Two years ago, the movie Godzilla Minus One received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Although I still enjoy watching Godzilla stomp miniature model sets, I admit the FX on Minus One were very, very good. Overall, they were immersive and organic in a way that’s rarely seen in Hollywood Godzilla films these days.  

The movie wasn’t just another CGI blowout, however. When it was first released, many critics praised the movie’s emphasis on character-driven drama, especially the ongoing storyline surrounding Koichi Shikishima, the disgraced kamikaze pilot. 

But in my opinion Godzilla movies have always had compelling human characters. The original Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, for example, and mecha pilot Akane Yashiro. My personal favorite has always been Mr. Tako (no first name). While other kids my age admired Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali or Fonzie, I found a kinship with the comedic idiot from King Kong vs. Godzilla. 

Here in the movie novelization of Godzilla Minus One (written by director Takashi Yamazaki), the plight of Koichi Shikishima is emphasized even more than it was in the movie. 

“To be cursed for having returned alive from a losing battle was about the harshest reception a soldier could endure,” writes Yamazaki. “Abandoning his mission as a kamikaze bomber was a felony offense in Japan. He was a man whose only value to his country was in death.” 

Koichi’s personal life takes a turn for the better when he meets Noriko Oishi, a young homeless woman who survived the bombings of Tokyo during WWII. Koichi allows Noriko and an infant in her care to share the warmth of his hovel. Along with a grumpy next-door neighbor, Koichi slowly builds a support system for his postwar redemption.

One negative comment here: When Noriko is first introduced, she’s a scrappy street urchin. Her seamless transformation into a docile homemaker is an easy narrative convenience. But Iet’s not be too critical. This was a monster novel, after all—not something from Charles Dickens. 

While Koichi and Noriko are slowly falling in love, Godzilla causes problems wherever he goes. After surviving U.S. nuclear blasts at Bikini Atoll, he transforms into the kaiju icon he is today. 

Here’s how the author describes the transformation: “Any ordinary life-form would have perished instantly but Godzilla’s extraordinary regenerative capabilities allowed him to weather the blast. And as his body regenerated, a rage began to form within him—an immense hatred toward whoever or whatever had inflicted this pain upon him. 

“But even with his great power of regeneration, Godzilla’s body would not return to its original shape. The radiation from the blast had penetrated so deeply into his epidermis that his cells grew distorted and irregular, turning his hide rugged and rocklike as the replacement tissues hardened. The dorsal fins along his spine grew longer and sharper, branching out in fractals like Hell’s own snowflakes. This process repeated, the body building layer upon layer of new armor over itself until it took on the appearance of an impenetrable, battle-hardened oyster shell that had lived for eons at the bottom of the sea. 

“Yet still, Godzilla’s body grew larger and larger, as if his biological systems had broken and no longer knew when to stop, until eventually he became so gargantuan and so mutated that it hardly even resembled the being it had been before.” It was at this moment, says Yamazaki, that Godzilla became the king of all monsters. 

[ Godzilla Minus One / By Takashi Yamazaki / First U.S. Printing: September 2025 / ISBN: 9798895617588 ]