There have been many incarnations of Godzilla over the decades, from films to comics, though few are as drastically re-envisioned as the latest incarnation of The King of the Monsters: Shin Godzilla. Here, I will go into in depth detail as to why Shin Godzilla lives up to his name.I should warn you this writing will contain spoilers, you have been warned.Unlike previous continuities where Godzilla was a saurian creature violently irradiated my atomic bomb testings, or (at least in the Legendary continuity) an ancient alpha predator who naturally lived off radioactivity, Shin Godzilla began as little more than an unknown aquatic prehistoric creature living off the coast of Odo Island. Exposure to radioactive materials causing this lifeform to evolve into a new being that would be code named as "Gojira" ("Godzilla"), meaning "God incarnate." The creature was studied for decades, namely by Goro Maki, who promptly vanished before Godzilla revealed his presence to the world for the first time in the year 2016.Fascinatingly enough, Shin Godzilla has a total of four forms, one of which, the first to be exact, was stated to be a tadpole form. It is never seen in the movie so I will not cover any detail of it.Form 2 was a sea and land dwelling creature, large in size and with strong legs that kept him low to the ground. With the familiar spines along his back, a long tail obviously used for swimming and a long neck that he used to effectively sweep anything in his path aside. Interestingly, along the neck were gills that sporadically spurted blood onto the streets at he progressed further inland. Form 2 lacked fully developed arms, possessing only nubs in their place.-Blood gushing gills-Form 3, his next evolution had little screen time, so I cannot delve much into it. Form 3 was the first to gain an upright posture more suitable for land, including small hands. The significance of Shin Godzilla's spines is alluded to heavily when we briefly glimpse heat radiating off of them moments before the creature, in a surprising burst of speed, charges back into the sea where he spends a great deal of time evolving into the fourth form.Now here's where we get into the bulk of Shin Godzilla's anatomy. In this form, he stands at a staggering 118.5 meters in height, or 388 feet tall and weighs 92,000 tons. His flesh is black with disturbing red markings, reminiscent of (or perhaps they are) keloid scars and burns of radiation victims. Along with red, pulsating areas of skin, namely around the neck and back. Shin Godzilla possess a long, sweeping tail that never really seems to stop moving, the tip of said tail is quite grotesque, having an appearance akin to that of raw meat and what seems to be a malformed head. His sternum and chest bones are very prominent and rather jagged looking.-Close up of hand and teeth--Spines and tail-Shin Godzilla has small, shriveled, almost burnt looking arms and unnerving beady eyes and a maw filled with teeth. Between his rows of spines are what essentially could be called exhaust ports. His spines and blood act as natural coolants for his powerful radioactivity along with air and water. These exhaust ports could potentially be a weak spot on the otherwise nigh invulnerable colossus that is Shin Godzilla, who is, for all intents and purposes, a living nuclear reactor. Though I'll cover that in more detail later.When utilizing his atomic ray or any other variation of it, his lower jaw splits apart revealing a connective membrane. This is the only time his jaw his shown to do this.-Jaw splitting in preparation to use atomic ray, note the glowing neck as well--Atomic ray in use-On a quick note, Shin Godzilla also has nictitating membrane, akin to that of a shark to protect his eyes. First shown during the JSDF's (Japanese Self-Defense Forces) attack on him and during his assault on Tokyo.Overall, Shin Godzilla possesses a unique and high detailed anatomy, which I will inevitably address further in this writing as I cover more of his abilities.Naturally Shin Godzilla must be exceedingly powerful to even support himself, as all kaiju must be. Though Shin Godzilla has not or has yet to battle another kaiju, I can say with certainty that he is a physically strong creature.The first example that springs to mind is during the JSDF's attack, Shin Godzilla approaches a large bridge amidst thundering explosions, seconds later through the smoke a large portion of said bridge goes flying through the air for a considerable length of time and travel a great distance before landing in the temporary command setup of the JSDF. In other words Shin Godzilla launched a sizable object of metal and concrete by simply walking into it, what could be considered a casual gesture. Whether or not he launched it purposefully at his attackers is unknown, though given his intelligence it could