Godzilla (disambiguation)

"We call him... Gojira."

- Ishiro Serizawa (Godzilla)

Godzilla ゴジラ (Gojira) is a created by  that first appeared in the 1954 Godzilla, Godzilla.

Name
The name "Godzilla" is a transliteration of Gojira ゴジラ, a combination of two Japanese words: gorira ゴリラ, meaning gorilla, and kujira (鯨 or クジラ), meaning whale. At one planning stage, the concept of "Gojira" was described as "a cross between a gorilla and a whale." The two words "whale" and "gorilla" describe Godzilla's traditional characteristics. The word whale represents his aquatic lifestyle and his bulky size. The word gorilla represents his sheer strength and the strategic thinking he uses when fighting against other monsters.

Since Godzilla is neither a gorilla nor a whale, the name had to be devised in a different way for the original film's story. Godzilla's name was originally spelled in kanji as 呉爾羅 by the Odo Island natives. However, Toho chose these characters for sound only, as the combined characters mean "give you net."

Contrary to popular belief, the name "Godzilla" is not the idea of the American distributor. Before Toho sold the film to US distributors, Toho's international division had originally marketed an English-subtitled print under the title of Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, which was shown briefly in Japanese-American theaters. Toho came up with "Godzilla" as an English transliteration of the name "Gojira"." The Japanese-to-English translation method of the Americans in the 1950's also proved that Godzilla was the correct English translation of Gojira.

Appearance
Godzilla's appearance has changed between films over the years, but many defining details have endured. In the Japanese films, Godzilla is depicted as a gigantic dinosaur-like creature with rough, bumpy, usually charcoal gray scales, a long powerful tail, and generally bone-white, generally shaped like maple leaves, though there are some designs whose traits may differ. His origins vary somewhat from film to film, but he is almost always described as a prehistoric creature, and his first attacks on Japan are linked to the beginning of the Atomic Age. In particular, mutation due to atomic radiation is presented as an explanation for his great size and strange powers. Godzilla's iconic design is composed of a mixture of various species of dinosaurs; specifically, he has the body and overall shape of an old model of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the long arms of an Iguanodon, and the dorsal plates of a Stegosaurus.

Personality
Godzilla, in the original Godzilla, is a creature whose underwater habitat was completely destroyed by a hydrogen bomb test which also killed his family and burned and scarred him. Enraged and driven from his home, Godzilla took out his rage upon humanity, destroying any boats that he encountered and later laying waste to the city of Tokyo. In the subsequent films of the early Showa era, the Heisei era, some of the Millennium era and Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla is an animal with at least semi-sapience that stumbles upon human civilization without any malicious intent, only destroying man-made structures or obstacles like buildings when the humans provoke him, or, when dead-set on arriving at a certain location. In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla is a malicious entity created from the restless souls of the dead from World War II. As the Godzilla series continued into the 1960's and 1970's, the terrifying monster developed as a character, and has since become a savior of the Earth, saving the world from other monsters like King Ghidorah, the Showa MechaGodzilla, Biollante, and Monster X, alone or alongside other monsters like Rodan, Anguirus, and Mothra.

According to Mothra's Shobijin's translation of Mothra, Rodan and Godzilla's conversation in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla only "hates humans because they hate him," suggesting that Godzilla never had any true malicious intent but was only reacting to constantly being attacked by humans. Rodan later agrees with Godzilla's statement.

In Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla's behavior seems to be that of a territorial animal. Ishiro Serizawa theorized that this Godzilla is the driving force to restore balance to nature whenever that balance is disrupted, suggesting that he essentially considers the entire Earth to be his territory. However, unlike previous incarnations, he doesn't blatantly attack or plow through ships at sea simply because they are there. In fact, with larger ships like aircraft carriers, he simply dove down under them. Even when he was attacked by the military, he didn't noticeably react or fight back and simply continued to hunt the M.U.T.O.s, even when he was being followed in close proximity by four naval ships. He also does not seem to intentionally cause destruction. Even when he destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, it did not appear to be intentional, but rather just him reacting from being hit in the gills by missile fire. He shows little interest in humans, instead focusing his attention entirely on the M.U.T.O.s. After defeating both M.U.T.O.s, he leaves the humans alone without any more conflict.

Origins
In the original 1954 Godzilla, it is proposed that Godzilla was a type of prehistoric intermediary reptile related to both land and sea reptiles that slept deep underwater for millions of years feeding on deep sea organisms before being disturbed and enhanced by an American hydrogen bomb test. Dr. Yamane proposes that the original Godzilla might have been living among others of his kind prior to the detonation, but the H-bomb completely destroyed his home and drew him out. This idea is supported by official artwork of the 1954 Godzilla living with other Godzillas underwater before a huge explosion destroys his habitat, killing his companions and burning and enraging Godzilla and drawing him to the surface. After the original Godzilla is killed, Yamane proposes that other Godzillas may have survived to the present day and could be awakened by future nuclear tests. This explains how in the various continuities that encompass the series, multiple individual Godzillas have appeared. In the continuity of the Showa era, a second Godzilla appeared only a year later alongside Anguirus, and proceeded to be featured in the remaining films until Terror of MechaGodzilla.

In the Heisei era, it is theorized that Godzilla was a type of dinosaur called a Godzillasaurus that had survived the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period living on Lagos Island that was mutated by nuclear tests performed on a nearby island called Rongerik in the 1950s. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, the Futurians take the Godzillasaurus away from Lagos Island and place him frozen in the Bering Sea, hoping to prevent his creation, only for him to actually become Godzilla in the first place by being mutated by a nuclear sub crash. Godzilla then is awakened by a volcanic eruption in 1984 and turns his sights on Japan. It is later clarified that the first Godzilla which attacked Tokyo in 1954 was a separate individual from this Godzilla, and still was awakened by the H-bomb test in 1954 and attacked Tokyo before being killed by the Oxygen Destroyer.

In Godzilla: Awakening, the prequel to ' Godzilla, Godzilla was explained to be an ancient life form from the Permian period, having survived various extinction events by consuming geothermal radiation in a hibernation-like state at the bottom of the sea until being awakened in 1954 by a nuclear submarine. Godzilla was theorized by Ishiro Serizawa to have been the alpha predator of his ecosystem, and prevented the other species from overpopulating and overrunning the world, acting as a force of nature that maintained balance.

Showa Series
The Godzilla series began with the Showa series, which ran from 1954 to 1975. Aside from the first fifteen Godzilla films, the Showa series is considered to include various other films produced by, including Rodan and Mothra. The Showa series is characterized by a loose sense of continuity, with most films only referring to the events of the film directly before them, as well as a lighter tone, save for the original Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The Showa series introduced some of Godzilla's most famous monster costars, including Anguirus, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and MechaGodzilla.

Godzilla (1954)
Following an American hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean, a giant prehistoric reptile was disturbed from its underwater slumber and heavily irradiated. The monster began attacking various ships in the waters off Japan, promoting a search party to be sent to Odo Island, where some of the survivors had washed ashore. The islanders believed the shipwrecks were caused by Godzilla, a giant sea monster from their folklore which they believed would come ashore to feed on humanity. One night, a typhoon struck the island, leaving it devastated. However, it was apparent most of the damage was causedby something other than a typhoon, as houses in the village appeared to have been crushed from above. A research team headed by Kyohei Yamane was sent to the island, and discovered a giant radioactive footprint on the island, with a Trilobite embedded in it. Suddenly, the monster that was responsible for the shipwrecks and the damage on the island appeared over a hill on the island. The people fled, realizing the creature was 50 meters in height. Back in Japan, Yamane named the creature "Godzilla" after the monster from Odo Island folklore, and proposed it was an transitional organism from the Jurassic Period, related to both land-living dinosaurs and sea-dwelling reptiles. Yamane believed that Godzilla was exposed to a recent American H-bomb test, hence the radiation found in his footprint, and stressed the monster should be studied to see how he survived to this point. The J.S.D.F. sent battleships to destroy Godzilla with depth charges, declaring him dead. However, Godzilla soon surfaced in Tokyo Bay completely unharmed, plunging Japan and the international community into a state of emergency. One night, Godzilla came ashore in Tokyo, destroying the outskirts of the city before returning to the bay. In response, the J.S.D.F. erected a barrier of power lines around the heart of Tokyo, with 300,000 volts of electricity passing through them, in the hopes they would halt Godzilla. When Godzilla came ashore again one night, he tore through the power lines and melted them with a beam of radioactive heat fired from his mouth. The J.S.D.F. fired on Godzilla with artillery, but their weapons had no effect. Godzilla proceeded into downtown Tokyo, transforming the Japanese capital into a sea of flame overnight. With his rampage concluded, Godzilla returned to the bay, where he was attacked by F86F Sabre fighter jets before finally disappearing beneath the waves.

In the aftermath of Godzilla's raid, Tokyo was an uninhabitable wasteland, burned to a crater and contaminated with deadly radiation. The Japanese government was at a loss in combating the monster and preventing future attacks. Scientist Daisuke Serizawa was approached by his former fiance Emiko Yamane and her boyfriend Hideo Ogata, who asked for him to use his experimental chemical weapon, the Oxygen Destroyer, against Godzilla. Serizawa was horrified by the idea of revealing his invention to the world and refused at first, but was convinced after watching a television program showing Japanese schoolchildren singing a song praying for peace. Serizawa burned his notes on the Oxygen Destroyer and handed it over to the J.S.D.F. A boat was sent to Tokyo Bay, using a Geiger counter to locate Godzilla underwater. Serizawa and Ogata donned diving suits to go underwater and detonate the device. Once they reached Godzilla, who was sitting on the ocean floor, Ogata was pulled to the surface while Serizawa severed his line and activated the device, sacrificing his own life to stop Godzilla and prevent his weapon from ever falling into the wrong hands. After a few moments, Godzilla rose to the surface and roared defiantly at the boat before sinking under the waves to his death. While the people on the boat both celebrated Godzilla's demise and mourned Serizawa's sacrifice, Dr. Yamane solemnly warned that it was unlikely Godzilla was the last member of his species, and that if mankind continued nuclear testing, another Godzilla would almost certainly appear.

Godzilla Raids Again
Less than a year after the first Godzilla's demise, a second one was spotted by pilots Shoichi Tsukioka and Kojikawa Kobayashi on the remote Iwato Island battling the giant ankylosaur monster Anguirus. After a brief clash, Godzilla and Anguirus tumbled into the ocean and disappeared. Tsukioka and Kobayashi told their story to the Japanese authorities, who consulted Dr. Yamane to find a way to stop the monsters. Yamane regretfully stated that with the death of Dr. Serizawa, there was no conceivable way to defeat Godzilla. Yamane suggested that a blackout be enforced on major cities when Godzilla was near, as bright lights reminded him of the nuclear bomb that awakened him and would draw him to the city. When Godzilla appeared in Osaka Bay, the city of Osaka initiated a blackout, while the J.S.D.F. used flares to lure Godzilla back out to sea. Meanwhile, a group of convicts escaped from a prison transport in the city and stole a car, engaging in a high-speed chase with police that ended when their car struck a refinery. The resulting explosion produced a raging fire that lured both Godzilla and Anguirus into the city. The monsters resumed their struggle, reducing the city of Osaka to rubble. When the battle neared Osaka Castle, Godzilla tackled Anguirus into the pagoda. Godzilla then bit down on Anguirus' neck before throwing him into the moat below and setting him ablaze with his atomic breath. His enemy defeated, Godzilla calmly swam back out to sea. Weeks later, Godzilla was believed to be active in the waters off Hokkaido, sinking a fishing boat. Tsukioka saw Godzilla come ashore on an icy island while scouting the waters for fish in his plane, and reported it to the J.S.D.F. Several fighter jets engaged Godzilla on the island, but their weapons had no effect and Godzilla approached the water. Kobayashi arrived in his plane to try and distract Godzilla, only to be shot down and killed by Godzilla's atomic breath. The avalanche of ice caused by the crash inspired the J.S.D.F. to shoot the slopes on the island and try to bury Godzilla in ice. The plan worked, as Godzilla was completely submerged in the ice and finally defeated, at least for the time being.

King Kong vs. Godzilla
Seven years after Godzilla was encased in ice, his icy prison broke off the island and floated out to sea, gradually thawing. The American submarine Seahawk accidentally crashed into the iceberg while in the waters north of Japan, causing it to split open and finally free Godzilla. Godzilla swam to a nearby military base, annihilating the J.S.D.F.'s forces with his atomic breath. Godzilla then approached Hokkaido, attacking a train in the countryside. Godzilla continued on his way, only to eventually encounter the giant ape King Kong. Kong threw boulders at Godzilla, who responded by blasting Kong with his atomic breath, setting the surrounding forests ablaze. Kong, unable to fight back, walked away in defeat. Godzilla continued his rampage, gradually approaching Tokyo. The J.S.D.F. dug a huge pit in the ground, filled it with explosives and then covered it with a net covered in dirt and foliage, hoping to trap Godzilla when he reached it. When Godzilla reached the trap, he fell into the pit, prompting the J.S.D.F. to detonate the charges. Godzilla merely climbed out of the pit unfazed and continued to approach Tokyo.The J.S.D.F. then initiated one last desperate plan to keep Godzilla out of the capital. Tokyo was surrounded by a barrier of high-tension wires, similar to the unsuccessful plan used to try and halt the first Godzilla back in 1954. This time though, the wires carried a charge of one million volts. When Godzilla tried to breach the barrier, he was electrocuted until he turned around and walked away. Godzilla then began to climb Mount Fuji. When King Kong was sedated after climbing the National Diet Building, the J.S.D.F. developed a plan to drop off Kong at Mt. Fuji and force him and Godzilla to fight to the death. Kong was carried to the mountain by balloons and dropped onto Godzilla. The monsters resumed their battle, with Godzilla eventually gaining the upper hand, knocking Kong unconscious and setting him ablaze with his atomic breath. Fortunately for Kong, an electrical storm passed overhead, and Kong was struck by lightning, revitalizing him. Kong viciously fought back against Godzilla, pummeling him with electrified punches. Godzilla and Kong continued fighting until they reached Atami Castle and tackled each other off a cliff into the ocean below. After a brief earthquake, Kong surfaced from the water and began to swim back to his home on Farou Island. The humans who had witnessed the battle were unsure if Godzilla had survived, but speculated it was possible.

Mothra vs. Godzilla
Godzilla was washed ashore and buried underground by a vicious typhoon that struck the coast of Japan. Eventually, Godzilla surfaced and began to rampage, attacking the nearby city of Nagoya. Godzilla destroyed both the Nagoya Tower and Nagoya Castle, then wandered off into the Japanese countryside. The J.S.D.F. engaged Godzilla several times, each time unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, a group of humans traveled to Infant Island to ask for Mothra's help in stopping Godzilla. While the natives and even Mothra's Shobijin refused, the elderly Mothra agreed and flew to Japan. When Godzilla approached the incubator in Japan where Mothra's egg was being held by a corporation, Mothra flew down and attacked him. Mothra put up a desperate fight against Godzilla, but was too frail to continue and collapsed onto her egg and died. Victorious, Godzilla continued his rampage. Building on their successful repulsion of Godzilla two years ago with electrical wires, the J.S.D.F. constructed several giant electrical towers capable of blasting Godzilla with extremely high voltages of electricity. To further increase the effectiveness of the attack, helicopters dropped a wire net onto Godzilla, which conducted the charge across his entire body. However, the electrical towers overheated and exploded, allowing Godzilla to regain his footing and eradicate the J.S.D.F.'s forces. Godzilla then approached Iwa Island, where a group of schoolchildren and their teacher were stranded. Thankfully, Mothra's egg hatched and her twin larvae followed Godzilla to the island. There, they managed to trap Godzilla in silk and cause him to fall over a cliff into the water below. Godzilla then disappeared underwater.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
After destroying a cruise ship with his atomic breath, Godzilla came ashore in Japan, where he encountered Rodan, who had escaped from the crater of Mount Aso. Godzilla and Rodan attacked each other, engaging in a protracted battle for several days that eventually reached Mount Fuji. Meanwhile, the space monster known as King Ghidorah arrived in Japan in a meteor and began attacking the nation's major cities. The Shobijin contacted the surviving Mothra larva, who traveled to Mt. Fuji to try and recruit Godzilla and Rodan to help her stop King Ghidorah. When the monsters would not stop fighting, Mothra got their attention by spraying them with silk until they stopped. The monsters reluctantly decided to hear Mothra out, but refused to help, claiming they had no reason to help her. Mothra told them the Earth belonged to all creatures and that they faced a common threat, but Godzilla claimed he had no willingness to help humanity, as they constantly attacked him. Rodan even agreed with this sentiment. Dejected, Mothra tried to fight King Ghidorah on her own, but was brutally outmatched. Inspired by the larva's courage, Godzilla and Rodan entered the battle against King Ghidorah. Together, the three monsters were able to force King Ghidorah to retreat back to space. Godzilla and Rodan then watched Mothra swim back to Infant Island.

Invasion of Astro-Monster
Upon arriving on the newly-discovered Planet X, astronauts Glenn and Fuji encountered a race of sapient aliens known as the Xiliens and their leader, the Controller of Planet X. The Controller revealed that Planet X was being terrorized by King Ghidorah, whom the Xiliens called "Monster Zero." The Controller told the astronauts if they would allow the Xiliens to "borrow" Godzilla and Rodan in order to fight King Ghidorah, the Xiliens would provide mankind with a cure for cancer. While Earth's leaders discussed the offer, the Xiliens secretly arrived on Earth and located Godzilla sleeping under Lake Myojin and Rodan roosting in the side of a mountain. When the Xiliens revealed themselves, they used their flying saucers to transport Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X, accompanied by Glenn, Fuji, and their superior officer Dr. Sakurai. On Planet X, they witnessed Godzilla and Rodan fight and defeat King Ghidorah. The Controller gave the three humans a tape he claimed held the cure and sent them back to Earth. Back on Earth, it was revealed the tape was actually an ultimatum from the Xiliens demanding Earth's surrender, or else the now mind-controlled Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah would be set loose on Earth. When humanity would not give in, all three monsters were set loose. Thankfully, Fuji developed a way to sever the Xiliens' mind control, freeing the monsters. The Xiliens' forces were quickly defeated by the J.S.D.F., leaving only the monsters. Godzilla and Rodan teamed up against King Ghidorah once more, eventually falling off a cliff with him into the water. King Ghidorah retreated back to space, while Godzilla and Rodan vanished. However, witnesses were certain neither monster had died.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
Godzilla was discovered sleeping in a cave on Letchi Island by a group of people hiding from the island's resident terrorist group, the Red Bamboo. When several members of the group were either captured or disappeared, the remaining people decided to awaken Godzilla by attaching a sword to copper wire during a storm and placing the wire on Godzilla. When the sword was hit by lightning, Godzilla woke up and broke free of the cavern. Godzilla tried to return to the sea, he was attacked by Ebirah, a giant lobster that guarded the waters of the island. Godzilla and Ebirah threw rocks at each other for a while, then Godzilla entered the water to fight Ebirah hand-to-hand. After an underwater clash, Godzilla forced Ebirah to retreat. Godzilla returned to the shore and took up refuge on a mountain. There, he was attacked by a Giant Condor, which he killed with a single blast of his atomic breath. Godzilla was then attacked by a fleet of Red Bamboo fighter jets, which he destroyed easily. Godzilla then retaliated by assaulting the Red Bamboo's base on the island, unwittingly activating a nuclear bomb in the base that would explode and destroy the island. Godzilla approached the ocean once again, but was again confronted by Ebirah. The monsters battled again, with Godzilla virtually boiling Ebirah alive by blasting the water with his atomic breath. Godzilla then tore off both of Ebirah's claws and taunted him, forcing the giant lobster to swim away in defeat. Godzilla then witnessed Mothra fly overhead and went back ashore to challenge her. Mothra had actually come to save the Infant Islanders being enslaved by the Red Bamboo, and knocked Godzilla aside with her wing in order to rescue them before the bomb could go off. As the survivors were airlifted away, they called out to Godzilla warning him to leave the island. Godzilla watched Mothra fly away, and then dove into the ocean just as Letchi Island was consumed by a nuclear explosion, much to everyone's relief.

