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Description
As someone who’s been very disappointed in the current American Godzilla movies, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and create my own Godzilla story. One that could succeed (or, at least, have the potential to succeed) where the American adaptations failed.

--

SYNOPSIS

The world is dominated by giant monsters, officially classified as "kaiju." Since the dawn of time, kaiju have roamed the earth while humanity has struggled to keep out of their path. Despite their awesome powers and destructive tendencies, kaiju have fascinated humanity for generations and have weaved their way into every part of popular culture (Much like dinosaurs and dragons have in mass media). However, the Japanese native kaiju, Gojira, most notably, has become world-renowned as the most elusive and most powerful kaiju, and has appeared in dozens of monster movies, made famous under the Americanized stage name, Godzilla.

As human society continues to flourish, kaiju become an expanding, ongoing issue, so the world is in desperate need of scientists eager to study these strange creatures. Dr. Kenji Honda had become world-famous for his contributions to the world of paleontology and megazoology (The study of kaiju). Having moved from Japan to America, residing in the West Coast of Seattle, Washington, he and his wife, Laurie Honda, had their first and only child, Yuki Ishi Honda. When Laurie died of a fatal heart attack when Yuki was only 2 years old, Kenji was left on his own to raise his only daughter.

Yuki Honda is a shy and introverted girl but has held a very personal fondness for dinosaurs and kaiju her entire life. Born and raised in Seattle, Yuki lived a humble life with her father. He and Yuki shared a strong bond and a great appreciation for kaiju for many years. But as time went on, their relationship started to drift apart. After a time, Yuki's father became more distant from her, becoming more and more preoccupied with his work and had less and less time to spend with his daughter. After losing her father from a tragic accident, where he was crushed to death by a newly discovered Gojira fossil, Yuki is put into the care of her uncle, Eiji Honda. Saddened and traumatized by the loss of her father, Yuki falls into great despair. One year after her father’s passing, Yuki has developed very low self-esteem. She’s often very quiet and keeps to herself. At school, she usually comes off as stoic and emotionless, especially amongst other students. As an aspiring artist, she loves to draw lifelike images of dinosaurs, kaiju, and speculative evolution creatures in stunning, breathtaking detail. While everyone who sees her art thinks she’s extremely talented, Yuki is very self-critical of her own work. Despite this, however, she continues to draw dinosaurs and kaiju to remind herself of all the good memories she had with her father. At the start of every month, Yuki and her uncle visit the Megazoological exhibits at the Museum of Natural History, the same museum that her father greatly contributed to. Yuki wears a trilobite necklace, the same one her father used to wear, which she has worn everyday ever since her father's death and continues to wear in memory of him.

Dr. Eiji Honda is Kenji's younger brother and is the top genetics scientist for The Kaiju Operative Research and Defense Force (K.O.R.D.), an organization bent on preserving and studying kaiju and protecting the general public from kaiju attacks. Eiji is timid, but knowledgeable, polite, reserved, and a perfectionist. But he is also easily overwhelmed when things don't go to his plans. Despite becoming the top scientist in K.O.R.D.'s Kaiju Science and Resources Department (KSR), Eiji had always envied his brother's fame and success, becoming very self-conscious and feeling he was the inferior sibling. When he becomes Yuki's legal guardian after his brother's death, he does his hardest to support Yuki, but has no prior experience of raising children. Much like with her father, Yuki finds herself very distant from her uncle, who is also preoccupied with his work. Yuki and Uncle Eiji have even less of a caring relationship than when her dad had time to spend with her. But things turn from bad to worse when Yuki and Eiji are caught in the middle of a Godzilla attack, where Yuki gets critically injured, losing both her right arm from crumbling debris and her sense of hearing from being in close range of Godzilla's deafening roar.

