Humanity's last hope has been activated.
All monsters are called "monsters". As they cannot be defeated by "people". And to defeat what has surpassed human intellect, is outside the capacity of human achievement. The moment you decide to defeat Godzilla, you're aspiring to become something that is no longer human, Haruo.
— Mulu-Elu Galu-Gu
Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle is a 2018 post-apocalyptic Kaiju Anime sequel to the 2017's Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. Written once again by Gen Urobuchi, produced by Toho's animation division, and animated by Polygon Pictures, it is the second installment in the Godzilla anime trilogy. The movie premiered on May 18, 2018 in Japan and was released worldwide on Netflix on July 18, 2018.
In the wake of the devastation inflicted upon them by the reawakened Godzilla Earth, the United Earth forces regroup and end up discovering the remains of the abandoned Mechagodzilla, and plan to fix it up for use against Godzilla. Meanwhile, Haruo awakes in the care of Miana, a girl from the Houtua tribe, remnants of humanity whose god was also defeated by Godzilla, only leaving behind a giant egg...
The trilogy is concluded in Godzilla: The Planet Eater.
Spoilers for Planet of the Monsters will be unmarked.
Tropes
- Aesop Amnesia: Haruo spends the whole film teetering between feeling bad for leading many people to their deaths and acting like it didn't mattered, insisting that the anti-Godzilla strategy is still worth applying and that it's just a matter of compensating for Godzilla Earth's increased size. The movie ends with him getting a serious My God, What Have I Done? reaction, but it will be necessary to watch the third film to see if this finally sticks.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The nanometal-infused arrowheads are sharp enough to kill the Servum.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Belu-be does value Haruo as an ally. However, he dies a rather undeserving death when Haruo is forced to destroy Mechagodzilla City to prevent it from spreading and save Yuko.
- Ambiguously Human: The main characters seems to think so with the Houtua tribe, whose characteristics look more moth-like with a special powder that repels nanometal. But they appear to be more human compared to the humanoid Bilasaludo and Exifs.
- Anti-Villain: Godzilla actually seeks to find and destroy Mechagodzilla City, while intentionally ignoring Haruo, Yuko, and Belu-be and shrugging of their attacks on him. Due to the assimilation properties nanometal has that includes organic matter, he has a good reason to destroy it.
- The Assimilator: The nanometal will assimilate anything it comes into contact with. This includes humans. Downplayed in that under normal circumstances it only targets things with Godzilla's DNA and corpses that were in contact for a very long time. However, after the Bilusaludo merge with it, they attempt to assimilate the humans against their will.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Godzilla is still menacing the remaining humans, but there's also Colonel Galu-Gu and the Bilusaludo who allow themselves to be assimilated by Mechagodzilla's nanometal, making them a threat on par with the King of the Monsters.
- Big Damn Heroes: Metphies and survivors of his unit arrived just in to to save Haruo's company when the Servum attacks them.
- The Big Damn Kiss: After Haruo regains his resolve to fight Godzilla and tells her that he'll show her what Earth was like before, Yuko kisses him.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: A major conflict is the Bilusaludo having this: their way of thinking is closer to computers than humans, being supremely logic minded above all else. Thus they see abandoning organic bodies for merging with Mechagodzilla as a natural, logical thing to do, and genuinely can't understand why the humans and Exif are horrified by it.
- Central Theme: What measure does one retain their humanity? The first person Haruo sees is Miana after she saves him after his disastrous defeat at the hands of Godzilla Earth. He first tries to communicate with her, and is astonished that she can say his name. Mulu-Elu Galu-Gu, however, sees them as insects with an inferior society and way of life, going as far as calling Maina a "thing". The second half of the film involves a conflict where the Bilusaludo merge with Mechagodzilla City by infusing themselves with nanometal, abandoning all emotion and relying solely on logic. Galu-Gu then flat out tells Haruo that the moment he chose to fight Godzilla is the moment he became worse than him.
- Chekhov's Gun: The humans who were saved by the Houtua, including Haruo, had their wounds treated with a powdery substance which the Houtua biologically generate due to Mothra's influence on their evolution. It also repels nanometal infusion.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Yuko gets visibly angry when she sees Haruo treating Miana affectionately, and her storming off out of jealousy puts her in danger when she's attacked by Ground-type Serum.
- Cyberpunk Is Techno: The background music that plays when Mecha-Godzilla City is undergoing its reactivation and modifications uses electronic music in contrast with the regular orchestral score of the rest of the soundtrack.
- Date Peepers: Miana and Maina travel to the Mecha-Godzilla City and end up spying on Haruo talking with Yuko. When she kisses him they react with shock — Miana looking dismayed and Maina looking irritated.
- The Dreaded:
- The eponymous Mobile City, which the Houtua believe to be cursed. For good reason.
- Metphies tells Haruo that speaking the name of the monster that destroyed his homeworld is anathema to the Exif, and that even Godzilla Earth cannot compare to this entity. Nevertheless, he decides to tell him the monster's name so that he'll know in the corner of his mind that something worse than Godzilla is out there. This monster's name is Ghidorah.
