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114-456: Varan ( Japanese : バラン , Hepburn : Baran ) is a fictional monster, or kaiju , that first appeared in the 1958 film Varan the Unbelievable directed by Ishirō Honda and produced and distributed by Toho . The creature is depicted as a giant, dinosaurian , prehistoric reptile capable of gliding flight . It later appeared in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters , the ninth film in

228-559: A pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has

342-474: A reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise, spanning from 1984 to 1995. In the original story proposal, Varan was intended to be an evil creature and the harbinger of the Apocalypse that arose in the year 1999 to destroy the world. Godzilla and his adopted son would have teamed up to defeat Varan, with the film ending at the start of the new millennium. This story concept was short-lived, with other proposals abandoning

456-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down

570-589: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )

684-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )

798-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as

912-479: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it

1026-424: A pair of fin -like spines on the sides of his face. A single row of large spines also runs down from the top of his head to the end of his long, prehensile tail. His skin is separated into two distinct portions, the upper portion of Varan's body is covered in a multitude of bumpy, wart-like scales that give the appearance of an external shell, while the lower half is relatively smooth. The most unique feature, however,

1140-429: A production crew on site for long-term projects, and stock footage allows the producer to pick the moments in time that are most important to the story or to give context to historical events. Several films that would otherwise be completely lost have surviving footage due to the film being used as a stock footage. For example, The Cat Creeps has some scenes preserved in the movie Boo , and scenes from Queen of

1254-531: A race of power-absorbing aliens called Trilopods and is later freed by King Caesar , taking part in the final assault against the aliens before following Godzilla back into the ocean. In the miniseries Godzilla in Hell (2015), A demonic representation of Varan emerges from the Eternal Ocean of Hell after Godzilla falls from the ice, following his fight with the demon Anguirus . Varan immediately attacks Godzilla, with

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1368-649: A rampage across the world in a global assault. Once the Kilaakian's control of the monsters is severed, Varan watched as many of the other kaiju defeat the Kilaak's own monster King Ghidorah at their base near Mount Fuji . Once Ghidorah and the Kilaaks are defeated, Varan and all the other monsters return to Monster Island to live out their days in peace. He made a brief cameo in the 2004 film Godzilla: Final Wars , via stock footage , depicting Earth besieged by various kaiju in

1482-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),

1596-517: A short fight ensuing ending in Godzilla defeating him with his atomic breath. Varan appeared in the fifth and final issue of Godzilla: Rage Across Time (2016). Set in the Late Cretaceous Period , Varan is shown alongside Anguirus, and Baragon as they battle Godzilla until the arrival of Keizer Ghidorah, who subsequently defeats all of the monsters. Varan made his literary debut in 1996, with

1710-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate

1824-436: A time in animated series which is mostly a transition to live-action stock footage. One of the most common uses of stock footage is in documentaries. Use of stock footage allows the filmmaker to tell the story of historical events such as World War II Why We Fight series, to document modern underwater archaeology activities, or to supplement content in natural history documentaries. Budgets may not be sufficient to keep

1938-449: A truck carrying experimental explosives detonates underneath him. Devising a new strategy, the JSDF attaches some of the same explosives onto a series of flares in the hopes that Varan would swallow them. The plan appears to work, as Varan devours two of the explosives before they detonate, causing severe pain he retreats into the ocean before the last explosive detonates, seemingly killing him. In

2052-583: A vast majority of these being solely released in Japan. He first appeared as a boss in Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (1988), a Nintendo Entertainment System game. His next appearance was in Kaijū-ō Godzilla (1993), a Nintendo Game Boy game, as a boss on the fifth level of the game. He next appeared in the 1995 Sega Pico game Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!! , released exclusively in Japan. He

2166-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of

2280-413: Is able to use his back spines offensively against his opponents. Tomoyuki Tanaka , producer of Varan and Destroy All Monsters , has written that Varan's back spines can inject an extremely toxic poison into his opponents. However, this ability is never depicted in either of Varan's on-screen appearances, in addition, Tanaka did not clarify if this ability was exclusive to the first or second generation of

2394-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,

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2508-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing

2622-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number

2736-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider

2850-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto

2964-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to

3078-411: Is his ability to fly, which he does through the use of membranes underneath his arms and legs. Unfolding these membranes, Varan is capable of achieving a gliding flight in a manner akin to that of a gliding lizard or flying squirrel , the latter comparison would give rise to the character's nickname in some media as the "Giant Flying Squirrel Monster". In Godzilla Giant Monsters Super Encyclopedia , Varan