Overwhelmed with sadness and guilt for his niece, Eiji decides to take matters into his own hands by injecting her with an experimental serum made up of Godzilla's cells. A serum he had been testing for several months, in the hopes of harnessing Godzilla's regenerative healing factor to be used to cure diseases, regenerate lost limbs and other disabilities, and increase immunities in humans. Despite being an experimental dose, Eiji uses the serum in a desperate attempt to help his niece. Soon enough, the serum works, but with devastating results. Yuki regains her hearing, but her arm grows back enlarged and scaly, resembling that of Godzilla's arm. On top of that, she is diagnosed with numerous superhuman abilities, including superhuman strength, regenerative healing factor, immunity to high levels of radiation, and a sixth sense capable of detecting Godzilla. She's also diagnosed with various side-effects, including frequent scale-shedding on her infected arm, continuous nightmares, but most notably, the genetic code used for Godzilla's regenerative healing triggers an accelerated aging condition in Yuki, where her body continues to age at a rapid rate. Now it is up to Dr. Eiji Honda and the members of K.O.R.D. and KSR to find a cure for Yuki's condition before she succumbs to her demise.

As a perfect hybrid specimen of Godzilla and human DNA, Yuki is now the most valuable human being on the planet. Taking full security of her wellbeing, K.O.R.D. enlists their top officer, Sergeant Jared Lanza (The same soldier who rescued and bandaged up Yuki when she was attacked by Godzilla), as her personal bodyguard. Sgt. Lanza is a Spanish-American soldier who enlisted in K.O.R.D. after his wife and 8 year old daughter died in the midst of a kaiju brawl between Godzilla and Rodan while on vacation in Mexico. Bent on avenging his family's deaths, preventing his own tragedy from happening again to anyone else, and yearning to better understand the mysterious world of kaiju, Sgt. Lanza had dedicated his life to the K.O.R.D. organization. He's heavily trained in boxing and various martial arts. While always packing plenty of firearms, Sgt. Lanza prefers to use his lucky machete, Scarlet, as his main tool to get himself out of sticky situations. He also wears a necklace of a Godzilla tooth as a trophy from one of many encounters he's had with The King of the Monsters. While he mostly carries himself as a stoic, tough guy, he does develop a soft spot for Yuki, who reminds him of the young daughter he had lost years ago. He starts off very cold and uncaring towards Yuki, but gradually grows a fondness for her, based on her creative skills, interest in kaiju, and her shy, introverted nature. Yuki, also, grows a fondness for Lanza, who gradually takes on the role of her surrogate parent. Despite losing his own family to Big G, Lanza doesn't hold a grudge against Godzilla. He knows Big G is only an animal acting on instinct and only wishes to keep both humans and kaiju in a state where they can both thrive and co-exist with one another. Now, it is up to Lanza to protect Yuki at all costs from those who either view her only as an object or as a public nuisance, from terrorists wanting to weaponize her condition, to insane cultists who view her as some sort of human/kaiju deity, to hate-filled citizens who only see her as a freak of nature.

Unbeknownst to the members of K.O.R.D., Yuki's body starts to produce an aroma very similar to that of a new Godzilla hatchling, which is undetectable to human noses. This scent catches the attention of not one, not two, but three kaiju! An enormous snake-like kaiju, codenamed Hebira (Meaning "Snake Whale"), a giant bird-type kaiju, codenamed Giganykus (Meaning "Giant Claw"), and the elusive King of Kaiju, Godzilla! As the three kaiju converge in Seattle, the world can only watch in awe and despair as they battle it out in an all-out kaiju war!

--

COMMENTARY NOTES

- I first started conceiving my own Godzilla story back in July of 2021 (Four months after the release of Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)). It was originally meant to be a send-up to the original 1954 film (Very similar both in style and tone), but also include nods and plot elements from other Toho Godzilla movies, but in a darker and more serious light. Originally titled, "Godzilla: Death Incarnate", then later retitled as "Godzilla: Desolation." It was, basically, meant to be the opposite in tone progression as the original Showa Series of Godzilla movies, where, instead of starting very dark and serious and gradually becoming campier and kid-friendly, "Desolation" would start off fairly kid-friendly, but gradually become darker and more serious as the story progressed. But after a while of brainstorming on the idea, I felt the story was getting too dark than what I really wanted as a proper send-up to the Godzilla franchise. On top of that, I felt some story elements were too similar to the anime series, Godzilla: Singular Point, which just had its official American release on Netflix by the time I was working on "Desolation" (I also really didn't care for the story and characters in Singular Point, btw). To make a long story short, I ended up scrapping the initial idea and took some time away to rethink the concept. You can read my original, unfinished synopsis for "Godzilla: Desolation" on Google Docs (docs.google.com/document/d/123… ).

