
Godzilla 2002-2003, also known as the Kiryu-Goji from Godzilla X Mechagodzilla and Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. This version of the King of Monsters, although not highly popular compared to fan favorites within the fandom its a surprisingly good design.
And even though some dislike it, I recently became a much more solid fan of this design and I know that there are other fans of this design as well. So I thought this could use a thread of its own.
Let's rewind slightly shall we? When I first saw this design I thought it looked fair, not bad but not amazing either. It was just balanced and everything in between. Fair, or pretty much average. But then one day I rented Godzilla against Mechagodzilla from blockbuster which would mark the day that I official watched the movie since I never seen it before. After the movie, I loved this Godzilla. I loved it more than any of version ever made and from that point on I prayed that this Godzilla would appear in the next movie. And thankfully it did. Of course over time I slowly begun to like the version less and less due to how it was executed in the Kiryu-Saga having slow reactions. But then about yesterday, I decided to look at movies again on my 360 out of boredom...Well, when I was done I remembered all the reasons why I loved this Godzilla and decided to do some research on the Tokyo S.O.S film to see if Godzilla was purposely given more of a animal personality.
Truth be told, the Director indeed purposely did that, wanting this Godzilla to be something more and understanding. Godzilla does not want to intentionally harm Kiryu because that's his own kind due to sensing the bones of the original Godzilla inside of the mecha. Which would explain why Godzilla wasn't reacting in a offensive aggressive manner when he was attacked by Kiryu during some moments. He was confused not low in intelligence. And from that I was able to understand this Godzilla and feel sympathy for him.
Kiryu-Goji, It had a more animalistic atmosphere around it, especially within the face and the eyes. Tokyo S.O.S further brought out this which to me made this Godzilla more interesting and more appealing to me. It held enough bulk to give off the impression of power, it was given enough animal like behavior to make it seem alive and instinctive, although its similar to the G2K appearance's in most ways, it has enough details to separate itself completely.
I have no problem with this design and this is the main version of Godzilla for me, the movies made me absolutely love this version and a official fan of it.