"Little things" in Godzilla films you wonder about

[godjacob]

Isn't the official name for Black Moth Griffon?

In the name article, the winged lion was meant to be called Kroiga, after the owner of the kaiju's brain. Black Moth is the English translation of Kroiga; Kuroi (black) and Ga (moth).

Okay but they refer to it as Griffon in the film itself. Wikizilla even has a quoted dialogue.

"Kroiga was a fool as a woman. Is she also a fool as a Griffon? Why doesn't she attack?"

[Terasawa]

Isn't the official name for Black Moth Griffon?

In the name article, the winged lion was meant to be called Kroiga, after the owner of the kaiju's brain. Black Moth is the English translation of Kroiga; Kuroi (black) and Ga (moth).

Okay but they refer to it as Griffon in the film itself. Wikizilla even has a quoted dialogue.

"Kroiga was a fool as a woman. Is she also a fool as a Griffon? Why doesn't she attack?"

Malic never calls the monster "Griffon" as if it were its name, he refers to it as "a griffin," i.e., its species. The only name used for the monster in the film is "Kroiga," which is the name of the woman whose brain Malic transplants into the critter.

"Black Moth" is the official English name, even though it's never uttered in any version of the film (which isn't uncommon in these movies). As I recall, that was one of several names confirmed with Toho International early in Toho Kingdom's history. You can probably hit up Anthony for more info (and hopefully he'll chime in here). I think Wikizilla uses "Griffon" because "Black Moth" is so rarely used that it may as well not be official -- more Japanese sources prefer "Griffon," but also keep in mind that same sources sometimes give us other bullshit transliterations.

Added in 6 minutes 49 seconds:

With "Kamoebas" I think they're wildly overestimating the average English speaker's ability to determine from context how to pronounce the "oe" letter pairing.

That's true of more than a few of the Romanized Toho monster names. Look no further than "Godzilla," which should be read GO-DZI-la, not god-ZIL-la. But there's little reason for English speakers to intuit that from the spelling, even if they have some knowledge of the Japanese language.

[John Pannozzi]

No version of Godzillas Revenge exists with the English language title "All Monsters Attack". I refuse to use that title.

Of course, since Toho is forcing US distributors to not use most of the old American versions, they can call some of these movies whatever they want, can't they?

I mean, it is film's the original Japanese (sub)title, so that trumps any foreign language version IMHO. Plus, "Godzilla's Revenge" is an ill-fitting name for it anyway.

I do agree that "DesGhidorah" is dumb and that character's name should be "Death Ghidorah". "Destoroyah" is pretty dumb, but you can't trademark "Destroyer" (plus, Marvel has several legacy characters with that codename), so...

IMO, the craziest two are Dagahra and Ghogo. When the film was dubbed in 1998, the characters were called "Dagarla" and "Gorgo" (both in the English dubbing and in the credits). But by the time the film was released by TriStar only two years later, Toho had already changed course and trademarked the names "Dagahra" and "Ghogo" for those characters instead.

I'd rather use "Ghogo" over "Gorgo", since that character's name in Romanji is "Go-go", not "Gorugo".

And the dub for GvsMG93 saying "Ray-don" and especially the dub for Final Wars saying "Mee-la" are the dumbest of all IMHO.

And yeah, I roll my eyes a bit at those who use "Minya" over "Minilla" (since the name is meant to be short for "Mini-Godzilla").

Honestly though, none of the Toho Kaiju dub name changes are as bad as some of the name changes made for, say, Dragon Ball (i.e. "Hercule" instead of "Mr. Satan", and so on).

[Terasawa]

No version of Godzillas Revenge exists with the English language title "All Monsters Attack". I refuse to use that title.

Of course, since Toho is forcing US distributors to not use most of the old American versions, they can call some of these movies whatever they want, can't they?

I mean, it is film's the original Japanese (sub)title, so that trumps any foreign language version IMHO. Plus, "Godzilla's Revenge" is an ill-fitting name for it anyway.

"Dai shingeki" isn't "attack." A more faithful translation would be "The Great Charge of All Monsters," so technically, "All Monsters Attack" is only the Japanese title if you accept a lousy translation (which would seem to be based on the export title anyway).