- When I started brainstorming the concept for "The Chimera Effect", I mainly took inspiration from the Heisei Era Godzilla movies (My personal favorite series of Godzilla movies. A majorty of which were among the first Godzilla movies I ever saw and introduced me to the franchise as a kid, back when they used to air on the Sci-Fi channel in the early 2000's) and the IDW comic series, Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (Easily, my all-time favorite Godzilla comic). While some character and plot elements are carried over from "Desolation", I wanted TCE to have a significantly lighter tone than what I had planned before. I wanted to weave a narrative that could capture people's imaginations in a similar way the older Heisei movies captured mine when I was a kid.

- The title, "Chimera Effect", spawned from the genetic term, where a single organism is composed of two or more different types of DNA. Originally titled "Godzilla: The Seattle Imperative", I ended up renaming it to TCE after first learning about genetic Chimera from the TV series, The UnXplained, in the episode "Strange Creatures" (Season 1, Episode 3). After that, I felt TCE was a more appropriate title, given the subject matter.

- One of the big, recurring problems with writing the human characters in Godzilla movies, and monster movies in general, is figuring out how interweave the human drama into the monster scenes. With TCE, I wanted the main character not only be personally affected by Godzilla, but also be directly connected to Godzilla, both literally and metaphorically. The idea of having Yuki experimented on with Godzilla's DNA stems from both the Neill Blomkamp movie, District 9 (2009), and the Heisei movie, Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). While not one of my favorite Godzilla movies, I like a lot of the ideas presented in GVB. I really like exploring the idea of people exploiting kaiju, both as a resource of scientific breakthroughs (Both good and bad) and as a source of illegal trade on the black market, similar to Pacific Rim (2013). I'm surprised that none of the later Godzilla movies ever attempted to explore the implications of genetic engineering since GVB, so I wanted to really explore that here. Basically, try to imagine District 9, but with a young girl and with a tone and style that's a mix between the Heisei Godzilla movies and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, and you're already 75% of the way there.

- Yuki Honda's character design and personality were directly inspired by the character of Anna Sasaki from the Studio Ghibli movie, When Marnie Was There (2015) (My personal favorite Ghibli movie). Her wardrobe is also partly inspired by the character, Luz Noceda, from the Disney animated series, The Owl House. Her middle and last name, "Ishi Honda", is a reference to Ishiro Honda, director of the first Godzilla (1954). I felt it was important to have a really strong main character. One you can route for and one you can feel scared or concerned for them when the monsters show up or when something especially bad happens to them when the monsters aren't on screen. I really like the idea of a kaiju story where the main character is a pacifist, but directly affects a majority of the plot and the characters around them. Yuki's father, Kenji Honda, is, basically, a fusion of Dr. Yamane from the original 1954 film and Japanese paleontologist, Dr. Kenneth Carpenter. Kenji's brother, Eiji Honda, is, basically, a combination of Dr. Serizawa from the 1954 original and Dr. Shiragami from Godzilla vs. Biollante. His name, "Eiji", is a reference to Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects director for many of the early Godzilla films, including the 1954 original. Sergeant Jared Lanza is a mix between Captain Gordon from Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) and Sergeant Steven Woods from Godzilla: Rulers of Earth. Two of the most badass characters in the entire Godzilla franchise.

- Godzilla, himself, is designed directly off of his design from the Heisei Era. More specifically, the design he retained throughout the 1990's (My favorite design of the character). If this were an actual movie, I doubt he'd look exactly like his Heisei counterpart. But hey, it's my own, uncompromised vision for a Godzilla movie, anyway, so why not?

