YMMV / Godzilla Minus One

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Would the pre-mutated Godzilla have continued his rampage on Odo Island or would he have eventually left the island in peace? What supports the latter theory is that Godzilla never harmed Shikishima who was too scared to fight him at the time. While the film never makes this clear, the novelization outright states that the mechanics shooting at Godzilla was what spurred it into anger, and had they left it alone it would never have attacked them. Plus, it's said that the locals have been living on Odo Island for a long time, implying that Godzilla was passive and did not bother with the locals until provoked.
  • Did Godzilla respond to the fake call because he was territorial, or was he hoping to find more of his kind?
  • Some fans find Akiko's lack of reaction upon seeing Noriko alive at the end to indicate Akiko recognizes something's wrong with Noriko, possibly relating to the mysterious black mark on her neck. On another note, this sequence of the ending seems oddly dreamlike, which might cast doubt on Shikishima's perspective at this point, if he's actually seeing her current state or if he's seeing what he hopes is her current state.
  • Near the end of the film, the crews of the ships give a solemn Military Salute after watching Godzilla's corpse dissolve in the ocean. But who exactly are they saluting?
    • Are they saluting Shikishima for his heroic feat of destroying Godzilla, (and surviving the battle)?
    • Are they saluting Godzilla out of respect for a Worthy Opponent (or perhaps in sympathy for a dying animal?)
    • Or, perhaps both?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Ejection seats were used on some late WW2 aircraft, most notably a number of German ones. The ejection seat installed on the Shinden fighter noticeably has German instructions written on it, implying that it was part of a technology transfer made during the war. Although it's unknown if ejection seats were ever transferred to Japan during the war, a number of other German aviation technologies were. Notably, the designer of the Shinden was planning to add a German-designed jet engine to the fighter when the war ended, so the idea of the prototype featuring German technology has some basis in reality.
• Anvilicious:
  • The film tackles the subject of war and the hell it brings towards an individual. It also shames how Imperial Japan treats their soldiers as A Million Is a Statistic, and the horrors it can bring to an individual who had to fight a pointless war they can't hope to win. And since Godzilla is a metaphor for a powerful opponent that could swiftly end their country, it's definitely there. And the film doesn't sugarcoat how Godzilla does it either. His atomic breath is what happens when a monster is a literal nuclear weapon: a mass destruction that ends with black rain. But Koichi finds the resolve to end his source of his grief and is able to earn his happy ending.
  • The film also addresses how despite the fact that soldiers are doing their duty, they're still human, and war isn't something to throw your life away for. A person's life is precious, and they have loved ones waiting for them. This is why Koichi decides against committing a suicide attack on Godzilla for the sake of Akiko.
  • War Is Hell, and it causes severe PTSD in soldiers after the events of the war. Koichi chose to abandon his duty as a Kamikaze pilot, but the real source of his trauma is Godzilla arriving and killing the engineers for his plane. Koichi is fully aware that war isn't glorious and gets mad at Shiro for wanting to participate in the Pacific Theater. He is plagued by nightmares of Odo island, and he finally addresses his personal issues to Noriko, and he's able to make peace with his personal demons that plagued him for two years in the climax.
• Award Snub: Toho promoted a Godzilla Minus One "For Your Consideration" Campaign across all categories, and its only nomination was for Visual Effects, which it ended up winning. Many fans were hopeful for at the very least Sound Design, Original Score, or even Best Picture. Surprisingly enough, the Academy Awards cannot be blamed for the lack of the most obvious nomination: Best International Film, as Japan had already submitted its Perfect Days as its submission for this year. ^note  It wouldn't have been eligible anyway for International Feature Film, due to it being released past the category's qualifying window (December 1, 2022-October 31, 2023).
• Awesome Music: All thanks to Naoki Sato, the composer of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the live action version of Rurouni Kenshin, Assassination Classroom, and Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~, who gave many rearrangements of Akira Ifukube's classic music and his orchestral spin of the Godzilla franchise.
  • Divine a heavily oppressive piece with a choir part that gives off a sense of hopelessness when Godzilla destroys the Takao. Played in the first trailer.
  • Minus One's renditions of the Godzilla Suite found here, here, and here.
