Film / Godzilla Minus One

Survive and Fight

Post-war, Japan had lost everything.
From "zero," to "minus."

— Text from the reveal trailer

Godzilla Minus One (ゴジラ−１.０ Gojira Mainasu Wan) is a 2023 Kaiju Tokusatsu film. It's the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, the 33rd produced by Toho and the fifth in the Reiwa series after Shin Godzilla and the Gen Urobuchi anime Trilogy.^note Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, and Godzilla: The Planet Eater Formally announced on November 3rd 2022, the movie released in Japan on November 3rd 2023, and in North America on December 1st 2023. The movie is directed and written by Takashi Yamazaki (Lupin III: The First, Stand by Me Doraemon, Dragon Quest: Your Story), who previously depicted Godzilla in a cameo role in Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, and later in the attraction Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle. Minus One stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as Koichi Shikishima, Minami Hamabe as Noriko Oishi, Yuki Yamada as Shiro Mizushima, Munetaka Aoki as Sosaku Tachibana, Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji Noda, Sakura Ando as Sumiko Ota, and Kuranosuke Sasaki as Yoji Akitsu.

After the end of World War II, Japan's economic structure had practically collapsed, reducing the nation to a "zero state". However, things quickly go From Bad to Worse as Godzilla comes ashore to the war-torn country in 1947, threatening to plunge the country into the negative state by "minus one". Can the Japanese survive the rampage of this vengeful monster, let alone resist against it?

An Alternate Monochrome Version of the film, called Godzilla Minus One/C (ゴジラ−１.０／C)^note Pronounced as Godzilla Minus One Minus Color, was released on January 12, 2024. This version of the film got a short release in the US on January 26th, 2024 for one week before the movie left theaters in the region altogether reportedly to make way for the then-upcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire per contractual requirements between Toho and Legendary Pictures.

Having won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2024, the film has the distinction of being Toho's first Godzilla film to win an Oscar.

Promotional materials:

• Official Japanese Website
• First Teaser Trailer
• Second Teaser Trailer
• Official Trailer
• Official Trailer 2
• Final Trailer
• Godzilla Minus One/C (Japanese version)
• Godzilla Minus One/C (English)

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Godzilla Minus One contains examples of:

