Breaking Down The Language Barrier

Godzilla has an official site. Scratch that, official sites. That is something which can be considered public knowledge. But how often does an English-speaking intellectual look upon these pages? Not many. But I did, and I am going to walk you through three main parts of Toho’s own pages on our beloved kaiju icon, Gojira. This is an effort to be like a guide so you can also gain access to these sites and not get lost due to getting lost in translation. So, let’s go shall we?

Now, as far as I can tell, there are three main homepages for Godzilla that Toho is paying for. One of the official site which has been around since 1998 at least and has been changed in design every time a new film gets released. The URL for that is here: http://www.godzilla.co.jp/index.php. To quickly go over that site which almost every fan has been to at least once, there are some polls, there are some nice photographs of some merchandise. Nothing really interesting or worth while. You could find all of that information in MonsterZero’s history, which SciFiJapan is now taking in.

Next is something interesting: internet theme parks. This was not the first time I saw an internet theme park. No, no. Younggu-Art also has one with a webzine. Talk about learning a lot about the film, "D-War". This "internet theme park" is called "Godzilla Graffiti". Link to it is here: http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/graph/index.html#1 . Now, on this site, you go to the bottom and on the clickable links, it just makes a screen above turn into an animated version of one of five kaiju: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mechagodzilla - all of the poplars and what can be called, "Toho’s Big 5". Though click a link at the bottom at what looks like Minilla, Mothra Larvae, and the 1961 Shobijin and you get a resume of the guy (who I do not know his name) who did the art on the page before. Nice if you want to have a computer-generated image of one of "Toho’s Big 5" in .gif format.

Third and last is there main page for Godzilla. Just plain Godzilla. Link to it is here: http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/index.html. Though you will learn that the archive site and the fan club links are invalid. They do not work at all. On with parts of the site which is active, at the top you see a caricature of the Mire/Gira-Goji suit. This is nothing new, since it was used on flyers of G2K in Japan. In fact, I got a link to these photos. The first clickable link via image is a whole page of caricatures for kaiju from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) to Godzilla 2000. Now, this does exclude ones like Battra and the multiple form of Desotroyah, but is ok. Go back to the main page. Then click on the second link which is a picture, mainly of the Mire-Goji suit. You get a slightly flawed listing of the Godzilla suits. First mistake is that it has not been updated since Godzilla 2000, and second, for some reason. Then the listing for the Shodai and Gyankushu-Goji suits have been merged into one, with only the Shodai-Goji getting depicted. The descriptions of the suits, when translated, are nothing special. Just say how one suit is different. A good example is translation the description for the Mire-Goji suit. Just says, "At the end of the century, a revived Godzilla is vicious! He now has a big mouth, characterized by shark-pointed dorsal fins. [Rest could not be translated] Last, but not least, is a picture with two links. One link has pics of all Showa kaiju and the second has all Heisei kaiju plus Orga and the Mire-Goji.

Now, here is a link map for all of the pages…

1. Godzilla Graffiti
MAIN PAGE - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/graph/index.html
RESUME OF ARTIST - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/graph/profile.html

2. Godzilla General
MAIN PAGE - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/index.html
CARICATURES - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/il.html
SUIT HISTORY - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/rekidai.html
SHOWA KAIJU - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/1954.html
HEISEI KAIJU - http://www.toho-a-park.com/character/godzilla/1984.html

And do not forget the official Blu-Ray site:MAIN PAGE - http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/