  • Resolution a very powerful piece that gives you courage and hope especially when Koichi flies the finished Shinden and draws Godzilla's attention away from the citizens to plunging the bomb laden plane into a weakened Godzilla's mouth.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Two factors regarding the ending had such heavy-handed foreshadowing that these twists were telegraphed to the point that they were inevitable:
  • Due to the amount of relatively-isolated foreshadowing, the fact Sōsaku discovered an ejector seat in Shikishima's plane, allowing him to survive the kamikaze strike on Godzilla at the end, is rather telegraphed. This doesn't make this outcome any less narratively satisfying, however, since the film instead casts doubt on Shikishima surviving long enough to use the bomb, and whether or not he would choose to use the ejector seat.
  • Noriko's survival, while a point of contention to whether it was a good writing decision or not, was literally telegraphed when a telegram comes for Shikishima towards the end of the movie. The rest of the narrative was tightly resolved enough that there was simply no other possible news to be coming to him other than to let him know that Noriko had somehow survived.
• Catharsis Factor: Even the most die-hard Godzilla fans will cheer at this incarnation's supposed death, considering that this is one of, if not, the most unsympathetic portrayal of the monster it has been and the damage it has intentionally caused.
• Common Knowledge:
  • It was widely claimed that the movie had a 15 million USD budget, but the source for this was a passage from a review of the movie from Variety magazine which itself was unsourced, and was subsequently posted on Wikipedia. It became so prevalent that the director had to clarify that the budget was not that amount, and implied the true budget was significantly lower than that.
  • There's a minor one that Tachibana built an ejector seat into the Shinden. This isn't the case, under the fridge brilliance page it is feasible that Germany built ejector seats and sent components. However the fact that Tachibana brought it up and implored Shikishima to use it and survive is just as important as simply having the option.
    • Another minor one involving Tachibana is that he tells Shikishima on Odo Island that he has sympathy for him abandoning his post. The mechanic is actually Saito, a mechanic played by the star of one of Yamazaki’s previous movies, not Tachibana.
  • Akitsu’s first name is widely assumed to be “Yōji” in the English speaking sphere, due to his name showing up as such on Google, and his first name never being said in the movie. His name is actually Seiji.
• Creator's Favorite: Director Takashi Yamazaki has cited Dr. Noda and Captain Hotta as his two favorite characters in the film. Given how neither is the main hero and most fans like them too, neither of them are thankfully a Creator's Pet.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Tachibana. He's only in the movie for the opening scene and a good chunk of the third act, but has proven very popular with the fans for his arc of blaming Shikishima for the deaths on Odo island, to eventually helping him defeat Godzilla, and the reveal of the ejector seat.
  • Captain Hotta. He has many fans that include the director himself, and is rather popular on Japanese Twitter.
• Even Better Sequel: While the previous film was critically acclaimed for Toho's return to the franchise two years after Legendary Pictures' own Godzilla film, many criticisms towards that film has too much focus on Japanese politics and their incompetence over handling a Kaiju in a major city in a realistic light, and not much focus on Godzilla. Here, the film solely focuses on Koichi Shikishima and his guilt and trauma ties to Godzilla, and how that trauma affects him on a personal level and those around him. While Godzilla in either film doesn't have as much focus, it does show that Godzilla's presence does affect people, and overcoming his trauma helps complete Shikishima's character arc, rather than focus Japan as a whole being the character itself.
• Evil Is Cool: To say that fans were impressed by this Godzilla being one of the most destructive incarnations of this character would be a kaiju-sized understatement.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The pre-mutated version of Godzilla seen at the beginning of the movie is often referred to as "Godzillasaurus" in reference to the Heisei era films, particularly Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. That film also depicted the pre-mutated Godzilla as a theropod dinosaur, specifically identified as a "Godzillasaurus", who likewise encountered Japanese soldiers on an island during WWII, though in that case he actually helped them.
  • "MinusGoji" for this movie's version of Godzilla to distinguish it from its previous incarnations. Or MaiGoji in the Japanese fandom.
