In this episode, one of the newest incarnations of Godzilla will enter the analysis platform – which will lay bare all of its abilities, size, strengths and weaknesses studied in great
detail. This isn’t any Godzilla, this is Minus One. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet one of the most destructive and temperamental Godzillas of all time.
This episode will begin by discussing this creature’s physical form throughout the film followed by a section that will discuss its battle methodology and ending with an analysis of this animal’s bizarre biology and most importantly one of the most devastating atomic rays in Godzilla history.
This creature was first seen right at the beginning of the film on Odo Island but not as we saw it in the promotional material, but rather as a smaller individual..it is said to be around 15 meters or close to 50 ft in height. Still relatively huge compared to humans. But in the film it seems to be a lot taller than this depending on the posture. In this sequence Godzilla was in a pre-irradiated form. Meaning that he still had not harnessed full atomic power..yet. Even without this power this Godzilla was still a force to be reckoned with… Initially not extremely
hostile towards humans but once attacked, Godzilla would then proceed to make use of his sharp teeth, powerful jaws, and appendages such as his legs and tail to easily dispatch numerous humans. One thing to note about this “island form” was the fact that it walked with a more hunched posture, close to if not resembling the posture of a theropod.
This posture allowed this pre-irradiated godzilla to reach down and pick up small humans. Additionally, this posture would allow him to move around faster using its tail as a counterweight for aiding in balancing and steering. After Godzilla laid waste to the mechanics crew on Odo Island.. Only Tachibana and the main character Shikishima remained.. Shortly before this massacre Shikishima had the opportunity to shoot at Godzilla’s head at point blank range with a 20mm mounted on his aircraft.. Frozen in shock he was not able to fire on this monster. Would this have saved the lives of these men? Maybe.. For the time being.. But we’d like to think that Godzilla would have survived this.. You’ll see why in a little bit.The attack on Odo Island was covered up by the Japanese government and blamed on American Island-hopping Forces. As to try to keep Godzilla a secret. These characters would not see this animal again in this current form..but would see him again as a much, much larger animal.Why?
Well during a time lapse in the film, it just so happened that this Godzilla got caught up
with a Fission based Nuclear test near the Bikini Atoll Islands in 1946 otherwise known as Operation Crossroads. This caused a few interesting changes in Godzilla. The first being the obvious.. Its gargantuan size compared to how he was back in 1945. Note than in a span of 2 years Godzilla would rapidly increase in height and weight.. And also atomic power. That’s right. Godzilla would now become a walking atomic weapon. The height of this new Godzilla as
it later appeared in 1947 would be a little bit over 50 meters. Another notable difference of this animal is its posture, now this guy is walking upright. But why would this guy’s posture change all of a sudden? Well, differences in posture can be due to many things such as the stress on the skeletal formation due to a much heavier body. Walking awkwardly upright might have been this Godzilla’s way to cope with this much weight.. Now relying on its wider feet but much more on the tail for support distributing this weight on 3 points of contact with the ground instead of just 2. Similar to how some teenagers begin to walk awkwardly due to fast growth spurts and changes to their periphery that happen during highschool. Something more or less similar happened with Godzilla. Our scaly friend here just needed a bit more time to get used to this new large body. But this Godzilla is more than just a large walking force of nature. Up Next we’ll discuss how this animal destroys stuff.
The Larger, much more robust form of this Godzilla still after 2 years of rapid growth and evolution showed signs of remaining true to some of its more agile attacks when it was smaller. One of the most notable melee weapons of this Godzilla was its tail. With most of the centrifugal energy provided by the hips and prehensile to some degree, this weapon showed to be most devastating when swung, literally cutting through buildings like a hot knife through butter. Because it was much heavier and larger, each one of its steps would inflict much more damage than its smaller form. It was estimated that this fella weighed around 20,000 tons. Each of its footsteps would lift segments of the surrounding ground infrastructure, cracking the ground underneath and killing dozens of people with a single step. Additionally we were able to witness Godzilla use his claws and upper body to bring down large structures.. Confirming that this guy could be a brawler if need be. There were no other larger kaiju in this film to further test this animal’s melee abilities but there were other forms of pushback such as ranged weaponry. A bit prior to Godzilla’s landfall during the ocean sequences we witnessed Godzilla use his other two sets of weapons against the heavy cruiser Takao inflicting considerable damage. Its armor was composed of thick bony scales that acted more or less like heavy chainmail. At point blank range however these could penetrate and cause damage.. But it wasn’t enough to kill this animal.
Why? as it turns out the absorption of the fission based bomb during operation crossroads had some other crazy size effects. Instant regeneration. So fast in fact that it is one of the fastest cases of regeneration seen in any Godzilla. A good example of this was how this creature was able to regenerate once one of the mines blew up in its mouth. Revealing one of this creature’s critical weaknesses. The unprotected areas inside its mouth. That’s right.. Any explosion with the ability of releasing powerful pressure waves in this area would be enough to damage and potentially kill this Godzilla.This explosion would have to be extremely potent.. Much more than a mine. Immediately after we see Godzilla’s mouth and head quickly regenerate back to functioning form. Same occurred after the Takao landed a good amount of hits to Godzilla’s upper torso. This regenerative power proves to be quite handy.. Bringing godzilla back to the fight in a matter of moments.This regenerative property can be attributed to the altered or mutated genetics of this Godzilla. Once absorbing all the radiation of this fission bomb, Godzilla’s biology adopted characteristics similar to those of some salamanders. Such as the Axolotls who can regenerate practically every organ in their entire body. Arms, legs and tail? Easy. But once you’re able to regenerate organs such as the heart, lungs, and even parts of your spinal cord and brain.. Things begin to get frighteningly serious. Not that these guys are immortal.. They can die, but the point is that these can survive a larger number of traumatic injuries than your typical vertebrate. Same with this Godzilla, after surviving an explosion inside the mouth.. It would only take a creative mind to kill this thing.. Especially after witnessing this animal’s primary weapon.
