. The resulting blast has a disturbing resemblance to the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.
• Cast From Hitpoints: On top of a long charge time the blast wave caused by its Atomic Breath actually damages Godzilla, forcing it to regenerate before it can use it again.
• Composite Character: Overall, the core design for this Godzilla shares a highly noticeable resemblance to the Heisei incarnation (specifically the Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 cameo version since they share the same director) in terms of its head shape, the feline-esque facial features, physique, and massive bulk, as well as having a much smaller and more overtly dinosaur-like original form. It also gets a blue atomic breath glow effect that starts from the tip of its tail and slowly progresses to its front dorsal plates, and heavily-armored coral-like crocodilian scales which are strikingly identical to the MonsterVerse incarnation, especially from his most recent appearances for his post-2014 design shown in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Godzilla vs. Kong.
• Establishing Character Moment: Godzilla first appears via Jump Scare when an Odo Island watchman shines a searchlight on him, resulting in Godzilla roaring and attacking the watchman immeditately. When the other mechanics start firing on it in a panic, Godzilla attacks them as well, either squashing or tossing them away one by one. This shows that Godzilla is an easily-enraged animal that will destroy anything that sets him off, even if the cause is as harmless as a searchlight. The Odo Island attack also shows that Godzilla isn't just a mindless animal; when it sees Shikishima cowering in his fighter plane, it doesn't attack him, leaving him as one of the only two survivors of its rampage.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Godzilla uses its Heat Ray, the spikes on his back ignite with blue light and push out of its body, traveling with accelerating speed up its spine until they all press into its back at once right before it unleashes the atomic power contained within itself. This is akin to how a nuclear reactor works, with particles accelerating faster and faster as blue Cherenkov light shines until, finally, a grand explosion of atomic energy.
• Everything Makes a Mushroom: This Godzilla's atomic breath is powerful enough to cause a nuclear explosion with a large mushroom cloud.
• Evil Counterpart: He somehow manages to be one to the original Godzilla. Like the original Godzilla, he is also a Nuclear Mutant that was exposed to a Bikini Atoll nuclear test (implied to be Castle Bravo for the original Godzilla, Operation Crossroads for him) and doesn't appear until after World War II. The huge difference between the two is that the original Godzilla has sympathetic reasons to rampage against humanity to make a point whereas he views humans as intruders on his territory (being the Pacific). While the original Godzilla's death was somber, the closest thing this incarnation gets is the humans he was fighting him salutes him as he crumbles.
• Facial Horror: It gets part of his face blown off by a sea mine. It quickly regenerates, but it permanently retains a scar there. At the end of Minus One, everything above its jaw gets blown off, which is enough to put it down... for a while, at least.
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath. Godzilla is quick to temper, and doesn't rest until the subject of its ire is utterly destroyed. This is what allows the plan to kill it in the climax to even have a chance at success. Godzilla had already made landfall before the civilian fleet even left port and was well on its way to Tokyo, until Shikishima uses the Shinden to fire on it and draw its attention. Angered, Godzilla gives chase and is lured back to sea, toward the waiting fleet of ships, which eventually ends in his (temporary) death.
• From a Single Cell: It gets totally obliterated after the Shinden destroyed its head right while in the middle of charging its Heat Ray. By that point, Godzilla suffers from severe internal damage, with its entire body crumbling apart as it sinks into the ocean below. At the very end of the movie, one of the discarded chunks of flesh in the ocean is seen starting to regenerate, indicating that Godzilla will eventually return to reclaim vengeance, which is not too dissimilar from how the GMK incarnation of Godzilla was able to survive even as a disembodied beating heart.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: When Godzilla is rampaging through Ginza it goes out of its way to trample people, one shot showing its colossal foot displacing a massive slab of the street and launching people into the air.
• Glass Cannon: Compared to previous incarnations, this Godzilla is this trope. Immense devastating power in exchange for being easier to harm.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Prior incarnations, while destructive, tend to become hostile when provoked, but this Godzilla is among the most aggressive in the franchise. It's frighteningly easy to set off and enacts brutal retribution when slighted. In the opening, it attacks the Odo Island garrison for no reason and goes into a rampage when they shine a spotlight in its face. Later, when the humans use a patrol ship equipped with an audio device playing a recording of Godzilla's roar to trick it into thinking a rival has intruded into its territory, it ravages the vessel and tosses it so far that it lands on the coast. This ends up being exploited in the final plot to kill it. Its inclination toward violence causes it to get tunnel vision and fixate on whatever draws its ire, allowing Shikishima to lure Godzilla back into the sea and toward the trap point.
• Having a Blast: This incarnation really emphasizes the "atomic" part of the atomic breath, as it's more of a burst fireball attack than a continuous beam, setting off nuclear explosions big enough to devastate entire cities in one blow.
• Healing Factor: It's far from the first Godzilla with this ability, but this is possibly the fastest version of its regeneration yet. A sea mine blasts off a large chunk of its face, but it almost completely heals from the injury within seconds. It still retains a scar from the injury, however. Worth noting is that the novelization establishes Godzilla already had an absurd Healing Factor before mutating, which allowed it to survive the atomic bomb and mutate in the first place.
• Kill All Humans: This is one of those few Gojis (the likes of the very first and GMK's) who instead of simply defending itself against the military and killing people by accident is determined to kill as many humans as he can. It pro-actively hunts civilians to stomp, and is even smart about its massacre as it levels buildings not because they are in his way, but because their rubble can crush humans. It also attacks warships in a similar way to his Legendary incarnation. This is perhaps the third most hostile modern Godzilla after GMK and Earth.
• Logical Weakness: This Godzilla’s atomic breath is its most powerful weapon, as well as its greatest weakness. When charging its breath, Godzilla has to stand in place as its dorsal fins “prime” the breath and the sheer force is so great that even under optimal conditions, the beam shreds its face (forcing him to rely on its Healing Factor to repair the damage. Moreover, once its atomic breath is primed, it must be expelled, else the attack instead destroys it from the inside out. When Shikishima crashes his plane into Godzilla’s mouth just as the beast is readying the blast, the resulting explosion partially beheads Godzilla. Without an exit, the atomic breath incinerates Godzilla from the inside out, reducing him to a crumbing pile of burned flesh and putting him down for the count… for a little while, anyway.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While it was clearly mutated by the atomic bomb, there's some ambiguity as to what Godzilla actually is. Notably, Director Yamazaki has stated he considers Godzilla post-mutation as a Tatari-gami, or "curse god" implying this Godzilla might literally be a god. The fact its entire body being destroyed isn't enough to put it down lends towards this. Notably, the novelization states it's not a 'normal' creature, and it possessed its absurd Healing Factor even as its un-mutated Godzillasaurus form.
• Miracle-Gro Monster: Unlike most incarnations Godzilla, it starts out as a small 30-foot-tall creature before growing into a towering fifty-meter-tall monster.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Shots of Godzilla's face show it has dozens of relatively small fangs in comparison to the size of its head, with a few larger almost tusk-like fangs towards the back of its jaws.
• Necessary Drawback: As always, its Atomic Breath/Heat Ray is it most devastating method of bringing destruction to anything it comes in contact with, as one blast of it was able to level Ginza with the destructive force of an atom bomb. Although, as powerful as it appears, the downside is that the result of from the sheer power of its Breath Weapon is so deadly it will horrifically rupture corners of its face whenever it uses it, meaning that its own power can outright damage it externally. Each time it charges up his Atomic Breath, all of its dorsal fins slowly spring themselves outward, allowing various outside forces to counterattack early on before it has any time to initiate its attack.
• No Kill like Overkill: Due to his Hair-Trigger Temper in this adaptation, any aggression against him immediately sends Godzilla to responding with an extremely disproportionate response in kind even against the most laughably pathetic of threats to him, such is what causes his complete obliteration of Ginza with his Atomic Breath when only a very small handful of tanks start peppering him to absolutely no effect.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Downplayed, at first. It's left ambiguous in the movie, but the novelization for Minus One makes it clearer that its non-mutated form normally doesn't cause trouble on Odo Island because the natives of the island have learned to coexist with it, providing it with "gifts" in exchange for the deep sea fish he dredges up. It's also more clear in the novelization had the repairmen not shot at Godzilla in a panic, it wouldn't have massacred them, and it didn't attack Shikishima when he was in the plane turret for this reason. Nonetheless, it's still an extremely territorial animal with a Hair-Trigger Temper, which only gets much worse when it's mutated, as it starts attacking people who are no threat to it.
• Physical God: Word of God is that he's not a dinosaur, he's a Shinto god of destruction.
• Required Secondary Powers: This incarnation's atomic breath is so powerful that it burns the flesh off its face every time it uses it. The only reason repeated use doesn't kill it is because it also has an extraordinarily fast and strong Healing Factor, although it still takes several minutes minimum between usages as its injuries regenerate.
• Serkis Folk: Averted. This incarnation is completely CGI; no suit or motion capture is used in his film.
• Super-Scream: The novelization of the film depicted Godzilla's roar creating such loudness, it started behaving like a semi-shockwave where it vibrated the windows of the train where Noriko happened to be placed in.
• Tail Slap: While rampaging throug Ginza, Godzilla smashes through a row of buildings with its tail, obliterating a group of fleeing civilians in the process.
• Tiny-Headed Behemoth: Various shots that show its head to around his upper-body really demonstrates the size difference of its proportionately small head appears to be in conjunction to his much widened out and burly chest, as well as its entire body altogether.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Inverted. It has very broad, squat legs to support its huge size, with smaller arms like an actual T. rex. Although its upper body still has a bit of a barrel chest, it's noticeably narrower than its very broad hips.
• Tragic Monster: Played With. This Godzilla, as always, is a victim of nuclear radiation, and is implied to be lashing out as a result. However, it was shown killing humans even as an unmutated creature, which makes it less sympathetic than most other incarnations. Its motives are also rooted in animal territorial behavior - after it ravages Ginza, it returns to the ocean and only returns when it feels humans are continuing to challenge it, casting doubt on whether it was ever "retaliatory" as opposed to its native aggression being enhanced by its now godlike power.
• Unstoppable Rage: It, like the original, is a furious, hostile beast, targeting civilians left and right and seemingly the Japan of this universe can do little to stop him.
• Villain Protagonist: Surprisingly enough averted for the first time in the series. Godzilla in Minus One has a purely antagonistic role counter to Koichi's role as the protagonist, and the story never focuses on Godzilla except as a malevolent force intruding upon the life of him, his family, and his coworkers. This serves to further heighten his darker portrayal in the film, with its early appearance on Odo Island in particular seeming like something out of a horror movie.
• Walking Wasteland:
  • A much more mundane version compared to his Shin incarnation — this Godzilla may be much smaller than any version since the original, but much more emphasis is given to the sheer destruction it can inflict being just fifty meters tall. Every single location it plows through is left in ruins, with power lines falling and gas lines rupturing by virtue of its sheer weight stomping around in the area.
  • This gets played dead straight when it releases its Atomic Breath. Godzilla outright vaporizes its immediate area and the blast zone is disconcertingly similar to a nuclear bomb explosion (and is compared to such in the film). This is also a direct inversion of Shin Godzilla in that all of Minus One Godzilla’s radiation is kept on the inside while Shin was actively radioactive.
• Worm Sign: Unlike previous Godzillas that makes vocal noises to indicate they're coming, this one has several decompressed fishes driven to the surface, and Koichi realizes what this means.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: While hardly the first Godzilla with amber-colored eyes, Minus One stands out for his villainy, being one of the most sadistic and least sympathetic adaptations of Godzilla. Many shots are focusing on his eyes in this movie, and they are quite jarring to look at because of their maliciousness.
• You Will Be Spared: It pointedly doesn't attack Shikishima, which the novel jots down as being because it noticed Shikishima wasn't attacking him. Whether Godzilla let him go because he thought Shikishima was being kind, or was rewarding him for respecting the food chain is unclear.