A-B

• Adaptational Early Appearance: In this continuity, Godzilla emerges much earlier than most previous incarnations, first appearing at the Odo Island garrison in 1945 and then later at Tokyo again in 1947, instead of 1954. Also, he's shown attacking Odo Island before he's mutated by nuclear testing, rather than the other way around, as it was in the original film. His mutation is caused by Operation Crossroads, a 1946 atomic bomb nuclear test, to justify his early appearance, instead of the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb which was heavily implied to have mutated the original Godzilla in 1954.
• Adaptational Mundanity:
  • In the original film, when Godzilla arrives on Odo Island, he dredges up with him the fresh body of a trilobite, a prehistoric arthropod that died out hundreds of millions of years ago, evidence that Godzilla originated from a Lost World beneath the sea. Here, he just dredges up nondescript deep-sea fish, which merely show that Godzilla normally slumbers very deep in the ocean.
  • In the original film, one of Japan's last ditch attempts to stop Godzilla from reaching Tokyo was the construction of a giant electric fence around the coast, something which seems rather implausible to have been built in the few days it would take Godzilla to get from Tokyo Bay to the shore. This film changes it to a chain of explosive buoys running along the mouth of the bay, something that could easily be deployed in a short time frame (given the amount of marine explosives Japan had already deployed for World War II).
  • Rather than using a Fantastic Nuke (the Oxygen Destroyer) to deal with Godzilla, a much more grounded plan to kill Godzilla is put out, wrapping giant canisters filled with pressurized freon gas and giant inflatable cushions. The freon gas produces a huge stream of bubbles that rapidly sink Godzilla to the bottom of an oceanic trench by taking away his buoyancy, and in case the pressure isn't enough to finish him off, the inflatable cushions rapidly ascend him in an attempt to kill him by explosive decompression. It isn't quite able to kill him, but it does weaken him enough for a plane-delivered bomb to the face to finish him off.
• Adaptational Villainy: While this is hardly the first film where Godzilla is antagonistic towards humans, most films portray the relationship as humans just being caught in Godzilla's path of destruction, especially when something else—usually another Kaiju—has his attention. Minus One is one of the rare entries in the franchise where Godzilla actively goes out of his way to hunt humans down and inflict the most possible damage, with no other threat present to interfere. One particular scene in the film has Godzilla grab the heavy-cruiser Takao and destroy it with his Atomic Breath, and another shows him throwing train carriages into the path of moving trains and crushing fleeing civilians under his feet in Ginza. After he flattens Ginza with his Atomic Breath, he looks back at the nuclear explosion his beam generates and seems impressed by it. The film's beginning first shows him as an unmutated reptile attacking Shikishma and the mechanics on Odo Island. Much of his animosity seems to stem from his animalistic instincts, viewing humans as trespassers intruding on his "territory". Unlike the original Godzilla, or even Shin, there's no sympathy attached to him, making him the first genuinely evil Godzilla since Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Zig-Zagged. Though Godzilla's Atomic Breath is actually more powerful than usual (being akin to a tactical nuke rather than a stream of fire or an energy beam), unlike in previous films, it takes a few seconds to charge up before firing, so he can't use it freely. Using it also inflicts damage to Godzilla himself, requiring him to regenerate from the damage before he can fire it again, but it doesn't shut him down like it did in Shin Godzilla. This iteration of Godzilla is also less than half the height of the Legendary or Shin incarnations, and does not benefit from Giant Equals Invincible, able to be damaged by conventional weapons (though he's still very, very tough). However, this Godzilla expressly possesses a Healing Factor, meaning even if you can injure him, he won't stay injured for very long.
  • Godzilla is also shown to be hurt by the Takao's armaments when he was about to destroy the Shinsei Maru, and he visibly roars in pain. This isn't too drastic though, since his Healing Factor prevents him from kicking it too early.
  • And speaking of which, usually when Godzilla recovers, it's due to his regeneration kicking in, and no signs of scarring. Godzilla's regeneration in this film seems to be limited, as when Shikishima literally blows up a water mine in his face, the damage from the explosion is visible, and stays there for the rest of the film.
• After the End: While the world hasn't literally ended, a core concept of the film is that Japan has been left 'at zero' by the war. The characters spend the first act struggling to rebuild in the firebombed ruins of a devastated Tokyo, which is presented in a borderline apocalyptic light. It takes several years before they manage to even partially rebuild... only for Godzilla to attack.
• Allegorical Character: Interestingly, this movie shifts away from the usual "Godzilla is nuclear weapons" allegory. It's still present to some degree, his Atomic Breath is more literal this time, causing an actual atomic explosion on impact complete with fallout in the form of black rain. This time, though, he seems to mainly represent the direct trauma experienced by soldiers during the war. Our protagonist, Shikishima, is a would-be Kamikaze pilot who feels intense survivors guilt due to an encounter with Godzilla during the war. He remains unable to move on from the war even years later, thinking he should have died there. Despite living with Noriko and Akiko like a family for years, he refuses to open up to them, thinking he doesn't deserve happiness. When Godzilla reappears, it's as if a ghost of his war trauma has come back to haunt him. The team formed to defeat Godzilla is almost entirely made up of fellow veterans, and Shikishima dealing the finishing blow to Godzilla coincides with him overcoming his trauma and finally moving forward.
• All Just a Dream: At a few points, Shikishima is so tormented by his wartime experiences that he asks aloud if this is all real, or if he died in the war and his life with Noriko and Akiko is some kind of purgatory or Dying Dream.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Koichi Shikishima and Noriko Oishi both very clearly grow to love and emotionally rely on each other after several years post war, raising Akiko together. But Koichi, being traumatized by the war and what happened on Odo Island, refuses the prospect of getting serious with or marrying her, despite multiple people noting it would be good for both of them. The ending implies they did finally get married after Noriko is revealed to have survived the Tokyo attack.
• All There in the Manual: In addition to a novelization published by Shueisha written by the director that is of arguable canonicity, there was a brochure released at Japanese theaters that provided additional background information and context to the movie. One notable fact is that it implies that Godzilla's unmutated form already had a Healing Factor, and exposure to the nuclear weapon caused the healing factor to heal him wrong.
• Alternate Monochrome Version: The film received a limited theatrical re-release in Japan known as Godzilla Minus One/C (ゴジラ−１.０／C)^note Pronounced as Godzilla Minus One: Minus Color. The deliberate monochrome was used to evoke the feelings of the original 1954 film, since Minus One was released to celebrate the 69th and 70th anniversaries of the Godzilla franchise.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whether or not shooting pre-mutation Godzilla with the fighter's 20mm cannon would have put the monster down or not is left up in the air. Obviously it would've done nothing to post-mutation Godzilla, and supplemental material suggests Godzilla already had a Healing Factor, but no one in the film questions that if Koichi had taken the shot, things would have turned out differently even after Godzilla reappeared.
• Androcles' Lion: Ambiguous, when the pre-irradiated Godzilla shows up on Odo island he noticeably spares Shikishima when the latter did not fire on him.
• Antagonist Title: Can't get any closer to this than when Godzilla goes out of his way to kill hundreds of people just by arriving in Japan, and will potentially doom the country unless something is done.
• Anti-Regeneration: Having seen Godzilla's Healing Factor, Noda creates a plan to kill Godzilla by sinking it deep in the ocean where water pressure would kill it and, should that fail, immediately raise it to the surface for decompression to kill it. Noda notes that because Godzilla is a mysterious creature he cannot guarantee his plan will kill it. And while the plan goes off along with Shikishima flying a plane armed with a bomb into Godzilla's mouth and detonating, Godzilla is shown to be healing as its corpse sinks into the ocean.
• Anxiety Dreams: Shikishima has a nightmare that Godzilla will attack Tokyo, including soldiers like the ones on Odo Island fleeing from Godzilla.
• Apocalypse How: Japan has suffered a localized societal collapse, with Tokyo being left a firebombed ruin with people struggling just to survive and get food. This is part of the core idea: Japan has been reduced to zero, and the advent of Godzilla drops it to the negative.
• Arc Words: Variations on the phrase "The war never ended" show up a lot, referencing the lingering trauma and survivor's guilt those that fought in World War 2 suffer through on a daily basis.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Koichi poses one to Tachibana after getting in contact with him: "The war hasn't ended for you either, has it?"
• Artistic License – History: While Minus One largely follows the history of Japan immediately after WWII, there are some crucial differences that bring the plot into an Alternate History angle:
  • Takao was sunk as a target ship in 1946, a year before Godzilla's appearance in the film and the ship's return to action. The cruiser was pretty much inoperable to boot by the end of the war, with cumulative damage from allied attacks and lack of maintenance and ammunition turning it into little more than a barely functional hulk whose only remaining utility was its AA batteries.
  • All four destroyers that appear in the final battle against Godzilla, Hibiki, Yukikaze, Yūkaze, and Keyaki also survived the war in real life. However, by 1947, Hibiki was transferred to the Soviet Union, Yukikaze was transferred to the Republic of China, and Yūkaze was transferred to the Royal Navy as war reparations. In this film, the aforementioned three ships were returned to Japan in order for the country to deal with Godzilla. Keyaki is the only ship that was still in Japan in real life during 1947, as it was repatriating war personnel before being turned over to America and then sunk as a target ship in July 1947, while the film's climax occurs in March 1947.
