Godzilla (G2K)

## Godzilla

The **Godzilla** (ゴジラ *Gojira*?) of the ***Millennium*** continuity was the first within the Millennium series of films, and the second with regards to its respective continuity, having followed in the footsteps of the first Godzilla.

## Name

Godzilla's name within the Millennium series follows the convention of that of the Showa era Godzilla, being a transliteration of Gojira (ゴジラ?), a combination of two Japanese words: gorira (ゴリラ?), meaning gorilla, and kujira (鯨 or クジラ?), meaning whale.

## Design

### Appearance

Following in the footsteps of the Heisei era, the Millennium series' Godzilla underwent an aesthetic overhaul in the form of the MireGoji. The new suit, created for the film by suit maker Shinichi Wakasa and worn by new suit actor Tsutomu Kitagawa, was an all new, very radical look for Godzilla.

Heavily inspired by the KingGoji design, this suit contained many new and returning features. The scales on this suit were more detailed and prominent, his dorsal plates were large and jagged with a purple tint to them, and his head shape was thinner, making him look more reptilian. Godzilla's mouth and eyes contained the trademark "frown" present on other suits; the tongue was long, and the jawline was lined with the series' old, but returning fangs. His eyes were golden yellow with black pupils.

The tiny ears that existed in the original Godzilla suit and those in the Heisei series had also returned. This suit was painted a natural, dark shade of green. It was the first Godzilla suit to be officially painted green, where as previous suits were mostly painted charcoal black, except the ones in the original film.

### Portrayal

The portrayal of Godzilla was handled by the aforementioned Tsutomu Kitagawa, an actor who would return to the acting seat for the titular monster for the entirety of the Millennium series barring the 2001 film, *Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*.

Much like the Showa and Heisei era, Godzilla would be mostly portrayed via suitmation, with the occasional composite shot being used. Elaborate miniature sets scaled with the actor's suit were extensively used as well, to further push the sensation of scale and destruction.

Behind the scenes videos for the film show a different "suit" that was able to be puppeteered by multiple people. This suit possessed no legs, essentially being a head and upper torso, with a large pole having been installed up the spine of the design. This would then be manually operated by two or three people. This sort of suit acting was utilized for scenes with Godzilla biting Orga's arm.

### Roar

Godzilla's roar, starting with *Godzilla 2000* was revamped, being elongated in length, while also possessing a much deeper tone, compared to the roar of Godzilla in the Showa era and the later Heisei era films. Some of Godzilla's roars are resued from the 1998 American Godzilla. At one point, an additional roar can be heard that is a mix of a leopard roar and one of the roars produced by Obsidius.

## Personality

The Godzilla of *2000* acted much like its predecessors, being animal-like in attitude. However, it is shown to intentionally destroy mankind's energy sources, as if it loathed the human race and its advanced science. Godzilla is sometimes shown to be shocked by certain things, for example, when he blasted Orga with his atomic breath, he was shocked to see Orga healing his wounds at a rate faster than his.

## Origins

As is the case with other Godzillas of the Millennium series, this Godzilla is the second Godzilla within the continuity after the first one was killed in 1954.

## History

### *Godzilla 2000: Millennium*

One night, Godzilla came ashore at Nemuro, destroying a lighthouse and making his way into the heart of the city. Eventually, Godzilla reached an electrical plant and destroyed it. Yuji Shinoda, founder of the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN), remarked that it appeared was intentionally destroying mankind's energy sources. Godzilla returned to the ocean, and began to approach Tokai, most likely to feed on the nuclear power plant there. Mitsuo Katagiri, head of the government agency Crisis Control Intelligence, ordered the plant's reactors to shut down and mobilized the J.S.D.F. at Tokai to engage Godzilla.

The J.S.D.F. deployed its new cutting-edge Full Metal Missile Launchers, which fired armor-piercing missiles which were believed to be able to penetrate Godzilla's hide. Shinoda traveled to Tokai and confronted Katagiri, telling him Godzilla deserved to be studied rather than destroyed, and that there was no way he could kill Godzilla anyway. Katagiri laughed and told Shinoda he would have GPN dismantled before leaving.

The next morning, Godzilla swam close to the shore of Tokai, detonating mines in the water. Godzilla finally surfaced and began approaching the shore, withstanding artillery and missile fire from the J.S.D.F. and J.A.S.D.F. with no visible reaction. As Godzilla drew closer to the nuclear plant, the Full Metal Missile Launchers opened fire on him. This time, Godzilla was visibly fazed by the missiles, with chunks of his skin being blown off. While Godzilla was being blasted by the missiles, a gigantic floating rock flew over the battlefield and began scanning Godzilla. It proceeded to fire a laser beam from a hole on its side, knocking Godzilla into a building. Godzilla got up and fired his atomic breath at the rock, which fired another laser beam and knocked Godzilla into the ocean. Godzilla swam away, while the rock flew off into the distance.

Shinoda returned and surveyed the battlefield, recovering some of Godzilla's flesh that had been blasted off by the missiles. Using CCI's electron microscope, Shinoda and his former colleague Shiro Miyasaka discovered that Godzilla's cells had completely healed in a matter of hours with no scar tissue. They learned the secret to Godzilla's regeneration was a substance in his cells called Organizer G-1, which granted him virtually limitless regeneration that made him practically immortal.