- As far as the new monsters go, I wanted them all to be distinctly different from each other, with their own, unique and memorable designs and abilities. Ones that I felt were worthy of standing alongside the classic Godzilla monsters, but could still manage to give the Big G a hard time, despite meeting their demise in the end. While I initially set out to create two completely original monsters, I ended up with one new kaiju and one redesign of an obscure, and notoriously silly, kaiju. Giganykus is an obvious nod to the 50's B-movie stinker, The Giant Claw (1957), but redesigned to be slightly sleeker and slightly more menacing. For Giga's redesign, I took inspiration from various sources, from the scale and intimidating nature of the Thunderbird from Native-American mythology, to the wings and profile of the turkey vulture, to the elongated snout of the spinosaurus. As for Hebira, I always liked the idea of a giant snake kaiju. This idea has always captured my imagination throughout my childhood, from Jafar's giant cobra form from Disney's Aladdin (1992), to the giant, evil Imoogi from Dragon Wars: D-War (2007). For a while, I've had this idea for a snake kaiju that had a giant whale mouth and an enormous (and scary) array of sharp, jaded teeth. That just sounded really cool to me, honestly. Hebi is an amalgamation of a humpback whale, the Imoogi from Dragon Wars, and the mosasaur from the Jurassic World movies.

- The K.O.R.D. logo is directly inspired by the logo for the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (U.N.G.C.C.) from the Heisei series, combined with the Ouroboros symbol from ancient mythology (Ouroboros - Wikipedia ).

- As a Washingtonian, I've always wanted to see an American Godzilla movie take place in Seattle. You actually VERY rarely ever see Seattle at the center of a disaster movie, and you never, EVER see Seattle at the center of a giant monster movie, let alone a Godzilla movie! So, naturally, I wanted to have my own story, at least a grand majority of its major plot points, take place in Seattle.

- This project is in no way meant to be taken seriously. I made this purely for fun. If you like the MonsterVerse, that's perfectly fine. You're allowed to like whatever you want. Personally, as someone who was utterly disappointed in the MV Godzilla movies, I felt I had to take the initiative and create my own Godzilla story, based on my own ideas of what I wanted to see from an American Godzilla movie. I wanted to craft a story that had fun, charming human characters, exciting set pieces with riveting spectacle that delivers on the monster fights, a sense of stakes/urgency that continuously builds until the resolution, and a storyline that was self-serious and topical, but also self-ware and fully embraced the sheer absurdity of its universe. A fun, but thoughtful, popcorn flick, to say the least. I had a lot of fun coming up with this story and I hope you can have fun with it, too.

--

More Kaiju Drawings:

Godzilla © Toho Co., Ltd.

Description
As someone who’s been very disappointed in the current American Godzilla movies, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and create my own Godzilla story. One that could succeed (or, at least, have the potential to succeed) where the American adaptations failed.

--

SYNOPSIS

The world is dominated by giant monsters, officially classified as "kaiju." Since the dawn of time, kaiju have roamed the earth while humanity has struggled to keep out of their path. Despite their awesome powers and destructive tendencies, kaiju have fascinated humanity for generations and have weaved their way into every part of popular culture (Much like dinosaurs and dragons have in mass media). However, the Japanese native kaiju, Gojira, most notably, has become world-renowned as the most elusive and most powerful kaiju, and has appeared in dozens of monster movies, made famous under the Americanized stage name, Godzilla.

As human society continues to flourish, kaiju become an expanding, ongoing issue, so the world is in desperate need of scientists eager to study these strange creatures. Dr. Kenji Honda had become world-famous for his contributions to the world of paleontology and megazoology (The study of kaiju). Having moved from Japan to America, residing in the West Coast of Seattle, Washington, he and his wife, Laurie Honda, had their first and only child, Yuki Ishi Honda. When Laurie died of a fatal heart attack when Yuki was only 2 years old, Kenji was left on his own to raise his only daughter.

Yuki Honda is a shy and introverted girl but has held a very personal fondness for dinosaurs and kaiju her entire life. Born and raised in Seattle, Yuki lived a humble life with her father. He and Yuki shared a strong bond and a great appreciation for kaiju for many years. But as time went on, their relationship started to drift apart. After a time, Yuki's father became more distant from her, becoming more and more preoccupied with his work and had less and less time to spend with his daughter. After losing her father from a tragic accident, where he was crushed to death by a newly discovered Gojira fossil, Yuki is put into the care of her uncle, Eiji Honda. Saddened and traumatized by the loss of her father, Yuki falls into great despair. One year after her father’s passing, Yuki has developed very low self-esteem. She’s often very quiet and keeps to herself. At school, she usually comes off as stoic and emotionless, especially amongst other students. As an aspiring artist, she loves to draw lifelike images of dinosaurs, kaiju, and speculative evolution creatures in stunning, breathtaking detail. While everyone who sees her art thinks she’s extremely talented, Yuki is very self-critical of her own work. Despite this, however, she continues to draw dinosaurs and kaiju to remind herself of all the good memories she had with her father. At the start of every month, Yuki and her uncle visit the Megazoological exhibits at the Museum of Natural History, the same museum that her father greatly contributed to. Yuki wears a trilobite necklace, the same one her father used to wear, which she has worn everyday ever since her father's death and continues to wear in memory of him.