• Fandom Rivalry: Although most Godzilla fans are simply happy for the glut of Godzilla media in close proximity, there's a subset which dislikes the MonsterVerse that threw shade at it by negatively comparing it to this film, particularly since the trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire came out around the same time as the US release of Minus One. This subset of fans tends to unfavorably compare and contrast the unabashedly "goofy" science-fantasy kaiju brawlfests of Godzilla x Kong (and by extension other Godzilla media so inclined) with the more somber postwar human drama juxtaposed with Godzilla as a dark destructive force of nature as in Minus One (and by extension the original Gojira). This camp also has an undercurrent of feeling Only the Creator Does It Right, with "the creators" being Toho/Japan vs. the Monsterverse being Hollywood, though of course Godzilla has had his share of goofy brawlfests from Japan in the past.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, whose teaser trailer debuted just before Minus One's film release. Largely speaking, fans of Godzilla perceived the stark contrast in tone between the two films as perfectly embodying the dichotomy of the Godzilla series as a whole. And with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also airing concurrently, most fans seemed pleased to have such an abundance of new Godzilla material regardless of their personal preferences.
  • With KanColle, given the presence of the ship versions of Yukikaze, Hibiki, and Takao, prompting fanart of the three shipgirls interacting with this version of Godzilla.
  • On Japanese X/Twitter and Pixiv, you can find a lot of crossover content with Gegege No Kitaro movie Kitaro's Birth: The Mystery of Gegege featuring Kōichi and Kitaro’s Birth protagonist Mizuki. Both movies released around the same time, and both Kōichi and Mizuki are traumatized WW2 vets who find themselves adopting a child at various points in their story, yet interpret and react to their war experiences in very different ways; Kōichi has terrible Survivor's Guilt, and is mostly selfless, caring more for others than himself, while Mizuki resolves to live life the best he can because he survived, his experiences hardening him into a selfish, ruthless man who wants to become powerful so he can’t be used as a pawn again (though at heart he can’t quite bring himself to be truly selfish and ruthless). Fanart and content often features them as dad friends (in spite of Kitaro’s Birth taking place years later than this movie), has Mizuki react to Kōichi’s extreme behavior in severe situations, or otherwise highlights the differences and similarities between the two.
  • Also with The Boy and the Heron, as the film received its wide release in America in December alongside Godzilla: Minus One. The presence of two highly lauded Japanese films in theaters made for a very complementary double feature, and until the release of Wonka, both films dominated the US box office. It also helps that both films, while going in different directions, cover the similar subject matter and time period of Japan's ordeal in World War II with Kōichi's PTSD from the conflict and Mahito's trauma from losing his mother in a firebombing.
  • With Oppenheimer, a biography film about Robert Oppenheimer who invented the atomic bomb in the early years of World War II. Fans of both films will often splice together a scene when Oppenhimer gets teary-eyed of his destructive creation, and Godzilla being the result of that consequences of his creation, since Godzilla is often portrayed as the personification of nuclear weapons. Takashi Yamazaki even met with Cillian Murphy, who played Oppenheimer, and they even took a photo together. Yamazaki also met with director Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas and did the same with them.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the film did great in Japan as well, Americans absolutely adored the film, with many regarding it as one of the best films in the series and one of the best films of 2023, with its critical and commercial success outdoing several major American blockbusters released on the same year. In response to the film's success in America, Toho would end up extending the film's US theatrical run beyond its initial December 7 end date...twice. During a Q&A shortly after the film's US premiere, the film's director — Takashi Yamazaki — admits to having been very surprised by how well the film had been received amongst American fans, describing the audience as being "Godzilla worshippers". The film even got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, which is the first time in the franchise's entire 70 year history that it got nominated for one, and it ended up winning at that.
• Improved Second Attempt: Takashi Yamazaki attempted to make a movie about a reluctant kamikaze pilot before with The Eternal Zero, which while successful also got a lot of flack for supposedly glorifying Imperial Japan and kamikaze pilots despite Yamazaki stating his intent was the exact opposite. Minus One tackles similar ideas as The Eternal Zero, but many felt it handled them much better and conveyed Yamazaki's intent much clearer.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Serious allegory vs. giant monsters go brrrrrr.^note While Minus One takes the premise seriously and plays it for drama and horror, the Monsterverse film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a far more lighthearted film featuring sci-fi adventure and action and spectacular monster fights. This quickly drew comparisons to the Showa series, whose first film in 1954 was a dark and allegorical horror story but quickly turned into wacky children's fare with things like the famous tail-slide drop kick or the much-memed victory dance.
