Godzilla (Shin Godzilla continuity)

**Godzilla**, often nicknamed **Shin Godzilla** (in Japanese: シン・ゴジラ, *Shin Gojira*) to tell it apart from his original counterpart, is a new radically reinterpreted incarnation of Godzilla and the titular main antagonist of 2016 horror disaster kaiju film *Shin Godzilla* and the secondary antagonist in the crossover event 4-D short *Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D*.

Shin Godzilla is a bizarrely hyper-evolved lifeform, mutated by feeding on nuclear waste dumped on the seafloor in the 1950s. Now capable of spontaneously adapting to different situations, the Giant Unidentified Lifeform came ashore in Tokyo in 2016 and immediately wreaked havoc, with all of the Japanese Self Defense Forces' weapons having no effect on him. He was finally defeated by a complex plan orchestrated by government official Rando Yaguchi, but still could not be killed and remained a potential threat as he stood frozen in the ruins of Tokyo.

Unlike many past incarnations of Godzilla before him (who were either villains, anti-heroes or heroes), Shin Godzilla was neither, but instead was driven by his instinct for survival and adaptation. He was at first indifferent, if not merely unaware of humans, until they hurt him, which with these factors puts him at odds with humanity. Compared to his past incarnations, Shin Godzilla is also significantly more grotesque, monstrous, and biologically bizarre due to his capacity for evolve itself at near-constant state through self-mutation.

**Godzilla** (ゴジラ *Gojira*?), also dubbed **Shin Godzilla** (シン・ゴジラ *Shin Gojira*?) is the first and only Godzilla of the ***Shin Godzilla* continuity**, and the first in the Reiwa era of films.

This incarnation of the monster first appeared in the 2016 film, *Shin Godzilla*, where it's detailed how the monster arrived and proceeded to wreak havoc on Japan. It served as the main antagonist for the film.

## Name

During the events of the movie, the name *Gojira* comes from Goro Maki's referral to him as such. At his home of Odo Island, this term means "Incarnation of God". On top of the Japanese native name given to the newly discovered creature, Maki also gave him the English name of "Godzilla". Unlike previous incarnations of Godzilla, the name Goro Maki gave it is spelled in ateji (呉爾羅 *Gojira*?) as opposed to katakana.

This English translation was adopted by the Department of Energy, and was referred to as the "DOE's codename".

Throughout the film's running time, Godzilla's multiple forms are never given specific names, and are just referred to by numbered titles, such as the 'fourth form'. However there are some names (the names are never revealed in the film) like Godzilla's second form is named 'Kamata-kun', his third form named 'Shinagawa-kun' and his fourth form named 'Kamakura-san'. However, there are no names for his first and fifth forms.

## Design

### Development

The 2016 Godzilla underwent large developmental changes during the film's production. Said changes range from basic design elements to abilities being altered over time, and were detailed in *The Art of Shin Godzilla*.

Head designs for the beast's early forms went through a myriad of incarnations, ranging from more traditional head sculpt designs, to designs that look identical to a *Tyrannosaurus rex*. Additionally, Godzilla's earlier forms were illustrated in a more whale-like fashion, looking very much akin to a Basking shark, featuring a wide-open mouth, and a ribbed neck and throat. Webbed toes for the creature was a design aspect that was also played with but ultimately dropped in favor of a more traditional foot design.

Also, the arm size of early forms, alongside the creature's posture was different early on, with Godzilla originally crawling on all fours, rather than dragging itself along the ground.

The first-ever created concepts for the 2016 Godzilla's fourth form, created by Mahiro Maeda, had the monster bearing a closer resemblance to the 1954 monster, right down to including small "ears". Changed aesthetics for the monster's fourth form included Godzilla originally possessing a body much more akin to the Heisei era's Godzilla. These traits included similarly designed dorsal plates, the traditional tail-dragging posture, and larger arms.

The fourth form originally possessed different abilities, including self-replication, a concept cut from the film, although the remnants of the plot point made its way into deleted scenes. Self-replication was depicted as Godzilla growing additional heads and body parts. Certain concept art pieces showed Godzilla possessing a conjoined twin dynamic, with Godzilla having two upper bodies, split around the waist, while others had a second Godzilla growing off the back of the original. This concept was ultimately rejected by Toho.

Concept art for the monster's original fifth form was also detailed greatly. While the designs for the fifth form remained relatively similar to the final product, different aesthetics were played with, including different types of eyes for the creatures. The dorsal plates also differed in design, being more crystal-like in appearance, looking akin to SpaceGodzilla's. Some other dorsal plate designs took more wing-like liberty, stretching the established designs to look like wings.

