City of Angels welcomes King of the Monsters at Dodger Stadium.
Over the course of his career, Godzilla has developed a kaiju modus operandi that works pretty well for him. First he emerges from the sea, then he makes his way to a famous local landmark to terrify and/or inspire awe in all who behold him. Usually, this means popping out of Tokyo Bay and stomping towards one of the Japanese capital’s skyscrapers, but on September 24 he went to the eastern edge of the Pacific instead, so that he could assert his dominion over Los Angeles.
And while the King of the Monsters could have smashed up the Santa Monica Pier or used his atomic fire breath to torch the Getty Center’s collection of fine art, he instead chose to be a benign monarch and attend a professional baseball game at Dodgers Stadium.
September 24 was Godzilla Minus Zero Night at Dodger Stadium, with the back-to-back World Series-winning ball club and Godzilla saluting each other ahead of the release of Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Godzilla Minus One that’s making its world premiere on September 26 at this year’s New York Film Festival before hitting Japanese theaters in November.
As part of the Dodger Stadium festivities, Ryunosuke Kamiki, lead actor for both Minus One and Minus Zero, was in attendance and threw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch.
However, many people were at the stadium long before Kamiki took the mound in order to get their hands on an adorable Godzilla bobblehead figure, with the super-deformed kaiju dressed in his own Dodgers uniform.
▼ And no, Dodger Stadium doesn’t have columns of flame as part of its architectural design, implying that this Godzilla really did rampage through the structure, despite apparently being a fan/member of the team.
The figures were given out for free to the first 40,000 ticketholders in attendance. With Dodger Stadium having a listed capacity of 56,000, though, that didn’t guarantee one for every person, and the line to get in formed hours before the start of the game.
Sadly, the Dodgers went on to lose the game against their upstart division rival, the San Diego Padres (not to be confused with their eternal division rival, the San Francisco Giants) by a score of 4-2. No word on whether Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will call up Pikachu to try to wake up the Dodgers’ bats before their next game, or will simply ask Godzilla to avenge the loss by eating the entire Padres roster.
Source: Godzilla official website, YouTube/GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO
Images: YouTube/GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO
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