Dr. Eiji Honda is Kenji's younger brother and is the top genetics scientist for The Kaiju Operative Research and Defense Force (K.O.R.D.), an organization bent on preserving and studying kaiju and protecting the general public from kaiju attacks. Eiji is timid, but knowledgeable, polite, reserved, and a perfectionist. But he is also easily overwhelmed when things don't go to his plans. Despite becoming the top scientist in K.O.R.D.'s Kaiju Science and Resources Department (KSR), Eiji had always envied his brother's fame and success, becoming very self-conscious and feeling he was the inferior sibling. When he becomes Yuki's legal guardian after his brother's death, he does his hardest to support Yuki, but has no prior experience of raising children. Much like with her father, Yuki finds herself very distant from her uncle, who is also preoccupied with his work. Yuki and Uncle Eiji have even less of a caring relationship than when her dad had time to spend with her. But things turn from bad to worse when Yuki and Eiji are caught in the middle of a Godzilla attack, where Yuki gets critically injured, losing both her right arm from crumbling debris and her sense of hearing from being in close range of Godzilla's deafening roar.

Overwhelmed with sadness and guilt for his niece, Eiji decides to take matters into his own hands by injecting her with an experimental serum made up of Godzilla's cells. A serum he had been testing for several months, in the hopes of harnessing Godzilla's regenerative healing factor to be used to cure diseases, regenerate lost limbs and other disabilities, and increase immunities in humans. Despite being an experimental dose, Eiji uses the serum in a desperate attempt to help his niece. Soon enough, the serum works, but with devastating results. Yuki regains her hearing, but her arm grows back enlarged and scaly, resembling that of Godzilla's arm. On top of that, she is diagnosed with numerous superhuman abilities, including superhuman strength, regenerative healing factor, immunity to high levels of radiation, and a sixth sense capable of detecting Godzilla. She's also diagnosed with various side-effects, including frequent scale-shedding on her infected arm, continuous nightmares, but most notably, the genetic code used for Godzilla's regenerative healing triggers an accelerated aging condition in Yuki, where her body continues to age at a rapid rate. Now it is up to Dr. Eiji Honda and the members of K.O.R.D. and KSR to find a cure for Yuki's condition before she succumbs to her demise.

As a perfect hybrid specimen of Godzilla and human DNA, Yuki is now the most valuable human being on the planet. Taking full security of her wellbeing, K.O.R.D. enlists their top officer, Sergeant Jared Lanza (The same soldier who rescued and bandaged up Yuki when she was attacked by Godzilla), as her personal bodyguard. Sgt. Lanza is a Spanish-American soldier who enlisted in K.O.R.D. after his wife and 8 year old daughter died in the midst of a kaiju brawl between Godzilla and Rodan while on vacation in Mexico. Bent on avenging his family's deaths, preventing his own tragedy from happening again to anyone else, and yearning to better understand the mysterious world of kaiju, Sgt. Lanza had dedicated his life to the K.O.R.D. organization. He's heavily trained in boxing and various martial arts. While always packing plenty of firearms, Sgt. Lanza prefers to use his lucky machete, Scarlet, as his main tool to get himself out of sticky situations. He also wears a necklace of a Godzilla tooth as a trophy from one of many encounters he's had with The King of the Monsters. While he mostly carries himself as a stoic, tough guy, he does develop a soft spot for Yuki, who reminds him of the young daughter he had lost years ago. He starts off very cold and uncaring towards Yuki, but gradually grows a fondness for her, based on her creative skills, interest in kaiju, and her shy, introverted nature. Yuki, also, grows a fondness for Lanza, who gradually takes on the role of her surrogate parent. Despite losing his own family to Big G, Lanza doesn't hold a grudge against Godzilla. He knows Big G is only an animal acting on instinct and only wishes to keep both humans and kaiju in a state where they can both thrive and co-exist with one another. Now, it is up to Lanza to protect Yuki at all costs from those who either view her only as an object or as a public nuisance, from terrorists wanting to weaponize her condition, to insane cultists who view her as some sort of human/kaiju deity, to hate-filled citizens who only see her as a freak of nature.