Multiple facial concepts for the creatures were created, as well. A female design featured a very blank expression, with no nose, and small eyes. Another variant of the monster possessed a longer head, seemingly one eye, and a larger nose and mouth. Some designs looking much akin to the final film's featured eyes, a sharp row of teeth akin to Godzilla's fourth form and exaggerated skull-like features around the cheeks.

Oddly enough, some preliminary designs for the fifth form featured prominent male genitalia, however, a female design would forgo this design element, only being drawn and molded with basic breasts. This would seemingly be dropped in the final film's design.

## Appearance and Forms

While Godzilla was still portrayed as a colossal prehistoric reptilian kaiju as with previous iterations, this version of the character possessed much more advanced physiology than his predecessors' due to possessing eight times the genetic information of human beings in spite of originally the member of an unspecified prehistoric sea creature whose species closely related to prehistoric marine reptiles that first emerged in the Paleozoic Era (which explained this Godzilla's course of evolution where he took more and more reptilian appearance). As result Godzilla had five forms:

#### First Form

Aside from being confirmed to have a long tail and being mentioned by Ogashira as having gills and fin-like legs, what Godzilla's first form looked like is unclear. However, some information suggests that Godzilla's first form looked similar to his second form albeit more tadpole-like given that in his second form, he still possesses large gills and newly developed legs.

#### Second Form

Soon after made his presence known, Godzilla makes his way for Tokyo where he now has a pair of fully-functional digitigrade legs that suit for better locomotion on land. Because the legs were newly developed for land movement at that time, Godzilla was only able to stand horizontally, with his body held parallel to the ground. He now began to grow arms that developed at a slower rate compared to his legs as they were just in the form of small, developing stubs. He also has a pair of huge eyes with small black pupils. His skin is a beige color and he has large pulsating gills on the sides of his neck, which leak a red, blood-like fluid as he moves. He also sports several rows of small tan dorsal plates on his back.

#### Third Form

Upon developing into the third form, Godzilla began to change his posture into a more upright one like a traditional depiction of Godzilla thanks to further development of his legs. Aside from his more upright posture, his skin has turned reddish in color, which also glows due to the cooling system for nuclear energy in his body is yet to fully developed for adaptation on land. His tiny arms have also developed further as well, where they now sprout still-developing fingers. Since the course of his evolution now intended to have better physiology for adapting land environments, Godzilla's gills are now closed and reduced in prominence albeit still functions when he needs to go to the ocean to cool off his body until the biological cooling system for nuclear energy in his body was fully developed.

#### Fourth Form

After further evolution to the point were his body was now suited for adapting land environment as well as completing the development of his nuclear energy's natural cooling system, Godzilla now no longer need to retreat to the ocean to cooling his body. While his appearance now looks more like the rest of his incarnations (particularly the first design featured in the 1954 film), the result of his evolution for fully adapted on land made him completely hideous and looked like a skeletal, undead being: he had numerous gaps on his hide that results in his muscles over several parts of its body exposed. Godzilla's rib cage protrudes from the rest of his body, coming to a pointed and pronounced sternum, far more pronounced than that of any other Godzilla.

This design also appears to possess a longer neck than previous versions. He also possesses countless uneven rows of jagged, shark-like teeth inside his mouth and a pronounced nose with large round nostrils, and his mouth extends partially into his cheeks, some teeth protruding from the skin above and underneath his mouth. Not only that, he also possesses red scales resembling keloid scars to give of impression that he seems the victim of a Hydrogen bomb, where many of them running into structures in his black dorsal plates which are reminiscent of blood vessels. His arms now more developed albeit looked emaciated and still short compared to the rest of his incarnations'.

Godzilla's tail is noticeably longer than his own body, where the tip of it red and bloody, and is covered in twisted, mangled bones. The very end of his tail appears to have a small, mostly skeletal face/skull that had a prominent jaw that later can be opened like actual jaw. Godzilla used this face/skull to fire his second atomic beam to simultaneously beamed his atomic breath to two targets at once.

In spite of drastic changes on his body due to evolution progress, there are still some traits that still remained. First of all, Godzilla still retained his digitigrade-style posture in spite of the extreme development on his legs. Godzilla also retained his gills, though smaller than in his previous forms and may useless due to his current physiology. Even after his eyes shrunk, Godzilla still lacked eyelids, and only had a protective membrane in place of it instead that both protected them from intense light from his atomic breath and bombs, and functioned like typical eyelids that he closed when entering his resting coma-like state.