be likely.Another prime example would be during the Yashiori Strategy, several skyscrapers are blown up with the intention of knocking Shin Godzilla down, now Shin Godzilla is 118.5 meters in height, and all aforementioned buildings exceed him height. Two of them falling down only appeared to stagger him and temporarily pin his tail, and it takes and additional two to finally topple him. And it should be noted that the average skyscraper weighs at least 222,500 tons. It took anamount of weight to even knock him down, and even then it only kept him down for a minute or two before he retaliated and regained his footing with no lasting effects.It's safe to say that Shin Godzilla has a great, great deal of strength and is not to be underestimated in that aspect in the slightest.Now we get into a somewhat contested aspect of Shin Godzilla himself, I myself believe he is one of the most durable Godzillas seen on the big screen and is thoroughly underestimated in terms of durability.Shin Godzilla is first attacked by the JSDF, it's arguably one of the most all out attacks in the history of the franchise. Bullets, tank shells and bombs do nothing. The bombs of which were powerful enough to create explosions nearly the size of Shin Godzilla himself, several of which are launched at his face (his nictitating held up perfectly) and it does absolutely nothing. As I mentioned in the previous section above he was also hammered on with collapsing skyscrapers and these in no way did any severe damage, they didn't even knock him unconscious! At best, they momentarily stunned him.However, many contest his durability by bringing up the US stealth bomber attack. People often say "He was hurt by bombs!" What these individuals don't seem to realize is that what was utilized against Shin Godzilla weren't "just bombs," but Massive Ordnance Penetrators, the most powerful bunker busters in existence. Weighing 30,000 pounds and can pierce up to 200 feet of earth. A bunker buster is basically a piercing weapon that stabs into the ground and blows up, and the MOP is the best of them. Shin Godzilla was hit by several of them and only staggered, and recovered frighteningly fast. He gushed gouts of blood, but when we are shown his back as it begins to glow there is no visible damage, no missing spines or wounded tissue.He regenerated inPlus it's been theorized the exhaust ports are a weak spot, but even then they are far from pathetically weak, as during the Yashiori Strategy he's pelted with missiles, some of which hit his back and he is unharmed. So even if they are a weak point, only the strongest weapons are getting through.It's also worth mentioning the train bombs. The first set probably only jarred him because he was still asleep. The second set, well, it's a simple case of physics. If something his struck with enough force, it will fall down. The bombs in the trains were tremendously powerful, some trains were even carried upwards to Shin Godzilla's chest before detonating. The fact that all they did was knock him down is a testament to how damn tough he really is. I have no doubt that Shin Godzilla is one sturdy bastard.And now we get into Godzilla's most iconic attack, it's come in various forms over the years and depending on the continuity in question. Shin Godzilla is no exception. Though he only uses it when pushed...when he does, however, the results are nothing short than utter devastation.Shin Godzilla's atomic ray comes in several variations. The first of which is a blackish purple gas that spread throughout Tokyo quickly, he then utilizes nuclear fire breath (yes, for the first time Godzilla breathes actual fire) that consumes the city in a hellish wave of destructive flame, of which he is capable of condensing into a concentrated and searing hot purple beam. At first it might not seem too impressive, as any kaiju worth his salt can casually destroy buildings, right? Over the years Godzilla's ray has acted largely as a burning, kinetic, and explosive weapon.-Nuclear fire breath--Atomic ray-Here, it outright cuts and vaporizes its way through several skyscrapers and other small buildings, creating numerous explosions and liquefying concrete and obliterating anything it touches in one fell swoop across Japan's capital city. It's quite easily one of the most powerful and terrifyingly destructive versions of the iconic attack ever seen.But, Shin Godzilla has other methods of which to dispel this ferocious attack. From his back, between his spines, the red flesh between reveals another use. From his back he can fire numerous beams up into the sky. Though it appears he cannot use his mouth beam and back beams simultaneously, however he can utilize his mouth and after he evolves to use it, his tail beam along with it for extra firepower.