Fictional locations in the Godzilla films
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Like most fictional universes, the world of the Godzilla films has been enriched by fictional locales ranging from small Pacific Islands to galactically distant nebulae. The following is a list of fictional Earth locations depicted in films of and tied in with the Godzilla series.
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[edit] Islands
[edit] Oto Island
Oto Island (大戸島 Ōtojima?), a southern Japanese fishing village, is the namesake of the daikaiju Godzilla. This island is featured in Godzilla and referenced in a few subsequent films. Godzilla was an ancient legend of the Oto islanders. In "the old days", according to an elder, when the fishing was poor the villagers sacrificed young virgins to appease the sea monster's hunger. When boats began inexplicably sinking off the coast of Oto Island in 1954, the natives perform a purification ceremony, the last remnant of the old traditions, in a village temple. After the creature responsible first appears on the island, paleontologist Kyohei Yamane names it "Godzilla" after the legend.
[edit] Infant Island
The Polynesian Infant Island, first introduced in Mothra, was the site of Rolisican nuclear tests prior to 1961, when the Kinu maru ran aground on the island leaving four survivors. These men reported an encounter with natives on the (presumed uninhabited) island who drank an unknown juice to prevent radiation poisoning. The island was later discovered to be home to two minuscule priestessses (dubbed shobijin, "small beauties") and a giant egg, worshipped and called "Mothra" by the natives. Mothra would eventually hatch into a giant caterpillar, metamorphose into a giant moth, and continue this cycle through several subsequent films. (In the English dub of Mothra the island is called Beiru Island, but in later films the name "Infant" is preserved.)
[edit] Faro Island
Two species endemic to Faro Island are a medicinal red berry, bartered from island natives by Pacific Pharmaceuticals; and the giant ape King Kong, worshipped by the natives but subdued and captured during an expedition sponsored by Pacific in King Kong vs. Godzilla. The island's natives associate Kong to the frequent lightning on Faro, as Kong is later seen to draw power from lightning. These natives were of a more stereotyped and comical appearance than those of Beiru Island, and, in contrast to Beiru, the island serves only as an origin for Kong, and is not seen (and only briefly mentioned) for the duration of the film after Kong's capture.
[edit] Devil's Island
Tiny Devil's Island was chosen by the Red Bamboo—a terrorist organization with nuclear ambitions from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster—as the site for a heavy water factory. Coupled with its obscurity, the island conveniences the Red Bamboo by being home to Ebirah, a mammoth lobster which attacks vessels in the surrounding waters, preventing their enslaved Infant Islanders from escaping. The island also turns out to be home to a hibernating Godzilla, which had apparently settled underground after its battles with Ghidorah.
[edit] Sollgel Island
In order to test theoretical methods of weather control, the United Nations secretly send a team of Japanese atmospheric scientists to tropical Sollgel (often misspelled Solgell or Sogell) Island in Son of Godzilla. Unfortunately for the scientists and their experiments, the island turns is home not only to several giant arthropods and a giant egg but also to Godzilla.
Due to unexpected interference to their equipment, the team inadvertently causes a radioactive storm during their first experiment, which causes intense heat and excelled growth in the insect inhabitants but no noticeable change in the island's flora. Ultimately a second experiment is successful at cooling the jungle environment of Sollgel; the island is last seen buried in snow.
Reporter Goro dubs Sollgel Island "Monster Island" ("an island of monsters" in the U.S. English dub), leading to speculation that the Monster Island of later films is intended to be Sollgel.
[edit] Monsterland / Monster Island
[edit] Lagos Island
In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, the last of the Marshall Islands engaged by U.S. forces in World War II, Lagos Island was defended by the only Japanese garrison to survive the onslaught. Though they intended to fight to their last man, the battle with U.S. landing forces was interrupted by a dinosaur living on the island. This dinosaur, later named Godzillasaurus, slaughtered the invading force while ignoring the Japanese but suffered near-fatal wounds in an attack from the off-shore U.S. fleet.
In the following years the United States conducted nuclear tests on the nearby Bikini Atoll, and even on Lagos itself in 1954. As theorized by science fiction writer Terasawa, the irradiated dinosaur consequently mutated into Godzilla.
[edit] Adona Island
Long a dump for radioactive waste, Adona Island came to broader attention when a scientific team uncovered a half-buried human-sized egg and subsequently encountered Rodan and Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. As a consequence of the high levels of radiation on Adona, the egg, which had been of the species Godzillasaurus, had mutated in such a way that the hatchling Baby was more a baby Godzilla than a dinosaur.