Animated Incarnations

Godzilla Earth

First Appearance: Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters, 2017

The incarnation of the King of the Monsters seen in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, and Godzilla: The Planet Eater.

---

• Achilles' Heel:
  • Godzilla's weak point is one of his dorsal fins, and destroying it gives Haruo's team the opportunity to kill Godzilla Filius.
  • Somewhat subverted in City on the Edge of Battle. Were it exploited during his first rampage, humanity would have been able to kill Godzilla Earth before he drove humans off of the Earth. After 20,000 years of evolving and growing, attacking his dorsal fins severely weakens and immobilizes him, but does not outright kill him as it does Filius.
  • While the humans have no means to exploit it in the present, the novels reveal his barrier can't protect him from his own Atomic Breath. Mothra won at least one fight by sending it right back at him with her scales, which wounded him badly enough he had to retreat.
• Adaptation Species Change: Unlike the dinosaurs of past Godzillas, this Godzilla is a plant-based creature.
• Adaptational Villainy: This incarnation of Godzilla is the most malevolent since the GMK Godzilla. Whereas most incarnations of Godzillas attack humans by accident or provocation, this Godzilla intentionally seeks out and kills humans even when he isn't provoked. His only redeeming personality trait is his love for his offspring.
• Beard of Evil: Godzilla Earth has spikes on his chin that resemble a short beard.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The Planet Eater ends with a definitive victory for the big guy: Godzilla is still the sole ruler of Earth, humanity is all but wiped out aside from the small handful living with the tribal Houtua, Mechagodzilla City and all remaining nanometal has been destroyed, and Ghidorah is banished from this universe and likely won't return anytime within the next couple millennia, if ever. The death of his son, Filius, is the only real loss he suffers.
• Beehive Barrier: Godzilla can use its electromagnetic abilities to create a force field around its body.
• Big Bad: Of Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, having wiped out humanity and terraformed the Earth to be inhospitable.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • With Galu-Gu in City on the Edge of Battle with Mechagodzilla City as Galu-Gu’s Dragon-in-Chief. Though Mechagodzilla City is his primary target, he's still hostile towards humanity and intends to finish them off once all is said and done.
  • In The Planet Eater, he's in another with Ghidorah, who was summoned to Earth by Metphies.
• Botanical Abomination: Godzilla Earth is a plant-based animal-like creature that is over 300 meters tall; has extremely dense and rapidly regenerating metallic flesh; and bioelectrical abilities that let him create impervious force fields, launch waves of plasma from his tail, fire a particle beam that can reduce mountains to craters and hit objects in orbit, and a roar that creates immensely destructive shockwaves. He is responsible for destroying human civilization, and over the next 20 000 years his very existence terraformed Earth to the extent that it's a Death World where almost every other species has submitted to and become an extension of him.
• Breath Weapon: Godzilla's Atomic Breath is an immensely powerful blue-white beam of energy, which he can supercharge into a red beam. Similarly to Shin Godzilla's focused beam, it's fired from slightly in front of Godzilla's jaws. In Godzilla's original form it had a range of 13 km, but after 20 000 years its range increased to be able to hit targets in Earth's orbit.
• Civilization Destroyer: Godzilla singlehandedly wiped out human civilization in the space of a few decades.
• Composite Character: His design borrows a lot to the MonsterVerse's Godzilla. Personality-wise, he's closer to GMK.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: This Godzilla is not like either the original, Heisei, or Shin in terms of being a Tragic Monster who is given a Sympathy for the Devil viewpoint. The original Godzilla attacked humans to make a point, Heisei dies due to a Super-Power Meltdown, and Shin is in constant pain by mere existence. This Godzilla will kill anything in his way, human and monster. While Showa, Heisei, and Shin were just merely strolling through the countryside, this Godzilla actively seeks to destroy everything in his path so that only he and his offspring may rule the Earth. However, just like the Showa and Heisei Godzilla, he actually does care about his offspring, so when Godzilla Fillius is killed, he wastes no time and attacks the humans responsible. And unlike Legendary's Godzilla, which is a God Incarnate force of nature and (unknowingly to himself) humans, this Godzilla — just like those before him — is a God Incarnate of Destruction. When you have a 300-meter No-Nonsense Nemesis giant monster that can destroy anything within a 150-kilometer radius, running away isn't an option anymore.
• Establishing Character Moment: Planet of the Monsters opens with him bringing all of human civilization to its knees and slaughtering every other Kaiju he comes across.
• Evil Is Bigger: This Godzilla is both the most malicious incarnation ever put to film and the largest, being roughly 2.75 times larger than even Shin Godzilla. Fittingly, he's also one of the most openly antagonistic of all the incarnations, as no reason is given why he is driven to wipe out all non-Godzilla life.
• Eye Color Change: When superheated in City on the Edge of Battle, his eyes turn — or at least appear — yellow, and his pupils narrow into slits.
• Gaia's Vengeance: A few cryptic lines from Metphies about how other planets had Godzillas, or monsters equivalent to him, imply he is literally the will of Earth made manifest. If this is true, then he is this by default, and his rampage through human civilization is painted in a much darker light.
  • Subverted; it's pointed out that as the Apex Predator of Earth, Nature has now evolved to support Godzilla, instead of reverting to a 'natural' state without Humanity. Though if one sees Godzilla as Earth itself fighting back, this could be taken as the planet adapting to make recolonization by humanity as hard as possible.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: In contrast to the other Godzillas on this list, Earth doesn't get nearly as much development. How he came into being is only hinted at, and why he does what he does is never explicitly stated. He's more of a force of nature than even the Heisei Godzilla, who held a grudge against Japan after Japanese soldiers left him to die. He simply is.
• Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: Comparatively speaking, as he's at least 300 meters (984 ft) tall, while Fillius is about 50 meters.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: His healing abilities are the result of continuing to evolve for 20,000 years, but it’s a comparatively slower process than most examples. So unlike Filius, direct EMP blasts aren’t fatal, but they do leave him immobilized and severely injured. However, he’s figured out how to circumvent this weakness by rapidly vibrating the surrounding molecules to as high as about 1000 degrees and creating a massive heat barrier that melts anything around him. So unless whoever’s fighting him as sufficient enough heat shielding to bypass this and is able to go for the finishing blow, there’s no way to really kill him.
• Greater-Scope Villain: That is until it's revealed he was asleep for 20,000 years. Godzilla Fillius was very active until its death, prompting the real one to wake up in a monster version of Roaring Rampage of Revenge and Tranquil Fury at the same time.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Mothra won at least one fight between the two by sending his own atomic breath right back at him with her scales according to the novels.
