Toho Kingdom

Out of all the human characters through whose eyes we have borne witness to the wars and attacks of Kaiju, who did you find to be the most obnoxious and/or poorly written?

For me, it would have to be the American military leaders from Godzilla 1985. They don't add much besides reiterating what the Japanese have planned for Godzilla, and as a way to put Raymond Burr in the story, which could have been done by just editing him into scenes in Japan, like in 1956. Plus, their characters add totally unnecessary "comedy" into the movie which kills the serious mood and comes off as callous during Godzilla's rampage. Reportedly, the scowls Raymond Burr's character gave those lines were genuine.

So what characters do you feel are the worst in Toho's Kaiju films?

Edit: I changed the poll a little bit to include some characters you guys came up with, and I realized I made the original one too narrow. Sorry about any inconvenience because of that. Thanks to whoever originally added the poll to the original prompt.

Maybe not the WORST character in the franchise, but the one that immediately comes to mind is Ford Brody. He's just such a completely boring, uninteresting character and Aaron Taylor-Johnson's flat performance doesn't help it any.

Most of the characters (with the exception of Jean Reno) in G´98 were very annoying and the cringe-worthy dialogue din´t help, in fact, I found them so bad I just wanted to see Zilla stomp on them without mercy, sadly the film din´t end that way though. Thankfully in the animated series the characters were more tolerable to watch. Say what you want about ATJ in G14, but at least he din´t made me want to punch his face everytime I saw him.

I know I´m gonna get some criticism for those who like the anime films, but I also found Haruo Sakaki very unlikable and edgy, most people compare him to Eren Jaeger, but for me he is more closer to Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto than Eren. At least I found Eren more understable when it comes to his hatred towards the Titans, and he displayed more emotions than just being angry, yelling and brooding. To give credit to COTEOB, they tried to give him more development, at least he din´t annoyed me so much like he did in POTM, but I still found him uninteristing, but not that annoying anymore. Hope Planet Eater gives him a decent conclusion so Haruo can end on a high note as a character (for me at least).

When it comes to non-Godzilla films, Russ Tamblyn in WotG was so dull it made the film a little hard to watch for me.

MrGoji1999 wrote: When it comes to non-Godzilla films, Russ Tamblyn in WotG was so dull it made the film a little hard to watch for me.

Yeah, dude was apparently a huge prick on set as well. He only took the role so his wife could come along to Japan. Although from what I've read he eventually ended up regretting his performance and attitude on set.

MrGoji1999 wrote:Most of the characters (with the exception of Jean Reno) in G´98 were very annoying and the cringe-worthy dialogue din´t help, in fact, I found them so bad I just wanted to see Zilla stomp on them without mercy, sadly the film din´t end that way though. Thankfully in the animated series the characters were more tolerable to watch. Say what you want about ATJ in G14, but at least he din´t made me want to punch his face everytime I saw him.

I know I´m gonna get some criticism for those who like the anime films, but I also found Haruo Sakaki very unlikable and edgy, most people compare him to Eren Jaeger, but for me he is more closer to Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto than Eren. At least I found Eren more understable when it comes to his hatred towards the Titans, and he displayed more emotions than just being angry, yelling and brooding. To give credit to COTEOB, they tried to give him more development, at least he din´t annoyed me so much like he did in POTM, but I still found him uninteristing, but not that annoying anymore. Hope Planet Eater gives him a decent conclusion so Haruo can end on a high note as a character (for me at least).

When it comes to non-Godzilla films, Russ Tamblyn in WotG was so dull it made the film a little hard to watch for me.

I have the same complaint about Russ Tamblyn too. He reportedly refused to follow the directors orders and gave such a half-@$$ed performance because he thought he was too good for a Kaiju movie.

Mr_Goji_and_Watch wrote:

MrGoji1999 wrote: When it comes to non-Godzilla films, Russ Tamblyn in WotG was so dull it made the film a little hard to watch for me.

Yeah, dude was apparently a huge prick on set as well. He only took the role so his wife could come along to Japan. Although from what I've read he eventually ended up regretting his performance and attitude on set.

I read that information too, apparently he got into arguments with Ishiro Honda as well, to the point that he called Honda an "untalented hack" if my memory works well. Nice to read that he ended up feeling bad for his perfomance and attitude on that film, dosen´t change his unprofessional behaviour on WotG both on-screen and off-screen, but at least he changed after the film.

Godzillander wrote:I have the same complaint about Russ Tamblyn too. He reportedly refused to follow the directors orders and gave such a half-@$$ed performance because he thought he was too good for a Kaiju movie.

Yep, that´s one of many cases when an actor refuses to follow the director orders, to the point that it shows on the film itself.

The one calling him a hack was Rhodes Reason in King Kong Escapes. Bit funny how Honda treated him better on set than he ever did Adams and Tamblyn, despite the former's respect towards Honda.

As far as on-screen performances, gotta second Russ Tamblyn. One of the worst leads in a film I've ever seen and he actively drops WOTG down a letter grade due to how bad he is.

For dastardly characters, probably Torahata from Mothra vs. Godzilla. Dude basically killed a man/left him to be killed by Godzilla all in the pursuit of some money.

Dr. Stewart in War of the Gargantuas (Especially in the UPA cut - he's slightly more tolerable in the Japanese/International version mostly due to him having less screen time) and the pterodactyl-obsessed freak from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.

Oh, and Haruo from the anime movies. I fucking hate that guy.