Son of Godzilla
Godzilla was summoned to Solgell Island after detecting a distress call from another member of his species. When he arrived, he found three giant mantises called Kamacuras attacking a prematurely hatched infant Godzilla, dubbed Minilla. Godzilla killed two of the Kamacuras and saved Minilla, who began to follow him. Godzilla begrudgingly allowed Minilla to ride on his tail, and the two of them traveled to the interior of the island. Godzilla took up residence next to a lake of boiling red water, where he began to raise Minilla as his son and train him to take up his mantle. Godzilla demonstrated to Minilla how to use his atomic breath, but Minilla was only able to fire a pitiful smoke ring. Godzilla stepped on Minilla's tail, which caused him to fire an atomic beam. Minilla shrieked excitedly, and Godzilla gave him a congratulatory pat on the head. When Godzilla was sleeping, Minilla jumped over his tail several times, eventually tripping over him. Godzilla looked up at Minilla, who stared guiltily at him until he fell back asleep. Bored, Minilla wandered off only to be confronted by the giant spider Kumonga. Kumonga trapped Minilla and a Kamacuras, which he killed by injecting it with poison. Before Kumonga could do the same to Minilla, Godzilla arrived to save his son. Godzilla battled Kumonga while a team of United Nations scientists on the island activated a weather-controlling device intended to freeze the island and allow them to escape the monsters. As snow began to fall on the island, Kumonga trapped Godzilla in its web and prepared to finish him. Thankfully, Minilla used his atomic breath to attack Kumonga. Godzilla recovered and the two monsters used their atomic breath in unison to set Kumonga ablaze. Godzilla then approached the ocean to get off the island before it froze over. Minilla fell in the snow and began to cry out as he started to fall asleep. Rather than abandon his son, Godzilla went back and embraced him in the snow, as they both went into hibernation together.

Destroy All Monsters
By the end of the 20th century, Godzilla and all of Earth's other were living together on the human-monitored Monsterland, located in the Ogasawara Islands. A sinister alien force called the Kilaaks invaded the island, brainwashing the island's staff along with the monsters and setting them loose all over the globe. Godzilla surfaced in New York, where he attacked the United Nations building. As humanity struggled to find a way to sever the Kilaaks' mind control, Godzilla, Rodan, Manda and Mothra all assaulted Tokyo at once. The monsters could not be stopped by military might, and Tokyo was reduced to rubble. Godzilla and the other monsters were then recalled to the Mount Fuji area to guard the Kilaaks' base. Fortunately, the crew of the Moonlight SY-3 assaulted the Kilaaks' base on the moon and destroyed their mind control device. Godzilla then led his fellow Earth monsters to attack the Kilaaks' base at Mt. Fuji. The Kilaaks revealed their trump card though, in the form of King Ghidorah. King Ghidorah attacked Godzilla and the Earth monsters, but was no match for the combined might of Godzilla, Minilla, Anguirus, and Gorosaurus. Gorosaurus delivered a punishing kangaroo-kick to Ghidorah's back, while Godzilla stomped his heads into the dust. Minilla then choked off King Ghidorah's last head with a smoke ring, leaving the space monster lying limp on the ground. Mothra and Kumonga then covered King Ghidorah's motionless body in webbing. The Kilaaks then unleashed a flaming UFO dubbed the "Fire Dragon," which was eventually shot down by the SY-3. Godzilla discovered the Kilaaks' base and destroyed it, causing a fissure to open in the ground, into which King Ghidorah's body fell. With the Earth finally saved, Godzilla and his fellow monsters were relocated back to Monsterland to live out their days in peace.

All Monsters Attack
Godzilla appeared in the dreams of the young boy Ichiro Miki when he dreamed about visiting Monster Island. In his dreams, Ichiro met Minilla, and the two of them watched Godzilla battle Kamacuras, Ebirah, Kumonga and a giant eagle. Godzilla then called for Minilla and attempted to teach him how to fight for himself. When Minilla proved unable to fire atomic breath, only a weak ring of smoke, Godzilla stomped on his tail, causing him to fire a powerful beam. Minilla returned to Ichiro and the two of them formulated a plan to defeat Gabara, a giant monster who constantly bullied Minilla. They created a giant teeter-totter trap that launched Gabara into the air, leaving him apparently unconscious. Godzilla congratulated his son, only for Gabara to attack Godzilla in retaliation. Godzilla became enraged and mercilessly beat up Gabara until the monster ran away.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Godzilla was attracted by the presence of Hedorah, a monster composed of pollution, and attacked him at a port while the latter was trying to feed on a smokestack. Godzilla was able to overpower Hedorah, and forced him to retreat to the ocean. Godzilla then followed after Hedorah. When Hedorah appeared on land in broad daylight in a new flying form, Godzilla attacked him near a refinery. However, the sulfuric mist given off by Hedorah's flying form caused Godzilla to collapse and gasp for air, allowing the smog monster to fly away. Hedorah later arrived at the summit of Mount Fuji in his gigantic final form, with Godzilla in hot pursuit. Godzilla battled Hedorah, but was gruesomely wounded, losing an eye and having his hand eaten down to the bone by Hedorah's acidic blood. Godzilla fell into a pit, where Hedorah dumped a huge amount of sludge onto him. Hedorah was lured away by the J.S.D.F., who had created a Giant Electrode to dry him out. When the electrode failed to function, Godzilla got back up and activated it with his atomic breath, drying Hedorah into a husk. Godzilla tore into Hedorah and removed two white orbs, then dried them out with the electrode. As Godzilla walked away, he hit Hedorah's husk with his tail, only for it to split open and release a second Hedorah, which flew away. Godzilla used his atomic breath to propel himself into the air and chase after Hedorah, eventually colliding with him in midair and tackling him to the ground. Godzilla subdued Hedorah and brought him back to the electrode, drying him out again. This time, Godzilla tore Hedorah into pieces, then dried them all individually until Hedorah was nothing but dust. Godzilla then looked at the J.S.D.F. for a moment before walking down the mountain into the ocean and swimming away.

Godzilla vs. Gigan
While sleeping on Monster Island, Godzilla overheard the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens' "action tape" being played, alerting him to their nefarious plans to conquer the Earth. Godzilla told his friend Anguirus to travel to Japan to investigate the Nebulans' activities. When Anguirus was repelled from Japan by the J.S.D.F., who were unaware of his intentions, and returned to Monster Island, Godzilla joined him and the two of them swam to Japan. When they reached the outskirts of Tokyo, the Nebulans had already unleashed their two monster pawns, Godzilla's arch-enemy King Ghidorah and the cyborg Gigan. Godzilla and Anguirus engaged the space monsters in battle, with their struggle reaching to construction site of the World Children's Land, the secret base of the Nebulans' operations. The Nebulans' activated their Godzilla Tower, which fired a laser beam at Godzilla. Godzilla was unable to withstand the brutal onslaught of both the tower and Gigan and was seemingly knocked down for the count. Anguirus tried to take on Gigan and King Ghidorah by himself, but was overwhelmed. When Godzilla got back to his feet, his vision was blurry and he stumbled into the Godzilla Tower, which was already damaged by a TNT explosion, completely destroying it. Godzilla regrouped with Anguirus while Gigan and King Ghidorah tried to regain their composure after they ceased receiving commands from their alien overlords. Godzilla and Anguirus attacked their foes again, eventually forcing Gigan to retreat. Godzilla and Anguirus then double-teamed King Ghidorah, who retreated back to space shortly after. With the planet safe from alien invaders once again, Godzilla and Anguirus began swimming back to Monster Island.

Godzilla vs. Megalon
Following a nuclear test in the Pacific Ocean, violent tremors spread across the Pacific islands, eventually reaching Monster Island and tearing it apart. During the earthquake, Anguirus tumbled into an underground fissure, while Godzilla found himself surrounded by growing fissures releasing volcanic gases. After the tremors had ceased, Godzilla was approached by the robot Jet Jaguar, who warned him that the giant monster Megalon was attacking Japan. Godzilla left the island and swam toward Japan, while Jet Jaguar grew to size to occupy Megalon until Godzilla arrived. Unfortunately, Megalon's masters, the Seatopians, contacted the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens and borrowed their monster Gigan to assist him. Jet Jaguar found himself overwhelmed by the duo of Gigan and Megalon, until Godzilla finally arrived. After a lengthy battle, Gigan retreated as he had done a year before, leaving Megalon at the mercy of Godzilla and his robot ally. Jet Jaguar held Megalon still as Godzilla delivered a punishing kick to his chest after sliding on his tail. Firmly beaten, Megalon burrowed back underground to Seatopia, leaving the surface world safe. Godzilla shook hands with Jet Jaguar, then swam back to Monster Island.

Zone Fighter
Godzilla would be called upon several times by the Sakimori family to assist them and the hero Zone Fighter against various monsters sent by the Garogas to conquer the Earth, including Gigan. Godzilla gradually developed a friendship with Zone Fighter and the Sakimori family, who came to know him as the "Monster of Justice."

Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla
After Godzilla emerged from Mount Fuji and wreaked havoc across the countryside and broke Anguirus' jaw, it appeared he had returned to his villainous ways. When Godzilla reached Tokyo and began destroying it, another Godzilla appeared from underneath a building. This second Godzilla fired his atomic breath at the other one, revealing it as a robotic impostor. The robot, MechaGodzilla, burned off the rest of its disguise and revealed its full arsenal of weapons. Godzilla fired his atomic breath at MechaGodzilla, which countered with its eye-mounted laser beams. The monsters' beams locked and exploded, sending Godzilla crashing into Tokyo Bay, with his blood welling to the surface. MechaGodzilla was damaged as well, and returned to the base of his alien masters, the Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens, in Okinawa. Godzilla came ashore on an island (possibly Monster Island) to recover, where he was struck repeatedly by lightning. However, the lightning had an unforeseen side effect, allowing Godzilla to harness magnetic forces. Godzilla then swam to Okinawa to engage his robotic counterpart in battle once again. When Godzilla arrived, MechaGodzilla was battling the Okinawan guardian beast King Caesar. Godzilla joined forces with King Caesar, and with his help was able to overwhelm MechaGodzilla and force it to retreat. As MechaGodzilla flew away, Godzilla activated his new magnetic powers and drew MechaGodzilla toward him. Godzilla held MechaGodzilla still from behind, as King Caesar repeatedly slammed into the machine. Godzilla then grabbed MechaGodzilla's head and twisted it until its entire upper torso was torn from the rest of its body. Meanwhile, a group of humans infiltrated the aliens' base and destroyed it, triggering a self-destruct sequence that also detonated MechaGodzilla, sending Godzilla tumbling into the ocean below along with MechaGodzilla's wreckage. Godzilla surfaced and began to swim away, as King Caesar returned to his slumber in the side of a cliff.

Terror of MechaGodzilla
When the mad Dr. Mafune unleashed the monster Titanosaurus in Tokyo, Godzilla arrived to challenge him. Godzilla briefly fought Titanosaurus until the monster abruptly retreated, confusing Godzilla. Godzilla later returned to fight Titanosaurus and the rebuilt MechaGodzilla, who were under the control of the Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens and had just obliterated most of Tokyo. Godzilla fought valiantly, but was no match for the combined might of both monsters. After Titanosaurus had pummeled Godzilla, MechaGodzilla blasted him with its finger missiles, knocking him unconscious. Titanosaurus kicked Godzilla into a ravine, while MechaGodzilla used its missiles to bury him alive. The J.S.D.F. used a sonic oscillator to distract Titanosaurus, allowing Godzilla to emerge from underground and focus his attention on MechaGodzilla. MechaGodzilla unleashed its full payload of weapons against Godzilla, but Godzilla eventually reached his mechanical doppelganger and tore its head off once again. This time though, MechaGodzilla was not destroyed and was still able to fire a powerful laser beam from the mechanical "brain" atop its neck. Meanwhile, Katsura Mafune, who had MechaGodzilla's controller installed inside of her, broke free of the mind-control the aliens had placed over her and shot and killed herself to stop MechaGodzilla. With MechaGodzilla immobile, Godzilla grabbed his robot double and threw it into the same ravine where he had been buried earlier, then blasted it with his atomic breath, causing MechaGodzilla to explode, destroyed for good. Godzilla then turned his attention to Titanosaurus, easily overpowering him. The aliens' leader, Mugal, and his remaining underlings tried to flee in their UFOs, but Godzilla saw them escaping and destroyed them with his atomic breath. Godzilla then blasted Titanosaurus in the chest with his atomic breath, sending him falling over a cliff into the sea below. Godzilla waded back out to sea and swam away, victorious.

The Godzilla Power Hour
Godzilla made his American series debut with Hanna-Barbera's Godzilla, where he traveled alongside the Calico crew, with Godzooky, fighting many different monsters from 1978 to 1980. He was voiced by Ted Cassidy.

This Godzilla stands out from all the other Godzilla incarnations as he is completely green. The first three dorsal plates running down his back are unlike those in any Godzilla, but from the fourth downwards are similar to Godzilla's trademark maple leaf-shaped dorsal plates. Another notable thing is how his arms are very flexible, like late Showa Godzilla's, whose arm flexibility was human-like and different from the Godzillas of the rest of the franchise. Also, this Godzilla breathed actual fire, just like the Godzilla depicted in Marvel Comics, though unlike all other Godzillas. This Godzilla also had the ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes,

Heisei Series
The Heisei series marked Godzilla's return after a decade's absence, as well as a transition between the reign of the Showa Emperor Hirohito to that of his son Akihito, now dubbed the Heisei Emperor. After several failed attempts to revive the Godzilla series, Toho finally produced the sixteenth entry in the franchise, The Return of Godzilla, in 1984. The Return of Godzilla was a reboot to the series, ignoring all previous films except for the original 1954 film. Despite being released during the Showa era (as the Heisei era did not begin until 1989), The Return of Godzilla is considered the first entry of the Heisei series, due to sharing continuity with all of the films in the Heisei series which succeeded it and due to the nine-year gap between it and the last Showa film, Terror of MechaGodzilla. The Heisei series lasted for seven films and ended with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995.

The Return of Godzilla
After a volcanic eruption at Daikoku Island, the Japanese fishing vessel Yahata-Maru came face-to-face with a giant monster at sea that destroyed the ship and killed most of the crew, the rest of whom were killed by a parasite that fell off the monster. The lone survivor of the crew, Hiroshi Okumura, was rescued by reporter Goro Maki and brought back to Japan, where he was interviewed by scientist Doctor Hayashida, who showed Okumura photographs of Godzilla's rampage from 1954. After viewing the photographs, Okumura confirmed that the monster he saw was in fact Godzilla. In order to prevent a panic from breaking out, the Japanese government kept Godzilla's return hidden from the public. Meanwhile, Godzilla encountered a Soviet nuclear submarine in the waters off Japan and attacked it, causing the Soviets to believe the Americans were responsible. In order to prevent a nuclear war between the two superpowers, the Japanese government revealed to the world that Godzilla had returned. Both the Americans and Soviets demanded that they be allowed to use their nuclear weapons against Godzilla, but the Japanese government denied their requests. The Soviets secretly placed the controls for a nuclear attack sattelite in a cargo ship called the Balashevo in Tokyo Bay should the need to use it arise. One night, Godzilla surfaced at Mihama and attacked the nuclear power plant there, as Dr. Hayashida knew that Godzilla fed on radiation. While feeding on the reactor, Godzilla suddenly left and followed a flock of birds out to sea. Hayashida realized that Godzilla, being related to dinosaurs, shared a part of his brain with birds, and like birds used magnetic patterns in the atmosphere to navigate. Hayashida began work on a magnetic wave transmitter to try and use it to lure Godzilla into Mount Mihara on Izu Oshima and imprison him.

Before Hayashida's plan could be completed, Godzilla appeared in Tokyo Bay. The J.S.D.F. scrambled and lined up on the coast to try and stop him. Godzilla simply annihilated the soldiers on the shore with his atomic breath and climbed onto land. Godzilla made his way through Tokyo, eventually passing by Hayashida's laboratory. Hayashida activated his transmitter, which made Godzilla pause. Just then, the J.S.D.F.'s Hyper Laser Cannons opened fire on Godzilla, causing him to react and damage the building. Godzilla followed the Hyper Laser Cannons to Shinjuku, where the Super X, a craft designed in secret by Japan to defend the country against nuclear attacks, was sent to engage him. The Super X used its flares to distract Godzilla, then fired its cadmium shells down his throat as he roared. The cadmium slowed the nuclear reactions in Godzilla's body, causing his heart to stop and him to collapse against a skyscraper. The J.S.D.F. believed Godzilla was dead, but Hayashida assured his assistant Naoko Okumura and Maki that Godzilla was still alive. Hiroshi Okumura arrived in a helicopter and airlifted Hayashida and his device to Oshima, while Naoko and Maki were left behind and had to escape the building themselves. Meanwhile, the Soviets' nuclear satellite had been accidentally triggered when Godzilla destroyed the Balashevo and a nuclear missile was headed straight for the heart of Tokyo. Fortunately, the Soviets warned the Japanese that the missile had been fired, giving the Americans enough time to shoot it down in the skies far above Tokyo. However, the radiation showered down onto Godzilla, reviving him. Godzilla reengaged the Super X, shooting it down with his atomic breath and toppling a skyscraper onto it. Godzilla continued his rampage, until Hayashida activated the device on Oshima, causing Godzilla to leave Tokyo and swim there. Godzilla came ashore on the island and climbed to the summit of Mt. Mihara. When Godzilla had reached the summit, explosive charges on the volcano were detonated, triggering a controlled eruption and sending Godzilla plummeting into the crater below, where he was finally imprisoned.

