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Godzilla (ゴジラ , Gojira ? ) ( / ɡ ɒ d ˈ z ɪ l ə / ;  ( listen ) ) is a daikaijū , a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda 's 1954 film Godzilla . Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games , novels, comic books , television series , and an American remake with a second American film in production.
With the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a monster created by nuclear detonations and a metaphor for nuclear weapons in general. As the film series expanded, some stories took on less serious undertones portraying Godzilla as a hero while other plots still portrayed him as a destructive beast.

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