3192-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through

3306-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey

3420-408: Is listed as being able to glide at up to speeds of Mach 1.5. In the novelization Godzilla 2000 , author Marc Cerasini provided an alternate explanation for Varan's gliding ability, adding that the kaiju "somehow separat[ing] the oxygen and hydrogen in water. The creature then expels the oxygen and pumps the hydrogen molecules into sacs along its torso". In both the games and reference materials, Varan

3534-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of

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3648-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and

3762-482: Is referred to as "playback". In Power Rangers or Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy , which was written by and starring Will Ferrell as a San Diego news anchor, the studio purchased archival 1970s clips from San Diego stock footage firm New & Unique Videos. The playback footage of a hurricane featured in Disney's Smart House came from the vaults of the same San Diego firm. Stock footage also appears many

3876-551: Is subdued by Godzilla. Varan made a brief appearance in Godzilla Likes to Roar! (1998). In Godzilla vs. the Space Monster (1998), a sequel to Journey to Monster Island , 'Varan joins forces with Godzilla and the other inhabitants of Monster Island to defeat King Ghidorah, returning to the island once the battle is finished. Who's Afraid of Godzilla? (1998). In the story, Varan is one of the inhabitants of Monster Island when it

3990-616: Is taken over by Megalon and Gigan after Godzilla leaves. In the 2017 novel Godzilla: Monster Apocalypse , a prequel to the film Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017), multiple Varans come ashore in Los Angeles in 2030 along with Baragon and Anguirus after they were attacked by Godzilla in the Pacific Ocean . All three kaiju are killed by a single blast of Godzilla's atomic breath. Varan has made an appearance in five video games, with

4104-625: Is the United States government. All videos produced by the United States military, NASA , and other agencies are available for use as stock footage. There are a number of companies that own the copyrights to large libraries of stock footage and charge filmmakers a fee for using it, but they rarely demand royalties . Stock footage comes from myriad sources including the public domain, other movies and television programs, news outlets, and purpose-shot stock footage. With each introduction of new standard , it requires reshooting, rerendering, or rescanning

4218-406: Is the pair of thin membranes between his arms and legs which can unfold from the sides of his torso, similar to a gliding lizard. In Destroy All Monsters , Varan's physical appearance remained relatively the same, however, this version was significantly smaller than the previous incarnation, standing at only 30 metres (98 ft) as opposed to the original's 50 metres (160 ft). This gave rise to

4332-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and

4446-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have

4560-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns

4674-464: The Godzilla franchise . The original concept that would later become Varan was developed by Ken Kuronuma , with the design conceived by special effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya , and Keizō Murase , who envisioned the kaiju as being a hybrid of Godzilla and a kappa of Japanese folklore. Suit actor Haruo Nakajima , having already portrayed Godzilla four years prior, was the first suit actor to portray

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4788-462: The Academy Award -winning film Forrest Gump used stock footage extensively, modified with computer-generated imagery to portray the lead character meeting such historic figures such as John F. Kennedy , Richard Nixon , and John Lennon . News programs use film footage from their libraries when more recent images are not available. Such usage is often labeled on-screen with an indication that

4902-514: The IDW Publishing miniseries Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (2013 to 2015). In issues #4-5, Varan is shown emerging from a lake in China , traveling to a military bunker where he clashes with Rodan and Gaira before vanishing into the ocean. He is later shown in flashback, appearing in the ocean with Ebirah to attack the escaping islanders. In the final issue, Varan is revealed to have been captured by

5016-510: The Japanese Defence Force arrives, they lure Varan out of the lake with flares before bombarding him with artillery, which seems to have no effect. Climbing to the highest peak, Varan unveils the large membranes under his arms, diving off the cliff, and gliding across the sky towards the ocean. Swimming towards the mainland, Varan is bombarded with countless bombs and artillery which do little to stop him, however, he seems to retreat when

5130-505: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in

5244-502: The Netflix anime series Godzilla Singular Point (2021), where the kaiju's physical appearance was an inspiration for the design of Godzilla Amphibia evolutionary stage. Varan has also been produced and marketed as merchandise over the years, with various companies releasing their own merchandising line. In 1970, Japanese toy company Bullmark produced a nine-inch Varan vinyl toy. In 1984, Bandai introduced their line of Varan figures for