Godzilla vs. Biollante
Over five years after being imprisoned inside Mount Mihara, Godzilla began to stir within the volcano's crater. The J.S.D.F.'s anti-Godzilla unit, headed by Colonel Goro Gondo and Major Sho Kuroki, was placed on high alert, while the government began work on a weapon called the Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB). This bacteria, engineered from genes within Godzilla's own cells, was designed to consume the radioactivity inside Godzilla's body and weaken and ultimately kill him. In order to engineer this bacteria, the government sought the help of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who accepted for the sole purpose of acquiring a sample of Godzilla cells, which he spliced with a rose containing the cells of his dead daughter Erika, hoping to keep it alive forever. When the terrorist group Bio-Major learned that Japan had engineered the ANEB, their agent John Lee placed explosives on Mt. Mihara and demanded that the ANEB be handed over to him, or else Godzilla would be released. Gondo and scientist Kazuhito Kirishima were sent to make the exchange, but it was sabotaged by the Saradian agent SSS9, who killed Lee and stole the ANEB. The charged exploded, and Godzilla was released once again. As Godzilla swam toward the Japanese mainland, the J.S.D.F. scrambled the Super X2, a new warcraft built from the remnants of the Super X, to engage him in the ocean. The craft held its own against Godzilla, but the heat of his atomic breath caused the Super X2's fire mirror to overheat and forced it to retreat. Godzilla made his way to Lake Ashi, where the result of Shiragami splicing Godzilla's cells with the rose, the creature Biollante, had taken root. Godzilla stared at the strange creature, which panicked and began to attack him. Biollante wrapped her vines around Godzilla, pulling him underwater. Godzilla surfaced and immediately retaliated by blasting Biollante with his atomic breath, causing her to hemorrhage and erupt in flames. Biollante broke apart into spores of energy and floated into space, as Godzilla returned to the ocean.

Running low on nuclear energy, Godzilla began to search for a nearby nuclear plant. The J.S.D.F. expected Godzilla to surface at Iso Bay, where the nearest nuclear plant was, and lined up their defenses there. However, Godzilla unexpectedly surfaced at Osaka Bay instead, leaving the city of Osaka defenseless. The J.S.D.F. rushed to evacuate the city and send its units there. Gondo and Kirishima managed to recover the ANEB from the Saradia Oil Corporation office in Osaka, and Gondo quickly assembled a commando team with rockets loaded with the ANEB. Gondo and his men took point inside skyscrapers in the city center while Kuroki remotely piloted the Super X2 to distract Godzilla. Godzilla destroyed the Super X2 and made his way to the city center, where he was successfully injected with the ANEB rockets. Godzilla approached the building where Gondo was and roared, with Gondo firing a rocket straight into his mouth and mocking him. Godzilla retaliated by destroying the building and killing Gondo. The next day, Godzilla was showing no visible signs of being affected by the ANEB. Kirishima concluded that Godzilla's body temperature was too low for the ANEB to take effect, and proposed a plan to raise it. The J.S.D.F. organized an assault with multiple MBT-92 Maser Cannons and the experimental M6000 T.C. System at Wakasa Bay. When Godzilla arrived, the onslaught of Maser beams and artificial lightning raised his temperature, causing him to weaken. Just then, Biollante's spores rained from the sky and traveled underground. Biollante emerged from underground in her colossal final form, wiping out all of the J.S.D.F.'s units and attacking Godzilla. Both monsters seriously wounded each other, but Biollante's corrosive sap spray raised Godzilla's body temperature even more and he became severely weakened. Godzilla tried to walk back to the sea, but collapsed headfirst into the water. Biollante then broke apart into energy spores again and floated back to space. The water washing over Godzilla caused his temperature to lower, and he regained enough strength to wade back out to sea and disappear beneath the waves.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
The ANEB caused Godzilla to remain dormant underwater in the Sea of Japan for two years. The J.S.D.F. closely monitored Godzilla, but it appeared he was too weak to ever leave the water. One day, a group of time-travelers from the year 2204 arrived in their ship MOTHER and asked for an audience with the Japanese government. They claimed that Godzilla would return in the near future and completely destroy Japan, leaving it an uninhabitable wasteland by the 23rd century. They also claimed to know a way to prevent this future, by erasing Godzilla from history itself. They cited a book titled The Birth of Godzilla by Kenichiro Terasawa, which offered the theory that Godzilla was once a dinosaur living on Lagos Island in the Marshall Islands, which was exposed to the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test conducted at nearby Bikini Atoll in 1954 and subsequently transformed into Godzilla. They said they believed this theory was likely correct, and that they could travel back to 1944, when the dinosaur was seen by a Japanese garrison during a World War II battle on the island, and teleport it away. The Futurians sent their member Emmy Kano, their android M11, and a group of selected individuals from present-day Japan back to Lagos Island in 1944 in the ship KIDS. Once they arrived, they witnessed the battle between Japanese and American forces, where the Godzillasaurus appeared and fought off the Americans. The dinosaur was injured by American artillery and appeared to be left to die by the Japanese garrison. Emmy and M11 used KIDS to teleport the Godzillasaurus to the Bering Sea, where they believed it would die, far away from nuclear testing. In the dinosaur's place, Emmy secretly left behind three genetically-engineered creatures called Dorats. When KIDS returned to the present, Wilson, the Futurians' leader, reported Godzilla had vanished from the Sea of Japan, making the mission an apparent success.

However, a new threat had appeared, in the form of the giant three-headed dragon called King Ghidorah, which had seemingly taken Godzilla's place and was terrorizing Japan. Terasawa and the others learned that the Futurians had double-crossed them, using the Castle Bravo test to transform the Dorats into King Ghidorah and attempting to remove Godzilla from history so he could not defend them. The Futurians demanded that Japan surrender to them, so they could rebuild the country and prevent it from becoming a corrupt superpower in the future. Miki Saegusa, a psychic who was an expert on Godzilla, remarked that she could still sense Godzilla moving somewhere in the ocean. Terasawa and Emmy, who had defected from the Futurians after learning their true plan, remarked it was strange that Miki still sensed Godzilla and that they all still remembered him. Emmy suggested it was possible Godzilla was created through some method other than the Castle Bravo test. The Japanese government meanwhile, believing Godzilla was the only defense against King Ghidorah and that the Godzillasaurus was still dormant in the Bering Sea, sent a nuclear submarine to transform it into a new Godzilla. Terasawa, after learning that Godzilla was never erased from history and was actually mutated by a nuclear submarine crash in the Bering Sea in the 1970's, tried to warn them against the plan, but was too late. The submarine encountered Godzilla en route to the Bering Sea, who fed on the sub, curing his ANEB infection and causing him to grow from 80 to 100 meters in height. Godzilla came ashore in Hokkaido, prompting the Futurians to send King Ghidorah against him. Godzilla fought King Ghidorah, who eventually gained the upper hand and began to strangle him with his necks. Terasawa, Emmy and the reprogrammed M11 mounted an assault on MOTHER, destroying the computer controlling King Ghidorah and allowing Godzilla to take the upper hand and sever King Ghidorah's middle head with his spiral heat ray. Emmy then used KIDS to teleport MOTHER in front of Godzilla before it could time-warp back to 2204. Godzilla blasted the ship with his atomic breath, killing Wilson and his assistant Grenchko and ending their scheme. King Ghidorah tried to fly away, but Godzilla blasted out his wings and sent him plummeting into the ocean below.

Revitalized and more powerful than ever, Godzilla began a rampage across Japan, making his way through Hokkaido and reaching Sapporo. After destroying the Sapporo Tower, Godzilla was engaged by two MBT-92 Maser Cannons, which he destroyed with his atomic breath. As Godzilla approached Tokyo, Emmy formed a desperate plan: she would travel to 2204 and recover King Ghidorah's preserved corpse, then use the advanced technology of her time to transform him into a cyborg. Emmy and M11 returned to 2204, as Godzilla reached Tokyo. After Godzilla had leveled much of the city and reached its heart, Mecha-King Ghidorah appeared in the sky and descended. Godzilla battled Mecha-King Ghidorah, but his enemy's upgrades gave it an advantage over him. Mecha-King Ghidorah used its electrical capture cables and machine hand to restrain Godzilla and carried him out over the open ocean. Godzilla blasted out Mecha-King Ghidorah's wings, sending them both crashing into the sea. Thankfully, Emmy escaped the mech inside of KIDS, and returned to the future. Meanwhile on the ocean floor, Godzilla regained consciousness and roared angrily.

Godzilla vs. Mothra
When a large meteor crashed in the Pacific Ocean, it awakened both Godzilla and another dangerous creature, the dark divine moth known as Battra. Godzilla appeared when a group of people working for the Japanese government were attempting to carry Mothra's egg from Infant Island to Japan. Godzilla attacked the barge carrying the egg, forcing it to hatch into a larva. Mothra fought Godzilla in the ocean, until Battra arrived as well, knocking Mothra into the air and dragging Godzilla to the ocean floor. As Godzilla and Battra fought underwater, a huge volcanic fault opened beneath them and both were pulled into the magma below. Both monsters were believed dead, but they had actually survived and simply swum through the magma. Godzilla emerged from the crater of Mount Fuji, and made his way toward Yokohama. The J.S.D.F. deployed a squadron of Maser Cannons, including MBT-92s as well as the new MBAW-93 models and the ASTOL-MB93 Maser attack aircraft, to try and stop Godzilla before he could reach the city. Godzilla made short work of the J.S.D.F.'s forces and reached the Minato Mirai 21 district of Yokohama, where the imago Mothra and Battra were fighting. Battra knocked Mothra aside and attacked Godzilla, who easily overpowered the moth and knocked him to the ground. Before Godzilla could kill Battra, Mothra intervened and saved him. Mothra and Battra communicated and ultimately decided to join forces against Godzilla. Mothra used her reflective scales to trap Godzilla in a 3D mirror, but he retaliated by sending Mothra flying with a nuclear pulse. Mothra fell near the Cosmo Clock 21, which began to collapse onto her before Battra caught it and threw it at Godzilla. Both moths assaulted Godzilla, with Mothra using her scales to trap Battra's prism beams within a 3D mirror, allowing them to hit Godzilla multiple times. Mothra and Battra's onslaught proved too much for Godzilla, and he was subdued. Mothra and Battra began to carry Godzilla out to sea, but Godzilla bit into Battra's throat and then fired his atomic breath into the wound, killing him. With Battra dead, Mothra was unable to carry Godzilla any further, and dropped both Godzilla and Battra's lifeless corpse into the ocean. She then created a glyph from glowing scales to commemorate the fallen Battra.

Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2
Godzilla appeared at remote Adonoa Island, where a group of Japanese scientists had discovered an intact prehistoric egg and were under attack by the mutant Pteranodon Rodan. Godzilla came ashore on the island and attacked Rodan, buying time for the scientists to escape with the egg. Rodan knocked a mountain onto Godzilla, burying him in rubble. Godzilla broke free and hit Rodan with his tail several times. Rodan flew into Godzilla and knocked him onto his back, then tried to dive-bomb him. Godzilla grabbed Rodan by the throat and choked him before throwing him and blasting him with his atomic breath, leaving him seemingly dead. Godzilla returned to the sea, following the scientists and the egg back to Japan. The egg was brought to an institute in Kyoto, where it hatched into a baby Godzillasaurus, which the scientist it imprinted on, Azusa Gojo, named Baby Godzilla. Godzilla came ashore on the coast of Japan and began making a beeline for Kyoto, intent on recovering the hatchling and raising it as his own. G-Force, a military task force formed by the United Nations to fight Godzilla, sent their newest weapon, MechaGodzilla, to stop him. MechaGodzilla engaged Godzilla in the countryside, overwhelming him with its impressive arsenal of weapons. After MechaGodzilla knocked Godzilla to the ground with its plasma grenade, it fired its shock anchor cables into Godzilla, electrocuting him. Godzilla managed to reverse the electrical current, causing MechaGodzilla to short-circuit and fall. Godzilla got up and continued to Kyoto, where he reached the institute. Azusa and a few other humans hid Baby Godzilla in the building's basement until Godzilla finally left. Baby Godzilla was kept at G-Force's headquarters, where he was raised and studied. G-Force scientists discovered that Baby Godzilla possessed a secondary brain in his hip which controlled motor function in his lower body. Since Baby and Godzilla were both of the same species, G-Force concluded that Godzilla must have the same feature. A plan was formed, codenamed "G-Crusher," to use Baby Godzilla to lure Godzilla to the Ogasawara Islands, where MechaGodzilla would use its shock anchors to destroy his secondary brain, cripple and finally kill him. Azusa protested the use of Baby as bait, but since she had no say she instead insisted to accompany Baby on the trip to the islands. En route, the revived Rodan, now Fire Rodan, intercepted the canister holding Azusa and Baby and touched down. MechaGodzilla and Garuda were sent to kill Rodan and save Baby and Azusa, with MechaGodzilla apparently killing Rodan with its plasma grenade.

Shortly after Rodan was defeated, Godzilla appeared from the ocean and came ashore to challenge MechaGodzilla and recover Baby Godzilla. Godzilla charged toward his opponent and fired his atomic breath while MechaGodzilla fired its mega buster beam. The beams locked and exploded, knocking both monsters off their feet. Godzilla managed to get up close to MechaGodzilla, and dominated the mech in hand-to-hand combat, grabbing it by the head and slamming it up and down. The Garuda flew in and distracted Godzilla until MechaGodzilla was able to get back up. MechaGodzilla and the Garuda then combined into Super MechaGodzilla, which hovered in the air and blasted Godzilla with a barrage of beams. Super MechaGodzilla then fired paralyzer missiles at Godzilla, allowing it to fire its shock anchor cables directly at his hip. MechaGodzilla discharged electricity into Godzilla's secondary brain until it burst, crippling Godzilla and sending him falling to the ground. Super MechaGodzilla began blasting Godzilla with all of its weapons, intending to kill him once and for all. As this was happening, Baby Godzilla broke free of the canister holding him and called out, getting the attention of the mortally-wounded Rodan. Rodan flew over to Godzilla, and was shot down by MechaGodzilla's mega buster. Rodan fell onto the paralyzed Godzilla and transferred his life force into him. Rodan vanished, while Godzilla's brain was reconstituted and he rose back to his feet. Revitalized by Rodan's energy, Godzilla gave off a huge amount of heat, which caused Super MechaGodzilla's diamond armor plate to melt. Godzilla fired his newly-acquired red spiral atomic breath, which severely damaged MechaGodzilla. MechaGodzilla countered with its mega buster, starting another beam lock with Godzilla. This time, Godzilla's beam was far too powerful, and MechaGodzilla was sent falling backwards into a building. Godzilla blasted MechaGodzilla with his beam again, destroying it in a fiery explosion. Godzilla approached Baby Godzilla, who cowered in fear. Miki Saegusa used her telepathic abilities to tell Baby to go away with Godzilla. Baby complied, and followed his new adoptive father out to the ocean.

Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
Despite the failure of MechaGodzilla to kill Godzilla, G-Force began work on two new anti-Godzilla projects: Project T, a plan to telepathically control Godzilla, and Project M, a plan to use their new mecha M.O.G.U.E.R.A. to do what MechaGodzilla had come so close to doing. Godzilla had taken up partial residence on the remote Birth Island, where his adoptive son, now grown to 30 meters in height and dubbed Little Godzilla, spent all of his time. Two G-Force agents, Koji Shinjo and Kiyoshi Sato were sent to assist Miki Saegusa, Chinatsu Gondo and Susumu Okubo with Project T, while rogue G-Force major Akira Yuki plotted to kill Godzilla himself. When SpaceGodzilla, an alien creature spawned by some of Godzilla's cells that had gone into space, arrived on the island and attacked Little Godzilla, Godzilla came ashore. Shinjo successfully implanted a telepathic transmitter onto Godzilla's neck, but his psychic energy was too much for Miki to be able to control him. Godzilla confronted SpaceGodzilla and tried to save his son, but SpaceGodzilla proved too powerful and knocked Godzilla down. SpaceGodzilla used his telekinesis to kidnap Little Godzilla and trap him in a crystal prison. SpaceGodzilla then flew away, leaving Godzilla behind. Enraged and determined to free his adopted son, Godzilla chased SpaceGodzilla back to Japan.

Godzilla came ashore at Kagoshima, and made his way through Kyushu, eventually reaching Kumamoto. M.O.G.U.E.R.A., now piloted by Yuki, diverted from its course and attacked Godzilla. Shinjo and Sato, who were co-piloting the mech, subdued Yuki and sent M.O.G.U.E.R.A. back after SpaceGodzilla. Eventually, Godzilla reached SpaceGodzilla's crystal fortress in Fukuoka, where M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and SpaceGodzilla were already fighting. Godzilla attacked SpaceGodzilla, but was again overpowered. Godzilla realized that SpaceGodzilla was drawing his power from the crystal spires he had erected all over the city as well as the Fukuoka Tower, which SpaceGodzilla had instilled with cosmic energy. Godzilla and M.O.G.U.E.R.A., now split apart into Star Falcon and Land Moguera, joined forces to destroy the crystals and bring down the tower. When the tower was destroyed, SpaceGodzilla's power was reduced and Godzilla was able to put up a better fight. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. recombined and used its spiral grenade missiles to destroy the crystals on SpaceGodzilla's shoulders, making him unable to control his energy. SpaceGodzilla retaliated and destroyed M.O.G.U.E.R.A. with his tail, but Godzilla began pummeling him, releasing energy through his punches. SpaceGodzilla began to absorb too much energy and glow red, signifying he would soon explode. Godzilla utilized his hyper spiral ray to knock SpaceGodzilla to the ground, then blasted him again until he finally exploded. With SpaceGodzilla gone, the crystals on Birth Island disappeared and freed Little Godzilla. Godzilla then swam back out to sea, intent on returning to his son.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
In 1996, a nuclear reaction in Godzilla's heart ignited uranium deposits on Birth Island, causing the island, along with Godzilla and his adopted son, to vanish in a fiery explosion. Godzilla soon resurfaced in Hong Kong, now covered in glowing red rashes and called Burning Godzilla バーニングゴジラ (Bāningu Gojira). Godzilla annihilated the city with his red atomic breath and eventually disappeared out to sea. During a meeting the next day, G-Force discussed Godzilla's appearance. Professor Marvin, an American scientist employed by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center, suggested that something had happened to Godzilla's heart, which was essentially a biological nuclear reactor. Marvin suggested G-Force seek out college student Kenichi Yamane, who had written a thesis paper about Godzilla's physiology. Kenichi, the grandson of Kyohei Yamane, revealed that his father Shinkichi devoted his life to studying Godzilla, but he himself thought of Godzilla as a hobby and had no interest on studying him professionally. However, upon learning he would be working with Miki Saegusa, Kenichi readily agreed to join G-Force. Kenichi concluded that the Birth Island explosion had caused Godzilla to absorb a substantial amount of radiation, causing the nuclear fission in his heart to go out of control. Kenichi said that it if Godzilla continued to increase in power, he would explode, igniting the atmosphere and vaporizing the Earth. Kenichi stated that there was only one way to kill Godzilla before this happened, the same way the first Godzilla in 1954 was killed: the Oxygen Destroyer. Kenichi and his sister Yukari sought out Kensaku Ijuin, a physicist who had developed an invention similar to the Oxygen Destroyer called Micro-Oxygen, and asked him to create a new Oxygen Destroyer. Ijuin refused, warning that the Oxygen Destroyer had mutated a colony of crustaceans from the Precambrian era and that these crustaceans had evolved and started to come ashore. Without the Oxygen Destroyer and knowing a direct attack on Godzilla could cause him to explode, G-Force turned to the Super X3, the third vehicle in the Super X line, which was armed with cadmium shells and freezer weapons. The Super X3 engaged Godzilla in the Bungo Channel as he approached the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant. The Super X3's freezer weapons successfully lowered Godzilla's core temperature and encased him in ice. As Godzilla thawed, the fission in his heart appeared to be reducing, and humanity breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Godzilla's adopted son surfaced at Omae Cove, and had been mutated into a sub-adult Godzilla by the Birth Island explosion. Godzilla Junior, as G-Force Commander Takaki Aso now dubbed him, appeared to be heading back to his nest on Adonoa Island. G-Force soon learned some troubling news, as Godzilla's fission had skyrocketed once again and was now even more critical than before. Now, Godzilla would undergo a nuclear meltdown, which would cause him to burn into the Earth's core and destroy the planet. G-Force had no clue about how to prevent this worst-case scenario, while Godzilla would melt down in less than a week. After learning that Godzilla was following Junior, Kenichi Yamane proposed a desperate plan: use Junior to lure Godzilla to Tokyo, where the crustaceans mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer had merged into a giant monster called Destoroyah. Kenichi believed that since Destoroyah was the living Oxygen Destroyer, it was the only thing that could kill Godzilla. Miki Saegusa reluctantly used her telepathy to change Junior's course and bring him to Tokyo. Junior was attacked by Destoroyah, but managed to defeat him. When Godzilla appeared in Tokyo Bay, Dr. Ijuin proposed a new plan to use G-Force's freezer weapons to freeze Godzilla as he melted down in order to minimize the damage. The Super X3 and G-Force's new DAG-MB96 ULT Maser Cannons, along with modified MBT-92s and MBAW-93s, were sent to Tokyo in anticipation of Godzilla's meltdown, which would occur once his core temperature reached 1200 degrees Celsius.