And yeah, I roll my eyes a bit at those who use "Minya" over "Minilla" (since the name is meant to be short for "Mini-Godzilla").

Yeah, but I've never heard any English speaker pronounce "Minilla" like "Mini -(Godzi)lla," it's always like the capital of the Philippines. IMO, Minya just rolls off the tongue better than "min-ee-luh" ever would.

It's a cute name in Japanese, but I don't think it works at all in English. They would have been better off just committing to Little Godzilla, or something like that. That way they could have preserved the intent of the name without every English speaker pronouncing it in such a way that the intent is lost, lol.

Incidentally, the export dubs of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II pronounce "Radon" as RAD-on. Terror of Mechagodzilla is the HK-dubbed Godzilla movie that uses "RAY-din." In both instances, it's clear that the voice actors had a script that used the Japanese name and they simply had no reference on the correct pronunciation.

[John Pannozzi]

No version of Godzillas Revenge exists with the English language title "All Monsters Attack". I refuse to use that title.

Of course, since Toho is forcing US distributors to not use most of the old American versions, they can call some of these movies whatever they want, can't they?

I mean, it is film's the original Japanese (sub)title, so that trumps any foreign language version IMHO. Plus, "Godzilla's Revenge" is an ill-fitting name for it anyway.

"Dai shingeki" isn't "attack." A more faithful translation would be "The Great Charge of All Monsters," so technically, "All Monsters Attack" is only the Japanese title if you accept a lousy translation (which would seem to be based on the export title anyway).

Good point. I still think that "All Monsters Attack" rolls off the tongue better than "The Great Charge of All Monsters" (mostly due to the odd use of the English word "All" in the Japanese title).

And yeah, I roll my eyes a bit at those who use "Minya" over "Minilla" (since the name is meant to be short for "Mini-Godzilla").

Yeah, but I've never heard any English speaker pronounce "Minilla" like "Mini -(Godzi)lla," it's always like the capital of the Philippines. IMO, Minya just rolls off the tongue better than "min-ee-luh" ever would.

It's a cute name in Japanese, but I don't think it works at all in English. They would have been better off just committing to Little Godzilla, or something like that. That way they could have preserved the intent of the name without every English speaker pronouncing it in such a way that the intent is lost, lol.

Good points, especially the second paragraph. Funny how they never mention his name in either the Japanese or English version of SOG, and in the English version of DAM (the International dub at least), he's simply referred to as "the son of Godzilla".

Incidentally, the export dubs of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II pronounce "Radon" as RAD-on. Terror of Mechagodzilla is the HK-dubbed Godzilla movie that uses "RAY-din." In both instances, it's clear that the voice actors had a script that used the Japanese name and they simply had no reference on the correct pronunciation.

Thanks for correcting me.

[Terasawa]

Good point. I still think that "All Monsters Attack" rolls off the tongue better than "The Great Charge of All Monsters" (mostly due to the odd use of the English word "All" in the Japanese title).

It definitely does, but it's just not quite the Japanese version's title.

I really don't mind using All Monsters Attack in general and for the Japanese version in particular, but to me it will always be

[eabaker]

It's a cute name in Japanese, but I don't think it works at all in English. They would have been better off just committing to Little Godzilla, or something like that. That way they could have preserved the intent of the name without every English speaker pronouncing it in such a way that the intent is lost, lol.

I was thinking, to correctly convey the effect of "Minira" to Western ears, they'd probably have wanted to go with "Minizilla." Most people won't immediately associate "illa" with "Godzilla" unless that "z" is there, and that recognition in turns makes the intent of "mini" clearer.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Funny how they never mention his name in either the Japanese or English version of SOG, and in the English version of DAM (the International dub at least), he's simply referred to as "the son of Godzilla".

That's because Minilla was named AFTER Son of Godzilla was filmed. IIRC, they had a contest during a special premiere event and Minilla won.

[edgaguirus]

Funny how they never mention his name in either the Japanese or English version of SOG, and in the English version of DAM (the International dub at least), he's simply referred to as "the son of Godzilla".