5358-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than

5472-508: The Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from

5586-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of

5700-506: The Yucatan Peninsula , releasing Varan who swims to the shore of Mexico, going on a destructive rampage until it is wounded by armed forces once it reaches Galveston, Texas . He is last mentioned retreating back into the Gulf of Mexico. In Godzilla: Journey to Monster Island (1998), Varan is one of the monsters who confront Godzilla, with the former later attacking the other monsters until he

5814-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to

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5928-420: The kaiju as being a hybrid of Godzilla and a kappa of Japanese folklore. Concept art was completed by art director Akira Watanabe who incorporated the membranes of a gliding lizard into the design. Each portion of the kaiju costume was modeled by different artists. Varan's head was modeled by Teizo Toshimitsu, his body by Kanju and Yasuei Yagi, and his skin, back, and claws by Keizō Murase . To make

6042-410: The kaiju genre. The American version completely removed scenes of Varan flying, while also changing the kaiju' s fate at the end of the film. The physical design for Varan has undergone little change throughout his film appearances, with both filmmakers keeping with the original concept for the character. Varan's design was initially conceived by special effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya , who envisioned

6156-672: The kaiju in the original 1958 film. Additionally, fellow suit actor Katsumi Tezuka performed some of Varan's water scenes. While relatively obscure compared to most of Toho's kaiju library due to only having a major role in a single film, Varan has nonetheless retained some degree of popularity over the years, being considered for many unrealized film projects and making appearances in non-film media such as comic books and video games. Since his first appearance in 1958, Varan has been featured in various entertainment mediums, in addition to comic books, novels, television series, and video games. In each appearance, artists have put their own spin on

6270-500: The kaiju , the final version would introduce a new kaiju as Godzilla's final antagonist in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995). An early draft of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), featured Varan as one of Japan's guardian monsters. In the draft, Varan was the "White Wind Monster", known originally as Baradaki, who joined forces with the ice creature Anguirus to battle Godzilla in Yokohama . When

6384-448: The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics ,

6498-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),

6612-611: The 20th century before the formation of the Earth Defense Force (EDF). He is briefly seen when a child is shown playing with several kaiju action figures, including one depicting Varan. Varan made his first foray away from the silver screen in the comic book anthology series The Godzilla Comic , first published on February 10, 1990. In the comic's seventh segment Monster Warrior Godzilla , Varan exists in an alternate reality where all kaiju, including himself, are humanoid warriors living on different planets. Varan later appeared in

6726-461: The 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of

6840-471: The American version of the film, released in 1962 as Varan the Unbelievable , Varan is not shown as capable of flight, with his fate being completely different than the original version. In this version, Varan is severely injured in an explosion, with the film ending with the kaiju crawling back into the ocean, never to be seen again. Varan's next appearance was in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters . Set at

6954-509: The Godzilla franchise, Varan has retained a longevity within the series. According to web publication Screen Rant , Varan has become a popular character among kaiju fans, with the site including him in their list of "10 of the Most Underrated Kaiju", and later in their "8 New Toho Monsters Who Could Help Godzilla In Godzilla vs. Kong 2 ", the latter article noted the kaiju's versatility. Varan's design later became highly influential in

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7068-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,

7182-552: The Night Clubs are preserved as stock footage in Winner Take All . If not for its use as stock footage, these films would be lost entirely. Stock footage is also used in live reality TV shows such as I'm a Celebrity . In the early 2020s, stock footage of studio audience applause and reactions was used in television shows in place of a live studio audience due to the then-current COVID-19 pandemic . Companies throughout

7296-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently

7410-575: The Order of the Phoenix , Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 & 2 and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure . Some series, particularly those made for children, such as Teletubbies , reuse footage that is shown in many episodes. Meant for a young audience, the approach increases viewers' familiarity between shows. This introduces problems such as the requirement to, for example, wear

7524-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand

7638-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which

7752-420: The character while adhering to the character's original portrayal. In the original film, Varan is depicted as a massive dinosaur, belonging to the fictional "Varanopode" species. Standing at 50 metres (160 ft), in height, and weighing 15,000 metric tons, Varan is mostly quadrupedal , with the occasional bipedal stance when preparing to glide. The head, which is relatively small in proportion to his body, has

7866-432: The character. Varan made his first appearance on the silver screen in 1958, in the film Varan the Unbelievable . In the film, Varan, a prehistoric reptile worshipped as the mountain deity "Baradagi" by the remote Iwaya village, is awakened by a group of scientists exploring the remote region of the mountain lake where he resides. Emerging from the lake, Varan destroys the entire village in a rage, killing many people. When