• Invincible Villain: Arguably the toughest version of Godzilla out of all in incarnations, he tanked a mass barrage of 150 atomic bombs that pockmarked the American Midwest without a scratch, killed three kaiju in a single blow in his first appearance, levelled entire mountain ranges and cities with shots of his atomic breath, blew up an asteroid as massive as the moon, killed off every other kaiju species, and brought humanity to the brink of extinction, and this is all before he grew up! Unsurprisingly, this is also probably his most outwardly malicious incarnation, as no clear reason is given for his hatred towards all other living things.
• Jagged Mouth: Godzilla's fangs are an extension of its jaws, giving its mouth a serrated look.
• Lesser of Two Evils: In City on the Edge of Battle and Planet Eater. Mechagodzilla is slowly assimilating the Earth and needs to be stopped before it destroys everything, and King Ghidorah is a Civilization Destroyer/Planet Eater who is demonstrated to be much worse than Godzilla.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: In City on the Edge of Battle, Godzilla's notable patrol pattern shows that he's been trying to find Mechagodzilla City with the intent of destroying it. He has a good reason for doing this, as it's revealed that the nanometal constructed itself as a city (using the Godzilla-born Servum as ingredients), and it will assimilate the rest of the planet if left unchecked. This is why he was ignoring Haruo, Yuko, and Belu-be when they attack him.
• Macross Missile Massacre: In City on the Edge of Battle, Godzilla Earth uses its Atomic Breath to fire a barrage of homing energy projectiles at the Vulture mechs.
• Meaningful Name: Aside "God Incarnate", which was established in Shin Godzilla, Fillius means "The Son", making Godzilla Fillius "The son of Godzilla". Predictably, this lead to horrific results when the real 300-metered tall Godzilla appears, and he is pissed.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Godzilla has flesh made out of extremely metallic tissue, giving him a metallic green-black coloration with crystalline blue spines.
• Mighty Glacier: As tall as he is heavy, it doesn't even matter when he can shoot breath waves and send a shockwave with a tailwhip that can devastate an entire army in seconds.
• Mighty Roar: He's so massive and powerful by the present that his roar creates a shockwave powerful enough to blow ships out of the air from hundreds of metres away.
• Moby Schtick: Godzilla killed Haruo's parents when he was only four. 20,000 years later, Haruo (who has only aged 20 years) has returned for revenge.
• Mother of a Thousand Young: Godzilla is the progenitor of creatures called Servum, which are described as being "subspecies" of Godzilla that share 97% genetic material despite looking almost nothing like him. Even the foliage growing on Earth are offshoots of him or acquired his traits through what Adam calls the monster factor, with metallic tissue and razor-sharp leaves. Godzilla Filius is an offspring of Godzilla that is the main antagonist of the first movie.
• Multiple-Choice Past: It was stated in promotional material that Godzilla is the ultimate product of evolution on Earth and originated as a plant that acquired new abilities via horizontal gene transfer. In the movie itself, Metphies remarks that his species — the Exifs — have seen other civilizations on other planets decimated by similar creatures, raising the possibility of Godzilla being extraterrestrial in origin. The other possibility is that all planets eventually spawn a Godzilla as food for (or defense against) Ghidorah.
• Necessarily Evil: How the humans come to view him as due to the last two films having their alien allies doing their own agendas and turning on them later on as a result.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: This Godzilla does not fuck around. If you're trying to escape, he'll make sure you're dead before you get a chance to.
• Not So Invincible After All: Despite his near unkillable nature, Mechagodzilla City has him dead to rights, and only fails to kill him because Haruo changes his mind at the last second. In the 3rd movie, King Ghidorah almost kills him, and again only fails because of Haruo's intervention.
• Papa Wolf: To say that Godzilla Earth is utterly pissed when Filius is killed is not an understatement. He devastates Haruo's army in seconds, leaving behind nothing but devastation in his wake.
• Physical God: The Exifs view Godzilla as a god of death and destruction that comes to punish civilizations that have grown hubristic, having seen entire planets decimated by similar kaiju in the past. The Houtua regard him as a natural disaster like a hurricane.
• Planimal: Despite being made of metallic tissue, this version of Godzilla is described as being of plant origin that acquired new abilities through horizontal gene transfer.
• Pragmatic Villain: Godzilla uses his atomic energy in battle as often as possible, whether it's his Atomic Breath for a long-distance precision shot, or his roars and tail slaps for wider ranged attacks against smaller foes. All are equally devasting. He also prioritizes the finding and destruction of Mecha-Godzilla City over killing the surviving humans, as unbeknownst to Haruo (until it was too late), Mecha-Godzilla City and the Bilusaludo were a greater threat to Earth.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Prior to the events of the films, he wiped out every other kaiju species, killed off roughly ninety-nine percent of mankind, and drove two alien races attempting to invade the Earth into an Enemy Mine with the remnants of humanity. By the present, he's trying to find Mechagodzilla City and eliminate it too. Subverted in regards to the Houtua, whom he certainly isn't friendly to, but doesn't seek to destroy them.
• Really 700 Years Old: This incarnation of Godzilla has ruled Earth for 20,000 years. The novels imply he may have been ancient even before that.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he wakes up and realizes his offspring is dead, he noticed who was responsible and acts accordingly. Curbstomp Battle does not describe what happens after. It's also implied the deaths of Anguirius and Rodan via Operation Hedorah is the reason for his wrath, considering his history of the two in other films and media.
• Serial Escalation: While it never appears in the anime itself (probably became it'd be pointlessly overkill at his current strength), the prequel novel reveals that he has a Spiral Fire Ray, which he used to destroy Gorath and kill Gigan.
• Shock and Awe: Godzilla and the Servum can produce powerful EMP's, and Godzilla charging its new Sonic Roar is accompanied by electricity crackling around its spines.
• Stronger with Age: Godzilla's mountainous 300 meter-tall size has been stated to be the result of it continuing to grow for 20,000 years.
• Tail Slap: Like many of his counterparts, he's perfectly capable of causing devastation with a tail swipe. The difference here being that the tail can channel his atomic energy, creating an energy shockwave.
• Tranquil Fury: Perhaps the rarest example in any Godzilla media. Usually when Godzilla sees an opponent that truly angers him, he will roar in rage. This Godzilla? He doesn't, and that's what's truly terrifying of him. But...
• Unstoppable Rage: He may be quieter than most versions, but he won't hesitate to rage out and destroy anything in his path.
• Villain Protagonist: While other monsters do invade, Godzilla is treated as the sole Big Bad and Greater-Scope Villain that was responsible for the destruction of civilization and drove humanity off Earth.