- Evil Versus Evil: Metphies tells Haruo to choose the right thing while Mulu Elu Galu Gu insists he let himself be assimilated and defeat Godzilla Earth. In the end, Haruo listens to Metphies, and destroys the central command of Mechagodzilla City.
- Expy: The Houtua twins, Miana and Maina, appears to be this to the Shobijin in the past Godzilla and Mothra films, though human-sized, and capable of combat.
- Downer Ending: By the film's end, not only is Godzilla Earth still alive, but the nanometal turns out to be an assimilating compound, and it partially assimilates Yuko into itself, causing her agonizing pain and rendering her comatose when Mecha-Godzilla is destroyed.
- Everyone Has Standards: Haruo spent the whole first film pursuing a head-strong obsession to kill Godzilla that he understood from the get-go could cause casualties (he just didn't expect for Godzilla Earth to awaken and cause a near-Total Party Kill, which he laments in this film). When Mulu-Elu Galu-Gu first talks when the survivors are reunited and said that natives are "insects" and escape is a priority, even if that means exterminating all of the natives as collateral damage, Haruo's first (and immediate) response is to recoil in disgust. The conflict in the climax then triggers because while Mulu-Elu and others of his race are perfectly ok with the nanometal assimilating the whole planet and themselves in a Grey Goo apocalypse for the sake of destroying Godzilla and everything related to it for good (again, calling the natives worthless "insects" and believing Haruo's obsession will make him see this as the only logical, and thus acceptable, course of action), Haruo believes that kind of price is too high to pay (especially because Yuko didn't signed on for that, either).
- Fantastic Racism: Mulu-Elu Galu-Gu refers the Houtua as "insects" due to their primitive lifestyle. When he discusses that the group may need to fight their way out of the natives' city to go back to the ship, he's perfectly okay with killing them all if that's what it takes, and on the climax he essentially says that if the nanometal ends up absorbing them alongside everything else on the planet, then nothing of value will be lost.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Metphies tells Haruo that King Ghidorah is more monstrous than Godzilla Earth. While all three races dread Godzilla, the fact that Metphies willingly tells Haruo about him, and the Exifs kept quiet about him speaks volumes on just how utterly terrifying he is, that Godzilla Earth shouldn't even worth fearing.
- Grey Goo: The nanometal that the Bilusaludo use in their technology—for example, Mecha-Godzilla—is capable of assimilating both other technologies and organic material. The Houtua tribe uses the nanometal to coat their arrows and make them able to kill Servum, while Mecha-Godzilla itself has been consuming Servum that stray too near and expanding into a veritable city. Mulu-elu Galu-gu, Rilu-elu Belu-be, and the other Bilusaludo willingly allow themselves to be assimilated to take over the city, while Yuko Tani is forcibly infected and seemingly killed, but the Mechagodzilla City is destroyed and further assimilation beyond that is stopped.
- Happy Ending Override: Inverted Trope. Some of Haruo's allies have survived Godzilla Earth's awakening, meaning they have a chance to regroup and figure out their next move. They also encounter, to their surprise, a tribe of humans on Earth (no doubt descended from those left behind in the evacuations).
- He Who Fights Monsters: Slapped several times in Haruo's face in the aftermath of the fubar of the first film, culminating with Galu-Gu stating that we call them "monsters" because they can't be killed by ordinary people, and if you wish to kill a monster, you must become a monster yourself.
- Humongous Mecha: Mecha-Godzilla, the Bilusaludo-made Robeast, is prominently featured in the movie as the origin of the eponymous Mobile City. While Mecha-Godzilla doesn't do much itself, its nanometal is used to make the Vulture mini-mechs and turn the city it's become into a fortress...and becomes a big problem later down the line.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: It's theorized that Godzilla ever finds the mothership, his effective range would be 3000 metres.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Not in-film, but similar to the Godzilla vs Evangelion merch produced for Shin Godzilla's release, the Japanese theatrical release of the film
is being promoted with Pacific Rim: Uprising crossover merchandise. - It Only Works Once: Haruo's anti-Godzilla plan ends up being completely useless because Godzilla Earth can reflexively increase his temperature to melt down the EMP harpoons and a large chunk of the surrounding territory. It may or may not have worked out still by giving him a Coup de Grâce with the Vultures, but unfortunately the whole mess with the Mecha-Godzilla Grey Goo got in the way of that.
- Keystone Army; Downplayed. The command center of Mechagodzilla controls every part of the city including those assimilated. When Haruo destroys it all the assimilated Bilusaludo cease functioning. That said, this is only seen with Belu-be who deactivates with his mech and crashes into the inferno as he was the only assimilated militant deployed in combat.
- Language Barrier: The Houtua cannot speak their language and must resort to telepathy and speech mimicry. Justified as 20,000 years have passed.
