Godzilla Still Fueled By Japan's Anxieties

Above, the Godzilla mural at Toho Studios in Setagaya. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The box office numbers for Shin Godzilla in Japan are the best the giant beast has seen since the Heisei Series (or Series 2) of the 1990s. Godzilla is well on the way to reclaiming his (or its) box office champion crown.

A new article on Godzilla by the Japan Times has been posted. They refer to the King of the Monsters as being in "middle age", which is nice, considering Godzilla and I both arrived on the scene in 1954. It is preferable than saying "old".

The article begins with:

Within one month of its July release, Toho’s “Shin Gojira” (“Godzilla Resurgence”) attracted more than 3.6 million viewers. Box-office takings are already estimated to have surpassed ¥5.3 billion, putting the film more than halfway toward the seldom-attained figure of ¥10 billion. Toho has great expectations it will eclipse the success of “Bayside Shakedown,” the film spinoff of Fuji TV’s series, and reestablish the “King of the Monsters” as the top domestic film earner. 

That’s all pretty impressive, considering this is the 29th Godzilla film produced by Toho since its smashing debut 62 years ago. What’s more, the series’ basic plot is so simple, it can be digested into a 17-syllable haiku, thus: 

Godzilla attacks 

Japanese scream and panic 

Please pass the popcorn

But, wait! There's a lot more in the article that fans won't want to miss reading!

To read more, go here.