  • There are four Type 4 Chi-To medium tanks attacking Godzilla during his rampage through Ginza, but only two were ever completed towards the end of the war, in part due to limited supply lines and material shortages.
  • Similarly, there were only two Shinden prototypes completed when the war ended, with one being handed over to the Americans while the other was scrapped. While plans were in place to begin manufacturing production versions (which the Shinden seen in the film is implied to be, as it has a functioning set of nose-mounted cannons, which neither of the prototypes had), the end of the war immediately after the prototype finished its three test flights^note Two of these test flights were conducted on the same days the USA dropped the atomic bombs meant that none were built.
  • During Noda's pep-talk to the team giving the Imperial Japanese military a The Reason You Suck speech, he laments all the dangerous things implemented that got people killed, like kamikaze attacks, poor supply lines, and planes without ejector seats. Back in the 1940s ejector seats were only just created and experimental, but Noda speaks as though these were common, like in today's aircraft, and the military simply did not utilize them.
• Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Because of how the atomic breath operates, when Godzilla uses his atomic breath, it literally goes off like a nuke with a powerful flashbang, which is powerful enough to blind anyone looking at its general direction. No one suffers from instant blindness when the flashbang goes off after the atomic breath detonates. Nuclear weapons in real life were known to cause instant blindness the moment it goes off, as a few survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can attest to.
• Attack the Mouth: Godzilla's scaly hide is nearly impenetrable to anything short of a nuke, but his mouth proves to be more vulnerable than the rest of him. The Shinsei Maru is able to detonate a sea mine which stuns Godzilla and blows off a chunk of his face, although it quickly regenerates. In the climax, Shikishima is able to finish off a weakened Godzilla by flying a bomb-laden plane into his mouth just as he's about to unleash his atomic breath, blowing the monster's head off.
• Attempted Rape: Invoked in a scene where Shikishima wakes up from a PTSD-induced nightmare and has a panic attack believing himself to be dead and Noriko to be a figment of his imagination. As Noriko tries to comfort him, he jumps on her demanding to know if he's alive or dead and whether or not she's real, and she assumes he's trying to rape her and fearfully kicks him hard enough to send him sprawling across the room, resulting in him curling up into a ball and sobbing.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A platonic example. When Shikishima returns home to find Tokyo devastated by the war, his neighbour Ōta realizes that he deserted (since being a kamikaze pilot and returning alive are mutually exclusive) and angrily blames people like him for why Japan ended up like this. She's similarly standoffish when she sees he's brought home a vagrant with a baby when he's already struggling just to care for himself. However, when she finds they have no way to feed the infant, she donates her valuable white rice and helps the two take care of the child like a third parent. At the end of the movie, she's furious at Shikishima because he originally intended to die in the battle against Godzilla and is leaving behind Akiko, who clearly sees him as her father, and tearfully punches him when he returns alive and unharmed- especially as she'd just received a telegram informing that Noriko had survived after all.
• Batman Gambit: When Shikishima is unable to find Sōsaku Tachibana's current address, he guesses he's in the area of his last outpost before Odo Island, and sends many hate mail letters to that area, blaming him for the deaths of the other airbase groundcrew, knowing that Tachibana would be so enraged that he would seek Shikishima out to demand to know why he's sending such slanderous messages. It works, although Tachibana does kick the crap out of him and only agrees to help with the promise that Shikishima will fulfill his duty as a kamikaze pilot.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Noriko and Shikishima almost always look clean and pretty, even while they live in a hovel made of scrap and with no indoor plumbing for a while. Averted later on; Shikishima gets the crap kicked out of him by Tachibana, with one eye being swollen completely shut, and still having notable swelling at the end of the film. We don't see what kind of injuries Noriko has after surviving Godzilla's first attack, but fully half her face is bandaged, indicating they're rather severe.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The Shinsei Maru is assigned by the government to stall Godzilla as the Takao arrives from Singapore to try and deal with him. The little tugboat puts up a decent fight against the monster, but is about to be overcome when the cruiser finally arrives, guns-a-blazing, saving the crew of the minesweeper boat. Godzilla decimates the Takao in a matter of seconds, but it nonetheless makes him forget about the Shinsei Maru, whom the crew would later plan to kill him.
  • This happens twice in the final battle, both times when it seems the plan is doomed. As Godzilla is being floated back up to the surface, he starts ripping apart the balloons tangled around him and breaking free. The two destroyers—Yukikaze and Hibiki—attempt to lift him up by force and fail, due to Godzilla being far too heavy. Fortunately, Mizushima arrives on the scene with a huge fleet of tugboats, which help the two destroyers finally drag Godzilla back up. However, the decompression wasn't enough to kill Godzilla, who then prepares to unleash his atomic breath on all the boats. Just as he's about to release his atomic breath, Shikishima circles back around on the Shinden and blows up Godzilla's head, finally putting him to rest.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The minesweeper boat Shinsei Maru has the kanji 新生丸 painted on it, where 新生 shinsei meaning "rebirth" matches well with Shikishima and his crewmates having a new life post-war.
  • There is a German warning label about an ejection seat visible in the cockpit of Shikishima's plane.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Final Battle results in Godzilla being defeated, with Shikishima ejecting from his plane and parachuting to safety. Afterward, Sumiko directs him and Akiko to a hospital, where Noriko—injured but alive after the Tokyo attack—is staying, although seemingly with radiation poisoning. And just before the credits, Godzilla's sinking corpse is beginning to bulge and warp as its Healing Factor kicks in again, suggesting that it will return to attack Japan in the future...
• Bizarre Alien Biology: This Godzilla's dorsal plates, from the end of his tail to the top of his spine, glow blue and push outward before slamming back in as he uses his atomic fire breath.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The English subtitles for the film's international release repeatedly refer to the Japanese prop planes as jet fighters, even though no jets were deployed in the Pacific Theatre of World War II (only one was completed by Japan before the war ended, and it never saw service), on top of the obvious fact all the planes have clearly visible propellers.
• Body Horror:
  • Every time Godzilla uses his atomic breath this time, it actually injures him quite significantly, burning off chunks of his flesh, even exposing his bones at some points. The only reason repeated usage doesn't kill him is because of an extremely rapid Healing Factor.
  • Later, the plan to kill him by subjecting him to extreme changes in pressure results in his flesh appearing to boil off his body and his eyes popping out of his skull from the decompression.
• Bomb Disposal: Shikishima takes a job as a minesweeper to clear away Sea Mines from the war, which puts him on a crew with a wooden boat, which is ideal to avoid setting off American-made magnetic mines which would be triggered by metal hulls.
• Bookends: After getting back home, Shikishima is physically accosted by one of his neighbors, Sumiko, who calls him a disgrace for not fulfilling his role as a kamikaze pilot and daring to show his face. Shortly after, Shikishima reads a letter from his late parent begging him to come back alive. Near the end of the film, Sumiko accepts a telegram on Shikishima's behalf, saying that Noriko is alive. After the Godzilla elimination operation is wrapped up, Sumiko rushes up to him with Akiko in her arms and starts hitting him before giving him the note. Her anger is now directed at Shikishima accepting the possibility of dying and leaving Noriko and Akiko.
• Boring, but Practical: Shikishima is understandably unimpressed when he sees the "specially designed" minesweeper boats are just wooden fishing boats with guns and ropes, until Dr. Noda explains their function: since American sea mines are magnetic, an all-wood boat is effectively immune to attraction, and all that's needed to take them out is to cut the lines holding them and hit them with gunfire. This deceptively simple design foreshadows the plan to kill Godzilla: use freon gas to rapidly force him down to crush depth, and inflatable rafts to bring him right back up.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Whereas other entries depict Godzilla first making landfall on Japan at the very earliest in 1954 (as per the release year of the first film), Minus One is the first installment in the franchise to depict Godzilla attacking Japan prior to the 1950s. Specifically 1947, shortly after the end of World War II and Japan's surrender to the Allies.
  • This is also the first Godzilla movie which is entirely a Period Piece, rather than being set in the present day or 20 Minutes into the Future.
  • After years of films increasing Godzilla's size, culminating in the massive Godzilla Earth, Minus One makes the creative decision to reverse the trend, bring Godzilla closer to his original size at 50.1 meters tall (only 0.1 metres taller than the original Showa Godzilla).
• Break Out the Museum Piece: From the perspective of the audience, anyway. The Takao, a Japanese heavy cruiser intended to be decommissioned after the war, is brought back into service in an attempt to kill Godzilla due to Japan being short on serviceable military vessels. It doesn't go well, with Godzilla easily annihilating the ship with his atomic breath, but not before the Takao puts up one hell of a fight. Things get considerably better with the arrival of the Kyushu J 7 W Shinden, as well as the fleet of ex-IJN vessels sent to participate in Operation Wada Tsumi.
• Breath Weapon: The official teaser trailer shows Godzilla annihilating a warship by blasting it from below with the ever-famous Atomic Breath, a later shot showing a badly-listing cargo ship with a massive hole punched through its center. True to form, Godzilla deploys it in Ginza, resulting in over 30,000 people dead and the results being more akin to an atomic bomb than his traditional beam weapon. Similar to Godzilla (2014), he also inhales before using it, meaning he clearly breathes the blast.