No Godzilla analysis is complete without mentioning an atomic charged weapon. It just so happens that this fella displays one of the most devastating forms of atomic breaths ever seen. Formerly referred to as the “heat ray” in the film. This animal is seen to supercharge this weapon by lighting up its dorsal plates from the tail leading up to the head. This frightening display becomes more terrifying as these plates seem to push out wards, as a sort of signifier that this particular plate is fully charged ready for its full power to be released. Once all of these have been fully charged these will then proceed to sink into the creature’s body providing a powerful flux of energy expelled from this creature’s mouth.
This doesn’t end here. This Godzilla’s atomic heat ray will fall on its predetermined target condensing into a ball of energy forming a literal atomic blast. This pushes up a mushroom cloud so tall that it can be seen from hundreds of miles away. But the devastation has still just begun. The shockwave of this blast is able to level down the surrounding infrastructures. Close to 30,000 people perished in Ginza most of which perished due to the atomic blast. Japan after the war was at a state of Zero… This Is where Godzilla put Japan at minus one.
This death toll would possibly be pushed even higher due to what happens after a nuke explodes in a given area. Fallout. What is this stuff? After a nuclear explosion the mushroom cloud carries radioactive particles into the atmosphere. This returns to ground in the form of dust or as tar colored rain. If exposed long enough this could cause radioactive contamination.. Potentially killing anyone who does not wash this stuff away soon. Food and water instantly become inadequate for use and consumption causing the local surviving population to not only be showered with this stuff, but leaving them with nothing to eat or wash themselves with. As bad as this sounds, the truth is that this attack could have been alot worse.
Given that a single well charged blast of this Godzilla can produce an entire nuclear explosion.. What could a few do? Can this Godzilla fire multiple heat rays? The answer would be a frightening yes. In the final act of the film we do find out that Godzilla can shoot multiple heat rays but these do take some time to recharge. This time period is relatively short.
If permitted to shoot .. say 5 blasts.. The aftermath would have been something similar to a nuclear winter in this area. This along with these blasts would have the potential to kill hundreds of thousands.. Potentially millions of civilians.
An animal like this must be stopped. Which is why Kenji Noda, ex naval engineer devised a plan to Kill Godzilla. How would this work? Let’s find out.Killing this animal using conventional methods seemed to be.. Problematic to say the least. This animal survived blasts to the face, inside its mouth, straight to the chest.. And capable of regenerating in record time.. Not to mention pissing it off. So in response the next best thing was to use a method that would inflict damaging pressure from all directions at one time. In this case.. Mr. Noda resorted to using the ocean as a weapon. Let me explain.It is no secret by now that being deep in the ocean without appropriate equipment or craft can result in immediate death. An animal like Godzilla is used to living in deeper waters and as a result is used to these immense pressures. So why doesn’t this kill him? There’s a trick to this. In order to safely thrive in these high pressures, Godzilla would need to descend slowly allowing his body to adjust to these high pressures. But Noda’s plan here was to make him sink, FAST. Using freon gas to make the water around Godzilla less dense, making him sink rapidly. Too fast for this body to adapt, making him get crushed from the surrounding pressure.
Did this work? No. Apparently this Godzilla is resistant to sudden pressure changes. However, His body did feel the effects of the sudden pressure change since we saw his dorsal plates shut down once reaching the depth of 1500 meters. But remember, this animal’s bizarre regeneration ability might have been another reason why he didn’t die. So what now.. Well Noda had a plan B. If this doesn’t work, Bringing Godzilla up really fast might have also done the trick. After being surrounded by high pressures, coming up to lower pressures too fast could also be lethal, causing bubbles to form and blocking the bloodstream causing severe complications. After activating inflatables Godzilla was brought back up to the surface.. And with a bit of help from additional naval craft, Godzilla was brought back up. But he wasn’t dead yet.
Fortunately, Shikishima had a plane loaded with explosives much more powerful than the mine used previously. Flying this plane directly into the Kaiju’s mouth blowing up its head. This act not only seemingly killed Godzilla but also saved the rest of the fleet from being incinerated by an atomic heat ray. So did Godzilla die here? At the end of the film we find out that a portion of Godzilla’s corpse still contained living matter, which allowed it to regenerate once again. Additionally, a survivor of the attack of Ginza, who happened to be Shikishima’s partner, was seen to have a strange formation growing along the side of her neck. Similar in color to the black rain seen earlier. Meaning that this radioactive fallout seen here may have an organic element to it, possibly the culprit behind this woman’s fast recovery.. Since her face seemed a little bit too clean after being exposed to a plethora of flying objects and debris. Those Smaller injuries seem to have healed a bit too fast. What do you think comes next after this? Will minus one come back for revenge? Or will his revenge take form in more… Biological aspect?