Godzilla (Singular Point)

Godzilla Ultima

^{Godzilla Aquatilis
Godzilla Amphibia
Godzilla Terrestris}

First Appearance: Godzilla: Singular Point, 2021

The King of the Monsters as seen in the 2021 anime series, Godzilla: Singular Point.

---

• Adaptational Species Change: Like Shin before him, it has an earlier form at the end of episode 3 and 6 called Godzilla Aquatillis. It's also not a radioactive dinosaur, but an Eldritch Abomination seeking to intrude into reality and terraform it using the Archetype that it emits.
• Always a Bigger Fish: In Episode 4, it appears in its Aquatilis form hunting Manda. After it catches and devours one of them, it metamorphosizes into its Amphibia form.
• Beast of the Apocalypse: He's called the "Beast of End Times", and he — or previous incarnations — have been around since at least feudal Japan. It was prophesized that Godzilla would bring about a Calamity, which the protagonists race against the clock to put a stop to.
• Bloody Murder: In its Terrestris form it can form its blood into tentacles to defend itself.
• Born-Again Immortality: Godzilla is capable of being killed, but it will simply re-manifest after a period of time. The skeleton of a prior manifestation of Godzilla is located under Misakiouku's building, with the Godzilla that debuts as Godzilla Aquatilis in Episode 3 being a new manifestation.
• Breath Weapon: In its Amphibia form it is capable of exhaling a highly flammable vapor that is -20 degrees — freezing anything it comes into contact with. In its Terrestris form it can create energy rings powerful enough to knock a giant Rodan from the sky. In its Ultima form it's capable of using its Atomic Breath proper, preceded by its dorsal spines glowing and rings of light forming in front of its jaws.
• Combat Tentacles: After being wounded by some bunker-buster bombs as Godzilla Terrestris, it forms its blood into amorphous tentacle-like appendages that engulf the second barrage of bombs and nullify their explosion.
• Composite Character: It has the adaptation ability of the Shin incarnation — and its Aquatilis, Amphibia, and Terrestris forms respectively resemble Titanosaurus, Varan, and Gorosaurus.
• The Corruption: It radiates a reality-warping crimson dust made of Archetype, which that turns any water around it blood-red, fills the air like an ash cloud, starts covering affected areas like red snow, and eventually gives rise to anomalous fleshy plant-life.
• Death Glare: Upon metamorphosing into its Ultima form, Godzilla levels a furious glare evocative of traditional Japanese oni masks at the attacking JSDF tanks, then opens fire with its Atomic Breath.
• Draconic Abomination: Singular Point's Godzilla is a dragon-like extradimensional entity that was worshipped in feudal times as a draconic god of destruction, and is connected to the mysterious reality-warping substance called Archetype, which it radiates from its body in the form of red dust. It possesses a form of Born-Again Immortality, having manifested at least three times to attack Japan and growing stronger with each new incarnation. Initially appearing in an aquatic form, it metamorphoses into a quadrupedal terrestrial form by devouring another monster, and then into a bipedal form after being attacked by the JSDF. In each form, it displays unnatural abilities like exhaling a freezing cold but highly flammable vapor (Amphibia), shaping its blood into tentacles to attack and defend itself when wounded, and elongating its forearms (Terrestris). Its mere presence starts warping reality to the extent that if not stopped it would bring about an event called the Catastrophe. The novelization only makes it even more eldritch, clarifying that it's an acausal universe-eating multiversal singularity.
• Dragons Are Demonic: This version of Godzilla is one of the most-dragon like, despite doesn't being like your typical dragon. He's also the series's main villain.
• Evolution Powerup: Just like Shin, he also evolves like a monstrous Pokémon on-screen and becomes progressively stronger. His initial form, Aquatilis, is fully aquatic, then becomes land-dwelling in his Amphibia form after eating several Mandas. While incasing himself in harden Arctype, he turns into Terrestris, and has the ability to weaponize his flesh, and then fully evolves into his powerful Ultima form.
• Evil Counterpart: To Jet Jaguar. While Godzilla is evolving through various forms, Jet Jaguar is constantly having his body and software upgraded to become more capable of facing the Kaiju hordes. Eventually Jet is the only thing that is capable of standing up to and even defeating Godzilla.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: In a similar vein to Godzilla Earth, this Godzilla incarnation is more of a reality-breaking anomaly than a real character, with absolutely no motivations given. His role in the story is entirely as the world-ending disaster with as much character as a hurricane or earthquake, rather than an actively malevolent monster.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: In the same vein as Shin Godzilla, this incarnation starts out as a definitively un-Godzilla-like creature and it cycles through several evolutions (which resemble other classic Toho Kaiju) before evolving into Gojira.
• I Have Many Names: The feudal Japanese mural depicting one of its manifestations has the kanji comprising its name pronounced as "Koshira".
• Legendary Carp: Much like Shin Godzilla, Godzilla Ultima starts off as an aquatic creature before metamorphosing into a draconic monster.
• Make My Monster Grow: Godzilla Ultima starts out at around 45 meters tall and grows to over 100 meters in height using the Archetype.
• Metamorphosis Monster: Godzilla Ultima starts out as the crimson Mosasaur-like Godzilla Aqualitis before mutating into the patagium-winged, quadrupedal, brown-scaled Godzilla Amphibia after eating one of the Mandas. It later undergoes yet another metamorphosis into the turquoise-scaled semi-bipedal Godzilla Terrestris, before finally metamorphosing into the fully bipedal charcoal-scaled Godzilla Ultima.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: In each of its forms, Godzilla's jaws are enormous and lined with fangs. It even has fangs covering the inside of its mouth in its Terrestris and Ultima forms.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Godzilla is a shape-shifting Eldritch Abomination that can alter physics, as well as the memories of people who have witnessed him or produce archetype. Yet, though he can breath fire, he looks more like an outdated restitution of a theropod rather than a dragon and cannot fly, unlike some dragons would. However, his head, especially his eyes and his teeth, look similar to a naga's.
• Rubber Man: In its Terrestris form, it can extend its arms to double their regular length.
• Sea Monster: In its Aquatilis form it vaguely resembles a Mosasaur, possessing four fins and a tail fluke.
• Slasher Smile: His expressions can come off as this.
• T. Rexpy: Godzilla Ultima's design was based on a T. rex according to the character designer.
• Throat Light: When it charges its Atomic Breath in its Ultima form, the inside of its mouth glows blue and glowing vapor emits from its jaws.
• World's Strongest Man: His official title is "Strongest Monster", and any Kaiju that attempted to challenge the Big G is swiftly killed. Even when Jet Jaguar PP has grown to match the kaiju's size and able to deliver some hits, Godzilla still overpowers and viciously tears the robot piece by piece and it's only through activating the Orthogonal Diagonalizer that Jet Jaguar was finally able to win.