C-E

• Call-Back: Noda talks about how Japan was far too careless with the lives of its men during World War II, citing among other things how Japan went to war with poorly armored tanks and fighter planes that lacked ejection seats. At the end, Koichi survives the confrontation with Godzilla because Tachibana discovered an ejection seat in his fighter plane and informed him about it.
• Cannon Fodder:
  • At one point, the Shinsei Maru and its sister boat are reassigned to confront Godzilla while a heavy cruiser, the Takao, arrives from the south. Godzilla has taken down many much larger and more fortified warships at this point, so two wooden tugboats that were never meant to see any sort of combat at all have zero chance of killing him and everyone knows it, they're just meant to stall Godzilla for a few minutes. Ironically, the Shinsei Maru ends up surviving after the Takao arrives and draws Godzilla's attention, resulting in the cruiser's destruction and Godzilla continuing on his way.
  • A recurring point of the film is that Imperial Japan's 'honorable death' mentality was truly just an excuse to treat its own people as expendable and convince them to think they were and ultimately, the entire army might as well have been this trope in their government's eyes.
• The Cavalry: When Godzilla starts ripping up the inflatable cushions buoying him up, the two destroyers Hibiki and Yukikaze attempt to pull him to the surface by force, even knowing he's much too heavy for just two ships to drag up. Just when it seems they're going to fail, Mizushima arrives with a huge fleet of civilian tugboats and their combined strength is enough to pull Godzilla up from the depths.
• Central Theme: The primary theme of the film is that it's better to live for the future than to die pointlessly and that life isn't something to be treated as disposable or expendable. From the first scene, Tachibana states that he actually approves of Shikishima faking engine trouble to avoid the kamikaze run, as he sees no point in an 'honorable death' that serves no purpose, given Japan has clearly already lost the war. Noda gives a speech during the climax about how Japan had taken people's lives for granted, and ultimately Shikishima resolves to live rather than make a Senseless Sacrifice to kill Godzilla out of misplaced honor.
• Chekhov's Skill: Akitsu was initially dismissive of Shikishima as the sniper of their four-man minesweeper crew aboard Shinsei Maru, thinking that someone who used to fly in the air wouldn't be as useful on a naval activity. However, Shikishima's experience as a former fighter pilot means he's able to compensate for the movements of both their boat and the mine when detonating it on the first try. He even explains it partly in effect for Mizushima after the younger man fails to detonate the mine twice.
• Close on Title: Unlike the original film and Shin Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One never actually shows its title card until the ending credits.
• Closest Thing We Got: The team organizing the plan to kill Godzilla is able to re-acquire four decommissioned IJN destroyers. The ships don't have any usable guns on them due to Japan's disarmament, but given the circumstances (Japan not even having any sort of military at this point and the US refusing to help/unable to help due to worries of possible Soviet retaliation), it's much better than nothing. Also, they've already learned that he's immune to conventional weapons, so the guns wouldn't have helped much anyway.
• Continuity Reboot: The sixth Godzilla film continuity after Godzilla (1998), Godzilla: Final Wars, the Monsterverse, Shin Godzilla and the anime trilogy to not take after Godzilla (1954); after the Showa, Heisei, and Millennium series used the original film as the origin point in their respective series. Instead, the trailers reveal Minus One is a complete reboot set in 1947, seven years earlier than 1954.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While the Godzilla in Shin Godzilla was portrayed as a Tragic Monster with little intention or awareness of the suffering he's causing, this film's Godzilla is presented as a highly aggressive territorial animal that actively targets humanity.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • Koichi Shikishima is this to Rando Yaguchi of Shin Godzilla. Whereas Yaguchi was a high-ranking government official, Shikishima is a low/middle-class ex-pilot turned minesweeper operator. While both characters play a pivotal role in seemingly killing Godzilla, the former achieves this indirectly by coordinating Operation Yashiori, while the latter plays a more direct role by blowing his plane up inside Godzilla to shatter the monster from the inside as part of Operation Wada Tsumi.
  • Shikishima also stands opposite of Haruo Sakaki of the Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters animated trilogy. While Sakaki is a sergeant for the last vestiges of humankind, driven by the need for revenge and the belief in the human spirit over Godzilla, Shikishima is a guilt-ridden pilot for a defeated Japanese military. Both outcomes stem from how Godzilla traumatized each character. How their stories end also contrast: whereas Sakaki realizes that his desire for vengeance will inevitably doom humanity, and thus willingly destroys himself and the last weapons of destruction to Godzilla's Atomic Breath; Shikishima pulls a suicide bomb maneuver to destroy Godzilla before it can fire his heat ray, but ejects just before impact because he chose to forgive himself.
  • Shikishima also contrasts Mark Russell from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Like Mark, Koichi personally hates Godzilla and wants him dead. Their personal experience with Godzilla turn them into bitter people after losing someone they love. The difference is that Mark is a scientist who eventually realizes that the world needs Godzilla to save the world, while Koichi is a pilot who wants to save the people from Godzilla before more of his loved ones are in danger.
  • Also to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa of Godzilla (1954). Both WWII veterans, but Serizawa is a scientist while Shikishima is a fighter pilot. Both designed weapons to kill Godzilla, but Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer was an accidental discovery in his attempts to advance human knowledge; Shikishima deliberately requested his fighter be rigged for a kamikaze run. Serizawa chose to sacrifice himself in killing Godzilla so that knowledge of the Oxygen Destroyer would die with him, leaving behind a woman he loved but who loved another man; Shikishima chose not to sacrifice himself in killing Godzilla, and was reunited with the woman he loves and who loves him.
• Contrived Coincidence: Shikishima's minesweeper boat is assigned the secret task of stalling Godzilla so an actual warship can arrive to fight him. It appears utterly unintentional that the government gave the job of facing Godzilla to one of the only people to ever previously see Godzilla and live.
• Cool Plane: Shikishima asks for a plane to use in the plan to kill Godzilla, which Noda notes will be difficult because all of Japan's planes have been decommissioned following the war. He does eventually find a plane, albeit a highly unusual one: a scrapped prototype of the Kyushu J7W Shinden, which was never finished before the war ended.
• Covered with Scars: Similar to his Shin Godzilla incarnation, this Godzilla's mottled appearance is from burn scars from the nuclear explosion that mutated him. We even see his skin blistering from the American nuclear test. At one point, part of Godzilla's face is blown off by a sea mine. He quickly regenerates the injury, but a scar remains there for the rest of the film. According to the novel adaptation, Godzilla's species has always been able to regenerate from their injuries, but after he suffered burns from exposure to the Baker nuclear test during Operation Crossroads, he tried to regenerate his skin, but the process went out of control, mutating him into his current state.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: While Godzilla is Nigh-Invulnerable as ever, and his rampages are even more horrible because the people of Japan barely have anything to shoot back with, there is a back to back moment of this. When the Shinsei Maru is tasked with acting as a distraction to buy time for the cruiser Takao to arrive, they manage to get a sea mine into his throat and detonate it with a well placed shot. It doesn't slow him down, but it does injure him... for a moment. Soon after, as Godzilla is about to take out Shinsei Maru, Takao finally arrives and bowls him over with a salvo. As Godzilla is destroying Takao, its gun crews manage to get one last point blank shot in, which stuns him enough to fall into the water. They're destroyed effortlessly immediately after, but it's a surprise to see realistic military equipment being effective to any degree against Godzilla. It also gives Shikishima the knowledge that, from the inside, Godzilla can be injured, and with a good enough shot maybe even killed.
• Dare to Be Badass: After Godzilla attacks Tokyo and devastates Ginza, a civilian army (headed by former members of the Imperial Japanese Navy) is assembled when it seems neither the Japanese or US governments are going to anything about it any time soon. The leaders of the operation declare they're all that stands between Godzilla and the future of Japan, but cannot promise the plan will actually succeed and that none of them are being forced to join. A number of the volunteers do decide to leave, but most stay to fight Godzilla and actually succeed in bringing him down with no casualties.
• Darker and Edgier: The darkest film of the franchise since the original film, and even darker than the previous films before it. The tone is far heavier than the last two Legendary films, the anime trilogy, and has more focus on desolation and government atrocities than Shin Godzilla. The film does not pull its punches over Godzilla's rampage in Ginza, with the entire populace dreading Godzilla since he was discovered, and just like the original film, there's a direct death toll with the deaths of over 30,000 people. And just like the original, there's a direct allegory of nuclear weapons attached to it, culminating in the Atomic Beam straight-up being a nuclear bomb in detonation and effect. But its main themes also deal with PTSD and Survivor Guilt, both of which the protagonist (a veteran and surviving kamikaze pilot) has in spades and for which Godzilla acts as physical manifestation.
• Deadline News: Just as in the first film, a radio news crew is reporting live on Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo, on-location. And also just like in the first film, they're all killed when Godzilla destroys the building they're reporting on.
• Death of a Child: During Godzilla's rampage on Ginza, a little girl who looks the same age as Akiko is among the crowd as Godzilla prepares his atomic breath... And Koichi is the only one seen to survive on-screen.
• Death Seeker: Koichi's Survivor's Guilt turns him into this after Noriko seemingly dies during Godzilla's attack on Ginza. He comes to believe that the only way to atone for the casualties on Odo Island is to die fighting Godzilla, before Tachibana snaps him out of it.
• Defiant to the End: The Takao fires a full salvo into Godzilla at point-blank range, even as he starts tearing into it with his hands.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • When the tanks in Ginza fail to noticeably harm Godzilla, most of the people nearby simply give up, hugging each other and crying as they wait for their end.
  • After barely surviving her first encounter with Godzilla, Noriko just gives up and stands there while everyone else flees from the advancing monster. Fortunately Shikishima finds her at that point and hauls her away.
• Disney Death: Noriko is apparently killed during Godzilla's attack on Ginza when she pushes Shikishima out of the way of the shockwave of Godzilla's atomic breath, but at the end it turns out she actually survived, albeit badly injured and requiring hospitalization.
• Diving Save: When Godzilla unleashes his atomic breath in Ginza, it creates a massive shockwave that obliterates most of the region. Noriko sees the blast wave coming before Shikishima is able to react and pushes him into alleyway, while she's blown away by the air-blast. This only adds to Shikishima's survivor guilt and drive to redeem himself through giving his life to kill Godzilla, but at the end of the film he discovers that Noriko managed to survive.
• Draw Aggro: Shikishima flies the finished Shinden fighter and uses it to aggravate Godzilla into chasing him at sea as part of the plan to defeat him. He then proves crucial in keeping Godzilla's attention on him and away from the ships wrapping the freon gas canisters around him.
• Downer Beginning: The movie starts with Shikishima deserting his duty as a kamikaze pilot by feigning a faulty airplane and diverting to the Odo Island repair station. The workers quickly realize what he's done, but they don't hold it against him for backing out and one even commend him for not doing a pointless death… and then an unmutated Godzilla attacks and kills everyone except Shikishima and Tachibana, who blames Shikishima for his colleagues' deaths because he froze up when he had a clear shot at Godzilla's face. Then Shikishima arrives back home to Tokyo, only to discover the entire place is in ruin and his parents are dead.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Like in the original film, when Godzilla attacks Ginza, he destroys it in a much more literal use of the traditional nuclear metaphor Godzilla is normally portrayed as. Not only does he destroy Ginza, he did it in the manner of an actual nuke, with a mushroom cloud, and the devastating explosion with a flashbang that ends with black rain^note Black rain is a result of a nuclear weapon going off on land, sending dust, debris, and radiation so high in the atmosphere, it returns back down as fallout, becoming a black radioactive rain.
• Dying Dream: Shikishima sometimes believes himself to be experiencing this, dreaming his life while dying on Odo Island, as part of his shell shock. Noriko twice has to convince him that he’s really alive and deserves to be so.
• Eagleland: A Type Two sits pretty far in the background, but its presence can be felt throughout the film. The destruction of Tokyo by endless air raids destroyed most of the characters' existing lives, the surrender they made the Japanese agree to left the country almost totally disarmed, the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests mutated and enraged Godzilla to the point he was willing to go roughshod over the barely rebuilt ruins of Tokyo. America Saves the Day is also consciously averted here, where the US government (who should be coming to protect the Japanese as part of their treaty, but can't for fears of possible Soviet retaliation) tell the Japanese government that they're on their own when dealing with Godzilla. The only positive thing they do in the film is allow Japan to bend the terms of their disarmament to have something to shoot back at Godzilla with.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Shikishima starts the film as a broken down, PTSD-riddled mess with a heavy case of survivor's guilt who believes that he deserves to die both for chickening out from going through with his kamikaze attack and for freezing up during Godzilla's rampage on Odo Island leading to the deaths of the mechanics. Even after meeting Noriko and Akiko he still holds himself at arm's distance from them, refusing to acknowledge his romantic feelings for the former and repeatedly denying any paternity to the latter. This all becomes much worse after Noriko is seemingly killed in Godzilla's attack in Ginza - which leaves Shikishima believing his only purpose is to perform a kamikaze attack on Godzilla. But, after receiving forgiveness (and being told of an escape parachute) from Tachibana, defeating Godzilla and discovering Noriko alive in the hospital, Shikishima finally manages to forgive himself and embraces Noriko and Akiko as a family.
• Einstein Hair: Kenji Noda has wild long locks of curly grey hair and is revealed to be a highly respected former naval engineer with the plans to kill Godzilla.
• Empathy Doll Shot: After Godzilla level Ginza with his atomic breath, the rubble is being checked for radiation and survivors. A pair of inspectors are seen running a rapidly-clicking Geiger counter over an abandoned tricycle and the two solemnly shake their heads.
• The End... Or Is It?:
  • So Koichi blew up Godzilla's head, Noriko actually survived the attack on Ginza, and the day is saved... until Godzilla starts reforming underneath the ocean's surface...
  • While Noriko survived the destruction of Ginza, she's seen in the hospital with a strange swirling dark patch on her neck that's ominously moving under her skin.
• Everybody Lives: While not true for the movie as a whole as Godzilla's earlier attacks have an incredibly high body count, Mr. Noda insists that they're done wasting lives and promises that his operation, be it failure or success, will be one where they all come back alive. Turns out he kept his word, and not only does every sailor survive, but Noriko's earlier death was only a Disney Death, and even Godzilla seemingly survived.
• Exact Words: Shikishima is assigned to a "specially designed" boat for getting rid of old mines from the war. Specifically, it's a wooden tugboat that won't set off the magnetic mines.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Minus One features the most literal version of Godzilla's Atomic Breath ever seen, as it finishes with an actual nuclear explosion complete with a giant mushroom cloud and "black rain".
• Explosive Decompression: The final plan to kill Godzilla involves tying giant canisters of freon gas and inflatable cushions to his body, using the gas to produce streams of bubbles that rapidly sink him to the bottom of an ocean trench, and then, just as quickly, inflating the cushions to ascend him to the surface, hoping that the extreme and sudden pressure changes will destroy him. It isn't quite enough to kill him, but it does weaken him enough to be taken out by a final blow.