As Godzilla and Godzilla Junior reunited near Haneda Airport, Destoroyah appeared in his demonic final form and blasted Godzilla with his Micro-Oxygen beam. Destoroyah grabbed Junior and flew high into the air, dropping him onto the airport terminal and blasting him with his beam until he appeared to die. Godzilla roared out in grief, but Destoroyah wrapped his tail around Godzilla's neck and dragged him into Tokyo Bay, bellowing maniacally. Determined to avenge his son, Godzilla walked back onto land and confronted Destoroyah. Destoroyah sliced into Godzilla's flesh with his laser horn, leaving a huge scar across Godzilla's chest. Godzilla retaliated by firing his atomic breath at Destoroyah's chest, opening a wound in the beast's chest cavity. Godzilla fired into the open wound, causing Destoroyah to vomit blood and collapse, disintegrating into a white mist. Destoroyah was not defeated, as several of the creature's smaller aggregate forms swarmed Godzilla. Using a nuclear pulse, Godzilla defeated the aggregate Destoroyahs. His temperature climbing, Godzilla approached his fallen son. Godzilla tried to breathe energy back into Junior, whose eyes briefly opened. Junior stared up at his father before closing his eyes and passing away. Godzilla's began to flash as he roared and fired his atomic breath into the air. As Godzilla grieved, Destoroyah returned in his final form and grabbed Godzilla by the neck with his tail once again, dragging him to the outskirts of the city. Godzilla got right back to his feet and approached Destoroyah, ready for one final confrontation with his son's killer. Godzilla's temperature began to climb to critical levels, as his dorsal plates started to melt. Giving off waves of intense heat, Godzilla fired his hyper spiral ray at Destoroyah, blasting off part of his head and wounding his shoulder. Godzilla and his atomic breath caused the area around Destoroyah to erupt in flames, until Destoroyah could no longer withstand the heat. Destoroyah began to take flight, but G-Force opened fire with their freezer weapons, freezing and shredding the beast's wings and sending him plummeting to the superheated ground. Destoroyah struck the ground and instantly exploded into a white mist, which soon dissipated. His son's killer finally dead, Godzilla stood silently as his temperature reached critical, ready to die in peace. G-Force opened fire on Godzilla with all their freezer weapons as he melted down. Finally, Godzilla's heart burst, and his outer body and skeleton melted away to nothing. G-Force prevented Godzilla's meltdown from destroying the planet, but they could not prevent him from releasing catastrophic levels of radiation into the air. When it appeared Tokyo would be rendered uninhabitable, all of the radiation suddenly vanished. Soon, Godzilla Junior was visible through the smoke, revived and transformed into a new Godzilla, ready to take up his father's mantle.

Adventure! Godzilland
In 1992, Toho produced a trivia show titled Adventure! Godzilland to promote the upcoming film Godzilla vs. Mothra. The show featured miniature game shows centered around the Godzilla franchise as well as appearances by actors from Godzilla vs. Mothra and even Godzilla himself. The following year, Toho aired a second season of the show titled ''Adventure! Godzilland 2, which was produced to promote Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2''. This season was similar to the first, but was notable for including animated segments featuring super-deformed variants of Godzilla and the other. These animated segments went on to inspire Gakken's Recommend! Godzilland OVAs.

Recommend! Godzilland
In 1994 and 1996, Gakken produced four educational OVAs entitled Recommend! Godzilland, which revolved around a young Godzilla and his friends living together on Monster Island. There, they learn about the hiragana alphabet, counting, addition, and subtraction. In these OVAs, Godzilla has a love interest named Gojirin, a pink female Godzilla with heart-shaped.

Godzilla Island
Although the Godzilla series was supposed to be in a 10-year retirement following Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla made an "early" return, though not in a new movie, but a television show titled Godzilla Island, which utilized Bandai action figures to portray the monsters. Godzilla Island returned Godzilla to his heroic role from 1964's Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster to 1975's Terror of MechaGodzilla. However, unlike in the Showa era, Godzilla is already a hero from the very start, and serves as the main monster protagonist of the show.

In 2097, Godzilla, and 9 of Earth's monsters, found themselves confined to an island in the Pacific Ocean dubbed Godzilla Island. When the Xiliens came down to earth with their horde of evil monsters, Godzilla was always there to fight and protect G-Guard Base, sometimes with other monsters like Rodan, Mothra, MechaGodzilla and Moguera. He usually fought Destoroyah and Megalon.

TriStar Films
In 1992, Toho sold the rights to produce an American Godzilla film to Sony Pictures Entertainment, who designated the project to their subsidiary TriStar Pictures. Toho intended for their series to end with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995, and go on a ten-year hiatus while TriStar released a trilogy of American Godzilla films. After difficulties getting the project off the ground in 1994 due to budget conflicts, TriStar brought in the Independence Day team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who completely reimagined Godzilla as an agile and elusive creature similar in appearance to a theropod dinosaur. When Toho ultimately approved TriStar's changes to the character, the studio's film GODZILLA was released theatrically in 1998. The film was met with almost worldwide disappointment, especially among fans, who felt the titular creature departed too much from the character of Godzilla. The film's negative reception forced TriStar to scrap the proposed sequel, and an animated series was produced instead. Toho responded to the film's negative reception by bringing their series out of retirement early in 1999 with Godzilla 2000: Millennium, which kickstarted the Millennium series of Godzilla films. When TriStar and Sony allowed their rights to revert back to Toho in 2003, Toho registered TriStar's version of Godzilla as a new character called Zilla, as Shogo Tomiyama claimed it "took the 'God' out of 'Godzilla.'" Zilla debuted in the film Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004, and Toho has subsequently declared that any future incarnations of TriStar's Godzilla will be under the name Zilla.

GODZILLA (1998)
A giant reptilian monster swam from the islands across the Pacific, attacking the cannery ship Kobayashi Maru, and then stomped across Panama. From there it traveled up the American Eastern Seaboard, where it sank several American fishing boats. Later on, the creature arrived in New York City, wandering through the city and causing major damage. Eventually, it was lured into Flatiron Square with 20,000 pounds of fish. After escaping a military attack, the monster stomped through New York, necessitating the evacuation of the entire city. The monster was later labeled "Godzilla," after the lone survivor of the monster's attack on the Kobayashi Maru identified it as "Gojira." The military battled Godzilla extensively, and seemingly killed it in the East River with torpedoes.

However, it had laid 228 eggs in and under Madison Square Garden (an arena in Midtown Manhattan), which hatched and filled the Garden with hundreds of Baby Godzillas. The military bombed the Garden, slaying the infant Godzillas. However, Godzilla then revealed itself to have survived, bursting up from underneath the street, and, after seeing its dead offspring, chased the heroes through New York across the Brooklyn Bridge, where it became entangled in the suspension cables. It was then killed by F-18 Hornets. However, one unhatched offspring survived the destruction of Madison Square Garden.

Godzilla: The Series
An animated series, based on the 1998 film, aired on Fox Kids starting in 1998. Godzilla: The Series featured a baby Godzilla which had grown to full size. This new Godzilla, referred to as "Zilla Junior" or "Godzilla Junior" by fans, traveled around the world with a team called H.E.A.T., including scientist Nick Tatopoulos, battling other monsters. This Godzilla had the abilities and physical form of his parent, but the creators of the show gave him more powers and an attitude more resembling the real Japanese Godzilla, including the roar. This version of Godzilla had imprinted on Dr. Tatopoulos, making him an ally of humanity. The series shared plot elements with the Godzilla films of the late Showa series, and even featured a trilogy of episodes directly based on the film Destroy All Monsters. In general, the animated series garnered a much more positive reception from fans than the film it was based upon.

Cyber-Godzilla
During the Monster Wars trilogy of episodes, an alien race known as the Tachyons recovered the body of the original Godzilla that had attacked New York in 1998 and converted it into a cyborg dubbed Cyber-Godzilla. Cyber-Godzilla now possessed a blue atomic ray and in one episode attacked Tokyo, an obvious homage to the Japanese Godzilla.

Millennium Series
While Toho had intended to place their series on a ten-year hiatus following the release of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, the negative response to TriStar's 1998 film prompted them to bring Godzilla out of retirement early. Toho produced the film Godzilla 2000: Millennium in 1999 as a direct response to TriStar's take on the character. This film began the third series of Godzilla films, known as the Millennium series, which ran for six films and ended with Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004. The Millennium series is unique in that, unlike previous series, its films do not all share a single continuity, and are usually completely standalone, using the original film as a backdrop. Only Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. share continuity. Following the final entry in the Millennium series, Godzilla: Final Wars, which also served as Godzilla's 50th anniversary film, Toho announced that the series would be placed on a ten-year hiatus in order to renew interest.

Godzilla 2000: Millennium
One night, Godzilla came ashore at Nemuro, destroying a lighthouse and making his way into the heart of the city. Eventually, Godzilla reached an electrical plant and destroyed it. Yuji Shinoda, founder of the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN), remarked that it appeared was intentionally destroying mankind's energy sources. Godzilla returned to the ocean, and began to approach Tokai, most likely to feed on the nuclear power plant there. Mitsuo Katagiri, head of the government agency Crisis Control Intelligence, ordered the plant's reactors to shut down and mobilized the J.S.D.F. at Tokai to engage Godzilla. The J.S.D.F. deployed its new cutting-edge Full Metal Missile Launchers, which fired armor-piercing missiles which were believed to be able to penetrate Godzilla's hide. Shinoda traveled to Tokai and confronted Katagiri, telling him Godzilla deserved to be studied rather than destroyed, and that there was no way he could kill Godzilla anyway. Katagiri laughed and told Shinoda he would have GPN dismantled before leaving. The next morning, Godzilla swam close to the shore of Tokai, detonating mines in the water. Godzilla finally surfaced and began approaching the shore, withstanding artillery and missile fire from the J.S.D.F. and J.A.S.D.F. with no visible reaction. As Godzilla drew closer to the nuclear plant, the Full Metal Missile Launchers opened fire on him. This time, Godzilla was visibly fazed by the missiles, with chunks of his skin being blown off. While Godzilla was being blasted by the missiles, a gigantic floating rock flew over the battlefield and began scanning Godzilla. It proceeded to fire a laser beam from a hole on its side, knocking Godzilla into a building. Godzilla got up and fired his atomic breath at the rock, which fired another laser beam and knocked Godzilla into the ocean. Godzilla swam away, while the rock flew off into the distance. Shinoda returned and surveyed the battlefield, recovering some of Godzilla's flesh that had been blasted off by the missiles. Using CCI's electron microscope, Shinoda and his former colleague Shiro Miyasaka discovered that Godzilla's cells had completely healed in a matter of hours with no scar tissue. They learned the secret to Godzilla's regeneration was a substance in his cells called Organizer G-1, which granted him virtually limitless regeneration that made him practically immortal.

The rock was later discovered to be an advanced alien UFO, which was attempting to subdue Godzilla and transfer his genetic material to its occupants so they could adjust to Earth's atmosphere. The UFO descended in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo and used the City Tower to hack into the city's computer systems, draining all data it could find on Godzilla. After CCI's attempts to destroy the UFO failed, Godzilla emerged from Tokyo Bay to challenge the UFO again. Godzilla walked through downtown Tokyo until he reached Shinjuku. The UFO, still intending to subdue Godzilla, tried to restrain him with tentacles it telepathically formed beneath the street, but Godzilla destroyed them with his atomic breath. The UFO then released a shockwave that caused a skyscraper to collapse onto Godzilla, trapping him beneath the rubble. The ship began absorbing Godzilla's DNA and transferring it to its occupants, which emerged from the UFO in a single collective form. The alien suddenly began convulsing as its body became covered in growths and it finally collapsed to the ground. Godzilla broke free from the rubble and blasted the unmanned UFO, sending it crashing to the ground in a fireball. Just then, the alien stood back up, now mutated into the creature Orga due to its inability to control Godzilla's DNA. Godzilla immediately attacked Orga, but discovered the creature's healing factor was far more advanced than his own. Godzilla tried to blast Orga with his atomic breath, but Orga telepathically summoned the remnants of his UFO, using it to absorb the blast. With the UFO completely destroyed, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at Orga again, causing the beast to be consumed in flames. To Godzilla's surprise, Orga emerged from the fire and began walking toward him, with his gruesome injuries healing in a matter of seconds. Orga bit Godzilla and began draining his DNA, causing him to become covered in green Godzilla-like scales. Godzilla realized that Orga was trying to absorb more of his DNA in order to repair his damaged DNA matrix and become a clone of him. When Orga unhinged his jaw and opened his mouth wide, Godzilla ran headfirst into his maw. Orga began swallowing Godzilla whole, sprouting huge purple on his back. As Orga consumed Godzilla, Godzilla began glowing hot orange and giving off heat. When Orga realized his situation, it was too late as Godzilla unleashed an atomic shockwave that obliterated Orga's entire upper body. Godzilla roared at Orga's headless corpse, which collapsed forward and crumbled to dust. Godzilla then approached a rooftop where several people, including Shinoda and Katagiri were standing. Katagiri refused to move, and lit a cigarette as he remarked he had never seen Godzilla that close before. Katagiri looked up at Godzilla and screamed his name, as Godzilla destroyed the rooftop and sent Katagiri falling to his death. Godzilla turned and walked away, unleashing his atomic breath in a fiery swath across the city. As Godzilla rampaged through Tokyo, Miyasaka remarked that humanity created Godzilla, and ever since has tried to destroy him. Yuki Ichinose, a reporter, questioned why Godzilla kept protecting them despite this fact, with Shinoda answering it was because Godzilla was inside each one of them.

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
In 1954, Godzilla raided Tokyo and reduced the city to a smoldering wasteland in one night. Afterward, Godzilla slipped back into Tokyo Bay and disappeared beneath the waves. The damage was so great that Japan's capital was moved to Osaka. Japan endured a decade of rebuilding, eventually embracing nuclear power and gradually putting Godzilla's attack behind them. But in 1966, Godzilla returned and attacked the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant, feeding on the nuclear reactor. The Japanese government concluded that nuclear power was what attracted Godzilla, so all of the country's nuclear plants were shut down. Japan struggled to find alternate energy sources, but nothing proved able to replace nuclear power. In the 1990's, a breakthrough was made in the form of plasma energy. This clean, non-nuclear power source appeared to be the future of Japanese energy. But in 1996, Godzilla was attracted to the plasma reactor in Osaka, deciding to feed on it in the absence of nuclear energy. A team of J.S.D.F. soldiers were deployed to stop Godzilla, but they were massacred. The lone survivor of the operation was Major Kiriko Tsujimori, who went on to become a founding member of the J.S.D.F.'s elite anti-Godzilla unit, the G-Graspers. By 2001, plasma energy was banned in Japan, and the G-Graspers had developed the ultimate anti-Godzilla weapon, a miniature black hole gun called the Dimension Tide. The Dimension Tide was test-fired in the outskirts of Tokyo, where it completely absorbed an abandoned building. The G-Graspers were certain the Dimension Tide would do the same to Godzilla, and the weapon was mounted on a satellite while the G-Graspers searched for Godzilla. Godzilla was discovered in the waters off Japan, and the GX-813 Griffon was sent to lure him ashore at Kiganjima. The Dimension Tide was prepared and aimed at Godzilla, but suddenly a swarm of giant prehistoric dragonflies called Meganula flew overhead and attacked Godzilla, draining his energy with their tails. Godzilla killed most of the Meganula with his tail and atomic breath, and the Dimension Tide was fired at him. However, the weapon merely buried Godzilla under a pile of rubble, and he quickly got up. Godzilla waded out to sea and vanished.

Shortly afterward, Godzilla came ashore in Tokyo Bay, heading directly for the science institute. En route, he was attacked by Megaguirus, the Meganula queen which had been mutated by the energy her swarm drained from Godzilla. Megaguirus attacked Godzilla near the Tokyo Telecom Center, easily avoiding his attacks and landing several of her own due to her incredible speed. After managing to slice off Megaguirus' claw with his, Godzilla turned the tide of battle when he caught Megaguirus' tail and stuck it into the ground. Godzilla jumped into the air and body-slammed Megaguirus. Megaguirus flew at Godzilla, aiming her stinger at his head, but he caught it in his mouth and bit it off. Megaguirus reeled back in pain, as Godzilla fired his atomic breath directly at her, causing her to erupt in flames before crashing to the ground and exploding. His enemy defeated, Godzilla reached the science institute and uncovered a hidden plasma reactor. While Godzilla was distracted, the Dimension Tide was fired at him. However, the satellite fell out of the atmosphere and was approaching Tokyo. Tsujimori used the Griffon to allow the Dimension Tide to lock on Godzilla's location, then ejected as soon as the weapon fired. When the smoke cleared, Godzilla had disappeared without a trace. Godzilla appeared to be finally gone, and the nation of Japan rejoiced.

A few weeks later though, the G-Graspers began to detect a series of tremors underneath Tokyo, and contemplated the possibility that Godzilla was merely pushed underground by the Dimension Tide like before. These fears were confirmed when Godzilla emerged from underground in Tokyo, roaring menacingly.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
In 1954, Japan suffered an attack from Godzilla. The monster laid waste to Tokyo, transforming the once-proud capital of Japan into ground zero of a nuclear disaster overnight. Godzilla was finally killed with an experimental chemical weapon, while the weapon's inventor took his own life to ensure it could never be used again. In order to avoid facing ridicule for failing to stop Godzilla and ensure the citizens of Japan they were safe from future attacks, the J.S.D.F. claimed credit for killing Godzilla. Over the next several decades, humanity gradually began to forget about Godzilla, with many assuming the creature never existed and was simply a legend. In 1998, a giant reptilian monster attacked New York City, with American experts identifying the creature as Godzilla. The J.S.D.F. doubted that the monster was Godzilla, but could not ignore the appearance of another giant monster. In the years following the New York attack, sightings of giant monsters skyrocketed around the world, forcing the J.S.D.F. to be on high alert for the possible return of Godzilla. In 2002, an American nuclear submarine vanished off the coast of Guam. The Japanese research submersible Satsuma investigated the wreckage, noticing huge claw marks in the sub's hull. Just then, the ground shook, causing the Satsuma 's sister craft to crash into a rock. Just then, the vessel's pilot witnessed Godzilla's briefly appear behind several large rocks.

