When consuming media, there is a common phenomenon that should be familiar to anyone who registers anywhere even remotely fun on the Kinsey scale. Two characters will share a glance, and a little flag is raised somewhere in the depths of your subconscious. That flag reads, “They’re totally gay for each other.”
That flag is usually incorrect, at least in terms of the canon of whatever film or TV show you’re watching. But it’ll ping again and again, maybe for Cas and Dean, Captain Marvel and Maria Rambeau, or even Dawson and Pacey. Typically, this stems from wishful thinking about queer people actually being represented onscreen.
However, in a sea of false flags, sometimes one can suss out the truth, even if that truth isn’t one that was necessarily apparent to a work’s creators themselves. Perhaps one of the key examples of this in cinema history is Godzilla vs. Megalon.
The Queer Subtext in Godzilla vs. Megalon
1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon is an odd duck. Directed by Fukuda Jun, the 13th entry in the Godzilla franchise came smack dab in the middle of the period where the titular kaiju had fully transitioned from looming specter of nuclear war to kiddie matinee icon. It follows the underwater nation Seatopia sending the insectoid monster Megalon (Date Hideto) up to the surface to wreak havoc as revenge for nuclear testing in their waters.
Unprepared for such a threat despite nearly two decades of practice, humanity must turn to Godzilla (Tagaki Shinji) as their savior. However, Godzilla is busy and must be summoned by the alarmingly designed robot Jet Jaguar (Komada Tsugutoshi), who is basically what Ultraman would look like if he got too much Botox. He and Godzilla unite so the two of them can beat up Megalon and – for some reason – Gigan (Satsuma Kenpachiro), who is awesome and has a buzz saw for a tummy.
The Human Element: Goro and Jinkawa’s Relationship
This is where our human element comes in. Jet Jaguar’s designer is electrical engineer Ibuki Goro (SasakiKatsuhiko), who lives with his kid brother Rokuro (Kawase Hiroyuki). They guide the robot and take down Seatopia’s minions with the help of rookie race car driver Jinkawa Hiroshi (Hayashi Yutaka). Hold on, what was that? Why is Jinkawa here again?
Analyzing Jinkawa’s Role
Sure, Jinkawa gets to show off his racing skills when the film leans on car chases to fill up the moments where the production couldn’t afford to include monster battles. But frankly, it doesn’t make that much sense for him to be joined at the hip with a roboticist and his brother. There is only one answer here.
A brief caveat: I have no access to insight into the filmmakers’ intentions here, nor do I pretend to have an in-depth knowledge of Japanese social masculinity of the early 1970s. That said? Goro and Jinkawa are totally gay for each other.
Clues to Their Relationship
Just like any film with gay subtext but no gay text, Godzilla vs. Megalon takes queer viewers on a roller coaster ride. Attempting to pick up on clues is the cinematic equivalent of picking off flower petals and chanting, “Are they gay? Are they not?”
For instance, Jinkawa doesn’t seem to live with Goro and Rokuro, but he never actually goes home at any point. Also, the closest physical intimacy they share is a handshake, but they do seem to be in the habit of going on private picnics with one another. Another wrench in the works is the fact that Jinkawa refers to Goro as “senpai,” an honorific that typically wouldn’t be reserved for one’s boyfriend. Still, it doesn’t entirely make sense if they were straight friends at that level of intimacy. Additionally, neither of them ever makes reference to or interacts with any woman (in fact, for all the evidence the movie provides, they don’t seem to be aware that women exist).
Challenging Heteronormative Assumptions
Most of the argument against the gay subtext here can be obliterated by asking one question: what is gay text, anyway?
Film history is rooted in assumptions born from heteronormativity and the gender binary. Movies use shorthand all the time. That teen boy and girl having a picnic before the asteroid crash lands in the forest behind them? They’re probably together. That man and woman that spend all their time with that annoying child? They’re probably its parents. These things don’t need to be said, they can just be assumed. This avoids characters having to turn to one another and say something like, “Gee, you sure are my husband.”
Shorthand is perhaps even more necessary in a Godzilla film than any other. The human storylines will always take a backseat to Godzilla’s shenanigans, so there isn’t much time wasted on exposition. We only have tiny snippets of celluloid in which we can get to know these characters in between the mountains of dialogue where they explain to one another what Godzilla is doing. In fact, Jinkawa doesn’t even get a name until a third of the way through the film and Goro spends roughly 30% of his screen time unconscious.
Evidence of Goro and Jinkawa’s Bond
Anything we know about them, we necessarily have to glean from the way they are presented to us. And what is presented to us is pretty damn conclusive. Jinkawa has a level of comfort in Goro’s home and life that is more intimate than any physical act could be. Plus, they both take an equal part in parenting and protecting Rokuro (whose biological parents are never mentioned and nowhere to be found), to the point that they are almost interchangeable father figures. Rokuro will find himself climbing Jinkawa’s shoulders or going to town with him just as much as he does with his blood sibling.
The closeness that Rokuro and Jinkawa share also belie that Jinkawa has a long history of spending time with this family outside of the Megalon-related events that draw them together in this 81-minute chunk of their lives.
A Queer Reading of Godzilla vs. Megalon
Really, the only thing preventing anyone from assuming they’re gay from frame one is the fact that movies like this don’t typically have gay characters. Whether or not Goro and Jinkawa were ever meant to be a gay couple, the simple fact is that they are. Godzilla vs. Megalon tells us that they are in the same way that any movie designed for kids would tell us a cisgender heterosexual pairing are a couple. It’s as simple as that.