F-N

• Face Death with Dignity: When Plan B fails to kill Godzilla and he becomes so enraged that he is ready to charge up his atomic breath to take out the boats, Noda and the rest of the crew look on ready to accept their incoming death... until Shikishima pilots the Shinden into Godzilla's mouth blowing up his head, killing the monster.
• Family of Choice: After returning from the war to Tokyo, Shikishima crosses paths with a thief, Noriko Ōishi, who's holding an orphaned infant named Akiko. Much to the chagrin of a grouchy neighbour, Shikishima reluctantly lets them stay in what's left of his house, although even the neighbour quickly relents and assists the pair in raising the child. Over the years, they raise the baby together as the community rebuilds, even though they have no blood relationship to each other, and Shikishima even takes on a dangerous job to financially support the three of them. The baby, Akiko, even begins referring to Ōishi and Shikishima as her mommy and daddy once she starts talking. Despite their lack of blood ties, the new Shikishima "family" is still close enough that when the Shinsei Maru crew visits, they assume they are a family and are surprised that they are just a trio of strangers who wound up living together. After Noriko is seemingly killed in Ginza, Shikishima admits he did eventually developed romantic feelings for her. Notably, Shikishima, Noriko, and Akiko, all explicitly lost their parents during the war.
• Fatal Family Photo: Subverted. In the final battle, Shikishima flies with a photo of Noriko. But against all odds, he survives by ejecting from his plane after performing a kamikaze attack on Godzilla.
• Feed It a Bomb:
  • The Shinsei Maru attempts to damage Godzilla by detonating a sea mine on his back, which does nothing. They try again with a sea mine lodged in his mouth, which actually does injure and stun Godzilla this time, but he heals from the wound before their eyes.
  • Remembering that Godzilla's mouth is more vulnerable than the outside of his body, Shikishima finally kills Godzilla by flying a bomb-laden fighter plane into his open mouth as the monster is charging up his atomic breath, blowing up everything above the lower jaw.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Shikishima takes up a job as a minesweeper to clear away the thousands of sea mines from the war along Japan's coasts. The method used is that two boats driven parallel have a big cable running between them that's dragged through the water to snag the underwater mines, buoying them up, and then the mines are blown up from a distance with a turret gun manned by Shikishima. The final plan to kill Godzilla is basically an enlarged version of the minesweeping technique, with two giant destroyers entangling Godzilla with a cable lined with giant gas canisters, which quickly sink him to the bottom of an ocean trench and then back up to the surface, where he's finished off by Shikishima blowing him up by piloting an explosive-laden plane at his face.
  • Whenever the corpses of deep-sea fish rise to the ocean surface before Godzilla appears, one can observe their guts popping out of their mouths as a result of decompression. The final plan is essentially exploiting the same biological weakness by quickly sinking and pulling Godzilla up from the depths and, like any other deep-sea creature, it works.
  • Around 1947, Noriko tells Koichi that she has gotten a job in Ginza ward, which has made considerable progress in rebuilding efforts following the firebombings. Unfortunately, the day she actually goes to Ginza for work, Koichi hears over the radio that Godzilla is attacking the ward.
  • During Kenji's rousing speech on the eve of the night before enacting the plan to kill Godzilla, he states how the Japanese government treated human lives too cheaply during the war, such as fighter planes with no ejector seats, and vows that no one will have to die in the battle against the monster. Sure enough, all the characters make it through the finale, with Shikishima able to ram his plane into Godzilla's face to deliver the finishing blow without having to die in the process due to Sōsaku discovering that the prototype Shinden does in fact have an ejector seat. That itself was foreshadowed when, after Tachibana explains the Shinden's loadout, he says that there's one more thing about the plane that he needs to know and then the scene cuts away.
• Forgiveness Requires Death: In the opening act, Godzilla kills a team of mechanics on Odo Island while Shikishima freezes up in fear, unable to fire. The last surviving mechanic, Sōsaku Tachibana, blames Shikishima for his colleagues' deaths. Shikishima gets into contact with Tachibana and begs for his help repairing a plane to help kill Godzilla. He tells Tachibana that he will make up for the deaths on Odo Island by piloting the plane into Godzilla to kill the monster and himself in the process. Tachibana at first agrees to the terms... but then changes his mind after discovering an ejector seat in the plane and informing Shikishima about it after it's become clear he's not just attempting a kamikaze attack on Godzilla to atone for the Odo Island massacre but to give his adoptive daughter a future, demanding that he survive for her.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The crew of the Shinsimaru seems to be this on the surface:
  • Shikishima: Melancholic. Pessimistic, anxious, but loyal.
  • Akitsu: Choleric. A blunt, passionate Large Ham of a man who takes charge.
  • Noda: Phlegmatic. Sweet-natured, empathetic, and patient.
  • Mizushima: Sanguine. Lighthearted, peppy, and optimistic.
  • However, Noda and Shikishima aren’t as clear-cut. When Godzilla attacks their ship, Akitsu and Noda are the ones to take charge, while Shikishima and Mizushima follow, and Noda again plays a leading role in Operation Wadatsumi. He’s also obviously the most analytical, being the scientist of the group. Meanwhile, Shikishima’s indecisiveness is something that plagues him.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • The film is set in the direct aftermath of World War II, specifically during its post-war economic recovery period. Even during the Time Skip, Japan is still in the process of recovering from the war and thus still in its "zero" state. Then comes Godzilla, a giant walking behemoth of mass destruction that tears through Tokyo, plunging Japan's already precarious financial and political situation further down the drain and into the "minus" state the film's title implied.
  • Also, how do you make a killer dinosaur that's already hostile towards humans even MORE deadly? Just set off a nuke near where it's living.
• Genre Shift: Kaiju films in general, and Godzilla films in particular (Godzilla (1954) being a prime exception), are not noted for deep, multidimensional characters or compelling human drama, to the point it's commonly said the human parts are what you fast-forward through to get to the monster action you really came to see. This film is a complex, intense, character-driven drama that also has Godzilla in it. Shikishima is established from the very first shot, his arc is explored in almost every scene, and with him is a cast of rich supporting characters more complex than the average main character of a Godzilla flick. Godzilla is a metaphor for Japan's post-war state, but on the personal level, instead of the national one, keeping the focus on our relatively small group of major characters as they all deal with moving on in the aftermath of WWII in their own way.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: As is tradition, Godzilla causes a lot of destruction via just walking around. Here however, he marches down a street full of people running for their lives, shattering the pavement and sending fleeing civilians airborne, as well as crushing them underfoot.
• Gilligan Cut: One of the more darkly humorous parts of the film is when Shikishima accepts a job in collecting and disposing of undersea mines. Noriko is worried, but Shikishima reassures her that he'll be okay, citing that the job will have him on a specially-made seacraft. We then immediately cut to a stunned Shikishima muttering "This is specially-made?" as he gets his first look at the Shinseimaru, a creaky old steamboat made of wood.^note A countermeasure for dealing with magnetic mines, which would certainly be triggered by a boat with a metal hull. So technically, it could be argued they were correct on them saying the boat was specially-made for the task.
• Good-Times Montage: There's a brief one of these after Shikishima gets his job disposing mines. The work is going well, he gets along with his fellow crewmembers, he's able to rebuild his old home, and his adoptive family is happy and healthy.
• Government Conspiracy: After several American ships are destroyed or disabled, General Douglas MacArthur warns the Japanese Prime Minister of a "massive aquatic organism headed at high-speed towards the Japanese archipelago from the South." However, the Japanese government refuses to warn the general populace of Godzilla's existence until it was too late because nobody wants to be responsible for the resulting panic.
• Gray Rain of Depression: Played for Horror. After Noriko is apparently killed in the destruction of Ginza by Godzilla, Shikishima falls to his knees and screams in despair. Then rain begins to fall, but not just any rain: black rain starts falling upon Ginza, and Koichi is caught in the downpour.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Godzilla is depicted in the film as being very easy to aggro. In the opening, he demolishes a watchtower after the guard momentarily shines a spotlight on his face, and he later begins attacking Tokyo just because he considers the region his "territory". When a plan to trap Godzilla is put into effect, they play recordings of Godzilla's roar from a patrol ship to draw him in, to make him think a rival is in the area. This pisses Godzilla off so much he sends the ship flying for literal miles, whereas in other cases he just sank the boats on the spot. Shikishima exploits this while piloting the Shinden by deliberately shooting at Godzilla so that he chases the plane out into the sea and luring him into the trap.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: Japan's post-war government behaves ineffectively in the face of Godzilla. Even after Godzilla sinks a heavy cruiser, the Japanese government continues to cover up its existence as no-one wants to take responsibility for the chaos a Citywide Evacuation of Tokyo would cause. An announcement is only made when Godzilla is already attacking the city, so naturally chaos happens anyway. It's not surprising a group of civilians and former naval veterans decide to organise their own private response, having lost faith in the new government's ability to handle the situation.
• Healing Factor: This is far from the first incarnation of Godzilla to be given regeneration as a power, but it's less often we've seen it clearly in action. Godzilla gets part of his face blasted off by a sea mine, but the injury almost completely regenerates within seconds (although not perfectly, as he retains a scar from the injury for the rest of the film). Even using the atomic breath damages Godzilla now, and he relies on his regeneration to keep from incinerating himself from repeated use. Even at the end, where he's reduced to large chunks of ragged decompressed flesh, he's shown regenerating from his injuries. Interestingly, the novelization establishes he already had it before being mutated and it's how he survived being hit by the atomic blast and mutated in the first place.
• Hollywood Darkness:
  • Averted in the opening scene on Odo Island. At night, the area beyond the pitstop is pitch black. As a result, Godzilla goes completely unseen until one of the mechanics shines a spotlight on him.
  • When Godzilla is sunk to the bottom of a 1,500 metre-deep ocean trench, it's still well-lit enough that we can see him crashing to the seabed, when in reality it would be absolutely pitch dark at that depth.
• Homage: The second encounter with Godzilla takes some very clear inspirations from the final act of Jaws. Notably both films feature a ragtag crew sent out on a small fishing boat to stop a monster that turns out to be far too big for their rickety boat to handle. The crews also both include a scientist and a WW2 veteran whose war experiences left them with a traumatic connection to the creature they now hunt. Finally, attempts to kill the monster involve shooting an explosive lodged in their mouth, the difference being that Godzilla regenerates from the would be fatal damage almost immediately. Both scenes slowly ratchet up the tension and suspense of hunting for a large, hostile creature on the vast ocean, where it could suddenly attack from almost any angle with little or no warning. The first reveal of both creatures is a Jump Scare punctuated by a comedy beat (Brody's "You're gonna need a bigger boat;" Akitsu's "Okay, never mind!").
• Honor Before Reason: Deconstructed: even in the first few scenes, Tachibana deflates the idea of Japan's 'fight to an honorable death' mentality by pointing out that there's no point given the war is already lost, and actually sympathizes with Shikishima for faking engine trouble to avoid it, wishing more were like him. For the most part, Imperial Japan's appeal to honor is thoroughly torn apart throughout the film, with multiple characters being extremely critical and supporting Shikishima's decision. Several veterans mention how they always drew the short end of the stick during the war and refuse to throw their lives away against Godzilla, and even the ones who do agree to go along with the plan have to be assured it isn't a Suicide Mission. At the climax, Dr. Noda flat out states Japan had treated human life too cheaply and he has no intent to repeat that mistake.
• Hope Spot: Numerous, where things seem to go alright only to fall out and crash. Just when the Shinsei Maru has just blown off some of Godzilla's face to no avail, the Takao arrives, blasting at the creature with their cannons. Godzilla damages the ship, but six massive barrels shoot him in the stomach at point blank, seemingly at least making him retreat. Then blue light glows from underneath the Takao, which is obliterated by Godzilla's Breath Weapon.
