Doctor Genshiro Shiragami (白神源壱郎博士?) is a biological scientist and a major character in the Shirakami Minamoto Ichirō hakase1989 Toho film, Godzilla vs. Biollante.
History[]
Godzilla vs. Biollante[]
After the raid of Godzilla in 1984, a group of Japanese soldiers scours the ruins of Tokyo in search of left behind Godzilla cells. Suddenly, the soldiers are assaulted by agents of Bio-Major, an American scientific corporation, who steal the cells. Before the agents can escape with the cells, an assassin from Saradia called SSS9 kills them and takes the samples back to Saradia.
There, Dr. Shiragami is working for the Saradia Institute of Biotechnology in order to genetically engineer plants to grow in the arid deserts of the nation. This, the government hopes, will gradually take the country away from relying only on oil exports for profit, and will hopefully make them the world's largest grain exporter, threatening the status of more powerful nations like the United States and Japan.
Using the imported Godzilla cells, Shiragami and his botanist daughter Erika hope to breed these immortal plants. However, before this can become a reality, Bio-Major bombs the laboratory, killing Erika in the process and destroying most of Shiragami's experiments. Grief-stricken, Shiragami returns to Japan, unwilling to continue his experiments.
A few years later, in 1989, Shiragami tried to keep his daughter alive by splicing what little DNA he could retrieve from her into a rosebush. He also enlisted the help of psychic Miki Saegusa to check for psychic waves coming from the rosebushes. Little did he know that both Bio-Major and SSS9 were watching from afar. When an earthquake destroys the rosebush, Shiragami agrees to take part in a bio-weapon project with the Japanese government so that he can have access to a supply of Godzilla cells and use them to keep the roses alive. After Shiragami successfully splices Godzilla cells into one lone rose, it begins to rapidly mutate into the monster Biollante.
Two Bio-Major agents, John Lee and Michael Low, raid Shiragami's laboratory to find his notes on the bio-weapon project, the Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria. There, they are attacked by SSS9, but the battle is interrupted when Biollante attacks all of them, killing Low and forcing the others to retreat. Biollante then leaves the lab and takes root in the nearby Lake Ashi, taking the form of a gigantic rose.
Godzilla, freed from Mt. Mihara by a Bio-Major bomb, eventually arrives at the lake, and battles Biollante, seemingly killing her, much to Shiragami's dismay. However, Biollante breaks apart into spores of energy and floats away, causing Shiragami to realize she is immortal and cannot die after all. Later at the Wakasa plain, Shiragami witnesses the final battle between Godzilla and Biollante in her second form, and the ANEB began taking affect on Godzilla.
Though the board congratuties him on the success of the ANEB, Shiragami announced he will not continue his work on bacteria anymore, he points out that Godzilla and Biollante aren't monsters but the scientist who creater them are. He becomes grief-stricken when Biollante has to leave Earth after being mortally wounded.
Eventually, he accepts that Biollante and therefore Erika is still alive in the form of spores after seeing Erika's face as Biollante floats into space, but he is immediately shot and killed SSS9, who is later killed by Sho Kuroki when standing on a M6000 T.C. System pad. Shiragami's body is later placed in a tent.
Video games[]
Super Godzilla[]
Doctor Shiragami is a central character in Super Godzilla. In the game, he creates a performance enhancing serum created from the genetic material of Godzilla and King Ghidorah. A race of invading aliens steal the serum from Shiragami and hope to weaponize it, even using it to create Biollante. Shiragami later uses the serum on Godzilla himself, causing him to evolve into the more powerful Super Godzilla. In retaliation, the aliens use the serum on Bagan, a god-like monster lying dormant in China, and set him lose on Godzilla.
Godzilla: Unleashed[]
Doctor Shiragami later reappears in Godzilla: Unleashed as a member of the human council. He accidentally creates Biollante under General Gyozen's instructions to create an anti-monster mutagen. He also makes a breakthrough in understanding what the Power-Surge crystals do to the kaiju. In the PS2 version, due to the absence of Biollante, his role is deeply reduced.
Trivia[]
- Doctor Shiragami is among the first human characters to create a kaiju, but did not have malicious intentions in doing so, only seeking to preserve his daughter's soul.
- In Godzilla: Unleashed, Shiragami's overall appearance is radically different to his film counterpart. He resembles a stereotypical American scientist with a flowing white labcoat and thick-rimmed glasses.
List of appearances[]
Films[]
- Godzilla vs. Biollante (First appearance)
Video games[]