Noriko Oishi is the deuteragonist of the 2023 Godzilla film Godzilla Minus One and is Kōichi Shikishima's girlfriend.
Appearance[]
Noriko has medium-length dark brown hair throughout the film. Her clothes vary a lot through the film because of the time-skips at the start. The first time we see her, she is wearing a brown sweater over a black shirt, but she can be seen wearing a white top with black vertical lines running down, a knee-length apron, and black pants later.
During the Ginza attack, Noriko wears a grayish turquoise button-down sweater over a oriental blue and white shirt.
Personality[]
Noriko has a bold, caring personality. She can be seen smiling towards Akiko as she blows a flower-spinner, and comforts Kōichi as he wonders if he's still alive or not. She also worries a bit when Kōichi tells her about the job he earned as a minesweeper. She also acts fast in moments of desperation, as seen when she hands Akiko to Kōichi out of nowhere, or when she shoves Kōichi into an alleyway to save him before being blasted by the explosion caused by Godzilla.
History[]
Godzilla Minus One[]
Noriko first appears stealing from a local shopkeeper with a baby in-arm. She, without hesitation, hands the baby, Akiko, over to Kōichi Shikishima before sprinting off again.
Once Shikishima nearly abandons Akiko but takes her back with him, she appears again and asks him why he didn't abandon her. He's hesitant to answer, he himself not knowing exactly why. Noriko follows Shikishima to his house where she stays, an annoyance to Shikishima who's already dealing with being responsible for countless deaths, a failed kamikaze pilot, and the loss of his family.
As time goes on, their relationship builds. Shikishima eventually gets a job as a minesweeper with 3 others, Mizushima, Tachibana, and Noda, much to Noriko's concern but she understands why and lets him do the job. Throughout the film, Noriko acts caringly toward Shikishima, comforting him when he has a nightmare about Godzilla. By 1947, Noriko has grown romantic feelings for Shikishima, the latter trying his best not to tell his own feelings. Noriko earns a job in Ginza as an office worker, much to Shikishima's surprise with his own job.
Noriko is in a train when Godzilla appears in Ginza, terrifying her. Once Godzilla grabs the train in his jaw, she holds on to a passenger pole and drops when she's above a patch of water. She reunites with Shikishima soon after and they run together as Godzilla makes his way through the buildings. Before they can be killed, tank fire enrages Godzilla, turning his focus on them. He charges his atomic breath against them, which annihilates the tanks and causes an explosion similar to the atomic bomb. Before the shockwave can hit him, Noriko pushes Shikishima behind a building alleyway to save him and is blown away. Shikishima steps out into the ruined streets of Ginza and screams in anger and grief at Godzilla.
Shikishima leaves Akiko when she's sleeping and gives her to Sakura along with a note full of yen to use for her. Shikishima leaves with a picture taken by Noda of Noriko with him and heads to the Shinden to take off. As he heads over to Godzilla to distract him, he puts the picture on a slit in one of the gauges. During the plan, Sakura is given a note that shocks her, and she leaves the house to the docks where the destroyers used for the plan had left and would eventually return.
Once the remaining destroyers return to the dock, Sakura runs toward Shikishima, who had ejected himself out of the pilot seat before the Shinden exploded, and passes him the note, Shikishima also shocked.
Shikishima heads to a hospital ward with Akiko in-hand and heads to a room with Noriko inside. He starts crying as he sees her body, injured from the attack and wrapped in bandages, happy to see that she's alive but in grief about her condition. She asks Shikishima if his war with Godzilla was over as he comes close and hugs her. As he hugs her, a black streak rises across her neck.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The ending of Godzilla Minus One means that Noriko has radiation poisoning. Whether or not she survives is unknown.
- During Godzilla Fest in Osaka, director Takashi Yamazaki confirmed that the black marks on Noriko’s neck were Godzilla cells or "G-cells".
- Takashi Yamazaki revealed in New York Comic Con 2024 that Noriko was originally supposed to actually perished from the blast of Godzilla's atomic breath which vaporized Ginza and beyond. However, he chose against it because the loss would be too much for Shikishima to handle.[1]
- Nevertheless, in his latest tweet, Takashi Yamazaki stated that Noriko won't likely live for very long after infected with "G-cells" from surviving the blast of Godzilla's atomic breath unless a miracle occured.[2]
- Minami Hamabe, the actor for Noriko, also portrays Ruriko Midorikawa in Shin Kamen Rider, which is also a 2023 reboot of a popular tokusatsu franchise.
- Coincidentally, Shin Kamen Rider is apart of the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, a marketing campaign/collaboration with the Godzilla, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Ultraman franchises.
- In the English dub, she says "I'm Minus One Eye" as a reference to the title of the film.