From cryptids to kaijū: exploring heterodox palaeoscience with Godzilla

Abstract

This essay's goal is to elucidate the role that cryptozoology, a field related to heterodox palaeoscience, has played in Japan, via key films in the Godzilla series; a popular example of Japanese cryptozoological fiction. This will work to reframe the discussion around cryptozoology as one not premised exclusively on western cultural assumptions about the relationship between science, modernity and myth while also demonstrating that the circumstances which have resulted in the palaeontologically heterodox claims of cryptozoologists are not unique to western culture.