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Constructing the life-sized, slightly articulated, Daimajin puppet, circa 1966.

#Daimajin #Arakatsuma #kaiju #tokusatsu #puppet #Daiei ilm #behind the scenes

On this day in 1966, Daiei released Gamera vs. Barugon and Daimajin to theaters together. Happy 60th to a premium kaiju double feature!

#gamera vs. barugon #gamera #barugon #daimajin #daimajin 1966 #kaiju

TV Commercial for Suntory's Ice Gin, featuring Chisato Moritaka and a couple of familiar faces, as well as copious gin related puns, December 1995

The Monsters We Create Journal Entry #2: Godzilla in Avatar: the Last Airbender

One of the biggest hurdles in the process of writing The Monsters We Create is selling the idea that Godzilla and other kaiju could exist organically in the Avatarverse. When you get right down to it, we've got two franchises of two different genres that don't really have much of an overlap. ATLA is essentially a wuxia, martial arts war story about redemption and the classical hero's journey. By contrast, Godzilla is built on giant monsters and the insignificance of man. Trying to pair the mediums together can not only create one hell of a tonal and writing clash, but also threatens to have one completely overpower the other in terms of story. See Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for how an idea like this can go very wrong.

With that said, I don't necessarily believe that the two being from different genres means that they can't be integrated with one another. ATLA's already dabbled in other genres before. We had a western in "Zuko Alone", horror in "The Puppetmaster", and "The Beach" is teen drama. Godzilla's been around for so long that the series had has takes on horror, disaster, war, and even superhero films with the latter Showa films. And that's not even getting into other films entirely like Star Wars which mash up westerns, space opera, WWII war films, and samurai flicks. I'd even argue that taking elements from other genres is what helps keep the formula from going stale by introducing new ideas.

So blending genres together can work if done right. But I'm not George Lucas, so I had to get a bit creative. The first thing I had to do was wonder if there were any stories that came close to this idea. A kaiju film that had fantasy elements but was not necessarily set in the modern day which had the same eastern elements as Avatar. Thankfully, a few works came to mind, showing that somebody else had the same idea.

Magnificent

Shadow of the Colossus is a rather famous and well-beloved fantasy adventure game released in 2005. It's also one of my personal favorite video games. In the game, you play as the hero Wander, who is tasked to slay 16 different gigantic beasts referred to, rather fittingly, as Colossi. The Colossi themselves come in a wide range of sizes and shapes. Some are based on traditional depictions of giants from European folklore. Others are huge versions of animals that seem inspired by folklore, such as massive serpents, huge reptiles, or oversized felines. Some are more vicious than others, but all are portrayed as majestic, terrifying, awe-inspiring creatures. Even the mere act of killing one gives the player a mixed sense of triumph with sorrow at having felled such a beast. And then there are the consequences of slaying the Colossi which spiral out of control by the game's end.

The film on the left is Daimajin, part of a rather unique trilogy in that they are both kaiju films and historical pieces. While circumstances vary, the plots do follow similar beats. An evil doer, such as a tyrannical warlord, takes over the territory and oppresses the populace. The locals appeal to a god of vengeance called Daimajin, who appears as a giant armored warrior. Daimajin defeats the evil-doer, but his rampage only ends when he is calmed in some way. In these films, Daimajin is portrayed as an incredibly destructive force, not caring about who gets in his way to deal out punishment to evil-doers. This means innocents often get caught up in his rampages. He's not a god of justice after all, and he can be just as much of a threat as the warlords he kills. Though he CAN be appeased in some way if one knows what to do.

One last film that actually had some direct impact on ATLA is the famous Princess Mononoke. While it's not a proper kaiju film, it does feature huge animals trying to wreak havoc on civilization. And the Spirit of the Forest does appear as the gigantic Nightwalker in a few key moments (which was a direct inspiration for the Ocean Spirit in the Siege of the North). It even goes on a rampage once its head is blown off, though it's less out of malice and more its body breaking apart. The film portrays the Nightwalker, as well as the other giant animals, as essentially gods, representing the primordial nature that is being encroached by man. Calling them good or evil isn't appropriate since they essentially exhibit both the virtuous and more ferocious aspects of nature.

Essentially, the kaiju I just mentioned are not necessarily inherently evil. Often, they are essential parts of the world where angering or fighting them has some massive consequences. While some of them are more aggressive, dealing with them is not always a question of how to kill them. There's also the feeling of size and insignificance these kaiju evoke. All of them make the humans feel small and their problems petty against such magnificent beasts. It's that sense of scale, which I believe can be found in ATLA. And the mixed emotions that come with slaying the kaiju can also be found in Godzilla films.