7980-555: The children's picture book Godzilla on Monster Island . In the story, Varan and Anguirus discover Mothra's cocoon washed up on the beach of Monster Island while going for a walk together, prompting Anguirus to seek Godzilla's help in protecting it. He appeared in Godzilla 2000 , the second novel in Marc Cerasini's Godzilla series . In the novel, an asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico near

8094-402: The claws and spikes appear transparent, Murase used vinyl hoses that he purchased from a general store. He then cut each piece to various lengths before individually wrapping them in a semitransparent vinyl sheet, making them appear less see-through, at the request of Tsuburaya. The suit's eyes were similarly translucent, allowing built-in lights to shine through, while the pupils were drawn onto

8208-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there

8322-451: The end of the 20th Century, a possible juvenile member of Varan's species is shown residing in a containment area with many other kaiju known as Monster Island, located in the Ogasawara island chain. Varan's relative peace is soon shattered by the arrival of the alien race of world conquers known as the Kilaaks. Taking control of all the island's monsters, including Varan, and sending them on

8436-448: The eyes with a magic marker. For Varan's back scales, Murase used peanut shells which he pressed into the mold, giving the design a wrinkled and bumpy texture. The peanuts themselves were supplied by one of the Yagi brothers, who had been regularly receiving peanuts from his relatives. Murase has stated that the idea for the design of the back scales came from a conversation with Tsuburaya after

8550-603: The film in response to the disappointing box-office returns of Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000). Varan was replaced by the more popular Mothra and Anguirus was replaced with King Ghidorah. Designer and modeler Fuyuki Shinada was disappointed with the character's exclusion, compromising by sculpting Varan's facial fins onto the heads of the King Ghidorah suit. From his silver screen debut in 1958, Varan has undergone little change in subsequent appearances in both film and other media, with each artist and writer adding their own spin to

8664-549: The final design, commenting that it was excessively muscular. Murase attempted to combat the issue through numerous adjustments, such as applying sawdust to the surface and blending the muscles with paint to obscure it but was unable to alter the suit's internal structure. A full-body flying prop and hand-operated puppet of Varan's upper half, both half-size, were created to portray the monster for certain scenes. Varan's next appearance ten years later in Destroy All Monsters

8778-419: The financial success of Godzilla (1954) and Rodan , Toho began developing a new potential monster that could both fly and breathe underwater. Kuronuma developed the initial story outline, which was then scripted by Shinichi Sekizawa . Sekizawa wrote many scenes that did not make it into the final film; one scene had children imitating the monster, indicating that Sekizawa recognized children's attraction to

8892-474: The fire monster Baragon is revived by a lightning bolt, he joins his comrades in the battle. While all three are slain by Godzilla, they do enough damage to allow the JSDF's advanced warship Gotengo to arrive and ultimately defeat him. The draft was penned by Shusuke Kaneko and approved by producer Shogo Tomiyama , and design for Varan commenced but was halted after the studio rejected the idea of Varan and Anguirus' inclusion, wanting more marketable monsters for

9006-553: The footage being shown is file footage. Television and movies series also often recycle footage taken from previous installments. For instance, the Star Trek franchise kept a large collection of starships, planets, backgrounds, and explosions, which would appear on a regular basis throughout Star Trek's five series and ten films, being used with minimal alteration. That kept production costs down as models, mattes, and explosions were expensive to create. The advances in computer graphics in

9120-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had

9234-429: The incident, as he recalled "I didn't want them to worry about me". This was the only time the suit actor suffered an on-set injury. Varan is known for appearing in early drafts of several films, but subsequent rewrites replaced him with other kaiju, or, in some cases, the film's concept was dropped entirely. In Shinichi Sekizawa 's story treatment for the twelfth Godzilla film, titled The Return of King Ghidorah , Varan

9348-480: The kaiju. In Godzilla: Unleashed , the game developers implemented a new set of abilities for the kaiju, depicting Varan as being capable of communicating through vast distances through the use of sonic waves , an ability that the kaiju could utilize as a form of attack, firing a large beam of sonic energy from his mouth in addition to firing several concentrated balls of sonic energy that detonate on impact. While relatively obscure in comparison to other kaiju in

9462-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system

9576-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of

9690-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,

9804-534: The late 1990s and early 2000s helped to significantly reduce the cost of Star Trek's production and allowed for a much wider variety of shots than previous model and painting-based visuals. Other films that re-used film footage from previous productions include Transformers: Dark of the Moon , Blade Runner , Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones , Hitman , Jaws: The Revenge , Halloween II , Harry Potter and