Unbeknownst to the members of K.O.R.D., Yuki's body starts to produce an aroma very similar to that of a new Godzilla hatchling, which is undetectable to human noses. This scent catches the attention of not one, not two, but three kaiju! An enormous snake-like kaiju, codenamed Hebira (Meaning "Snake Whale"), a giant bird-type kaiju, codenamed Giganykus (Meaning "Giant Claw"), and the elusive King of Kaiju, Godzilla! As the three kaiju converge in Seattle, the world can only watch in awe and despair as they battle it out in an all-out kaiju war!

--

COMMENTARY NOTES

- I first started conceiving my own Godzilla story back in July of 2021 (Four months after the release of Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)). It was originally meant to be a send-up to the original 1954 film (Very similar both in style and tone), but also include nods and plot elements from other Toho Godzilla movies, but in a darker and more serious light. Originally titled, "Godzilla: Death Incarnate", then later retitled as "Godzilla: Desolation." It was, basically, meant to be the opposite in tone progression as the original Showa Series of Godzilla movies, where, instead of starting very dark and serious and gradually becoming campier and kid-friendly, "Desolation" would start off fairly kid-friendly, but gradually become darker and more serious as the story progressed. But after a while of brainstorming on the idea, I felt the story was getting too dark than what I really wanted as a proper send-up to the Godzilla franchise. On top of that, I felt some story elements were too similar to the anime series, Godzilla: Singular Point, which just had its official American release on Netflix by the time I was working on "Desolation" (I also really didn't care for the story and characters in Singular Point, btw). To make a long story short, I ended up scrapping the initial idea and took some time away to rethink the concept. You can read my original, unfinished synopsis for "Godzilla: Desolation" on Google Docs (docs.google.com/document/d/123… ).

- When I started brainstorming the concept for "The Chimera Effect", I mainly took inspiration from the Heisei Era Godzilla movies (My personal favorite series of Godzilla movies. A majorty of which were among the first Godzilla movies I ever saw and introduced me to the franchise as a kid, back when they used to air on the Sci-Fi channel in the early 2000's) and the IDW comic series, Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (Easily, my all-time favorite Godzilla comic). While some character and plot elements are carried over from "Desolation", I wanted TCE to have a significantly lighter tone than what I had planned before. I wanted to weave a narrative that could capture people's imaginations in a similar way the older Heisei movies captured mine when I was a kid.

- The title, "Chimera Effect", spawned from the genetic term, where a single organism is composed of two or more different types of DNA. Originally titled "Godzilla: The Seattle Imperative", I ended up renaming it to TCE after first learning about genetic Chimera from the TV series, The UnXplained, in the episode "Strange Creatures" (Season 1, Episode 3). After that, I felt TCE was a more appropriate title, given the subject matter.

- One of the big, recurring problems with writing the human characters in Godzilla movies, and monster movies in general, is figuring out how interweave the human drama into the monster scenes. With TCE, I wanted the main character not only be personally affected by Godzilla, but also be directly connected to Godzilla, both literally and metaphorically. The idea of having Yuki experimented on with Godzilla's DNA stems from both the Neill Blomkamp movie, District 9 (2009), and the Heisei movie, Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). While not one of my favorite Godzilla movies, I like a lot of the ideas presented in GVB. I really like exploring the idea of people exploiting kaiju, both as a resource of scientific breakthroughs (Both good and bad) and as a source of illegal trade on the black market, similar to Pacific Rim (2013). I'm surprised that none of the later Godzilla movies ever attempted to explore the implications of genetic engineering since GVB, so I wanted to really explore that here. Basically, try to imagine District 9, but with a young girl and with a tone and style that's a mix between the Heisei Godzilla movies and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, and you're already 75% of the way there.