• I Am Not Your Father: When Akiko calls Shikishima "daddy", he corrects her by saying he's not her real father. His coworkers think that's needlessly cruel, considering Shikishima raised her from infancy and is the only male figure in her life, yet he still doesn't consider Akiko his child.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Shirō Mizushima wanted to participate in the Pacific Theater, but the war ended before he got the chance to. This triggers Koichi, since he knows War Is Hell, and tells Shirō he better be joking. He even wanted to help defeat Godzilla despite having a broken left arm, but both Noda and Akitsu told him he was fortunate to not experience war. He ends up proving to be instrumental in helping defeat Godzilla near the end.
• It Can Think: The climactic final operation nearly fails twice because Godzilla shows more instinct than being simply an angry dinosaur: he deliberately targets the decommissioned ships, knowing they're deploying ropes to tie him down, and is only thwarted each time by Shikishima's plane drawing his ire instead. Later, when Plan B is enacted to drag a weakened Godzilla back to the surface and kill him while he's suffering from crush and decompression injuries, he pops the balloons sending him back up and would have escaped had a civilian fleet of tugboats not arrived.
• Intellectual Animal: This incarnation of Godzilla deliberately going out of his way to attack humans post-mutation heavily implies that Godzilla has enough intelligence to realize that humans were to blame for mutating it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Two examples. Sumiko initially blames Koichi for not contributing to the war, but eventually bonds with him and his adoptive family and caring for their welfare. The second one takes longer to show: Tachibana blames Koichi for not fighting back against Godzilla and they don’t exactly have the best reunion. Eventually, Tachibana ultimately forgoes his grudges and tells Koichi to live.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Shikishima's desertion is treated as the sensible decision to refuse to throw his life away on a war that's already been lost.
• Line in the Sand: The plan to kill Godzilla is led by former military naval commanders, because Japan has no formal military force at this time, the American military refuses to help, and the Japanese government is in disarray after Godzilla's attack, and the volunteers are made up of retired soldiers. The leaders of the operation admit there's no guarantee the plan will work, none of them are being forced to join, especially after just returning from a horrible war, and all of them are free to go home if they so choose, but at the same time telling them they're the only thing that stands between Japan and Godzilla. While some of the men present do leave, most decide to stay and fight, especially after being told this isn't a suicide mission.
• Living Dinosaurs: It’s heavily implied that this incarnation of Godzilla, like the Godzillsaurus in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, was a gigantic theropod dinosaur prior to being mutated by a nuclear detonation. Whether or not Godzilla actually is a true dinosaur is left ambiguous; Shikishima only calls him "dinosaur-like", while Word of God from the director states he thinks of Godzilla as a '"curse god".
• Masquerade: Godzilla's attack on Odo Island during WWII is apparently covered up as an attack by the Americans, and his path of destruction towards Tokyo is similarly suppressed by both the Japanese and American governments to avoid causing a panic. Unfortunately, their numerous attempts to destroy Godzilla discretely completely fail, so all it accomplishes is a much higher death toll when Godzilla inevitably makes landfall in the city, as the evacuation order is only given once he's already gotten here.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While he was clearly mutated by the atomic bomb, there's some ambiguity as to what Godzilla actually is. Notably, Director Yamazaki has stated he considers Godzilla post-mutation as a Tatari-gami, or "curse god" implying this Godzilla might literally be a god. The fact his entire body being destroyed isn't enough to put him down lends towards this. It's notable that the novelization implies that the Godzillasaurus wasn't a 'normal' creature to begin with and already had an absurd Healing Factor that allowed it to survive the atomic bomb and mutate at all.
• Militaries Are Useless: The first to encounter Godzilla after he's mutated by the Bikini Atoll testings are the US Navy. They have a few run-ins with him, but as is usual for the genre conventional weapons are useless and ship after ship is easily destroyed. Eventually he starts heading towards Japan, and the American military basically tell the Japanese government "we're too busy with the Soviets, good luck with the giant, unkillable monster". This is a big problem for Japan, as it's 1947, so they're in the middle of gutting their own military following WWII. As a result, the task of taking down Godzilla ends up falling to civilians; specifically, a group mostly consisting of former Imperial soldiers and sailors who band together on their own accord and gather up every piece of soon-to-be decommissioned military hardware they can get their hands on.
• Misplaced Retribution: While Godzilla being mutated was the doing of mankind, he doesn’t realize the distinction between the Americans who actually did it and the Japanese who were not involved, and they are the ones who end up facing his wrath.
• Monumental Damage: As noted by the reporter filming it live, the Nippon Gekijo cinema managed to survive the war but not Godzilla (in real life it was demolished in The '80s).
• Mood Whiplash: In the first ten minutes of the film, Shikishima lands on Odo Island feigning a faulty plane as an excuse to not fulfill his duty as a kamikaze pilot. The mechanics quickly find nothing wrong with the plane and correctly conclude he's deserting, but tell him it was probably the right choice, since Japan's defeat is certain and imminent. They start warming up to each other over dinner that night, and then suddenly Godzilla attacks and kills everyone except Shikishima and the lead mechanic.
• My Greatest Failure: Shikishima's primary motivation comes from getting almost all the repairmen on Odo Island killed when he froze up like a Deer in the Headlights when confronted by Godzilla. He goads the last surviving repairman, Tachibana, back to help him kill Godzilla by preparing the plane which he'll dive-bomb into his mouth, promising to finish the job by giving his life to take down the monster as recompense for their deaths. Tachibana agrees... but changes his mind completely upon learning Shikishima's reason for killing Godzilla isn't just atonement but to give his adoptive daughter a future, revealing the ejector seat he discovered during repairs and telling Shikishima to come back alive for Akiko's sake.
• My Parents Are Dead: When Shikishima arrives back to what's left of his home in Tokyo after the war is over, he asks his neighbour Sumiko if his parents are still alive. She, rather scornfully, tells him they were killed in the firebombing of the city. Later, Shikishima looks over a letter he received from his father urging him to return home alive, heavily implied to be the reason he chickened out from being a kamikaze pilot at the last second.
  Shikishima: "Come back alive"...?
• Mythology Gag: The film is packed with references and inspiration from earlier films in the series.
  • Godzilla (1954)
    • The movie was released in Japan on November 3rd, 2023, the same day as the original film's release.
    • Godzilla has a notably brown tint on his skin as opposed to charcoal gray. The original Godzilla suit was originally brown before he was colored green for Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) poster and merchandise paints him as charcoal gray for consistency.
    • During the Ginza attack Godzilla chomps down on a train, recreating an iconic scene from the 1954 film.
    • Koichi Shikishima and Dr. Kenji Noda, like Daisuke Serizawa in the original film, are ex-Imperial military men, and Dr. Serizawa is heavily implied to have been a weapons researcher, like Dr. Noda explicitly is. Dr. Noda cooks up the plan to kill Godzilla as penance for what he did in service to Imperial Japan, much like Dr. Serizawa, and Shikishima volunteers to sacrifice himself as atonement - though, in the end, Shikishima chooses to live instead of deliberately dying with Godzilla.
    • Dr. Noda's demonstration of the plan to kill Godzilla is very similar to Dr. Serizawa's demonstration of the Oxygen Destroyer, down to a little model in a tank of water.
    • The plan to kill Godzilla is almost the opposite of Dr. Serizawa's plan. Instead of waiting until he dives deep and kill him with the science thing-a-majig, they'll wait for him to surface, deploy the science doohickey (freon gas tanks), and if that doesn't work, they'll yank him up with another scientific gadget (inflatable balloons) to finish him off on the surface. In both cases the mechanism in question releases a lot of bubbles.
    • Godzilla dredging up deep-sea fish when rises to the surface and signalling his arrival brings to mind the intact trilobite that Yamane discovers in Godzilla's footprint on Odo Island in the very first film.
    • A group of radio reporters verbally track Godzilla's movement from the top of a building as he destroys Tokyo landmarks, only to fall to their deaths when Godzilla demolishes the structure they're standing on.
    • Noriko is blinded in the same eye Dr. Serizawa was in the original film.
    • The Godzilla march appears a few times, but notably, the original version appears during the operation to kill Godzilla, as that theme was originally used to convey the JSDF combating Godzilla in the 1954 film.
    • The original film's working title was called "Project 'G'" before it was given its official title. The movie's poster and Close on Title shows title as G Minus One.
    • Akiko sobbing when Noriko is seemingly dead is framed the exact same way as the irradiated child crying over her dead mother in the aftermath of Godzilla's Tokyo rampage.
  • Like with The Return of Godzilla, the Cold War plays a role in the plot, albeit not as active - America can't deploy its military due to fear of Soviet retaliation.
  • Like the Heisei incarnation of the character (as revealed in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah), this Godzilla starts off as a regular (albeit highly aggressive) dinosaur who first appears during World War II, before the atomic bomb.
  • The dinosaur that turns into Godzilla, pre-mutation, is lean, angular, and hunched over like Zilla in Godzilla (1998) (perhaps coincidentally, he looks almost exactly like a design conceptualized for an unmade 1983 American Godzilla movie). Interestingly, Godzilla's form here has visible spines on his back prior to suffering mutations. In addition, the '98 opening depicted the creation of Zilla with footage of Operation Crossroads (1946), the same atomic testing that irradiated Godzilla in this film.
  • Much like in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!, Godzilla is blown up by his own Atomic Breath after suffering an injury while charging it, but promptly starts regenerating from a remaining chunk of flesh, complete with the main theme blaring when the chunk of flesh starts pulsing.
    • The explosive decompression renders Godzilla's eyes opaquely white, the same as they appear in GMK.
    • When Godzilla uses his atomic breath the first time, it literally explodes like a nuke in effect and detonation which is how GMK Godzilla's atomic breath went off when he used it on a crowd of fleeing citizens, along with a flashbang and a powerful shockwave that could be felt for miles, with the resulting aftermath ending with a mushroom cloud.
    • While not literal (as in GMK), this Godzilla is a representation of Japan's sins during WW2.
  • The protagonist is a disgraced ex-military Sole Survivor who panicked while facing Godzilla, now coping with Survivor's Guilt as he tries to redeem himself by killing Godzilla—the same as Akane from Godzilla Against Mecha Godzilla.
  • Godzilla (2014):
    • Godzilla's dorsal spines light up from the tip of his tail and moving up his back, which is in itself a Mythology Gag for Godzilla: The Series. The framing itself is a direct callback to the scene where Godzilla deploys it against the first MUTO.
    • Multiple shots of Godzilla swimming under a naval vessel are framed in the same way as Godzilla approaching Honolulu and San Francisco under US vessels.
  • Shin Godzilla:
    • Much like Shin Godzilla, this movie's incarnation of Godzilla uses the same roar as the original Godzilla.
    • Once again, a lot of grief is caused by Japanese incompetence and a focus on appearing orderly when all it does is cause death and destruction. The JMSDF and Shikishima are forbidden from warning Tokyo of the giant angry dinosaur approaching to avoid "chaos", which results in far more deaths.
    • The plot to kill Godzilla for good has to come from a de facto government team working independently from an overworked and useless government - or in the case of this movie, ex-Imperial Navy who mostly work for the new government.
    • Godzilla deploys his beam weapon in response to heavier ordinance injuring him. Instead of American bombers, it's Japanese tanks. And just like Shin, the resulting beam weapon annihilates the government and levels half of Tokyo.
    • Godzilla can regenerate from lethal wounds, albeit at a much faster pace than Shin.
• Never My Fault: Exploited by Shikishima. He knows that he's not blameless for what happened on Odo Island, but with Tachibana proving difficult to find Shikishima hits upon the idea to spam the area around a previous post of his with hatemail to this effect to provoke him. It works as Tachibana becomes so enraged that he seeks Shikishima out to kick his ass.
• Never Trust a Trailer: In the first official trailer for the movie, the last line has Shikishima saying "That monster... will never forgive us." as he lies on a floor. In the actual movie however, the line is never said in the movie, as it was actually two different lines from different scenes in the movie put together for the trailer. Not only that, the actual dialogue in that scene was Shikishima pleading to Tachibana to help repair a broken-down prototype fighter plane for use to defeat Godzilla.
• Nuclear Mutant: This is the first Godzilla film to directly show a nuclear test that mutated Godzilla into this, and the test in question is Operation Crossroads, a nuclear test that took place in 1946 in which the movie shows in explicit detail.

