"Godzilla" news and stories

Notice the capital "S" on Subway. Godzilla is going up against the sandwich chain, not a series of underground cars.

Toho, the company that owns the rights to Godzilla and the Godzilla movies, is suing Subway for using the monster in its ads. Now, the ads never state that the monster is Godzilla, but he looks a lot like the famous monster and he does invade Japan in the spots. Subway never got Toho's permission, and aired the spots during American Idol and other TV shows, pushing their "Five Dollar Foot Long" campaign.

Video of one of the ads after the jump.

Long before Iron Chef morphed into Iron Chef America, I enjoyed the grandaddy of televised culinary throwdowns in its original format. No, that doesn't mean Food Network's dubbed Japanese version. I watched Iron Chef sans dubbing on UHF. Back then I was hardly a gourmand and my knowledge of Japanese was gleaned from watching Godzilla. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the show's fierce competitive spirit and exotic ingredients. Those episodes and the film Tampopo convinced me that Japanese people are crazy about food.

I hadn't given too much thought to the role of food in Japanese popular culture, until yesterday. Not that I hadn't seen such snacks such as Calbee Pea Crisps with its happy cartoon legume, dancing across the package before. What shocked me out of my cocoon of hipster-foodie complacency was a friend telling me of a manga hero whose feats revolve around baking bread. That's right, bread. I'm no student of manga, but the last time I checked these Japanese comics featured darker plots often involving sex and gore.