- Lesser of Two Evils: Haruo has to decide whether the Bilusaludo and Mechagodzilla or Godzilla Earth are this. He ultimately decides that as much as he hates Godzilla, allowing the world to be turned to Nanometal and everyone absorbed into it is the bigger danger and helps Godzilla destroy Mechagodzilla City.
- The Lost Lenore: At the end of the film, Yuko becomes this to Haruo once the nanometal kills her. But later subverted in that she's Not Quite Dead, merely comatose.
- Moby Schtick: Back from the first film, just with Godzilla Earth as the target of Haruo's rage instead of his offspring. Part of the plan to bring him down even includes the use of enormous harpoons.
- Morton's Fork: The final decision in the climax. Before Haruo is the chance to kill Godzilla, but doing so will come at the cost of his life, Yuko's, and Mechagodzilla City replacing Godzilla as the dominant force on Earth. Stopping the nanometal requires destroying the alliance, actively killing his allies, and removing what may well be humanity's last chance to kill Godzilla, leaving him to emerge victorious once again. He chooses the latter.
- My Blood Runs Hot: When the team tries to repeat the plan that killed Godzilla Filius in the first movie, Godzilla Earth expels the excess energy as heat in excess of 1000 degrees celsius. Haruo, Yuko, and Rilu-Elu Belu-be cannot get close him unless they want to get burned alive.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Haruo has this for sending so many of his men to their deaths, which causes him to doubt his abilities as leader. When trusting the Bilusaludo leads to Yuko being infected by nanometal - causing her excruciating pain - he has a minor breakdown due to the stress.
- Noble Savage: The Houtua are depicted as this. They even allowed Mulu Elu Galu Gu to examine the nanometal-infused arrows.
- Perpetual Frowner: How the Houtua twins are differentiated. Miana has a demure-looking expression while Maina has a grumpy look on hers. Though it's probably justified on her part since she was shot at by Yuko.
- Revenge Before Reason: Haruo begins to wonder if he has this problem throughout the movie.
- Sadistic Choice: Near the end of the movie Haruo must either assimilate himself with the nanometal to finally kill Godzilla Earth once and for all and let Yuko die, or destroy Mechagodzilla City to stop the spread of nanometal infecting Yuko and then the world as a whole. He chooses the latter, but Yuko is put in a coma.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
- Only three members of Haruo's original landing party chose to escape Earth.
- The remaining humans leaves Mechagodzilla City when Mulu-elu Galu-gu intends to assimilate the humans.
- Shout-Out:
- Haruo's hatred-born obsession with killing what he sees as the personification of evil closely recalls Captain Ahab. He even uses harpoons and becomes more and more unhinged as time goes on at least until the very end, but it still ends up costing him the woman he loves.
- The title alludes to the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".
- Skyward Scream: Haruo's reaction to Yuko's "death" by nanometal assimilation.
- So Last Season: The same method used against his son in the last film against Godzilla successfully...only for him to convert the overload into heat to strike back. Played with as it could still potentially kill him anyway if the heroes played their cards right, but Haruo chooses to destroy the control center rather than let the world be assimilated by Mechagodzilla.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: Openly discussed by Galu-gu near the end. If Haruo rejects the nanometal proposal, everything he worked for, all the sacrifices over the past two films will have been for nothing if Godzilla is allowed to live. Haruo ultimately decides that the cost of his humanity, Yuko's life, and potentially the entire earth is too heavy to pay for the death of Godzilla and though he makes the choice to destroy Mechagodzilla City, it's still a Pyrrhic Victory.
- Supernatural Repellent: The powder the Houtua uses on Haruo and a few survivors has properties like this. It protects Haruo from being assimilated by nanometal.
- Telepathy: Because the Houtua cannot speak the same language as the main characters, they speak to them this way.
- The Stinger: The post credits scene reveals the name Metphies whispered to Haruo of the creature that destroyed his people's civilization and is supposedly so much worse than Godzilla that the mere fact he's fighting Godzilla instead is reason enough not to be afraid. Ghidorah.
- The Unfought: Although it’s existence is very important to the storyline Mechagodzilla never actually fights Godzilla in a direct battle.
- Wham Line: Two major instances.
- Near the climax, Godzilla is skewered by the EMP harpoons but rather than blowing up like Filius, he begins heating up to melt the harpoons. Belu-be informs Haruo that the Vultures could withstand the heat long enough deliver the killing blow to Godzilla if they repair the one part susceptible to heat with nanometal. What is that part, you may ask?
- The Stinger, revealing the name of the monster that destroyed the Exif's civilization and is supposedly so much worse than Godzilla that Godzilla isn't worth fearing:Metphies: Ghidorah.
- What the Hell, Hero?: A nameless soldier calls out on Haruo's recklessness after Godzilla Earth devastates most of their forces, and Haruo agrees on it.
- You're Insane!: The Houtua elders have this reaction when Haruo tells them of his intention to defeat Godzilla.
