Immense Success and Popularity of Gojira

Allison summarizes the immense success and popularity of Gojiru in terms of the Japanese people’s reliving of the bombings barely a decade before the film’s creation. In other words. Gojira is a representation of the return of a collective suppressed rage, reexperienced in a movie theater. But rather than let that rage become an embodiment, Japan rebuilt itself, especially through means of computer technology, particularly robotics. In this case, Japanese people’s rage only shaped their identity in the sense that it propelled them into an era of reconstruction and regrowth, but not growth into that rage until it becomes unmalleable hatred. A victim can either become the trauma or is driven by the trauma. Japan seems to have allowed the latter to happen, propelling itself into renowned success through its post-war reconstruction.

The creation of Gojira also marked a new beginning for Japan‘s next chapter. Because, as Allison points out, Gojira is such a fascinating creature of mythic, this inspired the subsequent creations of other fantastical characters and creatures to be made into manga and toys (48). Astro Boy could be interpreted as an icon of Japan’s rebuilding. a foil to Gojira as a representation. Even if the toys, manga, and anime are aimed to be entertainment, political and social commentary can still be inserted. Allison remarks on Astro Boy’s moments of having such commentary in a television episode: “[‘Deadly Flies’] conveys a message about the dangers of atomic energy and the human abuse of robots.” (64) Thus, even if Japan’s rage and pain is no longer as raw as when Gojira first came out. the memory of the trauma still occasionally echoes throughout various media.