Whenever Godzilla released the atomic breath, his skull unhinges upwards, while the bone of his lower jaw splits apart to give his mouth cavity more space for his atomic beam.

#### Fifth Form

After Godzilla was forced to freeze himself due to the blood coagulant, the atomic kaiju is revealed to breaking down into smaller progenies which more humanoid and skeletal in appearance starting from the fleshy tip of his tail.

## Personality

In stark contrast of previous iterations, this Godzilla is outright detached from everything in the movie emotionally, so much that he ignores J.S.D.F.'s attempt to injure him as he slowly yet methodically shambles his way through human populates. The reason of this could be either due to him being either a mindless force of destruction or worse, in a constant state of pain, agony and suffering from its mutation and disfigurement, fitting the description that Godzilla "is equally a victim of the atomic bomb". Godzilla's zombie-like demeanor eventually cracked as soon as American B-2 Stealth Bombers dropped Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) that injured his back and blasted off one of his dorsal fins, enraging him that he unleashed his wrath upon his attackers and surroundings alike. The rampage and subsequent Operation: Yashiori also revealed a degree of intelligence during combat situation; in addition of developing ESP ability to protect his dormant form, Godzilla developed his tail beam attack as the alternative to equally destructive yet energy-taxing dorsal beams and even reserved some energy to surprise attack the squadron of Japanese workers who attempt to inject it with a coagulant.

### Portrayal

Godzilla is portrayed through the use of CGI and chroma keys in the film, aided by motion capture from Mansai Nomura in the case of the monster's fourth form. Initially, Godzilla's fourth form was to utilize an animatronic puppet that was manned by multiple members of the production crew by remote controls, and specifically placed wires. It was large, having been built in 1/38 scale to the actual creature, and featured articulation in multiple areas, including the fingers, mouth, eyes, and spinal regions, allowing for a wide range of movement. The puppet was to be shot in front of a blue chroma key and inserted into scenes in the film, much like other practical effects for the monster. This animatronic puppet was later scrapped in favor of CGI and motion capture, but the giant prop can be seen on special features for the film's Japanese Blu-ray release, being used as late as August 2015. Interestingly enough, the first leaked reveals of the monster involved low-resolution shots of this puppet.

### Roar

Godzilla's roar in this film changes based on his form, however, not all of his forms can roar. The first and second forms are vocally silent, likely because at this point it still is unable to properly breathe on land. The third form possesses the roar of the 1954 Showa era Godzilla. Interestingly enough, this Godzilla's '54 era roars have a noticeable audio overlap, making the middle part of the roar sound like it's repeating, whereas the original roar lacks this. The fourth form utilizes the roar of the 1962 to 1975 Showa era Godzilla, and also possesses a roar akin to the Heisei era Godzilla, which it unleashes shortly before utilizing its atomic breath. Said Heisei-like roar is also heard in the North American trailers for the film. Upon the culmination of Yaguchi's "Operation: Yashiori" in Godzilla's final seconds, he lets out the 1984 roar of the Heisei era Godzilla.

## Biography

### Origin

While Godzilla is still portrayed as a colossal prehistoric reptilian-esque kaiju as before, this version of Godzilla is depicted with both a near-vastly different backstory and a more advanced physiology than his predecessors before. This Godzilla originated as a prehistoric marine animal of some kind, proposed by Professor Goro Maki to be a relative of Paleozoic marine reptiles, which managed to survive into the 20th century. When the United States dumped barrels of nuclear waste into Tokyo Bay in the 1950s, the creature began feeding on this waste, causing him to mutate. In 2016, the creature had grown into gigantic size and was dwelling in the waters of Tokyo Bay.

### *Shin Godzilla*

#### Arrival

Godzilla first appeared as a huge tail in his first form. When government tried to convince civilians that the monster's inability to move on land, Godzilla suddenly developed legs and crawl out of Tokyo Bay in his second form. As Kamata-kun, Godzilla destroyed several buildings and streets, killing a tens or even thousands of civilians. As the government tried to organize attack on the monster, Godzilla evolved into his third form. However, the attack was cancelled when the Prime Minister noticed evacuating civilians. This allowed the beast to escape and prepare for another attack.

#### Waiting in hide

The government did their best to find out where Godzilla hides, but the monster was nowhere to be seen in the ocean. Meanwhile, Godzilla constantly evolved, increasing his size, developing extremely durable skin and a cooling system to become invulnerable to both heat and humanity's attacks.