That's because Minilla was named AFTER Son of Godzilla was filmed. IIRC, they had a contest during a special premiere event and Minilla won.

All the names were put into a manilla folder, and slip of paper chosen had Minilla.

[Legion1979]

Funny how they never mention his name in either the Japanese or English version of SOG, and in the English version of DAM (the International dub at least), he's simply referred to as "the son of Godzilla".

That's because Minilla was named AFTER Son of Godzilla was filmed. IIRC, they had a contest during a special premiere event and Minilla won.

Are you sure? Because Minya's name is right there on the original release poster, which would have been made before any sort of release or premiere.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Funny how they never mention his name in either the Japanese or English version of SOG, and in the English version of DAM (the International dub at least), he's simply referred to as "the son of Godzilla".

That's because Minilla was named AFTER Son of Godzilla was filmed. IIRC, they had a contest during a special premiere event and Minilla won.

Are you sure? Because Minya's name is right there on the original release poster, which would have been made before any sort of release or premiere.

Okay, maybe I got the circumstances but I know for certain that he wasn't named until after the film's completion.

[Terasawa]

Minilla was named before SoG was released but the name wasn't decided until after the script was put into production. They had the "Christening" on one of the SFX sound stages, so I don't think it took place after the film wrapped, possibly just pretty far into production.

[m0nster01]

We saw the Yakuza partner with Professor Okubo to control Godzilla in Space Godzilla, but, given the fact that the real life Yakuza actually aids in disaster reconstruction and humanitarian aid, I wonder how much of an impact kaiju and almost unimaginable catastrophes have on the Japanese mob and their activities?

Edit: Sorry, wrong name

[John Pannozzi]

Then, in addition to Anguirus, you have other nonsense like Moguera (which goes completely against the acronym seen in the movie), Kameobas and the mother of all stupid names, Desghidorah.

To be fair, they've used "Moguera" plenty of times prior to GvsSG (include the NES Godzilla game). "Mogu" means mole in Japanese, which is where the character's name comes from, so yeah....

[edgaguirus]

Criminal organizations frequently invest in multiple businesses and trades, so I imagine they would have their hands in the construction business. After a kaiju wrecks a city, they could make good money as buildings are repaired and new ones put up.

[Chris55]

Criminal organizations frequently invest in multiple businesses and trades, so I imagine they would have their hands in the construction business. After a kaiju wrecks a city, they could make good money as buildings are repaired and new ones put up.

Marvel crossover!

[Terasawa]

Mafune announced his discovery of Titanosaurus after he'd already pissed off the community with his animal control experiments and theories. It's also implied that he was already quite nutty by that time. I think they were just skeptical of anything coming out of his mouth by that point.

Bump.

From Toho International's English-language synopsis, circa 1975:

"Dr. Mafune had been a promising scientist. But his announcement that he would control the dinosaur resulted in his banishment from the academic society."

[edgaguirus]

I wonder how they keep semi aquatic kaiju from escaping Ogasawara Island. We do see poison gas, I'm assuming, keep Godzilla from entering the water, but that's only on the surface. The water around the islands is deep, unless the shallower parts near land have some sort of security device.

[Breakdown]

Why didn't the SDF re-use the electrical towers and nets from Mothra vs Godzilla to field against Hedorah? I think it would have been more cost-efficient and simpler to retrofit existing electrical towers rather than build huge reflector panels which had several technical issues.

They could still lure Hedorah into a trap like in the movie and it probably would have worked better in the long run.

[JAGzilla]

Why didn't the SDF re-use the electrical towers and nets from Mothra vs Godzilla to field against Hedorah? I think it would have been more cost-efficient and simpler to retrofit existing electrical towers rather than build huge reflector panels which had several technical issues.

They could still lure Hedorah into a trap like in the movie and it probably would have worked better in the long run.

Godzilla did a lot of damage to those towers, for one thing. And Hedorah was seven years later; the towers might have been torn down and something else built in their place. That, and they didn't even work against Godzilla, so chances are the panels were more powerful.