Tokyo got its first taste of green, scaly doom 60 years ago, as Godzilla debuted to Japanese audiences in his eponymous 1954 film on November 3. Nearly 10 million tickets were sold, and that’s before counting the damage “Godzilla” wreaked on American theaters. Six decades later, the original Godzilla movie is still the second most-attended in Japan.

Godzilla’s status as a metaphor for nuclear destruction is well-worn ground for commentators, as he represented the fears of Japanese movie-goers less than a decade removed from the atomic holocausts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These parallels were clear from the character’s first rampage, and Japanese critics gave the film harsh marks as an exploitation of the nation’s trauma. But that couldn’t keep movie-goers away, and by 1955 “Gojira” (the closest transliteration into English) had crossed the Pacific and was playing in predominantly Japanese-American neighborhoods. In 1956, a heavily edited version, featuring Raymond Burr in added footage, was released for English-speaking North American audiences.

Following his first outing, Godzilla has spawned 27 official sequels, along with two American reboots (most recently just this year) and countless appearances outside of the movies. From his roots as a political allegory, the King of the Monsters has mined lighter territory, morphing into a type of superhero, a space traveler, and of course, a heavyweight brawler taking on all comers, including King Kong, Mothra, and Mechagodzilla.

But for all this versatility, he’s still best known in his original role as bringer of destruction. For all the ghouls, vampires, demons, and witches the movies have inserted into our nightmares, no monster can quite compare to what Godzilla represents…a force of nature, without pity or logic, which you can only hope will pass you by. There’s no talking to Godzilla. There’s no stake through the heart or magic spell to bail you out. There’s just survival. Whether it’s the atomic bomb, hurricanes, wildfires, or some other mindless doom, Godzilla is real. Tokyo, or any city, is never truly safe.

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