[edit] Birth Island
After Godzilla and Baby swim off to sea at the end of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II they settle on an uninhabited Pacific island, called Birth Island in the following two films. (By the start of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah the island has vanished, as underground uranium deposits on the island caused Godzilla's radioactive energy to go unstable, and destroy the island in the process.) In Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, the island is home not only to Godzilla and Little One, but also to Yuki Gondo, who has devoted his life to killing Godzilla, and to members of the T-Project, whose goal is to control Godzilla via telepathy.
[edit] Countries
International relations are central to the plot of almost every Godzilla movie, from the blame placed on the U.S. for awakening the beast in 1954 (Godzilla), through the role of Interpol in thwarting Third Planet invasions (Terror of Mechagodzilla), to the spectre of Japan's own war crimes manifested in Godzilla (Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack). Occasionally a movie will feature a fictional country, often in place of an unnamed but easily inferable real-life country (or bloc of countries).
[edit] Rolisica
In Mothra, Greedy businessmen, led by Clark Nelson of Rolisica, kidnap Mothra's twin fairies for the purpose of making money off their performances (much in the spirit of Carl Denham). Mothra is angered by this and goes searching for the girls in Japan. When Nelson and his associates flee to Rolisica, Mothra, upon becoming an adult, flies to New Kirk City and ravages the metropolis looking for them.
Rolisica is widely interpreted as a stand-in for the United States, with New Kirk City—featuring a Manhattan-like skyline and several suspension bridges—obviously standing in for New York City; its population is clearly of European decent. A significant portion of the film Mothra depicts diplomatic relations between Rolisica and Japan, particularly over two issues: their claim that Infant Island had been searched and verified to be uninhabited before their nuclear tests were conducted; and the Rolisican government's position on Nelson's ownership of the twin fairies.
[edit] Selgina
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
[edit] Seatopia
By 1973 the underwater kingdom of Seatopia has lost a third of its land to nuclear tests conducted by the surface world and, according to their grandiloquent leader Antonio, must finally and reluctantly fight back. They beseech their god Megalon to attack the surface world and deploy their own human agents to sabotage the powerful robot Jet Jaguar. When the agents' plans are thwarted and Megalon proves ineffective against Jet Jaguar, Seatopia requests the help of Gigan from Space Hunter Nebula M, though both daikaiju ultimately succumb to the combined might of Jet Jaguar and Godzilla.
Godzilla vs. Megalon introduced the Seatopians during the "space alien" themed 1970s (see 1972's Godzilla vs. Gigan and 1974's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla). Though human and not extra-terrestrial, their shadowed origins, alliance with the Space Hunter Nebula M aliens, and apparent goal of world conquest are more in keeping with the several alien races from the Godzilla films than with the usual diplomatic roles assigned to fictional countries.
[edit] Saradia
The Republic of Saradia is an Arab Middle Eastern nation from Godzilla vs. Biollante with a desert climate with large petroleum deposits, wealthy due to its oil wells and exports and possibly a member of OPEC. It is generally recognized as a stand-in for any of the Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries, in particular Saudi Arabia. Through its bioengineering program Saradia nurtured hopes of harvesting its deserts and becoming an agricultural exporter. One asset to this program was Dr. Shiragami, a displaced Japanese geneticist.
In 1984, following Godzilla's reappearance, Saradian agents obtained a Godzilla skin sample from devastated Tokyo. With the self-reproductive properties encoded in Godzilla's cells ("G-cells"), Shiragami intended to develop desert-sustainable food crops. This program was foiled when the American terrorist organization Bio-Major destroyed the Saradian laboratory housing both the skin sample and Shiragami's daughter and assistant Erika. In 1989 Shiragami was recruited by the Japanese government to develop Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB) from another sample of G-cells.
Two major enterprises of Saradia maintain a presence in Japan: the Saradia Oil Corporation, which exports petroleum from the state; and its espionage program, for which the Oil Corporation serves as a front. A prominent Saradian spy is SSS-9, the assassin who had pillaged the original skin sample and later a vacuum flask of ANB from Bio-Major agents.
| Toho Tokusatsu | |
|---|---|
| Kaiju / Mecha: | Godzilla · Anguirus · King Kong · Oodako · Rodan · Moguera · Mothra · Varan · Manda · Frankenstein . Baragon · King Ghidorah · Ebirah · Giant Condor · Magma · Gargantuas · Kamacuras · Minilla · Kumonga · Mechani-Kong · Gorosaurus · Kameba · Gabara · Hedorah · Gigan · Megalon · Jet Jaguar · Mechagodzilla · King Caesar · Titanosaurus · Biollante · Battra · Godzilla Junior · SpaceGodzilla · Destoroyah · Zilla · Orga · Megaguirus · Monster X |
| Technology: | Oxygen Destroyer · Markalite · Gotengo · Super X |
| Other: | Fictional locations · Alien races · Monsterland and Monster Island |
