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Godzilla: evolution of a monster

By Lau Ka-kuen and Adolfo Arranz May 29, 2019

Sixty-five years after Godzilla first stomped onto our screens in the 1954 Japanese film, the radioactive monster is back again. The latest US version casts the big guy as an impossibly massive force of computer-generated destruction – a far cry from the monster’s humble beginnings as a man in a rubber suit trashing balsa-wood models of cities. During those six and half decades, Godzilla has undergone numerous transformations and battled a range of memorable adversaries – the best of which we present below

Godzilla’s name 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"

Its design was inspired by three prehistoric dinosaurs

Size over 65 years

Scrolling left to right to check on the comparison

The origin

Godzilla was created in 1954 by Tomoyuki Tanaka to illustrate the terror Japanese felt after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The filmmaker wanted to symbolise nature's revenge

The first Godzilla was an actor in a Godzilla suit. However, because commodities like rubber were in short supply after WWII, the original 1954 Godzilla costume was created from ready-mixed concrete

Film History

1954

Godzilla

Toho Co.

1955

Godzilla Raids Again

Toho Co.

1956

Godzilla, King of the Monsters

Toho Co., Jewell Enterprises

1962

King Kong vs Godzilla

Toho Co.

1964

Mothra vs Godzilla

Toho Co.

1964

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

Toho Co.

1965

Invasion of Astro-Monster

Toho Co.

1966

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

Toho Co.

1967

Son of Godzilla

Toho Co.

1968

Destroy All Monsters

Toho Co.

1969

All Monsters Attack

Toho Co.

1971

Godzilla vs Hedorah

Toho Co.

1972

Godzilla vs Gigan

Toho Co.

1973

Godzilla vs Megalon

Toho Co.

1974

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla

Toho Co.

1975

Terror of Mechagodzilla

Toho

1984

The Return of Godzilla

Toho Co.

1985

Godzilla 1985

New World Pictures, Toho Co.

1989

Godzilla vs Biollante

Toho Co.

1991

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah

Toho Co.

1992

Godzilla vs Mothra

Toho Co.

1993

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II

Toho Co.

1994

Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla

Toho Co.

1995

Godzilla vs Destoroyah

Toho Co.

1998

Godzilla

Centropolis Entertainment, Fried Films, Independent Pictures

1999

Godzilla 2000: Millennium

Toho Co.

2000

Godzilla vs Megaguirus

Toho Co.

2001

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah:
Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Toho Co.

2002

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Toho Co.

2003

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Toho Co.

2004

Godzilla: Final Wars

Toho Co., CP International, Zazou Productions, Napalm Films

2014

Godzilla

Legendary Pictures

2016

Shin Godzilla

Toho Co., Cine Bazar

2017

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters

Polygon Pictures, Toho Animation

2018

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle

Polygon Pictures, Toho Animation

2018

Godzilla: The Planet Eater

Polygon Pictures, Toho Animation

2019

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Legendary Pictures

Other monsters

Anguirus
One of the first monsters we see Godzilla fighting in 1955’s Godzilla Raids Again. It’s a Dinosaur-armadillo hybrid, and has no special powers or abilities whatsoever

Battra
Appears in both larval and fully grown forms, as a giant and horrible butterfly

Gigan
Introduced in the 1972 film Godzilla vs Gigan. Gigan is a cybernetic space monster. It’s considered one of Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponents

Hedorah
A blob of alien pollution that appears in 1971. Was named for hedoro, the Japanese word for sludge, vomit, slime or chemical ooze

King Ghidorah
Appears in 1962 as an armless, three-headed dragon with large wings and two tails. It’s an alien that travels to Earth in a magnetic meteorite, and devastates Japan until repelled by Goadzilla, Rodan, and Mothra

Mechagodzilla
Introduced in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. A robot monster created by a race of ape-like aliens (also known as Simians) in the image of Godzilla

Mothra
Mothra first appeared in Toho's 1961 film Mothra. She is a giant moth goddess and the most common recurring monster in the Godzilla series. Unlike most other monsters in the series, Mothra is always on the side of good

Rodan
Mutated pterosaur introduced in 1956. Initially an enemy of Godzilla, it later becomes an ally

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Godzilla: evolution of a monster

Its design was inspired by three prehistoric dinosaurs

Size over 65 years

The origin

Share this story

Film History

Other monsters

CULTURE

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