Together, we made history.

Thank you for supporting #GodzillaMinusOne! pic.twitter.com/6rSiesszrS

— GODZILLA.OFFICIAL (@Godzilla_Toho) February 2, 2024

I’m being purposefully cheeky with my response to this prompt, but I’m going with the G.O.A.T. of Godzilla films, Minus One. 

As a big ‘zilla fan, I waited all 53 years of my life to see a truly frightening and truly inspirational Godzilla movie. Three times, twice in color, the third last week in black and white for the Minus Color re-release. Yeah, I’m that obsessed with this film, which just finally finished its run in either format. The same way I went out of my skull in Blade Runner 2049 worship.

Maybe not the most important invention, but certainly a hallmark experience of my entire lifetime. No cheese, no filler, a powerful story of survivor’s guilt where you root for the humans for a change. Minus One is deserving of the hype, accolades and celebration as the highest-grossing live action movie from Japan. Even gnarlier than my long-gone 1977 Shogun Warriors line Godzilla, as far as toys go, one of the greatest invented with his lever-pushing plastic “fire” from his jowls and his shootable right claw. 

Wish I still had my ’77 Godzilla, but I do have one surviving Godzilla figure out of the eight I used to own, and he’s holding sentry in the office I share with my wife. Thank you, TJ, for putting up with my Godzilla geekery, right down to my snagging two Minus One t-shirts and the breathtaking Minus One score from Naoki Satō I ordered straight from Japan.

Classy move of Toho Studios to send a global video thank you to the world which embraced this deserving spectacle of terror and honor. 

Arigato for sharing this masterpiece with us all, Toho. Arigato. 

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.