Coincidence? Or was someone at Nippon TV having a little fun?

It’s not uncommon for people to have the TV on at a low volume while doing other things around the house such as cooking or cleaning. So, people who happened to have been watching Nippon Television news last Monday may have received a shock when a disturbingly vague summary appeared at the bottom of the screen.

▼ “I took a screenshot because that telop (text superimposed on a screen) makes it look like Godzilla appeared.”

The caption in the chyron reads: “Tokyo Harbor, Giant Creature, Several Reported Sightings”. The use of the term “kyodai seibutsu” for “giant creature” is especially important, as we will soon see.

Often when you hear “giant creature” and “Tokyo Harbor” your mind can’t help but go to one thing.

https://twitter.com/kirisame_mariku/status/1011390940299198465

In fact, the style of the caption is strikingly similar to what you might find in the recent Shin Godzilla (Godzilla Resurgence) movie. In some of the simulated news segments of the movie, graphics frequently use the term “giant unknown creature” in reference to Godzilla.

▼ Fake news!

▼ ”kyodai fumei seibutsu” or “giant unknown creature”

The following mock newspaper from Universal Studios Japan uses a very similar headline as well: “Osaka Harbor, Giant Unknown Creature”

Nippon TV were right to remove the “unknown” part seeing as the creature in question was really nothing more than a whale that had wandered in unusually close to the nation’s capital. The sightings were more straightforwardly reported by TV Asahi News.

https://twitter.com/tv_asahi_news/status/1010911695886168064

This leaves one question, which most commenters think they have figured out already.

“That was totally intentional. Lol”
“Without a doubt they did that on purpose. Who was it? The director?”
“Oh no! Japan is finished!”
“They recreated the movie rather well.”
“Maybe they were just trying to trick the government into resigning.”
“Maybe Godzilla’s fourth evolution was just turning into a normal whale.”
“Damn you Prime Minister Abe, for dragging your heels on the Mechagodzilla initiative.”
“I think I heard that the name Godzilla (Gojira) came from combining ‘gorilla’ (gorira) and ‘whale’ (kujira)…so, yeah.”

Playing devil’s advocate, there is a chance that two producers were bickering behind the scenes with each convinced it was either a northern minke whale or a false killer whale, which is actually a part of the dolphin family. With neither willing to compromise and only a few minutes to air, they just decided to call the whole thing off and name it a “giant creature.”

Then again, the people behind superimposing text onto Japanese television programming do have something of a reputation for their freewheeling ways. So, it’s probably a safe bet that this was an intentional throwback to Japan’s biggest movie monster.

Source: Twitter/@ProjectNO39 via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Twitter/@ProjectNO39