Godzilla Minus One (Japanese: ゴジラ-1.0マイナスワン, Hepburn: Gojira Mainasu Wan) is a 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film directed, written, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. Produced by Toho Studios and Robot Communications and distributed by Toho, it is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, Toho's 33rd Godzilla film, and the fifth film in the franchise's Reiwa era.[b] The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki. In the film, postwar Japan deals with the emergence of Godzilla. After the release of his film The Great War of Archimedes (2019), Yamazaki was appointed to make a Godzilla film. He subsequently wrote the script over three years, taking influence from the Godzilla (1954), Jaws (1975), the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah (2001). Yamazaki had previously depicted Godzilla in Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (2007) and a 2021 amusement-park ride at Seibu-en. In February 2022, Robot publicized that Yamazaki was soon to begin directing a kaiju film via a casting call on their website. Filming occurred primarily in Kantō and Chūbu from March to June 2022. Shirogumi handled the visual effects at their studio in Chōfu from April 2022 to May 2023. The film premiered at the Shinjuku Toho Building on October 18, 2023, and was the closing film at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival on November 1. Toho distributed it theatrically in Japan on November 3, the same date as the first Godzilla film's release in 1954, to celebrate the franchise's 70th anniversary. Toho's subsidiary Toho International later released it in North America on December 1. The film has grossed $69 million worldwide against an under $15 million budget and received critical acclaim. Western critics praised its visual effects, direction, story, characters, musical score, and social commentary, and compared it favorably to recent Hollywood films. It received four nominations at the 48th Hochi Film Awards, with Yamazaki winning Best Director, and is a finalist for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards. A black-and-white version, Minus Color, will be released in Japan on January 12, 2024.
A spiritual successor is a type of follow-up work that isn’t directly connected to the original story or universe, but still carries forward its essence through similar themes, style, and ideas—essentially acting as a sequel “in spirit.” Creators may do this for many reasons: to pay homage while avoiding legal ties, to continue exploring familiar creative ground without risking a direct sequel, or simply because their artistic voice naturally echoes past work. This concept appears across many forms of media, though it’s especially common in video games, where developers may retain the tools and design philosophy of a past project even if they no longer hold the rights to its name or characters. A related concept is the spiritual adaptation, where a work in one medium closely mirrors the tone and structure of another, almost feeling like an unofficial adaptation. Spiritual successors can sometimes feel like rebranded continuations of ideas from older or discontinued franchises, effectively serving as a kind of creative reincarnation. They often overlap with ideas like unofficial counterparts or heavily inspired works, and can even share the same creative teams. While they celebrate and evolve what came before, they stand apart as independent creations, occasionally even contrasting with or redefining the works that inspired them.
