Films: Shin Gojira (2016)
Alias: Shin Gojira, Gojira
Type: Mutant
Location: Ocean/Civilized Area
Height/Weight: Up to 118.5 meters and 92,000 metric tons.
Affiliation: Neutral
Summary: After more than ten years of Godzilla not having another movie in his homeland, and two years after America picked up the pace, it was only fitting that Japan would come back in style. But what they conceived, no man could have expected. Because when you hire the slightly unhinged mind that gave us "Neon Genesis Evangelion", there can be only two things that are guaranteed. One, the glorious music of Shiro Sagisu. Second, inconceivable horror...
History: Somewhere off the coast of Japan, a professor named Goro Maki researched a new species of marine lifeform that he called Gojira, or "God Incarnate", as it translated in his homeland. The creature had been feeding off the boundless pollution found on the seafloor...and then Maki vanished, his yacht the only thing left. Then a massive tail burst from the water. Then a huge beast made landfall and trashed the urban area before retreating into the sea. Then it emerged again as something new, huge, and almost unstoppable. This is Shin Godzilla, a monolith of flesh and burning power. Its aim is endless, but the sheer damage it will do to the world is indescribable. Now, the Japanese government is racing against the clock before it evolves any more than it already has.
Notable Kills: The entire attack on Tokyo when it unleashes its true power after being hurt for the first time. Nothing the previous incarnations did was ever that bad...
Final Fate: At last, a plan, Operation Yashiori, is devised, involving knocking Shin Godzilla down with falling buildings before feeding it a special coagulant to halt its cooling system. The plan works, and Shin Godzilla is forced to freeze itself completely in place. It gives Japan plenty of time to figure out what to do next. However, it is later shown that the plan worked just in time, as it was in the middle of making its tail split into lots of skeletal human/Godzilla hybrids. One can only dread what would happen if they were to somehow break loose...
Powers/Abilities: Shin Godzilla's hide is near-impenetrable, most weaponry bouncing off it. Even the extra membranes over its eyes can reflect projectile, much like how a shark protects its own eyes. Its most potent power though is its ability to evolve in the face of opposition, taking new forms that counter any previous obstacles. Its atomic breath starts off as huge plumes of burning smoke before turning into the Super Thermal Radiation Particle Belt Flame (in other words, pure fire), and then becoming a thin beam of pure purple energy called the Radiation Heat Ray. It can fire this ray also from its tail, and several from its spines. Sometimes, it can even do all three at once. It also has Phased-Array Radar, which enables it to sense incoming threats when it's not looking or even moving. Oh, and its blood is incredibly hot.
Weakness: Heavy artillery, though bunker bombs are the best way to go. Also, Shin Godzilla's body, especially in earlier forms, overheats easily, and using too much energy will force it to go into a hibernating state to recharge. It can still attack with the radar, but it is otherwise incapacitated. A special coagulant was also developed to freeze it entirely.
Scariness Factor: 5-Shin Godzilla is everything that made the original 1954 Goji so terrifying bumped up on a scale never seen before. There is NOTHING about this kaiju that looks even remotely right. Aside from looking like something that got hit by an atomic bomb, its power is unprecedented with an ever-increasing array of abilities that defy explanation. And the worst part? There is a very startling implication that Maki fused with the creature he was studying, so there's a very good chance that somewhere in that hideous body, there's a mind bent on reducing all of Japan and beyond to a scorched cinder. But what's worse, really? A monster with an agenda, or something that just destroys because it has no real purpose at all?
Trivia: -Shin Godzilla’s 2nd to 4th forms all got nicknames based off the areas in Tokyo they got to first. In order, they were Kamata-kun, Shinagawa-kun, and Kamakura-san. Kamata-kun gained an impressive amount of popularity for being an odd combination of deeply disturbing and oddly cute.
-As stated above, this film was primarily written and directed by Hideaki Anno, the man behind "Neon Genesis Evangelion", a series that, much like this film, has deeply disturbing imagery, though a lot more religious metaphors as the title would imply. Both that franchise and the "Godzilla" franchise had huge crossover merch/events before and after this film, one of them being a 4D ride in which the EVAs and Shin Godzilla end up fighting together against a gravity-warping King Ghidorah.