#### The Return

After over two weeks, Godzilla got out of Tokyo Bay in his fourth form. Due to suddenness of attack, the government was unprepared. Godzilla was already walking across Japan, killing civilians and exposing them to radiation that he emits. The government was trying to evacuate survivors and kill the beast. Unfortunately, Godzilla's skin was far too durable to be penetrated by weaponry. Godzilla was unstoppable and walked towards Tokyo.

#### First Atomic Breath use

Desperately trying to stop Godzilla, the Prime Minister allowed the United States to bombard Godzilla. The several bombings on Godzilla's back made him bleed. However, the creature was barely injured and instantly regenerated damage. In order to prevent future injures, Godzilla quickly developed an offensive abilities. After a while, Godzilla's body started to emit a very intensive purple glow and the monster's jaw began to tore up in half. Suddenly, Godzilla start splitting up a black cloud that, in seconds, covered the entire city. Then, Godzilla covered his eyes in silver membrane and quickly changed the cloud into thermal flames that completely burned Tokyo in minutes. Next, Godzilla began to shoot out a purple beam that penetrated the remaining buildings and helicopters, on the occasion, killing the Prime Minister.

#### Hibernation

After burning Tokyo, an extremely drained Godzilla entered the hibernation state. In this state, Godzilla's body was emitting a very little to no radiation and monster himself was not moving. Still, Godzilla's body was acting like a natural jammer, disrupting drones that get too close to him. But this doesn't work on humans, what allowed research team to get a sample of Godzilla's flesh. The government and scientists concluded that even small parts of Godzilla's body can regenerate and create newer clones of Godzilla. They also concluded that Godzilla's body can convert air or water into radioactive isotopes. The United States gave Japan two weeks to evacuate or defeat Godzilla, otherwise they will drop a hydrogen bomb into the monster.

#### Operation: Yashiori

Eventually, after fifteen days, Godzilla woke up. Immediately the government send trains laden with explosives to enrage Godzilla. Almost immediately after awakening Godzilla, drones are sent to distract him to deplete his atomic energy. Godzilla responds with dorsal plate beams, destroying buildings in the process of destroying the drones. The energy from his dorsal plates depletes and he is hit by multiple missiles. In response, Godzilla shoots his mouth beam and another beam fired from the spare head on his tail (due to the mouth on the spare head opening during Godzilla's dormancy). Godzilla's energy depletes, leaving him helpless as he walks towards into a line of skyscrapers with explosives in them. The government detonates the explosives and Godzilla is buried in the rubble.

The first team of pump trucks are sent and begin to force feed Godzilla the coagulant. Godzilla immediately recovers and shoots his heat ray at the first team, killing them. Godzilla gets back up, roaring angrily before trying to walk away. However, larger force of driverless trains are sent in masses towards Godzilla. The explosion causes him to fall down again, giving the second team the chance to force feed him the coagulant again. Godzilla gets back up, however, and destroys the second group, seemingly unfazed. However, he begins slowing, letting out one more roar before freezing in the middle of Tokyo. With Operation: Yashiori a success, the Americans' countdown has been paused, but the Americans warn if Godzilla were to be unfrozen, they will nuke him.

Godzilla unfreezing takes twenty days, giving Japan the time to recover from the attack. However, they have no choice but to live together with Godzilla. As Godzilla stood frozen, humanoid creatures with Godzilla's dorsal plates begin sprouting out of his tail, frozen in their seeming escape.