When the Satsuma operator's story was reported to the J.S.D.F., units were scrambled to search for Godzilla. The monster came ashore in the Bonin Islands, stomping on several houses during a storm. The J.S.D.F. searched the waters all around Japan, but could find no trace of Godzilla. Several of the soldiers began assuming Godzilla never really did exist, and search operations were called off. Not long after, Godzilla appeared from a harbor and came ashore in Japan once again. The beast destroyed a small town and marched through the countryside, eventually being attacked by the Guardian Monster Baragon, who had been awakened by the prophet Hirotoshi Isayama to stop Godzilla. Godzilla easily overpowered the smaller monster, and after a short fight obliterated Baragon with his atomic breath. Godzilla continued his march across Japan, as it became apparent that he was once again approaching Tokyo. Fighter jets were deployed to attack Godzilla, but their missiles had no effect and Godzilla easily shot the jets down with his atomic breath. Eventually, Godzilla reached Yokohama, where the J.S.D.F. had erected a last line of defense to prevent Godzilla from reaching Tokyo. Godzilla showed no mercy and easily annihilated the J.S.D.F.'s forces in the city, but was interrupted by the arrival of Mothra, a second Guardian Monster. Godzilla fired his atomic breath at Mothra, but she dodged it, causing the beam to hit the Yokohama Landmark Tower instead. As Godzilla was fighting Mothra, the third Guardian Monster, Ghidorah, arrived, and helped Mothra take on Godzilla. Godzilla proved to be more than a match for both beasts, knocking Mothra aside with his tail and tearing into Ghidorah's necks with his teeth before slamming him onto a building. Godzilla fired his atomic breath at the unconscious Ghidorah, intending to finish him once and for all, but Mothra flew in front of him and was blasted away by the beam. Godzilla then turned his attention to the J.S.D.F.'s battleships docked in the harbor, destroying several of them with his atomic breath. As Godzilla prepared to destroy the last few ships, Mothra flew up behind him, intending to take him by surprise. Suddenly, Godzilla turned around and fired his beam at Mothra, vaporizing her.

The battle was not over, as Mothra's energy showered onto Ghidorah, reviving him as the Thousand-Year-Old Dragon, King Ghidorah. King Ghidorah formed an energy shield and took to the air, screeching at Godzilla. Godzilla fired his atomic breath at King Ghidorah, but his shield deflected it. King Ghidorah dropped his shield onto Godzilla, causing a massive explosion that blasted Godzilla into the sea. King Ghidorah flew out over the water and attacked Godzilla again, while the Satsuma was deployed to fire a D-03 Missile into a wound on Godzilla's neck that King Ghidorah had opened. Godzilla grabbed King Ghidorah's legs and dragged him underwater, where the Satsuma fired its missile at Godzilla. Godzilla saw the missile and pulled King Ghidorah's neck in front of it, knocking the beast out once again. After swallowing the Satsuma, Godzilla surfaced, while King Ghidorah was reawakened by an ancient stone that fell into the water after Yuri Tachibana dropped it. King Ghidorah flew out of the water and blasted Godzilla with his gravity beams, electrocuting him. After taking several hits, Godzilla somehow absorbed the gravity beams into his dorsal plates, then combined them with his atomic breath in a powerful spiral-wrapped beam that obliterated King Ghidorah in a single hit. The combined spirits of the Guardian Monsters then flew into Godzilla, dragging him underwater. Inside of Godzilla, the Satsuma, piloted by Taizo Tachibana, fired a D-03 Missile into Godzilla's neck wound, which tore it open until it was a gaping hole. Godzilla surfaced and prepared to fire his atomic breath at Yuri and her friend, but the beam shot out of his neck wound instead. Godzilla tried to fire his atomic breath again, with the same result. Godzilla fell back underwater in agony, while the Satsuma escaped his body. Godzilla saw the Satsuma swimming away and charged his atomic breath again. This time, Godzilla's wound flashed brightly and he suddenly exploded. Godzilla completely vanished from all radar and tracking systems, and it appeared he was finally gone. As Japan celebrated, Godzilla's disembodied heart began continuously beating on the sea floor.

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla
In 1954, Godzilla appeared and laid waste to Tokyo before being killed by Daisuke Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer. In the decades that followed, Japan was frequently attacked by giant monsters, including Mothra and Gaira. The Anti-Megalosaurus Force (AMF) was formed to combat these creatures, armed with advanced space-age weapons known as Maser Cannons. In 1999, a second Godzilla suddenly came ashore at Tateyama during a typhoon. The AMF was deployed, with their new Type 90 Maser Cannons, to stop Godzilla's rampage. To the AMF's shock, Maser Cannons had no effect on Godzilla, and only served to further enrage him. Godzilla destroyed most of the Maser Cannons attacking him and roared victoriously into the air, with lightning striking his. In the aftermath of the attack, the Japanese government was scrambling to find a new way to fight Godzilla. When the first Godzilla's intact skeleton was discovered off Boso Peninsula, it was decided to use them to construct a mechanical Godzilla to fight the new one. Recruiting the assistance of Japan's greatest scientific minds, the Japanese government began construction on the Godzilla robot. By 2003, four years after construction began, the weapon, codenamed Kiryu, was completed. Just after the mech was exhibited to the international community, Godzilla landed in Japan once again. Kiryu was launched and confronted Godzilla near the coast. Kiryu launched its rockets and fired its oral Maser beams at Godzilla, causing him to step back. Kiryu prepared to fire its ultimate weapon, the Absolute Zero Cannon, but Godzilla roared and caused the first Godzilla's soul within Kiryu to awaken. Kiryu, believing itself to be Godzilla once again, went berserk, destroying the surrounding city with its payload of weapons. Godzilla retreated in the confusion, while the AMF raced to find a way to shut Kiryu down. Once Kiryu's power was depleted, the project was shelved indefinitely, with AMF and the government reduced to a laughingstock.

Meanwhile, Godzilla resurfaced in Tokyo Bay, demolishing the AMF forces attacking him and coming ashore. As Godzilla drew closer and closer to the city center, AMF and the Prime Minister had no choice but to launch Kiryu again, believing whatever caused it to run wild before had been repaired. As Godzilla approached a hospital and charged his atomic breath, Kiryu dropped from the sky and knocked Godzilla into a nearby building. Godzilla got up and attacked Kiryu. The monsters appeared equally matched as they pushed each other back and forth through the city. Kiryu stabbed Godzilla with its plasma sword and electrocuted him. Godzilla responded by kicking Kiryu into a building and stomping on it. Kiryu regained its footing and grabbed Godzilla's tail, swinging him in the air and tossing him across the city. Kiryu charged the Absolute Zero once again, but Godzilla fired his atomic breath and sent Kiryu hurdling through the sky, with the Absolute Zero beam hitting three skyscrapers instead. When Kiryu hit the ground, it was rendered inoperable. The AMF distracted Godzilla while Kiryu's operator Akane Yashiro manually took control of the machine and got it back in working order. As Kiryu stood back up, Godzilla blasted it in the back with his atomic breath until it collapsed to the ground again. Kiryu stood up once more, as Godzilla charged his atomic breath. This time, an AC-3 White Heron flew into Godzilla's mouth, buying Kiryu time to fight back. Kiryu grabbed the jet's cockpit and tore it from Godzilla's mouth, then threw it to safety. Kiryu grabbed Godzilla and held his mouth shut as it took flight, charging the Absolute Zero. Kiryu crashed into Tokyo Bay and fired the weapon, causing water to erupt out of the bay and freeze solid in the air. The ice shattered, and Godzilla rose from the water with a gaping wound in his chest. As Godzilla began wading out to sea, Kiryu surfaced as well, missing an arm and unable to move. Godzilla looked back at Kiryu and growled before continuing on his way back out to sea. While Kiryu failed to kill Godzilla, it did expel him, meaning humanity finally had a weapon to defend itself against Godzilla.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
Just one year after Godzilla and Kiryu's epic battle, Mothra's Shobijin appeared to Shinichi Chujo and warned him that the first Godzilla's bones must be returned to their resting place in the sea, and that it was blasphemous to use them as a weapon. The Shobijin stated that Mothra would have to declare war on humanity if the bones were not returned, and that she did not want to do that. Chujo spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Igarashi, who stated that too many resources had been sunk into the Kiryu project for it to be scrapped now. He expressed his hope that Kiryu would one day kill Godzilla, after which the project could finally be scrapped. Meanwhile, the corpse of Kamoebas, a giant sea turtle, washed up on a beach, with claw marks in its neck. The AMF declared it to be the work of Godzilla, and Kiryu's repairs were sped up to prepare for the monster's return. Soon, Godzilla arrived in Tokyo, and appeared to be heading for Kiryu's hangar. Igarashi began to worry that Kiryu itself was what had been attracting Godzilla. Chujo's grandson Shun used school desks to recreate Mothra's sacred symbol, drawing her to Tokyo. Mothra attacked Godzilla, but in her old age was outmatched. Unwilling to let Mothra continue the fight alone, Igarashi ordered for Kiryu to be deployed. Kiryu arrived during Mothra and Godzilla's battle and attacked Godzilla after Mothra's wings had been destroyed by Godzilla's atomic breath. On Infant Island, Mothra's egg hatched into two twin larvae, which swam to Tokyo to assist their mother. Back in Tokyo, Godzilla used his atomic breath to blast off the side of Kiryu's face, knocking it out of commission. When Mothra's larvae arrived and began speaking with their mother, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at them. Mothra used the last of her strength to fly in front of the beam, causing her to be set ablaze and explode. Determined to avenge their mother, the larvae attacked Godzilla while Yoshito Chujo, an AMF mechanic, attempted to repair Kiryu from inside. When Kiryu was repaired, it engaged Godzilla again near the National Diet Building. The Diet Building was destroyed in the monsters' confrontation, but Kiryu managed to stab Godzilla's chest wound from their previous battle with its drill hand. Kiryu rotated the drill, causing Godzilla immeasurable pain. Mothra's larvae covered the wounded Godzilla in silk until he fell over, too injured to continue fighting. AMF ordered Kiryu to finish Godzilla, but Godzilla's pained cries reawakened the first Godzilla's spirit inside Kiryu. Unwilling to kill a member of his kind, Kiryu simply grabbed Godzilla and flew out to sea, sinking himself along with Godzilla in the Japan Trench. Igarashi declared the battle to be a hollow victory, and ordered the Kiryu project officially scrapped. However, AMF was secretly holding the DNA of several monsters in a lab, including Godzilla, to construct more weapons to defend against future monster attacks, possibly Godzilla again should he break free from Kiryu's grip.

Godzilla: Final Wars
In 1954, nuclear testing awakened the monster Godzilla, the most powerful enemy mankind ever faced. The international military organization known as the Earth Defense Force (EDF) was formed to combat Godzilla and other giant monsters that appeared over the next decade, but it could never defeat Godzilla. Sometime in the 1960's, the EDF lured Godzilla to Antarctica for a final showdown. Godzilla easily defeated the EDF's Maser Cannons it had stationed there, but found himself under attack by the advanced warship the Gotengo. Godzilla shot down the Gotengo with his atomic breath, but before he could finish it he fell into a crack in the ice. Young Gotengo crewmember Douglas Gordon fired a missile at a nearby slope, causing Godzilla to be buried under tons of ice. The facility known as Area G was constructed around Godzilla's icy prison, and the monster remained trapped for decades to come.

In the year 20XX, an alien force known as the Xiliens had invaded Earth and taken control of all of the planet's monsters, using them to destroy major cities around the globe. The Gotengo, piloted by Gordon and staffed with all of the EDF's remaining forces, flew to Area G and used its missiles to free Godzilla, believing him the only force capable of defeating the Xiliens' monster army. Godzilla emerged from his icy prison, and was immediately attacked by the Xiliens' cyborg monster Gigan. Gigan wrapped Godzilla in barbed wire, but Godzilla blasted the monster's head off with his atomic breath. Believing his battle with the Gotengo from decades ago was still going on, Godzilla chased the ship to Australia. In Sydney, Godzilla found himself attacked by the monster Zilla, which lunged at him. Godzilla used his tail to smack Zilla into the Sydney Opera House, then finished his opponent with a blast of atomic breath. Godzilla then traveled to New Guinea, where he fought Kumonga. Godzilla grabbed a thread of Kumonga's web and tossed the giant spider over the horizon before continuing on his way. After reaching the Kanto region of Japan, Godzilla encountered Kamacuras. Godzilla fired his atomic breath at the monster, which dodged the beam and flew at him. Godzilla simply grabbed Kamacuras and threw it at an electrical tower, which impaled and killed it. As Godzilla marched further inland he reached Mount Fuji, where the Xiliens deployed Anguirus, Rodan and King Caesar against him. Godzilla proved to be more than a match for the three opponents, and defeated them one-by-one, stacking their unconscious bodies on top of each other. Godzilla reached Tokyo Bay, where he was attacked by Hedorah and Ebirah. Godzilla tossed both monsters out of the bay with his atomic breath, causing Ebirah's claw to impale Hedorah's eye. With both monster immobilized, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at them and destroyed them both.

After finally reaching Tokyo, Godzilla saw the asteroid Gorath hurdling toward the city. Godzilla planted his feet and fired his atomic breath at Gorath, causing the asteroid to explode in the skies over Tokyo, reducing the city to a crater. As Godzilla stood in the ruins of Tokyo, Monster X levitated to the ground behind him. Godzilla attacked this new monster, but found it was more than a match for him, fighting with incredible speed and ferocity. Mothra flew to Tokyo to assist Godzilla, but was intercepted by the repaired and modified Gigan. Gigan sliced Mothra's wing with his chainsaw hand, then began to help Monster X fight Godzilla. Monster X held Godzilla from behind while Gigan sliced his chest with his chainsaws. Godzilla moved out of the way and caused Gigan to strike Monster X instead, causing him to release him. Mothra then flew by and knocked both Monster X and Gigan to the ground. Gigan pursued Mothra again, but was killed when his razor discs accidentally sliced his head off and Mothra flew into him and exploded. Godzilla and Monster X resumed their one-on-one battle, with Godzilla finally gaining the upper hand. Godzilla pinned Monster X to the ground and pummeled him mercilessly. When the Xilien Mothership self-destructed, Godzilla and Monster X fired their beams at each other, which locked in the air. The beams exploded, knocking the monsters to opposite sides of the city. Suddenly, Monster X transformed into Keizer Ghidorah, which was much larger and more powerful than Godzilla. Godzilla fired his atomic breath at Keizer Ghidorah, but the creature's gravity beams overpowered Godzilla's beam. Keizer Ghidorah used its telekinetic gravity beams to toss Godzilla across the ruined cityscape, then began to kick the fallen Godzilla in the head repeatedly. Finally, Keizer Ghidorah grabbed Godzilla with hits mouths and began draining his energy. When the Gotengo flew past the monsters, its crewmembers realized they needed to help Godzilla. Shinichi Ozaki used the ship's Maser Cannon to fire his Keizer energy into Godzilla's, reinvigorating him. Godzilla released a shockwave that forced Keizer Ghidorah to release him, then destroyed the beast's middle head with his atomic breath. When another head tried to fire a gravity beam at Godzilla, Godzilla pulled the other head in front of the beam, severing it. Godzilla grabbed the maimed Keizer Ghidorah by its remaining head and slammed it up and down before throwing the monster into the air. Godzilla fired his spiral red heat beam at Keizer Ghidorah, pushing it into outer space, where it exploded.

As the Keizer energy wore off, Godzilla shot down the Gotengo with his atomic breath. As the ship's crew exited and aimed their weapons at Godzilla, Minilla suddenly ran into the city. Minilla stood in front of Godzilla, holding out his arms and blocking him from attacking the humans. Godzilla finally forgave humanity and turned around and walked out to the sea. Minilla followed after Godzilla, but not before firing a blast of atomic breath into the air. As Godzilla and Minilla waded out into the sunset, Godzilla turned and roared out one last time.

Always: Sunset on Third Street 2
Godzilla made a cameo appearance in the Toho film Always 2 as a character in one of Ryunosuke Chagawa's stories. In this story, Chagawa imagined Godzilla attacking Tokyo, even blasting Tokyo Tower in two with his Atomic Ray, and wiping out Norifumi Suzuki's car dealership, much to Suzuki's anger. Suzuki challenged Godzilla for destroying his business, and Godzilla roared back. However, Chagawa was interrupted by a young boy named Junnosuke, who told him that Godzilla was already a real character and couldn't be used in the story, so the author decided to start anew.

The Legendary series is the first series of Godzilla films to be produced by a studio other than Toho, being instead produced by the American studio Legendary Pictures. This series began with the 2014 film Godzilla, which will have a sequel released in 2019. Legendary plans to create a shared cinematic universe connecting Godzilla with King Kong, with a new Kong reboot titled Kong: Skull Island set for release in 2017. The crossover film pitting the monsters against each other, Godzilla vs. Kong, is set for a tentative 2020 release.

Godzilla (2014)
An ancient alpha-predator that thrived during the Permian period, Godzilla retreated to the ocean depths as the Earth's surface radiation levels declined, instead feeding on the planet's natural geothermal radiation. Godzilla remained dormant underwater for hundreds of millions of years, appearing occasionally at various points in human history, inspiring the mythologies of several cultures. In 1954, an American nuclear submarine unwittingly awakened Godzilla when it reached the lower depths of the ocean, drawing him to the surface in search of new sources of radiation. Godzilla attacked and fed on American and Soviet nuclear submarines in the South Pacific Ocean, with each nation believing the other was responsible for the attacks. When Godzilla's existence became known, the American military began detonating a series of nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands to try and kill him, under the guise of nuclear testing. On March 1, 1954, Godzilla was lured ashore at Bikini Atoll, where the American military detonated their first-ever dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed Castle Bravo, in an attempt to kill him. Godzilla vanished following the detonation, and the United States covered up all evidence of his existence. A scientific organization known as Monarch had been formed to study Godzilla and any gigantic creatures like him, and continued to search for him in the following decades.

In 2014, Godzilla detected the mating call of a M.U.T.O., a parasitic lifeform that lived during Godzilla's time and laid its eggs in corpses of his species. In order to preserve his own existence, Godzilla came ashore in Honolulu to fight the winged male M.U.T.O. before it could reunite with its female counterpart and reproduce. Godzilla confronted the M.U.T.O. at the Honolulu airport, engaging in a brief clash before the M.U.T.O. flew back out over the ocean. Godzilla dove underwater and continued pursuing his enemy. The United States military believed Godzilla to be just as dire a threat as the M.U.T.O., although Monarch scientist Ishiro Serizawa stated that Godzilla was only here to hunt the M.U.T.O. and that he should be allowed to do so. When the female M.U.T.O. emerged in Nevada and began heading to California to reunite with the male, the military formed a plan to lure Godzilla and both M.U.T.O.s out to a remote island and kill them all with a nuclear warhead several times more powerful than Castle Bravo. Serizawa believed the detonation would fail to kill any of the creatures and warned William Stenz, the Navy admiral in charge of the operation, to call off the attack. Stenz regretfully told Serizawa they had no choice and allowed the warhead to be armed and carried by boat over San Francisco Bay. The male M.U.T.O. used its electromagnetic pulse to disable the military's vehicles and stole the warhead, using it as a nest on which the female could lay its eggs. Godzilla emerged from the Bay shortly afterward, surfacing near the Golden Gate Bridge. Tanks were deployed onto the bridge and opened fire on Godzilla while civilians were attempting to cross it. Godzilla withstood the artillery fire until a blast hit him in the gills, causing him to smash into the bridge and split it in half. Godzilla roared and continued to approach the city, where the M.U.T.O.s had constructed their nest.