O-Z

• Oh, Crap!: The Shinsei Maru crew manage to seemingly kill Godzilla by detonating a sea mine inside his mouth, only to watch in horror as the wound regenerates in seconds and the now very angry dinosaur rises to his full height to retaliate. Fortunately, the Takao arrives just in time to draw his ire.
• Once More, with Clarity: When Sōsaku shows all the customizations and repairs he's added to the fighter plane as per Shikishima's instructions, including replacing one of the fuel tanks with a bomb so he can use the aircraft to kamikaze Godzilla, he adds that there's one more extra thing he needs to show him, but the scene cuts off before he finishes. Only after the plane explodes in Godzilla's face in the final battle do we see the rest of the scene, with Sōsaku explaining that he discovered an ejector seat in the plane, and telling Shikishima he better come back alive, which he does thanks to the seat.
• On Second Thought: When the minesweeper crew is assigned to stall Godzilla until an actual warship can arrive, Yoji Akitsu dramatically declares that he's up to the task to take down the monster. Seconds later, the other minesweeper boat is instantly capsized by Godzilla, at which point he says "never mind" and immediately maneuvers the boat out of there at as fast as possible.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Sumiko outlived her children who died in the firebombings, and so her lashing out on Koichi, who was supposed to be a Kamikaze pilot, is understandable. However, once Koichi allows Noriko and Akiko to live with him, she decides to help them raise Akiko and even has her spend time with her while Koichi and Noriko are at work.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Despite the destruction only taking place on a roughly city-wide scale similar to the original movie, improvements in special effects allow the movie to depict everything in much more realistic and visceral detail. As such, Godzilla's rampage takes on far more intensity than ever before, such as his atomic breath causing massive explosions and even his mere movements easily obliterating everything around him. Godzilla simply grazing the side of a building tears a large chunk out of it, and it's shown he can plow through buildings with the ease of an animal merely looking for something.
• Phlegmings: When Godzilla attacks Odo Island at the beginning of the film, he's shown having thick drool from his mouth whenever he roars, which makes him look more savage and monstrous. He loses this attribute after he mutates, however.
• Prehistoric Monster: This film returns to making Godzilla some sort of prehistoric dinosaur-like beast, initially resembling a giant spike-backed Tyrannosaurus, that somehow survived extinction. If anything, this part of his character is emphasized more than in any film prior, since he's shown killing humans with little to no provocation even before being irradiated and afterwards seems to destroy Japan not because he's retaliating, but because he's begun to consider the region his "territory", suggesting that being mutated simply increased his already extremely high aggression.
• Rasputinian Death: The final plan to kill Godzilla goes off in three parts. First, giant canisters of pressured freon gas are strapped to his body, which release bubbles that take away his buoyancy, sinking him like a rock to the bottom of an oceanic trench, which causes rapid and extreme pressure change too fast for Godzilla's body to adapt to. This isn't enough, so the back-up plan is used, inflating giant balloons from the canisters to jettison Godzilla back to the surface, exposing him to explosive decompression. This severely injures Godzilla, but still isn't enough to kill him. Fortunately, Shikishima enacts a third plan that the others didn't authorize, crashing his bomb-laden plane into Godzilla's mouth to kill him from inside, which finally puts the monster down (for now, at least).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the climax, Dr. Noda gives a speech about Imperial Japan's utter lack of concern for human life and his disgust with the country for treating life too cheaply. It's implied it is one reason that Shikishima ultimately decides to use the ejection seat.
• Remake: Minus One is more or less a remake of the original film, detailing Godzilla's first emergence and ensuing rampage in a post-WW2 Japan, and hits some of the same storybeats.
• Retraux: In a similar vein to the ORTHOchromatic release of Shin Godzilla, Minus One has a Deliberately Monochrome version, suffixed with Minus Color.
• Returning War Vet: The main character, Kōichi Shikishima, is a kamikaze pilot who bailed out on the way to the battlefield, so he returns home alive. His neighbour isn't too happy to find he deserted (since there's no way a successful kamikaze could return home) and Shikishima struggles with PTSD (not from the war, since he never actually saw the battlefield, but from the first Godzilla attack) and failure to perform his duty as a kamikaze pilot. He later puts his aerial combat skills to good use in a quest for personal redemption during the climax, when he proves pivotal in the plan to kill Godzilla.
• Reused Character Design: The Godzilla design for the movie is very similar to the one used in Yamazaki's Godzilla: The Ride, tweaked for this film.
• Revisiting the Roots: The summary outright declares that this is a revisit of the original 1954 film's concept, with Godzilla attacking Tokyo as Japan recovers from World War II and, similar to Shin Godzilla, is another solo venture, with no other monsters present besides Godzilla, who again plays a clear villain role against humanity. Indeed, the overall plot is functionally a loose remake of the original film, with Godzilla first appearing on Odo Island, then being mutated and enraged by nuclear testing; attacking ships at sea as he makes his way up the Japanese coast; devastating Tokyo; and then being destroyed by an unconventional plan of attack involving a fancy chemical weapon at sea. The Alternate Monochrome Version is also the first official black-and-white Godzilla movie since Godzilla Raids Again in 1955.
• Required Secondary Powers: The film actually shows the area around Godzilla's mouth and cheeks being damaged after using his Atomic Breath, meaning the fast Healing Factor he displays in this film is pretty much required to prevent the attack from causing irreparable damage each time it's used.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: While always an aspect of his character, this time it's made very clear that Godzilla is out for revenge on humanity and actively trying to kill as many people as possible. In an early trailer, Shikishima flat out says that "this monster will never forgive us."
• Rock Beats Laser: The minesweeping job Shikishima takes involves a wooden tugboat which is ideal for dealing with American-made sea mines that are magnetic and drawn to metal hulls.
• Sea Mine: Shikishima takes up a job as a minesweeper, helping to clean up the thousands of sea mines lining the coast of Japan placed by both the Japanese and the Americans during the war (it's a high-risk, high-pay occupation, as one might expect). At one point, the minesweeping boats are reassigned to take on Godzilla, and use some of the mines as weapons. One detonated on Godzilla's back does nothing, but one detonated in his mouth actually injures him... until his Healing Factor kicks in.
• Scenery Gorn:
  • When Koichi returns from the war, his hometown is leveled to the ground by American B29 firebombings, and finds out his parents perished in the attack. It took two years until the surviving population managed to rebuild their homes from scratch, and Koichi has a new home built for himself, Noriko, and Akiko.
  • When Godzilla arrives to Ginza, he levels several buildings, displaces pavement, and began attacking trains. And just when the military arrives with tanks to deal with him, he begins to charge his atomic breath from the tail-up, and shoots the beam with great force, it literally sets off like an actual nuclear bomb, once again reducing Ginza into rubble, complete with black rain to set the whole ordeal.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • When Godzilla lunges up out of the water and eats the Shinsei Maru's sister ship in one chomp, Captain Akitsu decides that his heroic posturing about being the only ones who can hold the line against the monster was delusional and hurriedly decides they have to run for it.
  • After Godzilla blows up much of Ginza with his heat ray, the military backs off from fighting him, leaving the task to a group of World War 2 veterans.
  • Several of the veterans back out of taking part in the plan because they're not convinced it will work, are tired of being called on to sacrifice their lives, and have families that need them. Nobody holds it against them.
• Self-Damaging Attack Backfire: The plan to kill Godzilla by Explosive Decompression doesn't quite work, it definitely hurt him a lot, but it isn't enough. Godzilla, enraged beyond measure, prepares to wipe out all the ships with his atomic breath, only for Shikishima to dive his plane into Godzilla's mouth in the nick of time, blowing up the monster's head. With no way for the pressurized nuclear energy to be released anymore, Godzilla's body literally falls to pieces as he's destroyed from the inside-out by his own attack.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Discussed: Shikishima deserted his duties in part because he believed being a kamikaze fighter would amount to this trope at best, but this decision burdens him with dishonor in the eyes of his countrymen and heavy survivor's guilt. When Godzilla arrives, Shikishima perceives him as a result of his failures, and comes to the conclusion that sacrificing himself to destroy him is the only way to atone for his mistakes and end his torment, even as the people around him are encouraging him that it is better to live. In the end, Shikishima chooses to eject from his plane before it explodes, affirming that there is nothing honorable about sacrifice that can be avoided, and it's always better to stay alive than to die.
• Sequel Hook: Noriko has been affected by Godzilla's radiation in an unusual manner, and the last shot of the movie has Godzilla's mangled carcass drifting to the bottom of the sea... and then its regeneration starts to kick in...
• Serkis Folk: Similarly to the eponymous character in Shin Godzilla and the Kaiju of Shin Ultraman, Godzilla Minus One uses CGI to bring its monster to life, maintaining the properties of the Godzilla suits and simultaneously giving life to the in-film model. On top of his sweeping bodily movements, Godzilla is now capable of subtle facial expressions that a suit would have difficulty portraying, such as glaring at a ship trying to shoot him with contempt.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: An unusual variant. Shikishima returns from the war haunted by memories that manifest in guilt-tripping night terrors, but not of anything he actually did in combat, since he deserted before he saw the battlefield. He's haunted by his encounter with Godzilla in 1945, who killed almost all of the aircraft mechanics he had befriended on Odo Island, which he blames himself for.
• Shipper on Deck: Akitsu, Noda, and Mizushima are this for Shikishima and Noriko; as they celebrate Shikishima’s new house, they lightheartedly rib Shikishima about his relationship with her, which he is very irritated with. This later comes back to less lighthearted effect when Akitsu asks Shikishima why he didn’t marry Noriko before she died.
• Shoo the Dog: Noda and Akitsu refuse to take Mizushima along with them in the final campaign to kill Godzilla, because they know full well there's a good chance they're going to their doom and think it's better that a young man like him, who has never seen the horrors of warfare, should keep it that way and help carry on Japan's future. Mizushima disobeys and pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment just when hope seems to be lost.
• Shout-Out: There are some clear nods to Steven Spielberg’s own monster movies, with the Odo Island attack making references to Jurassic Park and the boat chase scene clearly being inspired by the third act of Jaws.
• Shown Their Work: When Godzilla unleashes his atomic breath, it causes a powerful explosion with a flashbang strong enough to level surrounding buildings and ends in black rain. That's exactly how nuclear weapons work in real life, and since this is a Japanese work based on the aftermath of World War II, they know how terrifying nukes are.
  • The destroyers featured in the film were also modelled appropriately after their real-life counterparts, rather than being duplicated. They were also marked correctly with their romanized names painted amidships, which did occur during the Allied Occupation of Japan.
• Skyward Scream: Shikishima lets out a cry of utter anguish after Godzilla's first beam attack nukes Ginza, apparently killing Noriko in a wave of destruction.
• Soup of Poverty: In the ruins of post-war Tokyo, rice gruel is the only food Shikishima and Noriko can get for themselves and their child. After a timeskip of a few years, during which Shikishima gets a job clearing mines, they can afford to eat more and better.
