Gojira

I just finished reading William Tsutsui's "Godzilla on my Mind," a pretty terrific fan book about the (then) 50-year-old monster franchise. The main thrust is an attempt to decipher what exactly it is about Godzilla that makes him so appealing and long-lasting (the oldest franchise in cinema history!). It discusses the rather fascinating business history of the franchise, themes running through it, the fandom behind it, and various knockoffs and influences. Granted, those last two sections aren't up to the snuff of the first two, but overall it's a very enjoyable read, and I would recommend checking the ol' library.

This guy's enthusiasm really bleeds through; when he tells you he has loved the films with every fiber of his being since childhood, you believe him. It made me want to do two things:

The first is to watch the original Godzilla. For all of its influence, I've never actually watched the original Godzilla. Have you? Luckily, the library system has a DVD featuring the original, subtitled "Gojira" and the U.S. cut "Godzilla." It also has "King Kong," which I decided to throw in my cart because hey, classic giant monster movies. Library system's firing on all cylinders these last few days for me, with the brief letdown that they don't have a copy of "King Kong vs. Godzilla." Judging from the author's deep level of research into Godzilla fandom, almost all of them are converts at an early age and find Godzilla to be deeply nostalgic. I don't have that perspective (unless I get "nostalgic for an era in which I never lived," which in this case would be post-WW2 Japan), so I'm interested to see how I like it.

The second thought that came to mind was, do I love anything enough to write a book like this about it? I don't think I do! I have a lot of favored franchises, but none of them are all-consuming. Closest thing I can think of is "The Simpsons," but even then I think its been pretty much crap after the 9th season (where are the now? 22?). Maybe the game industry circa 1998-2002 (and I know that's not a franchise), but that's IT. It's kind of... humbling to see this level of love for a character and franchise. Not bad, mind you. Kinda nice, actually.

Also, it didn't give me enough information to decide if the Power Rangers could beat Godzilla. I'm thinking the Megazord by itself might not be up to the task, but once the Dragonzord gets in there Godzilla's getting a serious drill-tailing. Come to think of it, I guess as a child I WAS watching and loving Japanese rubber suit giant wrestling, so maybe I'll be a big fan after all. I'll letcha know.


(Oh, hey, funny story. "Gojira" is actually a combination of "whale" and "gorilla" for some reason. "Godzilla" is not any kind of literal translation, nor is it a clever title invented by a shrewd translator. As crazy as it may sound, "Godzilla" was actually just a phonetic mangling of the original name "Gojira," without anyone putting any thought into the "god of the lizards" poetry of that wonderful name. Is this why the Cloverfield monster looked kind of like a giant gorilla whale?)