The Serizawa Post (Godzilla 70th Anniversary Special): Part One

Kinema Junpo issue from September 15, 1954

Since this year is the 70th anniversary of the first Godzilla movie and arguably Akihiko Hirata's most iconic role, I wanted to make a big post about it to celebrate. My initial idea was to begin the post by charting up a timeline that followed the development of Serizawa as a character through various drafts and revisions and then move on to random trivia, but after a while, my timeline became so huge that I decided to split the post into two parts. The second part will go up on Godzilla Day.

• February 10, 1954: Ishirō Honda's Farewell Rabaul is released to theaters. I argue that this is important, as Hirata's role in this film led to him being cast in Godzilla.
• May 1954: Shigeru Kayama submits a first draft of his screenplay for Godzilla. Serizawa is described as a pharmaceutical chemist, a friend of Yamane's who lost his eye in a wolf attack(!) while on a fossil dig in China. He is older than in the film (around 40), and had a wife who died of an illness some years prior. He also isn't engaged to Emiko but is "secretly in love with her". I get the sense that Kayama intended Serizawa to be a physically imposing, maybe even slightly creepy presence; in this draft his facial scars are more prominent and he's described as having a "large build".
• July 5, 1954: Production on Godzilla is officially announced.
• May-August 1954: Kayama's screenplay is revised and developed into a final version by Honda and co-writer Takeo Murata. Serizawa has more of a role here than in the Kayama version, and not too much is different from the film except for his age (32) and the fact that he has a housemaid (Honda intended to imply that Serizawa was or had been upper-class).
• July 17-September 25: Nippon Broadcasting System airs Kaiju Gojira, a radio drama adaptation of Honda and Murata's screenplay scripted by Shiro Horie, with extra scenes added for padding. Serizawa is voiced by Masahiko Naruse.
• July 1954: Akihiko Hirata screen-tests for the role of Hideto Ogata but does not get the part. At some point between now and when filming begins, he switches roles with Akira Takarada to play Dr. Serizawa instead. I talk about this at considerable length here.
• August 1, 1954: Rehearsal meeting.
• August 7, 1954: Crank-in at the Toba filming location.
• September 29, 1954: Filming concludes.
• October 23, 1954: Toho in-house preview screening.
• October 25, 1954: Iwaya Shoten publishes Kaiju Gojira, a novel adaptation of the NBS radio drama written by Sango Nagase and finalized by Shigeru Kayama. (NB: This is different from Kayama's novelizations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again.) As this has not been translated into English, I'm unaware of how, if at all, Serizawa's character differs from other versions.
• October 27, 1954: First screening of Godzilla in Nagoya.
• October-November 1954: Science Adventure Picture Story Godzilla, written and drawn by Wasuke Abe, is published in Omoshiro Book. I'm not exactly clear on this, but it seems like in this version of events Serizawa does not commit suicide at the end. (Yamane's the one with the German friend here.)
• Nov 3, 1954: Gojira is released to Japanese theaters across the country.
• March 1955: Kodansha publishes Monster Picture Story: Godzilla, written by Koichi Yoshida and illustrated by Shunichi Iwaigawa, in Bokura magazine. In it, the other characters learn about Serizawa and his weapon (name changed to "Oxygent") through a random unnamed soldier. Serizawa wears glasses instead of an eyepatch. (I believe this page shows meganekko Serizawa.)
• July 20, 1955: Shimamura Publishing co. releases Godzilla: Tokyo and Osaka Editions, Shigeru Kayama's novelizations of the first two Godzilla films. This was not based on the radio play and is Kayama's original work. Serizawa is largely the same as he is in the film but is described as having long hair that covers his missing eye instead of an eyepatch.

I will cut the list off here as anything further doesn't really count as "character development".

Despite the fluctuating prominence of Serizawa's role in Godzilla's storyline throughout preliminary materials, there are some things that have remained constant in pre-final drafts:

1. Dr. Serizawa is always described as missing an eye, although how he lost it varies, if any explanation is given at all. I don't believe there are any sources pre-dating the finished film that specify which eye; however I do think the choice to make it his right eye was deliberate as there is historical and literary precedence (Tange Sazen, Ishimatsu, Masamune Date, Oiwa, etc). You probably shouldn't be listening to my crackpot theories about this.
2. Serizawa always has the Oxygen Destroyer and is always the one to use it to kill Godzilla; as far as I'm aware he also dies at the end of every preliminary screenplay. How and why he's convinced to use the Oxygen Destroyer varies.
3. Some specific dialogue is consistent throughout versions, for example there is always a line where someone tells Serizawa that spending so much time in his lab is bad for his health.

Almost every character in Godzilla went through several changes before the final film (for example, Dr. Yamane was originally going to be a much more mysterious, antagonistic character, who wore dark clothing and glasses). Shinkichi has had more of a role at times, mostly in post-Godzilla serializations, to appeal to a younger audience; some versions have Emiko aged down as well.

On to some less technical stuff in part two...

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Works cited:

^{Kayama, Shigeru. Toho SF Special Effects Film Series, vol. 3. Toho, 1985.}

^{Godziszewski, Ed. "The Making of Godzilla." G-Fan, #12. Nov/Dec 1994, pp. 34-39.}

^{Shodai Godzilla Research Reader. Yoizensha, 2014.} 

^{Japanese Giants, #10. 2004. p. 10.}

Galbraith IV, Stuart. Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!. Feral House, 1998.