## Powers And Abilities

* **Physical Adaptation:** In *Shin Godzilla*, one of Godzilla's most unique abilities is his capacity to develop new features and powers through controlled self-mutation in order to adapt to any situation in short amount of time, something which made possible thanks to its genetic information which 8 times of humans' own. It explained how Godzilla progressively adjusted his physiology from his original aquatic form to land-based ones as shown in his last three forms as well as developing atomic energy-based combat abilities starting from his atomic breath. Even while immobile from recharging his energy reserves, Godzilla developed a form of ESP ability which described as some sort of phase array radar to dispatch anything that got too close. During Operation Yashiori, to get around the extensive energy consumption of his dorsal beams, Godzilla developed the new ability to project a second atomic breath via. the mouth on the tip of his tail which can be swiped about like a sword to slice and dice multiple targets more effectively nat once. Lastly, Godzilla developed the ability to freeze himself solid to prevent a meltdown from blood coagulant-induced overheating true to the prediction of Yaguchi's team. The last scene of the film shows that on the tip of his tail, several small Godzillas in more humanoid form has sprouted from it, suggested that Godzilla attempted to break himself into multiple smaller progenies of himself to better combat humans. Physical adaptation is arguably Godzilla's core ability in the film as it was through the said power he can evolve to better form and gained new abilities.
* **Extrasensory Perception:** According to an American scientist, the Godzilla in *Shin Godzilla* possesses a "phased-array radar" which allows him to detect threats without even needing to see them. Godzilla utilized this to sense his enemies' presence either when hibernating or in combat. This explained how he can destroy drones that went too close in observing him when hibernating and direct his dorsal plate beams' direction straight to oncoming foes behind him so he won't waste too much energy just to attack them. The same ability also allowed him to fire small bolts of atomic energy to shot down drones sent to study him within range.
* Nuclear Energy Manipulation
* **Atomic Breath:** Like his other iterations, Shin Godzilla possesses the ability to fire atomic breath from his mouth with the glow of his dorsal fin acts as the sign of him about to use it. The film showcased both how it developed such ability and subsequently refined it; the breath at first projected in form of a powerful cloud of radioactive black ashes that can quickly spread through the city before being heated up into a thin purple beam that could slice through buildings, igniting the already spread ashes into deadly inferno. In *Crayon Shin-chan vs. Shin Godzilla*, Shin Godzilla uses thicker, blue beam. Shin Godzilla showed ability to both energy absorption and projection. In *Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D*, Shin Godzilla was able to absorb King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams to restore his energy. In both *Shin Godzilla* and *Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D*, Shin Godzilla proved that his ability to energy projection is far superior than the other incarnations of Godzilla, because he was able to shoot photon rays from his mouth, dorsal plates, and tail.
* **Dorsal Plate Beams:** Upon sensing multiple American bomber aircraft began to approach him, Godzilla redirected his charged atomic energy beam onto his dorsal fins, and project it in form of a salvo of atomic beams to dispatch them. He would later use it again in conjunction with his extrasensory perception ability to shot down drones that approach his comatose body and multiple drones that attacked him in Operation Yashiori. While devastating, this ability greatly consumes much of his energy reserves that he developed atomic tail beam as better alternative after using it twice.
* **Atomic Tail Beam:** To get around the fact that his dorsal beam attack spent much of his energy reserves, Godzilla redirected some portion of atomic energy to his tail and projected it in form of atomic laser that fired from the mouth on the tip of his tail. This, when used alongside atomic breath, enable him to cut and slice through multiple adversaries from every direction at once. Godzilla used it to conserve his energy better to take down drones that approach him during Operation Yashiori before collapsed and in the helpless state as blood coagulant will be pumped into his mouth.
* **Superhuman Physical Attributes:** Shin Godzilla in all forms is very strong, thanks to his massive size. In his first form, Shin easily moved multiple boats like they were nothing. In his second and third form, Shin Godzilla moved multiple cars around, similarly to his earlier form and even poured entire building, while third form throw a train. Fourth form was able to destroy multiple buildings and destroy entire bridge. Shin Godzilla was able to walk entire day without feeding on anything and using its nuclear energy. However, when energy supply was completely used, Shin had to hibernate for 15 days to restore the energy. While in his second and third form, Shin Godzilla was able to run and move extremely quickly for the size. It's unknown if he can do this in his fourth form. Shin Godzilla is extremely durable. Heavily armoured fourth form's skin makes him immune to conventional weapon. Godzilla survived even missiles fired to the face without any harm.
* Abilities
* **Intelligence:** This Godzilla's intelligence was not as pronounced as other iterations, yet still evident through his prowess in developing new abilities and other features via. aforementioned physical adaptation each specifically to overcome certain situations. While shedding away his aquatic physiology to better adapt on land, the creature developed durable hide at the same time in order to shrug off JSDF's assaults since he apparently foresaw greater resistance since his first inland rampage; he only developed his offensive abilities once the military finally managed to injure him. The fact that he developed ESP ability to take out drones and other threats which got too close to his dormant form following the destructive demonstration of his newfound atomic breath and dorsal beams indicated the creature being fully aware with the fact that spending too much energy from using them for the first time would render him vulnerable. The same went to his tail beam ability which had better angle and less energy consuming than the more devastating yet less practical dorsal beams as well as the ability to quickly replenish his energy reserve just enough to quickly recover when the military attempted to force-feed him with blood coagulant throughout Operation Yashiori, showcasing his capacity to learn from experience despite still outsmarted in the end.