Offsprings

Minilla / Minira / Minya

First appearance: Son of Godzilla, 1967

Portrayed by: Masao Fukazawa (Showa), Naoko Kamio (Godzilla: Final Wars)

Godzilla's son in the 1950's-70's Showa series, and in the last entry of the Millennium series Godzilla: Final Wars. An enigma, his origins are unknown. Minilla's egg was uncovered by several Kamacuras on a Pacific island from inside a pile of rock. Godzilla soon appeared, having been drawn to the location by Minilla's powerful electromagnetic cries. Saving Minilla from the Kamacuras, Godzilla took the infant under his wing and began raising him (after a rough start). Minilla later faced Kamacuras, the spider Kumonga, and then participated in a giant brawl against King Ghidorah during an alien invasion. He later appeared in a young boy's dreams, and had a small but pivotal role in Final Wars.

---

• Art Evolution: While the original Minilla was just a miniature Godzilla with more human-like traits, Final Wars, 37 years later, instead opted for a mix of a turtle and mammalian-like appearance while still borrowing elements from Godzilla's design.
• Badass Adorable: He's a cute, pudgy infant Godzilla, but was also one of the many monsters that finally put King Ghidorah down in Destroy All Monsters.
• Breath Weapon: His "Smoke Ring" attack has evolved from being a Running Gag to becoming his Signature Weapon.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor little guy goes through a lot of pain, often getting beat up and bullied by bigger, more powerful monsters. And it's often Played for Laughs.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While he might be weaker and even sillier looking than Godzilla, he's still no slouch; just look at King Ghidorah, who had his middle head strangled to death by his smoke rings.
• Cute Giant: Goofy and strange-looking, sure, but there's likely a charm in it for some.
• EMP: An unintentional and very similar effect that happens due to his kind of Telepathy.
• Gentle Giant: Benign and friendly toward humans.
• Gonk: Bizarre looking even by Kaiju standards.
• Kick the Dog: On the receiving end. To count:
  • The Kamacuras whacking and stabbing him after he just hatched.
  • Godzilla stomping on his tail so that he can perform a full-powered Atomic Breath.
  • Gabara's brutal beating of Minilla in Godzilla's Revenge counts, too.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: A popular fan theory held that the more heroic Godzilla seen from Vs Hedorah onwards is Minilla all grown up. This was never confirmed or denied in the movies or compendium books, but official Toho books mention this as a possibility.
• Morality Pet: For Godzilla in the Showa series. And especially in Final Wars, when Godzilla ultimately decides to spare the humans simply because Minilla asked him to.
• Sizeshifter: He has the ability to either shrink or grow in size in All Monsters Attack and Final Wars.
• Spell My Name With An S: Referred to as Minya or Milla by some American distributors.
• Suddenly Speaking: Depicted as able to talk in Godzilla's Revenge, although since he only appears in Dream Sequences and was never shown to have this ability before or since, it's not clear how canonical this is.
• Telepathy: Sort of; while not full-blown psychic in nature, Manilla can keep tabs with Godzilla even from great distances by sending his brainwave patterns through radio frequencies, alerting him whenever he's in danger.
• Vocal Dissonance: Even though he's meant to be a child, the English dub for Godzilla's Revenge gives him an adult-sounding Simpleton Voice.

Godzilla Jr.

Left: Baby Godzilla, right: Little Godzilla, bottom: Godzilla Junior

First appearance: Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, 1993 (as Baby Godzilla)

Portrayed by: Hurricane Ryu (Baby and Junior), Little Frankie (Little Godzilla)

''AKA: Junior, Baby Godzilla, Little Godzilla

Godzilla's (adopted) son in the 1990's Heisei series. Discovered as an egg on an island that was used as a nuclear waste dump site, he is taken to Japan, where he hatches. In contrast to Godzilla, Junior is a peaceful herbivore and kind to humans. He undergoes considerable physical changes as he matures, shifting from a very lizard-like newborn to a tubby, big-eyed reptillian child to a proto-Godzilla teenager. Though killed by Destoroyah, Godzilla's meltdown releases enormous amounts of radiation, which he absorbs, reviving and empowering Junior, maturing him into the new Godzilla.

