Japanese Godzilla fans say the newly unveiled monster, set to star in a Hollywood reboot of the post-war classic, is too fat and has been “oversized” in a country accustomed to large portions. The latest version of the giant beast will be shown in 3D theaters in the United States on May 16 and in Japan two months later, the year the giant Japanese lizard celebrates its 60th birthday. Trailers for the film and promotional photos are circulating as marketers seek to build suspense, but Japanese fans say their hero looks a little chubby. “Only the silhouette of the new Godzilla had been seen before,” said Fumihiko Abe. “When I finally saw him, I was a little taken aback.” “He’s fat from the neck down and massive below,” said the 51-year-old, who said he has seen every Godzilla film ever made. Abe said the 1998 Hollywood version was more “like a fast-moving dinosaur” than a monster with big feet. The computer-generated creature’s rampage through New York was dismissed in Japanese cult circles as no comparison to the behemoth that terrorised Tokyo for decades. But the new version is more promising, Abe said. “I can feel the power of Godzilla in this new film. I’m excited to see how the gravity is expressed in the new film,” he told AFP as he visited an exhibition of Godzilla paintings in Tokyo. Other fans gathered online, however, were less enthusiastic. One said the creature looked more like a seal and another called it a “marshmallow Godzilla”. “It made me seem plus-sized,” one person commented, a reference to the larger meals available at US fast-food restaurants. “It’s true that you gain weight in America. It’s a calorie monster,” one said. “It’s Godzilla Deluxe,” quipped another, a reference to a burly transvestite on Japanese television. Godzilla dates back to 1954’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” the first in a series of groundbreaking monster movies from Tokyo’s Toho studios. Back then, he was a 200-pound latex creation that left the actor breathless and drenched in sweat, and the special effects relied on piano strings, pulleys and fireworks. From the moment Godzilla rose from a roiling sea and began his journey to Japan, it was clear that he was a product of U.S. hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific in the 1950s. Born in the atomic age, the creature became a symbol of a pacifist Japan and the horrors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II.