The rock was later discovered to be an advanced alien UFO, which was attempting to subdue Godzilla and transfer his genetic material to its occupants so they could adjust to Earth's atmosphere. The UFO descended in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo and used the City Tower to hack into the city's computer systems, draining all data it could find on Godzilla. After CCI's attempts to destroy the UFO failed, Godzilla emerged from Tokyo Bay to challenge the UFO again. Godzilla walked through downtown Tokyo until he reached Shinjuku. The UFO, still intending to subdue Godzilla, tried to restrain him with tentacles it telepathically formed beneath the street, but Godzilla destroyed them with his atomic breath. The UFO then released a shockwave that caused a skyscraper to collapse onto Godzilla, trapping him beneath the rubble. The ship began absorbing Godzilla's DNA and transferring it to its occupants, which emerged from the UFO in a single collective form. The alien suddenly began convulsing as its body became covered in growths and it finally collapsed to the ground.

Godzilla broke free from the rubble and blasted the unmanned UFO, sending it crashing to the ground in a fireball. Just then, the alien stood back up, now mutated into the creature Orga due to its inability to control Godzilla's DNA. Godzilla immediately attacked Orga, but discovered the creature's healing factor was far more advanced than his own. Godzilla tried to blast Orga with his atomic breath, but Orga telepathically summoned the remnants of his UFO, using it to absorb the blast. With the UFO completely destroyed, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at Orga again, causing the beast to be consumed in flames. To Godzilla's surprise, Orga emerged from the fire and began walking toward him, with his gruesome injuries healing in a matter of seconds. Orga bit Godzilla and began draining his DNA, causing him to become covered in green Godzilla-like scales. Godzilla realized that Orga was trying to absorb more of his DNA in order to repair his damaged DNA matrix and become a clone of him. When Orga unhinged his jaw and opened his mouth wide, Godzilla ran headfirst into his maw. Orga began swallowing Godzilla whole, sprouting huge purple dorsal plates on his back. As Orga consumed Godzilla, Godzilla began glowing hot orange and giving off heat.

When Orga realized his situation, it was too late as Godzilla unleashed an atomic shockwave that obliterated Orga's entire upper body. Godzilla roared at Orga's headless corpse, which collapsed forward and crumbled to dust. Godzilla then approached a rooftop where several people, including Shinoda and Katagiri were standing. Katagiri refused to move, and lit a cigarette as he remarked he had never seen Godzilla that close before. Katagiri looked up at Godzilla and screamed his name, as Godzilla destroyed the rooftop and sent Katagiri falling to his death. Godzilla turned and walked away, unleashing his atomic breath in a fiery swath across the city. As Godzilla rampaged through Tokyo, Miyasaka remarked that humanity created Godzilla, and ever since has tried to destroy him. Yuki Ichinose, a reporter, questioned why Godzilla kept protecting them despite this fact, with Shinoda answering it was because Godzilla was inside each one of them.

## Abilities

### Amphibiousness

Though technically a reptile and not an amphibian, Godzilla has an amphibious lifestyle. He spends half of his life in water and the other on land. He is as adept a fighter underwater as he is on land. Capable of marching on the sea floor or swimming by undulating his tail like a crocodile, Godzilla is displayed as being able to breathe underwater.

### Atomic breath

In *Godzilla 2000: Millennium*, Godzilla's atomic breath (**Radioactive Flame** (放射火炎 *Hōsha Kaen*?) or **Radioactive Heat Ray** (放射熱線 *Hōsha Nessen*?)) was shown as having incendiary properties. Also, in a unique fashion, shortly after Godzilla decapitates Orga, his dorsal spines are shown to shimmer and spark in an erratic fashion, almost akin to a transformer malfunction. Unlike previous versions of his atomic breath, which were neon blue, this version of his atomic breath is shown to be deep orange in color.

### Durability

Godzilla possesses an extremely advanced and highly efficient regenerative ability. In *Godzilla 2000: Millennium*, it is explained that Godzilla's regenerative abilities may have something to do with his radioactive properties, and Organizer G-1 ("Regenerator G-1" in the American version) is the name given to a substance in his cells that is responsible for Godzilla's swift healing. In the case of Orga, its healing factor appears to even exceed Godzilla's own in terms of speed and effectiveness.

### Intelligence

An example of Godzilla's intelligence was displayed in *Godzilla 2000: Millennium* when he was facing Orga. When Orga kept regenerating himself in a fast pace, Godzilla decided to go after Orga's core and used a nuclear pulse to destroy it, thus exploiting that weakness and ultimately defeating Orga.

### Nuclear pulse

As a final attack against Orga, Godzilla uses what's been widely considered to be a nuclear pulse against Orga. During this attack, his entire body glowed a deep orange, before he unleashed the blast while partially in Orga's mouth, resulting in the latter's decapitation and death.

### Scutes

In addition, in *Godzilla 2000: Millennium* and *Godzilla vs. Megaguirus*, the dorsal plates create a tremendous amount of heat when the atomic ray is being prepared.