---

• Accidental Hero: His resurrection at the very end of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Junior's sudden mutation into becoming the very next Godzilla himself unintentionally prevented all of Tokyo from becoming an abandoned nuclear graveyard, after being fully resuscitated from the fatal aftermath of Godzilla's cataclysmic meltdown that has unleashed dozens upon dozens of radiation in the proximity.
• Badass Adorable: By the time of Godzilla vs Destoroyah. He's the first to do some actual damage to the titular villain, one of the most badass enemies in the whole franchise.
• Berserk Button: Destoroyah finds out that harming humans near him is a bad idea.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Even as a teenager, he doesn't do much harm. When lead to Destoroyah, though, he puts up quite a fight.
• Breath Weapon: Near the end of Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla he spews out a weaker variant of his father's beam that looks like bubbles. It becomes stronger as he ages into adolescence and even manages to draw blood from Destoroyah's aggregate form.
• Cute Little Fangs: As a hatchling, he sports enlarged canines that are more adorable than menacing. Not so much the case as he matures and starts resembling his papa more.
• Determinator: Against Destoroyah. He doesn't survive against Destoroyah's final form, sadly.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He effortlessly brings down Destoroyah's Flying Form with his Atomic Ray when the latter attempted to pursue Miki and Meru inside of a chopper. Despite being heavily outmatched by Destoroyah's brutality in his Aggregate Form, Junior managed to dismember a couple of his pincers by blasting them apart where even his own blood leaked and gushed out of his mutilated limbs. At the very last moment of their battle, Godzilla Jr. achieved his first victory by firing his Atomic Ray at Destoroyah, which sent the vile beast hurtling into an oil refinery, where it exploded from the impact, after Godzilla Jr. had his chest torn open and was infected by his Micro-Oxygen. His very victory even impressed Miki Saegusa and Meru as he lets out a roar of triumph after winning the fight.
• Disney Death: In Godzilla vs Destoroyah he is killed by the titular villain, but after the original Godzilla dies (permeating the area with his excess radiation), he is resurrected into an adult.
• Do Not Go Gentle: He puts up one hell of a fight against Destoroyah, and despite lacking any battle experience, is utterly fearless in the face of a greater and more powerful foe. He may be adopted, but clearly Junior inherited Godzilla's courage and fighting spirit.
• Future Badass: Dialogue in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah implies that Junior is the Godzilla that didn't destroy Japan. Considering he is the sole Godzilla standing after his father passes and he comes back to life at the end of Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah, there's credence to his survival in the future. There's also the fact that, thanks to his human upbringing, Junior is more likely to have Japan thrive enough to be a global superpower well into the 23rd century.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: As a newborn Godzillasaurus, his eyes will start glowing a bright red within his pupils, but not as a sign of sheer intimidation but rather, exhibiting immense fear. He's even reacted by being utterly frightened when he was finally greeted by his newfound adoptive father, Godzilla, (despite the latter being as gentle as he can be) while having the same glowing eyes until he was convinced by Miki's telepathy to go to him for a new home. He shows this sign of fear again when he comes across SpaceGodzilla, who's arguably more terrifying to look at compared to Godzilla as he even attempted to escape from his attack to have his father come and protect him.
• Gentle Giant: The most "threatening" thing he does to humans is frighten a bunch of beachgoers.
• Green and Mean: Absolutely inverted as Little Godzilla in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla where he developed green scales on most of his body as a toddler, but even if he grew bigger he was still as harmless as ever unlike his father. He still remains pacifistic towards humans as an adolescent in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah where during that time, he unintentionally frightened a crowd of people at a beach, since he highly resembles more like Godzilla, but luckily for them he didn't go out of his way to attack them as he mainly just changed direction to go back to his original birthplace where Rodan originally looked after him.
• Happily Adopted: By both his human caretaker Azusa Gozo, and later by Godzilla. Even in his teenage years Junior still sees them both as his parents.
• Healing Factor: Destoroyah injects his Nested Mouths straight into his chest, slurping the energy right out of him while inserting micro oxygen molecules, leaving behind a horrendous wound. In the scene right before he reunites with his (dying) father, the wound is no longer visible indicating that it healed offscreen.
• Junior Counterpart: As the (adopted) offspring of the King of the Monsters, it didn't take that long for the little prince to gain and mimic traits from his father. After he's been freed from SpaceGodzilla's prison, he starts learning to use a less harmful bubbly version of Godzilla's Atomic Ray. This certain aspect gradually becomes a lot more distinguished in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, where he grows and matures even larger where he visibly appears to resemble an adolescent 40 meter version of Godzilla and like his battle-hardened father, he confronts a powerful monster, that just so happens to be Destoroyah, and wins on his own. To drive the point even further, he's even directly referred to as Godzilla Jr. by some of the human characters in the film.
• Kid-Appeal Character: In-Universe the young girls escorted by Miki are dying to see Baby Godzilla and adore him.
• Legacy Character: At the end of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, he is resuscitated by the radiation given off by Godzilla's death, absorbing it to age to adulthood.
• Morality Pet: For Godzilla throughout the Heisei series. Notably, after adopting him, Godzilla only actually rampages due to outside forces (chasing Spacegodzilla down to rescue Junior, going berserk due to a nuclear blast sending him into a meltdown), whereas previously, anytime Godzilla was "awoken", he needed little incentive to rampage against humanity.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Another visual sign of his Strong Family Resemblance during his adolescent age as Godzilla Jr., he grew a secondary row of fangs within his jaws. They're very much identical to Godzilla's incisors.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Played straight in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, but they're massive in Godzilla Vs Spacegodzilla. Probably intentionally done this way to make him look even more cute than he already is.
• Raised by Humans: Junior's first direct visual impression of anyone was Azusa, his adopted human mother. While he is eventually adopted by Godzilla himself, it's very clear that Junior never stops considering humans to be his friends, and thus always acts in a benign manner towards humanity as a whole.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Surprisingly inverted, as his eyes only glow red out of fear, or due to immense stress. Azuza is the only human character able to soothe his anxiety, very similar to a mother giving a crying baby a pacifier.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: In his first and second appearances he does look rather adorable.
• Single Tear: At the end of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, he obviously wanted to stay with Azusa even after she said her tearful goodbyes to him. He came back by snagging onto her shirt with his mouth as a way begging her to take him but she clearly informs the baby that he cannot be with her anymore and has to live with Godzilla. Her words were able to make one tear fall from Junior's eye after coming to cope with the heartbreaking realization.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: He matures into a teenager so quickly because of the aftermath of Bass Island's radioactive disposal. This not only irradiates his father even more but him as well. But instead of going critical, it just unnaturaly speeds up Junior's aging process.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah Junior as an adolescent looks more like a smaller green version of Godzilla. At the very end of the movie after absorbing his father's remaining radiation he is bacisally a carbon copy of his father, minus the Volcanic Veins.
  • May be justified by the fact that Junior is effectively what Godzilla could have been had he been raised by humans. Add in that he clearly inherits his surrogate father's raw courage and fighting spirit, and it's little wonder people could mistake the son for the father, even in that adolescent stage.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Created as a replacement to Minilla (because Toho wanted to bring the character back, but the director of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II didn't) that's functionally the same character: the adopted son of Godzilla who actually likes humans.
• Take Up My Sword: When Godzilla dies, Junior's body soaks up the excess radiation, causing him to grow into the splittig image of his father.
• Teens Are Monsters: Only in strength. Teenage Junior's actually pretty friendly—unless you happen to be Destoroyah.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • People liked Baby Godzilla (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II) all right but disliked Little Godzilla (Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla). He outgrows this to become the kick-ass Godzilla Jr. (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah) and (initially) mops the floor with Destoroyah in the process.
  • Final Wars was originally written as Junior's adventures, but it remains vague enough that one could still interpret it that way and see the movie as Junior continuing the legacy, while surpassing his father in ass-kicking ability.
• Vegetarian Carnivore: It is specifically noted that in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II Baby Godzilla is apart of the Godzillasaurus species, that can eat plants (despite having fangs) which is shown in a scene where Azusa feeds the baby flowers. In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah Junior mortally wounds and feasts on numerous whales. Justified because he has to obtain some sort of nourishment after Birth Island's flora is destroyed.
• Vocal Dissonance: Baby Godzilla can already utter some low, deep gravelly grumbles for such a small hatchling.
• Vocal Evolution: During his newborn life as an infant, his roars were a lot more squeaky and even makes some dog-like growls. His vocalizations in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla sounded more like warbled squeals, along with emitting many various high-pitched trills and shrieks. By the time he becomes Godzilla Jr. in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, he was basically given a roar that basically sounds like a falsetto version of Godzilla's roar. ^note  The high-pitched roar Godzilla emits whenever he's taken gruesome damage from his foes. At the end of the film when Junior absorbed his deceased father's scattered radiation, his echoed roars as a full-grown adult sounded similarly like the Showa Godzilla during the early 60s.

Godzilla Filius

First Appearance: Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters, 2017

Godzilla Earth's offspring seen in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters.

---

• Adaptation Species Change: Much like Godzilla Earth, this Godzilla is a Planimal, unlike Minilla and Godzilla Jr.
• Adaptational Villainy: In a first, Godzilla's son is also presented as willing to lash out at humanity, unlike the human-sympathetic Minilla and Godzilla Jr.
• Anti-Villain: He only attacks the humans out of self-defense and just wanted to be left in peace.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: He is exactly 50 meters tall, just like the 1954 Godzilla.
• Barrier Warrior: His metallic cells project an energy field that can be harnessed through his dorsal spines to create a force field, which he uses as a conduit to fire his Atomic Breath.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Haruo and his company defeat him after a costly battle, but it gives them the confidence to destroy another of his kind, should it ever appear. Then his much larger, thoroughly pissed off father wakes up...
• Meaningful Name: Filius means "The son". It brings out a very horrifying consequence when it's revealed that he is Godzilla's son.
• Non-Malicious Monster: While he destroys a probe that intrudes in his territory, he only followed the humans out of curiosity and doesn't have the same animosity his father had. He also only attacked in self-defense due to Haruo's assault on him.
• Tragic Monster: In a sense, being Godzilla's much less malevolent "son", who only fights the humans out of self-defense.

Other versions

Space Godzilla (A Space Godzilla)

Space Godzillas

First Appearance: A Space Godzilla, 1979

A race of aliens that resemble Godzilla.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: The Godzillas are a peaceful alien race.
• Adaptational Species Change: The original and Showa Godzillas were dinosaurs mutated from constant H-bomb testing in the Pacific. The Godzillas shown here (such as Rozan, her husband, and their child) are aliens.
• All There in the Manual: A Space Godzilla is a story authorized by Toho, and it's apparently meant to be the backstory of Godzilla's species.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: The Godzilla race can apparently breathe in space without difficulty.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Godzilla race has a Healing Factor that can repair anything except for diabetes, and can use their eyes as grenades.
• Healing Factor: Rozan somehow can regrow her eyes after ripping them out and using them as grenades.
• Martial Pacifist: Rozan and her species are stated to be pacifists, but Rozan was guilty of destroying Tokyo several times — ostensibly in self-defence.
• Retcon: A Space Godzilla was planned to be the 16th film in the series and was going to reveal that the Showa Godzilla was an intelligent pacifistic female alien named Rozan, who was pregnant with a child named Lilin.