When Godzilla entered downtown San Francisco, the male M.U.T.O. attacked him while its mate laid her eggs. Meanwhile, several soldiers were sent into the heart of the city via a HALO jump to recover and disarm the warhead before it could explode. Godzilla finally reached the nest and roared at the female M.U.T.O., who charged at Godzilla and attacked him. Soon, the male reentered the battle and both M.U.T.O.s double-teamed Godzilla. With the nest unguarded, the soldiers recovered the warhead, while Ford Brody opened a gasoline line, causing the entire nest to explode in a fireball. Both M.U.T.O.s witnessed the explosion and stopped pummeling Godzilla and rushed back to their nest. The female M.U.T.O. grieved over her dead offspring, but became enraged after seeing Brody near the nest. Before the M.U.T.O. could kill Brody, Godzilla emerged behind her and blasted her with his atomic breath, buying time for Brody and the other soldiers to carry the warhead to the docks. The male flew behind Godzilla and pulled him out of the way, allowing the female to chase after the soldiers. As the male flew behind Godzilla to try and grab him again, Godzilla swung his tail at it, impaling the M.U.T.O. on a skyscraper and killing it. Godzilla stopped to catch his breath, only for a skyscraper to collapse onto him and bury him in rubble. As Godzilla lie on the ground being buried in debris, he caught a brief glimpse of Brody, who was running to the docks. Brody ran to the docks, only to witness the female M.U.T.O. kill all of his companions. Brody grabbed the warhead and placed it on a boat, preparing to send it out to sea where it could detonate safely. Suddenly, the boat's engine deactivated as the female M.U.T.O. approached, her EMP field disabling all nearby electronics. Brody drew his pistol and aimed it at the M.U.T.O., fully expecting to be killed. Just then, Godzilla came up behind the M.U.T.O. and bit down on her neck, pulling her away from the boat. Godzilla grabbed the M.U.T.O.'s jaws and pried them open, then fired his atomic breath down her throat until her head fell off. Godzilla roared victoriously before dropping the M.U.T.O.'s head and collapsing onto the ground unconscious. The boat reactivated and began heading out of the bay, while Brody was rescued by a helicopter.

The next morning, San Francisco was in ruins, while military and emergency personnel surrounded Godzilla's unconscious body. Serizawa and his assistant Vivienne Graham looked sadly at Godzilla, believing him to be dead. Suddenly, Godzilla's eye opened and he began to stir. Godzilla stood up and began walking back out to the ocean. Godzilla let out one last victorious roar before diving back into the sea and disappearing beneath the waves.

Godzilla 2
Not much is known about the film's plot, but it has been confirmed that the film will also feature Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah.

Godzilla vs. Kong
The film's plot is not yet disclosed, but it is confirmed that Godzilla will encounter King Kong.

Post-Millennium Series
Following the success of Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Toho announced a new Japanese reboot to the series titled Godzilla: Resurgence that would be released in 2016, in between Legendary's 2014 film and its upcoming 2019 sequel. The film, written and directed by Hideaki Anno with special effects by Shinji Higuchi, will be released in Japanese theaters on July 29, 2016. It will not be connected to the Legendary series, marking the first time two individual Godzilla film series have been in progress at the same time. The film is notable for its use of "hybrid" special effects, a combination of traditional tokusatsu effects techniques and.

Godzilla: Resurgence
To be added.

Abilities
Over the years Godzilla has possessed many powers and abilities to use against his foes. Godzilla is generally considered to be the most powerful, as is expressed by his title, "the King of the Monsters."

Atomic Breath
Godzilla's signature weapon is his distinctive atomic breath. Godzilla's glow ominously, and then he lets loose with a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth. This power is commonly mistaken for breathing literal fire, which Godzilla only does in the Marvel comics, The Godzilla Power Hour and other non-film media such as the Recommend! Godzilland OVAs.

The intensity of Godzilla's atomic heat ray has changed over the course of his film appearances, varying from a stream of superheated vapor, such as in the 1950's and 1960's, to a beam with explosive and kinetic properties, in the 1970's and onward. In the Heisei series, Godzilla's atomic breath is portrayed as a powerful focused blue laser capable of causing large explosions and severely wounding some monsters such as Rodan and Battra when fired at point-blank range. According to the book Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works, the temperature of Godzilla's standard atomic breath in the Heisei series is 500,000 degrees Celsius. The ray is usually portrayed as being neon blue, though in Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, it is a reddish orange to signify an increased level of power.

In Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla's atomic breath was shown as having incendiary properties and was strong enough to destroy a miniature black hole, while in Godzilla: Final Wars, it possessed incredible range, amazing power and pin-point accuracy, able to hit and destroy a target in outer space and kill or disable most with a single shot. Godzilla has also demonstrated his ability to actually change the intensity of his atomic breath at will. This is first seen in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, when Godzilla's atomic breath changes to his red spiral heat ray to finish off SpaceGodzilla, and later in Godzilla: Final Wars during Godzilla's battle against Keizer Ghidorah. With a quick turn, Godzilla's breath went from the iconic blue beam to the red spiral heat ray, which literally caused the monster Keizer Ghidorah to explode in the upper atmosphere.

In ' Godzilla, Godzilla's atomic breath was more of a focused, fiery shaped energy beam that Godzilla spews out. Godzilla only used it against the M.U.T.O.s after he had taken a severe beating and was already growing weaker, showing that Godzilla only uses it as a last resort against opponents he can't physically overpower on his own. Though it doesn't appear to have the same destructive properties as the versions prior, the blasts were strong enough to push, severely weaken, and eventually kill, the female M.U.T.O. While it may not have the destructive force of its predecessors, this version of Godzilla's atomic breath is still incredibly deadly in its own right. It is, however, entirely possible that Godzilla never used his atomic breath at its full power, seeing as how Godzilla was already extremely weak when he began using it, while the film's official novelization and an earlier screenplay suggest that the female M.U.T.O.'s EMP field interferes with his atomic breath, so whether or not it's capable of more is unknown at this point. The neon-blue glow on Godzilla's begins at the tail and goes all the way to the top of his neck in this film.

In the 2004 video game Godzilla: Save the Earth, Godzilla can also use a variation of his atomic breath called the "Final Beam," a beam of energy that resembles his regular atomic breath except for the fact it is far more powerful and is purple in color. In Save the Earth, he can also launch huge fireballs from his mouth as well.

While Godzilla's atomic breath has typically been shown to set entire city blocks ablaze and easily obliterate most military weaponry, many of Godzilla's opponents have shown the ability to withstand it, at least in its standard intensity. For example, in the Showa series, both Rodan and King Ghidorah were able to withstand direct hits from Godzilla's atomic breath with little visible harm. In the Heisei series, Rodan was vulnerable to the beam at close range, though King Ghidorah remained immune until Godzilla utilized his more powerful spiral heat ray. The Heisei version of MechaGodzilla possessed a special diamond-plated armor that allowed it to absorb Godzilla's atomic breath and reflect it through the plasma grenade port on its abdomen. Many of Godzilla's more powerful opponents, including King Ghidorah, MechaGodzilla, SpaceGodzilla, Destoroyah and Monster X, have proven to be resistant to Godzilla's atomic breath until he was forced to utilize a more powerful variation of it.

Spiral Heat Ray
A stronger variation of the standard atomic ray introduced in the Heisei series was the "spiral ray." This version of Godzilla's atomic breath is typically portrayed as much more powerful than his normal atomic breath and is wrapped in an electrical spiral. Godzilla first used this beam to decapitate King Ghidorah's middle head in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Godzilla used this beam after his normal atomic breath was shown having little to no effect on King Ghidorah. In this film, the spiral ray is still blue in color, but is surrounded by a purplish spiral of energy. Before Godzilla fires the spiral ray, his are surrounded in blue electricity.

As a result of Godzilla absorbing Fire Rodan's life energy in Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, the color of this ray was changed to red, and it was shown to be so powerful that only a few blasts of it were sufficient to completely destroy Super MechaGodzilla and SpaceGodzilla, though Destoroyah was able to withstand several hits to his exoskeleton without any visible damage. The 1999 informational book Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works goes into further detail about the red spiral ray in the Heisei series. According to this book, Godzilla fires a different red spiral ray in each film after acquiring it. In Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, the ray is called the Uranium Atomic Heat Ray ウラニウム放射熱線 (Uraniumu hōsha nessen), and has a temperature of 1.2 million degrees Celsius, hot enough to burn Godzilla's mouth. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, the beam is called the Burn Spiral Heat Ray バーンスパイラル熱線 (Bān supairaru nessen) or the Nuclear Fusion Heat Ray 融合反応熱線 (Yūgō han'nō nessen) and reaches a temperature of 900,000 degrees Celsius. In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Burning Godzilla utilizes two different beams, the Burning Heat Ray バーニング熱線 (Bāningu nessen) and the Infinite Heat Ray インフィニット熱線 (Infinitto nessen). The Infinite Heat Ray is presumably the most powerful variant of Godzilla's atomic breath seen to date, as it was utilized against Destoroyah once Burning Godzilla began to enter meltdown, and is said to increase infinitely in power each time Godzilla uses it. This beam was capable of blasting off part of the frill on Destoroyah's head and severely wounding his shoulder while setting the entire surrounding area ablaze, forcing Destoroyah to try and retreat.

In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, a variant of Godzilla's spiral ray was seen when King Ghidorah used his golden gravity beams on Godzilla. Godzilla was somehow able to draw strength from the gravity beams and used the absorbed energy to fire a blast of blue energy wrapped in a golden spiral that completely destroyed King Ghidorah. Like Godzilla's original spiral beam in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, this beam is blue in color like Godzilla's standard atomic breath and his dorsal plates become surrounded in electricity before firing it. The red spiral ray returned in Godzilla: Final Wars, where it was strong enough to push Keizer Ghidorah to the edge of space, destroying him in an explosion visible from the surface of the Earth.

Nuclear Pulse and Magnetic Powers
In addition to his very deadly atomic breath, Godzilla can also emit atomic energy in all directions from every inch of his body in a short-range pulse. The pulse was first seen in his fight against Biollante. Godzilla used the nuclear pulse throughout the Heisei series, and many consider the climactic scene in Godzilla 2000: Millennium to be a use of Godzilla's nuclear pulse. In the climax of Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla uses something similar to a nuclear pulse to prevent Keizer Ghidorah from draining any more of his energy from him after being surged with Ozaki's energy.

In Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, Godzilla found a way to generate powerful magnetic fields from his body after being struck several times by lightning, which proved devastating against his metallic foe. This is the only time Godzilla ever used this power.

In the 1993 film Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, Godzilla demonstrated another ability that may have been a variant of his nuclear pulse. After being struck with MechaGodzilla's Shock Anchor harpoons, Godzilla discharged a form of energy up the cables, severely damaging the robot's internal mechanisms. However, this was not the only time Godzilla ever used this ability. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla discharged energy through his physical blows in his offensive against the sinister space mutant SpaceGodzilla. In Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, Godzilla also demonstrated the ability to give off huge amounts of radiation and heat after absorbing Fire Rodan's energy. This heat proved to be so intense that it caused Super MechaGodzilla's synthetic diamond armor to literally melt, allowing the mech to be easily destroyed by Godzilla's spiral ray.

In the 1995 film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, when Godzilla's body temperature begins to approach critical due to his meltdown, he constantly emits more powerful orange-colored nuclear pulses. While these pulses were ineffective against the Super X3, they did stun Destoroyah a few times and caused the area surrounding Godzilla to erupt in flames. In this case, the nuclear pulses appear to be uncontrollable and are a symptom of Godzilla's meltdown.

In the 2002 video game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Godzilla has an attack called the "Atomic Shockwave," which strongly resembles his nuclear pulse from the Heisei series.

Durability
Godzilla has displayed an uncanny ability to sustain damage throughout his films.

Starting in the first Godzilla film, Godzilla displayed an immunity to conventional weaponry, virtually impervious to everything the JSDF threw at him. Dr. Yamane states that the very fact Godzilla survived exposure to a hydrogen bomb explosion is a testament to his durability. He has demonstrated the ability to survive complete submersion in magma for an extended period of time, sometimes while under extreme pressure from tectonic plates (as seen in Godzilla vs. Mothra). He has even survived being in ground zero of asteroid impacts. The only times his flesh has been visibly pierced were in battle with the Super X, Showa Gigan, Biollante, King Ghidorah, Destoroyah, and from MechaGodzilla's weapons in the Showa, Heisei and Millennium series.

In addition to being extremely resistant to damage, Godzilla possesses an extremely advanced and highly efficient regenerative ability. This power was a crucial plot point of Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla 2000: Millennium. In Godzilla 2000: Millennium, it is explained that Godzilla's regenerative abilities may have something to do with his radioactive properties, and Organizer G-1 ("Regenerator G-1" in the American version) is the name given to a substance in his cells that is responsible for Godzilla's swift healing. In Godzilla vs. Biollante, Japanese scientists use samples of the Godzilla cells (called G-cells throughout the Heisei series of Godzilla films) to help create the ANEB. This healing factor would be inherited by all creatures spawned from Godzilla's DNA, those being Biollante, SpaceGodzilla and Orga. In the case of Biollante and Orga, their healing factor appears to even exceed Godzilla's own in terms of speed and effectiveness. While the M.U.T.O.s are shown to face Godzilla to the point of exhaustion, he manages to get back to his feet and return to the ocean in a matter of hours which could either be a testament to his incredible durability and he was simply exhausted, or he healed off the damage by sunrise.

In Godzilla, Godzilla was stated to have survived unharmed in the Bikini Atoll  tests in the South Pacific, even appearing to have survived the detonation of Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, during the opening scroll. A testament to his durability is his survival of the various prehistoric extinction events that happened before his encounters with humanity. Additionally, like his previous incarnations and military might, Godzilla showed no outwards signs of damage from any weaponry used by the United States Armed Forces including heavy gunfire, missiles, tank shells, and various other weapons, although he was momentarily pinned by a fallen skyscraper which appeared to do no actual damage to him as he recovers short moments later and continues his attack on his enemy.

Physical Abilities
As attributed to his size, weight and mass, Godzilla has displayed varied levels of physical strength that are, at the very least, sufficient enough to lift weights exceeding 2,000 tons and smash skyscrapers. He has been depicted lifting and throwing monsters in excess of his own weight, such as King Ghidorah, Hedorah, MechaGodzilla and others, and in Godzilla: Final Wars was even able to throw Kumonga clear over the horizon. He is shown using various martial arts techniques in a comical fashion during the Showa Series, or moving very quickly in spite of his size, such as in Zone Fighter. In the Millennium series he has also been able to leap high into the air.

Godzilla's long tail is also a formidable weapon. It has been shown to be very flexible and powerful, able to lash out quickly and topple over buildings and enemy monsters. In Godzilla vs. Megalon, he was able to slide on his tail a great distance to deliver a devastating kick, and in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, it was revealed to be prehensile as well. In all of his incarnations, he has been shown to have powerful jaws, sharp teeth, and claws, although these are more prominent in some incarnations than in others. Rarely, Godzilla also showed the ability to use his as a weapon, such as in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, when he uses their jagged tips to slice off Megaguirus' claw, and Godzilla vs. Hedorah, where he used them to cut into Hedorah during the flying scene. Also in Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, the create a tremendous amount of heat when the atomic ray is being prepared.

However, many of the films show Godzilla preferring to battle his opponents from a distance, particularly in the Heisei series, either by using his atomic breath, or by throwing objects like boulders at them.

Like his previous incarnations, the Legendary Godzilla possesses immense physical strength and can use his immense mass as a weapon. He is able to toss both the male and female M.U.T.O.s around with ease by biting into their bodies and he is able to push the female M.U.T.O with ease, effortlessly overpowering her through a building. The strength of his tail swings are great enough to kill the male M.U.T.O outright as well as knock over a large skyscraper by accident. Unlike previous incarnations, however, he didn't use his arms much to toss them around. This is due to his fighting style being modeled after bears which, despite having powerful front legs, use their jaws as their primary weapon. Overall, the Legendary Godzilla's fighting style seems to be somewhat of a reversal of the typical Godzilla fighting style, preferring to be in close and in direct combat with his targets rather than relying on his atomic breath or throwing objects. Godzilla is also able to cause tsunamis by just going to shore.

Amphibiousness
Though technically a reptile and not an amphibian, Godzilla has an amphibious lifestyle. He spends half of his life in water and the other on land. He is as adept a fighter underwater as he is on land. Capable of marching on the sea floor or swimming by undulating his tail like a crocodile, Godzilla is displayed as being able to breathe underwater, occasionally hibernating in the ocean depths between movies, and being submerged apparently does not impede his atomic ray, as seen in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. He engages opponents in the sea on multiple occasions, fighting King Ghidorah, Ebirah, Battra, Biollante and Mothra either beneath or on the surface of the waves.

In Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla now possesses gills/amphibious lungs so he can stay underwater indefinitely, but he closes them when he's on land and uses his lungs. These gills appear to be weak points, as Godzilla reacts whenever he is struck in the gills by artillery fire or strikes from the M.U.T.O.s' claws.

Flight
In a memorable, and somewhat infamous scene in Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Godzilla used his atomic breath to fly by aiming it at the ground and lifting off like a rocket. Godzilla has used this ability two times outside of Godzilla vs. Hedorah; in the comic series Godzilla: Ongoing and in Godzilla: The Game, where it is called "Back Charge."

Laser Beams
In The Godzilla Power Hour, Godzilla could shoot red laser beams out of his eyes in addition to breathing fire.

Intelligence
The extent of Godzilla's intelligence varies throughout the character's history, but Godzilla is generally depicted as a thinking creature. The Showa incarnation in particular is depicted as being close in intelligence to a human, capable of abstract thought, and able to communicate with other monsters. Other versions of Godzilla display a simple animal cunning.

Though the American-shot inserts from King Kong vs. Godzilla have little consistency with the timeline and rules of the Godzilla character in the Toho films, it may be worth mentioning that one of the American characters says that Godzilla has a brain about the size of a marble: "He's sheer brute force." In comparison, the character states that King Kong "Is a thinking animal." Again, this is largely inconsistent with Godzilla's character, although this is possibly done just to show Kong, being a primate would be be much more intelligent than Godzilla, who is a reptile.

In the Heisei series, Godzilla reacts on animal cunning and instinct more consecutively than in his Showa counterpart, as demonstrated by his conditioned response in The Return of Godzilla. He was still capable of independent thought, however, and according to Miki Saegusa, of human-like sentiments as well. This was corroborated by his mourning the death of Godzilla Junior in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. In Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, he seems to destroy MechaGodzilla out of rage at Rodan's death. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, during the final battle, Godzilla was the first to figure out that SpaceGodzilla was drawing energy from the Fukuoka Tower and, with the help of Land Moguera, Godzilla demolishes the Tower and saps SpaceGodzilla's energy. It was insinuated in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah that he also remembers the distant past. The Heisei Godzilla was psychic on some level, possibly the most powerful in existence. His evasion of the J.S.D.F. in Godzilla vs. Biollante seemed to carry implications of precognition. Additionally, he had some manner of psychic link with Godzilla Junior and has several times demonstrated the ability to locate potential opponents from great distances.