  • Smolzilla.^note In complete defiance of the trend of increasingly bigger Godzillas, from the 118-meters tall Shin Godzilla to the 108 to 119.8-meters tall Monsterverse version to the 300-meter Godzilla Earth, the Godzilla of this film is far smaller at only 50.1 meters: barely taller than the original 1954 Godzilla. While it does make him more threatening to a human perspective, being just the right size to notice them and target them, fans had a field day poking fun at how he's barely waist-high to the other modern Godzilla incarnations.
  • $15 Million budget^note The fact that this movie, which has a very good plot and special effects for a Kaiju film and has received nearly universal acclaim by critics, was produced with such a low budget (and even more surprising when the director mentioned that this was misinformation and the budget was even lower) is a fact that said critics and Internet commenters keep mentioning with astonishment and sarcasm by comparing it to the American three-figure-budget films that are not as good.
    • "I wish it was that much".^note To the response to the aforementioned above meme, Takashi Yamazaki responded at Tokyo Comic Con 2023 how the film was actually less than $15 million despite the film's good effects, which spawned a meme on several companies inquiring how the movie was made despite its low budget.
  • Oppenheimer and Son/Oppenheimer Minus One ^note  A crossover meme similar to Barbenheimer, in which Oppenheimer and Godzilla are shown together in some form or another. Bonus in that Oppenheimer could be considered Godzilla's biological father since Oppenheimer indirectly gave birth to him through his creation, the Atomic Bomb.
  • Godzilla: Minus Two.^note Godzilla's regenerative capabilities have led to jokes that he could potentially spawn a Minilla of his own.
  • ALL OUR POWERS COMBINED!^note Minus One! Goji has been described as being a mix of several different Godzillas, having the body proportions of Monsterverse, the face of Heisei, the spiky texture of Millennium and the charred keloid scars of Shin.
    • Zilla: Minus One ^note Godzilla's initial form before the nuke has been compared to resembling the 1998 Tristar Godzilla, dubbed "Zilla" by displeased Toho executives upon the film's initial release.
  • "and Godzilla is there." ^Explanationmany joke about the serious tone and messages of the movie by listing them all and then ending it by pointing out this is still a Godzilla movie.
  • Woke Movies ^ExplainationA reactionary thumbnail comparing the movie to "woke" Hollywood by having Godzilla say "I eat woke movies for breakfast" led to pushback memes of taking it literally and portraying "woke movies" as this Godzilla's Trademark Favorite Food.
  • Godzilla vs. shipgirls ^ExplanationGodzilla fighting against a bunch of Japanese navy ships in this movie has led to a lot of crossover fanart of him terrorizing shipgirls from popular Gacha Games, with Takao from Kancolle getting the short end of the stick especially often.
• Narm Charm: When the pre-mutated Godzilla appears in Odo Island, his dorsal fins are noticeably wobbly and rubbery, as opposed to being firmly attached and rigid protrusions on his back. The effect can be a little silly-looking, but at the same time comes off oddly charming, as if in homage to the original Godzilla suits with soft and rubbery dorsal fins.
• Older Than They Think: Several of this film's story ideas and central themes have been previously explored in earlier entries of the franchise:
  • This portrayal of Godzilla's unmutated form, which can be best described as an amphibious theropod dinosaur, was shown in a similar fashion in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah from the Heisei era, which also showed his first appearance in World War II attacking humans out of territorial instinct. The main difference is in the earlier film, he was defending a Japanese garrison from American soldiers (albeit unintentionally), whereas in this film he's attacking the Japanese garrison himself.
    • For that matter, this isn't the first time Godzilla resembled a Tyrannosaurus rex. A jigsaw puzzle company HG Toys made four Godzilla puzzles in 1978, and Godzilla is depicted as resembling a T. rex. The design for an unmade American Godzilla movie in the early 1980s also essentially resembled a Tyrannosaurus with spiky back plates and strongly resembles his initial design in this movie.
