Vintage Japanese movie-monster anatomical illustrations

Modern Fred's scans of vintage Japanese movie-monster posters include some spectacular pieces, none moreso than the anatomical cutaways of Godzilla, Gamera and co. I always wondered about their skeletal structure! Kaiju Eiga (via Geisha Asobi)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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shinchan

Somewhere in my travels I aquired some very nice hardback books that have the same anatomical cutaways for Ultraman kaiju. Now to find that box….
ZippySpincycle

Gamera is really neat,
Gamera is filled with meat,
We’ve been eating Gamera!
Bonnie

See, monsters DO have hearts!
anthony

My mind is blown. I always assumed there were human actors under the monster’s skins.
minamisan

cool, Godzilla has three brains. I always knew it…
anthony

Y’all, Gamera was the giant turtle. I don’t see an image of him. Here he is:

http://tinselman.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/gamera_b.jpg
Pakkal

Some anatomical notes on the otherwise very well made model:

- The bone structure of the arm is very weird, while the lower leg follows the typical tetrapod long bone-two bones-lotsa bones, the upper limbs have either a double ulna & radius pair, (assuming the humerus is the short stumpy bone connected to the spine) or the humerus is supplemented by an extra bone, with the shorter single bone being the shoulder blade, which would be a far better anatomical configuration.

- That’s a mightily small brain for such a large creature, and the nerve node at the base of the spine is almost as big as the “main” brain. This might be intentional, since it is a very dinosaur-like characteristic. It would also make the creature incredibly stupid. It also has a second nerve bundle where the upper limbs connect to the spine, anyone want to volunteer a translation of the labels?

- A nitpick, but connecting those spines in the tail to the spinal column would be a very bad thing to do. Since they’re so long, they’d get a fair amount of leverage if they hit something, violently twisting and pulling on the unfortunate vertebra. With all the nerves going through there, this would be bad news for the monster. But who knows, the spikes might well be the creature’s “secret weakness” :)
smith3000

Immensely pleasing. I feel a T-shirt coming on ..
crotchbat

Solid gold!

http://swingingturtle.ytmnd.com
Simon Greenwood

Put me down for one…
Chorske

Yeah, the humerus and femur are weird on this one.

The brain is on the small side but I’ve seen a lot of Godzilla movies and it’s clear to me that Godzilla does not make many healthy choices. He tends to react reflexively to dangerous situations- responses mediated, perhaps, by the HUGE ASS nerve ganglia in his shoulders and groin area.

Wish I could see the Mothra one.
James David

Sweet! Now I know where to aim.