### Weaknesses

* Godzilla's back is his only weak point on his body, with even conventional weapons being capable of hurting him if dropped in this place. However it is not enough to be fatal to him due to his regeneration and only hurts him temporarily. Shin Godzilla also fixed this weakness by developing dorsal beams. As Shinagawa-kun, Shin Godzilla was vulnerable to overheating, as his mutation produced a large amount of heat. As Kamakura-san, Shin Godzilla fixed this by developing a cooling system. Unlike his predecessors, Shin Godzilla has a limit of power that he can use. He needs 15 days to restore his energy. During Operation Yashiori, he runs out all of his energy, becoming helpless against the operation.
* **Blood coagulant:** During the events of the movie, the protagonist of the film, Rando Yaguchi and his team postulate that since he's a nuclear creature, Godzilla has to cool down his "nuclear reactor" somewhere in his body, and "rapid cooling of his blood may not kill him, but can *immobilize* him" leading to the team's conclusion that they can freeze Godzilla's blood, with the beast freezing as well, using a "Blood coagulating drug". Yaguchi's team had some difficulties in making the formula but later in the film, they figure out how to make said drug and start production to make the preparations for "Operation: Yashiori", the plan to put the coagulant in Godzilla and render him immobile indefinitely. After producing enough coagulant, "Operation: Yashiori" was initiated. The operation takes place during the final battle of the film, where, after a multiple phase approach intended to weaken and lay Godzilla on the ground, a team of crane arms finally pumped the blood coagulant into the beast's mouth. The first attempt at applying the coagulant failed, due to Godzilla having spare power, which he used to blast the first team with his atomic breath. Their efforts were not in vain, however, as the 20% of their available supply, they managed to inject drastically slowed his movements. The second attempt was successful in putting the remaining 80% of the coagulant in Godzilla. Initially, Godzilla rose again, but following a loud roar, Godzilla abruptly freezes, unable to move. Yaguchi's team, later on, discovers that Godzilla's isotope has a half-life of 20 days, and remarks that it will be gone completely in "two or three years", which spells good news for Tokyo citizens and aids greatly in moving residents back to their homes. Yaguchi, later on, states that "now man must co-exist with Gojira" and since Godzilla will not be frozen forever, states that "Now's not the time to quit, and things are still far from settled".
* **Lack Of Foresight:** Whereas most Godzilla incarnations show some level of foresight, to the point that they can plan out attacks, this Godzilla attacks without it, which can enable it to be lured into traps easily.
* **Limited Radioactive Energy:** Unlike previous incarnations, this Godzilla seems to have a limit to how much nuclear energy he can use before he must enter a dormant state to restore his powers. For example, using his atomic breath in its focused purple beam seems to quickly deplete his radioactive power, requiring him to enter his dormant state. This dormant state forces Godzilla into an immobile, statue-like form, which can also be his downfall as he can freeze in locations where his enemies can take advantage of the environment against him. If he fully depletes his energy, he must remain dormant for roughly 15 days to fully restore his energy. Although he doesn't seem to remain dormant for the entire 15 days. Once Godzilla accumulated enough energy, its skin will start to glow red and its eyes will open, although it may elect to remain immobile to speed up its recovery process.
* **Overheating:** The monster's third form was vulnerable to severe overheating, as seen shortly after it physically changed into its third form. The heat generated was enough to distort the air around the monster, and resulted in it ceasing its land movement to cool down in the ocean. This problem was solved upon the fourth form's arrival, as it didn't suffer from these issues.
* **Slow Speed:** As Godzilla trundles along sluggishly, it takes a long time to traverse greater distances, allowing the human forces to predict his direction and evacuate in advance. This also makes him an easier target.
* **Short Arms:** This Godzilla's arms are incredibly short in proportion to its body, which creates considerable difficulty getting up, which allowed blood coagulant to be pumped into his body with relative ease. This also limits his attacks to his atomic breath and back lasers, which drain his nuclear energy much faster than any melee attack would.
* **Limited Strength**
* **Limited Durability**
* **Limited Speed**
* **Limited Stamina**