Mr_Goji_and_Watch wrote:The one calling him a hack was Rhodes Reason in King Kong Escapes. Bit funny how Honda treated him better on set than he ever did Adams and Tamblyn, despite the former's respect towards Honda.

Thanks for the correction! And yeah, I find that ironic as well, even Tamblyn who was disrespectul towards Honda never called him a hack, but I feel kind of bad for Adams not only because he clearly respected Honda, but also because of the 3 American lead actors mentioned, he´s easily the best of the trio, giving the film he was in more energy with his charisma.

I personally say Emmy from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. She knew that the Americans were planning on replacing Godzilla with Ghidorah. She knew that they were planning of wiping Japan AKA her home country and kill millions of people..... why would she agree to any of this?

I don’t if this counts but I don’t remember any of the characters from Godzilla Raids Again aside from Yamane. Was there even a main protagonist?

Harou.

He's not even technically the worst from a writing perspective, but boy is he the most obnoxious and unlikable one.

JGAR wrote:I don’t if this counts but I don’t remember any of the characters from Godzilla Raids Again aside from Yamane. Was there even a main protagonist?

Tsukioka? He's far from the most interesting, but I'd say he's definitely identifiable as the main lead.

Kaiju-King42 wrote:Harou.

He's not even technically the worst from a writing perspective, but boy is he the most obnoxious and unlikable one.

He's pretty awful from a writing perspective too, IMO. The whole "grudge against Godzilla" aspect felt old when it was done with Akane back in the Kiryu films (And hell, Tsujimori in Megaguirus), and the fact it's about the ONLY thing notable about him (that and his endless bitching) makes for pretty lousy writing.

MaxRebo320 wrote:

Kaiju-King42 wrote:Harou.

He's not even technically the worst from a writing perspective, but boy is he the most obnoxious and unlikable one.

He's pretty awful from a writing perspective too, IMO. The whole "grudge against Godzilla" aspect felt old when it was done with Akane back in the Kiryu films (And hell, Tsujimori in Megaguirus), and the fact it's about the ONLY thing notable about him (that and his endless bitching) makes for pretty lousy writing.

Yeah, he's bad... but when I say he's not technically the worst, I'm comparing him to the likes of the Pteranodon Guy from GvMG2. On that note, several Heisei characters could be listed as the being among the worst.

Also, now that I'm noticing that this title refers to the worst character in a kaiju film, Godzilla or otherwise, I might also have to give a shoutout to Showa Gamera's Kenny's. I think the one that sticks out to me the most is the one from the first movie. The turtle-obsessed one. I don't think I've ever been more frustrated with a character in a movie than I have with that fucking kid.

MaxRebo320 wrote:

Kaiju-King42 wrote:Harou.

He's not even technically the worst from a writing perspective, but boy is he the most obnoxious and unlikable one.

He's pretty awful from a writing perspective too, IMO. The whole "grudge against Godzilla" aspect felt old when it was done with Akane back in the Kiryu films (And hell, Tsujimori in Megaguirus), and the fact it's about the ONLY thing notable about him (that and his endless bitching) makes for pretty lousy writing.

Yeah, I think Haruo is pretty much a poorly male version of Akane. Even Tsujimori in Megaguirus was a little less annoying than him, and before any of these films, Akira Yuki from Spacegodzilla and General Tachibana from GMK also got a "grudge against Godzilla" aspect to them and they never went so angry and angsty to the point of being obnoxious like Haruo does.

I know this may sound like an unpopular opinion, but Ayana from Gamera 3. I know she had a traumatic experience, but that does not excuse her so narrow-minded and jumping to the conclusion of Gamera killing her parents when she could’ve easily stopped to think it could’ve been accidental or that Gyaos could've really been the one who did it.

Onodera from Gamera vs Barugon is just the worst dude ever. He will instantly betray anyone for money, he got tons of people killed without remorse, and he basically can't take ten steps without trying to steal something or murder someone. He's worse than actual super villains like Dr. Hu and the Xilien Controller!

Ford. He's one of the top reasons I cannot derive joy any from G14. If they bothered using the other characters more to balance him out it wouldn't have been so bad. Plus the fact the film seems so intent on focusing on him so much despite not really being given much to say or do.

Most the primary characters from the Tezuka films are bland and boring as hell as well. Akane is probably more interesting than the chick from Megaguirus but not by much.

MaxRebo320 wrote:

JGAR wrote:I don’t if this counts but I don’t remember any of the characters from Godzilla Raids Again aside from Yamane. Was there even a main protagonist?

Tsukioka? He's far from the most interesting, but I'd say he's definitely identifiable as the main lead.

Don't forget Koboyashi!

We're going to have to limit this to Godzilla movies or at least just the greater Toho library, or we could be here all day, for all the truely half-hearted B-movies that might fit under this label. Hell, we probably couldn't even get through all the '60s Gamera films without a cavalcade of contenders.

So, for Godzilla movies?

Toss up between the entire cast of Godzilla vs. Destroyah and Godzilla 2014--two entries that take themselves quite seriously while having maybe one real character between them. Absolutely nothing to latch onto on the human side, despite both films lavishing attention upon it before their monster-centric finales.

Potential third contender: the entire cast of Destroy All Monsters. That might even win.

But yeah, Ford is maybe singularly awful for a solo protagonist. Destroyah and Destroy All Monsters' casts are just seas of bland, but there the lack of personality/motivation is both pointed and our vehicle for the film.

Edit-- Runner-up for solo protagonists: The male lead of Tokyo S.O.S.. Hooooly hell. It's enough to leave you begging for x Mechagodzilla's human cast, and that's saying something.