• Suicide Attack: Subverted. Shikishima thinks he can redeem himself as a kamikaze deserter who got the Odo Island repairmen killed by diving an explosives-laden plane into Godzilla's mouth to kill him. However, the last surviving repairman Tachibana discovers an ejector seat into the plane and tells him to come back alive. As a result, Shikishima is able to fly the plane into Godzilla's mouth and eject before impact, surviving.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The US refuses to help Japan in destroying Godzilla due to the presence of Soviet submarines nearby, despite the fact that, at this point, Japan has almost nothing to defend itself with, due to the military having been disbanded (and the Japan Self-Defense Forces still several years away from being founded).
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: In spite of the Downer Beginning and rather grim middle act, the ending of the film is surprisingly uplifting despite the odds. The plan to kill Godzilla works (at least, for now) without any of the characters dying, Shikishima is able to put his guilt to rest without giving his life, Sōsaku forgives him for what happened on Odo Island, and Noriko turns out to have survived the destruction of Ginza, with possibly a healing factor caused by mutation.
• Survivor Guilt: Shikishima is plagued with nightmares for years, firstly for abandoning his post as a kamikaze pilot, and secondly for his fear getting the better of him on Odo Island, which led to most of the repairmen he befriended being killed by Godzilla, which isn't helped by the surviving Tachibana blaming him for the aftermath of both incidents. He refers to himself as a man who cheated death more than once, and this prompts a Death Seeker attitude in the second half of the movie, by killing Godzilla with a kamikaze strike, that he hopes will atone for his sins. Fortunately, he's convinced otherwise when Tachibana forgives him and gives him a way out and is able to kill Godzilla without paying with his life.
• Tainted Veins: At the very end of the movie, When Noriko is hugging Shikishima she's shown to have black vein-like markings in the shape of Godzilla's dorsal spines creeping up her neck from beneath her bandages.
• Tagline:
  • "Post-war, Japan. From zero to minus." (戦後、日本。 無から負へ。) Notably, this text is not translated for posters localized for other languages.
  • "Survive and fight." (生きて、抗え。, lit. "Live, [and] resist.")
• Tanks for Nothing: Four Type 4 Chi-To tanks engage Godzilla when he makes landfall, which only delay him for a few seconds before getting destroyed. In our reality, the Type 4 was produced so late in World War II that only two were ever completed.
• Technicolor Death: When Shikishima manages to blow up Godzilla's head with the plane, the atomic energy inside of the monster has no way to exit, thus causing beams of it to radiate out of multiple spots on his body as he crumbles to pieces.
• Theme Music Power-Up: The classic Godzilla theme plays in the final battle.
• Theme Music Withholding: The Godzilla theme music is not played during the Kaiju's rampage on Odo Island, its pursuit of the Shinsei Maru, or its appearance in Shikishima's nightmare. Instead, oppressive drones take their place to emphasize the horror of an unstoppable Kaiju crushing humans. It's not until the Ginza attack that Godzilla's original theme kicks in.
• Time for Plan B: Plan A to kill Godzilla is to force him to extreme depth and have the pressure crush him. Plan B is then to rapidly raise him to the surface and kill him with decompression. Shikishima then comes up with a Plan C: Feed It a Bomb Suicide Attack. Plan A doesn't work, B greatly weakens him but doesn't finish the job, but Plan C does work.
• Time Skip: The film makes specific jumps forward in its years-spanning story, only covering the significant details of Shikishima's life following the end of the war, as well as events revolving around Godzilla being spotted by American forces (e.g. the Bikini Atoll detonation and Godzilla being caught in its blast, followed by the Shinsei Maru coming across a destroyed American warship).
• The Tokyo Fireball: It's a Godzilla movie, so this shouldn't be unexpected. In this case, the movie starts with a real life Tokyo Fireball already having occurred, the Bombing of Tokyo by US forces during World War II, which basically levelled the city. Shikishima comes back from the war to find his entire neighbourhood has been reduced to rubble and his parents are dead. And then, only two years later, Godzilla attacks Japan and obliterates the Ginza district of Tokyo with his atomic breath.
• Too Dumb to Live: As Godzilla tears through Ginza, a group of reporters stand on the roof of a roughly 40 meter tall building taking photos of him and reporting for the radio as he moves closer and closer to them. The kaiju comes within a few meters of them and they only think to move after Godzilla strikes the building they're on, much too late as the part they're standing on falls over, taking them with it.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Inverted; in a seeming effort to have Godzilla make less of a hash of the Square-Cube Law than he usually does, the monster has positively gigantic, broad feet and stumpy, wide legs with a taller, more slender upper half and tiny arms.
• Tragic Keepsake: After the Odo Island massacre, a resentful Tachibana forcibly gives Shikishima a small bundle before parting ways. Looking through them, Shikishima realizes that they are all family photos from the Odo Island engineers who died because of his failure. He holds onto the photos for years. Near the end of the film, Shikishima, prepared to die in order to kill Godzilla, pulls out the bundle of photos, as well as Akiko's drawing of him, herself and Noriko. Seeing that Shikishima kept the reminders of the past and the possibility of a future, convinces Tachibana to let go of his anger and inform the pilot of the Shinden's ejector seat, all but ordering him to live.
• Travel Montage: One of these is used showing Godzilla gradually making his way to Japan from the Bikini Atoll, which also shows him sinking every single ship that ends up in his path.
• Trexpy: Godzilla’s pre-irradiated form, while never specifically unidentified as a species of dinosaur, only as a dinosaur-like monster, nevertheless resembles a giant Tyrannosaurus with dorsal plates and larger arms.
• Unstoppable Rage: While not outright stated, this Godzilla's pissed that puny humans are on his territory and takes it out on whatever's nearby - Odo Island villagers (who learned when to avoid it), which graduates to Imperial Japanese personnel, American warships and then Tokyo.
  "That monster... will never forgive us."
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway:
  • The fighter plane Shikishima flies into the final battle is a Kyushu J7W Shinden, noted to be very unusual because it only existed as two unfinished prototypes, due to the war ending before it could ever be brought into service (in real life, only one of these prototypes still partially exists, so Toho had to commission a full-sized replica for use in the film). Since Japan had decommissioned all of its planes at this point, they don't have much choice on the type of aircraft.
  • While the narrative never draws attention to it, the tanks which fire on Godzilla in Ginzu are Type 4 Chi-To medium tanks, which, similar to the Shinden, were only constructed as two completed prototypes (and a few unfinished ones) at the very tail end of the war and never saw service (in reality, the two prototypes were dumped into a lake at the end of World War II, so it seems either the unfinished chassises were finished to fight against Godzilla or this is an alternate timeline where more were built).
• The Unreveal: In the opening act, Shikishima and the aircraft repairmen on Odo Island are attacked by Godzilla who is much smaller (only 15 meters tall, instead of 50 meters) and not yet mutated. The lead repairman Tachibana tells Shikishima to sneak to his plane and use the 20mm sentry gun to shoot Godzilla in the face, believing that nothing could possibly survive a direct barrage from a weapon like that. Shikishima isn't so sure, and his uncertainty gets the better of him when he doesn't shoot when he has a perfect shot. It's never made clear if the gun would've been effective on Godzilla at that point, as he later mutates and becomes far more powerful. For what it's worth, the film's novelization, only available in Japan, suggests that it wouldn't have worked, and Godzilla stomping on the planes and fuel tanks without any injury imply much the same.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Averted. The audience is given a complete play-by-play for each of the three plans to defeat Godzilla. Overall, each plan plays out as intended: Godzilla is explosively compressed, explosively decompressed, and explosively decapitated. That said, Plan B is when things start to go very wrong, when Godzilla starts breaking the balloons that are meant to drag him up; if not for the fleet of tugboats that Mizushima had rallied, the monster would have gotten free.
• Visual Innuendo: When Shikishima and the others on the Shinsei Maru are told to distract Godzilla to buy time for the Takao to arrive, they look at the two mines they've salvaged—which are enormous balls, mind you—and say it'll take more than "a pair of these" to deal with Godzilla.
• War Is Hell: The film is set from the closing days of World War II to slightly after the war is over, so this should be obvious. Shikishima being a deserter is treated sympathetically and it's ultimately depicted as having been the right choice, as he was put into a suicide mission by a government that has no chance of winning the war and everyone knows it. Shikishima returns home to Tokyo only to find the entire region has been levelled and his parents were killed in the air raids. When he encounters a trainee who never got a chance to see combat and wishes the war went on a little longer so he could've seen some action, Shikishima angrily grabs him by the collar and says he better be joking.
  Akitsu: To have never seen war is something to be proud of.
• We Have Reserves: At several points in the film, Imperial Japan is called out for ultimately using its facade of honor as an excuse for treating its people as expendable and throwing lives away for nothing.
• Weird Historical War: The opening is set near the end of World War II, by the point Japan's defeat is certain and immediately imminent. The main character, Shikishima, abandons his duty as a kamikaze pilot and diverts to a remote airplane repair station on Odo Island under the guise of vehicle malfunction, which the repairmen easily see through. That night, Shikishima and the workers are attacked by a giant reptilian beast from the sea the island locals call "Godzilla", which destroys the repair station and kills most of the mechanics. An offhand remark from another character later in the film suggests the incident was covered up as an attack by the Americans, despite the fact Odo Island was never targeted by them.
• What a Piece of Junk:
  • Shikishima takes up a job as a minesweeper, cleaning up the thousands of sea mines along the coast deployed by both Japan and the US during the war, to support Noriko and Akiko, since it's a high-paying job (due to being high-risk). Noriko thinks it isn't worth the danger, but Shikishima assures her the boat used for the task is specially designed for evading mines. He's much less impressed when he sees the "specially designed" boat, as it's a tiny and rickety wooden tugboat. He's quickly assured that it's necessary for the task at hand, since many of the sea mines are magnetic, so a ship with a metal hull would trigger the bombs. It also proves fast and maneuverable enough to evade Godzilla later on.
  • In the film's climax, a whole bunch of similarly rinky dink tugboats show up to do what tugboats do best and pull the destroyers so they can force Godzilla to surface.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Mild example, during the dinner scene at Koichi's house with the crew of the Shinsei Maru. When Akiko calls Koichi "daddy" and Koichi corrects her, his crewmates are quick to admonish him.
  • Later when the crew are drinking while discussing the plan to kill Godzilla, a drunken Akitsu angrily calls out Shikishima for not marrying Noriko (believed to be dead at this point) when he had the chance, despite knowing how she felt.
• Worm Sign: What heralds Godzilla's appearance are several decompressed and bloated schools of deep sea fish. Koichi experiences this first-hand when Godzilla arrives on Odo Island, and later, he sees several decompressed fishes on the surface that indicated that Godzilla is nearby.
• Worthy Opponent: After Godzilla is finally killed, everyone involved in the operation who put him to rest salute the monster as his body sinks to a watery grave.
• Your Head Asplode: Shikishima flies the Shinden, with one of its gas tanks secretly replaced with a bomb, right into Godzilla's mouth as he's about to fire his atomic breath. The plane explodes, blowing off everything above Godzilla's lower jaw (and now with no mouth to release his atomic breath, the concentrated nuclear energy destroys Godzilla's body from the inside).

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"Is your war finally over?"

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