## Trivia

* Shin Godzilla was at one point both the tallest, heaviest and longest movie incarnation of Godzilla, though he was promptly surpassed in all categories by Godzilla Earth from *GODZILLA: Planet of the Monsters* in 2017.
	+ However, Shin Godzilla is still the heaviest and longest live-action incarnation, weighting over ninety-two thousand metric tons (101,412.641 tons) and being over three-hundred and thirty-three meters long with total body, while Legendary's version weights only 99,634 tons and is 297.4 meters long with total body.
* Shin Godzilla is the first Godzilla to be able to evolve reactively throughout a film and currently only incarnation. The other incarnation's that have similar evolutionary capability are Godzilla Earth, Godzilla Filius, and Singular Point Godzilla. However, the *Dark Horse comics* incarnation of the monster was also able to evolve from aquatic organism.
* Many fans have attempted to debate on Godzilla's tail, which is physically much longer than his body and longer than any other incarnations but also appears to possess a skull and displays facial structures. This is also seen on promotional merchandise, where the tail had an even more stylish mouth and eyes. YouTuber D Man1954 made a video solely debating the hypothesises on Shin Godzilla's tail.
	+ A former theory, which emphasized in Nightmare Fuel section of the film's TV Tropes.org page, claimed Shin Godzilla was capable to evolve by merging himself to other living creatures, the tail's skull being that of a whale. The theory was debunked, since there are no evidence of Shin Godzilla capable of merging himself with other animals.
* Originally, the early concept of Godzilla's regenerative capability was going to be far more disturbing than the final films version. Godzilla would have undergone a starfish-like fission process that would have created new Godzilla's out of the original. Some concept arts even show him undergo fission process depicted him morphed into a mountain of radioactive fleshy biomass with several of Godzilla's heads protruding for them as it split into several new progeny of himself.
	+ A deleted scene showed JSDF soldiers finding the torn pieces of his dorsal fin which was severed due to M.O.P. bombs already melting into a bloody biomass with a number of eyes growing from them. Due to the scene being deemed disturbing, this was replaced with JSDF soldiers finding the severed dorsal fin still intact albeit beginning to be coated with blood and a small piece of it falling near them, alerting its location above them. The scene then shifts to the protagonists discovering that the fin has begun to undergo fission into a new Godzilla.
* Godzilla's characteristics in the film draws parallel from Hedorah and Destoroyah as both theorized to be a superorganism kaiju, possessing multiple forms, and were empowered by hazardous materials to the point of being capable in using them as weapons (Hedorah harnesses sludge full of pollutants, whereas Destoroyah was mutated and empowered by Oxygen Destroyer in the same way Godzilla attained his nuclear-based abilities through exposure to radioactive materials). This is quite interesting, as Hedorah and Destoroyah are Godzilla's most dangerous adversaries in their films.
* Because of this, Godzilla was referred as mixotroph — an organism that is able use a mix of different forms of energy and carbon — and that majorities of known mixotrophs being unicellular microorganisms, some fans mistook him being the end result of ancient mixotrophic microorganisms combining into a reptilian superorganism with nuclear waste on the sea floor that mutated them as bonding agent. This of course, not to be the case as not only there are some multicellular mixotrophs as well (ex. Oriental hornet and the Venus flytrap) and that astute watchers are fully aware that protagonists who studied the beast has since confirmed it being once an ordinary marine animal, possibly a reptile with prehistoric roots.
* Originally, there was gone to be a scene where Godzilla spit out red stuff that was said to be blood and its shown it can melt car tires.
* Though only alluded by protagonists during their study on the kaiju, one of concept designs for Godzilla which didn't make it to the final film is the ability to fly in a rocket-like fashion which requires him to develop gill-like gaps along the sides of his tail from which jets of atomic energy with enough force to take off to the air emanate from along with adapting two of his fins on his shoulder blades into wings to steer his flight.

* This Godzilla incarnation was the first to be able to shift forms.
	+ The second Godzilla incarnation who does this is the Godzilla from the Netflix series, *Godzilla Singular Point.*
* This Godzilla incarnation was the star of two April Fools Jokes by Toho.
	+ On April 1, 2017, Toho Studios unveiled a nonexistent smartphone based upon the second form of Godzilla (Known by fans as "Kamata-kun"). The phone jokingly possesses features such as 55 core processing, a 550 million pixel camera, 555K video capture, and playback, and finally, access to a 55G network that is only available in Haneda, Kamata.
	+ April 1, 2018, had Toho revealing the "Godzilla Building", or "G Building", which was planned for development in the Tokiwasbashi district. It was reportedly set to be completed in 2027. Gags with the development included the building being built around a then frozen Godzilla, with the building's power coming from the monster's body. To keep the monster frozen, the building's interior was to be cooled to -196°C. To make the most of Godzilla's body, a rollercoaster was to be installed, which ran down the length of the monster.