  • The film's critical take on the Japanese government and military's actions during World War II and their effect on the crisis caused by Godzilla's attacks were major talking points in both the screenplay of the original movie—adapted into a novelization in 1955—and the Millenium era's Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!, which also presented Godzilla as a vengeful creature attacking people out of malice. Even the film's ending, which had Godzilla being blown apart by his own Atomic Breath, only for his still-living heart being shown starting to regenerate, was lifted almost entirely from the earlier movie.
  • Also from the Millenium era, Koichi's character arc of struggling with survivor's guilt and self-loathing following an attack from Godzilla in which his mistakes led to more deaths is similar to that of Akane Yashiro in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. That film's direct sequel, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., also put a lot of focus on the roles of non-combatant personnel like this film does.
• Out of the Ghetto: The film got nigh universal praise from critics and general audiences, as well as more dedicated kaiju fans, and was an overseas box office hit, due to its compelling human drama, an aspect that the genre has been frequently been criticized for since near its inception for being basically padding to string together the monster destruction scenes. However, the human scenes in Minus One have been considered so genuinely engaging that a number of viewers have gone as far to say that even if Godzilla wasn't in this movie at all, the story would still be excellent (but of course Godzilla being in it makes the story even better).
• Reality Is Unrealistic: If you're unfamiliar with experimental aviation in the 1940s, the Kyushu J7W Shinden, with its prop in the rear and long nose in front of the cockpit, complete with tailfin-like canard, appears to be put together backwards and a work of fantastic imagination, but it was a very real (working prototype) airplane.
• Realism-Induced Horror: In line with the original film's tone, Minus One leans in a lot more on the very real horror of World War II. The first part of the film after Koichi returns home plays out almost like a straight war drama, with Tokyo having been reduced to an apocalyptic Scavenger World not by kaiju, but by conventional American bombs. Even Godzilla's attack on Ginza isn't glossed over: As he uses his atomic breath, the aftermath looks as if Ginza was hit by an actual atomic bomb, complete with black rain.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: It's widely agreed that the effects used to depict Godzilla and the scenes of destruction are absolutely stunning and almost flawless, especially when one takes into account the film's comparatively minuscule budget (the exact number isn't known, but, according to the director, it was much less than 15 million USD), yet it could easily pass for a film with a +100 million dollar budget. This is especially impressive considering the Heisei and Millennium Godzilla movies cost roughly 10 million on average (with Godzilla: Final Wars costing an unmitigated 18 million—little of which is actually onscreen). On January 23, 2024, Godzilla Minus One was announced as a nominee for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards, making it the first Godzilla film nominated for an Oscar and the first Japanese film nominated for visual effects, which it ended up winning.
• The Woobie: Koichi Shikishima. Hoo boy. He’s Kamikaze pilot who abandoned his post and lands on Odo Island. At this time, he gets sympathy, particularly from one mechanic, Saito, as Japan is fighting a pointless war they can't win. When Godzilla appears and attacks the engineers, Tachibana, the lead mechanic, orders Koichi to shoot Godzilla with his plane's machine-gun, though Koichi freezes up in terror—leading to everyone except for Koichi and Tachibana being killed; even Saito, who he was particularly close with according to the novel, is murdered in front of him while calling to him for help. Tachibana blames Koichi for not taking the shot at the monster when he had the chance, and gives him photo mementos of the dead engineers showing that they had families waiting for them, which puts even more guilt on his conscience. When he returns home to Tokyo after it had been ravaged by the fire-bombings, his neighbor Sumiko calls him a disgrace for failing his country and reveals that his parents and her children had died as well from the bombings. After he meets Noriko annd Akiko, his life seems to turn for the better, but he is still plagued by nightmares of Godzilla's attack on Odo Island. And then he finds out that Godzilla has not only mutated, but is heading towards Japan. When Godzilla arrives and destroys Ginza with his Atomic Breath, seemingly killing Noriko in the process, the already traumatized Koichi now has nothing else to live for other than make a safe future for Akiko. But he eventually earns his happy ending when Tachibana tells him to live, and Noriko survives Godzilla's attack on Ginza.

---