How do you like the human charachters in Gojira 1954?

I honestly think the human characters are overrated. I like Yamane but find his, sacrifice the world to keep Godzilla alive and study a very tired and overall stupid trait that movies give to scientist. This monster has destroyed multiple ships kills so many innocent people and extremely dangerous but no keep it alive and study it. Also I didn't really enjoy the love triangle all that much as it was announced Emiko is going to break off the engagement and we see her with Hideto before Serizawa is even shown. Of course Serizawa is the best character in the movie and you truly understand him but overall I didn't find the original's characters that great. Interesting to a point, but not far above any other average character in the series.

I loved them! Yamane (I think thats his name) and Serizawa are great characters. And Emiko's character is really interesting.

What I really liked about the human element in this movie is that you can acutually FEEL the pain in the people after Godzilla's attack. You can see people suffuring, crying and even dying. You can really feel for them and I loved that. 

People tend to overlook why Yamane wants to study Godzilla though. It's a stereotypical trait given to most 1950s monster movie scientists because they're often vague with their, "It should be studied" lines. Yamane clearly states that understanding how Godzilla survived radioactive fallout is of the utmost importance. This is, of course, glossed over in the American version, but the idea of rendering radioactive poisoning ineffective would be a world changing event.

Unfortunately the movie doesn't follow up much more with it and the closest any other Godzilla movie has gotten to exploring world wide effects of Godzilla's radioactive properties is Godzilla vs. Biollante. But the hospital scene works both in Ogata's and Yamane's favor. While Godzilla was the cause of those victims the answer to neutralizing radioactivity would also save a lot of the lives in that hospital.

As for the love triangle between Ogata and Emiko, there are a lot of things going on under the surface that casual viewers don't notice these days. I remember that, due to the Hays Code, Hollywood was not allowed to give audiences the impression that pre-marital sex was being had. When Double Indemnity came out in 1944 the two main characters, having an affair, could not have been written to participate in sex. But director Billy Wilder was clever. The characters, Neff and Dietrichson, sit on a couch in Neff's apartment to converse. The scene fades and the characters are on opposite ends of the couch. Neff is smoking with his jacket removed and Dietrichson is putting on her lipstick. Why? The insinuation, of course, is that they're recovering from sex and this was the most clever way to sneak it past the Hays Code.

Now Japan didn't exactly have a Hays Code at the time, but there were restrictions; most of which had to do with how to address political issues after they lost the war. Japanese tradition was also still very important to many-- although its decline through capitalistic influences was being touched on in cinema. Godzilla was no exception. The arms-length embrace Ogata would constantly give Emiko may seem hokey today, but back then it was a big no-no; particularly for a young Japanese girl who was betrothed at a young age. So once it's revealed that she is meant to marry Serizawa it comes as a cultural shock. She's defying Japanese tradition and choosing her own path.

It's even more surprising when you consider the opening scene with Ogata. He walks into his office from taking a shower and Emiko is there. Just like asking why Walter Neff was relaxing, smoking a cigarette and Dietrichson putting on lipstick, you could also ask why Ogata was getting out of the shower with Emiko waiting on him. Just promiscuous food for thought that might make the reveal of her relationship with Serizawa more shocking. Atleast for the time.

Honda has always been known to have strong female characters, but most don't see it due to the time frame some of these films were made. He could only go so far, but characters like Emiko, or Nakanishi from Mothra vs. Godzilla and Dr. Togami from Frankenstein Conquers the World could be seen as examples of a female movement that was springing forward in a new era of Japan.

It's these particular cultural nuances that make the characters in the original Godzilla so rich and easily amongst the best of the series. Another example is Serizawa denying he had "German friends". He clearly did, but wanted to remove any association he had with the Nazi party. It's a tiny detail that hints at just enough to keep the audiences engaged with the character. The movie is full of these fascinating intricacies.

Furthermore, Honda never forgets the characters. They're always doing something right through the third act which is an issue many Godzilla movies tend to have in every era. In the end Ogata and Serizawa are center to the action spurred by a suggestion, and betrayl, of a young Japanese girl. Her dishonor saved many lives.

Save the lives that were put in danger by the monster to begin with. It's not simply that Yamane is against killing him, it's that he acts like a child as though there are absolutely no merits to it. He sits in his office alone with the lights out when they're trying to kill him at first and says he wants to be left alone and leave the lights out when emiko comes to see him, he shows hesitation when asked if he knows how to kill it, and when Ogata says he agrees with the military he tells him to get out and he doesn't want to see him again. 

Whatever subltle things that were there for the japanese viewer in 1954, for the current viewer, or me at least, the love triangle didn't have any real effect for all the reasons I listed. It was never a who will she choose scenario and I knew who she was with before the other person was even introduced and she makes it very clear she doesn't see Serizawa as anything but like a brother. There's also the fact that all the relationships are there before the characters are introduced she's with Ogata and it's clear that he's the one she will choose, and it's odd that Yamane seems okay with all of that despite the fact the arranged marriage is with his colleague. If there was some sort of cultural thing that she was doing that was odd I feel the movie glossed over it to the point the casual viewer has no idea that isnt okay.

I don't believe there was any hesitance when Yamane was asked how to kill it. He was simply speaking the truth at that point. Godzilla survived the bomb, nothing else (known) can kill it. Meanwhile, Japan is the only country to have experienced radioactive poisoning first hand. If Shimura portrayed it as man who knew Godzilla had all these answers to irradicate the effects of the bomb he did a fine job. I admit, there's some standard 1950s, scientist melodrama there, but the point stands-- finding out how Godzilla survived would have changed the course of history. Whereas killing Godzilla saved Tokyo, unlocking his secrets would have saved lives affected during the Cold War, arms race...etc... (Assuming the arms would have continued after extracting information from Godzilla.)

As far as "casual viewers" go, I'm not sure what you mean there, nor do I think you've framed it correctly. The casual viewer was the Japanese public in 1954. Not American. And certainly not Americans 60 years from then. It is a very Japanese film made without the assumption it would be distributed to other countries. Just because a different culture from a different time misses the important nuances of 1950s Japan does not mean the casual viewer had "no idea" what was going on at the time. It means viewers today don't understand the cultrual significance. Which is expected, but I would hope Godzilla, and other movies from any timeframe and any country, would challenge its audiences to understand why things were staged like they were; what was being said behind these seemingly casual moments to an outsider and why they played out like they did. Some of the best movies are the ones that show their age. It's a chance for the audience to go out and learn something.