- Yuki Honda's character design and personality were directly inspired by the character of Anna Sasaki from the Studio Ghibli movie, When Marnie Was There (2015) (My personal favorite Ghibli movie). Her wardrobe is also partly inspired by the character, Luz Noceda, from the Disney animated series, The Owl House. Her middle and last name, "Ishi Honda", is a reference to Ishiro Honda, director of the first Godzilla (1954). I felt it was important to have a really strong main character. One you can route for and one you can feel scared or concerned for them when the monsters show up or when something especially bad happens to them when the monsters aren't on screen. I really like the idea of a kaiju story where the main character is a pacifist, but directly affects a majority of the plot and the characters around them. Yuki's father, Kenji Honda, is, basically, a fusion of Dr. Yamane from the original 1954 film and Japanese paleontologist, Dr. Kenneth Carpenter. Kenji's brother, Eiji Honda, is, basically, a combination of Dr. Serizawa from the 1954 original and Dr. Shiragami from Godzilla vs. Biollante. His name, "Eiji", is a reference to Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects director for many of the early Godzilla films, including the 1954 original. Sergeant Jared Lanza is a mix between Captain Gordon from Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) and Sergeant Steven Woods from Godzilla: Rulers of Earth. Two of the most badass characters in the entire Godzilla franchise.

- Godzilla, himself, is designed directly off of his design from the Heisei Era. More specifically, the design he retained throughout the 1990's (My favorite design of the character). If this were an actual movie, I doubt he'd look exactly like his Heisei counterpart. But hey, it's my own, uncompromised vision for a Godzilla movie, anyway, so why not?

- As far as the new monsters go, I wanted them all to be distinctly different from each other, with their own, unique and memorable designs and abilities. Ones that I felt were worthy of standing alongside the classic Godzilla monsters, but could still manage to give the Big G a hard time, despite meeting their demise in the end. While I initially set out to create two completely original monsters, I ended up with one new kaiju and one redesign of an obscure, and notoriously silly, kaiju. Giganykus is an obvious nod to the 50's B-movie stinker, The Giant Claw (1957), but redesigned to be slightly sleeker and slightly more menacing. For Giga's redesign, I took inspiration from various sources, from the scale and intimidating nature of the Thunderbird from Native-American mythology, to the wings and profile of the turkey vulture, to the elongated snout of the spinosaurus. As for Hebira, I always liked the idea of a giant snake kaiju. This idea has always captured my imagination throughout my childhood, from Jafar's giant cobra form from Disney's Aladdin (1992), to the giant, evil Imoogi from Dragon Wars: D-War (2007). For a while, I've had this idea for a snake kaiju that had a giant whale mouth and an enormous (and scary) array of sharp, jaded teeth. That just sounded really cool to me, honestly. Hebi is an amalgamation of a humpback whale, the Imoogi from Dragon Wars, and the mosasaur from the Jurassic World movies.

- The K.O.R.D. logo is directly inspired by the logo for the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (U.N.G.C.C.) from the Heisei series, combined with the Ouroboros symbol from ancient mythology (Ouroboros - Wikipedia ).

- As a Washingtonian, I've always wanted to see an American Godzilla movie take place in Seattle. You actually VERY rarely ever see Seattle at the center of a disaster movie, and you never, EVER see Seattle at the center of a giant monster movie, let alone a Godzilla movie! So, naturally, I wanted to have my own story, at least a grand majority of its major plot points, take place in Seattle.

- This project is in no way meant to be taken seriously. I made this purely for fun. If you like the MonsterVerse, that's perfectly fine. You're allowed to like whatever you want. Personally, as someone who was utterly disappointed in the MV Godzilla movies, I felt I had to take the initiative and create my own Godzilla story, based on my own ideas of what I wanted to see from an American Godzilla movie. I wanted to craft a story that had fun, charming human characters, exciting set pieces with riveting spectacle that delivers on the monster fights, a sense of stakes/urgency that continuously builds until the resolution, and a storyline that was self-serious and topical, but also self-ware and fully embraced the sheer absurdity of its universe. A fun, but thoughtful, popcorn flick, to say the least. I had a lot of fun coming up with this story and I hope you can have fun with it, too.

--

More Kaiju Drawings:

Godzilla © Toho Co., Ltd.