Scale

One of the biggest strengths of the original Avatar: the Last Airbender was capturing the sheer scale of the conflict and the world. Maybe not necessarily showcasing a whole ton of brutality. But more on the level of how small and seemingly insignificant Aang and his friends were. We, as an audience, know they need to save the world, yet the shots of them being almost invisibly tiny compared to the massive landscapes they find themselves in highlight the enormity of their task.

Kaiju films also use a similar technique. Take the first Godzilla film for example. Godzilla himself was shot from a low angle, showcasing his size and enormity. Everyone else was shot from flat angles or was pushed in the foreground in order to make themselves seem small. Again, all of this was to emphasize scale and how insignificant the average person was in the face of such all-encompassing destruction.

This sort of style and scale is used a lot throughout on-screen mediums. Going back to SotC for a moment, Wander is made repeatedly to be almost minuscule compared to the massive environments and towering colossi. Which is used to emphasize how isolate and desolate the Forbidden Lands are and adds to the eerie, almost fairy tale like quality of the story. Another great example of this in usage is the classic film, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. We see that gorgeous shot of the three leads facing off against each other for the last time in the middle of that massive graveyard. All of them are pinpricks, emphasizing that in the grand scheme of things, they’re just three outlaws amidst the overwhelming violent conflict of the Civil War.

That’s the sort of scale I wanted to capture for my fic. This sense of scale, of showcasing how insignificant a lot of the casts’ flaws are in the wake of the kaiju. Zuko’s rivalry with Azula? All the politicking in the aftermath of the war? The kaiju and their battles were to showcase how meaningless and petty a lot of them were.

The opening scene from Kong Skull Island illustrates this sort of thinking beautifully. We have two soldiers on opposing sides of the war, far from the frontline, stranded on an island with no hope of escape, choosing to waste their lives trying to kill each other…only for them to completely stop when Kong shows up, showing how pointless their duel was. That’s the kind of writing I wanted to convey.

What Godzilla?

With all this in mind, arguably the biggest question in mind is what Godzilla I’m going to write? It’s one of the ones I get asked about a lot after all, and for good reason. Godzilla has been interpreted in a wide variety of ways over the decades. He’s gone from an allegory of nuclear war to a superhero to a freak of nature to an eldritch abomination, back again, and everything in between. Everyone has their own interpretation of the character. Which makes it a bit difficult for me to base my Godzilla off of one interpretation alone.

With that in mind, I decided to take from a variety of sources in order to get what I felt would fit my fic the best. For starters, origin. I knew I couldn’t go with the classical “spawned from nuclear bombing” origin since atomic weaponry doesn’t exist in ATLA (not until LOK at least, thanks a lot Varrick). So, I decided to go with the Monsterverse interpretation. That being of an ancient creature that’s been around for millions of years. Essentially lean more into the “God” part of his name, and align him a bit with some of the more fantasy based kaiju like Mothra, King Caesar, or Daimajin. We already have ancient intelligent beings of immense power like dragons or the lion turtles from ATLA, so it’s not much of a stretch.

This brings me to temperament. As mentioned before, Godzilla has been everywhere from a villain to a good guy. Sometimes, within the same continuity (those two images above are of the same Godzilla). So I figured I needed to base Godzilla’s role off of what the general themes of the story was. The crux of my story is that it’s about people learning to de-escalate and move on from a century of warfare. To that end, I figured that Godzilla would need to be an antagonistic force at first, but gradually soften up and become more heroic as the story progressed. Sort of a reflection about how the cast was moving on from the war. The best comparison I would have would be the Heisei!Godzilla, which became more nuanced as the films went on, as a starting point, but gradually edging towards perhaps the Monsterverse or even the Late Showa era iterations in terms of morality. Maybe not as lightheaded as the later Showa films (we already have Aang for that sort of writing), but moving in that particular direction.

Essentially, a more classical Godzilla that leans more towards a more heroic interpretation instead of the more nightmarish depictions of the character. Not saying that those aren't valid. I just feel they didn't fit the story I was trying to tell.

But in terms of physical description, there was one Godzilla I HAD to base my description on.

This is Kiryugoji. Aside from being my all-time personal favorite (basically hitting all the marks of what makes a good Godzilla design), he fits the sort of Godzilla that I want to convey with my story from a visual standpoint. That being of a terrifying force of nature, but ultimately can still get the readers' sympathy. Basically, combining the best of multiple worlds and all that.

His design is also the one that I feel is the most...Azulaish of the bunch.

Maybe it's because of the jagged edges, which gives that more menacing look, or the signature glare. The point is, considering that I wanted these two to be closely linked with one another, they needed to visually resemble each other in a thematic way. Make the comparisons seem more distinct.