Another example of Godzilla's intelligence was displayed in Godzilla 2000: Millennium when he was facing Orga. When Orga kept regenerating himself in a fast pace, Godzilla decided to go after Orga's core and used a nuclear pulse to destroy it, thus exploiting that weakness and ultimately defeating Orga.

While fighting the M.U.T.O.s in ' Godzilla, Godzilla figures out their strengths and weaknesses through repeated clashes with them. He lets the male M.U.T.O. fly to attack him, and he then used his tail to slam him into a building, killing him. With the female M.U.T.O., he fired his atomic breath right into her mouth after forcing it open, making her neck explode.

Weaknesses
Despite his incredible power, Godzilla has displayed a few weaknesses over the years. In King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla, he is shown to be vulnerable to strong voltages of electricity. As the series progressed, lightning (i.e., electricity found in nature) has been shown to have the opposite effect, at times serving to revitalize him. In The Return of Godzilla, Godzilla is shown to have a critical weakness to Cadmium, an element commonly used to slow nuclear reactions. The Super X fired its full payload of cadmium missiles into Godzilla's mouth, and this had the effect of temporarily stopping his heart and knocking him unconscious. Cadmium was also utilized by the Super X 3 to freeze Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. In Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, Godzilla is revealed to have a second brain in his spine, with Super MechaGodzilla being able to paralyze him from the waist down by destroying it. Nevertheless, his secondary brain was restored by Fire Rodan and further films seem to ignore this gigantic weak spot. It was also suggested in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla that Godzilla has a soft spot under each armpit. However, the validity of this claim was highly dubious and this alleged weak point was never successfully exploited. Godzilla's sheer bulk has also been depicted as a disadvantage, making it difficult for him to keep up with the more agile Megaguirus, who was able to outmaneuver him as well as forcing Godzilla to have to rely heavily on his endurance. Also, while he has an endurance level beyond measure, his enemies usually counter by trying to crush and batter him. MechaGodzilla managed to overpower Godzilla by firing more weaponry than he could defend against, althugh this became useless after Godzilla became magnetised.

In every film era, Godzilla has displayed at least some weakness to ice. In Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla was frozen in an iceberg for seven years before emerging again in King Kong vs. Godzilla. In Son of Godzilla, Godzilla was forced into hibernation when a massive manmade snowstorm descended on Solgell Island. In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, G-Force utilized special freezing weapons to freeze Godzilla solid for several hours, and later attempted to freeze him as he melted down, which partially succeeded in minimizing the damage. In Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla was sealed under ice in Antarctica for several decades. In each of these scenarios, ice has proven an effective way to trap Godzilla and cause him to go dormant temporarily, although Godzilla has never suffered any visible physical harm from being frozen.

To date, the only weapons ever shown to be close to effective against Godzilla were Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer and to a lesser degree, Dr. Shiragami's Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB). The ANEB was a special bacteria genetically engineered from Godzilla's own cells and designed to consume radioactivity. The bacteria managed to lower the radioactivity within Godzilla's body to the point of causing him to hibernate in the sea for three years. Godzilla was then revived in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah when he intercepted and fed on a nuclear submarine, causing him to grow in size and power. There were apparently no further attempts to use the ANEB against Godzilla. In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla went through Meltdown, a process which killed him.

To an even lesser extent, in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla was eventually defeated after a D-03 Missile was fired by the Satsuma from inside Godzilla's body. This opened a large wound on the side of Godzilla's neck that had earlier been inflicted by King Ghidorah, and when Godzilla attempted to fire his atomic breath, it shot out of the wound. Godzilla continued to attempt to fire his atomic breath, eventually causing him to explode and be reduced to just his heart. The D-03 Missile only seemed to be effective against Godzilla when fired from inside his body, as Godzilla had been bombarded by multiple D-03 Missiles earlier and was not visibly injured at all.

A weakness that the M.U.T.O.s exploited in Godzilla were the gills Godzilla possessed on his neck. Puncturing them caused him great pain and weakened him from repeated blows. This is also seen when he tried to make his way to San Francisco, a stray shot from the naval fleet managed to hit his gills and he smashed through the Golden Gate Bridge as a reaction.

Anti-Godzilla Weapons
Due to Godzilla's size, super-strength and regenerative abilities, he is invulnerable to most forms of conventional attack. However, over the years, there have been some weapons that were able to hurt and damage Godzilla.
 * This list is for man-made weapons. Other monsters and forces of nature don't count.


 * Oxygen Destroyer - The Oxygen Destroyer was a weapon that contained a chemical compound designed to remove all oxygen from water, causing living creatures to die of asphyxiation as their remains are liquefied. The Oxygen Destroyer was the first, and in many ways only, weapon to defeat Godzilla. However, in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla survived and retreated from the Oxygen Destroyer, only to return in 1966. In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla was killed, but his body remained to be possessed by the restless dead of the Pacific War.
 * Super X - The Super X was a hovercraft designed with cadmium missiles, radiation shields and high-intensity lasers to fight Godzilla in The Return of Godzilla. Its missiles were almost able to kill Godzilla by slowing down the nuclear reactions in his body which ended up stopping his heart, but Godzilla was revitalized by a radiation cloud caused by Russian and American missiles colliding. The Super X was ultimately destroyed when Godzilla dropped a building on it. Upgrades of the Super X, the Super X2 and the Super X3, appeared in the later films Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, respectively.
 * Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria - The Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria, or ANEB, was a strain of bacteria genetically engineered using Godzilla's own cells in order to break down and feed on nuclear materials. The ANEB was designed to both clean up nuclear accidents and severely slow down Godzilla's metabolism to the point of killing him. Godzilla was injected by several ANEB-loaded rockets, but his body temperature was too low for the ANEB to take effect. Using MBT-92 Maser Cannons and the M6000 T.C. System, the J.S.D.F. successfully began to raise Godzilla's body temperature and weaken him, while Biollante raised it to the point that Godzilla passed out. Godzilla's body temperature was lowered by the ocean water, and he gained enough strength to retreat underwater, where he remained mostly dormant for the next two years due to his continued ANEB infection. Eventually, Godzilla was cured of the ANEB when he fed on a nuclear submarine, which also caused him to grow in height to 100 meters. The ANEB was never utilized against Godzilla again, as humanity opted to build mechas to battle him instead.
 * Mecha-King Ghidorah - This mecha was built over the corpse of King Ghidorah and was piloted by Futurian, Emmy Kano. Despite taking heavy damage, Mecha-King Ghidorah was able to grapple with Godzilla for a time, until Godzilla unleashed his atomic breath, slaying Mecha-King Ghidorah and sending them both plummeting into the ocean.
 * MechaGodzilla - The first MechaGodzilla was created as a weapon of destruction by the Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens. MechaGodzilla's body was constructed of a nearly indestructible alloy known as "space titanium," was equipped with a staggering amount of firepower and had rockets for flight. Godzilla defeated it by pulling its head off. An updated version of the same mecha returned in Terror of MechaGodzilla, and this time it survived its head being ripped off. A second version of MechaGodzilla appeared in Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2. This one was built by the JSDF, as a defensive weapon against Godzilla and other monsters like Rodan. It was designed from Futurian technology from the remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah. It still had a large assortment of weapons and was able to fly. It was even able to join with a shuttle-craft called Garuda to form Super MechaGodzilla. It was successfully able to paralyze Godzilla from the waist down and may have even been able to beat him if Rodan had not sacrificed his life to save Godzilla. MechaGodzilla was then destroyed by Godzilla. A third version of MechaGodzilla, Kiryu, appeared in Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla. This time, the mecha was built around the skeleton of the original Godzilla from 1954. However, DNA in the bones caused Kiryu to remember that it was once Godzilla and it went on a rampage. Once the JSDF was able to get Kiryu under control, it forced Godzilla to retreat. Godzilla and Kiryu would meet again in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, but this time, Mothra would intervene. Mothra demanded that Godzilla's bones (inside Kiryu) be returned to their grave. The JSDF agreed, but only after Godzilla was defeated. Ultimately, Kiryu made the final decision and returned to the sea on its own will, carrying Godzilla with him and plummeting into the ocean.

Filmography

 * Godzilla (1954)
 * Godzilla Raids Again
 * King Kong vs. Godzilla
 * Mothra vs. Godzilla
 * Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
 * Invasion of Astro-Monster
 * Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
 * Son of Godzilla
 * Destroy All Monsters
 * All Monsters Attack
 * Godzilla vs. Hedorah
 * Godzilla vs. Gigan
 * Godzilla vs. Megalon
 * Zone Fighter
 * Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla
 * Terror of MechaGodzilla
 * The Godzilla Power Hour
 * Bye-Bye Jupiter (Stock Footage)
 * The Return of Godzilla
 * Godzilla vs. Biollante
 * Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
 * Godzilla vs. Mothra
 * Adventure! Godzilland
 * Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2
 * Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
 * Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
 * Recommend! Godzilland
 * Godzilla Island
 * GODZILLA
 * Godzilla: The Series
 * Godzilla 2000: Millennium
 * Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
 * Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
 * Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla
 * Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
 * Godzilla: Final Wars
 * Always: Sunset On Third Street 2 (Cameo)
 * Godzilla (2014)
 * Godzilla: Resurgence
 * Godzilla 2
 * Godzilla vs. Kong

Video Game Appearances

 * 1983 (UNLICENSED): Godzilla (Commodore 64)
 * 1984 (UNLICENSED): Godzilla and the Martians
 * 1984: Godzilla vs. 3 Giant Monsters
 * 1985: Fierce Dragon Godzilla: Metropolis Destruction!!
 * 1985: Gojira-kun
 * 1986: Monster's Fair
 * 1986: The Movie Monster Game
 * 1988: Godzilla: Monster of Monsters
 * 1988 (UNLICENSED): Godzilla (Commodore Plus/4)
 * 1990: Circus Caper
 * 1990: Godzilla (Gameboy)
 * 1992: Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters
 * 1992: Battle Soccer
 * 1993: Godzilla
 * 1993: Godzilla (PC-9801)
 * 1993: Godzilla (Arcade)
 * 1993: Super Godzilla
 * 1993: Godzilla: Battle Legends
 * 1994: Godzilla: Great Monster Battle
 * 1995 (UNLICENSED): Godzilla: The Atomar Nightmare
 * 1995: Godzilla: Giant Monster March
 * 1995: Godzilla: Archipelago Shock
 * 1995: Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!!
 * 1998: GODZILLA
 * 1998: Godzilla Generations
 * 1998: Godzilla: Trading Battle
 * 1999: Godzilla: The Series
 * 1999: Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact
 * 2000: Godzilla: The Series - Monster Wars
 * 2002: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
 * 2004: Godzilla: Save the Earth
 * 2006: CR Godzilla 3S-T Battle
 * 2007: Godzilla: Unleashed
 * 2007: Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash
 * 2007: Godzilla: Pachislot Wars
 * 2009: Godzilla: Monster Mayhem (2D)
 * 2009: Godzilla: Monster Mayhem (3D)
 * 2010: CR Godzilla: Descent of the Destruction God
 * 2011: Godzilla on Monster Island
 * 2014: Godzilla: Strike Zone
 * 2014: Godzilla: Crisis Defense
 * 2014: Godzilla: Smash3
 * 2014: Monster Strike
 * 2014: Godzilla: The Game (Japan PlayStation 3)
 * 2015: Godzilla: Kaiju Collection
 * 2015: Godzilla: The Game (Godzilla VS. / PlayStation 4)
 * 2015: Ace Combat Infinity (Tokyo Martial Law online mission)
 * 2016: City Shrouded in Shadow

Godzilla: Monster of Monsters
One of two monsters the player can control. Unlike Mothra, Godzilla excels at combat versus other. Godzilla's fault lies in his mobility: in the Japanese version of the game, Godzilla's movement is affected by terrain and he could move either one or two spaces, while his movement is simply two spaces in the US version. Godzilla also presents a bigger target, making stage navigation harder, and has less overall power and life compared to Mothra. To compensate for this, Godzilla deals much more damage than Mothra and has double the number of offensive moves.

Godzilla: Unleashed
Height: 100 meters Weight: 55,000 tons

Godzilla 2000 Bio
"Godzilla is the most powerful of Earth's Defenders. Godzilla lives beneath the ocean's waves, slumbering until he is called upon to face some fearsome threat. Although he has often defended the Earth from aliens, mutants, and other external threats, Godzilla has never included "humans" in the list of things he deliberately protects. To the contrary, it is often human folly that arouses Godzilla's ire. Because of this fact, the Global Defense Force considers Godzilla to be an extremely dangerous potential adversary. Godzilla uses his atomic fire to destroy most threats from a distance, but has proved to be a fearsome hand-to-hand combatant, especially when he can bring his powerful tail into play. Godzilla's most mysterious ability may be his uncanny sixth sense, which always gives him time to travel to exactly where he needs to be."

Godzilla 1990's Bio
"Born of a failed attempt by aliens from the future to destroy Godzilla in the past, Godzilla 90's is a larger, stronger version of his original form. This 'reborn' version of the original mutated Godzillasaurus ravaged an unprepared human populace with a renewed thirst for destruction. Godzilla 90's' reemergence as a monster superpower reminded all those standing in his way that the "King of the monsters" had returned."

Godzilla 1954 Bio
"The original king of the monsters, this towering behemoth was the first post-war radioactive monster unleashed upon the world. Godzilla '54's atomic-powered body was so powerful that each footprint he left was a crater seeping with lethal radiation. The infamous day that Godzilla rose from the sea to conquer Tokyo will be remembered as the beginning of the humanity's epic struggle against the reign of giant monsters."

In the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed, all three Godzilla incarnations are playable, each with a few differences between them, but all are fairly alike. Godzilla is simple to control, and with many different fearsome attacks, he is able to easily floor multiple monsters at once. Although his combat ability might be lacking in some regards, he still retains the deadly atomic breath ray which is an easy attack to execute and deals a lot of damage. In the Wii version of the game, Godzilla 2000 is the only incarnation that can be played in story mode. Godzilla 1954 and Godzilla 1990's are only playable in Brawl mode, although Godzilla 1990's is playable in story mode in the PlayStation 2 version of the game.

Godzilla: The Game
Godzilla, using his likeness from Godzilla vs. Biollante, appears as a playable character in Godzilla: The Game. He utilizes a very chainable moveset involving swipes with his claws, kicks, charge attacks, and swipes from his tail. He can also use his Atomic Breath and Nuclear Pulse, however by doing certain things in the game, the player can unlock extra attacks for Godzilla, such as the Godzilla Dance from Invasion of Astro-Monster, the Atomic Flight from Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and extra versions of the Atomic Breath such as: Minilla's Smoke Rings, a black and white atomic breath as homage to the first two Godzilla films, and a much stronger version of the normal Atomic Breath that has purple spirals but takes much longer to charge.

In a secret ending that is unlocked after reaching past 100-meters in height, Godzilla will enter Meltdown and transform into Burning Godzilla, and the true final boss of the game will be revealed, the Hollywood GODZILLA. Upon completion of the stage, both GODZILLA and Burning Godzilla are unlocked as playable characters in King of the Monsters Mode. The Legendary Godzilla is playable only in this mode in the PlayStation 3 version of the game, while the PS4 version includes him as playable in all game modes. The PlayStation 4 version of the game also adds Godzilla 1964 as a playable monster.

Moveset (1964, 1989, Burning):

Square

One tap: Right Punch

Two taps: Left Punch

Three taps: Tail Combo

One tap (While grabbing): Throw

Triangle

Tap: Strong Tail Attack

Tap + Up: Grab

Tap + Down: Tail Attack

Tap + Left/Right: Side Attack

Tap(While Charging): Front Kick

Tap(While Grabbing): Bite

X

Tap: Charge

Tap + Roar: Strong Charge

Tap(While Charging): Jump Attack

Circle

Tap: Atomic Ray*

Tap + Roar: Strong Atomic Ray*

Tap + Down: Back Charge*

Tap + Up: Sweeping Breath*

Tap(While Grabbing): Sweeping Breath*

R2

Tap: Nuclear Pulse

L1 + L1/R1 + R1: 180 ° Turn

* =Godzilla has 4 types of Atomic Ray attacks: Normal Ray(Default), Spiral Ray(Very Powerful attack, Gauge charges Slowly), Vapor Ray(Weak attack, Gauge charges Quickly), and Radioactive Smoke Rings(Fires Smoke Rings, Multiple Rings Fire Slowly)

Note: Burning Godzilla Uses Spiral Fire Ray, Godzilla 1964 uses Vapor Ray

Moveset(2014)

Square

One tap: Right Scratch

Two taps: Left Scratch

Three taps: Slap Down

Triangle

Tap: Bite

Tap + Up: Grab Press

Tap + Down: Tail Sweep

X

Tap: Tackle

Tap + Roar: Armor Tackle

Circle

Tap: Atomic Ray

Tap + Roar: Rushing Blast

R2

Tap: Double Tail Attack

Godzilla, King of Kaiju (Showa Series)
Godzilla originated as the relict species of an organism whose evolution from an oceanic reptile into a land animal was interrupted by thermonuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean, the effects of which caused it to turn into a monster. Its name is derived from the legendary "Gojira" beast of Odo Island. It has the ability to shoot a shining, bluish-white radioactive heat ray from its mouth that decimates all in its path while causing its dorsal plates to glow.

The first Godzilla came ashore in Tokyo and wreaked havoc in the metropolitan area as though to send a warning to the human race, which had become complacent in modern civilization. It was eventually brought down by the "Oxygen Destroyer", an underwater oxygen disrupting agent developed by Dr. Serizawa.

Later, one of the same species was identified on Iwado Island in the north and ran rampant in Japan again. However, the second Godzilla became an ally to mankind, protecting it when the space monster King Ghidorah invaded Earth.

Although it was somewhat hastily planned and produced, "Godzilla" (1954) became an explosive hit that broke through Japan's borders to an eventual release in America and Europe, where it was heralded as a fresh new take on the monster movie. The entire Showa series of 15 movies would go on to enjoy lasting popularity."

■ Specifications ● Showa Series (Original second generation) Height: 50 meters Weight: 20,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla" through "Terror of MechaGodzilla"

Godzilla, King of Kaiju (Heisei Series)
A relic of the ancient Godzillasaurus species from Lagos Island of the Marshall Islands, this Godzilla mutated into a monster due to thermonuclear testing conducted in the Bikini Atoll. Closely related to the Godzilla who previously wreaked havoc in Tokyo, this one was awakened by volcanic activity on Daikokujima Island in the Izu Islands, whereupon Japan suffered its first Godzilla attack in 30 years.

Evolving to develop an internal structure similar to a nuclear reactor, it attacked energy sources like nuclear reactors and nuclear submarines. Thanks to the effects of its G-cells, which exhibit a powerful, self-reproductive ability, it has an impregnable body that can recover from any wound within a short period of time. Later, however, rival monsters appeared who could absorb these cells, and with the discovery that cadmium bullets and anti-nuclear-energy bacteria are able to suppress its internal nuclear reactions, Godzilla was eventually forced into suspended animation.

Though normally hostile to human beings, it has shown sympathetic response to telepathic communications from Miki Saegusa, a girl with ESP who is affiliated with the ESP Research Institute.

