Is the iconic Kaiju male or female?

Few characters in the history of cinema can claim to have been relevant for 70 years, but starting with The 1954 seagull classic that started it all, Godzilla, gave birth to such a character. Affectionately referred to as the King of the Monsters, no giant beast to ever grace the silver screen has had a greater and more lasting impact on the pop culture landscape. But is it a name the king suitable? That said, is Godzilla really the king? Or would Queen of the Monsters be a more appropriate moniker?

The question of whether Godzilla is male or female is actually worth pondering. English-speaking audiences have largely come to know the monster as him. But it is not as simple as all that. For example, Godzilla has children, which raises questions about gender. For example, Minilla was presented as the son of a monster in the not-so-great 1967 film Son of Godzilla but it was not clearly explained how the child was born.

Did Godzilla lay an egg? Was the mother there? On the same theme, Baby Godzilla from the “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II” franchise was adopted in the Heisei era. Technically, it was a dinosaur that the human-transformed beast claimed as its own, and was not the actual child of Godzilla. These franchise moments raise questions rather than answers.

Thus, we will delve into the history of the “Godzilla” property and do our best to give a real answer to this question. Spoiler alert: It's not easy at all. So buckle up because we're about to get into the weeds.

“Godzilla” or “Gojira”, directed by Ishiro Honda, was a Japanese production. It was created very much in response to the devastating use of the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It's also a Japanese film that spawned a ton of sequels, and the rest of the world, especially North America, used those films later. But the fact that Godzilla is a Japanese creature is important because it's easier to avoid using the family name in the national language.

That's how it is in the original Japanese movies, Godzilla and all the other monsters, enemies and alliesare referred to without gender designations such as “he” or “she”. However, Japan used gender-neutral pronouns, which are essentially the equivalent of “it”. That's the first wrinkle. So where did the “he” come from that led us to label the seagull King of Monsters? You can largely thank the US for that.

The English-dubbed versions of the Godzilla films clearly describe the character as male. Why exactly? Geoffrey Angles, who translated both “Godzilla” and “Godzilla Raids Again,” the first two eras of the franchise showUniversity of Minnesota Press has the answer. Angles first translated both film adaptations into English in 2023. In an interview with MovieWebhe explained why gender equality occurs in English translations:

“This particular seagull has no gender, at least in the book, in either Godzilla or Godzilla Strikes Again. It's very, very easy to avoid gender Avoid gender in Japanese, but using those words again would be weird and repetitive, so we where pronouns are needed, and so I thought long and hard about it, and I finally decided to use 'He', which I think is a potentially controversial decision.”

Angles mostly talks about his experiences, but that definitely means writing the script for the English dub. At least that helps explain why the early Showa-era Godzilla films became known as him. However, Angles also revealed that the Japanese company Toho, which controls the “Godzilla” franchise, does not always support assigning the monster's gender:

“Some people feel very viscerally, just as people at Toho feel very strongly that Godzilla is 'it' and not 'he' or 'she' or 'they.'” I later gave my reasoning for this choice—(the novel “Godzilla” and “Godzilla Strikes Again” author Shigeru) Kayama thought of Godzilla as a replacement for the nuclear bomb, and it was the men in America who developed the hydrogen bombs that scared Japan so much in 1954. So maybe it's not rude to call Godzilla “him”.

Warner Bros. and Legendary bought into that logic when they created MonsterVerse, which began in 2014 with director Gareth Edwards' Godzilla. The franchise now has a total of five films, with the latest entry being Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The MonsterVerse Godzilla is unquestionably him and is always referred to as such onscreen. Director Michael Doherty, who helmed Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was asked a direct question about gender in a 2019 interview with Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Yahoo. His answer was quite blunt:

“It's him, he's called the King of Monsters.”

Toho's line of thinking is that Godzilla is neither he nor she, and they are more supportive of some of the films in the property. “Godzilla 2000” and others suggest that Godzilla reproduces sexually, laying an egg at some point to continue. In fact, the franchise continued (without going into the dirty continuity of everything) after the original 1954 “Godzilla” killed the beast with an oxygen destroyer.

There's also the idea that Godzilla transcends gender, being a literal god of sorts. Designation for 2016's dark reinvention of the Shin Godzilla franchise literally was, “God incarnate. The city that is doomed.” This should also be taken into account. It's not as simple as “boy” or “girl”.

The frustrating answer to the question we started with is that Godzilla doesn't have a specific gender. It depends on the movie we're talking about, the person we're talking to about it, and the language in which the particular movie is being watched. For the most part, the male gender split has stuck, thanks to the popularity of the English translations, but plenty has been introduced over the years to complicate matters (the “god” of it all being perhaps the most complicating factor).

The most interesting exception to all existing rules was in 1998, when the first American version of the franchise was adopted. Director Roland Emmerich's “Godzilla” could have been a big disappointment at the timebut it also introduced something interesting to the mythos. In the film, it is revealed that this new version of Godzilla actually produces asexually. Or, to put it another way, it only takes one parent to produce offspring. The climax of the film shows a massive nest of baby Godzillas preparing to invade New York before they are blown to pieces.

A version of this creature that was later renamed Zilla was not exactly popular and was eventually killed off in “Godzilla: Final Wars”. Be that as it may, this notion of the beast's ability to reproduce asexually made the question of “Is Godzilla male or female” even more difficult. Maybe Godzilla is a hermaphrodite, a creature with male and female reproductive organs. While this movie can't really be used to represent the larger Godzilla canon, it did help raise an interesting question. It also proved that there is no black or white answer to this question.

You can grab the original “Godzilla” in 4K or Blu-ray via Amazon.