* *Yashiori* of Operation: Yashiori is the name of strong sake to weaken Orochi in Japanese mythology.
* The Shin Godzilla is the first truly "new" Japanese Godzilla: while the series was rebooted in the Heisei series and several times in the Millennium series, it always held the original 1954 film as shared canon, while the 2016 film ignores that film and creates a whole new backstory and origin for Godzilla.
* While the production team originally tried to make Godzilla's texture seem like a real animal's, it was insisted by the directors that they give it a feel and texture like a rubber suit, a decision that ironically made the all-CGI Godzilla look more convincing in a live-action environment.
	+ Additionally, this Godzilla is the first in the film series to be designed without a tongue.
	+ *The Art of Shin Godzilla* revealed that Godzilla's second form possesses 108,764,238 polygons in its CG model. The fourth form possesses 316,902,016 polygons.
* The second form of Godzilla, affectionately dubbed "Kamata-kun" by fans, gained a cult following on the internet for its funny-looking appearance which many found somewhat adorable.
* At 118.5 meters in height, this incarnation of Godzilla is the third tallest incarnation so far within the film series, originally surpassing the Legendary version which held the previous record before it by about 10 meters in height. It was outclassed by Godzilla Earth, which was confirmed to be even taller than the *Shin Godzilla* incarnation, coming in at 300 meters in height. The Legendary incarnation of Godzilla would surpass Shin Godzilla's height, having grown an additional 11.6 meters in *Godzilla: King of the Monsters*., thereby surpassing this incarnation of Godzilla by 1.3 meters.
* Its focused atomic ray is very similar to that of Gyaos from the *Gamera* films where Anno and Higuchi has been engaged in works, being thin and powerful enough to neatly slice a building in half.
* This version of Godzilla is unusually silent compared to other incarnations, which instead of roaring and stomping about instead quietly and slowly marches onward in a path of destruction.
* This Godzilla may be seen as the polar opposite of Legendary's Godzilla:
	+ Legendary's Godzilla is designed to look noble, mighty, and regal, while the Shin Godzilla is designed to look gruesome, twisted and horrifyingly deformed.
	+ Legendary's Godzilla is portrayed as a bringer of order and a primordial balancing force of nature, while the Shin Godzilla is portrayed as a bringer of chaos and an abominable by-product of violations against nature.
	+ Legendary's Godzilla is more benevolent and peaceful compared to most portrayals of Godzilla, while the Shin Godzilla is more malevolent and destructive than most depictions of Godzilla.
	+ Legendary's Godzilla's appearance and powers were designed to be more "believable" and "realistic", while the Shin Godzilla exaggerates the features and abilities of an unnatural monster.
* Interestingly, it was revealed in 2012 that a memo named **Shin Godzilla** was left by Ishiro Honda; he was planning to create a Godzilla to self-divide, and coalesce enemies and grow larger, enabling aerification and solidification, and the ability to become inanimate.
* Interestingly, this incarnation of Godzilla is very similar to Destoroyah.
	+ Both display numerous forms throughout their debut movie, each being distinct, but maintaining core elements of their design.
		- Both display self-mutating abilities to change form.
		- Both sport a horrific or demonic appearance with numerous jagged teeth.
	+ Both originated as prehistoric sea creatures that were exposed to man-made chemicals (Destoroyah was exposed to Micro-Oxygen from the Oxygen Destroyer, while Godzilla was exposed to radioactive minerals from nuclear waste), and both evolved over long periods (Destoroyah evolved over 40 years, while Godzilla evolved over 60 years) to incorporate it into their biology.
	+ Both feature self-division abilities.
	+ Both have numerous abilities that cause large amounts of destruction.
		- Both use a purple-colored beam as their primary/most devastating offensive ability.
* The fourth form also bears a minor resemblance to the Ultimate Conductor Tyranno monster from the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* card game.
* Shin Godzilla's atomic breath sound effect is similar to Destroyah's oxygen destroyer blast, as well as the Heisei Godzilla's atomic breath from *Godzilla vs. Mothra*.
* Godzilla's fourth form serves as the basis of the Gomess in Shin Ultraman, similar to how the Godzilla suit created for *Mothra vs. Godzilla* was modified into Gomess in the original Ultraman series.
* In a scene that was cut from the film, during Godzilla 's third stage, it pukes some red liquid that appears to be blood as it is shown melting car tires as Godzilla lies surrounded by it.