9918-565: The major costs of transporting crew and equipment to those actual locations. Stock footage is often used in commercials when there is not enough money or time for production. More often than not these commercials are political or issue-oriented in nature. Sometimes it can be used to composite moving images that create the illusion of having on-camera performers appear to be on location. The term B-roll may refer to stock footage or newly shot scenes. Stock footage that appears on television screens or monitors shown in movies or television shows

10032-408: The mid-1980s, offering clips mastered on Betacam SP , VHS , and film formats. Many of the smaller libraries that specialized in niche topics such as extreme sports, technological or cultural collections were bought out by larger concerns such as Corbis or Getty Images over the next couple of decades. Stock footage can be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. For instance,

10146-503: The next thirty years. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes

10260-421: The notion that the incarnation was a juvenile member of the species and not the original Varan, with some sources listing this incarnation as "Varan (Second Generation)". Varan is portrayed as being easily adaptable to different environments, and equally capable of moving on land, water, and air. Similar to fellow kaiju Godzilla, Varan is perfectly adapted to living underwater and on land. His most unique feature

10374-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by

10488-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with

10602-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,

10716-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as

10830-536: The same clothing and inconsistency can sometimes become a problem. When cleverly filmed it is possible to avoid many of these problems. Many broadcast shows use stock-footage clips as establishing shots of a particular city, which imply that the show is shot on location when in fact, it may be shot in a backlot studio. One or two establishing shots of an exotic location such as the Great Wall of China , Easter Island , or French Polynesia will save production companies

10944-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning

11058-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this

11172-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This

11286-578: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Stock footage Stock footage companies began to emerge in

11400-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,

11514-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of

11628-504: The two of them were eating peanuts. At one point during their conversation, Murase pointed out the shells' texture to Tsuburaya, which he felt was ideal for Varan's design. To convince the special effects artist of this, Murase created a sample mold from the peanuts. The few color stills which exist depict the suit as brown, with Murase himself described the Varan suit as being a "chocolate sepia color." Tsuburaya later expressed disappointment with

11742-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It

11856-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending

11970-420: The world use stock footage in their video productions for in-house meetings, annual conventions, seminars, and other events. It has become popular to videotape interviews of CEOs and other VIPs using a green screen backdrop. When the green is keyed out during post-production , stock footage or stock shots are inserted, to impart a particular message. One of the largest producers of public domain stock footage

12084-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or

12198-516: Was also hired to perform some of Varan's water scenes. Nakajima spent most of his scenes roving on his knees while portraying the kaiju , although this technique later proved extremely hazardous. In a later interview, Nakajima recalled an incident while filming the climatic battle on Haneda Airport , during the shoot a miniature truck filled with explosives detonated underneath him. The resulting explosion inflicted extensive burns to Nakajima's belly and groin. He commented that he did not tell producers of

12312-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular

12426-455: Was entirely new and created from scratch. Wanting Varan's movements to appear more realistic, an actor, or suit actor , was used to portray the character, wearing a specially-design suit in a commonly used technique of the kaiju genre known as " suitmation ". Suit actor Haruo Nakajima , having already portrayed Godzilla four years prior, was the first suit actor to portray the kaiju in the original 1958 film. Fellow suit actor Katsumi Tezuka

12540-519: Was featured in the Sega Dreamcast game Godzilla Generations (1998). In 2007, he was featured as an unlockable character in the Wii console version of Godzilla Unleashed , serving as a member of monsters dedicated to defending Earth from threats. The initial concept of Varan was developed by Ken Kuronuma , who had previously been responsible for the creation of the kaiju film Rodan (1956). After

12654-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,

12768-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )

12882-405: Was originally written in a more substantial role, with the original script having him joining the other monsters in their final battle with Ghidorah. This scene was removed in subsequent rewrites, with Varan only making brief appearances in the film in long shots. It was believed that the original half-scale gliding Varan puppet was reused for the film, however, some sources have written that the prop

12996-453: Was set to appear alongside Rodan as one of Godzilla's allies King Ghidorah, Gigan, and an all-new monster named Mogu. Ultimately Sekizawa reworked his original concept into what became Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), removing Varan and Rodan in favor of Angurius battling alongside Godzilla against Gigan and Ghidorah. Varan was considered as the main antagonist in the final film of the Heisei series,

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