Snow Godzilla

First Appearance: Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Movie: The Marvelous Fast ALFA-X That Comes From The Future

A "Giant Monstrous Beast" created by the Valhallan, Snow Godzilla attacks a ski resort in Hokkaido — creating a massive blizzard — and is confronted by Miku Hatsune,^note Not that Miku, but a character based on her. and later battled by the other Shinkalion mechs.

---

• Adaptational Species Change: This version of Godzilla is a "Giant Monstrous Beast" created by the Valhallan, rather than being a mutated dinosaur or prehistoric beast. The Shinkalion pilots note that it's just emulating Godzilla's appearance and powers.
  Haruka: It's Godzilla... basically.
• Adapted Out: In the manga version of the movie, Snow Godzilla is replaced by the "Titan of Glowing Particle".
• Black Eyes of Crazy: This Godzilla is a malevolent alien Living Weapon, and has black sclerae with glowing yellow irises.
• Breath Weapon: Snow Godzilla possesses a Mighty Roar attack similar to Godzilla Earth's Super Oscillatory Wave, and his Atomic Breath is a massive blue-and-yellow beam with strange time-manipulation properties due to the Glowing Particles comprising it.
• Disappears into Light: After blasting Hayato and his father with his Atomic Breath, Snow Godzilla dissipates into Glowing Particles. He manifests again at the end of the film to help the Shinkelion pilots fight the Big Bad, pinning down his mech with his Atomic Breath and allowing Hayato and his de-aged father to deliver the finishing blow, before dissipating again.
• Evil Is Bigger: At around 118 meters tall, Snow Godzilla towers over the Shinkalion mechs.
• An Ice Person: This version of Godzilla is mostly white due to being covered in frost, creates a massive blizzard by just existing, and his dorsal spines look like they're made of ice.
• Mighty Roar: Upon noticing Hatsune Miku's Shinkalion H5 Hayabusa, he lets out a roar powerful enough to blast the train-mech back.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: While his face resembles Heisei Godzilla's later feline appearance, he has dozens of fangs similar to Shin Godzilla's.
• No-Sell: Snow Godzilla effortlessly withstands attacks from the Shinkalion mechs, and one of them attempting to stab him in the neck just produces a metallic clang.
• Oh, Crap!: Hilariously, his arrival and targeting of their mech got this reaction out of the typically very powerful and cocky Valdor.
• Summon Bigger Fish: As he just tends to attack the first thing he sees infront of himself, the heroes weaponize this by portalling him into the final battle with Valdor directly in front of him.

EVA- 01 Godzilla Awakening Form

First Appearance: Godzilla vs. Evangelion, 2016

The result of Shin Godzilla using his Atomic Breath to inject the EVA-01 with his cells, which results in a fusion between EVA-01 and Godzilla to fight King Ghidorah.

---

• 11th-Hour Superpower: What happens when Godzilla deliberately used his Atomic Breath on EVA-01? The result is EVA becoming Godzilla.
• Breath Weapon: Another thing the Eva-Godzilla hybrid inherits is his signature Atomic Breath to use against Angel King Ghidorah.
• Body Horror: While Shinji Ikari does not undergo any horrific transformation thanks to Shin Godzilla's Atomic Breath, the EVA-01 becomes part Godzilla — with the left half of her face being mutated, her sprouting a tail and green dorsal spines, and even gaining Godzilla's roar.
• Breakout Character: EVA-01 Godzilla Awakening Form first appeared as a piece of merch for the 2016 Godzilla vs. Evangelion collaboration alongside a Godzilla/EVA-02 Beast Mode hybrid, Evangelion-colored Kiryus, and an EVA-style Mechagodzilla before being added to the 2019 Evangelion: Breaking Dawn mobile game alongside EVA-02's Godzilla hybrid form and eventually starring in the 2022 P Godzilla vs. Evangelion: G Cell Awakening pachinko game.
• One-Winged Angel: Being infused with Godzilla's cells causes Unit-01 to undergo a transformation into a Godzilla/cyborg Angel hybrid based on the figurine released for the 2016 Godzilla vs. Evangelion crossover.
• Power Gives You Wings: EVA-01 Godzilla can manifest draconic wings made out of atomic energy.
• Two-Faced: The left half of Unit-01's face is mutated by Godzilla's cells, her eye turning red and her purple armor breaking away to reveal rough scales similar to Godzilla's own.

Godzilla (Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex)

^{Click here to see his Burning Form}

First Appearance: Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, 2022

First appearing in Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, the Big G returns after years of peacetime to fight the rampaging Gigan Miles and their leader, Gigan Rex. He later returns in Godzilla vs. Megalon to combat the newly-awakened Megalon.