-Back beams--Mouth and tail beam-While Shin Godzilla's body emits relatively low levels of radioactivity, his beams radiate so much to a point where Tokyo is rendered uninhabitable, and during the Yashiori Strategy, those in attendance frequently fret (and rightfully so) over the rapidly increasing radiation levels despite being a considerable distance away from the fight.Shin Godzilla's atomic ray is not without a drawback, as it using it drains him quickly and he must enter a comatose like state to regain energy, being asleep for a total of two weeks until the Yashiori Strategy wakes him again.Shin Godzilla has a body radar that enables him to detect virtually anything near him. It first became apparent during the stealth bomber attack, being able to destroy all three of them despite never once actually laying eyes on them, and given that stealth bombers are just what the name says, that's no small feat. He was even able to annihilate a plethora of drones and their missiles during the Yashiori Strategy. Sneaking up on him is virtually impossible.Shin Godzilla is undoubtedly a highly intelligent, every bit as sentient, if not more so than humans. It becomes more evident the more I think about the film.I mentioned in the strength area he could have purposely launched the bridge at the JSDF command setup, given his extremely acute radar it wouldn't be hard for him to detect them, and it was stated he was changing direction at one point during their attack, despite not being injured or openly annoyed by the attack.Another strong indicator of his intelligence is actually presented in the film's incredible soundtrack and the way the songis utilized. The song's lyrics are clearly from Shin Godzilla's perspective, detailing a deep sense of despair and hopelessness, yet the drive to keep living no matter what, perhaps even expressing a desire to find contentment in someway. All clearly emotions that are higher levels of thought processing, normally associated with humans.A final thought of mine that I feel definitely indicates that Shin Godzilla is far beyond being just an animal is the way he reacts to the MOP bombing. The way he roars afterwards, and the expression he has in that moment give me the impression he was absolutelyPlus, rather than just instantly wipe out the bombers, he first turns his wrath upon the city first, turning it into a fiery hellscape before turning his attention to the bombers. But even after wiping them out he continues to vent his rage on the city further, clearly indicated a deep sense of vengefulness.Perhaps, most frighteningly of all, Shin Godzilla is capable of self evolution. While organisms throughout history have required centuries, of not thousands of years to evolve, Shin Godzilla is capable of doing so when the need should arise. When on land, he becomes something more suited to be on land, he grows more powerful, and so on and so forth. It's stated that it's possible for his cells to create more of him, to create life in his own image. The research left behind by Goro Maki reveals how advanced Shin Godzilla's DNA is, he's is a higher lifeform, capable of evolving. Maybe until he reaches a "perfect" form...or will simply keep evolving forever. In my opinion it seems likely he was beginning to evolve past the need to power down after atomic ray usage, he used his beams far longer during the movie's final battle than he did during the Tokyo attack yet showed no signs of tiring.On the subject of Maki, though unseen, he is a central character in the story. His motivations are unclear, but it is certain he committed suicide by jumping into the sea. I believe Shin Godzilla absorbed him, and is capable of genetic assimilation. Incorporating the DNA of a human into his own, possibly explaining how he attained a form that could go on land...and how he created those humanoid hybrids at the end. They are scene in the final shot of the film, emerging from his tail tip, which seems to have developed a malformed maw of its own in order to fire the tail beam. Theories abound as to what these creatures are: Another form? Absorbed humans? A somewhat well know theory is that Shin Godzilla knew he was defeated by the might of a committee, therefore he decided to try and become a committee himself. Personally, I believe these creatures were intended to be his soldiers of sorts, extensions of himself, he would indeed becoming a committee with himself at its figurehead.-One of the humanoids--The toothed tail-Shin Godzilla was making a new race in his own image.In closing, Shin Godzilla is without out doubt one of the most drastic, inventive, terrifying and mysterious interpretations of Godzilla ever created and has quite frankly risen to become one of, if not my favorite take on the character and I certainly hope to see his story continued in a future installment. Shin Godzilla endlessly fascinates me, even awes me.