The sixteenth film, "The Return of Godzilla" (1984), was a sequel to the very first film in 1954, consequently resetting the continuity of the previous Showa series releases up until that point. Thus began what would be called the Heisei series, culminating in the epic 22nd film, "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah" (1995).

■ Specifications ● Heisei Series Height: 80-100 meters Weight: 50,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "The Return of Godzilla" through "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah"

Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Millennium Series)
The Godzilla of 1999 and beyond evolved to have a tougher appearance and rough dorsal plates. It frequently attacks Japan like a natural disaster, inflicting great damage upon the human race.

In the more recent Millennium Series, the Godzilla universe was reset once again, with each work separately situated as a continuation of the 1954 film. The "Millennium" version of Godzilla was the second version of Godzilla after 1954, this time attacking metropolitan cities and power plants as if it loathed the human race and its advanced science. The "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" film had Godzilla survive the end of the 1954 movie and return to attack Japan three times. The film "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" took place after 1954 and concentrated on the deep-seated resentment of the victims of the Pacific War. In the "Godzilla: Final Wars" version, he appeared after Earth's environment was destroyed, having been sealed up in the South Pole by the submarine battleship Gotengo 50 years earlier.

Though camera and costuming techniques have vastly improved over the 60-year history of Godzilla, and special effects now incorporate the latest computer-generated visuals, the character design always starts with the foundation established in the original 1954 film version.

■ Specifications ● "Godzilla 2000: Millennium" Height: 55 meters Total Length: 122.5 meters Weight: 25,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla 2000: Millennium"

● "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" Height: 55 meters Total Length: 122.5 meters Weight: 25,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus"

● "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" Height: 60 meters Weight: 30,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack"

● "Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla" Height: 55 meters Weight: 25,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla" "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S."

● "Godzilla: Final Wars" Height: 100 meters Weight: 55,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla: Final Wars"

Godzilla (2014)
A relic species of an extinct organism which stood at the top of the ecosystem that was bombarded with high density radiation during Earth's Paleozoic Era. It escaped to the deep sea during the mass extinction of all living things in the Permian period. Lurking for eons at the bottom of the ocean, where it managed to perpetuate its species, it appeared on land once again in the 1940s, when it was tracked by both U.S. and Soviet armies.

Able to walk upright vertically on two legs, it can survive on land, in water, and below the earth. It possesses tremendous physical strength, and in combat, most foes are overwhelmed just by the enormous destructive power of its long tail. Its ultimate weapon is the heat ray it blasts from its mouth.

Although this version of Godzilla was created in Hollywood entirely through CGI animation, the production team put great emphasis on giving it the sense of a costumed character. For the battle in the last scene, human movements were reproduced with CGI animation using motion capture technology, so that the characters' personalities would shine through, allowing audiences to empathize with them.

■ Specifications Height: 108 meters Tail Length: 167.74 meters Weight: 90,000 tons Abilities: Atomic breath Appearances: "Godzilla"

Marvel
The Marvel Godzilla, King of the Monsters series told original stories and attempted to both fit into the official Toho continuity and avoid referencing it too directly. It also integrated Godzilla into the Marvel Universe, making use of many of its main regular characters, such as the Avengers.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters
Marvel's Godzilla was first awakened in 1956 after an H-Bomb experiment and later destroyed the Japanese countryside. It protected Japan for years from other monsters before it disappeared in the 1970's. It reappeared in Alaska, and soon made its way down to the mainland of America. S.H.I.E.L.D tried to stop it, but failed. He fought other monsters and superheroes on his way down, and was used to stop an alien invasion. He was shrunken and sent back to the Cretaceous Period through a time machine, but soon appeared in New York again at his full size. He fought the Fantastic Four and the Avengers along with S.H.I.E.L.D., but was eventually turned away by a young bystander named Rob Takaguchi. He swam out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Later Marvel Comics
Years later, Godzilla was captured and mutated by Doctor Demonicus, turning him into a more water-based reptile. He could not use his nuclear breath and was controlled by the doctor. He later attacked the Avengers, but the pilot escaped. He was stopped from attacking a village, and was taken out to the sea by Iron Man. Iron Man took off his armor, and Godzilla took it back to Demonicus. He later escaped to the ocean and found the set of "Devil Dinosaur: The Movie," and was attacked by a robotic Devil Dinosaur. He fought it and destroyed it, and returned to the sea. After an unknown amount of time, Godzilla returned to his original form and attacked New York under the control of Mole Man. Godzilla has not been seen since then, though other Godzilla-like creatures have been occasionally sighted.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters
The Dark Horse Godzilla, King of the Monsters had Godzilla fighting many new, original monsters.

Random House
Between 1996 and 1998, Random House published four books by Marc Cerasini featuring Godzilla and other monsters from the Toho movies: Godzilla Returns, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla at World's End, and Godzilla vs. The Robot Monsters. The release of a fifth book, Godzilla and the Lost Continent was planned but was canceled when Random House's license to Godzilla expired.

Kodansya's Godzilla, King of the Monsters Manga
In this manga series made by Kodansya, Godzilla serves as the primary protagonist, and fights against a variety of monsters revived by Doctor Oniyama, culminating in a climactic battle against a clone of himself, named King Godzilla.

The Godzilla Comic
In this manga illustrated by Hurricane Ryu Hariken, Godzilla battles to save Earth from a host of robots built by humans.

IDW
IDW Publishing has released several Godzilla comic series. The three main series, Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Godzilla: Ongoing, and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, are part of a single ongoing storyline, while the miniseries are each self-contained.

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Godzilla awakened one day from underneath a beach near Japan. The military attempted to kill Godzilla with an atomic bomb, but only made him more powerful and granted him the ability to fire atomic breath. Elsewhere around the world, the monsters Rodan, Anguirus, Kumonga, and Battra appeared and began to wreak havoc. Eventually, all of the monsters converged on the United States and battled, causing untold destruction. The U.S. government built a giant robot, MechaGodzilla in order to battle the monsters, while in Asia a monk awakened King Ghidorah to battle them. Godzilla arrived in Washington D.C., where he was attacked by King Ghidorah. MechaGodzilla, piloted by Steven Woods, arrived and defeated both monsters, earning Woods a hero's recognition. Meanwhile, the evil psychic twins Minette and Mallory took control of Rodan and Battra and came to the U.S. to try and control Godzilla. Godzilla managed to overcome and defeat both monsters, and later returned to the sea, leaving human civilization devastated and rushing to prepare for future monster attacks.

Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths
Godzilla was living on Monster Island along with most of the other kaiju on Earth. When Tokyo police detective Makoto Sato brought the Elias to Tokyo, Godzilla and the other monsters came ashore and laid waste to the city. Sato's son, a pilot in G-Force, took command of MechaGodzilla and used it to fight Godzilla while Sato brought down the evil Yakuza boss Ryota Takahashi and returned the Elias to Mothra. After the Elias were safely returned, Godzilla and the other monsters returned to Monster Island in peace.

Godzilla: Legends
The Godzilla: Legends series focuses less on Godzilla and more on different monsters during its five issues. In the first issue, Godzilla only appeared briefly after Anguirus and the G-Graspers drove off Destoroyah. In the third issue, Godzilla was mentioned in a flashback about how Miki Saegusa used her telepathy to briefly control Godzilla. In the fourth issue, Godzilla appeared in China and teamed up with MechaGodzilla to battle Hedorah. In the fifth issue, an adventurer was tasked with studying Godzilla by climbing on his back, all while Godzilla battled Kumonga.

Godzilla: Ongoing
In this follow-up to Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Godzilla appeared in Washington D.C. once again, where the ex-British special forces agent known as Boxer, whose daughter was killed by Godzilla, was hired to protect a wealthy Japanese businesswoman's daughter. Boxer's client was killed during their attempted escape, so Boxer decided to join with his former acquaintances to form the "Kaiju Kill Crew," a group of mercenaries hired to bring down attacking kaiju. After several successful missions, Boxer's crew was sent to California, where a billionaire industrialist had just unleashed his new MechaGodzilla to battle Godzilla. After Godzilla defeated Kiryu, Boxer and his team tried to bring Godzilla down as he headed north along the Pacific coast to Seattle. But when the space monsters Hedorah, Gigan, SpaceGodzilla, and Monster X arrived on Earth, Boxer was forced to temporary vendetta against Godzilla to defeat the space monsters. While Kiryu freed the monsters held on Monster Island, Godzilla battled and defeated Hedorah in California then traveled to New York to take on SpaceGodzilla and Monster X. There, he was joined by Kiryu and Kumonga, who were both promptly defeated. But when the immobilized Kiryu froze SpaceGodzilla with the Absolute Zero cannon, Godzilla took the opportunity to defeat his extraterrestrial clone with a blast of atomic breath. With only him and Godzilla still standing, Monster X transformed into Keizer Ghidorah, and quickly overwhelmed Godzilla. Thankfully, Rodan arrived and decapitated one of Keizer Ghidorah's heads with a sonic boom from his wings. With Rodan's help, Godzilla severed another one of Keizer Ghidorah's heads, then killed him by crushing his remaining head with his foot. As Godzilla started walking back to the ocean, Boxer jumped into Godzilla's mouth in a last-ditch attempt to hurt him using a miniature version of his "headache gun." This action only slightly irritated Godzilla, at the cost of Boxer's life.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War
Godzilla suddenly appeared in Tokyo in 1954, setting the entire city ablaze. Ota Murakami and his friend Kentaro Yoshihara were sent in as part of a J.S.D.F. platoon to deal with the crisis. The two managed to save countless civilians from Godzilla, and barely escaped the disaster area with their lives. A few days later, a special chemical weapon was detonated in Tokyo Bay, and seemingly killed Godzilla. However, Godzilla was soon spotted elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and Ota and Kentaro were recruited to the Anti-Megalosaurus Force (AMF), a special international military force dedicated to hunting giant monsters. In 1967, Godzilla was sighted in Vietnam during the middle of the Vietnam War. The AMF deployed a unit of Maser Cannons to battle the creature, but their assault was interrupted by the appearance if another monster, Anguirus. Godzilla and Anguirus battled until Anguirus found himself overwhelmed and decided to flee. As the Maser tanks prepared to fire at Godzilla, their view was obscured by the smoke from a bombing run, and Godzilla escaped. In 1975, Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Hedorah, Battra, Ebirah, Megalon, and Kumonga appeared in Ghana, prompting an elite AMF team to respond. There, Ota discovered that Dr. Deverich, a former AMF scientist, had stolen an experimental device and weaponized it to attract monsters, intending to sell it to the criminal underworld. During the chaos, Deverich attracted all of the monsters to his location, allowing him to escape while the monsters overran AMF's forces. AMF's commander, Colonel Schooler, was killed in the attack, only strengthening Ota's hatred of Godzilla. In 1987, Godzilla appeared in Bombay, drawn there by Deverich's transmitter. Ota and Kentaro traveled there to hunt down Deverich while AMF deployed their latest weapon, MechaGodzilla. Ota and Kentaro apprehended Deverich, but not before he activated his new more powerful monster transmitter, which summoned SpaceGodzilla to the city. SpaceGodzilla severely damaged MechaGodzilla and began to overpower Godzilla. Ota took command of the damaged MechaGodzilla and used it to destroy the giant crystal giving SpaceGodzilla power, toppling it onto him. Godzilla used this opportunity to blast SpaceGodzilla with his atomic breath, killing him. In 2002, AMF had developed two new anti-Godzilla weapons; Kiryu, a new MechaGodzilla, and the Dimension Tide, and artificial black hole gun. Godzilla was lured to Antarctica, but the space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan, who had been drawn to Earth by Deverich's beacon, arrived there as well. While the Dimension Tide prepared to fire, Ota wished Kentaro farewell and took command of Kiryu, assisting Godzilla in battling the space monsters. After the Dimension Tide was fired, Kiryu and Godzilla ensured that both space monsters were banished into the black hole. Before Godzilla could leave, Ota restrained Godzilla with Kiryu and yelled at Godzilla, telling him to look at him. As Kiryu was torn apart by the force of the black hole, the cockpit was exposed, allowing Ota to briefly make eye contact with Godzilla. Kiryu then released Godzilla, causing both monsters to apparently be pulled into the black hole. However, Godzilla escaped, and was seen swimming away after the black hole dissipated.

Godzilla: Rulers of Earth
The Godzilla from Kingdom of Monsters and Ongoing returns once again in Godzilla: Rulers of Earth.

Godzilla: Cataclysm
Godzilla appears in Godzilla: Cataclysm, where he fights King Ghidorah and defeats him. Godzilla, like all the other monsters, suddenly vanish sometime, and years later, reappears to fight Biollante in Tokyo.

Godzilla: Awakening
An ancient creature, Godzilla slept in the sea 250,000,000 years ago and was disturbed by a Shinomura that landed near him. Godzilla stood up and blasted the Shinomura with his atomic breath just as a meteor exploded nearby, triggering the Permian-Triassic extinction event and diminishing atmospheric radiation, which Godzilla depended on, forever, forcing Godzilla to look for radiation closer to the Earth's core in the bottom of the ocean.

Millions of years pass and Godzilla hibernates until he is awakened by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. He surfaces near Hiroshima and chases after the awakened Shinomura. Throughout the rest of the 1940's, Godzilla chases off Shinomura from all sites it attacks around the Pacific Ocean and is mass-reported by eye-witnesses, but no one working for the U.S. government believes he exists except for doctor Serizawa, Ishiro Serizawa's father.

In March of 1954, Godzilla surfaces near Moansta Island to fight the two Shinomura, who had just fused into one. After a heated battle, Godzilla manages to separate both Shinomura and kills one of them with his atomic breath. As the other Shinomura gets away, Godzilla follows it to Bikini Atoll and is seen by Monarch, proving "Gojira" exists. The next day, an atomic "test" is performed on Bikini Atoll, killing the Shinomura and presumably Godzilla. Serizawa, however, believed Godzilla couldn't have died.

In 1981, Monarch member Shaw approached Ishiro Serizawa at his father's funeral, who joins Monarch in order to study Godzilla, who's still alive.

Cultural Impact


Godzilla is one of the defining aspects and most recognizable features of Japanese pop culture for many people worldwide, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. Though his popularity has waned slightly over the years, he is still one of the most renowned monster characters in the world. To this day, Godzilla remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. Godzilla has been called a filmographic metaphor for the United States, starting out as a terrifying enemy and later a strong ally and defender in times of need. The earliest Godzilla films, especially the original Gojira, attempted to portray Godzilla as a frightening, nuclear monster. Godzilla represented the fears of many Japanese of a repeat of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the series progressed, so did Godzilla himself, changing into a less destructive and more heroic character as the films became increasingly geared towards children. Today, the character has fallen somewhere in the middle, sometimes portrayed as a protector of the Earth (notably Tokyo) from external threats and other times as a bringer of destruction.

He has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla films, especially the original, portrayed Godzilla as a frightening, nuclear monster. Godzilla represented the fears that many Japanese held about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the possibility of recurrence.

As the series progressed, so did Godzilla, changing into a less destructive and more heroic character as the films became geared towards children. Since then, the character has fallen somewhere in the middle, sometimes portrayed as a protector of the world from external threats and other times as a bringer of destruction. Godzilla remains one of the greatest fictional heroes in the history of film, and is also the second of only three fictional characters to have won the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded in 1996.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has named its newly acquired, fast interceptor vessel Gojira in deference to the Godzilla character and as an ironic comment on the Japanese whalers' activities. Its purpose is to target and harass Japanese whalers in defense of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. However, its name was later changed due to copyright issues with Toho.

On May 31, 2015, Godzilla was officially made a legal resident of Japan. The first 3,000 fans who showed up at the residence office in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward were given copies of Godzilla's official residence papers.

Roar
Godzilla's roar is a famous sound effect. Over the years, it has changed considerably, sounding different almost every time and having many variations for the different emotions.

The sound effects team originally tried to create Godzilla's roar by using animal roars that had been edited. They sampled all kinds of birds and mammals, but nothing seemed to be the right match for the reptile-like noises a monster like Godzilla would make. Akira Ifukube, who was the film's composer, proposed stepping away from using animal samples. He took a string off of his contrabass and rubbed it with gloves soaked in pine tar. The sound that came from it was used as Godzilla's roar. This roar would later be altered for use as the roar of other monsters in the Showa era, including Varan, Baragon and Gorosaurus. Godzilla's roar was increased in pitch starting in King Kong vs. Godzilla, and would remain mostly unchanged for the rest of the Showa series.

Starting in The Return of Godzilla, Godzilla's roar was made to sound closer to what it did in the original film, and was given a deep guttural sound at the end. In Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla's roar was changed again to sound higher in pitch, similar to how it sounded throughout the Showa era, with the guttural sounds at the end removed.

The effect has been used elsewhere, including the Le-matya in Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Godzilla's roar can be written in readable characters and has been done so in comics, and not only by a simple "roar." In the Marvel Comics, Godzilla's roar was spelled "Mrawww." In the Dark Horse Comics and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Godzilla's roar was spelled "Skreeongk." In most of the IDW Comics, Godzilla's roar is spelled "Skreeonk." ' Godzilla has a roar that can be heard for 3 miles. In Japanese, the official onomatopoeia for Godzilla's roar is "Gyaoon" ギャオーン (Gyaōn).

In Other Languages
Godzilla's name remains the same across many Latin alphabet-using languages. Due to his popularity, he has more name translations than most other.
 * Arabic: غدزيلا
 * Belarusian: Гадзіла
 * Bulgarian: Годзила
 * Chinese: 哥斯拉 (Gēsīlā)
 * Greek: Γοδζιλλα
 * Hebrew: גודזילה
 * Kannada: ಗಾಡ್ಜಿಲ್ಲಾ
 * Korean: 무지막지한
 * Persian: گودزیلا
 * Russian, Ukrainian and Serbian: Годзилла
 * Tamil: காட்ஜில்லா
 * Telugu: గాడ్జిల్లా
 * Thai: ตซิลล่า
 * Yiddish: גאָדזיללאַ

Trivia

 * Starring in 30 films, Godzilla has appeared in more films than any other to date.
 * Although Godzilla's first film appearance was in Godzilla, released in November third of 1954, he made his first official debut four months earlier, in July, when an earlier version of the film's script was read on a radio as an 11-part radio drama.
 * According to Shogo Tomiyama, Godzilla's most dangerous adversary is Pikachu and that hopefully, "Godzilla's new film will finally win the hearts of children back from his most dangerous adversary ever: Pokémon."
 * Godzilla's appearance has changed many times over the years. Some changes were subtle differences such as changes in the size of his and others which were much more dramatic, including Godzilla's overall size and appearance.
 * The characteristic blue glow which precedes Godzilla firing his Atomic Breath can possibly be attributed to the real-world Cherenkov Radiation, a blue 'aura' which is given off by the effects of highly active and supercritical radioactive material. This is pointed out in King Kong vs. Godzilla when a scientist notices a radioactive aura being given off by the iceberg Godzilla is trapped in, and states that it is the result of Cherenkov radiation.
 * In 2004, as a part of the celebration of the release of Godzilla: Final Wars and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the franchise, Godzilla was given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
 * The image used for Godzilla's copyright icon comes from the small image of Godzilla in the corner box of Marvel's Godzilla: King of the Monsters comic. The new Godzilla copyright icon that is used in various Japanese merchandise comes from an image of the KingGoji suit.

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