---

• Adaptational Skill: Aside from the Showa Godzilla being more of a highly hand-to-hand melee fighter, most incarnations of the Big G have the power to withstand numerous overwhelming attacks of any kind with their Super-Toughness from their enemies, and if they spill any blood after getting hit, their Healing Factor mitigates the issue and can continue fighting. This Godzilla (whether if it is Junior or not) definitely has the capacity to take damage but rather than outright eating hits, he adapts to using far more defensive measures and techniques during his battles by being able to block, parry, and even counter melee strikes from the army of Gigan Miles while also destroying most of them without much difficulty. Even when he's facing off against Gigan Rex, Godzilla was able to use his own chainsaws against him by merely yanking him out of the air to bring him to the ground, and swatting him aside with a horizontal Tail Slap swing.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's not confirmed, but it's implied he's the fully grown Godzilla Junior. The opening shot being a shot for shot recreation of Junior's resurrection accompanied by his lullaby from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, the timeline of him being gone for a quarter of a century lines up with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, the short's narrator is Miki Saegusa's actress, Megumi Odaka, and he also possesses a Nuclear Pulse, one of the Heisei Godzilla's signature abilities. Junior is also known to view humans as his friends and family, and he never once retaliate against the JSDF even when they are shooting at him.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block:
  • One of the Gigan Miles leaps at him with a flying slash and he catches it with one hand. He then catches its tailblade with the other before slamming it into the ground and crushing its head.
  • After parrying several hits, he catches Gigan Rex's chain swords and uses them to drag him into a tail swipe.
• Beam-O-War: His battle with Gigan Rex ends with his white Atomic Breath colliding with Gigan Rex's supercharged Chest Blaster. While losing at first, he pushes it back until the beam explodes between them. Gigan Rex is left a scorched corpse and Godzilla is left roaring in victory.
• Big Damn Heroes: Humanity's weapons all fail to stop the Gigans which are rampaging unchecked...then Godzilla arrives to save the day.
• Charged Attack: For his secondary appearance in Godzilla vs. Megalon, he demonstrates a new specific power by manipulating the use of his Nuclear Pulse to transfer its coursing energy and amplifying his physical attacks to astronomical degrees. He uses a fully-charged nuclear punch against Megalon, and has also used a Recoil Boost variation of his Nuclear Pulse to intercept Megalon's incoming attack by delivering a powerful mid-air dropkick.
• Composite Character: His introduction at the beginning of the short shows him as a silhouette in a darkened city where it's identical to Godzilla Junior's resurrection at the end of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. And just like what happened to Godzilla in the film, he too has access to his own Burning form, albeit it's white-hot instead of having glowing orange sections on his frontal body but fortunately for him, he doesn't even perish from the outcome and comes out unscathed.
  • His highly empowered Atomic Breath is colored white, which is essentially like how the original 1954 Gojira's Breath Weapon was shown in his debut film but it's depicted as an actual beam rather than looking misty and gaseous.
  • At one point, he fends off the swarm of the Gigan Miles' attacks by firing various beams of light seemingly out of his dorsal fins, which is one of the attacks that Shin Godzilla uses to destroy airborne targets.
  • He's capable of boosting the strength of his punch by manipulating energy at will to clobber Megalon a sheer distance, which is a power that Super Godzilla could also do.
• Dash Attack: In Godzilla vs. Megalon, he uses his Nuclear Pulse to launch himself feet-first at Megalon in a reference to the infamous tail-slide kick from the original movie.
• Destructive Savior: He's stated to have just left humanity alone for the last quarter of a century and only resurfaces to stop the Gigan invasion, and is also implied to be the adult Junior. However, his attacks are still extremely destructive and his battle with the Gigans causes a lot of property damage.
• Disney Death: After severing Megalon's upper body with his powerful white-hot Atomic Breath, Godzilla, who's standing with partial burns around his chest and left arm, brings out a roar before collapsing in the smoky destroyed city, giving the impression that he has perished. He lives after the credits were over.
• Enhanced Punch: In Godzilla vs. Megalon, he channels Nuclear Pulses into his claws to deflect Megalon's pile-bunker like arm-blades, blasting the giant beetle backwards with the force of the impacts.
• Eye Awaken: The Big G heavily slumps over after separating Megalon's used to be full body. In The Stinger, he's shown to be lying on the ground in the aftermath of his battle... his eye begins to quickly open after a few seconds have passed.
• Finishing Stomp: Crushes one of the Gigan Miles' head with one violent stomp of his foot right after slamming him into the curbside.
• Gentle Giant: The opening narration and the implications he's the adult Junior (who generally views humans in a friendly way) suggest he's left humanity completely alone for the last quarter of a century and things have been peaceful. He only resurfaces to fight off the Gigan invasion. When he returns in Vs. Megalon, he's implied to have just come ashore to intercept the newly awakened Megalon. Despite the military firing on him, he never actually retaliates outside of one Atomic Breath shot into the sky rather than at them.
• The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Subverted: while he's more than capable of taking hits from the Gigans, he notably goes out of his way to block, parry, or dodge attacks. Part of this is it makes him more capable of counterattacking.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: His strongest attack bucks the trend and instead of being the red/orange colored Spiral Fire Ray, this Godzilla's attack is a white Atomic Breath.
• Lightning Bruiser: He, surprisingly, possesses astonishing reflexes regardless of his gargantuan mass by being able to easily counterattack rather swiftly and has even dodged a skyward slash that can cleave a building in half, uses his natural durability (like many other incarnations) to tank horrific buzzsaws shredding into him from the Gigan Miles and an Eye Beam from Gigan Rex, and has the dominating strength to deliver a beatdown on them.
• Megaton Punch: Sends Megalon hurtling backwards at a ginormous distance by outright decking him in the face with an atomic-powered mighty claw attack.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Godzilla gets struck several times by the Gigan's blades (including Rex's chainsaws) but Big G's skin never show so much as a graze. This is particular notable as Gigan is widely known to have consistently drawn blood from the King of the Monsters throughout all other continuities.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Both of his hands distinctively have 5 fingers in total (just like a human's hand), making this version of Godzilla, in particular, stand out visually from the previous incarnations prior since they usually maintain Four-Fingered Hands for each of their various designs.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: His film was the result of Takuya Uenishi winning the GEMSTONE Godzilla Contest, and one of the prizes was getting an official, Toho backed sequel.
• One-Man Army: He's capable of handling the Gigan Miles army without much trouble. It isn't until nine of them dogpile him all at once that he struggles, and even then, he just powers up a bit and blows most of them away with one nuclear pulse.
• Strong and Skilled:
  • He's extremely powerful, capable of casually manhandling and killing the Gigan Miles, but is skilled enough in a fight to catch, parry, and dodge enemy attacks rather than just taking them (though he is very capable of taking them).
  • Godzilla vs Megalon shows he has far finer control of his nuclear pulse than most Godzillas, being able to channel it to enhance his blows as well as launch himself for a dropkick.
• Superior Successor: If he is the adult Godzilla Junior, he's a much better fighter than his predecessor. Best shown with his equal of the Spiral Fire Ray, which burns white rather than red/orange, and he seems to be able to enter a meltdown-like state without any ill effects.
• Super Mode: After getting briefly overwhelmed by the multiple Gigan Miles' buzzsaws cutting into his flesh, his power erupts greatly when he enters a form similar to his Meltdown stage in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, as his chest displays a brightened white glow as well as his Atomic Breath shifting from blue to white. One blast of his strengthened beam destroys one of the Gigan Miles in one hit and it even overpowers Gigan Rex's Chest Blaster during the Beam-O-War, which in turn, outright obliterates the alien cyborg.
• Super-Reflexes: Throughout the battles, he demonstrates a lot of volant reactions to almost any attack, such as instantly catching an incoming Tail Slap from a Gigan Miles. During his clash with Gigan Rex, he easily counters his Whip Swords by flinging them away with each of his hands and grabs both of them the second they slice a nearby building in half.
• Super-Strength: Even by Godzilla standards, he's absurdly strong. Best shown when he casually brings a flying, full strength slash from a Gigan Mile to a dead stop with one hand, does the same with its tail strike, and then effortlessly slams it into the ground by the tail with one hand. Note, said kaiju is almost as large as Godzilla himself.
• Took a Level in Badass: He's implied to be the adult Godzilla Junior and extremely powerful.
• Wrestler in All of Us: As a nod to the infamous dropkick attack in the original film, Godzilla pays direct tribute to his Showa counterpart as he uses a Nuclear Pulse to launch himself into the air to dropkick Megalon right out of the sky.

Chibi Godzilla

"My dream is to become a big monster so that Dad can hug me!"

First Appearance: Do Your Best, Chibi Godzilla (2018)

Voiced by: Serika Hiromatsu (I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla), Jun Fukuyama (Chibi Godzilla Raids Again)

A character created by Chiharu Sakazaki, features in Godzilla media that were aimed at very young children.

In the children's book series, Chibi Godzilla is a young version of Godzilla, and in stark contrast to other continulity's Godzilla, he is a crybaby. In I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla, Chibi Godzilla is living with a human named Satomi in Japan, training himself to be the king of monsters.

In Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, he is instead a son of Godzilla who lives in Monster Island, and is more of a Cloud Cuckoolander, much to Chibi Mechagodzila's chagrin.

---

Tropes that applies to Chibi Godzilla in general

• Adaptational Friendship: Godzilla's traditional enemies such as Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla are his friends.
• Breath Weapon: In the original children's book series and the I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla web series, Chibi Godzilla is only able to shoot breathing fire out of his mouth. In Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, however, Chibi Godzilla can shoot the regular blue Atomic Breath.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Episode 8 of I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla has him using his fire breath to propel himself through the air and fly, similar to what Godzilla did in Godzilla vs. Hedorah.
  • Episode 10 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again has him looking like Shin Godzilla's second form because he didn't sleep properly. The episode ended with him return to said form again, this time with purple skin as a result of bumped knee.
  • Season 2 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again has him dislike things exploding in his mouth. This is how Godzilla from Godzilla Minus One was defeated
• Tender Tears: Chibi Godzilla prone to tears in the children's book series and I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla. Not in Chibi Godzilla Raids Again though.

Tropes that applies to Chibi Godzilla in Chibi Godzilla Raids Again

• Adaptation Personality Change: Chibi Godzilla in the original children's book series and I'm home, Chibi Godzilla is known to be a crybaby. Here, Chibi Godzilla is an eccentric Cloud Cuckoolander.
• Brutal Honesty: He and his friends will point out Chibi Rodan's flaws, who will faceplant to the ground.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: So much that it exasperates Chibi Mechagodzilla.
• Decomposite Character: As opposed to be a younger version of Godzilla himself in the original children's book, he is Godzilla's son in this adaptation.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Because he's Chibi Godzilla, he loves to cause destruction, which Chibi Mechagodzilla dislikes when he destroyed his model city. Which of course is Played for Laughs.
• Spin-Offspring: Of a sort, he is the son of the King of the Monsters himself in this adaptation.

---